Send me an angel...

The wise man said just walk this way
To the dawn of the light
The wind will blow into your face
As the years pass you by
Hear this voice from deep inside
It's the call of your heart
Close your eyes and you will find
The passage out of the dark

Here I am
Will you send me an angel
Here I am
In the land of the morning star

The wise man said just find your place
In the eye of the storm
Seek the roses along the way
Just beware of the thorns

Here I am
Will you send me an angel
Here I am
In the land of the morning star

The wise man said just raise your hand
And reach out for the spell
Find the door to the promised land
Just believe in yourself
Hear this voice from deep inside
It's the call of your heart
Close your eyes and you will find
The passage out of the dark

Here I am
Will you send me an angel
Here I am
In the land of the morning star
Here I am
Will you send me an angel
Here I am
In the land of the morning star

~ The Scorpions

The Science of Employee Motivation....

Employee motivation is a big challenge for any HR professional especially in the Indian IT sector where expectations management is a big issue..

This piece is a cool satire on the whole thing of employee motivation...would love to see managers using this....

The conclusion is pretty simple:

¤ When your company says "Great companies are made by great employees," they aren't talking about you.

¤ When your company insists that "Each employee makes a special contribution," that's not you either....

¤ When your company discusses its relatively low turnover rate, it wouldn't mind if it went up another point, if you catch our empirical drift.

¤ Your deep-seated fear of being revealed as a fraud who doesn't really deserve the job you have is unfounded. Everybody knows.

One Life to Live and Love....

It is fascinating to think how the whole algorithm of life and mannerisms are programmed to change with age.

I happened to observe closely some of the mannerisms of my niece during these holidays. It is indeed an enriching experience. Maybe this was what was meant when they said 'the child is the father of man'.

I am not sure if all adults are like this but I think we all do lose out a lot of the 'child' in us. Anyone who can retain the persona of his/her childhood while gaining the wisdom from experiences will be a happier person.

If you observe a child closely, you will see that they do not think when it comes to articulating affection. There is no holding back...It may be a special hug or just an attempted conversation when they feel affectionate...

What changes as a person grows up? Why do we as adults become hesitant to show affection? What changes in the algorithm and when does this change happen? It could be love for a partner, respect for a parent, affection for a friend. Maybe the articulation is more subtle once you grow up...but i guess it might just help enrich the relationship if you do say it once in a while....

I am not saying all adults stop doing this but it may be worthwhile searching out the child in us…..

Home No More....

I stumbled on this from a blog (via Ash) but I thought it was so perfect for all those people who have been living away from their homes...

"Andrew Largeman: You know that point in your life when you realize that the house that you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? All of a sudden even though you have some place where you can put your stuff that idea of home is gone.

Sam: I still feel at home in my house.

Andrew Largeman: You'll see when you move out it just sort of happens one day and it's just gone. And you can never get it back. It's like you get homesick for a place that doesn't exist. I mean it's like this rite of passage, you know. You won't have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle or something. I miss the idea of it. Maybe that's all family really is. A group of people who miss the same imaginary place."

~ From Garden State

A little cynical about family but some of the things said is true.....i guess..

Make Something Happen

I am not a big fan of Seth Godin though a lot of people seem to follow his blog and writings. But I like this post of his:

"If I had to pick one piece of marketing advice to give you, that would be it.

Now.

Make something happen today, before you go home, before the end of the week. Launch that idea, post that post, run that ad, call that customer. Go the edge, that edge you've been holding back from... and do it today. Without waiting for the committee or your boss or the market. Just go."

The URL to his post

Extending this a little further, seriously, I think we do tend to overestimate the importance of what we are doing, the report, the meeting, the deliverable that we stop thinking and just keep doing and stop caring about the real things....

I have this business.....

It's always an experience to meet new people. You always get something new from people...but then ever so in a while, you get these googlies...

When in the US a few years back, I used to get accosted by desis on the street. They would make very polite conversation for a few minutes, boost my ego to the stratosphere (lots of energy, charisma..blah blah) and then the innocous remark...

'I have this business activity that I am involved in addition to my job. I have become pretty successful and I am looking for spreading this amongst more people.'..the first time I got conned into thinking this was something interesting. After a couple of meetings is when the dreaded word 'Amway'(now known as Quixstar in the US) comes out..

The thing about it is all these folks who do this business are trained in exactly the same manner. By now, probably everyone has been approached at least once. Get it guys, you are either interested the first time or never.

In the last 2 weeks, I have been approached by 2 people. I didnt know this was catching up so much in India. By now, I have become so used to the drill that when they use the word 'part time and business proposition' together, I ask them directly 'Is it Amway?'...unlucky that I couldn't see the expression on the face through the phone.I was almost rude to these guys...

But I guess, the one thing, the company needs to realize is,they are not going to score brownie points by doing what I can only term 'an attempt at deception'.
Guys, get a life!!! Don't trouble me with your fake attempt at polite talk!!

Time to move on....

What is the motivation for a person to continue on their job and provide transition to another person who is going to replace them in another 30 days?

With the number of layoffs in my organization in the US and Europe, it is quite a strange situation to attend meetings where the host for the meeting announces that they will be leaving the company in the next few days. There is a strange awkward silence for the next 30 secs before someone makes an appropriate remark wishing them the best.

On the other hand, in contrast, Nilekani and co are sitting in the studio promising a $3 billion bonanza at the end of the year and a 40-45% growth expectation. The world is really turning around...

Now I am reading the book 'Three Billion Capitalists' which talks about the shift of power to the East. It sure is an interesting time.

But the real question is how long before we start thinking about our jobs under the scanner? I dont think it is as far as people might think it is.

AFTERTHOUGHT: Come to think of it, actually manufacturing companies have been doing it for a long time whenever they shut down factories. I guess the more protected class of white-collars have been left alone until now...

Festival Times

I started writing this post when Dussehra was happening and I was travelling to Kerala. I was trying out mobile blogging and found it too much of a pain. Now that I am back in Bangalore and Diwali is almost here, fitting enough to continue the post..

There was a time when I used to like and enjoy festivals. But over the years, as the family started moving to different locations, the excitement over festivals has kinda come down. I guess it was also a growing up thing when it started becoming less 'cool' if you showed too much enthu about the whole fireworks thing. Also, Kerala was never big on Diwali.

But one thing is for sure, festivals really liven up the spirit of people. Everyday someone is asking me what's your plan for Diwali. People are going for long vacations. They are much nicer to each other (excluding Hosur Road). They are more sanguine about the month with the bonus expected for Diwali in the rest of the country and for Onam in Kerala. It's the same for Christmas anywhere else in the world. It's almost contagious.....(hey, I even remember the time when my company used to provide a large package of sweets...well those were the days of a small company...)

But I wonder how many of us really understand each of the festivals. If our generation itself has such a bad understanding of the history, what will happen when it comes to the next gen......But i guess it is still nice to see that even the yuppie couples of today with their kids, try hard to inculcate the festival spirit. I think these may be the last strands of 'culture' that we may need to cling on to if we need to continue talking about 'the great indian story' for years to come.

After all, it is the age when families rarely sit down at the dinner table together (despite what all the Karan Johar movies and the soaps might show) giving precedence to the TV and the mobile. I just hope I can continue the tradition of sitting at the dinner table forward....cant say thanks enough to my dad for that...though I have cribbed so many times about this during my childhood.....

Maybe Someday....

Not too many taglines are as in your face as this one from Tata Safari...I guess it is to do with the phase one is in..I am sure a lot of my batchmates are saying...this maybe me... :)

When passing out of the corridors of a premier business school (some years ago), there were hopes, idealism, excitement..now it is just plain being content with smaller successes (which I call 'cheap thrills'). In my work area, I do have an option of interacting with people from different batches and it is interesting to see where each one of them are... it's almost worth an empirical study to see when cynicism sets in and when realization again sets in that it is actually upto you to turn that cynicism into productive energy....