On setting up an organisation

Let's say you are a leader looking to start a new firm. You have resources, the mandate, and the authority. You also have that manana from heaven - a clean slate. 

Here is one recommended approach to putting your organisation together, if you have the resources.

Organisation Structure

Obviously, one of the first things you will think about is Organisation Structure. 

This part outlines the steps to create an organisation structure that will actually work. 

But first, lets talk about the things that DON'T work. 

• The Structure is led by the leader, not the consultant 

A therapist knows the right behavioural elements, but they don't tell you what to do. Instead, they do the frustrating job of pestering you with questions until you realise what you want to do. There are two kinds of consultants you can bring on board - the first, will do what a therapist does, bring the org structure from within you, because you have to live with that structure, not them. 

The second kind will come in and tell you how you should operate, and put 15 analysts on the job. 

Get the first kind. With one key difference. When they see you doing something that is obviously not going to work, they tell you that upfront. If there is enough trust in the relationship, this leads to mutual learning and saves time. If not, the consultant will have to use the option of asking questions until you realise what is going to work for you. 

Here is why the leader is the key decision maker on culture. 

In Nov 2020, the new CEO, Thierry Delaporte, completely overhauled the org structure of the company. This is the email that he wrote to employees then: 

https://www.cnbctv18.com/information-technology/wipro-ceo-thierry-delaporte-writes-mail-to-employees-highlights-organisational-changes-full-text-7469451.htm

Less than a year later, Wipro had changed its story completely. 

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/a-frenchman-sitting-in-paris-turns-wipro-around/articleshow/87091176.cms

How was a behemoth like Wipro transformed in under a year? 

The leader created an org structure that allowed them to monitor the business in a way that worked for them, and then appointed people they trust in key roles. 

THAT is the power of leader led org structures. 

• There is no such thing as Industry Standard or Industry Best Practice 

The only thing that matters is common sense and alignment. Some industries have to do some things more than some other things. We take inputs on that, sure, we understand what others are doing and how its working for them. But we do not make those practices our goalposts. Not in anything, and certainly not in strategic things like Org Structure or Business Planning. 

In an emerging industry, we have the luxury of defining the industry standard. In legacy industries, that bandwidth may be a little lesser, but its there. 

In the early 2000s, all Indian IT companies moved to this grid structure - Verticals and Horizontals - Industry * Geography. It was this matrix structure that was dismantled by Thierry Delaporte. 

What Works aka How to define an Org Structure 

A. Define your first line. 

How do you want to view your business. If you had to get 5 key things about your business on your fingertips and have 6 people on a hotline, what would those numbers be and what would be those 6 roles? 

That's the first step - to define your first line. 

B. After that, do a culture workshop. 

A Culture Workshop is the most important thing that you will do in the Org Structure journey. Write out the 6 words that reflect the culture that you want. 

A CEO I worked with recently was insistent that the word he wanted was "family". Even in a competitive industry like IT, he did not want to create a culture focused on competition or personal excellence alone. When thinking of work, he wanted people to think of the office as a family they belong to. 

In the two years since then, we have done 3 employee dipsticks and family comes right on top when people talk about what their culture is. Trust comes a close second. :) 

C. Then, write the JDs and hire the right people 

JDs are important, esp for your direct line of reporting. Hire the right people. People who bring their own functional expertise, and more importantly, share the same keywords for culture. 

Trust has two components - Intention, and Action 

The first is about shared values. The second is about delivering results. Trust is a biped, it needs both to walk the talk. Ensure you bring people who share the values, but can also deliver business results in a foreseeable time frame. That is the only way that their teams and your stakeholders will trust you. 

C.1 The Compensation 

Do have numbers in mind, but be flexible. This is the only place where "industry standard" almost trumps "What we bring to the table." 

D. The Org Structure guidelines

The next step is to create guidelines for an org structure. You can decide lean and efficient, or gig workers preferred, or diversity first - anything works. But do have a small set of guidelines that you communicate clearly to your first line of command. 

E. Let them make their own organisations 

After this, let them make their own organisations. In fact, have this as a key interview question - as a department head, how would you like to structure your organisation. 

Making it Run

A. Involve your own HR team as early as possible. The longer you let consultants run the show, the harder the KT. 

B. Put HR processes in place. Follow an HR Portfolio management approach. Don't go piecemeal. 

C. Invest in human process excellence. Don't think of the function as paper pushers. Give them aggressive talent targets and give them the teeth to bite. For instance, if a manager loses more than x% of their team over a period, they should be able to highlight that as an organisational process. If they find it hard to fill a position for more than x weeks, either they complain or you complain "We are trying our best" or "Market is tough" is not acceptable response. 

D. Hold your HR accountable. Typically, HR tends to enter the room with reasons like "Business needs". But there will be no business without people. Their core job is to marry business needs with talent aspirations. That is literally their job description. If you bring a numbers based approach to HR, you will find that it is hard to hire the right HR talent, but once in, they will LOVE working with you. 

E. Do NOT compromise on values and culture. It never pays. Its very short term, and it guarantees failure. Even if the values route appears to be longer, more painful and far more expensive, remember that markets can stay volatile a lot longer than economies can stay solvent. So, responding to volatility with volatility-supporting behaviour does not guarantee success. 

Secrets of Pixabay

As most readers might know, pixabay.com, pexels.com, unsplash.com etc are websites where photographers share their work. This work is available for free commercial reuse without attribution. 

I am a regular contributor to pixabay.com. While all my images are selected for publication, I was rather sad to note that they had 0 views and 0 downloads. I put that down to the poor quality of my photography. 

2 weeks ago, I was looking for a free image of mehndi or henna. There was NOTHING available on all 3 free websites. So, had to use a Wikimedia image. 

However, last night, on a lark, i decided to search for all images related to a label that is not very frequent and applies to a few of my submitted images. Then, scrolled to the end, and realised, much to my surprise, that though my images were tagged with those keywords, they did not come up in the search results for those keywords, even till the end. 

This means that Pixabay keeps some published images away from users even if they are approved and published. 

Pixabay calls this the differentiation between featured (in search results) and just published. There is no count of the number of images that are published but not featured, but as a user, it appears strange that a published image should not be searchable. What's the point, then? 

How does one deal with this? 

I found that if you follow an individual contributor, that might help. Look for images and when you see an interesting one, follow that contributor. That way, you can see their images in your network. 

How to Manage Client Scope Creep

This post is the result of a good conversation with Abhishek at a recent event. 

He asked how we managed to ensure that there was no scope creep. My projects have usually been on track and within budget, and as Abhishek mentioned, client scope creep is one of the major reasons why large IT projects go out of budget or schedule. 

So, if you are a budding project manager responsible for client management, here is the secret to building great client solution and even better client relationships. 

Most client scope creep comes from 2 areas: 

A. Complex Workflows, where more approval levels are added. 

B. Reports 

The first thing you have to remember when dealing with client scope creep is that they are not trying to trouble you. Their intention is not the squeeze the juice out of you. Their intention is to do the best that they can for their company at the least possible price. 

Surprise! That is your intention too! 

Most vendor PMs do not understand this intention and objective synergy. But when you do, you realise that you and the client PM are on the same side, trying to do the same thing. 

The only thing is, we are using two different approaches to do it. 

So, Step One:

Establish Commonality of Purpose 

Sit down with your client and establish commonality of purpose. Both of you are working towards the same thing: 

A. Create the best possible solution

B. In the least possible time 

C. At the least possible cost

Once it has been stated, it appears intuitive. Yet, until we say it out and put it on the table, it is not so apparent to the other party. In fact, if you wait at the water cooler long enough, you will definitely hear the Project Managers from both sides cribbing. The Client PM usually says one or more of the following: 

• The vendor does not want to do any work or wants to do shoddy work and get away with it. 
• They are not doing enough KT 
• Even for small change they give such a huge estimate, and change request for everything! 
• They just don't understand our business and requirements. I don't know how to explain. 

The Vendor PM will usually say one or more of the following: 

• The Client is really miserly. 
• They always underestimate the time it will take to do something. 
• They are paying us for a cow and want us to make an elephant. 
• They don't understand how the system works. 
• They have such weird requirements! Who works like this? 

So, the step of establishing commonality of purpose is the most important one. It establishes trust and ensures that you row on the same direction, not in opposite directions. 

Once commonality of purpose is established, the next thing is to understand where scope creep is coming from. 

Step Two: 

Diagnose and Guide 

Most scope creep comes from the two areas I have mentioned above. You do your own diagnosis on your projects and understand WHERE the scope creep is coming. And then ask yourself WHY. 

What problem is the client trying to solve by doing this extra work? 

Let's get straight to taming the beast. 

Step Three 

Managing Scope Creep and Making Great Friends 

Here is the most important tip anyone will ever share with you on managing scope creep. It is so important that I am going to write it in caps. 

START WITH YES. 

Whenever the client asks you whether something can be done, NEVER start the conversation with No. if you know that it can be done, start with, "Yes". If you are not sure, start with "We will try to find a way to do this." 

Managing Workflow Complications

Most clients who try to add additional approval and exception workflows are basically trying to tame one beast - Compliance. 

That is the core objective. 

Start the conversation by saying - My work ends with doing the coding. Your work starts after that and goes on forever. So, my work is the shorter one. Let's talk about how this will work after go live in your business. Let's discuss a few scenarios and understand how much additional work it will add for your users, and what you are doing about it now. 

After that, listen. Let them explain all their use cases and exceptions. Understand their compliance needs thoroughly and most importantly, understand how users manage exceptions now. A system that can be excepted by the user in an emergency will eventually be excepted as a matter of course. The user's onboarding learning curve is slow, but their bypassing learning curve for any system is amazingly steep. So, if you make it necessary for users to bypass the system for one thing, they will be bypassing it for most things sooner than you realise. 

After the client has finished putting their requirements on the table, don your product specialist hat (or get your product specialists on board) and design a solution that meets their needs without being overly complicated. I can assure you that most workflows can be simplified. 

Pro Tip: For each workflow step, ask your client: 

• How will this step increase the transaction load of the user? 

Let's understand this with a real life example: 

Let's say that the client wants all travel to go to the department head. The questions we ask then are: 

A. How many travel requests will the DH have to approve in a day? Week? Month? How much time will it take them to approve each (assume reading time). If we go with 5 a week and 5 minutes per TR, that's 25 minutes of extra work per week. For an already stretched executive. 

Next, ask them how they plan to manage situations that are definitely going to arise - the executive on leave, too busy, traveling himself, etc. 

Usually, in such cases, a thing called Delegation of Authority is used. 

Let the client think about that. And then help them understand how to balance compliance with minimum transaction load on the users. 

• What value is this step adding to your process? 

The most frequent response to this is "It gives us better control" or "Compliance." 

Do not resist. After the client says this, sit back in silence and let them think. 

If they do not appear to be making headway, ask gently, "Are you creating a better process, or are you helping someone do CYA? Think about that. If the system can be hacked, it will neither lead to better compliance nor control. Every new control element you put in there is also a hacking opportunity. Think about the real business value of every step. And its real objective." 

Always be mindful of the client's imperatives. 99% of the times, clients see the difference between business value and CYA. But some cultures are necessarily CYA cultures. In those cultures, you can only help the client by perpetuating the CYA culture. Do that. 

And most importantly, NEVER disrespect the client - neither in public with your team, nor in private in your head. A Lot of delivery managers and PMs get together to laugh at clients in private. The client does not know tech as well as you do, and you don't know business as well as they do. Further, respect cannot be faked. Come from a place of real understanding, and you will create synergy. Come from a place of negotiation, and you will create a tug of war. I am still in touch with client PMs who worked with me 15 years ago, and more. 

Managing Reports 

Report requirements are the biggest headache for most PMs. The client wants to extract every element of data being put (or not put) into the system in about 15 reports on average (that's a joke, not a statistic). 

So, how does one tame the report monster? 

There are, once again, 2 simple questions that one asks the client. 

Since I have dealt with dashboard design and report management in another post, will just quickly state the 2 questions here: 

A. Who will enter this data? 

Request the client to go through their entire data flow process (you can use a proprietary methodology I have listed elsewhere on this blog - the Data River Diagram) and have them understand how the data will flow into the system in the first place. 

Is there enough reliability of that data for us to use it in reporting? 

B. What decision will it aid / How will you use it? 

Every pixel on an executive dashboard is important. Every second of executive time is important. If a data element is making it to reporting, it must help the user do one of the following: 

A. Monitor and control 

B. Diagnose and Correct 

C. Predict and Decide 

If the report is not fulfilling one of these 3 objectives, it should not be there. 

Your clients will truly appreciate your trying to create reports and dashboards that are relevant for the long term. 

In fact, invest some time in creating a report library that you know helps other organisations create effective dashboard and reporting interfaces, then proactively share it with clients. Will significantly shorten the cycle time and will also help the client see value in your work. 

So, are there any best practices that have helped you deliver better business value to your clients? Do share! 

How to write a feature / news for The Children's Post of India

If you want to write news or features for The Children's Post, this feature is for you. 

Step1: Read and Understand 

Read at least 8-10 different sources before you start to write. Note down the key figures. Make sure you cross check ALL the key figures that you are going to present and also save the source of each key figure. For instance, if you are reporting a figure on women and their welfare, the only authorised figures are the ministry of women and child development, govt of India. 

Understand all the key terms. Don't assume the meaning of ANYTHING. Read, read, read and understand. 

Step 2: Readiness check 

In your mind, explain the concept to an 8 year old child. If you have a neighbour or a sibling, nothing like it. Otherwise, practise in your own mind, or with friends or parents. Make sure you talk to someone who does NOT know the topic before hand. 

If you are able to explain the topic to them and answer their questions, you are now ready to write a feature on your own. 

Step 3: Write 

Different writers have different techniques. Some just sit down and start writing/typing and get it all together. Some first prefer to structure their content, figuring out how it will flow and the word limit for each section. Then, they write the main points under each section, and then they start writing. Most of u s are somewhere in between. In general, it helps to start with 100% planning and slowly internalise it so it becomes automatic in your head. Its just like driving. When we first start driving, we do Brake-Cluch-Neutral like a checklist. But after a few months, we just do all this the minute we sit in the car. 

Step 4: Illustrate 

Find CC0 images or your own original images. Even if you are using CC0 images, pls give credit where you know the name of the photographer. Sometimes, you can do Steps 3 and 4 together. Sometimes, you can even start with a vital illustration and write the story around or based on that. 

Step 5: Put it together. 

Visualise your story - both in the paper and on the website. How will it look? Where will the image come? What should the background colour be? Combine the text and images and create a full story. 

Step 6: Check 

First, read it as a third person. Does the story hold your interest, or do you lose interest after a few lines? Is there a coherent story, or does it jump from point to point? How does the story make you feel? Do you put it down with a smile or a sense of wonder? Well done, then! 

Sometimes, we pick up some phrases from the internet unintentionally, or because they just say it better. Even Helen Keller was accused of stealing a story once! To ensure that this does not happen to you, take some of the interesting figures of speech, clauses, phrases etc. that you have used and google them or use a plagiarism checker. If there is a match, change that part. 

DO NOT depend on Grammarly or any other grammar check software. The idea of writing for TCP is to help improve your vocabulary and grammar. Read books by S Upendran and GMAT guides. The idea is to help you write flawlessly. Further, these apps are not as accurate as they need to be for TCP. 

Step 7: Review 

Have someone else read your submission. Ask them to check for grammar, facts, correct usage of words, structure, and interest - everything! 

If all is well, send it to us. 

We LOVE hearing from you. 

Important Tips For You 

• DO NOT expect perfection from yourself. 

            Not the first time, and not the hundredth time. And not the thousandth time. We will all make                 mistakes, we will all learn. 

• Originality before excellence

            Please remember - we really don't want the wittiest thing, or the best thing. We want YOU.                     Write in your own original voice. No one else can do that. 

• We are strict about copying or not giving credit 

            Like, crazy strict. We will stop publishing anything by you after the third strike. And if there is a             strike, we will not publish anything by you for a month. Same thing for avoiding credit or taking             images from other publications or from people without taking their express written permission. 

All the Best! 

5 tips to ensure that you hear the truth, and nothing but the truth

One day, all the publications of India suddenly went berserk at about 7 p.m., screaming loudly - Trump to reduce H1B Visa curbs. 
Since we were about to start writing the stories for the next day's paper shortly, the editor naturally assumed that this would be a part of our newspaper the next day. 

But, when we sat down to write the story, we all were, at first, incredulous, and then, we burst out laughing. 

Trump had not made anything easier. He was not going to make anything easier. All that had happened was a Tweet of - wait for it - intent. One of those millions of intentions that politicians keep casting upon our collective consciousness like bread upon water. 

And the entire Indian media made it their headline! 

Another time, a short range service was inaugurated for the first time, joining two important places in India. Obviously, we were super excited and wanted to cover this. Until we did the fact check and realised that it was not so much inaugurate as restart. The service was actually inaugurated the previous year. Subsequently, no helicopter was available and the service was quietly closed, only to be "inaugurated" the following year "For the first time ever." 

Not surprisingly, we were possibly the only medium to use the words "Inaugurated again" in our headline that morning. 

For more than three years now, we have made fact checking our business. Sometimes, it leads to hilarious outcomes like the two incidents mentioned above. More often than that, however, it leads to changing the story at midnight. 

So, in this post, I am going to share another little secret of ours - especially if you are a young reader trying to make sense of the online news world. 

Why are we writing this for you? 

Many of you now have research as a part of your school work. I am sure that you face the same issue as we do - how to ensure that we get, analyse, and put accurate information/data in our reports? 

If you are an adult, am sure that you care for true news and are sick of the fact that the media is not reliable any more. Fact check is a super power that all of us need to have, because we are bombarded with half truths from absolutely everyone around us - our media, family, friends, and Whatsapp. 

So, here is our Secret Sauce for Fact Checks. 

1. Close to the Source 

Where is the water of a river purest? Closest to the source. The same is true of news too. The closer you get to the source, the more accurate your data is going to be. 

Last week, I was working on a research report on castor oil exports from India. Google took me to an industry website from which I took the numbers of castor oil exports from 2019 to 2020. 

But that is not how we normally do this. Google simply did not take me to any official site where any of these numbers were available. The data silence was deafening. 

Later in the night, I decided to use DuckDuckGo. The first search result was of the industry body that actually has the exporters. They had a report that was from DGFT - Director General of Foreign Trade - Govt. of India and industry official numbers. 

The numbers given here told a slightly different story for the years 2019-2020, but when I saw the trend from 2017 onwards, my eyes literally popped out.

If you are doing your research, go as close as possible to the source. 
Wherever there is an official resource, take that, unless you have strong reasons to doubt the veracity of that data. Raw data does not lie as much as reports, in my humble opinion. 

2. Kipling to the Rescue 

Rudyard Kipling wrote a beautiful poem that starts like this: 

I KEEP six honest serving-men
 (They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
 And How and Where and Who.

We use the same 6 honest serving men. 

When you get information over Whatsapp, or any other such reliable source, all you need to do is ask the 6 questions. If you get answers to all 6, you are likely dealing with the truth. If not, you are probably dealing with propaganda.  

This is really, really important. Because all propaganda comes cloaked in numbers and facts and figures and conspiratorial tones like "But What really happened was..." "Bet you didn't know about this. So-and-so (whatever their label for media) will not tell you this." 

Let's say you get a report that says - India has the most Parsis living in a single country, and therefore India has become like their first home now. 

Great! Let's ask a few questions: 

A. Where else do we have Parsis in the world, and how many are there in each country? 

B. What is the source of this data? (For India, the last official population data is ONLY 9 years old- the 2011 Census) 

C. Who has prepared this report? And for whom? (Who is the audience?) 

D. Why have they prepared this report? 

E. When was this report compiled? 

F. How was this report put together? Who all collaborated on this? 

And these are the questions only on the first part of the report - India has the most Parsis living in a single country. There is a second part to that statement - first home now. You get the drift. 

3. NOT from a single source 

One night, we were writing about a development metric from India. As a rule, we check from 2-3 sources, and one of the sources we used for the checking was an international respected orgn. Now, we always find some divergence between numbers from multiple sources (remember Tip 1 above?), but in this case,  they were so divergent that we had to either find a way to explain the numbers, or not carry the feature at all. That was the time we did a night out on the numbers. And understood that though both numbers are national, their data gathering methodology and sample sizes are vastly different. In a country as complex and huge as India, that can mean a world of difference. Once we knew that the core data sets were different, we were able to decide which number we wanted to go with. 

This will sound counter to the first tip - but its important. Even if you go very close to the source, ALWAYS double check with an external entity that does NOT report from the same source. You will ALWAYS get a difference in the numbers, even if it is one decimal point. But you will. 

Sometimes, you will get a HUGE difference. This is most likely when comparing a nation's data on something like GDP or development indicators. The national data will give one picture, an international body like WHO or World Bank Indicators will have another number. 

Same thing for research stories - one press story will present it another way, the University's own press release will show one thing. But if you go to some peer reviewed journals that hold some of the earlier work on that research, you will get some additional... facts. 

4. The Devil is STILL in the details 

One evening,  all the news websites ran news that a certain company was going to build a certain important building. The editor chose that story for the edition. When the edition came to me for review, I did a little fact check. Then, I called the writer back and asked, "Is this award of contract, or signing of contract?" 

"What's the difference?" she asked. (It was well past midnight) 

"The signing of a contract is a legal step. Both parties are bound by it. Award of contract is a step in the procurement process. It means that they have won the bidding war. After this, a long negotiation, verification, and due diligence will be done, after which the draft agreement will be created, then a draft contract, and finally the contract will be signed." 

I am sure that she did not like me as she got back on her laptop and checked. 15 minutes later, I heard back from her - "It is just award of contract. "

That day, she had to change her story well past midnight, and her reviewers (me included) had to wait up while she found and wrote another news story.  

Yes. True. 

Remember that report we put night out for? Not only were the data sets different, their definitions of the same term were different too! 

In fact checking, assume NOTHING. 

- Know the difference between MoU and Letter of Intent; Signing of Contract and Award of Contract, and other such devilish details.  

5. Oh, the Beauty of Social News and Crowd Sourcing  

One of the wisest people I have worked with taught an important lesson - the IQ of a mob is the IQ of the stupidest person in the mob divided by the number of people in the mob. 

Crowdsourcing is great for innovative ideas. For fundraising. It is NOT great for facts and news. Crowds don't have facts. Or News. 

Please, do not go to Social Media, Wikipedia, or Whatsapp for your news. Do not trust the stings that are sent to you from these sources. 

Some days, we get the right information ONLY from these unofficial media - but such days are few and far between (In fact, only once in 3.5 years). 

Also, you have to have the wisdom to sift all this content and stick to that which is important and real. Remember, half truth is half lies. Some articles present only facts, and give solid analysis, but they present the facts that are convenient for *their* case. Most of us do not have the sleuthing skills to ask - What were the facts that you left out? 

If someone is sharing news on a social platform, their intention is not to share unbiased view. Usually, their intention is to win the support of their friends and family to *their* point of view. 

Special Note on Wikipedia: 

Wikipedia can be edited by ANYONE. My son's school prohibits the use of Wikipedia. 

So, of all the crimes we commit against ourselves, going to Wikipedia as a source of information is right among the top 5. Because in this case, we also live with the delusion that we are well informed. 

But this sounds like a PAIN! 

Oh, it IS! 

Fact checking is very, very painful - literally! Neck pain (Not pain in the neck, though that too, but like, literally, neck pain), shoulder pain, and eye dryness. No sugar coating the idea that if you are going to write your research reports, the researching will take 1 hour and the fact checking will take 3 to 5 hours. 

In Conclusion... 

BUT, over a period of time, we have become far more adept at recognising propaganda when we see it. The editorial team has become a super competent and aware set of professionals, and our children have benefited from this, because these fact check conversations become part of our every day talk: 

"Mom, why have you not covered this important development?"

"My dear, there was no development. He just made a random Tweet." 

"How do you know? " 

"We checked. :) "