7 questions to get to know the organisation

The mandate is to have an exploratory chat with people across levels and locations to "get a sense" of the organisation and how different people view the company. 

As an HR consultant working with Indian companies, this has been a standard ask. Clients want us to do this exercise in addition to any data gathering exercise that we might anyway do. This qualitative exploration helps us too. 

So, here is my secret set of 7 questions to get to know the culture of an organisation. The first question is what is called the classification question in research: 

1. Tell us about your career trajectory.

This question helps us set some parameters – functional area, total experience, education, tenure with Fateh, etc.

2. What is the best thing about being here?

3. What is it that, if changed, would make this organisation greater/better? 

4. If you had to use 5 words to describe this organisation, what would those be?

5. If you could make one change to the business model of the company, what would that change be?

6. If you could make one change to the culture of the company, what would that change be?

7. What would you never change about the company? 

Memes on Gender Equality

It started with a simple share on the WIIM NCR group. I had seen the article already, so there was nothing new for me and ignored it. 

But then, the modern day stories started appearing. How women are still expected to serve food to their husbands, procreate at the mil's will, remain presentable at all times, hide their frustration and not expect the men to share the chores (while there is no issue with the women sharing the earning), women

 who stand near the door to hand the man his kerchief and wallet on his way out, women who pick and iron the man's clothes before he leaves for office. 

I have absolutely no issue with ladies who wish to do these things, just as I have no issue with ladies who don't want to. The issue is with forcing an image of ideal on the unwilling. 

And that, then, gave rise to this series of memes. I have no idea where the creative surge came from, but perhaps the captions will help. All captions - both on the meme and in text, are real things reported by women in 2022! 

And this is the learned helplessness of men 

The mother in law said, "Please wear some make up early in the morning so that your husband feels nice when he sees you in the morning": 

My mil wants us to have children right after marriage: 

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I had a fight with my wife because i called her 10 minutes before reaching and she did not turn on the AC to chill the room by the time i arrive: 

This one is a depiction of women in cinema. The man is the change maker, the woman is the supplementary caregiver. 

Next time we want to address a subject like gender or privilege, perhaps memes should do the communication. 

I will seriously use these and other memes to bring gender to the discussion table. 

The challenges of monetisation - Crazytok podcast

 ST12 | Nidhi Arora | Challenges in Monetisation (crazytok.online)

This podcast was about our experience at The Children's Post - how we managed to create a great product, build audience, but failed to monetise the offering. 

Podcast on all things Nidhi

 Nidhi on manifestation, braille and children - Small, Big Wins. (hvj.coach)

There are conversations and there are conversations. This podcast is one of the most special conversations I've ever been a part of.

Talking with Harsh Vardhan Jajoo gives us conversation goals. Some day, I hope to be able to draw out my speaker one tenth as well as Harsh Vardhan Jajoo was able to do here.

This has been a masterclass. Thank you!

For the listeners: In this one, I was able to mention, for the first time, how spirituality contributes to all my work. If you're trying to sync your personal and spiritual pursuits with your professional ones, this podcast might be very helpful. Spiritualism and work are not antonyms. They're synergistic.

Would you hire for passion, or competence?

We had a chat this morning. 

There was an open role. For some reason, all the candidates passing my level were not clearing the CEO round. 

Today, he spoke about the importance of passion, commitment, and research into the orgn. And culture fit. 

My stand was that if the person has an overall values alignment with the orgn, we hire for competence, not passion. Better competence without passion than passion without competence. Even otherwise, I don't see a necessary relationship, causal or otherwise, between a person's research into a company at the interview stage and their performance later. I do see a correlation between past performance and future indicator. 

For a long time, I used to go to work for the money. Even now, that is a major motivator for me to be at work. While i am being fairly paid, i deliver the best one can, professionally. Its a straight transaction - i get paid for work and i do the best possible work in that time. 

So, would you hire for competence, or would u hire for passion?

Women's Day at FA

Women's Day is about women. Elementary. 

Isn't it funny, then, that families, offices, and brands decide women's day events - with the best intentions, but with very little voice? 

This Women's Day, at FA, is about voice. Voices of women, and men hearing those voices. 

Unless men are part of the conversation, part of the thought process, we cannot really make progress on inclusion. Men and women are neither two sides of a coin nor adversaries. They are members of the same team, rowing to a common destination. 

When we go home and sit down to dinner, do we wonder, "What does mom want for Women's day?" Perhaps we ask. Maybe we even do breakfast in bed for her. But suppose we asked, in a fun yet deep way, to really understand what she would like Women's Day to mean? 

At FA, this Women's Day, we decided to ask - What would YOU like Women's Day to be?  

Our activity was simple - All employees get a blank meme template. The female employees could fill it up themselves, and the male employees could take it home and have someone from the family fill it up. In this fun way, we give a voice, and we listen. Deeply, Intently. 

This year, let us Listen. Understand. Amplify. 

Lessons from the Ukraine-Russia war

 The war is teaching us many things. Let me start a list, please add your points:

A. The importance of creating higher education infrastructure for students of India.

B. The importance of national backbone for things like payment gateways, financial transactions, etc.

C. The importance of indigenous defence equipment and telecom.

For in a war, the proverb of देखें ऊंट किस करवट बैठता है, is absolutely true. You do not know who your allies are, and what they are going to do, if anything.