Did You Know...

 

Be grateful for the rocks

I will bet that you have read at least 100 posts that tell you how to bring happiness in your life. This is the 101st, or perhaps the 1001st. So go for it, or not. 

There is that story about the rocks, pebbles, sand, and water. (If you haven't read it, it's in the PS below). 

What is remarkable about the world is this: 

It is fashionable to crib about the rocks in life all the time - Jobs suck (TGIF), Mom life sucks, Parents are horrid, Husband jokes, wife jokes, fidelity is too much work, honesty is outdated. 

We coat the rocks with 2-inch-thick negativity and coat the sand particles with gratitude and forced positivity - Today, Life Loves You. Today, i am grateful for you, dear friends, BUT if-you-oppose-my-political-opinion-on-social-media-I-will-rip-you-apart-and-throw-the-flesh-to-the-trolls.  

How does this work, exactly? (Hint: It doesn't) 

Contrast this with: 

Shopkeepers who pray to their shutter before opening it and performers who touch the stage with reverence before stepping on it. It's not a job-that-sucks. Its rozi-Roti. 

Husbands who call their wives "Bhagyawan" (the one who brings luck). 

Parents who are grateful to be parents, not scornful. 

So, the message is: 

Be grateful for your rocks, or don't have them in your jar. 

Marriage is fun. Being single is fun. Choose what gives you joy. Then be happy with that decision. 

If you don't like your job, don't do that work. If you get your money from that job, and you get the rest of your life from that money, be grateful for it. Don't live a TGIF life. 

If you don't enjoy being around children, don't become a parent. This is your life. Live it in the way that you like. 

But, like your life. Be grateful about the rocks. You put them there. 

********************* 

PS: 

A philosophy professor once stood up before his class with a large empty glass jar. He filled the jar to the top with large rocks and asked his students if the jar was full. The students said that yes, the jar was indeed full. He then added small pebbles to the jar, and gave the jar a bit of a shake so the pebbles could disperse themselves among the larger rocks. Then he asked again, “Is the jar full now?” The students agreed that the jar was still full. The professor then poured sand into the jar to fill up any remaining empty space. The students then agreed that the jar was completely full.

He then added water to the jar. The water tricked through the sand and the pebbles, taking no extra space.

The professor went on to explain that the jar represents life.

The rocks are the really important things - family, work, health...

The pebbles are the less important things (whatever that may be to you)

The sand is the stuff that exists only to fill in the empty spaces.

What is important is the order in which we fill the jar (divide our time) 

If we put the sand and pebbles in first, there will be no space for the large rocks. 

Likewise, if we plan our day around the Instagram reels and the social media likes, there will be little time left for health, cooking, talking to real friends, being there for people in a way that matters to them. 

And so on. But for this post, the only important metaphor is what rocks, pebbles, and sand stand for. 

Team Building Innovative Introductions: The Activity of the Three Circles

Objective

The objective of this activity is to allow people to get to know each other and for the facilitator to understand the group dynamics, identify who needs help, and which groups, if any, need to mingle more outside the group. 

Who is it for 

Ideal for mid to senior level management, groups of 8-15. This needs to be done as the FIRST introduction activity in a team building. 

Setup 

While the activity can be done both indoors and outdoors, outdoors is preferred in winter and indoors in summer. Physical comfort is important for this activity. 

In the beginning, the team stands together. Around them are three circles - one each to the side, and one directly in front. The circles can be made with rope, chalk, or any other material. 

Brief

All of you are in one group. Now, it is time for us to get to know each other, so lets do introductions. 

BUT, our introductions are with a twist. You will not introduce yourself. You will introduce anyone else from the group. 

The introduction should be about who they are, their department, how many years with the company etc. , but it MUST also include ONE personal detail at least. It can be that they belong to Allahbad, or that they have two daughters, or that they write poetry in their free time, or the name of their spouse- anything. But one personal detail. 

Once you have made the introduction, you move to the left circle. The person whom you have introduced moves to the right circle. 

The objective of the game, however, is for everyone to move to the front circle. How do we do that? 

Once you have BEEN INTRODUCED and MADE an introduction, you can move to the front circle. i.e., if you are in the left circle, you move to the front circle when someone introduces you. If you are in the right circle, you can introduce someone and move to the front circle. 

The order in which you move to the front circle does not matter. But the speed at which the entire group moves to the front circle does. So, lets get this ball rolling and start talking! 

Anyone can speak at any time. There is no order and no rule. The moderators will only nominate someone if no one is volunteering. 

You CAN make more than one introduction and you can be introduced by more than one person. No constraint! 

Trainer's Note

Use this activity to make notes about interesting things about people that you can use subsequently to draw them out. 

But as facilitator, pay special attention to subgroups within the group, the shy ones, and the ones who tend to bulldoze the group. This is an identification of network dynamics activity. 

Debrief 

There is no debrief except clapping for the entire group and announcing the time it took for the group to reach the front circle. 

Materials Needed 

Chalk Powder (1 kg, for outdoors) OR 15 meters of rope.  (5 meters * 3 rope segments) 

Chocolates - 10 - 15 nos. 

Designing Rewards and Recognition - A Case Study

 #DesigningRewardsAndRecognition

One of our clients was trying to implement a rewards and recognition framework for almost two years.

When we were called in, the mood in the room was not optimistic.

We took the project and did design to rollout in 40 calendar days.

Step One: Brainstorm and Design

Sharing with you the interview guide we used to help the client clarify their thoughts.

1. What do you want to reward.

2. Why do you want to reward it.

3. At what frequency.

4. What is the budget.

5. What are the keywords associated with this award. A person who wins this will be ____.

6. This will be valued by employees because __.

7. Who will decide the winner and on what criteria.

The thing with RnR is, that for every winner in a universe of N people, there are N-1 losers. So, every reward's criteria have to be 100% transparent to establish the credibility of the process.

Keeping this in mind, we worked with the client at every stage, asking supporting questions until the process was absolutely clear.

Step Two: Rationalise and Prepare for Rollout

The next step was to rationalise the list and arrive at a schedule of implementation. 

Obviously, through brainstorming, we would have arrived at a list that is at least 2x the intended number of awards being planned. 

So, the awards were rationalised and the list pruned. 

The most challenging aspect at this stage was reminding the client that the budget of the award is not just the trophy/cash component but also the cost of administration, selection, communication. 

We also needed to connect the process to other HR portfolio items like career planning, Upskilling, Performance Management, Payroll, etc. at the design stage itself, so that the rollout is seamless. 

#WordOfCaution

Even if the leadership is very enthusiastic, creating awards that exceed a sustainable budget means that someone will find a valid spanner and succeed in reducing or removing at least a few awards - but taking away the trust on the entire mechanism. So, we had to tell the client to stick within the budget, even when they were ok to "go above and beyond a little bit." 

Step Three: Communication and Rollout 

The next step was to plan the communication preceding and during the rollout for each recognition. 

Once this was done, the rollout of the selected RnR elements was done on a single day. 

During the rollout, the entire focus was on the recipients - what would they be like, how might this help them in their learning/career journey. The entire speech was about the employees and their growth. 

The rollout was a success. 

*Some elements of the process have been disguised/modified to ensure client confidentiality. 

Watched pot never boils

 Universal Law of Burner Attention:

The amount of attention paid to a gas burner on which one is making tea is inversely proportional to the amount of heating received by the cooking pot.

Simply put:

Paying attention to a gas burner leads to no heat reaching the vessel.

Corollary to the Law of Burner Attention:

When you look away for one split second, the tea on the burner boils over.

Image made using Dall-e2

On Work Life Balance

 Just because you work for yourself doesn't mean you don't report to a tough taskmaster. 

Work life balance is a function of who you are, not where you work. 

I have had the fortune of working with many people who maintained a healthy balance long before it became a thing. And here are some things that are common to all of them - 

A. They always prioritised their time. If you needed to meet them, you needed to send them an agenda and enter the room prepared. 

B. They respected other people's time as much. If you were OOO, there would be no calls, no messages, and no emergencies. They would insist on you doing a good handover to a colleague so that you can take your PTO both guilt free and interruption free. 

C. They included the families. They tried to create at least 1-2 events per year where families got to meet each other. 

D. When they were with you, they were ONLY with you. They made you feel like a real human being, not one of the gadgets they interacted with. 

E. This is the best part. It was very rare for them to be behind on their deadlines. They left office, and they left it with work done. 

F. Most of them were empathic leaders. 

The luckiest break in life was having these leaders around one at the very beginning of one's career. So, one got the right role models early on.

#WorkLifeBalance 

My Budget Wishlist for India

If individual taxation does not reduce soon, it will mean a higher take home pay if we all incorporate One Person Companies and register as vendors rather than employees for tax purposes.

#MyBudgetWishlist

There is more than one way to milk the cow.
And more than one way for the cow to refuse.

Today, an individual taxpayer first pays 30% of their total income up front as TDS, and when s/he tries to spend the remaining money, ends up paying between 5-18% again as indirect tax on consumption (as GST).

This means that at the highest level, an individual taxpayer in India pays about 50% as tax.

Unless this changes, it will make a lot more sense for individuals to register as OPCs and then appear as vendors rather than employees for taxation purposes. This will allow them to get deduction for expenses.

Already, out of the 42,186 OPCs registered in India, 26,154 are engaged in either "Business Services" or "Community, Personal, and Social Services".

Of these, 9,781 OPCs were registered from Jan - 10 Dec, 2021 (the numbers for 2022 are awaited).

#IsTheIndianProfessionalLearning?