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.

5 questions to ask your new team on your first 1:1

When you join as a team leader, or become a team leader for the first time, one of the most important conversations you will have is a one on one with your direct reports. 

How does one go about this? Should one establish authority or empathy? 

Here is a simple, one word answer to all those questions - In the first meeting, LISTEN. Don't talk. 

Your team members have likely read your resume at least twice - once circulated by the corporate communications team, and again, when they checked you out on Linked in. So, don't tell them more about you. Find out about THEM. 

Here is a set of questions that you can pre-circulate to your new team, to have a positive first conversation. I have used either this set or a suitable sub set many times, and it has always been the start of a good, positive, trust based relationship. 

1. What was your greatest achievement and learning last year? 

2. What do you look forward to learning for your professional growth this year? 

3. What are your expectations from me? 

4. What do you bring to the table? 

5. What is your communication style? What works and does not work for you? What is the best way and time to speak with you? (And I will share the same thing) 

Some supplementary questions that you can use as per the situation: 

A. What drives or motivates you? What keeps you coming back to work? 

B. According to you, what are the best and worst traits a manager can have? 

C. What kind of manager would bring out the best in you? What kind of manager would you never work with? 

D. What is the best thing about this organisation? What would you never change and what would you change as soon as you got a chance? 

Brand is the price you pay for not knowing the quality of your product

 Dad said, "Brand is the price you pay for not knowing the quality of your product." 

The time was early '90s. Dad had been a retailer of clothes for over 20 years. 

You got a pair of unbranded jeans for about 250-300 rs, and if you wanted to go "expensive", you paid about 450-500 rs for them. 

Along came Lee's and Levis with price points of 1500 rs for one pair of jeans. Yet, people flocked to the stores as if it was a giveaway. 

Not surprisingly, traditional jeanswear retailers and manufacturers suffered. Dad did not deal in jeans extensively, but it was a product close to his heart. 

One day, at the dinner table, we got talking about Lee's and Levi's. 

"Why do you kids want to buy Lee's and Levis?" he asked. 

"Its cool dad. Their jeans are really good." we answered. 

"They are? How so?" 

Well, obviously, we did not know the answer. 

Then, dad paused, "Brand is the price you pay for not knowing the quality of your product. If you could hold the jeans in your hand and check the fabric, the stretch, and the dyeing, you would not need to spend 1500 rs for that which should not cost more than 300."

 It was a dinner conversation, and it was apt to be both ignored and forgotten. 

Why does no one publish unbiased news any more?

 This was a question on Quora. Good Thought prompt. My answer: 

There isn’t because that is not what the public wants. Everyone *says* they want unbiased news but everyone reads the drama.

If you want an unbiased view, all you need to do is get to the facts yourself. And if that is not possible, read two or three publications. Thats it. Its as simple as that.

At The Children’s Post, we have strict editorial guidelines that forbid us from using adjectives that are either positive or negative. Even sports news don’t start with “Germany Crush XYZ” or some such. And I can tell you how hard that is. To get people to constantly re evaluate their work in light of these editorial guidelines.

But what is easy is getting to the source and understanding the concepts yourself. And deciding what is news and what is not. A politician making a comment is not news. The Congress passing a legislation - that’s news. In India, the text of all laws is available for us to read. So, we go and read the actual text of the law instead of depending on anyone to interpret it for us.

Likewise, when a scientific discovery happens, we go and check what stage the research is at, and then decide to publish it only if it is at pre-production or production stage. We also check if there is a conflict of interest in the funding of the study. But readers don’t even ask for the stage of research when reading headlines!

All of this, one can most certainly do to become a consumer of unbiased news. The bias is in the mind of the readers. The news agency is just feeding it. Every journalist knows how to write unbiased news. Think about why they don’t.

Things I have learnt because of The Children's Post

• The incredible economy of LOVE - where money is not the motivator, neither the earning. 
•  All women teams do not indulge in conversations - like, ever. The group was never used for anything not related to work. By anyone. We shared personal updates, challenges, chatter, in the Editors's Meets. We have had ladies across education levels, geographies, and personality types.
• Making Creatives for social media. Never thought I could do it. 
• Community management on Facebook 
• Proofreading and Editing 
• Reporting for children - knowing what children will want to read, and how to write it. 
• Writing funny poetry for children 
• Contest and event management for kids - I can now get up from sleep and put one together. 
• All about CC0 to CC4. I was aware, to the extent that we needed it for Esha. But the Free Music Archive, the CC0 image websites, etc. have all been a revelation. And now i contribute to CC0 images regularly. 
• The children and their love. We made a decision to NOT use bots to manage the email volume, even when it was overwhelming. because we wanted to remember that on the other side of that email was a child. And how much we have learnt because of that rule! 
• I once read a quote that has become the goalpost on my life - If you want to know the difference your leaving will make, take out a pail of water and see the empty space left behind. There are, by any estimate, at least 100 children's news publications in India. Yet, every single one of our stakeholders - our incubation center, our mentors, our readers, subscribers, everyone who took the time to speak to us, told us that they need The Children's Post to go on. This is the ONLY exception of the hole in water theory that I am aware of. We will, I think, leave a hole in the water. And I hope that that hole will be filled with fond memories by every heart in which it exists. 
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Why Facebook targeting fails

 In a recent discussion, it just came out:

The reason that Facebook targeting, with all that AI and cookies, does not work, is that people are very different on FB than they are in real life.

We need good research professionals to obeserve and understand what people are really like. Not what their online behaviour is. Even if you find out their secret lives, they are not going to make purchase decisions based on that secret life.

Your thoughts?