Joy of Facilitation

In August 2009 I attended a workshop organized by Bhumi called Leading to Light. It was a workshop on Personal Mastery and Transformational Communication. I had the amazing opportunity to meet a host of trainers who delivered the wonderful program. I liked the job they were doing and casually inquired what it takes to be a trainer.

At Leading to Light I had the life changing opportunity to meet Kiran Gulrajani. He told me that I’m meant to be a facilitator (from my birth date). He also mentioned to me about a unique program he conducts for facilitators called Tao of Facilitation. Prior to meeting Kiran also I had done some training and facilitation.

I continued to wonder how the facilitation journey (actually revenue stream) will take shape. Kiran kept in touch. When Kiran was conducting Tao of Facilitation (ToF) in Hyderabad in Dec 2009, he cushed (loving push) me into the program. ToF was perhaps the single most important element in my journey of facilitation, I can say this in hindsight. We learnt much about ourselves during the program and I came out of the sessions thinking deeply about myself. I also wondered how this was remotely connected to facilitation.

The journey moved on and I kept meeting people in different capacities. When I started paying attention to the different capacities I was involved in one day I suddenly realized I was a facilitator in many ways. I was facilitator as a management consultant, I was a facilitator on the negotiating table, I was a facilitator as a mentor to my team and obviously I was a facilitator while delivering training programs. This revelation that facilitation was part and parcel of my life began to show how few ToF learning I was able to apply in situations. As I became aware that I’m a facilitator the approach to the situations came from depths of the self which would invariably benefit scene of application.

Recently I facilitated a small session at a Bhumi Personal Mastery session. As I could quietly apply what I had learnt at ToF it was a truly joyful experience. While there is much to learn and a long way to go to be a good facilitator, what remains underlined is the Joy of Facilitation.

That’s the story from Tao of Facilitation to Joy of Facilitation.

10 Key Learnings of 2009

The difference between knowledge and wisdom is doing. So the learning I’m going to share are not pieces of read text, but the wisdom I gained in the year 2009. Hope many can relate, few can contradict and many more can quicken their journey’s to wisdom through this post.

1. Starting-up is good fun: I myself started two enterprises (NxT Bizness Solutions & Dot Now Social), and worked with few others in 2009. From taking the decision to start-up from understanding of market need, potential customers to actually finalizing the name, registration its all good fun. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the freebies of starting up too; the learning, the hiccups, the obstacles, the glamor etc. I explored my inherent affection for startups in 2009.

2. SMEs are a HUGE market: Studying SMEs for the entire year, taking off from my stint at Milagrow, I realized the potent market of SMEs in India. Realized how much of market need exists, how little is getting met. It was very nice to see many entrepreneurs across the country dealing with this opportunity in their unique way. I also touched base with how little is known about SMEs on the whole. There is a huge gap to fill about understanding SMEs in India.

3. Power of Social Media and Social Technologies: Though I was an early adopter of social media while in college, then graduated into a laggard after I started working. Once on my own, I explored social media encouraged by a study by McKinsey. It is a revolution that is catching up, and what we have experienced is the tip of the iceberg. Social Media and social technologies can greatly aid business. This is beyond marketing and can prove extremely useful through all Conversations of Business.

4. Ecology is the new Business Ethic: Ecologies have existed in business ever since. I got introduced to linkages and ecologies in 2008 during my stint at Milagrow in an all new way. 2009 was the year to grasp the big picture. Co-Creation, Co-evolution, core competence taken to a new level, leverage of strengths (processes, customers, relations etc) and many more forms. I came in touch with very many and truly experienced the power that lay hidden. I’m more than ordinarily convinced that Ecology is the next Business ethic.

5. Culture is the secret of great organizations: Culture is very powerful. It has defined the progress of civilizations of the world. The combination of value system and belief system manifested into practices holds the key to not only civilizations but also organizations. During 2009, I came in touch with several organizations, some had weak cultures, some had strong cultures, some cultures were elevating and some destroying. It was the year of experiencing how culture defines the organization. I also learnt, culture is not for a wall poster, it cannot be “driven in”, it must be identified and not cultivated, in the context of an organization.

6: Relationships of Business: Healthy relationships are the key even in business. But understanding the relations of business goes beyond. Business is done between one who needs and one who provides. As long as the context is business, there is no more, no less. This is the most important lesson of 2009 for me. When there is an existing relation with a person beyond the purview of give and take, it is advisable to think twice about bringing objectivity that is required for business into such a relation. It was extremely difficult for me to build the objectivity (disclosure: I failed at it) into a relation that had business as the newest dimension.

7. USA is a nation built by Entrepreneurs: I read that USA had high business quotient, it was a nation pursuing personal liberty etc. When I visited USA, it was truly an experience (much to my surprise). It was an experience of how the power of individuals has been harnessed to build a nation. I had only come in touch with the fallacies and the ills of this excessive personal liberty leading to unprecedented greed, but experiencing USA was about realizing the collective potential individual endeavor.

8. Control is an Illusion: Like most of us I was one of them who congratulated myself for each achievement and blamed circumstances for all the failures (though I truly deep within knew neither was I totally responsible for success nor failure). 2009 is when I began to accept that events happen and I only did what I could do, I did not control or create any outcome. I began to practice letting go, practice not pursuing the end, but pursuing the means. I began to respect the Hindu philosophy of Karma one more notch higher for it gave the entire civilization the strength to let go and let come without attaching too much value to it. I’m slowly beginning to travel for the purpose of travelling in this journey called Life (be it professionally or personally)

9. Money is not that unimportant: Money to me was always a secondary virtue. Of a lower class of sorts. The year that went by taught me things about money I never properly understood before. 2009 was the year I began to give a lot more respect for money in a manner that I understand its value. I realized “Money can Buy”. Hence never discount it to second grade.

10. I’m not that much of a rookie after all: I began 2009 by moving on from Milagrow to start my own consulting enterprise. For a 21 year old it was quite an important decision, but I made the leap. Many times I thought to myself if at all I’m capable enough to take on the challenges presented by my clients and my startup. But I thoroughly enjoyed many of the solutions I gave to my clients all year through. My clients were much more experienced than me, few of them had done Graduation in Business, one of them in an top 25 B school in the world. But I too added value, enough value that they could acknowledge and appreciate. While I will always be thankful to all of them for having put faith in me and given me an opportunity, I’m also a lot more confident and don’t feel like a rookie anymore.

These are just 10 of the most important ones, and mostly only in the professional domain. 2009 was a bumpy year where I learnt many things both professionally and personally. Elaborating further is beyond the scope of this post, but I’m grateful for all the opportunities I got in 2009, I’m thankful I met the people I did, I’m glad it came, I’m happy it is over!

Americans turn to small companies

A survey conducted revealed 22% of American workers who were laid off from full-time jobs in the last year found new jobs with small businesses. Another59% would be interested in working for a small business, and29% are considering starting one of their own. The potential for job growth isn’t the only reason. 56% said that a “family-like” work environment appealed to them, and 48% felt they could make more of a difference in a small company. (courtesy CareerBuilder)

Hope the trend  reflects in India as well and more talent agrees to participate in entrepreneurial endeavor in Indian SMEs.

Strategic thinking with execution mindset – secret to success

Co-incidental though, today happens to be a rather eventful day to take-up this topic for a post.

These words, “Strategic thinking with execution mindset” are one of the many lessons I’ve learnt during my stint at Milagrow from Mr. Rajeev Karwal himself. This is one of the most important, and one that I have actively inculcated. It so happens that today I’ve experienced the power of this lesson 360 degree and today happens to be Mr. Karwal’s birthday. This post is a tribute to him in gratitude to giving momentum and shape to my management consulting career.

In any high-level planning session it is very important to keep focused on the strategy and larger picture. But it at times happens that in keeping the thought level so high and giving so much importance to the bigger picture the execution and grass-roots are ignored.

Despite understanding the importance of execution and grass-roots, like many others I knew I too suffered from not being able to focus enough on them. Of late I see many many consultants are accused of the same, they focus too much on the big picture and thereby bring little value to the table in terms of actual solutions.

Working with Mr. Karwal helped me realise my short-coming and apply the lessons much better. It was an instant hit for me. The lesson formed the  underlying theme of devising strategy and action plans for myself and my clients. 

The results are evident. I’m much more satisfied with the solutions because I have given enough thought to visualise the results, rather than only assume. My clients are delighted because I’ve been able to communicate the solution, the path to achieve and the expected value. This has been on and am enjoying the applications of my learnings.

When I first heard this statement from Mr. Karwal, obviously, I looked to myself and thought that many consultants must be making the same mistake, too much strategy and big talk, too little actioning. I thought probably this is why “consultant” is such a “foul” word. And that “venture catalyst” meant just that, not just the big picture related jargon. Lessons learnt, now being actively applied.

Today I saw the other side of the story. A group of students from one of India’s top 5 B-school’s executive program consulting with a Non-profit organization in helping them develop “strategy” and their organization as a whole. Being invited to attend the planning session, me being from just the same background “strategy”, I had the opportunity to see this group actively applying their in-class learning to the group of core-members, board of directors, non-members (like me) etc.

This was a typical case of not being able to see strategy at all. Total lack of visualization of the big picture, too much attention to detail at such a high-level planning session, attempts of extracting suggestions for solutions they should deliver… I saw the total opposite of “strategic thinking with execution mindset”… “execution thinking with strategic mindset”… This group was trying to evolve strategy, but were actively capturing the minutest detail possible from the discussions.

Today I fully understood what Mr. Karwal taught me. I felt good that as a student I could apply the learning well in my previous occasions and could easily point-out where this group failed in delivering the goods. Today it was clear, there is one definite way to good consulting “Strategic thinking with Execution mindset”! Thank you Rajeev Sir!

Customer to Entrepreneur – journey with the motto “we can do it better”

Better service. Better product. More innovation & imagination. As customers and consumers many a time we feel, if it was just “this” better.

This very idea that “we” can provide this “one simple yet effective innovation” is a thought that leads to the birth of many entrepreneurs. Customers & consumers who feel they would be much more satisfied with “these few changes”, with belief that there will be many such enthusiasts who believe the the same few “changes” make all the difference start up.

Entrepreneurs set out by identifying what they saw the need for as customers/consumers with the motto that “we can do it better” and hence believe that they will be able to attract all those who think like them (who obviously according to them are large enough in number).

Like I once heard an intellectual and innovator speak at a conference, “the user is the best innovator”. His organization, NIF, has pioneered the movement called “user based innovations”. In my opinion another brilliant concept, worthy of an entire blog (not just a mention in a post).

But like wise, user based innovations many times lead to the users turning to being entrepreneurs themselves. Probably N x T Bizness Solutions too is a similar spin off, but I’ve come across few more typical examples.

A batch mate in engineering started off a new social networking website because he was totally not satisfied with the way the existing social networking websites connected people. Only 2 days ago I had the privilege of meeting a couple, fed up with poor floor plans and amenities at various gyms have planned to start a new chain of their own as a culmination of their years of observing flaws. I also had the opportunity to meet an entrepreneur/innovator who observed the difficulties of existing packaging units and brought to market his new innovative design to reduce cycle time, improve productivity, and reduce man power costs.

While any entrepreneurial aspiration is most welcome, a loud word of caution needs to be sounded. While there may always be the need (because they observed, there must have definitely been another who observed the same flaw) it is important to understand the reasons behind the existing poor design. If the reasons are not validated, then it is important to understand how many really feel the need and can appreciate the fulfilled need.

While user based innovations, typically based on utility (end-use), are definitely a boon, as entrepreneurs it is important to innovate further to make the new innovations viable marketable products/services to offer.

Many entrepreneurs who have started off like this, at least many I know, have failed to be successful. Those successful are those who have managed to innovate further to make refined products appreciated by a larger market segment hence viable and profitable.

CEO – Chief Example Officer

I’ve seen many team leaders complain about the culture in their teams. (i was part of the sample set one point in time). I see them complaining about their lack of goal clarity, their lack of interst in building skill, lack of discipline and what not.

From small teams to CEOs (here i mean Chief Executive Officers) of enterprises complain of lack of good culture in working teams. They often disregard themselves from them “team”. To their understanding they are independent and a notch above, hence by default superior (including in terms of work culture).

I’m sure many greats have written about this many times, but it is sincerely my observation that leaders lend culture to the team. The style adopted by the leader is inevitably imbibed by the team. It can be said that it is a strength of a good leader to lend culture to the team. In other words good leader set example for their team.

The problem arises when the leader considers himself/herself outside the sample space of team for consideration of evaluation. The leader tends to justify his/her actions by reasons, probably valid. Then goes onto blame the members of the team for their cluture for he/she doesn’t identify or is unable to undetify the reasons. There really may not be any reason, but there isdefinitely a valid excuse.

The Chief Executive Officer must also remember that he/she is also the Chief Example Officer. The entire organization takes behaviourial cues from the CEO.

When I was leading entrepreneurship cell team, I set for my self a challenge to achieve what I set out to do. I knew it was not easy and every moment was precious. I was actively leading one half of the team and indirectly leading the other. 

Though is was not intentional, today when i look ack and interact with the members of the team, the half of the team which work closer to me consistently imbibed the culture of challenging themselves to achieve set objectives. I showed them “the way to go about work: challenge it”. This happened without my knowledge. The half team which worked with me bonded very closely and today form the ranks of the organization. 

The other half imbibed a loosely connected culture which reflects the culture of the person who actively lead that half of the team. As I try to analyse the success we had together an year ago, many revelations come to me.

Similarly, teams in which I was part of… AIESEC Hyderabad. I can distinctly observe the traits I’ve imbibed from my first immediate vice-president and what i’ve imbibed from my two-time president. Their styles of working can be observed in my even though it has been long.

Similarly at Milagrow… The style and culture of my CEO can be extensively observed in the first circle team he has. Once I had more interaction with him and began to be directly part of his team, (due to only a short stint) i can observe in myself few traits of him and his style. 

Thankfully for me, the leadership styles and cultures in the organizations I was fully part of were very similar. I can also recollect acouple of instances when I quit teams because there was a culture mis-fit.

Even at my client I observe that the good and the bad traits of the leadership has slowly sunk into the viens of the organization. there is justification and no action. Again a consequence of excellent leadership.

May be the phrase With power comes responsibility needs appending. with ability comes responsibility.

This goes out to all real and pseudo Chief Executive Officers… plesae take the effort to be good Chief Example Officers apart from just being phenomenol leaders. If you are not a good leader, probably you can take a skip…

Recession Times – Best time for Branding: Real Estate melt down means better time for Branding – validated by example

Its news to few that today’s great economic slowdown is thanks to a real estate melt down. Experts, many of them, said it was the best time to indulge in branding.

Just last week I saw a great example of the connection. In Hyderabad, I visited the manager of a leading Mall/SC. The manager was ready to offer prime space at throw away prices. Slots which he had rejected on offer, and quoted exobidantly is on offer for peanuts.

Builds a case for a strong branding exercise. The footfalls have only come down marginally but the once cash rich big wigs are now protecting their reserves. Time for SMEs to jump into action and build a great brand for themselves.

If the story is like this of the leading mall, the fate of others is only given. Well SMEs, jump into action, grab the pie before its too big to bite again.

Naming my startup – what an experience!

Being part of the naming exercise of 2 college clubs/organizations I seriously didn’t think naming was such a big task…

Almost 2 weeks and no significant headway on my own made me turn to my trusted friends and “intellectuals”. The efforts that were made are enormous. I did a research on “naming firms” which charge $3000 for a name. I was totally amused with the way this was turning out. Thats then I learnt “Naming you company is like naming your kid, while naming a college club is like naming your neighbour’s dog”.

Very few options actually emerged in the path to naming the org, actually quite dissappointingly. But the few that emerged were strong options. Those that were my brain child were good, only till one came from, a competitor if i can call him that because he’s in the same industry and catering to similar clientele.

Conceptually a very nice concept, which I appreciated very much. Post that after deep consultations and pondering I made revisions to the name. Excited by the revisions, I quickly consulted many well wishers, including people across the globe (waking them from their sleep). Hence was Finalized

N x T

This name did the rounds among my friends and close associates. To give completeness to the concept, a tag line “What Ever It Takes” was added.

This name went to a numerologist, as usual, and Bizness Solutions emerged as the correct addition.

So it was

N x T Bizness Solutions

What Ever It Takes

Then came the question of the tag line not appealing to business audiance. So now desperate attempts are on to create communication appleling to business customers.

What ever be the pains of growth, I think they are worth in the journey of te Startup. These will be cherished moments and great learning for all those associated.

And please remember, “Naming you company is like naming your kid, while naming a college club is like naming your neighbour’s dog”!!

HML – Best Management Practises

HML stands for High Medium Low. It is a document prepared at Milagrow, on a daily basis by everyone. HML is a tool to prioritize work into 3 categories. High priority items for the day, medium priority items for the day and Low priority Items for the day.

It helps the individual prioritize better and the tool helps stick to it by simply looking at the HML and reminding ourselves as to what the high priority items are and which need to be focussed on. It is important that few high priority items be finished rather than many low priority items. In addition any appointments scheduled for the day are mentioned. The preparation of the HML helps immensely.

The HML is not static, but a weekly measurement. End of each day, each item is marked in “green” if the job has been done, “amber” if the job is half finished and “red” if the job has not been touched at all. After diligently applying the colour code to the planned activities for the day, the next day’s HML is prepared on the same sheet for easy measurement. Ideally, in a good planning scenario the medium items of the beginning of the week must slowly be done by mid week, with low items being promoted to medium priority. He initial low priority items must be targeted for completion by the end of the week. The medium and low of the week which couldn’t e done during the week are usually followed up and finished over the weekend. Such prioritizing helps immensely. Not just mental prioritizing, but physically penning them down on a daily basis is of great help.

The HML is circulated to team mates and the mentor. This helps the mentor know your activities for the day, and can help in prioritizing the activity better to suit the immediate requirements. Your team mates also know what appointments you have and what activities you are doing through the day. In case we forget to prioritize any important item, the team mates can suggest and add value. As this is a measured way of doing things, day after day the mentors and senior level managers can review the work being done at subordinate levels and guide them towards better performance.

Being in a consulting organization, where there are different tasks in different areas this is easily acceptable, and makes a whole lot of sense. But we have implemented the same with our clients’ middle level management and has worked wonders. In many organizations the middle level management is involved in process improvement or other growth related projects, apart from supervision and a host of hygiene activities. In such cases planning the non-hygiene yet vital tasks that need to be performed by the middle level management would be aided by the preparation of HMLs.

It is a great practice I feel, if adhered to with diligence. It helps the individual, team and the organization on the whole in many ways. Even if organizations don’t implement it, I think it is a great individual tool in life as such. To carry such good practices I have learnt at various organizations I’ve been with, has proved to be an advantage to be successful in whatever scale success I have achieved.

Problems faced by Start ups

Start-ups face many problems from starting up to gaining birth weight and catapult into bigger leagues.

The woes of a start up begin at validating the Idea and understanding its potential. Many start-ups, being driven by young and aspirant minds, are wedded to their ideas and tend to justify the chinks rather than re-design. These start-ups do not have the resources to conduct primary research to validate their ideas. So it is very important for them to get third person perspectives from experienced corners to validate and get reassured of their ideas.

A successful start-up has a dedicated, passionate yet level headed, core entrepreneurial team that leads from the front. These teams, despite being high potential teams, tend to be a bunch of ‘everyone does everything’ type wanderers due to lack of proper delegation of responsibility and a strong organizational design. When these bunch of people come together and set out with big dreams, they need mentoring and hand holding to channelize their energies better and achieve more with less.

Business plan development has been as area where start-ups often falter. Some reading on the internet will not guide a start-up enough to develop a business plan. Start-ups are usually lost, not knowing what are the areas that require planning right at the start, and how forward they should look. They need strong experienced hands to guide them with planning to execute an idea that has immense potential.

Funding has been an area of concern for most start-ups. Cribbing about getting funds consumes more time than actual work for many start-ups. Many a time it is not the eco-system to be blamed, but the start-ups themselves. The start-ups don’t know whom to approach, with what and how. They are wedded to their ideas so much, that they feel complacent that the universe is waiting to buy their idea and all those who have rejected them are missing out on opportunities. In a way they may be right about it, with the given potential of their ideas. What usually lacks is content in the pitch these start-ups make to their investors. Many start-ups need guidance in making the right pitch to their investors, by incorporating the right elements about return and exit.

Start-ups get overwhelmed by the fact of doing business and tend to neglect aspects of infrastructure planning. They tend to overspend on unnecessary luxuries and undermine certain important items, purely because of lack of experience and poor planning. Start-ups do not think through sufficiently about this important aspect, but it can make or break.

Dealing with the government is not an easy job. Mere idea and its potential do not ensure a market entry. There are usually a slew of regulatory compliances to be obtained before the start itself. Mere complying with some laws at start is not enough, but they need to carefully monitor the effect of these compliances. Start-ups need support to understand and comply with least damage to business. There are many schemes that govt. announces for the benefit of start-ups, which they are unaware of.

Many start-ups feel that defining policies at the start curbs their business and it is an unnecessary exercise. But it is very important for start-ups to make the organization as people independent as possible. Start-ups are highly people dependent, and loss of small resource can lead to major vacuum in Start-ups. As far as possible some important policies must be laid down to free the business of individuals and protect them against their first clients. Sticking to certain pre-defined policies can protect small companies from being overrun or cheated by their first few big clients.

Branding the services or products and defining a go to market strategy is a big challenge for start-ups. Defining the 4Ps for a start-up is a major task. Defining a target group, where and when to launch, what price to quote, and how to market the product is an uphill, stammering task for start-ups. Many start-ups lack managerial expertise and experience to be confident about the definition of the 4Ps.

Today technology is such an enabler for businesses! In the context of start-ups, implementing the right technology as part of the journey to build flesh in the business can enhance the organization’s growth. Investing in the right technology is a critical decision many start-ups will have to take.

Plans are made with certain factors in mind. Direction is chosen initially with certain focus, and these plans are implemented diligently and passionately. But many start-ups fail to audit their performance as diligently as implementation. Start-ups begin to justify their failure rather than taking corrective action. This at times can lead to the fall of the organization.

The standout of the success of a start-up is to wage through the problems effectively and capture market.