Sunday, February 19, 2012

Hope !

Everytime I see ads like this , it makes me #Happy & #Hopeful.Beautiful Lyrics. Beautiful composition. Thank you Coca -Cola for spreading and sharing happiness .




Umeed vali dhoop,
Sunshine vali asha..
Rone ki vjah hai kam,
Hasne ke bahane hai jyada..
Zidd hai muskuraaenge,
Khush rehne ka hai wada..
Umeed vali dhoop Sunshine vali asha..
Tum ye jis se agar puchoge,
Vo khush rehna he chahe.. :)
Jab sache mann se mango,
To khul jaati hai raahein..

To khul ke khusi lutao,
Ye kya hai aadha-aadhaa..
Umeed vali dhoop Sunshine vali asha..
Umeed vali dhoop Sunshine vali asha.....

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

As One - Individual Action, Collective Power

I like getAbstract very much. I am a bookaholic , however, now since so much of information is available in digital format, I probably , wont be able to read all the books that I may like to read in a specific timeframe. That's where getAbstract is very valuable, I can get keytakeaways from as many books as I like. :-)This one caught my attention and I would like to share about Individual Action & Collective Power. Organizations are likely to fail when they suffer a “disconnect” between leadership styles and strategic goals – and between prevailing and preferred ways of working. For people to reach their full potential, leaders and followers need to work as a collective – a single organism united for a common purpose. Examples from politics, business and the not-for-profi t sector suggest eight models or archetypes of collective leadership. Spanning command-and-control and laissez-faire leadership formats – and hybrids of the two – these models provide a taxonomy for “As One” behaviors . Key takeaways from this book by by Mehrdad Baghai and James Quigley ( Deliotte Global CEO)

• Leaders and followers should work “as one” – in a unit – to solve problems.
• Eight archetypes describe successful leader-follower relationships:
• “Landlord and tenants”: The leader controls a resource others want.
• “Community organizer and volunteers”: In a reversal of power, leaders inspire, but
followers set the agenda and act.
• “Conductor and orchestra”: A leader sets rules; followers offer their “personal best.”
• “Producer and creative team”: The organization gives a team of experts and
innovators the resources and the creative freedom to meet the producer’s goals.
• “General and soldiers”: The leader’s “mission” – and the followers’ sense of security
– depends on clarity, hierarchy, and command and control.
• “Architects and builders”: Architects ask a team of diverse but interdependent
builders to bring their blueprint to life in clearly defi ned stages.
• “Captain and sports team”: Captains inform the team and help it adapt to change.
• “Senator and citizens”: Like-minded people work together as a community, choosing
to observe the same “constitution.” Their leader is a mentor, not a dictator.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Hope is a big word

Enjoy. When I see such videos, I deeply believe there is HOPE in the WORLD.


Thought Leader

Art Kleiner is the editor in chief of the award-winning management magazine strategy+business, as well as the author of two well-known management books. He developed a framework for advancing thought leadership in partnership with MIT’s Center for Organizational Learning. His definition of “thought leadership” is elegant and accessible: it’s about translating ideas, and giving the view from our vantage point, turning them into communications that are clear and actionable. His point is that you don’t have to be Peter Drucker or Marshall Goldsmith to be a thought leader…..each of us has the ability to articulate our thoughts effectively and influence others with our good ideas. It does, however, take preparation.

In Art’s framework, there are four facets of thought leadership. It’s important for emerging thought leaders to address each of these, one at a time (tackling more than one at a time leads to “thinker’s block”).

Briefly stated, the four facets are:
- What is my Purpose: Being explicit about your vision and priorities
- Who is my Audience: Defining who you are trying to reach, and discovering their assumptions
- What is the Research: Being cognizant of how you are substantiating, and challenging, your information and assumptions
- What is the Story: Determining how to make your message compelling to your audience

P.S- Above paragraph is from Dr Marshall Goldsmith newsletter

Friday, February 10, 2012

Hacker culture

Thanks to George Siemen's blog , I came across this amazing article. on Hacker Culture.

Reposting and resharing from George's Siemens blog

The Hacker Way is an approach to building that involves continuous improvement and iteration. Hackers believe that something can always be better, and that nothing is ever complete. They just have to go fix it — often in the face of people who say it’s impossible or are content with the status quo.

Hackers try to build the best services over the long term by quickly releasing and learning from smaller iterations rather than trying to get everything right all at once…

Hacking is also an inherently hands-on and active discipline. Instead of debating for days whether a new idea is possible or what the best way to build something is, hackers would rather just prototype something and see what works. There’s a hacker mantra that you’ll hear a lot around Facebook offices: “Code wins arguments.”

Hacker culture is also extremely open and meritocratic. Hackers believe that the best idea and implementation should always win — not the person who is best at lobbying for an idea or the person who manages the most people.

He then distills the hacker way down to five key principles:

1. Focus on impact
2. Move fast
3. Be bold
4. Be open
5. Build social value

Reform, rhetoric, and change
In education, we have decades of reform rhetoric behind us. I have never heard someone say “the system is working”. There appears to be universal acknowledgement that the system is broken.

Classrooms were a wonderful technological invention. They enabled learning to scale so that education was not only the domain of society’s elites. Classrooms made it (economically) possible to educate all citizens. And it is a model that worked quite well.

(Un)fortunately things change. Technological advancement, coupled with rapid growth of information, global connectedness, and new opportunities for people to self-organized without a mediating organization, reveals the fatal flaw of classrooms: slow-developing knowledge can be captured and rendered as curriculum, then be taught, and then be assessed. Things breakdown when knowledge growth is explosive. Rapidly developing knowledge and context requires equally adaptive knowledge institutions. Today’s educational institutions serve a context that no longer exists and its (the institution’s) legacy is restricting innovation.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Social cause - Creating Happiness

It does not happen very often that I come across really appealing ads. Here is one which I think is done brilliantly. With a very neat storyline and message very crisply delivered.
So true, simplicity is usually a result of much complex thinking, it is evident in this 1.31 min ad.Enjoy :-)

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Linchpin ( Key Insights from Seth Godin )

Key insights learnt from Seth Godin's book " Linchpin"

Human beings’ biological survival instincts and modern sociological conditioning
have combined to create a workforce of rule followers and negative thinkers.
• You have a choice: You can merely perform your basic mundane duties at work day
after day, or you can become a “linchpin.”
• A linchpin is an artist “who uses bravery, insight, creativity and boldness to
challenge the status quo.”
• Linchpins are indispensable people others turn to for help or advice.
• They are not always brilliant, but they see opportunities and seize them.
• The “lizard brain” is risk averse. Its powerful negative instinct, called “the
resistance,” prevents you from embracing change that it perceives as a threat.
• Motivate your brain’s creative force, your “daemon,” to oppose this barrier.
• Linchpins overcome fear and anxiety, and leap into the unknown.
• Linchpins try to view the world from other people’s perspectives. They understand they
cannot control everything, and they are generous with their time, money and talents.
• They make a conscious decision to approach life differently.

Creating Meaning Together

  In studying how dialogue works in coaching, we often study what coaches do: what are they asking and what are they doing? We also study wh...