My mother was hospitalised for three months. It was a testing time not only for her but for all of us. During this period apart from her treatment, it was essential for all of us to keep a positive attitude. Biggest challenge was for her as she was the one who was in the hospital! During this period she became very popular with the hospital staff. The reason was very simple - lying on the bed she used to prescribe medicines to the staff left right and centre. This was also accompanied with counselling services of all types. "Aaji" (word for grand mother in Marathi) had become very popular while we were little worried about her enthusiasm in practicing medicine lying on the hospital bed.....
One day as her sodium levels dipped, the doctors decided to shift her to the ICU from the recovery centre. While the preparations were on , one of the maid servants came in - unaware of Aaji's medical condition. "Aaji what is the remedy you had told me for the cracks on my feet" - My mother stopped the process of her transfer on stretcher and explained the remedy. The young lady doctor finally chased away the maid servant and patiently explained my mother that she can continue her practice after she returns from ICU! Not very happy with the interruption my mother scolded the young doctor who seemed to strangely enjoy the scolding....... Honestly little embarrassing me!
On the other occasion I had taken her for some sonography tests. The lady doctor there seemed to be in the 9th month of her pregnancy. Intuitively I was nervous as counselling pregnant ladies happens to be my mother's super-specialisation. "why are you working near these machines?" I lacked the courage to continue in the room and disappeared leaving her to be looked after by the attendant and my helpless elder sister! Later on my sister told me that the lady doctor seem to actually listen to some of the counselling tips carefully!!
...... My mother seems to have an uncanny knack of asking anything to anyone. Anybody below sixty years age is considered young enough for her. We have tried talking her out of it a few times explainig the modern day concepts of personal space and privacy. So far we have failed spectacularly in all our attempts. Strangely enough people seem to enjoy the liberties she takes with them!
....I have never understood this phenomenon quite clearly but I feel that people perhaps respond to the purity of her intent. She has gone through a very hard life like many from her generation but those hardships have not created any cynicism in her. During her active life she was a teacher and I remember that she never differentiated between us and her students. She was an extremely tough teacher. Her specialisation was to take under her wings - students who would fail in at least a couple of subjects and ensure that they pass their exams with flying colours. May be this is the reason why even today many of her students touch her feet whenever they meet her. There was no parent counselling in her teaching style as she would herself double up as parent to her students rather than 'escalating' anything to the parents.
...... Over the years I have marvelled at her ability to be consistently politically incorrect but still very popular
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Grooming a Professional
During one of my overseas trips, I was reviewing a project at the customer location in South Africa. We had just sent one of our techies – Satheesh, to work there. “So how is Satheesh settling down?” I asked – Mahesh – the program manager, burst into laughter. “What happened?” I asked. Mahesh was one of our veterans and someone with great temperament with people. “Well, nothing serious but I stopped Satheesh from eating other people’s breakfast since yesterday. I guess he was feasting on someone’s personal breakfast”. “WHAT?” I almost screamed. “Well, actually it was little misunderstanding. This is the first time Satheesh has travelled onsite. Since his arrival he was generally impressed with the office and pantry in particular. He did not realize that while tea, coffee and cookies are there for general consumption, items kept in the refrigerator by people are for their specific consumption. After spending 3 days in this office, yesterday he came and asked me about why have they stopped keeping muffins for the breakfast. I was initially confused but then realized that our friend was happily eating someone’s breakfast kept in the refrigerator! Poor fellow was extremely embarrassed when he realized his mistake!” “My god, what do we do now?” “Nothing really. Satheesh is a great guy technically and as I see it, he will settle down personally as well.” I trusted Mahesh and moved on ….. though little worried….
……. Days passed by and I visited South Africa six months down later. While visiting the same customer site mentioned above, I had a review with Program Manager from customer’s side and Mahesh. The customer singled out Satheesh in his praise and requested us not to move him away from the project for any reason. Instinctively I glanced at Mahesh who winked at me!
This incident took me back to my joining time in the industry. Back then the international exposure for IT professionals was still new. I had attended a personal grooming program. It was really an elaborate program with all details including table manners and personal grooming in terms of wardrobe etc. I still remember the distinct feeling that we all had at the end of the program – if we decided to implement our newly acquired knowledge, we would worry more about our cutlery and perhaps throw away half our wardrobe! While we laughed at it, it did leave some feeling of inadequacy with us. All of us had come from simple middle-class background and our careers were built more on our knowledge and the ability to slog than any blue-blooded pedigree! As we went along, we learnt through our exposures and some great mentors who focused on our basic strengths than our lack of grooming!
When I look at the Indian IT industry, Satheesh perhaps represents the common Indian IT techie travelling abroad for the first time and is a subject of humor – some true, some imaginary. Thankfully it is also made up of many souls like Mahesh who focus on basic skills of the people like Satheesh than grooming them on some standards! A big thank you to unsung heroes like Mahesh who quietly groomed the Indian IT Industry into a force to reckon with!
……. Days passed by and I visited South Africa six months down later. While visiting the same customer site mentioned above, I had a review with Program Manager from customer’s side and Mahesh. The customer singled out Satheesh in his praise and requested us not to move him away from the project for any reason. Instinctively I glanced at Mahesh who winked at me!
This incident took me back to my joining time in the industry. Back then the international exposure for IT professionals was still new. I had attended a personal grooming program. It was really an elaborate program with all details including table manners and personal grooming in terms of wardrobe etc. I still remember the distinct feeling that we all had at the end of the program – if we decided to implement our newly acquired knowledge, we would worry more about our cutlery and perhaps throw away half our wardrobe! While we laughed at it, it did leave some feeling of inadequacy with us. All of us had come from simple middle-class background and our careers were built more on our knowledge and the ability to slog than any blue-blooded pedigree! As we went along, we learnt through our exposures and some great mentors who focused on our basic strengths than our lack of grooming!
When I look at the Indian IT industry, Satheesh perhaps represents the common Indian IT techie travelling abroad for the first time and is a subject of humor – some true, some imaginary. Thankfully it is also made up of many souls like Mahesh who focus on basic skills of the people like Satheesh than grooming them on some standards! A big thank you to unsung heroes like Mahesh who quietly groomed the Indian IT Industry into a force to reckon with!
Friday, January 6, 2012
Capturing Wisdom
Once I was visiting data center of one of the oldest electricity providers and the bill-printing mechanism was more like a huge press printing some newspaper. I bumped in to a maintenance engineer whose job was to monitor the bulk printing of electricity bills. He was quietly sitting in a corner reading some paperback, when I met him. “So, what exactly are you supposed to do here?” I asked the question once he warmed up over a cup of tea. “I have to just ensure that this printing machine is working all the time”. “Oh, so do you have to stand next to the printer most of the time?” I asked it more as a doubt about his diligence than a query. He was sharp enough to get my drift and quipped, “No, I sit there and generally read something”. “Then how do you know that it is working fine?” He smiled, “Its very simple. I have figured it out over last year, that as long as I hear a peculiar sound from the printer every third minute, all is well”. Out of curiosity, I checked his record with the data center manager and I was told that this fellow was one of the most efficient engineers and his response time to the problem is great!
This reminded me of an incident narrated by a newlywed girl who was doing an apprenticeship under her mother-in-law. The old lady was narrating the recipe of one of her signature items. One of the steps puzzled our young lady. When the young lady asked, “How much time do you heat the contents at this stage?” the old lady simply said, “Well I put the vessel on the stove and go for my bath. I take it down as soon as I come back” This method of time-measurement stumped the young lady!!
If you look around the workplace, you will find quite a few cases where you get stumped by the experts. Over the years, they have devised their own mechanism of achieving results. It is not the stuff strictly written in any manuals but figured out over a period of time. Even if the experts are not secretive about the process they follow, it is extremely difficult to understand the correlation between the process and the results. When a new person tries to take over the process he finds it extremely difficult to follow some of these processes without feeling stupid. Just add the insecurity of the expert to the whole situation and the plot thickens! I have worked in the Outsourcing industry for about two decades now. When I think of all those brilliant professionals, who have made the Indian outsourcing industry work, I wonder - how do they capture the knowledge transition in terms of sound to hear on a cranky old printer or how much time one should take for a bath! My heart goes out for all those gallant IT professionals who not only transition the processes from the experts but also take them to offshore! My dear fellows - take a bow!
This reminded me of an incident narrated by a newlywed girl who was doing an apprenticeship under her mother-in-law. The old lady was narrating the recipe of one of her signature items. One of the steps puzzled our young lady. When the young lady asked, “How much time do you heat the contents at this stage?” the old lady simply said, “Well I put the vessel on the stove and go for my bath. I take it down as soon as I come back” This method of time-measurement stumped the young lady!!
If you look around the workplace, you will find quite a few cases where you get stumped by the experts. Over the years, they have devised their own mechanism of achieving results. It is not the stuff strictly written in any manuals but figured out over a period of time. Even if the experts are not secretive about the process they follow, it is extremely difficult to understand the correlation between the process and the results. When a new person tries to take over the process he finds it extremely difficult to follow some of these processes without feeling stupid. Just add the insecurity of the expert to the whole situation and the plot thickens! I have worked in the Outsourcing industry for about two decades now. When I think of all those brilliant professionals, who have made the Indian outsourcing industry work, I wonder - how do they capture the knowledge transition in terms of sound to hear on a cranky old printer or how much time one should take for a bath! My heart goes out for all those gallant IT professionals who not only transition the processes from the experts but also take them to offshore! My dear fellows - take a bow!
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Wake up (from) Sid!
Siddharth – or Sid as he is liked to be called now-a-days is the first baby of our family (I know he will hate this description but can’t help!) – He is my elder sister’s elder son who is about to complete his engineering degree. Last month I traveled to Bangalore for some work. Coincidently, Sid was doing his internship with one of the leading multinational IT companies based in Bangalore. As I had some time on hand, I decided to catch up with him for lunch. I must admit that I always have to remind myself that Sid is now a grown up young man and I have to treat him that way….
“So how is your project going on Sid?” “Cool!” – this is one word, I guess, I will never fully comprehend. Sensing my confusion he was kind enough to offer a few more words “Well, they can actually give me a pre-placement offer based on my work which could be anyway between 6 – 9 lacs”. “Wow! That’s nice” I really felt proud “But at least I know that I do not want to do a career in IT Services Company”. That was interesting …. Having grown in the IT industry for almost my entire professional life, I was curious. Well, though I am distinctly aware that it is no longer the ONLY sought of industry, as it used to be some years back, I still wanted to know his thought process.
“You know, I would like to work on some product where I get some feedback from end-users. It really does not matter what products I work on. For example, right now I have developed an Application with my developer license and I have about 800 downloads in first few days. Some of them have criticized it – but I am kind of enjoying it. I see lot of people around me in the company who wait for week-end for their enjoyment and talk about work-life balance. I want to work in a way where I enjoy my work and not wait for week-end to live my life” …. I was listening almost in awe and almost felt jealous of the clarity he had at the age of 20. “So, what are the plans Sid?” “Well, I need to figure out the right course for post-graduation that will give me some chance for research. Till I get that I will perhaps work in industry for a year or so rather than sitting idle. I don’t mind working in a small boutique firm which employs people to develop some Apps”
Generally, with my HR profession I break into career counseling mode very easily but I could see that he needed no such help. There was not a hint of any anxiety about the campus placement or the “multinational brand” to work with. His ideas were clear and more importantly he was rational in his thinking than being just dreaming about it.
Lot is talked about the changes that will affect the future of the work. If one has to go by the young man in front of me, I guess the younger lot will be more and more aware about their needs rather than anxious to prove their worth to the world ….. With the world getting connected with technology, individuals with ideas will be comfortable working as collaborative force rather than cog in the wheel of some bureaucratic system …. The way we engage with each other at work place could change dramatically …. The focus will no longer be on the lowest layer of Maslow’s Hierarchy – the physical needs defined by ‘assignment abroad’, ‘campus salary’ ….. May be the younger lot will be more interested in living life on their own terms …. If we don’t align our management structures or practices to accommodate these changes, we will be irrelevant!
It was a sort of wake-up call from Sid! I almost resisted asking him “What do you think I should be doing?” ………
“So how is your project going on Sid?” “Cool!” – this is one word, I guess, I will never fully comprehend. Sensing my confusion he was kind enough to offer a few more words “Well, they can actually give me a pre-placement offer based on my work which could be anyway between 6 – 9 lacs”. “Wow! That’s nice” I really felt proud “But at least I know that I do not want to do a career in IT Services Company”. That was interesting …. Having grown in the IT industry for almost my entire professional life, I was curious. Well, though I am distinctly aware that it is no longer the ONLY sought of industry, as it used to be some years back, I still wanted to know his thought process.
“You know, I would like to work on some product where I get some feedback from end-users. It really does not matter what products I work on. For example, right now I have developed an Application with my developer license and I have about 800 downloads in first few days. Some of them have criticized it – but I am kind of enjoying it. I see lot of people around me in the company who wait for week-end for their enjoyment and talk about work-life balance. I want to work in a way where I enjoy my work and not wait for week-end to live my life” …. I was listening almost in awe and almost felt jealous of the clarity he had at the age of 20. “So, what are the plans Sid?” “Well, I need to figure out the right course for post-graduation that will give me some chance for research. Till I get that I will perhaps work in industry for a year or so rather than sitting idle. I don’t mind working in a small boutique firm which employs people to develop some Apps”
Generally, with my HR profession I break into career counseling mode very easily but I could see that he needed no such help. There was not a hint of any anxiety about the campus placement or the “multinational brand” to work with. His ideas were clear and more importantly he was rational in his thinking than being just dreaming about it.
Lot is talked about the changes that will affect the future of the work. If one has to go by the young man in front of me, I guess the younger lot will be more and more aware about their needs rather than anxious to prove their worth to the world ….. With the world getting connected with technology, individuals with ideas will be comfortable working as collaborative force rather than cog in the wheel of some bureaucratic system …. The way we engage with each other at work place could change dramatically …. The focus will no longer be on the lowest layer of Maslow’s Hierarchy – the physical needs defined by ‘assignment abroad’, ‘campus salary’ ….. May be the younger lot will be more interested in living life on their own terms …. If we don’t align our management structures or practices to accommodate these changes, we will be irrelevant!
It was a sort of wake-up call from Sid! I almost resisted asking him “What do you think I should be doing?” ………
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