Learning from the trailblazers: Raghuram Rajan shares workplace tips

         Raghuram Rajan has always got a rock star attention. He must be given credit for having spoken succinctly on many issues bothering India and being an economist, he has always given an economic angle to it. He rightly says, for India to unleash its full potential, there has to be fierce competition between different groups. These groups might be students, organizations, states, state-governed-organizations etc. The competition has to be so healthy that we learn from each other's mistakes and successes and strive hard to keep adding value to the society. 
         
         RBI governor Raghuram Rajan's speech at IIT Delhi's convocation last week included references to physicists, Indian kings, economists and scientists. Rajan recalled some of their exploits while building a case for diversity of viewpoints in a vibrant organisation and many of his ideas are fitting mantras for modern workplaces.

Here are his viewpoints on modern workplaces, which he says must be open to debate and the top level leadership must be open to accepting questions.

Richard Feynman, physicist

What Rajan said: "Feynman (a Nobel winner) found the atmosphere at the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton stultifying. He found the atmosphere sterile because there were no students to ask him questions — questions that would force him to rethink his beliefs and perhaps discover new theories."

In the corporate world, a work environment where debates and discussion are not fostered is not innovative. Sycophancy might help a manager consolidate his or her power but that would be detrimental to the company's interests. 


Raja Raja Chola, of the Chola dynasty

What Rajan said: "In building the Brihadeeswara Shaivite temple at Thanjavur, ( Raja Raja Chola) incorporated sculptures of Vishnu as well as the meditating Buddha, thus admitting to alternative viewpoints."

When it comes to matters of diversity at the workplace, men, women, the disabled and those belonging to the LGBT community, among others, all possess a distinct point of view that must be accommodated and valued.

Shahenshah Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar, the Mughal king

What Rajan said: "When (Akbar) invited scholars of all manners of persuasion to debate the eternal verities at his court, he was only following older traditions of our Hindu and Buddhist kings, who encouraged and protected the spirit of enquiry."

Beyond simply admitting alternative viewpoints, it's important to accept them. A pool of diverse opinions can help shine a light on the problems being discussed, resolving the issue in an unexpected manner. 


Albert Einstein, the theoretical physicist

What Rajan said: "Ideas start with questioning and alternative viewpoints, sometimes seemingly silly ones. Einstein built his theory of relativity pondering the somewhat wacky question, of what someone travelling in a train at the speed of light would experience." 

As the governor said, nothing should be excluded, but everything should be subject to debate and constant testing. No one should be allowed to offer unquestioned pronouncements. Conventional wisdom must be challenged on an ongoing basis. 


Source: Economic Times

Learning too much from the past?

Decision making is a very important aspect in all spheres of our life; be it business, academics, profession, personal life etc. Given the nature of Indian society, our decisions naturally get altered based on our surroundings, upbringing and more importantly our past experience.

I read the below article in my favorite news paper The Hindu Businessline, which succinctly describes all these factors which we consider in the decision making process. The crux of the article is, while it is good to have rich experience in framing a decision, it is equally important to focus on the process. Time, people and situations change. We must learn from the past and alter the process based on the current environment. I always believe, in any life game, the rules or the processes which added value to you or to the society a few years ago might not necessarily add value now. Therefore, it is necessary to learn our lessons hard and correct ourself.

Since, I keep a lot of interest in politics, I hope Modiji our PM reads this article and understands that whatever worked in past might not necessarily work in future.

Here's the article from the hindu businessline.

What worked in the past may not work in the future unless we focus on the process.

We rely on the weight of experience to make judgments and decisions. We interpret the past – what we’ve seen and what we’ve been told – to chart a course for the future, secure in the wisdom of our insights. After all, didn’t our ability to make sense of what we’ve been through get us where we are now? It’s reasonable that we go back to the same well to make new decisions.

It could also be a mistake.

Experience seems like a reliable guide, yet sometimes it fools us instead of making us wiser.

The problem is that we view the past through numerous filters that distort our perceptions. As a result, our interpretations of experience are biased, and the judgments and decisions we base on those interpretations can be misguided.

If our goal is to improve decision-making, we can use our knowledge of those filters to understand just what our experience has to teach us and learn how to overcome our biases.

We focus on what we can see

In the business environment, the outcomes of decisions are highly visible, readily available for us to observe and judge. But the details of the decision process, which we can control far more than the result, typically don’t catch our attention. If the aim is to learn from experience – mistakes as well as successes – acknowledging that process is crucial.

Circle of advisers

Honest feedback – an unbiased, undistorted assessment of one’s experience – is essential for improving decisions. Yet decision makers are often surrounded by individuals who have incentives to feed them censored and self-serving information – and these people are not necessarily a crowd of yes-men.

Overvaluing experience

We can’t place all the blame for our distorted view of the world on the environment and our inner circle. Some of the blame lies with us. We tend to search for and use evidence that confirms our beliefs and hypotheses, and we gloss over or ignore information that contradicts them – an exercise of selectively building and interpreting experience known as the confirmation bias.

How not to be fooled

The following techniques can uncover the real lessons experience offers and help you base decisions on a clearer view of the world.

Sample failure: Failures and the processes that lead to them are doomed to stay in the dark unless special occasions are created to bring them to light. To identify what could be done better in the future, companies can also conduct decision post-mortems to analyse underlying processes.

Don’t miss near misses: Another oft-ignored event is the near miss – a failure that’s disguised as a success, but only because there are generally no dire consequences.

Pursue prevention: Recognising a potential problem requires a different approach than solving an actual problem. One strategy is to harness employees’ collective talents by allowing people to raise concerns about the firm’s operations. Disagree: As Peter Drucker wrote, “The first rule in decision making is that one does not make a decision unless there is disagreement.” To devise healthy strategies, executives need to hear many perspectives.

Disconfirm: Rather than finding clues that corroborate your hunch – all too easy in an information-rich world – start by asking yourself how you could know you were, in fact, wrong.

Source:  Experience is not always wisdom

Emerging entrepreneurs

The year 2014 has come to an end. What a turbulent and cacophonous year it was. Nevertheless, ending this year on a motivating note. Here is the list of articles in which the stories of emerging entrepreneurs in India is shared. Who says, India lacks talent? It's only a matter of time when the Make in India program will get transformed into Make for India, Live for India and Serve for India.

Pipping hot news and in your palm too

Giving electric scooters a positive charge

Powering up payments on the go

Incubation model help building ecosystems

Softbank invests $90mn in housing.com

The PPP way to growth

While big-ticket reforms are held up, let’s address infra concerns

Again a goodread from The Hindu's Businessline, an excellent newspaper for policy making articles.

That the Narendra Modi government ran into a wall of Opposition in Parliament in trying to push reform legislation in coal and insurance is unfortunate Even so, ordinances cannot institutionalise a new model of governance; at best, they may only signal to a restive industry that the Centre means business and buy some time to cobble up a consensus in Parliament. But even if such a consensus on amending laws on land acquisition, labour, mining and the financial sector takes time in coming, there are enough areas where supply side constraints can be eased without breaking into so much as a sweat. One of these is allowing for renegotiation in new PPP projects, if not in existing ones. The 3P India initiative, announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Budget, marks a salutary attempt to address “weaknesses of the PPP framework, the rigidities in contractual arrangements, the need to develop more nuanced models of contracting, and speedy dispute redressal”. This process needs to be cranked up for the over 900 PPP infrastructure projects in the fray, involving a credit exposure of nearly ₹9 trillion.

In this context, the recent RBI circular extending the so-called 5:25 scheme to existing infrastructure projects is to be welcomed. These projects can now get finance over 25 years, with the banks being allowed to refinance or sell out their loans every five years. This is a way out of the stressed assets logjam that has frozen up both the supply and demand for credit. The growth of bank credit to infrastructure sectors fell from 45 per cent in 2011-12 to 18 per cent in 2013-14 and has been trending downward since. Banks cannot lend beyond a tenure of 10 to 12 years due to their asset profile, and this impacts both the viability of the loan and the costing/pricing of projects such as roads and metros, among others. The India Infrastructure Finance Company, set up in 2006 to overcome the asset-liability mismatch, does not seem to have made enough headway.

However, as the Finance Minister observed, finance is only one of the problems weighing down PPPs. Contracts need to be renegotiated when macroeconomic shocks overturn earlier assumptions. To ward off allegations of crony capitalism or litigation from bidders who lose out in the first stage, it is important to create a credible institutional mechanism. This is precisely what 3P India should set out to do, besides thinking up innovative financial instruments and concession agreements. It could ease up exit conditions, so that promoters can use the freed up capital for other projects. Pricing should combine public purpose considerations with those of risk and efficiency. Pushing big ticket reforms is no cakewalk in a raucous polity such as ours. Yet, a robust PPP framework can make a difference in cranking up investment and growth.

For those who don’t like Mondays; how does ‘everyday Friday’ sound?

I came across this article on economic times blog. I think its worth reading once:

The most difficult task for any boss or organization is to ensure employees look excited about coming to work on a Monday morning. An HR head from a multinational firm once told me how he gauges the engagement levels of employees by their mood on the morning of the first day of the week. That gives him a sense of whether he needs to dig deeper into any issue that may be bothering them or grasp any matter that may require the organization’s immediate attention. If the mood is good on a Monday morning, then there’s nothing to worry about.

What is it about Monday mornings that makes it a little less exciting than Fridays? A funny video that has been doing the rounds on WhatsApp brings out the employees’ state of mind quite clearly. It first shows a sprightly penguin jumping around in gaiety on a Friday, and then the scene cuts to a Monday morning that features a lazy seal trying to drag itself uphill.

But jokes apart, unlike most beginnings – a new venture, New Year, a new house, a new journey, a new job or may be a new posting – why is the beginning of the week considered to be a little less motivating for some? Is there something missing at the place of work that employees love Fridays more than Mondays?

Beginnings, otherwise, are usually exciting. There is an element of surprise at the start of one’s journey. There are expectations in anticipation of forthcoming events. The adrenaline levels are high, which translate into better productivity levels. But these beginnings are not a weekly affair. They don’t make an appearance as often as a Monday does. In an employee’s mind, the week can appear like a mountain on a Monday that has to be crossed to get to Friday.

What if there was no sense of a mountain and the workplace recreated an atmosphere of “Everyday Friday” even on a Monday? (This requires a rider: It does not mean employees can wind up early, not plan for the next day and not come to work the following day, like on a Friday!) But the ambience can be made more Fridayish. It only requires a little extra effort on the part of the organization and the leaders therein. May be the first meeting on a Monday could be set in an unconventional place – it could be a garden or a cafe nearby.

This would ensure two things. One, it would perk up employees and two, to everyone’s surprise, it may even have a positive effect on creativity and productivity levels of employees who would then certainly look forward to coming to work on a Monday.

For powerpoint presentation meetings, other fun things could be considered. Based on feedback from employees (their involvement is important) on how Mondays could be made more exciting, the organization can come up with a different plan.

A Towers Watson Global Benefits Attitudes survey shows how levels of workplace disengagement significantly increase when employees experience high levels of stress. According to the research, of those employees who claimed to be experiencing high stress levels, over half (57%) also reported that they were disengaged. In contrast, only one in ten (10%) employees claiming low stress levels said they were disengaged and half of this group claimed to be highly engaged.

The report talks about how companies need to take more responsibility towards employees’ wellbeing and happiness. This would only go a long way to ensure higher productivity levels at the workplace.

As a rule, organizations could make Mondays a `stressfree’ day; let people warm up to the week, just like the motor of a car requires a little bit of revving after a few days of immobility before it gets rolling on the road. Let employees gradually gear up to the week. On a higher gear, even a car cannot take a steep climb. If employees have lower stress levels at the start of the week, they would be well conditioned to deliver better results during the week.

Three months into implementing this exercise of Everyday Friday, it would be interesting to know the impact of the same on Monday attendance levels. Organizations could make this their New Year resolution.

Source: EconomicTimes Blog

Hydro power potential in South Asia

Himalayan rivers offer immense potential to the power sector in South Asia. China has been building huge dams on Bramhaputra river. India needs to form a coalition with its neighbouring countries like Nepal,Bhutan,Bangladesh and even Pakistan to tap the potential of these rivers as far as power generation is concerned. This region is so blessed by water and sun, if the hydropower potential and solar power potential is harnessed, we would not required to sign and nuclear power treaty with any nation in the world. All we need to do is get our act together and expedite the projects.

Here I share a good read on The Economist on the hydro power potential in the Himalayan region.

South Asia’s hydro-politics

Heartbreak

Every single person under the sun will go through the pain of heartbreak in his/her life. The pain is one thing which everyone from all walks of life, can relate to.No one in the world will be able to instantly take away your tears or heal the wounds that have been inflicted upon you. Only time can help here. However, what is hardly ever said about heartbreak is , the lessons we learn and take away in the times of emotional tragedy.

Without love for the other, there would never be this pain. And, without heartbreak, there would never be such amazing love. This may sound like the ultimate paradox, but losing someone you love proves to be an incredible learning and growing experience. You may be reading this thinking “Fuck you, you bastard. My heart’s in shambles right now and you want me to think this is going to turn into a good thing?” As confusing and almost insane as it may sound, having this happen may change you in so many different ways. One thing which it will do is definitely bring you out of your comfort zone. Your preconceived notions about people will change.

Having a hard goodbye, to someone you love, is one of the toughest thing to do but moving on with your life will only enhance the times you have with other loved ones. Going forward it will only deepen every minute you spend with the people about whom you truly care. 

One important lesson which you will learn is to be able to start forgiving with more ease and forgetting about the things that don’t really matter so much. Your endurance to bear this hardship will only make you a stronger person. You will be able to make out whom you should let in and who can’t stay in your life.This will open your whole life up to more and more great experiences because you will be able to share it with people who genuinely care for you and whom you really care for.

Nevertheless, it’s not a perfect system and it should not happen to anyone. Sometimes we become absolutely helpless. But, there will be another tomorrow, another day felt with warmth,affection,passion and love will embrace you one day..

Just remember that your bumps and bruises will heal and the scars will faint over the period of time. Time will help you heal, and heartbreak itself will help you grow. In what is, undeniably, the hardest, most painful life lesson one could ever learn, heartbreak will help mould the rest of your life. Only if you don't let the heartbreak get converted into a setback, it will teach you to love better and love more and more importantly value love.......