There is something wrong if we are all getting along

After a long day of work and lot of nah saying/naggy calls - I realized (very well) that if we ( you and your teams) are getting along very well- then there are some serious checks you need to do. You might think what the heck? Read on..

Dissent is not necessarily a very comfortable factor to ride with. However if things are going forward with too much of consensus and not enough dissent then probably we are not pushing the tower from both sides well ( there by a leaning tower in progress). When the tough questions are not asked, some pots are not stirred- are we really trying to think through?- now don't get me wrong I am not saying you should fight with your direct team and extended team,agree to disagree and be extremely objective on what needs to be achieved. Do you as a leader foster a culture of dissent? You want enough people who can push back for the right reasons and question every little thing with out making assumptions, it does not hurt to ask a question- I ask way too many stupid questions and I don't fear asking them in any forum. If things get agreed right away - it tells me one thing very clearly - we as a team are failing to plan and thus planning to fail in near future. Now there will be those one offs that will fly by the first time around, they are exceptions rather than the norm. In a world of growing complexity, rational argument is more important than mere ranks and titles. Encouraging a culture of dissent where people are thoroughly encouraged to voice their opinion is a great thing. As my teams and I go through the maze, we get a sense of something missing or being wrong if we are getting along and making the same choices, it either tells me we are not spreading our spectrum of thought and there by covering all aspects or we are unlearning the culture of dissent.

Did you start fostering a culture of dissent yet?

All about fundamentals

During the recent 4-day trip, I had a great time to introspect on some thought provoking fundamentals.

We ( 3 of us- 2 fellow colleagues and I) made a reservation ahead of time expecting the floating crowd that would be at Arunachalam for the full moon day, due to the connectivity reasons obviously we got delayed and the lodge guy gave away the room conveniently ( Mind you, there is nothing wrong on what he did, he was trying to minimize his losses, if you will). So we had a good 5 minute "ethics" talk on how can you do this b.s and knowing their absolute organizational and management skills, I realized it was a criminal waste of time, every minute we are spending talking here, we are loosing another possible available room in some other hotel/lodge. Being a first timer there we had all good reasons to panic, we did not, we just walked around the corner and all lodges had a "no-vacancy" board (read it as no room available). We went to one lodge that was all booked. Spoke to him for few minutes and boom he opened a door for us and showed the next door marriage hall available and handed us over to another person, who walked us to a non-a/c room and it was pretty good. I asked him if they had an a/c room and he took us through and while we were taking a look at it, there was another party that wanted to take the a/c room, so we just grabbed the offer and went in. It was the only choice we had! After a week, as I recall the journey and enjoyed every moment in the divine company, it reminded me of some simple fundamentals that helped us during the whole trip. Here they are:

1. Patience is a virtue - holding on to our horses really helped, we could have very well yelled at the guy who did not honour our reservation, that did seem as an easy option, but we did not opt it rather took his help in getting pointed to the next available hop and that worked wonders.

2. It is better to be the solution than the problem/landscape. - When we were given a room that had 2- beds and a small walk way, we asked the guy for an additional bed sheet and pillow to define our solution. Nature/System has a way of helping people who are part of the solution not the problem.

3.Give a little respect
Respecting others no matter how big you are by money/muscle/status should be a given,
because you are famous or more successful than someone else, it doesn’t give you the right to treat them like shit. To give you an example: when you need to address the security/watch man/attendant - rather than addressing them with an excuse me or hello to address these mortals, checking their name and addressing them by their name always helps.

4. Emotions Affect Decisions During the recent trip we felt terrible to show up at the reservation counter and to learn "No-Room" deal, especially after 18 hours of journey by train and 2 buses. We hid our emotions and asked out the guy to help us and he was Ok to help and that got us a room. Emotions affect your decisions and they can burn the bridges very effectively. So don't make decisions wearing the emotional cap.

Honestly, You don't need much to be happy in life. the more you want or desire the more the rabbit hole takes you deep. Play it hard but remember there will be variables that are beyond your control. Give your best shot and never forget the fundamentals.