[Time-Management] Arise, awake and take charge!

 

17th December 2010

 

`You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them'.

Ray Bradbury

 

In my Managing Change seminars, people ask me how to build and sustain an organization culture. In many organizations, there is a very wide gap between the core value of the organization and how the individual members behave. Sometimes, the act of one individual destroys the credibility of the organization overnight.

 

Building a great organization is a result of great vision by great leaders. What is most important is preserving the culture of the organization. If you want to sustain any good culture, there has to be a constant reinforcement of the basic principles. The purpose of the Human Resource Development department is to think innovatively and build a high quality human resource capital.

 

I was reading that Walt Disney believed that training and development is an integral part of the organization building process. The company had a complete new set of language:

 

Employees are `cast members'.

Customers are `guests'.

A crowd is an `audience'.

A work shift is `performance'.

A job is a `part'.

A job description is a `script'.

A uniform is a `costume'.

The personnel department is `casting'.

Being on duty is `on stage'.

Being off duty is `back stage'.

 

(Courtesy `Built to Last' by Jim Collins)

 

 

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] Arise, awake and take charge!

 

16th December 2010

 

`Man's greatness lies in his power of thought'

Blaise Pascal

 

Great people have many things to offer to those who want to know how they became great. Just like we do a reverse engineering of a good product, we have to study the thinking pattern of great people and if we do it properly, we can also duplicate their excellence in us.

 

William L McKnight started working for 3M as an Assistant Bookkeeper in 1907 on a salary of US $ 11.55 per week, and rose to become the Chairman of 3M Corporation and he served as Chairman from 1949 to 1966. I was curious to know what made him to achieve this and I happened to read what he believed about people. Read the following:

 

`Listen to anyone with an original idea, no matter how absurd it might sound at first'.

 

`Encourage; don't nitpick. Let people run with an idea'.

 

`Hire good people and leave them alone'.

 

`If you put fences around people, you get sheep. Give people the room they need'.

 

`Encourage experimental doodling'.

 

`Give it try – and quick'.

 

Do you know what this belief system meant to 3M? Can you guess how many products 3M has? As of 1990 it is over sixty thousand products and over forty separate product divisions!

 

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] Arise, awake and take charge!

 

15th December 2010

"It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him."

-John Steinbeck

 

If you read the life history of great people, you will notice one thing in common: all of them started in a very humble way. Mahatma Gandhi's freedom movement also started in a very small way and later on became a massive people's movement. A long march to a thousand miles starts with the first step.

 

Masaru Ibuka wanted to start some business of his own. He did not start with a large business plan and a huge infrastructure of people and machineries. He did not have a breakthrough product and a ready market. Nor did he have a rich economy to support him. When he started Japan was defeated an in ruins. The economy was devastated and people had no money and there was poverty everywhere. He rented a telephone operator's room which abandoned due to bombing. The telephone operator's room was a part of a burned out departmental stores which was dilapidated.

 

His total investment was his personal savings of $ 1,600/- dollars. He had not more than seven employees!

 

But look at Sony Corporation today! Masaru Ibuka was not driven by a favourable external market environment and a rich cash flow. But his driving force was from within. He was not rich in terms of money. But he was rich in terms of dreams and an irresistible ambition.

 

Over this weekend, you can take a very humble idea, blow the idea into a dream, visualize yourself living your dream and making it happen. See this mental picture in your mind's panoramic screen. Let every thought of yours be occupied by that dream. Then notice what happens to your energy level and drive!

 

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundaton.com

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[Time-Management] Arise, awake and take charge!

 

14th December 2010

 

To find what you seek in the road of life, the best proverb of all that which says: Leave no stone unturned'

Edward Bulwer Lytton

 

I brought a cricket celebrity to my school to address my students who numbered around 2300! He was narrating how hard it was to climb up to the level where he started to play for his country. He said that at any point of time, there are around one billion youngsters wanting to get into the final eleven. He also said that unless one is willing to sacrifice every comfort in life, there is no chance of retaining his position in the team. He also went on to narrate what is the real daily schedule for a top class cricketer playing for the country in international level.

 

The students asked him what is his advice to the students wanting to play for first class matches. He said that the secret formula for success can be summed up in three words: hard work, hard work and hard work!

 

His talk made a big impression not only in the minds of the students but also in my mind. Many of us think that the world class performers in any filed make a lot of money and enjoy their life. But their meaning of enjoyment is different. The amount of hard work that they put in is in direct proportion to the hardship they have to encounter. Their endurance level is very high.

 

If you want log on to any search engine and know how much a Wimbledon tennis star works in a day and you will realize that we are working at our zone of comfort!

 

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] Arise, awake and take charge!

 

13th December 2010

 

Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it.

~ Robertson Davies

 

Can you imagine yourself to be a double amputee, but wanting to climb Mount Everest? This is want Mark Inglis did! Can you imagine yourself to be deaf, dumb and blind, but wanting to make a difference in the world and ultimately win Nobel Prize? This is the story of Helen Keller. Can you imagine to be sufferance from a rare nerve degeneration disease, but wanting to be the most intelligent person in 21st Century? This is what Prof. Hawking has done!  Can you believe a person being dismissed for lacking in creativity becoming the world's most popular creative person? This is the life story of Walt Disney.

 

A petrol pump attendant boy become Dhirubhai Ambani. The boy who suffered from Dyslexia became Albert Einstein in his later years. So did Thomas Alva Edison. John Milton was blind, Beethoven was deaf and Michael Jordan was dropped from his school basket ball team.

 

Do you think these people would have become famous if they did not have handicap? I would say doubtful. Handicaps and weaknesses actually strengthen our willpower and resolve. The best skater feels happier only when challenged. The hardest rock becomes a beautiful statue only when chiseled!

 

The best way to overcome terrible circumstances is to focus on our innate strengths.

 

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] Arise, awake and take charge!

 

10th December 2010

`We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations'

Charles R. Swindoll

Just recall to your mind all the so called impossible things: a human beings cannot fly; a ship made of steel cannot float; a person cannot speak through wire; in movie the character cannot speak; a perishable food cannot be kept fresh for days together etc. Just think, are they impossible now? Did not someone see an opportunity hidden in each of the impossible situation?

It's all in the mind of the person. We have an option to see a glass as half full or half empty. It is up to us. We can notice a threat or an opportunity. If you look at any business situation, you will notice that ultimately business is a marriage between an opportunity and an idea.

Can you think of a world of only possibilities and no impossibilities? Will you feel excited to live in such a world? If yes, how long? What is life without challenges? If there are no challenges to be overcome, how can we market our skill or talent for a commercial reward?

Also consider a situation where the opportunities and capabilities are identical to anyone! If everyone can do anything as well as anybody, where is the motivation to outperform someone? We become mature when confronted with problems and impossibilities and not when we operate from a comfort zone. Only the bamboo which withstands heavy storms and winds grows into a strong tree.

One more exercise for this weekend: identify one task which you have been avoiding as impossible and list all the opportunities you will have if only you make it a possibility. Visualize your reaching the same and live that future life now. Meditate on this mental picture and notice the energy that you get!

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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[Time-Management] Arise, awake and take charge!

 

9th December 2010

"Consult not your fears, but your hopes and dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what is still possible for you to do."

—Pope John XXIII

Whether we are conscious or not, we always have a reference points for doing anything. We mentally formulate our strategy based on our own evaluation of the situation with reference to our personal experience. In NLP, there is an important presupposition called `experience has a structure'. This means that every time we do something, our mind learns something and stores the same in the memory bank to be refereed to when required.

Just like in a computer system, the quality of data is very important and not merely the speed of data processing. Similarly in human system, if we store only information which will only discourage us, we will be drawing from such data only. Our enthusiasm and drive will be to that extent limited.

We can fix our goal, based on our dream. Or we can take into account our weaknesses and outside threats and accordingly choose to operate in our zone of comfort. We may be frustrated by our previous failures, but if this is going to deter us, we will not progress.

A failure is not an index of our capability. It is just a feedback on our effort level and strategy. As I had mentioned elsewhere, a flat tyre is not a reflection on the inbuilt capacity of an automobile. We need to fix the tyre and not change the car!

Over this weekend, you can do an exercise. Ask yourself a question: what are my inbuilt capacity and talent? Do I have a goal which will match the same?

N C Sridharan

www.thetimefoundation.com

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