How important are constraints to a problem?

After all, the more solutions we have to any particular problem, the more likely we are to solve it right? In actual practice when we are properly constrained we are more likely to spend our time and resources more effectively in solving problems. An infinite number of solutions includes the bad ones, the ones that take spend our resources too freely, the ones that don't consider risks and unintended consequences, and the ones that address symptoms but do not address the root causes.

It seems like open minded thinking, but what actually happens is inspite of having a near  feasible solution, we tend to come up radical alternatives and explore them. This wastes time, resources and energy. 
 

Role of the Boss

Found this article on how the relationship should be between an employee and his boss.

"My job is to hold the umbrella so the shit from above doesn't hit you.

Your job is to keep me from having to use it."

"I think this is  brilliant because there is so much wisdom on so many levels.  First, it is really funny, especially when paired with the picture in the post.  Second, there is deep wisdom there about the relationship between a good boss and good followers -- these are mutually supportive relationships, not one way. 

Even the best boss can't do everything.  This boss --"gschaadt "-- is more than willing to go to bat for his people.   But the implication for him or any other boss is, if people keep creating conditions where he or she constantly has to protect them, say, from superiors that they piss-off because they do shoddy work or break too many rules or anything else-- a point comes where the difficult employee ends-up undermining the boss's reputation, the reputation of his or her team, and ultimately hurting everyone involved. "

Courtesy: Bob Sutton's blog

Your birth order and number of siblings, is more important than you thought.

According to research, your birth order plays a very significant part of your personality.

"Firstborns, over represented among CEOs and political leaders, are likely to be relatively more comfortable and successful in situations where they can execute within an existing structure,........."

"As children, first-borns strive to emulate and please their parents, and often dominate and care for their younger siblings. Parents tend to delegate responsibility to firstborns, who identify with their parents and with authority. Therefore, relative to their younger siblings, first-born children tend to be more extravertedconscientious and academically inclined, and more dominant and authoritarian." 

"Additionally, firstborns may be uncomfortable when they are required to work in subordinate roles."

"Second-born children, relative to their older siblings, tend to be more flexible and open to new experiences, more empathic and altruistic, more creative and innovative, and more rebellious,...."

Read the whole article here.

Another research shows that  people with multiple siblings tend to be better leaders. Because, they are more in tune with constant harsh feedback from their siblings and are better tuned to reality.

" having multiple siblings also had other advantages as it forces you to learn to cooperate and learn that the world does not swirl around you -- plus to return to the strongest finding form this study, siblings usually give each other unvarnished feedback, making it tough for any of us to live in a fool's paradise."

 

Spell the Benefit of the Benefit.

An old advertising maxim says you’ve got to spell out the benefit of the benefit.

The most frequent reason for an unsuccessful advertising is advertisers are so full of their own accomplishments (the world’s best seed), that they forget to tell us why we should buy (the world’s best lawn).

Courtesy: Made to Stick

Who counts..?

“It is not the critic, who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man, who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who knows great enthusiasm, great devotion and the triumph of achievement.” - Theodore Roosevelt.

Nuru Light

If you haven't heard of Nuru Light, this is one of the path breaking ideas to fill light and increase productivity in rural areas.



More details about the project are shared in this interview.
http://blog.ennovent.com/2010/03/led-there-be-light-nuru-light/

A man recharging four Nuru Lights with Pedal Power

Voice and Choice

Voice and Choice inspire people.

Once your employees are given a choice and an opportunity for their voice to be heard, they will be inspired to make their choices successful.

The future of shopping

The presentation secrets of Steve Jobs

As I was browsing over MBA blogs, found this presentation on " The presentation secrets of Steve Jobs".

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

View more presentations from Carmine Gallo.

Was just blown off with some of the advice offered in the presentation. Listed a few as a trailer to what the presentation is all about:

• "The single most important thing you can do to dramatically improve your presentations is to have a story to tell, before you work on your PowerPoint file."
• "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"
• "Your brain interprets every letter as a picture. So a wordy slide literally chokes your brain.
• "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

Watch the presentation to learn a lot more.

Number of millionaires in India far more than 81,000

An excerpt from the BUSINESS INDIA magazine, Feb edition.

"According to D&B - the world's leading provider of sales and marketing solutions - there are more than 81,000 millionaires with each one having an investible surplus of over $1 million (Rs 4.6 crores) across the metros as also Pune and Ahmedabad.

There are around 2,54,300 millionaires with an investible surplus of $50,000 - 1 million (Rs. 2.3 crores to 4.6 crores). Mumbai is leading the table of such millionaires (with around 63,750 individuals: inclusive of both categories), followed by Delhi (around 56,000), Bangalore (at a distance , with around 18,675), Chennai (around 18,500), Kolkata (17960) and Hyderabad (13,450). The number of millionaires in India is growing at a rapid pace. With such a big amount of surplus money available, these HNIs (High Net worth Individuals) often tend to upgrade their lifestyle. "

Touch your customers with small but humane gestures

Lesson: When every retail outlet has same products, focus on auxiliary services that could attract divided customers.

Example 1: A petrol bunk in Tarnaka, Hyderabad offers cold water to all its customers and chocolates and balloons to kids during festival times. How much would it cost them? Peanuts, compared to the profit he makes.

What it means to the customer ? A lot... a very friendly gesture.

Example 2: When all the malls in Gurgaon charge a mandatory 40 rupees for a four wheeler parking, the Gurgaon central has a unique system where in the customer need not pay if he has bought anything above 40 rupees, attracting more people when all brands are same at every mall.

Who shouldn't become the CEO

Freek Vermeulen, Economics Professor at the London School of Business has brought out an interesting piece of research on what kind of people ultimately become the CEOs.

“An interesting line of research in social anthropology analyzed what type of person is more likely to rise through the ranks to become the headman of a tribe. Often, this would be the most fierce, ambitious and aggressive warrior, who would be willing to take on all his opponents in the quest for leadership. Yet, interestingly, although characteristics such as fierceness and ambition would be helpful in becoming tribe leader, these characteristics were not necessarily positive for the future of the settlement, since these type of leaders were prone to take the tribe to war. This would ultimately take its toll on the size, strength and survival chances of the tribe. Thus, the same characteristics that would make people more likely to become the headman were likely to get the tribe in to trouble.

CEOs might not be all that different. Those people who are ambitious, risk-seeking and aggressive enough to be able to rise to the ultimate spot of CEO, just might be the same people who, once they’re there, take their firm on a conquest.”

But the CEOs I am most impressed with are the most humble ones and open to ideas purely on merit. They do not behave like the only pillar which is supporting the organization, but understand that they are just one of the pillars on which the organization bases itself upon and that all the other pillars are equally important for the well being of the company.

They are hell bent in making the whole team feel good about itself, so that they perform their best. (More like the One Minute Manager)

Zimplistic Roti Maker

"Israni decided to launch her own startup in June 2008 when she came up with her first invention, an automatic "Rotimatic" set to be the rice cooker for the roti-eating population. The appliance, about the size of a mini-microwave oven, does the measuring, mixing, kneading, making, and baking of rotis, with users only required to refill the wheat and water compartments after a few days. Zimplistic recently won the prestigious StartUp@Singapore 2009 grand champion trophy, which comes with $28,000 in prize money and one free year of office space. Prior to this, Israni's Zimplistic was awarded the YES! Spring Singapore grant for young entrepreneurs valued at $35,000. Israni amis to partner or license with a consumer appliance brand to bring Rotimatic to market in 2010."

Amazing idea ....

Seen many roti makers which do not necessarily remove the main chore of kneading the dough.

This is what the younger, double earning, faster lifestyle families have been waiting for..

Power of Perceptual contrast

Scenario 1: Imagine your boss requests that you work over the weekend to help meet a deadline that's important to him. It means you'll need to be at the office 9 - 5 both days to achieve the objective. Trouble is, you promised your friends that you'd spend time with them this weekend. How do you notice yourself responding on the inside? Now she tells you that a possible alternative is to work through two lunch hours this week to accomplish the same thing. Again, on the inside, how do you notice yourself reacting to the second choice?

Scenario 2: Imagine you've some guests coming to a party at your house and you want to ensure the house is spotless. You ask your reluctant (kids/friends/partner) to help out with some chores: either they can scrub and clean both toilets for five minutes, or they can vacuum for five minutes. Which are they more likely to go for?

Most people when asked the same question choose 'working through two lunch hours' and 'vacuum for five minutes' as the preferred options.

What's at work here is the psychological phenomenon known as "Perceptual Contrast". If you were only asked to work through two lunch hours with no alternative option, how would your internal motivation be different to scenario 1? Notice that when a more scary, unpleasant or more costly option is presented to us first, we gravitate towards the second far more easily than if it had been the only option offered. It's almost a relief when that 'easier' option is offered. And consequently our motivation to take it is far higher than if it had been the only choice.

You only have to look at prices in gourmet coffee to see different versions of perceptual contrast at work. Have you noticed how the price differential between large, medium and small is so negligible that most people go for large without questioning why the small size is so damned expensive. In contrast, it seems like a better deal at $2.40 for a cup of coffee. In effect, we're being encouraged to have a different kind of internal conversation. Rather than "do I buy it or not?" the internal conversation becomes "which one should I buy?". It's a subtle approach: moving the conversation from a selling frame to a negotiation frame.

The original author is Haider Imam of the Kaizen Team. Due credit to him.This article was posted as a part of the Leading minds tip.

How to use it: To make something look good, first show something of inferior quality. To get someone to buy something expensive, first show them something even more expensive.

A car salesman might show us a unit that is overpriced and in poor condition before showing us the one they really want us to buy. By contrast, the second one looks like a great deal and we want it more.

I notice the strategy I generally use when I’m asking for something I want is to pare down the request to something that seems reasonable - something I think I can get a “yes” for. Apparently that instinct may be incorrect. If instead I were to ask for something huge first, I would activate the weapon of “perceptual contrast”. If I were to then ask for what I really wanted it would seem small, reasonable, and trivially easy by comparison.

A corollary principle is that once you have already agreed to something large, additional items that are added seem smaller by comparison. Sales professionals use this technique to sell you options and accessories to large ticket items you have already purchased. Once you buy an expensive camera, the costs of all the accessories like a tripod, bag, filters, etc appear trivial.

Leaders lead in humility

Bill Waddell has written a beautiful piece on the nonsensical extravagant behaviors of executives here. It deals with the recent fact that the government has seen the need to put limits on travel expenses for executives from companies receiving bailout money.

The following lines really hit the core.

“A guy who wears an expensive suit to work, has a company paid Persian rug in his office, and a company paid Lexus parked in the spot closest to the door cannot lead a lean transformation. In fact, that guy cannot lead anything. None of that nonsense enables him to do a better job - it just makes him look good in his own insecure eyes. Everything about him screams to the employees "I am better than you". And that is a failure of leadership in its most fundamental form.”

It is in sync with the saying that the leader should lead in humility.

Dad used to point out people like that. “Look at that man eating his breakfast on the road. He is the owner of that company but still walks up to the tiffin stall to have his breakfast.” The simplicity just awed me.

But can I replicate it, I hope to….