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Everything related to work

Progressive Elaboration

In the game of life, where neither do we know the complete picture nor the number of pieces that make the picture complete, the necessity is to continuously be on the quest to find the pieces of the puzzle and keep the picture progressively enhanced. But the key is to ensure that at every stage, we have a meaningful short picture. This gives confidence and reinforces faith in the direction of the quest.

It may sound a bit odd in generic sense. Let’s take an example to see if we can derive any sense of out this monologue.

You are given to lead a new initiative for the company – finding and nurturing new ideas that essentially should lead to a disruptive positioning in the market place. Searching and providing meaning to unknown – unknown is the way of life for researchers and scientists in their life. But, in a commercial establishment, this is generally treated as a risky territory to live. Primarily, since you can not attach a timeline for your new idea turning to be truly big via so called business results – a measure commonly used as the baseline for performance – $$!HardNut

While innovating to find blue oceans and more so with a drive towards sustainability, establishing clear understanding of feasibility and the associated value/impact on business front becomes the most important aspect.

The big ideas generally fall under one of the category of a combination of Known-Known : The comfort zone : mostly associated with process/business model innovation – even a copy cat approach from another industry.

Known – Unknown: You have seen it work in a different situation but current relevance is unknown. Exploring further on relevance is the best possible alternative to bring this down to the comfort zone.

Unknown-Known : You know what innovation will add value but unsure of how it is feasible in the current context of business. Experimentation is the best possible way forward to bring this to a comfort zone.

Unknown-Unknown: The real hard nut is where lies the biggest discomfort zone in business innovation. The trick is what to establish first – value or feasibility? Mostly, value scores above feasibility – premise being if it’s of value, it’s worth pursuing! End of the day, one has to crack this hard nut and move it to the comfort zone – slowly/progressively! Either you take the exploration route or the Experimentation path, earlier the idea reaches the comfort zone, the better!

So, when on a quest of new business strategy/ new product/strategy, it is good to have a map created based on this typical 2X2 Value X Feasibility matrix and play accordingly to bring thoughts/ideas into comfort zone to show value! – A good progressive elaboration approach coupled with timely involvement of key stakeholders will help in enjoying the cruise!

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The Small World!

Small is powerful. Small is beautiful. Small is effective. Be it an idea, an object or action. Small makes it simple to understand and implement without too much of selling, convincing or confronting…

A small group say two to ten people can achieve wonders much easily than of any other size. It is easy to coordinate, get and integrate results, identify solutions away from normal in much less time than one can imagine in a small group of committed people.

Cooperatives with 2 to 10 participating leaders have created wonderful living conditions for a large community. Start-ups with handful of dreamer doers have created big companies that are more sustainable than big corporations! Small team of doctors and scientists continue to bring smile on the faces of many, continuously!

Why is this so?

    1. Focus on the goal is easy to achieve so are the steps required to achieve them!
    2. Quick trials and quicker feedback between team members helps reinforcing confidence at each step!
    3. Creating and sharing the same passion is easy with the bonding that develops quickly between the members of the team
    4. Collaboration and Urgency of task accomplishment brings down competition and waste of energy!
    5. The power of WE v/s Ability of ME is easy to understand and appreciate!

High performing groups thus are a small set of people with single goal at at a time!

It might be good to keep and pursue small goals in life, continuously leading to bigger achievement – over a period of time – like the most advised systematic invest plans! There are people who have kept single goal in life and taken small steps to achieve them!

Small is truly fascinating and worth a try!

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Spider Strategy

Most animals attack along a straight line; the spider weaves a web, adapted to its location and spun in a pattern, whether simple or complex. Once the web is woven, the work is done. The spider has no need to hunt; it simply waits for the next fool to fall into the web’s barely visible strands!

Couple this with Patton’s philosophy of command:

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity!”

 

Contrast this with The Ocean’s Tide:

It ebbs and flows so powerfully that no one in its path can escape its pull or move against it. Like the moon, you are the force that sets the tide, which carries everything along in its wake!

What about the Bull?

It is large, its stare is intimidating, and its horns can pierce your flesh. Attacking it and trying to escape it are equally fatal. Instead stand your ground and let the bull charge your cape, giving it nothing to hit, making its horns useless. Get it angry and irritated – the harder and more furiously it charges, the faster it wears itself down. A point will come when you can turn the game around and go to work, carving up the once fearsome beast!

Spider strategy wins, mostly when the fight is hard to lose and tough to continue but time is the key!