Innovation - Manage with mind...

Hi....Great to be back....

Innovation is the seed to growth. It is in human nature. Each one of us are innovation. Everyday we try to work and bring innovation in what we do consciously or unconsciously. When we become conscious we explore else it get lost in routine.

For business it is extremely imperative. Here are the few reminders for the innovation to be must. We need to be practicing the following few which will help our business to be differentiated.

a. Always think about next layer, I mean just one step away. This will prevent the obsolescence. What is the replacement which will kill the category need to be improved. This will help sustainable category and at right time it will transform to the new one.

b. Innovation is not linked to result and the form of the next category or product. Promote it even it is incomplete. Let it start and grow. Do not worry .. just take it.

c. Keep churning. There is no perfect product or innovation. Start with version 1.0

d. Any change or innovation will annoy some people. Do not worry. There is nothing led 100% satisfaction. Move.

e. Innovation is cascaded with the barriers of resistance. One need not to really worry. Have faith on your innovation and practice. Allow people to participate and use the product. Take feedback and keep correcting and moving.

f. Innovations are for the benefit to the consumer. All modern tools and techniques should be deployed and used to manage the Innovation ultimately the satisfied consumer will certify the innovation and embrace it.

g. Concept of the innovation should be practical and easy to use. No point in innovating something which need huge resources and means to implement or produce. Theoretical innovation are of no use.

h. Be careful from the Gurus who can dangerously consult into the hell. Trust on your instinct and the consumer's perceived need which probably is the basis of your innovation. It should work.

These are few practical way of managing innovation at one's own arena. I believe it works.

Happy innovating ....

Sanjay

It is long time since I have restarted my blog. Good habits are rarely sustained for me.

Never mind Der aaye durast aaye.

I would like to share with you a very interesting reading I had recently. This is called RedTrain and Blue Train.

In fact this was out of management practice which was adopted by Proctor and Gamble some years back.

This is what happen to most of us and this could be helpful on how do we come out of our current mindset.

Red is the symbol of fire and anger suggesting resistance and destruction while the blue is the symbol of sky and ocean which symbolizes abundance and possibilities.

You are either on red train or blue train at any point of time.

Everyday we are handling events. It all depends on how do we treat these events. In case we are treating this as threat ( NOT POSSIBLE or NOT ACCEPTABLE approach) then we react either to fight or flight. Fight triggers attack or resistance while flight triggers avoidance or Denial. One either aggressively react or withdraw from the situation. At the end of the day one has the feeling of anger,fear,guilt and sadness . Ultimately a looser situation. See this is what happen to us once we are on red train and treat the event as THREAT. We are in RED Train. A looser train.

Now see what happen otherwise. If we treat every events as opportunity.what happen is this creates a sustained flow of grasp, engagement or embracing. One decide to make the most of the situation. They apply their mind. They embrace new ideas. ( read the story of home depot). Their creative mind start flowing. Here one start engaging with the events. Interact with them and exploring them. They use magical thinking believing everything is possible and the issues can be resolved constructively. Positive energy start flowing. Creating growth and calmness triggering only more growth. It is the success cycle and you are on blue train.

So the only difference between win and loss is how you take the events. IS it OPPORTUNITY .. ( Believe everything is possible) or THREAT ... ( It can not happen).

SO watch every time are you on RED TRAIN or BLUE TRAIN....

happy riding...

sanjay

Goal ...

Hi,

Have you seen any football ground without goal post? .. Imagine what will happen if the goal post is not there....

Answer is very obvious ... players will play ... work hard.. but without any objectives ... endlessly...indefinitely....

Most of us actually have similar situation in life... Have we defined any goals for life.. I mean what do we want to achieve in life... seriously... introspect ...and you will find that you do not have very confirm answer.. one liner..answer...

It is very important that we set a goal at least with a time line in sight. It could be 6 month, 1 year, 3-4 years, 10-15 years perspective whatever suits you....... Your goal should be simple and precise.

Following 7 steps can help you achieve ... try...

1. Objective - write down your goal on a piece of paper. Do not worry... whatever you want to achieve write clearly.

2. Timeline - Put a time line to complete or achieve.

3. Obstacles - Identify the obstacles what could prevent you to achieve ... every thing you believe.. human, training, capability, physical, emotional any thing...

4. Relation - Write down the name of people, group, organisations who either can help , where you can work or network.

5. Plan - Make a plan of action with incorporating all the above.

6. Informations - You make sure you know what you need to know.

7. Benefit- you should know what is the benefit you will achieve once you have met the goal. Stronger sense of achievement will drive you harder.Just follow above and review daily or weekly or even monthly. Visualise your goal every second in your mind....

You will start getting the result...

Please try.... and write back .....

regards,

sanjay

Golden Egg Technique..

Hello There....

What happen when we encounter with a issue or problem... The common answer is we panic. Reason being that problems brings lot of dark elements with it. Naturally we do not like. Most of the times if they are not attended properly they become chronic... and beyond repair.

Few days back I read a very good technique called golden egg technique. As per this one need to look into problem as an egg with a gold inside. You need to find or search this gold withing the problem itself. Do not get bogged down rather think each of this problem is like an egg with the golden opportunity tugged inside it.

The moment you have problem or issues, break it like an egg and start getting into it. Just write the problem on a piece of paper and write all the ways to handle this problem. Try thinking and write as many as 15-20 solutions. More the solutions, more the easily you will get gold. Select top 5 ways or solution which you believe that it will impact the most.

For all the 5 solutions now find out 20 each ways to implement the solutions. Thus you will get 100 ways to implement the solution. Now share these with many people to get ideas on the ways. Test them and with this exercise you will see that your problem situation will start getting diluted and you will start getting so may ideas, few of which will open up new ways and activities which you might not have thought of. These will bring openness, creativity and optimistic approach out of your problem situation.

These are the hidden gold.. try this....

Regards,

sanjay

I am ok you are ok

Hello .. it is long time.. since I wrote something.. it was itching really.. everyday tried..but could not.

At last something today...

This is all about I am OK ....Fine .... You are Ok ... Mostly ? This is something Thomas Harris propagated as part of transaction analysis. I call it teri sari meri sari se saphed kaise... a famous detergent line.

Transaction state is the state of ego between two when they communicate with each other. Take ego as level or state of mind at that moment. Practically there are three ego states are defined, they are Parent - High, Adult - Normal and Child - Low. As the name suggest, just correlate. SO when you talk to someone what is your state of ego/mind and what is the other person's state of ego/mind is what defines the fate and result of communication. However it also depends on parameters like power position, relationship, environment etc.. at the time of communication.

Just watch your state of mind and you can control the outcome by maneuverering the state of mind.

However life position means what stand one take during the communication also strongly affect the outcome. These life positions are

I am not ok you are Ok - Child thinking - Get away .. leave...

I am not OK you are not ok - Negative position - Get no where .. it will fail

I am ok you are not ok - Rigid position - Get rid - change

I am ok , you are ok ... Normal healthy position- continue

So this positions need to be made up and balanced and always changed.

External stimulus creates the positions, so if you know which position you are , bring to the right one and then start.

So while you transact, you need to watch your position, your ego and take steps towards the successful outcome of transaction.

Try these... you will be benefited....

Today being the Buddha Purnima.. It teaches the I am OK and YOU are OK position and ADULT TO ADULT EGO STATE based transaction like how do you want a king to treat another king....

Thanks and comment on what do you feel....

regards,

sanjay

Fear - Win it..

Fear is the state of mind where one become cautious or nervous of something happening to you which you either want to avoid or do not like or feel scared. Fear is imaginary. It starts in your mind and blocks your thinking. It continuously put you into the situations.

Fear is mostly not real and it is harmless. However fear is the key of control. Imagine you have no fear in office or home or in society, many chaotic situation will arise. Fear also keeps things in order. Legal system, Policing system are all linked to create fear to prevent individual doing wrong acts. So fear is also beneficial.

I am talking about the fear which is in you and stops you to take any action towards the success which you believe you deserve. Once it starts paralyzing your thought, you are stuck. Most of the time we are so engrossed with fear of something happening that we start loosing. It is said that 70% of the fears are baseless. However 30% are positive also. Fears are also good as it drives one towards the actions. Suppose you have no fear of heath, you will become careless.

However do not surrender to fear and confront it. Following steps will help you to identify and overcome your fears..

a. Look into your fear and analyse. Talk to it in your mind.

b. Confront it directly with your reasons with boldness. Mostly it vanishes at this stage.

c. If the fear is real find out how to overcome.

d. Create defense from the real fear though corrective actions.

e. Think positive and do not allow the negativity into your day to day actions.

f. Be honest, pure, healthy and depend on your inner power and god.

Many things in life does not have your control. So leave it. Let it happen.. If you are strong, you will automatically solve it....

So let there is an END of FEAR....

regards,

sanjay

Change Management

In today's world one of he very important phenomenon individuals are encountering is CHANGE. As in Greek it is told that Change is only constant.

We have seen changes are happening around us regularly but are they resulting in any proper outcome or are they bringing the desired result for which the change was brought. Mostly it is seen that the change though was made but not managed properly.

Kotter has devised the 8 steps method for change management. Once it is followed properly it helps achieving the desired outcome. Let me explain you these steps:

1. Create Urgency : This is the first step where the BUY IN need to be created for the purpose of change itself. All the stakeholders, customers, affected persons and organisations must buy the logic of change. Once you create a buy in then create a sense of urgency to bring the necessary changes. Discussions, understanding of change need, risks etc are to be analysed while taking us this step.

2. Form a powerful coalition : The team responsible to bring and execute the change must have the support for most of the affected parties. Senior and influential persons must lent support for the change.

3. Create a vision of change : This is very important. Change is mostly embodied with fear. A clear visibility of the whole need to change, reason to change and the outcome profile should be visible to everyone. This reduces the fear factor and improves the involvement.

4. Communicate the vision : This is very important aspect of change management. While one has prepared the blue print but one has to communicate constantly, interact with people to explain will improves the success rate.

5. Remove obstacles : Change process will go through a very rough patches. Leaders must understand, identify and remove the obstacles constantly. Be it the structure, process, tangible or intangible activities or even the human resources, one need to modify or remove the causes which would be working as blocks.

6. Create short term wins : Very important. Many such short term wins bring the confidence to the process of change. Wins are are to be shared regularly.

7. Built on change : Early wins and mis understanding of results could be a deadly and fatal pitfalls. Every wins must be analysed for it's impact till one understand the change is complete and sustained.

8. Change sustainability : Change management should become the part of organisation culture. Small small many changes brings a much bigger changes in the system.

Ultimately it is important that we create a culture of change process as sustained activities. Humans nature is adverse to accept change easily till he is convinced that it will not affect his sustenance. Change must be with Human face involving human. This will bring the desired result and create many winning propositions for the organisations.

Thanks and please join with your opinions....

regards,

sanjay