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Category: strategy

the “perfect” work

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Seth Godin’s blog today was Unbeatable vs Perfect. In it, he states that Google has killed more than 200 projects over the last few decades. They fail all the time. MORE THAN 200 PROJECTS!!!

Over the years, I knew Google discontinued a few products/services here and there but did not expect more than 200. Often we see a company, professional, or industry expert present an almost “flawless” or “perfect” product/service out in the world. We expect our work to be like theirs or close to it as possible. We forget that we are on our own journey to greatness. There is no need to compare, contrast, or feel deflated. What you can do from the work you see out there is to draw inspiration, motivation and keep going at your pace. There is “never” a perfect version of something and there is “always” room for improvement.

If Google waited for the “perfect” project/product/service to ship, we won’t be talking about them in 2022. They launched in 1998 and are still relevant to us more than ever before!

Also if I waited for the “perfect” blog to post, this post would be in my Drafts and you won’t be reading it at this moment. Thanks for reading my “not-so-perfect” blog.

Saved in my drafts

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

How many thought-provoking and authentic stories end up just in the drafts section of your blog?

How many original ideas stay in your employees’ head instead of being shared with the team and the company?

How many times does an important question gets missed because the individual feels like she or he won’t be heard or acknowledged for having the courage to share?

What holds people back from sharing and publishing their work? Are they waiting for the “perfect” moment to share the blog or idea or question? There’s no one size fits all answer to these questions. Pondering upon these questions is in itself an important exercise and a good starting point. I do this often when I compose a blog and then save it as a draft. On my blog, there are way more drafts saved than published. I save them so I can go back and add more content to the blog later, or the blog idea just came in my head and want to note it down or most times I tend to overanalyze on the blog’s quality and make a decision not to publish it yet. I am working towards publishing more blogs than just saving them as drafts.

What will your Ted Talk be about?

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Imagine receiving an invitation to give a Ted Talk. What will your Ted Talk be about?

Each of us have unique experiences in the world and these experiences shape our perspectives, thoughts, and behaviors. Each of us has an authentic story and it deserves to be heard. There are many platforms out there to share your story and Ted is one of them.

In your Ted Talk, what will you focus on? what stories will you share? what experiences have shaped who you are today? If you had only 15 minutes stage time, how will you use that time effectively? What is your gift to the world?

Handling dissatisfying situations

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

In Albert Hirschman’s book “Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States” he mentions that there are four different options for handling a dissatisfying situation.

Decades of research show that you have a choice between exit, voice, persistence, and neglect. Exit means removing yourself from the situation altogether. Voice involves actively trying to improve the situation. Persistence is gritting your teeth and bearing it. Neglect entails staying in the current situation but reducing your effort.

How do you respond to dissatisfying situations?

Text reference: Originals How non-conformists move the world by Adam Grant

Who’s the most valuable member of the company?

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Since it was the founder/co-founders’ idea that led to the company’s start, is she/he/them the Most Valuable Member (MVM)?

Sales team brings in clients and revenue. Are they more valuable then?

How about the technology team that made the software which the sales team sold?

And the human resource team who found and hired the talent with the right attitude, education, and skillsets?

Let’s acknowledge the Training team who help employees to keep their skills and knowledge up to date as per company’s needs.

Getting the software in front of potential customers at the right place and time, isn’t the Marketing team deserving of applause and attention?

Client services team is communicating with the client and making sure they have an amazing experience. Don’t they receive credit on what they do to make the customers happy?

Rooting for Jonathan

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Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved to fly, loved it so much that he went against its own flock to reach for the sky.

Yet we find fewer Jonathans soaring in the skies above because society wants conformity, has its beliefs and expectations. Many buddingJonathans face the harsh reality soon as they start going to school, around their neighborhood, and even at their homes. In lieu of protecting the ones whom we care about, we put our own insecurities and biases onto them and increase their self doubt and hold their independence. Rather than giving them freedom and choice to fly, we ground them onto the reality of the situation and make them have realistic expectations.

To groom the next Jonathan, realize first that each of us are unique and talented in our own ways. At times, its best to just let individuals to follow their intuition, learn from their experiences, and let them achieve their authentic greatness.

The creative narrative

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

“She is so creative.”

“He is really creative.”

“That’s the creative team.”

Creativity is hard to define. Each one of us is creative – that creativity can be seen at our homes, workplaces, the hobbies we have, the activities we do, and it can be anywhere and everywhere.

What type of environment helps in facilitating creativity could be a more interesting question to ask. In my experience, the initial moments of feedback given to an individual who is exploring her or his creativity is critical. In those initial moments, the words and behavior (feedback/response) absorbed by the individual will shape how he or she sees creativity and the world around them. These earlier experiences can form a narrative and a fixed or growth mindset can be set towards creativity which can have a profound effect in the individual’s ensuing years. Creativity is a muscle and it gets better through exercises and engagements.

All of us are creative in our own unique ways. Change the narrative, change the outcome!

Your Authentic Greatness

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Each individual has internal superpowers. These superpowers are unique and developed through our personal experiences, environment, and evolution. Storytelling is one of our authentic superpowers.

Each individual can define “success” in their own terms and go towards reaching their authentic greatness.

If each of us realize and tap into our internal superpowers, live our authentic greatness, then collectively we will create a better and evolved world.

Then what else do you see, Arjuna?

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“What do you see?” I see the eye of the bird.

“Do you see the tree?” No.

“Do you see the branch?” No.

“Do you see the bird?” No.

“Then what else do you see, Arjuna?” Nothing, I see only the round black eye of the bird.

Excerpt from The Mahabharata – A conversation between Arjuna and Dronacharya

Being an apprentice

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Every human activity, endeavor, or career path involves the mastering of skills. – Robert Greene in “Mastery”

Robert Greene – Mastery

In his book Mastery, Robert Greene elaborates on the Apprenticeship phase involving three essential steps in the apprenticeship, each one overlapping the other. The three steps are: Deep Observation (The Passive Mode), Skills Acquisition (The Practice Mode), and Experimentation (The Active Mode). He states that within Skills Acquisition (The Practice Mode), in acquiring any kind of skill, there exists a natural learning process that coincides with the functioning of our brains known as tacit knowledge – a feeling for what you are doing that is hard to put into words but easy to demonstrate in action. He elaborates on how the apprenticeship system came about in the Middle Ages. “As business expanded in the Middle Ages, Masters of various craft needed more help and also wanted to build up skills in their workers. Thus the apprenticeship system developed in which young people from approximately the ages of twelve to seventeen would enter work in a shop, signing a contract that would commit them for the term of seven years. At the end of seven years, apprentices would have to pass a master test, or produce a master work, to prove their level of skill. Once the apprentices’ pass, they were elevated to the rank of journeymen and could travel wherever there was work, practicing the craft. “

Apprentice comes from the Latin word prehendere, meaning to grasp with the hand. “Apprentices learned the trade by watching Masters and imitating them very closely and learning through a lot of endless repetition and hands-on work with very little verbal instruction. Since resources such as textiles, wood, and metals were expensive and could not be wasted on practice runs, apprentices would spend most of their time working directly on those materials used for the final product. If the time was summed up for which the apprentices ended up working directly on materials in those years, it would amount to more than 10,000 hours, enough to establish exceptional skill level at a craft.”

Text derived from Mastery by Robert Greene.

Image source: Goodreads

Your company’s “Chief Question-Asker”

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

“The most important thing business leaders must do today is to be the “chief question-asker” for their organization” says Dev Patnaik of Jump Associates.

Patnaik says that “the first thing most leaders need to realize is, they’re really bad at asking questions. The business executives rose up through the corporate ranks because “they were good at giving answers. But it means they’ve had little experience at formulating questions.” Without the company leadership setting the tone and culture to the rest of the organization that asking questions are important and critical to the business growth, it’s no surprise that the employees are not asking any or enough questions. If the employees who understand the company’s products/services are not asking any or enough questions to the customers/end users for feedback, or asking questions to explore new products/services in the market, the company will become stagnant and the competition will take over.

Adam Bryant, The New York Times Corner Office Column writer says that “the best leaders understand that asking open, exploratory questions can help them figure out what’s coming and where new opportunities lie, so that they can lead their company in new directions.” Leaders have to show vulnerability and humility to ask questions which is more important than upholding the persona of the leader who must “be all-knowing, decisive, and in possession of infallible gut instincts, all of which leaves little room for questioning.”

Are you the company’s “Chief Question-Asker”?

Quotes are from “A More Beautiful Question” by Warren Berger

What’s your dominant question?

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Jim Kwik, author of Limitless says a dominant question is the thing we keep asking ourselves, over and over throughout our day. It’s what drives our decisions in the moment and focuses our obsessions when we’re alone. He says the dominant question feels permanent but it is not.

“The questions you ask yourself will shape your life.” – Jim Kwik

In Entrepreneur magazine (June 2021), Jim shares his experience working with the actor Will Smith. They realized that Will’s dominant question is “How do I make this moment magical?” Jim recalls “One night, he was with Will Smith and his family on a movie set and it was 2am and everyone was freezing. He starts making hot chocolate for everybody, even though there’s a crew there that does that for them. He starts bringing us blankets. He starts cracking jokes. He starts telling stories. And I realized. He’s living his dominant question.”

2 WAYS TO FIND YOUR DOMINANT QUESTION according to Jim Kwik
  • Review 

Listen. Reflect on your thoughts, listen to your inner talk. Sit in silence. Silence isn’t empty, it will be full of your own questions.

  • Record

Journal every day. Review and record your day, and you’ll start to notice patterns skewing towards the things you find important in your life.

Read more at Discovering Your Dominant Question

Useful resources on curiosity and questions

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Articles/blogs:

The DNA of the World’s Most Innovative Companies

Curiosity is a Must-have Skill

The Business Case for Curiosity

Forget Brainstorming. Try Questionstorming

Why must businesses step back in order to move forward?

Videos:

How to Ask Better Questions | Tim Ferriss

The Truth about Being the “Stupidest” in the Room | Simon Sinek

Podcasts:

Cal Fussman’s Big Questions podcast

The Career Contessa Podcast

The Tim Ferriss Show

Akimbo A Podcast from Seth Godin

Others:

The Right Question Institute

A More Beautiful Question

This list will be continuously updated. Please share any resources that can be added to this list.

Here’s a piece of advice…

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Giving advice to someone is a tough ask. When someone reaches out to you for advice, you are put in a position of authority or power. It could be that the person seeking your advice thinks you are the right person, have the relevant experience, have information that others don’t or for any other reason. In essence, if someone asks for advice, he or she is looking for some sort of an answer from you. It’s a tall order to give accurate and meaningful “advice” to another person.

In his book, WILL, Will Smith says this about advice “The thing I’ve learned over the years about advice is that no one can accurately predict the future, but we all think we can. So advice at its best is one person’s limited perspective of the infinite possibilities before you. People’s advice is based on their fears, their experiences, their prejudices, and at the end of the day, their advice is just that: it’s theirs, not yours. When people give you advice, they’re basing it on what they would do, what they can perceive, on what they think you can do. But the bottom line is, while yes, it is true that we are all subject to a series of universal laws, patterns, tides, and currents – all of which are somewhat predictable – you are the first time you’ve ever happened. YOU and NOW are a unique occurence, of which you are the most reliable measure of all the possibilities.”

A powerful and practical way to approach this situation when someone reaches out to you for advice is to say “I am happy to share with you what has worked for me.” An example of this in real life is to watch this video of Dwayne Johnson “The Rock” speaking to the Los Angeles Lakers as part of their GeniusTalks series, reflecting on his career as an athlete and actor, and sharing lessons he learned along the way.

What’s your energy focused on?

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Your energy has immense power. What you put your energy into will create the results accordingly. Being aware of your energy, focusing the energy on your important goals and priorities, and taking utmost care of your energy is crucial to achieving success and getting the results you want.

The Law of Attraction is based on the belief that thoughts are a form of energy and that positive energy attracts success in all areas of life, including health, finances, and relationships. If your mindset is about positive energy and thoughts, it will lead towards positive results and vice versa.

As a salesperson, instead of focusing the energy on only your personal goals (earning high commission and getting a sale as quick as possible), if you focus your energy on actually helping the customers solve their problems and get what they want, the results can be phenomenal. As a manager, if your objective is only about achieving your personal goals above your team’s goals, then you will face continuous challenge. As a coach, if you want to achieve greater success as a team, you have to put the team’s goals ahead of your own. When the focus is on only your personal goals, your drive, motivation and energy will all follow accordingly and you might face more challenges along your path to success. When there is wholehearted focus on your customers’ goals and also your personal goals, the results can be remarkable.

When I approached the day with a single goal in mind and the right energy, I was able to achieve greater success. With a singular focus and making it a priority to helping my customers get what they want, I was amazed to see the overall results. What I focused my energy on completely changed the day and the results I got.

So what’s your energy focused on?

Books that inspire asking questions

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Here are a few books that I found to inspire each of us to ask more questions. These books delve into the power of asking important questions, questions that can change the direction of a person, group, or company and provide insights into using questions as a helpful guide in our personal and professional lives.

Feedback for growth

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Growing up in a household or being in an environment where you get mostly or only positive feedback, you will expect that type of feedback in all areas of your personal and professional life. How helpful is the (mostly or only) positive feedback for the person receiving it in the long run? Is that positive feedback motivating the person or setting up expectations/beliefs that are not really assisting her or him? If only positive feedback is being given by a coach to an athlete/by a parent to a child/by a manager to an employee, then it can be more counterproductive than productive.

Constructive feedback is better for us. We need to know where we are good at and where we need to improve. When we get feedback of our strengths and improvement areas, we can allocate our time, energy, and focus accordingly. If we become tempted to create a perfect world of positive feedback from coaches to athletes, parents to children, and managers to employees, we are being in the fixed mindset. It’s important to adopt a growth mindset which “leads to a desire to learn and therefore a tendency to embrace challenges, persist in the face of setbacks, see effort as the path to mastery, learn from criticism, find lessons and inspiration in the success of others. As a result, they reach ever-higher levels of achievement” (Carol S. Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success)

How are you using the feedback you are getting?

Asking questions to understand better

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why and other books says that “asking questions doesn’t mean you’re the stupidest person in the room; it usually means you’re the only one brave enough to speak up.”

Some of the reasons why we aren’t asking enough questions even when we don’t understand the topic of discussion are the beliefs/thoughts/internal questions we have going in our head:

By asking this question(s), will it make me look “stupid”?

Would I look like the person who doesn’t understand this topic if I ask this question?

It’s actually not relevant to me at all so why ask this question.

I am the “expert” or “smartest” person in this room. Why ask questions and make myself look like a beginner?

Do I have the “authority” to ask questions in this group or in this context?

the perspective

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

With new adventures, everyday challenges, feedback from others, conversations between employees and managers, and many other moments in our daily experiences, it’s important to keep them in perspective.

Imagine a scenario of a manager giving an employee honest feedback. It’s tempting for the employee to expect all positive feedback from his/her supervisor and vice versa. Yet do we really grow from just positive adulations? If the employee uses the honest feedback to gain awareness of their strengths/improvement areas and then gathers new skills and knowledge, it’s actually much better in the long term for both the employee and the supervisor. On the other hand, if the employee does not have the proper perspective on the manager’s honest feedback, then he/she can feel down, angry, or even hurt by their words or behavior. The same goes when parents are giving honest feedback to their children, coaches talking to their players/teams, teachers talking to their students etc. It’s all about the perspective.

In her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol S. Dweck says it’s tempting to create a world in which we’re perfect and we can choose partners, make friends, hire people who make us feel faultless. But think about it- do you want to never grow? Next time you’re tempted to surround yourself with worshippers, go to church. In the rest of your life, seek constructive criticism.

Grades or growth?

Posted on by Nirmal Thapa

When we put a lot of focus on the grade in school and college, are we limiting the growth of the students’ learning?

If ultimately the course grade is what matters, then the students will study accordingly and stay within the framework of the course curriculum. In theory, the student’s grade is expected to represent his or her understanding of the course material and a way for teachers to assess the student’s knowledge of the subject matter. This will continue to keep many students incentivized to take classes where they can earn easy A’s and not be as hungry to seek out challenging yet important classes that actually lead to their intellectual growth.

As long as we have GPA’s and scores to measure progress and understanding of a subject matter, it will have its shortcomings. If it’s not going to be on the exam, then why would students put more extra effort than needed or go beyond their coursework. With GPAs and test scores not going anywhere anytime soon, we’re left to ask ourselves:

As a teacher,

how can you instill a hunger for learning beyond the course curriculum?

how can you prepare the students for a future of tomorrow?

how can you support the growth of students who are struggling academically but talented in other areas?

As a parent,

how can you encourage your child/children’s learning and education beyond the school’s course curriculum?

how can you encourage your child/children to ask questions as much as having answers?

how can you prepare your child/children for the future of tomorrow?

As a student,

why are you taking these courses and how will they add value to your long term career?

how can you become more aware of the changing job market and prepare yourself accordingly at school/college?

what are your strength areas and how will you continue to hone them or add more skills to be job market relevant?

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