strategy – Page 8

Are you visible?

Posted on December 5, 2019December 5, 2019 by Nirmal Thapa

There are leaders, innovators, creators, change makers and artists all around the organization. Do you have an environment where those people get noticed or do they feel like the work is not a place to showcase their skills/talent?

The initiative to create a platform can come from the organization’s side or the individual or group can start one. When the workplace welcomes people to start something based on interests, passion or impact, it’s a good sign. When a project starts internally, you will notice the leaders, managers and change agents.

Morning routines for success

Posted on December 2, 2019December 2, 2019 by Nirmal Thapa

If you flip the pages of Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss, you will find many stories of successful people describing their habits, routines and what they do on a daily basis. The book is labeled as Tools of Titans The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons and World-class performers.

One main takeaway for me from reading many of the habits of the uber successful people was that there’s no one particular routine that works for everyone. You create the routine and habits that works best for you. It’s not just the morning routine that guarantees your success, there’s plenty of other things that are equally or even more important. I took the book as an excellent reference to know what successful people do, what made them successful in the first place, and how they stay successful.

On choosing books to read

Posted on November 23, 2019November 23, 2019 by Nirmal Thapa

There are couple of ways to choose your next read.

Go to a bookstore and pick the latest book or the book of your liking. Read online book reviews and buy it online/at a bookstore. It’s much easier to find great books to read nowadays. Although at times I’d like to pick a book without reading any reviews, there are times when hearing from other experiences on a particular book gets me interested in it. Here are some of the books I’ve read or want to read.

If you really like reading book reviews or summaries before picking your next read, check out Derek Sivers books page on his website where he has tiny summary and detailed notes for each book he has read so far. If you like to remember what you read, check out Farnam Street’s How to Remember What You Read.

A coach

Posted on November 23, 2019January 23, 2022 by Nirmal Thapa

A really good manager is a good coach. The coach can guide, provide perspective and tools for their team members to succeed. I believe 80% of the team’s success (productivity, efficiency, effectiveness etc) depends on the manager. The rest on the team members’.

If the manager is a good coach, then not only the team members will grow in their professional careers but also the company will grow. The subtle difference between a manager and a coach is their approach to managing people.

A rich life

Posted on November 21, 2019November 21, 2019 by Nirmal Thapa

For him, a rich life is a suitcase full of cash

That suitcase which always stays full and never runs out

For her, a rich life is a suitcase full of time

That time which always stays available and never runs out

For him, money makes the world go around

So the more the merrier

For her, time is the most precious thing she has

So the more the merrier

What if he has more time but less money?

What if she has more money but less time?

What is a rich life after all?

Are you living a rich life?

Each day…

Posted on November 20, 2019November 20, 2019 by Nirmal Thapa

Each day is a day to achieve greatness. There’s no days off. The process itself is the ultimate prize. You can’t take shortcuts to greatness.

Are you in it for the long run?

Desire to grow

Posted on November 17, 2019November 17, 2019 by Nirmal Thapa

Employees are the company’s true asset. They are what makes the company grow. As the company grows so will the employees. If the employees are not growing (personally and professionally) as the company grows, then eventually the employees will look elsewhere.

The desire to grow is within all of us.

What gets employees going?

Posted on November 15, 2019November 15, 2019 by Nirmal Thapa

An intern joined a startup. The intern completed her paid internship. She graduated college and started working at the same company full-time. She was motivated, dedicated and hungry since day 1. Fast forward 7 years, she still has the same zeal for the work.

What got the intern, then employee, then manager and then a director going? Was it the opportunity, pay, growth of the company, managers, all of the above or something else? What got the employee going for all these years?

Improving online users’ well being

Posted on November 14, 2019November 14, 2019 by Nirmal Thapa

Recently there was an article on Axios that “several of the biggest social media platforms are beginning to test changes that cut down on scorekeeping, discourage harassment and aim to improve users’ well-being.” A step in the right direction.

The article also noted that for many years social media companies aggressively focused on driving and creating engagement within their platforms. Some researchers now believe that those tactics have led to an over-use in social media, and may have had a negative overall impact on users’ health and wellbeing.

There is a lot that needs to be done to improve online users’ well being and social media companies seem to be taking few critical steps towards it. Let’s hope we continue to see improvements in the coming days.

How interesting is your book?

Posted on November 13, 2019November 13, 2019 by Nirmal Thapa

Each person’s life is a book. It’s a journey. You write the chapters.

When you write the different chapters of your book, how do you feel? How are you going to write the next chapters of that book? Will it be more of the same from before or are things going to be different going forward?

Many of us are fortunate to write an interesting story-something we could be proud of in the long run. We are writing a page of our book each day. If you were to look back on your autobiography in 20 to 30 to 40 years, are you going to be proud of the journey or wish otherwise?

First impressions

Posted on November 11, 2019November 11, 2019 by Nirmal Thapa

First impressions are very powerful. We always remember those first times when we experience something. For a new employee joining an organization, their first experiences with the people they meet, tasks that are given, the tone they are communicated with, everything matters.

Focus on the employees’ first impressions when they do get hired for the job.

Information overload

Posted on November 9, 2019November 9, 2019 by Nirmal Thapa

With the advent of the internet, information is now at the tip of our fingers. There is (almost) no lack of information on any subject from any part of the world. With so much information on the web, it is becoming harder, challenging, and almost unmanageable to get to the right information from a credible source.

Questions arise on this information overload:

Would it be better to have a centralized single country specific or global specific credible authority on a subject?

Is the web benefiting more the people/companies with resources (fast processing computers, larger capital etc) because they can afford to generate more attention, engagement, and reach than others with less resources? Additionally, when a person/company builds strong SEO, algorithms, and other tools to attract users to a site, are the web/search engines chasing the noise than anything else?

As more data gets generated with more access to smartphones and processing power, would we as humans become better decision makers with more data or become more confused/numb?

We’ll have to go back to how the web started in the first place. What was the purpose of the internet? With changing times, has the purpose of the internet changed as well? Where is the web headed to?

That seagull

Posted on November 6, 2019November 6, 2019 by Nirmal Thapa

Jonathan Livingston Seagull was not your regular seagull. If Jonathan was a regular seagull, I probably won’t talking about him neither would you. Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved to fly, loved it so much that he went against its own flock to reach for the sky. An outcast to its own flock, he chased his dream to fly until one day it was soaring high in the sky like no other seagull had done it before. Then gradually the flock started to embrace Jonathan’s courage, perseverance, and come to understand his dreams.

Yes, Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach is a fictional story. The above scenario is all too common in our societies. We talk about change, highlight it/glorify it but at the end of the day very few of us go out of our way to chase something bigger. We stick to what the “flock” is doing, what they would say/think/feel, and our dreams/goals never get any legs.

What if we resisted limiting others’ dreams/goals by criticizing it or doing unnecessary harm? What if we found “that seagull” among us who is daring to fly high in the sky and gave them all the runway that we possibly can? What if we helped create more seagulls like that?

Value of time

Posted on November 3, 2019November 3, 2019 by Nirmal Thapa

Time is an abstract concept. We can say that our watches and phones say the same time. Our interpretation of time is more important and built around our habits, culture, environment, and so forth.

In the Nepali culture, we are becoming “accustomed” to a Nepali time. Nepali time is like taking a certain time as a reference and using it to plan the arrival. For example, if you are invited to an event at 11am, you will be okay to show up around 11:15am or so. You arrive late because of your habit, the organizers start the program late because a lot of other people are also late, and the cycle just keeps repeating event after event. Who’s keeping track of how many hours we are all losing? How much productive would we have been if things started on time and finished on time? Are we realizing the value of time?

What if we all feel the value of time? When we are invited to an event and need to be there at 11am, let’s just show up before 11am as an attendee. As an organizer, let’s start the event at 11am no matter who is running late. This way the cycle will improve a little bit, one event at a time. We all win when the event starts and ends on time. The collective gain is far bigger than waiting on a few “key” individuals’.

What is the default culture?

Posted on October 31, 2019October 31, 2019 by Nirmal Thapa

According to sociologists, culture consists of the values, beliefs, systems of language, communication, and practices that people share in common and that can be used to define them as a collective.

There is a culture within families, places, companies, societies etc. Everything cannot be covered in a “culture” document or a manual. There will be many things that won’t be covered and it’s essential to have a compass to guide decisions when needed. That’s where the culture is most tested. When there are no rules, manuals, or guidebooks, it’s you making the decisions within a certain environment. If the culture within the company or place is built around trust, cooperation, and accountability, it will function much differently than a culture built around fear, hierarchy, and free will. The default culture carries over from the culture you have set in the first place and will be helpful when there are new circumstances/choices/decisions to be made.

What is your default culture set to?

More local examples

Posted on October 28, 2019October 28, 2019 by Nirmal Thapa

To make people grasp the content and easier to understand, it’s best to use local examples, people, and context. Yes, the world is moving fast and there are plenty of examples that can be picked up and used to explain an idea or point. However, it’s best to use local examples where possible.

Chief Review Officer

Posted on October 27, 2019October 27, 2019 by Nirmal Thapa

Each startup or business should now have a Chief Review Officer.

The Chief Review Officer will need to look after all reviews that the company gets in their websites, social media pages, and any other public platforms. The officer will need to correspond with the right person/department as needed and address the customers’ concern/queries. As businesses face an ever increasing amount of customer feedback and love/hate messages on their platforms, it’s important to be proactive, prompt and professional in replying to them. These days a lot of people read reviews of a particular business before deciding to spend their money or time or both in it. When businesses spend more time creating new posts/stories and not enough time on replying to the customers’ queries, then the trust and businesses’ reputation will wane in the coming days/months/years.

Does your business have a Chief Review Officer?

Not an underdog story

Posted on October 25, 2019October 25, 2019 by Nirmal Thapa

What’s it feel like to win your first championship?

Listen to Kyle Lowry talk about his team, Toronto Raptors winning its first championship. It’s insightful, introspective and inspiring.

Realize

Posted on October 22, 2019October 22, 2019 by Nirmal Thapa

You prepare. You take action. At times, the results do not come out as you hoped. Realization of what you could have done better is a very important skill. Failure is a great teacher. It teaches us so much more than winning (not to say winning is not important).

When the results are not good, do you look around for someone/something to blame or do you do a self assessment and realize what you could have done better?

Category: strategy