8 June 2021

Little did I know then

Reading my old blogs, I realized this morning that exactly ten years back, in 2011, on this day, I had written the following… (This was in Durgapur – even before they had moved to Kalyani)

“Well, that was my week with my parents. My best time each day was waking up at 4:30 to sit with my parents for a couple of hours in our garden. Drinking tea, watching the daybreak, enjoying the flowers, occasional question and answer but mostly quiet – just enjoying each other’s company. No doubt we were all wondering how many more such days we will have. The loudest conversations, indeed, were the silent ones.”

And today too, as on those days, my loudest conversations with them are the silent ones…

Category: My Family | LEAVE A COMMENT
7 June 2021

What goes around, comes around!

“Kelly?”, I asked the rather startled lady running around with drinks and food for everybody who had gathered around the big outside patio and bar area on the fifth floor of the JW Marriott in Marco Island.

“Yes?”, the lady replied in a muffled sort of way from behind the mask but clearly confused about why I was asking that question.

“You may not remember me. Let’s try this..”, I said, as I removed my mask.

“Oh! Raj! Westin!”

“Indeed”

You see, right behind my office in Itasca (suburban Chicago) is the Westin I often stay in. And Kelly used to work there before the pandemic hit. During pandemic, she found a job in the JW Marriott in Marco Island and moved there. And that is exactly where I was vacationing with Sharmila!

***

To be fair, this was not sheer luck. I could not have recognized Kelly with her mask on. There is a backstory to this.

Two weeks back, I was in the Westin hotel and sitting at the bar talking up Janice and Tom – the two folks who have helped me there for the last few years. Janice and I were catching up on our families when I mentioned that my wife and I had lined up a few vacations to make up for Covid time. She mentioned how she wanted to visit Florida and visit an old friend from Westin who has moved there.

“Who is it?”

“Remember Kelly?”

“Yes.”

“She has moved to Marco Island.”

“Really? I am going to be there in 2 weeks time with my wife. I have never been there.”

“You will love it. She works in the Marriott there. Beautiful property.”

“Wait a minute. Which Marriott?”

“JW”

“No way! That is where I will be staying. I will be sure to meet her!!”

***

Now roll forward a couple of weeks. I am back at the Itasca Westin after a day’s work. Dropped my suitcase and all that in the room and went straight to the bar to catch up on some dinner.

Janice saw me from a distance and waved at me.

“I have something for you!”

“I have a vague idea what it might be!”

And that is when she went inside and got my sunglasses out for me.

***

You are probably wondering what is the thread joining all this, right? Well, the day after I met Kelly was the day we were checking out. And I suddenly realized that I was missing my sunglasses. Went around the hotel and reported to the authorities to let me know if they ever find it.

And reluctantly drove back to the airport, all the time squinting in my left eye in the bright Florida sunlight.

Before jumping on to the plane, I left a note for Kelly that I was missing my sunglasses. I was not sure I would ever get it back. I left a voicemail at my eye-doctor’s too. Those were prescription glasses and I can’t simply just walk in and get myself a new one. Since I have very high numbers (negative 8.5), it takes time to make those glasses.

The flight from Fort Myers to Atlanta had no wifi connection.

“Que sera, sera”, I said to myself and just settled down.

By the time I got down in Atlanta, there was a message from Kelly. Which made it crystal clear to me what had happened to my sunglasses.

The previous evening, Sharmila and I were sitting at the bar and talking about the kids and her mom in India. Before signing off, I was trying to take a picture of us. I used the sunglass cover as a support for my iPhone while setting up for a time-delayed picture.

Eduardo – who was serving us – and in the previous days had given us a few tips on what to do when we visit his motherland Colombia had coming running around and offered to take the picture for us. Which he did.

And he handed my phone back to me. I admired the pictures he had taken (which is a difficult thing to do since my picture was also there). And completely forgot about the sunglasses which I had carefully positioned.

Eduardo realized my mistake later but was not aware that I was checking out the next day. He had kept it for safekeeping to give it back to me. Of course, I never showed up.

Kelly picked it up from him.

And this is where my lucky break comes. Kelly had mentioned that she would be back in Chicago to close out on selling their house and finish up her chapter there.

While there, she came by her old work place and handed my long lost sunglasses to Janice.

And that is how I was reunited with my sunglasses!!

***

“Janice, can I take a picture of you with the sunglasses? I want to show it to my wife and kids. They always make fun of me for making friends with strangers. I want them to know that I would not have found my sunglasses but for that!”

That was an interesting set of connections – involving two cities, two hotels, two bartenders, one set of sunglasses and one person never ceasing to be awed by the personal stories of people he chances upon!!

Category: Intersection Points | 1 Comment on What goes around, comes around!
6 June 2021

Book Review: “Nine Lies About Work”

This book was referred to me by Juli Johnson from our company. I believe there is an audio book version of this. I am still a “you read a book, not hear it” kind of guy 🙂

First, this is a very atypical book for me to review – I usually do not study too many books that has to do with work. Second, I am very, very skeptical of any book or any person who tries to teach how to manage talent. My personal experience is that every human being is unique and trying to generalize anything as talent principles is at best, misguided. Remember those books from a few years back that were inspired by Jack Welch’s views on how to deal with the “bottom 10%”. Yes? Good. I am using some of them as doorstop for my music room. Right next to the books on Atkinson’s diet, Paleo diet etc.

Of course, the answer cannot be to throw away everything. You still need some kind of framework of thinking. The key point is to understand that every aspect of talent management is, in all likelihood, over generalization or sometimes, outright, wrong. In fact, most of the “research” cited have one common flaw – they cannot control for other variables. And when we talk about human beings – it is very difficult to control for “other” variables.

The point is to be aware of these flaws in any system. This allows one to recognize the limitations of the frameworks and therefore allows for judgmental calls. As infuriating as it can be (“Where is the fairness?”), evaluating any professional is fundamentally a subjective call. It is subjective depending on the rater, the rated and even the time when the rating is done.

If not anything else, this book will make you think of how deeply flawed our basic assumptions and often quoted, catchy phrases about Talent management is. I also want to suggest that the authors do not necessarily give answers that always make much sense to me. Some do. But maybe you will understand the others better than me.

Here are the top 9 Lies the authors want to highlight to you. The portions in [ ] are my comments. The rest are from the book.

Lie #1: People care which company they work for
People might care about which company they join, but after that, they care which team they are on.

Lie #2: The best plan wins
Company level plans do not predict the future. It merely tells you where you are. The world moves too fast for plans. What wins is providing data and intelligence (what is happening) to everybody quickly and accurately.

Lie #3: The best companies cascade goals
Company goals top down defeats the purpose. Better way would be show the employees what you value. And let the goal setting happen locally.

Lie #4: The best people are well rounded
[This one spoke a lot to me; I still get miffed by performance reviews that talk about Strengths and Weaknesses].
Best people are spiky. They excel in one or two things. Better than most. And they leverage this/these traits to produce outsize results. Uniqueness is a feature. Not a bug.

Lie #5: People need feedback
People need attention. Not feedback. The attention people need is to what they are doing best – not what they are not doing well. We all want to be seen for what we are best at.

Lie #6: People can reliably rate other people.
[This one spoke to me a lot too. If you get a chance, look up Idiosyncratic Rate Effect].
Most raters are terrible in judging others – if there was even a benchmark to measure against. They have deep biases and often are judging based on very little data. What we can reliably rate is our own experience.

Lie #7: People have potential
Like potential is a thing inherent to a person (like a trait). This is a function of the environment and opportunities as much as the person. Every brain is capable of learning – the speed differs based on the environment and opportunities. People have different momentum – we move through the world differently depending upon environment and opportunities.

Lie #8: Work-life balance matters most
Love in work matters most. That is what work is really for.

Lie #9: Leadership is a thing
[This, I found very interesting.]
There is no such thing as leadership skills. Take the name of 10 leaders and you will see there is no pattern to their traits. Some like Steve Jobs was even lacking in some basic ethics area. What does make a leader a leader – and this is a common trait – is that they have followers.
[The authors then spend quite a few pages on why people follow. I found that very intriguing.]

Highly recommend you read it if you care about talent issues.

Category: Books | 10 Comments on Book Review: “Nine Lies About Work”
5 June 2021

Shooting birds while talking to my brother

I think this is a Carolina Wren. I was talking to my brother on the phone sitting in the patio. This bird came to the bird feeder – a clear 20 yards away and started creating enough ruckus that my brother could hear it thru my Airpods. Grabbed the phone and tried to capture it while talking to my brother…

Category: Images | LEAVE A COMMENT