What Is The 'Shark' In Your Fish Tank Today?

#SridharPeddisetty #Motivational #Inspirational #Leadership #Management #Agile #ProjectManagement 

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish but the water close to Japan has not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The further the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring the fish and if the return trip took more time, the fish were not fresh. To solve this problem, fish companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea and freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen fish and they did not like the taste of frozen fish. The frozen fish brought a lower price and so fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, they were tired, dull, and lost their fresh-fish taste. The fishing industry faced an impending crisis! But today, they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan. How did they manage? To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks but with a small shark. The fish are challenged and hence are constantly on the move. The challenge they face keeps them alive and fresh!

Many of us are living in a pond, which is making us most of the time, tired and dull. We basically are in need of a ‘shark', which is the new challenge that is necessary to keep us alive and kicking. In my earlier post 5 Tips For You To Run Faster Than Somebody Today, I had shared how important it is to not only keep pace with current disruptive phase but to run faster with combination of your experience and knowledge.
As shared in the post Only If You Knew How Much You Actually Know, mantra for your success is your ability to understand the potential of the wisdom you have gained by correlating the knowledge gained in all your experience and using that wisdom to come out of your comfort zone and challenge the status quo.

Summary

To summarize, discover your shark and put it in your fish tank today to keep you alive, energized and fresh. As I had shared in the post Positive Attitude Defines Your Successful Career, we mostly underestimate the power of choice we make everyday and its worth reminding ourselves so often that its our positive attitude towards every aspect of life, which is what makes it a successful journey.

PS: Above was a WhatsApp forward so source is unknown but the message is worth sharing.

Previous posts you might be interested in

• Value Stream Mapping As A Process Improvement Tool
• Only If You Knew How Much You Actually Know
• 5 Tips For You To Run Faster Than Somebody Today

Why Sharing Lessons Learned Is Key For Matured PMO

#SridharPeddisetty #Agile #PMO #LessonsLearned #AgilePMO #ProjectManagementOffice #Project #PMI #BestPractices 

A farmer grew award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won a blue ribbon. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors.
“How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked.
“Why sir,” said the farmer, “didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.”

Farmer is very much aware of the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbor's corn also improves. So it is with our lives. Those who choose to succeed must help others to succeed. Those who want to live meaningfully and well must help enrich the lives of others, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others to find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all. If we are to grow good corn, we must help our neighbors grow good corn. Call it mutualism. Call it a principle of success. Call it a law of life. The fact is, none of us truly win until we all win.

Albert Einstein famously said, "The only source of knowledge is experience" and what better way to gain wisdom from the lessons that we learn while executing projects, programs, portfolios or managing operations. Sharing 'lessons learned' across teams is one of the key aspects of a matured PMO in an Organization. Many of us have not personally experienced the pain of slipping, by stepping on a banana peel, but have learned those lessons through someone elses experiences. 

This is applicable for a matured Organization to have a functional PMO and create an environment of sharing lessons learned across projects, programs or portfolios. Note that 'lessons learned' is not only for documenting failures but also the success stories. The more knowledge shared, the more we gain and lessons learned from successes or failures helps an Organization to leverage on the successes and not repeat failures. For a matured PMO, its an important aspect to share 'lessons learned' on what went well and what did not go well so that an Organization does not repeat past mistakes while following patterns that are proved successful in the past. One template of documenting 'lessons learned' include

• Document the pre-condition(s) and condition(s) in which the negative (issue) or positive event (best practice) occurred 
• Describe how the issue arose and define the problem or positive event encountered, and
• Provide concrete, practical solutions or recommendations based on this experience.

and can be then tagged under 'Lessons Learned Knowledge Base’, which could be managed by PMO. 

"Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future.” -Brian Tracy

Why Sharing Lessons Learned Is Key For Matured PMO was originally posted under Prokarma Blog on Oct 5th 2015

5 Reasons To Let Your Team Struggle Today

#SridharPeddisetty #Leadership #Management #Motivational #Inspirational #ProductiveTeams #TeamMotivation   
A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther. Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly. What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Struggles are exactly what we need in our life to emerge stronger and smarter. Same philosophy is at times applicable when your team is struggling. As a leader, create safety net just enough not to let the team fail completely but mentor the team to face the adversities themselves. In my earlier post 'Empower Your Team To Own Responsibilities’, I shared why its important to empower your team and let them own their responsibilities. With the empowerment, team is in a better position to learn from their struggles. So here are the 5 reasons why you need to let your team struggle today

#1. Development of second rung leadership - In the face of adversity would emerge your next leaders, who emerge stronger and smarter.

#2. Revaluation of team goals - provides an opportunity to reevaluate team goals and align them as needed. 

#3. Reassessment of team skills - provides an opportunity to reassess skills needed by the team to perform more efficiently. 

#4. Opportunity of change - provides an opportunity to change for the good whether its letting go someone or changing the work culture. 

#5. Better team dynamics - provides an opportunity (provided handled properly) to increase the team dynamics as the team struggles together and emergencies victorious. 

If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. And we could never fly.

Previous posts you might be interested in

• Empower Your Team To Own Responsibilities
• Trust Your Team But Make Sure To Verify
• Is there a rope holding you in managing

5 Reasons To Let Your Team Struggle Today was originally published in LinkedIn

Only If You Knew How Much You Actually Know

#SridharPeddisetty #Leadership #Management #Motivational #Inspirational #ProductiveTeams #KnowledgeManagement  

Lew Platt, former CEO of HP famously said "If HP knew what HP knows, we would be three times more profitable"

With all our experience encountering numerous situations, we tend to gain wisdom over a period of time and keep storing all the information in our subconsciousness. We are operating in a world where change is the only constant factor so its always important to keep learning but we do find ourselves struggling to come out of our comfort zone. Struggle is mainly because of the fear of unknown and sense of insecurity in facing failure. If we learn lessons from the success stories around us, one common factor would be the ability of successful people coming out of their comfort zone and using the power of their subconscious mind that actually guides them in correlating what they already know and using that knowledge to challenge their status quo. 

When in doubt venturing into the world of unknown, always listen to your intuition, which is a way your mind warns you to dangers or opportunities because your conscious mind has all the information. In our professional life we learn so many things on a daily basis but tend not to correlate the information for our future success. Working as a consultant helping various sized Organizations whether transforming their delivery groups to successfully adapt Agile practices or their operations groups to adapt ITIL processes or just bring in process improvements at an Org level to help achieve strategic objectives, I always attribute my success to bring in the transformation to the ability of correlating the information that already exists in the Organizations but because of silos, the information is not shared to its potential. 

Mantra for your success is your ability to understand the potential of the wisdom you have gained by correlating the knowledge gained in all your experience and using that wisdom to come out of your comfort zone and challenge the status quo. Personally I benefit by using productive tools like EverNote and MindNode, which helps me organize the information that I learn on a daily basis and then correlating the information for future success. 

Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future - Brian Tracy 

Only if you knew how much you actually know was originally published in LinkedIn

My 7 Lessons Inspired By Dr APJ Abdul Kalam

#SridharPeddisetty #Leadership #Management #Motivational #Inspirational #AbdulKalam #DrKalam  

“Learning gives creativity, creativity leads to thinking, thinking provides knowledge and knowledge makes you great.” ―  A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

There are some who inspired few and there are very rare who inspired an entire generation, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam was one of the very rare ones. Dr. Kalam was inspirational to an entire generation is evident from the outpouring of tributes from all walks of life. He had touched so many lives and ignited so many young minds to believe in the power of thinking, knowledge and on top of it, self belief. Dr. Kalam has shared his wisdom in numerous inspiring speeches he has given with the sole aim of igniting the young minds to lead the nation, not where its going but where it ought to go. Its ironical that he breathed his last doing what he loves doing best, passing his knowledge torch to a new generation of torch bearers.  Below are some of my lessons inspired by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. 

1. A true leader would own team’s failure and let team take the credit for success
2. You need difficulties in life because they are necessary to enjoy the success 
3. All of us do not have equal talent. But we all do have an equal opportunity to develop our talents
4. Do not lean on to an excuse counter and whine about injustice, corruption and wrong doing in the society but be the change agent to fight the evils of the society.
5. The sides of the mountain sustain life, not the peak. This is where things grow, experience is gained, and technologies are mastered. The importance of the peak lies only in the fact that it defines the sides.
6. Thinking should become your capital asset, no matter whatever ups and downs you come across in your life. Thinking provides knowledge and knowledge is power 
7. Failure will never overtake you if your definition to succeed is strong enough

When asked how he would like to be remembered, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam responded by saying, as a ‘teacher’.

So here is to his legacy and a teacher lives on...

My 7 Lessons Inspired By Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was originally published in LinkedIn

5 Tips For You To Run Faster Than Somebody Today

#SridharPeddisetty #Leadership #Management #Motivational #Inspirational #Agile #ProjectManagement #ScrumMaster   

Every morning when Deer wakes up, it thinks that today I have to run faster than the fastest Lion for me to survive & live and every morning Lion wakes up to think that today I have to run faster than the slowest Deer for me to eat & survive.

No matter who you are, you have to run faster than somebody today nevertheless. Today’s workplace is comprising of Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials and possibly few Traditionalists. Its becoming quite competitive with number of years of experience under your belt does not automatically qualifying you to hold a position but what you bring to the table does.  So its not only important to keep pace but to run faster with combination of your experience and knowledge. Always be a step ahead by

1. Being a vivid reader of whats going in the area of your domain, technical skills or industry in general, which would always help you take informed decisions or contribute intelligently in a conversation. 
2. Surrounding yourself with people smarter than you. Listen to understand in the company of experts to gain knowledge. We often listen to reply, which is counterproductive and sometime back I had written a blog 'Why Active Listening is Key for Successful Delivery of Agile Projects' on similar lines
3. Blogging or sharing your insights with the community on relevant topics. You either would intelligently be able to share with your experience or would do some research on the subject, thus gaining knowledge before sharing. 
4. Get your hands dirty or feet wet by working on a prototype or proof of concept on a newer technology or process to get a better handle. 
5. Being positive in attitude, which would always result in your ability to see through the challenging times.Positive attitude defines your successful career is a blog post I had shared earlier on how positive attitude does matter. 

Always keep in mind that if you are not enough fast, you are not just left behind but are left in the past. 

PS: Above picture was clicked by me in San Diego Safari Park

Note: 5 Tips For You To Run Faster Than Somebody Today was originally published in LinkedIn

Don’t Let Fear of Unknown Hold You Down Today

#SridharPeddisetty, #Leadership, #Management, #Cultural, #Argentina, #Inspirational. 
"Failure is blindness to the strategic element in events; success is readiness for instant action when the opportune moment arrives” - Newell D. Hillis

Moving to Argentina with family especially without knowing the language (Castellano, a form of Spanish language) and not knowing anybody in particular, certainly carries an element of a fear of the unknown. Working as a consultant for 16 years with various clients and different settings, experience does teach you to be prepared for the unknowns and take challenges of a new environment in your stride as you grow comfortable into it. We tried to mentally prepare ourselves  by reading as much material available in cyber space to understand the culture, life of an expatriate in Argentina but nothing really tells the complete story till you are here in person. Its been just two weeks since we moved to Buenos Aires, capital city of Argentina and we are already in love with the culture and warmth of people here. Not knowing the language is definitely challenging but when you feel the warmness in people while communicating with you and trying to help you, it just makes the verbal language feel not so important. We are sure there would be some challenges as we adapt living in this beautiful country but we are not letting the fear of unknown holding us down to enjoy our every day life. 

There are many opportunities we possibly miss and many roads not taken because we let fear of unknown hold us down. When in doubt, always tell yourself that if anyone can do it, you can do better. Is there a fear holding you down today?  

Gracias!

PS: Pictures shared above are clicked by me in the neighborhood streets of Belgrano in Buenos Aires city. We understand there are not many from India living in the neighborhood, so when you see some images related with India, it does make you feel closer to home. 

Don’t Let Fear of Unknown Hold You Down Today was originally published in LinkedIn

Believe In YourSelf

As a toastmaster for one of the meetings, I selected the theme Believe In YourSelf. As part of the theme, I shared a motivational piece and few inspirational stories I came across sometime back, which I am sharing here. 

We all pass through life listening to others, appeasing others, waiting for approvals from others

We do not teach to trust ourselves enough. We need to believe in our abilities.   

Think what a remarkable, unduplicatable, and miraculous thing it is to be you! Of all the people who have come and gone on the earth, since the beginning of time, not ONE of them is like YOU!

No one who has ever lived or is to come has had your combination of abilities, talents, appearance, friends, acquaintances, burdens, sorrows and opportunities.

No one’s hair grows exactly the way yours does. No one’s finger prints are like yours. No one has the same combination of secret inside jokes and family expressions that you know.

The few people who laugh at all the same things you do, don’t sneeze the way you do. No one prays about exactly the same concerns as you do. No one is loved by the same combination of people that love you – NO ONE!

No one before, no one to come. YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY UNIQUE!

Enjoy that uniqueness. You do not have to pretend in order to seem more like someone else. You weren’t meant to be like someone else. You do not have to lie to conceal the parts of you that are not like what you see in anyone else.

You were meant to be different. Nowhere ever in all of history will the same things be going on in anyone’s mind, soul and spirit as are going on in yours right now.

If you did not exist, there would be a hole in creation, a gap in history, something missing from the plan for humankind.

Treasure your uniqueness. It is a gift given only to you. Enjoy it and share it!

No one can reach out to others in the same way that you can. No one can speak your words. No one can convey your meanings. No one can comfort with your kind of comfort. No one can bring your kind of understanding to another person.

No one can be cheerful and lighthearted and joyous in your way. No one can smile your smile. No one else can bring the whole unique impact of you to another human being.

Share your uniqueness. Let it be free to flow out among your family and friends and people you meet in the rush and clutter of living wherever you are. That gift of yourself was given you to enjoy and share. Give yourself away!

See it! Receive it! Let it tickle you! Let it inform you and nudge you and inspire you! YOU ARE UNIQUE! 

So trust yourself to do something different, something unique

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Chanakya's Quotes

Chanakya's (Indian politician, strategist and writer, 350 BC 75 BC) Quotes

"A person should not be too honest.
Straight trees are cut first
and Honest people are victimized first."

"Even if a snake is not poisonous,
it should pretend to be venomous."

"The biggest guru-mantra is:
Never share your secrets with anybody. !
It will destroy you."

"There is some self-interest behind every friendship.
There is no Friendship without self-interests.
This is a bitter truth."

"Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions -
Why am I doing it,
What the results might be and
Will I be successful.
Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead."

"As soon as the fear approaches near,
attack and destroy it."

"Once you start a working on something,
don't be afraid of failure and don't abandon it.
People who work sincerely are the happiest."

"The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind.
But the goodness of a person spreads in all direction."

"A man is great by deeds, not by birth."

"Treat your kid like a darling for the first five years. For the next five years, scold them.
By the time they turn sixteen, treat them like a friend. Your grown up children are your best friends."

"Books are as useful to a stupid person
as a mirror is useful to a blind person."

"Education is the best friend.
An educated person is respected everywhere.
Education beats the beauty and the youth."