Write down your goals

Last week there was some problem with the centralized server in our office due to which the server date was displaying a past date. Since all of us login into the server through our local machine, our system threw up a error message informing us that the local system time & the server time is different. When we opened Outlook to check our mails, the view was very different. Outlook displayed mails categorized as "Tomorrow's Mails", "Next Week's Mails", & "Next Month's mail". It was so funny to imagine that we know what mails we are going to get in the future & what action we will be taking against them. How nice it will be if we get to know what will happen in future...!

Recently I was reading the book Goals by Brain Tracy. The entire essence of the book can be summarized in just one sentence: "You are responsible for your life". Another important lesson that the book teaches is that we should all have written goals. This works miracles. A goal that is written acts as a manager who is has given you deadline but leaves you on your own to decide how to accomplish it. So even though you may be busy in your daily activities, you will always have a nagging feel at the back of your mind that will remind you of the goal that YOU have set yourself. This feel make you undertake actions that will direct you towards the goal. And finally the goal will be achieved by you. There are always some pre-requisites for success of this kind. The goal should have a deadline. It is said that a plan is a goal with a deadline. With the deadline, our goal becomes a plan to succeed.

The deadline is similar to a mail that is labeled as "Next year's Mail"...

Quotes worth citing #2

We all would have heard that there is nothing bad in this world; every thing happens for our own good. But when the testing times come, we generally tend to forget this. We never realize that same situation can make us laugh at one time & cry at another time.

Remember a past situation that occured at least 5 years ago when you were shedding tears due to some reason. When you think about it today, mostly you will laugh at yourself wondering how could you cry for such a 'silly' reason. Now think of another situation where you were having a lot of fun with your best friend(s). This also should have occured 5 years or earlier. You will feel sad immediately, especially if you are not in touch with those friends. You will ask yourself as to where have those beautiful days gone? Two different situations, make us laugh & cry at different times. Isn't it?

My colleague Soumya send me the following quote that just explains everything above...

We always know that looking back on our tears would make us laugh. But we never know that looking back on the moments we laughed together would make us cry.

To-do list in Firefox Sidebar

Many times we miss out very obvious things and try to solve a problem using a method that is more cumbersome & time-taking. I have been searchig for a tool that will keep my To-do list always on my desktop. One way is to put them in Outlook Tasks list. Bu then one has to open it again & again to see the to-do's. Other way is to use scrap-pad of Google desktop. But in our company we are not allowed to install any software at all. :-(

I just came across the following article at erica's joys :)

This has solved my problem as most of the time I have to work with browser applications. Thank you Erica.

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Whenever I'm on my Mac or Linux box, I miss the functionality of my Google Desktop Sidebar. I like being able to have a to do list, my Google calendar, and other various useful things right at my fingertips. I got to thinking about the Firefox Sidebar yesterday and how I could use that along with my Personalized Google page to make a sidebar I could use on any OS. Once I did it, I couldn't believe I hadn't done it sooner. I'm quite sure some enterprising person has already done this and it was posted on Lifehacker ages ago, but once again, its new to me. Anywho, here's what I did.

1) If you don't already have it, install Firefox.
2) Using Firefox, browse to http://www.google.com/ig
3) Line up all your Gadgets on the left, putting the ones you'll use most at the top.
4) Once you've got everything arranged, bookmark that page and give it the name Google IG.
5) Open Bookmarks in the toolbar and select Manage Bookmarks.
6) Highlight the Google IG bookmark and click on the Properties button.
7) In the Properties dialog check the box next to "Load this bookmark in the sidebar" then click OK.
8) Double click the Google IG bookmark and it should load in the sidebar.
9) Close the Bookmarks Manager and enjoy. :)

To make your Google IG book more accessible, your can put it in your Bookmarks Toolbar.

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Giving tip to shopkeeper

Few weeks ago I had an opportunity to eat at an outlet manned by a single person. I got into conversation with him, and learned that he was the sole owner of the shop. He will prepare the eatables in the morning and open his shop in the afternoon. His native place happened to be near my native place & that allowed me to ask him some other general questions regarding his family and life-style. At the end, I perceived him to be an honest person doing an honest job. When the time came to make the payment, I was overcome by a temptation. I wanted to see whether this man would accept extra money as a favour or not. I handed him 33% more money than I was supposed to pay. He promptly took it.

I was left waiting for the words such as,"I will only take what is due to me…" or something like that. I discussed this with my friend. He told that since the trend in every restaurant is to give tip to the waiter, the same criteria apply here. The extra money that I paid is like tip for him.

I had asked that person's daily income. He earns more than me….

Quotes worth citing

I had not been well last week following a bout of food-poisioning. This week I joined my office back again, and came across the following quote:

"Never frown, because you never know who may be falling in love with your smile."

I am smiling today...

Managing Change in Workplace #3

If there is a change happening in an organization, it is natural for the employees to feel unsafe & insecure. We all resist the unknown. As an employee, the following are the things that I would recommend to do when you see the change taking place in your organization.

• Believe in the management. They are doing this for the good of the company. Remember they are also stakeholders in the company as you are.
• Look at change from your manager's perspective. Does it help him in organizing his people and tasks better? Is he not becoming more efficient & effective?
• Find out the new tasks for you that you may have to do in your new role. Also contemplate as to how the change helps you to grow as a person (& not just career).
• Don’t draw conclusions on the first day itself. Wait till the system stabilizes after the change. The normal time for a system to stabilize after a change is considered to be three weeks.
• If you have been asked to get rid of some your responsibilities, find out the reason. Are you not good enough for it, or has somebody else has arrived who do the job better than you? In either case, do not blame the management.
• Finally, if you are not satisfied, leave with dignity. You don’t want people to curse you once you are gone. They should miss you.
• Keep in touch with your formal colleagues. Find out whether the change was successful in its objectives or not. This information may help you in case your current organization is planning the same change.

Remember, once you are through the initial tough period, most likely you will love the change.

Managing Change in Workplace #2

Imparting a change in an organization is never easy as it seems. Many of us don't realize the concerns that the employees have when the change process is on roll. Since many employees do not know what is going to come, their first instinct is to resist. They believe that the management is bringing about the change to impose its authority on them, and nobody likes to be forced. Then how to make a smooth transition? Following steps can be very helpful.

• Communicate in advance about the change to everybody, whether he or she is affected by it or not. This imparts a feeling of 'not being left-out' regarding latest developments in the company.
• Inform as to why the change is necessary in the organization, and what are the objectives that are to be achieved.
• Be open to the ideas from the employees. Who knows, some of them may have a simple idea to achieve your objective that may save a lot of energy & effort of yours.
• Ask the employees as to what is the best point of time to bring about the change. Let them set the date, so that they too feel that they too are involved in taking in such important decisions.
• Be first to accept the change.( For example, if you are planning to migrate your OS from Windows to Linux, you be the first to use it.) This will help you understand the problems that others might face once they accept the change.
• Reward those few who champion to accept the change before other employees.
• Analyze whether the change has achieved its objectives or not. If it is successful, announce this news, and give credit to all the employees. Praise the first champions.
• If the change is not successful, ask the employees as to what can be done to make it successful. Their ideas may be useful. (If no idea comes from anybody, it can be a major indication that people have not accepted the change whole-heartedly)
• Last, but very important. If required, roll back the change. You may consider it as your personal failure, but people will feel that you do care for them. They may even appreciate you for doing that, because in the end you are making their life comfortable.

Some more on change in my next post.

Managing Change in Workplace #1

As a rule, people hate change. Ask any person as to how will he react to a major change that is about to take place in his workplace. Most probably you will get a negative answer. All of us love to continue to live in our comfort zones. Nobody wants to take a risk to face the unknown. Then how do we bring about a change in the organization that is accepted by everybody?

Ask the following questions before bringing about the change:

• Is it really necessary?
• How many people are going to be affected by it? Can this number be reduced?
• Are those who are affected happy with the change? What is their opinion?
• What reward will the given to those who embrace the change first?
• Are the people able to see the benefits that they will reap once they accept the change?
• How do the people who are not affected by the change feel about it? Will they like to become a part of it if given a chance?
• Most important, do the others know how will you be affected by the change?

Once you have the answers to the above questions, plan the change. It is always better to bring about the change in phases rather than all of a sudden. This will help the employees to prepare themselves mentally for that unknown.

More on this in next post.

Understanding the Customers' Requirements

Yesterday I decided to have my dinner at my home rather than at the restaurant. So I ordered for a parcel. The dish which I ordered has an ingredient that is sprinkled over the top after it is served. As my parcel was packed, the man behind the counter sprinkled the ingredient on the top of the dish and sealed the parcel. I did not see anything wrong in that until I reached home and opened the parcel. The parcel did not have a wide opening & I needed to invert the container to empty the food out into a plate. When I did so, the ingredient on the top went to the bottom of the dish. I could not enjoy the dish fully as the taste given by the ingredient was not present in the first few mouthfuls. Worse, it did not add any special taste at the end too.

Getting to know one's customer's requirements is very important. In addition, we need to know whether the processes that we follow to fulfill those requirements are appropriate or not. Sometimes tweaking the process will enhance the users' experience of using our product.

The serving guy could have well put the ingredient at the bottom of the parcel. :-)