Disconnected connections

Last week while reading Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, I read about the rule of 150 or neocortex ratio. Stating why a group/ team when exceeds 150 starts losing the effectiveness or the relationship starts dipping, the reasoning was an average human mind cannot effectively map people beyond 150. For the same reason, in military the units don't have men beyond 200, despite advancement in communication technology.

This thought made me to start looking at my 250+ contact on mobile, 300 odd friends on Facebook and about the same number on Linkedin. Though there is nothing wrong in having a large connections/contacts, when in an opportunity or situation, whom did I contact or thought off, what was the top of the mind recall? It was again the same contacts or friends, it was never those rarely called/contacted numbers.

So I started mentally classifying my contacts on social network, as

1 Replying/commenting on their status

2 Enjoyed/looked forward to reading their posting

3 Glanced through their status

4 Ignored their status or posting, and scrolled to next

5 Removed status updates from few.

Over 50% of my connections fell in category 3, and it didn't bother me (nor them, I guess) as I haven't replied/commented on their status for a long time, they are just there. Another 10% fell in type 4, as the information from them was irrelevant or was of not much use to me, and these (type 4) connections over a period moved to type 5. It was actually only that about 40% of my connections I was able to follow, which clearly came down to about 120+, thus approving neocortex ratio.

This rule has worked for me, but I have friends who have connections crossing 500 and some 1500, I really want to know if same rule applies to them. Let me know.

Startups stand to gain

Microsoft buys Skype for 8.5 billion, 3 times of its market price.. it surely goes to say, the kind of impact small startups have. EBay also had bought Skype couple of years back and weren't sure as to what to do, never the less in all these transactions it was Skype which clearly won.

Start ups which get taken over for huge fortunes, gives individuals/startups a hope to keep perusing what they love, to innovate. Like minded people, leaving aside their qualifications, ego and house address, bring in ideas, which get implemented in short time, thus getting on the wave at the right time. While the big companies can't, as they aren't agile due to their rigid hierarchy and process, in spite of having the right skill and funds. Just that small and big firms come with their own plus and minus, forces the big firms to keep a close watch on small ones.

Not all startups end up with big names, and they continue doing what they enjoy. Either way startups stand to gain.

Calm and cup go together...

Of many qualities a leader should possess, one of them is, being able to absorb the pressure and not pass it on to the team. And this quality was very well demonstrated by Dhoni during the recent world cup matches. Even the billions of Indians and cricket followers would agree, the way the high pressure matches were handled with ease.

A team under pressure cannot perform at its best, be it scope change, revised schedule or reduced resources, the team is always exposed to pressure situations every moment during the life of a project. It is true that every team member should be aware of such changes and should be able to adapt to such situation. But how? Well! That depends on the action of the leader. How a leader reacts to such situations, is seen in team's performance.

I have experienced working under leaders who kept a calm face even during the time of crisis, but at the same time being firm in their decisions. This has helped the team in completing the task at much faster rate and with less rework. On other hand, working under leaders who would pass on the stress/tension to the team right down to the last man, this made the team members less confident in solving the problem and feeling inferior to others. Thus, neither solving the problem nor making better/confident team members.

These less confident members, when they take up such leadership position pass on the same to their teams (alas, we have more of such leaders around...). If the leaders want to see the success, they need to learn the art of absorbing the pressure...only then the team will push the leader to lift the cup...

The world cup was no doubt very entertaining, but it also demonstrated calm leaders and confident team...

Right Corporate Culture to Succeed

Culture is unwritten rules/guidelines followed by all the staff members in a given situation. A corporate culture determines how people respond, react or act in any given situation. The situations would vary from smallest transaction like greeting one another, calling by the first name, responding to emails, conducting meetings or dealing with clients.

The culture creates a binding amongst the staff, as they all think and act alike in a given situation. This as a great employee retention technique, once a employee is comfortable with the culture, would rarely try to move out of this comfort zone. The onus of incorporating the culture into every employee begins from the top, the CEO. To given an instance, if the CEO reschedules/misses any appointment with any of his staff even on a smallest topic couple of times, the staff accepts this as a norm. The same is practiced by others with their peers or junior staff, thus setting a unwritten culture of missing appointments. This get noticed only during interaction with external stakeholders.

To remove bad practises and bring in good cultures, the organisation needs to have feedbacks by staffs from all levels, create forums to allow staff post their views/suggestion, take formal feedback from new employees on what they like and dislike and senior management has to keep evaluating its every smallest action.

This may be acceptable for some or tolerated by few, but this would start showing up in our life, personal and professional.

Green Crown.. Cycling trail

Last time I rode a cycle for long trip was when I was 18, a trip to Nandi Hills from Bangalore and back. This was on a ordinary, non-gear cycle with lunch packed on the carrier.

It was that day and now, this weekend along with a group of cycling enthusiast (Tandemtrails.co.in, started by my ex-colleagues) took on the bigger hill... Mullahnagiri. The tallest peak in Karnataka, situated in Chikkmagalur district, covered by thick Muthodi forest... what more to inspire to summit it.

We started from Bangalore on Friday night in two vehicles with all cycles on the top, to reach Chikkamagalur at around 5am, a quick nap and bath and we were ready for breakfast. An hour of drive to the foot of the hill, and we were unloading the bikes, first timers were getting to understand the gears, adjusting the saddle height, tips from the seniors, etc.. A group photo and off we went to climb the highest peak in Karnataka.

"Nandi hill is easy to climb", "Wish there was lower gears than 1/1"... were some of the thoughts on my mind, but with other cyclists pushing and cheering...There were cars/vans which were struggling to reach the top, and we were without motors. Small breaks and few jokes, a sip of water…where refreshing and again on the saddle we went. The last 2 kms were testing, any amount of force on the pedal wouldn't move the cycle by an inch... the uneven road and loose gravel made me give in and I started pushing my cycle for the last 500-800 mtrs.

Spent quite sometime taking picture of the clouds, the valley and the triumph team. Coming down was great, in minutes we reached our lunch spot. A bit of rest and off we went towards Muthodi forest, were the night stay was planned in a resort called Nature Camp. The unending ascends and quickly fading descends were becoming very frequent. It was about 4:30pm, and we were still nearly 10 kms away from our night camp. The last 5 kms stretch was through the Muthodi forest, the road wasn't good, and our wrist took the blows in spite of front suspension. With darkness threatening to take over, midst the thick forest, and few sign boards screaming "Wild animals, drive carefully"... legs automatically would push the pedal... Phew!! the sight of compound wall of the resort was life giving moment...

A good dinner, with a songs and jokes made us forget our pain. A good night sleep and next day we were ready for the new challenge, the general feeling was if we would do the peak yesterday, this cannot be tougher. So were we told that, todays terrain would be mix of ups and downs and good natural surrounds, so we were told to keep our eyes open and cameras ready.

9am and putting the bum on the saddle was the toughest part, yesterday's cycling had taken its toll not on our legs, wrist or spirit but only our bums... I tried all angles to make myself comfortable, but none could be of help... it took a good 30 minutes to forget it. And 2 hours later, dehydration took its share, I sat down with pain in my thigh, thankfully, we had our van coming behind us and I got to rest for good 30-40 mins and hydrating myself enough.

Back on the saddle and all I had to do was to forget the pain and pedal, 15 minutes later we were crossing the river Bhadra, its a sight to behold. Another 15 minutes and it was time for lunch. A good lunch and 15 minutes break and we were back on the cycles, heading in the direction of Koppa. This trail was passing through the small villages and towns, curious villagers would come out to wave, some would ask "Where are we heading to?", "Why are we doing this?" "Is this a race?"... Some even thought we didn't have any better work. Kids would stop us to ask for chocolates, pose for photos, hand over flowers and enquire about the gears, the thick tyres and would try to race on their cycles.

The second day was tiring, the legs were aching, and the sun was sucking the water, no breeze and every 30 mins we would stop to drink a sip from our bottle. The deadline was fixed, that the bikes would be loaded on the vehicle by 4:30pm, and wanting to be the last one to be flagged down, everyone tried their best to get as far as possible from the vehicle coming behind... We were just 6 kms away from 100kms mark and about 20 mins from the 4:30pm deadline. The steep ascend did add to our worsening situation...with the thought that the van would be approaching us fast from behind we continued either pushing the cycles or pedal on gear 1/1. If you go up, you come down, and the ascend ended after 3 kms, then it was a descend all the way to 100 kms mark...

After reaching the foot of the descend the van arrived in 10 mins, telling us how close we were to be frisked and ending the trail in the van. A celebration, everyone was congratulating one another for completing 100kms... chocolates, juices, water, fruits were shared to celebrate the success.
Another successful adventure to remember and few more names to the list like minded friends.

Link to the photos:
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/raghuhukkeri/GreenCrown_CyclingTrail?feat=directlink

After the jobs...now US is blaming us for Food shortage...

This came as a shock… and also had a hearty laugh, when I read about Bush’s remarks on Food Shortage. Looks like they are running short of reasons to cover up their mistakes.
One of the newspaper said,
"Even as the world spins into a global food crisis, a popular theory — voiced by the likes of US President George W Bush and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice — is that the Chinese and Indians are responsible. The 'logic': due to zooming incomes, they are eating more, causing worldwide shortages."

On the postive side of it, I am happy we Indians are eating enough. I remember when I was in school, I used to go 30 mins early to the ration shop and stand in line, like others. And my mother used to follow with 2-3 big bags, after an hour, all we used to get was some 10kgs of wheat (with dust, mud, pebbles, and what not.., so practically it would be 9 kgs) and some 5 kgs of rice. For a south Indian family in Delhi, 5 kgs of rice is certainly not enough... so we grew up with north indian food habits (no regrets). But then again, all together 15kgs of grains for a month and for a family of 5...

Now, when I look back, I certainly feel things have changed. I don't have to run to the super market early... but yes, the waiting in the queue at the billing counter, that isn't encouraging... :)

Inspite of such a blame by the developed countries, the reports shows that the US citizens consume 5 times more than Indians... leave aside the central Africa.

I am sure the next in line is the oil prices, the same reason would be quoted to say we Indians have better salary so we are buying cars, and with Nano on its way... US has a ready excuse..