Mind and matter

More often than not, I am caught up in the present and pay no attention to the past or future. I forget that my life is a composition of imbeciles and intellectuals and I ignore the imbeciles in a moment of exultation and I am drawn immediately to the reality that I actually care about what they think. Why should I care? Why should I not be what I am? I know the answer is in me but I don’t try to get to it. I give in. Give in to the people and their thoughts and act in a way I am not criticized by the majority who happen to be those that shouldn’t matter but do immensely because, they form the majority!

Innovation Carnival at my office - my post

I posted the following for the innovation carnival at my company. The post was to answer all or one or two of the three questions. Towards the end are a the interesting comments I received.


1) How might we make our associates get interested in innovation?

• Getting one interested in innovation is next to impossible. Even when associates get innovative ideas, they often lack the time, energy and drive to report their ideas and see to it that they are validated, enhanced and implemented. Works shops may be conducted by innovation group and they can brain storm with groups of associates with a specific problem statement. While workshops with definitions of innovation and interesting games have a definite feel good factor about them, most people take home almost nothing. On the other hand, when brain storming sessions are conducted, a lot of ideas float. Some may be trivial, some might seem impossible and some might be just plain irrelevant. But an hour of thinking and discussion is bound to yield at least one good idea. So, the focus could be on getting people to innovate without actually getting them to think they are innovating!

2) How might we make our associates think innovation is easy?

• Pass :)

3) What is the one thing our associates will change, (if they were CEO) to promote innovation?

• If I were the CEO, I would get the innovation group to create problem statements and create brain – storm – session – groups (this is hectic. We need to get everybody to participate! And not burden a bunch of associates with too many sessions – for one thing, they have project deliverables and might quickly lose interest). Now, that’s an idea. Could be bad, but idea it is!

My two cents


Problem statement: Traffic situation in Bangalore and excess time spent on commuting to and from office


Solution: Instead of having everyone come to one place of work, people commuting from specific parts of the city may assemble in one building near to their place of stay. This is not as insecure as working from home and can yet fight traffic situation.


Now, there will be issues like

1. There will not be a single ODC specific to each of the clients
2. Access control – which associate enters which office
3. Maintenance cost of several small offices.

The pros to this approach would be

1. Saving fuel and time
2. Less pollution
3. Maybe in some indirect way, water will be saved! :)

Comments

First Comment: (Durbha Vishwanath)

Here are a couple of points I'd like to make.

1. Hire more people who are natural creators rather than consumers. What I mean here is that hire people who have a natural inclination to create their own projects to solve some specific problems. One way you can identify them is to ask people in interviews about any projects they have created by themselves apart from their regular delivery work.
2. Company should create incentives for people willing to spend those few extra hours working on their own projects. Incentives can be in the form of infrastructure support and time. One good model is how Google promotes innovation. They give 20% to all engineers to work on things they like. And they setup a fantastic infrastructure to allow engineers to host and run their projects. Besides that, they give engineers a couple of big platforms in an year to launch their projects in front of a large audience and get feedback. I'm sure all this is also tied into their process of calculating how much value each individual is bringing to the company.
   

Second Comment: (D. J. Sri Harsha)

Nice one :)

All of us innovate in some way, but the innovations in this corporate world are measured on ROI for which we require some sort of direction. So as you said brain storming sessions are the way to go.

Third Comment: (Thomas Ken)

Hi Anasuya,

Interesting post. Couple of things that I would like mention. The first question of yours "How might WE MAKE our associates GET INTERESTED in innovation?". I feel that innovation is something that needs to come from within. You can't just get a bunch of people and ask them to innovate. If that was the case we would have had so many Steve Jobs and Bill Gates around. Three main ingredients an innovator would have would be patience, belief in oneself and passion. An example of sheer patience would be Thomas Edison, who took 999 tries to light a bulb. So how can the others help/contribute? Well, we can encourage people who innovate to move ahead with their idea and pour in our suggessions or provide a helping hand.

For a Corporate to be a true innovator, I feel first of all some policies/rules need to be bend, in other words there should be freedom. Freedom to do anything with technology (incase of IT), there shouldn't be strict policies that govern them. This would be difficult in a customer centric organization, because of security constrains. You need to run around for approvals for anything and everything and at the end of the day all you would have got is a list of approvals ;-)

Also, innovation is something that needs to be part of the companies DNA. For example, Google employees are encouraged to spend 80% of their time on core projects, and roughly 20% on “innovation” activities. I believe this 20% falls within the office timings :-).

Thanks

Akshay's comment: My take on this point is that people who have the competence and will to innovate will innovate even without external motivation. If a conducive atmosphere is available, it definitely provides more incentive. However, people with no interest in contributing to innovation cannot be coerced into doing so no matter what.

Pankil, PLEASE post a comment

Vibu, need I say :P

Day 1 - Em Tech India 2010 - Media Labs break out workshop - Use case and responses gathered by my teammate

Opportunities and Challenges of self-expression in Indian context

Name: Sowmya Age: 25 yrs Sex: female

Environment: Young working woman (single) moved out from small town to work in a metro; staying with her elder sister and her friends in a shared apartment. As a person she is:

* calm and composed;

* a touch conservative in her dressing sense (no western outfits- not even office wears, only salwar-kameez) and

* soft spoken (not assertive)

She knows the difference between her and other girls staying with her; but she doesn’t want to go their way- donning a more modern outlook.

Worries: Adapting to the new ways of life in a metro, and a sense of fear of losing her identity and deep-rooted values. There is a sense of being left out, the diffidence of not belonging to the ecosystem. Ultimately, hurting her self-confidence and contributing to the stress-related issues. Further, there is an inhibition towards opening up to unknown people owing to misuse of trust.

Happies: Quality time with like-minded people where she can converse freely without thinking over what others might think of her. Keeping a separate identity for her, voicing over things she don’t like and being heard duly.

Opportunities:

* Emotional connect; “people move when their emotions are moved”- anonymous. Building an emotional bridge could be a good way to build bond which can go a long way.

* Solutions to stress-related issues faced by the young generation.

Question asked:

1. Problems faced while interacting with complete strangers

2. How one work around the problems to find a sense of belongingness with the group

Response#1

Some of us have difficulty communicating because we are shy, insecure or just feel that our communication skills are lacking. Sometimes we keep our mouths shut because we think that what we have to say won't make a difference anyway.

When we pretend to be or feel what we are not, we deny ourselves the enjoyment of who we really are. Many of us think that we have to say, or feel, or be something other than what we are. We say things that we don't mean, thinking that it is what others want to hear. We pretend to feel things that seem acceptable so that others will approve of us. In this way we hide our true selves, both from others and our own selves. We bury our light in the mire of pretense and 'trying to'.

Response#2

We may feel afraid to say what we want. Communication always has an element of risk. How will the other person or people receive what you are saying? What impression will you leave when you express your true feelings? If you negotiate an issue with someone, will you lose face or risk your position?

All forms of self-expression are "risky". We don't know exactly how others will respond. Yet when we are willing to take a risk, we find that new levels of intimacy can be achieved, problems can be solved, other perspectives can be found, and new ways of perceiving the world are open to us. So we just need to explore a bit more and consider yourself strong enough to handle the consequences. “Problems are never big, we make them big”

Response#3

We are used to expressing our wants, needs and desires in a particular way. But, we are not the same person always. As life brings us new experiences and situations demand change, is it logical to expect that the way we express ourselves remain the same? Logical answer is no, but human behaviour gives a positive response to that. That’s the problem.

Consider the parents of a child. As the child grows, the parents change the way they interact with the child as he or she matures. It's often easy for a parent to continue expressing themselves in the same way they have been used to. Yet a more mature child requires a more mature interaction with Mom and Dad.

Sometimes, circumstances require us to adapt to conditions or situations in ways that we wouldn't under normal conditions. For instance, during some sort of crisis or difficult transition we may accept things that we wouldn't put up with during a more normal time of our lives. If we have a lot of experience with exercising this ability to be adaptive, we may forget that sometimes it is appropriate to assert our will rather than change ourselves to fit a situation.

Response#4

Many times we found yourself in a new situation, convinced that we don't know how to handle it, only to find out that we did just fine by just being ourselves.

At any moment in life we have our self. Everything that we have experienced thus far in our life is the foundation for each subsequent moment. If we find us in a challenging situation, we can apply the talent and aptitude that we already have to successfully get ourselves through. If we can view our capabilities from a wider perspective, we may find that we are much more capable than we think.

Response#5

A simple question from her own experience- what is it about a pregnant woman that society can't help but comment? She gets mildly annoyed when asked about her due date (Do strangers really care?). She is even more bothered by those who will point out how she’s carrying (must be a boy) or comments on her navel being protruded.

It is definitely not okay for strangers to ask personal questions, or for acquaintances or friends to ask some of the questions they unfortunately do. No one should even presume that you are pregnant if you have not told them so; an insulting mistake has been made that way.

One needn't reply. A weak smile, or an offhand remark, such as "Not soon enough" will do. The cold announcement that you do not wish to discuss it sounds as if something is terribly wrong, and therefore arouses more curiosity. So, just get around things than taking it head-on.

Day 2 - Em Tech India 2010 - Media Labs break out workshop

Use case:

Name	Chitti
Age	7
Sex	Female
Environment	Chitti is from a typical rural – poor background. Aged 7, she has watched numerous Telugu movies with big actors and exotic locations and some day wants to look as beautiful and speak foreign languages (English) and go around the world. Chitti goes to a local government run school. Her parents do not have time to look after her during the day. So, they put her in school. Besides, the school provides free lunch and her parents are happy with the arrangement at the moment.
Worries	Chitti has not many worries but often ponders over how her life would be after she attains the age of 10. Her older sister goes to work along with her mother early in the morning and comes back quite late in the evening. She often complains of headache, hunger, body pain and sometimes beats up Chitti when their mother is not watching.
What makes Chitti happy	Chitti gets lost in the world of movies. Her imagination soars to levels her parents and sister might not even comprehend. The thought of growing up to become a beautiful woman who speaks English and travels the world excites Chitti. Her dreams and imagination often leave Chitti feeling good about herself.
A day in the life of Chitti	Chitti wakes up to her father’s tantrums and sister’s kicks. Goes to school and waits eagerly for lunch. She knows that she can only enjoy it while it lasts and she shall partake in very few such lunches in the future.

Problem Statement

• Unwilling parents
  
  • Opportunity cost of a child going to school versus working
• Teacher motivation
  
  • Insufficient monitory benefits, absence of motive given that children drop in and out of school, inadequate training
• Content and effectiveness of current course material
  
  • Linked directly to teachers' in-ability to prepare lesson plans
• Student motivation
  
  • Children find rote learning tedious. In the absence of suitable teaching aids, Maths and science get difficult to understand.

Solution

• Unwilling parents
  
  Incorporating vocational training at school for higher class children and arranging for generating income out of the same helps to a certain extent in keeping the children at school. When illiterate parents begin to look up on school not only as a child day care for little kids, but as a means of generating additional family income, they might want to let the child study. Progressing to teaching marketing techniques towards the end of schooling will help the child be not only work ready but also business ready.

• Teacher motivation
  
  Training, follow up, help with initial lesson plans, notes and better monitory benefits.

• Student motivation
  
  Making the learning process fun and engaging by means of hands on sessions, field trips etc., especially for children below 12 years of age

Solution enabler

• Tying up with some individuals/organizations from the corporate sector which/who are already going in the direction of creating a better India
• Using media for creating educational content both for children and students - we did not discuss this section. Time was up and we made our presentation.

Day 1 - Em Tech India 2010 - Media Labs break out workshop

The question I asked over dinner: What is it that you think most about? How have you expressed it? What were the hurdles you faced? What was the impact?

Respondent 1 (one of "TR 35 India Award" winners):

• Thinks a lot about his company. About how to keep his group together and about doing things that are unique, challenging and enjoyable.
• He set up a small company and got like minded people into it
• Hurdles faced include keeping the team together, raising initial capital, worries whether the product developed is robust, customer acceptance
• Impact is that his company is doing good today

P>Respondent 2 (Lawyer with Human Rights law network):

• Thinks of holidays mostly in jungles with varied bird population
• Owns tree books, bird books and butterfly books (among others, I assume). She chooses her holidays, connects with like minded friends and nature lovers and goes on the trips.
• Ticket booking, accommodation booking and other logistics
• These trips give her joy and happiness

Respondent 3 (House wife):

• Has culinary interests and thinks about food mostly
• She expresses her thoughts and feelings by cooking variety of food at home and trying out food at different restaurants that serve multiple cuisines
• A lot of ingredients she needs from time to time are not close to her place
• Activities like cooking and connecting with friends, teaching students, sharing recipes and hosting parties make her happy

Respondent 4 (Head of a division in a Multinational company):

• Thinks about taking new technologies to the market
• Works with internal and external customers to realise ideas.
• Getting the internal customers to the same page gets little challenging. There are also the sustainability and revenue potential of a few product ideas that need consideration, but otherwise, there are not many hurdles he recalls.
• Realization of idea and thoughts creates business, customer satisfaction, growth of the company and employee satisfaction

Respondent 5 (one of "TR 35 India Award" winners):

• Thinks about how he and his team (his company) can reach out to all the potential customers with their inventions and technologies they create
• He blogs, talks, participates in events like Em Tech India 2010, advertise a little, videos on utube, and through linked in
• Hurdle is that most potential customers do not trust young technologies which can not be easily adapted and once adapted can not be easily done away with
• Reliable products

Use case:

Name	Rama
Age	20
Sex	Female
Environment	Rama is an engineering student who wants to make something of her out in the world. She comes from a conventional family and worked her way to engineering entrance by putting long hours in studies and working with determination. She is a fairly intelligent person and learns quickly when exposed to new concepts. Rama studies in an average Indian town and is one of the best students in class.
Worries	Rama worries that she may not be able to make big in her career. She is aware of the stories and achievements of several successful women but she still has not found a focal point. She does not know exactly how and when she is going to grow out of the cocoon.
What makes her happy	Rama enjoys acting on her thoughts and creating tangible solutions. She thinks that articulation and sharing of experience with clarity can be achieved only by actually acting on the thought itself.
A day in the life of Rama	Rama works on her assignments regularly and from time to time works on her own ideas and those of her friends in a group.

How do we address opportunities and challenges of self – expression by Indian people?

• Providing avenues for exploration and prompting into action right from the grass root level. This inculcates wholesome ideation and clarity of expression

Media Labs break out workshop

Two workshops were conducted as part of Media Labs break out.

1. 1) What happens when every Indian is a film director? - conducted by Mihir Sarkar
   
2. 2) How do you get health care without medicine? - conducted by Vinay Gidwaney
   

I attended the first workshop where we were given 5 topics to choose from and all participants who chose the same topic formed a team. The topic I chose was "How do we address the opportunities and challenges of self-expression by Indian people?"

The exercise was to

• 1) Discuss and come up with one use case per team
• 2) Come up with one question per team and get five responses during dinner
  

A fact worth mentioning is that I was made the moderator of my team.

And by the way, I never talked to Pranav Mistry. Its just that I stood less than 10 feet away from the legend and both times I spoke, he heard me. That again is not the highlight :) It is a great feeling though!

Here is how it happened

• Day1:
• We chose our problem topic, we discussed, we wrote the use case and we broke up.
• Two of my teammates confirmed that they wouldn't attend the conference the day after.
• Then I was on my own and starting scribbling some random solutions. I framed the question I was to ask over dinner. You may please find the responses in the next post. Based on these responses, I created a new use case (please refer to next post)
• The third teammate messaged me that he can not make it at 8:15 hours in the morning. However, he emailed me the question he had asked over dinner and the replies he got. He also sent me his new use (also posted next).
• Day2:
• Very few people turned up and I made my presentation along with the others. This was when I saw Pranav Mistry for the first time - Live! He heard me and a few others and so did Prof. Ramesh Raskar
• After the presentations (there were 4 presentations), Mihir told us to form two teams and choose one topic each out of the four presented. We would have to now write a use case and brainstorm and conclude.
• Two teams were formed and both the teams chose "Education".
• I was again the moderator of my team.
• We discussed till 9:15 AM and broke up given that my teammates wanted to attend other lectures/talks. I on the other hand was there on the second day for only this workshop. So, I decided to stick around and complete the use case. This time, I did not ask any questions. I was joined by Sanjli Gidwaney(from MIT I guess!) and we worked together. We came up with two use cases and a combined conclusion. (I don't quite remember her use case but I will post the discussion summary anyway)
• At 11:25 AM, we together presented both our use cases and our solution to the problem. We got three minutes each.
• Each of the panelists gave us comments (Prof. Ramesh Raskar, Pranav Mistry, Jason Pontin)

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