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Collage Of Influence
In a stream of (un)consciousness, I whipped together a collage of people who have greatly influenced my thinking over the years. The criteria for inclusion were: 1) they had to be alive today (with one exception), 2) no one in the entertainment or sports industries, 3) no politicians (that was easy), and 4) I’ve never met them face to face.
How many of my influencers do you recognize? What would your collage of influence look like?
The Value Zone
Even though it’s been on my Kindle for a year, I just finished reading HCLT CEO Vineet Nayar‘s book, “Employees First, Customers Second“. It was low on my priority list because I already had read a slew of articles about the book when it was first released.
In EFCS, Vineet describes “the value zone” and “the so-called enabling functions” as follows:
So, how did Mr. Nayar “force” the superiors who dwell in the enabling functions to be accountable to the value-creators? He did it by effectively implementing the HCLT “Smart Service Desk” (SSD) – a twist on the typical problem management system employed by most companies to resolve customer issues. Here’s how it works:
- Whenever an employee has a problem or needs information, he or she opens a ticket that is directed to the appropriate department for handling (including senior management and the CEO).
- Each ticket has a deadline for resolution.
- The system is transparent so that all could see the contents of the tickets and where they are in the process.
- The employee who had opened the ticket is the one to determine whether the resolution is satisfactory, or if the issue has been resolved at all.
Shortly after placing the SSD into execution, people “were opening tickets at an average of thirty thousand per month (at a time when there was a total of about thirty thousand employees in the company)“. Vineet sums up the system’s success as follows:
People were embracing the system. It was a victory for honesty, transparency, and openness!
Related articles
- HCL Technologies quarterly net profit rises 50 percent (news.bioscholar.com)
- Why HCL Technologies puts employees ahead of customers (tech.fortune.cnn.com)
- HCL Tech Q1 net up 50% at Rs. 496.7 crore (thehindu.com)
- Valuing Employees (Really!): Lessons from India (forbes.com)
Dejected, Frustrated, Infuriated
How often does this happen to you?
Never, right? Just in case you do experience feelings of dejection, frustration, and infuriation from time to time, how do you you handle those pesky little critters? Suppression? Expression?
Cronies Need Not Apply
In great orgs, cronies need not apply for influential positions because there’s no chance of them getting appointed. In DYSCOs, CLORGs, and BOOGs, cronies need not apply because they’re guaranteed to get anointed.
Reckless Meritocracies
Being a staunch advocate of democratic meritocracy, when I stumbled across the title of this potentially UCB-loosening op-ed by Ross Douthat; “Our Reckless Meritocracy“, I dove right in. I was intrigued by the use of the word “reckless” in the title.
Ross commences his opinion piece by telling the rags-to-riches-to-rags story of Jon Corzine:
- Boy grows up in rural Illinois
- Boy’s grandfather was a farmer who lost everything in the great depression
- Boy graduates from Illinois state university
- Boy goes into Marine Corps
- Boy gets MBA
- Boy works for regional bank
- Boy works for Goldman Sachs
- Boy becomes Goldman Sachs CEO
- Boy serves in US senate
- Boy serves as governer of NJ
- Boy returns to Wall St. as CEO of MF Global
- MF Global files for bankruptcy after “mislaying” $600M
- Boy resigns in disgrace (but with plenty of dough in the bank)
Ross uses this lead-in to postulate that the US has “created what seems like the most capable, hardworking, high-I.Q. elite in all of human history – and we’ve watched this same elite lead us off a cliff“.
Ross then theorizes on how catastrophies are perpetrated by the rich and powerful in reckless meritocracies, hereditary aristocracies, and one-party states:
- Hereditary aristocracies: debacles caused by stupidity and pigheadedness
- One Party States: debacles caused by ideological mania
- Reckless Meritocracies: debacles caused by hubris
Relative to the other two forms of governance, at least scores of little people aren’t physically massacred in reckless meritocracies. They’re simply thrust into poverty. The real genius of reckless meritocracy is that when a meritocrat falls, he/she isn’t beheaded. At worst, he/she goes to jail. At best, he/she gets away with a huge bag of loot.
So, what’s a democratically run institution to do? Mr. Douthat rightly states that “it will do America no good to replace the arrogant with the ignorant, the overconfident with the incompetent“. (Didn’t you see the movie “Idiocracy“?)
We need intelligent leaders with a sense of their own limits, experienced people whose lives have taught them caution. We still need the best and brightest, but we need them to have somehow learned humility along the way. – Ross Douthat
If you made it thus far into this post, you may be wondering why BD00 is wasting your time by simply parroting Ross Douthat in yet another meta-blog post? It’s because BD00 wanted to display his fledgling UML skill again:
But wait! It may ironically be because of BD00’s own personal lack of humility and the fact that BD00 gets off on reading funny spammer comments like these:
An Array Of Vectors Of Tuples
Yepp, that’s what I concocted recently to implement an algorithm. Pretty fugly, no?
If I told you what the algorithm is, I’d have to dispatch a missile carrying drone to seek out and kill you.
The Universal Process Of Personal Experience
Yesterday’s post revealed to the world the static structure of the system in our head that brings personal experience to life. In the scoop of a lifetime (Geraldo Rivera eat your heart out), the system elements (mind, ego, thoughts, feelings) and the relationships between them were unmasked and exposed for all to marvel at. Woot!
Today, on the day we camp out at the feed trough and give thanks, we’ll explore the mysterious dynamics involved in this system design from the divine. Lo and behold… the universal process that creates personal experience from nothingness:
Via a yet undiscovered secret global WiMax communication system that uses quantum tunneling for zero latency source-to-sink transmission, impersonal thoughts (conjured up in the sole Thought Factory located in China) are manufactured and coupled to the ether. The mechanistic brain then serves as a receiver of thoughts and the source of fuel for the personal Ego.
Next up in the zero latency pipeline is the Ego (a.k.a the “little” me). The Ego analyzes, interprets, gives meaning to, and binds feelings to each received thought that it decides to accept. These “I” thoughts are then injected into the Mind and, voila, personal experience is manifest!
So that’s it folks. Rejoice! You don’t have to go to church anymore and you can call off the search for enlightenment . By using BD00 as a conduit from the unknown to the known, the universe has revealed all.
Spiritual UML
Because he is the chosen one, the universe spaketh to BD00 last night: “Go forth my son, and employ the UML to teach the masses the true nature of the mind!“. Fearful of being annihilated if he didn’t comply, BD00 sat down and waited for an infusion of cosmic power to infiltrate his being (to catalyze the process, BD00 primed the pump with a three olive dirty ‘tini and hoped the universe didn’t notice).
With mouse in trembling hand and an empty Visio canvas in front of him, BD00 waited…. and waited… and waited. Then suddenly, in mysterious Ouja board fashion, the mouse started moving and clicking away. Click, click, click, click.
After exactly 666 seconds, “revision 0” was 90% done. The secrets of the metaphysical that have eluded the best and brightest over the ages were captured and revealed in the realm of the physical! Lo and behold….. the ultimate UML class diagram:
Of course, the “Thought Factory” class is located in China. It efficiently and continuously creates (at rock bottom labor costs) every thought that comes/stays/goes through each of the 7 billion living brains on earth.
Concealing Outrage
In “The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work“, Harvard B-school professor and researcher Theresa Amabile writes:
Did she say “most” orgs ? Thank Allah she didn’t say “all” orgs, no?
If you think Ms. Amabile’s assertion is true, why do you think it is true? Could it be that the culture at those orgs is unintentionally, but irreversibly, toxic? Could it be that “suppression of emotionally strong opinions” is an innate attribute of hierarchically structured orgs? What about your org? If you’ve never seen a test of Theresa’s assertion at your org, why is that? If you have directly seen, indirectly heard about, or have been a participator in a “strong emotional, strong opinion” situation, how did it turn out and how did you feel? What about the “loath to reveal themselves to superiors” assertion? Got any thoughts about that?
Misconceptions And Truths
In the modern world the stupid (like BD00) are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt. – Bertrand Russell
Thanks to multi-fish-name dude, I was introduced to the hilariously serious work of David McRaney. In his terrific book, “You Are Not So Smart“, David starts off each chapter with a pair of misconception-truth assertions. He then proceeds to make his case by skillfully citing and summarizing a multitude of psychological studies.
Here’s a sampling of several misconception-truth pairs that I hope will get you to consider helping David out and buying his book:
Of course, being the self-smug, smarty-pants, know-it-all that he is, BD00 held none of the misconceptions and knew all of the truths before buying the book. Mr. McRaney’s work simply added another layer of concrete to the sarcophagus that holds the BD00 UCB comfortably in place.
Full disclosure and hidden agenda: The real reason I’m promoting Dave’s work is because he’s got the funniest web site marquee on the planet:
So what d’ya think? Should I ask for permission to change the “meh” banner on this blog from this boring and bland image…..
to this YANSS derivative….
Why am I here?
WTF?
Meh!
D'oh!
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