Some positive thoughts

1.  Count your blessings every day.

2. Life is 100% Luck so stop thinking of life as a result of your work. 

3. Stop being submissive or protocol driven.

4. Stop seeking approval from others.

5. Be carefree.

Five learnings (Random)

 There is injustice everywhere:  Be it in the manner life helps you or blocks you. As a leader, try to minimize injustice.

Sustainable happiness is "Neki kar Dariya mei Daal": Do your work and forget about it. That's the best way to work in the government. Temporary happiness is "Identifying your triggers and working on them".

Stand by your eccentricities: You are what you project yourself to be. So project your full self. Do not hide behind the need for approval and bow down to impress others. Be moody.

Everyone loves appreciation: In the short-term or long-term, everyone loves appreciation.

Handling smart subordinates: If your subordinate is smart and sincere, the best way to get the work done from him is not by domination but by giving him freedom and responsibility. Just trust them.

Bharat Jodo Yatra

For the last couple of months, a substantial amount of my time is spent on following up Bharat Jodo Yatra and listening to the speeches of congress leaders and social activists. Somehow, I find the video streaming oddly satisfying to watch, and just seeing Rahul Gandhi, walking on the road, and meeting with people in a jovial, and attentive manner conveys hope to many of us who understood the nefarious design of Godi media and troll armies. The yatra would certainly go a long way in history as a last-ditch effort by congress leadership to revive their organizational structure and dispel the confusion and myth about leadership personalities. Would it convert in a vote bank is a million-dollar question? Irrespective of the Yatra's impact on Congress's fortune, such a yatra was needed to counter Godi media designs.

But, given the kind of reforms that India needs, the bigger question is what kind of political setup Indians must elect? Looking at Rahul Gandhi's unconditional love and socialistic approach, it is difficult to imagine that he would be taking a hard decision on issues of urban reforms, religion, or the environment. However, even BJP has failed to resolve these issues. Whether it is widening of roads in urban areas, or the removal of unauthorized structures the technology enabled smart cities, the Modi government has not shown the resolve. Even from the policy perspective, the decision to implement women reservation or phasing out of SC/ST reservation or other tough decisions like judicial reforms, and electoral reforms could not see the light of the day. 

Hence, India needs another yatra that could help in building consensus around larger developmental issues. Let us see which political party would show that resolve to undertake this yatra.

Ten reasons why the team projects fail?

1. When people in the team stop taking ownership of ideas, events, and sub-projects

2. When members of the team are confused about their roles

3. When there is a lack of transparency among the team members

4. When members develop insecurity and a culture of backbiting in the team

5. When the team is trying to solve multiple problems in a diffused manner

6. When the tools and mechanisms of exercising authority and establishing accountability are missing among team members

7. When the organization is top heavy

8. When the team members do not take pride in the work they do

9. When the leadership is not able to appreciate the complexities of the task

10. Lastly, when the processes are given too much attention or they are ignored

Interestingly, most of these things are commonly observed in e-governance projects. Consequently, most e-governance projects fail in the implementation or operation phase.

Substantiating this further,

1. When the decision-makers stop attending regular team meetings, consider the project doomed.

2. When the leadership gives inconsistent direction to the subordinate members.

3. When the members of the team do not know about each other work

4. When members discuss people more than ideas and events and there is in-group outgroup culture developed in the team

5. When the requirements are received in an ad-hoc manner and consistency in the end objective is missing

6. When the standard tools for work reporting, task allocation, and monitoring are not in place

7. When more team members do not know excel and ppt than the team members who know it

8. When members ridicule the project on which they are working

9. When leadership trivializes the task of subordinates and the implementation team

10. When the documentation, bureaucratic approvals, and reporting act as an overhead to the strategy of  trial and error, and fail fast strategy 

Series Project Management: RFP documents

This blog series is dedicated to project management of e-Governance projects. The e-Governance projects are peculiar due to the involvement of the government as a client. Here project management is a three-front exercise involving IT application management and bureaucracy management of both the client as well as vendor. This setup is different from the normal client-vendor model that is marked by ownership and professionalism. In this series, I would summarise my observations and suggestions for the effective management of such projects. the In this blog post, I will share my insights on RFP documents.

RFP documents: RFP is one of the most important documents of any project in the government.  It focuses on capturing bigger functional objectives. However, many times, it misses out on small aspects that could impact the quality of the delivery.  Some of the suggestions for the RFP document are the following:

• The document should detail simple definitions like what is system or who is the user in order to avoid any misunderstanding.
• The document should be treated as a legal document and any full stop or punctuation mark should be evaluated from the perspective of requirements and delivery. In the event of a dispute, all arguments boil down to the RFP and associated MOU document.
• The document should list the necessary tools and technology stack that should be deployed for proper monitoring and execution of the project. For IT projects, the use of standard project management tools, APM, Bug tracking, code repository, single sign-on, and communication tool should be put in place.
• The document should cover how finance is going to be linked with operations and delivery of the project. 
• The document should define the service level agreements (SLA) on which the project should be evaluated. One view is that such SLAs should be part of SRS and FRS documents however, it is advisable that RFPs mention some open-ended clauses related to SLAs that can be referred to in the event of a misunderstanding between the vendor and the client.
• RFP document should clearly state the ownership of the code, resources, and level of transparency in the execution process by clearly listing out the authority and mandate of the department.
• The document should give equal importance to post-completion operational phase clauses. 
• Least of all, the RFP document should cover learnings from past projects.

In the next post, I would summarise all the major steps and documents involved from ideation to delivery of the e-Governance project.

.

To my readers

 Dear Readers,

At the outset, let me begin with my apologies for not updating my blog anymore. Over time, I realized that my blogs were getting personal rather than generalized life experiences. Hence, I switched to maintaining daily notes in my personal diary rather than listing them here. However, the inertia of writing and distractions like Phone, and TV derailed the consistency. Moreover, in the absence of readers, I started maintaining the notes in a casual way rather than writing in an article form. This reduces the knowledge value and hidden humor of the articles. Biggest of all, I realised that it is unjust to not share my piece of mind and wisdom with my readers who avidly follow me over the years. Hence, I decided to return back to the article form of blog writing. 

At this moment, I seek apologies from all who felt dumped, betrayed, and left heartbroken due to my sudden disappearance. I promise to be more consistent, insightful, and fun-filled in this second inning.

With love

Saurabh

 

My learnings of the day 27-11

How to hold vendor accountable in non-intrusive fashion?

1. Attend meetings 

2. Call for updates on a daily basis

3. Assign timelines and track the start and the end

4. Know the RCA

5. Take ownership of work items

6. Keep creating more work

7. Hire an expert who can objectively assess what should be the appropriate time required for completion of the job

8. Set up a reward mechanism:

• Quality
• Timely delivery
• Documentation
• Pro-active approach

9. Name shame people in case of failure

How to hold vendor accountable in intrusive way?

1. Ask for daily logs/VPN logs

2. Take access of all the DB, repository etc

3. Dive in the code once in a while

4. Create an accountability sheet

5. Use work monitoring tools

6. Impose financial penalties

7. Know the contract inside out

8. Assign task everyday morning to all the team members

General things:

 1. Plan your day and make every attempt to stick to it

2. One trick for a sound sleep is to close your eyes. What you see is black space. Go on the voyage of exploring this space. You will sleep quick.

3. Do not watch TV shows in day time. If do not feel like reading or writing then better go to sleep.

4. For not watching TV shows, not doing routine mediocre stuff, one should be firm and a closed shell about what one intends to do with life and in what fashion he may wish to spend this.

5. Reading, current affair, meditation and writing should become a constant thread in life. After 6:30 PM No work. After 9:00 PM, No TV. After 9:30 PM: reach your bed and channel your energy on reading/writing/current affair

6. Talk to as many people in the office, as you can, in order to understand their nature of work

7. It is good to talk to subordinates in a personal tone, once in a while

8. In day time, when one don't feel like working, 15-20 minutes mediation session can be really helpful

9. Keep mobile away when you go to sleep.

10. Feel the excitement of starting a new today tomorrow.

11. Live every day with a sense of excitement rather than boredom/routine etc

Contract Management:

Contract management is an important task of delivering high voltage works. In any client vendor relation, conflicting interest emerge and hence effective management of contract becomes important. Here are few insights.

1. Never give anything in writing. Always take things in writing.

2. Be careful during the documentation of RFP. Keep it as broad base as possible and at the same time as specific as possible.

3. Client has tendency of open interpretation of text. Try to say no as much as possible.

4. Vendor has a tendency of saying no. Try to push as mush as possible.

5. Keep auditor separate from vendor.

6. Keep separate agencies for different phases of SDLC. However some people needs to sit at the interface so that easy facilitation of task could happen.

7. Some give and take is bound to happen in the contract management process. Hence the intention should be to solve the problem rather than acting in antagonistic mode. 

8. The keywords like System, Users, System capability should have clear meaning defined in the RFP.

9. Have a proper mechanism of change requests and outcome evaluation

10. Assume from day 1 that project is going to be audited by external auditor who can not be influenced.  

If you wish to tweak things as per your requirements:

1. Find out people who are docile to your authority and assign them the work of contract management.

2. Always keep the pain points of client in hand for pushing for more work.

3. Keep a dedicated team for contract management.

More to add later when I discuss this with other stakeholders.

Distancing from my core

Business of the day

Keeps me at the bay

From meeting myself

Revisiting my past

Reaching my core and 

Remembering those lonely nights 

When the world was glittering

I was staring at the dark sky

Finding the purpose of my life

Falling on every side

Failures in exam and futility of being alive

Uncertainty, sorrow turned the tide

Purposelessness was driving me inside

Those were the moments of discovery

Those were the times of recovery

When no one was around

Sitting alone, watching the sky

Thinking deeply about this world

About the sorrows of others

About failures in life

I found my light

Light blinking at my core, deep inside

It gave me the strength, 

Brought me back to life

Which was more colorful, enriched 

Than the previous types

Today when I am busy working

Spending time with mobile and wife

Often miss to look at the bright

Its so near deep inside

Yet failure to reach within

Biggest failure of my life

Amid the noise of work, purpose, and highs

  

50 Things I learned from Sanjeev Singh

1. Do it yourself: If the team does not turn up things before end of the day, then I will do it myself the next day. 

2. Be on top of the documents: Be in the command of the document. Change flows from there.

3. Grab maximum: Wherever there  is opportunity, grab it.

4. Think what next: What ever is happening, consider it finished. Think about what is not being done. Involves lot of thinking and continuous assessment.

5. Spot the bottleneck: Keep a vigilante eye. Know the bottleneck in the work.

6. Plan ahead for a month: If the deliverable is next month then ask your team to prepare for next week.

7. Work on minimum viable product: Do not go overboard with things. Try for minimum viable design.

8. Sell your story: Market your story. Find a senior member/leadership who buys your idea so that you will be shielded if things go wrong.

9. Don't wait for others: If your team is slow, don't wait for them. Pace up.

10. Keep the sub-ordinates busy: Never leave your sub ordinates empty. Keep them busy.

11. Fullest focus: Take one idea and make that idea your life. 

12. Profile each employee: Know the strength and weakness of each employee. Accordingly assign them jobs.

13. Think in terms of framework: Framework is important. Design things in abstract terms.

14. Control people around: Have control over staff. Whenever some one joins, establish your leadership by showing off skills, behaving aggressively.

15. Ignore those you can't control: If you can not control some free radicals, keep them on sidelines. Give them punishment postings.

16. Know when to respond: Not required to respond to each and every thing.

17. Learn everyday: Work more number of hours than rest of the team. Learn everyday.

18. Work hard: Work hard. There is no alternative to it.

19. Keep revising documents: Documents are never final. There is always scope of improving and refining.

20. Brand the idea as your own: Whenever some one gives an idea, either ignore or devalue. Later propose the same idea with change in the form.

21. Focus on delivery more than the quality: Deliver fast, fail fast and revamp.

22. Know the intention of the people: Be forgiving. Do not damage people. At best ignore them. But know the intentions.

23. Build your own brand: Build your brand

24. Be your own judge: Your own self is best parameter of what is right or wrong.

25. Support employees at crucial juncture: If employees stuck at some point then be supportive

26. Sense the honest effort: Appreciate and support honest effort. 

27. Appreciate from time to time

28. Mean business: Focus on business. Don't get distracted with other ecosystem issues.

29. Ignore distractions: Ignore ignore, ignore

30. Never involve in petty matters: Find a sub ordinate and pass all the nuisance stuff to him

31. Schedule meetings on the weekend: Work extra time, over time

32. Create artificial pressure/Urgency: Create a sense of urgency for the team

33. Keep punishment postings/assignments

34. Take the lead, set example

35. Know the way, go the way, show the way

36. Make your notes, Keep them handy

37. Ask questions

38. When stuck in meeting, deflect or back out or delay

39. Centralisation of authority

40. Imagine, Visualise and Dream

41. Go to the root cause

42. Set the tone of the project

43. Prioritize (project features)

44. Push for more

45. Work first (Child in the office)

46. Know the basic tools (Docx, PPT, Excel)

47. Make ppt of whatever you learn/envision

48. Always know the weak points of employee

49. Make your team which lasts long

50. Know your domain

51. Thug life necessary at times

52. Have a program office for big change

53. Keep seniors in loop

54. Know that work motivates people: If you wish to punish some one, put them on non-working post.

Will put instances in this.

How to put a reset button in life?

Corona derailed many lives. Many of us are damaged in some or other way. Some ended up with physical damage to lung, liver or kidneys. Whereas others fell in the mental trap of depression, brain fog and  anxiety. For many of us, someone in the close circle had to leave the world for heavenly abode in untimely manner. Corona resulted in dejected, and disfigured will for many of us. However people's will to live is more than the instinct of death. In Freud's word, "Eros is greater than Thanatos". People are desperate to hit the reset button and step into the future in order to leave this all behind. 

A change of place is a good way to press the reset button in life. The pictures of overcrowded hill stations is reminder that fear of corona can not hold people back forever. But there are many who can not afford a change of place or who are wise enough to avoid overcrowded hill stations.  However, neither all can afford it nor it always works. Pressing reset button requires greater resilience, human will and  mental orientation rather than change of place. Here are some practices for mental orientation which could be useful in rebooting life.

1. Go slow. Routine is not about exhaustion. It is about consistency.

2. Start with time bound practices. For example when we go to gym, we start exercises without any weight. Similarly when we wish to reboot, we should make a timetable and follow it without any work. For example, if 5-6 is gym time then just go and sit in the gym. or 8-9 is book reading then simply go to the reading room and sit there for one hour. if 9-10 is TV time then go to TV room and sit there. If you feel like watching TV then you can watch it or else just sit there.

3. Keep asking and convincing yourself about how you wish to spend your time. Keep reflecting and thinking about it.

4. Be minimalist. Keep small targets, short goals and simple task on the lists. Avoid distraction. Get away with whatever is unnecessary.

That is all I can recall at the moment.

कोरोना महामारी की द्वितीय लहर से कुछ सीख और सुझाव

इस महामारी ने एक तरफ निराशा का अहसास कराया, वहीं दूसरी तरफ बहुत से अच्छे उदहारण भी प्रस्तुत किये. हमें इन् उदाहरणों से सीखना चाहिए और आगे की तैयारी करनी चाहिए | इस दिशा में कुछ चुनौतियाँ और उनसे सम्बंधित सुझाव कुछ इस प्रकार हैं | 

१. इस महामारी से ये पता चला की आपदा के समय लोकल स्तर पर जो सामाजिक संस्थाएं है, वह बहुत अच्छा रोले प्ले कर सकती हैं | अतः ऐसी संस्थाओं को विकास में सहभागी बनाना बहुत आवश्यक है | इस भागीदारी की शुरुआत ऐसी सभी संस्थाओं का डेटाबेस बनाने से और ऐसी संस्थाओं के सामर्थ्य का सही आकलन करने से हो सकती है | ताकि सरकार को यह पता रहे की कब और कैसे किस संस्था को भागीदार बनाया जा सकता है और बोगस संस्थाओं से बचा जा सकता है |  ऐसी धार्मिक, सामाजिक संस्थाओं के माध्यम से पेड़ लगाना, गन्दगी हटाना और बहुत से अन्य कार्य किये जा सकते हैं | 

२. महामारी के समय समस्या ऑक्सीजन की कमी नहीं बल्कि उसकी वितरण प्रणाली को लेकर थी | हॉस्पिटल में बेड भी थे पर आम आदमी को उसकी सही जानकारी उपलब्ध नहीं थी | दवाएं भी मिल रही थी पर भ्रामक जानकारियां फैली हुई थी | जिसकी वजह से त्राहिमाम जैसी स्तिथि उत्पन्न हो गयी | इस दिशा में हमारा सुझाव है की ऐसे सभी प्राइवेट, पब्लिक इमरजेंसी और आपदा सम्बंधित साधनों की सही जानकारी के लिए एक वेब पोर्टल या मोबाइल ऍप बनायीं जाए जो हर समय कार्यरत हो और सही जानकारी उपलब्ध कराये | 

३. इस आपदा ने गरीब और अमीर के अंतर को बढ़ा दिया है | इस समय में जहाँ बहुत से गरीब लोगों ने रोज़गार खो दिया, वही स्टॉक मार्किट से बहुत लोगों ने धन भी एकत्रित किया है | सरकार अपनी कर प्रणाली के माध्यम से इस अंतर को कम कर सकती है |   

४ . योग साधना ने इस बीमारी से लड़ने में और प्रतिरोधक क्षमता बढ़ाने  में महत्त्वपूर्ण योगदान दिया है | इस सन्दर्भ में अगर सरकार सभी मंदिर, मस्जिद, गुरुद्वारों के पुजारियों, महंतो, मौलवियों  को अगर योग का फ्री प्रशिक्षण दे और सभी धार्मिक केंद्रों को योग केंद्र बनाने पर प्रोत्साहन दे तो भारतीय जनता धर्म के साथ साथ स्वस्थ्य भी हो सकती है | 

५. अगर ऐसे सभी पॉजिटिव केस स्टडीज की बुक बनाकर या मूवी बनाकर या पुस्तकों में उल्लेख कर प्रकाशित  करे तो भविष्य के लिए एक अच्छा उदहारण भी प्रस्तुत होगा |   

६. इस महामारी ने वर्तमान ही नहीं अपितु भविष्य (बच्चों ) को भी संकट में डाल  दिया है| उनके स्वास्थ्य और शिक्षा के लिए सरकार को अभी से कार्यरत हो जाना चाहिए | इस कड़ी में अच्छा होगा अगर सरकार नागरिकों को पढाई करने हेतु सस्ते स्मार्ट फ़ोन उपलब्ध करा सके जो केवल पढ़ने सम्बन्धी सॉफ्टवेयर चलने के काम आ सके |  

कोरोना  एक ऐसी विकराल विचित्र महामारी थी  जिस पर किसी का नियंत्रण नहीं था, पर एक नागरिक की तरह हम  कोरोना आपदा  प्रबंधन  में अपनी गलतियों पर विवेचना कर सकते हैं |   इस सन्दर्भ में निम्नलिखित सुधार हमें सफलतापूर्वक मुकाबला करने में मदद करेंगे |   

१. एक इनफार्मेशन पोर्टल (वन स्टॉप सोर्स ) जहाँ डिस्ट्रिक्ट, सिटी, स्टेट एंड सेंटर गवर्नमेंट के सभी नियमों की घोषणा हो ताकि लोगों में गलत जानकारी ना फैले |  जैसे की शहर में कहाँ कहाँ कोरोना टेस्ट हो रहा है, वहां का नंबर क्या है और फ़ोन करके अपना नंबर कैसे बुक किया जा सकता है | 

२. तकनीक का अधिक से अधिक उपयोग करें ताकि समस्या ना आये | पर्यटन स्थल पर भीड़ नियंत्रण की व्यवस्था हो या क़ानून का उल्लघन करने वालों पर जुर्माना, तकनीक वीआईपी कल्चर को खत्म करने में, और पारदर्शिता लाने में सहायक होगी  | 

३. दूसरे देशों पर नज़र रखें और उनमे फैलने वाले कोरोना वैरिएंट का लगातार विश्लेषण करते रहे |  इसी से हमारी बचाव की नीति निर्धारित होगी | 

४. बुक रीडिंग फेस्टिवल शुरू करें | इसे प्रोत्साहन दे |  ये एक ऐसी गतिविधि है जो घर बैठे लॉक डाउन  में आराम से की जा सकती है | इसी तरह राज्य सभा और लोक सभा की पुरानी डिबेट्स को भी दूरदर्शन के माध्यम से महाभारत और रामायण  की तर्ज  प्रसारित किया जा सकता है |  इससे लोग सोशल मीडिया से फैलने वाली भ्रामक जानकारी से बचेंगे | 

५. कोरोना काल में किसी भी कारणवश मरने वाले व्यक्तियों के परिवार के छोटे बच्चों के लिए कुछ शिक्षा और स्वस्थ्य सम्बन्धी सुविधा दी जानी चाहिए | 

६. तकनीकी माध्यम से सरकार को वितरण प्रणाली को सबल और सक्षम करना चाहिए | इसके लिए सरकार को सेंसस २०२१ में हर व्यक्ति की कार्य क्षमता, शिक्षा, आमदनी का विवरण की इक्कठा करना चाहिए ताकि हम समझ पाए की आपदा के समय किसे सरकार की जरुरत सबसे ज्यादा है | 

७.   विभिन्न राज्यों के बीच में तालमेल बहुत जरुरी है | अगर शरीर के दो अंग अलग अलग दिशा में चलेंगे तो विजय पथ पर चलना असंभव है | इसके लिए चाहे तो राष्ट्रीय स्तर पर कानून भी लाया जा सकता है | 

Counseling experience

Recently I had a chance to talk to many people ranging from teen boys and girls to adults who are well settled. I talked to each one of them for hours. It gave me an opportunity to peep inside them and connect with their thought process. Some were discussing career issues with me. Others had a health or family related discussions.  After each discussion, I reflected about how to put across my points in better manner. Here is the summary. 

1. Listen more, speak less

2. Bring out thoughts of other person by leaving open ended question

3. Ask the person to summarise what he understood. In short, engage them.

4. Ask the person to raise counter questions. Help him with counter questions.

5.  Be definitive with your solutions. 

6. Take the person onto a journey to the future. Give him visions. Show the alternatives

7. Give them the dream

8. Generate the belief that they can do it

9. Never doubt. Never scold. Just understand. Make them realise.

10. Be non-judgemental. Be unconditional. Be empathic. 

As a counselor, counselor should structure the thoughts and arguments and keep the examples ready because people do not understand abstract easily. Counselor should also observe the tone of the speech such that it should be arousing the listener in appropriate manner. 

Corona demotivation

Last month have been very demotivating for me. My ability to push myself, finish work and achieve-oriented lifestyle has diminished. I am finding it difficult to live a simple disciplined life with a set routine.

Part of this could be attributed to Corona. Everyday is either invested in Corona related health issue or SOS message handling or dealing with bad news. However, in last week the bigger reason is my phone addiction. 

Now the key question is how to put life back on track.

1. Observe yourself, Observe your habits and rationale

2. Keep walking how so ever slow

3. Remember, not walking will make situation worse

4. Control phone usage, reduce your conversation time

5. Keep diary, be observant about your usage of time

6. Speak only when necessary. Control it by being extra vigilant about words coming from your mouth.

However, I had some new experiences in this period.

1. Sometimes health does not allow you to work.

2. Laziness is not always lack of discipline. Rather it could be induced due to health issues.

3. It is perfectly ok to work at your own pace and not run behind deliverables.

4. Try to sleep early if your day was not productive.

5. Your bad days should help you in feeling happy about your past and productive days. 

Take it easy. Just know the direction. Pace may vary. Effort and Effort fullness should always be there.

Corona discharge

Finally after a full year of escape, Corona caught up with me. 

Devastating wave

Bed, Plasma, Vaccine, Oxygen, Medication, Fundraiser,  what help is required?

Health issues: four phases

Funeral, Loss of humanity

Leadership and Accountability crisis

Technical imagination missing in bureaucracy

Time to revamp India

Technology as the key: IT infrastructure 

Life Situation

When some one quotes you fees after discharging service and you find the charges unreasonably high, then what are your options?

1. Bid time and do your research

2. Pay immediately and build a reputation/trust

3. Negotiate and pay the reduced fee 

4. Make it a point to tell the other person about exorbitant and unprofessional nature of fee

5. Consult third party and pay genuine amount

6. Pay and extract the work later

7. Don't pay at all

8. Consider it as his fortune and pay

9. Pay with difficulty

10. Pay and find some other professional for future

Fundraisers

 India is severely hit by Covid's second wave. The sudden and unforeseen nature of this man-made disaster has exposed the gaps in the governance process especially in the health sector. The bureaucracy which lacks socio-technical imagination and innovation has failed in ensuring efficient use of resources in these tough times. As the crisis deepens and governance structure collapse due to overload, today India stands on two often-ignored pillars of soft power to fight the Virus. These pillars are Civil society network at home and NRI-citizenry abroad. Civil society at home has the ground network to extend support to the needy people, whereas NRI citizenry has deep pockets to fund this extension and can mobilize international resources. As a result, many Indian institutions, alumni networks, and informal groups have come forward to collaborate with friends abroad in raising funds and using them to extend help to the needy. As an estimate, there are more than 200 fundraising campaigns are being run to support this informal collaboration. 

Fundraising is an exercise of crowdsourcing resources through voluntary, and charitable contributions for a specific cause. The fundraising campaign is a marketing, and public outreach exercise. However, raising funds is a small step in the process. The larger issues like how to consume, where to consume etc need clear answers for effective management of the campaign.   I was fortunate to witness a fundraiser and draw some lessons from it. Below I list some of my lessons.

1. Team: No man can run the whole orchestra alone. One needs a team. First, the team should be of the people who strongly believe in the social cause. Otherwise, campaign fatigue may result in attrition. Second, the team should have a strong networking capacity so that maximum impact outreach could happen. Third, the team should set a common code/norms about campaign pitch, how, what, and where of fund usage. The absence of a common code of conduct and ethical-operational value statement will certainly result in internal bickering.  Fourth, the team should have a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of each person. For instance, who is going to be the face of the campaign is often a flashpoint of ego conflicts.

2. Campaign pitch: Donors often contribute to the campaign for three reasons. First, Donors believe in the social cause. This leads to the question of why should they contribute to this campaign? Second, Donors believe in the fundraising team. This is a prominent reason for small fundraisers which has less media and marketing coverage. Third. Donors believe in the ethical end-use of money. For this, donors need to be told about the complete plan of fundraising and consumption. Hence, the fundraising team should decide beforehand about the complete operational process of consumption of resources to the last detail and should provide regular updates to the donors. Else there is a big question on leadership, accountability, and transparency. Even from a donor perspective, mere donation of the money is a lame approach to help. The real fight is against the governance breakdown hence, establishing accountability for the donated money is essential.

3. End-use: The criteria of a successful campaign is not about how much money was raised and how beautiful was the pitch. Rather it is about how effectively funds were used. How well the funds helped in addressing the problem at the grassroots. In this perspective, the idea of where and how to use the fund is critical for evaluating the effectiveness of the campaign. Three principles help here. First, one should know the precedence of duty. The foremost duty of a fundraiser is to the social cause, then to the donors, and lastly to the needy. Everyone else is immaterial. Second, Fundraisers should know the key problem they are trying to solve and how is it going to help in the crisis. For instance, in Covid, the crisis is of Governance of resources and not of money. Hence giving away money to last-mile connectivity providers may not be as effective as setting up your own channel of Governance. Third, on basis of a common understanding and common cause, people should devise clear broad criteria about the usage of funds. Any such criteria listing should leave scope for last-mile variations. This outlining the criteria for end-use and process of governance of funds should happen before pitching to donors. Fourth, transparency, accountability and last-mile use of funds should be clearly visible to the donors as well as fundraisers. This is what brings the true joy, satisfaction, and feeling that "we made the difference".

Hence in summary.

Do's

1. Have a team that believes in the social cause.

2. Have a common code of conduct, do's and don't, and broader contours of the campaign.

3. Be transparent and accountable to the donors.

4. Know about the end-use and full operation of funds before starting the campaign. 

5. Know the answer to "why my campaign"?

6. Assign each person's roles and clearly communicate it

7. Have a vision and intent towards the cause.

8. Know the terms and conditions of usage beforehand. 

9. Keep people with high EQ and SQ in the team, people who understand the grassroots.

10. Know the process of decision-making. Have mentors, neutral people with no vested interest, and larger-than-life vision. 

11. Be a leader, know the conflict points in advance, work collectively to diffuse them, build trust and avoid groupism.  

 Don't

1. Do not be whimsical and authoritative in the use of funds. When in conflict, refer to the code.

2. Do not let secondary motives supersede your primary motives. In case of conflicts, either leave the campaign or leave the secondary motive. Some people have secondary motives like testing their network strength, increasing their PR, benefitting their own organization, fame, and recognition, finding business out of it.

3. Do not bring your personal biases, prejudices and lack of understanding come in between.

4. Do not mix the need of immediate social cause with post-crisis plans. This delays the deployment of resources and golden hour intervention. Understand the crisis.

5. Do not hurry up. Fundraising is not the only way to help people.

6. Do not confuse leadership as authoritarianism or a one-man army.

7. Do not consider one task as supreme to the other. Like fundraising as supreme to procurement etc. Do not demean anyone's contribution.

8. Do not consider fund management as a corporate management exercise. Understand the social perspective. 

9. Do not play politics.

In the event of a conflict

1. Ask yourself why did you join? The answer can not be abstract. It has to be detailed to know the hidden unconscious motives.  If such secondary motives are there, then better accept them and be open about them. 

2. When in doubt, go back to donors. There is no shame. If not everyone then at least some of them.

3. Evaluate things in the social context with deeper social understanding. For instance, as soon as the money hits the account, people start treating the seeker organizations as a subject. Campaign team often forgets that they hold the money in a fiduciary capacity. 

4. If you can't use the money then better return it.

5. Respect the last mile connectivity providers and take their views into account.

6. Most importantly, Trust. Most people donated money to campaign out of trust. So when the campaign sub-loan the funds,  trust the smaller organization or the needy.

7. Dig within. Know the limits of rationality.

8. Evaluate everything on the ethical benchmark of transparency and accountability of fund usage.

9. Accept the fact that some wastage, irrational use, etc are bound to occur. 

10. Never say no to anyone seeking funds as long as they are not making a profit out of it. Division of chunk should be decided as per the pre-agreed criteria. 

Goodbye.

 

What is life?

 Life is 

Happiness

Balance

Purpose

Liberty and Freedom

Social contribution

Mental Control

Pleasure principle (Happiness maximization and Sorrow minimization)

Regret minimalization framework

Inner peace

Ecosystem

Meditation

Samta Bhaav

Reflection

Acceptance

Niyam

Egolessness

Contemplation

Peace

Contentment

"SANKIPAN"

There is no one frequency or phase or word which can describe life in its entirety. Everyone gets their share of plate full of all the emotions, luxuries, joys and sorrows.  All these things keep happening all the time.  So enjoy each phase to the fullest. Live life king size.

Computer Science conundrum

 

If you have watched the web series Lost in Space, then you can definitely empathize with Information Technologists. Both suffer from the same fate of BEING HOMELESS. In the series, ‘Lost in Space’, few enthusiastic astronomers travel in space to discover life on another planet. In the process, they are lost in translation and keep hopping from one planet to another. The same is the case with IT practitioners. They begin their journey of designing and building new applications in different domains but in the process, they move far away from their own domain of core Computer Science and keep hopping from one application to another. And during this process, the core domain develops so fast that one often feels light years away from it making it really difficult to come back home.

Every day there is so much new happening in this field that people in ICT often feel outpaced by the pace of new development and research. Take for example, till 2008, smartphones were nowhere in the picture, and then suddenly smartphone, and the android operating systems emerged. While technologists were adjusting to this change, Artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning came to the forefront. In parallel, the traditional client-server architecture made way for cloud computing and the cloud became ubiquitous and the whole notion of DevOps changed in a span of 2-3 years. Cybercrime, Datacenter technologies, Software-defined networks and a host of other development happened in a short frame of time that an engineering degree syllabus started looking dwarf and incomplete. Therefore, the biggest challenge which people in ICT face is how to remain connected with HOME in the face of fast-changing contours of technology. 

The key to making a successful career in computer science is to learn, unlearn, and relearn on a continuous basis. The moment you stop learning new technologies, you would simply become obsolete in the field. However, this is a simplified understanding of the subject. People in different job profiles require different strategies to connect with “HOME”. 

The highest in the varna hierarchy of Computer Science are Researchers, Professors, and Core Technologists like engineers at Google and Apple. They rely on research conferences, literature survey, pilot projects, and group-based learning. They have a free and vibrant atmosphere in the university or company which is deeply motivating and helps in updating their knowledge base.

The second in the rung are Technologist, Programmer, Architect, or Team leads in the service-based industry often working to apply the tools of Computer Science in other domains.   Oftentimes, their employer deploys a full battery of HR experts whose main job is to keep the work force up to date with help of sponsored training or on the job hands on training.

The real challenge lies for people working in the government sector as IT professionals. The general atmosphere is not conducive to learning. The security of government jobs and hierarchical setup further takes away any incentive to learn and apply one’s skill. The domain experts often confuse them with contract employees or consultants. Hence a sense of ownership is difficult to develop. The feeling of homelessness is most poignant and incisive for these classes of people. Ironically, they are the poorest in the clan. The limitations of salary do not even allow them to prepare for any mid-life crisis, unlike their private-sector counterparts.

Considering above challenges across the spectrum, it would be good if following things could be institutionalized for IT professionals across the world:

1.     Every workplace should have provision for sponsored training and industry-academia-research linkages.

2.     The working week should be either 4 days or the per day working hours be reduced to 6 hours so that rest time could be spent on learning about new technologies.

3.     Computer Science should be branched out into different sub-branches. The time has come to declare it as a new mother of all branches.

4.     Super specialization should be a must. An emphasis should be placed on projects rather than formal degrees.

However, one should not discount the luxury of being homeless because only a true wanderer with no bonding or desires can achieve real salvation in life.

Office Office

 I intended to write this post in January however due to certain delays, lethargy and inertia on my part, I could not write this then. Hence I am picking this thread again with renewed insights and events from last 2.5 months.

First thing first, every office has a different culture and arrangement. For instance, Military might follow a cadet culture. Private sector may claim to follow non-hierarchical innovation oriented culture. For instance, everyone given equal size cubicles be it CEO or a developer. Public sector i.e. Government tend to follow a hierarchical and authority oriented culture which is not cadet style culture except for police service.  However it tends to get tricky in situation where it involve private vendors, direct recruits, promotee recruits, and other-direct recruits  in the equation. Here the leader has to wear many hats and change his communication and leadership style while talking to different actors. 

From my experience, best way to get the work done from the vendor is following:

1. Get things in writing
2. Review code and understand the topic in detail
3. Fix timelines and do regular follow ups
4. Always do a mail communication and know the last person who is working on the system

However, if a manager/leader/authority do not have real reward and punishment strategy in his hand then it is challenging to bring the best from the worker. There are very limited options in such setting. Some of them which I have experienced and faced are following:

1. Symbolic reward like reserved appreciation and symbolic punishment like frequent scolding and name-shame as one way to make the vendor work.
2. Create imaginary pressures like weekly work follow ups, number of days for which work is pending, daily accounting of the work done, taking timelines from the vendor and doing regular follow up with them
3. Know when to escalate the issue to leadership
4. Reserve your harsh words for exceptional situation 
5. Create your image in the office through your behavior pattern. For example,

        Use of anger in instrumental fashion like Sanjeev sir does
        Use of frugality of words like Ramesh sir does
        Keeping distance to create your aura
        Keeping conversations professional so that vendor do not get easy with you
        Not mix the personal and professional life
6. Play Good Cop-Bad Cop strategy
7. Develop a tone of authority

The situation is complex when you deal with government staff like other-direct recruits and subordinates. Hence few more principles could be applied.

1.  Treat them with respect, response and attention. At the end of the day, they are government staff who have fixed promotional timelines and fixed reward punishment patterns

2. Find their basic nature and accordingly allocate the task. For instance, whether he is aggressive, meek, sincere, calm, analytical or theoretical and so on

3.  Motivate them. Give them speech. Provide some referential authority so that they can also get the work done.

4. Provide them work related authority and tools

5. Don't get involved in the petty issues of office. These things work out on their own. At least, not pay attention to them until they are flagged. 

But just imagine that you are on other side of the table. How would you deal with an angry and aggressive boss. Following are some insights:

1. Develop a thick skin: Let the other person shout as much as he can. As long as he is not harming you physically and in substantive sense, it is ok. Just absorb the rebuke.

2. Under promise over deliver

3. Learn that client will always tag a task as urgent but essentially, there is nothing called URGENT

4. Buy as much time as possible

5. Always keep some output or excuse ready

6. Use visibility and opaqueness in functional sense. Use it wisely to deflect tension.

7. Become a Yes Man. 

8. Strategies like "Sir you are not audible", "Sir there is another output for you", "Sir, I take the responsibility for delay", and some other tension diffusing lines should always be available.

9. Show as if lot of effort is going on but live life as usual. Work need not be done but it must appear to progress.

10. Take approvals in writing and never give anything back in writing

11. Do not let the client access code or real work environment. Else he will know the truth.

12. Keep multiple versions of the documents.

13. When you can't explain, confuse

14. Pass the decision to client. This will help you in buying time.

There are many other situational techniques. If in case you are government staff then also you should have few tools in your hand. For instance:

1. In government, never give full answers

2. In government, always tell less than what you know

3. Keep a low profile

4. Speak less, observe more

5. Never be on the front, work from the back end

6. Delegate as early as possible. Never keep it pending at your desk

7. Show as if you are the busiest person in the office

8. Learn to see the hidden meanings of directions

9. Never sit in a car or room bigger than your boss's car or room

There is lot more to write but I think enough for now.