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.