iWoz
Getting your dream project isn’t always easy. This involves
learning, training perhaps even travelling and lots of will power and focus to
make sure you don’t deter.
Yesterday while reading Iwoz, I was blown away. The book of
course is all about Steve Wozniak and his brilliance but amidst it all I
learned:
·Stay true to myself and my goals
·If others don’t get it, don’t look back, continue with your plans.
·Think differently
·If you have an opportunity, go for it.
·Have ethics at work, its good.
·Don’t lie or malign others, never under estimate your peers and respect the passion others have.
If you get a chance, make sure to read this definitely. It's an inspiration, an awakening and an insight into how great minds think.
Your day is waiting for you!
Newsletters- Do they change you?
If you follow me on twitter, I tweeted about 2 fav persons whose newsletter I love.
I am not a fan of newsletters, I treat them more as a spam flooding my inbox because most of the times I really don’t care what you have to sell.
However, Jenny Blake and Elizabeth Harrin are exceptionals. If you are a newbie or out of college (I’m none of these) and love entrepreneurial journey- Jenny’s newsletters (and blog) are fantastic. Need a project management update and what’s new happening in the PM Town, Elizabeth as always is a great resource.
Another great resource that I have been ignoring for a while is Ramit Sethi. I read the partial free download of his book and his blog and loved it, so I signed up for the newsletter years ago. Honestly, I have almost never read his newsletters till last week. I didn’t want to buy stuff and thought his newsletters were informative, but I didn’t know if it was for me.
Till last week, I clicked on his newsletter and saw his tips on having a great resume- that got my attention.
I read the whole thing including the links and downloaded all the videos and information. The material was great. It was stuff he was giving away to registered newsletter subscribers that he usually sells as a course.
From all that I have read and heard (still have 3 more videos to go), here are some amazing things he said:
•Resume’s should be very specific (in everything). Pack in details, research your company (where you would like to work) and your job profile well. Don’t just randomly apply to jobs (and through job boards) and then blame the system for not having a scope for you. True- my last 2 jobs have been through referrals.
•Use LinkedIn as a Tool.
•Every month, keep a percentage of your salary for meeting other interesting people. While it may not be flying to the other side of the world, meet people in your locality who can be your mentors, career advisors, or just a great contact. Invest in yourself and your growth.
So, instead of signing up for all kinds of newsletters, look for those that helps you. De-clutter your inbox and focus on the thing you should be doing.
That is my goal for December. I have moved continents, lived in 2 cities commuting every month and postponed a lot of personal goals for tomorrow (the one that never comes).
This December, I am re-planning my life and my goals. I want to be happier, do things I have always wanted to do and find time for myself and my hobbies. Learn something new twice a year that isn’t part of my professional life (like Tennis and rock climbing).
Time to de-clutter and find yourself.
(Image Courtesy: Google Images)
Newbie?
Just because you are an intern and newbie:•Observe your boss to imitate them as much as you can and want to- you will get a feel of what they like.
•Be you, it matters even among the more experienced crowd.
•Ask questions, see document libraries, gather as much information you can from meeting, conversations etc.
•Don’t back out during all conversations and fault findings. Hold your own.
•Don’t let others tell you how much you are worth, you know better than that.
•No one has the right to make you feel inferior without your permission. Dont let that happen.
•When nothing seems to be working out, don’t loose hope. It happens, instead focus on things you can do. Get a certification, see the requirement, ensure your work is around fulfilling those requirements.
•Be careful about what you say in the office. And your social networking sites.
•Even if you feel nothing is working out, stay. Stay for 4-6 months to let everything fall in its place.
•Quitting is good, but not without a plan.
•Amidst all the chaos, try finding a mentor. She/he will guide you to navigate the mess.
•Try to keep a happy face, makes you look friendlier.
Here are some awesome links that might be interesting:
Best agile Books
More on Kanban
No such Thing As Bad Decision
CPR Technique
This post has been taken from http://www.dhavalpanchal.com
The software world has misused so many terms from the medical profession that one more would not hurt.
CPR – Categorize, Prioritize, Resolve.
This is simple mnemonic that aids me to be methodical in my approach towards uncovering and resolving impediments.
Categorize:
How do you view your world?
To me lack of impediments is like moving in a frictionless environment. This state exists when
a. No work is being done
b. It is an ideal theoretical context
To challenge myself and my teams to look beyond business as usual, I look to creating a categorization mechanism that people can relate to. Lean concepts of load, flow and waste are very simple to understand and use.
There are other categorizing perspectives such as
1. process, tools, technology, culture
2. Not enough time, Takes a lot of time
3. Personal, Team, Organizational
4. Stop, Stall, Go!
5. One off, Always, Sometimes
There are no limits to how you may slice your world of work, expose perspectives and uncover impediments that were hidden.
Prioritize:
The purpose of prioritizing is two fold:
1. Identify impediments that have most negative impact on having ‘fun’ at work
2. Select a handful of impediments that should be worked through resolution.
For impact assessment, ‘dot-voting’ could be a technique to bubble up impediments that sap most energy from your team. (As has been done on the picture above)
Many impediments get treated as ‘Business as usual’ - often times because people are not sure how to influence or act towards resolution. Impediments that get ignored or not addressed fall through the cracks and ignored and accepted as norms for team/organization culture.
Recognizing where the team can take action, where they can influence and what is ‘the soup’ is very important to focus on what can be done over what should be done.
As a self directed exercise, the team members move impediment stickies to into an appropriate zone. Items that they feel they can act upon and attempt to resolve within the team fall into the ‘me’ circle. Items that can be influenced and require assistance from managers, organizationals, other teams etc fall into the influence zone. Items that can’t be acted upon or resolved via influence are in the soup. Many organizational scale impediments tend to fall into the soup.
Resolve:
Take action on resolving impediments that are in the ‘me’ zone. Act towards influencing others in your organization to assit with impediments in the ‘influence’ zone. Expose impediments that are in the soup to senior management, as they are best positioned to address these.
Identifying problems have a negative impact while resolving problems have a positive impact.
The software world has misused so many terms from the medical profession that one more would not hurt.
CPR – Categorize, Prioritize, Resolve.
This is simple mnemonic that aids me to be methodical in my approach towards uncovering and resolving impediments.
Categorize:
How do you view your world?
To me lack of impediments is like moving in a frictionless environment. This state exists when
a. No work is being done
b. It is an ideal theoretical contextTo challenge myself and my teams to look beyond business as usual, I look to creating a categorization mechanism that people can relate to. Lean concepts of load, flow and waste are very simple to understand and use.
There are other categorizing perspectives such as
1. process, tools, technology, culture
2. Not enough time, Takes a lot of time
3. Personal, Team, Organizational
4. Stop, Stall, Go!
5. One off, Always, Sometimes
There are no limits to how you may slice your world of work, expose perspectives and uncover impediments that were hidden.
Prioritize:
The purpose of prioritizing is two fold:
1. Identify impediments that have most negative impact on having ‘fun’ at work
2. Select a handful of impediments that should be worked through resolution.
For impact assessment, ‘dot-voting’ could be a technique to bubble up impediments that sap most energy from your team. (As has been done on the picture above)
Many impediments get treated as ‘Business as usual’ - often times because people are not sure how to influence or act towards resolution. Impediments that get ignored or not addressed fall through the cracks and ignored and accepted as norms for team/organization culture.
Recognizing where the team can take action, where they can influence and what is ‘the soup’ is very important to focus on what can be done over what should be done.
As a self directed exercise, the team members move impediment stickies to into an appropriate zone. Items that they feel they can act upon and attempt to resolve within the team fall into the ‘me’ circle. Items that can be influenced and require assistance from managers, organizationals, other teams etc fall into the influence zone. Items that can’t be acted upon or resolved via influence are in the soup. Many organizational scale impediments tend to fall into the soup.
Resolve:
Take action on resolving impediments that are in the ‘me’ zone. Act towards influencing others in your organization to assit with impediments in the ‘influence’ zone. Expose impediments that are in the soup to senior management, as they are best positioned to address these.
Identifying problems have a negative impact while resolving problems have a positive impact.
