Happy Weekend

(Pic courtesy: Google Images)

Goal Setting Framework

This is a Guest Post by Madhavi Ledalla.

Many of us have goals, and I’m sure we would like to work towards them and achieve them.  Sometimes the goals that are set are lost somewhere or are mostly subjectively set without any objective stats to support their perusal.

Here are some steps that could guide the goal setting journey-

Start with the why, the purpose of doing something. What is my goal? What do I want to achieve and How. Simon Sinek’s framework could help here as a starting point.   

Write your goals on “Goal Definition” canvas.

Depending on number of goals you set for yourself, you may have those many goal definition canvases. Once the “Goal Definition Canvas” is filled, next step is to come up with a the priority of which goal is  most important to you. This leads to “Goal Prioritization” exercise. The below “Prioritization” Canvas can be  used.

Depending on the NS, you pick one goal that you want to work on. Once the goal is selected, the next steps are planning to achieve the goal. For this we can use the “Goal Planning Canvas”.

List down the activities that are required for you to meet the goal.

Arrange them in this way based on the impact and learning of working on the goal. Put them on the canvas and 1,2, 3 is the order of working.

One the order has been obtained from the “Planning” canvas, lay down these activities on a “Goal-Visualization-Board” and move the activities through each stage to visualize the progress.

The opinion and content expressed here is of the author and not SIPM.

Happy Weekend

(Pic courtesy: google images)

May- Product Round Up

I have often talked about my recent interest in wellness in Instagram and in this new journey there are routines I follow, new things I read and learn and sometimes things I buy to keep me going in that journey.

As the last post for this month, here are some of my favorite products I bought:

1. Little Black Book - I have heard of this so many times via you-tubers and while looking for next book to buy, I thought of this one. I bought via Kindle and it’s a simple read that’s more of a reminder of things you need to do. If you are trying a new career or planning to hustle this book just might be for you.
2. I re-purposed my study desk, it was anyways becoming a pile of unwanted things, so I moved it to another room and now I don’t have a desk. I write wherever I want to- dining table, couch, on the floor, bed. In my attempt to keep me positive as much as I can, I try diffusers. This one is a humidifier plus diffuser. I love the smell of freshness and use diffuser's mostly during morning's. So, this mini one got my attention and I use it when I write, it moved around with me wherever I am. I use lavender oil and the fact it also doubles up as humidifier is amazing. So far I have used it at my makeshift desks and have enjoyed it very much. 
3. Okay, just in case you need to know more details of my routines-I used to go for pedicures every month but mostly for the foot message. And I haven’t had much time to indulge in one for the last couple of years and guess what I found one that I can have at home. Its been a week and I use it everyday, especially on the days when I am on my foot for hours like training's and workshops. Its wonderfully packaged (looks nice) and yes does wonders for your feet and stress. 
4. This one is again influenced by social media where I have read so much that I really want to try Epsom salt. Anyone  here who uses it on regular basis? 
5. Has to be another book, right? Thinking Fast and Slow is my second trial at reading it. If you are looking for a serious read that doesn’t quite cut as vacation read, then look no further. More detailed review will be up soon as I get the entire book done.

If you like this style of blogging, done forget to let me know via comments or at twitter.

Disclaimer: links used here are affiliate links.

Articles to Read this Month

Here are list of some of the article I read this month and enjoyed it, so thought I would  share.

1. How a genius thinks and works is a rather interesting read with a cup of your favorite tea.
2. If like everybody else, you are looking forward to happiness, this one is for you
3. The journey from east coast to Kilimanjaro, one woman's tale to do the impossible. 
4. If you are the creative who is always looking fr the next big idea, clearly creative abrasion works and hers how 
5. Like everyone else, if you are caught by the wellness bug if  and looking for some great reads, here’s an entire list just for you.
6. Want to turn yourself to a focused individual, see the ways you can get ahead in the race.
7. How your rival can make you better hear it from none other than Federer himself. 

(Pic courtesy: google images)

Why is creativity important in agile?

Majority of teams and organizations believe, agile is about ceremonies and productivity and leveraging the flexibility by forcefully changing requirements and showcasing books and authors on how it has been done.

 In ‘Building the Agile Business’, author and digital strategist Neil Perkin describes an agile business as being ‘velocity x focus x flexibility’. In other words, a business that is focusing its efforts on moving in a clear direction, but that also has an in-built ability to adapt and change course if and when necessary…..Taking an agile approach enables brands to test new ideas early on and to adapt easily to changes to ensure maximum success. 

In most scenarios this over used buzzword has also created myths around it that very few can differentiate with reality. Like doing stands up doesn’t make you an agile team. An organization isn’t Agile if only teams are forced to change without telling them why the change is happening. It only leads to bitterness.

There are the supporters and the naysayers who argue over whose agile (implementation) is better. They quote authors and books and bring out snippets of blogposts and argue their case. In all this chaos, I have barely seen teams question what they do and why they do? Why the change?

Creativity often ignored isn’t considered as mainstream thought process in resolving real time problems. The flexibility or adaptability in Agile is sometimes taken as a license to leverage it without thinking.

While certain outlines needs to be adhered, creativity or free thinking can always help resolve problems even when it revolves around process. The most creative individuals are those who can see the things that everyone else misses. 

Looking at data trends in an agile team can tell you where lies the core problem, to put an end to mechanical retrospectives and really finding ways to get the team talking needs creativity and to eventually see what’s working and what’s not and to better the team is about thinking differently.

So, should we incorporate in Agile training's about the need of looking at a set of problems  and thinking how to resolve by adhering to your team culture, by encouraging team members to come up with a new set of solution, bring the team together in discussing collaboratively and telling that it’s not about the tools, it’s about you. Bring you to the table, bring your ideas, disagree when required and respect the difference of thoughts. 

(Pic courtesy: Google Images)

This is what you should be doing

What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

List down 3 items and find a way to get it done.

What would you need to get it done? More time, money, taking risks?

The biggest reason we don’t succeed is because we stand in our own way. So, here are some methods that are ruling the web.

Miracle Mornings is something I recently came across, you can listen to the audio book in YouTube. There’s clearly a buzz about it online and saw numerous people talking about it and how it has changed their lives. The goal is simple, get up early every morning and ensure you set your mood and pace by using visual boards and exercise to get things done.

The Secret-Law of Attraction has lots of followers including celebrities. It focuses a lot on visualization and here’s Oprah’s recount of how it worked for her 

Mental practice as they say can get you closer to where you want to be in life, and it can prepare you for success! “For instance, Natan Sharansky, a computer specialist who spent 9 years in prison in the USSR after being accused of spying for US has a lot of experience with mental practices. While in solitary confinement, he played himself in mental chess, saying: “I might as well use the opportunity to become the world champion!” Remarkably, in 1996, Sharansky beat world champion chess player Garry Kasparov!” Source

There could be multiple ways to work on your life goals without having to dedicate yourself full time. You don't need to quit your job, if you are not ready.

Most of the techniques is about you working on your willpower by visualizing you being successful or fulfilling your dream and then you create your way by working out early before you can give excuses.

So wake up, get up and get going!


(Pic courtesy: Google Images)

Decision Making: Why its so difficult?

“You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits,” he said. “I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.”   – Obama 


The term Decision Making itself sounds complex: you have to choose one over another. This seems to be about people who are rational and not impulsive, who gather data and analyses them without being impulsive and who have taken calculated risks and have eventually won.

But get ready for a surprise, decisions are supposedly taken more emotionally than rationally

So, how do you really decide?

Here's what Ruth Chang thinks......

A study suggests that it relies on two separate networks to do so: one that determines the overall value — the risk versus reward — of individual choices and another that guides how you ultimately behave. Perhaps that’s why we mostly choose the one that’s safe.

Some decisions are easier than others, like I decided to move countries much more easily with of course some amount of fear than the fact that I have been postponing driving in Hyderabad, India.
So, what allows me to make some decisions easily but others not… I am not sure. May be it’s the analysis of the reward and the threat. Moving countries seemed rewarding to me- new culture, better career, travelling and trying out cuisines which I all enjoy.

While driving for me mostly means fighting thoughts of crazy traffic, lack of strict rules or being stuck in traffic for hours and the eventual loss of freedom because  I can’t read or listen to anything while I drive.

So, I evaluate and decide, driving doesn’t seem like a very good idea even though rationally I should be driving to save me loads of money and flexibility of time.

Have you ever made a decision than turned into a bad one?

Creativity- How to bring it back in your life?

Who do you consider to be a creative?

Are they people who have the freedom to pursue their art, are they people who value their freedom- freelancers and artists? What about you? 

All of us are creative as a child, as we get trained more and more in our schools we all fall for the mundane, we forget who we are and become what we are expected to be.

Creativity as it seems comes with a price, in her article Nancy C. Andreasen, who is the Andrew H. Woods Chair of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and the former editor in chief of The American Journal of Psychiatry talks about creative people having it either passed on via generations or have higher rates of mental illness “The creative subjects and their relatives have a higher rate of mental illness….The most-common diagnoses include bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety or panic disorder, and alcoholism. 

There could be extreme cases of eccentricities involved for a lot of creatives, however in regular life to extract more satisfaction from life creativity is of utter importance. It could be an author who breaks into the publishing scene and takes the world by storm like J. K. Rowling., it can be content creators who look at life differently and are able to replicate that in their content and gain huge followers through the social media platform, it can be poets like Rupi Kaur whose poetry has been in controversies but has rightly brought in the young generation in touch with themselves through words and not selfies.

So, where is creativity for you and me while we are part of regular jobs?

Well, creativity still needs sustenance and that could mean the fact you have a job is a good thing.  You are free to spend here and there for things you love to engage in like a local pottery class or take a class or travel. Creativity isn’t limited to a certain profession any longer. And as it turns out “depending on the stage of the creative process, and what you’re actually attempting to create, different brain regions are recruited to handlethe task.”  

So creativity is not only a breath of fresh air it’s actually good for the brain health. Multiple ways we can still encourage ourselves to be creative:

• Find out what interests you, mind mapping is a great technique to find out what you like
• Learn/practice something new – It’s said that creatives are better self-learners than learning from others by being spoon fed. If you are looking for great deals, find out the offerings/giveaways of bloggers as well. You might get a month free or sometimes courses half off. 
• Find the time for yourself (self-care), sabbaticals might not be for everyone however why not try remote working once a month and use the time for commutes to try out something new..
• It doesn’t have to be perfect to start with, its okay to fail. I struggle with this a lot because I feel I have to be at par with the best. Over the years I am okay to try out something new even when I know its not at its best. 
• Stop thinking about what others think while you plan a solo vacation. Do things what interests you. Here are 12 habits of successful creatives.   

(Pic courtesy: Google Images)

Whats going on: updates, blog, life and more

Blog-I hav been blogging for a while now and over the time I realised my interests have grown with me and there are more things that i do or are interested in than when I started the blog years ago.

I also now know that to bring our best version to work, the inner state of mind is way more important than how many certifications we have for the job. There's more research and publication now readily available to understand that and that's where I have been investing my time in terms of reading.

I also wasn't quiet sure, how I would like to the blog to shape up and grow with me.......while I enjoy what I do, i would also like to bring more of the inner game here, so you grow with me via the blog.

I think what it would really be, is to have a theme or category in the publications and undertake various things in it. Basically, more of a lifestyle blog for the professionals.

Life- I started this year with returning from a lovely vacation and have taken the time to sort my head. There were days, I wanted to know what more can I offer to my work life, there are days i went to bed at 7.30pm (for almost  a month) because I felt tired and fidgety because i wasn't sorted. So i slept.... in the process of trying to know myself through readings, listening to some great stuff over the web and ideating and scribbling and doing nothing- i now know what I really want to do.

SIPM- the platform where mentors and mentees can meet has been down for a while now. I really wanted to give back to the community that has done so much for me and thats why I had created that platform with the help of my friends. I also thought it would be  a great setup to have a platform where anyone could have a mentor from anywhere in the world and you don' have to write hundreds of emails to do that. Thats why mentors signed up, professionals  who were also interested in giving back  and signed up saying I would love to mentor. I didn't make a dime out of it perhaps because I never considered it to be a business model and I know a lot of you have used it over the years and I couldn't be more thankful. I created for you, what I wish I had for me when I was starting out.

It also means that I have to keep on investing on it and with a lot going on now I am not sure if I really have the time to dedicate my time towards it. At one point i was ready to announce for anyone else to take it over and do  better marketing about the wonderful site than I have done.  For now its on hold, I havent fixed the website and I am rethinking. Would you like it to come back?

Others- there are other smaller interests that are cropping up and I am not sure if I can manage the time to invest myself in all of it it, I will give it a bit more of time and then probably take the final call. However, what I do know is that I would love to be more involved with my audience, people like you who have been reading the blog for a while now. It could be actually getting serious with my youtube channel, or creating a series of coaching sessions, a book and launching products that inspires all of us to look inward and find our inner game.

Has this New Year been different for you?

(Pic courtesy: Soma Bhattacharya, Paris 2017)