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April 03, 2005
May peace be with you.
Today, I am grieving the pope. I did not think that I’d feel sad about the loss of Pope John Paul II but I am sad that he is not there anymore. I felt sad about Sankaracharya being arrested but felt that somehow, he might come out unscathed by the scandal and in my fantasy, everything would be set right. On the other hand, losing John Paul, makes me feel like I lost my own grand father. A kind, loving and stern grand father of mine. My daughter wondered why I am so affected. We are Hindus and not connected...Posted by pkaipa at 10:35 PM | Comments (171) | TrackBack
April 07, 2005
Vision, Mission... Confusion.
We had a conversation about purpose, vision and mission in a board meeting that I recently attended. These have become rubber words – you can stretch them any way you want and don’t mean very much for many people because they see them all the time on the walls of conference rooms in companies but rarely pay attention to them in terms of providing service to customers or dealing with employees let alone dealing with investors. On the other hand, I have more and more executives (and friends) who are exploring what they are about and what their purpose in...Posted by pkaipa at 12:23 PM | Comments (123) | TrackBack
April 08, 2005
Ground Rules: What I learned in Kindergarten
Mr. Alan Mullaly, the President of Boeing Commercial Aircraft used to be the General Manager of 777 project in mid-90s while I was working as a consultant to develop senior executive development program. He used to operate his weekly project review meetings by a set of guidelines or ground rules every week. He is an inspirational person and I admire his passion, energy and how he brought his leadership skills wherever he want. Here is a small story of how Mullaly helped his kindergarden kid and his friends to create a set of ground rules in their class. Mullaly's son...Posted by pkaipa at 11:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 11, 2005
Availability
Perhaps because of less number of people this week, something I always look for in a dialogue happened: We spontaneously saw a truth by being a mirror to each other. We asked ourselves why is it that sometimes we get bored or disinterested while being engaged in some work. We went through the regular reasoning – lack of newness, frustration due to the difficulty of a challenge, the size of the reward (why should I work so much to get so little) etc. We discussed ways in which one could become aware of the reason that induces boredom or disinterest...Posted by Ragu at 11:04 AM | Comments (169) | TrackBack
April 25, 2005
Are You taking up Space or Creating Space?
In the check-in Prasad mentioned about the conversation with the Sufi master Kabir Helminski. One thing that stuck in his mind was the statement about human beings coming from space. After check in, the dialogue started with a question: Wherever we are, most of us occupy space. Do we ever consciously create space? (There were other reflections on motivation, innovation, effort vs. results and we will include reflections on them as we go forward.) By space, we are here referring to physical, mental, emotional and spiritual spaces. Immediately two more questions came up: What is the importance of space and...Posted by Ragu at 01:47 PM | Comments (157) | TrackBack
April 26, 2005
Reflections on music in the context of self-management
Prasad Kaipa, Ph. D. and Giridhar Tirumalai, Ph. D. During the 20th century Industrial Age, people and machines worked side by side with little difference between them in terms of the expected output. Efficiency management (of a machine or a person) was the primary focus then. In the 21st century Knowledge Age, the survival and growth of a company depends not merely on efficiency but effectiveness, not on repetitiveness but on innovation, not on one-time success but continuous growth that is sustainable. Effectiveness, Innovation and Sustainability are not objective, external factors and cannot be achieved by efficiency-management by others; they...Posted by pkaipa at 03:24 PM | Comments (281) | TrackBack