July 5, 2017

Virtual Reality is being used in business

From using VR to design warships (it can't get more serious) to having Realtors do virtual walk throughs. A friend from US mentioned recently that his wife (who is a realtor) has increased her sale because it lets a potential buyer do a virtual walk-through of the property. Try and buy is going to become the way we shop. Learning and development has huge opportunities to use VR in training employees not just on the product and services but to build more empathy with customers. Leadership training can use VR to build empathy - an elusive area so far.

June 29, 2017

How to Handle Underperformers on a Team You Inherit

How to handle underperformers in a team you inherit? The manager is responsible for the success of the team. It is not fair to top performers when the manager ignores the underperformers and lets the others pick up the slack. How can the manager help?

February 27, 2017

a16z interviews Yuvi Harari

The podcast explores more provocative questions. With all the data that we are giving freely to Facebook and Amazon etc, one day they will be able to predict our tastes better than loved ones and maybe even better than what we can. What happens then?We have to look at the issue of job losses not from one country's perspective but from multiple perspectives. If the technology developed in say US, leads to job losses of factory in Bangladesh, who should compensate whom and by how much? Who will determine the level of compensation? How will AI impact the way schools are designed and structured? And of course, what happens when techno-religions gather more followers?

February 18, 2017

Introduction to Storytelling by Pixar

I am a fan of Pixar's storytelling style. I don't know if you have ever read their famous 22 rules of storytelling? If you have not, you must. Some of the tips are really super useful to newbies like me who are fascinated enough by the magic to want to be a magician. But for now one has to be grateful that I am getting to read the magician's book of spells before he returns. I make a quick note of rule number 2 in the Book of Spells.

January 28, 2017

The secret of feeling motivated at work

Mastery is an endless pathway that you can use to stay motivated regardless of the work you do. A barista could build further expertise by learning about different recipes of coffee. Or about the rituals around coffee in different parts of the world. And become a storyteller who tells a new story involving coffee to a customer. Maybe you could have storytelling sessions about all the interesting people who love coffee. The day you can discover that the opportunities for mastery in your field, whatever that might be, is really endless, you will stop dreading the beginning of the work week.

October 21, 2016

5 Future Skills

Using a trans-disciplinary lens to solve complex problems will become the norm. Google uses anthropologists to understand how users think and behave. Anthropologists are used to making sense of the full sweep of complex cultures. Google’s coders work with psychologists to understand the emotions that their fonts create among users. Being able to understand others is an integral part of how work will get done. Routine, repetitive work will all get done with machines. So what skills will matter more in future?

March 7, 2016

Do women face unconscious bias

Women’s Day is an opportunity to think about how to make conscious choices to build a more inclusive workplace. That means we should look at policies that allow for flexibility in when, where, and how work is done. Today technology enables us to dis-aggregate work and distribute it across the world to anyone who is capable of doing it. Progressive organizations are rethinking not only maternity benefits but also recraft their parental leave policies.

February 21, 2016

Is Apple right in saying no to the government’s request

Apple has said no to FBI’s request to gain access to their walled garden. Governments make requests to companies like Twitter and Facebook to block posts that they define as inflammatory. The line between what one defines as freedom of expression and sedition is often blurred. Is Apple right in saying no to the government and is that in our best interest?