If you are anything like me, you let 2020 happen to you. While the start of the pandemic brought along a multitude of emotions and maybe even determination to hit all your goals, you likely went through highs and lows like never before. In waiting for 2021, the vaccine and hoping that the next year … Continue reading 2021 Word of the Year: Intent
When the concept of remote work first made its way into the workplace, there was much debate on how the pay structure should be designed; should it be lower than those expected to turn up to the office given they do not need to spend on travel or should it be higher because of lower … Continue reading The paradox of privilege
Here’s a question for you: What determines organizational success? Is it the stock market, profit margin, liquidity, a combination of 101 factors or pure luck? The irony is - no matter which way you look at it, you will probably land at 1010 factors, half of which you can’t define. So may I ask why … Continue reading Must we measure ROI?
I hate to break it to you, but the end of the year is almost here. Of the many activities we undertake during this season, my favourite, by far, has to be the year end retrospective; and if there was ever a year to do one, it has to be this. 2020 has been a … Continue reading The Big Retrospective
Every leading product organization releases an upgrade every year if not more often. We refresh advertisements every season. Channel partners are reviewed, added or, removed at regular intervals and even logos get redesigned. Then you turn the lens inwards into the organization and gasp! How did we get this static? The performance management system was … Continue reading Expectations are a moving target
Four months into the pandemic, I stopped watching the news. The everyday tracking of numbers, vaccine trials and stages of lockdown did not help with anxiety. Now into the 8th month, I am back to tracking numbers. As we enter what is being popularly called the third wave of COVID, it isn’t hard to notice … Continue reading The Third Wave
It has been two years since I started setting ‘words of the year’ for myself and I have no intention of breaking the streak. Now, I may not be the most convincing exhibit for you to set one for yourself but, like with everything else in life, there is always room for improvement. I have … Continue reading 2020 word of the year
Last week I sent the closing email for one of the projects I run. The email subject line said – ‘Chennai Technophiles signing off for 2019.’ What the subject line should have said is ‘I am signing off for 2019.’ For over a week now I have been literally dragging myself out of bed and … Continue reading End of the year slump
The HR team has a large number of responsibilities, but by far, the most important is likely creating a workplace where employees can deliver their best with minimal friction; including managers. However, the last time I counted the number of internal tools in my organization that managers needed to work with for managing talent, I … Continue reading Manager Tax
I have learnt a lot from engineering teams, but by far my most valuable takeaway has been the rigor with which they believe in and execute retrospectives. Retrospectives sound a lot like common sense. One would expect that every individual, team and organization does it in one form or another. The first time an engineering … Continue reading Retrospectives: Return to basics
