Who am I?

-          is a very pertinent question!

We strive to define our ‘identity’.  Our experiences, our aspirations, those around us, ecosystem we live in – all contribute to our definition of ‘our identity’.

Identity is a ‘who’ question. Downstream it impacts ‘why’ question (our values), and behavior implications (how, what, and when).

Defining our identity can be empowering, but in certain conditions limiting.  I experience and sometimes observe a tendency to delve into our past and look at our present to define ‘our identity’. While that brings about understanding, it also runs risk of bringing about rationalization and a resistance to change.

For us to create a future which we desire, we need to give up somethings of our past.

So ensure that you are factoring in enough of your aspirations into your identity.

That will make for a more complete and possibly satisfying answer to question ‘Who am I?’

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Sourav

Value Chain!

Should we look at only role content when charting out our career plans? What other factors should we consider?

I feel we should also consider what is portfolio of contexts we are building for ourselves.

We can look at life stage of an organization- start up, high growth, mature, or declining.

We can also look at where in value chain is context? Is it

• Closer to customer- pre-sales, sales, delivery, post sales service?
• A little higher up in Supply chain? - secondary distribution (to customer)?
• Much higher up in supply chain-primary sourcing/distribution to factories.
• Product design/R&D?
• Central function -governance of value chain?

 

I have worked in a central org, manufacturing org, sales org, and delivery org.

 

Why is working across different points of value chain important? Well, for one as we see different points we understand the value chain better. For another, different parts of value chain hold different values.

Some values a central org may hold are integration, standardization, bet practices, etc.

In a manufacturing set up values may be Right First Time (no errors), predictability, reliability, process orientation, etc.

In a sales org values may be outcome orientation, resourcefulness, etc.

A delivery org might have values similar to a manufacturing org - focus on processes, quantitative orientation, large scale implementation, etc.

I've worked in mature and high growth phases. I've worked in HQs , with sales orgs, with manufacturing orgs, and with delivery orgs. I’ve worked in HQs as well as in subsidiaries. I've started experienced handling international markets.

What are some of contexts I have not experienced? Service (should be about customer orientation/delight) and R&D (creativity, knowledge); start up and declining phase orgs; and regional and HQ (international) roles.

These are some lines I am thinking on, along with content of next roles, as I plan my next career steps.

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Sourav

Intentions!

Some time back I was watching webcast about launch of Annual Performance Review process.

Head of HR was addressing Managers. She took a lot of time to explain the ´intention´ - single line message - behind the shape of curve and review process.

 

Like many others, I was struck by power of her words.

I have been wondering what happened. What did she do that left it´s mark?

 

I have heard many a times objective or metrics of a process but I´ve never found an objective/metric/goal so powerful.

 

First, I think word ´intention´ has more elements of a verb than words objective/metric/goal. It makes me realize that I am the executioner of the intent.

 

Second we associate a value judgment with intentions. ´If my intention isn´t in place, then either something´s wrong with me or I’m at wrong place!´ We mayn´t associate such judgments with other 3 words.

 

I´m sold on figuring out the intention behind the HR processes we manage. Let me illustrate. What´s intention behind:

·         recruitment/selection processes? Some options are – to make any participant a brand ambassador, to reinforce uniqueness of working here, to find a role/culture fit, etc.

·         compensation processes? Some options are – we´re best paymasters & we´ll do everything to retain you; you´re best judge of your money (take it in whatever way you want), etc.

·         learning processes? Some options are – you´re a ´talent´, it´s your responsibility to identity and drive learning needs; we value role based learning & personal development is your concern, etc.

·         role designs? Some options are- we value specialization/generalization; empowerment/centralization, etc.

I´m not sure if, in this post, I´ve chanced upon anything new. But I do feel I´ve found a way to see existing processes more powerfully.

 

What do you think?

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Sourav