Smile !!!

Recently, I had a conversation with my friend who had visited her friends marriage party.She was feeling sorry after the party because she forget to smile,may be she is worried that how her friend felt that time ..

This is now a days a normal situation. While saying good morning 98% people from INDIA don't smile. I never understand are they showing their ego or do they want to show all of their frustration to their nearest peoples.Well, one thing is sure people forget to smile. Many amongst us are joining GYM,dance classes etc to remain fit.But the exercise which is free of cost ,we never use to do that,yeah I am again talking about Smile.According to research smiling face has more glow , less wrinkles and of course it is good for blood circulation.

Reasons given by some persons why they not smile:-

1.Getting up early in the morning made us so frustrated.
2.Going to Office and seeing the same bossy faces and client big-big mails never make us to smile.
3.We used to smile with our clients,because we are getting work from them.
4.Recession, and what useless topic "smile" you are thinking of.
5.No time to think anything as mind is not working.

Well, dear friends enough is enough for making reasons.Treat your seniors with a grateful smile with great respect and same is applicable while you are talking to your juniors.
It reminds me some lines from from The Best of . . . Bits & Pieces, Economics Press, Fairfield, NJ, 1994, p.l70.
A smile costs nothing, but it creates much.
It enriches those who receive it without impoverishing those who give it.
It happens in a flash, and the memory of it may last forever.
None are so rich that they can get along without it, and none so poor that they cannot be richer for its benefits.
It creates happiness in the home, fosters goodwill in a business, and is the countersign of friends.
It is rest to the weary, daylight to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and nature's best antidote for trouble.
Yet it cannot be begged, bought, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is worth nothing to anyone until it is given away.

So, start smiling and see the impact. Never forget to smile!!!!!!!

Save time with asynchronous communication

The technical world has moved from synchronous communication to asynchronous communication. Most of the modern communications have moved from circuit switched networks to packet switched networks. This optimizes bandwidth even as it guarantees excellent quality.

Humans have moved from sending letters and post cards to talking to people over the telephone to sending people e-mails/SMS and tele/video conferencing. As we went along we shrunk the world and connected to millions of people easily.

Now, personal communication has largely moved from letters to phone calls (more of mobile calls nowadays) apart from in-person meetings of course. Of late web 2.0 has spawned social networking that has been lapped up as well to keep in touch personally. Business communication is distributed between the good old letters/memos, e-mails, messengers, meetings, telecons, videocons and of course blogs to a certain extent.

My argument is to reduce synchronous communication methods like meetings, telecons, videocons and increase asynchronous communication methods like e-mails and SMS. The Blackberry and other push e-mail devices have made it even more possible to stay in touch in async mode. But are we using async mode enough and effectively?

Most of the business processes the world over isolate the individual and expect the individual to accomplish tasks, combine with teams to generate output and analyze ways to increase output or decrease costs. On the sales and marketing side also individuals design campaigns, go out to the field, generate reports and collaborate to increase sales or decrease cost of sales.

Software engineering is no different and the global delivery model has been built on this framework. We used to sell the concept of 16-18 hour work windows available for development. But what is happening? We are constantly in meetings/telecons - requirements analysis, design reviews, code reviews, test result reviews, project reviews, RFP reviews, pricing reviews, quality reviews, performance reviews - the list is endless. Which effectively means that an individual has lesser and lesser time to do actual work of design, coding, testing and documentation.

The much touted 16-18 hour window has become a curse robbing early mornings and evenings (even late nights) from family. We seem to be doing more talking than doing anything of substance. One would think we are in the media for all the talking/discussing we do. There are certain fundamentals that need to be corrected to move to async mode thereby increasing productivity and releasing time for family and friends.

Work
Work can be measured as actual output between meetings. We need to be accountable for the time we spend working. Now, this seems like basic stuff but we are too far off this. To do good quality work we need peace and tranquility free of disturbances. Sure we can have our coffee breaks but the workspace cannot be a contiguous coffee shop with chit chat, speaker-phones, etc. Though I am not a stickler for strict timings it may be a good thing to have meeting free time chunks in the mornings. We can then work peacefully and send over our work for review by our peers or supervisors.

Reviews
It has now become impossible for us to review something in the absence of the creator of the work material. This has diluted the reviews as reviewers are robbed off independent thinking and perspective. Review meetings have come to being brainstorming exercises with creators and reviewers. This is a double whammy as both need to spend the time in meetings when they could have operated better with the reviewer reviewing independently and the creator creating more output in this time. Telecons have become ineffective as rarely people come prepared with review comments and start reading material only during the telecon and again it becomes a brainstorming session across the seas. Reviewers should submit review comments before the meetings/telecons so that both sides are better prepared for a meaningful and effective discussion.

e-mail
If we can work and review as above the number of meetings and duration of meetings can be vastly reduced. We can use e-mail to exchange output/reviews and we can even use e-mail and/or messenger to discuss offline key points instead of doing it in a meeting with so many other people involved. If we can be on top of our inboxes to make sure there is nothing pending from ourside it would be great.

Downside
Like everything in this world this has its downside too. Many of us have become addicted to e-mail and sms that we fret when nothing comes in! Though these are async modes of communication some of us treat it as synchronous communication and send a reply immediately irrespective of the time of the day. Prompt replies are fine but certainly not warranted after office hours? Worse we expect such behavior from others also.

So, if we change our work approach to reduce synchronous communication, do more work alone, use e-mail effectively and meet only when necessary for the duration planned it would improve our productivity at least by 20%. This will also help in work-life balancing our workdays and weekends!

Will it work? Why not? After all we go to client locations and work their work hours (usually 8-5 except for a few days when deadlines are breathing down the neck) and have time to do grocery shopping, watch NBA/EPL in the evenings.

So, it is possible. Take some time. Think about it. And the change the way you work. tell me if it worked or if it didn't.