No free lunch !!!

One common accessory you can find in any office is a good coffee and tea machine. Some may offer cookies and other confectionery items too. Some companies raise the bar and offer complimentary breakfast, fruits and snacks. Ultimately we see campus like lifestyle in google/facebook where everything ranging from laundry to gourmet lunches are fixed by the employer.

Apparently all this costs. So how come in today's business world where financial gains are a good gauge for success measurement, freebies for employees are still around.

To understand this, one has to identify the outcome out of this exercise.

• Motivated staff
• Team building
• Relaxation and stress reduction
• Opportunity of discuss out of the box ideas
• Candid feedback 
• Company culture attracting the best in the market for recruitment

This list can go on and on ...

So the question is, was it beneficial to provide free lunch or movie tickets or late afternoon snacks to employees? The answer is, Yes, it was. The benefits reaped are not tangible but they are indeed big and possibly decisive benefits. 

 

Making the most of global sites

When companies and enterprises expand, new global offices spring up. Reasons for opening them can be many, e.g. getting closer to the customer, showing global reach, tapping in on better or cheaper resources and so forth.

While the benefits are abundant, remote and global sites do come up with their own set of problems too. Communication can be one major issue. Different time zones, culture and work  ethics can add to the communication gap. Lag in video conferences and audio calls can be annoying. Email threads may fail to express correct connotations. 

Anyhow, here are some tips to efficiently and productively work in remote setup.

• Provide feedback: Provide accurate and timely feedback. Say site A face a problem and site B proposes a solution. If A doesn't provide a feedback, B will be anxious if the problem is solved or not. Compliments are kind of feedback too.
• Establish communication rules: Setup regular and recurring telephonic meetings with a well defined process of how to conduct them. Settle details of how to set agenda, duration and cancellation notice etc.
• Documentation: Document all proceeds and minutes of meeting. Make sure all points agree on the notes and action points.
• Mentorship: Encourage mentor and mentee relationship among individuals across remote sites.
• Capitalize on the strength: A remote site might have some unique advantages over the others, make the most of them.
• Negativity: Avoid blame game and stop spreading negativity and bad publicity.
• Ambassador program: For similar departments across sites, appoint ambassadors to them and encourage one to one contact between.
• Learn local norms: Understand local traditions and work ethics. 

Reference and Inspiration from:

1. ·         https://hbr.org/2018/02/how-to-collaborate-effectively-if-your-team-is-remote
2. ·         https://hbr.org/2015/10/global-teams-that-work
3. ·         https://www.cbsnews.com/news/remote-teams-dont-have-to-suffer-from-virtual-distance/
4. ·         https://medium.com/@BetterCloud/how-to-improve-cross-departmental-communication-we-tried-it-it-works-53fb4af37e83
5. ·         https://thefutureorganization.com/forming-storming-norming-performing-adjourning-and-transforming/

 

Bias in Artificial Intelligence

While human being can be biased, discriminative and unfair, I firmly believed that machines could be perfect. My reasoning where that machines will be free of human follies like jealousy, personal likes and nepotism.

Then during my studies around digital transformation it downed upon me that machines can be unfair and biased too. This makes sense too, since humans are the ones creating them. AI elements need data to train them and originally this data comes from humans.

Take an example of a bot that screens out job applications for a particular post. Previously this work was done by a recruiter. Historically, if the recruiter has shown certain preferences to a particular ethnicity or an educational institute in the resume, this bias goes into the decisions based on which the bot decides the fate of the applications now.

The good news is that bias is AI is very much recognised and efforts are made to avoid it. An example is shared in the link below where IBM not only acknowledges the risk of increased bias in future AI but also promise effective measure to mitigate it.

https://www.research.ibm.com/5-in-5/ai-and-bias/

Project Management Core Values

Core values are a set of rules, beliefs or ideas that serve as a guideline to conduct oneself in any situation. Just like individuals, companies big or small, private or public, live by these values.

Ericsson share three core values: Respect, Professionalism, Perseverance (1)

Scania's core values – Customer first, Respect for the individual, Elimination of waste, Determination, Team Spirit and Integrity (2)

Like private companies, public offices too share core values, like Kronofogden's core values include a vision that everyone pays their debt. (3) 

According to PMBOK Guide (4), PMI endorses the following four values as most important:

• Responsibility
• Respect 
• Fairness
• Honesty

Every person associated with project management must conduct himself according to the above mentioned core values.

References:
(1). https://www.ericsson.com/en/careers/working-here/our-values
(2). https://www.scania.com/global/en/home/experience-scania/about-us.html
(3). https://www.kronofogden.se/en-GB/vardegrund.html
(4). Section 1.1.3 CODE OF ETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT, PMBOK

Future already here? Yes it is ...

Earlier this year I met a friend of mine researching data sciences. One buzz word that resonated often in his answer of 'whats going on nowadays?' was Industry 4.0. Everybody seems to be talking about it. Being associated with telecom industry, I was aware of internet of things and how 4/5 G will be enablers for this. But industry 4.0 and whatever happened to the 3 revolutions earlier? I felt little embarrassed for missing out on them thinking they might have happened right before our lives. Anyway life moved on.

Fast forward and I am tuned to the lecture about Digitization and this slides shows up:

 
To my relief the revolution had started as early as the 18th century. It started with the steam rolling out of the steam engine. When Michael Faraday harnessed the electric power, the seeds of 2nd industrial revolution were laid and the invention of computer signalled the start of 3rd revolution. Today, many engineers including myself are contributing to the 4th revolution even if we don't know it. Truth be told, this is an unstoppable transformation and we all desire and drive it.

"The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed."
The Economist, December 4, 2003”― William Gibson

Digital Transformantion in Education System

I have attended skype meetings and webinars but the first lecture of this course was the very first time I attended a class sitting in a mini meeting room in my office. I was skeptical about the idea to begin with. I thought it will be a one sided communication with the presenter going though a bunch of slides, no possibility of a white board and it will be over like any other video log on youtube. However, at the end of the lecture I was asking myself if this is the future of education?

Imagine the possibilities:

• No more need for traditional classroom and big university campus. 
• The teachers and students can be in a different time zones.
• With recorded sessions even remote sync up at the same time isn't required.
• With the right tool support, communication can be as good as if meeting face to face.

This may be the way developing countries look towards promoting education. Tax payers money can be saved from purchasing expensive real estate in big cities. Students can join in from rural areas and still reap the benefits of university education.

The more I think of it, the more I am convinced that this is an inevitable and unstoppable digital transformation.

First Blood

It's always fascinating and exciting to do something for the first time. As part of this course, a blog has to maintained for all the thoughts and studies around the topic. This is quite an interesting and involving assignment. Looking forward to some good entries in the blog.