As I saw it

These are some of the things that I ended up sharing in some of the recent conversations with clients and friends: There is still a teenager in every grown up and that’s something we need to factor while designing a #change intervention. *—————————————————————- Not everybody has the capacity to handle #truth or value truth even if it's a truth you are sharing about yourself. It scares most people into thinking that the same degree of #radicalhonesty would be expected of them as well. Share accordingly even as you practice radical transparency and truth about yourself. “You must always speak the truth but not all truths must be spoken.” - an interesting line I came across last year. And on this, an ex colleague shared two responses one of which was a line from her boss: “You need to have a better relationship with truth.” Second was something she came across on Instagram few days back: “Today I will do a service and not speak my mind.” *—————————————————————- “I still have a l...

Seth Godin wrote a book called “All Marketers are Storytellers.” Interestingly when you see the actual image of the book, you will see that the word liars is cut and superimposed with the word Storytellers. I love paan bur have only one in a year. Now when I saw this image, I wasn’t sure if it is all facts or just marketing!! I leave it to you to figure it out 😊😊.

This year, December 6th fell on a Saturday. So what's the big deal? There is a December every year and the 6th day of the month also comes every month. So what's the big deal on it coming on a Saturday this year? Well it fell on a Saturday even in 2009. As in most of the Decembers in Delhi that day was also mildly cloudy and crispy cold with some sunlight sneaking through. Something happened that day that I will never forget in my life; something I will forever remember in my life. I had to take my son to his paediatrician for a regular check up and I was driving my mother-in-law's old greyish-blue Maruti 800 with the number plate ending in 4245. Just as we turned left on the Delhi-NOIDA link road from our Mayur Vihar Phase 1 colony, I noticed the weather and also the bleak, expressionless  faces  of the other drivers on the road. They all looked sad and spiritually constipated. Nobody seemed happy. Maybe they were all focussing on their drive and the road ahead even as the...

I am a mind mapping fan, though some people would say that I am beyond being a fan. They might say that I am a fanatic when it comes to mind mapping. I will always wear that as a badge of honour. Nevertheless, what you see attached is a mind map structure I drew for some of my participant-managers at one of my clients in NOIDA. Self-awareness is an important component I believe in and I designed it in their leadership journey. So, have a look at the mind map structure I created in one such session and see what all comes up in your mind in response to the first level of branches you see. Add them as further extensions/ sub-branches of the first level branches you see in the attachment. Would you be comfortable creating it about yourself and share it either here or with me in DM? For those who choose to share, I will share a further version of this mind map structure that I have created on my mind mapping software. As I learnt from Mr. Jim Cathcart , 'All leadership begins with self-...

25 years isn’t even a ding in the universe’s scheme of things but for dings like me, it is something. Exactly today 25 years ago, I completed the first ever training programme that eventually set the course of my career across diverse industries and sectors. It was on 6th and 7th of November in the millennial year 2000 that I got the opportunity to conduct a two day training programme with my then senior colleague Neha Jain and our Director Mrs. Maja Daruwala for the prison staff and non-official visitors of the prisons in the Gwalior division in Madhya Pradesh. It was all thanks to the invite by the late Justice Gulab Gupta, the then Chairperson of the Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission who invited the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), the NGO where I began my career 26 years ago, to conduct training programmes in the prisons of the state. While it’s a long story before and after that invitation, I will briefly share the most important lessons I have learned along the ...