32. “ You see, all the right things are written in books and research papers. The trick is to ensure that there is no gap between what is written in the books and your vision; from what is happening on the shop-floor and what is going on in the marketplace. That is execution. That is what makes the difference” Mukesh Ambani www.mastersungroup.com [email_address] Sarvajeet : +91 9920803060 Jasravee : +91 9892301590 Office :+91 22 65209702
Editor's Notes
Once upon a time a man painted half his car white and the other half black. His friends asked him why he did such a strange thing. He replied: "Because it is such fun, whenever I have an accident, to hear the witnesses in court contradict each other.“
Also used by NASA, DuPont, NTT, Shell, BP, Federal Express etc.
Google:20% of productivity. 50% of Google Launch got from 20% of day in a week Consumed by everyone knowing that it is their idea so they stop producing ideas
In 1970 a couple of hundred 19-year-old girls from Mills College posed & were asked to smile Genuine & Stewardess Smile 30 years later Women who were flashing the stewardess smile had more divorces, less marital satisfaction and less life satisfaction The photographer asked them to smile and they posed for it. There are two kinds of smiles. There is a genuine smile, it is called a Duchenne smile, and you can tell, from where the crows' feet are, they involve a set of muscles under the orbit of the eye, stewardess smile, the people who have to smile for a living. Berkeley group trained researchers to look at which women were Duchenne smiling and which were stewardess smiling Optimists performed poorly as lawyers
Two broad types of feelings: Ordinary emotions, e.g., fear, dislike, suspicion Complex judgments, e.g., intuition, sense
The hiring of a corporate clairvoyant, if you will, might be a new concept, but the practice of responding to one’s feelings when making a business-related decision is not. Masaru Ibuka, founder and former chief advisor of Sony, was known to mull integral decisions over a cup of herbal tea. Based on his body’s response to the tea (which he read as his gut reaction), he would settle on a resolution. Legend has it that Archimedes came upon the concept of specific gravity while taking a bath. (Did he really? Who knows? Who cares? The story is illustrative, not scientific). James Watson tells us that the idea of the double helix came to him as he recalled his boyhood exploration of the spiral staircase at a lighthouse. And Einstein thought of relativity as he was riding a Zurich trolley and contemplated the "relative motion" of a passenger walking in the trolley . Not all hunches are equal. Their dependability (as determined by subsequent investigation) is enhanced by practical and professional experience, and by study (i.e., “book larnin’”). Thus the “gut feeling” of the experienced physician is to be preferred to that of the medical student. And the “sense” of what ails your car is more dependable when it is experienced by a trained mechanic than by a weekend putterer.
Two-tier system of information: checked and proven facts facts that are believed to be true Usable levels in between: “always” “ sometimes” “occasionally”
Ebay: User-base for second hand laptop vs. second hand laptop
But this is tricky and subtle... I've been known to be the one to "voice a genuine concern backed with real facts" without stopping to consider whether those "facts" were still valid. "Are we sure we tried EXACTLY that?" and "Has something changed in a way that invalidates what we tried earlier?" Or even just this response when someone says, "We tried that...", "You tried what?" Maybe the thing that was tried before was different in some non-obvious but profound way. Black Hat then you're perceived as being "unwilling to hear criticism" or "can't handle any disagreement".
NASA suffered a highly publicized disaster on 28 January 1986 Space shuttle Challenger exploded, killing all seven astronauts on board Head of the Thai meteorological office who was forced in 1998 to retire He had warned that the coast was dangerously vulnerable to the effects of tsunami. The extensive analysis of the problem thereafter determined that the engineers had endeavoured to report the nature of the problem (inadequate sealing rings, called O-rings) to the NASA council responsible. They had however been informed that negative feedback on such matters was both unwelcome and inappropriate. A positive approach was required by NASA authorities to ensure the planned launch and the desirable public relations coverage. He was accused of scaremongering and jeopardising the tourist industry around the island of Phuket. After tens of thousands of deaths in the tsunami of 2004, he was reinstated in 2005 -- as minister in charge of the Thai disaster warning office
If the group is becoming jaded Try the Green Thinking Hat If it is a Sensitive/Serious/Emotional issues and team members are not forthright with their emotions Have a Red Hat Session If the team is cosy & in a ‘Yes Boss’ mood Have a Black Hat session to discuss the pitfalls force the issue by randomly assigning the role of devil's advocate. Make someone responsible for researching and presenting counter-arguments to the best of their ability. In some teams, this isn't an issue -- just be careful that it's not always the same person or they risk being marginalized over time.