Me too - Tissington

These guys know better than their mom when it comes to publicity and marketing...They posed for photographs for about 10 minutes while the mom continued with her raw-material gathering process...

Found something

I am fascinated by Idioms....

Here's something for those of you who share this fascination with me.

Next time, you don't have to be embarrassed about not knowing what a particular idiom means....

 

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/

 

Exploring a new world...

I've become a member in the local library and 'am trying out new books/authors. This I may not have done back home. I randomly picked up a book and it turned out to be something fictional but with a philosophical bent. Don't blame me. The book is called 'The Journeys of Socrates" and is set in Russia. It has caught my mind quite a bit due to its spiritual flavour. Sample this...


"Courtesy is often mistaken to be weakness or fear". Why! Tell me more! :)


A quote from a Zen master....


"Softness triumphs over hardness. Gentleness over strength. The flexible over the immovable. This is the principle of controlling things by going along with them, of mastery over adaptation"

What it takes to be a good team player...

What does it take to be a good team player?
I'd imagine that the following qualities make a person a great team player...



- Showing genuine respect for other team-members


- Knowing when to step back and let others take charge



- Knowing when to contribute and lead



- Knowing when to work together with others and put all ideas together



- Knowing when others are looking for support and providing the same



- Not taking credit for others' work



- Giving credit to others for their contributions to your role



- Not letting team members down in front of others



- Being enthusiastic and optimistic and rubbing it off on others



Got anything to add to this list??? :)

Believe and Achieve

I just finished reading this simple book called "How to Get Ideas" by Jack Foster and found it nice and, well, simple. :D




One catchy philosophy therein is: Believe that there are ideas for the taking and believe that you'll get them when you need them. And YOU WILL GET THOSE BRILLIANT IDEAS....




I like that thought. That's how blogging works. Believe that you will get those ideas for your blog and they will come....and one more thing that Jack says is "The more you do of something, the more you do of it and the less you do of something, the less you do of it..." and that is, I am sure, 100% true of blogging......the snowballing effect, in other words! :) And in Henry Ford's words - "Whether you believe you can or you can't , you are right!"

How difficult this is!!

What is the right way to meet any situation?
A - See it as it is, not as you hoped or feared. Take a step back and see it from a higher standpoint, it will change how you address the situation.- Zenyasi

What?!!

"Humility is a peculiar virtue...the minute you think you have it, you have lost it" - Swami Chinmayananda.

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I am catching up with my mails and my daily quota of spiritual inspiration....feels good to get back to routine...some of it, that is....

People

Everyone has a spiritual lesson to teach you.....If you are only wiling to listen. And yes, that istrue of even the most irritating person in yourlife. In fact, once you learn the lesson, you willfind them less irritating.- Zenyasi

Zenyasi Again...

Learn to embrace the fluctuations instead of trying to make things conform to your likes and dislikes.............give universe a chance, it might just give you something that actually suits you better. - Zenyasi

Alone and Away from Home

Staying away from home ...in a foreign land...and with new people can be an unsettling experience. I am beginning to experience more of life....it's challenges, it's ironies, it's lessons, it's laughs, it's excitement et al.

Some moments:

Much to my amazement, an old lady (native of this country) offers to help me carry some grocery bags after watching me struggle with 4 bags. :D

I begin to eat stuff that I wouldn't have ever liked to eat back home. I not only eat it but eat it twice a day. :P

I learn to forgive and sacrifice and walk on with the people that are around me.

I learn more about people and their ways. How they change, how they adapt, how they behave....

I learn to appreciate small ideas that add up to make life convenient. The free flow cap on the salt bottle. The water tap that does not have to be turned but only pushed with the cup. The chair handle that has deep fingerprints to keep one's hands on. The use and throw wooden stick stirrers. The thread-pull light switches. The water-filter in buses. The tables in trains. etc etc. More as I discover them....

KM @ APQC

I presented the KM implementation toolkit that I’ve been working for two years now in the recent APQC KM conference at Las Vegas and attended some sessions by thought-leaders and practitioners from various industries as well. This was my third international conference and definitely an experience to savor. While I received some good feedback from some of the people at the end of the session, I realized that there’s a lot more meat that can be added to the toolkit. (Now, that’s a benefit that I’d like to point out.)




A quick summary of what the implementation toolkit is all about: It looks at various business challenges and questions and maps them to practices, techniques and tools that cater to these challenges. How it does this is actually backwards. Based on my KM experience so far, I weaved the toolkit themes around four areas – Explicit Knowledge Capture and Explicit Knowledge Dissemination and Tacit Knowledge Capture and Tacit Knowledge Dissemination. The practices, techniques and tools revolve around each of these themes. What I think makes the toolkit special is that I managed to combine with a simple idea – a cardboard box. The cardboard box I’ve created projects the themes, business challenges and the practices and techniques in a simple manner that makes it very easy for the user to understand especially if she is new to KM and confused about its wide-reach in terms of business problems and solutions. Now, that’s all I can say for now. If you want to know more, I can surely help you out ….but provided I find the time for it and you don’t happen to be a competitor :).




Coming to what I learned from other sessions, there were four that I attended. One of them was about a scientific method to go about succession planning by identifying the roles and people at risk and prioritizing them to take preventive measures. Good analytical thinking, but whether it will work(achieve results) or not depends on the people of course. Another session was interesting. It was about a petroleum company that uses storytelling to a very large extent to preserve knowledge – historical, technical and culture. I thought their work was impressive – text, audio and video – and boy, they seem to be spending millions on this exercise. That must surely be possible only because the CEO believes in it. The third session was about using creative communication techniques to spread the knowledge sharing culture. Frankly, this one wasn’t new at all. The fourth session was something I wanted to know more about. Social Network Analysis. This company uses SNA to get communities to work together. They apparently don’t do an automatic SNA on emails but based on questionnaires and in-house tools and applications. Worth a try, I thought. Especially if the organization is a large one.

Inspiration

I came across these inspirational write-ups in an airline magazine. Promptly wrote them down for my blog readers.



Achievement: Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow!

Focus: Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals.

Attitude: Our lives are not determined by what happens to us, but how we react to what happens; not by what life brings to us, but the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. It is a catalyst…a spark that creates extraordinary results.

Determination: Determination is born out of purpose. Knowing that you are gifted for something and this something must be attained. It is never enough to rely on luck or natural talent. You must, above all, believe in yourself, face your goals, and then fight as if your life depended on it.

Change: Learn to embrace change, and you’ll begin to recognize that life is in constant motion, and every change happens for a reason. When you see boundaries as opportunities, the world becomes a limitless place, and your life becomes a journey of change that always finds its way.

Dream: Resolve to succeed. The greatest discovery one can make is that nothing is impossible.

Excellence: Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise, risking more than others think is safe, dreaming more than others think is practical, and expecting more than others think is possible.

Bridging the Gap...Opening the Golden Gate

Amazing structure! Breathtaking!

A picture is worth a thousand words...so...

A picture to start with. ...! :)

One of the first ever photographs I clicked with my new Digicam. Howzzat? All Out?

I've got some KM stuff coming...I need more time to compile all of that...hopefully this weekend, I will find the time!

APQC

Folks,

I got an opportunity to present a KM implementation toolkit that I've been working on for two years now in the 11th APQC KM conference at Las Vegas. I will talk more about it this weekend. The reception was good....a bunch of people showed interest and had questions and encouraging words to say at the end of the session (makes one feel good, doesn't it?)......
Stay tuned for I am also going to talk about what I learned at the conference from other presenters....on storytelling, communication, succession planning, and social network analysis....

Cam-era

I finally bought a digicam. Kodak Easy Share Z650. I will soon be shaaring some pictures I took recently. :) Be prepared....!! A beautiful bridge will soon be found on my blog and hopefully bridge the month-long gap between me and the readers :D

Gasp!

Folks.....if you are still visiting my blog......in the hope of seeing some activity.....i have a lot of explanation to do. You did not think I would stop blogging, did you? (Gasp!). I have been on the move and away from my home country for about a month now. I haven't had the luxury (actually it is no longer a luxury) of logging into the internet all these days. I am actually seeing my blog after more than a month now. I did not even know if it still existed till now.....

There are a few posts that I have lined up and will be trying to put up in the next few days...about various things including KM. So, if I haven't already lost your readership, please start coming back.... :

I am now in UK (not London) and working on a KM consulting assignment (yes, this is one of my dreams come true). I've already learned quite a lot and know there's more to be learned while on this assignment. This country, btw, is absolutely green at this time of the year and a treat for the eyes....