Let's start respecting nature, its rules.

As someone who moved to Australia lately, the recent bushfires has been a new awakening and a grim encounter with the realities of climate change - Sydney drenched in thick smoke was a glimpse of apocalyptic events. Dense forests fraught with years of drought have turned vast swathes of land to chunks of inflammable fuel, awaiting a benign spark to rage itself. We saw this happen in the Amazon, Siberia and now in Australia, and we might see worse in the coming years at unforeseen locations.

We should definitely be addressing climate change, global warming and evolve measures to offset the effects and mend our ways to try and reverse the adverse effects of global warming, which to some extent has been a creation of our own through unfettered consumerism. The efforts to heal might take years or even decades to deliver and tangible results to manifest.

© NASA

From a crisis management point of view, we need to address the fact that climate change is real and atmosphere is getting warmer than ever before. There is extraordinary decline in polar ice caps and evaporation of water is at its peak, resulting in devastating rains and floods. Crops are being destroyed at an unprecedented scale taking a toll on the livelihoods of millions. Inundations have devastated lives of people, driven up insurance costs, medical emergencies have been unable to cope with resulting calamities and large scale climate migrations have become a reality. People and infrastructure including farmlands are being displaced and destroyed, dreams shattered and hopes lost for an entire generation. Warmer temperatures in otherwise cold places are creating a whole lot of new problems - menace of pests and the advent of otherwise unheard epidemics are just a few. The economic costs are huge - traditional sectors like the fishing industry facing death knell due to mass migration of sea life to cooler waters, the losses of which would run into billions.

An honest acknowledgment of the current crisis would certainly help us in taking on the biggest existential threat facing humanity. It is human nature to confront and tackle issues when revealed in full. Unfortunately, this time around, we cannot afford to wait for the apocalyptic unravelling of our planet - once past the tipping point, we would be at a point of no return. Going green, reducing dependency on fossil fuels and holding ourselves responsible for our own carbon footprint can go a long way in achieving sustainable living and prolonging life on this planet.

Anticipation is the key and the acknowledgement that years of drought have transformed lush green vegetation into fuel would be the first step in tackling the bush fire crisis that has gripped Australia. A tree sapped off its water is akin to a firewood awaiting to unleash hellfire - once the gravity of this risk is acknowledged we can take adequate steps and ensure such an eventuality is contained and to some extent prevented. Unlike the traditional form of fuel, it is practically impossible to insulate millions of water sapped vegetation simply because of its sheer size and the costs involved - forest strips run into thousands of kilometers.

Offsetting is not always viable and we have to accept a certain amount of risk to help us prepare better. Acknowledging the fact that forest fire is a real possibility in hot conditions would be a major first step in helping us divert our attention to devise ways on how to contain it, and even prevent such massive destruction from occurring.

Prescribed burning in Australia © The Guardian

Creating "Firebreaks" in high risk areas and prescribed burning (controlled burning) outside of the fire season could prove very effective if combined with modern science and technology - better mapping techniques and coordination of resources would certainly help employ such measures on a grand scale.

Anticipating what could go wrong in adverse conditions is critical, but at the same time, adopting indigenous aborigine tribes' ritualistic practices like the ancient prescribed burning of landscapes can go a long way in reducing the extent of destruction as witnessed recently. Respecting indigenous knowledge is as important as adhering to any modern empirical study, a tribe that has sustained itself on this land for millennia, respecting and adoring nature and its ecosystem. As an intelligent species we owe a huge responsibility to millions of our co-inhabitants residing in the earth's forests. Let us work towards making the future brighter for everyone, and if that means scaling back on some of our comforts, then let's not hesitate.

- Vinod Geeachan


References:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/11/how-first-australians-ancient-knowledge-can-help-us-survive-the-bushfires-of-the-future

https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2940/greenlands-rapid-melt-will-mean-more-flooding/

https://www.kkl-jnf.org/forestry-and-ecology/fire-prevention/forest-maintenance.aspx

Contracting, outsourcing and trust

The success of any project can be attributed to its team, its cohesion and synergy. But has the concept of team cohesion been declining, at least in the IT sector where the concept of contracting and outsourcing have gained prominence in recent years?

Various methodologies have been tried and tested, recent one being Agile, which vehemently preaches the concept of ever more team interaction. The core philosophy behind all modern methodologies have been to enable teams find a better and decisive way to work together, address concerns, pacify sponsors by ensuring transparency and deliver on commitments exceeding expectations. Further analysis reveals that trust is one single attribute which binds a team together, helps achieve this amount of success – the trust between team members and trust between management and the team.

As mentioned earlier, contracting and outsourcing are big in the IT industry and the issue of trust has become a point of contention. Contractors would want to protect their jobs by becoming more valuable, and at times valuable could translate into fewer knowledge sharing sessions and less documentation affecting mutual trust and team cohesion. Working with outsourced vendors is another big issue, with each vendor trying to guard their business interests and inadvertently becoming less engaged with competitor team member(s).

The biggest challenge faced by managements in IT companies is in ensuring that trust prevails among team members and they work together as one big team. A longer-term project plan with consistent contracting and delegation schedule would certainly help in allaying the fears of contractors and vendors.

Setting out expectations and standards earlier on in relation to documentation and knowledge sharing could go a long way in ensuring that knowledge is shared among team members and no one attains the status of “cannot be dispensed with” thereby building trust and dependency.

Collaboration days where team members could share their experience of previous projects and knowledge of industry relevant technologies would certainly help imbibe a culture of sharing information - the core idea being that you only share knowledge with people you trust, at least in the professional space. Team building exercises certainly help, but managers should be wary that silos are not created in the process.

Guaranteeing stability and growth, clear purpose and exhibiting road map of projects ahead certainly helps in allaying anxiety of employees. This would certainly prompt team members to trust each other and interact effectively achieving greater results.

- Vinod Geeachan

Image courtesy:
http://coachesnetwork.com/content/building-team-cohesion (accessed on 10/12/2019).

Tipping point for Artificial Intelligence

I have always struggled to understand intelligence, its evolution, and its variation across species. Even among humans who share the same DNA and cell structure, how can somebody be more intelligent, think differently and be more creative? Agreed, each human is born differently, with varying abilities, but, in addition to genetics, wouldn't those skills have formed over years and years of conditioning? Wouldn’t climate, food habits, flora and fauna, and myriad other subtle factors have had an influence on how living beings’ intelligence evolved?

Oxford dictionary defines intelligence as ‘the ability to learn, understand and think in a logical way about things’.  Can we not then assess Intelligence as an ability, the acquisition of which warrants the existence of an opportunity along with the inclination to learn? Rightly so, someone with the right traits could be conditioned to be intelligent. Computers have memory, they remember things and follow a set of logical instructions – can they be trained to understand, think, reason and use knowledge? Can machines be trained to be intellectuals? The answer is tilted towards “yes” and no wonder Artificial Intelligence has gained prominence in recent years.

How do we distinguish natural and artificial intelligence? Natural intelligence or the intelligence as we know of is the cognitive ability acquired by living organisms, especially human beings, where they apply decisions based on contexts. Could we then assess the reasoning capacity acquired by a non-living apparatus as Artificial Intelligence (AI), or to extend it a little further – reasoning capacity plus the ability to arrive at a credible decision? Credibility and validity of a decision is always relative, but for the sake of this article let us tend towards the art of decision making.

How do we arrive at a decision, or to put it aesthetically, when do we perform the art of decision making? Can they be preconceived, programmed, or would they be born from experiences and lessons learnt from failures? Decisions are sometimes born from endurance, not necessarily experiences encountered by the protagonist themselves, but through what others endured and their emotions - similar to how the world today understands the perils of a nuclear catastrophe, through studying and understanding such events. The ability of machines to learn and arrive at decisions critically based on experiences is one crucial tipping point for the realization of Artificial Intelligence.

- Vinod Geeachan

References:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/hide-and-seek/201811/what-is-intelligence

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/

Image courtesy:
https://unsplash.com/photos/YKW0JjP7rlU

Is low oil price here to stay?

Is peak oil a concept of the past? With renewable energy investments starting to take off, coupled with commitments made at Paris 2015 to reduce emissions and dependence on fossil fuels, and the present oil glut due to (competitive) production, just wondering whether oil will ever regain its lost glory.

Reference:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-17/oil-set-for-third-weekly-loss-as-supply-glut-seen-relentless

Foxconn's $5 billion investment in India - Strategic boost to 'Make in India' initiative

The decision of Foxconn, Taiwan (the largest electronics contract manufacturer in the world) to expand its operations into India is a significant step in the right direction. It gives a much needed boost to 'Make in India' campaign and geopolitically very relevant due to a multitude of factors:

a) Reducing dependency on China, currently the sole supplier - A strategic decision for global brands like Apple and Sony.
b) Demand for newly found sources of rare earth elements (new mines are challenging Chinese monopoly over rare earth elements, a major constituent of electronic components, thereby extending the supplier base and increasing buyer's bargaining power).
c) Help India reduce current account deficit as electronic goods' import factors in as a major contributor to foreign exchange outflow from India, the others being Oil and Gold.
d) A robust electronics export market would bring in much needed foreign capital and help strengthen the broader Indian financial sector.
e) Though job creation is inherent through such massive investments, an endeavour of this magnitude would prompt many Indian youth to train themselves in Electronics and Manufacturing Technologies, who otherwise would be more inclined towards a career in Software and IT enabled services. This could serve as a catalyst for turning India into an innovation hub for the IoT (Internet of Things) revolution, serving a market of 1.3 billion prospective customers.
f) Help India grow as a major economy in Asia and position itself as a deterrent to monopolization of trade in this part of the world and beyond.

- Vinod Geeachan

News source (The Hindu, 08 Aug 2015): Foxconn to invest $5 billion in Maharashtra, gets 1,500 acres for plant

The synthesis of speech and hand gestures

There is little dispute that public speaking is an art and people who are good at it rarely acknowledge that while on a podium they tend to be a different being altogether, vociferously articulating their thoughts thereby making a lasting impression on the audience. While we appreciate the artistic façade of public speaking, shouldn't we also comprehend the fact that public speaking can be learned, mastered and improvised?

Having witnessed and observed many eloquent speakers from diverse fraternities, one thing I found common was their innate ability to guide the audience on a journey alongside their beliefs and couch of thoughts. The speaker's persona, his/her indulgence along with the credibility attained through expert knowledge further augmented with the faith bestowed by the audience does influence the speaker's ability to charm the listeners.

While engaging with the audience, or even during a team meeting or presentation in professional circles, gestures have a significant role to play.  Research has found that the use of timely and well thought out gestures does bring about a meaningful connotation to the whole conversation, especially when gestures are made by hand. While delivering  a talk, good use of hand does instil a sense of confidence in listeners, which otherwise could infuse a sense of scepticism.

Though hand gestures should ideally appear innately during a talk and be embedded in the persona of the speaker, prospective presenters can definitely try and accommodate well know gestures into their overall methodology of speech deliverance. Some of the common and well known hand gestures are detailed below:

	Holding the palm at 45 degrees with both hands open in front communicates the notion of honesty.
	Holding the palms down trying to stress something conveys certainty/conviction
	Hands facing each other (with fingers together) conveys expertise
	Hand gestures larger than the outlines of the body communicates a bigger concept
	Precision grip is used to emphasise a particular point
	Hands pulled towards the chest suggests that the speaker wants to bring the audience closer to his view point

- Vinod Geeachan


References:

Your Hand Gestures Are Speaking For You | Psychology Today. 2015. Your Hand Gestures Are Speaking For You | Psychology Today. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-wise/201209/your-hand-gestures-are-speaking-you. [Accessed 06 June 2015].

Public Speaking Tips - How to Use Gestures | Art of Communicating. 2015. Public Speaking Tips - How to Use Gestures | Art of Communicating. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.artofcommunicating.com.au/public_speaking%20tips/body%20language_gestures.html. [Accessed 06 June 2015].

Weinschenk, S. (2012). Palms at 45 degree angle says "I'm being honest". [image] Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-wise/201209/your-hand-gestures-are-speaking-you [Accessed 6 Jun. 2015].

Weinschenk, S. (2012). Palms down says "I'm certain". [image] Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-wise/201209/your-hand-gestures-are-speaking-you [Accessed 6 Jun. 2015].

Weinschenk, S. (2012). Palms facing each other says "I'm an expert on this". [image] Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-wise/201209/your-hand-gestures-are-speaking-you [Accessed 6 Jun. 2015].

WEINGER, M. (2013). Bill Clinton: Martin Luther King, Jr. would be ‘pleased’ Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/bill-clinton-martin-luther-king-jr-march-on-washington-95991.html#ixzz3cI8PZd4d. [image] Available at: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/bill-clinton-martin-luther-king-jr-march-on-washington-95991.html [Accessed 6 Jun. 2015].

Hand gestures: what to do with your hands during a presentation. 2015. Hand gestures: what to do with your hands during a presentation. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.speaklikeapro.co.uk/Hand_Gestures1.htm. [Accessed 06 June 2015].

C. Johnson, C. (2013). Bill Clinton pretending to be a vegan so he can talk about being a vegan Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/09/03/bill-clinton-pretending-to-be-a-vegan-so-he-can-talk-about-being-a-vegan/#ixzz3cI9LfTYr. [image] Available at: http://dailycaller.com/2013/09/03/bill-clinton-pretending-to-be-a-vegan-so-he-can-talk-about-being-a-vegan/ [Accessed 6 Jun. 2015].

The Palm Back. (n.d.). [image] Available at: http://www.speaklikeapro.co.uk/Hand_Gestures1.htm [Accessed 6 Jun. 2015].

Should we have an Open Office?

The concept of open office originated  in Germany in the 1950’s with the  Quickborner team of management consultants developing the radical office layout idea of Bürolandschaft or ‘office-landscape’. The management consultants at Quickborner devised layouts for different office environments and the  underlying principle which shaped these designs was based on  human interaction, whereby open office would create an ecosystem which would diminish rather than erase the concept of office hierarchy thereby encouraging more interaction among workers. The concept was quickly adopted and spread to different parts of the world. As with any system, the concept of open office also had its own tale of evolution ever since.

Though the underlying philosophy behind open office was to create an atmosphere of interactive work supposedly in an egalitarian environment, the concept quickly got transmuted into a money saving mechanism, which would ultimately reduce infrastructure spending on work spaces. Though the concept was widely accepted across the industrial fraternity, it did have its share of criticism for denying workers their well-deserved space of privacy at work. Within the IT industry,  the concept of open office has been greeted, accepted and adopted on a wider scale than in any other industry. With the adoption of new methodologies like Agile, the need for constant interaction has increased ever since. The days when you could send a mail or use instant messenger to interact with a colleague on the same floor is becoming a thing of the past and today’s work environment demands loud and interactive employees than ever before. There is constant exchange of ideas and thoughts on these floors and open office facilitates such interaction. Though the concept of privacy has undergone mutation, research has found that without adequate facilities to address balance areas like meeting spaces and private zones for phone calls, the concept of an open office could sometimes be stressful on employees. 

From my personal experience of working in a busy agile environment, moving into an open office floor from an orthodox office territory was a bit daunting in the beginning. However, once you settle as a team, the merits of open office floor starts to reveal itself. The ease with which you can interact and share ideas with your colleagues is amazing. But at the same time, it could be a bit distracting at times, and to immerse completely in a particular job could be difficult. In an open office environment, ears are open and there is always someone to help you out. To me this is the fundamental premise which could keep the concept of open office alive.

- Vinod Geeachan

References:    

• Does open-plan get the worst out of workers? . 2015. Does open-plan get the worst out of workers? . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.irishtimes.com/business/work/does-open-plan-get-the-worst-out-of-workers-1.2195271. [Accessed 23 May 2015].

• Research: Cubicles Are the Absolute Worst - HBR. 2015. Research: Cubicles Are the Absolute Worst - HBR. [ONLINE] Available at: https://hbr.org/2013/11/research-cubicles-are-the-absolute-worst/. [Accessed 23 May 2015].

• New National Office > History > Bürolandschaft. 2015. New National Office > History > Bürolandschaft. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.carusostjohn.com/media/artscouncil/history/burolandschaft/index.html. [Accessed 23 May 2015].

Brainswarming better than Brainstorming

Almost every professional has had the opportunity to be part of a brainstorming session. Though these sessions were intended to generate novel ideas and solutions, how many times have we seen that except for a few, not everyone seemed to be participating as expected. Humans are peculiar and some are extroverts, are good in nabbing opportunities and can exhibit their thoughts in public. We also have introverts who might have a very innovative idea, but due to inherent inhibitions cannot always express it in public, especially while in a group. There is a high probability that such people could be left out of the dynamism which shapes out from an active exercise like brainstorming.

Many studies have pointed to the fact that ‘Brainstorming’ sessions can become futile if members do not participate as expected or when the presence of an experienced facilitator who ensures appropriate participation is absent, both of which cannot be guaranteed. So what could be the solution to this conundrum? Dr. Tony McCaffrey, leading cognitive psychologist, did publish an article in Harvard Business Review on the merits and demerits of brainstorming and introduced a refined method called ‘Brainswarming’.

Figure 1.0

As exemplified before, brainstorming sessions (quite often) are hijacked by a minority and the majority fails to voice their ideas.  As a solution,  Dr. McCaffrey suggests the example of ants. When an ant finds food, he takes a chunk of it and when travelling back to its nest leaves a trail of pheromones in its path. Other ants can track these pheromones, reach the target and collect food for the whole ant community. Basically, what Dr. McCaffrey suggests is that people need not always express ideas which has to be necessarily separate from that voiced  by someone else in the group. Ideas are like structures and when they are built upon each other, they become a chain, strong enough to crack the toughest challenges. He suggests the use of brainswarming graphs where  a goal grows downward by subdividing itself into refined sub goals. Resources on the other hand are interlaced  together and they grow upwards. When the two connects, solutions start to emerge.

Participants are encouraged to draw/put in their ideas on the graph. This can be done through direct participation using a white board or even creating a shared graph, where everyone contributes his/her ideas remotely.  Dr. McCaffrey further points out that brainswarming sessions generates 3 times more ideas than traditional brainstorming exercises. I have created a simple brain swarming graph (Figure 1.0).

- Vinod Geeachan

References:

Why You Should Stop Brainstorming - HBR. 2015. Why You Should Stop Brainstorming - HBR. [ONLINE] Available at: https://hbr.org/2014/03/why-you-should-stop-brainstorming/. [Accessed 16 May 2015].

Being Agile than just doing Agile

There are a plethora of theories and materials available which define Agile methodologies and how Agile methods should be rolled out in an organisation. But, would drawing up a Kanban board or merely adhering to a daily ritual of stand-ups define Agile methodology? Was Agile conceived on the premise that such rituals and tools would ultimately define the core of collaborative work environment as envisioned by its creators? It could be a conjecture, but there is a considerable majority who say that enacting these ritualistic ceremonies and drawing up boards and pulling stories, assigning story points would be deemed as Agile. This majority does enjoy patronage across boards and their acts completely justify 'doing agile'.

Scrum in Rugby

But, as any minority in real world spectrum, quite a few do believe that while 'doing Agile' does deserve merit, 'being Agile' should be the soul of any Agile methodology. Being able to gauge the synergy of team work and the collective responsibility which streams from such togetherness should define the core philosophy of Agile.

Being able to nourish ideas which seem trivial, and where failure is never reprimanded but rewarded should be the ethos of any Agile team. Where bureaucracy is a thin line, people seldom work in silos and a platform facilitating continuous cross pollination of ideas should define the practice of Agile methodology.

To conclude, Agile to me is a philosophy of working together, producing incremental artefacts, getting things done and getting rid of the snowballing factor of incremental complexity attached with any project over a period of time. To be successful in Agile, being agile is critical and this should mean encouraging ideas, empowering people, trusting them, entrusting responsibilities and forging ahead with a common goal  - success of the project.

- Vinod Geeachan

Image courtesy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(rugby)