Pitch Perfect

This last week I was travelling back from the US on the long haul 15-hour flight from Newark airport to Mumbai, direct. I had decided beforehand itself, that I would get my computer out and spend the time watching an old television series called 'Studio 60.' I like Aaron Sorkin and his writings and this was one of his old television shows. In that show, there was one episode, which caught my attention in terms of a thought to look ahead for Corporate Capsules. It was a scene with the network President, also the Chairman and a couple of executives. They were listening to two guys who were pitching a new sketch, or a show that they wanted the network to run.

I listened, fascinated, because they wrapped it up in just under five minutes. It was very succinct; they came right to the point. They handled the main thought behind the new show, how it would run, how they would get the program done in the right time frame, the audience that they were targeting and the potential viewership that would go up – all of that captured within a space of five minutes.

Reveal Yourself

I wonder whether you have been in a situation where somebody has discounted your ability to get something done. You believe that you could and so you tell them you can do it. Or perhaps somebody is pushing you in a particular area of your life and you tell them – "You really don't want to push me on this!" Or maybe in another situation, you tell somebody, "There's a part of me you don't really know and I don't think you want to go there." All of this has to do with the fact that there are parts of us that we hold very private. This is a part we don't really share with people around us. It's a part of ourselves that we know, but others don't.

Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham, way back in 1955, put together what psychologists call the Johari window, combining both their names (Joseph and Harrington) to coin the term. The Johari window really talks about the 4 panes or quadrants of a window.

1.     Open Space: what is known about you by yourself as well as others.

2.     Blind Spot: things you don't know about yourself but others know about you.

3.     Private Arena: things you know about yourself but haven't revealed to others.

4.     Unknown: things not known either to you or to others.

Speak Up

1929 to 1939 marked what was a very trying period in American history. It was the time of the Great Depression. It was during this time that many establishments fell, companies failed and businesses just couldn't take off. A lot of banks went under because there were many runs on the bank as there would be rumors that a particular bank was running out of money. Everybody would go there and withdraw their money and the banks couldn't cover that withdrawal. This would contribute to the falling even though they were quite healthy before the run; they fell because of the rumor.

In 1933, two senators, Carter Glass and Henry Steagall, came up with an Act called 'The Glass-Steagall Act'. Basically what they did was introduce a firewall between commercial banks and investment banks, and so prevent this run on banks. It also led to the FDIC – the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – coming in and guaranteeing a certain amount of money that they would cover the banks for. They hoped that, with this Act, there would be more confidence that people would have in the banking system.

It worked well for many decades. But as the economies changed and corporations changed and the way of doing business changed – banking itself has changed dramatically and drastically over the years – there have been many dialogues about whether the Glass-Steagall Act was really relevant to the time. Finally, in 1999, the Clinton administration replaced it with what they called the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. This was a tweak of the original bill, but was brought in to be more relevant to the times. Many financial experts and economists believe that the removing of the Glass-Steagall Act was one of the main contributors to the 2008 financial crisis that America and the world went through. But the jury is still out on that. In 2009, the Volcker Rule was introduced with the Dodd-Frank reform bill that was again brought in to make sure that the banking institutions had the freedom to invest and yet, created a safe place for people to their money in as well.

Personal Branding

I was reading through our Scriptures early this morning and came across this passage where, King David, writing many, many years ago, says these words to the Almighty God – "You made all the delicate inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex. Your workmanship is marvelous. How well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb."

I read it and re-read it and thought over those words, "Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex. Your workmanship is marvelous." This is beginning to be so much truer each day as science unveils new findings in the complexities of human beings. As we see the uniqueness of each person's DNA and to recognize that each one is different, yet uniquely put together. There aren't two individuals the same and yet, with God's fingerprints on us, we are divinely created.

That made me think that each one of us, even on this call, is a unique person. We often don't see that uniqueness in ourselves for various reasons, whether we think it's not good to look at those things or talk about it or recognize it or whether it is out of humility or being self-deprecating. Yet, as we look at the world which we live in, we find that it is of utmost importance that somehow, we are able to let other people know that we are unique. Ultimately it is what makes you different that makes you stand out from a crowd and makes you hirable in an organization.

CAN I PERSUADE YOU?

CORPORATE CAPSULES: Can I Persuade You? - February 7, 2012

For a large part of this morning, I was trying to recollect and find an article that I had read many years ago, but which had stuck in my head. It had to do with communicating and how there were different ways of communicating. I remember the author talking about 3 or 4 ways that you could get people to do something for you;

STAY CONNECTED TO THE GROUND

As I’ve travelled in the past month I’ve come across different people and been privy to hear different quotes from people. One of the most precious ones actually comes out of a book. I visit a dear friend, who is in his 80’s, as often as I can get to his home; a prolific writer who’s written over a 150 books and still as articulate as ever. Every time I go to his home, we go down to his basement where he has thousands of books; he’ll rifle through them asking me if I’ve read this one or that and if I haven’t, he’ll ask me to take it and read it. I come away with books which are nuggets of gold for me.

Getting Your Message Across

Many years ago, I remember sitting in a science class, biology or physics, but the professor was talking about dispersion and the different types of dispersion: acoustic dispersion, dispersion in chemistry, geology, material science, etc. Just to help us understand dispersion, he took an air freshener spray, pressed it and then said, “As you get the smell of this particular air freshener, you will understand that particles have been dispersed and carried in the atmosphere to you.” I remember thinking that it was a wonderful way of explaining something. Because when you look at the different descriptions of dispersion, you have the mathematical description of dispersion in the system – spreading of signals and multimode fibers and waveguides by a distortion mechanism, and all the rest of it which is so complex. Yet he was able to simplify it to the point where I’ve never forgotten it.

Communication in the Workplace

I was sitting in a communications class one day and to make a point the professor played an audio tape of a speech that he had given somewhere. Then he asked us to critique it. All of us were a little taken aback because you don’t normally critique a professor. Finally one student stood up and said, “Sir, you were tremendously lacking in eye contact.” That broke the ice and everyone laughed. It was true! There was no eye contact with an audio tape. Thinking about the call this morning, that’s what you are going to say because I am going to talk about communications. You are going to miss eye contact but I hope you are going to listen to my words this morning.