Knowledge in organizations flows “across” people and teams. Real knowledge resides in the network of people and its interactions. Everything that is found in documents, systems, process flows and tool kits is “explicit” knowledge that is useful to sustain the business and keep the “status quo”. That is the tip of the iceberg – visible and accessible. In fact, most of the content that AI repurposes from online resources is explicit knowledge.  The hidden treasure of organizational knowledge is tacit knowledge that is deeply rooted in people, their experiences, skills, insights and judgemen ..read more

We often take decisions based on what matters the most to us “at that point in time”. Revenues going down? Take up that dreaded project which you wouldn’t take otherwise. A friend wants you to speak for free at an event? Say yes, because he is a friend afterall. A product being offered at really low cost? Buy it, it’s a great bargain.  You only realize later that the project you took up ate all your team’s time and resources to the point of making losses and losing reputation. That free speaking gig meant hours spent preparing for it, away from your family and friends. That product that l ..read more

In today’s world of work, being inclusive as a leader isn’t optional. In many companies I work with and consult, inclusion is used as a mere buzzword that doesn’t translate into any tangible behavioral change. The reason I feel leaders who preach inclusion and not practice it is because it is hard. Paying lip service to inclusion may give you some brownie points, but practicing inclusion leads to remarkable results.  Practicing Inclusion is Transformative When Satya Nadella took charge as Microsoft’s CEO, the company was struggling with fairly rigid culture and stagnation. Nadella emphasi ..read more

Communication is not an exchange of words but transfer of energy. The prerequisite for this is truly connecting with the other person so that a meaningful conversation can happen. I picked up Charles Duhigg’s new book “Supercommunicators – How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection” and read it with great interest. It is a fantastic book that offers anecdotes and tactics on establishing connection. The book delves into what makes conversations work and how we can all become better communicators in our professional and personal lives. Supercommunication is about synchronization and alignm ..read more

I recently interacted with a senior business leader of a large organization. During our conversation he mentioned, “Our biggest enemy is not our competitors but our own complexity as an organization in form of organizational design, structures, processes, culture, systems, tools, scale and metrics.” Throughout my career, I have consistently seen increasing level of internal pushback as an organization scales and grows. I have also seen leaders at both ends of the spectrum – ones who worked their way through complexity to create alignment and the ones whose grand strategies failed because of in ..read more

Having a calm mind that is focused on the outcome is our greatest asset when we are in conflict at workplace. I learned this from an amazing, short and insightful podcast episode between Lisa Leong and William Ury. William is the Co-Founder Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation and author of Possible: How We Survive (and Thrive) in an Age of Conflict (Disclaimer: I have not read the book but this podcase episode has encouraged me to pick it up soon.) In the podcase, William suggests three specific strategies to turn any workplace conflict into a constructive negotiation. Go to the balco ..read more

If you don’t frame your metrics right, they can distort behaviors.  A bank executive once insisted that I do him a favor by getting a free credit card (even when I did not require it). He was one customer short of being eligible for a quarterly bonus. He suggested that get the card now, and as soon as I get it, I can block or cancel it. He was clearly focused on meeting his numbers at the cost of a customer. Goodhart’s Law tells us that ‘when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.’ We can see variations of this in all contexts – from people losing weight through crash ..read more

There is no growth without courage.  In my career of 25+ years, I had several moments that required me to exhibit courage. I was a functional head in year 2008 when my growth had plateaued. I walked up to my boss and sought his able counsel. He was very clear, “If you want to grow further, you need to demonstrably contribute to topline growth or significantly increase your bottomline impact.”  What felt a bit too direct at the time was actually a window of opportunity. I spent next 8 weeks thinking about ways to turn my function into a business unit. I went back to my boss with a det ..read more

Maggi is an iconic Indian brand from Nestlé that faced a severe crisis of trust when it was alleged to contain excessive amount of mono-sodium glutamate (MSG) in the spice mix, raising health concerns. This controversy led to a nationwide ban on Maggi in 2015 till further tests cleared the situation. To regain consumer trust, Nestlé initiated an aggressive and transparent consumer connect campaign even during the ban period. They communicated stringent quality checks, revamped packaging and engaged in open dialogue on food safety. In parallel, they also collaborated with food safety authoritie ..read more

OpenAI’s board took a tough call of firing the founding CEO Sam Altman without having trust from their organization/people or winning confidence of their investors like Microsoft. Within 24 hours, Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, offered Altman an independent leadership role for their new AI initiative, pledging full support. Altman’s move to Microsoft initially seemed to conclude the saga until 700 OpenAI employees threatened to join Microsoft. Under immense pressure from both internal and external stakeholders, OpenAI reversed its decision, reinstating Altman as CEO and restructuring the boar ..read more