We are immersed, almost drowning, in technology noise. More often than not, we stray away from solving a problem and get invested in a technology or a tool (or an app, for the newly bred). We then go down a path of wastage and a partially or wholly new, higher impact problem. Here are the 5 Os that keep me on the path.

A Technology, A Tool, A Solution

It is important to understand, explore, assess, and articulate the opportunity on a clean slate. If a need is not obvious, it probably does not need providing a solution for. Looking for a problem to solve and then looking for ways to solve it generally leads teams astray. This happens when we blindly benchmark metrics, set up scorecards based on management books and/or listen selectively. Working a problem on a sheet of paper that has been scribbled over many times will divert focus from what's truly important.

Opportunity Focus

An opportunity identified should have a definitive outcome objective that is verifiable scientifically. It does not always need to translate into dollars but it should be quantifiable in some form or qualified through consensus. We often chase the wrong outcomes when obsessed with a dollar ROI, miss inhout on the obvious. Often, however, an opportunity is chased without being rationally qualified. A humongous amount of pseudo-science and house-of-assumptions are built to justify it - that's an agenda. Chase an Outcome "Objective" and not (one person's) Outcome "Agenda".

Outcome Objective

So we now have an opportunity that has a quantifiable, or at least a qualified outcome objective. The overwhelming inclination will be to run to a technology or tool, or an asset of some form to solve for it. Pause. It is important to dive deeper and identify the origin of the opportunity. Is there a deeper, hidden, and systemic flaw that has created an opportunity? If the answer is yes and we solve only for a legitimate but superficial opportunity that may only be a symptom, we may be creating fertile ground for future rework and leakage.

Origin Exploration

We now are at the point where we solve. The natural tendency is to pick the technology (or tool) answer that is available at hand, that everyone is talking about, and that showed up on the favorite webinar sounding polished and smart. 7/10 tool, platform, technology transformations fail to deliver on the promised entitlement because of this rush. There are many ways to a solution. It is important to consider all the paths and proximity of the choice we make being optimum to the ambient context. Context is important. It can be driven by culture, economics, politics, technology, and is crucial.

Openness To Alternative

Always, always get an outside-in perspective. The world now has a wide plethora of services ranging from networking platforms, digital forums to syndicated benchmarking, and experts for hire. It always helps to get an unconnected voice to talk about what works, and more importantly, what may not work. In a closed room, everyone has an agenda. Talk to someone who will get paid (in some form), or not, no matter what they say. It helps ask the right questions and zero in on the right path or alternative.

Outside-In Perspective

It is my experience that 9/10 times transformation efforts fail because we are not implementing a solution but a tool. Here is my compass to get to the right solution to ensure that I am  solving what should be solved and the optimum solution. 

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

business

Business

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Going for the right solution

All said and done, we are born alone and will die alone. There are seven important axioms of belief to shield yourself while going through life, and protecting yourself in dealing with expectations, disappointments, and judgements imposed by those around.

Man Is, After All, An Island

A natural extension to being born alone and dying alone is the understanding that nothing you do, or don't do, has any meaningful significance in the grand scheme of things. Trying to find meaning in life has a high probability of leading to a path of depression and disillusionment.

We Are Insignificant

Our lives are a garland of serendipitous events. We are not part of a grand plan, no matter how much math, faith or philosophy we deploy to justify it. We are a dot is a random chain of events having bigger brains than most animals, and we consume ourselves trying to make sense of our roles in the universe. There is no elaborate cause-effect that has led us to where we are where we are, individually.

There Is No Grand Plan

No matter how much someone advises to try and try till you succeed, don't! Unless you are paid for it! There is only futility and an opportunity cost leakage in trying and achieving sub-optimal outcomes. Pick the battles that can be won. Fighting battles and trying to achieve a better outcome over and over is generally a recipe for a life wasted!

Don't Try To Fail

Every one of us is wired different - fingerprint to genetic coding. So nothing you do will escape judgement from those who are in the audience. Be to others who they want you to be at a superficial level. Most people cannot tell fake from genuine anyways. Be yourself only when in the shower or on a boat by yourself. It limits the number of expectation conflicts you will have to encounter.

Being Who You Are Is Not A Virtue

Not everything is about you. Every person gets the right to decide their own faith and make their own choices. So preaching and enforcing your choices on another person is selfish and you will be resented. Choose your faith and actions based on your own moral and physical compass as long as they do not impact the way your brethren choose to believe and act. And be ready to own and suffer the consequences in their entirety.

Make Your Own Faith And Choices

Everyone has an opinion. Listen to every opinion; at the very least the dispenser feels heard. But do not live by what someone else says is the right answers. A natural corollary of making your own choices is that there are no moral absolutes. You have to first put your own mask on before helping others. You first because without you nothing else will have any existence relative to you.

Listen, Absorb, Be You

It's good to hope as long as you have a plan B. Everyone is dealt a random hand of cards and there isn't a perfect hand. So plan for losses and do not bet on winning as a matter of hope. Because 9 / 10 times the unexpected will happen

Going for the right solution

Contented Living

Sayantan Datta