An Unconventional Approach to Manage Your Projects

Almost everyone project manager that I meet wants to find out a way to do two things: Deliver their projects on-budget and on-time Be innovative in their approach while doing so Yet, we know that most projects are neither on-budget nor on-time. The bigger and more critical the project, the more likely that it will over-run budgets and get delayed. So, why is it that most large projects fail? Is there anything that we can do to address this statistic? My belief is that most projects fail (over-budget or delayed) because of three primary reason: Adopting a Deliberate strategy Collaboration […]

Personal Data Replaces Cash at this Cafe

Shiru café looks like any other coffee shop. But the similarities end there. If you were to go to the café for some hard earned caffeine, the chances are that you will be refused your caffeine unless you are either a student or a teaching staff at a university. Simply put, no college ID >> No coffee. What’s more, if you are a part of the teaching staff, you can pay for your coffee with cash. However, if you are a student then to get your cup of coffee (or tea), the currency that you need to pay with is […]

The State of the Gig Economy

We have all at some point in time talked about or heard about the growth of the gig economy and how this could potentially be the future of work. While the number of people participating in the gig economy has been on a growth path, their ability to earn from their gigs alone to support them and their families has not been growing in proportion. JP Morgan Chase Institute recently did a study on the state of the online platform economy. It tried to answer a fundamental question – “Has all the technological and business model innovations that have led […]

Progress Doesn’t Always Follow a Straight Line

In an interesting blog post for Strategy+Business, Adam Kahane shares his perspective about solving tough problems. Tough problems or wicked problems are difficult to solve precisely because there is no one right answer and there are multiple root causes and motivations at play. It is wicked for the precise reason that there are seemingly contradicting interests at play, which makes it difficult to solve these problems permanently.  In the post, Adam talks about the fact that trying to solve a complex or a wicked problem as if it were a simple problem will always lead to making the problem even […]

How to be Happily Busy

Time is the most precious commodity that we have. Attention is the second most important. And we need to trade both of these (depleting, non-renewable) with other people and organisations. This is almost non-negotiable (of course, we can go to the Himalayas for a retreat or become a Buddhist monk, but I am sure people who read my blog have neither of those intentions). That being the case, we don’t have a choice if we want to trade our time and attention but the choice is what do we trade it with.  If you are like any of my average […]