People who fail to achieve goals almost always signal their intent to delay or fail by using deceptive little words like "I will try..." or "I need to see…" or "We really need to look into it…". In English language there are not many more deceptive words than the above, both to the person who says them and the person who hears them.
In many ways "trying" is same as "pretending to succeed". People who use the above words actually give themselves permission to delay or fail. No matter what happens, they can always claim that they "tried" or they "never got the time". They don't realize or simply ignore that by doing such things they are only fooling themselves.
People who really and truly achieve goals/target never say "I will try." A wise guru once said "Do, or do not. There is no 'try'." AND this is how it is actually DONE!
Recently, in our organization an initiative is taken where every week an individual would come forward and speak about any technical topic of his/her choice. Believe me this is LOT tougher than it sounds, especially for juniors and even seniors do fumble and shy away. I was having a discussion with one of the junior member after his session about how the session was and what all he went through.
Here is how he DID IT - I just correlated it with our business world!
GOAL/TARGET IDENTIFICATION
He suggested that it was very difficult for him to actually identify the topic he would choose to speak. He did spend quite some time and finally zoomed in on one topic – "Design Patterns".
In business world, luckily most of the times the requirements would be present. However understanding the requirements happens to be the key, until and unless you do not understand what needs to be done, what would anyone do! It is also very important to understand ‘why’ it is desired – what are the global level objectives it is going to solve.
PREPARATION
He told me that he had to do lot of preparation to devise the presentation. He searched on the internet, he prepared notes then he filtered the notes to finally derive the content of the presentation.
In business world also one needs lot of preparation we call it the design phase. You basically derive various options and finally choose the right rather the most apt option, the same also helps you derive the DB design (tables) etc.
REHEARSAL
Once he finalized the content of presentation, then he did several rehearsals. He altered the speech several times before he started feeling good about the same. He also told that initially he had to refer to the content but later he could rehearse the whole presentation without the help of the content/notes.
In business world, is this not how you do the development and unit testing phase? Initially you refer to the design and run through several times to ensure that all the scenarios are covered. You also perform unit testing to ensure that what you have is as per the initial goal/target.
GRAND REHEARSAL
If the occasion is large and important then you also invite some of the friends/audience and perform in front of them. They also enact as audience and provide suggestions and also raise few queries. This basically helps you to go back and iron-out the aspects missed, and also fine tune some aspects.
In business world, now you exactly know that this is the QA and UAT phase. You present the release to the QA people so that they can review and provide feedback and suggestions – what we call as bugs/defects or enhancements.
ACTUAL SHOW
Well this is straight forward and in business world called as client release or production release. If the audience is not satisfied or feel bored then the show is called as "FLOP". However you get applause if the presentation goes well, and if you are able to answer audience queries to their satisfaction. Sometimes you can also be critically acclaimed. This is similar to meeting end client expectations, if we do that then it is a JOB WELL DONE! If the job is really liked and appreciated then you get a "Once more" what we call as "Repeat business".
SIMPLE!
As you can see, "Doing" is lot easier than "Trying" or "Pretending".
So let us stop trying and start doing!
In many ways "trying" is same as "pretending to succeed". People who use the above words actually give themselves permission to delay or fail. No matter what happens, they can always claim that they "tried" or they "never got the time". They don't realize or simply ignore that by doing such things they are only fooling themselves.
People who really and truly achieve goals/target never say "I will try." A wise guru once said "Do, or do not. There is no 'try'." AND this is how it is actually DONE!
Recently, in our organization an initiative is taken where every week an individual would come forward and speak about any technical topic of his/her choice. Believe me this is LOT tougher than it sounds, especially for juniors and even seniors do fumble and shy away. I was having a discussion with one of the junior member after his session about how the session was and what all he went through.
Here is how he DID IT - I just correlated it with our business world!
GOAL/TARGET IDENTIFICATION
He suggested that it was very difficult for him to actually identify the topic he would choose to speak. He did spend quite some time and finally zoomed in on one topic – "Design Patterns".
In business world, luckily most of the times the requirements would be present. However understanding the requirements happens to be the key, until and unless you do not understand what needs to be done, what would anyone do! It is also very important to understand ‘why’ it is desired – what are the global level objectives it is going to solve.
PREPARATION
He told me that he had to do lot of preparation to devise the presentation. He searched on the internet, he prepared notes then he filtered the notes to finally derive the content of the presentation.
In business world also one needs lot of preparation we call it the design phase. You basically derive various options and finally choose the right rather the most apt option, the same also helps you derive the DB design (tables) etc.
REHEARSAL
Once he finalized the content of presentation, then he did several rehearsals. He altered the speech several times before he started feeling good about the same. He also told that initially he had to refer to the content but later he could rehearse the whole presentation without the help of the content/notes.
In business world, is this not how you do the development and unit testing phase? Initially you refer to the design and run through several times to ensure that all the scenarios are covered. You also perform unit testing to ensure that what you have is as per the initial goal/target.
GRAND REHEARSAL
If the occasion is large and important then you also invite some of the friends/audience and perform in front of them. They also enact as audience and provide suggestions and also raise few queries. This basically helps you to go back and iron-out the aspects missed, and also fine tune some aspects.
In business world, now you exactly know that this is the QA and UAT phase. You present the release to the QA people so that they can review and provide feedback and suggestions – what we call as bugs/defects or enhancements.
ACTUAL SHOW
Well this is straight forward and in business world called as client release or production release. If the audience is not satisfied or feel bored then the show is called as "FLOP". However you get applause if the presentation goes well, and if you are able to answer audience queries to their satisfaction. Sometimes you can also be critically acclaimed. This is similar to meeting end client expectations, if we do that then it is a JOB WELL DONE! If the job is really liked and appreciated then you get a "Once more" what we call as "Repeat business".
SIMPLE!
As you can see, "Doing" is lot easier than "Trying" or "Pretending".
So let us stop trying and start doing!
Please note some of the content, quotes are used from the web...no intentions just got aspired.
ReplyDelete...and the junior was me :D
ReplyDeletePretending still is more dangerous than trying ... Nonetheless one who does it succeeds ... Another good piece of write up ..
ReplyDelete