It's easy to fail ... Wake up before it is too late!

More often than not, in our careers, we learn what it takes to fail rather than what it takes to succeed. Part of this can be attributed to the herd mentality which has kind of become a norm. It takes a probing mind to actually pull away from this vicious phenomenon and refrain from the kind of anti-learning that is prevalent in most organizations today.

A few pointers which apply to people at all levels within an organization:

(1) "Learn to delegate". Isn't this one of the most common management tips? People have taken this too seriously and to such an extent that they have nothing left to do but delegate. And this seems to be the best way of escaping accountability. Even if used in the right proportion, another flaw in this approach is delegating to a person who does not have the required expertise. Remember, effective delegation includes educating your subordinate and a little-bit of hand-holding till your sub-ordinate learns to fly on his own.

(2) Please let the information flow downstream. Every resource has a right to know the big picture; why he is doing what he is doing.

(3) Please let the information flow upstream too. Don't sweep problems under the rug and portray that everything under you is happy and gay. Some day, the time will come and it will be too late.

(4) Beware of people who speak fast, loud, confidently and have tremendous convincing powers. You never know, maybe thats the only thing they can do well. And a message to such people, its ok to think you are smart but do not assume the person in front of you is a fool.

(5) Do you hire based on certifications? Stop and think hard and look closely around you. A vast majority of people who do certifications do it with the sole aim of gaining the tag. (Look at the gamut of people on LinkedIn who have their certifications tagged along with their names as thou it were their last names.) This is usually a result of a cramming session for a certain period before the examination, the period being decided by a combination of experiences of other certified individuals and individual cramming abilities. It would be tough for a recruiter to find one of the limited few who would have done the certification genuinely. And even if such a candidate is found, the point to realize is that certification is just a tag of awareness and a grounding in the basics and the basics of advanced topics. There can never be any substitute for experience. And the experienced may never have found the time to certify themselves.

(6) Message to technologists who think an organization can be run purely on technology and to CMM gurus who think an organization can be run purely on processes. Not possible. You need what you call sensi-balance (a term I flicked from a brand of Loreal shampoo) - a sensible balance of technology and quality processes.

(6.a) I have seen umpteen cases wherein the solution prescribed for a troubled project is a plethora of quality processes. Resources who could have otherwise saved the project end up wasting their time on fulfilling processes thereby putting the actual deliverables at stake and fail in the end. At the end of the day, leaders are surprised as to how come CMM couldn't save the day.

(6.b) Another set of cases is wherein the tech savvy guys feel they dont need any processes to dictate to them what needs to be done. Point to remember is that not every resource in the company is as savvy as you; plus there is an actual dearth of resources like you in the outside market. So it is not just about you. Processes enforce best practices and attempt to keep a combination of resources with highly varying skill levels that comprise an organization, on the right path. Plus it attempts to ensure uniformity across varied assignments within an organization.

(7) The solution to the so-called most complicated problems are sometimes very obvious and might be right in front of you. Just because the wizards in your organization have not been able to solve it doesnt mean it cannot be resolved by a younger wizard like you. So go for it.

(8) Do not go insane on metrics. If you spend half of your life generating and analyzing metrics, take a step back for your own good.

(9) The age-old adage "Learn from other's mistakes" - Do not take this literally but seems thats exactly what most people do. They actually learn to repeat the mistakes that others make. Projects after projects, and organizations after organizations fail committing the same mistakes. And at the end of the day, the leaders are still surprised as to what went wrong.

(10) Last but not the least, learn to differentiate between success and luck!