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Saturday, December 13, 2014

TIPS FOR DOING SMART WORK






In my previous blog post on Hard work vs Smart Work, there was a case study in which a worker on the first day cuts down 6 trees in 8 hrs., next day 4 trees in 12 hours and to his frustration in spite of the increased effort of  16 hours was able to cut down 2 trees only. So the question i put forward to you was that why it was happening.


 Possible Answer
Some of the answers that might have come to you mind might be that the person must be getting tired or de-motivated. He must have lost interest in his work. He must not be getting enough encouragement from the management. The person might be going through a rough patch in his personal life and must be under a lot of stress. He must not be putting his best efforts. All these answers might be right to some extent but there can still be another very good reason for dip in his performance and that is he is not sharpening his axe. First day as his axe was very sharp so he was able to chop down trees. Axe was getting blunt day by day by chopping down more tress and that was the reason for dip in performance in spite of the increased efforts on behalf of this person.
 The Creative and Correct  Answer.
Now please think more deeply about this story and might be we get a very valuable lesson for our life.  The axe in the story is represents our skill level of doing a work. In our case, we need to update our work daily as our work is not static like tree in the story. For example, Microsoft windows, MS office program, after every two three years, latest version of the program is released. A computer user has to continuously update his knowledge of the programs by constantly training himself. It means we need to sharpen our skill continuously to reaming competitive in today’s word of cut- throat competition which works on the Darwin theory of “survival of the fittest”.  
 Implication for the daily Life.
The greatest axe the human being possesses is human mind that need to sharpen continuously by learning and training. When I was a child I used to ask my father that why there are 365 days in a year. It would have been nice if there would have been just 360 days and each month have 30 days. That would have saved the labour of learning the exact number of days in month. Lately this has come to my mind that God want us devote at least five days in a year to learn new things about the work we do or in general life. It might be attending workshops, seminars, reading books, watching videos, listening to audio tapes, interacting with the skilled people in your field, reading a magazine related to your field. These all things will help us to be more skilled at our work and we will be able to bring innovation to our work. Otherwise when someone will ask you about your experience you might tell him it is twenty years but that will simply mean one year experience repeated nineteen times without adding anything to our knowledge.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Hardwork Vs Samrt Work


Hardwork or Smart Work
A very hardworking person was employed by company whose was in the business of wood cutting. This person was given the axe and he went to forest to chop down the trees. He worked very hard and was able to chop down six trees in 8 hours. He was the first person to do so in the entire history of the company. Management was very happy with his work and gave him extra reward along with the labour of the day. He was praised a lot and was told to keep the work in the same way. The person was very happy with the praise and extra money he got, and made a resolution to do even better next day.

More Hours Less Work
Next day the person woke early in the morning and went to the work one hour earlier than the day before and stayed one hour later in the morning to improve his performance further.  Although he added two extra hours to his worked for 10 hours that day but were able to chop down only four trees.  The person was puzzled as his performance had come down in spite of putting more efforts. Management also enquired the reasons for dip in the performance and urged him to work hard.
 Effort increased, Performence Reduced
The person was very hard working and determined. He again made a resolve to improve the performance by giving more time. Next day he worked for fourteen hours even without taking rest but to his dismay performance dipped further and he was just able to, chop down two tress. Now the person and the management were both worried about this dip in performance from six trees a day to two trees a day in spite of increasing the work hours by six hours. Now can you please tell before reading further what might be the reasons for this dip in performance of the person?
Post your comments on the possible causes of the above happenings.
I will give the answer in Next articles.....

Monday, December 8, 2014

Psychology of Personality Development


Strange but True.....
Bus Driver: Hero  Turned Villain
 When you are waiting for a bus on a highway, you always want that every bus should stop and pick you up. Who so ever do not stop, we curse him like anything. Now, finally one bus stop and you get into that bus. Again this bus driver stops the bus at next station and again at next station.  Now some of our reaction will be: Is it a local bus?  Why is he stopping time and again? I need to reach early. He is overloading the bus. So when you were on road every bus should stop, now as you are in bus so this bus should only stop at the place where you want to get down. The subject matter of psychology is this sudden change in a person thinking in such a short span of time.
Baby Crying: Pain in head or heart?
Take another example, if our own kid is crying we feel pain in our heart, but if the kid of neighbor is crying you feel the pain in head. The case is exactly opposite in case of wife. When your own wife cries you feel pain in the head, but when someone else’s wife cries we feel pain in the heart. It means that although the physical stimulus might be the same (crying) but what we are going to feel is highly moderated by the intent rather than the content.
How is that? Out.. May be may be not
When India –Pakistan cricket match going on and excitement is at the top, a run a ball is needed, and Sachin Tendulkar takes a quick single and there is a direct through on the wickets. The field umpire refers the decision to the third umpire as it is a very close call.  All the people are watching the footage in slow motion as the wicket of Tendulkar is very pernicious for both the sides. On seeing the footage, all the Pakistani fans come to the conclusion that he is out. On the other side all the Indian fans conclude by watching the same footage that the Tendulkar has made his ground. It means sometime our brain tell our eyes what to see or what not to see and instruct them to pick only those cues which fulfill our wish. This is again the subject matter of psychology.
How is Your Boss? Good or bad....
At workplace, when we get a salary hike or get promoted we feel very happy about it and come to the conclusion that hard work always pays. I have put so much of efforts into my work that is why I have been rewarded. We appreciate our boss a lot and say that his performance ratings are always unbiased and correct. Whenever you are called into the boss’s office and asked for suggestions you feel very happy and think that your boss really appreciates the experience and suggestions of the good employees.
Next year, you are ignored for the promotion and there is no pay hike, instead, a collogue of yours has been promoted with a very god salary hike. Suddenly you start disliking that colleague, and start thinking that he is a manipulator and might have influenced boss in some other ways rather than his performance. Whenever he enters into the boss cabin you are very sure that he is the spy of the boss in the office, he is buttering the boss and saying negative things about others to the boss. Otherwise there cannot be any reason to call him because in your eyes his intelligence level is below average. You evaluate your boss very negatively and conclude that he is very partial and have no idea to rate the performance of people. It means when we succeed only reason is our hard work and intelligence, but when someone else succeed he is just lucky or might have manipulated people and circumstances. This kind of reasoning is the subject matter of psychology.

Dose she love me?  Yes she love me.....
In a co-education system, whenever a beautiful girl sits with you and talks with you very smilingly, you conclude that she is very caring and open minded.  Now the same girl’s talks to somebody else or freely interact with other boys in the class, she has not got good moral character. She does not know the difference between good guys (you) and bad guys (other). When you look or touch an opposite gender person it is just a friendly look or touch, but someone else does those his intentions are not right.   When you make a girl friend or boyfriend it is a great experience of life and it helps a person to be a better person. When someone else is in a relationship they are just wasting their precious time of study in all these use less things. Psychology tries to understand the reasons behind this kind of reasoning.
Are Others Showing Off?  
When we buy expensive clothes, cars, jewelry, mobile phone and other branded stuff, we are living our life. We have worked very hard for it and we have got the every right to enjoy our life like this. When someone else is doing the same thing, he/she is showing off. When we are telling people about our struggles and achievements we are trying to motivate the other person to be like us. When someone else is doing the same things he is either showing off or is telling plain lies.  Why we do this, is the subject matter of psychology.
Do you do it your self?
We never ask the doctor that whether he has taken the medicine that he is suggesting us to take to get rid of illness. But we always ask people that whether they have themselves practiced what they are preaching to us. When I am advising others not to do the things that I have done, I am humble person who accepts his mistakes and is warning others to avoid the same. When someone else does the same thing he is a hypocrite and is advising people what he has never done in his life.
Sorry, You don't mean it?
When we are at fault and we are saying sorry to the person the matter, you are saying it from the bottom of your heart and the matter should end there and then. After all what is bigger than a sincere sorry. When someone else is at fault and saying sorry to you, he is just not serious. Moreover a sorry cannot undo all the wrong things right,  that the person has done to you. We cannot forgive people and hope that god will forgive us for the all the wrong deeds that we have done in our life. This kind of thinking is subject matter of Psychology.