Today, America lives up to its true identity. All barriers were broken and the audacity of hope of a young African American has persisted. A new true hero is installed at the highest office of the super power.

A historical moment indeed.

However, the real battle begins today. Success today will diminish if Obama doesn’t help raise this nation out of its chaos soon. Will this be a Obama nation?

This coversations network podcast speech by Wendy Kopp is inspiring. This is yet another proof that all great things start with a moment of thought. An undergraduate thesis idea is becoming a national movement that is on a march to change the face of American education. Teach of America, the brain child of Wendy, is already a powerful movement impacting many American schools. At least, 10% of graduating college students sign up with Teach for America (ToA) to volunteer their first two years after college to teach in under-privileged schools. With ToA Alumini now at influential government and private positions, Wendy believes the large-scale impact is just beginning! Though it started off as a dent in the educational inequality issue, scaling this program each year is now a key aspect of realizing nationwide, systemic and lasting impact.

Listen to her talk for more : http://sic.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3646.html

“Imagine some of the most inspired and provocative thinkers, writers, artists, business people, teachers, and other leaders drawn from myriad fields and from across the country and around the world – all gathered in a single place, ready to teach, speak, lead, question and answer – all interacting with an audience of thoughtful people who have stepped back from their day-to-day routines to delve deeply into a world of ideas, thought and discussion”

Thats a blurb from Aspen ideas festival, hosted by the Aspen Institute. They bring the likes of Bill Clinton, Thomas Friedman and host of other leading thinkers to share their perspectives in a serene Aspen mountain side.

A week of thought-provoking, meaningful and fun conversations – all available online for folks who couldn’t be there in Aspen.

At work, we are going through a change. A big change in the way we will operate, that will lead to the way to how we will be doing business in the coming years. Operational efficiency is the goal.

As I experience this “change” from my vantage point, I realize that it lacks widespread commitment and a sense of urgency. The folks up there are likely doing the right things in many ways, but their perceptions of what they are doing is not the same as that of an associate’s (in the trenches so to say) perception of what is happening. That is a fundamental issue in change management and it leads to stagnation sooner or later.

While some elements of the change has been communicated, it is unclear if its well understood and “seen” by all. Two critical aspects of change management in large organizations is commitment and belief from everyone (ok, mostly everyone). Commitment and belief in the change itself, happens only if everyone understands what they are committing to. Understanding is not the same as communicating!!! Understanding happens in multiple dimensions and scales. Reading a memo or listening to a CFO speech are just two, necessary but not sufficient, aspects! Some elements (consistent with memo and speeches) of the change must be “felt” in an associates’ day to day work in order to reinforce what they read/hear. This has be a visible change in their local team and/or operating environment. If a big enterprise level change doesn’t impact (even small impact helps!) an assocaite’s daily activity, its hard to get that person’s commitment, to begin with. An uncommitted associate usually infests the folks around him, so there is peripheral damage as well.

A sense of urgency is a broad term but, in my mind, speaks to three critical questions fundamentally. Why should we change now, instead of say next year or 5 years from now? This reminds me of Matsushita story. When Matsushita started his visionary institute for government and management, he explained his vision was to help Japanese politics become less corrupt and more visionary. When a skeptical reporter asked how long that would take, he said, “about four hundred years…which is why it is so important we start today!”. So, any operational change, especially in a fortune 50, is a slow and painful process. But we better start now so we make progress right away.

The second question around sense of urgency would be “Alrite, I am starting now, whats next?”. This leads to short-term wins. While change is a long-term process (at least few years), short-term milestones, directly tied to long-term vision is key to keep the masses running. Nobody wants to keep cutting the trees for years without frequent assurance that they are in the right forest! So, tell them we are moving towards the final goal, one step at a time. A short-term visible and tangible win, every 6 months, seen and acknowledged by everyone, is a key.

The last question is “Alrite, I know we had this short-term goal, but I feel I am out of touch, when are we meeting again?”. This leads to “frequency” of all forms of communications around change. Usually, the sense of urgency wades off in a few months. This happens due to the illusion at the senior leadership level that everyone is on board and so things are moving as they should. While in reality, lower level people’s commitment is lost over time. So a constant reminder, every other week, if not, every week, about the change, why the change and how we are changing and how fast and stable the “train” is moving, will keep the sense of urgency strong and sustainable!

I am in the middle of reading Small Giants. This is a great find and I am so glad I stumbled upon this book. A part of me wants to be an entrepreneur badly. I really want to be in the media business producing content for children’s education and entertainment and I always search for how other successful entrepreneurs started from scratch. Small Giants not only talks about that but also talks about the principles these small private companies live by to stay small but stay great social citizens!

The book profiles a bunch of small companies and their entrepreneurs (some of them great leaders too) and how they started off and how they either resisted the temptation to grow and remained successful or gave up to the growth syndrome only to learn the lessons the hard way. Its a good read if you aspire to have your business one day. It will be of immense use to know what you will go through, once you become successful, which you will, if only after a failure or two. Good Luck!

“Commitment to improve the world” is the reason world economic forum awards a select few from around the world with “Young Global Leader” award. The 2008 list is an long one with representation from many countries.

Whats more fascinating to me is that Allah Rakha Rahman, the man most Indians admire, is one among the young leaders recognized. Other notables in the list include Sabeer Bhatia and the Google founders.

Not often we encounter truly inspiring stories of men in public service. That too behind our own backyard? Such is a story of Cory Booker, City of Newark’s Mayor. Newark City, as I know it, is where chances of one getting shot is (was) pretty good, and for someone with my demographic profile has no real business to be in Newark anyway. This month’s Esquire has a very detailed and inspiring article about Cory Booker, the “renaissances” mayor of Newark. In many ways, he is waging a war. A war for social justice with lot more meaning and impact than the war for oil in Iraq. His story touches the core of my heart because he is doing what I would like to do, but never had the courage or commitment to follow through.

Cory has written in Esquire before and one of his own inspirations is Mrs. Virginia Jones. When Cory first met her and shared his desire to help the Newark community, she had told him “…So many people want to help, but few are committed. People live life with intentions. Well, the road to hell is paved with them. Are you committed?”. Ah! I felt a nail being sent through my head! “Road to hell is paved with good intentions”, how true! Just as many millions of people, I have a lot of good intentions, but I know my commitments aren’t good enough yet.

Booker tells of another lesson Mrs.Jones taught him, “Boy, you need to learn something. The world you see outside of you is a reflection of what you have inside of you. If you’re one of those people who see problems, darkness, and despair, that’s all there’s ever going to be. But if you’re one of those people who see hope, opportunity, love, and even the face of God, then you can help me…”. There goes the second nail, right through the head to the bottom of my heart! Words of true wisdom from Mrs.Jones!

We need more Cory Bookers and Mrs. Jones in this world. I am exceedingly confident (results are already proving!) Cory would turn Newark around and I am sure that is going to happen right in front of my eyes as I watch it from 35 miles away.

I am going to sleep tonite with two nails hurting deep down. I must commit to move from being inspired to doing inspiring things. Where is the cory in me?

Rajesh Setty who writes an interesting blog at “Life Beyond Code” has offered some tips in an article titled “Leading smart IT professionals”. It is pretty good though in some cases uncoventional. However, I think there is nothing IT (as in information technology) about his tips. It can be applied to leading any type of people albeit smart.

A quick and brief listing of his tips in my own words (just so I will remember them even better!) :

Always ask, first, for suggestions and solutions to problems before you offer yours. If you happen to work with smart people, one of them will likely suggest what you might have in your mind. That is almost always better for the team.

Always encourage successful failures. A failure is always better than never attempting. After all, we can only learn from failures. Make your team and working style a safe place for your people to not just take up risk but be able to gracefully fail and learn from them. Encourage them to share their experiences; A failed experience is the greatest asset when making a second attempt.

Introduce healthy changes in regular intervals. Even if the type of work is reasonably unpredictable on a daily-basis, human mind is infinitely capable of adjusting to such jobs. Give people, new roles and responsibilities every now and then. If you are doing the same thing for more than 2-3 years, your “marginal learning” from it may be less.

Understand that everyone wants to grow. No matter how experienced and how young someone is, everyone aspires to grow as soon as they can. Thats the nature of any aggressive smart employee. Understand their expectations and help them set reasonable short-term and long-term goals. Always align them (some if not all) to your team’s goals. Reward every accomplishment. A reward need not be in $$$, a strong appreciation in front a group, especially with senior management, will probably go longer than a small cheque could. Of course, $$$ should come into the picture sooner than they ask!

Engage in conversations and activities outside of work. In 21st century work culture, people likely spend most part of their active day at work and with colleagues. Indeed, work can take some fun and bit of other things too. Avoid setting monotonous routines such as regular friday team lunches or Monday bowling nights! Go beyond what most leaders do. Be creative and let your team understand that you will always bring some cheer when they badly need it.

I like this quote on leadership (more quotes)

“The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind in others the conviction and will to carry on.” - Walter Lippman

This will happen when you make each one of them feel as leaders themselves.