Human Psychology

Lessons from Human Psychology

1. The first lesson  is about the extraordinary power of flattery.  Everyone loves a dollop of flattering although some like it unknowingly. So to be successful use this power of flattery. But be genuine and sincere, there will be something about people that you can appreciate/compliment. Its proven that even if the person knows that he is being flattered he cannot help but enjoy the feeling.(Although it does not have the same impact as a genuine complement)
2. Your mind has a mind of its own:-) It takes considerable practice to tame your mind. If you can channel your thoughts, then thats the first step towards mastery of self.
3. We all generally want to be nice to to other people and liked by other people. 
4. We dont like to say "no" many times. This is why the "Door-in-the-face" sales technique works! (more details here  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door-in-the-face_technique)
5. We all crave for attention from the day we are born- babies crying when hungry, toddlers breaking stuff, teenagers acting wild,women spending time to get ready, men spending more time building their physique and/or moustaches/beards.

Why I like faceook?

To begin with, let me confess that i don't use Facebook as often as I should. I am one of those who believes in  meeting people face to face rather than clicking on "Like"or "Check-in".
However Facebook connects me to so many long lost friends who would have been otherwise untraceable or unreachable. This is good enough reason for me to "Hangout" on Facebook (Pun intended on Google).
Also its much easier to keep in touch with latest updates from Friends without having to travel huge distances or taking exclusive time off to connect.

But these are not the main reasons for me to like Facebook, I like Facebook for the technology under its hood and the scale of its operations. And for the fact that this company is driven/run by techies at its core which explains the technological innovation and also the ethos behind it drive to adopt/contribute to the open source community.  I particularly like the fact that it faces the scale/technology challenges head-on and  that this is done through open source software. Although because of this scale/rapid innovation there are other issues around security, business model etc which is topic for another post.

The article below takes a peek at the software behind Facebook. Hop on aboard and enjoy the ride:
http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/06/18/the-software-behind-facebook/

Cheers,
Guru

Main Hurdle in a project - Scope Creep

We all have been there, when we are in Delivery phase, we are asked to make changes every now and then. In most cases, the requirements change but not the end dates. The usual argument is that "but that was one of the requirement". This happens in cases where the Requirements dicument is not detailed enough or is light touch. Of course with Agile, its a different story altogether! How to Scope your Projects The "project scope" consists of all of the things that must be produced to complete a project. These 'things' are called deliverables and you need to describe them in depth as early in the project as possible, so everyone knows what needs to be produced. Take these 5 Steps to scope your projects: Step 1: Set the Direction Start off by setting the direction for the project. Do you have an agreed Project Vision, Objectives and Timeframes? Are they specified in depth and has your customer agreed to them? Does everyone in the project team truly understand them and why they are important? Only by fixing the project direction can you truly fix the project scope. Step 2: Scope Workshops The best way to get buy-in to your project scope is to get all of the relevant stakeholders to help you define it. So get your project sponsor, customer and other stakeholders in a room and run a workshop to identify the scope. What you want from them is an agreed set of major deliverables to be produced by the project. You also want to know "what's out of scope". Run the workshop by asking each stakeholder for a list of the deliverables they expect the project team to deliver. Take the full list of deliverables generated in the workshop and get them to agree on what's mandatory and what's optional. Then ask them to prioritize the list, so you know what has to be delivered first. Step 3: Fleshing it out You now have an agreed list of deliverables. But it's still not enough. You need to define each deliverable in depth. Work with the relevant people in your business to describe how each deliverable will look and feel, how it would operate and how it would be supported etc. Your goal here is to make it so specific that your customer cannot state later in the project that "when they said this, they really meant that". Step 4: Assessing Feasibility So you now have a detailed list and description of every deliverable to be produced by your project, in priority order and separated as mandatory / optional. Great! But is it feasible to achieve within the project end date? Before you confirm the scope, you need to review every deliverable in the list and get a general indication from your team as to whether they can all be completed before your project end date. If they can't, then which deliverables can you remove from the list to make your end date more achievable? Step 5: Get the thumbs up Present the prioritized set of deliverables to your Project Sponsor and ask them to approve the list as your project scope. Ask them to agree to the priorities, the deliverable descriptions and the items out of scope. By getting formal sign-off, you're in a great position to be able to manage the project scope down the track. So when your Sponsor says to you in a few weeks time "Can you please add these deliverables to the list?", you can respond by saying "Yes, but I'll either have to remove some items from the list to do it, or extend the project end date. Which is it to be?". You can easily manage your Sponsors expectations with a detailed scope document at your side. The scope document is the Project Manager's armor. It protects them from changes and makes them feel invincible! Courtesy : Method123

Simple Sales principle

There are 2 acronyms which all sales people use (we also use this to sell ourselves maybe unknowingly)

KISS – Keep it simple stupid
Instead of blabbering, always speak in terms short, crisp sentences which deliver big results

AIDA
1. A = Attention = Make someone aware that they have a problem.
2. I = Interest = Tell them that you have the solution.
3. D = Desire = Describe what it will do for them in sufficient detail that they start to think they should buy it. This involves a list of all the features and benefits with an emphasis on What It Can Do For Them.
4. A = Action = Ask them to place an order.

Thought(s) for the day

Hi Readers,
Here are few interesting thoughts for the day that I have come across, I intend to keep this list growing:

1. A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.
2. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
3. Most things which are urgent are not important, and most things which are important are not urgent. - President Dwight Eisenhower
4. When our memories outweigh our dreams, we have grown old. - Bill Clinton
5. Nothing travels faster than the speed of light, with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own set of laws. -Douglas Adams
6. Delegating work works, providing the one delegating works, too. 
   

Some interesting lines (most compiled from the internet)

1. "Stress on things that you have control over and appreciate those you can't as they exist to complete your worldly experience"
2. “What’s the common element in all the successes and failures you’ve gone through in your life? You!”
3. “You can spend your whole life whining and complaining and annoying everybody, or you can suck it up and think positively.”
4. "don't be a victim, make your own path"...
5. "Wake up in the morning and look forward to going to work, pack up in the evening and look forward to going home"
6. Original in kannada - Odu vakkalu, buddhi mukkalu, loosely translates to "Read once, and use that knowledge several times". - told by my mother when I was in school to state thatb mere reading is useless unless i use and apply that knowledge, 1990
   

Long weekend trip plan

Hi Readers,
We had a long weekend here in UK during the last week of August and also this is the last long holiday before Christmas, which means no holidays till December!
To make the most of it, we decided to go out and enjoy the final rays of summer sun.

We made the following outline plan of what we wanted to do:
Day 1 (Saturday) -> Prepare for the trips and rest after the long week
Day 2 (Sunday) -> Visit Notting Hill Carnival in London
Day 3 (Monday) -> Visit Bath Spa, Lacock village and Stonehenge


Then it was down to forming a group of 4 to optimise the travel costs(which are exorbitant in UK) and booking the tickets. More details in the next posts

Tip:
In case you didnt know FGW (First Great Western) has a group travel deal which allows 3 or 4 people travelling at the cost of 2 tickets. This means a 50% reduction in the fares. This is good if you are travelling in groups of 4.