Take off your hat to a good plan

'Plan is integrated and it can't be developed without
effort and dedication' - Dr V V Rao

 The Pearl Harbor assault was a planned event for more than a year and the mastermind behind the attack on Pearl Harbor was Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander in chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet.

Yamamoto had two sources of inspiration for the attack on Pearl Harbor.

·        The first was the destruction of the Pacific Fleet and a Japanese invasion of the Philippines and Guam.

·        The second source was the November 1940 RAF strikes at Taranto, Italy, in which torpedoes heavily damaged two Italian battleships.

The event impressed Yamamoto because it was the first practical attack by aircraft on battleships. In January 1941, Yamamoto instructed Rear Admiral Takijiro Onishi, a renowned naval aviator, to prepare a preliminary study on the feasibility of an attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. The plan was completed in April and called for Japan to make a surprise air and submarine attack on Pearl Harbor.

The site was selected because it was a major United States military installation and a close enough for Japanese forces to approach with little risk of detection.

Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, director of the air attack, spent the next several months developing the tactics and equipment necessary to fly to Hawaii and take out the ships along Battleship Row.

In November, after the Japanese government approved the attack, it became known as the ‘Hawaiian Operation.’ On November 30, the Japanese cabinet set December 7 as the date Japan would declare war on the United States. On December 1, Yamamoto's flagship in Japan's Inland Sea sent out a prearranged coded message — ‘Climb Mount Niitaka’ which was the signal to attack Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7. [The Great Pacific War by Hector Bywater, 1925]

A plan is a formal statement of a set of strategic goals, the reasons they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the dream or concept attempting to reach those goals.

A plan can typically any diagram or list of steps with timing and resources, used to achieve a goal. It is commonly understood as a temporal set of intended actions through which one expects to achieve a strategic goal.

What to plan?

1. A comprehensive, integrated, dedicated and committed efforts

2. Best resource utilization

3. A detailed and able to monitor, measure and continually improve

As such, planning is a fundamental property of intelligent behavior. This thought process is essential to the creation and refinement of a plan, or integration of it with other plans; that is, it combines forecasting of developments with the preparation of scenarios of how to react to them.

Example: The 2003 Invasion of Iraq (19 March – 1 May 2003), was the start of the conflict known as ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’, in which combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations.

In both Pearl Harbor and Invasion of Iraq, the detailing was on the tactics, efforts, resources, timing and with supreme aim the victories were achieved.

Mind it - Powering your future

Leadership is not just holding positions
it is about leading position. Dr V V Rao

‘It is critical to spot any challenge to drive personal efficiency early, which in turn can lead to miracles.’ – Dr. V. V. Rao

• ·        Dreaming with freedom
• ·        Thinking with freedom
• ·        Doing with freedom
• ·        Sharing with freedom
• ·        Learning with freedom
• ·        Winning with freedom
• ·        Celebrating with freedom

The above are KEYS to success then, how one can do it? I found SIX useful methods and/or tools through which one can win great battles of life.

1.     Making your own Mind Maps

The Mind map is an expression of innovative thinking and is therefore a natural function of the human mind. It is powerful graphic technique which provides a universal key to unlocking the potential of the brain. Mind map can be applied to every aspect of life and clearer thinking will enhance human performance. Mind map is your mental volcano a devise for accessing intelligence.

Example: The note by Leonardo da Vinci, demonstrate the point. He used words, symbols, sequence, listing, linearity, analysis, association, visual rhythm, numbers, imagery, dimension and wholesomeness. Also found same comprehensive note making by legendary Picasso.

With these Mind maps you simply allow your brain to incubate an idea. In other words, having completed your decision making mind map, you allow your brain to relax.

2.   Creating your own Yellow Pages

One must ensure to have and know the information needed to accomplish a specific objective. We need to make our expertise available to us at every instant. One of the straightforward ways to accomplish this is to create your own electronic personal Yellow pages those points you to all specific information when it is most required and it is required on that moment.

Today’s social and networked world we face challenges while finding information on intranets, internet, social feeds there is too much, and searches can yield as much nonsense as helpful material.

How to create such type of Yellow pages?  Lay the ground work means asking basic, but very important questions:

What type of knowledge does the objective need to be completed?

What are the key decisions that will impact success?

What type of information is needed to support these decisions?

What are the knowledge sources? (People, documents, links, media)

What are the key competencies that will lead to success?

Example: The British ran the Indian subcontinent for about 200 years, from the middle of the eighteenth century through World War II, without making any fundamental changes in organization structure or administrative policy. The Indian Civil Service never had more than 1000 members to administer the vast densely populated subcontinent. Most British were quite young a 30 year old was a survivor, especially in the early years and the first 100 years there was no telegraph or railroad. Organization structure was totally flat. Each district officer reported directly to the Provincial political secretary. The system worked remarkably well, because it was designed to ensure that each of its members had the information he needed to do the job.

3.   Building Concept Stories

Storytelling can be adaptive for all ages Storytelling can be used as a method to teach ethics, values, and cultural norms, success stories, scenarios, lessons learned, key success factors and differences. Learning is most effective when it takes place in social environments that provide authentic social cues about how knowledge is to be applied.

Stories provide a tool to transfer knowledge and preserve knowledge. Stories mirror human thought as humans think in narrative structures and most often remember facts in story form. Facts can be understood as smaller versions of a larger story. Stories are effective educational tools because listeners become engaged and therefore remember. While the story listener is engaged, they are able to imagine new perspectives, inviting a transformation and empathetic experience.

Example: In the Quechua community of Highland Peru, there is no separation between adults and children. This allows for children to learn storytelling through their own interruptions of the given story. Therefore, children in the Quechua community are encouraged to listen to the story that is being told in order to learn about their identity and culture. Sometimes, children are expected to sit quietly and listen actively. This enables them to engage in activities as independent learners. [http://en.wikipedia.org]

This process of storytelling is empowering as the teller effectively conveys ideas and, with practice, is able to demonstrate the potential of human accomplishment. Story taps into existing knowledge and creates bridges both culturally and motivated toward a solution.

4.   Drawing Flow Charts

Flowcharts are useful to create process documentation, regulatory and quality requirements, customer needs and many non-regulated businesses. These can range in form from high-level procedures to low-level, detailed instructions and steps. You may think that this applies mainly to organizations, but my view is one can greatly benefit from flow-charting their dream, growth, problem solving and progressive processes as well.

Example: Training materials are often created using flowcharts because they're visually stimulating and easy to understand. A nicely laid out flowchart will gain and hold your attention when a block of text will often fail. Swim lanes are visual channels (rows or columns) in a flowchart that identify the resources used in a process. Swim lanes are useful for displaying the flow of information or materials between resources at a glance.

5.    Utilizing the principle of Knowledge Management

KM comprises a range of strategies and practices used to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in individuals as experiences in the form of explicit and tacit knowledge. We all must put an effort to convert the tacit knowledge to explicit. By the collection of processes that govern the creation, dissemination, and utilization of knowledge. We agree that many of our decisions and actions have profound and long lasting effects. It makes sense to recognize and understand the processes that effect our actions and decision. Take steps to improve the quality these processes and in turn improve the quality of those actions and decisions for which we are aiming to complete.

6.   Developing Linear Lists

One can do by sentence style consists of simply writing out whatever is to be communicated in a narrative form. One can also include noting down the ideas as they occur to our thoughts and memory. The outline can be numerical or alphabetical style consists of major categories and sub-categories.

Concluding remarks:

Review your Mind maps, Yellow pages, Concept stories, Flow charts, Knowledge management and Linear lists. All of these SIX methods/tools once made must be reviewed immediately after 30 minutes, after a day, after a week, after a month, after three months and after six months then this knowledge will become part of your ongoing long term memory.

Through yourself away from the rigmarole of your tough duty for few days, throw in some fun and you are like a school big school boy/girl on a school trip. This will lead you to make your Knowledge sharper & focused.

Elephants can’t bite. Ants do bite!

'Elephants can't bite but Ants do bite' - Dr V V Rao

These little things will lead us to a BIG failure they are very SIMPLE to practice if you start them as and when they come in your way with immediate effect.

1. When we neglect the path of highest enjoyment ‘Let me do this job for three years and I will listen to my HEART’

2. When you are incapable to decide vital ones and you say ‘Let me try all options together and I think EVERYTHING is important’

3. Simply when you are not tracking your progress and say ‘Why I need to TRACK my progress anyway I know it’

4. When you do excessive planning and say ‘Let’s plan to revise THE PLAN’

5. Every time before you are about to act and say ‘Let me do it later with little more PERFECTION’

6. Overdose of Electron-microscopic trails & trails and no ‘REAL ACTION’

7. No sense of agility and when you say ‘Let me do it next two to three days’ OR ‘Let’s do it in NEXT 3 to 4 weeks’  

8. When you hate someone too much and say ‘I HATE that fellow if that person is not here I would have done wonders’

9. When you feel you know all and say ‘I know that and I am the BEST’

10. When you feel that the status-quo is OK and say ‘No one can change this is ULTIMATE’

11. When you feel you are ignored and say ‘No one is CARING me’

12. When you don’t celebrate what you have done so far and say

‘Once I am retired I will give big a PARTY’ OR

‘Once I get married I will be free CELEBRATE’ OR

‘Once get that promotion I will be fine to CHILL’ OR

‘Once my kids get settled I will go for a big VACATION’ OR

‘Once I am free from all responsibilities and I will do GAGA’

13. And no shoddy short cuts please! Those who resort to stealing or robbing to make some quick cash will eventually end up in jail, injured, got stuck in caves of isolation or dead.

14. When your mind say ‘I will do it TOMORROW’

A firm foundation is built on little steps and growth. Growth, whether plant growth, muscle growth, or mind growth is governed by the natural laws. It cannot be forced. Each day’s simple growth prepares for the next day’s further growth. We can never break nature’s laws.

How strong is your ‘mind-set’?

You need to show - 'You are the LEADER'

A tiny story of ‘Leadership’

‘I hadn't met a man so ignorant that I hadn't learnt anything from him’, said Galileo centuries back.

Childhood memories, sometimes are so cherish able, some are not  but nevertheless, they make the basis for the following life.This quote when I remember, rear or reread it connects me to my childhood days.

Those were the days of India approximately 20 years after independence. India was still struggling with poverty and too economically backward status than the state we are now. While the situation was little better in urban areas, the villages used to have more illiteracy and more struggle. In addition to this my village ‘Chinna Kakani’ had extra menace from plenty of street dogs wandering around. And there was no control either from Panchayat (Indian Village Committee) or from people with the fear they may bite. The menace was increasing day by day.

At those times there used to live a man looking wild with long undisciplined beard and scruffy hair, giving a dreadful look especially children of my age at that time.  Around 6.30 pm almost every day, he used to walk on the road where we used to play. Might be that was the time he used to come out from hibernation. A deep stare from him, all the tots used to run so far from him in search of location to hide ourselves. While we had this type of fear, the dogs used to have a quite different approach.  They used to go very near to this dreadful man and used to bark and bark loudly. That used to be a puzzle for me for days. While that was the situation of mine, the villagers used to go inside of their homes quietly, closing their doors.

That day-

As usual, the ignorant man, the escaping, the dog’s barks – the routine story continued just only for minutes. We, hiding behind a big tree watching the same-old sequence like a movie.

For a fraction a second, the man stopped walking and stood silently. He stared at the dogs barking wild. The next very second, he caught the front legs of a big dog, spun the dog around him several times and dropped him on the road. Suddenly the remaining pack of dogs got puzzled and literally became silent and quite with squeeze groans.

He showed the dogs and also the villagers who the LEADER is.

There has been too much prominence debate on ‘leaders as equals among equals’. This debate is misleading and treacherous. Actually, leaders demonstrate the way to others.

1. You being a leader facilitate, articulate and influence others in the attention to the key success factors after a clear diagnoses and big picture that must be “nailed” to ensure execution.

2. The higher you go as leader, the more you must expect to “Champion” and to deal with ambiguity.

3. Your failures and results will be more visible to others. More and more, the people whom you want to influence may not be under your control.

4. You may be required to mobilize a group of strangers to work effectively on a non-routine goal.

5. You may have to lead a team whose members are spread over several countries.

6. You may encounter situations where you cannot depend on your boss’s judgment.

7. You need to bring purpose, direction and focus where these qualities do not already exist.

8. Your leadership quality is an intangible asset that usually cannot be show cased as aesthetic talent can.

9. You must focus on methods to keep yourself managing crisis.

10. You maintain, perhaps increase, your intellectual freshness, of your emotional flexibility.

11. You must be progressively more equipped to act with “guts and wisdom” when the big risks, conflicts and challenges have to be confronted.

12. Part of your job as a leader is to put out fires and maintain the team morale.

13. Mind-it, your team will take cues from you.

14. It is your job to keep spirits up, and that begins with an appreciation for the hard work.

15. You being a leader show your leadership prowess by getting your hands dirty. Instead of just delegating tasks and relying on subordinates to do all the work.

16. Seize leadership opportunities, no matter how small they are.

17. Make sure your “let me do that” attitude extends beyond your horizon with your peers, boss and subordinates.