Storytellers & Organisation Behaviour Specialist

I think storytellers and scriptwriters are better judges of human behavior than OB specialists. Psychologists keep on examining the reasons why people behave in a certain fashion in organizations and what motivates them. I say, do not look beyond the base emotions of anger, greed, jealousy, hate, love, loyalty, revenge and fear.

I am sure we can add some more feelings to the list but a good manager and a great HR professional keeps looking for these emotions to find out what will work in his/her organization in particular circumstances.

Sometimes it is difficult to put data on the table for these feelings but ask the data oriented guys (vis-a-vis touchy feely guys) as to what are we trying to do with data except for satiate the feeling of “I Know” and a sense of fulfillment by making a point.

I wonder if the data oriented guys overlook their feeling(s) while listening. In a meeting when they are looking at their ‘blackberries’, I think they are ‘bored’. They look only for those points which will interest them and many of them are yawning, they feel ‘tired’ and ‘exhausted’.

The world is full of feelings and so is corporate, the sooner we recognize and put them in the right place in the corporate the better it will be for employees and shareholders; who I think feel “cheated” when they do not get the returns they are looking for.

If  Mckinsey’s Rajat Gupta’s tale was to be examined, I think ‘Greed’ will score above everything else including success and fame. I am sure you are familiar with many more such tales, including the day to day one’s happening in your company and the in the corporate world.

Like I say, “People are People”, let us treat them like that and we would have taken care of profits and fairness.

Blackberry Fall

Life is a straight road
Thought I
And the only thing keeping you alive is the black stubs

Typing in
In a world of my own
Did not see the steps
Down came the Humpty
With blackberry in his hand

Get up and shake those thoughts
Oh no! What happened to my blackberry?
Scratches on the corner,
The silver paint peeled off
Like blood from my pet
Koochie coo it a little
As it stops.

The black thing in my hand
Dead

Learnings From The Week

A lot happens in a week and here is a quick read of the learnings from my past week:

• People are people (anywhere in the world), most of the participants in the Singapore conference were shy and reluctant (at first). 
• Involve people and they like to respond and would like to be heard.
• Compensation problems in South East Asia seem to be heading towards more variable pay over the coming years.
• New Practices will gain over Best Practices ( since the world is becoming dynamic and by the time Best Practices seem to take root, other ones have come up).
• Compensation is the reason number 1 for people to get attracted and stay put in the company.
• Engagement will make people productive and add value to the places of work

Compensation is Tricky!!

It is early morning in Singapore and the sun is still not out yet. I am here for the 3rd Annual Compensation & Benefits in the Financial Sector seminar by Marcus Evans and looking forward to the panel discussion and presentation. I will be speaking on Top Talent in Growth Markets : Fitting in Compensation & Benefits.


Compensation always generates a lot of interest and is the base level reason for all of us to work. It has interesting nuances and can make us behave in strange ways; it can attract us to a company, keep us in there till a reasonable threshold but can not engage us in our work...for that we need other stimuli and that will be the topic of my discussion.