Onion inspirations!

May be it is due to the time spent daily to cut vegetables at home. Onion grabs special attention due to the special effects it creates. Makes even the tough ones like yours truly shed tears. I am not going into the science of this, but there are few learnings from onion processing!

Let us take the big onions first. I can't think of a better example to understand layered architecture than what onion provides as food for thought. Either you peel one layer after another or cut across to get a cross sectional view, one can witness all the great architectural attributes - each layer on top of underlying ones displaying wrapper pattern, perfect and snug fit with each layer adopting to quirks of underlying layers, bulb like structure that has a central control point at the top. May be there are more similarities and learnings to infer / apply, but I will stop here for brevity and leave the rest to reader's imagination.

Let us move on to small onions now. They are no less though they are smaller in size. But this gives the flexibility to understand mergers and acquisitions concept i.e. 2 (or sometimes even 3) smaller entities are subsumed into a bigger whole with the same wrapper concept in perfect unison and blend. Best part is, the internal entities retain their shape and structure though it is not visible to the external world. What a marvellous example for natural display of many (mostly 2) in a box and for identity management.

Now let us delve on the learnings that can be infered from rotten onions. One may notice that onions have tremendous resilience to contain the rotten mess to only one layer and not let it affect neighbouring layer. Imagine if the same independence can be achieved in systems architecture or in org structure - art of co-existing with other non performing departments in close proximity and still not get influenced by them retaining one's health in the pink.

Another wonderful thing about onion bulb structure is - each layer encompasses other in a full fledged fashion. There is no skip level concept at work here. I've not seen that yet. Yet, each layer is visible till the top. There is hierarchy, yet there are no hierarchical problems like suppressing downstream layers! Every layer unites at the top showcasing equality.

Onions themselves are pungent; but rotten onions really smell like a lot of trouble. They have the ability to attract attention and cry for help to be discarded away. That way they do their self appraisal in the most honest fashion! It is very easy to throw the bottom performing ( 5 to 10% ) ones out. Remaining rotten ones are very good at hiding their inefficiencies and get others to hide it as mentioned above.

In whatever way we look at it, onions are a great source of inspiration for offering guidance to thinking in many domains. In this blog post, I have attempted to scratch the surface on onion's contribution to system architecture, organization structure and performance management. But the possibilities IMO are endless. More later. Have fun till then.

Ha hahahaha

Ra

Wrong peg in the Wrong hole!

Firstly, think one should figure out what is wrong - the peg or the hole! Chances of both being wrong can only be exciting as a blog title and nowhere else!

Still, if one thinks a given environment is not the right fit for his/her personality type (many a times this may be the case), i.e. peg is right but the hole is wrong - that is a big problem and it needs to be solved quickly.

Here are some approaches:

- at any cost, don't get aggressive; take it out on yourself (if you can at the gym!)
- create / engage with another place where you can feel truly ecstatic and loved (don't think bar or clubs or in any other self indulgent fashion here!)
- become completely submissive to something else (may be to The Almighty!);
- create opportunities to do something new and exciting
- find the right hole or become the right peg for the best among chosen holes.

Anything else you can think of? Post a reply and keep this happening.

Ra

Just like that...

Many know that illustrative example / analogy is a sure shot way of teach a new concept. Story telling also works on the same philosophy. People having exposure to different fields tend to observe an analogy or a pattern across them. Expression commonly used is: "do you know how x applies, very close to that here is y - only difference being...":.

My practice school project (4th year in engineering) in CAD Division, NIC Delhi was one of that kind: marrying Genetic Algorithm concepts (of survival of the fittest, mutation, reproduction) to Optimization that results in quicker convergence to the problem.

Similarly today's claims to modern management germinate from applying home concepts (of care, nurturing, empathy, bonding and fun) to work place. Likewise, if one may reap some benefits by putting work place concepts like goal setting, division of responsibilities, operational excellence, leverage at home.

If one has researched and understood one field in depth, it is enough to easily digest other similar ones. If you've seen one, you've seen it all - applies to a great extent in many places. I think this is the reason why native language expressiveness and thinking prowess makes such a big impact on individuals in terms of expansiveness of thought and action.

This kind of cross domain concept application can be used as a strategy as well for problem solving. One takes their transferable skills and previous experiences to tackle new problems. Management skill is one such - 'project management', 'people/team management', 'operations management', 'financial management', 'business management' - multiple faces of a general manager. Once you become a true general manager (a bit of everything - breadth, and master of nothing as one can hire consultants for the depth), it doesn't really matter what is the domain underneath.

It looks like: instead of diversifying to become master of all trades, if one focuses on one thing and soaks in it from all dimensions, guess it would result in much better pay-offs in the end. This applies to learning new skills as well in be it art or languages or social. But to get there, one has to have had tremendous focus and unparalleled synthesis in previous avatars of career to root oneself as an effective 'general' manager!

Learn to say "Just like that" and that is the secret for success.

Ra