Abhijit Bhaduri’s Blog
I write about careers, skills and the world of work. The cartoons and sketches are mine.
We Are All Digital Nomads
As work and talent became location free, the core of work experience changed. We have all become digital nomads where the employer’s workplace has become invisible. Meanwhile the parliament of Estonian created a digital nomad visa that allows “location-independent knowledge workers to live in Estonia for up to a year while working for employers or clients outside of the country, ushering in a new era of work — one where knowledge workers aren’t tied to one desk or even one continent.
‘With Me’ videos are the hot new trend
A recent big trend on YouTube are the “With Me” videos where people film themselves going about ordinary tasks like cooking, studying, cleaning, or exercising. More and more viewers are tuning into “with me” videos for company, in-depth information, even motivation.
The talent pool - post pandemic
Whereas previously, the biggest online labor marketplaces flattened the individuality of workers, new platforms allow anyone to monetize unique skills. Gig work isn’t going anywhere—but there are now more ways to capitalize on creativity. Users can now build audiences at scale and turn their passions into livelihoods, whether that’s playing video games or producing video content. This has huge implications for entrepreneurship and what we’ll think of as a “job” in the future.
Time to change the work template
Most online classes are excruciatingly boring because they have the speaker continue for long stretches without involving participants. This can be done through polls, parallel chats, drawings, videos, quizzes, built in every few minutes. It is hard for the speaker to see the facial expressions of the learner. That is essential to build engagement.
Healing the Workplace with Trust
One thing is for sure. The world of work has changed. The psychologist Erik Erikson refers to building trust as the first stage of human development. Knowing that we are interdependent, and we trust each other is the reason to hope for a better tomorrow. War and natural disasters can be powerful forces that form bonds that last a lifetime. We can turn this pandemic to be a force for rejuvenation.
Toys, Trinkets and Trophies
The increasing importance of the workplace design as a strategic lever for shaping culture needs to become part of the CXO vocabulary. What kind of work settings enhance the feeling of engagement with colleagues and which work settings encourage individual contribution time need to be consciously designed. How we do our work has changed. The workplace design has to catch up.
Nurturing da Vincis in the workplace
This is a new world of work, workers and workplaces. The systems that govern workplaces are still being run like the analog world. When movie making first came about, the movies were like stage productions put on film. It is only later that people experimented and found that the story did not have to be shot in sequential form. Cinema offered new forms of storytelling like flashbacks. Or the use of sound, silence and songs for storytelling. Workplaces must discover the new sounds, silences and songs before they can tell new stories.
Print media needs a new talent strategy
As a talent scout, when I went to various educational institutions, I got a great view of which sector attracted the best people. That changed every year. If Consulting got the prime slot in one year, the next year it could be Banking or Retail walked away with the brightest people. People with the same qualification chose different sectors every year depending on a number of factors. Print Media has to discover that element which will encourage them to compete head to head with everyone else for talent. They must, in turn, take a unified view of talent. When it comes to hiring engineers or designers or journalists, the print media has to compete with other employers. The fine balance between work, workers and workplaces is a great place to start.
From stakeholder interest to societal interest
At the start of 2019, Oxfam released a report at the World Economic Forum that said, “Billionaire fortunes increased by 12 per cent last year — or $2.5 billion a day — while the 3.8 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity saw their wealth decline by 11 per cent.” That is the Power Curve for you. To put it more starkly — the 26 richest people in the world now have as much wealth as the poorest 3.8 billion people. That may well be the difference between the capitalist system and a system that attempts to minimise the disparities. What tilted our world view to say the Power Curve is the way things are going to be?
The clueless and the charismatic
Narcissists focus on looking good themselves. They often do not grow the second line of leaders, so that there is no one who has the “stature to challenge their decisions”. Many start-ups are as guilty of not investing in building a second rung of empowered and capable leaders.There could well be a better choice than choosing between the two extreme leadership models that we have seen. The price is paid by the employees and common investors. This must change.
Chandrayaan was our Moonshot that failed, so what?
The first world was unhappy when India became a nuclear power. Feed the starving and clothe the naked we were told. The same voices can be heard again when we speak of our space mission. Space activity is a wealth generator. India wants to enter the multi-billion-dollar market for space products and services. We are dreamers. Dreamers are irrational. They will pick themselves up, dust themselves and run towards the next moon or moonshot whichever comes first.
Generalists vs specialists - who has a greater chance of success?
The world often hands us what are called "wicked problems". These are settings where the rules of the game are unclear or incomplete. The patterns do not repeat and feedback is often delayed or misleading. The world is increasingly beginning to sound close to that description. Who will be more successful - the generalist or the specialist?
9 Dimensions of Organizational Culture Employees Care About
Repairing a broken culture takes much longer. A number of start-ups laugh at these needs of articulating values. Quite often the founding team gets together and chooses values that support revenue growth but ignore elements like diversity, respect etc that they think comes in the way of achieving scorching rates of growth. There is no doubt that it is well worth the investment.
How to Succeed as a Freelancer
Freelancers are growing in many white collar jobs and especially in places like India. When the individual negotiates the payment directly based on their expertise, they make more money. The platform like UpWork and LinkedIn become merely meeting places. Digital Nomads and fly-in experts use the platforms to get discovered. By showcasing their expertise and their reputation across the network they get discovered by the buyers with deep pockets. The more in-demand their expertise is, the higher the premium the buyer will pay.
Eklavyas who create many Dronacharyas
It is time to rewrite the story of Eklavya and Dronacharya. Eklavya was a mythological character in the Mahabharata. He was a commoner who was denied the opportunity to learn archery from Dronacharya — the royal teacher. The unfazed Eklavya went back to the forest and built a statue of the guru and began practising archery. The self-taught archer became as skilled as the princes who were being taught by the master. This is where the story needs to be updated.
The Perils of the Parallel Universe
One look at Zuckerberg’s testimony before the European Parliament shows how powerless the lawmakers are because they do not understand how modern media works. The US senators were not much better when it came to questioning Zuckerberg. The lawmakers pose for selfies and photos with the very person they intend to grill. Part of the problem was the clear ignorance, if not befuddlement, in the face of technology displayed by most of the senators, many of whom are of a ripe vintage. At times Zuckerberg resembled the polite teenager who visits his grandparents, only to spend the afternoon showing them how to turn on the wifi.
Why should hiring be driven by social intelligence?
“Personality is related to every meaningful individual difference. Scientifically validated personality assessments can predict substance use and abuse, longevity, relationship satisfaction, job performance, criminality, and occupational choice, just to list a few examples. Beyond these applications, well-validated personality assessments provide individuals with insights into their own motives, reputations and destructive behaviours, many of which they may not be aware.