Let’s get started!
It has been two years since I started consulting, and the journey has been filled with learning. Learnings are always good and often challenging, but what does not kill you makes you stronger. At least, I certainly hope so!
1. Why this? Why now?
I went to the University of San Francisco evening school to finish my undergrad. At the time, it seemed shameful, but as an immigrant, I had no option but to go to a 2-year school and finish my degree at night next to work. The evening school was surprisingly good; essay writing was one of the most valuable classes. We had to write experiential essays every week; it was torture for me with ESL and dyslexia. Once, I talked to the instructor and asked why this was useful and what is he “teaching” anyway with this class. He had a surprisingly great answer; writing to him was about finding your voice, and all you had to do was practice. Having done consulting for two years, I finally started feeling I was getting my voice, so I was ready to use it.
2. My goal is to describe the tools and ideas I use daily
I hope to start exciting conversations about the subject of my work. First, I want to write about being an engineer, an immigrant, never entirely fitting the “expectations” and learning to appreciate the “ill-fit” as a feature and not a bug. Second I want to write about building great teams for people like me, the misfits. I have a sneaking suspicion that many more people than we would think to fail to “check the box” on every criterion of the magical recipe for the perfect unicorn. The reality is that all companies are looking for the “best people.” I have never seen a company looking for the mediocre or the “worst people.” I want to talk with the people looking to invest in building talent, willing to accept that being the best or the worst is not a helpful description, and it just ends up hurting the very people we are looking to engage.
3. Specifically
Explore tools to describe meaningful visions. Discuss means to create alignments between stakeholders to enable the planning and execution of emerging plans. I want to explore goal setting and measurement of progress to facilitate learning. I want to think about how we talk with people. Explore ways to invest instead of forcing a narrowly defined perspective and keep changing those expectations when we get frustrated with them, people. I also want to explore technologies and trends related to the experiences our teams are building. I want to point out that the undervalued traits of people in the right situation will turn into significant assets. I want to challenge the one-dimensional wisdom of describing an ultimate “right answer.”
Come along!
