On the Tiger's Trail...

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright, In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? ~ William Blake

We read this poem in school where our teachers tried to explain the significance to the best of her/his ability. And my mind would conjure up visions of a tiger in a zoo, and the essence of the poem was lost to me.

But now I know that I never understood the essence of the poem, never really visualized the power, the strength, and the grace of a tiger as it truly is till the 27th of November. Yes, I can be that precise because I know the exact moment when the poem hummed through my mind.

On the tiger's trail

It was the morning of 27th November, a little more than a week ago to be precise. A cold, frosty morning in the jungles of Kanha in MP, India. We (my friend and co-blogger Sumeet Moghe and I) waited for our safari jeep to arrive. It was still impenetrably dark outside, the trees loomed like huge black shadows, weirdly shaped, mysterious. The moonlight glinted down casting strange, hallucinatory shapes on the ground, tricking my eyes. We stood quietly listening to the jungle sounds--a music offered for free if one cares to listen. 


Very soon our safari jeep arrived and we were off. The chilling wind stung our faces, bringing tears to the eyes. I stuffed my hands in the pockets of my jacket in the faint hope of keeping them warm. We entered the jungle premises and our driver and guide in one accord decided on a route to follow through the dense jungle. Their experience endowed them with an instinct that we could not fathom. We had barely gone a kilometer when our guide pointed out the pug marks of a male tiger on the ground--still fresh and clear on the frosty ground. A thrill of expectation shivered down my spine. Driving cautiously, we followed the pug marks. The dense jungle of sal and bamboo trees belies any effort to see through it. The brambles and bushes that lie between them are perfect cover for the wildlife there. Nature's patterns are flawless till we humans decide to mess with them. 

We must have covered almost 15 kilometers across the rugged terrain of the Kanha, deep into the heart of the jungle when the pug marks vanished into the jungle. "He must be somewhere close by," whispered our guide. We tried to look through the impenetrable barriers of the thick foliage, unable to see anything, the tall grasses a fitting camouflage for the tiger. Just then, a roar very close to where we stood galvanized us into action. Out came the cameras, the chill was forgotten. "He'll come out somewhere here," was our guide's pronouncement. 


Sure enough, the king of beasts, the largest cat of the jungle emerged, barely ten feet away from where we stood. I know I almost forgot to breathe. To see this magnificent animal in his natural surroundings--proud, graceful, charismatic--was a miracle. This is one experience I know for certain I will carry with me till I die. 

He walked towards us--unconcerned and imperious. Even as I tried to keep my camera focused on him (and this was tough as the instinct to just gaze in awe was uppermost), I kept wondering at the levels of depravity and ignorance that could lead to the killing of this beautiful beast. All because some rich, misguided individuals with money to spare think a dead tiger's skin on the floor of their home symbolize status. And that is not all. Every conceivable part of a tiger from the bones to the penis are used to make traditional Chinese medicines.

Demand in China poses the greatest threat to tigers in the wild and organised crime runs the illicit trade in the world's largest felines, according to international experts," states a report from the Tiger Summit.

To be very honest, although I had been aware of the outcry against tiger poaching, and like to think of myself as someone who cares deeply about the fate of animals on our planet, I had been just a passive, armchair lover of animals. Quite useless. 

Till I saw this magnificent beast face to face. 


For the past one week I have not been able to get the image of his imperious walk out of my mind but it soon gets eclipsed by gruesome ones of trapped or poisoned tigers. These have been haunting me enough to make me write this post. And as I write, I realize that this immensely powerful beast can't speak for itself. It is up to us to do the talking, to raise our voices and make enough noise that will force some folks out there to take action. Our individual voices may not be loud enough but collectively, we can create a roar.


And finally, the following perfect moment of serendipity spurred me to action, made me feel ashamed about my inertia. I heard this talk by Shekhar Dattatri where he says, "When I was 10 years old, my life changed when I read this book by Gerald Durrell, My Adventures in the Forest"...I could only wonder at the beauty of serendipity. This is the same book I read at the same age that fueled my passion for animals and their right to share this planet with us. Thank you Shekhar for reminding me of this once again.


If you feel strongly about saving our tigers, our forests and our ecology do share the post, write your own, tweet--anything that will help to protect and preserve the tigers. A little bit of our time is all they need. And as Shekha Dattatri says, 2,400 years ago people knew this intrinsic synergy between human life, the forest and the tiger. The Mahabharat cites it. If we let our tigers go, so will our forests and eventually us. 


Here are the links to some videos that taught me a lot about tigers. 

The Truth About Tigers - Part 1 - a film by Shekar Dattatri

The Truth about Tigers - Part 2 - a film by Shekar Dattatri

The Truth about Tigers - Part 3 - a film by Shekar Dattatri

Off the Record - Shekar Dattatri -WILD-LIFE & CONSERVATION FILM-MAKER - EPI 27 - 3(3) -

I am visiting the following two tiger reserves in the coming two weeks: Nagarhole and Bandipur. Even if I don't encounter a tiger, I am still keen to explore and understand their natural habitats better. 

Context is King: Excerpts from posts and articles - Part I

For the paste one week or so, I have been reading up on the importance of context as opposed to content. "Context is King" is fast becoming a mantra; hence my focused reading on the topic. Then a tweet by @sumeet_moghe on the same topic today prompted me to put up excerpts of the articles and posts I have been reading here.

The tweet: It’s not about the tweets; it’s about the context. @marcjrosenberg on #lsmag http://bit.ly/a6H7IK #lrnchat

The excerpts:
We need context to understand complex issues and this can be provided by those we are connected to. The reach and depth of our connections become critical in helping us make sense of our environment and to solve problems. ~ PKM: our part of the social learning contract

Creating good content on a platform that lets users (teachers & learners) add context may be the the real killer application in education. Content developers and institutions have been so concerned with protecting their content that they don’t see where the real value lies. Letting others add more context will only increase the value of their content. ~ User Generated Context for Learning


The real value of Twitter and other social media (or, the more secure, IT-approved corporate equivalents) is the ability to target messages at specific audiences and tune your filters to the topics that interest you the most. Short fast messaging among people with common interests and objectives can be a real boon to performance and productivity. ~ Marc My Words: OMG, I'm Tweeting!

Most user generated content, is, in fact, context. The bulk of what connected consumers create isn’t content: its context – information about the value of goods and services. Context, in turn, lets connected consumers search and navigate the exploding universe of media more effectively, and massively amplifies incentives for quality.

By conflating the content and context, we mistakenly assume that what connected consumers create is inherently worthless –when, in fact, it’s by letting connected consumers contextualize content that tsunamis of new value can be unlocked (just ask Google).


Third, context isn’t truly “generated” – a term which implies something algorithmic, substitutable, mass-produced. Rather, it’s often deeply culturally specific and socially bound: often, outsiders can’t even make head or tail of what’s really deeply powerful context, because they don’t understand the signs or language connected consumers have evolved. ~ The New Economics of Consumption: User Generated Context

The tacit resides in action, most often in participation with others. As a consequence, tacit knowledge can be
distributed as a shared, socially constructed understanding that emerges from collaboration. ~ Learning in the Digital Age by John Seely Brown

Legitimate peripheral participation is . . . an analytic viewpoint on learning, a way of understanding learning. We hope to make it clear that learning through legitimate peripheral participation takes place no matter which educational form provides a context for learning, or whether there is any intentional educational form at all. ~ Jean Leave and Etienne Wenger

People generally learn words in the context of ordinary communication. This process is startlingly fast and successful. Miller and Gildea note that by listening, talking, and reading, the average 17-year-old has learned vocabulary at a rate of 5,000 words per year (13 per day) for over 16 years. By contrast, learning words from abstract definitions and sentences taken out of the context of normal use, the way vocabulary has often been taught, is slow and generally unsuccessful. People generally learn words in the context of ordinary
communication.

Teaching from dictionaries assumes that definitions and exemplary sentences are self-contained "pieces" of knowledge. But words and sentences are not islands, entire unto themselves. Language use would involve an
unremitting confrontation with ambiguity, polysemy, nuance, metaphor, and so forth were these not resolved with the extralinguistic help that the context of an utterance provides (Nunberg, 1978).

Learning from dictionaries, like any method that tries to teach abstract concepts independently of authentic situations, overlooks the way understanding is developed through continued, situated use. This development, which involves complex social negotiations, does not crystallize into a categorical definition. Because it is dependent on situations and negotiations, the meaning of a word cannot, in principle, be captured by a definition, even when the definition is supported by a couple of exemplary sentences. ~ Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning

The notion that news comes in and stories go out — text and photos come in and paper goes out — is an artifact of the means of production and distribution, of course. Now a story never begins and it never ends. But at some point in the life of a story, a journalist (working wherever) may see the idea and then can get all kinds of new input. But the story itself — in whatever medium — is merely a blip on the line, a stage in a process, for that process continues after publication.

…In this new ecology, I think newsrooms will need to be organized around topics or tags or stories because the notion of a section is as out of date as the Dewey Decimal System… Stories and topics become molecules that attract atoms: reporters, editors, witnesses, archives, commenters, and so on, all adding different elements to a greater understanding. Who brings that together? It’s not always the reporter or editor anymore. It can just as easily be the reader(s) now. ~ The New News Process

Pecha Kucha: My brief take on this presentation format

This is a long overdue post that I have been writing in fits and starts and never got around to completing. This often happens with me...especially when I am on a learning spree. I tend to start on multiple things, create chaos in my mind, keep adding to that chaos till my mind somehow sorts them out, and helps me to see an emerging pattern. Till then, I don't try to write anything--hence my long absence from my blog.

Among the multiple new experiences and learning of the past one month, i.e., since I joined ThoughtWorks (a wonderfully chaotic place with a method underneath the madness that is as stimulating as strong black coffee and excellent conversation, and I love both!), I got to see Pecha Kucha in action. I have read about it, seen You Tube videos describing the form, and read posts waxing eloquent about its power, but have never experienced it first hand. Thanks to my friend Sumeet Moghe who has introduced Pecha Kucha nights as a part of the ThoughtWorks grads training program, I not only got to see it but also to participate.

What did I think about Pecha Kucha?

First impression: It reminded me of Bento meals made famous by Garr Reynold's in his Presentation Zen (and not surprising since both come from the same country)--just enough, not more nor less, and filling you just 80%. Therein lies the power of this form. It stimulates you, provides you with just the right amount of scintillating informaiton that leaves you craving for more if the topic is of interest to you.

In it's almost Zen-like simplicity of 20 slides of 20 seconds each, it is an extremely powerful vehicle.

1. Pecha Kucha as a presentation tool
2. Pecha Kucha as a learning tool

Pecha Kucha as a presentation tool
As a presentation format, it is the next best thing to slice bread (not my line but I liked it...)! The rigour of the format pushes one to be innovative, to keep asking the question "so what", allows for no flab in the content and no slackness in the storyline. Does it hinder creativity? Not at all if one is willing to put in passion and hard work into the creation of one of these presentations. And I have seen some cool ones coming from the ThoughtWorks grads and will share the links at the end of the post. It is almost impossible to get away with dumping 5 bullet points on each slide and present that as a Pecha Kucha presentation. The form cannot be taken for granted. It is finicky to the extreme and demands perfection. The restraints force innovation.
I personally found it useful to create a storyline offline using paper and pencil, weed out the weak links in the story asking the question "so what" as I moved along. Once I had the story down to 20 slides, I looked for images, data and quotes that would support what I wanted to say. Finally, it is about practice...and delivering with passion. And I have miles to go and tons to learn when it comes to delivery. But I would recommend Pecha Kucha to all those who are seeking to learn how to present effectively.


Pecha Kucha as a learning tool
Since I saw Pecha Kucha used as a part of the ThoughtWorks grads training program and being at heart still a teacher, I thought of the values of Pecha Kucha as a learning tool. And realized that there are plenty. And here, I draw from my observations and conversation overheard of the grads who prepared for their first ever Pecha Kuchas. 

1. It taught them to think hard and identify the one true passion that they wanted to talk about (and mind you this is not easy for 22-year olds who have varying interests)
2. They learned to identify and hone their topics to retain only the key points of interest (and the topics ranged from cricket to cars, from Bollywood movies to extreme sports, from programming languages to conserving India's tigers).
3. They learned to stand up in front of a crowd and speak with confidence and ease (no mean fit)
4. It taught them the power of articulating their passion through words, images, videos, music...
5. It brought to the forefront hidden talents and revealed facets of personalities that make for a strong, vibrant community

I went through the same learning curve altho' I write here in the third person. And there is more to learn...a great deal more...

You can see some of the presentations here just for the diversity in passions that drives each one of us...

• Esoteric Languages 

• What I learned from School Kids 

• Kitesurfing 

• Tigers - The Last Shot 

Parikrma: Breaking the cycle of poverty...

I haven't written a post in a long while...not because nothing was happening but because too many things were happening. Moreover, my topic of passion, Collaborative Learning in the Workplace, has plenty of thought-leaders writing about it, and I haven't felt that I had anything new to add. I have been reading, synthesizing, creating my own little PKM and left it at that...

However, something happened today that propelled me to write again. We from ThoughtWorks paid a visit to Parikrama. Those of you who follow me on Twitter may have seen my tweet. Parikrma is described on the site thus:

Parikrma Humanity Foundation is a non-profit organization that is transforming education for under-served children in urban India, so that they can have equal access to the best opportunities. Parikrma manages the entire education cycle from kindergarten to college for each child.

We know that there are many such organizations enabling children to access education, infusing some hope into their otherwise bleak lives. My intent in this post is not to hold up Parikrama as an organization with a difference but just to share my experience. Try to describe the few hours we spent there...

About 10 of us arrived at Parikrama around 8:15 a.m. The children were just entering school. Ranging from 5 to 15 years in age, they all arrived fresh-faced, enthusiastic, bubbling with life. You can see some of the pictures below bearing testimony to their joy.
 

The children begin their day with breakfast. Most of them come from homes where dinner is a dream, often unavailable. Parikrma believes in first feeding the hungry children before imparting any gyaan. Breakfast was a simple fare of chapatis and sabji. This is carefully distributed to avoid any wastage. And the children, even the youngest ones, know that food is precious, not to be wasted.

Today, we were given the chance to help the Parikrma team serve breakfast. That was perhaps the most moving experience for me. I am not certain I have words to express what I felt. On the surface, it was just serving food. But once you know the background of the children, the impoverished conditions they come from, the dirth of love and security in their lives, this simple act takes on a poignancy that is hard to define. I will stop trying to describe it because I can't.


The assembly was another memorable moment with the children reciting Rabindranath Tagore's Where the Mind is Without Fear... What could have been more apt! The little ones singing Mother of mine was heart-stopping. It took me back to my school days when I had first heard the song...They sang the song with an earnestness that brought tears to my eyes.

Let me clarify this though...if at any point I have given the impression that the children were sad, pitied themselves and their fate, then I am wrong. A brighter, bubblier bunch would be hard to find.

I had decided to sit with the youngest ones during assembly. I love being with children--their unadulterated simplicity and directness, total lack of hypocrisy rejuvenates me. These were no different. Seeing the camera around my neck, they were eager to have their pictures taken...some of them were keen to click some photos too. While the assembly was going on, I had a tough time trying to maintain order in my little corner. Here are some of the pictures taken at that point:

The art and craft work on display were amazing too. The classrooms are named after each planet. And you can see Jupiter below...

The youngest ones are in a class called the Sun. An apt name for the sunny smiling faces.

They have dreams in their eyes...and their minds are as yet without fear.Parikrma is trying its best to nurture those dreams. They need help. They need us. If you live in Bangalore, you can perhaps go and pay them a visit. Can we help make a difference? I think we can if we put our mind, heart and soul into it...

If you want to see the pictures, you can go here. To know more about Parikrma, watch the TEDtalk by Shukla Bose called Teaching one child at a time.
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Just an excuse to use my iPod touch...

My first attempt at writing a post using my iPod. While not as optimal as the bigger laptop screen, there's a lot that can be said in favor of the mobility. I can see the advantages of this when 1. Waiting at an airport, 2. Caught in traffic (a frequent phenomenon), 3. When doing a quick, short update...

Failing to communicate...

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
How important do you think continuous communication is for a team working on a project? 
A bit...
Somewhat...
Hugely important...


Let's see what happens when a team of smart individuals eager to get going forget to communicate at crucial points during a project...


Mr. Perfecto is our client. And he, as indicated by his name, is a stickler for perfection. He loves to have things just so...No wonder Sheila (name changed), the CEO chose him to talk to the BAs about a software they needed for their sales team. Mr. Perfecto explains the requirements at length, clarifying exceptions, the work flow followed by the pre-sales and the sales team, the dependencies, the decision points, and everything he could think...


You can see Mr. Perfecto in conversation with our BA.

Mr. Perfecto has this in mind...

Mr. BA, satisified that he has understood what the client needs, goes back to the team and lays down the specs. Eager to get started, the team grabs the specs and gets to work on their individual piece. 


Things are pretty hunky dory with no alarms or flags being raised...


Integration time and everyone is excited for that first look...!!!

Mr. BA and team thinks it's ummm...ok...and shows it to Mr. Perfecto...

Mr. Perfecto is less than pleased...

And our CEO....

Communication failure!!!
Quoting from Communication on Agile Software Projects

Why is communication an issue worth discussing?  Because the need to communicate effectively pervades software development, operations, and support.  Developers and users must communicate.  Developers and operations staff must communicate.  Developers and management must communicate.  Developers and …  well, you get the idea.

Given below is a diagram from the same site on different modes of communication...use them all and keep talking...

Thanks a ton to Ajith, Sam and Julie for the pics and the poses...:)

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ThoughtWorks: Day 1--Induction with a difference...

The ThoughtWorks University sessions started yesterday. An induction with a difference (many differences), it was a refreshing experience for a "veteran" like me. I have had first hand experience of induction programs in quite a few organizations--each org has been very different but displayed surprising uniformity in the way they conducted the induction sessions, the org values and norms, and so on...You get the point!
What happens in typical induction programs? A typical Values session experience goes like this...

1. You walk into a semi-dark, fairly large conference room and sit on one of the plush chairs. (Experienced folks prefer to sit at the back and prepare for nap time.)
2. The area around the podium is lit. A power point is projected on a large screen (the size can vary from org to org, the format usually doesn't). 
3. The power point has slides with the dreaded bullet points (the color scheme varies between blue and grey; the org logo features on each corner; it's corporate, remember!)
4. The slides transition from one set of bullet points to the next...
5. Someone from the corporate function walks you through the Values of the orgs (basically reads out what is on the slide; and if you are quick reader like me, you are tapping your toes by the end of the second slide and wishing you could transition to the next). 
6. The session ends...thankfully. You are informed that you are now "aware of the values of the org and need to follow it." Follow what!!! (Scratch head)...Then, you leave the room retaining blissfully little of the slides and desperately looking around for a cuppa and some intelligent conversation...

What happened at ThoughtWorks...I'll let some of the pics speak for me....but would like to highlight a few things.
The setting of the conference room:
No organized rows of chairs here but scattered around the room were round tables with 5~6 chairs grouped around each. This ensured that we were communicating, sharing at each point. You can get a feel of the ambiance from the pics below...Looks messy, disorganized...but that is what learning is like--messy, social, serendipitous...and TWU gives plenty of opportunity for all of this.

 
Back to my initial point on Values and how TW "teaches" them...(I have put "teahces" in quotes because there was no teaching, talking to, or lectuirng; it was a discursive, participatory experience).
There was a tiny snippet of a role play between two trainers that drove home the connection between Values and beliefs, emotions and convictions. You can see JK who was one of the trainers in the pic on top.
A very very short presentation with the Values of TW was displayed, and then it was up to the attendees to come up with their version of what they understand of each. This inclusive and interactive approach fostered the impression that the values were indeed an integral part of the org and not a set of bullet points.
The Diversity session actually simulated the diversity in the team that had gathered at Royal Orchids y'day, helping us to see beyond the color of the skin and the shape of one's nose. Without any bullet points!
It would take too long to explain so I will let the pics do the talking...

There were plenty of fun activities interspersed between the main sessions but the Wizards, Elves or Giants was my favorite...

Move back!!! Make room for the magic to work!! (My fav quote of the day from Julie).

I am ending the post a bit abruptly...I have to get ready for today. Watch this space for more in the coming week...
I have not yet spoken about the setting of the "training room" or about Open Spaces!