Ideas Into Action - Session V

(IIA is an informal platform for interaction with a small group of peers and professional friends, invited to discuss ideas, share thoughts and best practices from which we all can learn. A time to spend a relaxed evening sharing thoughts, converting ‘Ideas’ into ‘Action’)

If you have ever worried about "the ‘Open Plan’ office strategy " (Read on, as there is a specific study done by Harvard that suggest that Open Office kills the team work) or dogged by the questions like, ‘Why the Gen-X is not the marrying kind?’, then I guess you dearly missed this...

"Ideas Into Action" has organically grown into becoming a platform to share one's own passion and over the last four session we have had some inspiring presentation done by some of our peers and friends on about their passion like modeling, golf, Creativity, Running, Gender Equality, Fitness, etc., and this session was no different. We had a very interesting talk by Kishore Reddy (Country Manager - Fortinet Innovation Center) about his passion of mountaineering and how he had to take a call on a "life and death" situation on the way to Mount Everest Base Camp.

The Vth Session of IIA, held on 28th June 2018 at Hilton Hotel - Bengaluru, had a changed format as well. Instead of the usual three topics of discussion, we restricted it to two. In our last 4 sessions, we had realized that three topics of discussion, does not give enough time to interact with the friends and peers. So this time we let ourselves soak in the Trans and Psychedelic Music by our in-house DJ - my colleague Mitali and enjoyed catching up with our friends over dinner. 

The sessions...

As these coming together is all about passion, I guess the most important session was by Kishore, who shared his thought on how, on the way to Everest Base Camp, he had to take a life and death decision.

There is strength in pursuing your passion but there is far more conviction, when you need to take a call to reach the base camp of Mt. Everest, which one has planned for years or let one person have a chance of survival, however minuscule. As Kishore recalled in the session, if that one particular Doctor was not met by sheer chance, that fellow mountaineer would have died. As the doctor suggested, the whole group took turns all night to pump (Just like Cycle Tyre) oxygen into the sleeping bag kind of contraption, where the mountaineer was kept, which made it possible for her survival. Just to give you another context, that Doctor who Kishore met was one of the regular of Mt Everest expeditions and her husband has reached the peak many times but the last time he was on his way, he called the Doctor, speaking his last words.

TOPIC I - “Work Place Strategy – Is the ‘Open Plan’ bubble going to Burst?”

As we went into the discussion, as a moderator, I shared the concept of open office is not something new. From the ancient time, we have had the open set up in our day to day business deals from food grain to silk trade, it was done in open area. You will find it surprising precursor to modern office has its roots in India - The East India Company was first formalized office space with time in / time out as well. As the various attendees talked about the topic, there was one clear consensus, as Sudhakar Pai (Owner - SPA) Devanshi Patel (Dir. ANSR Consulting), John Fox (Global Head - RE Covance) and few others voiced their opinion is that it is in its evolution phase. Whereas Me, and my colleague Rishi (Cushman & Wakefield) and surprisingly my friends from Modular furniture field, Nagarajan (Sales Head - Herman Miller @ Build Craft) Edward (Country Head - Bene) and Suresh Babu (HPE) felt that it does effect the working style. It was felt that the open plan office has more to do with the type of work a firm does than a generalized concept. Fancy George (Dir. KGD) was of the opinion that it is driven by the millennial while personally me and Rishi felt that it is driven by the HR and Admin. Somesh Naik (Head CRE - McCafe) thinks that there are new concept that are tested and evaluated by experiencing them and if they work, they become the norm. It will take sometime for the Open Plan office to play out.

"Open-plan offices drive down face-to-face interaction and increases use of email" - Christian Jarrett in the article cites a Harvard Study | July 5, 2018

Ethan Bernstein and Stephen Turban, at Harvard Business School and Harvard University, took a look at people who switched from individual cubicles to an open office plan. What they found wasn't more collaboration after the switch but less.

"  Participants in the study spent | 73 percent less time in face-to-face interactions | 67 percent more time on email | 75 percent more time on instant messenger " - From Article " Open Office Kills Team Work" by Suzanne Lucas ( 7th July, 2018)

Yesudas George (FM - Autodesk), who have recently moved into their new facility, is quite happy with the way the Open Plan office has turned out. He has no complains from his team, working at the High End of creativity. At the end, it was accepted that the Gen Z is all about how the office can engage their short attention span and how they can ensure their aspiration, passion and goals are all rolled into one at the office space as they really are not focused towards their own spaces back home and quite vary of commitment required to maintain that relationship and space. Which does lead me to the next topic….

TOPIC II - “Is the Gen X professional not the marrying kind?” 

“True love stories never have an ending” – Richard Bach

The first time I read one of my favorite author Richard Bach’s most famous and iconic book ‘Illusion’, I did not think that he was talking about Love and Marriage (No he did not) but as we progress into the Age Of Gen Z, I realise the marriage is a kind of ‘Illusion’ that both sides think it looks better on the other side.

As we got into the discussion, two ladies of the group Vidya (Bene) and Mitali (C&W) with very clear idea that the present day crop of men are not good enough, pitted against me and Payal (Assoc. Dir. DSP). Through the initial discussion, Vidya clarified that it isn't that we do not find todays men good, but we do not mind waiting a couple of more years to find the right person which was echoed by the ladies of the gathering. Nisha Sharma (Sr. Manager - Leasing EGL) think it is not that GenX does not want to commit, but it is more to do with the aspiration in a competitive world, which takes its toll in terms of time and personal space available. Kenny Tan (Group Property - Rolls Royce) and Shashi Bushan (MD - Projects, Cushman & Wakefield) were quite clear that there is a need of companionship, unlike young generation that does not have to look for the same in a commitment. They don’t have to commit but still they can have relationship, which was probably not the case few decades back, where the older generation come from.

Today's generation has been brought up by parents who equally understand their professional goals, enough to encourage them through it and not just sacrifice it in the name of marriage." - Vidya

We asked the youngest of the attendees, Manikandan’s daughter who studies in Singapore, about what she thinks and she said, that though it is not the right time (probably she would have been more upfront if Mani was not there) for her to judge but still, she will be vary of leaving her independent work space.

"GEN X is more careful, cautious and mature at every step in life, inspite of so many society obligations. What Gen X has to go through, most cant even imagine." - Mitali Goyal - Cushman & Wakefield

The IIA Book Recommendations - July, 2018

SOME COMMENTS FROM THE SESSION IV

The attendance to the group was overwhelming (35 Attendees at the last count, though we usually limit to only 20-25 as it makes it more personal and interactive). Honored to host every one, who made it a wonderful session, with their presence and thoughts.

SAVE THE DATE

"IDEAS INTO ACTION - SESSION VI" WILL BE HELD ON 6th SEPTEMBER, 2018

The 'Ideas Into Action' event is periodically held at Hilton Hotel, EGL, Bengaluru in collaboration with Surajit Banerjee (Sterling & Wilson) Nagaraj (Herman Miller @ Build Craft), Edward Kumar (Bene), T P S Raman (Toli Carpets) and Shashidhar Sharma(Cushman & Wakefield).

Please do get in touch with us to be invited to this event.

Read reports on Ideas Into Action - I | Ideas Into Action - II | Ideas Into Action - III | Ideas Into Action - IV