I was so excited to go on this much awaited blind date and finally I got the opportunity to meet my date. We were together for about 45 minutes and I got no chance to complain during our meeting as I got the full authority, opportunity and liberty to know this person from head to toe.  I was completely stunned by the naughty behavior, I was being softy kicked and punched, I wanted to hug and kiss my date but had to control my emotions, I was just staring and noticing each and every move. My date was very excited and so was I,  this was the best moment of my life in last four months (Thank you so much honey). Now a days we have become more closer to each other, we talk a lot (specially in the nights), we both are becoming naughtier day by day. This naughty person is giving me sleepless nights and I m loving it.

Wait guys …I m talking about my baby

Dear baby, mum and papa are eagerly waiting for your arrival  in our life.

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There were these 4 guys, a Russian, a German, an American and a French, who found this small genie bottle. When they rubbed the bottle, a genie appears.

 Thankful that the 4 guys had released him out of the bottle, he said, “Next to you all are 4 swimming pools, I will give each of you a wish. When you run towards the pool and jump, you shout what you want the pool of water to become, and then your wish will come true.”

The French wanted to start. He ran towards the pool, jumped and shouted “WINE”. The pool immediately changed into a pool of wine.  The Frenchman was so happy swimming and drinking from the pool.

Next is the Russian’s turn, he did the same and shouted, “VODKA” and immersed himself into a pool of vodka. The German was next and he jumped and shouted, “BEER”.  He was so contented with his beer pool.

The last is the American. He was running towards the pool when suddenly he steps on a banana peel. He slipped towards the pool and shouted, “SH**!!!!!!!………IT”

MORAL OF THE STORY:
Mind your language; you never know what it will land you in

Related posts:

1. Management lesson Series-part ii
2. Insight into Decision Making

Never ever jump to conclusion without knowing facts. The amazing video video below explains why…

Related posts:

1. Management lesson Series-part i
2. Mind Your Language
3. Insight into Decision Making
4. Lateral Thinking – Money lender and pebbles

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up  her shower when the doorbell rings. After a few seconds of arguing over which one should go and answer the doorbell, the wife gives up, quickly wraps herself up in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next door neighbor.

Before she says a word, Bob says, “I’ll give you $ 800 just to drop that towel that you have on”. After thinking for a
moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob. Bob has a close look at her for a few seconds, hands over $800 and quietly leaves.

Confused, but excited about her good fortune, the woman wraps back up in the towel and goes upstairs. When she gets back to the bathroom, her husband asks from the shower “Who was that?”
“It was Bob the next door neighbor,” she replies.
“Great,” the husband says, “did he say any! thing about the $800 he owes me?”

MORAL OF THE STORY: Share critical credit information with your stakeholders to prevent avoidable exposure!

Related posts:

1. Management lesson Series-part ii

A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of General Motors

‘This is the second time I have written to you, and I don’t blame you for not answering me, because I sounded crazy, but it is a fact that we have a tradition in our family of Ice-Cream for dessert after dinner each night, but the kind of ice cream varies so, every night, after we’ve eaten, the whole family votes on which kind of ice cream we should have and I drive down to the store to get it. It’s also a fact that I recently purchased a new Pontiac and since then my trips to the store have created a problem…..

You see, every time I buy a vanilla ice-cream, when I start back from the store my car won’t start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts just fine. I want you to know I’m serious about this question, no matter how silly it sounds “What is there about a Pontiac that makes it not start when I get vanilla ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?” The Pontiac President was understandably skeptical about the letter, but sent an Engineer to check it out anyway.

The latter was surprised to be greeted by a successful, obviously well educated man in a fine neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinner time, so the two hopped into the car and drove to the ice cream store. It was vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came back to the car, it wouldn’t start.

The Engineer returned for three more nights. The first night, they got chocolate. The car started. The second night, he got strawberry. The car started. The third night he ordered vanilla. The car failed to start.

Now the engineer, being a logical man, refused to believe that this man’s car was allergic to vanilla ice cream. He arranged, therefore, to continue his visits for as long as it took to solve the problem. And toward this end he began to take notes: He jotted down all sorts of data: time of day, type of gas uses, time to drive back and forth etc.

In a short time, he had a clue: the man took less time to buy vanilla than any other flavor. Why? The answer was in the layout of the store.

Vanilla, being the most popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick pickup. All the other flavors were kept in  the back of the store at a different counter where it took considerably longer to check out the flavor.

Now, the question for the Engineer was why the car wouldn’t start when it took less time. Eureka – Time was now the problem – not the vanilla ice cream!!!! The engineer quickly came up with the answer: “vapor lock”.

It was happening every night; but the extra time taken to get the other flavors allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to start. When the man got vanilla, the engine was still too hot for the vapor lock to dissipate. 

Moral : Even crazy looking problems are sometimes real and all problems seem to be simple only when we find the solution, with cool thinking.

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Many years ago in a small village, a farmer had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender. The Moneylender , who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer’s beautiful daughter. So he proposed a bargain. He said he would forgive the farmer’s debt if he could marry his daughter. Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the Proposal. So the cunning money-lender suggested that they let providence decide the matter. He told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty money bag. Then the girl would have to pick one pebble from the bag.
1) If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her father’s debt would be forgiven.
2) If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father’s debt would still be forgiven.
3) But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into Jail.

They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the farmer’s field. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag.

He then asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag. Now, imagine that you were standing in the field. What would you have done if you were the girl? If you had to advise her, what would you have told her?

Careful analysis would produce three possibilities:

1. The girl should refuse to take a pebble.
2. The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag And expose the money-lender as a cheat.
3. The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order To save her father from his debt and imprisonment.

Take a moment to ponder over the story. The above story is used with The hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral And logical thinking.
The girl’s dilemma cannot be solved with traditional logical thinking. Think of the consequences if she chooses

The above logical answers.

What would you recommend to the girl to do?

Well, here is what she did ….

The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path Where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.

“Oh, how clumsy of me,” she said. “But never mind, if you look into the Bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked.”

Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the money-lender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into An extremely advantageous one.

MORAL OF THE STORY:
Most complex problems do have a solution. It is only that we don’t Attempt to think.

Related posts:

1. Insight into Decision Making
2. Management lesson Series-part ii
3. Mind Your Language

Problem

When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found out that the pens wouldn’t work at zero gravity (ink won’t flow down to the writing surface). To solve this problem, it took them one decade and $12 million. They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, in practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature range from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.
Solution
And what did the Russians do…?
They used a pencil .

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Problem

One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management was the case of the empty soapbox, which happened in one of Japan ‘s biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soapbox that was empty. Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soapbox went through the assembly line empty. Management asked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soapboxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent a whoopee amount to do so. 

Solution
But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with the same problem, he did not get into complications of X-rays, etc., but instead came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on and as each soapbox passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line .

Moral:  Always look for simple solutions. Devise the simplest possible solution that solves the problems. Always focus on solutions & not on problems. So the end of the day the thing that really matters is  HOW ONE LOOKS AT THE PROBLEM and Resolves it early

Related posts:

1. Insight into Decision Making
2. General Motors (Pontiac Division) and Vanilla Ice Cream
3. Lateral Thinking – Money lender and pebbles

A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the rest on the operational track. The train is coming, and you are just beside the track interchange.

a) You can make the train change its course to the disused track and save most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed.

b) Or would you rather let the train go its way?

Let’s take a pause to think what kind of decision we could make… ………….

Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child. Most  think the same way, I guess. Exactly, to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally. But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place?

Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was. This kind of dilemma happens around us everyday. In the office, community, in politics and especially in a democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority are. The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined.. And in the case he was sacrificed, no one would shed a tear for him.

The great critic Leo Velski Julian who told the story said he would not try to change the course of the train because he believed that the kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that track was still in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train’s sirens.. If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come over to that track! Moreover, that track was not in use probably because it was not safe. If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few kids…..

While we are all aware that life is full of tough decisions that need to be   made, we may not realize that hasty decisions may not always be the right one.

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The story above is one of the few forwarded mails which are still part of my inbox.  I would have also choose to stand by what is right (saving the lone child and possibly the train itself on a larger canvas) than the more short-lived decision of saving the group of children on track.

Translating into  a Corporate HR decision would have meant to work in the larger  interest of organization as a whole (train) though taking some very hard decision to keep everyone on course.

Related posts:

1. Lateral Thinking – Money lender and pebbles
2. Focusing on solutions and not problems
3. Management lesson Series-part ii
4. Mind Your Language
5. General Motors (Pontiac Division) and Vanilla Ice Cream

Today I have got my online unique web identity on http://monicagupta.com/ and It’s such a nice feeling to own a blog for myself. I am not a writer…so expect some informal expression of my views and random thoughts on various topics ranging from day to day life, india , current affairs and life in general.

I am a HR manager by profession, so you’ll also find interesting articles and my interpretation on various human resource related issues. These  may be from my own experince gained over all these years and some gyan shared by my collegues (ex and current) , peers , management books and but off course internet

Anyway to cut it short, all of you are welcome to share the thoughts of monica gupta.

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