Look out for a GPTT
It had to be a show of our expertise during a client visit that was scheduled to happen on the third Monday in June 2008. Our client was bringing a heavy-laden team of power to check on the progress of the program. In the last few months prior to this, my team had made a phenomenal breakthrough by hitting upon a calling software to simulate video calls on the desktop. Those were days of video calling rising up on the horizon with a future so mighty promising. Every telecom product company was racing against time to put themselves in the market before the others. My project team until then had established themselves not so in good reputation — we were more doers than thinkers. The client complained in different ways about the crux of the Indian mindset. Arnav the architect in the team and I, decided to shift this perception for the better. We resolved to put India ahead and show them that we had the thinking brains. The calling software that we chanced upon was a bare minimum. The intelligence lay in customizing it to do exactly what we wanted and correctly integrating it with our client’s product.
The rest of the India team were happy that they were at least recognized as good-doers. In retro, I am happy that there were no setbacks on their motivation. Few did express concern but these few are the ones you must shut down from every corner of teams. They are spoilers in every walk of life. And if not ignored they would walk into inspired minds for a loot. The leader of the doers, Yuri, was a Russian colleague who was in India to support the niche technology that was being used to build the software. Thinkers would die in books if doers didn’t erect an edifice of their thoughts, he told the team and motivated them to continue progressing with their software delivery. The best thing to do is to let people do what they believe in. For me and Arnav, it was clear — create a wow factor in our next demo to the client. Customizing the tool was literally doing a rebuilding of it !!!
I reminisce about this journey; a tumultuous but successful one. The journey of many ups and downs began three months before the client visit. It was still settling summer and everything and everyone seemed to be holidaying. Home bustled with children who had got rid of their summer exams. Arnav had another challenge at home. His father-in-law’s cardiac issues and hospital visits. Office work was salvation for him to break away from the despair at home. This was not the case for me. I had to rush home a couple of times to check on the idling hours of my children. It was increasingly becoming difficult for me to focus. A higher goal is only as high as it can be when you measure it against the personal priorities that can bog you down. Nonetheless, The idea was lit bright and the team had caught onto it. Changes were getting added to the tool.
We set up brainstorming sessions with the brains in the team and also with outside SMEs who had handled similar issues for other products. Amidst brainstorming and darts of fire and words, I realized that we need quiet time too. Few of us would seize coffee joints outside the office after confirming to an eight-hour swipe out in the office. Yuri supported us with his ideas. Often I saw that his ideas were to simplify the complex recommendations of our team. Coffee joints were a great place to see the same concepts differently. I loved every experience of the journey that revolved around the coffee joints both outside the office and at the chai points in the office canteen.
The final leg of the solution was the most tricky. It looked near yet so far. Few of us thinkers had reached a limit. Doers tried their luck with various trials. It worked and then did not work. Instability of the situation proportionally increased the impossibility. Arnav suggested we go into individual quiet mode. A park or a library or even a drive. I have a library in my study and I also tried taking a long drive. Yet nothing clicked. It was different for Arnav. He found a quiet haven in his uncle’s mango farm. Along with idea recommendations to the software design, he also brought Banganapalle mangoes for the team. He had forced out those ideas during his meditations on the mango farm. The solution was still far away!
To fast-track a little ahead — We managed the wow factor from the client. The calling software was highly integrable and stable. The client was all about in high and requested the blueprint of its design and architecture and wanted to see if they could leverage it on their other products. We had a grand party that evening and champagne froth lingered in our minds for long after that.
The final solution was a simple step. Implementing it fully took three weeks and it was a simple variable in the software that needed the correction. The idea was mine and it became mine during a train ride from Bangalore to Kerala. I have always loved train rides and I have loved these rides in the general compartment and not in the AC coaches. I love the hustle-bustle of people entering and leaving, food vendors raining their interests on prospective buyers, the noise of the moving wheels, green ribbons, and the roaring wind. The idea was clarified within a few hours after I had boarded the train. It was not even Coimbatore! I had discovered my GPTT (Great Place To Think )
I do not necessarily say that a general coach on a train is a great place to think; I cannot. It is just a personal choice. The method is clear. A great place to think is where you can be quiet among the noise — wherever you are an unaffected stranger in the crowd. A retreat is best if it is not a runaway from the world but to be the very part of it in detached mode. The vibes of the world flow freely in and out without judging and without inviting judgment and leaving behind traces of many lessons.
I have taken many train rides in the pretext of meeting my parents but as a matter of fact, all I needed was a GPTT (great place to think) to nourish my mind for a fuller life. But then habits are an odd thing — I am always traveling. Almost every month.
