Certainties & Serendipities

If obtaining feedback is essential, it is even more critical to avoid common traps associated with getting that feedback. Here are some of the common traps¹, I have encountered:

Composition of team

Since government functions based on rank and class, a meeting will inevitably have dead-weights. They have no intention of providing any useful feedback. They are there just because there were asked to. They are harmless. But there is a set of people who can derail any hope of having a meaningful discussions. They are the Pseudo-Experts¹. Not only most of their talk will be useless, they will hold you prisoner to their expertise. Handling them will require all the emotional and psychological strength that you can muster.

Hijacked objectives

Another trap is that a feedback meeting is pulled back into a brainstorming session. Members start to discuss ideas that were left out, or come up with new ideas where much time had already been spent to arrive at the current solution. Most often these hijacks are unintentional, but sometimes it’s done to subvert the project. Unintentional diversions can be graciously handled, while the later has to be handled diplomatically, only with the support of the client.

Delegation to lower level (non-decision-makers)

Those who are in-charge of providing feedback do this in the pretext of being ‘too-busy’. The lower level resources won’t have the authority to take any decisions draining your enthusiasm for the project rather quickly. You need to bring this to the notice of project sponsers as quickly as possible.

These are the top three traps I have witenessed. What are the traps you have witnessed?

Obtaining feedback is critical to designing products¹ that stand the test of time. But getting meaningful feedback isn’t easy. If it is tough in a corporate environment, it is even more difficult within Government setup².

So how can you get the best feedback?

Interestingly, most of the necessary activities happen outside the meeting room (I’m thankful to my earlier boss for demonstrating this to me time and again).

To start with, you need to know when to obtain feedback. Not too early, despite the pressure to send the ‘first draft’; not too late, despite your love for perfection. Appropriate time is when it is small enough to be manageable and big enough to be relevant. As your product evolves, you need to repeat this process until the final delivery. This iterative process also gives you an early sign of future problems. If you sense any problems to come, you could still do course correction.

You should engage the client team as often as possible – mostly informally – to get their ideas about the project as well as your creation. This enables you to get insider’s perspective of the project. Let us say you find out that the project is a low priority one, you can be sure that getting feedback will be of even lower priority.

If you could influence the composition of the group to provide feedback, you should do it by all means. There should be an ideological resonance within the team towards the project and hence to the product, without which feedback sessions will be disastrous.

Circulate the document well in advance giving the members ample time to read and come prepared. Some people would advice to keep the group in suspense but I don’t think it is a good idea. In my experience, circulating the document and engaging the members before the feedback meeting ensures better feedback during the actual meeting.

If you have executed the above steps diligently, feedback meeting should be effective. Still surprises can come from any corner. To wade through these surprises, you should designate someone as a facilitator in the meeting. The sole responsibility of the facilitator is to ensure feedback from every one is obtained and rants are controlled effectively.

At the beginning of the meeting, set specific goals for the meeting – feedback only on Table of Contents; feedback of only the process flows but not the mock-screen elements and so on. Give the participants a structure to think and provide feedback. Our ancestors have already proved that horses with blinders run faster and on track. It will be the duty of the facilitator to ensure that the blinders are on throughout the meeting.

Given to itself, meetings have a way of turning into chatter rooms. I have also witnessed feedback meetings morph into review meetings of other projects of the clients, because they want to take advantage of the presence of the members. Since it is your meeting, it is your responsibility to steer the meeting back into track. As situation may permit, go and stand in the front. If available utilize the board. That is a proven way to take control of the meeting (another point which was emphatically proven by Mahendra again and again).

An important activity that gets left out is the follow-up. Follow-up is not limited to sending the minutes; but also introspecting what went right and what went wrong, if possible with few of the client members. This is a great enabler for successive meetings turning into success.

Now it is your turn. Tell me – via twitter, email, gplus – what else do you do to get the best feedback that you deserve?

Image by: HikingArtist

It started with a chat with my mentor. I had a job offer as Head of Application Development Unit from an infrastructure company and I wanted to check with him, if I was making a good choice. He confirmed that it was a good choice. Then he asked me a question that would change the course of my career.

“Government of India is looking for a project manager. I think you are a good fit for it and it would be good for you too. Would you consider joining?”

I have greatest respect for him. If he would’ve asked me to join a failing company, I would have gladly joined. So I dropped the grandiose plans of being a business unit head and decided to follow where the wind led.

At that point, I had no idea what I was getting into. My idea of government was formed largely by media reports and my limited interactions with government offices for obtaining driving license, registering flats and the likes. I would be lying if I said it was anything but positive.

I had to make quite a lot of changes too. I had to become a solo consultant without backing of any company; and I had to move to Delhi without knowing the language. They were major life changes. Was it all worth?

Three years later, the answer is, it is. Any my prejudice of government machinery changed too.

May be because I got to work with the best e-governance project in India. It is one of best conceived, architected and monitored project, winning the most coveted Prime Minister’s award, in addition to host of other awards.

My experience is limited¹ to this Ministry and Project. But I could say, most of the bureaucrats I interact are brilliant. Some of them surpass private players. Take for example, Mr D K Mittal, ex-secretary of MCA and current Banking Secretary – he was more restless than a CEO of a startup. He did his homework well and demanded that we did ours too; he forced everyone to think of what is needed for the country in 2030 and start building the foundation now. He took bold steps. To quote just one, in a single stroke of order, he saved a forest by eliminating posting of physical copies of annual report to shareholders; they are to be sent electronically. What an idea, sir ji!

Also, I found many middle level public servants committed and passionate. I work on a daily basis with two such gentlemen – Sh Rao in NIC and Sh Sridharan in MCA. Sh Sridharan’s passion to MCA21 project is dangerously contagious. They don’t dream of sales commissions, bonuses and retirement in Bahamas. They get to work every day without much fuss. Many, like these gentlemen, work throughout India to make our lives little bit better.

“Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.” (Adlai Stevenson)

Some one said, you are average of five people you interact with. If so, then I have become a lot more intelligent and patriotic in the past three years, working with many such people.

If I’m happy about what I’ve learnt, I’m proud of my contributions. As a corporate employee, one’s contribution to nation is limited to paying taxes, voting and social service (many don’t do that is out of context for this blog entry). But as part of Government machinery, I participate in e-Governance initiatives that directly affect the service delivery of public services to citizens. I manage few of these initiatives, monitor many and I architect some. Thats a big deal!

If I have kindled your interest enough, know that avenues to work in Government projects are opening up unlike before. NISG is pioneering capacity building for the Government of India and they monitor and manage many of these e-Governance projects. You could join them. Of course, the conventional avenues of joining NIC and related governmental organizations has been open. You could also be part of private organizations that undertake these e-Governance projects under Public Private Partnership mode.

More than ever, chances to bring a change in India are many. Instead of sitting on the fence and raise a finger, come, be a part of the change.