The One with The Eagle

Today, I traveled to Cambridge - the very heart of English history and education.

I have been here before, just never really looked at it. Running from one meeting to another, I never took the time to walk down the little streets between King’s College and St Catherine’s, capture a photograph of the many statutes of Henry VIII, or attack the little shops with hand-made jewelry. Truth to be told, I didn’t quite have the time to do all this today, however we had a nice working lunch at The Eagle.

For the past 500 years, millions of students have drunk the wisdom of The Eagle’s walls. Some of these students went on to change the world. Others went back to living with their parents and farming the fruitful land of the Midlands - thus, changing their own world. It is easy to imagine the many conversations held at The Eagle - about changing political systems, powerful speakers, religion and astronomy. You can almost see them - the poet sitting at the corner table, scribbling with his inked feather under the candle-light; the free-spirited young post-Victorian women discussing their voting rights; Francis Crick and James Watson raising the arguments in support of their discovery of the «secret of life» - the DNA. 

I heard somewhere that The Eagle today is a major tourist attraction - I could not confirm that. Perhaps, because it was Monday lunch, but the people around us were all loud ambitious students, arguing over engineering courseworks and the decline of Goldman Sachs investment banking. Here they are, the crazy youth, who isn’t afraid to speak up their mind with all that many foreign accents. They may be a handful, but still exist. 

There is no wifi, no Foursquare specials, no marketing campaigns. Just a few old-school books on the shelves. Time has stopped at the Eagle - 500 years on, it still serves the same homemade steak-and-ale pie, same pints of that refreshing locally-brewed ale to all the same life-changing individuals. Zero business flexibility.

See, refusing to adapt to the ever-changing information society customer doesn’t make you a marketing failure. It makes you a legend.

Rumor has it, Crick and Watson wrote the DNA structure on a napkin at The Eagle. I wonder how much genetics would have progressed, had they brought their MacBooks.

The One with Vision, Insanity and Confidence

Today, the whole world mourns the death of Steve Jobs. 

Steve Jobs was officially, the co-founder and former CEO of Apple Inc and Pixar; unofficially - the guy, who inspired and developed some of the greatest technology out there.

Apple.com Homepage Today

It is amazing how today we hear so many nice words about the person, who was once deemed 'insane' and 'show-off' and 'arrogant'. Yet, somehow Jobs might have managed to iTouch many of us: he changed the way we operate computers (the computer mouse), the way we listen to music (having our entire music collection in our pocket-size iPod), the way we do our every-day job (through the smart-phones).

Was Steve Jobs unique? Fortunately, not. 

In our time, we saw many visionary entrepreneurs - William Gates, Steve Wozniak, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Richard Branson, Warren Buffet, Alan Sugar, Mark Zuckerberg, Niklas Zennström, Janus Friis, Thomas J. Watson, Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Stelios Haji-Ioannou and many others. We also have the visionary entrepreneurs, who never made it to success.

Many would say that there is thin fine line between Vision and Insanity. That all these visionary guys did not bother about higher education, albeit being 'too smart' -- or as teachers/classmates would say -- 'crazy'. And then they made it: Harvard and Princeton drop-outs, high-school graduates (like Jobs), who only had their dream and garage space to create the future.

However, in my opinion, in 21st century, it takes a little bit more than Vision to build a successful business idea. I have never judged one's Creativity as Insanity, and neither have most of the young people I know: they realise that today, Insanity is exactly what it takes.

The key component is therefore: Confidence - that little piece of believing in your own capabilities. We have all had a crazy idea at one point or another. The difference between us and Steve Jobs: we didn't believe it was going to work. Yet.

Being your worst critic is essential, but being your biggest fan is no less important. If you don't believe in your product or idea enough to market it - then customers would definitely not believe enough to buy it.

It comes as no surprise that the majority of these Visionaries come from supportive environments - be it family, workplace or school. These environments have played a crucial role in building their Confidence, made them resistant to the feeling of failure. Jobs himself was adopted when he was a baby, and therefore, loved and cherished in times when people expected the worst out of foster children.

I guess the lesson is: if you have a Vision, believe in yourself enough to try it out. If you know someone with a Vision, offer them your full support.

Chances are, each person knows another person with a Vision. Imagine the snowball effect, if we all start supporting each other.

The One with the Feedback Techniques

Feedback is the new socio-business mantra; 'constructive criticism' is the new buzz word to complement the 'added value'. And we now ask our clients and friends, subordinates, bosses and trusted family to tell us what we are doing wrong. On a constant, organised basis, duh.


I needed to pick a couple of people for our newest project team today, and was going through applications. Out of the 11 post-interview choices, 9 mentioned 'ability to take feedback' (or something of the sort) as their strength. I cross-checked: yes, I, too, have that in my CV. Good, competitive intellgence works.

However, the truth is: I only learnt this over the last year, and prior to that I was actually a sucky feedback-taker. Taking feedback constructively is (scientifically speaking) against human nature - we are not born with it, we need to train and develop this skill.
Unfortunately, until today I probably met less than 10 people who have shown that they can develop and improve based on outside opinion. Maybe feedback is more challenging than it seems.


Challenge 1: Feedback forgets that we are all different
I believe that feedback is closely related to cultural awareness and understanding that people are different. They preach, pray and play differently, as well. Lacking this understanding is barrier number 1 to both: taking and receiving feedback. Millions of publications discuss the cultural awareness issue. Read some, discuss them in diverse groups, and develop your own understanding.


Challenge 2: Feedback has no idea how to define itself
Due to its newly-discovered popularity, feedback seems to be present everywhere. Little that we realise, though, that not everything that shines is gold, and not everything that criticises is feedback. Definitions are very important here: in order to react to feedback adequately, we need to be able to differentiate between 'constructuve criticism' and 'bitchiness'.


One has to develop a personal definition of feedback, that sums in a few simple rules. If the comment does not meet one of those rules, then:
a) you're more than welcome to take it personally (and get angry about it) or ignore it (and forget about it) - it is simply not feedback;
b) you're more than welcome to make the comment anyway (with all associated risks), but don't lie to yourself and your audience by calling it feedback - it is simply not feedback.


As an example, here is my personal Feedback Wizard:


1. Goal Drive: The comment has to actually correspond to the question. Always pay attention to detail in this case. The answer to "What do you think about my pancakes? I was trying out a new recipe." cannot be "Well, it is better than the caserole you made the other night. You should really add less salt to the potatoes"


2. Info Drive: The comment must come from an adequate person and must be based on facts. In that sense, the person has enough information to give useful advice instead of what-ifs which might be useless.


3. Results Drive: The comment must actually propose an alternative to the element under criticism. The idea of the feedback is to propose ways to improve: constructively, duh. If a person giving feedback admits "I really don't know how this can be improved", this is also a great result: it shows you that you need to search for additional info/perspective/ideas, etc without discouraging you.


4. Attitude Drive: The comment must be communicated adequately. Feedback is all about words because it defines relationships and plays on human emotions. Nobody's perfect. Arrogance and blame just makes it worse.


Challenge 3: Feedback kills basic human reactions
It is in our nature to defend ourselves when sensing threat: physical, emotional, or verbal. This is why it is so normal to us to say "This is not true" when criticised. In this case, many people forget that you are not obliged to blindly follow every feedback. Taking feedback doesn't mean doing-what-told, but getting-better-at. People will not feel offended if you don't follow their feedback,as long as you have your reasons and are still on the improvement track. If they still do get offended, then you can give them some constructive feedback about giving feedback.


Again, there are several little things that one can do in order to learn how to take feedback more openly:

1. Listen. The initial reaction is to defend yourself with words: force yourself not to. Wait until the end of the feedback before speaking.
2. Understand. After you've listened quietly and carefully, clarify things which are not comprehensible enough - details, technicalities, facts.
3. Smile and Say Thank You. At the end of the feedback, smile and say thank you. Make this your rule every time, even if you disagree.
4. Breathe. Now you have the complete picture. There is nothing wrong with taking some time and thinking over it. Make sure that you are calm. If you receive the feedback by non-verbal communication, eg - email, don't be tempted to reply right away. You will then be able to really look deeply into the situation and make the right decision.
5. Separate. The feedback always relates to only part of your life: work, social life, family, looks, etc. We often think that if somebody says we need to our work better that means we are also bad at other things - but this is not true. Separate personal from professional like you would in order situations.
6. Act. The feedback is nothing without the action that follows it. Build on the experience.
7. Appreciate. After some time, inform the person that gave you the feedback of the actions taken. It doesn't matter if you followed or not their feedback - they would appreciate the fact that you have listened and remembered, and would encourage them to be open and honest in the future.


Challenge 4: Feedback does not always remember about simple communication
Attutude is extremely important when giving feedback. You have to sell your feedback, just like you sell your ideas. Not only are you helping a fellow human being in their improvement, you are also gaining trust and recognition for yourself and your abilities as a communicator.


The best advice here is to follow the Golden Rule: put yourself in the position of the feedback-receiver and think of the most appropriate way of hearing what you have to say. Then also remember about that cultural element and diversity.


The Sandwich Method is probably the most popular feedback technique: 
- Recognise the work so far (positive) 
- Criticise the improvement areas (negative) 
- Suggest solutions and encourage for the future (positive)


I personally like the approach, however I would add two more elements to complete the cycle:
- Discuss the solutions, identify the work together (positive prevention)

- Ask for advice or feedback for yourself - showing a weakness in this sense is a real step forward (positive learning)

The One with the Reaction

Yesterday, on yet another occassion we witnessed the fact of mass murder of innocent civilian people by another human-being. The event entered the headlines and anali as "the terrorist attacks at Domodeovo airport in Moscow, Russia that until this hour has counted 35 casualties and further 100 injuries and critical cases". The bomb empowered with 10kg TNT, rage and revenge exploded at the International Arrivals. It is the latter that begged the immediate reaction of all international political administrations, media centers and bloggers. International - a really powerful word that is.

A brief look over the span of the international reactions is enough to understand the moods and shades surrounding this tragic event. Some voices relate to the causes of the violence, others critise the reaction if the Russian authorities, thirds think ahead towards increasing security measures. All these points deserve a comment (yes, here it goes........), that will result in some food for thought.

About Giving Up

'Naturally, the rage was caused by the state of war in Chechnya and the Northern Caucasus region', after all - if Chechnya wants independency, then Russia should just let it be, and the violations would cease. The event is yet another confirmation of the fact that the Russian army should end the military conflict, after all the G-7 has long ago stated its undoubted opinion on the matter. One could choose to agree or disagree with this opinion: the one about the independency of regions with ethnical majorities and historic borders (Kosovo, anyone? or the Basques?). As a matter of fact, this question will always be a part of the history of international relations. I will not take a side. Publicly, that is.

The question to challenge then would be the whole giving-in-to-terror. If the society gives up now and goes along with the demands of the violent groups, what will the future be? Yes, a future with many lives spared, but also a future of fear that the next time somebody-somewhere-has-some-demands-towards-something, then we risk repeating the previous "successful measures" undertaken by demanding groups. Well, yes, it is easy for me to say - after all, people, who had their life touched by the attacks (should) think differently. But for the rest of us (tfu, tfu) - the question remains open as to whether we are able to take this risk and turn around the world of dimplomacy and negotiation to something more human-like. 

About Reacting Adequately

Rumor has it, that the public found out about the attacks from Tweeter (I believe Ilya - the first-hand mini-blogger-turned-reporter is on his road to fame and glory) almost immediately. Footage and photos to confirm. And there it went: blaming the authorities for keeping quiet, blocking the mobile phone connection at the airport, not being able to properly count affected people, and generally being awfully factless about what really is happening. 

I am always to be heard in protection of full disclosure and freedom of speech and press. But everything has its limits (and this is why I am not a mega-throw-your-bra-on-stage fan of WikiLeaks). After all, security measures stand behind this quet reaction - and the fear of disclosing too much to organisers and violators out there prevails when decisions are made in the emergency reaction briefings.

Unfortunately, the public can hardly be blamed about questioning authorities' motives. It will not be the first time that the Russian government officials withhold information simply because it feels 'uncomfortable'. After all - it turned out to be a trust issue.

Conclusions should be made towards building a successful communication with your stakeholders (Business 101, duh), and I am sure that in the future we will all find out why Sobyanin didn't close Domodedovo airport immediately, and why Medvedyev is not making it to the WEF at Davos (of super-huge importance to the future of Russian aerospace defense) despite 'everything being under control'. 

About What to Do in the Future

In only a few days we will start reading about the post-event reactions regarding increasing security measures, introducing searches and metal detectors. We will witness a few protests against violating human freedom and privacy. We will mourn and swear to predict/prevent the tragedies in the future. Unfortunately, we will not be successful in absolutely everything. Fortunately, the life goes on, and while this happens there is Hope.

While following the RT live coverage of the attacks, I couldn't help but laugh at the press-conference and the announcements given by Medvedyev and the Administration. The words "The President ordered that the Health and Emergency Situations Ministries provide all necessary help to the victims of the attack", and "I [President] will personally make sure that the terrorists are identified, captured and punished" made me reconfirm my suspicions that the Russian Presidency has a mental disorder associated with God-like complex. 

So, before the PR, the Aid was not working on 100%? And the Federal Security Bureau was having coffee and pancakes at work? I just could not get it...

And then this morning it hit me. It really is all about the Hope for the Future

Having spent the majority of my conscious life in Russia, I could never understand why we have no idea if the President is married, what his children look like, and his regular Thursday is meeting the Head of the Army on National TV, and bang on the table about underdelivering. Because he is supposed to be God-like: this invincible strong man, to guide, lead and protect. And it comes as no surprise that the Russian Presidency is often elected with over 90% support, and that the media supports this mystery aura and stays away from the private life of the Great. 

And just like a Prophet, Medvedyev led his administration and his people through the first hours with the firm promise: I will take care. And this is why while the international criticism continues, the 140 million Russians will voluntarily give up their human rights in order to "be protected by their Strong Man".

About the Wisdom of It All

Maybe we should borrow some of this Hope, and get back on track on building and protecting our Happy Place. Living in fear of tomorrow is really not going to help much, breathing though will help a lot. People are actually stronger than they think they are - both physicially and emotionally. And the best thing to do now is to pray and comfort, yet not stop our progress and Hope for the Future.

The One with the Happy Place (not The One with the Tragedy)

Last night, I wasted yet another sleep thinking about what-ifs and plans in-case. That's regular for all of us at one point or another. It doesn't mean you have regrets, simply means you think constructively (yeah, baby). There was a person, who helped me a lot in this thought process - together discussing and building the concept of the Happy Place. Everybody has a Happy Place - one where you feel safe and comfortable. It is usually home, but there could be other options. 

My Happy Place is airport arrivals. No kidding, but this has been the case for a while (have you seen the first minute of "Love Actually"? Great Heathrow arrivals footage). In the past few years, airports have become an inseparable part of my life (as for most of us). And while I learnt how to sleep on metal chairs, steal wi-fi and check-in at the last minute, I still cannot overcome the fear of flying - it's so... out of control, seriously! But then - the airplane lands, the fear is over and replaced by excitement. After all, every landing means that something new is happening, that life is on the move - whether work, holidays or finally going home. 

Have you ever felt it: you pick up your bag, and go through the huge automatic doors, and to the other side a colourful crowd of people is starring at you. Their eyes are huge and full of curiousity and excitement: they are looking for that someone special in the flow of arriving people. It is a really lonely feeling to know that nobody in this crowd is waiting for you (happens, we simply cannot have dearest and kindest in every city we visit). But there is no better feeling to see the smiling faces of the people you're coming to, this reunion, hugs, smiles, tears, the welcome. 

After all, the world is one big Happy Place - one where a) you never give up on your dreams and values, b) you always do your best, and c) become your own leader and inspiration.

And that's why the events of 24th January 2011 shook my world. My Happy Place - the arrivals gate at the airport where I come to my family was violated. 

That happens. But it still doesn't take away the feeling that Happy Places still meet Happy People.

The First One

Less than a month ago, humanity entered a new decade: one filled with hope and dreams for the future. We cannot help but look back at the Zeitgeist of what happened during the first 10 years of what the historians will end up calling "Generation Y Times", aka 21C.

The 2000s turned out to be years of great sorrow and great success.

Alonside the Middle Eastern wars (on terrorism, oil, human survival and dignity -- or whatever name you want to give) and the human-initiated attacs, the natural disasters (of flooding tsunamis, unstoppable rains and powerful earthquakes) and the Market Crash (or was that under human-initiated attacks, hmmm?), we achieved the unthinkable: the overcoming of time and space through technology and intellgence.

We changed our lifestyle to one, where 86% of us possess a computer/mobile phone (and a computer with the size of a mobile phone just in case), our cars use the hairdryer's plug, we need multi-coloured glasses to watch TV, our organs and bones are generated by lasers, our businesses are successfully run from across the world through remote teamwork, and long-distance relationships provide the foundation for the family unit.

How can one not love this decade?!

And yes, we have heard it before: when the Mouse ate the Book, when one possesses no grammar but MS Word Editor, one needs no languages but Google Translator, one gains no knolwedge but a Wikipedia link, one needs no friends but Facebook contacts, no diaries but Blogs.

But I disagree: we should not be blamed for wanting to make our life easier. Wasn't lazyness the driving force of the progress?! And can we be really called lazy?

I can often be heard bragging about how I hate my computer screen, how I miss the theater and the long walks in the city, the truth is: it makes me happy to find my long-lost childhood friends via the Social Network, moderate busy Skype conference calls, play stocks at the LSE, drive on full speed at the megapolic boulevards. And it is this rush that brings the best in me: feeds my hunger for new cultures, increases my confidence, brings up my productivity, helps me freshen up my ideas and liberate imagination.

And while there is nothing better than reading that very special old-school paperback book on the train to work, I get inspiration from the links my friends share on Facebook, the favourite songs on YouTube, the wise words of my known bloggers, and simply from the fact that here I am, trying to acustom and be a part of the progress.

10 years ago, I was this start-up teenager with a bag of dreams. Now I am a start-up "young professional" with a wealth of goals. Different terms - same idea. The key is: not to get yourself corrupted in the mess.

As on a clean sheet, this blog will be started from zero; the old one archived - to look back at in 10 years. This time, from a panoramic, laser-powered, flying capsule somewhere in the air of the Pacific. For example.