Not a ex Mu Sigman, yet

As I am exiting from Mu Sigma formally by Dec end, many current and ‘ex Mu Sigmans‘ reached out to me. I got caring and loving pings from most. And a few pokes 🙂

‘Welcome to the club‘ messages for the most part from ‘ex Mu Sigmans‘. The concept of ‘ex Mu Sigman‘ intrigues me even more these days.

It’s quite fashionable these days to include ‘ex Mu Sigma‘ in your LinkedIn profile summary. There are at least 2,000+ who do that. (Many iconic brands with 100 X the number of lives touched have less than that !) May be some of the ‘ex Mu Sigmans‘ currently at LinkedIn can confirm 🙂

Guess it’s a powerful badge to carry in the analytics industry. Kudos to the institution for remaining such a brand, in spite of so many hits.

In the larger scheme of things, 7 years is not a long time. But for me it felt like I was there forever. May be the 7 years packed so much into it. (I once wrote What if time is neither linear nor absolute?) I leave Mu Sigma with so many leanings. Having imbibed amazing interactions with so many people I worked with. And experienced so many adventures with inimitable Dhiraj.

I look back at my 7 years with a lot of love for the idea of Mu Sigma, awe for all the challenges we overcame and gratitude for the institution it aspires to be.

Am I ready to be a ex Mu Sigman yet? May be not. May be never.

There are no ex IITans or ex BITSians. Only IITans. Just BITSians. Why can’t I be a MuSigman for life?

What does being a MuSigman mean to me? Here are few things I intend to keep within me for ever, strongly attributed to Mu Sigma.

Never waste a crisis. Never be afraid of what you don’t know. Failures are a sign you are taking enough risks to grow.

Growth Mindset can truly transform the journey of your life. People with a growth mindset see every challenge, failure, competitor and obstacle as a calling to grow. Mu Sigma lives it in every corner. If there ever was a secret sauce, this is it. Growth mindset

Creativity and innovation can be engineered* at scale … at will. And the answer is not superhero(ine)giri.

You can be systematically lucky as an organization if you have the right structure, design, rewards and culture. I truly understood what ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch and dinner‘ means. (* I would ideally like to use the word emerge instead of engineer. If you want know more about emergence read my post Different Scales. Different Forces)

Discipline equals freedom

On of my many partners in crime Zubin Dowlaty (our head of innovation) often preached, practiced and enforced discipline as a ticket to improvise. Of all things, this was the hardest change in my leadership style. Coupled with the impact Ashtanga Yoga is having on mutating my DNA, I have become a big believer in the power of rhythm, regular reviews and strengthening foundation habits first.

Just facts don’t change minds

Key to influencing humans are story telling and enabling experiences – not just facts and content. Cognitive and behavioral sciences proved this over and again. Yet most analytics professionals sadly believe statistically validated models will automatically bring about organizational transformation. Many leaders don’t work hard enough to become good storytellers. Most MuSigmans are good story tellers and orchestrate great experiences. Wonder where it comes from 🙂

Dhiraj being an ‘outsider’ to the world of analytics is a fountain of new concepts and a new lens to existing concepts. I believe and hope he will eternally be the rebel and a disruptive outsider.

Never underestimate the power of first principles thinking and value of originality. Of course, only if you are willing to pay the price of being laughed at or misunderstood. A question Dhiraj often loves to pose “What am I right about, that everyone else thinks I am wrong” says it all.

Wherever life takes me next, whatever ‘ian‘ I become in the future, however newer experiences shape me; I’d bet these things, among others, will keep the MuSigman inside me alive forever.

Wishing Dhiraj, Mu Sigma, BSH Network and everyone in the ecosystem all the luck. I will always be cheering for Mu Sigma. From the sidelines.

(Or may not from the sidelines. After all there is no front line or sideline in a world of interconnected networks :))

Dedicated to all the Mu Sigmans – inside and outside.

We Are of a Tribe

BY ALBERTO RÍOS

We plant seeds in the ground
And dreams in the sky,

Hoping that, someday, the roots of one
Will meet the upstretched limbs of the other.

It has not happened yet.
We share the sky, all of us, the whole world:

Together, we are a tribe of eyes that look upward,
Even as we stand on uncertain ground.

The earth beneath us moves, quiet and wild,
Its boundaries shifting, its muscles wavering.

The dream of sky is indifferent to all this,
Impervious to borders, fences, reservations.

The sky is our common home, the place we all live.
There we are in the world together.

The dream of sky requires no passport.
Blue will not be fenced. Blue will not be a crime.

Look up. Stay awhile. Let your breathing slow.
Know that you always have a home here.

Poem copyright ©2014 by Alberto Rios, “We Are of a Tribe,” from Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems, (Grayson Books, 2017). Referenced from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/151647/we-are-of-a-tribe

© Copyright Calvin and Hobbes, © Andrews McMeel Syndication 2019. All Rights Reserved. 

The vaunted human capacity for reason may have more to do with winning arguments than with thinking straight.Illustration by Gérard DuBois. Source: Why Facts don’t change our minds, The New Yorker