Gary Hamel of 'Core competence of the corporation' fame says "The Facebook Generation….. At a minimum, they’ll expect the social environment of work to reflect the social context of the Web". He goes on to layout web 2.0 practices that are most at odds with current management practices for large companies.

 I am listing these down below with my thoughts in italics on how it will affect Indian outsourcers:

1. All ideas compete on an equal footing.
Idea sharing itself is currently contained within well defined teams. Any sharing beyond these established boundaries happens as a result of management intervention or through rigid, formalized mechanisms like a KM portal. Fast forward 2020: Employees will expect organizations to encourage them to be part of virtual teams, freely contributing outside defined boundaries. Problems will be posted for anyone to attack and solve. Solutions generated in project X would be instantly accessible to someone in project Y leading to greater productivity. Web 2.0 technology would allow it!
2. Contribution counts for more than credentials.
Pay would get linked not just to designation as it currently is, but to your ability to contribute to the organization outside of your project. People on the bench would be expected to contribute to projects as part of virtual teams. Why can't it happen today ? Because the technology does not allow it. Technical problems that do not require the client or project context can easily be attacked by anyone in the organization. Future IDE's would allow this to happen. Metrics would be tracked around these and compensation linkages established.
3. Hierarchies are natural, not prescribed.
More power would flow to the developer on account on her increased ability to contribute. The power a given project manager has over her developer would decrease as multiple peer projects managers would have an 'indirect' relationship with the developer by virtue of virtual teams. The same would apply at all levels.
4. Leaders serve rather than preside.
I would modify this clause as "Managers would falter. Leaders would flourish". Getting things done through positional authority would take a back seat and skill would become central. Web 2.0 enabled virtual teams would make everyone stand naked. Measuring contribution would be easier and leaders would be forced to contribute as individuals and not just as 'bosses'.
5. Tasks are chosen, not assigned.
Virtual teams attacking problems would naturally allow individuals to choose tasks. People would gravitate towards tasks they are more skilled at doing. Individual work packets would get disaggregated into project contextual tasks and generic tasks. Generic tasks would get attacked by virtual teams who would choose the tasks they wish to do. I also envision a kind of 'competitive bidding' among employees for tasks.
6. Groups are self-defining and -organizing.
You won't always know who your project mates are. Skill and dynamic matching of those skills to tasks would define which group you belong to, who you work with and what you do.
7. Resources get attracted, not allocated.
Smarter projects run by better managers would command the best resources. People would have the freedom to choose.
8. Power comes from sharing information, not hoarding it.
Keeping knowledge to oneself and applying it to one's own task in one's own project would still be good. But applying that in a virtual team to a dozen projects would get greater visibility and recognition.
9. Opinions compound and decisions are peer-reviewed.
Web 2.0 allows you to be anonymous. This would allow real time review in virtual teams and poor decisions would get a public roasting.

Is any of this any good for us ? Well, there is good and bad in everything. :-)

How do you think Web 2.0 would affect the work force ?

Happy New Year everyone and hope your year is filled with prosperity, good health , peace and happiness.
Many thanks for visiting my little blog, giving me suggestions for improvement and most importantly for your comments. I have learnt a lot from you and hope I can continue to learn.  

The year 2007 has been a significant one for me. A job switch and relocation to the US have been the big changes. I am playing a new, exciting role at work. One where I am responsible for growing topline while addressing delivery escalations with the  customer. In order to be successful I realize I will have to learn new skills and unlearn some old ones leading to a strategic paradigm shift in my approach and my thinking. Here are my five New Year resolutions to that effect.
-Never say 'No' to the customer. But look for creative ways to satisfy customer needs by exploring interests rather than sticking to positions.
-Never take a 'No' from the customer as a rejection, but stay positive and importantly stay engaged. 
-Engage at multiple levels of abstraction and be flexible enough to engage both tactically and strategically as the context demands.
-Build relationships outside the immediately visible stakeholders and lay the ground for future growth.
-Make maximizing customer value as the central theme within my portfolio.
    

Here are a few interesting facts from BW's article on the hottest places to launch a career.

-Deloitte & Touche is No. 1, followed by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young.
-Ernst & Young uses Facebook to let prospective employees talk freely with real ones.
-Deloitte will show a rap video about office life—made by interns—to give students a realistic view of the company.
-Microsoft offers interviewees visiting its headquarters concierge services.
-Lucky interns at Ernst & Young get to fly with the chief executive on the corporate jet.
-JP Morgan allowed a New York University film grad to shadow three young employees for a documentary-style film that will be posted online.
-KPMG launched a Web-based training program to better prepare young employees and their managers to talk about career building.
-IBM (No.4) introduced ThinkPlace, an online suggestion box to help it cull the best ideas from its global workforce.
-At Google Inc (No. 5), there are free lunches and on-site massages.
-PwC has instituted an extra 11-day firmwide vacation.
-KPMG declared that every summer weekend starts at 3 p.m. Friday.

A cousin of mine recently joined the industry. As the ol' s/w guy in the family I got a call from Mr.Bright and Excited asking me how he can grow fast and get noticed in a large software services company. In a shameless act of self aggrandizing I pointed him to this blog. So here goes…

• This one is right at the top : Get business. If you can do something to get business you will straight away get into the top management's radar. This doesn't mean a sales role, but could be as simple (or complicated) as a proactive proposal
  
• Write a tool that serves the cause of execution excellence (productivity improvement, effort tracking, defect prevention..the list is endless)
  
• Make a process improvement proposal and sell it to SEPG. Track the benefits with metrics and publish to a wider audience
  
• Speak up during organizational meetings
  
• Organize team outings. Be the josh person in your account
  
• Write a KM white paper based on the 'innovative best practices' that you used in your project 
  
• Reach out and give help. Take part in technical and management mailing lists and fora. Reach out to people outside your current network and offer solutions. This will keep you networked among the 'happening' crowd 
  
• Give a talk about something cutting edge and exciting. Don't forget to invite your boss and your boss's boss to attend!
  
• Great work speaks for itself. Always go beyond what is mandated. Stretch and go the extra mile
  
• Do something that is important for your boss but that nobody else wants to do. This will build trust and make you stand out

Please feel free to help my cousin out by giving your own tips. I am sure there are better ones than the stuff I have mentioned above.

A former colleague of mine recently spoke to me asking for tips on how to bargain for a promotion to tech lead during his upcoming appraisal. He had put in good time as a developer but growth was simply not happening. Instead of boring him with real time gyan, I pointed him to this blog.

It is no great shakes getting a promotion to team lead with all the broad based growth that the industry is witnessing. Don't agree ? Read on to find out how…

Become a good developer: Before a person can move up she needs to be at least in the top 25 percentile performance wise in her current job. This is true even if the skills needed to succeed in the higher role has nothing to do with the current skill set. So brush dust your skills, gain new ones that are relevant, fill up gaps, work harder…do whatever it takes to be a recognized as a decent developer. Once you have done this half the job is done. 

Show leadership even as a developer: You need to show leadership even *before* you are made a leader. The peer engineers in your group need to start accepting you as 'leader' even without you being formally appointed as one. To enable this, the first point above is critical. On the softer side, be friendly, approachable and lead by example since you do not yet have the authority. If you are getting butterflies in the stomach when you think of leading, try using informal and relaxed settings like team outings to exercise leadership. Ultimately, the softer aspects of leadership are transferable from one context to another. So go ahead and play the role without Mr.Big Boss asking you to do so. Just ensure you are not stepping on your current tech lead's shoes.     

Up skill consciously: Go to your HR portal and read up the job description of tech lead. Skill wise you will need to have at least some of the skill sets that are one level above your current level of responsibility. Eg. If the person is a software engineer she would need to know the basics of estimation, design and basic architecture (team lead responsibilities).

Gain Visibility: Gain visibility two levels higher that your current level. Eg. If you are an engineer desiring to be a lead, make sure that your lead's boss understands your contribution. In case you face political hurdles, this will help your case. You can use the following techniques:
-Formal skip level meetings (if your org allows that). If not request an audience.
-Suggest process improvements that go beyond your project.
-Conduct a cross project technical training session.
-Speak up during team meetings and other organizational events. Ask a pertinent question, raise a common concern. Put your hand up!
-Study new trends and publish an internal "knowledge management" article on it.
-Step back and see the big picture. Once your project is over, put together a small five page document on the learnings and share it with the folks around you.

Understand the big picture: Technical leadership is about being able to see the big picture in the project lifecycle, besides things like coding and testing. So go to your company's process repository, pull out the CMM documents that talk about quality aspects and learn and apply these on your job.

Make your tech lead look good:  A good strategy would be to complement your tech lead in an area where he is relatively less confident while letting him lead the team otherwise. Say your lead is not all that great in Javascript coding, develop a strength here and use that to complement him. This will ensure that you a). Make him look good b). Let him realize the value you are bringing to the table. Just ensure you do not let him feel outclassed.

Do your impression management: Impression management might sound dirty, but it is not. Ultimately, perception is reality. I do not mean stupid things like taking a note book to the men's room, but things like dressing more professionally than your peers. Developers can afford to wear jeans on Monday morning, but you will rarely find a delivery manager who does it. So ensure a). You dress like a tech lead. b). Come to office earlier than your leads/managers. c). Leave office later than your leads/managers. d).Keep the small talk strategic: Speak about the latest trends, world issues rather then regular chit chat.

The volume of fake resumes in the industry is staggering. LinkedIn reference check is something every HR professional should try and leverage. The economics seem decent enough as this snippet from LinkedIn indicates:

For $200 a month you can potentially make 40 (Request Intros) + 50  (Direct mail) checks. That is 100 INR per check if you have a 100% hit rate (probability given the credibility of LinkedIn). I am not a HR professional but I bet companies pay a lot more than 100 for a check. BTW they also give 2 months access free for those who prepay for a year. The only grievance : The search is uni dimensional and limited to companies.

Ok. You are all of twenty three. Smart, hip and happening and life would be perfect if you could only go onsite. Good. But you are not alone. Every person at your stage in life wants to go onsite. As a manager I can see for myself the eagerness young people have in this regard and demands to go onsite are commonplace during performance appraisals. So here's the magic formula. Err…sorry there is no magic formula but these thoughts can at least (hopefully) let you know if you are on course.
Align: The most important factor to go onsite is the existence of the opportunity. You can get stuck offshore for years (collecting performance awards :-)) if you ain't in the 'right' account. Look at the current onsite-offshore ratio. That should give you some idea of the past trend. If you are in an pure offshore account, see if you can speak to your managers and get a switch. Do not state the lack of onsite opportunities as the reason. You are likely to be denied. Look for more logical reasons.
Perform: Onsite opportunities are often used as an incentive to retain top performers. Before you make your case you need to be an above average performer-at least. Ensure that you get decent performance appraisals. Remember that at onsite you will not have too many people to help you when you run into trouble.
Communicate: Matthew 7:7: "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." If you need something you need to ask for it. But just plain crying never got anyone anything except when they were in diapers. Ranting does work, but provided you are a star performer. 
Identify skill gaps: Ask your boss what it takes to go onsite and specifically ask him what is it that you need to do. Identify skill gaps if any and address the same. Here are some skills that are hot from an onsite perspective (at the Sr.developer level):
   -Build and deploy skills
   -Fast bug fixing and problem solving skills (UAT kind of situations)
   -UX skills (prototyping etc)
   -Requirements gathering and analysis skills.
   -System testing (esp for mainframe projects) 
Plan the logistics: Ensure you don't run into any logistical hiccups like expired passports or other personal problems.

Good luck and if the if the above tips work I need a thank you mail from onsite! :-)

Many of us transition through several jobs during the course of a career. The farewell mails are usually last minute jobs though. An obligation that needs to be done away with. Here's an example of the slapdash job that we usually get to read.

All,
   Today is my last day in <company name>. It was a pleasure working with all of you and thank you for all the support. I can be reached at <email>.
           Warm Regards,
            <Name>

While there is nothing wrong with this email written by a real person, there are software algorithms that would connect better with real people! Here's the anatomy of my dream farewell mail:

• Introduction: Start with a snail mail salutation and not the classic email salutation. Use "Dear All" instead of "All".
• Touch upon the beginning of your tenure in the company. A brief sentence on your skills, role and project you worked on at that time. Preferably keep it sober and focus on what you lacked rather than what you brought to the table.
• Write about how the company has added value over the years to you to take you to where you are today. If relevant, highlight how the company values and culture have acted as a catalyst in the process. Your confidence needs to come out here!  
• In case you had a manager, mentor or subordinate who went out of the way to support you, mention them specifically. Bring out one or two specific acts of kindness and if possible laugh at yourself while you do this.
• Sincerely thank your colleagues for their kindness and support. If you feel like it state that you will be a goodwill ambassador for the company.
• Sign off by leaving you email, number and LinkedIn profile url (yes this is a Web 2.0 world!) and request that your colleagues reply to your mail with their private email id. Openly state that you would love to and intend to keep in touch.
  
  Do the above and stay networked while you touch hearts!