Reinvent - Change the Game with creative strategy and resilience by Hima Bindu
Video Transcription
First of all, uh women tech support. Thank you for giving me the opportunity yet again this year to share my thoughts.And I think this time, I would like, I, I came up with an idea of how to re invent uh create a strategy and really uh empower ourselves when we are faced in the odds. And I think I would like to share my perspective quickly. I would like to keep it crisp and I would give some space for questions as well. Um Let me start off so change the game with creative strategy and resilience. I think it's so important to understand why to change the game. There's so much of changes happening around us. Is it even necessary? What do I mean by that? I think um let's start with the first norm of this segment that talks about what is strategic management. I'm not going to take a class here, but I just wanted to refresh the fact that a strategic management is a process of setting goals, procedures as well as objectives in order to make a company, an organization more competitive. So you want to basically be in power in the market today. You need to have a strategy to go forward with it.
So have you thought about yourself, forget about the company for some time and got a clear strategy to move up the ladder, make a difference, be relevant. And have you really charted out a goal and objective? What is your vision about yourself? Don't tell five years from now because it's really crazy. It would keep changing. I think you should have something that is very, very concrete. There is something that you work for passionately and you need to bring that competitive edge inside your own career. Technology is changing situations are changing. So many things are changing around you, but there is something about you which is very unique and nobody has it. And I think you need to tap on to that and create a goal then and an objective aligned to making it better. I think that's where we start with. So let's now focus on a story. I would want to call this a game changer. OK. Uh It is very relevant to our current times and I think COVID has surely proven that time and again, as the waves came in and I think we have to start looking at how resilient can we become. So this story so happened. It's coming from a person who belong to a lower middle class. It was in a part of Honolulu. He belonged to a family there and he was a third generation, Japanese American who was from Japan, ok.
His family had to move out of Japan due to the lack of economic opportunity. It is also that this person shared that the males in that particular community in Japan were drafted or earmarked to fight for China. That is the role that they had to take it up. You know, in that those generations at that, that space in Japan, they had to do it and he came from that space. So if you really see it's a very structured at that generation, they had to accept, they had to do and nobody would really break, break off from that kind of structure. But this family just moved out of it. They didn't change a job, they didn't change a role, they didn't change streets to come out and make a living because of economic opportunity, being less, they literally changed countries. It's a huge thing for a person to leave his own home country and come and settle elsewhere, you know, and what this person said was, he said it was a lot of wisdom to change and do that change at that time, three generations back, right. Let's talk about that. He says a change a losing game. That's what he spoke about. When all the odds are against stacked against you. You have to just change the game completely. When you know, in a chess board, you are really, you're all, nothing is working for you.
You just change the entire game to play something completely, something else. So don't underestimate odds, don't feel a victim. But I think learn to leave the game. You know, that's the art. Now you need to learn to leave the game and face the odds that are stacked against you and come out with something completely different. Now, this is exactly what his first generation of family members did. They left the place and they moved into Hawaii basically. And what they did there, they didn't get into banking, they didn't get into technology. They were not learned people, they just went there to pick sugarcane. That's what the first generation of members did in his family. Then the second generation because they moved into Hawaii there, opportunities were different and they had more that they could contribute. So they got into schooling. So the second generation got into banking. And now this story was about guy Kawas Kawasaki. I don't know if you guys know him.
He is the chief evangelist of Canva, the app that you guys use today. He is the creator of uh you know, the Remarkable People podcast. He's an executive fellow of Han School of Business University of South Wales. He is the chief evangelist of Apple and a trustee of uh you know, Wikimedia Foundation. So many accolades on him and he stands the third generation. If that family, the first generation family did not move out of that place when all the odds were against them. Guy Kawasaki wouldn't have been in this position, giving back to the community in the third generation. Yes, it took time. But this was the right thing to do. So when you are faced with odds, what are the five core habits you have to keep in mind, these are some very quick, uh you know, uh takeaways that you guys can work on and keep that as your Trump cards, right? Use the equation of life um to carve out your own outcome. So the equation of life has something called as an event plus a response is equal to outcomes. OK? This equation, the only word that is under our control in this equation is response. So if you guys can really put the right attitude, the right action and the right efforts, your outcomes can work for you. It can work for you. Every adversity is not under your control, but the response to that is under your.
So keep this equation as one of your titbits to when you are faced with odds or adversity around you, be happy when people oppose you. It's a very, a very silent point but be very happy when people oppose you because that person has genuinely heard what you want to say and he would become your whistleblower basically. So the way to deal with this is when somebody is constantly opposing your idea, don't get into an emotional crux or be defensive. You need to learn why he may have a better idea or he may have a very practical, practical insight that you have not considered. I would always go for a one on one, take a cup of coffee. Find out that why I would not lose out on these people who oppose anything because they are huge inside drivers for me. So that is the second one. Third one is encourage feedbacks just be as open to ask, what do you think about it? Because these feedbacks will make your outcome more concrete, right? Um I journal a lot, this is the fourth one. So I journal, what do I journal a lot about? I journal a lot about my patterns. How I think every day I spend 20 minutes to lift myself off that pattern because if I have a very stuck pattern, my outcomes will be the same.
If I have to be a little different, I will talk about how I think why I do this, I introspect and lift myself away from the pattern for the next day. So I look at how I can be better than myself yesterday, you know, today. So I think it's important to understand your patterns and journal about it a bit so that you understand how not to be that but be a little better version of you. The next day, I think the last one is out of negotiation, be aware of what you think, what you do and what you say, it's your character that gets really crafted at the time of an adversity rather than when everything is going well and how you behave. That's not the real truth. People catch when exactly you're faced with odds, you're faced with an adversity. You're faced with a discomfort from your expectations. It's not going your way, what you speak, what you do, what you think carves your character and trust and integrity adds on to it. And that's what makes you a holistic uh you know, persona that comes in front of people. So don't dismiss emotions in a discussion. Art of negotiation is that's when you actually be aware of what you're speaking. Many people when they're doing negotiations get too attached and personal to their points. I think you should not do that.
You need to start lifting yourself away from it and look at the problem and the intent the person is talking on, right. So that's important. Now we move on to the next part about uh what are the problems and adversities and the lessons we learn out of it. So we cannot dismiss them, you know, so these problems are always gonna come because they are expected to come to you. Only those problems come to you because there's something about you, you need to change or you need to evolve. So you cannot dismiss them, you cannot avoid them, you can't ignore them. So what do you do? You need to come to the next segment which I'm gonna talk about is how do we come up with creative problem solving. These are some techniques and some thought provoking ideas. You should keep in mind when you're coming to this part. So the first thing is stop being a perfectionist. No problem has a perfect solution. First thing you cannot be perfectionist in problem solving. You need to, it's an iterative process, you need to get to it. You start at least you should start. That's what is important. Understand the problem holistically, a lot of us in it. We go into the spaces where we try to say, OK, I know the problem with whatever the customer is saying, but get into the fact of really understanding not only what is coming to you as words and content, but also interlock with the surrounding connected issues that is causing the main problem that gives you a holistic idea about the problem without that don't try to start solving many times we start solving and we realize seven other problems are actually causing this which is gonna be long.
So put your effort initially itself to find out more invest time on that. Uh The third point is be open to accept various perspectives. Um You need to be clear, you need to have contacts and uh you know, intelligence coming from various directions as well. You can't say this is the only way we can go and this is how it is and cut off the other inputs, you need to be open, um go with the mindset of problem solving the problem. Many times when we go on to a bridge call, we are almost in the point of telling that team didn't do this. This team didn't cooper. I think it's more about saying how can we solve the problem rather than amplifying the differences. You know, that's where you stand apart from all this, your thought process should shift a little, that's all. And we need to learn differentiating a critical problem from a simple problem. Many a time, we give too much energy to a simple problem. At least I I if you're running a team, you're a leader, you need to learn how to help your team identify what is a, a critical, tough problem and what is a simple problem. So they know how to evaluate it. And I think that is where a leadership comes in and your experience comes to play.
And if you start looking at it, saying is this really a problem or it is simple, we cannot, the simplicity increases with your experience and of course your exposure, but I think many people who get into those issues may not. So please start sharing and be thought leaders in that space, be open to support. Um And I think be ready to anticipate risks. And I personally believe I'm a huge fan of taking risks, calculated risks for sure And I think if people have not done something in a space and you get the opportunity to do that, just go for it because there's nobody who's gonna judge whether it's right or wrong, they'll only remember the person who came in and did something about it.
Right. So, don't as women as well, don't stop yourself from trying new things. Don't get too comfortable with what you're doing because that's not gonna help you grow in my career. I've shifted a lot of rules and I think I've always taken roles that I've not done before and I've vouched that I will, you know, surface it well. And I think that gives me a huge space of experience. I've done in many departments and I think we should not shy away from that. So I would like to end this talk by saying odds are fantastic, look forward for situations which are not on to your favor and change the game, changing the game is not losing it, changing, the game is giving a start to a new generation of possibilities. And I think like how a guy came up, I think we'll have many more people who could really spin that across for more generations to build on. So with this, I would like to thank you and open up for questions. I'm keen to see if there's anything that has come through. Thank you, ELISA. I would love to catch up with you and uh be in touch. I, I will surely send out and we'll let's catch up and do more stuff. I agree.
Thank you so much, Rahima Blanca Kara. Amazing. This, this really keeps me motivated. I hope you guys loved it because let's be honest. Yes, deeper. So what is the higher risks when we feel nervous? Ok. So I think the way I would like to tell you is that um I'll tell you a small story. I hope you like it. Um Have you uh there was my son came up asking a question, Mommy, why is, why is a lion in the jungle of, I mean the king of the jungle and why not other animals? They are all faster, taller, heavier and why only the lion? And I think my answer to that was the attitude the lion carries. If you've seen a lion, it goes for the kill, right? It's made up its mind for it. It has already won the war. There are people who strive to win and there are people who strive just to participate is enough. So there's a huge difference. You need to make up your mind mentally that you are there to win. It's OK if you didn't, but you gave your best and you will learn a lot out of it as well. And I think that has helped him a lot.
There's a lot of confidence that builds when you get into a mind of thinking like a king like a lion. There are two things. The attitude is very important. The second thing is if you start judging yourself, I'm not better or I may not do this, your confidence, you're killing your confidence already, your confidence starts reducing. And I think that's where we need to be very careful about not to judge ourselves. The very clear thing for me to climb up the ladder very clearly is your attitude to work at the time of adversity or problem solving or crisis that really puts you up there. And second, you need to build your eminence via networking as well as external and internal eminence. Exactly what I'm trying to do here. We need to network with various people to be honest with you. I would like to share that I was offered a role in Google and it didn't come through me head hunting, but I think it came through the eminence that was built networking that was built, the work that you're doing. You're going out with an attitude to say that I am here to give you something which I I'm unique to give up that, right? So each one of us are unique.
The real crux of life and humanity is, each of us are unique and you have something very special. Don't hide away from showing it because that is the authenticity every company today is looking for. You need to be very clear with what the market is expecting us to be up to speed with the industry. Knowledge is very critical you being relevant and being in the right forums as women tech and other kind of very privileged forums is so important. And I think moreover, you share, you share as a thought leader that's enough people will observe. People will learn, you'll inspire many more people. That's all that matters to you eventually and climbing up the ladder will automatically come. It's like, you know, when you know you're best at your work, all this money income, everything will follow. It just comes, you need to have the right attitude and confidence in. You don't break it down. That's my only piece of advice. Really. As a woman, I have faced a lot, I'm a single mom and I was lost. How do I can catch up with this career and how do I move forward? But I personally think it's your attitude to life that really tells who you are to the world. You have nothing to fear. That's all I'm trying to say. You are good. You want to go and do an Aws certification, just go for it. You don't need to be technical. Of course, there is a bit of work to do, but it's not rocket science.
You know, you can do it. If I can do it, you can do it. That's all I can say. I come from an arts background, but I'm talking it delivery and also trying to talk about Blockchain on other other talks. The thing is it's all in your mindset. The real lion attitude is to take control and kill, not, not kill the people in front of you or pull them down. The attitude is to kill the mindset that is blocking you from growing. You have to really capture that and go for the kill with that. It evolves you confidence will automatically come. Ok. So deep. I hope I answered you. Well, I think you're saying great answer. Inspiring. Wow, please do connect with me. I'll leave my linkedin. Please follow me. I do give a lot of talks. I do share a lot of ideas. I would love to meet each one of you guys and please stay connected, right? Any other questions? I'm happy to answer. Please keep this lion in mind. Ok. Go for the kill. Don't worry, you're making a mistake. Someone else will learn. It's just not you. You're leaving a legacy behind that people will at least say at least she did it right when Cloud came in, nobody knew what it was. Just go jump into it and learn it. There's nothing wrong, you know. OK. Minutes ago. How do you access time for change and change for? OK. So uh how do you know you are the right track when you? OK. Got it. So there is always, it's always important to remember. I told you the 20 minutes in a day.
This is, please as a woman and as everyone who's joined here and even men, I don't want to kind of neutralize it as an individual. Please. Please please give that 20 minutes of time of very clear introspection. Ok. Um You know that you've reached a level, you need to be very clear and aware of how many you need to have an idea as to what is your ladder looking like? Next four steps is what you have to watch for. You don't have to look at the next 10 steps because it changes next four steps. Next four level. If you're leaving, if you're today at a particular position in your company, you need to know what is the next four levels in four different areas for different departments, know the skills that you want to build and move there. So that is what you really need to spend time. You need to know a mind map that connects saying that today, I'm at this level at a band, say nine or 10 and the next band is band D. So I would get a mentor at a band D. That's what I do. I would get a technical mentor which will suit my area of industry and space. I would also get a mentor who would give me the guidance of growth. So I will not be the only one doing the homework.
I'm gonna take inputs from all these people and I'm gonna keep them with me because eventually they will pull you up looking at your work, right? So that 20 minutes of reflection of your pattern, plus, are you there or are you lost is very important. Usually I do it daily and I think weekly, once there's always a time that I sit back and give myself saying that OK, I need to do this, this, this next, it's a meticulous planning to an extent. Sometimes it may not work, but at least you gave the idea your thought, right? So this is how I work it out. I hope this answers. The change happens when I was in hr and I realized that hr is not gonna grow much, income may not be so much. I immediately switched into it delivery. It took me six months to keep up to knowing what exactly happens. Then I built on that and that's where I stood from there. I realized changing trends of the market, changing trends of the industry, changing needs of the, you know, hiring companies. I'm keeping a very wide angled watch around me. You need to read, you need to be aware, you need to be well connected with these kind of intelligent inputs coming, especially in lien, you'll find a lot of content coming in.
You need to read a lot about industries, their growth, the kind of financial movement that we're trying to do how countries are working. It's very important after an age. Please don't take it lightly. Don't think your manager is gonna guide you. You need to guide yourself and please have right mentors so they can give you the right inputs to move ahead. Don't think one mentor is enough. No, you need to have mentors at every expert level. So this is my guidance, ELISA. Uh uh I mean, how would you know it at the right track? Please do a self check that's important and then move towards the right direction, you know. So I felt a lot of things were against me in hr when I was there against me. No, I mean, they were not against me. It's just that I knew I can't grow. I literally shifted the game into it and I knew that is growing. Now, I shifted it back into cloud and I know it's growing, I'm gonna shift, I'm gonna slowly change the game. I'm not gonna want to prove myself that I want to prove to myself that I am. I'm moving into the right space and it's gonna be challenging for sure. But it's gonna be real fun because your capability, your awareness and your confidence just grows lot more times then you would have thought about you. So just keep evolving every day. That's my only ask. Uh Please don't pull yourself down by judging yourself.
Forget about the world, the world will. Anyways, judge you. Why should you do that to yourself? Right? Anyway, so this is what I had. But II, I just hope you guys have loved it. I know I've moved beyond my time and session. Please get in touch. I will just share my linkedin profile with you guys. Um Please keep in touch. I would love to continue to keep in touch with you and learn more from you. I, I mean each of you inspire me in many ways. So thank you. Anything else guys? Just reach out here. OK. Yeah, I'm doing it. I'm doing it. Uh Dimitra, I'm doing that right now. Just bear with me. I don't know for some reason linkedin is kind of not showing up much interest about me. Let me quickly pull it up. I'm trying to get that through. You can actually start looking for Hema Bindu H I Ma Bindu. You should find me. Thank you so much, Reda Ridham Sharma. Thank you so much. Please uh please do attend. I keep uh pushing up a couple of uh talk sessions. Uh There was a very nice session about uh single parenting uh for everybody. I personally feel that as companies have not taken much uh look into single parenting after COVID. A lot of fathers have become single parents. A lot of mothers have become single parents. I think it's a very necessary point and please talk to your companies to look at their policies. They look at insurances to be upgraded, look at jobs to be given to these parents. Look at some kind of you know, support security for them.
I think it's very essential or else you're gonna lose out a lot of very good talented masses today. We need to be a little sensitive. Whoever has heard this point from me today, please, please spread it across to your uh family and friends because I think it's important we raise the awareness. So I'm doing a lot of sessions on single parenting awareness. Please join the tribe and help us to reach more people.
OK. So I'm just giving you my linkedin profile right now. Please stay in, stay in touch. I'll be attending many more sessions, but I would love to really hear from each one of you. Uh Please personally also keep in touch. OK. So this is malignant profile. I'm picking it up. I'm sorry, I'm kind of taking some time. OK. Which industry are you planning to do it for? Um I think there are some um utility. OK. So there are some very um how do I say there are some forums? OK. I don't know if it's country wide, but there are forums which invites people and companies or ideas right to be shared across. And it's almost like a symposium. It's like uh we have all the CXO CTO S everybody coming in. I would suggest you to please uh enroll yourself. Please follow my linkedin profile that I'm trying to send. It's taking a while, but let me just type it up here um manually So there is this uh uh symposiums done by I TRIPLE E be a part of that network. OK. I Tripoli has too many. It's a, it's a network of engineers but there are like a groups who are like connecting. So many companies are coming together across various industries and they share their stuff, what they've created and what is that?
And I think that those are the areas, those are the areas you need to kind of uh you know, help yourself with one second. I'm just almost typing it out. Just bear with me. I don't know why this linked in on my com slash in slash no 10 2 slash 120. There you go. That's my linkedin profile. Please please connect with me there. Ok, so great. So um uh please do join us guys and keep in touch and uh you can follow my linkedin profile and you'll find a lot of those kind of links that I go and give my talks to. You should be on that. You should be connected with those kind of groups to present your industry at large. Communication. You have to net There's no other way. Uh My suggestion is uh start becoming a little more prominently checking out linkedin because linkedin is coming up with a lot of this et groups and all that stuff, they're coming up with a lot of campaigns. Uh Make sure that you bring your content onto that, right. That's the only way you can amplify. That's my, my knowledge, but I will keep you posted as soon as I get to get any ideas, just case stay connected with me.
Ok, guys, I think I've kind of, I have to rush, I have a town hall to attend a in my company after a long time. So I I need to go out. I have my delegates here. So thank you so much for this opportunity. I would love to see you all again next year. I'll come back with something more impactful. Hopefully. Thank you so much. Uh Kashish and Risha for moderating this and keeping me active and the audience active. Thank you. Bye.