The question looks more like a matter of preference, at least on the face of it. Some students might prefer a fixed, regular schedule week after week while others may prefer the flexibility of having expert help available as and when they need it.

However, when looked closely, the two options throw up and interesting interplay of student requirements, child psychology and the way kids learn. Sporadic help is mostly sought very close to an important assignment deadline, test or an exam. Those are stressful times and the sole focus is to get over the current “crisis”. That’s exactly the purpose, sporadic help solves - to work as a panacea, a band-aid to relieve the current pain. It does precious little to resolve the condition behind the pain - whether it is unclear fundamentals, lack of practice, lack of understanding of interlinkages of concepts, lack of application and the resulting loss of confidence.

Regular sessions, on the other hand, are more like getting regular exercise, eating well and having an overall healthy lifestyle. It builds real strength, stamina and good health, academically speaking. It’s mainly because a regular schedule drives a certain discipline, demands commitment, allows the teacher to develop an understanding of the student’s learning pattern and leaves the scope for him to take pro-active action.

Most of us need or have needed at least some help when encountered with complex new ideas. A school kid is no different. Help may be required to comprehend the idea from the reading material, to appreciate how different concepts converge in theory and application or just to sort out the clutter so many different ideas create in a child’s mind. Not being able to solve problems is essentially the symptom - the real disease lies elsewhere. Having one on one expert supervision helps decipher the symptoms, diagnose the problem correctly and remedy it.  

Of course, there are gifted students who need no help in understanding the concepts, though, at times, they may just get stuck at a difficult problem. Again, the symptom is the same while the “disease” is much different, much more innocuous. In such cases, sporadic help indeed has real value, though regular one on one sessions would still pack much more punch - simply because they will help the student move faster than he would do without any help.

Thus, though sporadic help has its value, one must appreciate that excessive use of band-aid at the cost of trying to find out the real problem will not sustain a healthy body. More so, if you are not a straight A’s student who has a natural affinity for the subject he studies and never needs any help apart from the textbooks.

Strong breeze whizzing past you looks ready to fly you away in its wake. The violent roar of the storm seems to stem from an anger buried deep in the elements since ages. Rain drops falling violently on your face seem to bring a pristine coldness straight from the heavens. It’s raining in Delhi.

It’s an exhilarating experience - the first rains of a summer, esp, the heartlessly hot north Indian summer. It’s the weather that thrills you to the bones and yet looks askance at you, “That’s how unbridled nature is. That’s how the elements unwind. That’s where the real pleasure of life is.”

Its the weather that makes you want to be a seven year old once again - a “rainy day” off at school, feeling the rain drops on your face, splashing water jumping in the puddles, running your hand through wet hair with rain drops dripping off the sides, dancing in the rain with the school bag on your back and coming home all drenched.

It’s the weather that makes poets out of us grown-ups, those who are too old to be seven year olds again.

And no point trying to describe the feeling. Go to your terrace or your apartment balcony, stretch out your arms, face slightly up and just soak in the moment (and the heavenly drops of joy !!!).

Pure bliss, like so many other things, is beyond description.

Oh yeah, the secret sauce, the silver bullet, the magic mantra. But actually, like most of the things that work in life, its no magic at all. Infact, reams (or, more recently, GBs) have been filled with gyan extolling the virtues of this magic pill. Every business professional swears by it, though that’s not always reflected in the way things get done. The idea is so simple, we miss it becuase of just that.

Let’s keep the fun going for a little longer, let’s keep the secret sauce, a secret for a little longer. First, let’s take a look at how we buy stuff.

I will be using the word “product” to mean both products and services. Of course, both can be as different as chalk and cheese depending upon the context, but for the purpose of this post, they essentially work similarly as vehicles of value delivery.

If it’s a repeat purchase, we draw upon our previous experience with the product. Typically, we buy from someone we’ve had a significantly positive experience before. The marketing razzmatazz by a competitor has limited value here, unless there is some significant additional value on the offer in which case, it becomes more akin to a new product purchase.

In case of a new product, something we’ve never experienced before, we try to draw upon the experiences of those we know and trust.

Thus, we tend to go more by positive experiences, whether our own or of the people we trust, rather than being completely taken in by carefully designed communication coming out of marketing departments.

In case of a new product or service, positive experiences of innovators and early adopters create the ripple effect which galvanizes the majority to adopt the new offering, and, a new product reaches its profitablity potential only when the majority adopts it.

The only case that’s left now is of such a new product which does not have enough users, a very new offering. There too, marketing campaigns focussed on creating awareness will create a critical mass of earliest adopters which would subsequently drive the adoption by the majority making the product innovation successful.

Thus, the strongest theme in the purchase process across the board is the positive experiences with the product, which, when shared with customers feeling the need generate the bulk of sales.

In other words, it’s an army of happy customers that’s your strongest marketing tool. Yeah, so much of ado for just this little thing.

Let me now trade my analytical hat with that of a hard nosed entrepreneur leading a start-up. You have to see the quickness, ease and cost effectiveness of a new sale driven by a happy customer’s referral to believe it. Nothing that you read or analyze will get you to really appreciate the magic that happens here.

However, what’s interesting is that so few of the businesses realy internalize this truism and pursue it as a strategic goal.

I am not talking about customer delight being a part of the vision and mission statements; not even about it being a part of an yearly employee training program. I am talking about customer delight being pursued as a strategic objective of the organization as a whole, infact, strategic objective number one. Marketing, Operations, Support, Management - everybody has a significant role in this.  

The other instruments of marketing should facilitate the positive experiences of a few being shared with many and in turn, many more.

That’s what your worldly wise billionaire uncle (if you had one !!!)  will tell you - make your customers happy. If you are in business, that’s the only way to be happy.

Was having a little post dinner chit chat on motivation and focus. The discussion moved on to why some people are able to sustain their motivation and focus while certain others, though fully determined at start lose momentum as they go along.

It is no-body’s case that the people who finally succeed are, by some chemical composition or circumstantial programming, predisposed to persevere with focus for long enough to achieve what they set as a target. The moot question is why do some people find it difficult to sustain the momentum while some people are able to keep at it.

Let’s take two identically talented persons A and B and let this sameness extend to all possible connotations of the word talent. Let’s also assume that both A and B set out to accomplish a certain goal, a significant one. Chances are, their achievement levels will be different depending upon their ability to persevere and continue with sustained motivation and focus. Infact, the achievement levels could be on the extreme ends of the spectrum - one a resounding success, the other, an utter failure.

Both A and B start with the same motivation levels. A, consciously or subconsciously, breaks down the task in small, workable steps; the goal in small sub-goals spread over time leading to the final target, revels in the little successes along the way and keeps on. B, on the other hand, keeps his eyes at the big, ultimate goal and gets down working. Things go on well for a while but somewhere down the road, B’s motivation level slips, he develops doubts whether this goal is achievable or even worthy enough. The result is confusion, divided attention, loss of focus and ultimate failure to reach the destination. No prizes for guessing as to who finally touches the finishing line.

I propose that a very interesting characteristic of “motivation” is at play here. Both start out with the same levels of motivation, however, motivation levels start falling after a while at a rate depending varyingly on the complexity of the goal, perceived difficulty of accomplishment, timelines involved etc. However, motivation feeds on success. Person A, knowingly or otherwise, keeps recharging his motivation level by acheiving small successes on the small subgoals he has strewn along the road. In this sense, motivation is more like a cell phone battery - the process of discharging starts as soon as you disconnect it from the charger. It is important to keep recharging it periodically. Person B not realizing that his batteries need a recharge, tries to run the full course in one go which, with goals sufficiently complex and difficult, becomes more and more a losing battle as time goes on.

This, of course, is very well reflected in the standard project management methodology of contemporary management thought. A business task needs to be broken into periodic milestones which continously need to be monitored. While it is important due to several other factors not necessarily limited to motivation levels of individuals in acheivement of a business goals, for individual and personal goals the idea of breaking a task in smaller sub-goals becomes extremely crucial from a motivation perspective. It’s important to remember here that sustaining the motivation may be the single most critical parameter determining the success or failure of an individual endeavor.

There of course, is a lot of depth in what the wise old men of yore said about eating an elephant - you eat it one piece at a time.

A quick update on the company front - with the new content development initiatives proceeding in full swing, its intense action time here in the office.

The sudden unannounced rains in Delhi have, in their own way, made lives a little easier for all of us. Cool breeze has subdued the dust and the showers, though brief, have brought the mercury down.

The IPL extravaganza has started leaving me confounded. In the initial phase of the tournament, I did try to follow as much as I could on the match updates and scores - but as the tournament is progressing, its becoming difficult to keep track of who all are bowling and who is hitting whom. It’s an interesting format and it will be interesting to note how it all performs as a business proposition. The value exists though it will be a tightrope for team owners, cricket establishment and corporates to balance revenue realization vs an overdose of fours and sixes.
Eh, looks like it’s time for a nice drive out in the rain.

So long, till the next update.