The Door Stopper

You've must have heard that great technical communication could open doors for you right? Well, there's more. Many years ago, so the story goes, one of VPs responsible for documentation went to visit a client to see how they were using the thick printed manuals supplied with product. Surprise, surprise. You've probably guessed how they were using it by now. If you haven't, you missed the title! Yup. They were actually using the manual as a door stopper!

That's the 'strength' of documentation skills.They not only open doors when opportunity comes calling, but they keep them doors - open!

About 25 folks responded to Guru's call to a User Assistance workshop held on the 25th at the Oracle Office, Lexington Towers. The two part session was very well received. Other than the regular crowd of tech writers, there were UI designers and a content writer as well.

Here's what you missed. Or should I say, here's what you could have learned.

• Why is there a decline in the number of installation guides being created?
• What does the UA team in Oracle do? How have they created a niche for themselves? 
• What does the UA team in Oracle do that other technical writers don't do? Why is what they do becoming a norm?
• Why is the conversational style of writing being adopted in technical writing?
• Does this mean it's the end of style guides? Tip: Don't do cart wheels yet.
• Why is API documentation becoming the must have skill?
• Why are more and more organizations making their API available to users? 
• What are the hourly rates of a writer who can create API documentation vis-a-vis with one who doesn't?
• Why is REST API particularly popular? How easy is it to learn?
• What is an orchestrated deployment?
• What are the challenges when it comes to enterprise installations?
• What is a best practice when it comes to documenting enterprise deployments?
• Is it a good idea to make installation easier for end users?
• What are Chef and Puppet? Hint: Not a cartoon.
• Why were there no Devops team a few years ago?
• What language is slowly replacing XML? Why?
• What are some of the ways by which documentation team are addressing user assistance needs without creating traditional documentation?
• What are developers doing with markdown editors? Is that a threat or is that a strength to the technical writer?
• Did you know that in just a few years, the average Indian tech writer will lose the cost arbitrage that they have always had over their western counterparts?
• What is 'first item' help?
• Why is Confluence being used by many organizations as a knowledge base?
• What is embedded user assistance? How does it differ from contextual help?
• When would you use a getting started panel? When would you use a reveal all help bubble? When would you use overlays?
• Why is it important to look for the right problem to solve when it comes to selecting one of the above methods?
• Are animated GIFs catching on in documentation?
• When would you use interactive infographics?
• What is continuous delivery?
• What do hypermedia tools do? Which tools are being used in Oracle?
• What is the big idea behind docs.oracle.com?
• How do you document single screen UI?
• What does 'start with the end in mind', mean?
• What are some of the things that writers need, to remain competitive in such fast changing environments? What should managers do?

No, it is not going to be a total loss. Here are two of the videos shared. There were more.

The Audi A3 does not have a printed manual. See what Audi uses to help users understand the product.

So the heavy printed manual may not be the door stopper anymore. Especially since not as many are being produced now.
The session is a wake up call. Wake up, while you can still do something! Don't end up as a door stopper. Only this time, on the outside.

If a Tree Fell in the Forest...

The first encounter with Parth, was at the 14th STC Conference.  So when I received an email from him about the meetup, I had to see what I've been missing all these years. Well, since then, he's only gotten better!

The topic was Content Marketing. The audience was varied, but everyone seemed to have 'startup' on their minds, in some form or the other. The venue was the ZapStitch office in Koramangala. ZapStitch is a cloud application integrator. They do some integration magic with Zoho, SFDC, Marketo, Shopify, Xero, etc and act like a connection between some of these giants. Kapil and team were awesome. Great follow up. Even greater hosts!

And then there was also the Jifflenow crowd as well. Jifflenow is an organization that facilitates event management and scheduling. With clients like Linkedin, Ariba, Accenture, Adobe, Dell, Cisco, etc, you'd have to think that their offering is unique, and has a lot of value to add.

Coming from a documentation background, I've always been left nursing the creative side of content. Not that there's no room for creativity. Let's just say that it's not appreciated as much. You could relate the marketing content to the outbound process of a call center while the technical content is like the inbound process. While the intended audience is different, I must say that we techncial writers have it relatively easy. We aren't convincing anyone to buy anything. They (the audience) come to us when they need information. We seldom go to them. We want our users to read the stuff we write and then get off the band wagon. Problem solved. It's not like that in Content Marketing. It's like this.

Remember the saying "If a tree fell in the forest and no one heard about it, does it make a sound?" Well, for content marketing, that tree is the product! You have a very innovative solution to an everyday problem that no one is even aware about. They just live with it. Your job is to show the user the problem first, then help them appreciate and want the solution. And finally - buy!

However, we have one problem that we share with content marketers. People don't like to read. At least not what either of us write. And that's where Parth unsheathed his weapons.

Don't create any content that does not satisfy at least one of these objectives. The content should

• Entertain
• Educate
• Solve a problem 
• Make a job easier. 

I wish the same objectives are followed by some people every time they open their mouths to talk! We'd have a lot more peace and quiet. And less mad people. Especially at 9 P.M, during a certain Newshour.

Drawing parallels to the tech writing industry might be difficult, at least for the first objective. Unless of course you want to have a really entertaining (and probably the last) discussion with your boss! But I'd say all or most documentation would address at least one or all of the other 3 points.

Some other interesting bits and tips from my notes

• The most important thought a content marketer must have, always - Be the Buyer. Sounds familiar?
• Before embarking on the content marketing journey, ensure that a well documented content strategy is in place
• Don't depend too much on SEO. SEO makes sense only if your product is one that people will search for. They won't search for something they don't know about. So if a tree falls in a forest, SEO can't really help!
• Identify marketing channels you'd want to use 
• Identify who your competition is and the strategy they are using
• Determine how frequently you want to publish new content.
• Your content shouldn't be an overload to your audience. At the same time, your writer should also not run out of ideas
• Jifflenow publishes an article every week. 
• Your audience always has an attention deficit, and as a result articles/blogs are now just 250 words long
• Your article does not always have to explicitly end with a pitch. Your job is done if you can create enough curiosity.
• The tone used in your articles also matters. Are your articles about solving a problem, or does it have a 'Man Friday' attitude to it, or does it have a cocky feel (like some of the posts on this blog!)
• Writers must know their space, know what works when it comes to content and be passionate about the cause they are selling. Take the simple task of cycling. The writer really needs to understand just a couple of things. I had a few ah-ha moments, explained in another blog I wrote - The Art of Balance while teaching my little one to ride a bycycle. (I posted the same content on the TeamBHP site and it got over 1200 views in a week.) The point I was trying to make is that the writer needs have those ah-ha moments. Only then can they really explain/market it to their customers. And this applies to both technical writers and content marketers.
• It doesn't have to always be about your brand. The article could simply be a solution to a problem that your customers face. Jifflenow had recently run a campaign to appreciate the event marketer, their target audience. There was no sales pitch. The campaign made event marketers proud of who they were and highlighted the challenges they faced as a group. The audience were able to connect with the article. Even with the last slide that said - presented by Jifflenow!
• Learn to critique yourself in your writing. Even laughing at yourself doesn't hurt if you can prove a point.
• Content can make things happen. Believe.
• Think about how you will distribute content. People need to know about that tree that fell in the forest!
• Determine what channel. Will you use traditional marketing channels? How will you use social media? Or will it be a white paper? Or it's just an email or a newsletter that will do the trick for you.
• And the biggest revelation by both Jifflenow and ZapStitch (sorry Zukerberg/Page!) - paid ads on social media are hopeless. It's a good way to become a millionaire. But you'll have to start out as a billionaire!
• It's imperative that you build a community for your content/product
• You can't expect to see your content go viral without a community
• What goes around, comes around. Remember to share other people's blogs. Not competitors!
• Remember to rope in influencers who can help you get to that tipping point - a little faster.
• The other thing to do (not said here) is to find the watering holes that decision makers frequent/visit. It could just be a group on Linkedin, or a blog that is followed by your connectors. If you can make a pitch very tactfully, (right time/place/people), your bait will work. Sometime back, I reviewed a very innovative interactive tool called whatfix and I know at least 4 companies who bought the solution after reviewing the post. I simply made people aware about the tree that fell. It's doesn't always have to be a WIIFM question. The answer to the HCIH (How can I help) question is also immensely satisfying.
• Measure meaningful metrics. Every Jifflenow employee has numbers that they are held responsible for. Including the designer. How many people scroll through a page, how much time do they spend on a blog, do they check out earlier posts, all these can be metrics.
• Remember to reuse content by cross linking, etc. Ensures that you continue to get royalty on the value of all your earlier content
• Your audience is at different levels of an inverted funnel and you need to learn how to write to engage them at their respective level.
• Content marketers are expected to help an organization define the value proposition of the product, help simplify the solution/product for its users and add meaning.
• There was some more funnel talk at the end : )

Feel free to comment below. I wasn't paying attention the whole time ;)
If you got to this point, I believe all objectives above were met. Don't ya?

And the next time a tree falls in the forest, your customers must have this reaction.

Credits- The pictures are courtesy:

• http://www.quickmeme.com.  
• https://www.sefa.com/socialkitchen/2013/04/11/finding-followers-using-hashtags/

The Art of Balance

Or is it a science? I'll leave it to you to decide.

Of the hundreds and thousands of things that you learn in the course of your life, how many do you still remember after a certain point of time? Here’s something that you'll never forget. Even if you've never done it for many years. And it takes less than a week to learn. Maximum. Many eons ago, I learned it myself. And there was not a soul to teach me.

Last week, I helped my daughter learn and in the process, I realized that there are some simple techniques to understand the art of balance. Quickly.

Now, you could learn how to cycle without knowing any of this, just by sheer practice. Brute practice. But keep a few of the pointers discussed below, and I promise you a journey that is shorter and less painful. Besides, knowledge is BHP (power). And if you are into documentation, you’ll know that the ‘How to cycle’ question is often asked in many technical writer test papers. And it’s usually written to an alien audience. So all you hiring managers out there, here’s an answer that you could use not just to evaluate the candidate's writing skills, but also find out if that alien flew back, or did it use the cycle track back :)

What you’ll need first - The right sized bicycle. Duh! Don’t complicate things by trying to learn on the first available bicycle. You need one that is the right size – for you. There are several parameters that you need to evaluate before selecting a bicycle. And Google is your best friend to find more. But to learn, here’s one that is very important. Once you’ve managed to settle your butt on the seat, your toes should just touch the floor. Your feet were intended to be on the pedal, not on the floor, and that’s where they’ll be most of the time. 

Note to Aliens: Just two feet and two hands are needed. You'd also need a butt that can be placed on a seat, but that I'm sure we can work something out! You could also do it with one arm and leg. But you'll have to be a champ like this guy. 

Simple Rules to Understand

• At first ignore the pedals: Don’t try to pedal as soon as you get on the bicycle. You learn cycling in stages, one step at a time. Learn the part that you need to do with your hands first, and then move to the legs. Of course, you can disregard this rule if you are this guy, and simply do both!
  
  
  
  Your first aim is to be able to learn how to stay upright, while moving, on two thin wheels.
  Did you know that they actually have bicycles without pedals designed just to help kids learn this part?
  
  
• Don’t ignore the brakes: Keep your hands on the handle bar with your fingers in contact with both brake levers at all times. You might be prepared to fall. But the people in your surroundings aren’t prepared to get struck!
  Remembering to apply both brakes simultaneously, always, will minimize a few embarrassments.
• Keep your head up: Don’t look at the floor/pedal/feet. Look up, that's where the action usually is.
• Balance is in your hands: Yes! Not in that big thing you place on the seat! And the most important thing - Remember to swivel the handle gently in both directions, as you move, continuously, till  it becomes second nature to you. No one will tell you to do this. And this is how you will learn to master this art quickly. If you've observed a cyclist, you'll notice how often he/she twists the handle to steady themselves. By twisting the handle you are consciously doing something that will not just correct your course, but also keeps you upright. Watch this interesting experiment to understand balance.
  
  

Time to start. Divide your learning into the two parts.

Downhill

1. Find a road that is slightly inclined (and preferably deserted), sit on the bicycle, place your hands on the handle, keep your head up and look in front. 
2. Sit on the seat with both legs on the floor. Once you are ready to move, give yourself a gentle push with your foot to allow the bicycle to begin to roll downhill. Keep twisting the handle to the left and right, in small, gentle movements, continuously, while gravity moves you forward. As the bicycle gathers momentum and starts moving faster, and you begin to feel uncomfortable, remember to clasp the brakes! 
3. As you move forward, all the while, use your legs to prop the bicycle up, on either side. Use your feet like oars. If you are falling to the right, put your right leg down and vice versa on the other side. You’ll notice that the bicycle will ‘sail’ forward in a smooth zig-zag manner and you will also be bobbing from side to side as you place alternate feet on the ground to steady yourself. Don’t worry about who’s watching;) And it’s also alright to fall a few times. Your objective is to get the farthest distance without touching your feet on the ground.
   Remember, we are still not touching the pedals.

Uphill

1. On the return journey (uphill), you’ll need someone’s help. While your friend/dad/whoever, is holding the bicycle upright, rotate one of the pedals up to the 10 O’clock position with your preferred foot. Keep the other foot on the ground. 
2. Now, while the bicycle is held upright, apply pressure on the foot that’s placed on the pedal. As the cycle begins to move forward, quickly bring your other foot up to the other pedal and start pedaling. 
3. All the while, as you pedal, don’t forget to continue to move the handle to the right and left. If you feel you are going to fall in one direction, turn the handle a little more in the same direction and then quickly try to straighten yourself again. You'll get this right after a few falls:)
4. Whoever is supporting you will need to hold the bicycle upright continuously, at least initially. But as you progress, ask him/her to let go for short durations.

Do the down-the-road / up-the-road routine  for 30 to 45 minutes every day. I can assure you that by the 5^rd or 6^th day, the person who was supposed to hold the bicycle upright for you will be huffing and puffing (and losing a lot of weight) behind you!

You can use these tips to teach your wife (ok, let me not be sexist here) or your husband to ride a scooter. My wife didn’t know how to cycle. But I’m mighty impressed with her that despite not knowing how to cycle, she learned how to ride a scooter. You can read about our adventures here - Teaching the Wife to Ride a Scooter.

And 'adventures', is putting it mildly!

The Road Less Travelled

How many of your schoolmates are you still in touch with? Me? About 100! Thanks to an idea and of course - whatsapp. After more than two decades of last seeing each other, meeting several friends, all at once, is quite a delightful experience. But what really takes the cake is how we rallied around to create an opportunity to honor two of our retiring teachers. The teachers were more than just touched!

Mr Shivprakash was our PT teacher. If there was anything that every kid at St Josephs knew, it was what a fiddle looked like. You just had to meet our PT master! Fit as a fiddle. He was very agile, could run circles around you dribbling any thing that was remotely round. He could bowl, catch, bat, and basically play any sport, like he invented the damn game. He approached physical education like it should be - a life science. Many a time, those who were good at sports would lose focus on academics. I remember how he used to coach them and explain the importance of both. We used to watch him wide eyed, from the sidelines, as he explained various on-field strategies, tactics and mind games to brats who made it to the school hockey/cricket/football teams. Ever smiling and approachable, he was the gentleman's gentleman. To most boys, he was more like a friend. He broke every mold that one would typically associate with a PT master. No wonder his tenure at St Josephs Boys High School, saw greats like Rahul Dravid, Robin Uthappa, Anil Aldrin, Sandeep Somaiah and several others who went on to make a name for themselves, and in turn the school. There are several well written articles recently from old students, even one in the newspaper that described how much he was adored - across generations. He was an inspiration, even to those who were not that inclined towards sports. I doubt I can say anything more, even though I want to. I'm wondering if there is such a thing as overkill. Which brings us to the road less traveled.

Mr Uday Kumar, was our Kannada teacher. Kannada was not an easy subject to learn. Nor was it an easy one to teach. When we heard that both Mr Uday and Mr Shivprakash were retiring, we decided to meet up and honor them. The batch of 92 decided to do something, Hayward style - (Large!) It was an end of an era, one that we thoroughly enjoyed. Like many of our teachers, both these gentlemen have inspired many generations of Josephites and continue to inspire more. Both teachers wrote to us after we met, almost chocking for words to express themselves.
Here's one of the letters. And a response to it below.

Thank You!

My Dear Josephite Friends,
Hearty greetings to you all! 
As I pen few of my thoughts, I find it hard to express all the love that I felt and am still feeling the day you all took time to honor me.  Emotions keep flooding my heart and mind; but I am unable to find words to express.  How much of thought, love, gratitude and planning had gone into that memorable celebration.  I never realized that that day would become one of my memorable day in my life.  I still ask a question ‘why me?’.  I was only known for my rugged behavior and that’s it.  I was and am not a great teacher who actually has an impact on the student. I stand nowhere compared to the greats like Dr.Chatterjee, Mr. Andrade, Mrs. Sheshadri, Mr. Noronha, Mr. Shivaprakash, etc. Yet you have honored me.  Thank you sooo much. 
I wanted to say so many things that day, but somehow I could not. I am not a great orator. I am an ordinary kannada teacher.  So I thought of writing something like, what I feel about the school, students, etc.
I joined St. Josephs when those great stalwarts were teaching. I could not even speak proper English. You must have realized that in the class??!!  I give all the credit to my elders who just worked.  They didn’t tell us what to do, how to do, etc. I developed a desire to become like them.  I know I cannot reach their standard. 
I had joined the school with a BSc degree certificate and I knew short hand and typing.  School gave challenges and I took them. Got my MA, PGDELT degrees.. I also got an opportunity to work elsewhere as principal.  But somehow the Josephite spirit was so powerful and strong that I could not even think of working anywhere.  I have cried literally thinking of leaving my school.  I could not think of leaving my school.  If I have to work in any other school, it will be ONLY after my retirement.  The school has blessed me with many things – means of livelihood, quarters to stay, opportunities to do higher education, and ABOVE ALL, students like YOU!!!!!

My association with the student community during your period was bit on the rough scale.  I think I was only interested in the subject proficiency.  So going in that direction, I have growled, howled and hurled bad words.  I have even given corporal punishment.  I have felt very bad for having done those things.  So I ask you humbly to forgive me.  You were always supportive of me.  Your love, affection, care and understanding has gone beyond my imagination.  Love you guys. 
May God shower His choicest blessings on you and your families.  May God keep you in the palm of His hand and protect you. You are in my prayers. 
Thanks again.
Affectionately yours,
UK sir
PS: Please pardon for all the English mistakes…

And the Response

Dear UK sir,

Someone had to respond to your emotional thank you letter. And maybe set a few memories  straight.

Yes we had to make several sacrifices to make things happen. Some of us had to skip a meal, others had to make do with dry square chapatis (square meal) and yet others had to put off buying that second Rolls Royce so that we could save enough to thank you. We did check if EMIs (in love) were possible, but the organizers would hear nothing of it.

I'm hoping here that you still have that excellent sense of humor!

 

You were not just an 'ordinary' Kannada teacher. You may not remember, but you taught us more than Kannada. Of course you were rugged and really strict. A terror actually. A shout that said.. shhhh... UK is coming... would result in exactly that - a shhhhh in the class, and sometimes a shhhh in the pants! And those who had the pleasure of having you teach, UK, in our acronym list stood for your name, much before we could associate it with the United Kingdom or the University of Kentucky.

I still remember you teaching the 'Kadukona' lesson. And every time I see a tree with a branch pointing to the ground, I wonder if there's buried treasure underneath. When I can bear the stink of the toilets and do travel by train, I watch out for those trying to lose a bet on what the next station is going to be. Especially if the prize for winning the bet is hanging around their neck. I'll always remember how you sat on the first desk with your feet on the bench, much closer than most other teachers would get to so much of (freshly releasing) testosterone!

And speaking of testosterone, some of your lucky batches probably also remember that their first sex education classes - were in Kannada. :)

So please don't say that you were an ordinary Kannada teacher. That's not how we remember you. There were important life lessons that we learned, just observing you. You taught us how to treat the opposite sex. Remember how a particular lady teacher was teased to a point of tears? The boys had to deal with you after that. You taught us to stand up for what you knew is right. And to defend (till a ruler broke) those who could not defend themselves. For those who didn't learn anything else, one can still learn a great lesson in humility. Not everyone is great. But greatness is also a point of view. As far as I can remember, you had our best interests in mind and did your job as best as you could possibly do. True, there was only one David Chatterjee, and one Shivprakash, and one Father Dennis. But you can be sure that there was also only one UK. And most of us, I'm sure, wouldn't have it any other way!

Personally, I wasn't that good with languages. But in spite of that, I'm happy that I'm literate in Kannada and can proudly call myself a "Mannina maga" : ) To put this feat in perspective, I can't read or write my mother tongue - Malayalam. Not that I've not tried, but let's just say that some of us are linguistically challenged (Along with all the other subjects! Ha!). When such is the situation, I'm extremely happy that when push comes to shove, I can read and understand Kannada. And when I can't read poorly handwritten script, I did have a Plan B. I made sure that my better half knew exactly which half she had to be good at. It was even specified in her JD:)

And oh, there's more. You'd be delighted to know that I conceptualized and organized Kannada classes to the colleagues in my company. The videos are on Youtube and they've received over 100,000 views so far! I have to thank my Kannadiga colleagues for the actual delivery of the content. It would not been possible without their help. (But your villain does make a brief appearance at 13:13 in the first video). It was hugely appreciated effort, and I'd be lying if I said all the inspiration was intrinsic. Sir, you must have done something right!

Please don't apologize for anything you did - corporal punishment included. We wouldn't be what we are today, if it was not for those pinches, punches and slaps. And compared to Mr David Chatterjee's kick, let me assure you, you were nowhere near our pain threshold! In fact now a days, one can't get a tight slap, even with all those high school fees! We were indeed a privileged lot, to have got some sense slapped into us!

The cubs you raised several years ago, have turned into different kind of wild animals. (You must have experienced this when you met some of us!) Thank you for all the love and prayers. Some of us have even lived again, because of this. But you can be sure of one thing. All of us have our hearts in the right place. And we are grateful. Many of us had to become dads to understand that children learn many things from you, even stuff that you aren't teaching. All we did was to take a moment to step back and say thank you in our little way.

And we forgive you for all the English errors. We had to take special permission from Mrs Seshadari. We'll have to deduct 10 marks from your overall score, but the good news is that you still scored a 100 :)

Batch of 1992.

Nautanki - Management Practicals

It's more than a year since our encounter with Ravan. The encounter left some of us shaken, some of us inspired but all of us had something to take away. All managers in the organization (without any exceptions) were nominated to a 2 day leadership training program. Most of us expected to listen to some gyan and maybe catch some shut-eye in the process! There was an expectation setting session with the faculty a few days before the event. There was no agenda. There was this suspense that only heightened each time we tried to probe the faculty for more information. Anu was a tough nut to crack. Make that impossible. Some people thought she was really nuts. She had .. ahem ... some unconventional methods. And 'unconventional' is putting it mildly. There were some folks whose sensitivities were hurt so badly that they even shot a few emails to the leadership team after what they thought was an insult! Being from a theater background of the Ranga Shankara fame, some of us expected some dramatics. And did she indulge us! Those who were not offended, well, let's just say - have a higher humor quotient ;)

A lesson in punctuality
On day one, Anu and most of us were on time. But she refused to start the program till everyone was accounted for. There was one person who was really late. She didn't start till he came in. We sat there for a good two hours, doing nothing. And you can imagine how embarrassed the latecomer was. It's unlikely that he will ever be late for another event in his life! A little extreme, but damn effective.

The Ice Breaker
We got around in a circle and were given some time to think of an adjective that we'd have to say along with our name while introducing ourselves. The adjective had to start with the same letter as our name and it had to be acted out. So when I said Naughty Nibu, I had to do so with a naughty expression. The next person had to remember and act out the previous person's name and adjective before introducing himself/herself. It was a challenge to remember all the adjectives and actions, leave alone the names, after a while. This was real fun. Especially since some people chose to introduce themselves with adjectives like 'adamant' and even fell to the ground kicking their hands and legs to act the word! Made life really difficult for those who had to do the introductions later.

The Plot
Once the team had assembled, she breaks the news. We were to be split into smaller teams. The teams were split based on the inputs we provided in the trailer session about our skills and interests. One team would be the actors, another would be the HR team, then a marketing and sales team, a script writing team, a stage management team, a finance team and a facilities team. The task was to come out with a skit and manage the whole event like professionals. Each team had to come up with its goals and road-map to achieve those goals. Work was clearly cut out for each team with little to no help from the faculty. We were given a budget to work with, had to actually sell tickets and also come up with a profit. Some of us were shocked! "Are you sure it is real money?" someone asked!
How could we? Most of us who had no experience whatsoever in this area, except for the drama during appraisals. We didn't even have experience as an audience! And they are expecting us to put on a performance worthy enough to sell tickets. But nevertheless, we decided to roll up our sleeves and take things one step at a time.

The Twist
We had a day and a half for the project. Almost half a day almost was spent waiting for the latecomer, remember? The script writers got down to writing the script. There were some strange ideas that were thrown across. It had to be mythology. And of course it had to have a twist. One of the twists was to have the Ram character run off with Ravan. But that was dumped since it would surely hurt sentiments. Besides, there was article 370 to worry about!
Finally, it was decided. Sita would run off with the tech support guy. Yeah there was one.

Full House and More
Imagine marketing and selling something you aren't confident about. You don't know what the end product will turn out to be! No one knows. But you still need to convince the customer (your colleagues who will see you again and again much after the show!) of what an awesome show it would be. We would than have to close our eyes, bow our heads, and pray! But this is probably one of the biggest lessons we learned. To simply do your part as best as you can. Assume everyone else is thinking along the same lines. If everyone ensures that it's nothing but the best, the overall effort would have to be great. The show was sold out in a short span of time. In fact, there was so much of interest that we had to create a new category of tickets for those willing to stand throughout the show. We sold those tickets till the last minute before the show. And as if this was not enough, we had to negotiate with the local politician (our real HR) who was insisting on free seats (planned earlier to check our negotiation skills)! Enough hype was created to get our colleagues curious about what their managers were up to. Pictures like this one worked!

All the rehearsals happened adjacent to the cafeteria. There was lots of music and noise and makeup. Posters were created. And teasers were sent out. Like this one about Good news and Bad news. 

We have some Good news and some Bad news.

The Good News: Since a picture speaks more than a thousand words, here’s a picture of what you could be part of :)

 

The Bad News: Rs 40 tickets and half of Rs 20 tickets are all sold out, even before we could get the poster ready! So hurry and grab the last few tickets!

We even went floor to floor to 'drum' up support. And yeah we really used a drum! 

Revelations
A professional light crew was called in to set up the stage. We were working on a budget. Costumes were hired and everyone worked like there was no tomorrow. In fact there wasn't a tomorrow! Anyone who saw the first rehearsal would have probably asked for their money back! But after each rehearsal, it started to fall in place. The actors also started to improvise on the script. Amir Khan would have been proud of the final show. The final show was a roaring success.

Complete with the right numbers belted out, dances, even things that were not meant to be funny, tickled the crowd! The whistles might have made a few people deaf. And it did end with shouts of "Once more!", "Once more"!

And of course we made a profit. Not just in monetary terms, but also in practical knowledge that some people call wisdom.

Curtains
Such an event is highly recommended for any organization that is trying to get it's managers to work together. That's probably all organizations, huh? The biggest challenge would probably be in freeing them all up at the same time. But you won't get a better opportunity to see how well your wing men (and women) can manage the show in their  absence. Though we are a relatively small company, not everyone knew each other well. This was a great opportunity to get to back-slapping terms. The whole thing was like being shoved into a pool to learn how to swim. Anyone who didn't know how to swim would not only learn to swim, but also learn how to search and rescue!