Who is Harsha Bhogle ?

I was getting ready to attend PMI National Conference 2016 which was conducted at Mumbai from 17th to 19th Nov’16. “Wow, day 3 – it ends with Harsha Bhogle’s speech”, exclaimed my dear hubby, “have u noticed him ? the cricket commentator , famous one, I keep watching right ?” , asked my enthusiastic man. “Uff, as if I had a chance to watch something else at home, other than your sports channels”, uff’d me, the typical Indian wife tone.

I left to the conference, it was day 3 – Slowly as the conference was getting over, especially towards the end ,  I was more curious about Harsha Bhogle’s speech, not just because he is a celebrity but also wondered in what way a sports related personality talk on Project Management ?

Don’t you get the same curiosity ? First point of declaration he made is that “I do not know anything about project management” ! Ah, doesn’t that increase the curiosity further about the rest of his speech ? I felt like a thriller movie. “But…”, he paused and just like others, I was also sitting at the edge of the chair, my ears peeping out to hear the full sentence. “I know about sports and few techniques of sports, which I would be sharing today and you can relate to your project management”.  He had 9 slides with 9 points which I am going to list down below , as crisp as possible –

1. Fitness is key importance for any sport. “Winning is practice related and not skill related”. Even in projects, all of us possess the skills and acquire the competencies, but how much do we practice them defines our winning parameter.
2. Increase your difficulty level – higher levels of competition demands higher level of execution. While you are on your debut match and first 5 batsmen are out with singles, would you feel, “oh no, this is going to be worst” or “wow, all my the years I have been waiting, this situation can be the best in my life to get the first impression” – how will you react in your project crisis situation ?
3. You can’t win if you don’t know how to pass on to your team player . If all 11 football players have to take the goal, there might be 11 goals but the team will not win. Are you passing to your team in your project for success ?
4. Setting up a goal is as important as scoring a goal ! Are you clear about the individual goals and the project goals ?
5. Are you ready to underplay for the success of your team ? He quoted a brilliant example of Yuvraj’s excellent game, where he was the 6th batsman, all he needed to do is take singles and managed NOT OUT. But, Yuvraj’s fans demand a century from him and he would love that. Trying for a century might not be safe for Indian team to win the match. – “Now, in your project, would you do a century or manage singles ? “
6. Diversity is best for any team performance. He spoke about how Australian’s attitude post every match. They do not react much to winning or losing the match and start preparing for next match. Having one Australian in your IPL team changes the way you get ready for next match. “Are you having enough diversity to learn from your team? “
7. How good a team player are you ? 
   1. Playing for no reward
   2. The role of non striker
   3. Unpopular roles
   4. Sacrificing for the team
8. Understand people better to understand your project better , The trust factor between the project manager and the team. He mentioned about Saurav Ganguly’s captainship, where even if few players disagree sometimes, the team will be committed to his decision. “Will your team be committed to your decision?”
9. Is this your first 33rd match or are you playing your 33rd first match ? If you do not upgrade your skills and enhance competencies and you perform exactly the same way you performed day 1, then you are playing your 33rd first match . “Ah, isn’t this quote brilliant ? “

He kept talking about his boss (wife) who made the slides and could see the chemistry between them & how she is a pillar of support for him. I missed my husband there, I wanted to enjoy the treat of watching this great speaker, orator, commentator – wah ! brilliant personality .. along with my husband. I just texted him “He is awesome”, and the same minute while I was texting him, he texted me  “he is an awesome speaker” 🙂 We smiled…

I clapped loud, louder and with pride and salutes to this great orator. Being an extrovert, a Radio Jockey, dancer, anchor – I also learnt three things w.r.t presentation skills –

1. When a topic is given to you , take your own topic of expertise and embed the required topic within. You can do magics !
2. The lesser contents in your presentation, the more people will be interested in listening to you.
3. Sense of humour should be used like salt in food. Without this, your food is not tasty. If you over use, it will spoil the meal.

After the event, I have now started watching all his amazing speeches and interviews in youtube 🙂  Now watching :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QpzGM4Evd4