Are you the detail oriented or the BIG PICTURE guy?

Detail-oriented is a great term to describe a professional, in fact I see many a recommendation on Linked In laced with this adjective, many a resume boasting of this quality and many a people who value this virtue...

But I got thinking - what is being detail-oriented - is it that you have all your 'i's dotted and 't's crossed, you have all your risks predicted, you have all your preps ready and you have accounted and taken care of every single detail to the smallest T, what then? So whats the opposite of being detail oriented -  someone who takes things as it comes, someone who's "on the spur" guy, never predicts, never does his homework, never is prepared..... Having said that - I realized that not all your jobs require you to be a detail oriented person... Yes, there are some roles, some jobs where details to the end is everything - for some where the purpose is certainly the BIGGER aspect.

It is insulting and disrespectful to work with someone who feels there's no need to come prepared for a meeting, who doesnt believe in setting the context, whose paperwork is full of mistakes and whose attitude is 'care a damn'. Yes, you need some level of orientation in whatever you do, but does it have to be detailed enough where you lose sight of the end picture, are too stiff to deviate and change course, are too stuck to be creative and innovate and too rigid to unlearn??

I got thinking that detail orientation is certainly not the best of virtues if you are at the top - where you need to be continuously evolving, adapting and unlearning...Most creative, fun guys I know are careless and happy go lucky - you could even get disgusted with their lackadaisical approaches...but that's only till they flash their sparks of geniuses, when all along you've been thnking they havent even been listening. But these guys are tough to work with, they dont fall in line, ask too many apolitical, uncomfortable questions and get killed by routine - not a typical detail oriented guy. They wouldnt care who's sitting in a meeting, maybe not even wat's on the agenda, but then you can hook this guy  and even get him to participate if you can make even one sensible, non-cliched and honest statement.You see, the details the BIG PICTURE guy orients to is different and invisible.

Its been my good fortune to work with some guys who have been detail oriented but never lost sight of the BIG PICTURE, never got caught in quagmires of details.

So what am I? I'd like to work on the details as much as I can.., but being oriented is more important to me!

The Blue Billion rises and drowns the game

First let me start with the disclaimer: I love cricket...but just the game..There were times when I have cried for India and cheered and danced for Her (Her?? Its a men's game silly)...But yeah betting makes a mockery of people's sensibilities and passion. So for me, I love cheering the game but not every other day, considering the countless cricket tournaments that are happening like clockwork round the year.


Just when I thought I lost it for cricket, comes the World Cup to say "How silly" you can never lose it for the WC matches...N cricketing being what it is, is today getting more round tables, more vamps, more moolah and more 'burning questions' (I laugh out silly when I see those captions about cricket on prime-time news channels) than ever. N not to forget, whole channels thrive on the livelihood called Indian cricket...

But what has happened to the game? Well personally from my very limited knowledge and finite love for the game, I feel Indian cricketing is at its bets oops best (that seriously was a typo but when I read it back, I smiled and let it be) today since Paaji's days. We have a team that has a great body language, a captain who's damn comfortable in his skin and can bring the team together whether he performs or not (trust me guys it takes a lot more maturity and world class attitude to be captain and to call the shots, even when your not leading from the front), a coach that everyone seems to be okay with and above all an aggressiveness we never ever had, to play on an international playing field. Today its not fashionable to call the Indian team, the underdogs or Davids.., we dont exude that persona anymore... I will not go into the technicals of strong or not strong batting line up, or poor fielding...I leave it to the round-tables and the vamps... But think about the mind that is Indian cricket..., it is at its strongest and best...That people, is a long way we have come since our last dismal WC performance...sort of 'rising from the ashes'......

In India, everyone is an authority on cricket and a selector and democracy is at its best when it comes to cricket - we ask too many questions, we tolerate too few things and we participate way too often. For once the love of this game will drown this game - the spirit that is (I have no doubt that India will playing cricket for as long as the world remains). But the spirit that we so passionately talk about? When will Indian cricket come of age, when will Dhoni learn, when will they learn to field, when will they stop this, when will they start this and yes the biggest question of all when will Sachin hit his century (its not score kya hua)? Well you wanna know when... when fans start loving the game and not the adrenaline it produces, when fans mature and come of age and know watching cricket cannot be equated to watching a masala movie flick...Dhoni so rightly said.."Play for the game, not the crowds"...A message for the fans!

Only in Indian cricket is a single player idolized and celebrated more than the game. Our Little Master became a demi God, then a God...well I liked it when he was the "Little Master"... That title respected his game and not him. And maybe, who knows, he'd prefer that. With respect to Sachin's innings and records and legacy, I think he has enjoyed privileges and opportunities that no one else has, even during his mean, out of form days simply because he was Sachin, because this is India, because its criminal to omit Sachin even if he's not contributing. And even today, am sure stats will tell you that we have won countless matches because the team came together and exhibited a collective mind and not because of a single century or a single man.

Sorry folks, it annoys me no end when they say its "Lee vs Sachin", or India will win the cup only when there are 11 Sachins..., there is no other international team that will talk like that, even if they had the very icons of cricket on their side. And that, to me is the difference between the Indian team and the others... and not the technicals. With the world concentrating on Sachin, imagine the captain's chore of motivating the others, experimenting and bringing them together to play a game, because he knows that no match can be won by Sachin alone.

Maybe its a mind game after all. The strategy must be "Ignore all else and play your game" ... At an age of natural catastrophes, Indian cricket faces the biggest of all and blissfully unaware too - The Blue Billion Tsunami - if left unfettered, it can drown and wash away the dignity left in the game.

My wish for the Indian Cricket team - Enjoy your game!