Loud Thinking

Archive for March, 2013

“Just because you’ve made mistakes doesn’t mean your mistakes get to make you. Take notice of your inner critic, forgive
yourself, and move on.”

— Robert Tew

Get the Most Out of Your Q&A

As a presenter, a question-and-answer session is a powerful way to address your audience’s concerns and drive your point home. Here are three tips for making the best of it:

Plan when you’ll take questions. Establish early on if you want to field questions throughout your talk or save them until the end. If you need to build a thorough case, ask people at the beginning to hold their questions.

Anticipate questions. Think through any queries the audience might raise, from the mundane to the hostile. Prepare answers ahead of time so you won’t be thrown when all eyes are on you. Rehearse them, but still be mentally prepared for curveballs.

Admit when you don’t know something. Never fake an answer. Your audience will see right through it. If you don’t know the answer to a question, tell them — and offer to do some research after the presentation and get back to the group.

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from the HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations

Get the Most Out of Your Q&A

As a presenter, a question-and-answer session is a powerful way to address your audience’s concerns and drive your point home. Here are three tips for making the best of it:

Plan when you’ll take questions. Establish early on if you want to field questions throughout your talk or save them until the end. If you need to build a thorough case, ask people at the beginning to hold their questions.

Anticipate questions. Think through any queries the audience might raise, from the mundane to the hostile. Prepare answers ahead of time so you won’t be thrown when all eyes are on you. Rehearse them, but still be mentally prepared for curveballs.

Admit when you don’t know something. Never fake an answer. Your audience will see right through it. If you don’t know the answer to a question, tell them — and offer to do some research after the presentation and get back to the group.

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from the HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations

An Open Letter to the All ICC Members

Politics in sports : ICC (Indian Cricket Council) is a silent spectator.

Chennai Super Kings set to drop Sri Lankan recruits

Link:-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/ipl/news/Chennai-Super-Kings-set-to-drop-Sri-Lankan-recruits/articleshow/19203385.cms

After Pakistani, now it’s the turn of Sri Lankan players. Next who?

There is no doubt that the eunuch leadership of ICC is digging its own grave, in the long run.

However, the collective and individual silence of all its members, on being bull dozed by the BCCI, in each and every aspect of the game, whether its UDRS or IPL, is criminal, to say the least. It looks we are in the dark ages of the glorious game of cricket.

The best way to stop Indian hegemony over the game, is to take off ICC’s official approval of the IPL, which will cut to size the Indian unreasonable attitude, of using sports as a tool for politics and arm twisting of ICC members.

An Open Letter to the President of Pakistan

Mr. Asif Ali Zardari

Dear Sir,

As, it may well be in your knowledge, that the game of cricket, is the biggest passion of the masses of Pakistan. Any victory of our cricket team boosts the morale of the people. At the same time defeats of our team, demoralises the entire nation.

However, since our people are very knowledgable about the game of cricket, they back our team even when it’s defeated, if the players have gone down fighting. But, in any case, tame surrender is never digested and the anger is often vented with slogans, processions and violence against the players and the PCB. People also curse the government, because, every body knows that PCB chairman is appointed only, as a favour by the President.

Mr. President, you appointed Mr. Ijaz Butt, as the chairman PCB; and the whole world knows, how much damage was caused, due to his sheer incompetence, to the name and image of the country and the game of cricket, due to his sheer incompetence.

Again, you appointed Ch. Zaka Ashraf (who is your known buddy), but the way our team has suffered and its performance has gone down from bad to worse (mainly due to highest degree of management failures at the PCB level), is not hidden from anybody. The latest debacle in South African tour, is an eye opener.

In Test matches, we were white washed 3-0; and we also created our lowest innings score record, by being all out at 49 runs.

We won the only T20 match played in the 2 matches series, just because South Africa didn’t field their B team, but they selected their C level team, as an experiment to give a chance to their youngsters.

In the ODI series, Pakistan lost 3-2 in a very comprehensive manner.

In Pakistan, there is no dearth of talent of the young and upcoming players, but the PCB went to such an extent that it recalled Younis Khan, from the retirement and inducted him into the ODI team.

The whole tenure of Ch. Zaka Ashraf bespeaks of inertia and of not adopting the policy of investing in future. Mostly, the man management policies of the PCB has been retrogressive, which has resulted in an immense damage, to the future of cricket in Pakistan.

Mr. Iqbal Qasim, who was made chief selector, made such huge blunders like dropping Abdur Rehman, Junaid Khan and Ahmad Shahzad from the T20 World Cup team. This man Iqbal Qasim, was such a HUGE failure in his last tenure as chief selector, that he had to resign from the post, after the team lost 14 consecutive matches in a trot.

This fact can be gauged from the ground reality, that the 11 players which played Sunday’s ODI, included 6 oldies namely, Misbah, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal, Imran Farhat & Shahid Afridi, who are known spent cartridges and past their prime. While very talented youngster, Ahmad Shahzad was sent back to Pakistan, after the only T20 match he played in South Africa. Moreover, two more youngsters Omar Akmal and Abdur Rehman, where not given a chance to play even a single ODI, during the 5 matches series.

Besides, the cases mentioned above, there is a long list of other failures of the present chairman PCB. It looks the English language idiom “Everyone rises to their level of incompetence” exactly fits on your close buddy, whom you made the chairman PCB.
Now, the stage has come that even Ijaz Butt, is looking genius, in comparison with Ch. Zaka Ashraf.

The failures of PCB are bringing a very bad name to you and your party.

As such, it is suggested that some very competent and high calibre person of international repute and stature like Mr. Raza Rabbani, Mr. Aitzaz Ahsan, Ms Asma Jahangir, Mr. Razzaq Dawood, Mr. Mian Mansha, Syed Baber Ali, Mr. Zafar Hilali, Mr. Shamshad Ahmad or Vice Admiral (R) Mahmood Ahmad Khan may be appointed the chairman PCB, with specific task of re-vamping the structure of the domestic cricket of Pakistan, to bring it at a level, where foreign players will be attracted, to play our domestic cricket; and secondly, Pakistani cricket teams of all the three versions of the game, must attain world # 1 ranking, in a given time period.

Best regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Quote for today:
“Many of the problems we face today are there because the people who work for a living are
becoming outnumbered by those who vote for a living.”

One should always remember two truths: There is no such thing as a free lunch, and you can never hire someone to provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.

Volunteering is to freely offer to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task.

“It’s true, the scale can only give you a numerical reflection of your relationship with gravity. That’s it. It cannot measure beauty, talent, purpose, life force, possibility, strength, or love. Don’t give the
scale more power than it has earned. Take note of the number, then get off the scale and live your life. You are beautiful!”

— Steve Maraboli

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Margaret Mead (1902-1978);
cultural anthropologist