33 posts tagged with "yama"

We now have a basic SOP for sakhas. The idea is to have standardized processes for each sakha that sevakas can follow. This will help in scaling the sakhas as we can onboard new sevakas and have them follow the SOPs to run the sakhas.

The initial set of SOPs are:

• Daily Routines. Daily routines that sevakas should follow to keep the sakha running smoothly.
• Basic Flywheel. The engine that each business has to keep improving and growing.

With this start we can now start to improve the SOPs over time by focusing on the input metrics and hope we can generate the appropriate output metrics.

One of my favorite apps is the Notes app. With 18,883 notes in my Done folder. It is more a todo system than a Notes app per se. However, one of the problems I have with the Notes app is that I just don’t seem to define a full project. They are always half assed and I have to continuously revisit projects. This just makes things feel like they never get done. There is no measurement of the number of projects actually completed. Basically, it is a rolling spec that always changes and is not really defined. Lastly, this all lives within my Notes app so the actual goal is never communicated to the broader team.

If you were to ask me how many company projects I have completed this year and how do I know if they were successful the answer to that question is I don’t know. I am just at a loss for the outcomes because I honestly don’t know the outcomes. The baseline for using the Notes App is I can move fast with the consequence that my team doesn’t really know what to expect next until I tell them.

The main reason that I moved to the Notes app was Notion was slow and became unweildy and to be frank I wanted a simpler system. But the problem with the Notes app is that I am the only one who has access to my notes so others aren’t really able to access them.

I completed a migration of all the websites to Cloudflare Workers from Cloudflare Pages. We were using a combination of Cloudflare Workers and Pages and deployments were starting to have issues. These include the different ways that Pages treats branches versus Workers. Anyways, seems like there are more features on Cloudflare Workers and this will simplify our deployment capabilities.

I have been using Makefiles as long as I can remember. When I was using Ruby I was fond of Rake. I have largely stayed with Python as my language with opsZero. Using Python the ecosystem while large and diverse has the problem of being a pain to get consistency.

With uv that has changed. It is really easy to invoke binaries, have multiple Python versions and in general the speed of running things is just great. With uv a core install I am moving from make to invoke as my process manager.

Why now?

Well uvx invoke works well and I don’t have to worry about random breakages.

uv init --bare
uv add --dev invoke fabric
uv run invoke

As a process oriented person my orientation is a process oriented organization. Within these processes are certain output goals that we have that allow us to have a sustained growth. But we use process to continuously grow the business. One of the problems is that processes and measurements tend to live in different places making it confusing to understand how a business is doing. Our businesses had different methods of measurements or no measurements at all. This has lead to a businesses and employee development that to be completely frank were shit.

I am implementing Standard Operating Procedures across the existing businesses starting with DiscountCloud, Kubespot, PolicyCop and opsZero. The goal of these SOPs is to have a common process standard across everything I do. The approach I am going with this is to do more actionable tasks first then go back up the stream to the more higher level ideas.

So the standardization I intend to work on will be done in phases in this order:

1. Feature / Bug. Standardize Feature and Bugs
2. Kanban
3. SOP.
   1. Value Stream Map
   2. Routines
      1. Deming
   3. Reports
      1. WBR
         1. Output Metrics
         2. Input Metrics
4. PRFAQ
5. Assign Owners

As part of my Meditation routine I had the study of supplemental texts, but what I found was that this I am going through too many different supplemental texts and not really focusing on any one of them at a time. Secondly, reading secular texts was not happening such as how to be a better father. So I am making some changes to my Routine to solidify the Study & Work time.

They will be two hour chunks of time and I will focus on my work but the first Study & Work will start with 30 minutes of spritual study and the last Study & Work will end with 30 minutes of spiritual study. My focus on these spritual studies will be to the read the same text so that I can focus on getting through a single book.

The primary textual focuses are the Hanuman Chalisa, Yoga Sutras and Bhagavad Gita. Everything else being supplemental to these three core texts. By reading only one supplemntal text at a time I can then focus on improving a single area of weakness instead of spreading myself thin.

The supplemental texts are texts to assist in understanding and put into practice the core texts better. For example, reading "Meditation and Spiritual Life" is there to assist my understanding of the Yoga Sutras. My reading of the "Gospel of Ramakrisha" is a way to understand the Bhagavad Gita better. My reading of Vivekananda is a way to understand the Hanuman Chalisa better.

Finally, since I am moving my study of these texts into the Study & Work period I can spend larger chunks of time reading them when I have time. This allows me to have a larger chunk of time to focus on these texts instead of just small chunks. Each of these supplemental texts are not just for reading but for putting into practice and so having larger chunks of time is important so I can take the knowledge and implement it.

One of the reasons I think this change is also good is that if I do not make it to reading the supplementary texts so I can read other texts I don't mentally feel bad. I still am reading the shastras so it is okay. I can read other texts when I have time.

I was under the impression that assigning multiple people to a project would be easy to manage but the result was the opposite. Adding multiple owners to a project led to confusion as to how to divide up work. The problem is that the owner should figure out how to divide up the work, no rely on someone above dealing with it. If a person above is splitting the work then there is actually no owner.

So I am stealing the Amazon idea of a Single Threaded Owner. Each owner is responsible for a single sakha or sangh. Every owner then runs the process top to bottom and the figures out how to optimize each piece and so on and so forth.

So I am now assigning owners to each product.

My role is changing and changing quite fast from working in the business to working on the business. I don’t think I thought I would be in this position and it shows. I am a bit inexperienced in this particular arena of organization, process management, and people development. Ironically, these are the areas that I need to work on the most for the growth not just in terms of professional but also in terms of personal life.

Whatever I do whether family, spirituality, or work these three skills are a big part of the challenge. As Swami Vivekananda says, “the whole secret lies in organization, accumulation of power, co-ordination of wills.” So my core focus is around these three things with the goal of delegating most everything else.

As a small business owner it is important to know all sides of the business but it is more important to setup the processes for things to happen repeatably. The repeatability reduces stress and allows you to have predictable outcomes.

As part of this learning my goal is to really dial in my focus:

• How to design organizations.
  • How to design for knowledge accumulation.
• How to setup good standard procedures.
  • How to ensure the standard procedures are working on the right thing.
• How to hire well.
  • How to train a team.

These are all questions that I want to learn better and then immediately put into practice. Further, as I have different types of companies I am working on each type of company has a different perspective.

As part of this I will be reading a few types of books:

• Biographies of Great Leaders
• Understand Organization of Great Companies
• Understanding Effective Project Management
• Effective Hiring, Training and Delegation

I am at a point in my sadhana where I would like to build a sangh (community) of like-minded people. While my sadhana has been mostly individual focused, I feel the need to build a community for a few reasons:

1. Shared Motivation: Doing a sadhana alone is a bit solitary. Monks have their monasteries and ashrams, Hindu temples seem to have their own set of practices. It is not easy to stay motivated when you are doing it alone. So having a community of like-minded people can help keep the motivation high.
2. Collective Learning: I am trying to build a path that merges the modern world with the ancient wisdom of Sanatana Dharma. A lot of this is trial and error. I think having a community that can share their experiences and learnings can help refine the path.
3. Service and Outreach: A sangh can also help in doing seva (service) and outreach. The goal is to use Sanatana Dharma principles to help society, and with that to help Sanatana Dharma grow.

How are I different from say a Chinmaya Mission or a temple group?

• I am not focused on rituals or temple activities. While those are important, my focus is on individual sadhana based on the four yogas and the three shastras of Hanuman Chalisa, Yoga Sutras and Bhagavad Gita.
• Focus on modern life. I want to build a path that is relevant to the modern world so I will be pulling ancient Sanatana Dharma ideas and applying them to modern life.
• Simplicity. I want to keep the path simple and easy to follow. By limiting to the four yogas and three shastras, I want to create a simple framework that can be very effective within the modern world.

What I am not going to do:

• Limit anyone's individual sadhana. I just focus on the Four Yogas and the three shastras of Hanuman Chalisa, Yoga Sutras and Bhagavad Gita as a common ground. If someone wants to do additional sadhana I am not here to stop anyone.
• Create rigid rules. The idea is to have a simple framework that can be followed. I want a sanyasi-like simplicity, while living and working in the modern world.
• Focus on rituals. While rituals are a part of Sanatana Dharma, I want to focus on the core principles and practices that can help individuals grow. Individuals can choose to do rituals on their own if they wish.
• Create a sect. Sanatana Dharma is vast and diverse. I am not trying to create a new sect or denomination. I am just trying to build a community of like-minded individuals.

• Hanuman Chalisa (Karma/Bhakti): Devotion
• Yoga Sutras (Raja): Discipline
• Bhagavad Gita (Karma/Bhakti/Jnana): Wisdom

These three shastras encompass the spirit of the Four Yogas and it seems just understanding these three fully and deeply seems to be sufficient. As I stated on v0.11 that I was going toward this path but I didn’t fully understand the depth of each. Frankly, I didn’t think much of the Hanuman Chalisa and now have absolutely fallen in love with it.

The Hanuman Chalisa is not just a song but each sloka is a mantra and an aspiration of behavior that was exuded by Lord Hanuman. Each sloka has a depth of meaning of the trials of Hanuman and how he overcame them. It is in essence the ultimate in the Karma Yoga texts that are succinct to follow the understanding versus reading Ramakrisha or Vivekananda. While, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda act as gurus to guide us to the Four Yogas the Hanuman Chalisa is a condensed version of the values that they want us to lead.

The Yoga Sutras act as a means for disciplining oneself. If the Hanuman Chalisa teaches how to act outwardly then the Yoga Sutras teaches us how the inner world should be. The Yoga Sutras are a guide on how to structure and setup the inner world so that you can act like Lord Hanuman to always be focused on Lord Ram. Since Rama means “light within” it is also a representation the Brahman.

Lastly, the Bhagavad Gita acts as a bridge between the outer and inner world. While the Hanuman Chalisa deals with outer virtues, the Yoga Sutras the inner world, the Bhagavad Gita deals with the battlefield of life of how to deal with yourself as an individual in society at large. It has the ideas that are included in both the Chalisa and Yoga Sutras as well as the Upanishads. It acts as the source of Jnana Yoga encompassing the why of it all.

These shastras have a lifetime of study ahead of them and I am content knowing what I need to focus my energies around.

Jai Shree Ram