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At ThoughtWorks Pune office, we were observing a regular pattern in Stand-up. Everybody will start to speak with “Yesterday, I did this… I did that…” and whole team used to feel it more of a status update and not giving idea and sharing the context. To address this issue, one of our team-mate came with a suggestion to avoid using word “Yesterday” in the stand-up. Now you don’t have word yesterday with you, you will be automatically forced to give a update which involves not only yesterday’s work but more than that. This worked great until following conversation happened…
(Names of the team-members are changed)
Friday, 14 Sept, 9:30 IST
…
Ganpat: “Yesterday, I worked on …”
Keshubabu: “Ganpat, don’t use word 'yesterday' or at least avoid using that…”
Ganpat: “Ok. Day-before-today I worked on…”
Whole team: !!!!!!!!!!!

That was a funny incident but, we really experienced value coming out of avoiding using word ‘Yesterday’. This helped us to achieve sharing of context of the story and not just yesterday’s work.

I recently completed my one month in my new company. I hold my temptation to express my first impression of company for more than three weeks. I believe, to be fair you should spend at least a month before writing about new company. I was new to concepts of “Flat Organization”, “Agile Practices”, “Stand-ups” and “Sign-ups”. I was hoping to spend a fair amount of time in learning this process and be a part of it. Surprisingly I found it very easy to learn basics of that. Practicing them was even easier because of “Pair Programming” and other similar approaches.
I am not Odd man standing out anymore. I am a thoughtworker! (Somebody at my work will ‘disagree’ with that! )
ThoughtWorks, is amazingly different than other organizations I have seen, visited or been. Following are the things which come on top of mind when I compare ThoughtWorks with any other companies.

1. No cubicles! – This is a blessing! Everyone sits around tables which mostly look like dining tables. All of your team members, are at a proximity where you can directly call him and have a discussion across tables! This increases a little noise in office but it’s worth it. I learned to work in that now.
2. Very energetic team which is very rare to see. In a technical discussion we always run out of time because of overwhelming ideas to discuss on table.
3. Agile at its core which is practiced very religiously!
4. Resources availability. Company which provides high-end latitudes to everybody for personal use. There are virtually not restrictions for personal / technical growth.
5. Every ThoughtWorker is passionate about what he/she is doing!

Comparing ThoughtWorks with any other company is like comparing apples and oranges! Their fundamental structure is different.
I met few of very interesting people in new workplace. I had lots of technical discussions. The very strange thing was, in ThoughtWorks one of my friends opens and closes the discussions with only single phrase –

“Hey, I don’t agree with you! How about that?”

Updated: Sorry but following video is removed from YouTube!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjnxFyJT2I4]

As I announced earlier, I am going to join ThoughtWorks, Pune development center. For past 18 months, I lived in Hyderabad. This was a wonderful experience. People of different language, culture and attire! One of the best times of my life!

For all the good time I had, I owe thank to following list of people. Shriram (raamya) for his coffee breaks and wonderful thought experiments. You're the man! Akshay and group for helping me in first days @ Hyderabad. Madan and Surabh for providing occasional company!

At last my crew from Akanksha; Rambabu for wonderful political, regional and personal views, movies and entertainment. I had lots of good discussion with you. Kameshwar for his humor and enjoyable discussions. Sridevi, Padmavati for their co-operation and fun. Sneha for her brain biting discussions! Manoj for wonderful times having technical discussion and countless fun parties!

Radio City 106.4 / 91.1 FM for their wonderful music! Aparna (RJ for 'Chalo Chalte Raho' show) for her wonderful talks and entertainment. Thank you for giving me opportunity to speak me on Radio for 90 seconds on 6th December, 2006. I specially enjoyed your show everyday on the way to office. You are my favorite RJ for the year 2006! Gautami (RJ for 'Nato Vastara' show) for her sweet talks and cute behavior. You are a wonderful person with a great smile. I don't know Telugu but just your show taught me to understand some of words! Being a Marathi person, I enjoyed your show everyday on way back to home!

Thanks to Sify for providing me internet services for whole year. Not the best, but you are good provider. Without you, this was impossible to have wonderful discussion with my loving friend Neelesh in USA.

Thanks to Neelesh for talking me almost everyday and talking on lots of topics. Great company dude! Hope to continue same discussions from Pune.

Final thanks go to my movie library person (Anna) who provided me hundreds of movies throughout the year! You made my holidays enjoyable! Thanks to Prasads IMAX, PVR Cinemas, Sangeet, and Raja for showing me great movies for the weekends and holidays.

Altogether, the stay at Hyderabad was wonderful and definitely added lots of memories to my personal life. I learned lots of things which will help me through the rest of time. Tonight I start my final journey towards Pune. Given a chance, will love to be a Hyderabadi! Again!

Thank you for the all persons who became part of life in Hyderabad. I always owe a big Thank to you.

Good bye Hyderabad!

... Back after a while! I was busy in lots of things which you can notice now on. I have a great announcement on personal front. I am going to be a ThoughtWorker! I am very excited to be there.

I will keep posted about new happenings as things happen. For the time being, enjoy fresh look of my blog!