A glass of water

It was early evening

 

My fitness watch stopped asking me every five minutes if I am walking outdoor or indoor as it stopped believing that somebody would be walking for six hours at a stretch, neither it was a priority for me to answer a watch than taking care of sea of humanity that never seemed to stop arriving relentlessly at the place I am working.

 

Yes, it was a hard day’s work at Isha yoga centre Coimbatore Tamilnadu India. Being a volunteer I prefer to work at times. Working at public places in a completely different role always gives me a different perspective of life that is quite different from the one we see while passing through the tunnel called corporate life.

 

A long weekend where i had to work in different places doing different types of jobs gave a chance of uninterrupted observation of how human beings behave and how behavior can be influenced by various factors.

 

We see people thronging public spaces, be it religious places or secular places. While they are supposed to be more disciplined while visiting the religious places, we seldom find such instances. Majority of the temples we witness people becoming pushy, unruly or even resort to rude behavior to ensure that they complete the ritual of having a glimpse of the deity as soon as possible. It leaves the temple staff to be on their toes all the time and raising their internal mercury to heights of anger and exhaustion.

 

But to my astonishment, I very rarely witness such type of behavior while working at Isha. I am neither trying to promote Isha Youga centre nor going to attribute this to any super natural element that is responsible for a better behavior of people visiting in large numbers.

 

When you pour water into a glass, it naturally assumes the shape of a glass. If you fill a jar, water makes no complaint but adjusts to the contours of the jar.

 

People are no different from the water.

 

The glass or a jar in the above example can be called “CULTURE”.

 

When it comes to this simple example of visiting a place, Culture can be physical environment, people who are working at that place, regular visitors who are part of the overall crowd, processes adopted and the overall genuine impact created by all the above.

 

Careful observation reveals that someone who walks into Isha comes with the similar expectations of any other regular religious place. His/her behavior at parking place will be common like one may find in any other place.

He finds the first difference in how the locker room volunteers handle his urgency or arrogance. While walking along a half a kilometer path he/she will be interacting with different volunteers helping him patiently. It brings a gradual change in his behavior and he/she will be slowing down a little to understand and absorb what is happening around. When people enter finally the sanctum sanctorum, they no more will be the same.

 

Here comes my most important learning applying this to a corporate. Every company recruits employees. They may be of different in every possible way one can imagine. But when they enter the organization, it is the CULTURE of the organization that needs to embrace and make the people to understand how their differences can unite and create a beautiful orchestra of performance without compromising the essential values the company works for.

 

Water never lost its individuality but was ready to adopt to adapt to the shape of the vessel. Similarly, culture in an organization makes people to understand where they are and what makes them an organization.

Coming back to a fist time visitor to Isha example, a new employee too understands the culture of the organization by looking at existing employees, actual processes, what management does and even physical environment at the office space.

 

Culture is neither a positive nor a negative word. Complete chaos also constitute culture, the same way fully organized set up.

 

And one more most important element in creating a positive culture is to sustain the same. Frequent changes in policy, process, behavior will only bring confusion that sets a different type of culture in an organization.

Religion....Constitution....Discrimination and more

Every hotelier wishes to witness not just a good crowd in the dining area but a crowd of descent looking people. You don't need to be a genius to understand the reason behind it. None of us wish to be surrounded by people who are dirty and shabby while we dine in an restaurant. You can't decline entry to someone just on the grounds of their looks or caste or gender or religion or region, because it amounts to discrimination and against conscience and constitution.

A pregnant woman is prohibited from hearing some of the hymns of vedas as they are said to be affecting the growth of baby.
None is supposed to read or even to keep at home a particular purana (garuda purana) except during certain prescribed periods.
Women are prohibited from entering the pooja room or to do regular worship during the menstruation period even in their own house.

Can we consider all this as discrimination?
The feeling that they are discriminatory comes only because someone treats hotel and temple pari passu.

A temple in Sanathana dharma parlance is not a place of worship as is commonly seen. It is more than that. A temple can't be compared to any other religious place where you place a few tables and chairs and make people assemble to pray the god. Aagamas don't consider the temple as a place with four walls around to be used to pray the god.

A temple is a place where the omnipotent power is believed to be invited (avahanam) and was requested to be in a particular idol or yanthra or any other substance or just in the air (prana prathistha).


You can find no idol in Chidambaram Temple where lord siva is considered to be in the form of cosmos. You find just a flame in jwalamukhi temple and nothing else. Not every temple is same and not the rules of worship are the same in each temple.

And most importantly the so called "rational principles" can't be applied to a temple as praying god itself is not considered rational in the common rationality parlance.

Supreme court of India was right when Shabano case was upheld by it applying the principles of law of land adjudging that the law takes an upper hand when deciding on matters where there is a conflict between religious laws and constitution. Because there was material loss to the complainant which can't be justified by citing the religion as reason.

But in case of lakshs of temples that exist in India there are a few handful of temples that are special because of their origin, religious practices or the specific rules that govern them. By denying the entry on a particular ground to women, none of the women are going to lose anything substantial.

If the the basis of going to the temple itself is "faith" then if you don't have faith in the very religious practices of the said temple and argue in the court of law or shout slogans on the roads, then where is the point of entering the temple for the sake of worship?

The sooner we come out of this sick paradigm of applying secular constitutional provisions to temples the better the life will become.

work hard only if you can

We are in a world where performance, success, happiness, status and many more such words are used as synonyms. 

This is not an attempt to discuss any of the philosophical dimensions of the psychology associated with such kind of thinking, but rather an attempt to explain as to why we should not associate performance or success always with hard work and non performance with lack of hard work.

Let me share the story of two laptop computers and a tech savvy owner.

This tech savvy owner is an ever demanding, never satisfied, passionate about new technology.

He had an old laptop that has got a bare minimum hardware configuration. Let us call him the "Oldy."

His other laptop has got the best of the hard ware and operates with cutting edge technology features. Let us call him "Newbe"

Now the TSO (tech savvy owner) bought an advanced video editing software.

He installed the same on both oldy and newbe

One fine morning he started working on both of them at a time. (Remember he is TSO)

For the Newbe with all the superior hardware it was duck soup to work.

It's was the oldie who suffered the maximum. With limited hardware his work became torturous. He crashed several times and on the verge of giving up.

Now when we analyze the above situation...

1. Oldy worked hard compared to newbe but still could not achieve the results

2. Newbe worked with ease but still could earn the tag of performer.

Since it is a simple story of two computers, the reasons are more than obvious.

Oldy despite his hardwork missed the targets because he lacked the hardware.

In a world where work is becoming more complex with an increasing number of parameters having influence on results, hard work alone might not be an answer. Also branding a non performer as lazy too doesn't make sense anymore.

IT is the ABILITY coupled with HARD WORK that gives the perfect coalescence.

This is the precise reason as to why Learning and Development should be made the prime life line across the business functions where each individual can assessed for any ability gaps and the same can be addressed through proper means.

SILVER SCREEN to COTTON SCREEN

The curtain slowly rolls back into it's cocoon revealing the silver screen. People cheer when the screen changes from white into rainbow of colours. They don't seem to be watching movie, rather they are worshipping the hero for the next three hours.

Those were the days where the heroes were made up to look ever young in their impeccable appearance though the heroines who played the role of the daughter to the hero started playing the role of mother to the same hero.

But those Heros are gone. This is the time for heroes who essentially don't look like Heros. It will be a challenge for someone who rarely goes to movies to find out who the hero is among those present on the screen. From the "hero is above all" look, the Heros descended to "hero is like all of us".

From the era of only a few Heros we reached an epoch where everyone feels like a hero. This is the time where everyone demands to have a say in everything that happens around, be it politics or economics or anything else.

The silver screen has become cotton screen with the common man regaining the paradise lost.

What corporate world needs to learn from this transformation of time,where even the smallest incident is discussed, debated and has a huge impact at national level?

1. Common man these days love to have something in movies or tv shows that connects his everyday life, unlike the olden days where platonic characters enacted meaningless sacrifices that were above the reach of an ordinary human being.

2. He is more concerned with what happens to himself or at the most to his family.

3. Started taking strong political and ideological positions based on his belief system.

4. Demands debate and developed strong urge to be heard rather than being comfortable among a herd of silent onlookers.

It is probably the right time for the corporate strategy makers to listen to the common man who is present in every employee irrespective of the hierarchy level they belong to.

1. Don't we agree it's time re write those strategies that are vague in describing the real purpose they want to achieve ? ( I call them platonic strategies)

2. Isn't it time to device strategies that take the reality into account than the deemed situations?

3. Isn't it proper to use less gyan and more vignan?

4. Can't we reduce the role of international consulting agencies in our strategy formation? ( I am not talking about make in India concept here)

5. Isn't it time to stop trying to clone international strategies in India?

Wish someone thinks seriously about the crores of rupees being wasted in making high tech strategies that compete with the cost of block buster Bollywood movies but blast before payload is delivered into orbit...

For all those kings with kingdoms

India, probably the one country where kings continue to outlive the kingdoms. Any sphere of life, be it business or politics or even charitable work, the kings are in control of their self made empires with many waiting to make their own.

While it would be great to see the leaders empowering the work they are assigned to do, it would be difficult to digest when the leaders try to become powerful because of the position they are given.

There are innumerable examples one can read in newspapers and experience in corporate kingdoms about the leadership cult being cultivated that even goes to the extent of changing the organisational culture.

These kind of practices erode the organisational values. Encourage people to be acolytes, forbid the candor in day today business and lead to an avalanche of financial losses in the long term.

One of the best antidote that Indian culture prescribes for this condition is to "work with detachment".

There are three simple yet powerful parts in this philosophy.

1. "what you are"

You are Mr XXXXXX not by your nature or birth but because of a position that you are given. You have occupied a particular position and never allow the position to occupy yourself.

2. You are not permanent here

Each position, title, job, work, organisation that you work are not going to employ you forever. Everything comes with a number affixed on it.

3. Your purpose

You are hired to do the work nothing else... period.

When you master these three simple principles by reminding yourself everyday and each time Mr King tries to step out of your brain, you will get cured of this condition.

What benefits you will get:

1. You can focus more on work rather than on individuals and their feelings towards you (majority of a manager's time is wasted in this)

2. Organisational culture improves when people realize that it is their work that brings them laurels than paying obeisance to the king. 

3. Helps the organisations reduce cost of leadership show off (everyone knows how much money is wasted in this area.)

Organisations exist to make profit. Positions exist to make organisations achieve their bottom lines. If people are clear about these two lines, then organisations will be always in the headlines for good reasons.

WANT TO PLAY SAFE?

When I was a kid, independence day is all about flag, salute, chocolates, holiday and fun.

Now it's no more such simple affair.

"Freedom sale" declares the full page advertisement in the news paper. Hundreds of offers to choose from each ranging from 30% to 70% off from Amazon.

Two days pass by, yet another full page advertisement, with even more attractive offers appear.

The times have changed so much, from being retailing platforms the e sellers have become avenues for offers.

Even many of the local shops seem to be forced to go with the flow and are offering many such unbelievable schemes.

Though these purchases may not create a dent in your finances, it would be disastrous to be offer minded when it comes to financial products.

Be it real estate or insurance or stock trading products or mutual funds and innumerable investment schemes that grace the hoardings across the cities.

Each scheme seems to be made for you and for your family. Each sales presentation looks as if the company understood your precise needs even before they met you.

Many of the companies use complex yet attractive software that creates solutions to all your future needs with just a click.

And majority of the schemes, plans and associated benefits astonishingly seem to have a very short life, and force you to take a decision at that moment else they seem to vanish into thin air.

In a country where literacy is seen as a tool to earn, seldom people spend time on financial literacy.

This is not an effort to OFFER FINANCIAL LITERACY IN ONE PAGE.

But there are two simple rules that one can follow to play safe.

There are two well known basic tendencies that dominate the decision making process of any individual.

THE GREED & FEAR

Most of the corporate marketing strategies revolve around these two factors while designing their marketing campaigns.

Each time a product is presented to you, check if looks too attractive to believe or it looks as if "can't live without this"

Though there will be certain degree of hype in any product, but a product that is too attractive needs more time and research for you to buy

Also understand there are no lightning deals in financial world that you may miss adding to the cart before it is hundred percent claimed.

"Bought by your neighbor" offers no guarantee for it's suitability to your needs.

If you can remember these simple rules probably you will play safe.

Kabali Vs Corporate Strategy (this is not a movie review)

Huge expectations....
So much of curiosity...
Excitement...
So much of waiting while the making is happening
Anxiety for the stakeholders...

If these are the things that you witnessed before release of a movie then this is so similar to events that take place before a new strategy of a corporate is unveiled too.

Each time a strategy takes off from the board rooms of corporates and lands in the meeting rooms of local branches it is like KABALI being released.

The amount of secrecy with which it is kept makes even the defense personnel awestruck.

Strategies are made in heaven to be executed on earth. Nothing to wonder as most of the so called data backed, consultant baked, highly spoken about strategies bite the dust in the markets only to give yet another chance to one more consultant make more money.

A review of the strategy when it fades in sheen and color always points at bad execution and indicates the heads to roll, nevertheless the heads are always safe while you can imagine whose heads are going to roll.

Strategy after strategy is made and tried at the cost of shareholders as if the management is inspired by the lines of thomas alwa edison.

It is tough to imagine a strategist to ask himself some tough questions.

1. Did the execution alone to be blamed?
2. Did the strategy has any lacuna?
3. Were we too ambitious about its success?
4. Did we give enough time for the strategy to work out?
5. Did we foresee these situations before strategy was launched?
6. Why the course correction did not happen/failed?

But above all I had the privilege of working with a leader (manager) who had a different way of ensuring the success of strategy and I thought it is worth sharing....

It was a national strategy that was launched, and all the team was called for a meeting. There was nothing unusual as we got habituated to getting new strategies regularly. But unlike earlier versions of such strategy meets we had good amount of discussion on the strategy a week before and the leader himself took the pain in explaining it during the conference call. What surprised us was the strategy document also was mailed to us and we were asked to come prepared with our plans on executing the same. 

Anything new naturally generates a degree of resentment and consequent gossip among colleagues.
While waiting at airport terminals,
While checking in at the hotel lobbies,
In the rooms before the conference to start,
At the coffee shops while gulping down a cup of coffee before it becomes too late to be in the hall

All the time there was only one topic.. THE NEW STRATEGY and IT'S VULNERABLE POINTS

Hundred plus people, who work at the bottom of the managerial chain of command, the people who are going to implement the strategy, with all their experience and sound knowledge about their areas are in work for the last seven days to FIND WHAT CONSULTANTS CAN'T FIND.

When the conference started the leader came up on the stage and with a curt voice declared that this strategy is going to be the writing on the wall and we had no option but to implement.

No one needs to drop a pin to find if it is audible. There was an uproar of emotions silently taking the shape of lava to explode, but none did.

Lunch break had more hot things than food items alone.

Post lunch is the part where everyone becomes a Rajanikanth in action in making others believe that he is the most intent listener.

The leader came on to the stage again and made a statement that took the sleep off the people with a sudden jolt.

"Guys I need to know how this strategy of yours can be improved? "

Its the defining moment where the cloud of doubt melted and started raining positivity.

Everyone has more than one suggestion. And all these suggestions were well thought about, discussed, expressed, correlated with the real life situations pertaining to various parts of India.

Now the strategy team started taking notes.

We had one more day to work on the strategy. The evening party looked like an extension of strategy meet where people talked even more about making the strategy the best. It was not a show to show off or to massage someone else's ego. It was a serious effort by people to show their solidarity with the leader and his strategy.

We got the strategy with those desired possible changes within a week and it also brought a very positive energy and passion to deliver the same.

Most interestingly there was nothing to talk negative about the strategy. NOW IT IS OURS.

AND THIS INTELLIGENT LEADER SOLD THE STRATEGY.

I could witness some more such strategy meets with him. And he was probably the best strategist I had ever seen.

The take home message for me was, never confine the strategy formulation to four walls and a few computers, however amount of  IQ your world class consultant has got or whatever amount of data you have at your disposal.