Monday Musings 207 - Scrutiny

Monday Musings 206 - Scrutiny

Scrutiny as a tool for progress

It’s not even a month that the new dispensation at New Delhi has come under scrutiny. Its decision on rail fare hike and ensuing rollback and then the annual budget itself came under fire. It announced the death of their honeymoon. Alas the doomsday that was predicted by the absolute majority in the parliament leading to a decisive shift towards the right did not arrive. So who checked its arrival?

I guess scrutiny did that. There is intense scrutiny of everything that the government does by the opposition, or whatever is left of it at least, the judiciary, the executive, the free press and an ever buzzing hyperactive social media. Everyone knows that whatever they say or they don’t, will be deciphered, analyzed, decoded and split wide open – and that keeps them cautious, on their toes and vigilant.

Scrutiny is such a good thing; Organizations create their own structures of scrutiny. They create review mechanisms, dashboards, reports, MIS and the ever ubiquitous meetings to keep each other in check. There are some lower order objectives of doing all of the above – like bringing everyone on the same page, sharing information, giving updates on progress so on and so forth. However the larger order purpose of these meetings is keep everyone in check by putting each other under perpetual scrutiny. Actions get dissected, results get analyzed, decisions get scrutinized – so that the wayward are brought to their senses, the vagabonds are tied to sanity and the ship stays on its course.

Social structures have scrutiny in built into them. Families and cultures have scrutiny in built into them, again with the unstated purpose of regulating behavior. The wayward are not appreciated, excommunicated and in some extreme cases hunted down.  Organized religion thrives on scrutiny through the notion of sin and the right and wrong. One man’s God becomes another man’s Satan, and instead heavens opening up, it is hell that is let lose.

Even games have scrutiny for smooth play and sports have to be scrutinized by organized sporting bodies. Companies are scrutinized. Sectors are put under regulatory scrutiny. Professions are scrutinized through their associations.

The all pervasiveness of scrutiny might lead us to believe that left to himself, man, his vocations and his interests will only cause mayhem and chaos. Whatever comes out of the fruits of a man’s toil must be kept in the leash of some scrutiny or the other. So we have a whole bunch of scrutinizers as a separate profession in itself whose job is brings sanity in every scheme of things.

I keep thinking, however, who will scrutinize the scrutinizers – because scrutiny is such a good thing.

Guru

206 Monday Musings: Mother Maria

206 Monday Musings: Mother Maria

I read about Maria Sharapova’s ignorance about Sachin Tendulkar with a deep sense of spirituality.  I am sure most of us in the subcontinent believe that she has committed sacrilege and there is a judgment day that awaits her for it, but not before she must be condemned right here on earth, if not stoning her  Taliban-style, which regretfully continues to remain illegal and poor in taste.  

However most people miss the sheer depth of the statement Maria dear has made, if she was any less stunning than she currently is, I might have recommended her for sainthood, which if done now would be a terrible waste of beauty. Now I am known for many vices and may be remembered for many utterances that breach the boundaries of sanity, but I assure the reader that it shall not be known of me, that I wasted a beauty standing on very long legs on something as sainthood.

Coming back to what Maria said and what it means, let it be known to man, who spends years to attain immortality and timeless fame, that he shall never be known enough for every man to know him, in this case a woman of course.  One may be an icon, a legend, a God, even if only of a game of white flannels and a red cherry, he shall remain known only to a few. There will always be a large part of the world that shall remain oblivious to his existence. With sufficient time everyone forgets everyone and with still sufficient time everyone gets forgotten.

I often wonder, is there a qualitative difference between remaining unknown with all the genius you may have been bequeathed through the chicanery of chromosomal mutation, spending enormous time and effort to convert that genius into something fruitful and the pursuit of excellence and fame - and remaining unknown without attempting much – and I discover to my satisfaction that the latter still remains my preference. I might raise the hackles of a few who might the votaries of the former, to whom I shall always submit, that Maria will remember neither.

In expressing her ignorance about the existence of Sachin, Maria in a stroke of brilliance united me and Sachin – that she knows neither him, nor me. I have never felt so special, wanted and important in my entire life.

In the long term, we are all dead. In the long term we are all forgotten. Thank you Maria for reminding us that. Hope we listen to you at least – you are so eminently listenable. Even if no one else does, for the love of those ear danglers, I will.

Eternally yours

Guru

Monday Musings 205 - The fourth dimension

Monday Musings 205 - The fourth dimension

My self view about how good am I as a son, husband and father is very kind to myself and psychologists might read red into it, although I do not worry much about their theories as I recognize they have a living to make. However one of things that continues to be on my mind all the time is what kind of persons my daughters grow up to be.

A few years back I had arrived at three parameters that I will use to judge myself as a father.  First I wanted to develop in them a love for literature or fine arts or performing arts. In my mind a love for any of the above necessarily develops in a person an appreciation for the finer things in life, the ones which make a person perceptive, nuanced and sensitive.

Secondly I wanted them to develop a love for the outdoors, either through sports or through travel. I did not and still do not see enough emphasis that families and parents consciously put in developing this aspect in children. My belief is that through outdoors a child develops a sense of perspective, of his own place in the universe. It roots us to humility by making us realize that while our sense of self makes us become larger than our surroundings, in reality we must never forget that in our best we continue to remain a tiny speck in this vast universe.

Third I want them to have a virtue called tolerance, which I rate as having a high criticality. It helps us to accept people who are different than us, accept situations that are not to our liking, acknowledge practices and circumstances that might be alien to us, but real to others. It helps us live with outcomes which are not to our liking, despite our most intense desires and even after back breaking hard work. Tolerance helps us survive the vagaries of life.

I was having a chat with a friend of mine who has a pretty grown up child and who had a recent experience. I got my fourth item on my list through this conversation.

It just so happened that the child, a grown up of 20 worked extremely hard for something. The child is a go getter, extremely confident and believes that anything that one can dream of, can be achieved. The hunger for success and achievement is high and is backed up by natural talent and relentless hard work. However there are subtle indications that this single minded dedication to the goal makes her oblivious to how human interactions are taking place. There is an indifference towards softer aspects of one’s ambition particularly when others are also involved. It just so happened that the result eluded the child and it was clear that not many others who were required to contribute and help her succeed did so. It was under these circumstances that my friend raised some questions, which got me thinking and led me to add a fourth dimension to my list of three.

The thoughts began by highlighting the power of prayer – not in the religious sense but in the sense that one must acknowledge the power of some higher order which runs this universe and along with acknowledgement must come respect for it. One must also acknowledge the power of collective wishes for oneself and make efforts not to attract too much negative wishes for ourselves even if it is equally futile to try to please everyone. My friend lamented that too much of brute ambition which rubs too many people the wrong way and too much negative wishes from people impact not only the outcome but also the quality of the outcome. If the purpose is to be successful then maybe these things are mumbo jumbo but if the purpose is to be happy with that success then one must be sensitive to these softer things.

I realized that in a very different way my friend was suggesting that the child must also have a spiritual side to her – which is now my fourth dimension to my work as a parent – will I be able to help my child acquire a spiritual side?

I must.

Guru

Monday Musings 204 - The boats we get into....

Two things happened within a week of each other for me. Last week I listened to a TED video where the speaker Dan Gilbert said that human beings were fundamentally creatures who are in perpetual state of work in progress. The second thing that happened to me was that I met J.

There are stories scattered all around us. Human stories are many and magical. The more we encounter reasons to be cynical, doubtful and disbelievers, the more nature throws at us stories that raise our own sense of being to a new found level of belief, faith. J is one such story and since I promised him that I will not mention his name in my ode to his story, I must remain content in calling him J.

Many decades ago, during the peak of the Vietnam misadventure of the USA, many Vietnamese families attempted to move out- some wanting to escape the brutalities of their own brethren and some who wanted to get out of the mindless massacre by a foreign country. Many families attempted to leave the country on small fishing boats, needless to say not a a very safe and reliable way to leave a war ravaged country.

Young J, all of 6 years was made to board one such boat, the only one amongst his familymembers which   included his elder brother. I am a father of a 7 year old and I keep imagining the plight of that young child. I keep imagining what his tender mind would have made out of being on that boat and then landing in a refugee camp in Malaysia and living the next 3 years there. I keep keep imagining his fear, his wait for his parents and the the brute dawn of reality that they won't come.

Having spent those 3 years in that camp with children of that war, by propitious twist of fate, J was adopted by foster parents in Canada and so the journey of life took the young child from the refugee camps to a new house many miles away and Ina different continent. He grew up in Canada with his new parents and spent the next 6 odd years with then, by which time his elder brother traced him to Canada and joined him. J was reunited with his elder brother who also moved to canada. 

As the young child transited into an young adult, J experienced familiar rebelliousness that youth usually typify. He started to hang around with friends who were not bad but were of limited aspirations or talent. Even though J scored in high nineties during his high school and could have got through any university of his choice, going to the university was infra dig in the gang he moved around. So for two years after he completed his high schools he was almost a wage earner and used to fix frames as a construction worker. 

While life was taking its own shape as it does, a question kept coming back to J' s mind-  why was he chosen to be on that boat? Was he abandoned. Human mind is a meaning making machine and a young boy is not best placed to understand the grand sweep of destiny.

His brother, acutely aware if his talents, relentlessly tried to persuade him to chase bigger dreams, that would do justice to his talents and capability. However young J continued to hang out with those friends and do odd jobs, mostly menial and much below his calibre. And then things changed.

One night he received a warm and emotional letter from his mom, who incidentally had been united with him when he turned 20, a full fourteen years after he had stepped onto that boat. In that letter an emotional mom shared with him that there was not enough money for more than one person to be on that boat on that day and the family, too much in love with J, had chosen him. I am sure that there was much more in that letter, but J only shared that it tripped something in his mind, heart and soul. so after two years in fixing frames he applied to the number one university of canada to study advanced maths. Now a decade and half later - I am guessing he would not be less than 40, though he looked not a shade more than 30, J is a practicing actuary and a deputy CEO in a life insurance company.

coming back to where I began, human beings most certainly are work in progress. If you don't like the shape it is taking, go on and make the change you want. You just never know which boat will take to you to the shore of happiness.

God bless J


Guru

Monday Musings 203 -That time of the year

Monday Musings 203 -That time of the year

Every corporate wallah will tell you it is that time of the year, when the mercury outside will be competing with the mercurial inside - both will hover at extremes and will vie for the reason for human insanity. It is the rating season. 

Every office goer knows that it is the decision time, the time when his labor will bear fruits, or at least it is expected to bear fruits. The employee will search for the evidence of the fruit, while the boss will search for the evidence of labor. The general trend is to overestimate fruit on the back of overestimation of labor or under-allocation of fruit on the back of underassessment of labor - and between the boss and the bossed, it is not very difficult to guess who does what!

Actually the preparation to this season begins from somewhere January itself, for the month not only heralds a new year but also a nice inflection point for those who were in slumber for the rest of the year, They wake up and that too with a vengeance, and try to work hard and portray the work harder than it is, to nullify the lack of both in the previous period. They rely on what is called 'recency effect' - in the hope that their boss will remember the proximate hyperactivity camouflaged as work and will forget the usual somnolence that was passed as work for most part of the year. The boss however is not the boss without a reason. He understands the trick because he himself indulged in it not very long ago.   

The employee behaves like an expectant parent - for the effort must be rewarded, and must be healthy. The boss behaves like sentry, who has the power of holding you off from the sanctum sanctorum till he derives his own sense of pleasure and power. Technically the reward is for work and is independent of who is guarding it - but sometimes the guard becomes more powerful than the guarded. The priests sometimes start believing that they can actually regulate your access to God, and the worshipper starts focusing on the priest more than the divine. 

The canteen, the cooler, the corridor is abuzz with who will get what. Everyone overestimates the ratings for the friend and underplays his own chances - both sides knowing that this is not what each other really believes in. In his own mind each is listing down all the reasons why he has far far far far.....exceeded expectations (not of the organization alone but also the industry, the country and often the civilization itself). The boss may also be preparing a similar script but towards a very different outcome.  

Cometh the day cometh the havoc. Faces will tell the story. Those who miss the bus obviously curse the boss, his aunt and her dog - but those who get rewarded also curse the boss, his aunt and her dog - because they either got less than what they thought they deserved or because someone else got more that what they thought that someone else deserved. How unfair!! Rarely does one find a really happy man walking through the organizational corridors. Everyone is in mourning. 

I am a boss and an employee. I know I, my aunt and her dog will be cursed. I also know most likely I will pass on the favor. 

I need a drink. 

Guru

Monday Musings 202 - Pearls in unusual places

I met an old B school friend of mine the other evening and some interesting conversation happened apart from the customary banter that so characterizes such get together. Insights come from strange people and under strange circumstances.

My friend, who spent a decade in the corporate world, quit one day the Nine-to-no-time routine and decided he had enough of the formal work schedule. I recount 3 great moments of epiphany from the catch up – who says only the wise hold the keys to wisdom!

1.       On the purpose of work

“I have decided to keep ‘happiness’ at the centre of my life and let everything else take its place…… the trick was not only to decide what I want to do but also what not to do……finally it was also about the courage to hold on to this decision when everyone else expected me to behave in a certain manner….the courage to live life on my terms and not because I was expected to live it in a certain manner….”

2.       On office politics

His wife, who also happens to be a college friend, was perturbed about some office intrigue with potential impact on growth prospects. His advice on the subject will put sages to shame. “ never has sword been picked up in the fight to become the wazeer (the minister) – sword always gets picked up to be the king……why lose sleep over something that is not the fight for the throne….if a 10% increase in money increases work by 100% and tension by 200, then it is obviously a bad bargain….”

3.       On Anonymity

I shared that I was hoping that I will soon get a publisher for my impending book and commented that ‘I don’t want to die in anonymity’……to which he immediately commented….” That is something that I am working hard to be continue to remain…anonymous!”

“….as times elapses the world elapses there are only two kinds of people in the world, good and not good…in the short run, there are many kinds, but the longer the time elapses, the world remembers only the really good one – rest all remain anonymous.”

I think what he left unsaid, graciously – that I should be a little more realistic about my own genius. Working hard is good, having aspirations is fine, ambitions are normal – but a bit of reality check will put things in perspective.

I am sure these are not the last words on the subject, but good places to begin a conversation.

Guru

Monday Musings 201 - Four circles and one point

Monday Musings 201 - Four circles and one point

Way back in rural Jharkhand in a small hamlet of sorts, so typically of the mofussil India, where I grew up, academics swayed between escape and a threat - escape in the sense that it offered a glimmer of hope that would lead us away and out of the oppression of backwardness; and a threat in the sense that children would be harshly reminded of what misery awaits them should they not spend hours and hours with books. I know for sure that this archetype was a fairly common - and children of this archetype are in organizations today. 

I am reminded of this archetype as I went through an amazing diagrammatic representation of what brings joy to the cublicle-wallah as he searches the elusive corporate salvation - a state of bliss and happiness that the sages and oracles promised us many eons back - just that they never worked in organizations. 

The diagram has four circles which cut through each other - and at only one point all four circles cut through each other - and that is the sweet spot. It talks about evaluating work on four key points - 

1. That which you love  2. That which you are good at  3. That which you can be paid for

4. That which the world needs

Let’s look at some combinations. This diagram does not belong to me. However the question at the end of it does. You must ask yours. 

a. Work which you love, are good at and the world needs - is your passion and can be converted into a mission - but it won’t be making money for you because you cannot be paid for it....the market has no time for your fantasies.

b. Work which you love, are good at and that you can be paid for - is your passion and can be converted into your profession - there is no larger purpose in your work...you are just a cog in the wheel...you will die, to borrow a phrase, without having made a dent in the universe because you never moved beyond the letter 'I'.

c. Work which you are good at, can be paid for and the world needs - is your profession and can be converted into a vocation - where is the Joie de vivre, where is the mojo, where is that spring in the steps and the song on the lips when you get ready to make millions out of something that you do not love...this is cruelty and worse, self inflicted. 

d. Work which you love, can be paid for and the world needs - is your vocation and can be converted into a mission.- You are mediocre but are lucky to be riding high demand which hides the inevitable discovery of your mediocrity. When the tide will ebb, you will be discovered. But enjoy till the party lasts. 

Coming back to the archetypes, the focus clearly was and perhaps is, what can you be paid for and to some extend what does the world needs, but never, never the other two. 

What do you think happens to these archetypes in organizations after 10-15 years?

Look around and you may know.

Guru