Monday Musings 267: The many shades of Rains

Monday Musings 267: The many shades of Rains

I write this facing my balcony and gazing at the haze caused by heavy downpour that is so characteristic of Mumbai. The overcast skies have open up like they have some kind of mandate to accomplish. Rains arguably are the best season of all. Most of the reasons that make rains enchanting are the sentimental kind, a kind of mush that one associates with the matters of the heart. (What the heck, even cubiclewallahs had a past, didn’t they?)

Adults hate rains mostly, unless you are a farmer – and I suspect if any of the reader of this post has a job description that has farming even the footnotes. The same adults used to enjoy rains as kids. There is no better joy than poodle crushing, something that can safely be assumed as a precursor to candy crush. The jump from one poodle to the next, unmindful of the soiling clothes and wet shoes, was an unparalleled joy. It was breaking free from the rhythm of the mundane, a rebellion against the chastity of routine and cleanliness. Most kids developed mysterious naval ambitions during rains – the paper boats which would glide through the small trail through the neighbourhood. I bemoan my kids missing this simple joy – the price of vertical condominiums. May be they will find something else to miss when they grow up.

Getting drenched meant different things as a kid and in youth. Returning home with not a follicle dry meant welcomed by an overzealous mom to reprimand camouflaged with dramatised concern. It would usually be followed by special treatment of hot tea and snacks. Untimely spicy snacking was the best thing about rains as a kid. Is the space of enjoying getting drenched shrinking? Everyone seems to be too scared of the kids falling sick. I have long ago come to the conclusion that the instinct to protect from harm has done more damage to our loved ones than our carelessness – but that has got nothing to do with rains.

The youth associates with rains in a more romanticised ways. There is some or the other association with rains that makes a gaping hole in their heart. Rains have a melancholy about it – youth experiences this ache freely and openly. Adults are too dead and busy anyway. They are busy protecting their leather shoes.

I believe most other seasons have nothing to give. They are prisoners of their character. Summer and winter cannot help but be what they are – oppressive. Spring is yet to decide whether it is summer or winter may be a mutant between the two. Autumn by design is forlorn, like a dejected lover. They hardly have anything to offer. All that happens in these seasons is despite them, not because of them. Rains are different. They are temperamentally givers. Rains carry bounties and they open up their hearts without favour and discrimination. They are like grandparents – large hearted, easygoing and always in the mood to give. Rains create conditions for life to flourish.

Guru

PS – so what do middle aged Punjabi men do when it rains? Well they look for their drinking glasses. Come to think of it, they do that even in summers, winters, autumn, spring or any other season. Why make an exception!!

Monday Musings 266: Even if Trump gets trumped!

Monday Musings 266:  Even if Trump gets trumped!

The recent issue of ‘The Economist’ says something very interesting about the possible nomination of Donald Trump (the issue went to press before he actually was nominated by the republicans). In summary the article argues that irrespective of whether Trump wins this November or not (and most likely he won’t), the American discourse in general and the Republican discourse in particular will no longer be the same for a very long time to come. They trace back this phenomena to the last century or more to a list of stray insurgents who appeared on the political scene of America from the 1800’s till date, who said dramatically idiotic things for those times, contested elections, lost gloriously and handsomely but even in their loss sowed seeds of the idea that they championed – which later on in some form or shape became mainstream, sometimes in a few years and sometimes in a few decades. Hence the conclusion, Trump may not really lose even he were indeed to lose the election.

The hypothesis appeals to me, even though Trump does not. (In fact I so enjoy the idea of someone like Trump in America – its sweet revenge; I am no longer particularly ashamed of my political class – even the USA has them!).  The hypothesis is this – that a radically new thought, which appears contrarian, bold, audacious, even stupid or taboo when postulated for the first time, summarily rejected by the electorate for which it is postulated for, may still be worth its while – for it may oen the door for at least a conversation to begin on the subject thereafter.

This hypothesis is sufficiently proven in the realm of ideas (imagine someone proposing a telephone or internet for the first time or say flying for the first time), or in the realm of social issues (imagine the backlash when someone would have proposed abolishing caste practices or Sati 200 years ago) or in the realm of inventions/technology.

I want to take a look at the hypothesis in the organisational context. A new practice, a new model, a new way of doing things, a new assumption, a new idea – which is radically different from the way things are, is met with characteristic grunts and disdain. Sometimes the idea gets shot down at the drawing table itself. It is these set of ideas that have not been accepted yet that are of intrigue to me.

What if we are proposers of an idea and in a brainstorming session it gets summarily rejected and comprehensively denounced? Even worse what if it is mocked? It appears that the authors of such ideas who are at the receiving end of such vitriol must take hope. History teaches us this. Even if the idea is rejected, it may have at least injected the idea in the canvass of discourse. The first time it may meet with disdain, the next time it will meet with rejection (at this stage you are considered worth opposing at least!), the chances are bright that the third time it will get with a ‘slot to debate’.  It is at this stage when one must take satisfaction that the idea has been given sufficient credibility – enough to merit a debate and opposition. The idea has received validation. Opposition is the highest form of engagement, perhaps more powerful and more fulfilling than agreement.

Voltaire had said, ‘No one can stop an idea whose time has come’. However what Voltaire perhaps failed to mention that before the time of an idea does come, there are multiple people who must have talked about the idea amidst derision and mock. It is on the shoulders of those unsung heroes that the glory of future strongly sits.

A wise and very senior leader shared in a candid moment that many times he has had to stay with an idea for more than a few years and build comfort and consensus around it before it got accepted. It was an invaluable lesson.

So the next time I may lose an argument around an important, path breaking, radically new proposition, may be I shall argue again – and again.

Monday musings 265 – An ode to Alvin Toffler

Monday musings 265 – An ode to Alvin Toffler

The rock star futurist Alvin Toffler passed away recently. I remember picking up his book ‘The Future Shock’’ during my B school and miserably failing to read it beyond 50 pages. The book and its content did not catch my fancy, which by the way speaks volumes about me more than it speaks about the book or the author.  Years later I picked a copy of it from the dusty (but famous for its collection of titles) pavements of South Mumbai but the book somehow remained unread for many more years. I finally did scan through it around a decade back.

Many of the pet themes and conversation embellishers that we use today in the corporate world can actually be traced to Alvin Toffler. Some of the Tofflerisms are now a part of everyday language and when we look into them in the light of the fact that they were said almost 40 years back, they acquire the halo of brilliance. For instance sample some of them –

1. ‘’Change is not merely necessary to life — it is life."
2.  "The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn."
3. "Change is the only constant."

And mind you – all of this was said was only one person!! (Actually two – if you include his wife, who collaborated on most of his work). Anyone who is interested to know which and how many of those predictions of Toffler came out to be true must pick a copy of the book and marvel at his prescience. It will also not be wrong to say that Alvin Toffler made the job of a futurist look sexy.

The sequel to Future Shock was ‘’The Third Wave’’ published in 1980. Some of the ideas postulated in this book may have appeared as fictions during the time of its publication but appear to be clairvoyant brilliance now.

For instance the thought that there will be a roll back of the industrial era creed of standardisation (towards customisation!!), and that there will be progressive attack on the notion of the nation state from below (increasing clout of regional/decentralised) and the top (rise of powerful non national entities like corporations, religions and cartels) or the eclipsing of monetary wealth by knowledge and information, so on and so forth.

Toffler went to write many more books and his ideas were built on by the subsequent generation of futurists. In his death Toffler may have triggered in me an interest in his works. Hopefully I will do better this time and stay with the study.

A few other Tofflerisms that the cubicle-wallah may find interesting for his consumption are -

1. ‘’Most managers were trained to be the thing they most despise – bureaucrats’’
2. You've got to think about big things while you're doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.
3. “You can use all the quantitative data you can get, but you still have to distrust it and use your own intelligence and judgment.’’
4. “The future always comes too fast and in the wrong order.”
    
   Rest in Peace Mr. Toffler.
    
   Guru

 PS - Sometimes (though not always) a good way of preparing for the road ahead is to look at the road covered.

Monday Musings 264 - Groucho in the Cubicle

Monday Musings 264 - Groucho in the Cubicle

I have always admired reading Groucho Marx whenever someone sent me an isolated quote of his. On a lazy Sunday afternoon I decided to a bit of background reading on his witty one liners. On the other side I have always bemoaned the lack of humour in the corporate world. I think the cabin and cubicle guys compete with politicians and lawyers in the race to take themselves a tad too seriously. All of them believe they are going to last forever and if this earth is going around the sun and the seasons are changing then a large part of the credit for it must go to them.  They must visit the graveyards – the damn place is filled with people who thought the same.

Groucho somehow knew this lot long before the cubicles got filled with the self obsessed.  I think I shall use the following quote of his as an opener. ‘’I worked my way up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty’’. This sums up quite well the bay-to-cubicle-to-cabin-to-wherever journey.  As my boss of one time use to say – ‘’he has stopped contributing to us; we have decided to promote him’’

Meetings are a great invention. Whoever invented it must have been a genius. Actually it is the right word – people definitely meet; some might argue, they only meet! Groucho commented ‘’before I speak I have something important to say’’.

Every day we meet people we would love to forget. Thank God there is some benefit of politeness that our schools taught us or there would be more dead people than we have in Syria today. Groucho the philosopher knew it half a century ago – ‘’I never forget a face but in your case I will be glad to make an exception’’. He also said – ‘’Next time I see you, remind me not to talk to you’’.

The number of hours we put at work is a subject of intense debate. It is considered to a surrogate of how much you contribute. Groucho had remarked ‘’No man goes before his time – unless the boss leaves early’’.

Management is getting things done. Principles behind action and consistency behind them and other sundry constraints must not get in the way. There is one for every occasion. Groucho was proud to have said ‘’these are my principles and if you don’t like them, I have others’’.

There are times at workplace when the sheer inanity and banality can make a rock wince. Thank God they have bars. When someone at work says, Gosh, I need a drink, he is indicating that he is on medication and it’s time for the next doze. Groucho supports when he says, ‘’I am not feeling well, I need a doctor immediately. Ring the nearest golf course’’.

The boss is all – a verb, an adjective and a noun. Disagreement with the boss is a cul-de-sac; a Hobson’s choice. You might hear Groucho speaking during such an interaction - ‘’who are going to believe – ME or your own eyes’’.

Finally I cannot slot this last one by Groucho, so I leave it your discretion – ‘’Please accept my resignation; I cannot belong to any organisation that has me as a member’’. 

Smile Please.

Monday Musings 263 – 1.01 versus .99

Monday Musings 263 – 1.01 versus .99

Some-times there is poetry in numbers. Recently I noticed a pearl in the otherwise banal deluge on the whatsapp which had only two equations – that 1.01 raised to the power of 365 was equal to 37.8 and that in contrast .99 raised to the power 356 was a paltry .03. Such was my disbelief in the enormity of the difference that I actually went and checked it myself and found that the calculation was indeed wrong. The later was actually .0255 and the author had been rather kind and rounded it off to the next higher digit and in the process save a bit of self respect for the tribe of .99.

I am sure the import of the equation is not very difficult to follow although the enormity might be difficult to digest.  A tiny, inconsequential, statistically meagre difference over a large period of time becomes not only material and substantial but as evident gargantuan.  The finance guys call it the power of compounding. I think the catchy concept might serve the purpose of explaining the phenomena very well in the world of the measurable but is woefully inadequate in expressing the enormity in the realm of the non measurable.

Over a long time how does one even begin to imagine the horrors two hour of watching TV over twenty years wreck on human intellectual capacity. How does one imagine what regular burger eating does over twenty years. I am sure there are burger fans and the TV addicts who might find this illustration offensive but then truth be told I cannot even begin to imagine the real long term impact of a very minor difference compounded over an extended time frame – assuming I can fathom the real implication of the equation above.

I am beginning to also ask myself how would this equation play out at work place or friendships or other relationships or our commitment to our professions. The difference between 1.01 and .99 is really too tiny and imperceptible, something that would in all likelihood pass notice however real it might be. The receiver of the service might not even know the difference, the consumer might not even be articulate the difference even though she might perceptually experience that tiny little gap rankling in her bones but the difference there is. Over the period of time the difference not only becomes material but also the differentiator. I wonder if I am the 1.01 kind or the .99 kind. I also wonder what will it take to know it.

I also ask myself what will it take for me to shift gears and then sustain itself over long times. An example that has stuck with me over many years illustrates the point.  There was a mason who was perturbed about a small imperfection very high on the ceiling; upon being assured that no one else would notice it so high up, he remarks that he would notice. I think clearly he was the 1.01 kind.

Very recently I came across a professional who was perturbed about a satisfaction score of 4.62 as against the expectation of 4.68. I did not understand then about what the fuss about a tiny .06 was but I know now. I think they practice the power of 1.01.  

Guru

Monday Musings 262: The hurry to understand others

Monday Musings 262: The hurry to understand others

I come across quite frequently many who profess to understand others.  An equal others if not more are those want to learn to understand others. In m y profession particularly a window into the dungeons of the human mind and human behaviour is considered a holy grail and there are not many to fall for the charms of mastering it – at least the notion of it. There in hangs this musing.

The idea that we understand others, their behaviour, and their motives is so intoxicating that before we know it we fall for it. The notion that it is even possible to do so is enough to suck us into believing that we can actually do it. One of the reasons why we fall for it is because it gives us a sense of power. What can be more gratifying than the idea that we can understand others and their actions – and in that knowledge lies the mistaken belief that we can play with it, influence it and control it.  Some elemental study around mental models, pop psychology and juvenile theories and oops – ladies and gentleman we have got a psychologist on the house!

The idea that we can even begin to unravel the recesses of a human mind and then tie it up with its manifestation is overconfidence, unless one has devoted an entire life to study it.  For everyone else I guess the whole thing is tantamount to armchair hunting. It gives a nice feeling and a high, but at the end of it all it, it’s notional and really unreliable. However many fall for it. I wonder why?

This whole thing becomes ironic because while being interested and even passionate about pursuing the study of another mind keeps so many of us busy; the dungeons of our own mind remain unexplored. The physician remains ailing!! I also reckon that the lack of understanding of self remains an ignored pursuit not as much because of ignorance or inability but more because of arrogance – which one knows enough about himself/herself.

As Kabeer says,

Padhi guni Pathak bhaye, samjhaya sansaar

Aapan ko samjhe nahi, britha gaya avatar

(Study and teaching the world is of no avail, // Unexplored and un-understood self - such a wasted life!)

So the question to muse over is not the sermon of needing to spend more time and effort to understanding ourselves rather than wasting time on trying to understanding others, but the question what makes the latter so charming and the former so repulsive? I use the strong adjective repulsive rather than my first choice, ‘unattractive’ because I reckon such large scale denial definitely must have its roots in something fundamentally disturbing. Perhaps we are too afraid to study self for the fear of what we may find – perhaps we already know in some strange way what we will find.

I think it was Carl Jung the famous psychologist who had said – ‘’Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding about ourselves’’. A twist of that could easily be, the more we are interested in know about the minds of others indicates that we running away from understanding ourselves. !!

Monday Musings 261: The Menace of trolls

Monday Musings 261: The Menace of trolls

The flipside of open access social media is the evolution of a new creature called the troll. A troll as the Wikipedia defines is a ‘’...is a person who sows discord on the internet by starting arguments or upsetting people by posting inflammatory, extraneous messages....attacks people....”

Following are the defining features of a troll.

A troll hides behind a mob. He is like the faceless member of the herd of yesteryears who seeks strength in his anonymity and solace in his being unknown. He is the neighbourhood bully who lurks just around the corner often with a group of lumpen elements. I also suspect he is psychologically deeply disturbed and must have had a history of attention deficit. He is battling his insignificant past and most likely even more insignificant future (someone who is busy trolling is unlikely to achieve anything meaningful anytime soon) by attacking those are genuinely significant enough to have attracted trolls like the swarm of bees.

A troll expresses without processing. A troll rarely cross checks facts verifies truthfulness and authenticity. Actually he has nothing to do with truth – his draws fun in the attack. The grounds of the attack be damned. My hunch is that a troll enjoyed in his childhood such random games like plucking the feathers off butterflies, throw stones at stray dogs and kill lizards and rats. Since such opportunities do not arise much these days so trolling is a close substitute if only even more dumber.

A troll has an opinion in anything and everything. A successful troll has something to say even when he has no clue on the subject at hand. Actually my sense is that he actually knows nothing about anything at all because anyone who has any credible knowledge about anything would not do something as silly as offering unsolicited advice or comment. Restraint – as a word, ability and attitude is unknown to a troll.

A troll is touchy and hence aggressive. A troll has very poor threshold for disagreement. He is touchy about his views and his position in general. My sense is that he suffers from low self esteem and was most likely thrashed by his teachers and parents and always compared with his mates on counts of decency and obedience. As a troll this is payback time for him. He will criticise anyone for anything. Most of his hurt is imaginary but his digital anger is real.

A troll is does not know history. If the whatsapp and FB forward on themes like politics, religion, and culture and how can I forget, patriotism is anything to go by – it is abundantly clearly he flunked in history. Not only is history flawed, uneducated and deeply bigoted, the fact that he wears this as a badge of honour makes him actually dangerous.

Imagine a likert scale where on one end is a mischief monger and on the other hand is a nut case  and imagine someone with characteristics of both and then imagine such a creature as a digital organism. That my friend is a troll for you! He may be the person who is on his device next to you. Give him a slap and send him back to school.

 

Guru