Monday Musings 194: Revolutions from above or within

Monday Musings 194: Revolutions from above or within

The notion of a revolution is quite a romantic one. The Arab spring, the south East Asian uprisings and closer home the AAP juggernaut appears to be cut from the same cloth - the revolution that was murmuring a while ago but simmered soon, only to erupt one fine day. Across histories the notion of revolution comes along with the narrative of popular discontent reaching a stage where it is difficult for the powers to be to hold on to the status quo any further. 

Dipankar Gupta in his book 'Revolution from above' argues that that "at every historical juncture when democracy made significant advances, it was the citizen elite or the elite of calling who led the charge often going against the grain of popular demands and sentiments". I was just past the preface when it struck me that how does this sociological theory pans out in modern organizations. The notion that the elite, often the beneficiaries of the status quo in a system bring forth reforms that furthers the cause of progress and emancipation in a democratic society is borne out time and again - I am sure I will read about it as I progress in the book. How does it play in organizations?

Does an elite in modern organizations, who hold the seat of power and influence go about furthering their own self interest, reinforce their power structures or do they systematically go about bringing down structures that have outlived their utility, are harmful to the future readiness of an organization, even if it means this will weaken their own turf. Do organizations have such reformist idealism? Do organizations offer space for such reformist zeal? Most critically, do organizations tolerate such reformist initiative?

In the Industrial relations space, puritanically speaking at least, the trade union movement still allowed negotiations to better the system. However in the white collared world, it is the secular forces of systems and processes which are supposed to make the system self correcting. However these systems, non-human as they are, are subject to the usual machinations at the hands of the person who controls it. It that elite wants, it shall reform - however if that elite does not want, then god bless the system. 

Organizations are usually political spaces where competing worldviews, views and interests vie for legitimacy, validation and survival. They are fuelled by intelligence and analysis but are always subject to human failings. Ultimately pure rationality is a myth. There is a lot of premium that is put on judgment of leaders - and who is to say in the extreme short run if a decision is governed by pure objectivity or colored by the person involved. Would reforms be pushed by the elite in modern organizations if at the end the system is strengthened but leaves him without power or the strapping’s of it? Quite unlikely - would be the common responses. 

If this is true, does it mean that sociologically speaking, organizations are far less evolved than society at large in its instinct to better itself - an orangutan amidst Homo sapiens!!

Guru

Monday Musing 193: Of an equation, a book launch, and a marathon

Monday Musing 193: Of an equation, a book launch, and a marathon

The New Year had a languid start for the occasional writing that I do - the intent of which is primarily catharsis and a distant second is the need to have a voice and make it heard. We cublclists tend to have a bloated image of the cubicle's galactic significance. I guess the writing serves as a gentle reminder of the many parallel universes apart and beyond the cubicle that exist with no less significance, if only we chose to notice.  

The New Year started by a mail from an oracle that many like me adore and are in awe, which ended with an equation which said - 

“Bad experience + poor response = shaky foundation

  Bad experience + good response = Learning and growth."

I quickly went over all the bad responses I had dished out to the bad experiences that I have had - from health to work, from unrequited love to office intrigue, from hobbies which never became a profession and professions which never became a hobby - and I winced. The things that were responded better to, did not come to my rescue. Hopefully I will have a better strike rate in the future. I was also thinking of how we respond to good experience and I arrived at a cheeky version of the equation - 

"Good experience + poor response = wasted opportunity

Good experience + good response = Epiphany"

Pankaj Dubey and his book theme "What a loser/Loser kahin ka" has featured so many times on my blog that a friend suspected I was paid for it - and my response was, "how I wish!” On the 15th of Jan finally the book got launched in both the languages amidst an ensemble of film personalities - from actors Sarika and Divya Dutta, movie director Rajkumar Gupta (Amir, No One Killed Jessica and Ghanchakkar), Story writers Himanshu Sharma (Rhanjhana, Tanu weds Manu), Sanjay Chowhan (Sahib Biwi and Gangster and Paan SIngh Tomar) and Actress Swara Bhaskar - and he offered that I should moderate the panel discussion on the occasion, an offer that was too good to let go.

I have always featured Pankaj Dubey as a case study, an alternative to the mainstream model of success - where you chase your imagination rather than pursuing the predictable and hackneyed. The guy who was at the top of his class was moderating a discussion on the book written by the guy who was at the bottom - very cinematic!! I pray that the tribe of Mr. Dubey grow and rub off some courage to the traditionalists - and please do read the book. 

The marathon season kicked off for me at the Mumbai marathon today - where I did my best in the circuit but not my best ever. Importantly, I did not feel like I was dying nor had any kind of stress or stretch during the run and at the finishing line I had enough in me to go on for some more time. I think the full marathon- a scorching 42kms has entered the realm of possibility in  my imagination. Could 2014 be the year where I will muster enough courage to 'graduate' to the proverbial next level? 

Let’s see - 2014 is still young!

Guru

Monday musings 192: For a new voice

Monday musings 192: For a new voice

"For last year's words belong to last year's language,

And next year's words await another voice"

                                                - T. S Eliot

Another year leaked from the bucket of life. Those who shall attempt some kind of reflection, will be faced with the dilemma of seeing the year gone as either half filled or half empty. Some will find that avoiding such a reflection might be a better idea. 

The turn of the tide could have either strengthened our belief that we controlled the outcomes or led us to believe that much as we work to a plan, the future has a mind of its own. The human heart would discover that we might have some degree of control on what we pursue and how we do it, but we may not have a similar degree of control over how we feel at the end of the journey. We might be surprised by a sense of loss in victory or a sense of contentment in loss. 

I see multiple responses to a year gone by. Some treat this as a non-event believing that it is just a number. Some use this as a unit of time and compare it with what they set out to do and achieve and hence there is a assessment for the year - goals achieved, money made, success achieved, holidays taken, so on and so forth.

At the end it is less about how good or bad the year was but how good or bad were we during the year. How good were we in utilizing the opportunity of the last year 'to make a dent in the universe'? I have also grown to believe that nothing kills human beings faster than regret. How much more the year could have been packed with! How much more was the possibility of being happy and puny were our preoccupations!

There is infinite possibility to give voice to another language in 2014. I pray for courage to claim that language from our deepest fears. The language of possibilities, the language of listening to intuition, the language of instinct, the language of meaning in work. The only thing that separates us from what we know is right and what we must do is courage. May we have that in abundance the New Year. 

May we have another language and another voice – that of our own.

Guru

191 - The joys of multi-lingualism

191 - The joys of multi-lingualism

The other day I got the opportunity to listen to a discussion on bilingualism under the umbrella of the Times litfest. The discussion revolved around the phenomenon and implications of bilingualism in today’s world viewed from the lens of cinema and popular culture. I must speak on the subject from the point of view of a cubicle-wallah.

India's diversity is most ubiquitous in its languages, apart from its weather, skin color, food and geography. As one travels even a fraction of the 2000 plus miles between Kashmir to Kanyakumari, one 'hears' India as much as one 'sees' and 'tastes' it. While this diversity is documented and taught school onwards it is not systematically and consciously developed. There has been a significant progress made in building the diversity of the palate and it is not uncommon to see culinary diversity at display across. Dosa is no longer a south Indian breakfast just as the stuffed paratha is no longer a north Indian phenomena. However we have not demonstrated a similar catholicity, an openness of mind in adopting linguistic diversity.  

English is our de-facto national language, Hindi a second language to at best half of Indians. So for all practical purposes half of India knows only one Indian language, if we discount English for a while. The rest of the country which has a regional or vernacular language apart from English might have Hindi as third possible language. My suspicion is that most of us do not know more than 2 or at best 3 Indian languages which is a pathetic low in a country which has 22 officially recognized languages apart from more than 1500 'mother tongues'. We must be chasing multi-lingualism while we seem to have limited success at bilingualism. 

I am sure we all would know the barriers in learning more than the languages we already know. However the benefits far outweigh the struggle. For one, nothing helps us bond and know better a people better than in their mother tongue. Language builds bridges that are beyond the here and now. When I speak in Oriya, I do not connect only the person of today but to the history of those people for centuries. I touch and get touched with the collective memory of a people which would have remained out of bounds otherwise. The world of their customs, rituals and deep rooted beliefs opens up for my understanding and empathy. Left to it all of this may develop without the glue of language also, but language achieves this rather instantaneously. 

Diplomacy is helped by language. Connections are strengthened by language. Corporate relationships are aided by language. The other day Economic Times reported how the new CEO of Pepsi food and the world wide CEO of PepsiCo bonded over their common language. Organizations that have a pan India presence include linguistic proficiency as an important factor in their people decisions and not without reason.

As I look around it is not difficult to see the shrinking space for bilingualism. Increasingly the urban youth at least is happy to be well versed with only one language, mostly English. When a language is reduced to become only a 'subject', the writing on the wall is clear - it is the beginning of the end for it. There is hardly any parental consciousness about this either and hence it is no surprise that there is no action in it. However neither are adults doing much about it.

I wonder how many New Year resolutions will be 'let me learn another language' - including mine.

Guru 

190: The rise and rise of the loser

190: The rise and rise of the loser

Almost two years to this date, 29th of November 2010 to be precise, I described one Pankaj Dubey in Monday Musings 103 - an unusual story of an extremely gifted "middle class boy in the small town of a developing country" (his words) who failed so gloriously academically but still found his feet chasing his dreams. This is a sequel to that story. (strongly recommend that you read that before you move ahead -http://mondaymusingsbyguru.blogspot.in/2010/11/103-monday-musings-story-of-unusual.html). 

Pankaj was abused by academics in his early years and more particularly by maths. In his own words he is a 'merchant of imagination and not a prisoner of knowledge'. His life took him from the hinterlands of Jharkhand to BBC, film festivals and some serious work in empathy building in slum children. I had ended by saying that he has now shifted his base to Mumbai to dabble in film writing and that one must keep watching this name because "this part of the story is still untold". I was not wrong.  

In the last 2 years Pankaj has done script supervision for the movie 'Ghanchakkar', an under-production feature called 'Chauranga', but most importantly next month will see the launch of his maiden book called 'What a Loser' with Penguin India, also simultaneously in Hindi called "Loser kahin ka". Pankaj has written in both the languages-something that yet again indicates how prolific his talent is. 

The last blog on this subject was an ode to what sheer talent, imagination and creativity could do. It was also to shatter the myth of academic success and how underprepared is the current school education to predict the future success of its produce. This blog is to talk about the rise and rise of the tribe of losers. 

Success is so over-rated and I have a feeling it would also be very boring. Statistically more people fail more number of times than those who succeed. Even the best fail a lot more than they care to admit. Success is like nicotine - each time you need a stronger dose to give you the same high. After a while your nerves are jaded and your soul is tired, chasing the mirage of success. You cannot rest because by now you are scared of losing out. The popular culture is desperately looking for the hero of the day - only to be forgotten tomorrow because someone else has claimed the airwaves. Yet the chase continues because the popular culture celebrates the hero. The rest are condemned to live the life of anonymity - the loser. 

The loser never claimed his space. But not anymore. The loser is the underdog who must now come from behind despite his feeble chances of winning. If only the top of the pyramid must get all, then such a pyramid must be damned. This is not a socialistic utopia which justifies mediocrity, but an appeal for diversity. There can more than one pyramid - and the loser of one can be the winner of the next. 

'What a loser' by Pankaj Dubey must be bought, read and re-read - in that order, as a celebration of ordinariness. It must be held dear by all those who did not top their class ever but are special nevertheless. It is not an apology but a celebration. I have a feeling being a loser will become fashionable with this book.  There cannot be shame in being ordinary or not being the first. 

Well done Pankaj! I am so looking forward to both the books. 

Guru

for more on this go to - http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/en/content/what-loser

189 Monday Musings: The AAP phenomena and organisations

189 Monday Musings: The AAP phenomena and organisations

The victory of the political novice AAP in Delhi will be dissected for quite some time now as it must be. The so called middle class shot to economic prominence in the last decade of the previous century with its colossal purchasing power along with consumption power. Every producer of goods and services paid homage to the likes and dislikes of this block of consumers. Choice was a bad word till then because the consumer had none and the producers had no incentive to give one – from scooters to TV, from telephone to clothes the gloom of choicelessness was all pervasive. Economic emancipation fired and fanned by the forces of liberalization finally changed that. Business writing started to recognize the collective might of the middle class and perhaps the best work on this came from the bureaucrat Pavan K Verma who wrote ‘The great Indian middle class’. 

Economic emancipation often makes way for a need for political and cultural emancipation. The AAP dent in the political universe must be seen in that light. A group of people wanted a voice, wanted to be heard and taken notice of – and when the traditional system refused to do that they made themselves heard by taking matters in their own hands.

Let us examine the lessons for organizations from this.

#1. Recognize the shifts in the voices for all segments/functions/departments. With time the prominence of departments change and the voice available to them must be commensurate to their emerging criticality. Backbenchers of yesteryears may be at the vanguard of tomorrow.

#2 Provide organized and formal avenues of expression to teams and individuals. It is foolhardy to believe that the system ‘knows what ails itself’ all the time. The power of self correction is often overestimated in systems however desirable it might be. One never knows when a minor thread of discontent becomes a short fuse for a revolt.

#3. Change the nature and the idiom of discourse with the changing times. Speak in metaphors of the times and not of a bygone era. When the corporate geriatrics (read 45 plus) rule the Gen X, fault lines will emerge. Similarly each function has a different idiom and when the conversation within the organization takes place in the idiom of the dominant department then we are sowing seeds of discontent. The organizations must have an amoebic ability to reach out and engage in ‘local’ idiom of every unit, function and department.

#4. Finally, never underestimate an upstart. Do not ridicule early voices for or against an idea or a policy. Isolated voices gather momentum because, to borrow Voltaire’s words, ‘it’s time may have come’. Organizational movements are messier than political revolts because they are rarely visible. They can paralyze a system, rob it of its ability to create what it can and be what it can be.

Guru

188 - Monday Musings - Good guys can finish first

188 - Monday Musings - Good guys can finish first

It is difficult for any observer with even a small cricketing bone in him in India and outside, not to be swayed by the Sachin-mania that has swept them like a typhoon. They can be broadly be classified in the following categories - The cricket enthusiasts, The worshippers, and The pattern makers.

The cricket enthusiasts are the purists within this lot. They adore the 'Big' little man for the sheer cricketing genius that he was. Their love for Sachin was nothing but a personalization of their love for the game. What better way of expressing their love for the willow or the cherry than idolize the one man who almost became larger than the game itself! In praising Sachin they praised cricket and their love for it. They loved him because he took the game to levels higher than what he inherited. But make no mistake - they loved Sachin because they loved cricket and not the other way around. 

The worshippers loved him for what they aspired to become but probably fell short of. Sachin represented the Indian version of the 'American dream' if there is one - A middle class Indian who aspires to make it big by the dint of his hard work in the right way, An 'Aam Admi' who wants to raise his future to a level where matters of existence do not faze him anymore and allows him the rare luxury of doing what he loves. The worshippers were in awe of Sachin because he had demonstrated that such a thing was indeed possible. He represented what they always wanted to do and become. His God-like following was perhaps less to do with his cricketing genius but more to do with what he came to represent for the 'aam aadmi' - a metaphor for unbridled aspiration even in the face of scarcity. In an icon hungry but icon scarce country he offered hope. 

The pattern makers are intellectuals who try to solve the non-sporting aspects of Sachin the person and his meteoric rise. They explore, amongst other things, how Sachin's rise coincided with the rise of India along with the liberalization of economy, how Sachin represented the rise of youth power in the face of a geriatric leadership, how he heralded a silent aggression in an otherwise lukewarm dressing room so on and so forth. They will continue to draw such patterns. 

What do I like Sachin for the most? Given the cubclist that i am, of the many things i admire about him the one thing that keeps coming back to me is that - 'Good guys can finish first'. Sachin's rise to prominence and stardom is unblemished. His humility and personal disposition is unquestionable. In 24 long years, despite his dizzying stardom, there is absolutely no question about his integrity. Even his worst critic knows this as an ablsolute truth that he owes his success, riches, and iconic status to nothing and nothing but merit. In the corporate world where it is so easy to be disillusioned as many have, for right reasons or wrong, and where everyone is in search of the secret of making it big, that is such a reassuring conclusion. 

Guru