Responsibility with authority!

I read an interesting piece of news, regarding the Captain of a King Fisher Airlines plane, disembarking an unruly passenger, yesterday.

A few years ago, on a trip back to India from Bangkok, I was seated beside a gent who took off with his liquor, as soon as the plane was airborne. He downed cocktails at the speed of light! Soon the chap was drunk & demanding more. When the cabin crew politely declined, he got abusive & demanded to see the "Pilot". The frightened girl called the flight steward, who tried to calm the situation down, even as the decibel level grew and the rarefied air was thick with expletives.All of a sudden, the cockpit door burst open & the Commander, a Brit, strode down the aisle and asked what was going on. After getting the full picture- he told the drunk passenger, that he would be clapped in irons ( hand cuffed ) and locked in a toilet. The silence that followed was deafening. There was no further issue & the rest of the journey was very uneventful.

A friend of mine, a erstwhile helicopter pilot, told of me of an interesting incident, when he was flying a senior politician. Prior to take off the weather turned bad & my friend refused to fly. The politician was furious and threatened the pilot with dire consequences. My friend stood his ground & still refused to fly. The next day the politician, invited him to breakfast & apologized for his unreasonable behavior!

The point I'm trying to make is that responsibility calls for authority.To handle great responsibility you need great authority. Many a time we are quick off the blocks to frame, rules & responsibilities, for our subordinates without giving them adequate authority to carry the responsibility.When they fail ( which they will ), we question their competence. There can be no responsibility without authority, is what you will find if you read the Japan Convention on Air Safety. On an aircraft the Captain's decision reigns supreme & the next time you have the urge to be naughty on an aircraft, watch your step.

The bigger picture is for managers, to exercise caution, before they delegate responsibility!Don't forget the authority part.....................

Men of Hononr!

Just concluding my course with the defense class, here at ABS, I'm having a blast.The simple reason being the child like curiosity that many of them show & their interest in learning.

Management as we know it emanated from the Armed Forces & what these simple folk do not know is the jargon, which they would learn at a B School. One story that was shared during a session, was the experiences that some of these folk had during their posting at the glacier at Siachen and guarding the peaks at Kargil. Braving sub zero temperatures, blinding blizzards & sometimes constant enemy shelling, these guys take the beating day in & out, for only one reason- the pride in defending something that is close to their hearts.The passion is evident!

When, a HR specialist talks about employee engagement, I suggest he/she treks up to the Himalayan heights or gets on board a ship in rough seas.One of our erstwhile defense ministers, made a trip to these heights to spend time with the troops, in summer. The troops were happy but one soldier requested, if the minister, would be good enough to pay them a visit in December.The minister did, to experience, sheer hell.......................post which he got almost every paper pushing babu in the MoD to spend time with the army at Siachen, to get them to understand the what the normal soldier goes through.

The soldier, does not complain about boredom or the lack of comfort. Soldiers rarely display a 'sense of entitlement' that you would see in the Corporate world.I think servicemen have a few unique traits, which are:

1.A sense of humor.
2.Adventurous.
3.Passionate.
4.They are generally in control.
5.Wonderful body language.

Corporate India would benefit greatly in having these men of honor within their ranks!

The golden compass!

Yesterday, I spent, some time with a friend, from many years ago. I had invited him to be the Chief Guest, of our Executive Management Program here at ABS. He had reluctantly agreed & I'm glad he did because we had a few good laughs.Purushottam is now the CEO of a IT firm here at Bangalore.

As youngsters, he preparing to crack the CAT exam & me the Merchant Navy & Defense exams, we would spend time playing cricket or stuffing ourselves at small joints serving Marwari or Punjabi food, where the food was great & easy on the pocket.Soon we parted ways, he heading for the IIM( B ) & I the Merchant Navy.We lost touch.

Post the program, while he declined to eat anything, he told me that as very senior guy at a major IT firm, he had quit his job one day, to do nothing, as he feared a burnout.After doing absolutely nothing for a while, he returned to head a small IT firm & takes life easy.

What is burnout?

"Burnout is the gradual process by which a person, in response to prolonged stress and physical, mental and emotional strain, detaches from work and other meaningful relationships. The result is lowered productivity, cynicism, confusion...a feeling of being drained, having nothing more to give."

Unfortunately the phenomenon is getting to be quite common these days & fortunate are the few who recognize the warning signs and course correct.Burnout is not for the wimps, but for those who have gone the distance and then decided to jump ship!

I'm reasonably certain that with the pace of change that we have today, burn out is going to be a word much bandied about and folks will have to reinvent themselves, if they are to remain competitive and lead meaningful lives.( What is meaningful is debatable?)

In today's hyper-competitive economy, we can easily fall prey to burnout that comes from information overload,perpetual busyness and constantly racing against the clock. In his book Crazy Busy, Edward Hallowell writes that being too busy can become a habit so entrenched that it makes us slaves to a lifestyle we don't like, but can't escape: "You can be so busy that you don't even take the time to decide what actually does matter the most to you, let alone make the time to do it." What's more, many of us "get lost in work" while watching our health, relationships, and outside interests suffer.

In this context it is fundamental to be 'selfish' and look at what is good for you and your little world.Next time you have that 'empty' feeling & little things do not make you laugh,or you are unable to respond to affection, probably it's time to get the compass out and check your course......................Every one of us has a compass, deep within ourselves, delve & get the damn thing out!

In the whirligig of life!

The last year and a half in academia has been a whirligig of excitement, achievement and pure adrenalin for me. While I'm able to discuss, far flung subjects like the fate of the blue whale in the Bearing straits to fog created by forest fires off Singapore and various other HR & OB theories,with equal ease and finesse,I've also noticed that my midriff has been expanding, not alarmingly, but its happening. The increase is incremental like a quality auditor would tell you.

To tackle this middle age malice, I've begun to make a few half hearted attempts at jogging to get the heart pumping at increased levels & fat burnt.Well, on one such sprint this morning, lost in thought, I was rudely shaken out my reverie by a body blow, which sent me sprawling. I was really cold, my feet were slipping around and my hands were rebelling against me. The initial shock gave way to anger & I rose with death in my heart..............& much to my surprise there was this young twenty something kid,mop of black curly hair, with a sheepish look on his face, trying to make apologetic noises. After making rude references to his eyesight, upbringing & so on, to which the guy refrained from responding, we were on our way. However it puzzled me as to how, he could miss a bulk like mine? The question answered itself, when I spotted a group of girls taking a morning jog a short distance away.

After using the general countryside as a public urinal & spittoon, the next best past time for Indians is ogling. We are absolute masters! Nowhere else in the world, do folk ogle as much as we do ( Indians).While the human female, is the most sought after target, we can satisfy ourselves by ogling at other forms as well! A recent study stated that on an average a male spends about one year of his life in ogling ( 365 days )and as for females, about half that ( 180 days ).
Mind boggling! I'm sure an Indian average would be higher.............I can vouch for the males, my lady friends will have to tell me if this is true?

My young friend who knocked me over, was obviously ogling at the females jogging & managed to miss my mass. Mystery solved.I've also been told, that ogling, at the right target can raise your heart rate by 20- 30 % and cut the risk of heart attacks by half!

I'm seriously debating whether it would be more fun to to ogle than jog.........and next time you want to brush the practice away as a waste of time, think again, it might save you that heart attack!

Big talk & more!

Viru Sehwag, India's explosive opening bat, is always talking, either with the bat or otherwise. This time around, he seems to have gone overboard, by calling the Bangladesh Cricket Team, a second string one and a push over. The result- Bangladesh is really testing India, in the opening test, at Dacca!Big talk & overconfidence can have that effect.

This episode reminds me of an incident, from many years ago! One hot sunny afternoon, we were all lined up for the semifinals of a cricket tournament, at the junior level. My team was called the 'Kiowas'- named by my Sikh friend. The Kiowa is apparently a Red Indian tribe and was arrived at, as my friend was a fan of the 'western' novel.Not withstanding the strange name, we were a bunch of enthusiastic kids.The opposition, were a very good team, with more than half the side representing the state. Worse, two of their fast bowlers- were just that, very fast!Well, to cut to the chase, we folded up for 55 runs. Even thirty years ago, that was a pathetic score. I suffered the ignominy of a first ball, duck, more so because I was captain & considered our best bat.During the innings change over, we were at the receiving end of derisive comments & felt really sad for ourselves.

When the opposition, got to bat, we decided to hang in there & make life tough for them. When the sixth wicket fell, at 53 and we waited for the next batsmen, there was a delay.................after a wait, the umpires called the match off in our favor, as the opposition could not continue. The remaining batsmen had gone home assuming that the match was a cake walk!

We'd won against all odds, even that of having a strange name.The local papers had a field day reporting the match,the next day!

I think there are two lessons to be learnt..................whatever the situation, hang in there because you can never tell & overconfidence is for the foolish! At sea, you always rode out a storm by facing in to heavy waves, not by turning tail & running!

My advise to many of my young friends during the recession, is just the same- times are tough, but hang in there.As for Sehwag, it is a good idea if his bat did the talking!

The maze of International Laws!

Two instances with interntional ramification's but close to home, are those of the Google mess behind the dragon's veil in China & that of Andy Pag in Rajasthan. I'm quite certain much of the folk would have heard of Google but the same would not hold true with Andy Pag.I've got a rather smug smile on my face, as I was talking the Google story, in my International HR class, a couple of months ago as a potential point of conflict between the USA & China.

Andy is a Brit who also holds an Italian passport and believes in saving the world from ecological apocalypse. He drives a twenty year old school bus powered on bio fuels across the world & spreads his message. Apparently he drove a bus to 'Timbuktu' in Africa, powered by chocolate & he also organised the Grease to Greece Rally in 2008, where teams travel across Europe in vehicles powered by cooking oil. Amazing !

Andy, presently in India, is frankly in a mess, where the danger is very clear and present and far away from the ecological doomsday that he is striving to save the world from. As of now he is in police custody in Rajasthan,after being arrested in Ajmer, for being in possession of a satellite phone that should have been declared to the cops, on his entering India. From where did he enter India? Pakistan! Now you have all the ingredients of a explosive mixture. Apparently, the phone is the type that was used by terrorists, in the Mumbia Taj strike,a year ago.The charge is serious enough- Anti terror!

The British media is up in arms & his family has taken up his case.I Can understand their plight- in all likely hood Andy is innocent & most folk from the first world have an unmitigated horror about Indian jails. You talk about jails in India & they visibly blanch and go wobbly around the knees. The British government, quiet as of now, is going to raise the pitch, sooner than later.Andy claims that he was not aware, of the regulation and is innocent. Maybe so, but ignorance is not a good defense, to prove innocence.You just cannot step into another country and say, I do not know your regulations. It is good practice to make yourself aware & that is what makes International Business, so complicated.

There was a case, in China, a few years ago, when the Captain, of a ship, was arrested. His crime- he stayed away from his ship, the night over. An accepted practice the world over, but not in China.

I hope Andy Pag, can prove his innocence and continue on his journey, to save the world, a wiser man from now.

We all learn don't we......................................that's why they say experience is the greatest teacher!

Multiple Intelligence!

I was touched by the moving tale of a young Pakistani family's trip to India, to have their child operated upon, for a complicated heart condition. Apparently the operation was successful & the family was treated extremely well in Delhi. They hope to return in year or so, for a second operation.

Recently the Times of India has launched an initiative to improve people to people contact and understanding, this against Government to Government talks, which seem to go nowhere.

A few years ago, while in Dubai, my ship had a sentry. A quiet fellow we would exchange few words. I always thought he was Indian till I learnt that he was from Lahore & had been an army soldier. Post this we swapped a lot of stories & when we were leaving the Port I invited him over to lunch with us & presented him a company 'T Shirt'.The chap was immensely touched and having grown up on staple anti India propaganda in the army, would hopefully have altered his view about Indian's a tad.The sentry had a common story to tell- how his agent in Pakistan had duped him into coming to Dubai & once he did he found life tough and payment poor. He was looking to return home at the end of his one year contract, to be with his family.At the end of the lunch the chap was in tears.......more so because he did not expect to share a meal with officer's in our hierarchy driven world, where we live in societies with a high Power Distance Index.

Apparently Indian visitor's to Pakistan, during cricket matches were treated like royalty and returned a happy lot!

In that context people to people contact is wonderful but will stop short of achieving anything tangible unless Government's make a breakthrough through negotiation.While many may differ, I think the Indian Government is doing a wonderful job. They talk but keep their guard up.............That is the way forward, at a more serious level you cannot negotiate all starry eyed & full of romance.

However, all attempts to build cultural understanding and intelligence must be encouraged, because that is what distances prejudice and rancour.At the more micro level, I think the same holds true for an organization as well.As a manager, in a global world Cultural Intelligence is as fundamental as is Emotional Intelligence and intrinsic IQ.

It is also important that as Manager's we are equipped with an array of Intelligences to be successful.

'Cholche Na, Cholbe Na'

Jawaharlal Nehru, in The Discovery of India (1946), justly describes Clive as having won the battle of Plassey "by promoting treason and forgery", and pointedly notes that British rule in India had "an unsavory beginning and something of that bitter taste has clung to it ever since."

After an unsavory start the British, consolidated their hold in Bengal and thus was born the City of Calcutta.

If not for an alert tram driver, you would probably not be reading this piece. My first memories of Calcutta,are of being struck a glancing blow, by a tram amidst much clanging of bells, as a young cadet.Calcutta is the only city in India to have trams & they had not registered to my young mind, resulting in me standing on the tracks & staring at the scenes that wafted by.

I'd heard a lot about the city,from my parents,who had spent some of the best moments of their life there and to be honest, the city was a bit of a let down. The crowds, the pollution, the city all dug up ( for the metro )were what registered first, when I got there, after suffering a traffic jam on the Hoogly Bridge!

Since then some of my best friends live in Calcutta & I learnt much of the nuances of ship handling on the Hoogly.Another strong memory, is my wandering into, a restaurant on the Park street & seeing a gent, in a faded black tuxedo, with a bow tie, blowing on a gleaming trumpet. Straight out of the Raj.Indeed, if one Indian city has retained memories of the Raj, it is Calcutta & its babus more than any other Indian city.

The Saffron, in the Park Hotel, served the best Mughlai food, as far as i'm concerned and the post dinner Kulfi, topped with strawberry syrup is simply divine.Every time I dined there the chef would come & chat me up for a while. Very polite & unhurried, as Rabindro Sangeet clung to the air, like fragrance ( I'm turning poetic )

The trip down the Hoogly, to Haldia & the Bay of Bengal is wonderful...........The villages flash by and if one is not careful your ship can be boarded by thieves, who will strip your deck of anything valuable in a fraction of a moment. This stopped after a while when a Russian Captain shot a few thieves!

Another sight that you will not get anywhere else, is the human powered rickshaw. Appropriate transport for the crowded Calcutta, by lanes.

My most enduring memory of Calcutta..................

Missing a flight, because I could not exit the Park hotel, as a crowd went down Park Street, chanting 'Cholche Na, Cholbe Na'. I cursed Calcutta and its inhabitants, but that would be doing it a disservice, as I have some wonderful memories of the city and its inhabitants.

Why did I write this piece? I made my last trip to Calcutta, on this day.........and miss Calcutta and navigating down the Hoogly, in the fog. An unparalleled thrill!

And do we see a shift from 'Hobe Na' to 'Korbo Lorbo re, jitbo re, jitbo re'. I like to believe that Calcutta is getting its second wind!

Is ignorance bliss?

As a youngster, my favorite pastime, was trapping bumblebees and trying to get them to fly, in my houses rambling garden. The exercise though seemingly morbid was great fun & importantly kept me out of greater trouble. The bumblebee was a revelation. Bulky, squat, it still managed to fly and made good progress at that, while providing a mystery, as aerodynamically it is most unsuited to fly. In defense many say that the BB flies because it does not know that it should not.
I liken the BB to India. Why, because we still manage to function & even sometimes sprint despite our dysfunctional sub sets……………………………
My friend Bob Hoekstra (Ex CEO Philips India) while lecturing in my class said that, India was probably the only nation, where grinding poverty and dazzling wealth could exist besides each other, without the poor tearing the rich down out of frustration. Why do the poor accept their fate? Why do they silently watch as the rich get richer? Is it the Hindu belief in Karma? Why does not India implode?
My own explanation is that the Indian poor, has a safety valve, built in where they have immense freedom in many areas:
# 1. All open spaces are public toilets.
#2. The need for discipline does not exist. It is a free for all.
#3. There is little accountability in any sphere, and even if there is, the wheels of justice grind so slowly that many times justice barely reaches on time.
Compare this with the state of Singapore. A roaring economy, proud people………….but with their nose to the grindstone all the time. You’ve got to survive in a competitive, society! If you ask the right questions, you can sense a growing anger, amongst many, at the intense pressure that they face to get by. In Singapore the cannot do’s are more than the can do’s.
My theory has an inherent flaw, because many times, the rich behave exactly like the poor and uneducated, in using freedom not meant to be. (Remember the Honda City gent, watering a plant in the Lal Bagh)
Then why do we function and how do we function? I think it’s like my Bumble Bee; we function because we do not know that we should not.

Ignorance, like they say is bliss…………………..

" Don't worry, be happy".

The last few days have been tough for me for various reasons, top of the list, being the fact that I've had to evaluate a great number of answer sheets.In doing so I broke into a cold sweat, when I could not find one answer sheet & literally turned my office and home upside down in locating the errant script. The episode ended well & the answer sheet was located, much to my relief, with the rest of the sheets.

Later on in the day I received a call from a friend, who commands a ship. The guy was in the dumps, as in the course events his ship had lost its rudder. The rudder is akin to the steering wheel in a car and without which, you cannot move.The losses, in terms of operational costs and down time, repair cost etc are humongous and my friend was very worried and distraught. I tried to calm him down, and in course of the conversation, he said, that, I must be having a wonderful time, without the responsibilities and worries that he carried as Captain.

My mind drifted back to the much discussed answer script.As ship Captain, I carried the same responsibilities, a couple of years ago & would have laughed at anybody who would have suggested that I should be worried over a missing paper ! How times change & our trigger's change............

The human mind is an amazing piece of equipment & can take a beating but once acquired, the habit of worrying seems hard to stop. We're raised to worry and aren't considered "grown up" until we perfect the art. Children are told: "you'd better start worrying about your future". If you look very happy and gung ho, you're seen as irresponsible, childish, aimless and folk tell you to get real.I had a boss who was suspicious if you so much as smiled !The secret for many is to have a woe begone look all the time and behave as if they carry the weight of the world on their shoulders.Incessant worry saps energy and life & is the greatest source of stress.

Many years back there was a song that went like, " Don't worry, be happy".

I wish I could believe that! Do you guys out there?????????????

An Indian's tale...............

Over the last week or so any discerning Indian would have been upset by two pieces of news from overseas.

# 1. An Indian stowaway on an AI flight from Saudi Arabia.

# 2. An Indian student stabbed to death in Australia.

Both incidents are tragic ( and not new ), the first because the young man who fled Saudi Arabia as a stowaway on an aircraft, has a harrowing tale of maltreatment bordering on slavery and the second of a civilized country seeming to shield uncivilized behavior.

A few years ago while making port at Port Rashid, Dubai, I got into an interesting conversation with the harbor pilot, a Jordanian Arab. Jordan is home, to Petra, an amazing archaeological site of antiquity, and one of the wonders of the world.While expressing my admiration for the site, I was stopped short, when the Pilot asked me how I could have afforded the visit coming from a poor country like India...........here I was an educated, cultured Indian, holding a position of eminence ( or so I thought )and I was brought down to earth, rather abruptly by this query. I was aghast and speechless!

A few days later I ran into a South African, working for a ship repairs firm, on board my ship. He had a sad story of his own and said that we Indians had double standards because we accused South Africa of Apartheid while tolerating harassment in the Arab states. I agreed that he had a point, but was helpless since it was Government policy.

Stereotyping and racial profiling are issues that we associate with the uneducated, but that is farthest from the truth, as my above story would indicate. For most Arab's, Indian's are poor, wretched folk, who can be kicked around. ( the pilot called India a disaster area) Unfortunately our Government chooses to look the other way, which is a tragedy.

As for the Australian's, the less said the better. What started out as a penal colony for the Brit's has turned into a mineral rich nation..........with the local Aborigines, marginalized and poor.

As far as I'm concerned, the common denominator is that both countries are mineral rich & crass.A lack of culture I would say contributes to their looking at the rest of the world through a narrow key hole of prejudice.

Unfortunately the farce will continue to continue till, we continue to support these economies with cheap labor from our shores.

However coming back a full circle, do not miss out on Petra, if you have an opportunity to visit the place...............and I wish our MoS, for External Affairs would tweet a little more on these issues!

Skinner's Touch!

Most days when I have the time, I head for my morning walk to Lal Bagh, the 600 acre botanical garden in South Bangalore, laid by Hyder Ali, in the 18th century. The Bagh is a lovely, unspoilt place & many trees probably predate Hyder Ali & his more famous son Tipu Sultan, who died fighting the British at Mysore.

Before I meander into history, I'll get to the point ( I've been accused of rambling & writing blogs which are unnecessarily long ). This morning while taking the said walk I bumped into a seemingly well heeled gent taking a leak at the foot of a very bushy shrub. My senses were appalled & I impatiently waited for the bloke to finish his job to enquire if his occiput was totally devoid of grey matter, as a wonderfully constructed toilet was just 100 meters away & could be used for the princely sum of Rs.1. After the enquiry I walked away in a huff, thinking about the time I carried a paper ( Eco friendly )cup of coffee, for half a day in Singapore, because I could not locate a suitable bin.

Why are we so shameful in our public behavior? I think it can be explained by delving into our history, but how we stop this behavior may be explained by Ope rant Conditioning a concept well enunciated by B.F.Skinner.

The following throws light on Ope rant Conditioning:

In Punishment a particular behavior is weakened by the consequence of experiencing a negative condition.

For example:

A rat presses a bar in its cage and receives a mild electrical shock on its feet. The shock is a negative condition for the rat. The rat presses the bar again and again receives a shock. The rat's behavior of pressing the bar is weakened by the consequence of receiving a shock.

In Extinction a particular behavior is weakened by the consequence of not experiencing a positive condition or stopping a negative condition.

For example:

A rat presses a bar in its cage and nothing happens. Neither a positive or a negative condition exists for the rat. The rat presses the bar again and again nothing happens. The rat's behavior of pressing the bar is weakened by the consequence of not experiencing anything positive or stopping anything negative.

If you folks have any suggestion, please let me know. As for me I'm trying to fix a meeting with the Director, of the LB to see if he can rig a device to deliver a potent shock ( to you know where ) to guys who piddle at plants & trees within the Lal Bagh till they are better toilet trained.

As for Skinner, he can consider himself lucky to have lived in another era, otherwise he would have had animal activists ( Maneka Gandhi) at his throat - Electrocuting rats???????????

Was this blog too long? Please tell me. I wait with bated breath...........