East & West!

The Great Library at Alexandria, was said to be a treasure trove of important books & classical literature ( Greek ).The Arabs, on a roll, captured the city in the seventh century.

The Arab General, is said to have asked the Caliph in Baghdad ( Omar ), as to what was to be done with the museum and its contents.

The terse reply was as follows:

If the books contain information that already exists in the Koran ( Islam's holy book ), then there is no need for such books. If they contain information that is not there in the Koran, then too there is no such need for the books ......................because the information is of no consequence.

It is said that the books in the great library were used to heat water in the public baths or 'hamams' of the city and the fires were kept burning for six months. What a tragedy?

Many years later, the German army retreating out of France ( WW2 ), were leaving Paris,when the German general overseeing the retreat received a telegraph from Hitler- 'Burn Paris to the ground'. The general was appalled and did not comply with this order. He stood his ground, even when a furious Fuhrer kept asking 'Is Paris Burning?'

Paris was saved and we get to see the wonderful monuments in Paris to this day.

For me the two stories are indicative of Eastern & Western cultures. In the East, where Power Distance, is large, we tend to follow orders, if they emanate from a superior. The West is more questioning, in its approach!

On the wall!

A student walked into my rather cosy office, late evening, yesterday enquiring whether he could get admission to our Executive Management Program. Since the bloke was an engineer and had a work experience of two years, I told him that, it should not be an issue.

However, what he told me next was a bit strange. He said that he had enrolled for a full time MBA but had to leave & return to his home town, as an astrologer had told him that his infant son, would not survive, if his father ( the student ) was in Bangalore!

I've not heard anything this bizarre in the recent past & was a tad shaken. I tried to dissuade the young man from giving up his full time MBA but the attempt was futile & I reluctantly passed him on to my admission team.

To cut to the chase, I was disappointed. I do not like quitters. They make the world seem a lesser place.A class fellow of mine had a similar issue. He would be full of zip, leading up to our examinations, but as we got closer to the D- Day, he would cook up some reason, why he could not take the exam and head home, much to their chagrin of all concerned.He simply chose to quit. Fast forwarding twenty years and the guy is an alcoholic wreck, floating in a sea of deep self disillusionment. He has quit life.When we started, our cadet ship, he came across as the most balanced and intelligent student of our lot.........so the way things turned out is a tragedy.

To make a commitment and stand by it is not everybody cup of tea, in today's world of instant gratification and make believe.The thrill of hanging in there and riding the wave, is no longer appreciated or wanted.Persistence is a forgotten virtue in a world where life is led with a foot on the accelerator.To attribute our actions to external causes seems to be the panacea for short term solutions.
To sit on the wall, is the call of the day!I would be reluctant to have such guys on my team.

Universal Leadership?

When I talk 'Leadership' in class, it's like a walk in the park, because, I have a host of leaders to choose from. Leaders from industry, military and politics as well. However it recently struck me as to how appropriate is this? Can leadership be juxtaposed and expected to work?

Can a country be run in a similar way to running a business? Does corporate leadership equate to political leadership? The point is debatable but the contextual difference is important to note when considering leadership in general.

A crucial difference in the two sectors is that the CEO must operate to the satisfaction of the shareholders, regardless of the humanistic and social agenda that he professes. A politician must serve for the benefit of the people, regardless of the political views held as this social obligation originates with the public office. Politicians have room to manoeuvre not given to CEO because not all the citizens subscribe to the same values. The more diverse a country, the better it is for a politician. In the corporate world there is a clearly visible commitment to the bottom line and at the end of the day, that is what matters the most. It is possibly the reason why, politicians in India can get away with almost anything, a luxury barely afforded to folks in industry.

In a different England, it seems that the newly elected coalition government is starting to prepare for a social capitalism – capitalism with a human edge. The path to economic restabilisation will be difficult and, according to the newspapers on 8 June 2010, the government is set to call on the services of the former CEO of BP, Lord John Browne.

Now it may be recalled, that Lord Browne, has been severely criticized in the past, for his policies in BP, to which are linked, many of the disasters, including the imbroglio in the Gulf of Mexico, which has the United States in a tizzy & President Obama peevishly asking ' Whose ass should I kick?'. I'm fairly certain, the American's will get their man, but it is unlikely to be Lord Browne's.

I think leadership is situational and it is being simplistic if we assume, that any leader would be a good fit in any position! In India too, there has been a trend to move industrialists, into Government. The move has been received with enormous media hype & joy, but I would advocate a little caution, before we uncork the champagne!

The new class!

A few days ago, an acquaintance, asked me if it was true that, cadet's on ships were made to do manual work.He was quite amused & surprised when I replied in the affirmative.I said, not only were cadets made to do manual work, possibly, it was the only learning that they had on board, during the initial phase of training.
My first brush with manual work was on a very old ship with wood decks & we had to 'holy stone' the deck, which was boring, tedious & painful to a young fellow like me.

Holystone is a soft and brittle sandstone that was formerly used for scouring and whitening the wooden decks of ships. It was used in the British and American Navy for scrubbing the decks of sailing ships.
More importantly it seemed unnecessary!However it had to be done & it was done very very well.So much so, that at the end of a month, my baby fat had all but disappeared....
My acquaintance walked away, with a look of distaste, as if to say, you are a lesser man because you had to work with your hands.I wondered why? There is this interesting story:
The ambassador, from Great Britain wan shown in to an early morning meeting with the American President Lincoln. The ambassador was aghast to see, Lincoln polishing his shoes & could not stop himself and blurted out: ' Your excellency, you polish your own shoes'. Lincoln paused, and said ' Yes, Mr.Ambassador, I do, whose shoes do you polish?'

Why do we consider, manual work beneath us, here in India? Hark back to ancient, India.The rich kids who attended, a Gurukul, were first initiated to manual labor, including carrying a begging bowl & trying to get their food. They collected firewood, tended to cattle & washed their Guru's clothes. Who were these students? Many times, future kings!

How did this help? I think the labor was a great equalizer & cast ego's aside. It also taught people to be self reliant and learn to use their hands. Gandhi spun his cloth, Churchill was an expert mason, Lincoln was very good at splitting logs........

Doing manual work taught me a thing or two:

1.Respect all work!
2.Do a job before you delegate. Understand the pain of a person doing a task!
3.Keep your ego in check. Jobs are situational & circumstantial, so there is little need to have your nose in the air, because one is in a particular profession today!
4.Manual work in groups produces some of the best bonding! Team work that is valued by a great many organizations.


I think in our homes and educational system we are creating a set of 'educated', elitist snobs as we discourage any kind of physical work.In short we are creating a new class of Indians! The greater tragedy is that, there is to be an immediate 'Return on Investment' on all work done today. If immediate results are not visible ( in term of school marks ), then the work is worth not doing.......the fun of doing something for the fun of doing it, is gone.

A Nut's tale!

During my travels in the city of Bengaluru, I see many signboards on house gates. The commonest being, 'Do not park in front of the gate'. I also see, 'Beware of Dog'. However, the other day, I saw a sign which said, 'Beware of Coconuts'. I was amused and looked up to see a couple of towering trees, arching into the road! The amusement turned to concern, as a couple of days ago, as a nut, falling from a height of about thirty feet, almost smashed into the roof my Honda City. I was, shaken, to the core of my stubby feet, thinking, as to the cost of repairs, should the nut have found its mark. Bangalore, is one city where, folk have planted coconut trees, rather indiscriminately & found much to their chagrin, that eventually, it would be cheaper to buy a nut rather than pluck one from the tree.Though much of the population have come to realize this fact, they are chary of getting rid of the tree! Why? The only explanation, I can think of is as follows, called Escalation of Commitment.

Escalation of commitment was first described by Barry M. Staw in his 1976 paper, "Knee deep in the big muddy: A study of escalating commitment to a chosen course of action". More recently the term sunk cost fallacy has been used to describe the phenomenon where people justify increased investment in a decision, based on the cumulative prior investment, despite new evidence suggesting that the decision was probably wrong. Such investment may include money, time, or — in the case of military strategy — human lives. The phenomenon and the sentiment underlying it are reflected in such proverbial images as Throwing good money after bad and In for a dime, in for a dollar (or In for a penny, in for a pound). The term is also used to describe poor decision-making in business, government, information systems in general, software project management in particular, politics, and gambling. The term has been used to describe the United States commitment to military conflicts including Vietnam in the 1960s - 1970s and in Iraq in the 2000s, where dollars spent and lives lost justify continued involvement. Alternatively, irrational escalation (sometimes referred to as irrational escalation of commitment or commitment bias) is a term frequently used in psychology, philosophy, economics, and game theory[citation needed] to refer to a situation in which people can make irrational decisions based upon rational decisions in the past or to justify actions already taken. Examples are frequently seen when parties engage in a bidding war; the bidders can end up paying much more than the object is worth to justify the initial expenses associated with bidding (such as research), as well as part of a competitive instinct.

A friends family, went through a horrendous experience, when, a person they had hired to pluck nuts, got into their home & threatened them with the chopper, for money! The family, then spent, a good twenty grand on having the offending trees uprooted & carted off!As for the intended thief, he was picked up by the cops, a few days later, putting an end to what seemed to be the first 'Coconut Thief', that Bengaluru had seen.

When my Dad built, a house, the first, discussion centred around where the Coconut trees, should be put. On relocating, a few years later, we resisted the strong urge to have Coconut trees again....now, with, all the talk about cholesterol and such, the omnipresent Coconut has all but disappeared from our diet.The good old nut has really fallen from grace!

I'm sure this bit would get your attention: "Falling coconuts kill 150 people worldwide each year, 15 times the number of fatalities attributable to sharks," said George Burgess, Director of the University of Florida's International Shark Attack File and a noted shark researcher.

Analyzing the force at which falling coconuts might hit a person,it is true that one can be injured, and in some cases killed by falling coconuts because the trees are tall, and the falling velocity of the coconut accelerates. It would essentially be the equivalent of dropping a coconut, in many cases, off a ten-story building.



How nutty can we get?

Rise & Fall!

Many years ago, after a delicious meal, at the Saffron ( The Park Hotel, Kolkata , while strolling down the street, I chanced upon a book called the 'The Great Indian Story', being sold by a book seller on the pavement.

The book, looked fairly interesting, though by an unheard of author and I ended up buying it & carrying it back on board. The author Shashi Tharoor, wrote amazingly well. He had married current Indian politics with the Mahabharata, with characters being interposed, to produce an enthralling account of Indian politics.......

Post this I kept track of Tharoor's progress and was heartened to see him running for the UN Sec.Gen's position, which he eventually lost to Ban Ki Moon. Tharoor then surfaced as Minister of State, as part of the Congress bandwagon & a staunch ally of PM Manmohan Singh.

I think it was here that Tharoor got carried away & landed himself in one imbroglio after another before being eventually pulled down by Lalit Modi & the IPL. His life & times thus far resembles a Shakepearn tragedy, in the truest sense. A young cock, in all his splendour, with a powerful mentor, being culled down at his moment of glory with his mentor watching helplessly. What a story!

The greater tragedy is that Tharoor with all his intellectual prowess forgot that,the politics of the powerful is ruthless and relentless. He forgot that as a lateral entrant, his progress was watched with growing dismay and anger by many of his fellow politicos..........He forgot that, he did not have the experience or the chutzpah to deal with the politics in Government circles.

I believe that Tharoor was a narcissist. I use the term rather gingerly because I like the man too much.Supremely talented, very articulate, handsome...the list was endless. His strengths became his weaknesses & he paid the price for being situationally unaware and being intensely self absorbed.He was not incompetent, but was naive in a corrupt system which is a veritable snakes pit.

I think there is a lesson in Tharoor's story for all of us in the Corporate World, as well.......................that is if you value your job!

Narcissists fascinate me, so here is an aside!

Despite tending to be exhibitionistic, it is very rare to hear a narcissist brag or boast. Instead, he (or she) tends to 'drop' information in the form of an ostensibly ordinary matter-of-fact report, which appears to be intended to elicit admiration without asking for it. For example, rather than say, "I was so please to meet our CEO, Peter Smith", he will casually allude to "...lunch with Peter", in a way that induces a sense of distance and inferiority in the recipient of the information; again maintaining his sense of grandiosity.

Human's are indeed amazing!

Humility!

Humility it is said, is not about thinking less about ourselves but more about thinking about ourselves less ........................
I know it looks a bit confused, but I'm sure it will strike a chord when you go through the line slowly. A definite issue these days is the deep rooted self centeredness that has set in like a cancer. The cause of this problem, could be laid at the doorstep of the modern parent, who is so obsessed with trying to live his/her life through their kids and provide them with every possible comfort, that many a time the child loses perspective.

Being the absolute centre of attraction gives many a kid a very high sense of self esteem, without capabilities & skills to match.The high self esteem leads to a very high sense of entitlement where rewards are to be had without the ensuing labor. Most of these folk are found wanting when they enter the rough and tumble of the real world, where mama & papa are not around to hold the proverbial little finger to navigate them past life's issues. The ensuing frustration, depression & swings from euphoria to melancholy are sad to see but fairly easy to comprehend.

When we were growing up, we were told ( always & everytime ) that you would be rewarded if you proved yourself and that the process of reward was a journey and not a quick solution.I'm glad, that this was the diet that my generation grew up on because it kept the sense of entitlement at bay & also put life into better perspective so that we were left with better tools to deal with failure & success.

I think it is very important for the young to experience failure, boredom, frustration & fear without the parent rushing in at short notice to solve the problem.Probably, a few knocks on the way, would teach many of us the meaning of humility and gratitude......................and also because it is cruel, in the long run, to deprive a person the ability to deal with life's problems themselves.

Like a great person said " Give your kids roots, but also wings" Let them fly, alone, it will make them less self centred & more human!

When the chips are down!

I remember a scene from a flick where this very drunk rich guy, staggers past his parked Merc, on to his beautifully manicured lawns to piddle, even while his PA ( these days fashionably called Executive Assistant ) attempts to get him to enter his house to do the deed!

What is that, which gets us to return to our more basic instincts, when we have lost our inhibitions or social conditioning is overpowered by other factors! A case in point definitely is the sinking of two ships, over the last century. Two great marine disasters- one the famous Titanic & the other a more staid ‘Lusitania’.
While the Titanic, has been made famous by James Cameron the Lusitania is a very famous ship, because its sinking, dragged the United States into World War 1.

Research into the two tragedies has thrown up the following:
Women and children came first when the Titanic sunk but not when the Lusitania was torpedoed, a study has claimed.

The difference in behavior was due to the speed at which the two maritime disasters struck, researchers said.

The Titanic took more than two hours to sink when it hit an iceberg four days into its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, on 14 April, 1912.
But the liner Lusitania sank in 18 minutes in 1915 when it was torpedoed by a U-boat during World War One.
The passenger ship was heading for Liverpool from New York when it was sunk by the German submarine off the Irish coast with the loss of nearly 1,200 lives.
Both historic tragedies involved similar vessels, passenger populations and death tolls.

But in the case of the Titanic, it was a case of "women and children first" in the best maritime tradition, according to researchers writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

'Selfish behavior dominated'

A study of the disaster showed that females, children and people accompanying a child were more likely to survive than males, adults and passengers without children.
Of the 2,207 passengers and crew on board the ship when it set sail, all but 690 perished.
Children on the Titanic had a 14.8% higher chance of surviving than adults and a person accompanying a child was 19.6% more likely to survive than someone without a child.
Being female increased a passenger's chance of survival by more than 50%.
In contrast, fit passengers aged 16 to 35 stood the greatest chance of surviving from the Lusitania disaster.
Among the 1,949 passengers and crew on the Lusitania, there were 636 survivors.

Time pressure seems to have been key in determining who lived and who died. The study says that on the Lusitania, selfish behavior dominated and on the Titanic, social norms and social status (class) dominated, contradicting standard economics.
"One of the major implications is that people really do behave differently when they are under enormous stress. Then the animal-like aspects and survival of the fittest really come to the fore.

When the Titanic hit the iceberg the norms upheld themselves surprisingly well. Many people think that when there is a disaster, a natural hurricane or whatever, everything breaks down, there is chaos and the norms do not apply any more.
"But it's only when they are under extreme duress: there's an explosion on the ship, the torpedo hits and you are in the water, then survival of the fittest becomes active but not otherwise.

Next time you feel 'uppity', remember that at a basic level & when the chips are down, we are all in the same boat, irrespective of your education or social standing!

A sobering thought pardner!

Light & Dark!

I read a rather interesting article a few days ago, which spoke about, the effect of dim lighting on a persons levels of honesty & guess what, research has shown, that dim lighting does cause a person to dip to lower levels of honesty and ethical values. Apparently people tend to lie a great deal more as well, when the lighting is subdued.

These findings send some rather salient signals to us:

# 1. Exams are to be held in brightly lit rooms.This would probably induce students to cheat less.

# 2. Do not negotiate with persons wearing dark glasses and wear dark glasses while you negotiate.

# 3. When out on a date, select the darkest corners, if you want to lie to your bf or gf, otherwise go for the bright spots.....

The reason, dim lights make us believe we're less visible and give the feeling that no one is watching us, triggering more moral violations.Thief's often wear masks, hoods, and disguises, which make them feel concealed from view, and people who believe they are hidden really are more likely to commit criminal acts.

Studies have found that people who wore sunglasses felt greater anonymity and so were inclined to play footsie with the truth.The most important point is that, lighting does effect our mood & behavior, so beware!

Also, it's the reason why, I have the lights at their brightest, in my class room, while I teach........................it gets my spiel to be nothing but the unvarnished truth!

The Guru!

A few years ago I had a boss, who was an ardent 'chela' of Swami Nityananda. My boss was, to say the least, a painful man. Obese and suffering from hyper tension he would erupt for all the wrong reasons. It made me wonder, how the Guru would be if the chela behaved like a bandicoot.............

Nityananda stayed on my radar screen,as a passing interest, as I frequently passed his, sprawling estate,at Bidadi, on my way to Mysore & back..................till yesterday, when all hell broke loose. Apparently, the "Guru" was caught ( on camera ) in a rather delicate and 'compromising' position, with an actress ( as yet unidentified )and has since gone into hiding, after vigorously protesting his innocence and godliness.

If true, then we have one more God Man biting the dust.............................I have no love lost for self styled God Men, but what surprises me is the following that these gents have amongst the hoi polli! Why do we head for these folk, in droves, place them on a pedestal & when we find that they are just as human as us, mere mortals, our anger is unbridled ?

My take is as follows:

1. Indian's are very high on the Uncertainty Avoidance Index, which means that anything, which is not certain is anathema to us. This results in us making a beeline to astrologers, Guru's, palmists & so on to secure our future and make it more secure!
2.We are very strong on External attribution................Attribution theory is concerned with how individuals interpret events and how this relates to their thinking and behavior. Attribution theory assumes that people try to determine why people do what they do. A person seeking to understand why another person did something may attribute one or more causes to that behavior.
According to Heider a person can make two attributions 1) internal attribution, the inference that a person is behaving in a certain way because of something about the person, such as attitude, character or personality. 2) external attribution, the inference that a person is behaving a certain way because of something about the situation he or she is in. Blaming other people and avoiding personal recrimination are very real self-serving attributions. We will also make attributions to defend what we perceive as attacks. We will point to injustice in an unfair world. We will even tend to blame victims (of us and of others) for their fate as we seek to distance ourselves from thoughts of suffering the same plight.Since external attribution is external and situational and so cannot be controlled, we need divine assistance, in this area.
3. A lot of Indian's have an external locus of control ( http://capnagaraj.blogspot.com/2009/11/yesterday-young-lady-boxer-from.html)


Does education make a difference ? Please do let me know what you feel! As for me, I'm heading into a short round of meditation!

What a pain?

A few days ago, I was at my dentist's to have a painful tooth attended to. Having a fairly low threshold of pain I was at my grumpiest. The drill started with a pretty lady Junior dentist first examining my teeth- molar to canine & amidst friendly banter passed me on to a guy with a crew cut & scowl on his face. This gent was brusque,cold & cut me short every time I wanted to say something.

I was pretty annoyed, in fact very annoyed & in order to vent my feelings found the junior lady doctor an appropriate target.I did not spare the male dentist & called him all sorts of names.I also reflected, as to how the guys wife could live with an idiot like that, all the while ignoring the feeble defense of my lady friend and frantic signals from the reception. Eventually satiated, I found a seat to park myself & retreated. After a while the receptionist informed me with a glint in her eye, that the pretty lady dentist & the painful guy were husband & wife. What a horror! The events that followed are too painful to relate here, but the point is that, how could I have been so abysmally low in intellect?

OB Theory will tell you that these kind of people ( me ) are what are called as 'low self monitors' & are notorious for gaffes. Self-monitoring refers to how individuals control and regulate their self-presentation in social situation. High self-monitoring individuals typically act in accordance with the demands of their social setting. They are attuned to the image they project to others, and they are particularly adept at regulating their self-presentation to fit these situational demands. As a result, their behavior may change from situation to situation. In contrast, low self-monitoring individuals rely on their attitudes, beliefs, and values to guide their behavior. Consequently, they are more likely than high self-monitoring individuals to show greater consistency in their behaviors from one situation to the next.

I had a very jovial captain, who could not resist cracking jokes & got demoted because he cracked a joke in a very serious situation!While high self monitors rise higher professionally, there is evidence suggesting that high self-monitors could have difficulty sustaining long-term relationships. With regard to jobs, high self-monitors have lower job commitment and are more likely to quit their jobs than are low self-monitors. In addition, high self-monitors are less committed to their dating relationships and more willing, than low self-monitors, to leave their current romantic partners for others . Finally, high self-monitors are more prone to divorce than are low self-monitors and experience more stress because they are very concious of the impression that they create.

So what are you?

Food for thought!

A couple of days ago, I had the most exhilarating, ride to the southern suburb of Koramanagala, here in Bangalore, on the pillion of a friends bike.After transacting, the business, that we were there for, feeling ravenously hungry, I scouted around for a bite, and not finding anything appropriate, settled for a packet of Haldiram's Moong Dal.

Post quenching the fires in my belly, while attempting to dispose, the wrapper, the name Haldiram struck a chord.Why? Read on & you shall comprehend!

Haldiram Bhujiawala proprietor Prabhu Shankar Agarwal was sentenced to life imprisonment along with four others by a fast track court for conspiring to kill a tea stall owner, whose shop came in the way of a food plaza he was building, a few days ago.

Agarwal, owner of the multi-crore food and confectionery chain, which has outlets in many cities and also in London and elsewhere, had failed to persuade tea stall owner Satyanarayan Sharma in Burrabazar area of Kolkata to move out as the shop would spoil the facade of the food plaza he was constructing.

His hired goons who threatened the tea stall owner & had then raided the shop looking for Satyanarayan, but not finding him, shot his nephew Pramod Sharma, injuring him seriously on March 30, 2005. These acts followed attempts to reason with Sharma and as this cut no ice, Agarwal tried to buy him off.Sharma would not budge.
The rather bizarre behavior displayed by Agarwal, is not uncommon & in Psychological parlance termed as 'Escalation of Commitment'.

An example.......After a heated and aggressive bidding war, Robert Campeau ended up buying Bloomingdale's for an estimated 600 million dollars more than it was worth. The Wall Street Journal noted that "we're not dealing in price anymore but egos". Campeau was forced to declare bankruptcy soon afterwards.

Escalation of commitment, is a phenomenon where decision making turns seemingly irrational piggybacking on rational decisions, because you do not want to cut your losses & admit that you were wrong in the first place.The phenomenon of escalation can be described in the following fashion. First, a decision-maker performs a choice under conditions of uncertainty. Later, the decision-maker learns that another course of action is more advantageous (this different course may be as simple as the termination of the original project). At this stage the decision-maker has an option of altering the original decision. Having received the negative feedback, however, the decision-maker escalates the original commitment, thus becoming "locked in the losing course of action" (Staw, 1981).

As I finally managed to dispose the 'Moong Dal' wrapper, I wistfully thought- What if our friend Agarwal, had heard about escalation of commitment? In the managers world, it is imperative that we understand, EOC.

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.....................

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!

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...........

Pup & The Pauper!

Two events over the last month or so have prompted this piece...............

Event # 1:

Yesterday over dinner, a friend of mine ( He holds a senior position at an IT American MNC ) was describing how people are fired in his establishment. Apparently the sacked employee receives an e mail from the HR that he need not turn up for work the following day & would he be so kind as to deposit his id card, lap top & associated paraphernalia at the front desk.He/She is told that they would receive their dues by post in the near future. Excellent I said, very simple and uncomplicated.

Event # 2:

On my morning walks ( my wife says it's more of a stroll ), I bump into a vegetable seller, with his cart. The guy is there, come sun, rain or cold. No casual leave, earned leaves & so on for the bloke. On occasion when time permits & vegetables are required at short notice I stop over & a desultory conversation ensues.About a month ago the grocer looked disturbed and unhappy. With some prodding he told me that he had lost a close family member and missed the person.He continued to be morose as the days passed.

Yesterday morning he hailed me from across the road. He looked pleased as a punch and very happy. Why? He gestured to three pups that were nipping at his ankles and were full of fun. He offered me one of them, for free, as the mother had taken off & he had become the surrogate mom, a responsibility that he wanted to lighten.It was obvious that he loved the pup's and felt responsible for them. The guy looked positively radiant.He empathized. While politely declining his offer ( how could I look after this mongrel pup, who has the time, I'm moving home shortly ) I went on my way............

The point I'm trying to make ( in a rather ham handed way ) is why do we lose our ability to empathize, with education and progress? I think, one reason being that culturally we are very individualistic. Indian's are quite individualistic but with exposure to western culture ( read American ) we have become even more so. Individualism has its own set of advantages, primary one being, the ability to generate rapid material progress.You do not get held back by stragglers!Why waste time in surrogating roadside pups? Also, once in the rat race insecurities grow and it is extremely difficult to pull oneself back.

One city, similar people but different cultures & behavior. The vegetable vendor does not talk about bottom lines ( as in a P & L account ) and share holder value but for me made a point.

A fundemental trait for the HR is empathy & if the HR professional cannot empathize with people around them and feel their pain then it would be prudent to park themselves elsewhere..................................

Today morning I found one pup missing. 'Where's the pup I queried?' He tersely told me that it was run over by a speeding vehicle. While turning away, I suspect, he hid a look of disgust.

Are you a Protean!

If you ever thought that management was a project,then I'm afraid you are mistaken. Management is one long road with little or no time to stop and rest on your oars. A good story to substantiate this is Homer's Odyssey.I'm amazed as to why history is not taught as a course in management, because we can laern a good deal from folk who preceeded us.But then that's not what holds my attention right now.

Post the pillage of Troy the victorious Greeks, would have probably heaved a sigh of relief, and look forward to returning home. Not the case for Hercules. The heroes of the 'Iliad'- rebellious Achilles, brave Hector and the bossy Menelaus are all gone and the Odyssey is the story of Hercules and his labors.

This short blog is not a piece on Greek history but on one of the characters of the Odyssey- Proteus. Proteus, supposedly son of Poseidon was a sea god. He was special because he could tell the future but avoided doing so by changing shape and form. He was versatile and quick. He bought time, in decision making and eventually made a commitment only when captured.

Plato, Euthyphro 15d (trans. Fowler) (Greek philosopher C4Th B.C.) :
"[Plato uses Proteus as a metaphor for the reluctant speaker :]

Like Proteus, you must be held until you speak."

Plato, Ion 541e (trans. Lamb) :
"[Plato uses Proteus as a metaphor for the twisting arguments of a debate :]

You are a perfect Proteus in the way you take on every kind of shape, twisting about this way and that, until at last you elude my grasp."



While I do not subscribe to the evasive tactics of Proteus, I do like his ability to change shape and appearance at will. Drawing a parallel with our world today, I think managers should draw a leaf from his book and develop the ability to adapt to and change depending upon the situation.

One area where managers falter regularly is in their Cultural Intelligence. Like other forms of intelligence, CI is fundamental to success in a globalized world. Stories of deals that have failed due to a lack of cultural sensitivity abound but we still refuse to learn that culture and cultural practices are various and different across the world.

In my last organization, we had a gent from a pacific Island. The guy was very polite, but behaved strangely- avoided eye contact, sat before he was offered a seat & generally did not shake hands. He was summarily labelled as uncouth.

Was this the truth................. no!

In his part of the world, you avoided eye contact with a person you respected and did not appear bigger than a superior so he sat uninvited.

Culture can be complicated and you need a high Culture Quotient, to avoid pitfalls in a world that is increasingly turning flat.More importantly a high CQ would preclude us from being judgemental.

Proteus, or as Homer called him, 'The Old Man of the Sea' would be a great example in cultural adaptability!

The hypocrisy of it all!

The other day while reading the Sunday news paper, I suddenly stopped chuckling to myself, as I caught my wife's enquiring look.She was a little alarmed when I told her that I was reading an article on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, an event that left many thousands maimed or dead, twenty five years ago to this day.

Why laugh at at the horrible tragedy was her logical question? I had to hastily explain that I wasn't laughing at the tragedy per se, but at a bit of history.............

While at school, we would be hauled off to an industry every month, for an 'Industry Visit'. For thirteen year old's, it was a novelty and fun, except that, we would have to write a report post the event.

One such visit took us to Union Carbide. The American subsidiary, exported shrimps & prawns and after looking at various very very dead prawns of different shapes and sizes, a chappie drifted along and directed us to a room, where he said we would be served refreshments.

About forty of us ( boys & girls ) got to this room in pretty good time, when all hell broke loose . A table loaded with 'cookies' and coke was attacked & there was a general free for all ( Coke was not as freely available as it is today & we had not heard of cookies). The girls had no chance. I in my defense can say, that I was a fraction late off the blocks, as there was a twinge on conscience, but then who can resist freebies?

When the melee ended, the sight was a sorry one and we were admonished first by the manager & then by the girls who were the only ones to have retained a modicum of dignity. The scene haunted me for many years, particularly the UC Manager ticking us off on our lack of manners.The eventual fall out was that our trips were cancelled after we were chastised by our Principal in front of the school.

What's the connection you might well ask?

Well, the irony is that we as thirteen year old's were ticked off for being unruly in a firm which indulged in mass murder at Bhopal a few years hence and where their head honcho, scooted from this country and refused to stand trial, while many of those who suffered continue to cry out to a nation that has forgotten.

Maybe I should have wept.....................at the hypocrisy!

How anxious are you?

A week ago the following story appeared in the press, which made interesting reading:

The United States Coast Guard has located a cruise ship crew member who reportedly jumped overboard near Miami.

A Thirty-one-year-old crew member was found treading water off Cutler Bay about two hours after the the Captain of the cruise shipissued a distress call, citing imminent danger to the sailor.

The company which owns the liner says that four witnesses reported watching the sailor jump overboard. Officials said he was recovering and in good condition.

Undoubtedly a full scale enquiry would be put in place at the very earliest and both the sailor and the company will have much to answer for.

Interestingly, the cruise ship would have offered great living conditions in terms of food & entertainment as well as working environment. So why did the member of the crew take the extreme step in jumping overboard, as reported, putting not only himself, but his ship in danger?

The only conclusion, that I can draw, from the episode is that the member of the crew in question was neurotic, which is a personality trait, that manifests itself fairly regularly these days.

Who is a neurotic?

Neurotics feel anxiety, and worry often.Anxiety can make them emotionally unstable, and they are more likely to struggle with depression and sadness. This Big Five Personality Trait can lead to physical ill health and extreme mood swings. Neurotic people behave irrationally on the job and can be a source of distraction to their team in the least. In extreme cases they are dangerous.More often than not neurotic workers need sympathy and counselling and its the manager's job to identify a problem and suggest corrective action.

Neurotics are the last people you want on ships, where sound physical & mental health is a priority ( not that it is not elsewhere).While this is an extreme case, having emotionally stable people at the workplace is a requirement that recruiters would have to keep uppermost in their minds while selecting a person.The tragedy is that, a persons mental state can take a beating while working in high risk/high stress areas such as ships that constant monitoring would be a called for.Many employees and organizations are guilty of not taking care and pay a heavy price in time.

A few organisations are incorporating personality testing in their selection processes and those who do not test are doing so at their own peril!

There are high rises on land........................!