‘An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn’t happen’.—The Peter Principle
Work, drudgery, routine, appraisals, promotions, jealousy, mistrust, suspicion, scheming, manipulation, trials and tribulations, See I told you before, I don’t care, you will do as I say because I am your boss, POLITICS! These are typical phrase. We think we have WON, because we have come out of a so called stifling atmosphere and walk into another place that initially seems to have an open atmosphere, that quickly emerges to be stifling. Some stick around and get rewarded for loyalty (sic) and not ability, and those who get awarded for ability have the luxury of not being loyal, for they will be in demand.
We love to blame our bosses or authorities or organizations for the culture, work atmosphere, paper work, systems, process, procedures and so on. Yet there is something called a hierarchy in organizations, despite the fact that most of them want to claim that they have a flat structure. All of us aspire to be at the top, and why not, because we have all been trained to think line leaders, like winners.
Three Books on Business Humour may make you think otherwise
Laurence Peter gave the management world a great phrase – Peter’s Principle! He authored a book too, in which he propounded that all employees tend to rise to their level of incompetence within an organisation, at which point it is too late to move them down or sideways.
Managers reach their level of incompetence by being promoted until they fail to do well in their current job. The message for employees unsuccessfully seeking promotion, then, is that they may be at their level of incompetence already. The final promotion, the one that takes each individual from a level of competence to a level of incompetence, should not, however, be taken as inevitable.
He has classified failure into two kinds: those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought. Fortune knocks once, but misfortune will try again and again. There are two sorts of losers—the good loser, and the other one who can’t act. Our focus is obviously on the good loser, and not the other kind, and hence another justification for the title of the book itself.
Another one is about Parkinsons Law, that says Work expands to fill the time available for its completion. As a result, companies grow without thinking of how much they are producing. Even if growth in numbers doesn’t make them more money, companies grow and people become busier and busier. This comically exposes bureaucracy (bosses) for tortuous administration (systems) and the pointless shuffling of paper (documentation). Look at it closely and you will find that it is not difficult to detect incompetence in organisations; many people have cause to complain about it not only in their working lives but in their daily lives as well.
Scott Adams and his Dilbert cartoon focus on themes of failure, incompetence and fear of being caught failing or being incompetent. How positive?
Is success directly proportional to winning?, then everyone who is promoted is successful, and if so, he follows the peters principle, and rises to his own levels of incompetence (loser).
Friday, August 20, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Chess-Stress-Mess-Cess
Chess is the game of life, when you get into troubles (stress), you encounter problems, and your approach either compounds it, or solves it to lead you to another trouble that is going to emerge as a problem (mess). For all this you always pay a price (cess).
Two people sitting opposite one another and staring at some 16 pieces for hours together, as if a bout of paralysis has struck their tongue, meditating with open eyes, and the neck craned at almost 30 degrees, to determine who will emerge as the eventual winner. How boring is what one thinks, when viewing the game from outside. Be a part of it and play with an equal, and this can be akin to a game of stratagem.
You have five different pieces (Queen, Rook, Bishop, Horse, and Pawns) that can move in three different ways (Straight, diagonal, and crooked), fighting to protect the supremacy of a single piece – the King. In pure percentage terms 6.25% being served by 93.75%.
Digital Divide they say, Urban rural, or Call it the consuming class, or Purchasing Power or, Developed and Developing Nations. The minority few rule the majority many, and history is replete with examples that talk about revolutions or uprisings or movements that dethrone regimes, rulers, nations.
In `The Challenge-Response Theory of History’ developed by Arnold Toynbee’s research on: A Study of History, found that every civilization began as a small tribe or group of people that was suddenly faced with a challenge from the outside, usually another hostile group of people. In business, the equivalent is usually aggressive competition and unexpected reversals in the market place.
To respond effectively to this external threat, the leader had to immediately reorganize the tribe or group if it is to survive. If he makes the right decisions and takes the right actions, the tribe would rise to the challenge, defeat the enemy, and in the process, grow and become stronger. But in growing and becoming stronger, the tribe would trigger a confrontation with another, larger hostile force or tribe, thereby creating another challenge. The Chess-Stress-Mess-Cess syndrome
As long as the leader and the' tribe continued to rise to and overcome the inevitable challenges confronting them, they would continue to survive and grow. By continuing to grow through successfully rising to the unavoidable challenges, even a small tribe can eventually became a kingdom and then a large civilization, controlling vast lands, treasures, and people.
Much of what was discovered in the life cycle of those empires is applicable to the rise and fall of businesses, large and small, and to individuals. The lessons he discovered apply to your personal life as well.
For every King, there are 15 pieces, for without them the king is nowhere, and without that King there is no meaning to the 15 pieces. Now the perspective depends on what you want the king to be – A loser, because he is dependent for his security on 15 other pieces, or A winner, because without him, the fifteen pieces are just a piece of plastic or wood and there is no game.
Two people sitting opposite one another and staring at some 16 pieces for hours together, as if a bout of paralysis has struck their tongue, meditating with open eyes, and the neck craned at almost 30 degrees, to determine who will emerge as the eventual winner. How boring is what one thinks, when viewing the game from outside. Be a part of it and play with an equal, and this can be akin to a game of stratagem.
You have five different pieces (Queen, Rook, Bishop, Horse, and Pawns) that can move in three different ways (Straight, diagonal, and crooked), fighting to protect the supremacy of a single piece – the King. In pure percentage terms 6.25% being served by 93.75%.
Digital Divide they say, Urban rural, or Call it the consuming class, or Purchasing Power or, Developed and Developing Nations. The minority few rule the majority many, and history is replete with examples that talk about revolutions or uprisings or movements that dethrone regimes, rulers, nations.
In `The Challenge-Response Theory of History’ developed by Arnold Toynbee’s research on: A Study of History, found that every civilization began as a small tribe or group of people that was suddenly faced with a challenge from the outside, usually another hostile group of people. In business, the equivalent is usually aggressive competition and unexpected reversals in the market place.
To respond effectively to this external threat, the leader had to immediately reorganize the tribe or group if it is to survive. If he makes the right decisions and takes the right actions, the tribe would rise to the challenge, defeat the enemy, and in the process, grow and become stronger. But in growing and becoming stronger, the tribe would trigger a confrontation with another, larger hostile force or tribe, thereby creating another challenge. The Chess-Stress-Mess-Cess syndrome
As long as the leader and the' tribe continued to rise to and overcome the inevitable challenges confronting them, they would continue to survive and grow. By continuing to grow through successfully rising to the unavoidable challenges, even a small tribe can eventually became a kingdom and then a large civilization, controlling vast lands, treasures, and people.
Much of what was discovered in the life cycle of those empires is applicable to the rise and fall of businesses, large and small, and to individuals. The lessons he discovered apply to your personal life as well.
For every King, there are 15 pieces, for without them the king is nowhere, and without that King there is no meaning to the 15 pieces. Now the perspective depends on what you want the king to be – A loser, because he is dependent for his security on 15 other pieces, or A winner, because without him, the fifteen pieces are just a piece of plastic or wood and there is no game.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Vagabond or Bondages of Time!
Haven’t been there times when you just set off alone or with a set of friends to a destination that you perhaps did not know while starting on the journey. Maybe you joined the herd, or was instrumental in putting together this vagabond experience of being a backpacker.
Haven't you set off on a journey where everything was chance, and the objective was grabbing each chance that came your way – or people who obliged you. That Journey is called LIFE!
That wave of the thumb for a Blind Lift – that brief interaction with the driver, and convincing the person to drop you to the destination or somewhere en-route, and then seeking another mode to reach the destination. As you sit through a lorry loaded with luggage and see the cars whizzing past by you to almost the same destination that you are headed, you envy the other person’s comfort. You seek an accommodation that is rustic, and can make do with whatever is available and comes your way. How exciting, one thought, but when one reminisces – one tends to think, “How Childish?” or “How Silly?”
One grows up, and experiences holidays from a different perspective. You Plan, You vacillate, You make choices. You select the best. All of a sudden you have to drop some, because it doesn’t fit within your budget. Everything right from logistics, travel, stay has to be flawless. Anything that is not in keeping with the experience is seen as intrusive. You complain about the food, the facilities, the service, the people, the ambiance, the locations, the climate and whatever else you can justify as not being upto the mark.
Adapt they say, but we seldom want to. Adjust they say, but we want to be more upright, Be Accommodative they say, but we like to revel in snobbery.
Backpacker versus Planners (Itinerary followers), both have their pros and cons, but essentially represent approach to life. Backpackers are carefree, happy go lucky, optimisers (minimum spending, maximum pleasure), and time for them is near infinite, experience is also infinite. This perhaps represents the herd in real life too.
The planners have a choice to make – for time is finite and hence a premium. , and hence there is a schedule for everything. A designated time for each item to be quantified in a linear fashion. Clockwork precision is prime, and what has been promised has to be delivered.
Both these are two sides of the same coin, but love to scoff at each other for their whims and fancies. In life too, most of us are like backpackers, while few are planners. But let the battle continue in who what to brand the other a loser for their approach in life.
Haven't you set off on a journey where everything was chance, and the objective was grabbing each chance that came your way – or people who obliged you. That Journey is called LIFE!
That wave of the thumb for a Blind Lift – that brief interaction with the driver, and convincing the person to drop you to the destination or somewhere en-route, and then seeking another mode to reach the destination. As you sit through a lorry loaded with luggage and see the cars whizzing past by you to almost the same destination that you are headed, you envy the other person’s comfort. You seek an accommodation that is rustic, and can make do with whatever is available and comes your way. How exciting, one thought, but when one reminisces – one tends to think, “How Childish?” or “How Silly?”
One grows up, and experiences holidays from a different perspective. You Plan, You vacillate, You make choices. You select the best. All of a sudden you have to drop some, because it doesn’t fit within your budget. Everything right from logistics, travel, stay has to be flawless. Anything that is not in keeping with the experience is seen as intrusive. You complain about the food, the facilities, the service, the people, the ambiance, the locations, the climate and whatever else you can justify as not being upto the mark.
Adapt they say, but we seldom want to. Adjust they say, but we want to be more upright, Be Accommodative they say, but we like to revel in snobbery.
Backpacker versus Planners (Itinerary followers), both have their pros and cons, but essentially represent approach to life. Backpackers are carefree, happy go lucky, optimisers (minimum spending, maximum pleasure), and time for them is near infinite, experience is also infinite. This perhaps represents the herd in real life too.
The planners have a choice to make – for time is finite and hence a premium. , and hence there is a schedule for everything. A designated time for each item to be quantified in a linear fashion. Clockwork precision is prime, and what has been promised has to be delivered.
Both these are two sides of the same coin, but love to scoff at each other for their whims and fancies. In life too, most of us are like backpackers, while few are planners. But let the battle continue in who what to brand the other a loser for their approach in life.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
As You Sow so Your Reap!
Reminiscence is something that we all revel in. Be it with school friends, college friends, office colleagues, friends, relatives, and so on. One phase that we never reminisce is our childhood – but someone else reminisces that phase for us, and typically that tends to be the person who reared you or was a part of your innocence / adolescence days.
Just the other day two children were fighting over once chocolate – when there was a full packet on the side, but both were adamant that they wanted just that piece of chocolate. In the struggle the ensued, one child got the better of the other and claimed possession of the prized chocolate, and immediately commotion followed, because the other child (loser) cried so loudly that people around gathered.
They asked the crying child what the problem was and lo the child blurted out and immediately the solution found – the other child was reprimanded and this child given that prized chocolate. Now the child was smiling in glee and the other one was morose. This actually made me wonder as to who is the winner or loser?
I think of so many instances, where as an outsider, I would want to criticise the parent for not letting the children face reality and making them happy, just because one is seeking momentary peace and not get into doing anything major.
This is akin to the popular Wrestling shows on Television, wherein one person proves his ability and is declared as the winner, and the loser immediately retorts in the form of protests, technical complaints, seeking a rematch or asking to reverse the result. That childhood instinct in us never dies, for we want to prove that we won.
Maybe in childhood it was a parent or an elder who anointed you to cosmetic position of making you feel as a Winner. We are continually seeking someone like that all across our career who can make us feel as winner.
Are we responsible for rearing Winners and create a world of illusion right from childhood, and then panic when the same child as an adult has problems coping up with reality.
Guess, the proverb As we sow, so your reap actually goes live in our lives!
Just the other day two children were fighting over once chocolate – when there was a full packet on the side, but both were adamant that they wanted just that piece of chocolate. In the struggle the ensued, one child got the better of the other and claimed possession of the prized chocolate, and immediately commotion followed, because the other child (loser) cried so loudly that people around gathered.
They asked the crying child what the problem was and lo the child blurted out and immediately the solution found – the other child was reprimanded and this child given that prized chocolate. Now the child was smiling in glee and the other one was morose. This actually made me wonder as to who is the winner or loser?
I think of so many instances, where as an outsider, I would want to criticise the parent for not letting the children face reality and making them happy, just because one is seeking momentary peace and not get into doing anything major.
This is akin to the popular Wrestling shows on Television, wherein one person proves his ability and is declared as the winner, and the loser immediately retorts in the form of protests, technical complaints, seeking a rematch or asking to reverse the result. That childhood instinct in us never dies, for we want to prove that we won.
Maybe in childhood it was a parent or an elder who anointed you to cosmetic position of making you feel as a Winner. We are continually seeking someone like that all across our career who can make us feel as winner.
Are we responsible for rearing Winners and create a world of illusion right from childhood, and then panic when the same child as an adult has problems coping up with reality.
Guess, the proverb As we sow, so your reap actually goes live in our lives!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Aspirations, Ego, Hopes and Balloons
As a child, we are all fascinated by balloons, and , true enough – call it aspirations, ego, or hopes, we all like it in Inflated states. The first time we come across one must be making the child wonder in amazement and give the feeling of `So Near, Yet So Far’. The child is not able to hold the balloon in the hand and goes around chasing it. Maybe, the colour of the balloon could be quite fascinating or even the shape.
Pick it and crush it, as is the tendency, and behold, it burst like a bomb making a big noise. There is a sudden shock, a brief pang of fear and then tears for something that was in your hand right now and now it isn’t. You feel someone has robbed you of your most fascinating toy, but it is your own actions. A loser feeling!
People lure you on the size of a balloon saying the one that I blew is bigger, and you get attracted towards it. But remember handling big balloons are more tougher than handling smaller ones, but yet we fall for it, and don’t like to face the consequences. A loser feeling!
It’s the child’s first birthday and there is celebrations, festoons, decorations around, and, not to forget the large balloons and a big one over the cake. The sizes overwhelm you, and what the invitees do is burst them, and now the child wonders – is the balloon for blowing of bursting. Something that I cherished the most, is being blown away as celebration.
The next in the balloons is a gas balloon, and we are all fascinated by such a thing that in the imaginary world, we aspire that if we le t this out with lots of string, the balloon will touch the sky or break free from the sky and we start doing so. But the balloon only goes so far and not above that how much ever sting you leave free. But when the string breaks – the balloon rockets into the sky. You watch at it with absolute despair and sorrow of having lost something dear, and as if the world has come to an end. A loser feeling!
A simple toy like a balloon that you handle as a child, and one implants the loser feeling in you at such an early stage, yet one wants to runaway, because you can buy another one and comfort yourself as being the winner.
Pick it and crush it, as is the tendency, and behold, it burst like a bomb making a big noise. There is a sudden shock, a brief pang of fear and then tears for something that was in your hand right now and now it isn’t. You feel someone has robbed you of your most fascinating toy, but it is your own actions. A loser feeling!
People lure you on the size of a balloon saying the one that I blew is bigger, and you get attracted towards it. But remember handling big balloons are more tougher than handling smaller ones, but yet we fall for it, and don’t like to face the consequences. A loser feeling!
It’s the child’s first birthday and there is celebrations, festoons, decorations around, and, not to forget the large balloons and a big one over the cake. The sizes overwhelm you, and what the invitees do is burst them, and now the child wonders – is the balloon for blowing of bursting. Something that I cherished the most, is being blown away as celebration.
The next in the balloons is a gas balloon, and we are all fascinated by such a thing that in the imaginary world, we aspire that if we le t this out with lots of string, the balloon will touch the sky or break free from the sky and we start doing so. But the balloon only goes so far and not above that how much ever sting you leave free. But when the string breaks – the balloon rockets into the sky. You watch at it with absolute despair and sorrow of having lost something dear, and as if the world has come to an end. A loser feeling!
A simple toy like a balloon that you handle as a child, and one implants the loser feeling in you at such an early stage, yet one wants to runaway, because you can buy another one and comfort yourself as being the winner.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
That contagious feeling of a LOSER!
Recently certain developments made me feel like an absolute Loser, and obviously the other resultant feelings of being depressed, dejected and disappointed followed. Not able to cope with the feeling, I thought I should make it contagious and meet some dear friends on whose shoulders I wanted to cry, seek solace and sympathy, and some motivation that all is not lost, and I could still do it. All that I needed was some luck, and then everything would be right.
These words would motivate me, and that too coming from a dear friend would surely make you live up to his or her expectations rather than listen to the same resolve from your heart. It is funny, but the same statements echo from your heart and you lift up yourself from the mess you get into. Things get back to normal, and you feel great.
So I called up my first friend, who was busy on another call. So, I called up his office to find out that he was very much there, so I assured myself that I had a shoulder to lean on, and decided to just land at his office. As I entered his office, he came out to the reception and escorted me to his room, saying , “You are an Angel”, and I think god has sent you to me.
Well maybe, but I have come to share some moment with you, and discuss about I, me, myself to you, Is what I instantly quipped. There was a lull, and he broke the news like a thunder, “I am headed for a separation” and that hit me like a shock. I started comforting him, and being a patient listener to his sob stories. I left his office giving him hope that he could surely tide through this crisis, anx to get on with life. “I felt like a loser, now I have a person to count on, thanks so much for your kind words,”, he told me.
Now I was thinking of who to call, and whose shoulder to seek, because my mission had failed completely a t the first location. I went o meet another friend, and now of the opposite gender. We met at a coffee shop, and as usual, I was late. So, first the barrage of abuses for being late, and as these settled, she was concerned about her finances and poured her heart out. Again, I got into the rescue mode telling her things about financial planning and all that.
Wait a minute, I was the one to be seeking shoulder as a loser, and here the two people that I met up with seekd comfort on my shoulder. I remembered a lesson from school. A beggar goes to a king, seeking alms, only to find the king , asking god for health, wealth and prosperity. The beggar thought, when the king is himself begging for something that I wanted to beg from, why should I beg here, let me also pray to god and seek the same health, wealth and prosperity.
For resolutions, and voices of advice, I decided to place my ear on my heart, and henceforth listen to my inner voice. Follow the instructions, rather than seeking external help.
These words would motivate me, and that too coming from a dear friend would surely make you live up to his or her expectations rather than listen to the same resolve from your heart. It is funny, but the same statements echo from your heart and you lift up yourself from the mess you get into. Things get back to normal, and you feel great.
So I called up my first friend, who was busy on another call. So, I called up his office to find out that he was very much there, so I assured myself that I had a shoulder to lean on, and decided to just land at his office. As I entered his office, he came out to the reception and escorted me to his room, saying , “You are an Angel”, and I think god has sent you to me.
Well maybe, but I have come to share some moment with you, and discuss about I, me, myself to you, Is what I instantly quipped. There was a lull, and he broke the news like a thunder, “I am headed for a separation” and that hit me like a shock. I started comforting him, and being a patient listener to his sob stories. I left his office giving him hope that he could surely tide through this crisis, anx to get on with life. “I felt like a loser, now I have a person to count on, thanks so much for your kind words,”, he told me.
Now I was thinking of who to call, and whose shoulder to seek, because my mission had failed completely a t the first location. I went o meet another friend, and now of the opposite gender. We met at a coffee shop, and as usual, I was late. So, first the barrage of abuses for being late, and as these settled, she was concerned about her finances and poured her heart out. Again, I got into the rescue mode telling her things about financial planning and all that.
Wait a minute, I was the one to be seeking shoulder as a loser, and here the two people that I met up with seekd comfort on my shoulder. I remembered a lesson from school. A beggar goes to a king, seeking alms, only to find the king , asking god for health, wealth and prosperity. The beggar thought, when the king is himself begging for something that I wanted to beg from, why should I beg here, let me also pray to god and seek the same health, wealth and prosperity.
For resolutions, and voices of advice, I decided to place my ear on my heart, and henceforth listen to my inner voice. Follow the instructions, rather than seeking external help.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Almighty Losers!
Of what little I know of mythology, and history – and; perhaps this is Universal, be it in Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, or Zorastrians – the gods have always been portrayed as losers!
Each of these gods and saints could have done so much more, asserted themselves, used their powers, `shown off their attitude’ and emerged winners. Instead they displayed calmness and poise, magnanimity and alacrity, humility and modesty, patience and tolerance, and the right attitude.
But populism dictates that attitude is directly proportional to aggression, that equals assertivensess, and in short that equals materialistic possessions to determine as to whether you won or lost. History is replete with such examples – of those who had the all conquering attitude and what happened to those people like Alexander, Napolean, and Hitler.
Leaders across cultures wanted to expand their kingdoms, geographical borders through conquest, subjugation, war and thus declare they were the supreme. The deep desire was to establish themselves as the almighty of the world that mattered to them. We too like to show of our attitude of being an able leader, captain, statesman.
We all love to master our environments, be it home or workplace or life. We want to be on top of everything we do, or like to perceive that we are on the top. People who do so tend to consider themselves as the masters or as greats (winners).
We all get into this trap. An Ego state that gives you the inherent qualities of being Over Ambitious, Hyper competitive, Over controlling nature, and hungry for rewards, recognition. In this state one also tends to be too resistant to feedback, too unwilling to change, and inflexible, and most important “Showing-Off” Attitude. Take a peek into history, those were the qualities of Evils and Demons.
Each of these gods and saints could have done so much more, asserted themselves, used their powers, `shown off their attitude’ and emerged winners. Instead they displayed calmness and poise, magnanimity and alacrity, humility and modesty, patience and tolerance, and the right attitude.
But populism dictates that attitude is directly proportional to aggression, that equals assertivensess, and in short that equals materialistic possessions to determine as to whether you won or lost. History is replete with such examples – of those who had the all conquering attitude and what happened to those people like Alexander, Napolean, and Hitler.
Leaders across cultures wanted to expand their kingdoms, geographical borders through conquest, subjugation, war and thus declare they were the supreme. The deep desire was to establish themselves as the almighty of the world that mattered to them. We too like to show of our attitude of being an able leader, captain, statesman.
We all love to master our environments, be it home or workplace or life. We want to be on top of everything we do, or like to perceive that we are on the top. People who do so tend to consider themselves as the masters or as greats (winners).
We all get into this trap. An Ego state that gives you the inherent qualities of being Over Ambitious, Hyper competitive, Over controlling nature, and hungry for rewards, recognition. In this state one also tends to be too resistant to feedback, too unwilling to change, and inflexible, and most important “Showing-Off” Attitude. Take a peek into history, those were the qualities of Evils and Demons.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
