Raj Shankar's Blog, page 56

Vedantic Wednesday: Life is an Art!

Have you ever seen a poet at work? A photographer? A musician? A painter? A sculptor? You will see a true representative of the above group – getting excited at the most mundane of things! They have a unique way of perceiving the routine happenings of the day and break into a rapturous practice of their skill.

A poet often claims he derives inspiration from nature. And nature does not change in the macro-manner every day. Once you see a flower bloom – you can scientifically say you have seen all flowers bloom.

But every time a flower blooms – a poet is inspired to compose a poem, a photographer is inspired to click a snap, a musician breaks into a rapture, a painter plays with his colours and so on… A childlike enthusiasm grabs them at every encounter.

What they see is the invisible divine hand that is shaping the act to perfection. If you search for that hand behind the work in every aspect of your day, you cannot help being surprised at the precision with which the orchestra of life is being played. You cannot fail to be enthralled by the scenes that unfold in front of you – for you.

Sounds far-fetched?

Many of us may have undertaken journey by air multiple times. We have gotten into the flight, settled into the smaller than required seats, and taken a book or paper with a passive acceptance of a routine journey.  This happens because we claim to have understood the act of taking a plane between destinations. Hence there is nothing new in this for us. But have we actually understood it all?

Do we know how the flight weighing tonnes is able to take off the ground? Do we know how with no signs in the sky we are navigated with precision between our destinations? Do we know how our aircraft pierces through the cloud cover? Do they break and reorganize? How the colourless water vapour give white color to the clouds? Why are they all not together but are hanging out in groups? Do we know how it would feel to touch the passing clouds?

A single flight holds so many questions. For few of these, science can give us the answer. But few of these will remain a puzzle – pure and unadulterated by worldly knowledge. When you allow this to come to your mind – you cannot help be touched by the splendour and beauty of what you are experiencing.  You cannot remain without being inspired. You cannot remain without feeling the thrill. And when you get inspired, when you feel the thrill  – your life becomes an art.

When you realize that what you don’t know will always be greater than what you will ever get to understand, you begin to live life as an adventure, stumbling upon amazing and endless discoveries. Every time the sun rises it brings to you a tickler – reminding you of the unseen hand at work. Every time you hear a bird sing, see a child play, feel the cool breeze – you stop to admire, appreciate and acknowledge the power beyond human comprehension.  You escape then the ‘Rot of Routine’ and embrace the ‘Thrill of first’

What do you think?

The Rot Of Routine

Yesterday, in my blog post I had recounted a recent experience of mine and shared thoughts around it. I’m sure many times in life, we have been like that group of young adults flying for the first time.  With every ‘First’ experience, we have had the exhilarating feeling of ‘Thrill of First’. If we would look back we can recount the first time we held a desired gadget, first time we drove a bike, first time we fell in love, first time we were offered a hand of friendship, first time we started up our business – each of these first time(s) have been truly unique.

But over time the sheen of the ‘first-ness’ fades.  In life, the rate of dissipation of the excitement is exponential. What appeared as life consuming passion begins to look more and more like – just another job. What seemed to start as a relationship that holds the key to our happiness turns out to be an obligation, an act of duty. What seemed to delight us at every turn seems to irritate us now by its sheer predictability.

When this happens, there are two routes that we all take – be it our personal and professional life.

When the ‘Thrill of First’ is all gone, what is left behind is a transaction of mere utilitarian value.  By trying to put a system around many of our habits, we begin to fill our days with predictable routines.  While initially it does seem to increase efficiency; over time our ability to get surprised ebbs away. Life in short moves from an adventure to a planned tour to just the same place over and over again.

The second approach few of us take, is seeking newer avenues to excite us. As we master one aspect, get comfortable and make it a routine, our mind instantly reaches out to something fresh that will give us the ‘Thrill of First’.  To avoid the pitfall of falling into a predicable aka boring life, we become restless in seeking fresh avenues of experience. This makes us to constantly move between options and choices. This constant moving does not allow us to leverage any aspect/opportunity to its fullest. Before we can establish ourselves in something, we have spotted something better. We are constantly running.

If we sit and examine our decisions at both the professional and personal fronts, we can see many points at which we have taken one of the following routes to combat what I refer to as ‘The Rot of Routine’

How can this be avoided? Can this be avoided at all?

From where can we get ideas for this? Is the bigger picture of our universe giving us some clues? More on this in the coming days….

Keep thinking… And reading!

The Thrill Of First

Last week I witnessed during my flight from Ahmadabad, what I have begun to term as ‘The Thrill of First’.

There was a group of young adults who boarded the flight at Ahmadabad along with me. Being one of the few early people to check-in I had the opportunity to observe this group right from the time they entered the airport, till the end of the journey.  For most of the seasoned travellers; a 5:00 am flight is a price that you pay to maximise your day, a necessary evil of having to get up at an unearthly hour so that the remaining day is productive. But this group seemed oblivious to any such discomfort.

Everything excited them – the line at the counter, the plastic wrapping of the baggage, the questions at the check-in counter, the security check and even the wait for the aircraft.  They had to inspect everything, pass opinions loudly for everyone’s benefit and chatter incessantly. On the flight, the steward had a tough time of reigning in the enthusiasm.  Right from not taking their seats, fighting for the window seat, ordering water during take-off, not fastening their seat-belts, paging the air-hostess continuously, insisting to gather into a single group to chatter loudly through the nearly 3 hour flight – one ought to agree they did seem to be source of mild irritation to all other passengers and in-flight team.

As I waited to collect my baggage one of them walked upto me, shook my hands and said ‘It was really nice travelling with you. Have a great day!’ . And all I could recollect was the fact that I helped them with some minor details at the airport and for no particular reason was awarded a seat which was next to their centre of activities. As I saw them leave the Chennai airport with the same unbridled enthusiasm even after the three hour flight – I felt that if anyone had a great morning that day – it was them!

‘The Thrill of First’- had provided a freshness to every point of their experience.

‘The Thrill of First’ – had made them embrace the mild remonstration of the stewardess, the glares of the co-passengers, the smile of a child, the spotting of the clouds all equally amazing and fun.

‘The Thrill of First’  – had led them to shed their inhibitions, adopt a curious attitude, gave them the joy of discovery and made every aspect however small or big an equally beautiful one.

As I collected my bags and pushed my trolley out – I felt refreshed and touched in some way by this freshness, by this ‘Thrill of First!’

Did this travel have a more poignant message for me in life and business? I am sure it does. though I am not sure of what. But I intend to find out. I hope to share them with you as they develop and crystallise in the coming days..

Have a great week!

Interesting Links This Week: 17-Mar-2013

These are my top 3 links that I came across this week

Why should you have senior people in your young

startup? What are the benefits and challenges? http://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/when-and-how-to-hire-experienced-executives.html

In our urge to predict the pre-ordained future we are turning towards big data and predictive analytics. It is a field that is gathering immense interest and attention. Here is an article that talks about myths that are emerging around this http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2012/12/17/the-5-myths-of-big-data-analytics/

An excellent article on what sales should be and what it is http://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/will-you-let-me-buy-rather-than-trying-to-sell-to-me/

Books and Me: Scenes From A Writer’s Life

Title: Scenes From A Writer’s Life

Author: Ruskin Bond

One does not come across very often a book with subtitle ‘A memoir’, which is less than 200 pages. It becomes even more surprising when the author is a much celebrated personality. Adding spice to this line of thinking is the fact that the author is still active in his profession. Ruskin Bond’s attempt at writing this seems to me as more as an attempt to capture the story of the making of a writer.  His honest and straight forward approach of his early days, his motivations, his challenges, his relationships are indeed touching. The portion where he describes the short but intense relationship with his dad is emotional and moving.

There are many reasons why a person turns to books. Bond’s difficulties, challenges and loses during his early childhood seems to have left him lonely and empty.  To fill this gap, he seems to have turned to books that created a world of his own in which he gained optimism, inspiration and love towards reading. This relationship with books and large amounts of time spent in solitude allowed him the time to discover his calling in life, namely writing.

The story behind an author’s first publication that gives recognition is always inspiring. Bond’s is no exception.  The story of the publication of his first masterpiece ‘The room on the roof’ should be re-read a number of times by every aspiring writer. His love for nature, his love for his extended family, friends and India comes very strongly as you leaf through the book. Anyone who has read this would agree with me in saying that we are left wanting to know more about him.

Vedantic Wednesday: SELF as Sakshi

We understand that SELF enlivens the inert body.  So in presence of SELF the body functions. Does work.  Does action. But what happens to SELF when we are sleeping? Does it sleep? This sounds as a pretty dumb question. But I did not have answer, rather I did not even have the thought of the question.

The impact of presence of  SELF on our body is – consciousness or awareness. From this consciousness or awareness results the actions of the body. The atman or self acts as a detached witness or observer all through the three states of consciousness that the body opts for – state of waking, state of dream and state of sleep. In the waking state our consciousness makes us aware of the external world, in the dream state, it makes us aware of the projected dream world and in the deep sleep state we become oblivious of both. In all three states it is the consciousness which makes us aware, thereby revealing itself as eternal knowledge.

All through these three states our SELF remains detached.  And this is why when every aspect of our understanding is recognized through thoughts – SELF is recognised through the SELF itself. A note on this earlier can be found in an earlier blog

What Is your Managerial Style?

Very often a Manager is faced with a situation of managing team performance to match the deadline pressures. They know their team is very hard working and committed. If it was within their perceptible limit they would get things done. But then comes along a situation where the team has to deliver just that little more than what they think is their combined potential. Now getting that extra bit of work done, calls for some new rules and ingenuity from both the Manager and his team. When they achieve this together a new performance bench mark gets set – and the team emerges truly a winner. But then while all of us as Managers realize this – how do we actually go about handling this situation, where you need to get your team to perform more than what they believe they can?

A common technique used by most of the managers is what we call as ‘You Just Do – I will take care’ approach. In this approach the Manager goads the team into first accepting the challenge and getting commitments against what seems almost impossible deadlines. He leads the team from front, constantly beating the drum and taking care of all aspects of the team comfort from food, to music at work, to pat on the back and motivational speeches. The team under his tight supervision and cajoling very often performs. At the end of the day there is the sense of sweet victory alongwith pleasant fatigue. The victory in this gets attributed first to the Managerial capability and then the team!

A more rare technique is what very few managers dare to practice. This is what we call ‘I will take care – You Just Do’ approach. In this approach the Manager first draws out with the team what is possible by their standards of achievement. Then by the method of challenge identification and resolution, works on removing all possible blocks that the team visualizes as reasons that stop them from giving more. For example commuting pressures, personal commitments, home cooked food etc. After addressing all these issues the Manager now leaves the team with the choice to use the time released to constructive use.

Now in this approach the Manager is not drawing the schedule. He is only making arrangements for the team to first work to 100% potential and then explore how much more each of them can contribute. All the time he continues to emphasize the importance for the organization to meet the deadline. Automatically this puts the onus of meeting the delivery on the team’s shoulder. With obstacle removed, they can decide how best to invest the new found time. It is now upto them to configure their routine so that they can give more to the project under consideration. The driver here is no more the manager but the team. And the success is first now attributed to the team which acknowledges inturn the Manager. The success when it comes is still as sweet, the team as strained but definitely less fatigued.

The reason why most Managers choose the first path is because in this situation they are in complete control. When it comes to delivery pressures, many of us prefer to have the person we trust in the driving seat – and who better than our own self to play that role? The second approach also requires a highly mature and committed team, which understands, appreciates and acknowledge the choice that the Manager had in choosing the approaches.

While the first approach is known to yield a greater % of results, it is the second approach that actually goes to build a team. And as Managers we all know nothing is the last war – once you have a winning team, you have won them all!

Interesting Links This Week: 10-Mar-2013

My best picks this week are these:

An interesting read on opportunities in Health Care http://www.forbes.com/sites/davechase/2013/01/17/healthcares-trillion-dollar-disruption/

What can be done to become more agile in your strategic planning exercise. What role does online have in this? A report from CAP Gemini  http://www.capgemini-consulting.com/strategic-planning-the-digital-age/

Can you imagine 100,000 books listed under your name on Amazon with another 700,000 listed under your company’s name? This man has. As an author this really got me thinking. http://singularityhub.com/2012/12/13/patented-book-writing-system-lets-one-professor-create-hundreds-of-thousands-of-amazon-books-and-counting/

Books and Me: The Lean Startup

Title: The Lean Startup

Author: Eric Ries

There are many books on entrepreneurship, few match up to the extent of detailing that Eric Ries provides on the key aspect – starting up. For a long time starting up a business was always thought of as an art, which only the blessed were to practice. It is only in recent times, that the science behind the creation of new enterprises has gained momentum. Eric Ries’s book on this subject is definitely a catalyst to this shift.  Being from a technology background with lot of exposure to product development, his personal experience seems to have shaped the lean startup philosophy.

The author has borrowed extensively the principles of lean methodology and has carefully adapted them to a startup’s needs. He has also developed a clear methodology to turn the philosophy into a practically implementable approach. The number of examples quoted in the book of both new start-ups as well as existing enterprises venturing into new areas provide enough food for thought to the reader.

It is not surprising that the lean movement is catching up across the world with evangelists springing up in support of the movement from various disciplines.  Though the book seems to be most suitable for product start-ups especially in technology, there are number of strong takeaways even for entrepreneurs in services and other traditional industries as well. Overall an interesting and an useful book if you are interested in enterprise creation, especially of a startup.

On Innovation: Is It Only For Apple and Google?

Steve Jobs and the like are exceptions! Let us respect them. But they alone are not enough. Apple and Steve Jobs alone cannot the run the world. We need people like them in every line. We need people like them at every scale.

While Apple and Google provide inspiration; there is a company through its sheer consistency in innovation has shown how small thoughts can go onto making a large company. This is 3M. When one studies 3M and history of its product, one can understand that they are not running behind a single path breaking innovative idea. They are coming up with products that solve simple need and most of it extending on an earlier idea.

This is a thought that is important for businesses of smaller scale. Innovation can be a game-changer at all scales and at all levels. Not necessarily only for multinational or products. Innovating one’s supply chain, innovating one’s processes, innovating one’s production floor layout,  innovation in services could cause a considerable shift in both productivity and profitability for a small and medium company. And the best part is the rate of jump that happens with a small twist to thinking is definitive in impact and significance!

So SME companies instead of relegating innovation as something that needs to be considered only when they become large, should swiftly and adeptly embrace it at every aspect of their operations and strategy. For only when they do this, can they even realize the dream of becoming large!