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Greetings!
#7. October 1, 2012
In this issue… Purushartha: Rediscovering the Vibrant Soul’s True Richness – Dr. Charles M Savage
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How to learn politics from Children - Sharu S Rangnekar
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TEN Action Ideas for Leaders – Rajiv Khurana
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Tips Talk
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This Earth…
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Pearls of wisdom from Mahatma Gandhi
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As a kid, I would have seen the movie JAGRITI many times . I still recall the famous bhajan “De Di hamey azaadi bina khadak, bina dhaal, Sabarmati ke sant tuney kar diya kamaal.” [You gave us freedom without violence, O Saint of Sabarmati, you created this wonder.] Mahatma Gandhi today is more relevant in today’s world but is mere present in the books of history and meaningless political speeches. Can we change this? Do we want to? He said, “We must become the change we want to see.” Are we ready? How can we begin? When do we begin? Listen to your heart. Then start. Simple but effective steps. One at a time. Be truthful to self. Don’t look at others because they may not do. They may follow you. Just begin. Ask Y. Why this can’t be replicated many times, always? Start MAG – My Actions Game to remain a true INDIAN. Cheers, Rajiv Khurana Editor PS – Please don’t forget to send your feedback at rajivkhurana@vsnl.com. You may even call me at 9810211256.
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Dr. Charles M. Savage,
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#7. October 1, 2012
Dr. Charles M. Savage
As I teach and speak with MBA students in India, it quickly becomes clear that their goal is a “good package.” They hope that by learning the language of finance, marketing, HR and related topics, they can impress the recruiters and certainly many do.
What I do not find in MBA programs is much focus on their inner growth. Somehow their “curiosity” and “courage” remains undeveloped. And in spite of being asked millions of questions during their studies, few students learn the art, themselves, of asking powerful questions. It’s easier to “fit in” and “do what’s expected,” rather than to “stand tall” and “shake the boat.” How did this all happen? As the Industrial Era began, we saw the rise of a focus on the “individual,” “natural science,” and “property rights.” Winners soon became those who “owned” and “controlled.” In essence, we supercharged our EGOs in a never ending appetite for constant accumulation. Certainly these developments have brought us a great deal, but have they diverted our attention from some other aspects equally important for human life? Perhaps we should change the word “economy” into “EGOnomy” as this seems to be what things are all about, more “ego” and less “eco.” 2
author of Fifth Generation Management, has been for years on the cutting edges of leadership changes. Born and raised in Hawaii, he’s been teaching MBA Leadership courses in Germany, Sweden and India.
Purushartha: Rediscovering the Vibrant Soul’s True Richness
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#7. October 1, 2012 The notions of “Artha” and “Kama” are well known and provide the fuel that energizes our consumer society. How many are saying now, “I must have an iPhone 5?” And so it goes. Our iPhones make it possible to communicate over long distances, but what about the short distance between my thoughts and feelings? Do we even know how to carry on a conversation within ourselves or between ourselves at a deeper level? Is there another level to live that we are missing? Over the years I’ve been finding so much wisdom in the Indian culture, and one such bright insight relates to the “Purushartha.” It has an amazing richness of context and invites a level of conversation and reflection that even the future iPhone 10 will never reach! Too often in the West we view ethics and morality as constraints, suggesting what we should NOT do. I am beginning to understand that the Dharma works in a much more positive manner. Metaphorically it is like the keel of a sailboat, giving me stability in rough seas. As I study the Bhagavadgita, the Mahabharata, Ramayana and other wonderful literature, I quickly realize these reveal our human struggle to discovery what sustains life, what brings out its nobility and what ensures future generations also have a chance. Moreover, as I learn the “art of wise judgment” awakened by constant curiosity, courage and the asking of powerful questions, I realize the conventional notions of “Wealth” (Artha) and “Desire” (Kama) by themselves are superficial at best. Must our desires always be about “having more things” to accumulate?
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Where do we find enduring wealth within? How might our desire become one of “selfless-service?” Might these insights echo in deep reflective dialoguing as much within and as between ourselves?
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#7. October 1, 2012 Perhaps as we find our “liberation” from the corrosive notions of our consumptive society, we can find new insights and free our “vibrant selves” to shift from a focus on “possession” to one of “expression?” This could well mean that the economy of the future will be characterized more by the richness of our active cultural life rather than the accumulation of more things than we ever will truly need. Where are the “cultural entrepreneurs?” Could it be that it’s time to rethink the MBA paradigm? How could our MBA programs become a vibrant center of reflection and dialogue, involving not only those already in business life, but the other disciplines, be their literature, psychology, sociology, comparative religions, etc. etc. so that the graduates are able to package within themselves powerful new insights that can help us move beyond the Industrial Era, through the Green Economy into something we still don’t understand, but know we need? In short, is it not time to reconnect with the inquisitive power of the Dharma to bring out life’s dignity rather than being seduced by another “Western Theory?” In doing so, might we find that true riches are truly within our vibrant souls? The thoughts here are an extension of my remarks shared on Friday, Sept. 28, 2012 at the AIMA and co-hosted by the IMCI, Delhi. I was most honored to be able to be with you all. 4
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#7. October 1, 2012
How to learn politics from Children
Sharu S. Rangnekar
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CMC, FIMC AManagement Educator with considerable experience in conducting Management Development programmes. www.sharurangnekar.com
I have been writing an How to Learn Management – (including learning Management your Wife), but some of my friends complain that their career has been affected not by deficiencies in their management skill but due to lack of skill in dealing with the politics in the office. There are two problems they consider endemic in every organization: Chamchagiri (sycophancy) and legpulling. These are the most visible aspects of office politics. Very often people say,� Our organization is good but we have only two problems: Chamchagiri from bosses and leg-pulling from colleagues. They insist that the problem is essentially with others because they themselves never practice Chamchagiri and leg-pulling. Since it is considered a serious problem it is necessary to do a thorough analysis. The first aspect is what politics is. The politics they are complaining is not what is practised in state capitals or in Delhi but the politics which is practised within their own organization. First step is to understand is that this politics is inevitable. In Physics, flame is defined as a region where two or more gases meet to emit heat and / or light. Similarly an organization can be defined as a place where two or more persons meet to created positive or negative results. Where the results are negative, the person feels that Chamchagiri and legpulling are the reasons.
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#7. October 1, 2012 In fact, when people get together they start influencing others. There is an inevitable competition in this influencing process and that is the basis of politics. This exists not only in the real politics but also in the company politics or in family politics. In good old days (or bad old days) of joint families the family politics was very prevalent. The conflicts between Mothers-in-laws and Daughters-in-law and the jealousies between Sistersin-law (which are the fodder for most of the TV serials) demonstrate this. Even when the families have become nuclear – with husband wife and two children, the politics come in. When the children quarrel you can hear the words, “You are Daddy’s chamchi” or “You are Mummy’s chamcha”. Thus, as soon as two people get together politics comes up because they compete to influence others. The influencing process involves resources, affinity and linkage. Finance is an obvious resource, but every other attribute a person has can be used as a resource. Through intelligent use of these resources he can create relationships which develop into affinity groups. Even if the person does not have resources of his own, the linkage with a person having resources itself can becomes an important resource.
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The Concept of Resources The resources are not constant and their fluctuation gives more scope for politics. The resources need not be essentially positive. The biggest resource of a child is that it has no resource – that itself become a resource. In fact the total resourcelessness, creates a strong motivation for powerful linkage. In every house a child is a most powerful person since as soon as he starts crying everybody in the house gets worked up and insists that the child should get immediate attention. As the child grows up, this linkage through total helplessness gets reduced gradually and he has to develop his affinity group and create and maintain linkages. The success of each child should be analysed how the child uses this process to get power. Even if there are no children in the house and the family has a dog, one can learn politics from the way the dog developes resources, relationship and linkage to get power. A dog is normally considered a family dog but the dog quickly creates linkage with a specific individual and is considered his special dog. If that individual is attacked even by the family members the dog is immediately excited against the other family members.
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#7. October 1, 2012
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The dog demonstrates his power in peculiar ways. It may accept food only from the special individual. In fact if individual is absent, he takes food from other members of family – but shows his protest to that special individual when he returns. The dog shows that it is upset by the absence of the special individual. When the special individual offers food to the dog it refuses to accept food readily and the special individual has to show regret to the dog. So when we say the man keeps the dog actually the dog uses the political process to keep the man i.e. to control him. To learn about the political process one has to study How the resources are identified and utilized to create the affinity group and linkage. How that is used to obtain power. Identifying & Utilising Resources to Create Affinity Groups Every attribute that a person has can be used as resource. Even the lack of resources under the label the “Poverty Group” becomes a resource and can form a “Mantra” which can create an affinity group. Mayawati is using “AntiManuwadi” as her mantra. The “Telagu Gauravam” was used by N.T.Rama Rao to create an affinity group that overthrew the Congress Rule. “Tamil Culture” and the “Marathi Pride” have been used by various DMKs and Senas to make affinity groups to challenge the formidable Congress Rule. Leading the Affinity Groups Linkage is essential to focus the affinity groups to generate power. A child realizes this and focuses on mother as the first linkage point. Even before the child recognizes the mother by her face, it recognizes her by smell and keeps attached to the mother. The physical bonding between the child and mother is a very important process for their influencing each other. The child accepting the mother creates a relationship of loyalty and very soon the power of the mother becomes the power of child. The child uses this power very cleverly e.g, if you are working with a ball point pen kept on your desk, a two year old child will come and first touch the ball point pen. If you do not react it will grasp the pen. If you still do not react it takes the pen and moves away. If you protest at this stage “why it is taking away the pen?”. It replies, “This is my pen, I have found it”. That is the child’s idea of ownership. So you move to take the pen for the child. It rushes to the mother. Taking up its cause, the mother tells you, “Let the child have the pen for a little while. You will get it later”. Generally you agree this proposal and the child has acquired the pen by using the power of the mother.
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#7. October 1, 2012
This political process is to be followed in organizations. The first step is to understand the power equation within the organisation. Many organizations issue “organisation charts” which are supposed to define the distribution of power - but these organization charts never represent the actual power hierarchy. Consequently understanding the power hierarchy cannot come from reading organisation charts but by observing the organizational processes which demonstrate the power each person wields in the organisation. Many times the situation is fluid and it changes from time to time. This is something that can be learnt through close observation at the interaction between people. This is what develops the political sense of each individual in an organisation. In a large family you can see how a four year old child understands and uses the power equation between father, grandfathers, uncles as well as mother, grandmothers and aunties. The famous psychologist Dr.Eric Berne remarked “On my best day, I am barely half as good as a four year old child in manipulating people”. The child manipulate grand-parents against parents, father against mother, various assorted uncles and aunties to acquire power and whenever the power is changed it understand it almost by osmosis. A small child intuitively understands the relationships and starts acquiring power. Its manipulation creates a role for the child and very often although it is weakest member physically, it becomes most influential member of a family. Similarly, a new person entering in an organisation has to acquire relationships with various people already there, those who have entered with him and the new people coming in. Those who are able to build a good relationship find that their influence in the organisation grows. In the popular film “Bawarchi” Rajesh Khanna plays the role of bawarchi (cook) by demonstrating how relationship are based on common memories and common interests and how he as a new comer in the household, is able to influence the relationship.
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#7. October 1, 2012 Establish the role of the mentor and create the loyalty role with him: Generally the immediate boss is the candidate for the position of the mentor but in various situations other people may have to be selected to play this role. When the mentor is identified the new entrant should make his loyalty evident whenever he talks about the mentor. This is automatically conveyed through the grapevine to the mentor and induces him to be loyal to the new entrant. Many people consider this process as “Chamchagiri”. Chamchagiri has essentially two aspects one is accepting the ideas of the mentor and secondly to give him information about the political process carried out in the organisation. The new entrant is tempted to use this aspect to convey to the mentor some adverse information about his colleagues. This can create difficulties because he may get affinity of the mentor but hostility from the colleagues. If colleagues are hostile, the new comer can be rarely successful since he cannot get the co-operation, collaboration and co-ordination with others in the organisation. It is a skill to be “loyal” to the mentor without being labeled as “chamcha”. This can be done if the person keeps the transparent system and does not make adverse comments about the colleagues in their absence. If he has any difficulties he takes them directly with the the colleagues and does not bring the boss in the situation. Once people are aware of this they accept the individual without considering him as a “informer”. This is an important image to develop. Conclusion: Thus learning politics involve the following steps: Identifying resources and utilizing them to create affinity groups, Creating linkage to focus on the affinity groups, Using linkage to create power Children get onto this process and continue with increasing expertise and success till they enter school. Then the education interrupts their instinctive learning process that is how education interferes with learning. 9
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Rajiv Khurana
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CMC, FIMC www.thepersonnellab.com www.rajivkhurana.com
#7. October 1, 2012
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Act forward, check backward
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Be the example
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Create around a circle of right people
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Do away with blame game
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Eliminate setbacks early
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Focus on strengths
Your leadership has brought big results. May be great results! Is that sufficient? Even the great Sachin Tendulkar sits down to look back on his minor errors and learns from it. Check yours! Your child may like to be like you when he grows up. How about your junior team mates? Be the person who may inspire them the most. These right people should not be your duplicates. They should indeed be people with diverse skills, knowledge and attitude so that you all complement each other. Or else, you may have a team of eleven wicket-keepers. Avoid the favorite pastime of the corporate world. See the finger that points at you for not creating the right culture of performance and celebration. Thrive on the successes and live with minor irritants. Procrastination is the luxury you cannot enjoy. All the problems of people, process, product, passion etc. must get eliminated at the earliest stance. Or else, you will only specialize as a problem solver. Have you ever scored 100/100 in every exam you appeared? No! Would your people give you the same score for all that you do or don’t do while leading them? No! Why do you expect the same? Take a chillpill. Focus on their strengths. Make them stronger. People will start working on their limitations on their own. Trust them.
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#7. October 1, 2012
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Gain respect than love
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Harvest success and happiness
You may choose to be the best pal around and remain goody-goody all the time. It won’t work. They expect you to lead them. Command their respect for the right blend of leadership that you demonstrate. Understand what makes them feel happy and successful. Be the gardener to plant the right seeds and saplings. Nurture with care. Your success depends upon the collective success of all involved. Inspire them. Ignite them.
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Invest in enhancing calibre
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Join hands with a Coach/Mentor
The medicines you take have an expiry date. Your knowledge, attitude and skills have an expiry date too. It’s true for your team too. Work collectively. Learn together. Share t he learning. In the sports field, the captain remains on the side of all the players. Your presence is inspiring. Choose wisely. Use smartly. Through out your career, you will need different perspectives. Coach or Mentor bring unimaginable boon to your career. Seek a personal one if you cannot get your organization sponsor the fee for you. There would be many senior professional colleagues who may gladly play this role for you with least expectations. Keep it professional.
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#7. October 1, 2012
Tips to make an impact through good presentations. PLAN - Invest in knowing the audience and understanding their needs to look after PATTERN - Develop a linkage of one point with another POWER - Practice to modulate your voice & speak from your heart PROOF - Be prepared with examples and data to justify what you present PICTURES - Use appropriate pictures and clip art to make a visual impact PARTICIPATION Converse in the language of the audience & involve them 12
- Rajiv Khurana
Some tips for conducting the brain storming sessions in the right way so that they do not become the usual brain hammering sessions. Consensus of no criticism: Start with a mutual agreement that no criticism will take place while generating ideas Freewheeling of ideas: Let the ideas flow freely. Cross-fertilize ideas with that of others to create more and more Keep a record of quantity: Build a large ideas bank by noting all the ideas big or small
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#7. October 1, 2012
Pics: Rajiv Khurana 1.
Scientific dating estimates the Earth to be around 4.54 billion years old with a 1% margin of error. 2. Oxygen forms approximately 47% of the crust of the Earth. 3. Earth has poles at the bottom and the top of the planet called the north and south poles which makes it a huge magnet. 4. An Earth day is not 24 hours long. It’s actually 23h, 56m, 4s which is the time that the planet needs to rotate on its own axis. 5. This is the only planet from the solar system which has water in all the matter states: gas (as clouds), liquid (rain, sea, etc) and solid (ice). 6. Scientists say that an Earth day had around 20 hours a few million years ago and that a million years from now it will have 27 hours. 7. The coldest place on Earth is Vostok (in Antarctica) and the hottest area is El Azizia (in Libya). That’s interesting! 8. Did you know that on July 21st 1983, the coldest temperature ever on the planet earth was recorded at a frightening 128.6 degrees fahrenheit below zero (-89.2 ºC) in Antarctica by Soviet scientist at the Vostok expedition station? Thats one cool fact! 9. The Earth’s year has 365.2564 days. Thanks to this extra .2564, every four years, the leap year appears, which has an extra day. 10. The oldest tree from Earth is estimated to be about 4600 years old and it’s a bristlecone pine from California. That’s an amazing fact!
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#7. October 1, 2012
Pearls of wisdom from Mahatma Gandhi The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within. The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. It may be long before the law of love will be recognized in international affairs. The machineries of government stand between and hide the hearts of one people from those of another. As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side.
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