Beautiful You and Beyond

The Dam

2011-12-27T10:30:00.005+05:30

Sitting on the earthen dam in full monsoon

Saw the water rise peacefully & gently lapping

With the restless river all along trying to break free

Quilts & Stories

2011-12-20T10:30:00.001+05:30

As winter becomes colder

People seek the warmth of their homes

Creating beautiful quilts, lovely stories and tasty food

7 Secret Powers for the New Age.

2011-12-16T12:13:00.001+05:30

Most of us are completely unaware of the 7 secret powers that are available to anyone. These not only enable one to transform his/her life but also enable individuals to transform the lives of others, organizations and societies. Application of these secret powers that incipiently lie within oneself can help anyone lead a fulfilled and useful life, provided one is willing to lead such a life.

Even for those who are somewhat aware of these powers that lie within us the method to apply and use these powers for transformation is not very well understood.

Let me first start by listing the 7 secret powers:

1st Power: Ability to discriminate, be detached at will, fearlessly walk the path of the 'creative middle' and live in freedom.
2nd Power: Ability to learn, gain insights, understand situations & apply instantaneous wisdom
3rd Power: Ability to make choices, be intuitive, shore up will and express rightly.
4th Power: Ability to face problems, challenges and opportunities, listening to the unexpected, love & compassion
5th Power: Ability to garner self esteem, have faith in oneself, be mindful of one's actions & understand that everything is 'becoming'.
6th Power: Ability to judge an intention, create an intention and to be creative to surmount constraints and get past strongly held beliefs and assumptions
7th Power: Ability to 'see' reality, interconnections and interdependence of all things and belong to 'tribes' and conform to 'tribe' behavior and rituals.

However, these powers can't be developed individually, i.e. one by one in isolation. That is the real secret. These powers lie in combination, as found in combination locks and are to be applied in such combinations or in totality, to unlock the solution to a problem, challenge or opportunity, if one choose to. But whatever it might be these powers can't be developed in imagination alone. The powers get better and stronger if one cares to apply them to real life experiences and gain from such application.

So what are the combinations that appear in pairs?

a) Power 1 is related to Power7
b) Power 2 is related to Power 6
c) Power 3 is related to Power 5
d) Power 4 is stand alone. This is because it is the driving force that lends itself to all the other powers. Without Power 4 nothing would work or be fruitful.

Let me illustrate how these "combination pair" works like magic helping one to solve life's problems and challenges to create new opportunities.

John worked in a big Government organization. He was proud to be an officer of that organization. He worked hard and very creatively to win recognition for the organization and win many laurels for himself. After ten years of such meaningful work he was up against some unscrupulous bosses, who did not like his creative methods at all. They simply did not like his manner of working. They wanted him to serve their narrow selfish interests alone by listening to and carrying out their orders. Understandably this was not much to John's liking at all. Soon, as expected, his bosses plotted against him to throw him out of the organization. Surely, within a few months, he was booted out of the organization. It was totally unjustified but John could help himself stop the conspiracy.

The humiliation proved too much for John to sustain. He was an emotional wreak. He did not know what to do next. Though he was served with a handsome pension to financially sustain him he could not take his mind off from the fact that he was illegally removed from meaningful work. He just mulled over the issue day and night leaving him little or no room to think differently. Though he had many talents which he could have put to great use to start a new and meaningful life he simply did not think to put them to good use. But as years rolled by he was totality drawn and sucked into a vortex of ill feelings and emotional disruption. Soon, he was besieged by all sorts of diseases, including problems of the heart.

How can we address this problem through our combination pair?

Clearly John's case is related to Power 7 -- relating to a tribe and being thrown out of a tribe which he loved so much. His whole identity was linked to the tribe where he felt as home even after being thrown out. His thoughts about his unjustified removal created an insurmountable emotional block that prevented him from doing anything useful.

Step 1: Apply Power 4 to face the issue squarely and see it as an opportunity to do something better than what he was doing so far.

Step 2: Apply Power 1 (the opposite of Power 7) -- the power of discrimination, detachment, walking the creative middle and living in freedom by creating and embracing new opportunities.

How?

He had a great talent for writing. Applying his power of discrimination and detachment he could have sensed the opportunity and the pleasure of being alone. This would have given him the necessary peace of mind and time (money wasn't a problem since his handsome pension provided him the necessary cushion) to pen down his real life experiences in form of stories and novels to publish them. That might have established him as a writer. Or he could have used his skills, honed in the organization, to open a business service to government and private organization to share his experiences in the area of strategy, tactics and competitive intelligence. Or had he maintained some relationship (other than being totally opposed) with his previous employer he could have offered his services to the same organization as a 'freelancer'. This is what is 'walking the creative middle' is all about -- not hating the organization that was unjust to him but using those experiences to write stories, or create a business service or work as a 'freelancer' or utilize his other skills to lead a more meaningful life than he presently led.

Fortunately, one of his good friends spotted the possibility to 'walk the creative middle' and suggested him to teach in industries his knowledge of strategy, tactics and competitive intelligence in organizations. Though unwilling in the beginning he took up the suggestion to slowly push his way forward in the new arena. After a few years he was a recognized expert consultant to private industries on strategy and tatics. The more he got engaged in these activities his health problems started to disappear. His heart was healthier than before.

Moral: If it a problem related to Power 7 it can be solved by applying Power 1.

Notes:
However all the others powers are applied to some extent at different points of time to provide strength to the transformation. It is useful to keep in mind that Power 4 is always to be applied under any circumstances since it is the driving force behind all the powers to bring about transformations in real life.

In Search of The Elusive Truth

2011-12-13T23:55:00.000+05:30

When we walk friction drags us back but keeps us in balance.
When the kite flies the wind goes against it but keeps it in balance
When water flows the floor pulls it back but helps it flow
When current flows it immediately encounters resistance.
When the car moves the wind and the road try to stop it.

If we want to move our hands it can only be done when both tension & compression act together
When a shaft moves both tension & compression appear together as if from nowhere.
When a raindrop falls the air is against it creating a new reality;
But when it touches the wave of the river the reality changes again.
It is a relationship of constant struggle between two opposites that creates movement
Everything in reality moves; or movement is the only reality.
It changes minute to minute, second to second, nano-second to nano second
That is what reality is. That is all there is.

Behind all change is movement struggling against a pair of opposites.
If one chooses to lean too much to one side, movement stops
And so does the music of life; but is only a transition; stopping to change its movement

All movements produce vibration & waves that flow through eternity.
The ever changing changeless nature of any phenomenon; any process
It is always there and would always be there without fail. It is truly timeless

So, see movement, feel movement, think movement, act on changes.
Or 'see' vibrations, feel vibrations, think about the patterns they make
See them in isolation; see them in combination; see them in possible re-combinations
To see second by second the ever changing changeless reality in the totality in its own settings

It is the balance between two polar opposites
That we seek to achieve to create both harmony & melody in everything.
It is a constant struggle in a relationship that creates the beauty
It is a constant struggle between reliability and resilience.

It is the balance at the center of the movement that creates all possibilities
The creative center -- in the middle of everything.
Cling to it; feel it; love it, worship the struggle & bless yourself when you find yourself in the center.
Since once understood the whole is understood instantly.
Wisdom flows through such instant understanding
Which is applied instantaneously in unpredictable manner & strange ways
That is what centering in life is all about to understand the truth so elusive.

The Struggle of Energetics

2011-12-13T11:28:00.000+05:30

The older world view > Newtonian

The main percepts were:

1. Materialism, where matter is all that we have.
2. Reductionism, where anything can be understood by breaking something up into smaller pieces
3. Determinism, where there must be one cause behind something undesirable happening, or the root cause analysis. Something can be a cause or not a cause. It is either 'yes' or 'no' -- nothing in between. Correcting the cause reverts matter to its original state. No question of any creativity. It is all disciplined action based on logic. One can be either here or there but never anywhere 'in between' (the excluded middle).

This world view existed for around 400 years and indeed done us a wealth of good. But it is not serving us well enough anymore. It seems to create more problems than it solves.

The newer world view > Quantum

The main percepts are:

1. Energetics, where energy shapes the end point, that is matter and everything arises out of the inherent struggle between different energies.
2. Holism, where everything is connected to everything else and also interdependent. Energy exists because of the inherent struggle between everything arising out of their independent motions. It is a field (an energy field). Something changes; the whole field changes. The energy field changes continuously. Time seems to spiral to create new energy fields producing over time a set of fields more complex than its previous. So to make a desired change in the field a small change is all that is necessary to cause a big change to happen (desired resonance).
3. Uncertainty, where there is no 'one cause' behind something happening. It is a set consisting of many causes that acts simultaneously to create something or create a change. It is a matter of chance. Hence it has to be acted upon with creativity to achieve a desired end result. Attending something with creativity needs flexibility of the mind (fluid movements through focused energy in response to another energy field). The act of creating is resilience. The desired end result is reliability.

Action Plan in light of the new reality:

1. Pay attention to the energy field to observe the inherent struggle that creates the field (Struggle Energetics)
2. Feel, Think & Understand the field in totality and its interactions with other fields (Holism)
3. Creatively decide the small changes that can be implemented by minimum effort to bring about desired changes in the field as a response to adapt to changing realities by creating new patterns that change individual and/or social consciousness. (Minimalist Intervention producing resonance)

Reference:
1) In search of elusive truth: http://discoverwithin.blogspot.com/2011/12/in-search-of-elusive-truth.html

Not Useless

2011-12-13T10:30:00.001+05:30

In a community there were two

Who were innovative & useful

The rest were not; but not useless

The Crow Caws

2011-12-06T10:30:00.001+05:30

The sun is down

The moon is up

The crows caws heavily

The Secret of Existence

2011-12-04T13:28:00.001+05:30

"The whole secret of existence is to have 'NON-FEAR'. Never fear what will become of you, defend no one. Only the moment you reject all help you are free" -- Buddha.

"What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance is understanding fear; that means watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We learn about fear, not how to escape from it." Jiddu Krishnamurti

My Take: We can only have NON-FEAR only when we Respect ourselves, Respect others and Respect reality. The fundamental word to exist in this material world is Respect. From Respect comes NON-FEAR, freeing us from everything.

Looking

2011-11-29T10:30:00.001+05:30

Looked down and beyond

The tame sea at Mandarmoni

Then looked up at the fiery Milky Way

I Travel

2011-11-22T10:30:00.003+05:30

Nothingness to nothingness I travel

Through billion moments

Not a moment perfect, yet I travel

My Knee Pains

2011-11-15T10:30:00.001+05:30

My knee pains on this wet evening

My weight and exercise taking their toll

Full moon shines but so cold.

Night Falls

2011-11-08T10:30:00.001+05:30

On an old iron gate

And a building so fade: A crow caws

Night falls in Kolkata

The Mall

2011-11-03T16:33:00.000+05:30

November in South City Mall

The shops are empty

Crowd mills around endlessly

Needed Peace

2011-11-01T10:30:00.001+05:30

Clouds float in the sky from time to time

Giving me the needed peace

To walk quickly on the streets

Diwali over

2011-10-30T17:08:00.002+05:30

Diwali is over

South windows are open

Sunlight streams in freely

Lovely Evening

2011-10-25T10:30:00.002+05:30

On this lovely evening

let us arrange these

flowers...rojoni gondha, belle, jui

Since there is no rice

I with my Laptop

2011-10-18T10:30:00.001+05:30

Here none is sitting

In this room, but I with my laptop

This monsoon night

Butterfly Balances

2011-10-11T10:30:00.003+05:30

I like April

When wind floats

And butterfly balances

Weeded Pain

2011-10-04T10:30:00.001+05:30

By Snigdhadeb De (a contribution from my nephew)

i cried i cried but in vain...

and nothing subdued this well earned pain..

that made myself hurt from within...

a pain so cruel from the subconscious fighting.

A war of worlds,of skies and stars...

of kings,of men of ruthless czars....

who have lost themselves in the hands of insanity

alas!It also happens to me....

Though my means of doom are not of ...

The Lighthouse

2011-10-02T09:07:00.003+05:30

(Lighthouse in the Northwest Scottish Highland).

So far I knew that the sun was all important. It surelymakes our day bright and shiny. But now I realize that a lighthouse is equallyimportant. It illuminates the way forward when we have lost our way in themidst of darkness, gloom and despair bringing confidence with a steady hand.That is exactly what a human being can do for another, which nature can't.

The lighthouse acquires a new meaning -- a new symbol --symbolizing the highest form of human spirit -- the spirit of connecting,nurturing, enhancing relationships and encouraging others on their journey intolife.

Buddha said, 'Be the light'.

I realize that he must have meant 'Be the light and the lighthouse'. or 'Be the gentle pull to bring light into your life and others'.

But the only thing that is demanded of us is to be open to the richness of the experience by starting the inward journey within us with the clear intention of continuing it.

My Loneliness

2011-09-27T10:30:00.000+05:30

Won't you visit and see

my loneliness? Just one incomplete

poem on one white sheet. .

Splash!

2011-09-20T10:30:00.003+05:30

An underground flat in Delhi

Water seeps in; a frog jumps in

Splash!

This Century Belongs to Engineers!!

2011-09-15T14:47:00.002+05:30

This Century Belongs to Engineers!!

An engineer dies and reports to the pearly gates of heaven. Chittragupata checks his dossier and says, "Ah, you're an engineer - you're in the wrong place."

So, the engineer reports to the gates of hell and is let in. Pretty soon, the engineer gets dissatisfied with the level of comfort in hell, and starts designing and building improvements. After awhile, they've got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and the engineer is a pretty popular guy.

One day, God calls Yama up on the telephone and says with a sneer, "So, how's it going down there in hell?"

Yama replies, "Hey, things are going great. We've got air conditioning and flush toilets and escalators, and there's no telling what this engineer is going to come up with next."

God replies, "What??? You've got an engineer? That's a mistake - he should never have gotten down there; send him up here."

Yama says, "No way. I like having an engineer on the staff, and I'm keeping him."

God says, "Send him back up here or I'll sue."

Yama laughs uproariously and answers, "Yeah, right. And just where are YOU going to get a lawyer?"

Dark Clouds

2011-09-13T10:30:00.001+05:30

After three days of constant rains

Sun lit up

Through dark clouds!

A Dog in Autumn

2011-09-06T10:30:00.000+05:30

Ah! Shaggy street dog in autumn

Looking for food; cats to run after

Or backyard love?

Gandhi - Top 10 Thoughts to Change the World.

2011-09-01T07:40:00.000+05:30

It is easy to change the world but extremely difficult to change oneself. But we can't change the world until and unless we change ourselves.

Here are the top ten recommendations by Mahatma Gandhi......

1. Change
“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”
“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.”

2. Control.
“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”

3. Forgiveness
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
“An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”

4. Action.
“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”

5. The present moment.
“I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.”

6. Everyone is human.
“I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.”
“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”

7. Persist.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

8. Goodness.
“I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.”
“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”

9. Truth
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
“Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.”

10. Development.
“Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.”

Mistaken Identity

2011-08-30T10:30:00.003+05:30

The image of my childhood hero

Does not match the person I see

A case of mistaken identity

Life

2011-08-23T10:30:00.001+05:30

Billion moments make up life

Each moment is perfectly perfect

Each moment is perfectly imperfect

The Report

2011-08-16T10:30:00.001+05:30

How good is my job report?

Which the colleague praised

And the boss criticized!

Stop Managing Time

2011-08-14T08:42:00.001+05:30

I've come to realize that intention is everything (and a powerful secret weapon).

When you stop managing time, and start directing your intention, amazing things start to happen.

I've thought at various points that I had had a time management problem, but what it always came down to was a intention problem. vital to my mission.

Anything that doesn't serve the greater goal is just going to leave me tired - this I've found to be true again and again."

Creating the intention and focusing it to serve a greater goal that benefits many without taking the eye off the 'constantly changing reality' is the way to manage time or rather 'stop managing time'.

Sleep when You Sleep; Eat when you eat.

2011-08-14T08:35:00.000+05:30

Really Integrating Meditation During the Day from WhatMeditationReallyIs on Vimeo.

Lifting Spirit - The Magic Unfolds

2011-08-10T09:29:00.000+05:30

This is a simple and a wonderful trick I follow.

Whenever, I feel down, I pay attention to my spine and check whether it is straight. If not, I straighten it up while sitting or standing or walking or sleeping or at the dinner table or at the workplace.

Lo and Behold the Magic Unfolds! My spirit is automatically uplifted. My smile returns.

Nothing more is needed. That is "nothing special" so to say. No special effort. No difficult thinking. Perfectly easy that takes less than a second to change.

Surprised by the magic that lies within.

At Work

2011-08-09T10:30:00.001+05:30

Time to go to work

She kisses my cold lips

Makes us so hot!

One Sided Love

2011-08-02T10:30:00.002+05:30

Every morning and evening

I wait for her

One sided love

A Perfect Evening

2011-07-26T10:30:00.003+05:30

I can't hear the temple chants

I can't smell the fragrant flowers in the bushes

A perfect evening!

Her She Cat

2011-07-19T10:30:00.001+05:30

Her well cared she cat

Has grown sick

Of love and human food

Unaware but Useful

2011-07-12T08:33:00.001+05:30

The street signs on the lamp posts

And the traffic lights

How unaware, but how useful

Petals Falling

2011-07-05T00:23:00.000+05:30

After listening to your song on monsoon night

Jui petals fell, falling, falling now

Music appears like waterfall

Monsoon Moonlight

2011-06-28T13:21:00.000+05:30

What soothes me more in monsoon moonlight

A luscious red rose in full bloom

Or a dry seed cast aside in gloom?

Lost in creation

2011-06-21T12:08:00.000+05:30

By Singdhadeb De (a contribution from my nephew)

The waves lashed,touched my feet

And off they scurried away,

Back to their origin towards where the horizon lay.

An endless saga ,an immortal play

At the advent of yet another dawn,

As obvious as darkness transcending into a pristine morn.

I removed my shoes and walked ahead ,

Felt the moist sand crushing beneath my skin

Slowly the strokes on lord’s canvas...

Wearing Nothingness

2011-06-13T09:53:00.000+05:30

Standing on the top of a hill at dusk
Taking in all there was for two of us
Everything suddenly called me by name
Nothing seemed to me the same
The trees, the rocks, the flowers and the earth
Expressing their merry mirth
Joyous and happy and flowing
Every inch of their lives glowing

Where is the sadness I am so used to
And the nagging pains that wreck me through
I searched for pain and sadness in the whole
Only to find it absent from their souls
They share my mind ; not my tears
They share my joy; not my fears

Suddenly the peals of the mountain brook
Rocked the false foundation on which I stood
In a moment it vanished from view
Where did it vanish I don't have a cue
I was at once with the trees, the birds and the stars
With unbounded joy never mired
The universe welcoming me to its fold
With me basking in the glow of their gentle hold

Wonderful was it to be born again
Without the thoughts of greedy hateful gains
Wonderful was the warmth of the dress of nothingness
Without a trace of living weariness

Woman Unchained

2011-06-08T18:08:00.003+05:30

Amazed by your stories of passion
Purified in robust pyres of compassion

Lusting for strong, skillful men
Handsome, true and sane

To make love under warm quilts
Taking it to the hilt

Stroking flames of love soaked memories
Tales so puzzling but amazing

Appears as an overflowing cup of red wine
Mixed with blessed tears of pain filled brine

Restless, heady and moving
Must you ever stop loving?

Deep colorful myths hiding eternal truths
Facing buried imagination is rather uncouth

Daring to bare it all to let the light in
Seeing reality through play and playing

Free from the shackles of society's oppressions
A woman unchained, creating chaotic expressions.

Imperfect, Noble & Grand

2011-05-27T22:49:00.001+05:30

The petals I worship you with are imperfect
With my mind and body, far less perfect

Traveled the great path of life with you
Secretly unknown and hidden from view.

Weary of travel to distant lands
Walking on the great path hand in hand.

Garments torn, dirty and bare
Bled by the thorns of Narmada without care
.
Where is a moment’s unsullied loneliness
Reflecting perfect beauty and loveliness?

I gift you the powerful love of a woman’s heart
That feels and understands life from a homely hearth.

With all the coyness of a woman of earth
Love spirals struggling up.

Imperfect; yet noble and grand
With arms outstretched, I stand.

What A Great Day!

2011-05-21T02:19:00.005+05:30

What a great day
Observing life at play
Emotions, feelings, likes, dislikes
Self aggrandizement lacking attention
ADD with distorted love and convoluted intelligence
At times stuck or springing to love

People wearing persona,
Masks, cloaks, shenanigans
Roaming in barren wilderness of the past
Searching endlessly
Waiting endlessly
Believing endlessly
Hoping endlessly
Fearing endlessly
Nothing easy; nothing certain
But essence flows so easily
Dissolving present like a misty curtain
Emerging for the future to behold
A fine sight to watch and hold

How meaningful are all that -- roaming,
searching, waiting, believing, hoping, fearing?
Craving and clinging of darkened souls
Waiting to be liberated as wholes
Unaware of the gentle spirit
That comes gently knocking at the door
To be our guest to bliss and more.

A Sad Poem

2011-05-19T16:56:00.000+05:30

Today, I choose to write a sad poem
Of a beautiful lass
Searching and begged
Till she finds a man to love in depth
And the man in turn loved her too
Both saying sweet nothing
Inflaming the passions of loving
Daring each other with uncommon bravado
Which normal mortals would think twice to do.

I don't know how to write this painful story
I can start, for instance, 'Under the starry sky with stars blue, silver and white.."
Or I can pen down, 'She loved him full which he returned at times.. "
This sounds so bland and uninteresting
Without the passion exciting
Let me try different something

On one night of an Indian spring
She held him near and kissed him so many times
And he whispered sweet nothings in her ears blushingly inflamed
As how he can't but love the oozing love of her eyes, poems and paints
And not live without her
Loving her body and mind
Every inch of it.
That she collapsed under the infinite sky.
But he left her spirit at that without knowing why

Then on a fateful immense night in May
He bade farewell
By a long winding letter pregnant with feelings
Empty, harsh and without meanings
Igniting the dry uncared embers of love into blazing fires.
She felt lost, outraged -- castaway ensnared in a deepening mire,
To understand this on that immense night made more immense without him,
Her soul opened up to scatter flowing dew on grass
Enough to make dry Yamuna flood her banks en masse

How did it matter that his love couldn't keep her
The night is still full of dewy stars without him with her
Far away someone sings
And her soul is lost without him
But keeps searching like the sweet sixteen

She is not sixteen any more with her tender confused face
And unsupported breasts
She is now a woman with full sagging breasts
With well rounded hips and a face that carries Louis Philippe look of 'Upper Crest'
A mother too!

But how does that all matter
Far far away someone sings the tune of conscience
To ask permission from all to continue their love at distance
She stands bare soulless without him
Her eyes still search for him
And her heart stops still with him

Bewildered she read his last response again
"I don't love you anymore but did love you too much
We were but no longer are the same anymore"
In the dead of the empty night
Her heart lets out the long wrenching primal cry
Of an animal wounded by Cupid's arrows of pain
Throbbing and heavy with no words in between
Seeking comforting thoughts from somewhere
Her voice was speechless searching the wind to touch her ears
Knowing that words wouldn't reach a heart so bleeding and sheared

She can't bear that he would desert her so
He belonged to her dreams of a dear happy married life so near
Ready to walk out of her present home
To carry his child in her
He belonged to her kisses as were her light voice, fair skin, soft eyes and her constant fears

She can't believe what she read, "I will no longer respond to you"
True that he no longer loved her but how long would that be?
Would oblivion be so cruel and long?
How long would that be into the cold nights starting now?
Because he held her attention on nights like this
With her soul lost in his

Now freed, untethered, roaming wildly in the skies
Would this be the last pain for her from him?
Would she sing again with the fullness of life she mimed?
Freed from the passionate fleshy craving love of ordinary mortals
Would she now be ethereal like Meera or Radha - immortal?
Emerging from the river of oblivion!

Sitting is Killing You

2011-05-11T20:58:00.002+05:30

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

The Untold Story....

2011-05-07T20:45:00.003+05:30

As warm restless air of May pulsated impatiently
To meet the dusky cold sky of a young evening
We sat sipping strong brown coffee
Fluidly sensing precious moments creeping by

As silent heavy emotions easily bubbled up
We discovered more of the other with tales from many burbs
Reaching the other with hesitant steps
Daring to bare untouched tassels of love secretly kept

Till a point came when everything tipped
Standing naked, suffused by understanding steeped
Savoring the delight of being crazy
In love with love and life, colorful and jazzy
Throwing cares to the winds
Creating beautiful minds

As her soft moist eyes expressed more, left untold
A story so passionately lingering to be put on hold.
I can't wait to write about it all tonight
I loved her and sometimes she loved me too, holding securely tight!

Longings of Sunday Afternoon.....

2011-05-01T21:58:00.003+05:30

As Sunday afternoon lengthens its shadows
Cool breeze chases down the meadows
Like kittens chasing their tails at play,
As I search for your oceanic eyes to allay,
My solitude blazes in inflamed waves
Reminding me of my escape from Plato's cave
Throwing my soul to the distant you -- warm
Like bees returning to hives in swarm

Afternoon merges to dusk
When old trees emanate a distinct old musk
As birds return to their nests twittering aloud
Till winking stars spring behind the sun soaked clouds
As night gallops fast on its flowing black stallion
Creating silence in its wake, exposing buzzard's talons
Ripping my heart and body like wind battered kites
Shedding hopes of being allayed by your gently lapping oceanic eyes.

Even if Nightingale Sang...

2011-04-27T20:26:00.000+05:30

Imagine what the forest might be
If only nightingales sang loudly
Forcing other birds to sing the same
Or sealing them with steely silence
The woods would still be dark and deep
Though uninviting to explore mysteries within
And all the powers on earth
Wouldn't lead me up the gentle grassy path
Or rest under the shade of a tree strong and hard
To catch a glimpse of the delirious dusky bird
Even if the nightingale sang more sweetly.

April Elephants

2011-04-26T18:36:00.007+05:30

April lingers on with its itchy humidity
Huge black elephants float through the sky
Silently absorbing earthly vapors and secret desires
Bringing sudden downpours and chaotic Norwesters
That play in the minds of men.
Errant skies!
Relieving something or the other
Creating or destroying
Changing lives for good, bad or strange
As in a dream or with strumming of my son's guitar strings
It is the mindset that matters
Hungry, guarded, open, dumb or selfless
The play goes on; expressions abound
As dark elephants trumpet merrily in the skies

Poetry of Life

2011-04-25T09:37:00.006+05:30

I did patiently sit on the banks of dialogs and poetry of life
Watching thoughts and emotions streaming by
Waiting to catch the brightest ones, though timid and shy
Few did I catch and with them the seeds of Wisdom did I sow
Melding them to make them grow,
This is all the Harvest I reaped
Came to water to fill voids within
And inhale sweet winds of changes wafting in
Feeling the faint cries of wisdom
Bleeding my heart for more.

Remembering striking up conversations with Dad
Immersed in the faint glow of yellowish light
Discussing all that bothered me at that instant
In my world and the environment that conversed
Remembering every bit of it
With the growing wisdom of a tree

Remembering my art teacher, Sanat Kar
Playfully pouring himself on my colorful shores
Adding a comment here or a few strokes there
Igniting me to think anew and share
Where a simple smile was enough to turn my head
Buzzing with creativity

Remembering my maths teacher Choudhury
Who drew me to love Venn, sets and binary
Never stating steps or thrusting himself on me
Gently letting me imagine what to do, not plan
Unfolding puzzles and riddles with playful shots
Or encourage cutting through Gordian knots

Remembering my design teacher A K Sen
Enveloped in silence with deep intent
Fluidly creating designs on blackboards
Attracting me to patterns not thoughts
Making me believe I could
Design an elephant when I wish to

Remembering my guru Tim Henry
Who answered when I asked keenly
Never defining, never definitive, never protecting
Always leaving enough room to reflect
Answering with 'May be, I think'

I remember all they shared
So openly free without guards
Never made me feel a student in awe
Never cajoling, never manipulating
No force, no punditry
Always in ever expanding dialogs
A flow never ever complete
Creating space to ask more and grow
Backed by courage to say 'I don't know'

In every case it was that of respect
Driven by love alloyed with curiosity unchecked
Leading into myriad unknown lands sprinkled with mines
Liberating me like the heady taste of sparkling wine

Now with dialogs over Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin
Still excited in the dusk of life with conversations
At times I miss that intoxicating taste of deadly wine
Of being face to face with reflections
Improving on mistakes and forgetting the past
Bouncing ideas to engage in serious play
Striking rich dialogs built with watery clay

Thirsty for those smiles, 'what ifs', questions, 'may be' and storytelling
Unable to erase pleasures of trusting, loving, respecting and playing
Still miss those life transforming stories the most
How do I keep waking myself up every morn?
To recreate the exciting childhood yet to pass

In Love with Feminine Flow

2011-04-19T08:43:00.001+05:30

Cupid

I am deeply in love with you
Just like other men you carry
In your hair, on your shoulders, on your breasts, navel and feet

I am not envious of them who love you
Flowing together with unfettered passion
Mingling their love with yours
You still remain beautiful, untouched by age; a pure virgin

Would you accept me as yet another lover?
Though I bring with me thousand images of other women
Tempered by experience; I am mature

I want to be alone with you
On the banks of Ganges enveloped by silence
Illuminated by a starry blue sky
Filling the inner voids of my untamed soul

I want to enjoy your cajoling whispers and tender caresses
To start life afresh serving you with flowing zeal
Tapping my restless feet to the rhythm of chaos breaking out.

Behold

2011-04-18T10:10:00.005+05:30

Keen to know what the future folds or unfolds
I looked at signs, stars, people and 101 ways to make it come true
Seeking happiness and all the rewards that might bring
To create the future of my dreams

Keen to know what the future folds or unfolds
Looked for lucky signs that popped up serendipitously
Ran after them till I could run no more
But the future refused to fold or unfold for me

Keen to know what the future folds or unfolds
Looked at stars and my natal horoscope
Smugly content in destiny,
The future refused to fold or unfold for me

Keen to know what the future folds or unfolds
Believed people who could possibly do the trick
Followed them till I could follow no more
But future refused to fold or unfold for me

Keen to make the future fold or unfold
Wrote big plans to make it happen the way I wanted it to be
Worked hard till it couldn't be worked upon any more
But future refused to fold or unfold for me

Then as if by chance tired, broken, crestfallen
Gave up seeking the future anymore
No designing: no imagining
Then magically the present began to fold and unfold for me
Just when I heard the faintest of whisper deep below

Do I listen to this faintest whisper?
A clean intelligent whisper I haven't heard before
Pushing me somewhere I don't even know
An effortless silence whispering deep within
Dissolving rocks and filling craters
Folding and unfolding my present
Right in front of me.

Happy knowing that future holds nothing
And that it would never fold or unfold anything
It is as empty as empty can be
The present keeps folding and unfolding right in front of me
As Shiva dances merrily

Forgetting You

2011-04-16T08:44:00.000+05:30

(The Birth of Venus is a painting by Sandro Botticelli. It depicts the goddess Venus, having emerged from the sea as a full grown woman, arriving at the sea-shore (which is related to the Venus Anadyomene motif). The painting is held in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Emerging situations would define or redefine relationships and it is not possible or needed to forget anything to learn lessons which every emerging situation offers.)

I know you want me to forget your birthday
And stop wishing you.

I know you want me to forget the late night
We roamed the deserted streets of Udaipur

I know you want to forget the gifts we shared
And the numerous letters and photos in between
And the chats that wore long into sparkling nights.

Did you ever wonder why and how I would forget you?
You know what it feels like
To look out onto the streets from my window
To see teeming millions flow by but still spot you.

You know what it feels like
To gaze at the crystal moon and see you
And how everything carries me to you.

Even the leaves of the trees around the lake
Absorbed the energy of our feelings
To scatter all around in Autumn
Passing the message to every passer by
How do we deny?

Did you wonder how would I stop loving you?
Well that was clear in my mind.
If you stop loving me little by little
I would stop loving you little by little
If you stop loving me all of a sudden
I would forget you suddenly.

Because in love it is not two
You can't be half alive and half dead
It must be alive or dead -- nothing in between.

The moment you leave me stranded at your shores
Forbidding me to mingle with the waves and build sand castles
I shall at once take wings to fly off to seek another ocean
Who allows me to play on her shores with all my imagination

So long you think mad
That we are destined for each other
The fire burns bright
Nothing is dead or ever forgotten
Though I have deleted all your emails.
Have you deleted mine?

Be Good; Do Well

2011-04-14T08:29:00.001+05:30

Remembering my first day at school
Mother saying "Be Good"; "Do Well"
As we walked up to the big school felt tension rise in the hand that held

Walking up the stairs to class
Never turned back to see her tense face
With "Be Good" and "Do Well" still buzzing in my head

After class, she rushed in lovingly embrace
"Were you good? Did you do well?"
Yes mom I did, I didn't speak.

Leave me alone Mom. Why do you need to know
I was good and did well.

A year passed, I showed Mom my rank card 10th out of 54
Was it good; Did I do well?
"Not really, could have done much better", Mom frowned
But I learned the difference between 'May I', 'Can I' and 'I will'
"That's not very useful, Dear" she said.

Year by year I became good to better
Choosing the path of perfection
Waiting to see a smile on my mother's face
Neglecting everything else I could do

Then I could do no better anymore
There was no more space left to do
I finally reached the dreaded spot
Are you now happy Mom?
"Yes dear, but Be Good and Do Well"

At 54, my son rings me up to ask
"Dad, where have you reached now?"
Nowhere son, there is nothing more to do
The path of perfection I chose is dead

Quo vadis
I have changed my path
A path more fulfilling
A path more loving
A path more whole and new

"Why is that Dad", he asks
It is a path where I need not ask, 'May I?' 'Can I?'
Or ask, "Was I good?" and "Did I do well?"
I only need to say 'I will!"
A path free of perfection
Since the whole can never be good or bad
I needn't think of 'Be Good' and 'Do well'.
No pretensions; no tensions
Free to live life in gay abandon
Just what life was meant to be.

"What do you ask me to do, Dad"
Be whole to enjoy what you do.

Cravingly unfilled!

2011-04-12T07:29:00.001+05:30

Artist: Unknown

Walking in the park I see
People walking past with speed
Busy maintaining their slender and not so slender skeletons
With flesh covering it

What a splendid life I suppose
Flesh and skeletons crawling in and out of bed
Craving desires never filled.

Lands are filled
Pockets are filled
Politicians are filled
Cities are filled
Streets are filled
Buses are filled
Brains are filled

Love remains unfilled
Mind remains unfilled
Soul? -- What is it?

Pent up Tears

2011-04-11T05:37:00.002+05:30

Artist: Leonid Afremov

I have left everything behind
But haven't left you

You still slip in me like a delicate resonating crystal
Trembling with uneasy wounded love

In love we found each other so thirsty
Drying up waters of any river however mighty

In love, we found each other so fiercely hungry
Biting into each other wounded and angry

But you did wait for me
With the sweetness of your love, not wasted
What might I give you back other than pent up tears.

The Sad Camel

2011-04-10T10:32:00.000+05:30

The Sad Camel - a painting from my 6 year old nephew Rishi. I love his masterpiece.

We will come together to be

2011-04-09T06:36:00.005+05:30

Artist: Van Gogh

I am not becoming without you becoming too
You shield the harsh summer heat
Like the shady bush with flowers smiling blue

You are the womb that sustains
You are the center of attention and action
You are the flow when time stops for me

When others see me glow
Your invisible aura creates the flow
When others hear what I speak or write
They don't hear you -- the silence in between

Without your becoming, coming, suddenly inspiring
I am struck breathless
Since You are the life in the air I breathe

You are flowing, changing
You will; I will; both becoming
We shall come together to be

How Do I Touch Thee?

2011-04-08T06:21:00.004+05:30

I am awed by your complete presence
Filled with the smell of melting moon
Crushed with dry jasmine peppered with the tiredness of June

What secrets do you hold?
Where do you hide them?
How do I touch thee with my senses?

Through my carnal desires on a primal night melting & melding
Or through love without words
Covering you with invisible kisses from point to infinity

How do I discover the inner dimensions of your Necker Cube
Alas, vision locked cube by cube
Unable to embrace the whole!

As I Sit With You.

2011-04-07T05:53:00.004+05:30

Photo credit: Gayarti Chakraborty

As I sit with you
I see restless young waves strike
The forlorn weary old stones

Bursting into effulgent brightness
Tiny bright diamond droplets
Self organizing into garlands touched by brine
Fit for queens

Only to break again into thousand thirsty spumes
Returning to the eternal becoming nothingness
Falling silent again, sealing it.

Waiting to erupt and rise
Creating and destroying varied forms
Deluding me to feel continuity of creation and death
While everlasting silence of nothingness punctuates the two

I Don't Know Why She Cries!

2011-04-06T07:28:00.010+05:30

Artist: Van Gogh: Branches Almond Tree

Tears well up in her eyes
Hearing a song that touches somewhere
Or seeing fresh young pupil leaves spring to life

Tears roll down her cheeks
Smelling a dark red rose growing free
Or touching a child who smiles and chuckles with glee

Tears flood her
Tasting a plate of biriyani at Zeesan after a year
Or feelings aroused by the touch of a pair of loving lips

I don't know why she cries
It springs from unfathomable depths
Or from a pristine place where human words don't reach.

Beauty and the Beast

2011-04-05T08:00:00.005+05:30

"Where are you Muse?" I sort of gently asked.

"I am here all along waiting for you. What do you want?" She almost whispered in my ears. Too faint. But I heard it.

With an indignant voice I said, "Why weren't you there before?"

"I was afraid?"

Surprised I asked, "Afraid? Afraid of what?"

"Afraid of your intellectual brilliance. It shown so bright that I was dazzled. Couldn't find the way to come to you."

"Then what makes you come now?"

"I always knew that you have a beautiful mind behind all that glow and brightness, which others couldn't see. You wanted help so I am here. Not that I wanted to come."

That made me sit up and think. Amazed, I asked, "Was it the reason people turned away from me?"

"Might be", she replied curtly. .

In the same breath she continued, "That is natural. They look for the softer nurturing self in you -- the love that can't be described through words. You have it in you but your intellectual shield imprisoned you and your feelings, which they couldn't see. Most can't match your intellect. So most leave."

"Hold on. I never thought I was such an intellectual. You must be kidding."

"Kidding? Tell me what concept in the world baffles you? Which thought you can't pierce through? What problem looks tough to you. You see through all that with your intellect. Don't you?"

Reluctantly, I replied, "Sorta. Not sure. Tell me what might be done now?"

Her usual gentle self gave way to excitement almost to the point of rebuking, "Come out of the prison so that others see you as you are. Don't be critical of yourself. That is again a product of your intellect. Do what you love doing. Love yourself so that others see your love"

Exasperated, I asked, "Do what?"

"Simple. Draw. Sing. Laugh. Paint, Write stories. And love. All the softer things in life to bring out your feelings."

"Tell me more... ", my voice trailed off imploring.

"No, I must leave you now to untangle the rest all by yourself."

The Game Plan

2011-02-28T19:30:00.001+05:30

Before the advent of the Indira Gandhi canal, Nachna in Jaisalmer district (Rajasthan) was considered a very “hard” posting. Nachna, in the middle of the Great Indian Thar Desert was always considered tough as water was scarce and in the summer the temperature often crossed the 50 degree Celsius mark. Food items included only millets and ghee (liquefied butter). Transportation was few and its only connectivity was with the main desert town -- Jaisalmer. There were only ten telephones in the hamlet which most of the time remained inoperative.

Arvind Mathur was in a fix. None of the staff were willing to go to Nachna. The vacancy position showed two vacant posts. How to motivate these staff to go to a “hard” station with no benefits to lure them.

Anil Kumar had been married for the last ten years. He has an eight year old daughter studying in a reputed school at Bangalore. Anil Kumar had recently been transferred to Jodhpur. He had an earlier posting in this set up during his initial career. Anil Kumar had worked in these places and is as comfortable as a local person would be. Anil Kumar voluntarily opted to go to Nachna.

Arvind Mathur heaved a sigh a relief. Anil Kumar is efficient and knows his job. Arvind Mathur gave him the liberty to form his own team members. Anil took charge of the Nachna unit. Two years passed. Everything went on smoothly.

Arvind Mathur wondered why Anil never took a vacation to visit his family stationed at Bangalore. It is purely a personal matter. Why should I worry? Arvind thought. One morning Anil turned up at Jodhpur and met Arvind Mathur.

Sir, you post me at Bangalore or else my wife will divorce me. He couldn’t keep the smile off of his face. Arvind was shocked. Transferring individuals out of the set-up is not within his ambit. He can only recommend for a transfer to a particular place.

Arvind Mathur started to ponder. The conversations he had with Anil began to strike him again and again. How casually Anil told him that his wife would divorce him. Arvind knew Anil has some plans. Arvind set out his trusted staff to find out the actual truth.

Anil Kumar has a paramour in Nachna. He had become friendly during his first posting in the set-up. Due to cultural and caste differences Anil was not allowed to marry the girl of his choice. Anil had to marry as per his father’s choice. Anil’s marriage never took off. His wife remained unhappy.

What was Arvind suppose to do now? Re-unite Anil with his wife by posting him back to Bangalore. This would certainly unite a family and also pre-empt Anil from initiating a divorce from his wife thus making her guilty. Or don’t post him anywhere and continue with the present situation.

Sitendu De is the author of this post.

Posted via email from Sparkling Insights

Management Upside Down - Sparkling Insights!

2011-02-24T19:30:00.001+05:30

Rahul, a young Executive Director of a fast growing multi-national company startled by his nightmare broke into a cold sweat as he woke up.

What would happen to his vibrant flourishing business if the top management team who were ready to fly to Dubai for the annual sales conference in two days time died of a violent air crash? His global business would then come crashing like a pack of cards and there would be none to look after the vast wealth that has been created as he narrated his nightmare to me.

"Why would that be?" I asked.

"Isn't that obvious? All knowledge of running this company lies with these few chosen ones. Once they were gone wealth vanishes in no time" he replied emphatically.

"But don't you think that sooner or later all of them would leave the scene anyway? What do you do then?" I quipped in response.

"Frankly I don't know. That has really kept me thinking. There are no Jack Welch or A M Naik who is determined to make his way up from the ranks. Don't know how to make even one?", Rahul voice trailed off pensively.

This story made me sit up and start thinking. Isn't this the same story for all companies all over the world? Aren't people fighting to find an answer to these deep questions on knowledge, leadership and organizations? What can be a possible solution to this business problem that has spread like an epidemic and refuses to let go of its iron grip on our lives?

Such difficult questions possibly can't be answered through a brilliant stroke of imagination. Many have tried without much success. To find an answer we would have to look at something deeper - the evolution of management from the early uncertain days of the industrial revolution to the present day where all time honored rules of management are headed for a grand collapse (Nature's Model). The clue lies there.

This is how management always worked with minor and insignificant modifications here and there.

It always started with a grand plan to make a profit. Don't suspect that I am against 'profit' or like to label it as a dirty word. Far from it! Profits are needed. It is blood of an organization. Anyway, to chalk out the grand plan a few old men (only now it is fashionable to include a few women too) sat together in a room called the board room to come up with a 'how to' list of making money from an idea. We called that strategy.

Once that was framed the next question that plagued these old souls was how the hell do we organize ourselves and operate? They then came up with exotic game plans, choc-a-block with funny rules and regulations, making the entire organization 'rigid' (if not frigid) 'air-tight' and 'water-proof' -- nothing can touch them, no secret can ever dream to escape, no employee can ever think of anything else but work, work and work...etc. They called it a 'system'.

With the system in place these grand old people heaved a sigh of relief. Half the job is done. Now we need some 'dedicated', 'loyal', 'trusted' servants (whoops! employees) to work their grand design called the system to their heart's content to churn out money. The model was no different to the 'factory model'. Pop in something and out pops something else from the other side of the machine.

Same was in business. So they carefully selected the 'servants' to work for them and just like selecting good machines they looked hard for the desired attributes for doing the back breaking jobs -- is he/she strong, healthy, good looking, has the right attitude??? (still couldn't figure out how they measure that), background, education blah blah blah... . They would take all pains just the way they would to pick the best variety of apples from the marketplace. It had to be rigorous since the 'chosen ones' like gladiators, would have to sweat it out for them in the next 2 to 3 decades.

But soon they found out that attributes of people change over time. They were not "behaving" like the machines they thought they got with so much rigor and patience. They started asking for things that weren't promised when they got in. That was something to worry about. What made them most worried was when they started thinking and suggesting and voicing their opinions on how to go about their jobs and perhaps how to do them better.

That wasn't good news to their old hardened ears. They have to stop them thinking. They are to be aligned to the goal of the organization. They are to be kept in line and on their toes. And they are to be occasionally whipped when they break rules or ranks to show who is the master and the lord that provides them their humble bread.

In comes the Human Resource Department, a sobriquet for the old fashioned Time Office and Personnel Department, whose only job was to keep employee behavior in check. Keep them in line. Indoctrinate them. Inject them with the lovely tunes of loyalty, feel good factor with a good day's job. Give them some butter if they do too well..... Spend time to correct the behavior of people not to say that a good amount of time, energy and resources went into managing work that consumed a large extent of people's productive time.

And what might happen when strategy, systems and behavior of people are all lined up? It would create work that produced goods and services of some value to thousands of customers. So a classic division was formed -- a small group of producers and an ever increasing group of consumers. More the consumers merrier the game became. All that management had to do was to ensnare more and more consumers in their net and keep looking for more. The word was 'marketing'.

This way of operating could be done for a pretty long time. All that was needed to keep this well structured machinery running was a pot of gold. Deeper the pockets better was the show which people thought would be perpetual in nature. At last management was able to create a perpetual machine that defied all known natural laws.

Did they? No. By 2008 everything that was so sacrosanct and held in high esteem started to disintegrate with the coming of the great recession. Big and seemingly invincible companies folded up. Unemployment kept rising. No new jobs could be created. Businesses faltered. And those that existed counted their days to doom.

The old way of functioning was definitely clumsy, complex, rigid and unmanageable that not only provided very little value to customers but also wasted a lot of energy in managing and keeping the system in order.

What traditional businesses failed to notice were the slow changes happening all around them in other spheres of human activities (Post Offices to #SM). Things were changing. And so did the nature of work. The fundamental change was consumers became producers and were blurring the line between producers and consumers. It happened to Post Offices, Schools, Publishing business, Consulting, Telephones, and was quickly spreading to all human activities in ways people would have never imagined even a few years back.

The consumers created their own value independently and interacted and shared it with their network to create more value and consume it themselves at a price much less than the prevailing market price. The days of grand old institutions, middle men, dealers, publishers, advertisers were all but over.

In comes a new thinking and a new way to create and manage businesses and a lot of value -- the answer to Rahul's nightmare.

The earlier model, basically static in nature and greatly determined by financial capital, was Strategy -- Systems -- Behavior -- Work -- Value.

In this model, Strategy informed the nature of work and the value that was created for the customer.

The new model is just the reverse of what we knew for so long. What happens when we reverse it? It becomes Value -- Work -- Behavior -- Systems -- Strategy.

In this new model, 'Value' and 'Work' inform Strategy not the other way around. Therefore, it is more dependent on people including customers to participate, share and contribute their learning and knowledge in the economic process than being exclusively dependent on the strength of financial capital.

So, what might be the challenges for organizations to embrace the new way of working?

Some of these are:

1. How do we involve and engage customers and employees to participate in the 'value' creation process to create 'multiple values' instead of only focusing on the goal of generating profits (single value)?

2. How do we make 'work' observable and tractable from which everything else emerges?

3. How do we create a platform of emergent learning that spontaneously creates 'leaders' who co-produce wealth not spawn 'servants', 'managers' and 'bosses' who run the systems like mere cogs in the wheel?

Now that we have found the answer to Rahul's nightmare answers to these challenges would help him create simple yet intelligently superior and greatly adaptable organization that creates multiple values for the collective.

For Rahul his ghastly nightmares would be over. But he would now have more things to challenge his mind, which would surely be fun since he may now keep thinking while doing the new thing, learning and improvising as he goes along in his new journey.

He is well on his way creating history.

Wish him well!

But do ask me how history is being created.

Posted via email from dibyendu's posterous

The Sun Still Shines

2011-02-16T19:30:00.001+05:30

While returning from the Sunday church services, Karan Hasda Francis passionately sees his plot of red soil land by the side of the national highway. Francis patiently waits for the monsoon to arrive. He has followed the newspaper. It has already arrived in Kerala and within a month it will reach here.

Karan Hasda Francis’s forefathers came from a place near Ranchi, Jharkhand. Now they have 17 acres of land at Raghunathpur in Purulia district of West Bengal. For irrigation they have to depend upon the monsoons and the ground water which is depleting every year.

They are converted Christians. Though the education of his four sons and one daughter had been taken care of by the church, his second son has mostly run away from schools. Eldest son is a local school teacher; second one does odd jobs; the third one has passed ITI examinations (skilled labour) and is looking for a job; the youngest one is still studying in seventh standard; his daughter has eloped with her love to Delhi.

Its very hard times for Karan Hasda Francis wife to make both ends meet. She had been struggling to feed her family. Whatever crops they have from their land is equally divided between them and the tillers. Added to this are the numerous crops failure, wild elephants coming out from the forests and smashing the crops, erratic rainfall and low quality of seeds.

Karan Hasda Francis was toiling in the July sun trying to grow some vegetables in his backyard. A cavalcade stops near his house. People in designer suits come out from the cars. Maps were spread across the bonnet. Karan was curious. What was the motive of these people?

He runs to the church. He looks out for the father. He is the only person in the whole village who has some knowledge. A fear gripped him as he came to realize the real motive of the people who came from the big city. Is he going to loose his land again. Once his forefathers were driven out from the village by the upper caste community as they failed to pay their debts. Lands were taken away forcibly and houses were torched. The Hasda family was shattered. They crossed over to Bengal. They were given shelter by the church. They got back the will to live in this world.

A car manufacturing unit is going to come up at his village. Karan Hasda Francis heaved a sigh of relief as his land is not among the 400 acres of land as requisitioned by the car manufacturers. Though other land owners got huge compensation, Francis was thinking of other ideas. Political parties held rallies. They demanded more jobs for the locals. Seven Hundred jobs in a car making factory is just too few for them.

One and half years went by. The factory took its shape. It looked monstrous yet beautiful. Electricity came to Raghunathpur. The roads were widened. Potable drinking water was available. Satellite T.V made its entry. The Banks were desperate to open its branches at Raghunathpur. More ancillary industries came up in its surroundings. Prices of land shot up. People came from outside to work here. The population of Raghunathpur rose by thirty percent.

Money was flowing. Raghunathpur, once a dead village came back to life. Karan Hasda Francis wife was busy making food for the workers in the factory canteen. His eldest son is busy giving private tuitions. Second son of Francis now days drive a three wheeler through out the day ferrying people from railway station and bus stand to the factory. His third son has got a job in the factory. Francis has opened up a motel by converting a part of his house. All the rooms remains booked throughout the year.

The Francis family now days go to the church every Sunday morning in their new car.

Sitendu De is the author of this post.

Posted via email from dibyendu's posterous

The Power of 3 - Changes in Management Thinking.

2011-02-14T19:30:00.001+05:30

This great story demonstrates a fundamental emergence in our lives. The old ways of thinking and managing simply wouldn't work any longer.

The 'science' and practice' of management as we know of it today were originally invented to solve two very important problems, which were:

a) How do we get ordinary folks do complicated and repetitive tasks to achieve a standard of efficiency and standardization to optimize profits?

b) How do we make our way through a complex web of processes to deliver goods and services to our clients? The complexity arose from scaling up of operations meant to generate ever increasing volume of goods and services that could provide more profits and subdue competitors.

In order to do that we created lot many logical rules and regulations. The number of rules increased with the degree of operational complexity. Then we trained and made people follow those rules to achieve the magic numbers that could produce more profits that are constantly under squeeze.

With our present thinking we understand that such management thinking does not work well beyond a certain degree of complexity. Why is that?

So far we focused on objects that played any role within business cycles of production and consumption. Sometimes we focused on machines while at other times we focused on people or customers. And yet on some other occasion we forced our attention onto suppliers and quality or we looked at increasing inventory levels. We never quite saw the whole in one breath. What we clearly missed out was to observe the relationships between objects in a given context. What we chose to do instead was to focus wholeheartedly on objects and their functions and properties without taking into consideration the context in which they operated. We failed to realize the importance of interdependent relationships between all things that simultanteously arise and abate in the system in a "wholistic" manner.

What happens when we fail to see relationships?

Let us take two objects that are related to each other. Then the possible relationships that can exist between them are four [2 to the power 2 gives us 4]. As we keep increasing the number of related objects it keeps following the same power law [2 to the power of n, where n = the number of related objects].

It is then easy to imagine the exponential rise in the number of possible relationships as the system becomes more and more complex. How can such exponential behavior be controlled and regulated by a set of linear rules and regulations? Since that is clearly not possible to do so it exposes the unscientific nature of our so called 'scientific' management thinking.

This flaw is clearly depicted in the video. As the number of cars increased along with the rise in the number of pedestrians and cyclists the system soon reached a critical point of complexity beyond which it was not possible to regulate the traffic flow, reduce the number of traffic jams and keep accidents in check. Even the logic of operating traffic lights represents a part of the growing rules and regulations to contain the menace of slowing traffic, snarling jams and terrible accidents without much success ofcourse.

So, what did the new management thinking do? They drastically reduced the number of rules and regulations to one simple rule - "give way to pedestrians and cyclists first". The result of such a brilliant move is amply demonstrated in the video.

What lessons management can learn from this? Probably these:

1. As the system becomes more and more complex reduce the complexity of the jobs ordinary folks are called on to do in all possible ways. One of the simplest way to do that is to reduce the number of irrelevant rules and regulations that bind and blind people from performing better. Forcing people to keep their eyes on so many rules is enough to make anyone crazy and make mistakes. For example, by simply enabling drivers not to pay any attention to the traffic signals and policemen but to keep in mind one simple rule greatly simplified their job of driving safely. This then left the drivers free to focus on their goals without getting distracted by a host of unrelated issues. Ease of traffic flow, reduction of jams and elimination of accidents are few of the by-products of making jobs easier and free of unnecessary clutter.

2. Redesign the system so as to reduce the number of relationships one has to negotiate in order to achieve the desired results. This was done by redesigning the roads at critical traffic intersections. By reducing the total number of relationships within a system we can easily convert complex processes to much simpler ones.

3. Managers are then left to keep healthy communications going within the system and focus their attention to fine tune the existing relationships and also think of simplifying the processes further through redesign.

Aren't these three universal management lessons simple enough?

Let me know what you think.

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7:06

2011-02-10T19:30:00.001+05:30

Sheila catches the 7.06 train every morning to Kolkata from Krishnanagar --- a small town in Nadia district of West Bengal. Her father was a jute mill worker. He has been retrenched. Now days jute selling is not a good business proposition. The mill owners have closed their unit. They have started to produce mobile phones instead.

Sending his only grown up daughter to earn some money was not to his liking. He wanted to marry off his daughter. Marrying off would mean they would die in poverty. Marriage proposals were coming for Shiela. Why not? Shiela is educated, fair skinned, strikingly attractive though poverty has taken away the sheen.

Sheila was good at sewing clothes. She used to fashion her own “salwar suits” and also used to stitch clothes for other neighborhood girls. But of course at a price. Her earnings used to rise during the festive seasons. Sheila once had a dream of going for a fashion designing course. But it remained a dream. Now she only dreams of owning a boutique. Her family will not be able to afford the fees. To supplement their family income Sheila started to stitch shopping jute bags which the shop owners give it to their customers on “heavy purchases”. Every morning she goes to the different shopping malls and collects orders for the number of bags to be stitched.

Today also she rushed to catch the 7.06 train. She had a bundle of jute bags with her, ready to be delivered to the different shops. As the local train gathered its momentum Sheila got lost in her thoughts. How much she owed and the amount she has to give to her raw material supplier. She was woken up from her make believe dream world by the sound of a crying baby. She saw a woman trying to pacify her one year old child. The compartment was packed and the weather was hot and humid. Everything was so discomforting. Sheila saw the baby crying profusely. The baby was wearing diapers and a hooded jacket. She smiled and thought --- “the woman is so stupid to dress the baby in a hooded jacket and put on a diaper--- just imitating from the western world. “ The hot humid weather in India which last for eight months in a year makes life miserable for grown ups leave alone the babies. She got her next business idea.

She started stitching triangular shaped cotton diapers for babies. These cotton made diapers could be locked by strings or by Velcro tapes. This became an instant hit. Sheila was flooded with orders. Bulk orders came around from hospitals, nursing homes, maternity centres, individual young mothers and shop owners selling infant garments.

Sheila now has two bank accounts. Her father is now free from depression. Her mother now wears silk sarees. They have fish everyday for lunch. Sheila got back her sheen but she still wants to complete a course on fashion designing.

Sitendu De is the author of this post.

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Celebrating Knowledge - The Music of the River

2011-02-08T19:30:00.001+05:30

Today everything would be closed in the state. The streets would wear a deserted look. Schools, shops, offices and even Government offices would be closed.
Why? Are people protesting or rising in revolt like the Middle East and elsewhere?
No, not exactly. It is a day of celebration and happiness. Today is a Public Holiday. India as a nation celebrates this day as a "Day of Knowledge".
This is more popularly known as Saraswati Puja (Puja means offering of love and deep respect). Saraswati is the Goddess of Knowledge representing speech and creative expression of science and arts. Most things in India are symbolic and the image of Goddess Saraswati is not exception to this fact. The image is therefore a metaphor or representation of what knowledge is all about.
Want to know the story of how it all came about?
Well, as most things in India, the story goes back thousands of years to the era of the Vedas, which most historians agree was around 5000 years ago.
A group of wise sages were travelling all night. Just as the day was about to break they reached a river. The river was gently and rhythmically making its way down the snow clad Himalayas. The water was pure and sparkling. As it gushed over the numerous pebbles it encountered in its way, a sweet tinkling noise emanated. They could see the bottom of the river clearly and were fascinated by the numerous ripples that danced around merrily occasionally catching the glitter of the sun rays as the sun peeped over the distant hills.
They were mesmerized by the whole experience! It suddenly struck them that knowledge had the exact characteristics of what they just experienced. How was that?
They realized that knowledge is dynamic and always changing and flowing like the river. One can't capture it. It can't be imprisoned. If held it soon loses its freshness and flow
They understood that knowledge is a product of numerous ongoing interactions that produced music. The music is only produced by the flow going against the resistance offered by the pebbles. More the obstacles (pebbles) more subtle and more varied is the music. The deep experience provided them the insight that knowledge develops through repeated movements of passing over the numerous pebbles and emerges in a chaotic fashion in the form of waves.
It was also clear to them that the primary source of knowledge was through transparent observable (through all our senses) work that flows -- an understanding gleaned from the transparent flowing waters. Everything was observable but transient.
They likened the occasional glitter of the sunrays ricocheting off the waves to the sudden flashes of insights that create new knowledge.
Such a splendid metaphor remained with them for years before they decided to give some physical form to it so that people recognize the importance of knowledge in their lives and live with a vision or mental image to go for it and develop it for themselves. With this in mind they came up with the splendid image of the Saraswati.
The image of the beautiful lady represents the creative nature of knowledge, the force behind all human activities. .
The swan reminds us of the river and also the sharp discriminating characteristic of knowledge. This is because a swan has a strange ability. If offered a drink of milk with water a swan drinks the milk without taking in a drop of water. It can separate the two. In other words knowledge helps us to discriminate between the real and the unreal.
The musical instrument called the vina (a much older form of the present day sitar) reminds us of the music of knowledge as it flows over pebbles and obstacles.
The symbol of the white lotus is significant. While the whiteness of the lotus stands for stainless purity of knowledge the lotus informs us that knowledge is rooted to reality which might be full of dirt, muck and darkness from which the purity emerges. It depicts the journey called knowledge from the unconscious or unseen or unknown to the consciousness of reality or the known.
It is also interesting to note that the image tells us how knowledge is created. This is shown by the four hands of Saraswati. Her two hands are engaged in playing the vina (Playing and Hearing). It means that the fundamental way knowledge is created is through transparent observable work that flows (remember how the sages could clearly see even the bottom of the river and sense everything around them). The image of the rosary that she holds in one of her hands depicts the need for deep mental reflection and repetition to gain real knowledge. The fourth hand shows a slim volume of documents representing that only a small part of the knowledge can be really documented and read.
The scattering and reflection of the golden sunrays on the waves representing intuitive insights are shown in the form of the golden crown that adorns her head meaning that all intuitive insights come from the mind. And the halo behind her head represents the energy and brightness that emanates from ever increasing wisdom.
So, to summarize:
1. Knowledge is rooted in reality. It then moves from the physical reality to the energy field of playing, listening and engaging in our chosen domain from where it moves to the mental plane which then makes its way to the planes wisdom and enlightenment.
2. Like the flowing river, knowledge can't be captured (it is not an object but waves and a field) since it an on-going phenomenon of the numerous interactions, always changing course and fleeting in nature. Such movement of knowledge is only possible through facing resistance and overcoming obstacles encountered in its path generating the necessary music.
3. A very small part of knowledge can be really documented. That represents the explicit part of knowledge.
4. Major part of knowledge is implicit in nature that is created by constantly playing in a chosen domain, improvisations, repeated practice, deep reflections and sudden insights.
5. True knowledge in any field can be obtained through discrimination between the real and the unreal, between the meaningful and the worthless.
6. Knowledge leads to enlightenment and is the creative force behind all that we do.
7. And above all knowledge must be free and shared to maintain its flow that benefits all. This is the only thing in the world, other than love, that keeps growing and developing in strength and character when shared. It is unending and beautiful but can't be precisely defined or described. The more we try the more incomplete it seems.
Today we usher the coming of spring signifying the blooming of the hidden, the latent and the unknown into conscious reality just like the first baby leaves that spring to life after winter. Isn't that what we understand by knowledge?
It is therefore not surprizing for Indians to believe River Saraswati to be an underground river hidden from view only to meet the great rivers Ganga and Yamuna at Kumbh. Another great symbolic abstraction underlying the fact that Knowledge plays between our actions and emotions to elevate us to our true human potential. Those who use it rise to meet their potential. Those who don't are unfortunate.
So do we listen to the music of the spheres and celebrate the joy that is knowledge?

Notes:
1. The video is there to highten the visual experience of this rather deep and 5000 years old philosophy on knowledge.
2. India is probably the only country in the world to celebrate a special day in honor of Knowledge. What a country!

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The Chrysalis

2011-02-04T19:30:00.001+05:30

The sight of the Himalayan mountain range from his bedroom window had never been so dull and frightening for the twenty one year old Akash Gupta. The family was mourning. Akash’s father lost his job. He was working in a garment manufacturing company in Bhadarpur, Nepal----a small sleepy bordering town in the India-Nepal border. The great recession had its toll on one of the outsourced American garment manufacturing company at a small town in Nepal.

Akash’s father was given some money and send off home. The amount he got was not much to take care of his family for even a month. The family asked each member ---“Now what”? Akash’s father decided to open up an eatery in front of the Bhadarpur College. At least this would somehow steady the rocking financial boat.

A month after, Akash graduated in commerce and got the desired certificate. He wanted to pursue his career by joining a management course. But that meant a lot of money. Akash restricted all his expenditure. He stopped going to the local gymnasium. He even restricted buying clothes. All the austerity measures could not bring the financial happiness in the family. In her spare time Akash’s mother started making woolen garments in her knitting machine so as to supplement their family income. Akash started applying for different jobs but couldn’t succeed.

“Why don’t you join our type of work, you would be paid quite handsomely, for every trip you undertake”. Akash was offered the job of a “carrier” by the local smuggling cartels operating in the India- Nepal borders. Akash readily agreed. After all he has to just carry those cheap Chinese electronic goods from Nepal and cross the Mechi River which separates Nepal from India and deliver it to the Indian smugglers. These Chinese goods are in great demand in the major cities of India, especially Kolkata, Delhi and “B” grade cities. He informed his parents of his “new job” assignment in an “export-import” company. His parents were happy.

Akash father was overjoyed and blessed his son when he handed him twenty thousand rupees as his first “pay”. This would make us live a little bit comfortably.

Akash’s trip to India continued. He was successful in evading the eyes of the Indian border guards. Akash graduated from smuggling cheap Chinese toys to animal skins. Akash’s smuggling employers were very happy with his work. What a success rate? No arrest and no loss of goods in Akash hundred and ten trips to India so far.

Avinash Mathur an inspector in the Customs department in India had been following Akash’s activities for quite some time. He waited for an opportune moment to strike Akash. The day arrived when he caught Akash with a large consignment of contraband goods. Avinash made a deal with Akash. Either you work for us as a “source” or be ready to spend the rest of your life at jail. Akash thought it’s wise to listen to Avinash.

Akash’s many tips to Avinash had been useful. Avinash made large seizures. His name was recommended for a promotion. But poor Akash, he had no place to hide. His smuggling bosses were after his blood. A sudden fear gripped him. He could be killed any day. He pleaded with Avinash to find him a respectable job. He wanted to leave this dirty job. Avinash didn’t want to loose his golden goose. He made false promises to Akash so that he continues with his supply of information. Akash thought he is being used like a condom only to be thrown away when the purpose is over.

Akash went to Siliguri to find a respectable job. He found none. Not knowing what to do he sits at a tea stall. He ordered for a tea. A group of youths were discussing some recruitment in the Indian army. He approached them to know what type of recruitment was going on. It was the “Short Service Commission” officers’ examinations.

Akash Gupta is now days known as Captain Akash Gupta.

Sitendu De is the author of this post

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From Post Offices to Social Media #SM

2011-01-31T01:42:00.001+05:30

Let us examine how Nature's Model as presented a week back, is applicable for understanding changes happening in any social phenonemon and its transformation. For the sake of discussion let us take the most common social phenomenon 'communication' (the complex phenomenon that distinguishes human beings from other animals) and let us trace its development and transformation from the system of Post Office to the current status of Social Media. The central question in this quest would be: how did it all come about? Did it come about by some external forces or by some extremely clever and futuristic thinking of some bright individuals or did it come into being on its own "self-movements" and the gradual development of the enveloping field that motivated the 'self movement' the eventual collapse to take place. Once we trace the development through the model we would then try to draw an outline, however faint, of the next possible phase that would inevitably replace the present phase of Social Media.

To reiterate, the essential features of the Nature's Model are the following:

1. Any phenomenon takes place under the interaction of a pair of opposites. "Self-Movement" occurs when two opposites interact. For movement to take place it does not need any external force.

2. At the inital phase of development we innovate to give the new development a push.

3. During the development state we improvize to sustain the process till it reaches the highest possible potential. The quantity of improvizations changes the quality of the transformation.

4. There is always a field or flux enveloping the development process.

5. Soon the development reaches its maximum potential limited by the field and remains steady for a while.

6. This steady state is quickly transformed into a rapidly 'collapsing phase' where the field triggers the collapse.

7. The system collapses quickly and tends to come back to the intial phase of its development but one level higher that is inherently more complex than the previous phase giving birth to a new system.

With these features in mind we set out to examine the transformation that has taken place in 'communication' starting with our ubiquitous Post Offices.

System 1: Post Offices

Purpose: How two people communicate in details with each other in a written format?

The pair of opposites for 'self movement' to take place: Service Provider and the Consumers (one service provider vs millions of consumers).

Innovation during the Initial state of development: Set up of costly infrastructure by the Service Provider.Only a few service providers could afford to set up the infrastructure and therefore ruled the market through monopoly.

Improvizations: differential trariffs, telegrams, book posts, air-mail, postcards, inland letters, speed post.

Field Strength: The growing strength of the enveloping field that leads to collapse: Time delays in communication, Costs controlled by service provider and Growing Cost of operation of the service provider trigger the collapse of State 1 to State 2, which is one level higher and more complex.

State 2: Land phones (a level higher than State 1 and more complex)

Purpose: How two people communicate quickly over long distances in the spoken format?

Interaction of the Pair of opposites leading to self-movement: Service Providers (usually one) vs millions of Consumers.

Innovation during the initial state of development: Set up of costly infra-structure, signal processing, cabling, routing, etc. Only a few service providers could afford to set up the infrastructure and therefore ruled the market with their monopoly.

Improvizations during development phase (change in quantity leading to qualitative differences in service and utilization): Differential tariffs for local and long distance calls. type of signal processing, interconnectivity, etc.

Growing Field Strength to dislodge a stable system into a quick collapse: Cost to the consumers, unreliability, inability to communicate through written format, loss of mobility and precise connectivity and complete monopoly of the service provider trigger the collapse of State 2 to State 3, which is one level higher and more complex.

State 3: Mobile phones (a level higher than State 2 and more complex built on the back of internet technology, the transition technology between Phase 2 and Phase 3, which I have intentionally not described since we would discuss the social media which is intenet based technology).

Purpose: How two people communicate quickly over long distances in the spoken format with mobility and precise connectivity?

Interactions of the Pairs of opposites leading to self-movement: Service Providers (many) vs millions of Consumers. Note the change from usually one Service Provider to 'many' Service Providers in this phase of development.

Innovation during the initial state of development: Set up of costly infra-structure, costs sharing and collaborating between different service providers, better signal processing, cartel, advertisements, etc..

Improvizations during development phase (change in quantity to qualitative difference in service and utilization): different strategies to pull customers, dropping prices in response to competition, mobile phone designs (one device multiple functions, like camera, sketch pad, dictaphone, etc), text messages, design and development of user interfaces, different types of services, touch screen, later provision of web facility, 3G with voice and image facility, conference calls (from one to one to one to two), number portability etc.

Growing Field strength to dislodge a stable system into a quick collapse: Inability to network with different people in a cost effective way. harmful radiations that affect health, cost of service, inabilty to strike parallel dialogues simulataneously with many people, inability to collaborate, inability to learn from a wide variety of people, ineffectiveness of branding and advertisement through word of mouth....

Phase 4: #Social Media or #SM (a level higher than Phase 3 but more complex)

Purpose: How two or more people can interact, share, learn, collaborate, express themselves in variety of ways.

Interaction of the Pairs of opposites leading to self movement: Consumers to Consumers through participatory approach. Interesting to note that there is no governing body for the Internet system. The consumers create provide and consume the content.

Innovation during the initial state of development: Set up of various forums, platforms and complex network of networks for people to get together and communicate in various modes and methods. The cost of set up of such infrastructure is extremely small when compared to earlier forms of communication where the service providers effectively barred the entry of competitors through the high cost of investments needed for setting up the infra-structure.

Improvizations during the development phase: integration of various modes of communication -- emails (various), short messages with searchable tags (Twitter), photos (Flicker), blogs (posterous), wikis (e.g. Wikipedia, Ning), niche groups, networking and job searches (e.g. Linkedin), sharing and dialogs between group of friends (e.g. Facebook), question and answer groups (e.g. Quora), audio and video (Skype, Youtube) -- all enabling dialogs (both prolonged and short) and all rolled into one (e.g. E2.0 like Traction) and digital book publishing platforms (Amazon). The ongoing development is fast and furious and not yet mature enough.

Growing Field strength to disloge the system into a quick collapse: Most of the social media is about networking amongst known people and group of friends and professionals. Less opportunity to collaborate for making a living and does not provide an efficient method of offering one's services around the world in a reliable fashion, more specific local needs, inability to cater to physical needs, .... As the strength of the field grows it would trigger the collapse of the present stable state of affair with Social media (or #SM) to give brith to the next phase, i.e. Phase 5.

We have, in brief, looked at the transformations and traced the development of our communication system from the good old Post Offices to present day use of Social Media by applying a the underlying rules of Nature's Model.

The nature of the development is quite fascinating. In brief, the interesting changes are the following:

a) From a single service provider we slowly moved towards having multiple service providers to having millions of service providers. .

b) In the early stages of development consumers were the underdogs. From that position they have now moved on to occupy the role of the virtual service providers.

c) Furthermore, the role of the consumers have changed from being a mere consumer of the service provided to that of being both the provider and the consumer.

d) The cost of providing the service to that of consuming the service has come down multi-folds to something quite insignificant thus making it affordable for millions of people.

e) From strong central regulation to virtual deregulation with no centralized governance.

f) It is providing for the first time in human history the opportunity to millons of people to dream of engaging into dialogs with total strangers, getting to know them and collaborating over brief duration of time to create new businesses (I term them as social businesses) at fraction of the previous costs enabling them to make an independent living without having to depend on jobs that were only created by the thinking and policies of the industrial age.

g) Again for the first time over the last 400 to 500 years of history, the relevance or importance of nation states is being fragmented into more community based living and working (including virtual societies and communities) who are trying to customize their offerings for the consumers by dipping into the pool of the best available global resources. It gradual development in Phase 5 would give a bodily blow to mental abstraction that we hold in our minds that wealth and happiness of a nation rests on existance and effectiveness of large corporations built and managed with the old industrial mindset and globalization.

h) So far corporations existed with the mantra of competition. Within the next few years they would have to think totally differently for the survival and sustainabilty. They would have to somehow network with communities to produce, provide and consume the offerings (products and services) they would care to produce. The competion they would have to contend with would be from the consumers who so far were more than incapable to fight the might of the corporations or the producers.

h) We would also be moving away from the present economic models of capitalism and socialism to give birth to a different type of economy that would be more participatory in nature catering to the specific needs of the local communities.

i) As the new participatory economy develops the economic cycles that we have of boom and busts or recessions and inflations would minimize to a great extent since the money that would be produced in society would be based on value and not speculation on some financial bubbles. And it is also expected to level out economic disparity within communities and nations.

It clearly showed how Nature's Model helps us to not only examine the nature of the phase of a current development and what decisions we might take at different stages of its development but also helps us to understand the nature of the successive states that would appear in ever increasing levels and nature of complexities and what triggers such possibilities for self emergence.

The model also informs us that older modes of communications would virtually be wiped out with time. It would then be useless trying to fight hard to retain old positions in the face of current development. Organizations that are determined to fight back with the natural process are bound to be extinct or decimated to inconsequential existence. The best response they have up their sleeves is to adapt and to reinvent themselves in light of new changes that appear on the scene.

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CBM - Useless - Why? Useful - How?

2011-01-29T23:44:00.001+05:30

Introduction

Condition Based Maintenance as the name implies is a tool and strategy to improve Maintenance. The basic philosophy is that we respond as per actual needs and not carry out activities as per a given plan or idea that forms in our heads. It does not depend on abstractions of any sort.

No doubt it is a fantastic concept. I hesitate to call it a tool to solve our problems. What is the minimum it might achieve when used properly? It is known to reduce maintenance downtime by 50% (since we can plan the activity) and reduce surprise failures by 25% from a previous level of maintenance when CBM is not taken up as a strategy.

This is not a mean achievement. This is the minimum CBM can do. Properly utilized it has the potential to do much more. But as I look around I see industries after industries failing to achieve this minimum level of benefit.

Why does it not Work?

Naturally, it is time that we ask why?

First reason that comes to my mind is the level of difficulty to master the different techniques of CBM, which are becoming more complicated by the day. Whether there is a need for such complication is not known to me. But it takes time and effort to master the most valuable techniques we have and most industries aren’t quite willing to spare the time, effort and costs in order to achieve that mastery. The point is we master the techniques or the functioning and design of the machines. Obviously, it must be both. Without a clear understanding of the laws by which machines move it is not possible to make any headway through the use of techniques. Mastering techniques is more of mastering information. There is lot of information. But information alone can’t help us. Bits of information must be stitched together to weave a story. It is story that makes meaning and the story can only be told if the machine or the system is understood better. Unfortunately, machines do follow the laws of nature and the problem is we have till date understood a small and rather insignificant part of the inner working or Nature.

The second reason is improper understanding of the word ‘problem’. Most practitioners aim at finding problems. Is there something called a problem? Most fail to realize that the word problem is an ‘abstraction’ of the mind. It is rather funny that we even give names to different problems. We say mechanical problems, electrical problems, quality problems, operation problems etc. We don’t stop at that. Then we further classify the problems as bearing problems, coupling problem, unbalance problem, etc. That makes it pretty useless. Why? We are always looking at a part of the system and never the entire system as a whole. All problems are systemic. There is no such thing as a problem. The machine does not know of one. Nature does not know of one. How come we know of problems? And that is precisely the problem. And more we trying to qualify and define a problem more complicated it becomes, which itself becomes problematic.

The third important reason is the application of the concept. To start with we buy some equipment. We then buy some software to go along with it. Have a list of ways we can detect possible problems. And lastly pick up some young boys & girls who have very little experience with machines and operations. Then we start with rotating machines. And then we tell that the objective is to find when a bearing would fail. It simply does not work. Why? This is simply because the ‘map is not the territory’. Having the infrastructure in the form of instruments, software, and people forms the ‘map’. The territory is improving Reliability of the system, Availability of the System and the Overall Performance of the System. Or in other words improving the system is the territory to be won. That is not what actually happens. The work design is grossly wrong leading to unacceptable results.

How Useful is it?

What happens when we correctly apply the deep conceptual understanding of CBM in a proper way? I would like to highlight three important cases from the real world. I would show you examples from process industries like steel, cement and chemical because in these industries the concept of ‘territory’ is vital for the survival of the industry. .

Case 1 – Chemical Industry

In a chemical factory, they were having 24 breakdowns a month. Obviously this was a pain. Pain was not only in trying to restore the system back but the pain was in loss of costly material and the time it took to restart the system. This was making them uncompetitive.

When they applied CBM in the proper way the results were amazing.

Breakdowns reduced from 24 failures a month to 1 (one) failure a year.
The annual consumption of spares reduced by 50%
Productivity improved by 30%
Profitability improved by 20%

Case 2 – Cement Industry

One of the well known Cement factories in India had a full fledged sophisticated CBM system in place. In addition, they were the first plant in India to have achieved the coveted Japanese TPM award.

But even after all these they were having around 57 breakdowns a year. After proper implementation of the CBM concept, the results were more than wonderful.

Number of breakdowns reduced to 1 in a year.
Longest kiln run hours in India
Maintenance costs reduced by 2/3
Profitability up by 15%

In fact they still win the international prize for the best overall maintenance performance amongst cement industries in the world. This is the 10th consecutive year they won the prize. That is not a mean achievement.

Case 3 – Steel Industry

In a Steel Industry their profitability was affected by the consistently poor performance of their equipment. The Availability stood at a maximum of 88%. Breakdowns were heavy and frequent. Their Yield was no better than 92%, 5% short of the best international standards. The Reliability was as poor as 33%.

After proper implementation the results were astounding.

Availability went up from 88% to 99%
Yield improved from 92% to 99.7% (presently the world standard)
Reliability went up from 33% to 96%
Profitability went up by 6%

The important thing is that they have been maintaining these standards for the last 6 years with the minimum of investment in CBM.

Conclusions:

Techniques & sophistication are secondary. The concept is primary.
Take time to learn the methods of knowing and reading reality.
There is no such thing as a problem
The map is not the territory.
Understand the ‘whole’ and not try to improve the system by parts.
Design the work system correctly to achieve the end.
To gain results invest in talent and less on techniques.
Solve all problems in one go to get ongoing benefits for years to come.
Learn from failures.
Induct people who learn from failures and have good idea of machines and systems.
Monitor what is going right not what is going wrong.
Aim at improving the Reliability Availability and Performance of the System to maximize your gains.

It is most interesting to find that the same concept of CBM can be applied to almost anything an organization does or any issue an organization is faced with. The effectiveness of the concepts of other strategies for organizational improvement fade in comparison to the improvement concept embedded in CBM concept. Why? Because it is based on how Nature behaves not what we think the way it must behave. That is a natural advantage.

Should we go for it?

Posted via email from systemvibes

The Latent Anger

2011-01-28T19:30:00.001+05:30

Mrs. Patoliya was very happy. After a long ten years of their marriage, she was expecting. This was her eighth month. Her husband, Ramesh Patoliya is a middle level government officer hailing from a very small town called Radhanpur situated in the middle of the “great salt desert of India”—Kutch, Gujarat. She fondly remembers those days when she got married and came to her husband’s house at Radhanpur. It was after a lot of visits to the doctors and temples she became successful in getting pregnant. She used to hate those stares and jibes from the elderly women of their family. She was intentionally boycotted and also prevented from attending any auspicious family ceremony. Her crime? She was supposed to be “barren”. To avoid his wife from getting into any of those uncomfortable situations Ramesh Patoliya voluntarily opted for a transfer to Jodhpur in Rajasthan. A wise decision and a new approach to find out a solution ---- it paid off. He was overjoyed.

Sardarji the Chief of the office at Jodhpur is anxious. Only ten more days left for his son’s wedding reception at Jodhpur. Many a rough notes have been made and thrown as paper bundles into waste paper basket. Sardarji’s chamber is now usually busy with his “advisors”. The whole government machinery has been put into action which otherwise remain idle. Two of Sardarji’s trusted lieutenants --- one middle level officer and another assistant have been working round the clock. They were preparing the list of invitees especially the special gentry of Jodhpur city. Two types of invitation cards were made. The costlier cards are for the nobles and the lesser ones for the lesser types who are below his rank and pay. But here the Sardarji has made an exemption ---- “Give the costlier cards to those who are rich and has social status”. His two lieutenants were in a fix. Now how to determine who is where in the social status. A number of guest houses of different government departments were booked for the guests of Sardarji. After all he has to show his kith and kin what position and status he holds in Jodhpur as the head of a government Office. Sardarji was very much particular in inviting the erstwhile Maharaja of Jodhpur. He went to His Highness palace to invite the Maharaja and Maharani to his son’s wedding reception. Sardarji was very pleased but surprisingly none of his own staff members and their families were invited including his two trusted lieutenants.

The D day arrived. The whole campus comprising the office portion and the residential staff quarters were bedecked with the finest lighting. The army band was playing right from the morning. The whole residential portion was cordoned off from the rest by a bamboo made barrier. There were two main gates. One used for the office and another one goes to the residential staff quarters. Sardarji type V bungalow is in between the office and the staff residential portion. Sardarji bungalow has a spacious lawn enough to accommodate a basketball court. The lawn is being used for all the action. Sardarji went a step further. He issued an order to all his staff members and guards --- “No one should use the residential gate from seven in the evening till the party gets over”.

The residential quarters wore a deserted look as if a curfew has been clamped. The music was playing in the Sardarji lawn. He wore a Jodhpuri suit with a crimson turban eagerly waiting for His Highness to grace the occasion. The Maharaja arrived along with his security. High ranking army generals, police officers, bureaucrats, businessmen all of them arrived but no staff members were seen. Only Sardarji’s 2IC (second in command) came with his spouse.

Mrs. Patoliya suddenly felt an uneasy pain. She told her husband. He ignored her. The pain was coming in quick succession. Not knowing what to do Patoliya rang the intercom to talk to his colleague. They decide it was better to shift her to a nearby hospital. They put her into a colleague’s small car and headed for the hospital. They were stopped at the gate by the armed guards. It’s an emergency. What orders? I care a damn of Sardarji’s orders. They just drove away. Mrs. Patoliya was in great pain. At 2.15 AM Mrs. Patoliya gave birth to a girl.

The wedding reception was over. Sardarji arrived late the next day to the office. He ordered his PA to take a dictation. It was a transfer order of Ramesh Patoliya to Shillong with immediate effect and in public interest. In the evening every staff member was given a packet of sweets one by Sardarji and another by Ramesh Patoliya.

The next morning the residential waste collection dustbin contained all the packets of sweets given by the Sardarji. After eight months Sardarji went on superannuation. None of the staff went to the airport to bid farewell, including his two trusted lieutenants.

Lessons Learned:

1. More than skill or competence any Leader worth his salt needs a great character to lead. Otherwise followers desert.

2. A leader quickly loses integrity by differentiating amongst his people. He/she then loses the right to lead.

3. Without empathy one can't lead. Empathy brings Respect and Respect brings with it Trust. These would be the keywords in leadership of the 21st century where more and more people would participate and contribute to the economic and social development.

Sitendu De is the author of this post.

Posted via email from dibyendu's posterous

The Throne

2011-01-24T19:30:00.001+05:30

The chief’s inspection was due next week. He is going to come from Jodhpur (Rajasthan) for the inspection. Rani Dhan Singh Bhatti looked with eagerness at the planner in front of him and started pondering. Sardarji, the Chief is going to inspect all the four units under his control which means he is going to stay at Barmer for all the four days. How to make the chief comfortable? He should not be annoyed and avoid making any adverse comments in his inspection report. Rani Dhan Singh Bhatti conveyed the dates of inspection to all the officers-in-charge of the four units’ which are under his control.

Bhatti has grown up in these golden sand dunes of the Thar Desert. He was born in a Rajput Royal family at Jaisalmer. The things which he inherited from his forefathers were his huge, intricately carved “haveli” (ancestral house), some cultivable lands and a throne. He prides himself when villagers still hail him as the “Prince”. Bhati still gets the agriculture produce from his village. The millet, corn, wheat and a substantial quantity of lentils supplements Bhati’s expenditure on his yearly food budget.

Bhatti took a calibrated step after he reached his office. He plans to organize a big party for the chief on his last day of the visit. The show must be of a very grand scale. The Sardarji should feel that Bhatti also holds on to his rich traditions of royal hospitality specially given to a guest of honour. Bhatti calls the police band, the folk singers and the best chefs in the town. He ordered plenty of scotch and invited all the top government officials in the town. He caparisoned the throne and placed it on the makeshift stage.

Bhatti was very pleased with the arrangements. The enchanting sound of “padharo mhare desh” (welcome to my country) reverberated through the huge hall. The Rajasthani folk singers were singing mystically and wore their traditional dress complementing the atmosphere of festivity. The top government officials came with their spouses in tow. Mrs. Bhatti wore the traditional “langa-choli” and was welcoming the females. The police band started to play a traditional British tune as soon Sardarji arrived. Bhatti rushed to receive him. After all a lot depends on the inspection report. Scotch flowed uninterrupted. Every one seems to be enjoying the grand party. It was truly in a royal style. The traditional Rajasthani mutton dish was the most sought after.

Sardarji was too pleased with the whole show. He showered praise on Bhatti as he addressed the guests. After the brief speech Sardarji headed for the throne to sit. Bhatti rushed towards Sardarji and said “It is the host who sits on the throne”.

Lessons Learned:

1. If one thinks 'red' is 'blue' then it is extremely difficult to change his/her idea. Evidences and Logic don't seem to work well.

2. Such mental models can't be changed by force. It might only be changed through one's internal refection of the reality and struggling to make sense of it.

3. Since traditions and emotional attachments are very difficult to be done away with all change methods must acknowledge and reflect the reality of such attachments and work with it.

Posted via email from dibyendu's posterous

Nature's Model to Harness Uncertainty for Performance

2011-01-21T19:56:00.001+05:30

Uncertainty & its Importance

In business, as in life, we are always faced by uncertainty. That not only puts us into a tight fix but also makes our lives extremely difficult to live. This is because it is difficult to make sense of what is going on around us, how the future would unfold and what we are supposed to do now. It is difficult to think why things are the way they are and what steps might prove appropriate to tide over uncertainty to survive and improve performance.

Higher the degrees of uncertainty bigger are the risks and the problems. Over the years we have therefore searched for models, theories, 'five best ways', best methods practices, rules of thumb and techniques to tackle such uncertainty so as to act in a sensible manner. But we are always unsure about the effectiveness of our decisions and actions. Only after an action is taken we might get to know through hindsight whether it proved effective or useless.

Use of Models

To lessen the risk of such uncertainty we tend to use models. There are different types of models. Most models present us with calibrated yardsticks that try to tell us what is going wrong with the present operation and how much off we are from the ideal target or plan. There are some that try to tell us what and how to predict the future while others tell us what is the ideal thing to do (does not quite matter what we do -- growing a business or raising a child) and how that might be done best. And there are models that inform whether we are on the right track and how to monitor so that we don't slip or accidentally fall off the edges. There are still others that tell us what others are doing and how we might catch up with the best in the field. The range and gamut of the models are mind boggling. For an organization juggling with so many models some of which might be in conflict with each other and tending to them can prove to be a bewildering task with the limited manpower they always like to have.

In spite of so many well meaning models for monitoring, growth and performance enhancement we have seen businesses fail miserably, economies collapse all of a sudden and nations going bankrupt overnight. That is unfortunate. But why is that?

Why Models Fail?

Is there something common that runs through all these models? Most models that we presently have are a sort of idealistic abstractions of the human mind. That is we first think of an ideal that we hope to achieve and then find ways and means to achieve that without considering the ground reality the organization, society or a person is in. We then try to impose that 'ideal way' to deal with a current situation with all the techniques and methods outlined in such and such model. The focus is to neatly fit the model onto a given reality without even trying much to understand what gives rise to that reality. Naturally, the model would refuse to fit. But we don't give in. We then measure what or how much of present situation goes outside the boundaries of imposed model and try to trim the excesses or eliminate them so as to forcefully fit the model or framework to comfort us that everything is going smoothly as it should if the model is to be applied.

For example, most economists think that having a huge population would only make a country poorer. The leaders in India were concerned. They found that on an average most Indian families have around five children. That they thought is way above the ideal level of two children. The current reality wasn't quite fitting into their economic model. So they went about sterilizing people by force. People reacted to this and in the next election overthrew the government. If they took time and effort to understand the underlying reality of the present situation the solution would have been rather different. Indian parents tend to have more children, especially boys, as an insurance to support them in their old age. If only the leaders understood this reality the huge sums of money they spent on 'mass sterilization' would have been well spent to start old age pension and medical schemes. That would have been more beneficial to assure Indian parents to limit the size of their families.

Similarly, great efforts are underway in the Indian manufacturing sector to enhance quality and systems mostly through Japanese models of improvement. There is nothing wrong with the models as such only that these are applied to completely different context. As a result they simply produce poor cosmetic output that does little to help a business in the long run. The workers don't understand what is going on and why they are being asked to do things which they think are queer. The underlying reality is that the workers are mostly poorly paid and undereducated. So, would it make more sense to put efforts to educate the workforce rather than thrusting upon them methods which they can't make any sense of? For example, if the worker does not know how to estimate the volume of fluid he regularly handles how can one stop him from wasting material?

So, 'idealism' is a basic flaw in all the existing models that we have seen till date. It is this all pervading idea of idealism that transforms all these models into highly abstract and arbitrary ones. Hence, these models suffer from the disease of an 'absolute idea' and everything is forced to fit into that 'absolute idea'. It simply does not matter whether we are fitting that 'absolute idea' onto nature, societies and organizations or onto our personal lives without taking into account the current realities and how these have come about.

Therefore, we are confronted with the classic 'To be or Not to be' case. The question is whether we construct a theory in our minds based on some 'abstract ideal' and apply it to a given situation or do we gain insights and understanding of a given situation and then think of what best can be done or achieved under the given circumstances and what might be the consequences of our designed actions? In other words, do we arbitrarily foist our 'idea' on the world to forcefully bring about a change or do our minds reflect the world and translate the reflection into actionable thoughts and designs to adapt and change the world or ourselves?

Obviously, the first method hasn't worked well enough and clearly isn't going to work at all. The alternative is to look at the other approach.

Nature's Model - The Alternative View

The difference between the two approaches lies in the perspectives they take. The 'Absolute Idea' model is a static framework to achieve an ideal irrespective of the given circumstances. Since the alternative approach is grounded in understanding 'movement' it is then akin to developing a model based on the reality and modulating it as changes take place. The advantage of doing so is obvious. Nature moves. So having a model that faithfully reflects and replicates that movement is advantageous than having to fit a pre-formed 'idea' model to the reality of movement, which simply wouldn't match. We would call this the 'Nature's Model', which is a context specific model that can be applied to various issues as opposed to 'Absolute Ideal' model, which is an 'idea' specific model looking for applications.

What would this 'Nature's Model' involve? When we consciously contemplate about the world around us, we see an immense and amazingly complex series of phenomena, an intricate interrelated web of seemingly endless change, cause and effect, action and reaction -- in short we see 'Uncertainty' enveloping us. The motivation to construct a contextual Nature's Model is based on our desire to obtain insights into this bewildering labyrinth of uncertainty, to understand it in order to harness it for the collective good without unintended consequences to Nature and our future generations. We would then look for laws which can separate the general from the particular, the accidental from the necessary, and enable us to understand the underlying themes that give rise to the phenomena that envelope us. We would do that by considering motion or movement as the basic underlying characteristic of all phenomena.

Why would we consider 'movement' to be the basic characteristic of any phenomena? This might be best answered by the words of David Bohm the celebrated physicist and philosopher:

"In nature nothing remains constant. Everything is in a perpetual state of transformation, motion, and change. However, we discover that nothing simply surges up out of nothing without having antecedents that existed before. Likewise, nothing ever disappears without a trace, in the sense that it gives rise to absolutely nothing existing at later times. This general characteristic of the world can be expressed in terms of a principle which summarizes an enormous domain of different kinds of experience and which has never yet been contradicted in any observation or experiment, scientific or otherwise; namely, everything comes from other things and gives rise to other things."

The fundamental proposition of Nature's Model is that everything is in a constant state of movement and developing new states. Even when it appears to us that nothing is quite happening, in reality, matter and things are always changing. Molecules, atoms and subatomic particles are constantly changing place, always on the move and always developing new states -- always in a state of becoming something else than what it were. Thus Nature's Model is essentially a dynamic interpretation of the phenomena and processes which occur at all levels of both organic and inorganic matter to help us take critical decisions about adapting and/or changing and living moment to moment to survive and perform.

Richard Feynman had this to say, "To our eyes, our crude eyes, nothing is changing but if we could see it a billion times magnified, we would see that from its own point of view it is always changing: molecules are leaving the surface, molecules are coming back." It is the flux of movement that surrounds us creating the 'uncertainty' that we hope to harness for our betterment.

However, this idea of motion and change as the fundamental characteristic of Nature is not new to human understanding.

Aristotle wrote: "Therefore…the primary and proper meaning of ‘nature’ is the essence of things which have in themselves…the principle of motion."

This is not the mechanical conception of motion as something imparted to an inert mass by an external "force" (Newton Laws) but an entirely different notion of matter as 'self-moving'. For them, matter and motion (energy) was one and the same thing, two ways of expressing the same idea. This idea was brilliantly confirmed by Einstein’s theory of the equivalence of mass and energy.

The germ of this ideas of self movement and self creation or self organization can also be found in ancient thoughts of Hindus through their metaphor of Shiva (chaos), Vishnu (order) and Brahma (self creation) and in Chinese thoughts captured through their metaphor of the Yang-Yin and the Buddhist thoughts of Flow, Change and Interdependence of all matter and phenomena.

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Uncertainty.PPT (212 KB)

Therefore, the model presented reflects this reality of movement and change in Nature. Matter flows from one state (State 1) to another state (State 2). The path is both linear (ordered) and non-linear (chaos) to reach its highest potential. This is done through a series of internal self-movements and self creation (or self organizing) through a number of internal contradictions or paired opposites helped by a series of interdependences. While this goes on, the quality of the state of matter continually changes. Once it reaches its highest potential (when the number of interdependences are the highest the system becomes too rigid to hold on by itself and loses its resilience to changes) there is a sudden change and collapse of the state (releasing energy) and the highly interdependent state changes to a new state which rushes back to the previous state from where it started out but at one level higher and more complex in nature and behavior. A number of such spiral transformations of 'uncertainties' are going on simultaneously in a system at any point of time. It is a combination of slow gradual changes, medium short term changes and quick and rapid changes.

How is the Model Useful?

But what useful thing can happen by understanding movement and change of state? It simply helps us to think about the decisions we might take to flow with the changes and not resist them to self destruct ourselves or make things better.

So when the system collapses our decision would be to innovate and restructure the system based on its present level of complexity and behavior. We would have to carefully look for the smallest favorable movement the collapse has brought about that might take us forward or change course in a new direction. For example, if the new state of communication is 'social media' then businesses might do well to think how to innovate to change their brand images through social media. There would be little point in sticking to the older forms of brand building exercises, which are bound to prove futile or counterproductive with the sudden change of state of communication.

Similarly, when the system starts its upward movement our decision would be to institute a number of small changes to help the growth and development towards the new state, if desirable. Such an effort would be a summation of numerous micro changes to boost self organization or self movement to its desired potential (the maximum the state might reach before it collapses again and tries to go back to its previous state).

But when the state matures to its highest potential then our efforts might be directed to maintaining the state as long as viable without being blind to the fact that all that stability that we enjoy would soon collapse to a new state. Hence our decision might be to maintain stability and prepare for the collapse at the same time.

So our decisions would change as per the circumstances we are in. Broadly there would be four states -- initial, growth, stability and collapse and creation of a new state. In each case the type and quality of decision to be in the flow would be different. Accordingly the quantity and quality of our efforts would also change depending on the state we are in.

However, it is important to assess the situation as accurately as possible. This can be done through insights that can be gained through our observation of the reality. Gaining insights of the reality (mistaken as uncertainty) has another advantage. Gaining insights from the present movement would also help us to assess how the movement would change within a given time and space and whether it distorts them. Having said that we must implicitly assume the fact that accuracy of such assessment might be off by a wide margin since it can not be predicted accurately. Nonetheless it would be useful to have a general idea of the movement and about what time the collapse might take place.

It is important to remember that our insights would always be context specific and therefore ever changing. Previous insights wouldn't hold true as soon as the context or the movement changes. That calls for mechanisms to have snapshots of the present reality and monitor the changes with respect to previous states. It would always be a work in progress.

Limitation & How do we overcome that?

There is one inherent danger in gaining insights. Gaining insight starts with observation. And that is where the potential difficulty lies. Observing is a state where the confluence of time, space and observer' mind take place. And there seems to be no guarantee that the mind of the observer would faithfully reflect the state of the reality. The mind of the observer might change the reality instead of faithfully reflecting it leading to distorted understanding and insights. Such irrationality of the human mind is expected due to the interaction between the characteristics of the mind and reality. One way to get over this difficulty is to cultivate the discipline of an open, supple but critical mind. The other way would be to expect and allow failures, be responsive to it and instantly learn and correct the mistake so that reality is not reflected in a distorted manner. Of course the best way forward would be to follow both ways.

Conclusions

We might now conclude that 'uncertainty' is only a delusion. Movement is real and that is the truth behind every phenomenon that we encounter. There is nothing like an 'Absolute Idea' or 'Absolute Ideal'. So, by understanding and gaining insights from 'movement' we can change and adapt to the flow of movement in forms of appropriate decisions and actions. But that would call for understanding the laws of Nature to interprete reality as accurately as possible. That is what Nature's Model hopes to achieve. The leverage that might be gained is enormous. Since the model replicates the movements in Nature it can be easily applied to a host of issues in organization development, business performance, economic viability, sustainability, personal growth and development, design and thinking. One model serves different roles and purposes. Aren't we fortunate? Perhaps!

Posted via email from dibyendu's posterous

The Anonymous Letter

2011-01-19T19:30:00.001+05:30

Raghubir Singh Rathore zipped his travel bag and buckled his bedding, ready to join his first place of posting at Banskata in Rajasthan and Gujarat border and also not very far from the Indo-Pakistan border. Rathore will be heading a Government of India unit at Banskata. The place is famous for smugglers and also for government officials who regard it as a prize posting but considered a hard posting. A lucrative posting for some and a place to show one’s caliber and mettle. Banskata was famous for smuggling of acetic anhydride (generally used for processing of heroin) from India to Pakistan and narcotics from Sindh (Pakistan) to India.

Rathore was briefed by his immediate officer Mr. Madhab Singh of what he is expected to do. Rathore just out from his college with high ambition and morality loved to live in a utopian world. He was an upright person and hailed from a royal family from Ajmer in Rajasthan.

The five hour journey from Barmer town through the sandy terrain to Banskata had Rathore’s face caked up with the tiny sand particles. Rathore felt irritated, he never lived in this kind of hardship. His clothes smelled of the “beedi” smoke generated by his co-bus passengers. He was received by his colleagues at the bus stand. He went to his office cum residence. He slowly surveyed his new home. The rooms were plastered with mud and were tinned roof. His only companions were the squirrels. He headed for the bathroom to have a shower. He found two earthen pitchers and a mug. He was told by his cook that water is scarce here and one has to use it judiciously.

Rathore has a seven member team which includes four individuals who are above fifty five years old and suffer from various age related diseases. The other three are below thirty years old whose main objective in life was to get a government job which they got. Most of them got posted at Banskata as “punishment posting”. They are inefficient and trouble makers so no officers liked them. They were shoved to a place where there is hardship though the place was very good in terms of work output. Rathore thought how to get work from these deadwoods. He must do something to motivate his workforce.

The next morning he called a meeting. He addressed his team members and urged them to put in their best and make use of their experience they have gathered over the years. Rathore’s tried his best to motivate his dead army. His predecessor had never gone out of his way to show his output. He just completed his tenure and played cards with other government officials of different agencies operating in the area.

Six months passed, Rathore was working almost single handedly. He believed in “The leader shows the way”. He did achieve some good results which were appreciated at his Headquarters. Rathore was called for the half yearly progress meeting. He went to attend the meeting at Jodhpur. He was felicitated by his senior officers. He was buoyed by his achievements. He started to apprise his senior officers of the HR problems being faced by him, but no one was ready to listen to his problems. “Your problems will be taken care of” was the pet reply from the officers.

One year had passed. Rathore was working well but the rift was widening between him and his subordinates. His staff asked him to pass their false Travelling Allowances bills and Medical bills as they thought it is was a rightful compensation from the government and a prerogative for making them stay in a hardship area. It was also the time for Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs). Rathore gave very low assessment marks to most of his subordinates. The ACRs were accepted by the reviewing officer also. Most of them got “bad remarks” which were conveyed to the staff individually.

The senior officers in Jodhpur were in a huddle. They watched wide eyed. The anonymous letter contained vivid details of how Raghubir Singh Rathore made huge money through smuggling of narcotics from Pakistan. The phone rings. The PA transfers the phone to his boss, the call was from the head of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). The NCB officials were after Rathore like a pack of hungry hyenas. The officers were desperate to save Rathore. They knew the anonymous letter was the handiwork of those deadwoods posted at Banskata unit. A special SUV was sent to Banskata immediately with the direction to move Rathore to Jodhpur.

Next morning Rathore signed the attendance register at Jodhpur. A new team was formed at Banskata unit.

Lessons learned:

1. The management saying 'that all progress is done by the unreasonable man' doesn't seem to work on all occasions and the probability of the 'unreasonable' man being hurt by the system is high.

2. The management concept 'of working at the fringes to create results' also seems suspect.

3. One is limited by the constraints imposed by the system. 'Free will' can only be exercised within the given circumstances and the state of the system.

4. Doing something out of the context always produces disasters. One has to understand the context and work accordingly. That is what is actually meant by 'going with the flow'.

5. A collapsing system can't be revived by bringing in an effective and efficient leader. The only effective way is to totally restructure or revamp the system.

Mr. Sitendu De is the contributor of this post.

Posted via email from dibyendu's posterous

Robots Run the Asylum

2011-01-17T19:30:00.001+05:30

Winter was mild and cool

Time for fun& play

But old Mr. Ram was hard at work

25 years back on a fine summer day

Mr. Ram opened his factory

So that it never shuts down

Within last 5 seasons

Mr. Ram bought or built 6 more factories around the globe

So that his businesses never close & monies flow

Last autumn, when leaves were losing colors

Mr. Ram turned 72

He suddenly became young at heart & more adventurous

So, on a fine winter morning

He vowed never hit the streets to the airport again

Except visit his oldest factory once a day

50 years back

He was the brightest management student around

Now he thinks all management theories are nothing but junk

So he decides to muddle the mud on the shop floor

With his own ideas tinged by ‘creativity’

Rejecting all that he passionately knew

One Sunday evening when the moon shone bright

He had one of his brightest ideas

Why not have three Works Managers instead of one?

Next morning when employees trooped in grudgingly

They saw the notice board in awe

Henceforth each one would handle 5 bosses

By afternoon, when the sun shone dimly on the wintry sky

Managers were crest fallen – not knowing what to do

Employees smiled clearly knowing the path ahead

By Friday evening the air was chill

Productivity went through the floor

Lunatics ran the asylum

Darkness fell, stilling everything around

Motion came to a grinding halt.

Robots moved everywhere not knowing where to go

Posted via email from dibyendu's posterous

Designing Our Future -- Distributed Living

2011-01-16T00:41:00.001+05:30

This video of around 27 minutes gave me a great insight about how we would be living in the future and what type of design would shape it.

The video talk offers two central concepts, which are the emergence of 'distributed energy' and 'distributed information'.

This two when coupled forms a new emerging social pattern. That means that we are slowly and steadly drifting towards a new state.

How is that?

So long large electricity companies held the monopoly over energy. They produced it and then distributed it to thousands and millions of people. So we had a small group of producers and a large base of consumers. And consumers paid for their consumption whatever the producers demanded from time to time.

Similarly, schools, universities, publishers, newspapers, television companies and large organizations produced information and then distributed it to the public for consumption. The schools, universities and other organizations that held exclusive rights to the information decided on how such information would be distributed, when it would be distributed, how would it be distributed and how would people pay for consumption of such privilaged information.

All this is about to change. Changes are taking place in the way we are now creating and distributing information. Now individuals create information and share them with others who return the favor through their own contribution to the general pool of available information resources for the consumption of others. It is needless to mention that internet and social media brought about such dramatic changes in our modern lives. And it is has worked wonders. It has virtually wiped out all traditional newspapers in the US and elsewhere. We no longer look up an Encyclopedia for information. We click on Wikipedia for information. And most of the information is free, easily available and mostly accurate. I have virtually stopped visiting my favorite library for quite some time. I get what I want to know on the net. And if needed, buy books through online portals just with the same effort and ease I take to book my air, train and movie tickets.

Post offices are no longer important source of distribution of information. We exchange information at the click of a button and email them all over the world in seconds. We are slowly making landline phones redundant. Mobile phones are now being used more for data usage & transfer rather than as a phone devices. We can now do all that talking for free through Skype and other similar platforms.

The power of individual leadership is now unleashed. One can choose whom to follow, whom to have a discussion with, whom to turn to for advice in case of need and whose articles are worth the wait, time and effort. In short we can choose our teachers and choose what to learn. We are no longer dependent on old archaic structures that try to shove down our throats information which we care least about.

The power to do something now rests on the consumer not the producer.

If we choose to look carefully the same thing is happening in the energy sector. Centralized energy production and distribution are giving way to consumer driven energy production and distribution. First in the line were the industries. They went off the grid to have their own source of power. And they had a good reason to do that. It costs them lot cheaper than taking power from the grid. They did not stop at that. If they were left with any excess power they wheeled it back into the grid and sold the units they contributed. This further lowered the energy cost of manufacturing. Just to give an idea most were producing and consuming electricity at half the cost. With such an arrangement the consumer now becomes the producer and the consumer at the same time.

Others have been quick to follow. Individual homes are setting up their own power back up sources. At the lower end they store power in batteries and use it during power cuts. At the higher end consumers are producing their own electricity from alternative sources of energy -- wind, sun, tides and wastes. It covers almost the entire requirement.

We see similar changes taking place in the water supply systems. Earlier it was the Government's responsibility to provide its citizens with fresh, clean potable water. In many countries like India the system is broken. The onus or responsibility can no longer be taken care of by Government authorities. Hence people are now having their own water supply systems that provide them with clean potable water. The consumer has taken up the responsibility. And it is no longer centralized.

Where is all this leading to?

We are moving away from centralized systems to decentralized or distributed systems. The inherent contradiction between the producer and the consumer has automatically paved the way for people to assume the role of being both a producer and consumer at the same time. And there is something more. After consuming whatever is needed the excess is shared with other consumers in exchange for things others are willing to contribute and potential consumer are willing to accept.

Now we have a formidable combination of three important emergences, which are a) distributed energy b) distributed information c) contribution economy.

As we combine these three emergent properties new design possibilities open up that would have the potential to change the way we choose to live in the near future.

I would like to draw a potential scenario as follows:

1. Individual houses would give way to high-rise landscaped building complexes almost resembling a 'village' of yesteryears but far better and more complex.

2. Such complexes would produce their own energy from alternative sources -- solar, wind, waste, hydrogen cells, tidal and geothermal depending on the location and the circumstances.

3. And they would produce their own information -- for building or supporting education systems, training and developing others and offer services to others.

4. They would create and maintain their own water sources and harvest whatever is available to make their system self sustaining.

5. They might choose to produce their own food sources and means of entertainment.

6. They would take support of effective alternative health systems that are way cheaper than traditional systems.

7. They would create their own local economies to make their 'villages' sustainable.

8. The occupants would produce and consume their own energy, information, water, food etc and combine them in novel ways to sustain their economies.

9. They would share the excess of what they consume with other neighboring 'villages' and also borrow from them what they need.

10. The possibilities are endless... a whole new world would open up.

The possibility of such new design is emerging. And the advantages of such designs are many, some of which would be the following;

a. Carbon free. It is estimated that 60% of the energy a nation consumes goes in housing and transportation.

b. Sustainable and more natural living under more natural habitats.

c. Save the bother and expenses to commute to work.

d. Moving away from monopolistic economies

e. The common man decides the way they live, produce, consume and work.

f. Act local and think global -- drawing on resources all over the world to meet specific local needs of the economy.

g. Contribution economy -- something quite different to both capitalistic and socialist forms of production and consumption.

h. Other advantages would be evident as we go along.

The best thing such designs offer would be to create self-sustaining societies that would primarily be sustained through social contribution of distributed energy and distributed information and sharing of resources. That is probably the beginning of a viable 'Contribution Economy'. An appropriate term for all these put together might be 'distributed living'.

However it is also evident that all societies would not progress towards this concept of 'distributed living' simultaneously. It definitely depends on the present conditions and the collective consciousness of our existing societies that grossly differ in terms of their social behavior that arises from their individual social context.

The first baby steps towards such design for a new way of distributed living is underway in some European societies (I just shy away from using the word 'nations' since this concept is becoming redundant in the modern context of distributed living). Such baby steps would set the trend for others to follow suit.

This is truly the century that throws up the distinct possibility of architects, designers, engineers, design thinkers, system thinkers and leaders to join hands to create a Brave New World.

It remains to be seen how we grab this upcoming opportunity and go forward to save us from natural extinction as human species towards which we are now headed for.

But I am sure of one thing. We now need more leaders at small group levels than ever before.

Where are they hiding?

Posted via email from rdarchitect's posterous

Designing Our Future -- Distributed Living

2011-01-16T00:38:00.001+05:30