Falling in Love with a Fall in Boston - Beyond What The Eyes See

I had heard a lot about the Boston fall and the dramatic change in colours from green to hues of yellow and red. I timed my visit to Boston to see the faint footsteps of fall, experience it getting louder and more colourful as it sweeps the entire area awash in colours.

I am enjoying every bit of it.

 'Autumn' and 'Fall’ are used interchangeably to capture the same essence of time bridging summer and winter. Autumn wears an attire of formality whereas fall brings along a poetic and philosophical feel appropriate to the annual event.

In the northern hemisphere fall commences with the autumnal equinox, the day, sun crosses the celestial equator, the imaginary extension of Earth’s equator in space. It normally happens between 21st to 24th September. Fall ends with winter solstice. Also called ‘hibernal solstice’, winter solstice occurs when the poles reach its maximum tilt away from the Sun. Winter solstice, therefore has the shortest day and longest night of the year. Then on, days start creeping upon nights till summer solstice gets revenge with the longest day and shortest night. The cycle, like it ever was, continues. Naturally both hemispheres have separate fall, winter and summer solstice.

The fall is interesting as it signals change in seasons offering us a spectacular feast for the eyes, a foliage that continuously changes colours. All trees do not change colours. Only the deciduous trees take part in this spectacle. For the cursory eyes, it may just be a change in colours, but for nature it is a complex process and for the trees a survival mechanism. In fact, it is the signal that the tree is shutting down its kitchen, the leaves, because it is running short on its fuel, the sunlight. Chlorophyll that gives trees its green and does photosynthesis, the process of converting sunlight into energy, starts breaking down. As chlorophyll breaks down, it exposes the underlying yellow (xanthophylls), orange (carotenes) and red (anthocyanins) pigments within the leaf. The catalyst for the change are primarily temperature and moisture. Since there are countless permutations and combinations of these two variables, no two falls can be alike! As fall progresses, each leaf starts gradually taking new colours, simultaneously weakening at the stem. Then having put on a spectacular show takes a final bow and falls down. The fall is all about swan songs; swan song of each leaf that once started its life journey with the tree as hope and goes on to contribute its might to the tree irrespective of the size of the tree .

The science behind what we see is important to understand why and how it happens. My interests, however in the fall was less for scientific reasons and more for what lessons it can give me.

Accept it or not we are part of nature and are inseparably linked to everything around us. There is so much beyond what eyes can see. Look close; Fall is a great lesson for all of us.

We all have our seasons of springs, summers, autumns and winters. For some of us life could be enviably long springs and summers. Life could be a dream run with neither autumns nor winters. But for many of us life could be very different. 

Barely noticeable springs and inconsequential summers that seem to finish even before it started could be condemned to obscure oblivion by immer challenging falls leading to extremely severe winters that linger till eternity. For reasons known or unknown life could just turn nasty.

 Like it or not; life’s like that.

We all respond to crises differently. Some like the evergreen trees may show no sign of approaching winter. They may easily weather challenging winters in life or even wither without warnings. But most of us show signs like the deciduous. When tough times come calling, signs show up in many ways, however hard we may try.  As life's winter gets closer and harsher, many, who we think will stand by us, fade away into unfriendly shadows or outright give up on us pretending they haven’t seen us in their life time. Worst are those who will confront us with often heard unjustifiable “I told you".

We could lose our greens, turn yellow in loneliness and go red in sorrows and losses. It's then that we should call to play our inner strengths

If we are rooted well in our belief of a better tomorrow, even while we face losses, we can let go of our leaves with dignity and conserve to weather the storm ahead. It’s autumns in life that help us know our true friends and strength.

Every winter however long and severe it may be, will have to end in spring.  Reassuring sunlight will come and with it new opportunities and hope. If the roots are intact, be assured, life will send shoots out, buds will emerge and the tree shall be full of greens once again.

As you enjoy the colours of fall, remember it’s the swan song for leaves but not for the tree. For the tree spring is about to come. Concentrate on sending the roots even further down.

Harvesting Cognitive Dissonance

 Go Along 

Comical acts online or on TV, invariably comes along with an abundant dose of ‘canned laughter [1]’. We might miss the joke but not the laughter. Sooner than later, we too tend to laugh along; even when we don't quite get the joke. Our compulsion to go along is more pronounced when there are people around!  

WhatsApp group discussions play it out best. Anyone could have initiated it but inevitably, it gravitates to align with the opinion of an individual or a group of individuals. Initially there could be many widely differing views; strong, loud and clear. As discussions progress, differing voices either fall in line, or just fade into silence. Views that differ from the majoritarian are gradually given up, willfully or under pressure. It is not always necessary for the majoritarian opinion to be correct legal or valid, yet everyone goes along! Don't believe it ?

Revisit previous discussions on your mobile; it could provide undeniable proof! You can easily identify the dominant ones, the dormant mutes and the browbeaten. Eventually everyone tends to go along; to be in the group.  

Two seemingly isolated events but connected by a profound human compulsion called cognitive dissonance; the compelling desire to be with the dominant majority! 

 

Do We Always Go Along  

When our thoughts run contrary to the one predominantly held there is a sense of discomfort within us and we are driven to address it. The easiest way is to align oneself with the majority in view. Individuals to start with, homes, society and even Nation States are not exempted from this behavioral aspect. The degree and intensity of the dissonance experienced differs from person to person. More rooted one is to one’s belief, higher is the intensity of discomfort. If the dissonance has existential risk attached, likelihood of ‘going along’ is stronger.  After all North Koreans adore their leader!  

What happens when there is no existential threat? 

 

Conscience versus Pragmatism 

Mob lynching has become a common occurrence in many places. Individually nobody likes to kill or be killed. But seldom do we find anyone from within trying to prevent the mob from lynching the hapless. At least momentarily conscience of each individual in the mob goes dead.  

Many a time, people tend to go along even when they know, what they're going along with, may not be right. The discord within one’s conscience is often drowned in rudimentary survival need of being part of a group; the predominant human trait that helped us survive the wild, create societies and nation states and even wage wars against one another! Deeply imprinted into our genes, as an acquired  trait and perfected in the course of one's life, giving in to the majoritarian view guarantee us our place in the group and provides a sense of protection irrespective of what we hold as right or wrong. After all; it is more important to be alive to fight another day for another cause that may be more important to us: though that day may never come! In the choice between living by one’s conscience and being alive, spine gives way to survival instincts.   

The debate necessarily need not be on survival issues. Yet; it is it easier to be part of a group even though one knows that the group’s view or decision is wrong. It is our innate quality that draws us closer to the group even against the call of our conscience, justifying the unjustifiable. Those who stand firm by their conscience are either expelled from the group or forced to get out. They either perish in solitude or emerge separately creating groups that hold another set of views seemingly driven by their conscience. This is the path seldom trodden.  

Understanding Majority

Majority may not necessarily be defined in numerical sense always. One strong man can create a majority being the nucleus. Others, join for selfish reasons and the bulk, is made up of people often referred to as silent majority. They are there for fear of being seen holding contrary views. They easily shift to another power center when the wind blows that way. 

Driven by incompetence to voice, impotence to stand up and be heard, they are easily afflicted by cognitive dissonance. Organisations, associations and such bodies are infested with such people; certainly selfish and often scheming.   

Can Cognitive dissonance be productively channeled? 

 

The Mantra for Corporates

Getting teams to deliver and meet deadlines is one aspect that every organization wants. While diversity in skills, domain expertise and opinions add to the quality of options generated, success depends on convergence of thoughts post decision on the way forward and unity in action thereafter. Cognitive dissonance can be ‘managed’ effectively without impinging on individual’s esteem and eroding his skill set and willingness to deploy it. If such a conducive climate is created it can help the organisation reap rich.  

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[1] Canned laughter or laugh track is the pre-recorded laughter inserted into a audio or video programme. It is essentially a cue for those watching or listening to laugh.

Milk Negativity for Gains

 

Exhortations

The most repeated exhortation in motivational and corporate training circuits is about remaining positive’ irrespective of circumstances. Having been on the circuit, I have done it, many times over.  But talks about positivity is meaningless unless we understand negativity, its contours and content and context.

Negativity is everywhere. Overt or covert in application, crass or sophisticated in execution, words or deeds its manifestation, its existence recognised within or experienced from outside, negativity comes in countless shades and has little in common to call as character. Inseparable companion for some, identity for few, fuel for aggression or weapon of defense for many, we encounter negativity in some form every day.

Interestingly, people reeking of negativity complain most about others’ negativity.

 

Power of Negativity

I realised the power of ‘negativity’, first time in the mathematics class. We were attempting to solve a linear equation. When answers were called in, we found ourselves in two camps. All of us noticed the negative sign but most of us ignored its implications and turned in wrong. The vigilant few who recognised its power took appropriate steps turned in right.

Life is like that; you ignore negativity to your peril. It is omnipresent. Success and happiness to a large extent depends on how well, one can recognise and manage negativity in life’s equations. Unmanaged, it can be overwhelming. Negativity can impact personal life, as also play significant roles in shaping social issues and its outcomes.

Irrespective of its nature and purpose, negativity commences with and from individuals. Whether it is out of an inherent psychological disorder and consequent delinquent compulsions or as an element of purpose, it needs perpetrators and victims; person, persons or groups. Easily weaponised, it can vitiate even the most pristine and benign of environments.

Negativity, becomes a weapon of menacing potency, only if it finds conducive mediums and through them attain the threshold kinetic energy. It is true for individuals, groups, organisations and society.

Weaponising Negativity

Most of us, if not all, suffer from bouts of negativity. It is a natural survival kit that warns us of threats. It kick-starts instincts to survive adversities. Apprehension and anxiety we experience are negativity elements, but extremely useful survival tools. But when negativity persists and becomes the identity and predominant trait of an individual, it is a problem.  Individuals become negative mostly out of unaddressed inadequacies.

Negative outlook, in most cases, is a carryover of abusive childhood, intense physical or psychological trauma suffered anytime in life or flawed upbringing. From the cause and effect perspective, negativity comes from deep sense of insecurity. Responses may vary.

Negative individuals tend to see threat where none exists. Even in the best of situations they can create monsters, play spoilsport, experience discrimination, imagine apocalypse and seed and spread disharmony where such eventualities are otherwise impossible. Some of them do it deliberately and others do it by compulsion. Low on self-esteem,  most of them unsocial and at times anti-social, some withdraw into shells they create, few turn quarrelsome and violent but most are content being selfish and manipulative; and seem to gain immense pleasure even from small acts of disturbances they cause. Mistrust and being untrustworthy are sure signs of deep-rooted negativity. Education, economic status, job profiles or place in the social ladder don’t matter.  Apparently leading normal lives and earning livelihoods, they infect the environment they live in.

Look around; one may find such people.

Negative people seldom recognise their plight. Most of them live in denial, oblivious to their own misery and the misery they spread. Few weaponise it to achieve short-term objectives oblivious to long-term losses.  When others are inconvenienced because of them, they become convinced of the effectiveness of their strategy, only to compound their illness further. Those who can, avoid them and those who can’t, suffer fait accompli.

 

Harvest From Negative Narratives

Negativity is contagious and easily spreads through association. It is the most effective means to get messages across big audiences.

It is natural to view existential threats with apprehension. If such a narrative is created and propagated, it spreads and grips the community. Each individual, if not extremely diligent, by instinct becomes a medium and diligence is a rarity.  More the mediums, more virulent becomes negative narratives. Initially only a few may add content but as is wont, mass gets added arithmetically in the beginning, geometrically then and imaginatively exponential thereafter. 

There are people who thrive milking negativity. Many politicians and religious teachers, world over, exploit their ‘subjects’ deliberately injecting negativity. When the group is fed narratives of an impending doom, mostly conjured and propped up with lies dressed as truth, the threat looks real. The group, then naturally listens. Those who bite the bait not only believe in the ‘negative’ but go around baiting others. World across, the wily have come to power using this magic formula.  

Once ‘we’ and ‘they’ are defined, minds become fertile grounds for negativity. Almost all contemporary political campaigns across the world effectively uses negativity to garner votes. Social media proliferation is a boon for virulent spread of such narratives. Spreading fear about after-life consequences or threat from other religions or even sects within, some religious leaders harvest money, fame and power from negativity.  Growth of most cults, if mapped, often reveal underlying threads of ‘negative’ narratives

Group-negativity, initially is confined to words. However it soon turns into deeds and left unmanaged become reprisals against the ‘other’. The silent many who remained content being spectators sooner than later become participants and perpetrators. The holocaust is a grim reminder to humanity of what negative narratives can yield but time seems to have numbed our senses.

Ironic but true; though negativity starts when objective logic fails, its only logical reasoning that can put an end to negativity. Unfortunately, reasoning dies a few deaths with those taken in by negativity. It is not only the illiterate, ignorant poor that make the gullible crowd but even educated well-placed individuals stream-in, “ever hearing but never understanding”, “ever seeing but never perceiving”.

Is there a way out of the marauding negativity?

 

The Equation

Constructing cause and effect equations to understand situations help deal with negativity. But people drowned in negativity seldom see the life-rope. Persistent chipping away at the causative factors does help but negatives have a strange overpowering presence.

A blot on a clean apparel, however small catches the eye first.  Despite the large clean canvas around the blot often refuses to let the eyes go. Notional or imaginary losses have the same impact. Having made riches off paltry investments, people fret about the falling stock indices. Industrialists, taking their own lives having suffered losses, would not have thought even once about the growth they charted their way up and the huge growth possibilities ahead. Engrossed in the web of negativity they spin about themselves, they distance themselves from any meaningful help only to be fatally consumed.

It is absolutely normal, to feel the burden of negativity. It is good to be aware of the negative within. Willingness to accept its presence within and address it helps us turn in right at the end of the linear equation. Ability to identify negativity outside increases the probability of successfully negotiating it.

The equation is simple, straight and linear. Whoever has eyes, let them see!

 

Building Organisational Capabilities for Sustenance and Growth

History The Teacher

History talks of many an empire. What could be common to all the empires of the past?

The Mauryas, Guptas, Mughals, Romans, Persians, Ottoman, Hans, Spanish and the British, each one a powerful regime, held sway over vast swathes of land and had subjects across geographical boundaries we now recognise. Geographically and chronologically spaced well apart, each one tremendously influenced populace it ruled upon and made lasting contributions to virtually every aspect of contemporary culture.

Each came into existence and grew but couldn’t succeed in sustaining themselves to grow into perpetuity. Despite unquestionable powers, and repressive enforcement systems, perpetuity eluded each one of them. Having failed to sustain and grow beyond a time, they now remain confined to pages of history; their significance waxing and waning, at the mercy of contemporary political regimes in their attempt to attain perpetuity.

History is a great teacher. Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

Study history and take a close look at current geopolitics and experience a sense of déjà vu.

Sustenance and Growth – An Entwined Pair

Sustenance is about finding fodder for existence whereas growth is an organic characteristic that enhances relevance of an entity to its surroundings. Growth is comparison, of an entity to itself or others plotted on a timeline. Thus, growth of an individual could be of about chronological age, biological and intellectual attributes, capacity to fend for oneself or contributions to the society.

For business entities, sustenance is about footing the bill of operations without going down under; whereas growth is multi-dimensional expansion, in areas of activity or structural architecture. Sustenance of business depends on its ability to generate return on investments. Growth depends on the share of ROI employed to extend the envelope of relevance and influence. Sustenance-growth combination dictates sustainability.

Though inseparably entwined, sustenance and growth have independent attributes. Continued sustenance results in growth. Growth demands new dimensions of sustenance. Demands of sustenance denied, entity dies. Bare sustenance stunts growth and stunted growth kills. Good sustenance nurtures growth.

Essentially organisational existence is an ever-demanding ever-expanding, never-ending cycle of sustenance and growth that can extend to perpetuity.

Perpetuity

Craving for perpetuity is hardwired into every species.

In the case of animals, limitations of perpetuity imposed by physiology is overcome by bloodlines called family. The evolved, ensure perpetuity through ideologies or lasting contributions to society.

Organisations, being nonbiological entities, differ. Organisations can subsist for a short while on minimal returns. But such existence does not promote growth. Absence of growth is atrophy. Atrophy eventually kills. Growth is inescapable for organisational existence. Therefore, perpetuity has to be designed and weaved into organisational architecture. Sustenance and growth into perpetuity is sustainability. Sustainability goes far beyond its recent self-limiting association with organisational performance in environmental social and governance yardsticks.

Existence in perpetuity is deemed when entities don’t plan to down shutters. Organisations born with predetermined life expectancy don’t visualise growth. Those which plan otherwise, are fly-by-night operations which loot and scoot. Perpetuity is not applicable to them.

Fuel for sustainability is profitability. So, prima facie everything about business sustainability is about financials, the bottom lines! Can abundant profits ensure sustainability?

Is Profitability Sustainability?

Abundant fuel assures extended cruise range. But the structure must be built to overcome turbulences, capture headwinds and negotiate crosswinds. Otherwise, sustainability, even with huge quantum of fuel could be port afar, because unmanaged inherent asymmetries exert exponentially increasing drag consuming all the fuel at one’s command.

History is replete with examples of companies with attractive balance sheets vanishing into thin air. Profits, real or cooked up, couldn’t prevent extinction. Satyam, Enron, Lehman Brothers and such others could teach us a lesson or two.

If profitability couldn’t guarantee sustainability, then what does?  Definitely there is something else. What is it?

Sustainability Models

Simplistically put, sustainability is the characteristic, of an organisation, which influences current operations to ensure existence in perpetuity. Sustainability is about future-proofing tomorrows, today.

Easier said than done, tomorrows of a business, is a complex amalgam of environmental, social, and financial diktats. Each one, an important capital, often at loggerheads with others, needs to be ‘relationally managed’ to ensure sustainability. Each one has to be nourished without compromising the other. Thus, sustainable growth of a business organisation necessitates creation of governance models (ESG Models) that ensure balance amongst the trio.

Contemporary businesses have migrated en masse to ESG models for sustainable growth. ESG models are characterized by well-defined measurable yardsticks and tick-box adherences. There are highly evolved models that incorporate compliances and various business requisites. Business entities employ such models to evaluate organisational systems and processes. Unfortunately, even well-intentioned companies with well-defined, well-articulated policies and well prescribed methods and process fail.

Is the current ESG regime inadequate?

ESG Adequacy?

ESG is an unbelievably large canvas to draw from and therefore concept of sustainability cannot remain confined to any one approach or model. The number of approaches to adherence and compliances are varied and number of proponents of each model even more.

Businesses naturally adopt any one approach that suits their area of operations and gravitate to chosen areas to be in conformity with local laws. CSR activities, emission reductions, reusable energy, carbon audit and foot print reduction are some areas where companies evince interest. But most of them are compliance driven.

Some highly evolved ESG models incorporate business ethics and profitability into the monitoring and evaluation system. The choice, notwithstanding, each one ends in benchmarked processes with quantifiable and measurable parameters.  Does adherence to ESG norms alone ensure sustainability?

Processes have important role in sustainability so do people driving and operating it. Sustainability boils down to building organisational capabilities that encompass people and process.

Organisational Capabilities

The synergy cumulative of competencies of all individuals of an organisation and efficacy of processes is organisational capability. Accepted and collectively practiced value systems, that define and dictate how individuals and groups interact within and with the outside, represents organisational culture. Organizational sustainability is a derivative of organizational capability and culture.

When business entities succeed in creating and internalising a meaningful organizational culture that shapes strategic decision-making, define ethical boundaries for transactions, dictate operational activities and bind all stakeholders to it, it can hope for sustainability.

How does this brick-by-brick process happen?

Committed Competencies

Each organisation needs individuals with skills and competencies to achieve organisational aims. While each individual cannot be expected to possess all competencies required by the organisation, all individuals should have each competency required to discharge responsibilities assigned. Though onboarding would have been based on stipulated QR, it calls for continued refinement.

If organisational culture is conducive, each individual will excel not only in the core competency expected, but also acquit themselves well with additional skill sets, making them deployable in multiple area of operation. Presence of enlarged range and depth of competencies creates conditions conducive to sustainability. Chances of sustainability improves when competencies become commitments.

Organisational Agility

An organisation may come to existence to provide a specific product or service or a range of products or services. Unfortunately, demand for both products and services do not remain static in terms of nature, quality and content. The constant socio-economic-cultural flux that the world is in, demands consistently matching changes. While an existing product or service may be the toast of the time, it could be dumped at short notice.

The pandemic and associated unprecedented disruptions forced many a business to fold up. At the same time, new ones sprang up with unheard-of products and services. While those who reveled in the status quo were left to lament loss of opportunities, the agile ones seized opportunities the adversity provided. A whole new set of millionaires were created.

If an organisation can sense the need to change its product, service or process well in time and is agile enough to bring about changes in processes and methods, probability of sustainability improves.

The Fickle Capital

Businesses survive and thrive on stakeholder inputs. The promoter or equity holders alone do not dictate sustainability outcomes. The clientele, vendors, the society and all the elements of the value chain are important stakeholders in the sustainability matrix. Treating each one with care leads to brand loyalty. One-time creation of clientele and servicing them do not create brand loyalty. Loyalty comes from long time of pleasant association

A static loyal clientele does not guarantee sustainability. Unless an organisation continues to enlarge its loyal clientele, sustainability is a no-go. Loyalty, in times of aggressive market poaching, is a fickle attribute that succumbs to temptation. Disruptive pricing and alluring promises can lure away the loyal. Quality of product or service should be strong enough to resist brand credibility and loyalty erosion.

It is not the consuming clientele alone that matters. How an organisation treats its vendors and other elements of the supply chain, has a significant say in sustainability. When the going gets tough, it is the set of vendors, who render shoulders to the organisation. Unless stakeholders are treated well during harvest, sustainability will be the first casualty in adversity. Growing loyalty improves sustainability.

Teams and Networks

Organisations thrive on teamwork. Unfortunately, the concept of team seems to get confined to silos within organisations. In fiercely competitive organisations, teams are confined to verticals or less. Sadly, with raging cutthroat competition and interpersonal one-upmanship fostered by competitive comparisons, verticals shrink to segments, segments to groups and groups to individuals who don’t trust each other. Trust deficit is paramount and resultant dwindling retention, an epidemic. Teams do not live long enough to foster esprit-de-corps.

This is the ultimate recipe for disaster for organisational sustainability.

If an organisation can enlarge definition of ‘teams’, operationalise it to be more inclusive, and establish bridges of operational and non-operational relationships long enough to create kinship that can endure turbulences, probability of sustainability, improves tremendously.  It’s the strength of the network that helps identify, handle and overcome individual and organisational challenges.

Team longevity enhances organisational sustainability.

Leadership

Quality of leadership influences sustainability. Leadership is associated with vision and decisions.

It is the ability the leadership, individually or collectively, to define the desired organisational trajectory, understand the socio-economic, politico-cultural and environmental situations currently obtaining and likely to evolve, design interventions and apply course corrections that influences sustainability.

It involves predicting turbulences and generating a range of likely responses to negotiate and overcome challenges. It’s a risky affair. Unkind, but casually called ‘sound decision-making’, organisational leadership dictates sustainability.

It is only history and hindsight that can judge strength and weaknesses of decisions.

Operational Efficiencies     

It is not only people that matter. Processes have an important role in dictating sustainability. The bottom line is about operational efficiency, which encompasses a large array of activity. It encompasses technology adoption, obsolescence management, market dynamics and interior economy.

Local civil laws and norms may exert pressure, forcing changes that involve capital. Decision on how long to continue with existing technology or process and when to dump those in favour of the newest technology doesn’t come without pressure on capital. Capture of new markets and retention of existing ones may need capital infusions. Delay in infusion may be suicidal whereas untimely intervention could even be counterproductive.

Dilemma of contesting existing profit margins with infusion of capital to stay ahead is not new to leadership, but every time it's a challenge. That is when leadership and decision-making become demanding and exiting.

Sustainability Mantra

Without right leaders and led and without right processes, business can neither sustain nor grow. There is no single mantra to achieve sustainability.

Sustainability is like riding the high seas. Neither two waves nor two storms are same. Every calm is a whisper of an impending storm. It is for the captain and crew to negotiate waves and ride out storms. 

Leaders must foresee waves and storms and prepare the led to take on the fiercest. The led must relentlessly press on. Only then can they triumph.

Sustainability isn’t easy, else empires would have persisted.

 

THE ULTIMATE SECRET OF ORGANISATIONAL SUCCESS

 

Truth Not always Obvious 

Prima facie, M[1] is ‘just another’ employee of the firm. He was one amongst the 20, I was hired to train. Outwardly shy, to the point of being withdrawn, he spoke only when asked to.

But, as the session progressed and activities rolled out, I saw him, a different person. He was the natural ‘centre of gravity’ and literally made group activities come through. Though everyone in the group was individually brilliant and did their very best, both individually and collectively, his sense of commitment to the group and accomplishing the task was palpable. He was commitment personified. As I stood watching the group[2] strive and accomplish various tasks assigned, I realised I was witnessing a group’s success mantra unfold at work. 

Profitability and Productivity 

Profitability is an inevitable survival-ingredient for organisations involved in commercial activities. Business strategists consider productivity and profitability as inseparable Siamese twins and spin survival and growth strategies around the dictum ‘higher the productivity better the profitability’. Most fly by night operators and even some mega brands pitch all their efforts only for profits in sight. They never realise that profits alone don’t define brand value. 

Confined to productivity-profitability linear relationship, management machinery gets down to the act of conjuring numbers, which if achieved would ensure bottom-lines that is ‘owner’s pride’[3] and graphs that could be ‘competitors’ envy’. Such numbers, once approved are driven down the hierarchy. However, in its journey downstream to the foot soldiers, the numbers start bloating up unrealistically. Everyone in the chain generously adds his or her bit of cushion. Managerial activity becomes creating, crunching and controlling numbers, accompanied by carrots and sticks. Fudging and cheating is common in such an environment. 

Carrot and Stick 

Organisations, to ensure productivity and profitability, arm themselves with sweeping powers to reward performers and weed out non-performing assets. Those who manage to reach stipulated targets survive to struggle the next quarter or fiscal, those who don’t, end up being discards. However, magicians who tame the unassailable, with numbers beyond targets are differentially rewarded. 

Crunch numbers right, convert it to targets, assign it to people, get them to achieve it. Reward those who comply, jettison non-performers overboard and ride to eternal profitability! It sounds almost like a fail-proof strategy? No. Companies fail, flail and vanish. Even ruthless titans have bitten dust! 

Compliance Don’t Guarantee Success? 

Stipulated outputs demand compliance with instructions on standards, procedures and all aspects of roles assigned including targets to be achieved. These are arrived at after due deliberations. If compliance was the key to success; then operational viability and profits should have lasted till eternity. It doesn’t happen. If retrenchment was a remedy, human resources discarded based on competence should not have found acceptance outside and head hunting would cease to exist. 

Clearly there’s something more to success or failure than compliance; something not very obvious yet existential. It is commitment. Commitment of individuals to the cause of the organisation is the soul that keeps entities going. Close look at the trajectory of organisations that have survived adverse conditions like recessions wars and political witch-hunts, reveal that there were more than a handful of committed individuals who stood firm and steered it through rough seas and storms to greater glory.   

Incidentally, that sense of commitment I witnessed playing out as the group I was training, attempted to complete the task assigned. Seeing them operate, I knew this company is bound to make waves. 

Compliance versus Commitment 

Adhering to instructions and standards is what compliance is all about. It is merely execution of what is expected. Compliance has a legal connotation and brings along accountability, mostly legal. Compliance is closely associated with rewards and individual growth in hierarchy. It is a demand that has to be met and failure has a cost associated. Commitment goes far beyond compliance. 

Commitment is all about ownership and sense of belonging. It instils an additional sense of responsibility. It elevates individuals from being mere employees to being owners. The committed need mentors not supervisors. Commitment is an attitude that breeds a two-way trust system and often considered a personal trait. 

Cultivating Commitment 

Commitment, though an inborn personal trait, can be cultivated and nurtured by organisations to reap dividends. But for that to happen, organisational culture must be holistically conducive. Functional and progressive organisations invariably have few committed individuals spread across verticals. They are Islands of ownership and cannot be considered as products of organisational culture. 

For an organisation to be reap rewards of employee-commitment, majority of its employees must feel and shoulder ownership. Many companies allot shares to its employees to inculcate ownership and ensure retention. However, equating ‘sense of ownership’ with ‘owning shares’ is the biggest fallacy in vogue. This model of lured allegiance is being aggressively propagated. Unfortunately, ‘commitment on sale’ will move towards better prices. After all, that was not commitment to start with. Monetising everything and handing over a document to establish claim on the company's assets and profits do not instil or cultivate commitment. 

Commitment is a sublime, amorphous entity that commences existence beyond lure and monetary rewards. It starts and ends with emotions. It defines how central an organisation is to the individual’s existential wellbeing. The easiest and the surest way of cultivating commitment is recognition of an individual as the organisation and driving home, his irreplaceable role and impact on organisational goals. When an individual feels his relevance in an organisation, commitment is mostly the outcome. Yes, there would be some who may ride it rough. But those would be exceptions and can be taken care of.

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[1] Real name of the individual kept guarded for sake or privacy. My enquiry about him later revealed that he is a very valuable asset of the company and makes his presence felt across verticals. 

[2] The dreamers’ group, design and convert our fantasies into working electronic devices! 

[3] Inspired by the tagline from an advertisement of a Television that has become extinct. Ironic though!

 INDIVIDUAL - CURRENCY AND PARITY VALUE

The Currency

Independent currency is a powerful symbol of sovereignty. It comes in different denominations, each different in looks, dimensions and security features. Differences aside, each one carries a statement of promise lending it credibility and making it legal tender, an instrument for value transfer and a medium of exchange. But there is a catch about the value “assured” to be transferred.

Face Value

Each note carries a promise that assures value at par with the printed face value. The value, said to be guaranteed with commensurate gold reserves, keeps fluctuating based on supply and demand, interest rates, inflation, public debt, and other macro and micro factors. Socio - political environment, itself speculative and make believe nowadays, influences currency value. Experienced as, purchasing power parity and expressed as exchange rates, a strong currency may equal many of a weaker currency.

Transaction an Imperative

Inflation weakens currencies, erodes value guarantees of a currency and forces it to deliver much below par its face value. Weak or strong, a currency realises its value only when transacted. Each time, a note changes hands, it imparts the denomination value to the service or transaction without itself being consumed. Thus, ten transactions, of a single ₹100 note, add ‘thousand rupees’ value yet retains only its face value before, through and after transaction. Though small denominations have high turnover, high denominations make up even with small movements. A ₹10 note toils two hundred times to achieve what a ₹2000 note does in one transaction. Unfortunately, bigger denominations tend to get hoarded more!

Believe it or not; we have much in common with currency notes!  

Let’s Face It

We all, to start with, have a face value! Based on how others perceive our looks, cast, colour, creed or being a member of a family, an organisation, society or nation they arbitrarily assign us a notional value. We could even maneuver ourselves into positions of authority and responsibility using this bias.  But for those who aren’t worthy enough, inflation catches up and exposes the difference between ego and worth. Our competencies dictate our denomination and consistency of our actions and its conformity with our claims determine our exchange rate values. Our antecedents, which reach places before us, like reserve bank promises, create expectations. Meeting expectations result in improving value and failure to do so leads to credibility-erosion, an inflation of sorts. 

Parity

Parity is a major issue with us. Many, significantly visible contribute insignificant little, whereas few insignificantly visible contribute significantly.  They are everywhere. We have the choice of deciding to commit or not commit ourselves to action and even choose how much to commit. We often choose to contribute just the minimum required and hoard and resist deploying our real strengths.

Doing so, we are devaluing ourselves. When it becomes known, we are no more required. We would be like demonetised notes! 

Comparisons

When currency loses value, government intervenes in an attempt to shore it up. Human relationships are no different. Though we exercise long-term patience in the case of currency, hoping a turn-around, we seldom afford this luxury even to intimate interpersonal relationships. Interpersonal problems emerge mostly from judgmental comparison between ‘expected’ and ‘received’ and lack of required interventions.

Broken relationships are manifestations of impatience and inability to invest long term in relationships. Society is littered with broken relationships and courtrooms are brimming over. Falling short on assurances is natural but not accepting the likelihood of falling short is the problem. Unfortunately, unilaterally or are led by other’s projections, we set high standards for others to meet while we are satisfied delivering sub-par.

Takeaways

Like currency notes, all of us, have face values. Real or unreal, it is up to us to live at par, over-par or sub-par. Inaction to avoid risks is hoarding and can lead to devaluation. Unpredictability or volatility will result us being dumped like demonetised notes.

The more one commits and acts, better the velocity of turnover and higher the chances of carrying over accumulated credits. Comparison with others help to upgrade or intensify inputs but if used for anything else may lead to terrible depreciation. Finally, it’s about actions at micro levels conforming to the macro values, our value systems.