“Gee Ma I wanna go home…”
There are many versions of the famous song "Life in the army, they say it is mighty fine.” Everything aside, once in the army; forever the army within. Everything about the Army is practical and everything practical has theories behind it. Modern management theories, related to organisational aspects, individual behaviour and group dynamics have its roots in military practices. Indian Army officers, irrespective of the stream they are commissioned into, spend the lion share of their army life learning and climbing the hierarchical army ladder involves intense competition.
I was a young captain, married and with two
children. I also wanted to do well. The first real hurdle was a merit based
competitive examination for admission to two prestigious institutions. The
number of seats was fixed. One could attempt only thrice. I was attempting
it for the first time and I wanted to clear it. The exam had six papers. One paper
had more than a hundred books prescribed. Current affairs and general knowledge
paper had no prescribed books but anything under the sun or beyond could be
asked. One was law. We could use five terribly unwieldy books. That made it
even more difficult. Other papers had much less texts to cover but were no less
fierce.
One for Three
I was spending 18 hours a day reading and the overload was beginning to show. Well-wishers discouraging me far outnumbered the few who said “there's no harm in trying at least once.'' “You have two more chances,” some rubbed it in even harder. “I am sure you will easily make it,” my wife said. She was the only person who seemed to trust me even when I doubted occasionally. I felt I must do a mid-course check. I approached a senior who had cleared the exam a few years ago.
Sunday evenings are the best for such occasions. He was kind enough to call me over. A good senior, he poured me a whiskey, sat me down and asked me a question from the syllabus. I knew the answer. I took time to organise my thoughts and answered him. I was very happy with my performance. I took the first sip of the whiskey. “How's the whiskey?” He asked.
He did not wait for my response.
“The examination is for three hours. The maximum mark possible is 500. Keep five minutes for reading the question paper, 10 towards the end to check what you have written and five as reserve, you only have 160 minutes to score 500 marks. So 16 minutes for 50 marks. Every minute you spend in the examination hall is worth more than three marks,” he said. I had nothing to say. I almost choked on the first sip, still in my mouth.
“Your response to my question was excellent. Let us say you score a perfect 10. You took about 10 minutes to answer me. So, you scored a perfect 10 against 38. Forget the merit list,” he said. My heart stopped for a second. He had mathematically demolished six months of my preparation. Yet, he seemed like a genuine benefactor.
“Remember, time is an important element of response. You may know a lot but never spend even a second more than what the maximum mark requires you to, because that is what you can score best. Efforts must be commensurate with the rewards expected. Give only as much time to anything as the expected outcome deserves. In life too, don't spend time on anything more than it's worth,” he sounded like a Guru.
“In the exam hall, there is no time to think, organise and write. Your answers must flow from a mental picture. It must flow involuntarily from muscle memory. Brain is like a muscle. Use it more, stronger it becomes and better it performs,” he said. “Make a mental picture of a mechanised formation setting out to capture an objective deep in the enemy territory,” he said. I visualised every step of the huge process. The formation with all its elements, leaving its concentration area as per the order of march, advancing towards the objective, establishing a bridgehead, bypassing unwanted distractions posed by smaller objectives enroute, containing those without depleting its main force, contacting the objective, and destroying it. “Oh, ABCD,” I said. He then asked me two questions. The answers were faster, easily organised and to the point. “Practise, you can do it better,” he said.
“This is the only piece of advice I can give. Hope it helps. Cheers,” he said, raising his glass. I had forgotten my glass of whiskey lying on the side table. Army guys call it a peg table! “Cheers,” I said, picking up my glass. The whisky tasted great. I picked up the cue and left.
Sacred Space
Finally, it was exam time. I knew the answers to each question in the paper. So did everybody else. Maybe they knew more. We all had prepared for at least one year and some even more. Many were appearing the second time and a few the third. Silence in the hall was deathly till the second hour. Then the calls “sir,” started coming. Initially it was just a few. with many calling out, it turned into a chorus. The two invigilators were straining to answer each call. Having filled the main answer book, people were calling for additional sheets. They had much to write. Most of them first attempted questions they thought they knew best. They wrote everything they knew about it filling sheets, surpassing word limits. Irrespective of what was written, they could not have scored more than the maximum allotted marks. Having delved more on the few they knew best, they had less for all others they knew.
I attempted serially from the beginning. I picked up parts relevant to what was asked from the picture in my head. My answers were short and in point form. I left enough space at the end of each answer so that I could come back and add if need be. I did that too; I had enough time. I took no additional sheets. When the results were published, I found space in the merit list. Many who used additional sheets did not make the merit.
I used the same technique during the course also. I secured an “Alpha’ grade and the coveted ‘instructor’ certification. I became adept at using this technique to my advantage. It has helped me do well in all the competitive examinations and all the training programmes ever since. It helped me in efficiently deploying the fishbone techniques in investigations, defect identification, and arriving at the best possible outcomes.
‘ABCD’ of Things
I extensively use the technique in my training programmes also. Over a period, I learnt to retool it to deal with issues in real life. I call it ‘ABCD’ of things.
Irrespective of longevity, life is a marathon, a race to an objective in depth. Our existence in a society is a continuum of changing situations, an amalgam of interpersonal relationships and intrapersonal equilibrium. Whether we want it or not we have to deal with people, good or bad and situations favourable or unfavourable. Assigning the quantum of relevance is very important for the outcome, short and long term. But how?
Advance Assessing
Classic mechanised formation consists of many tanks, combat vehicles, artillery, anti-aircraft guns, attack helicopters, and a myriad of logistics elements with people to operate each of it. Housed in barracks, it is an idle resource. Its potential is best elicited when it advances towards the objective according to a plan. Both adversaries have resources. Only one emerges victorious. ABCD makes the difference.
Each one of us is like a mechanised formation. Inactive, we too are idle resources. Unless we have an objective to advance towards, there is no progress. Life without purpose is only existence. When we advance, we will come across obstacles big and small, opponents strong or weak, and situations benevolent or vicious. We may have to tread unfamiliar terrains. Some may even be deceptive. But advance we must. Nothing must stop us.
Advancing in life calls for assessing people and situations. When it comes to people, we have the choice to associate or dissociate, engage, or ignore, cooperate, or compete. Choice of the option depends on the inevitably of the person to our objective and the accuracy of our assessment.
Assessment of situations must also be linked to our objectives. It must result in determining the extent of our association. Situations existential or vital to our objective will need intense participation. Others can receive differential intervention. Some though irritating can be ignored or avoided while a few may need to be contained
Bridge or bypass
Dissipating force levels to address distractions enroute to the objective severely erodes momentum of operations. The long line of trucks and tanks on the road to Kiev, unless so planned, was the result of poor assessment by someone and poorer execution by everyone else. Assault on Kiev could never be mounted and victory remains elusive. With innumerable imponderables, life too is like that.
The trickiest of imponderables in life are people, each one driven by their own inadequacies and insecurity. There are many who we must associate with. Launch bridges to reach them. Even if they are not inclined to, keep the bridge head open. There will be many who we should not associate with. Bypass unwanted distractions. Beware of pretenders.
Avoid and ignore people who are detrimental. At times it may not be possible due to spatial constraints. Requirements of societal life may dictate coexistence with rabid, unreliable, selfish people. They may be our relatives, colleagues, neighbours and even sworn enemies. Their mere presence may be festering. But, giving them time more than what they deserve will cost us our objective. Engage only to contain them, otherwise bypass. At times we have to bear with unbearable. Call it luck!
Nothing is permanent. Situations, like seasons, will change. Good going can turn bad and bad become good. When going is good and weather favourable, race along and cover as much ground as possible. When it hits turbulence, manage the present, look beyond the immediate, cast the bridge beyond to establish the bridgehead and surge through the obstacle. When the situation is incomprehensible, persevere and hang on. At times it is best to retreat to recoup and relaunch elsewhere. Buy or bide time but static kills. Create the picture that you want to see ahead. In most cases it fructifies. Accuracy of assessment is the key.
Cooperate or Competing to Capture
Even successful operations do not go exactly as planned. Victors in war seldom win all battles. Individual battles do not aggregate to decide the outcome of a war though each loss in the battle has a price. The loss in one battle could negate all the victories so far and cut short the campaign itself. History is replete with examples.
It is important to understand that today is not the only day in life and today's success or failure does not necessarily define our ultimate success or failure. Life is not even the sum of successes and failures. However, giving up for good, giving no chance to oneself to pick up the gauntlet once again essentially terminates the journey in defeat. There are times when we must decide between cooperating and competing. It is natural to hesitate but devastating to be indecisive. Deciding not to respond could be a good decision but that coming from indecision is detrimental.
When it comes to people it is not necessary to win over all the people we meet. Many are not worth any effort. Let barking dogs bark and beware of the ones that could bite. Success lies in identifying whom and assessing how much. Similarly, when it comes to situations, we may be called upon to decide whether we should continue or give up. Cardinal rule is not to reinforce failure and the caveat; all easy goings do not lead to success.
Dictating Destiny
There is a sense of helplessness when we talk of ‘Taqdir’, ‘Bahgya’ or Destiny. Many, even when they achieve prominence by sheer ‘Bhagya,’ ‘Taqdeer’ or destiny, create stories of struggle and a fictional army of opponents they had overcome. Destiny is not always limited or facilitated by the accident of birth or natural turn of events. Success comes when we decide our objective, define our journey, and doggedly persevere.
Success comes to those who can dictate their own
destiny. In most cases they even define others destiny.
