Month: April 2020

Staying relevant by being future ready.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

It’s a breezy Saturday, and what better time to unwind and start plotting your bounce-back strategy- the world has been closed for a long time and now it has no other option but to open up and be prepared to face the collateral damage for opening up, because closing up will be far more grave and disastrous by many aspects! But wait, what do you think the world is opening up to? On one hand we have reports of lay-offs, job losses and uncertainties across almost every major sector as I type; across the continents so what is it that you want to get ready for? Where are you heading for a all dressed up when no one is throwing a party in the town! Well this piece is about doing a quick take of what our ecosystems will begin to look like as we start to gather ourselves as individuals and societies and workplaces start to revive and more importantly what is that Individuals must do ( at least what I would suggest) to ensure that the next time this kind of shot comes back paying a visit- you have a better and sane strategy to deal with it rather then staying locked in and in all likely hood getting killed by anxiety and uncertainty (by aggravating your other health problems) then the actual pandemic itself! So let’s roll…..

Whether this pandemic was an accident or an intentional act, we will know for sure in the coming few months from now (which will offset another round of chaos irrespective which way the finding goes); what is important to reflect upon is the fact that across the world- most of the large economies were already feeling intense financial pressures for the last 7-9 months- for varying reasons from regional to global socio-economic equations- the point to note here then is that a financial meltdown was imminent, the pandemic played the role of a catalyst to accelerate the downfall and make it more intense and deep through all the countries that it managed to sneak into! As I did mention in one of my previous articles, when the Art of Distraction is at work- everyone of us has been caught up seeing the stocks fall, the prices go down, jobs being lost- but what we fail to notice (thanks to the directed and opinionated media presence all over the world) is while stocks fell, someone picked the sell off, as people got sick, few companies were already in the race to provide medications- as if they knew it was coming! Well, life has one common thread across irrespective who you are and where you are- that thread is- There is always more then what meets the eye- and well I will leave this contextual build for the article right here- because this is the point where the most pressing question now needs to be answered – What next!- What can an Individual expect and what should an Individual do to remain relevant and future safe in an equally uncertain world that we all are heading into for a few years at least! So let’s unravel the simple solutions to this seemingly complex problem!

Let’s explore a few techniques that as an Individual anyone can and should practice to stay relevant and future proof, no this is not The List, these are few which through my engagement with youngsters and observations, I felt were the most defining and important ones to ensure that Individuals are able to keep riding over the turbulent waves that times ahead will keep sending across to them over and over again like it has been happening for the previous generations as well, the only real challenge being, in the connected world you really don’t know who sneezes and who catches cold that fast!

Stay Authentic: Even as the world media and everyone around you always seems to go ga-ga over “THE PEOPLE” to look up to syndrome- well let me tell you what, they are not telling the world what shit they have been through and what rules were bent or broken to become who they are! Allow fascination to be what it should be uplifting at the most and inspirational at the least and leave it at that! We are around 7.5 Billion across the world and if even Twins are different psychologically , there must be a good reason why nature would have wanted to us to evolve the way we did by retaining a strong sense of individuality read authenticity which is  deep rooted to the concept of The INDIVIDUAL SELF! and reflects inwards like a eternal internal reflection! Being Authentic begins with A refined sense of awareness about oneself and everything and everyone around you. It also involves the ability to be assertive about Who You are and wanting to be Who You are irrespective of the social confirmation biases and all the pressures and temptations of the modern world! Easier said then done- sure it is – but this is the first and foundational step to keep yourself relevant always and for all times ahead!

Define your unique skill: This has to be better then I can make cup cakes or I can sing or I can drive, This has to sound like, I am that Ace Pilot that you always wanted to fly with, or that Surgeon you can trust for your open heart surgery or that scientists you can count on to decipher scientific jargon and provide solutions to perplexing problems, that teacher who inspires and motivates that co-worker who creates a legacy of either a process or work or  technical know-how that becomes the gold standard for doing what people do! This is the second step, once you have learnt to be authentic about yourself, this will come naturally to you effortlessly , because once you have known who are, you will make no mistake in deciphering What you can set out for! You may also want to access my other article on this subject here.

Define Success: As trivial as it may seem, but this is the key to ensure that you sustain your journey and efforts and don’t get burned out or blown away because of exhaustion, not knowing when to stop or falling into the never ending trap of human greed which comes in coveralls of almost anything that you can think of- Being the Best, being The biggest, being the largest, being the xyz… well don’t confuse this with being or not being ambitious- I mean once you know who you are and what you are the you ought to know what is that you can achieve hence these statements of “Being xyz in front of the world” simply don’t hold a chance to come back haunting to you and distracting you into another level of complication! Knowing what success implies to you as an individual will only come through once you have completed the first two steps of knowing yourself and what your intrinsic skill is!

Chart your Course: To reach the success that you have defined needless, to say you will have to plan the road trip and chart a course, importantly because this is about “you” You alone will be able to select and select options through trials and error for there will simply not be an template that will fit your requirement as long as your definition of your authenticity, skills and success are unique! We all may be similar in terms of abilities as human beings on the broader subset of things, however when it comes to deploying ingenuity and innovation, that is where the great differentiation happens and this alone is the ever dynamic action point that keeps you either on track to your definitions or steers you away from your pursuits when your thinking mind starts to waver in face of worldly compulsions and confirmation biases! This stage happens to be the real test of time and for someone to walk through this path and keep walking on this path it is a constant battle of choosing and letting go of opportunities that life presents every moment- those which resonate with you and help you stay on course will blend in perfectly and those that don’t help you will (if acquired) start to create dissonance and lead to a drag even as you strive to keep the forward momentum! Knowing when to rest, when to divert, when to halt (for the moment- practice the pause!) and when to race ahead are all the secrets and skills that need to be learnt and applied on the go- how well they blend in or not makes your journey then either smooth or that bit turbulent!

Be a niche: Whatever you may want to choose, finally this is the mantra that you need to know well, you will have to create a niche – an unique place for being who you are by doing what you choose to do, like I said in the beginning, you may want to be that Ace Pilot or that Brave officer- The adjectives used here are intentional for they define the pursuit of the niche that you would have gone for and this makes you simply indispensable and in fact as time progresses this value goes on increasing evermore for the simple reason that this niche that you choose to hold becomes a perfected and mastered art form- which can be possibly copied and replicated but never will anyone else be able to master it to perfection and execute it precisely like you can and these two are the unfailing hallmarks of enduring success no matter what is the niche that you choose to build for yourself!

Well I will leave it here for you to perhaps add a few more foundation attributes to carve your future ready better version, given the limitation of a blog, I will put a stop to my thoughts here for now! No matter what you add to the list and how you decide to follow and carve out your pursuits, the golden success for Life’s pursuits is , “Always keep things simple, the moment you see complexity growing- you know at once this is a trap wherein a lot of people are trying to drive home a point by representing something that is not needed and keeping away what is much needed! Well, keep thinking around this and I will be back soon with another article!

Ciao for now, stay safe and stay connected!

The UV(Unique Value) challenge ahead.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ 3 Comments

As work places the world over begin to come back to life and kick start the much awaited and needed meaningful life cycle for each one of us-few things would have changed already or will rapidly transform in the first 90 days, as operations begin to gather speed, this piece is about exploring on such facet and what to expect and how to manage what is likely to come your way! So let’s roll ahead…

Before we try to ponder on how things may impact us going ahead, it will make a lot good to understand , what really happened as activities were halted globally in a planned/less planned or unplanned way!Since we are dealing with only facet of the human aspect we will try to limit our observations around that one central piece and move ahead.

Humans by and large end up either ending up in the space of being employment generators or employment receivers and then we have the small segment of businesses consultants/ Individuals who are both generators and receivers unto themselves. As activities came to a halt, multiple things would have dawned at all levels! In some cases the real face of human value systems/ belief systems and Individual priorities would have far superseded the collective cause of managing a workforce or a team at a small office or vice-versa. This break in continuity, at one end would have manifested through massive layoffs/ unemployment that has been written all across the world; Ever since this unplanned halt in routine came into the picture! So what has happened here- Well one  may argue that the business viability was cut short and since there were no mechanisms to cushion the offset of losses (which seem to be astronomical) there was no other way but to close the shutters and let go off people– well ok- hold this thought for a minute and we will address that later as we move ahead.

Another scenario that too has played around the world has been the overarching concept of “We are in this Together” (Even as I hate this thought -as much as I can because it simply defies any rationale sense!). In this space, people have not been impacted that bad, governments, agencies, employers and everyone that you can think of, have come ahead and collaborated to ensure that people aren’t left to the elements and are being ensured that they have a wage and a lifestyle that they can still as yet hang out to- albeit by a slender thread and as soon as things are better, the turnaround will be rapid and directed! Well this scenario for obvious reasons seems to be the best way ahead- why not- it talks about higher societal virtues , duty of care and for ensuring everyone has indeed, had a fair chance to fight this time through and move ahead. Now that we have seen both extremes of the spectrum above, let’s amylase what people are actually doing in this time that has been available to them!

People being who they are would have used this time available for themselves either to waste it and let it rot as usually they do while being busy to slog like slave for making someone else rich or they would have put it to some good use or wise use depending upon the cognitive abilities, opportunities and the immediate flexibility of the societies in which they thrive! Broadly speaking we have two sets of people around the world right now in a lock down/isolation whatever you want to call that- The firsts set is working as diligently they normally would have – striving to balance the challenges of working from wherever they are in whatever conditions they are and making a point to see how best they can add value and keep contributing in their way to ensure the business that are working with or for remains afloat as much as possible! The second set has basically turned this whole episode into a endless meaninglessness vacation which doesn’t seem to end (Unlike the hotel property- you don’t have a pre-set check out date) so these folks who believe in the maxim- “Anyways everything is going to get tougher so while we have this time, why not binge and indulge into personal indulgences and give a damn to what tomorrow ushers in!”. Finally we  have a smaller segment of interesting people (irrespective whether they are the employers/employees or consultants/Individual businesses) who have used this time to realign their life priorities/ work definitions/aspirations/belief systems even as they have continued to work and contribute to what they have been doing! Knowing the facts about where the world is rocking around for now, now you may want to know how all of this will get played out as things begin to open up! Well let’s read on and remember the previous line for that has a big secret within it!

As the world comes out of the shadows, thanks to automation (AI) and some good serving of Common-Sense there will be rapid and quick realignment of businesses and individuals- Those who have been toiling through this phase will come up with fast decisions translating into large scale visible actions, whether it is reallocation of staff to other facilities of a large conglomerate, whether it is about training, re-training,  or whether it is about adding anew product and rolling it off within weeks, you think of a scenarios and probably you will see an example playing out- especially where the businessmen and the employees have been working through this tough phase diligently one day at a time and have had a road map for the future irrespective of testing times and uncertainties! These in some cases will also lead to decent amounts of lay-offs but what will be unique to this phase is the fact that Quality of the people getting laid-off will have a story to tell. In all probability this will have many people from the second set who were on that un-ending vacation and didn’t care for the world- well, as the law of reciprocal karma; the world will also care less for them  and that’s what will get played out in the end!

The rare collection of individuals  (whether employers/employees/consultants) who would have spent this time for thorough introspection and realignment of themselves to their cause using the Unique Value that they intrinsically hold; will be the eventual trail blazers and will play a vital role in setting up the next benchmarks of quality and process development across businesses! It will be this small segment which would have analysed and seen how each other member on the team has been functioning/ not functioning where the disconnects have been and where the strengths are and what can be corrected and what must be weeded out immediately to safeguard the business! This may look like a simple task that any manager would have anyways done- but what is different here is that for the first time perhaps in a long long time- there is no space for personal biases for being played out through those intense team meetings and “one on ones” within the confines of office meeting rooms -because whether teams and individuals have worked or not would have been captured through  a documented trail of emails, messages from collaborators and clients alike which are more telling and in-the- face to sum up quite a lot then any findings from over a 100 internal meetings  that one would have participated in! It is also in this segment that one will also see many wise people alter the course of their calling to something different, bigger and better then what they have been currently doing and this mutual separation from the routine will enable to open up new vistas and opportunities from human thinking, innovation and commerce to be built around that space!

So what is that will create that differentiation which will make or break an opportunity for an Individual? Well the answer is UV – The Unique Value that Individuals would have been able to demonstrate as they worked through challenging times and ensured that their tasks and jobs are delivered as they had been promised and the objectives were realized in the face of extraordinary challenges! It will be these UV’s when applied by businesses, teams and Individuals alike that newer avenues with far greater depth, clarity and purpose will begin to emerge from existing businesses to provide an opportunity to build new systems and businesses! 

These UV’s, will enable organisations become healthier by being leaner, directed focused and purpose driven, knowing well now that they do really have a duty of car, hence instead of boasting about an employee strength of 1000, organisations will change the narrative to a family strength of 100 which would imply an employees strength of 250! Likewise Individuals who would have found their zen by being flexible would possibly want it to stay that way so that their creative outcomes remain unique and well appreciated- this then would also work in favor of the businesses!

So, before I sign off, think well for the remaining “ME” time that you have at hand and be honest in knowing what you are doing with that- because your future will depend on the singular pivot of what you have done with this “ME’ time and what you learnt during this period!

I will leave you here for now, grab a drink and think and reflect so that you can face tomorrow all suited up, one you have realized the Unique Value that you have within and what you to offer as a giver and receiver!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another piece!

Leadership in Crisis OR Crisis in Leadership-what are you living through?

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

Over the last two weeks, virtually everyone around seems to have been coming up with the governments, health care workers could be doing better, what did go well, and what was amiss- The only issue I have with this space is irrespective of whether people are praising their authorities of slaying them on the social media for being incompetent, the essence lies in how much does one really know about whats happening behind the scene- I mean how can anyone see a news clip or a media byte for a few minutes and then decide that this is what must be happening and come to a conclusion that we are all fine or we are all but certainly doomed! Well this is exactly what happens when you are experiencing either a situation wherein it is either about “Leadership in Crises” or “Crisis in Leadership”  and that’s making its presence felt through the society that you are a part of and this short piece is just trying to make sense of this! Of course yes, I am not going to be taking names of leaders or nations here, so that I don’t end up placing prejudices in your mind- like it always has been I would want you to decide and take a view of what makes sense to you and in way that goes on to serve you by enhancing your understanding of the developments around you!

When disasters strike they often come with shock and awe, well that’s the case with major sudden natural disasters like flash floods, earthquakes and tornadoes which seem to just appear and disappear on their own terms leaving a path of destruction behind them. It is a similar situation when man-made disasters strike humanity- like mass shootings, terrorist events etc unfold. The  real story begins the moment after the unthinkable happens! It becomes apparent quickly with ample clarity what kind of script is being played out to the world- we will now begin the instance wherein “Crisis in Leadership” begins to unfold. 

Of the many manifestations that are possible, Crisis is Leadership is always earmarked by a deafening silence and inertia in the initial stages. This is the moment wherein the proverbial throat runs dry and the leaders are left to the mercy of their critics for having failed to act/ or rather react in a specific manner to an event- which normally is derived from the majoritarian societal conformity bias! This initial step if not checked in- not only unleashes a chain reaction of ever increasing complications and problems but also creates a powerful distraction in which the real challenge (the event that would have occurred) is all but made secondary and the efficacy and the style of the leadership start to become the talk of the town and thereby begins a never ending bickering game which goes on and one as long as some other powerful stories tend to come up and overshadow these events and narratives!

The next indication of Crisis in Leadership comes when people speak irrelevant, nonsense, mistime the content or begin to contradict each other from the adjacent windows of the same are of operation! You may have by now witnessed examples of politicians like Governors of State and other task force members who have been entrusted with fighting away this virus come up and say things which were completely unwarranted for and make no real contribution towards the progress of attacking the virus and saving  lives- rather, a lot of their rant would have been talking about what they have been doing, trying to do and are hopeful of what they will be able to do rather then just stating the facts like- This is what had happened, this is what we did to fix it and this is what we have planned for tomorrow because this is what we expect! Well needless to say, it is instances like there that even turn disasters into fodder for news channels and media to utilize the moment for their fame to glory for showing how dumb a particular individual was- well as a matter of fact they never wait another second to do a rethink- I mean; wait why would this person behave the way he is doing so- he isn’t that dumb really? had he been done so dumb- he wouldn’t reached where he is now – A position of power and control to dictate terms through a crisis! So whats the missing part?! Well we will get to this bit once we have seen some other examples of how things are really done and what Leadership in Crisis really looks and feel like!

Unlike the above two manifestations (certainly there could be many more- given this is a blog, trying to keep it a bit truncated), when one sees Leadership in action through a Crisis- The whole equation changes dramatically! The very first manifestation of Leadership in control through a crisis is visible by the knowing “who is the face of the leadership”. As long as the face has enough depth in terms of credibility, acceptance, appreciation and connect with the audience in concern, rest assured the masses are at once assured that things are in control and you will find that people are ready to agree, abide and go ahead with the decisions taken by this type of a leader. The second important aspect here, which must be read together with the first point is that the quality, swiftness, clarity and transparency of the decisions and the rationale also are required to go hand in hand along with the face of the leadership. You may have a very pleasing face but if the quality of the following decisions and the content falls through, you will possibly end up finding a new face before you find answers to the pressing challenges at hand!

Effective leadership through crisis is almost and always accompanied by a sustained and ongoing communication dissemination in a measured manner wherein the communication reaches where it should and provides ample clarity about what is expected form the received of that message- like does the person need to take some action, or just be ready for the next instruction or it could be about being provided with details on the progress that has been and what the outcomes seem like over the next few days or weeks!

Leadership in Crisis may be aggressive or may be passive in terms of style harnessed by the leader in question, but unless it is proved to effective through its presence and through its actions; all purpose risks being  eventually lost and can easily slip into the depths of becoming another case of study of Crisis in Leadership!

I will leave you with your thoughts now, see around you depending on where you are on the planet and observe what is that you are witnessing- at the government level, at your office level- what do you see around you- Leaders managing the Crisis or Crisis being complicated further by the Leaders who have been entrusted to steer the ship!

Ciao for now, I will be back soon with another article, until then navigate well, stay safe and if you are locked down, stay in and let your mind wander with thoughts that empower you and help you deciphering some hidden mysteries available in your plain sight! By the way – What type of a Leader are you- what do you think!

 

Dealing with (Mis)Information Warfare.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ 1 Comment

Never before has it been more important to check- cross check and re-check everything that gets played on to the television set, the channels that you subscribe to, the search results that come to serve you and not to mention the endless, forwards, messages and what have you! This piece is about trying to make some sense of the information or rather misinformation warfare in which we get drawn day in and day out at times knowingly and other times unknowingly when we tend to forward that last message on whatsapp without bothering to check if the content made any sense to begin with! So let’s try and unravel what really is going on here!

The later part of the last century, was rightly known as the Information Age- If one had the right information at the right time it gave the person/ business or the government of the day phenomenal advantage to lead and race ahead no matter what the subject would have been- whether it was about path breaking research, or best practices adopted over factory floors, or it was about business or governance strategies- You name it and you will find that the last 50 years has always been about “The Best way” of doing things, “getting things done”, “being the best”, individually or collectively by harnessing the power of Information. Till this point it was a linear fight for supremacy – Whoever had the right information at the right time would be the winner, but with technology and the dawn of the digital age- information became available  at amazing speeds simultaneously across the world and there was never a question of any lag or delay and then it started to boil down to who had the first movers advantage, who got ahead first, how fast and what tools and resources were made available for them to make that rapid progress. Well even this was fair, considering you give the whole world community the same information at the same time and then it boils down to whoever has the maximum matter and money to spend and build on an idea! The real drama unfolds now, once people saw that information based challenges are becoming accessible and rapid progress is possible and the concept of  dominance on sectors/ ideas and approaches to lives problems is beginning to get into the shredders, the real game got started – the game of information dominance through spread of misinformation! This is how we have, according to me ushered in the age of misinformation- The age of Information Warfare- A testimony to Human Dominance and never ending Greed for power (all types) and Opulence!

This age of Information warfare thrives on spreading information which makes sense, no sense and cryptic sense- this is done intentionally to divert, distract and keep competitors and people observing you loose their way and get entangled into a information mess in which they remain entangled and by the time they do come out of it- you would have probably achieved your objectives and then it really doesn’t matter whether they have access to the earlier original content or not- because that has become contextually irrelevant!

This new warfare front made possible thanks to the digital breakthroughs that we have collectively been able to make as humanity has proven far dangerous then any nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction! The misinformation business is responsible for almost everything that you see around- on the day to day basis- you would have come across commercials (with the small * of terms and conditions – which is next to invisible) claiming and suggesting things which are out rightly stupid, dangerous and rarely at time fatal- but as they say- the small little invisible * offers protection and the the petitions are always urged to use their collection and individual wisdom-which by itself is a challenge as that is a fast depleting asset! When things do get ugly as usually they do- you will generally have vested interest groups within nations/ communities and across nations who can collectively get into the role of spreading information in a calibrated,weighed manner to do a sinister loop and complete it’s objectives by unleashing public unrest/ strikes/ law and order situations and by the time this is all done the originator and the communication and the real essence behind the malafide act is all but cluttered into an ambiguity of trails, reports and reasons- which often heads no where and then the world is ready for another episode all over again! History is replete with examples when things have become really bad and this ability to spread directed misinformation has at times won wars at the right side of the battle and at times has ended up doing more damage to society at large! So when we know Mis-Information is as deadly as it gets to be- why do we thrive and allow it to propagate- why does it even get a hold?

The answers lie in the fabric of humanity itself- Human societies have long been far away from idealistic settings- there is a rampant inequality within societies, within different segments of a society or even within communities and not to forget the inequalities among nations and blocks of nations! Inequality that transcends all metrics normally considered for determining what should be the definition of Equality!  Inequality manifests in different ways, it could be the inequality between the rich and poor (monetary inequality), inequality of opportunities, inequality of liberty and so on and so fort. The most important trigger comes from the Inequality of opportunity for World Dominance through governance and business. This is by far the most dangerous and the most sinister of all the different malaise of modern societies and has caused more harm then good to each and everyone of us! You may be thinking this has to do with only the intelligence community and the governments- no – this has everything to do with each one of us- as misinformation gets fed into minds which are not that good at checking facts from fiction- the results and consequences often turn deadly and dangerous! So now we know that there is a problem- how do we deal with it! Well read on…

“Practice the Pause” a technique told by many management teachers, the next time you get a piece of information and decide to do anything- absolutely anything with it- think what it is- check from where it is coning- think what is is asking you to do and think about the impact that you may individual end up creating by virtue of who you are- and whether that is needed or not! There will be times when the best thing to do would be nothing! There will be yet another times when you may have to ignore/delete the message and then there will be some other times still when you need to flag the message and the content off to relevant people in time so that disasters are avoided well in time! The challenge though remains to perform any of these actions, first and foremost you must have a thinking mind – irrespective of how intelligent you are or not- doesn’t matter-what does matter is whether you have the ability to sieve through the content and weigh it against common-sense, science and facts of the world! One more golden rule is what doesn’t serve the best and larger good of humanity doesn’t need to be there- If any message that you are to pass on – irrespective of what the source and whatever it is- If it doesn’t help anyone and ends up having more anxiety and anguish to even person then that message is not worth it- might as well bury it as soon as it reaches you!

We live in an age where access to information is a sure ticket to success and hence the converse also hold true- access to misinformation can spell untold misery and chaos at times damaging individuals and at times communities and nations as a whole! The certain way to move around this in-your-face- covert enemy of mis-information is to develop filters through wisdom and knowledge and apply ample common sense to all that you receive- without the screen of prejudice and develop a way to weight the content of information in its totality and then take a call whether it serves or deserves its existence! This kind of mindful approach to content when repeated over and over again will ensure the damages caused by misinformation campaigns world over is as minimal as possible!

I will leave you here with these thought, grab your cup, check your whatsapp messages and think well before you forward the next message! Think- Is it really worth It- Does it add value to the receiver or to you as a sender of the message! If it does go ahead, if it doesn’t delete that crap!

Ciao for now, will catch up soon with another article!

 

Stretched to the breaking point.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

As kids we have always played around with elastic materials in whatever form and shape we may have got them and for whatever different school and college projects that we would have needed them for- and certainly a we start to work to tie up loose papers and materials lying around our work desks and places which required to be clutter free! This article is about having a quick sneak peek into what is so fascinating about “the stretch” and when does too much become too much and what does it look like at the point just away from the snap! I am sure we can together learn a lot and apply to ourselves from the humbles elastic materials that lie strewn across our homes and offices- although lifeless, full and complete of life lessons! So let’s roll on…

The humble rubber band- the lifeline of many modern day households has a unique and enviable place in our day to day lives! What makes the rubber band special is not it’s ability to stretch but rather being able to surprise us from time to time by stretching when we think it can’t stretch any further and snapping away when it could have easily done it’s job! Well, what’s actually happening here is related to the quality of elasticity, the quality of the material and the number of times it has been used over and over again. Any physicists will tell you, for that matter even our high school grade physics lesson can explain you on this front- When the material being used is moderately fresh/ new the ability to remain elastic often is fantastic and it is these new/ infrequently used rubber bands that go on to help us with our most difficult tasks of tying up and looping up things, similarly as they get used and used- material fatigue sets in and the rubber/polymer molecules are no longer able to go back to their original state as much as they were going earlier and that further impacts that their ability to flex further and demonstrate strength- which results into those untimely snaps to our utter disappointment! So what’s the parallel here to our lives? Well don’t you see- the words were all over written earlier and yes, you too would have either used them or these were used to describe your attributes! 

Human mind is pretty much like an elastomer- elastic polymer- we can flex our minds as we require and this ability to flex makes us who we are- social beings.The flexing human mind has been the foundation on which societies and social order has got built and developed over the years and through the centuries! However,like the rubber band, our mind too has its own limitations with regards to it’s intrinsic ability to flex and regain shape and construct- read shape as in the  continuing ability to display intelligence and wisdom. Minds which show a formidable dexterity to seemingly keep on flexing irrespective of the age of a person are a true miracle. Normally ability to flex- displaying how much potential one may have to undertake risks and explore the new limits of humanity will diminishing with age – As age progresses the natural systems will ensure that flexing gets controlled and people become naturally risk averse- this is a hardwired switch through our evolution which was meant to keep us safe from formidable dangers of the bygone eras. But there are these isolated and few sparsely strewn human minds which seem to show no sign of stopping or reducing their limit of flexing and the conversely their ability to take risks and keep on pushing the boundaries of human exploration and human intellect further each and every time they encounter a intellectual challenge- These wonder minds are those of the modern day explorers, innovators, writers, specialists from every field of science and technology that you can possibly think of – These are the people who know how to harness this unique ability of the human mind to flex and yet be itself on an ongoing basis by using some basic techniques- albeit- knowingly or unknowingly! So what are these unique techniques which can help your mind also to flex like those of these geniuses- well read on!

Just as the material quality of the rubber band is critical in defining how many times it can flex before it finally snaps- the human mind also depends on multiple physiological, biochemical, physical and emotional inputs to arrive at its levels of comfort and discomfort which further go on to deciding how much risk a particular mind is ready to go ahead with! This is perhaps why, no two people are ever likely to come up with an exactly same approach and solution to a problem that they are presented with a problem- even if they both provide the right solution there will be always a difference in the approach to solving the problem and this is what makes us either among the 80% of the general population or makes us fall in the elite group of the remaining 20%. Once human mind is nourished with the right nutrients, few as basic as food, healthy upbringing and getting access to a value setting which is more compassionate and value driven to offer and to provide rather then accumulate and receive- the human mind is almost ready to demonstrate some amazing ability to flex and flex real good to provide cutting edge solutions to make life easier for the individual and the society as well!

A well nourished mind- through food and upbringing is a formidable instrument-an instrument that allows us to expand our cognitive faculties and race ahead with our imaginations- both of which are absolutely necessary to create a new world and address the ever pressing challenges that the modern day world keeps throwing us at!

In scenarios wherein the mind is failed either through nourishment or through other aspects like upbringing or societal confirmation biases or limited opportunities- it looses a great deal of it’s intrinsic ability to flex and when situations arise (as they most certainly will) this failing ability of the mind to flex in an appropriate manner leads to societal collapse either by virtue of a laid back response system and complete inability to flex or a overzealous response which ends up creating more chaos and ambiguity and puts up the entire frame work of the society at a greater risk with no one from the group knowing when to stop or where to stop what has been started!  One good example here could be of a revolution and anarchy- revolution is a proof of powerful minds thinking alike for a specific outcome and knowing when to halt as the outcome has been achieved- all this being achieved by flexing and contracting at different points through the revolution until the end goal is achieved. This is controlled, planned and efficient which works on collaborative strategies and ensures that individual minds are rested and nourished as the long path is traversed to reach the final destination! When we look at anarchy the loose free for all beyond control flex of collective minds all working (mostly out of sync) and to different objectives which overlap or counteract each others’ ends up defeating and ending the limited flex ability that individual minds have in no time and once it is met with powerful and planned counter narratives these anarchic minds come down crashing like a pack of cards! In this world where minds are pitted against mind to win battles day in and day out- it is the unfailing dexterity, endurance and magic of flexing of a nourished mind which will always hold an upper hand no matter what the battle is about or how big the challenge may seem to be!

The human mind also has this innate ability to signal when it is about to give up- whether it is about the powerful human mind which has been flexing all good for so many years or it is about that mind which is a recluse and averse to flexing and will do so only when there is no alternative left- the human mind will at some point in time or for some aspect fail- certainly it will and these failures are those mistakes which then in proportionality of the mistake determine how bad and how steep the fall is! Like any good machine, the human mind provides alarms- there will signs of fatigue- wherein you will simply find it difficult to come up with solutions ideas, newness and ability to think and collaborate with some fresh approach and outlook for old problems or the seemingly minor new problems assume demonic perceptions in the window frame of your mind! Another indicator would be the increasing tendency of not wanting to take up the challenge and seeing if avoidance is working- surely there will be and there are a few battles that have to be won by not fighting one, bit whether this translates into a total avoidance strategy is something that one must guard about carefully- this in the long run becomes severely counterproductive as it tends to rob away all and any risk taking abilities that a mind may have developed in a flash! Finally after nourishment, lethargy, it is the impact of repetition and societal indifference! Every time a wise mind is made to do mundane and routine things which make some or no impact on the society and the contribution is at the most taken to be granted automatically the human mind looses and start to throw away its creative facets of being ingenious and with that goes away a considerable amount of ability to flex and flex at the right time and for the right reason! As societies tend to become more and more conformists, listening to that one person, one value, one goal and one aim- we end up creating and becoming  low-end unthinking human machines which loose not only the ability to lead and crate or innovate but also end up doing dis service to our own self the very essence of who each one of us as an  Individual is!

The health of your individual mind is something that each one of us can take care of must- mental wellness, mental health is the very foundation on which modern day societies stand! It is not to be confused with intelligence or wisdom- that is the content part of it- unless the storage device is properly wired and functioning no matter what you throw into it- you know well enough if the processor is at fault you will end up getting more garbled and ambiguous data out of it!

A mind in harmony, at peace, content, driven and directed with access to nourishment and a conducive environment is the key to the happiness of societies the world over! many such mind are then able to guide societies and such awakened societies are able to direct nations and the world eventually!  Take a pause today and do think  how good  you have been at flexing back and forth and how has that helped or harmed you- know what to hold on to and know what to throw away- A healthy mind is the one which has no boundaries, has no bondage and has no fear and has courage but no arrogance. It is about achieving a sublime stage of being aware minute to minute about all that’s around you and within you and when you have reached these magical proportions of control and dexterity- you are ready to take upon the world and its challenges!

I leave you here with these thoughts, its a lovely Sunday- An Easter Sunday- Have a Blessed Easter Everyone! and I will be back soon with another article! Until then bye and stay wise, stay safe and don’t get killed! 

Fogging out the re-calibration dilemma.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

As communities come together in their won way to assess the extent of damage and start to pick up the pieces and look forward to re-build, a very important question which will be playing on almost everyone’s’ mind- right from the governments to the business tycoons to the ordinary person on the street who awaits the opening of a retail store so that the next pay check can be collected is “How do we now know something different about all that we always thought we knew!” and what do we do about it and how do we move things ahead from here! Well this short piece is about skimming through these dimensions and possibly decipher how things may play out as humanity emerges out of the shadows of a global melt down! So here we go!

Hopefully governments across the world by now have learned a valuable lesson that as the old saying in India goes- “Health is the only real Wealth” and unless nations and societies do not  makes a serious effort to invest adequately and proportionally to ensure wellness and health of its citizens, no matter how many nuclear bombs and missiles they have in their arsenal or how many billions of dollars or gold they have to throw to the world- all of this will become meaningless in a wink as it happened now! This time is a great opportunity for nations to reset their priorities towards investment in healthcare and developing societies and communities which are more healthy! The choice is clear; either governments incentivize building healthy living and working habits so that investment in hospitals is reduced or continue with the age old unhealthy habits and then spend billions and billions to build hospitals and pharma reteach and this then goes on endlessly like a never ending game of cat and mouse waiting for the next mistake to happen and then that allows all hell to break loose all over again!

Business and the big bad world of corporate rat race– well, I doubt if this aspect of human society will ever learn anything from what is unfolding- we may end up seeing more dumb start ups that will go on to sell and live at the expense of why continuing social distancing is the way ahead and why remote working is The way of Working and so on and so forth! If this nonsense s is not checked and put in place- The world will end up having more mentally sick people then the number of threatening viruses you can think of coming from the Corona family! It will do the world a lot good, if for one time businesses become a little more humanistic and develop and build ways of working which resonate with general wellness and create more space and value wherein roles and responsibility are tailored and made to benefit not only the business objectives but also live on to enrich the lives of the people involved in creating those activities! The pandemic has taught one major lesson- A global melt down scenario- in whatever form it comes- doesn’t and will never care if you are rich or poor- these events are great levelers- they will reset everything to a point and from there is a great opportunity for all societies and businesses either to build a more inclusive and human society which is more sensible and purpose driven or loop back to old capitalist and greedy way of driving the things- again furthering the proverbial “rat race” and “neck throat competition” philosophies which will end up looking so falsified and hollow even to begin thinking about in today’s; altered world scenario!

Individuals, depending on how the time of lock down was used or abused will emerge as their better or worse version when they hit the deck to work! Likewise their offices would have assessed and gauged their absence and work through the physical absence in terms of effectiveness and critical contribution; needless to say- there will calls taken and adjustments done! So if you have been one of those people who have been binge eating endlessly dipping into the tub of popcorn or chicken fingers and blessed with an endless supply of booze, well you know what- your long party may just come to an abrupt unpleasant end! On the other extreme end of the spectrum, if you have been one of those silent warriors who has been pushing through all the odds and have helped your client, got that payment and ensured you have stayed on top of your game irrespective of the odds of bad signals, bad support and challenges galore- you may have just helped yourself by staying relevant and by ensuring you have indeed been an asset when it mattered the  most! If you are anywhere between these extreme ends of the spectrum- one end of callousness and other end of being prompt and proactive- well depending on what kind of sector you work in and what is the extent of human value and dependence your sector has you will ether sail through or end up drowning!

Businesses that display a more humanistic approach and be more inclusive, giving and caring will have a greater advantage in times ahead, needless to say those who showed their ugly side and used this as garb to seek undue advantage wither by sacking people or reducing their payout will get their karma back in time – sooner then later and they will to realize that! More importantly however the centre of focus will be the Individual- What the lock down and work through isolation has done to people and how they have coped with either to emerge as strong as before or have metamorphosed themselves into something else for good or worse will also play a big role in either ensuring that their role in the larger game of an organisation survives to get more star attention or they simply vanish off the corporate radar for good- owing to their own inability to cope with the altered work environment! 

Individuals who have been wise to use their time to invest in themselves, will no doubt be rewarded more then anyone else, for it is through their detailed introspection and realizing the depths of their own self they will be able to contribute further and add innovatvely to the new changed world order either by being part of the government, business  or simply by being who they are it is these wonderful people who will set the tone for the next decade and beyond– For a change this will have nothing to do with opulence but everything to do with humanity- The ability of being able to sense and respond to the changed realities of the world in a more human way! 

These, I feel are the ways that the reset will play out across the world at time subtly and at other times in a more direct manner- but rest assured the re-calibration will happen and will be clear and vivid based on priorities set by individuals, businesses and governments who decide to move societies and nations in a direction aligned to their national priorities- the only silver lining being for a change people and humanity will be at the core of these strategies – beginning with global access to health and wellness and going further and beyond! 

I will leave you here, at peace with your isolation and hope you emerge stronger, wiser and more ready then ever so that as the dawn ushers in you know exactly what you are going to do next! Ciao for now, will be back soon with another article!

 

Consequences of “It’s not my problem”.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

We are in the beginning of April and for a change global headlines across the world have definitely changed the predictable formats of politics, business and sports! Although the pandemic- is bad enough- especially if that’s hurt you too close for comfort- It has in a way certainly taught us or made us revise valuable lessons of life!- Costly lessons one must say- but that’s what nature does, when humanity goes on doing what it can with gross disregard! Well, cutting the philosophical side for now, through this piece, I will quickly share with you, what I think are the key learnings from this not-so-welcome episode that we ourselves intentionally/unintentionally ended up inviting to our lives! So let’s roll!

Ignorance is no more bliss: Even as whispers began in late November or December 2019 pertaining to a strange illness developing in mainland China, the world went on their usual business as if that was a problem limited to that specific country, within matter of few weeks- I guess- 6-9 weeks- the picture became quite different indeed- with the world now in a form grip of the pandemic and collectively thinking what can be done! Well, I will not dig deeper more into this topic, I have written quite a few pieces around this, but what it signifies and what the learning here, is that each nation and each society fragment has been over the years so much got used to just keep looking into their own micro-environments that the bigger picture is often lost and that in turn fogs out every essential detail that is needed to run a society or a nation! Not seeing over the horizon and staying locked into your own little window has been the greatest folly of our times! If houses have doors and windows- the residents must be wise enough to use adequate judgement to know when to use what!

How can I benefit from this: As sick as may this sound- this has been the ugly face of the current global crisis- even as nations started to act- react to mitigate and try to make sense of the war against the virus- there were these few elite who have so far being able to profit from everything that has happened around- well, honestly there’s no point begin judgmental about what is right and wrong- simply because that is not how the world really works and moreover one person’s nectar is another’s poison! But we got to see this play out- globally stock markets fell, everyone was selling off what they had at whatever price they could- well this is the story everyone knows- what people don’t know is who bought all of what got sold at such discount value – and how come the people who bought this had enough funds to buy what they bought! Well these are the questions to which may never find answers and  this is certainly the domain of some hardcore investigative journalism!

The “What are they doing syndrome”: This is the most funny and the most dangerous part of the whole pandemic episode-  as nations scampered to make sense of what was unfolding- every nation- big or small- created something called “empowered  groups” or “national co-ordination teams” who were supposed to understand the directions from the supposedly “I know all” WHO and pass it within their own countries- what happened with this was pretty soon before anyone could realise the parent body instead of being a leader to lead, direct and guide the world ended up being a collaborator who simply kind of  aggregates ideas and possibilities- which now has got many nations to a stage to devise what works and what doesn’t work for them through trial and error and unfortunately when it is about illnesses- these trial and errors means and implies loss of lives! This is what is being played out and the only hope now is that we overcome this crisis with as minimal collateral damage as possible. You may call terms this inertia as fear of failure to lead or erring on the side of caution; but always remember indecisive leadership in every aspect and each time will be counter productive, whether you lead a nation or the baseball team in your neighborhood!

You do as I Say: This is no doubt, the ultimate weapon that governments, individuals seem to hand out when they have run out of all options- scientific or unscientific. This is that point where you have globally experienced people being asked to be thankful, asked to do this and that for them and they, asked to offer, asked to allow, asked to agree, asked to follow, you name it and you will see examples played out at all levels across the societal fabric! Well the best part of this, not all of what is being asked really makes sense- and  if you survive all this and look back after a few years- you will end up wondering “what the f**k was I thinking”! I mean if are in gratitude, being thankful, it implies we are” that’s about it- what is the whole show about displaying it?!

It’s not my problem: This proposition, if you carefully see is the cause and the effect both! Even as we allowed a pandemic to develop ignorance over-riding on this facet allowed the situation to reach where it is and even as this ends and nations race to fix all that would have got broken through this ordeal we will finally see these statements eventually raising up; nations will say this to world bodies and federal governments will say this to the state!

This fallacy of  this thinking is not our making during the time of a crisis – rather it reflects how we have ended up becoming as humans- individually and as a society! Offices want to have those ritual Birthday Cake cutting on the floor to check off the employee engagement task for the month, not knowing if the person is diabetic or there is a crisis that the person is dealing with in the personal space, companies have numbers  on their dashboard and when decisions have to be made they are simply made (well nothing wrong with it) but again the rationale and logic is what defeats the purpose of such decisions and ends up bring companies back to the same problem in time ahead- sometimes sooner then later! So what do we do?

Well, each one needs to define ones’ own heaven and be comfortable with the hell that one chooses for oneself! But as long as we take ownership- read “total ownership” and sustain an elevated level of awareness and prudence about everything that is happening around us- we have won half the battle- certainly not one individual can oversee and map everything and everyone and each instance around all the time- well, that’s where the whole idea of a team , group, society, community, nations comes in place- this is what “watching each others’ back is all about and this is the essence of ensuring that “Everyones’ problem becomes your problem- not because you have an answer to those problems but because you want to be ready to face it when it hits you with minimal damages as much as possible, until such a time that solutions which are proven and tested are made accessible! This principle when applied and thought through even for the day to day corporate chores that we need to further- makes a great point about always ensuring that we have what we call as individual clarity and objectivity about what is expected from us individually for the role that we play-  and when each member on the team does this, rest assured successful teams will lead to create successful businesses and successful societies which in turn  build a healthy nation! So next time, think twice before you say” Its, not your problem- because it may not be now- but is will certainly be sometime and then it will be worthwhile if you Know something about the problem that you are facing!

Ciao for now, I leave you here with your cup of coffee/tea as the case may be! Stay wise and stay sane, and always remember, just by your existence you contribute and become a reason for all that is fair and unfair in the world around you and  that you experience! 

 

Re-connecting post isolation.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

Irrespective of what is being played out now, it is important at the same time to be focused on whats lurking over the horizon, surely enough we must survive for being able to reach the horizon and touch the skies once again! Having said that, it will also be equally important to assess the state in which we reach the horizon-which holds the promise of tomorrow! Whether we reach there bruised and hurt physically or mentally or both will go a long way in deciphering what we end up doing once we are out of this storm! 

On the macro level as governments and organisations/ businesses that drive global narratives will stand to benefit the most from the current scenarios- Unlike ever before citizens have given unquestionable control and authority to their respective governments to mitigate and overcome the health crisis- nothing wrong with this- the real challenge will be once the crisis is over- how many of these governments will be happy to contract back to their earlier self and be okay with unleashing lesser power? Power as everyone knows is undoubtedly a great intoxicator- once you are used to getting high on power/authority and enhanced span of control- the ease and acceptability to go back to your lesser self- is almost improbable- in few nations across the world this will put considerable stress and political dynamics will begin to get altered even before people realise it! (People will be too busy to try to reboot their lives and survive the newer existential challenges and in the meantime these political deliberations will leave them more short changed then ever before- No sooner people figure out and make good with their new normal- whatever that may be- and they bonce back, they will again compelled to rise up and express their displeasure on the changed or altered political arrangements and this will be seen and played out as unrest’s/ protests/ strikes and legal movements the world over- some at national level and yet many on state and local governance levels!

Business firms will play their part to build strong narratives to push ahead new categories ( read old wine, re-packaged for the nth time in a new bottle) across their products and services which will promise to help individuals to have good health at all times and enable them to fight well and get some advantage (with regards to the use of their product/service) to overcome the next pandemic onslaught! This trend will be used by core sectors in the space of food, travel, wellness, healthcare,FMCG, and every other business that has a direct connect with an individual customer and has the ability to develop a powerful narrative to bring about altered behaviors to accelerate the acceptance of their product/service offerings (read global MNCs here). Even as the world of politics and business try to navigate and seek their comfort zone; Individuals – that is you and I will also be waging another war- literally day in and day out and this will be a war with ourselves to understand and set new levels (high or low- will again depend) to interact and communicate with people around us!

Whether it is the office space or a general walk into a grocery store- staying isolated would have done considerable damage to ones’ ability to communicate (no I am not suggesting we would have forgotten to speak or write), there will be in general a dissonance when it comes to choice of words being used while communicating and also the levels of interpretation (which will be at an all time low- especially if you have not connected with the individual during the isolation period!). These aspects even though may seem trivial are essentially the backbone of a connected workplace no matter where you work or whether you have your own business! Workplaces will require to have a planned unlocking of their offices- The interventions to make people begin to talk to each other to seek a level of re-engagement comfort will be critical to assess the business success of organisations especially in cases where teams are involved to deliver services and products! Businesses that practice formal team re-engagement and communication strategies and interventions will eventually have an extra edge and individuals from such teams will seem to be more in control of their daily activities over others, who do not get a chance to re-orient themselves or re-align themselves! Sectors which traditionally have been using large teams to rely on their success – like hospitality, aviation will do exceedingly well in the times ahead- since individuals in these teams have an innate and trained approach to deal with chaos, ambiguity and a formidable ability to bounce back in the shortest possible time! It will be these ordinary individuals who are so good at creating extraordinary magic through their work, who will be at the centre stage of ensuring their companies race ahead and turn around much rapidly then the others!

When it comes to the confines of Individual spaces- this extended isolation in few cases would have helped people realise their own value and perhaps that would have done a big reset to their individual priorities – in simple terms, it will all be about- how they want to spend their time, how much they want to speak going ahead, how much are they going to be listening in times ahead- again small tweaks for an individual but these will create an impact, as these developments resonate with their altered behaviors which in turn will engage with colleagues and others who too would have undergone a similar level of metamorphosis! This is where, new norms will be established, this is that space where new rituals will get created- if the good old handshake before and after that crucial sales meeting has been checked off- it will surely be replaced by something and it will be these new norms, and the ability to adapt to the new ways of working that will define how successful individuals end up becoming in the new altered reality of work-life!

The best part is, there is nothing right and wrong about all the changes and adjustments that the world will see unfold at micro and macro levels- the crux of the matter here is- as these changes impact us as individuals – what we do about those new realities and how we react and adopt them will go a long way in determining if this turbulence in our journey of life has helped us or harmed us! As human beings we have survived and who knows- the largest part of human evolution is undocumented and unknown- It’s quite possible that we have faced and overcome far greater threats then the current one and there’s no doubt that the current threat will be eventually a new normal and it’s just a matter of time!

All in all, I must say, I am pretty excited to see the drama unfold as humanity comes back together and connects even as few Individuals tend to remain in perpetual isolation deep within or refuse to move away from the Lockdown because they have possibly got locked-in to themselves!

I will leave you here, and hope you use this time that you have got to tweak your individual strategies and get ready to face another chapter that life throws at us, post this isolation! 

Ciao for now and will be back soon with another piece! At Simplifylives we are helping Individuals and organisations plan their re-connect strategies, if you think you need help, feel free to reach us at parimal.aluri@simplifylives.com and rest assured we can partner and ensure your journey post isolation is fun and helps you re-gain control faster!

 

 

The dangers of misplaced narratives.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ 4 Comments

If you think or rather want to continue to think that “We’re in this together” and “Together we will prevail”, are great things that seem to inspire each one of us- Well, think again, these statements look great, the only problem that I have with them is, dude, I did not sign up for any of this shit! I would have rather joined a UN coalition force to rain down a barrage of bullets on the bad people or signed up for the olive green uniform for my country but to get drawn into a global narrative that is being literally shoved down my throat and placed in front of my face by trying to tell me that I need to contribute and be a part on this- so called war against a virus! I mean, wait a minute, have we really lost it!? A war against a virus, I mean really?! Take a pause and think about it (since you would be either in a quarantine or a lock down), how come one  gets coerced  to contribute to  alter something about which neither anyone has complete  facts- the How, Why and What of it and neither the solution to it!- neither you are a biologist, chemist or a molecular scientist- so what’s really going on with all these forceful patriotic narratives, the clapping, banging, singing all over the world- what’s really happening! Well this is what is called as the “War of the narratives” and this is something that every nation wages at some or the other time, the only difference being this time, all of them are doing it, at one go for one singular narrative- The Pandemic!

History is replete with examples wherein narratives have been created to drive select agendas of individuals who have been able to harness power, position or both and lead societies, nations to the gates of hell! So why is it that even when people, who are generally well educated, aware and have a thinking mind fall into the trap of these gimmicks and symbolism of false narratives? The answer lies in the qualities that I enlisted! Literacy, Awareness and Mind never help when literacy is not equated and filtered through education, awareness is built on prejudice and pre-preemptive assumptions and people even after having a mind, decide to lock and kept it away!

Misplaced narratives are perhaps the greatest invention of human mind! It is no surprise that most of the times they have been used to push through agendas which normally would have not gone through! So why do have them in the first place? Well, go back to history! Each time global communities- whether they be nations or regions have stalled and the governing agencies (elected governments, dictators and whatever fits into this systems that rules over the masses!) have hit a trim level with regards to any vital metric of the society that they govern, it has almost always ended up giving birth to powerful narratives- which essentially were a distraction created for the masses more then anything else! What these narratives almost always did was to lead people in a directed way of seeing at problems or thinking in a particular manner which reinforces the decisions made by the governing agencies! If we go back to the times when the great world wars were fought- you will notice a singular trend- every action that was taken even from the beginning of each of the wars was to do something with a powerful narrative by an individual or group of individuals who had come up with a clever strategy to communicate what served their purpose- to an extent that millions of people- whether soldiers or otherwise felt it a patriotic obligation to get in harms way (especially when a few of those countries were least impacted directly at a time when limited escalation broke out!) Consider Vietnam- the much famed theater of war from where US had to move back and was also the reason why powerful counter narratives were made in way of movies and films to keep sending the positive messages around the war to the general public! Truth certainly comes out, but if it gets mistimed- it looses its essence! This fact is being used and abused by people who govern and believe in creating false narratives!

In our current case, no government sounded off alarms about the deadly contagion that the virus is in the beginning, but as they realized that mistakes were costly- the narrative changed from the governments accepting accountability and responsibility- to telling citizens what to do and enforce a lock down. The lock down in nations where the virus was more aggressive ensured that those who were sick were more or less written off and had no chance of waging a come back as the system was reduced to choose between people when it comes to who lives and who doesn’t- Inhuman it seems and it certainly is- the worry here though is not that world wide health systems can’t cope with this kind of deluge of  sick people- The fact here remains that governments watched every our and every day as the things began to spiral off and decided to get active only when it started to suit their objectives- again not by- being honest and truthful of the omissions and mistakes, but rather by creating false narratives and putting the onus on people for their own life- The over all feeling across the world based on what governments are telling their citizens is “Well, we have a problem and you can alone ensure you are safe if you do a, b, c and If you don’t do this, well I cant guarantee you anything!”

Misplaced narratives work extremely well to serve political and strategic points for governments but in the long run they ruin and completely break down the communication and trust within the social frameworks and end of the day, more often then not end up reducing citizens to some crazy “Citizen ID no XXX”. That’s about it- eventually this is where we all will be heading to and this is what will remain as the reflection of the nation that we belong to . This one number will define how high and farther we get within the context of the society we live in. So you may want to ask me now, if “misplaced narratives” are so bad and dangerous why are they allowed and how do they get a foothold in the first place?

You will be surprised to learn, that individually each one of us and collectively as a society we ourselves are to blame for the extent of false/misplaced narratives we are ready to buy into and agree to! Yes, this is very similar to herd mentality and the overbearing need to comply with “social conformity bias” to be accepted as part of society and not be seen as an outlier or oddity who can be taken out/ ejected depending on what type of society you are going about in! The reason why these things get a foothold is surprisingly our “intellectual inertia” a behavioral attribute wherein we perhaps know what we are witnessing is against established logic and normal universal principles of humanity, yet we decide to do nothing about it- nor say, nor act and well this inaction serves as acceptance in the scheme of things  and misplaced narratives start to rule! Remember Hitler- one person who made millions believe that killing innocent people from a specific community was their greatest duty of service to their nation” well, yes- this is what it is and this is how it can get played out from a worst case scenario point of view- An Individuals delusional thinking and intellectual hallucination and fixation of an idea- brought the whole world to the edge and resulted in sufferings and deaths of millions and millions to an extent that the effects of those are felt even today when you visit towns and places tucked away on the quiet corners of Europe, Japan or other theaters where all hell had broken loose! A simple act of not using intelligence, cognition and displaying inertia at individual levels when reinforced by societies leads to a deafening silence which fuels the development of “misplaced narratives” which eventually end up harming the society which has surrendered and outsourced its ability to think to the whims and fancies of an individual or a group of individuals! So is there no hope around this? What’s the way ahead, are we kind of really doomed?

Well the fact remains, if there’s a problem, there is a solution always and this applies to the ability to ward off misplaced narratives as well! The first and possibly the only step is to use individual intelligence and wisdom before you agree to disagree to anything that is coming your way- e.g. If I were to tell you clap for five minutes everyday at 12 pm to become a millionaire in one year- well I am sure giving some kind of marketing twist I will be able to tempt you to try that dumb thing! But if you have a mind which starts to weigh my statement against principles of science, philosophy and common-sense , you will know this is rubbish and nonsense and  you will ask me to shut up! When one voice turns against a misplaced narrative- it by itself is powerful and when you amplify that using the power of social media and create a compelling counter narrative which is based on facts and science- which can be verified and explained in plain speak- this powerful counter narratives are what revolutions and pressure groups are made up of! Remember the Jasmine Revolution, – well that and many such were the result of powerful counter narratives when individual members of society came together and decided to stop misplaced narratives by confronting it collectively in unison with facts and more acceptable solutions!

Misplaced narratives are often the first steps before a nation is planing to change their political framework and these are more often then not tests run with tact and strategy and regular intervals to gauge the mood of the citizens so that any dissent can be stifled- using appropriate force as needed to ensure that the governance agenda- whatever that is- can be met! If you happen to be in any nation wherein you are seeing the political class becoming more and more in your face and in your app or in your life- Well, welcome you are now officially part of a society where a powerful misplaced narrative is completely hiding away from you what is really happening behind the scenes! If you think-all world leader woke up to a pandemic late- well think about it! If they have so many resources and time to mitigate and control the things now- why couldn’t they stop that from ever reaching to those levels in the first place!? No, I don’t need you to answer now, but keep thinking, maybe the “Pandemic is a Misplaced Narrative” and there is something bigger unfolding- which is hidden in plain sight!

I will leave you here with a cup of strong, very strong coffee and wake up  your mind, and try to sieve through the narratives that you have been a witness to and allow your intelligence and wisdom to guide you to unravel which one of those are indeed, “Misplaced narratives and who fast are they racing to impact you!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another piece soon!

Teaming up post isolation.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

Well, yes this is going to be perhaps the next biggest challenge for the corporate world (apart from assessing business loss and deciphering business strategy) for the year ahead! If there is anything else that’s going to override the corporate agenda for the next 6 months- it is going to be how well an organisation has been able to re-boot their people and get them back at similar levels of performance (if not better) in the shortest possible way and this is the arena that we explore in this short article…so let’s go ahead!

As the world comes out of the enforced hibernation, the isolation would have already done what it can do with the psyche of people irrespective of how high they would have been in an organisational set up or how more or less important their position would have been- If there is anything that one should take away as a critical learning from this worldwide shut down, it will be one singular thing that this has been an event which can be termed as “The Great Leveler” An event which has the insane capacity to bring everything to a common ground and then present those involved a choice- to re-build everything exactly same as before or re-build in a more resilient way so that instances are better dealt with in the future! As people walk out of their homes and residences and lead their way to the offices- there will be a million thoughts running through their minds- these will be stories of unfinished work, exposed incompetencies, failure of teams, missing of deadlines, missing out on opportunities and in very few cases it will be about realignment of personal priorities- all of these and many more such thoughts would be playing out loudly in the realms of the mind and this is what will be witnessed in the opening few weeks- teams which seem to be together but look to be lost! It is from here where an organisation can make the vital change either to re-build and re- boot or carry on and falter and resign to earlier complacency as if nothing ever happened! This happens to be  precisely the space  and time ,that trained specialists who understand and decipher human behaviour will be needed and deployed to help organisations navigate these initial few critical months!

So depending on what the size of an organisation is, what it’s services/products are and what are the intrinsic value systems that have been (whether they worked in these times or whether they too need a change), all of these will be part and parcel of the effort to bring back the buzz within the corporate corridors. Given the fact that this is a blog, we will touch more aptly to the broader generic aspects that each organisation will need to and should address and leave out specialist domains pertaining to the likes of Executive Coaching and Mentoring out for now! 

Once the people are back, regardless of the size, the organisation will have to take a stock and find how they “seem to be” , look out for changes and any random behavioral deviations that are being displayed- these can be done by cratering smaller groups and having those much fabled High-Tea sessions or for smaller employee base it could be one-on-one’s with the trained HR specialist to gauge what an individual has gone through during this period of isolation. Any of these methods deployed are good as long as it helps the organisations to come up with a team efficacy score and identify if any damage has been done which will need additional support or attention- this again could range from re-alignment of few people from one team to another and at times could be as important as relieving  a team lead of the team’s responsibility! Surely enough no one needs to do this by doing a big bad corporate wide announcement but this has to be done subtly using a human touch with a genuine purpose of knowing and validating the mental health of an individual- consider this you are an aviation firm and now put what I said above in context- get the seriousness of the situation? Good!– Likewise it is important that organisations do this first step because anything and everything that corporate will go ahead and do for team building, team rejuvenation and those kind of efforts will only bear fruit, once an in-depth assessment has been done to figure out what kind of exact interventions are needed and then come up with a plan which is effective and has a timeline for the organisation to be able to measure the effectiveness of the intervention as well!

Once the validations are done, the next step could be using the most apt technique to get teams back to performance levels which they were at when the momentum was broker- people normally don’t agree but the fact is all target and achievement driven tasks normally have a rhythm- these rhythms can be either extrapolated to the rise and fall of revenue, attrition , breakthroughs or acquisitions – all this will vary and will largely depend upon how simple of complex an organisation is and what its business goals and revenue expectations are! So the next step becomes important – in this context- as the performance is trimmed to acceptable level before they got distorted and immediately followed up by pacing up or dialing down the rhythm which will put it on course to build on the found momentum and race ahead as needed by he organisation concerned!

Although this looks deceptively simple and easy, this will be perhaps the most difficult of all the steps and will call for serious efforts from an organisational level, as the primary challenge will be of getting trained HR specialists and interventionist who have this innate understanding of the human mind, which will be critical to create a mental heath map for the organisation. This mental health map can go a long way to know the risks and strengths and thereby ensure that the organisations are not further jolted on their path to recovery because of human performance issues related to the impact of the isolation period!

These first steps will be very critical to ensure that organisations end up spending and investing their available resources on the right teams and people. Any effort that organisations make to circumvent this process of slow assimilation of individuals back into team environments will eventually back fire sooner or later- but it certainly will!

Of course I am not suggesting, everyone will be psyched out or delusional or hallucinating as they come to their workplaces, but it is worth remembering a fact that 21 days is a long period in anyone’s life- given the fact that we don’t live forever ;If there have been islands of calm and silence encountered by individuals in these solitary times- they would have either nourished or damaged depending on the path that an individual would have decided to undertake during the time of this unforeseen and forced clamp down! As these individuals with personalities altered come back to work- they will need another 21 days – minimum- to apply their altered personalities to an environment which these changed personalities will find a little out of place- The alteration here will be the key- if the alteration reinforces their beliefs and values- the homecoming will be easy and quick; if the alteration has been a complete change of beliefs and value systems- you will more often then not see them struggle or leave the workplace in the coming few months! The initial steps that I discussed above will be critical again to know which one of these steps an individual is likely to take!

So people, I leave you here for now, with these thoughts for you to reflect upon and plan ahead, whether you lead a team or are part of the team, or the specialist who will be given a lot of work in weeks ahead- well have your coffee for now and start gearing up for the times ahead- as they say- the bend in the road is almost over and we are going to hit the straight patch and we better be ready and geared up with all the tools and the mind that we have to ensure we make the most of it, as we emerge out of these ambiguous times!

I will be back soon with another piece and should you or your organisation need that intervention that I talked about here, you do know how to reach me!

So ciao for now and keep writing in with your thoughts and suggestions!