Tag: europe

The oncoming Leadership pandemic!

~ Parimal Aluri ~ 2 Comments

Among many lessons that 2020 has brought ti us, one important one is about the fragility of leadership even as establishing the point why it is so scared and important! It is between these spaces the seeds of the next pandemic can be found and this one relates to the leadership pandemic and how well we are able to steer through this one will largely decide- as individuals or societies whether we progress or regress and whatever we choose to do- how fast or slow will that onset be! Join me here as we take a quick look through this concept and see what this is all about and what is that we can do about it- of we can do something about it!

Needless to say there is a whole lot of art and science to leadership, but what is equally important is the fact that neither can leadership be enacted in vacuum and nor can leadership be made available on demand! The whole of 2020 has seen the world over inter-personal engagement dynamics change- some of these may be welcome and few others may have been not that so welcoming but irrespective whichever one you have witnessed or have been part of there certainly would have been one certain casualty of all this disruption and that would have been the Leadership aspect!

Leadership was and never will be about recorded video logs of company CEOs, PR generated perfected newsletters and “From the CEO’s desk” communication”, simply because no one really gives a damn to any of that and none of that really matters! What alone matters to every soul on the team is the simple pointed question-what is my role in this changing space and how long am I needed here and for what! This is yet a very smaller instance around just the communication disasters that leaders worldwide have engaged with their colleagues and team members over the last few months! There are far more graver ramifications which perhaps have already been unleashed and the results of these will be needless to say more impactful, visible and played out in the open- through failing products, services, and organisations in the days and months that follow us in 2021! The primary reason for all that to set in, is not only the failure of the existing leadership mechanisms within organisations, but also because there are more than required number of organisations which stand out as brilliant examples of colossal organisational incompetence especially related to the critical space of Leadership and this in turn sets off a chain reaction- driving the firm and the people therein into a never ending death spiral of fading and failing leadership across levels- one level at a time!

What the pandemic has done is, that it has effectively stripped away the whole corporate world of all the necessary and unnecessary camouflage in one go! Needless to say, like a chameleon who has lost it’s colors, every element in that corporate set up lies exposed like a striking contrast to the chosen background- which makes it all the easier for the the other chameleons (read competitions) and the enticed viewers (read clients/ customers) all the more aware and clear of what really lies beneath the hood and thereby taking away all that built your charm, energy and warmth that would have ever been there in that ongoing engagement! Not only that even within the set ups of the myriad departments and organisational hierarchies, it has been now then ever before (thanks to the pandemic) that reality has set in and for once people know- who really works hard, smart or not at all and all those time-sheets have been begun to offer productive data which is far more meaningful now then ever it was earlier! In all this churn, there are casualties, many simply because they happened to be at the right place at the wrong time and few whose luck had eventually ran out- again the Pandemic to the rescue! Either ways what has now eventually evolved is a scenario where there are a few leaders left at the top, few people at the bottom and a middle level surge- where everyone seems to be herded together- with very few among them having the competence, knack or the finesse to lead that flock as the time moves ahead! But you may ask why should this happen? Well let me explain with a simple example!

For all those of you, who have spent some time being alert in the corporate world- a few things would have been absolutely clear- there are groups, group-isms, favorites and teams that work and teams that don’t work, leaders who work and who don’t so on and so forth! Before the pandemic hit, each organisation no matter how large or small it was, had the space within to navigate and allow a certain permissible and width of non-performances simply because it would be too costly, difficult and tenacious to monitor and track that- the effort wold have been more costly than the result of that observation! Hence earlier when colleagues said they had “Lunch meeting” you were never sure how much of that was Lunch and how much of that was a meeting! You never knew how much of meeting time was really required and how much was taken up! Before the pandemic you always needed the large conference room – full of people with additional chairs drawn in and tea and coffee raining all over the conference tables within the maze of wires and cables- only for everyone to come out of that conference room- agreeing on one thing that had to meet again! It is in instances like these that pandemic had eventually ended up being a blessing in disguise!

As soon as organisations, got their act together and established process and policies for the new world standard of the “WFH” (Work from Home) they began to realise and see their folly! Vendor expenses started to go down- no more travel, no more endless headache of tea/coffee, canteens, food orders so on and so forth, worrying about the light’s been left on, that AC left on – noting of all that at all! Furthermore if that was not enough, now you had a perfect chance to track and trim performance to the minute! No tea breaks, smoke breaks, no saying , “I was there”, “I was in a meeting”, all those long meaningless and conclusion-less meetings suddenly started to get productive under 30 minutes- simply because now you had to write the agenda in the subject line with the expected outcomes by the end of the meet (God alone knows why people had to wait for a pandemic to just get this bit done!)! Another fallout of this, unwitting expose of performance and competence/incompetence needless to say would be the head rolls, doing away with people and processes that do not matter anymore simply because there is nothing forthcoming from those areas in the Now or in the times ahead! This is the space from where the real onset of the Leadership pandemic starts!

Now that there are a handful of “resourceful leaders” having done away with “the ones’ not needed” and with middle layers of the organisation being told decisively that they hold the key to the future (not sure whose- theirs or the organisations) and not many junior level positions being retained or replenished (so that the mid level takes upon the incompetence of the higher ups and makes up for the loss of productivity due to the lack of resources at the lower levels!) the game is all set to usher in failing and fatalistic Leadership Incompetence! Why! Well, simply because organisations, as we speak right now are replete with doers’ they may be great no doubt but if you don’t have the visionaries who behold the vision of the future to lead and the support of the enthusiastic and curios generations that er to follow, every attempt to try and do something different or do the same thing better will fail- always and each time! This is how the leadership pandemic will manifest and play out as severe and un-treatable incompetence- simply because the real leaders are no longer steering the ship and with amateurs at the wheels who think it is easy to swim by reading a book, well the outcomes are almost always predictable and far way from the desired ones’ that an organisation would ever want to have!

This mindless rejig of organisations, by doing away with people and process without applying detailed thought and process and furthermore trying to expect the mid level to rise to the occasion ( at the same expense/cost and provide an output of the higher level!) and deliver what the seniors couldn’t with ever diminishing support from below and around, well it’s anyone’s’ guess what we are setting ourselves up for and what kind of leaders will emerge- if they ever do from these scary shadows of corporate dumbness! You may still want to present you case citing, why should thins be a problem- if there able people at the mid-level then why shouldn’t they rise and deliver! Well, I am sure there are and there will be- the problem is not about they being able to deliver- the problem will arise in the space of “how the deliver” well you can bake a cake as long as you learn how bake one, but to come up with the finest of them, you need to know the intricacies of the process and those magic moments where things begin to happen for taking that bread from the ordinary league to the premium league and this is what is missing at the mid – level- simply because the earlier masters would have forgotten to handover that secret key- either intentionally or unintentionally and without that no matter how many time you bake- your cake will yet remain ordinary! The story of Leadership pandemic is the story of rise of incompetence to further complicate things simply because the original masters are no longer on the scene!

If you look around you, you would have by now experienced some fall in the level and professionalism in the services that you seek, may be that engagement centre, the communication tonality, it could be the lacking warmth or simply renewed alignments on the agreed way of engagement- whichever way you are able to perceive what you do- the fact is that all of this is emerging out of the ever increasing leadership deficit, which is doing nothing but accelerating the onset of the leadership pandemic! If you thought this was limited only to the corporate world, think again! Just take a moment to pause and reflect on what can and will happen when this leadership pandemic sets in powerful offices which lead nations and societies! That is when the real ramifications will be felt and hit hard and fast and needless to say they will not be even an ounce pleasing to anyone for that matter! You would end up societies and nations having dumb rules and even dumber ways to manage that ever increasing dumbness within and around! Want proof?- I am sure, wherever you live, you would have heard about night curfews to manage the virus! There are many such subtle examples of dumb decisions coming up from powerful offices, for only one reason- the leaders (who are supposedly advising) are the ones’ who are part of the leadership pandemic and even as they are failing fast, they are preparing a whole new nightmare of even dumber people coming into succeed! So what’s the way ahead, can anything be done!

If you ask me, the only way to fix a systemic problem is either to set up a completely new system sans the garbage of the old ones’ or start rectifying existing systems at multiple fracture points and repairing them in tandem and ensuring that the right people are always at the right places ( no matter what their price tag) for quality has a prices and unless that is paid, rest assured all of us are on a one way ticket to a hellish dumb future! perhaps the only saving grace about Leadership is that it has a core intrinsic value- something that can’t be wiped off or taken away and if you are a leader in the real essence of that word then the chances are that you would be among the few people standing between complete chaos and method to the madness scenarios that we collectively look forward to face in the future!

I leave you with these thoughts for now, urging you to stay ever vigilant and practice what you can by being the Leader that you can be for yourself and the others around you so that we are able to stall the onset of the forthcoming leadership pandemic at an individual and a collective levels alike! Feel like you have already experienced instances of failing leadership- have heart- if you have noticed it and have been able to discern it- chances are you have the way around or over it to stall and overpower it!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one, until then stay vigilant about this leadership pandemic!

Are you fooled by numbers?

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

I am not too sure, but perhaps there was a wise person who one fine day decided that humanity must pursue all and only those things that can be measured and all that is been pursued must be measured, this self-defeating thought has led us to a point where that even the amount of happiness that we seem to experience in our lives has got reduced to the digital world of likes, comments and shares! Join me here as we try to understand why numbers are not everything- always and why the context and totality of the circumstances too matter!

Walk into any high performing sales organization, and yes, the only things that will ever matter are going to be number, well nothing wrong with that- whether those numbers are for the sales achieved or for the earnings and incentives made- either ways it works for everyone who is part of that system- but if you were to start evaluating the How and Why of the sale and When and Where of the sale, things will suddenly start to seem much more different then they are! Let me explain! Consider this, you have a young person who has joined the organization in the last quarter and has been able to win back three lost clients but the sale values are less then 50% of his target for the quarter- so has he performed or not? Did he do it the wrong way by investing more time to win clients back, rather than going for the easy kills and hitting that 100% target achieved tag? Well this is just one of those many examples that we come across the corporate world where in all the time people are talking about % achieved, “x” numbers instead of “y” a year back, 125% over the target (ask a puritan mathematician and they will tell you why anything over 100% looks outright stupid! The essence of % is to record what is within the 100% not ever above it!). In all these crazy and at times dumb and outrageous measurements what we forget to factor in is the most important aspect of everything around us- the human aspect associated with numbers!

Consider the pandemic that is being played out, apart from the real health issues that we have to fight and deal with as a society, what is also baffling is the amount of statistical junk and unwanted data that gets thrown out on our face day in and day out! More often then not all these numbers are data that are thrown are pure junk, let me tell you why! When what should be communicated is actual number of active cases (that is real people infected as of in that moment of reporting), often what is shared is the total number of cases since the onset of the pandemic- needless to say higher numbers are shared, more fear mongering and more chaos! If you thought the way we are dealing with the pandemic was bad, just see what’s happening around with the vaccines! The sample size of volunteers for the vaccines is not in the millions or the thousands (at least- what should be when it comes to clinical trials- across morbidity and medical health spectrum),but what we have as 100% success and promise about vaccines is limited to a few hundreds of people undergoing accelerated trials! So when these vaccines tested and cleared on the fast route hit the market shelves- I am not pretty sure if you want to be the first ones to go ahead and take that intriguing shot!

So why have societies taken a sudden liking to play around with numbers and represent only what the numbers say (which often is not the whole picture!)? What is playing out here? Well …read on!

You see, whether you like it or not, numbers have this power which is intrinsic to them (as they are absolute), it is only when metrics are added and when they are added the way it suits the person who is recording it- rather the way the big bosses want it to be- even a healthy number begins to look bad- let me clear this for you- the earlier example of that sales person- who won back three old clients- well so if you were to measure his success on the measurement of old clients won- keeping the target 0- he would have outperformed! but when you measure his performance only against his target- well he will look bad enough at 50%- possibly hanging on to his dear job! So what is the truth? Before I answer that, consider the vaccines’ that are likely to come up- they are 100% safe among how many- 100, 200, 300 and what are the population numbers that are going to get the shots- around 2 billion! Think about that- a trail done on a few hundreds is going to decide the fate of 2 billion people world over- let that sink in! Numbers are never the whole truth or the entire truth- like nothing is- I don’t want to sound philosophical here, but that is what it is- absoluteness is a mirage when it comes to applying that principle to the worldly things around us! So how do we go about this and make sense of the junk that we face day in and day out?

Well, first things first, if you are that sales guy and if you in that spot where you have not been appreciated or even had a mention of your efforts to win back lost clients, you should know right away- you are in a wrong place! You are basically in poker yard- where only sleight of hands matter and if you were to loose a few hands too often, you will be actually thrown out of that arena! As far as the other things that are concerned, the magical % and numbers and averages and fractions, the GDP’s, the Growth and Decline graphs everything that you see, think before you consume it! Practice the pause, and try to see what the numbers aren’t communicating enough– there has to be a contextual set around what has been presented and the first step is to see whether that is the right lens or frame to see and evaluate things through to begin with even before you want to decide what is the right thing to measure! In the case of a pandemic, measuring deaths is perhaps the only definitive metric to gauge the aggressiveness and severity of the infection and the spread of the virus among the vulnerable- everything else is just a statistical model- because eventually all of the other sets/ sub sets of data will live to tell the tale!

So, the next time you come across a hotshot, telling you details about stats and numbers, ask that person to pay a visit to the section of human studies, social construct and public policy, perhaps the person will have a changed mind- if not a changed heart- to revisit the numbers that they have- because they will too realise that- numbers are not the whole truth but a part of the whole truth and the whole truth can never be complete unless the human story is aligned and is part of that narrative! If numbers were truly supreme, the world would have been lead by all the people who had high scores across all the IQ and MENSA tests ever designed and administered- We all know for a fact that- we live in a world where fools have opinions louder than their wisdom and the knowledgeable are at times far too silent to even realsie that it’s not the noise around that they hear but their beating heart- which seems to be racing up and down as it witnesses dumb rule and the wise fail!

I leave you here with these thoughts, urging you to reflect upon how was your relation with numbers, how did you manage to extract completeness from them? Were you able to create value by adding relevant contexts and how did you stay away from adding ambiguity and ensuring that you did not measure what did not serve any purpose!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one, until than stay wise and yes, do read the text that comes with the numbers- always!

Three steps to sanity!

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

Given the kind of crazy times that we are all living by, whether be it our work, homes or the social nonsense played out on the news channels every day, there could be no no better time, to get our hands on the master key to sanity and try to move away from what doesn’t serve us and stay aligned to what helps us become the better version of ourselves with each passing moment! Join me here as we try to understand why sanity is, almost always just three steps away form you, no matter what the situation!

A lot of what, unfolds around us is simply unimportant and whatever little around is important, most of the time doesn’t pass the test of the context! So you wake up in the morning, go on to grab your cup and switch on the television just to realise how dumb society has got and how glorified nonsense can be played out on millions of screens, just because someone is ready to pay for that kind of shit! Although, one may argue, so what’s the big deal, you can always go ahead and switch the idiot box off, but given the way our brains play the fool with us, this option is deceptively tough to implement! Social compulsions, confirmation biases and that aspect of self-imposed non-productive small talk forces people to switch on the idiot box- like a drug addict high on their favorite drug- these enslaved people go on to consume the garbage played out on the screens, because that is what grabs social entertainment value- kind of talk needed to get going in those social encounters when you are keen to impress! Sure enough this also speaks about the kind of social circle you are a part of, but to be very honest when we have the very battle of existence going about- no matter where you are and how high or low you are in the socioeconomic fabric, there will be this damaged aspect of society which you will always have to come to face- what remains in your control- the amount of exposure you want to have and that will go on to determine- the extent of progress or regress you encounter! The truth about societies is that, each one of them are playing out what the master demand and who these masters are- whether many or few- goes to create the script, direction and length of what gets played out and how much nonsense will be allowed or checked! You may be wondering if this is what it is, and this is how societies eventually are, is there anything that you can do? anything at all to gain some relative control to dodge this minefield of under-serving scenarios which add little value to you and on the contrary end up sapping away every ounce of what you have and who you are- to try and end up making you one of the many- rather allowing you to be one of a kind – an unique jewel embedded in the crown of a flourishing society! What is that can be done?

Well, there are three basic and simple steps, if you choose to walk upon, irrespective of what the temptation, you will almost always be able to hold on to yourself and stay clear of the corrosive influences that seem to always come your way!

Awareness- Creating an awesome amount of awareness about yourself to begin with and of what’s around you alongside an innate ability to observe- not see- is what will help you to sieve what matters from the clutter that’s coming your way! Awareness works only when you are assertive about who you are, you know what you seek and you are firmly in control of what you think and feel- this certainly like everything good and nice will come at a price- not every person will like you and neither will you be comfortable being around everyone that comes your way- what is important here is unlike the ignorant earlier self- once your awareness levels are fine tuned- you will have a strong reasoning and belief system to stand by you for all the decision that you take- whether to engage with a person or not, whether you want to take up that assignment or not, almost everything that you do or plan to do-will come from your alignment to your core beliefs, values and awareness that you go on to build and sustain on an ongoing basis!

Lens of Context- Once you have reached a decent understanding about who you are and what drives you fine and what drives you crazy-not to forget the who’s- the next step is about applying the Lens of Context! As you increase your awareness you will realise, that not everything that you see around, serve you now, later or anytime and a lot of it, really a lot of it- is always something about which you can do nothing- not now- not tomorrow- the only thing that you can do is- if that aspect begins to be an existential crisis for your personal self- is leave the place and get out of the way- unless your life is aligned to the the very cause of fighting this out! Say, you live in nation wherein you don’t agree with the political narrative- your ignorant self- will get into the bitching mode- which is what the majority of less aware people would do- does that serve you or the society- absolutely not- what do you gain? A few more beers, few more smokes, occasional heart burn, arguments, raised blood pressure and everything that doesn’t seem to help you! So how would a person who displays awareness behave- well simple- see what the facts are and make sense of what it really is and what it is been shown to be- next- analyse what is that you can do or not do- and by doing or not doing how will the unfolding events impact you? So once you begin to deploy your awareness and frame it to the lens of your context- you will know exactly how much attention each aspect that comes your way deserves and you get a choice to act- and how you act- is the final step which ensures you stay sane! read on!

Act with Calibrated Ownership- “Calibrated Ownership” is one word here, as long as you you deploy your awareness, through your lens of context and act with calibrated ownership- you will begin to rapidly evolve- disconnecting away all that is clutter and adding up and building upon all that empowers you to provide and share what your awareness brings forth! Calibrated ownership is different by the sense that you need to have ownership in the right proportion to the context and the level of awareness you may have developed around it! Consider you come to know that there is a need of an animal sanctuary around your place- that is awareness- you may have the place and fund for that- thats the part of understanding the context-calibration comes when you know how much of what you are doing is enough- that is when to stop- at what animal types and how many!

Only when individuals learn to know you they are- It is this collection of aware individuals that goes on to create an aware society/ nation and that helps everyone to focus on what serves the community and also helps them act with necessary prudence- collaboratively, with a purpose that creates and adds value!

If you ask me, the best way to know the health of any society is to study who the recent philosophers have been in the last two hundreds years and if there are any living legends around who have the ability to show the way but stop short of directing what to see!

Awareness, context and ability to act with calibrated ownership will ensure that you spend your valuable seconds on what creates value for the next one and will count your breath to give life to some great cause that serves you, the society around in a way that remains as your signature when you are long gone by- do it well and you end up being an icon- you decide not to enact and do anything- you will fade away in the crowd of humanity. Nothing is right neither is anything wrong- its your life and its your choice and its the choices that at the end of it make us who we are and will always be!

I leave your here with these thoughts, urging you to start working on your awareness, your contextual settings and that managed ownership drive!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another article, stay wise and stay connected!

Avoid the pandemic of errors.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

As the world begins to open up once again, we will be served front row seats to the ingenuity and dumbness of humanity is equal measure! The only worrisome part being that dumbness looks funny as long as it does not hit you hard and where it hurts the most! Join me here as we take a look at what is this pandemic of errors all about and can we do something about it and yes, what is it that we can do?

Irrespective of where you are in the world the chances are that you would by now completed around 150+ days either working from the dis-comfort of your home or you would have been waging a war with the limited resources available at your work place (you included) and to all of this add a top layer of diminishing intelligence on an hourly basis!– Well we have just got setting up ourselves for untold misery- and whether this misery translates into 2$ getting debited form your bank or a few millions wiped off– really depends on bad is your karmic debt! So what is really unfolding here? Why would suddenly a functional and orchestrated society falter and run into a myriad of errors and operations take a beating? Well read on!

As trainers, managers, practitioners of human resource management, behaviorist we have all heard about the theories about habits been formed and destroyed over a period of 21 days (some agree and few disagree), the placebo effect and so on and so forth. The whole Covid19 onset and the unwitting response mechanism has virtually ended up playing havoc with our brains (leave the mind out for now!) causing physiological alteration leading to health issues which extrapolate into behavioral problems with time and few of them could manifest like loosing the span of attention, hyper anxiety and so on and so forth! Not to forget these broad generic indications are further amplifies or subdued based on intrinsic traits of individuals and when you end up having a bunch of wrong individuals with a developing problem- it within no time will blow up into a society wide degeneration and read to all that one doesn’t want to see unfold in any neighborhood! Yes, those dark alleys from where normally we never wish to pass by- talk about crimes pertaining to physical harm, scams and allied manifestations which are nothing but an indication that the society has got consumed by the problem and rather then finding the path ahead or a solution, resigns itself to ways that serve the Now rather than the Tomorrow! Let me explain!

The chances are that by now, you too would have felt the change coming into your patterns of approaching people and issues that come your way. You would have perhaps noticed that you don’t speak that much now, your choice of words has reduced, perhaps your answers are more crisp, more in one liners and possibly also as single words, chances are that we you do speak- you seem like you are never going to stop! By now you would have also started to think about whatever happened to those two hour long meetings, why and how are the meetings for the same cause been wrapped in under 30 minutes! If these evolving patterns within your work areas were not enough just reflect on the experience that you are getting as you walk into restaurants, stores, dial into call centre agents, across the board you will see a common pattern emerging- the pattern of falling and failing quality of conversations, commitments and engagement! This seems fine as long as it deals with these vocations that I mentioned, but think about like in the case of the banks, aviation, armed services, political class, bureaucracy- these are the sections of societies for any nation that alter and direct policy and if these sectors begin to witness rampant failure and collapse of systems – people and process- you can imagine the outcomes! Already the world has seen multiple incidents of industrial fire accidents– like in India, in Beirut, the recent Oil spill near Mauritius– Somewhere this failing engagement of people is certainly a contributory factor in these and many other such incidents and that’s why it becomes very crucial to correct and stem this issue right now! So how do we go about this before this behavioral trait assumes some chronic proportions and suddenly we start to live in a society where erring becomes the new normal (like living with the Virus has become one!)? Read on!

When societies are hit hard by, what I call this a Sledge-Hammer event or episode- say like a building collapse, a terror attack or a war- the initial reaction of the society as a whole is to freeze and individuals within the society race to secure what they can as they can based on who and where they are in the social scheme of things! Next, as the initial shock is absorbed, people start to emerge and check what can be salvaged and what can be re-started and operated and what can’t be-In case of the pandemic of this virus- this empowerment unfortunately went into the hands of the governments- and needless to say- based on their acquired level of incompetence- many of them ended up complicating an already fragile situation and the whole world ended up being plunged into an economic melt down from a health crisis and the best part- none of them were solved! It is against this backdrop that as people begin to gain their connections back through work with other people- they are greerted by surprise- albeit an unwanted one- the same people who seemed to be compassionate and warm are now suddenly cold and blunt (if not rude) as yet! Speaking about compassion well that’s on thin ice right now, across the world!

So as people begin to re-connect with an already compromised social setting coupled with rapidly diminishing competence (as in many cases the way of working would have altered and the new way may not be suiting everyone equally!), as a society we are yet again setting up for another disaster on the making! Poor listening, poorer cognition and analytical ability and a colored contextual setting will only create more forced errors than anything else and that will translate into losses of unimaginable magnitude putting at times even nations at risk, not to forget people and their lives! Solution to stop this?

Well, start at the start go back to the basics! As it is a human problem, trust the specialists who deal or have been at the helm of dealing with human behavior. These folks and the HR specialists are the ones’ who can make a difference between an organisation thriving or diving as things begin to heat up! For their intervention and sensing of the state of mind of their employees alone will ensure that their organisation is as error free as humanly possible and when this approach is replicated across the board, a society is safeguarded and trust is put back into the whole space (earlier then one would have thought)! If there was ever a time when HR was vital and critical for organisations, it is now! Perhaps there has been no better time across the globe for people to seek People specialist to safeguard individual sanity and protect business interest which cumulatively run into billions of dollars the world over and that is what keeps the world moving, apart form astronomical factors! So how does one go about it?

Start at an individual level, perform an HR audit of yourself- seek what has improved and what has lost its shine- see what you need to get it back and then stay around that focus area and keep walking ahead. When teams come into picture, it is vital to know what each member of the team has been through- the personal cost- and how that may alter re-engagement patterns within the team knowing the construct of the team and the individual temperaments in the team, solutions like re-shuffling of teams, re-jig, breaking down, disbanding, or creating anew- all and any of these strategies could be deployed to ensure that personal hues don’t end up coloring a team intent and goal which in these times of hard to come business is that last thing that any organisation will need! Finally once the Individuals are aligned and the team is, its all about refining the top of the pyramid- the people- the process- the goals and the paraphernalia associated with that space. This whole exercise then goes a long way to eject errors- both people and process related, stem them across levels and ensure that as the re-engagement continues to build within the organisation and externally- the trust element is reached at earlier levels quickly and then the pandemic discussions really are left restricted only to that up of tea and all other engagements and conversations get aligned to business challenges and solutions therein!

Although this “pandemic of errors” statement looks comical and innocent, don’t be fooled by the grave risk that it brings along to each one of us and societies across the world- irrespective how progressed we are! It just takes the grave error of misjudgment of one person to bring an airliner down or one piece of miscommunication to start a brisk war between nations or just one misunderstanding to turn tables of a political tide and thats how errors can end up doing some serious damage! These forced errors, sure enough arise from different challenges that individuals face- and there are certain ways and means to address those and people have been doing that all the time- so I will not get into the details of those aspects here, the only flag that I wanted to raise through this piece was that, All is not well in the Human Fairyland and all of us need to be looking over the shoulder of the next person around us – not because you don’t trust that person- but simply because that person is probably too self-consumed and fatigued to even know what’s unfolding and his intentional or unintentional act will end up having consequences for you- at times they may end up being more damaging for you than the person who sets it off! You may call this a prophecy or call it an anxious rant, but the truth is that the current hard stop that the world got sold into, will cause more damage over the next 18 months, unless we are genuinely looking over each other!

I leave your here, for now, take some time to reflect and sieve through the errors that you think are lurking around and within you and get into the proactive pest control mode now to have a peaceful time ahead!

Ciao for now! Stay wise and stay connected! Guys subscribe here and to my page on FB so that you don’t miss any article!

The religion of GOD.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

Before you jump to any conclusion, no this is not about taking a stand on any religious ideas or faith systems, this is not about creating an opinion or directing the reader to move in a planned manner to any inference. This article is about reflecting what we see around us, possibly make some sense of what we see, or rather should I say, perceive what a religion is and If it is indeed what it is then, what is or what could be the religion of GOD? Join me here as we take this sneak peek into an area that touches our lives, irrespective of what faith system or belief system we choose to follow or not!

Religion-Faith- Belief system- Value system- you could come up with a hundred more similar words and all of them would eventually come to one final reality that religion has been, is and will always remain to be a defined pathway to reach, seek, sense and surrender to the supreme power- the universal energy- the almighty- again known by different names as defined by the religious pathways, but all coming to the final reality and recognition that there is nothing above or beyond that supreme manifestation. This is the essence of all the religions of the world and all the pathways that humanity has ever been aligned to for retaining our sanity and virtuosity! So the question why does GOD need so many multiple pathways and systems of eventually there is singularity of the supreme manifestation? As someone said, GOD never created any religion, it is Humanity that has created the pathways that we know today as religions, faiths and belief systems and this is at the very root of everything! Then why does everything that is divine and serene at times gets lost into the muddy waters and frightening darkness that human societies end up presenting themselves with every now or then! So where did all this possibly begin?

Sure enough, I am not making any tall claims to be an expert on Theology or the world of spirituality, this is a blog and keeping it that way, a thought starter so that you people- get your grey cells working to seek the truth that makes peace with you- any which way as humans we aren’t going to be around forever, so the truths that you and I hold with us so dearly, at the most will live for another 100 years (that too if you are lucky and have done that much of quality work for the society that you move around in! Else – you know the rows and rows of unnamed graves and tombstones which are perhaps never even visited- forget about people imbibing their value systems and belief systems!

As we race back into human history we come across the richness and vastness of establishment of religious systems, belief systems and values where there is a mention of reverence to a singular super power- a supreme manifestation which is formless and omnipresent- which has the power to provide divine grace and unleash unthinkable fury with equal ease, provide or take away what has been given in a moment- so on and so forth- access any holy book that faithfuls follows across any religion that you choose, these singularities of ideas are all the same. People often lead others into arguing to create contradicting narratives; and more then ever before, the times that we live in are ripe with this kind of social behaviour- which is not only unnecessary but out rightly stupid and dumb! To know what is the religion of GOD , we must know what GOD is, isn’t it? So here we go!

As a student of science and being realistically rational, every belief system, value system that I ever came across, had to pass questions like, the test of science, does it serve the greater good, does it makes sense, is that reproducible, can it be tamed, so on and so forth! What I share with you here are my personal reflections and experiences in this area and as I said earlier, each one of us has a different truth, bound by the contextual settings that we are confined to, all may be right, all may be wrong, few may be right, few may be wrong, eventually it all boils down to the belief of the individual for that is what leads that individual to their final resting place!

If you want to understand and want to know GOD, the only accepted way is following what is written down in the holy texts of various belief systems. Surely a right thing to do, because they have been pretty much written at a time when human societies were forming and gaining critical mass and as they expanded rapidly and shared the richness, it became more than necessary that alongside the allegiance to the rulers, there had to be a central binding force and that force was realized through these valuable texts which personified the divine engagement and that till day is a cornerstone of human society! As long as this power was harnessed for the greater good and to serve fellow humans it always rewarded by enriching the society and to this day the same is visible- where societies are anchored to the true belief systems of the faith that they choose- you will see a reflection of that among the members of the society- their approach, attitude and behavior unto others! This is where the real strength of GOD really is! But what about GOD?

Well the thought of GOD across the belief systems almost always speaks about super human abilities and an omnipresent stance. One needs to understand that these texts which recorded, documented and created the rule book for various path ways were- eventually written by some human being and then that is where we have the writer’s error that can creep in (error as in not a mistake- but error as in the inability to comprehend the vastness and the power in the absolute context of it!). Let me explain, say you are a nerd and I ask you to write an essay about the world’s fastest super computer- sure enough you will throw your knowledge into it and have a paper with intricate details about that fabulous machine, now if I were to ask an Arts student or a language student to do the same, sure enough they will research and they too will come up with the same article, but their approach and treatment will be different and this is where GOD becomes more mystical, magical, and universal! So if the recording gets tweaked a bit, needless to say that tweaking can get amplified by the people who listen, reproduce and present and so the classical communicative gaps play their role and then we have amplification at crazy proportions- not every thing is fiction, but neither everything then is a fact too! So finally human societies arrive at this middle ground agreed upon by all the pathways or belief systems- where you agree to things and principles to a particular point of mass consensus and beyond that it becomes voluntary and then there is that tiny little space where you are never allowed to enter- by questioning or challenging – for that will invoke the wrath of the those who would want to keep what is the way it is as that serves humanity in a more meaningful manner!

Irrespective which system you choose, the singularity of power, formlessness and omnipresence with a veto on everything and everyone that your cognitive mind can connects with, is all but the domain of the supreme manifestation defined as GOD- so if you see GOD being universal and being the way as described by the different pathways- by itself is above and beyond any religious bondage! The religious pathways or approaches have largely been a result of the ups and downs that societies have seen as they evolved through the last 10,000 years! Now, if you ask, if GOD doesn’t have a religion as a supreme universal formless force- why do humans follow and why do they lead to friction at times?

Here again, you need to understand that the social settings are critical and as long as societies are steady, you will always find examples of multiple faiths co-existing and thriving with none intruding into the others space! The need to compete or intrude arises when the interpretation of the pathways get altered & a few select individuals (for whatever their motive would be) go ahead and distort the established facts with modern day fiction, giving a complete twist to the whole definition of that particular religion or pathway and thereby as one does it so does the other and in no time, there is literally no GOD left in what humans begin to follow- because what they really end up following are not those holy ancient texts of divine grace and bliss, but rather altered, twisted and moderated modern day interpretations by so called “gurus” who rant off what they feel like to achieve what they personally have set out to achieve at the cost of the gullible masses who actually look upto them with complete faith in their hearts!

It is when societies deviate from the true essence of what the universality of GOD is and what the real manifestations of the supreme and omnipresent can be, is when problems begin- then the whole show of spiritual and religious upmanship begins!– One pathway suddenly becomes the star (or rather is made the star) for some time, then the other, then the next and that cycle goes on, seemingly forever! But the fact remains that unless you really connect as an individual to the GOD that is – the Universal Energy, Supreme manifestation the way you ought to- by walking on the original pathways or religious teachings of compassion, love, sharing , collaboration, discipline, equality and brotherhood, everything else is but a conveniently altered version of the original hence, we may have thousands and thousands of places of worship across the religious pathways that we choose to follow; but then the worshiped may never be really residing in there! This happens because humanity as come to the point where it has forgotten the most fundamental truth that GOD resides not at a place or point- rather being omnipresent resides in every speck that you can think of and have ever thought of! This is not what I say, this is what all the great religions and pathways of the world say and this is the singularity of the essence of GOD!

GOD, doesn’t need, neither ever had nor will ever have a religion or a pathway, for the simple reason GOD is the destination and not the pathway! The universal omnipresent force is beyond and above all human possibilities and that’s why the authentic texts, and religious books, irrespective of the faith system you choose all begin with a salute and bowing down to the magnificence of GOD! So why did humans create multiple pathways and why do they cut across?

As I said earlier, societies, their sociological construct, belief system largely reflected how the ancient rulers shaped the unit and that’s how it is to this day, with a few changes here and there! It serves a few who rule the many and that is almost with every other vocation that humans do and this is how it has been since the dawn of the civilization and the rise and fall of every civilization has been a factor of this dissonance and allied reasons! The pathways even as different as they could be, the fact is they never competed nor did they ever cut each others path, they evolved to different societies at different times and served different purposes and aligned those societies to serve the greater good and made them human unlike ever before! It has largely been the curse of modern history when so-called politicians and rulers, and people who could use their influence to alter the narrative did so and that has been the unwarranted price that societies have ended up paying almost across the globe!

So you, see neither GOD was ever a point of debate, neither were the pathways, the religions or the belief systems, it has been the directed, sabotaging and unwarranted human creation which created a smokescreen- a fog of illusion- which has left modern societies divisive and more chaotic then ever, it doesn’t help GOD neither does it help the few who are aligned to HIM, but it serves the ones’ who want to be intoxicated in the arrogant belief that they are powerful enough to create chaos and rule and direct societies to the direction that they want- the truth is that nothing could be more fictitious then this hallucination which ultimately leads to societies rising up against these megalomaniac few and a new order is re-established when the time for the same arrives!

My final few words before I wrap this blog, If you ask me, I think GOD has no religion and I also think no religion or faith is a problem, all of them did co-exist and do and will always do! The challenges for modern day societies is to stall the societal sabotage that happens around us lead by the few who want to do anything that they want to just to ensure that they do not loose control on the many and these few are the real danger to humanity!

But rest assured, I will ask GOD his religion when that meeting happens, not sure though if I will be able to relay that message back, not sure if laptops work there!

I will leave you here for now, urging you to think and reflect! No matter what your belief system, no matter what your religion is, as long as you are anchored to the truth (that is the real truth) of singularity of a supreme energy and the thought of severing everyone around so that the greater good is always realized- you are fine and you will find GOD around in everything and everyone and most importantly within you! Remember GOD is more important than religion, just as the destination is always more important than the route taken!

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

Masked smiles & Altered lives.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

As ironical it may see, but we live in the age that we have no other choice but to wear that smile of ours, albeit masked, but we need to wear it anyways! The challenge- to be sure to smile at the right time by knowing the smiles behind the other masks! As organisations and societies emerge from the shadows of the pandemic, what is going to be very important is the re-connect that we bring about, person to person, how that re-connect happens will go a long way to decode how societies emerge- whether they are more cohesive then ever before- with an overdose of empathy or whether they deteriorate further and the society continues to be masked not only to keep the virus away, but also to keep humans away form each other! Join me here as we explore what’s unfolding and what is that we can and cannot, do about it!

All of us know this very archaic statement about “humans being social animals”- I guess this age old statement has all the words in the right order! The last one is perhaps the most crucial one that we keep on ignoring, that as humans we too are “animals”. Needless to say when the social fabric of societies undergoes unintended or at times crafted stretch beyond an allowable limit; we see the animal manifest within the societies that we move about. This animal element then could be the individual, the community as a whole or the leadership that directs and builds a pathway to that effect! How this helps or harms the construct of the evolving society is really another story, what I really want to discuss is what perhaps is evolving behind the masks and why that space is so very critical to manage and measure the altered lives that we will encounter as we move ahead!

Even as a layman, if you think about how we tend to connect and communicate, perhaps even before the spoken words- it’s often the smile that either welcomes us, keeps us at a distance or ensures we don’t waste our time in the place that we have found ourselves in! That is the power of the smile- a crooked thing which apparently sets everything straight! Now with that formidable (and in some cases even infectious) smile staying hidden behind the veil of the mask- it’s going to be anyone’s guess what the encounters of the future are going to end up like! In all probability people will resign themselves to the virtual smiles through the digital connect of video calls, rather than the earlier in-person warmth! Sure enough, the smile is but a component of human interaction and not the complete interaction so why bother if that’s masked? Well if you want to learn more, do get in touch with an expert for Non-Verbal Communication or someone who excels at Body Language and they will be better equipped to tell you the art and science of what happens when people cloak themselves up and we are unable to read the vital cues- sure, no one will possibly get killed- but given the diminishing intelligence that people have- you never know!

Go back to your normal working day, perhaps some time last year, before all this nonsense of the pandemic crept up- what do you see, rush hour hustle to reach your office or business headquarters, that pooled cab, those conversations, those jokes, that stiff upper lip- which was possibly cracked opened by another smile from a perfect stranger on the subway, that laughter and those moments of stress through the meetings- which were well read and relaxed by a ill times joke- all these and many such instances were only possible because all the cues were given away by the presence or absence of a smile! Certainly wearing a mask, in the given context is vital to ensure you still remain in the present and don’t figure as a number in some morbid list, but with the masks on, and the decoding becoming tougher by the day, as people get more and more tough business situations to deal with- what’s going to manifest is primarily more and more curtailed, truncated conversations- limited engagements- which are just to the point of meeting business objectives and that’s about it! This will leave out the human completely and knowingly or unknowingly each one of us will become a part of this- cyborg kind of setting wherein our conversations increasingly become limited, referring to spread sheet column numbers, diagrams, percentages, etc. etc. and no one seems to be bothered about what’s happening within the person with whom they are engaging- good or bad- intentional or unintentional- well contexts can be many and reasons too could be valid or invalid- but what is certain is that, these engagements will end up stamping out the smile and remain focused on the masks rather then the smile behind will leave and this will eventually leave an unalterable mark on the development and engagement of human collaboration in the times ahead! For some sectors it may help, yet for other it may harm progressively stalling the spirit of collaboration, trust, interdependence which are vital for a few things, no matter how much automated we are or aspire ton be! So how do we go about this? Can this be stopped? How do we cope with this?

To begin with the earlier we realise, as Individuals, Societies,Communities that the whole essence of being a human is about being together and for each other- is when this menace can be altered and we can rescue humanity from being turned into a primitive level of cyborgs wherein all of us just end up being extensions of our digital presence by work, position or influence! For this to happen, we need to see what seems to be cloaked away in plain sight! We have been told about wearing the mask- sure enough do it- but no one asked you not to smile- no one asked you to become curt- no one asked you to loose that warmth in your voice- so re-create that- so what if its all coming from the filter of the mask- so be it- put that extra pep in the effort and ensure that your personality and it’s vibrancy is able to come out shining through the physical mask and that physical mask doesn’t end up becoming a psychological mask that subdues your brain, your power to assert, communicate and express yourself- don’t ever allow that to happen because no one is asking you to do that and no one will ever nor can anyone ever! This clarity of knowing that physicality of the mask to cover and protect you has and cannot have any bearing on your ability to express and assert yourself is of fundamental importance! The human brain is a little funny, the moment you create imagery and demonstrative influences around it- the mind games begin and then the whole response or reactive mechanism is nothing but how strong you rationalization, scientific approach and common-sense is! The moment you unwittingly add even the smallest element of emotion to this unfolding drama, all hell will break loose and you will end up not only masking your face, but also your mind and your ability to think!, playing straight into the hands of those who are possibly directing your society right now!

So, to keep it simple, remember your faces is masked not you! The more you succumb to the emotional melodrama through the forced down narratives chances are that you will end up thinking or rather begin to direct your ability to think in the direction which serves the interest of everyone else but yourself and you will just go on to prove the points like a few of the social influencers are trying to right now- like you know, “work form home” is awesome, “sabbatical is a great time” and so on and so forth! Remember, we are in midst of not only a pandemic, but a global reset and all the unfolding narratives that you see near and far- are all competing for only one thing- no not the cure for the pandemic- but for deciding the direction of the altered society as it emerges out of this pandemic! Think about it- do you really think that it would have taken a pandemic for global MNCs to spare a few dollars on home furniture and ask employees to work from home? Wouldn’t it have saved them millions of dollars by not having to pay rents or build those awesome buildings with great infrastructure to begin with (which they sold so often & so brashly as they attracted youngsters at campuses and in the competing firms to come and work from them)? Think! So what’s the plan? Read on!

Being a blog, I wouldn’t want to get into the intricate details about what the social directors aim to do and why, whether thats right or wrong, that’s not the point! The whole point is to tell you all just one thing, guard your face but unleash your smile! Even if you are masked, when you smile, the mask will give away that vital cue and that is the essence of being human and being connected with each other- to look after each others’ back and collaborate as we navigate the uncertain times! If you ask me, this time that we are witnessing is the modern equivalent of the ice age, unless we stay connected, communicative and wise, our individual weaknesses will end up empowering the greed of a few to stall our creative abilities and take away the very freedom that we cherish so much to be who we are by exercising the choices that we have- in the society that we live about!

Altered behaviors, will sure enough be there and we may alter our behaviors as we go along, nothing to complain about that bit, but what is essential and fundamental is that any and all altered behaviour must be a result of our human connect and the empathy that we hold within and not because of some social dictate that has been pushed down our throats! Take a moment and read again, if you need to, but this is the most fundamental difference and this alone will decide if societies will progress or regress they come out of this pandemic! Our choices and ability to choose have to remain intact as they weer before, as I keep saying our face is masked not our mind- as long as you remember this one thin- rest assured all your actions will be aligned to the right path of individual progress and when many of us do this, society will move ins a directions which serves the greater good to many rather then ending up serving a few and short changing ourselves in the bargain!

So, if you ask me, what are my final words here, keep that warmth glowing behind that mask- your face may be covered but nor are your eyes and neither is your mind- let that smile flow as it normally does, let the eyes express and the voice radiate the warmth and genuineness that you have for your fellow humans! Unless we make a resolve to stay connected even as we adorn the masks, re-connecting anytime in the future will be too little too late- because by then we risk ending up becoming a complete digital extension of that video meeting room ID number and everything human about us will be at a grave risk!

I leave you here, with these thoughts, urging you to wear your smile (albeit behind your mask) and always remember: That human connect is vital and no matter who says what, don’t let anyone mask your thinking and your mind- for there resides the power to change your today and your tomorrow!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one! Until then stay safe, and smile! 🙂

Guard your intelligence.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

Waking up every day to some next level of crap seems like has become the new normal in the times that live in! Even in times of global pandemic societies the world over have been blessed to witness arson, rioting and looting for one reason or the other. If this political and social unrest is not enough, we have the never ending surprises springing up at the workplace that we are yet engaged with or we were engaged with! Whether it’s the uncertainty of the next paycheck, or the heavily laced work environments as each person tries to protect their turf and survive the job cuts and pay adjustments as much and as far as possible- Every sense and sensibility seems to have been thrown right out of the window and people are now, more than ever before in the recent history of humanity are reacting and reacting to situation as they evolve rather than proactively altering the narrative and responding to what emerges! Join me here as we try to understand what the real stories are behind the ones that get played out and is there anything that one can do in these contextual time warps to guard their intelligence and sustain their sanity! So here we go!

So, to begin with what does your mormal day seem to be like- well chances are you are waking up to that piece of aggregated advertorial- which some refer as newspaper- where the headlines are nothing more than a well curated orchestra of the collusion between the politicians of the day and the business that owns that piece of information thrown in front of your doorstep. Depending on who has how many such pamphlets are thrown public opinion is been swayed and directed to think in a particular manner about a certain topic and this is where the real game begins! If that was not enough- you have other avenues of intrusion that come into your life- that post on a social media handle, that craze for the likes you want to garner, or that comment which either puts you on cloud 9 or throws you into the abyss which either calls you to start with a smoke or start getting worked up for no real sense of reason! Add to this the real or created challenges at the workplace where you are possibly still hanging around by a thread or the business that your struggling to keep afloat! Politics, corporate bitching, undercutting, changing polarities, missing common sense and that rare arrival of intelligence among all this noise- sure seems to be too much to be handled by an individual for even one day! Well, the fact is that we actually ending up whiling away our whole lives doing this same thing or variations of these day in and day out and seldom realize what we have really achieved in the sense of the word called achievement and what we have really missed- missed as in something that web should have been anchored to and which we have lost never to get back! To all of this when you add that penultimate layer of your inner circle of your family and friends- well that is almost all about it and beyond this point you are already drowned enough, at times even forgetting to breathe for yourself to ensure that you stay alive! So what’s this chaos and noise all about, which simply doesn’t seem to go away and the more we try to fix it, it ends up fixing us and our approach to it and life in a way that we even forget what we had set out to do!

This, my friend is the modern day warfare of information which attacks, continuously and repeatedly your mind and more importantly your intelligence! You see, knowledge is about knowing what has already happened and all the entirety around it- What helps humans to keep progressing ahead and moving ahead is Intelligence- Intelligence which uses, Knowledge coupled with experience to create a pathway using ingenious ways to secure a pint in the future which moves away from the problems of yesterday and today as we see them emerge and dissipate and at tims compete around us all the time! Once Intelligence is attacked it is the proverbial death sentence to our very existences- because then we are no longer thinking and feeling humans- we are rather directed biomechanical units which perform what is expected of us by the people who have the power to have that done from us- this is that dangerous place where the top 1% control, strategise and direct humanity to perform and execute what works for them! Think about it a planet with over 7.5 billion souls all controlled and directed by a few thousand people- politicians, businesses, technocrats, innovators, authors,mercenaries, spiritual gurus- there is virtually almost one representative from every imaginable sector that you can think of who are part of this elitist of the elite club that wants to reduce humanity to cyborgs and biomechanical machines who think less and feel nothing and this is why the very critical need to guard your intelligence so that you don’t end up being the next victim in this scheme of things! Don’t trust or find it hard to believe- well live you life and tell me ten years later- if thats’ the way you think it works! Being a scientist, I can tell you one thing, you don’t have to burn your finger to know if the water is bling or not and this is what separates people who guard their Intelligence and those who outsource it! So why does this occur and is there a way around, through or over it? Well read on!

As societies evolved we have had different ages or definitions of power, there was a classical ancient time when knowledge was power and the ones’ who had it, manipulated and directed kingdoms and empires to their whims and fancies at times for the greater good and at times leading them to catastrophic disasters especially when a layer of human greed and the aspects of cardinal sins was applied around that! We then had a period of medieval history and recent modern history which saw the maturity of kingdoms and nations as governance matured and innovators and scientists arrived at the scene as new age heros and they were hailed and nations/kingdoms who had more of them invariably saw more progress and development and this has been the foundation of the last century and this is what has lead us to where we are now in this moment! If there has been any singular common thread running through the centuries, it has been the fact that each time humanity has worked cohesively for the greater good of society the society or nation has thrived and made great progress benefiting every person associated with that network! Each time the efforts have been subverted, sabotaged owing to greed of a few in those very societies we have seen downfall and misery arising again and again and all the negative aspects of humanity, whether that be wars, famines, capitalistic greed, political and social unrests all of these and many such challenging connotations of society have made their presence felt and very often robbed away those societies of all the progress that they would have done in the last few decades! Now the question you may want to ask is, why do supposedly intelligent sections of the society fall into this kind of unsettling trap? Well as statisticians say, numbers are very funny, once you learn how to play around with them, you can have 1 being greater than 2 depending on where the decimal lies and where the zeroes fall!

Once people let their guard down and start to consume everything that they see, read, hear or are spoken about as true and fail to apply common-sense and science to verify and test the veracity of the claims, individuals and societies set themselves up for their downfall by shutting down their ability to think! This is why you must guard your intelligence, because intelligence alone is what gives the potent power to analyse, debate and critically test everything and anything that is presented and this is why people who are locked into the prison of their knowledge seldom shake hands with intelligence- as they are trapped in the times bygone which hardly have any or have a rapidly losing contextual relevance to the present moment and for those yet to arrive!

Sections of societies, that elite group knows this fact quite well and hence the war of the narratives– eternal and evergoing- where they want to create issues where none exist,want to sweep away what needs to be addressed and all this done- with a single purpose- to direct your thinking to the way that suits their agenda and purpose and unwittingly people succumb to this and before you realise it, you have diminished your ability to think afresh, anew or be innovative and than are permanently resigned to the instructions and apparent guidance by these very 1% lords that hold the power to sway individuals and societies the way they wish to! So if this is that bad, is there a way around it, can individual make a difference? What’s the path ahead? Read on!

The most assuring part of intelligence is that it is there- it’s about whether you use it or not! So it’s like that electricity supply which is always on and you need to flip that switch to access the light you need to or that AC that you want, but the whole point here is that there has to be an effort made to flip that switch! Flipping the switch and the right one is the essence of using intelligence sparingly like salt is to food to create magic and outcomes that have the promise for the masses and serve the greater good rather than becoming a self-centric exercise! This intrinsic power of intelligence is what is feared by the 1% club and hence the ever aggressive race to create smokescreens and false narratives to try and blind out intelligence! So where and how do we begin?

The easiest and the the perhaps the right place is to begin with you- beginning with oneself- as the foundation – as an aspect of self-awareness and knowing well what serves you and what doesn’t- is the first step to ensure that your immediate circle remains free of unwanted garbage, clutter and nonsense that can creep in- under the guise of “critical or breaking news”. Once you have sanitised your immediate area- you have ample space to think, deliberate, maneuver and progress at a pace, time and path chosen by you- yes you alone and that is what makes the whole difference between being a leader/clutter breaking individual or a follower and part of the masses! Once you have secured his inner space, the next step and perhaps equally important one is about building gates that check and recheck what’s been allowed into your clean zone, ideas, people, opportunities, thoughts, everything and anything- because like a virus on the prowl, one bad entity is enough to unleash a cascade of unfortunate events which can bring down even the most intelligent of people, ideas and opportunities! I will stop short of getting into details of how we do it and what steps does it entail, because each one of us is unique – as unique we can be and our contextual truths of life are perhaps stranger than fiction and that’s where the opportunity too lies to defeat and win over the 1% elite club- by creating distractions and moves banking on our intrinsic intelligence to help us achieve what serves the greater good for us and the society around us! This, my friend is the essence of guarding deploying our intelligence, no matter what the pressure we face or what the odds that we face!

I will leave your here with these thoughts, urging you to take a moment to notice what’s driving you- rather what is that you are driving you life through or are you getting driven around! Wisdom lies in deciphering Knowledge from Intelligence and applying Intelligence to make knowledge work for your present and future and not allowing Knowledge to entrap your intelligence to the bygone eras!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another article, Until then stay wise, knowledgeable and intelligent and yes, don’t consume all that comes your way- remember -even the virus got sent!

Success through disruption.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

Scholars and historians may not always agree on all the things that have been ever said or recorded, but the one thing that all of them will always agree upon is the singularity of the fact that- All great success and progress of humanity has been through or amidst disruption and more importantly, the greater the disruption that humanity has been hit by, even more greater has been the resurgence and the pursuit for success to ensure that humanity lives to its name of being the most adaptable and intelligent of all species on the planet! Ironically enough- it is often the dumbness and stupidity of the same species that lands humanity in tight corners to begin with! Join me here as we explore how and why success through disruption seems to be so refreshing and exciting even though it may at times charge a premium as as as far as the price and cost at which such a success eventually manifests!

I you see through the last 300 years of world history, it has been sprinkled with long periods of calm with ensuing periods of unrest, war and chaos in between- Importantly at any given time, there always has been one region or area of the world which has been in a flux of unrest (for whatever reason) and strangely enough this small pocket of unrest always has gone to dictate what the whole world should focus upon and thereby all efforts of humanity would be automatically aligned to resolve that space or pocket of oddity and with that would come in the rush to seek success by any means or ways just to get that pocket of the planet into the – normal way as seen and perceived by the majority! Needless to say, as soon as the leaders of the world would resolve one pocket of unrest or uncertainty there would be another few developing and this never ending cycle goes on like a perpetual machine along with it- creating and destroying lives, livelihoods and economies- all of this ever happened with a singular plan to have perpetual success for a select few at all times even as the rest are left ever struggling through their chaos and turbulence to seek his ever elusive success of calm and peace which seems ever away from their view point- at times for reasons of their own making and yet at other times because of situations are simply beyond their control and are in fact designs of someone else!

Through this fog of chaos, if you carefully observe, success has embraced those societies and nations which have held their ground for the core values that they stand for and have not relented even an inch in what they ever believed and what they thought was the greater good for their people! What works for societies sure does work for individuals and that is why when individuals (who are the basic element of the society) bring in resilience and that desire to be successful, magic happens and times of disruption provide the perfect contrasting backdrop which ensures that even ordinary success (during other times or times of peace) ends up becoming stellar performance worthy of awards and accolades! This very element of being able to get attention and getting noticed is what makes success earned through disruption and that’s why disruption is a blessing- as long as you are anchored to what you seek! So how is success through disruption different than other times? Read on!

In the normal course of times, when everything is settled and things are all fair weather, many people want to try many things and thereby- irrespective of the individual cases of merit- that never ending competition to even seek attention- fails many efforts and at times even the best of the best! You see, attention seeking techniques can be manipulated without checking or validating the real merit that a particular story warrants- don’t believe- watch any news channel you will know what I mean! Next, this clutter of attention seeking behavior then further dampens the genuine interest that actually propagates and drives success!This vital step ends up creating false starts- where wrong projects or stories get highlighted and races ahead only to succumb on account of their own intrinsic failure of having no depth or merit! When the seas are calm you have many ships out there heading for the harbours and it is these crowded harbours that create bursts of attempts for success- in any which way- that goes to undermine individual talent, intellect and impact that any of those ideas can ever have in the real sense on the society or a nation!

On the other hand, when the weather is adverse, you have very few mariners out there and rest assured they are the best of the best, for they have learnt the art and science to tame the storms, at times through prudence and persistence and at other times, through costly lessons of having borne the brunt and re-build themselves all over again to take upon the storms and tame them all over again! It is these pioneers who believe in what their thoughts are , ideas are even in face of seemingly adverse contextual settings, that hold the key to create impact on societies and nations in big way- for the simple reason that- they are ready to venture out when there is not much of crowd! Hence the very few who do venture out get all the attention and support (if needed) to deal with the challenge at hand and get a ready audience who is eager to hear what their ideas about the new definition of success is!Not to be surprised then, it is these very ideas and these very ideators who then wear the hat of the pioneer to direct societies and nations in a direction that suits and defines their success!

Ironically enough, since there is much less competition even among pioneers during times of distress, that even the most average idea and thought ends up being a heroic one and this extent of paucity of alternatives either builds a strong and intelligent society or creates an even deeper sink hole purely depending on the merit of the idea and the definition of success that it brings along with it!

So in a way, if you see, times of disruption are perhaps the best times that one can eagerly await for when it comes to put forth a clutter breaking idea or thought and weaving a new narrative for success- something that makes the oder and earlier narratives obsolete and makes the new one aspirational, desirable and likeable! So what are the kind of ideas and who are these ideators and how do they possibly manage it? Well here you go!

To begin with, more often than not these ideators are someone like you and I,the normal people that you come across through the routine of your life! These are really those ordinary people who have an extraordinary ability to see something of value even as majority of us tend to frown and keep complaining about- how the normal has changed! These people have the intrinsic ability to see the new normal and embrace it long before we understand it and even as majority of us are struggling to adapt! Next and more importantly, these people are great readers of their contextual settings and know the gaps very well and carve out ideas that fit those gaps- whether these are product related or service oriented in such an amazing way that- it all looks simply natural and something that society was possibly ever waiting for! I am sure, if you look around you will find a number of such ideation cases which have been very recent but seemed so very natural the moment they got activated! Finally, since there is a genuine dearth of courageous innovators who have the ability to mix, simple, powerful solutions and communicate them through their charisma- success- real success is far infrequent than one would have thought! Even among the pioneers who come in shining armour during desperate times, only a few survive the turn of a decade and hardly any a generation later- unless and until their ideas have been foundational and potent enough to withstand the onslaught of time and ever evolving human intelligence!

Well, if I have to kind of wrap the things up for this article, here is the crux, embrace disruption and be thankful for it, for you may never know which part of your easy life that you live was a consequence of an earlier period of rapid stress and disruption- which was heeded to by some amazing pioneers and their ideas luckily for you and me, tuck long enough to make our lives that notch easier and bearable to live! Disrupted times are times when there are very few people on the stage of the world and that ensures that each one of them gets their chance to fame and glory-who succeeds and who doesn’t largely depends on how great, simple and powerful the thought is, how well that resonates with the contextual settings of the time and how effectively the whole package is communicated to the society to make it desirable, likeable and successful!

I will leave you here with these thoughts; hopefully we are yet somewhere still in the flux of our current times; perhaps few moments over your favourite drink and who knows! magic happens and you may be the the one who comes up with the next simple, powerful and compelling idea that writes in a new narrative for the society to embrace!

Ciao for now, I will be back soon with another article! Until then stay wise, stay safe and embrace your contextual disruption!

The Work From Home pandemic!

~ Parimal Aluri ~ 5 Comments

I know you may think, I am out of my mind, but trust me, when I say the next challenges pertaining to human creativity , collaboration and trust are all going to arise from this so -called magic bullet of work-from-home! Join me here as we try to gauge what is perhaps greatly amiss and why what’s missing here will eventually end up causing the next pandemic with connotations spanning the mental health, financial health and work health of individuals and corporations world over! So here we go!

As the virus came calling, governments did what humans are great at doing- imitation- yes imitate what’s happening with the other nation; so as one nation locked down, so did others- well not to blame anyone for so much little was even known as things started to go from bad to worse and by the time people knew what had to be done and there was too much of cheese all over the place to avoid people from tripping, falling and breaking their bones- so the holy answer to all problems became the lock down and with that piece of unwarranted medical harakiri came the second unintended consequence of “work from home”!

People forgot in no time,even their ability to think and see how suddenly, just because the law of the land said so,working from home became fine! It is the same company perhaps, which would have made you move houses so that you could cut the traffic and reach on time, perhaps it is the very same firm which said, the offer letter could be given only if you stayed within a 10 mile radius and can make it ot the office on time, these are the very same offices which cut your leaves, salaries because you clocked in ten minutes late , three times over in a month just as recently as a few months back, now they all seemed to be just fine- for them- even as your privacy and peace at home has been plundered, looted and laid threadbare- whether it is that pet calling for you attention, that maid coming in at the critical moment through you presentation or the small kid who simply doesn’t understand what the parent is doing toying around with an electronic gadget- all and many such more minute scenarios are laying the foundation for your next disaster in the making and if you are not careful, the next one will even shame the virus- because the next challenge coming your way will be more personal- created by you and can only be solved by you!

To begin with, let’s try to understand what has actually happened! One fine day, your organisation was informed it’s not business as usual- like many others you too rejoiced with the thought of being able to work in your pyjamas and seem cool- to post snaps from your kitchen and show your superhuman skills of being able to work at home and for office at the same time- well this was the first checkmate- you just proved to your firm that the work given by your firm- and the price at which it was given to you doesn’t seem to make any sense- so as a consequence- your work-from-home hours suddenly started to stretch beyond your levels of comfort and sanity- so that now forget the kitchen you also find it a challenge to relieve yourself! Add to this the next layer of complication that gets added when you have more number of family members “working from home”- conversations overlap, conversations are overheard, jokes become a pain point and tonality becomes a point of debate- next any remaining confidentiality- whether its that email to your colleague., vendor or boss- doesn’t miss the attention of the other members and often your emails will be spell checked and langage refined- finally at some point your people from office will know- you have got a communication expert sitting by you helping you counter your one more incompetence which now lies more exposed than ever!

Likewise there will be countless odditties that will come to the forefront and few of them will many a times not what you had been saying all the while to the people with whom you worked at the workplace and now that they have intruded your private space- well the sad fact is there is no place to go further and create ambiguity- so what does this to the trust between people? Well as colleagues you have mental images and comfort evolved dealing with specific individuals- not everyone you know makes you equally comfortable hence- you tell what you think is the level of comfort for both of you- but with this private space intrusion there is a new level of problem- a lot of people come to know what you have perhaps not told- because it may not have been necessary- or required or because you didn’t want to- in any case what that ends up doing (which again is unwarranted) is erodes a small amount of trust and once this process starts, trust me there is no going back and it’s just a matter of time that you will see so-called team re-alignments and working dynamics change and in extreme cases people shuffled across the board and in a few other case ejected from the system! All simply because your privacy got intruded and you really had not planned for this shit coming your way!

To all this drama when you add multiple stakeholders and also add the other work-from-home members from your residence (now which resembles kind of a public arena-because of the kind of activities that seem to start at 8am and end only around midnight!) the chaos and confusion only adds up and in some cases is bad enough to drive you crazy enough to either share some unpleasant exchanges with the people in the zone or simply hang up your boots and say a hasty goodbye to what would have otherwise been a smooth career pathway- the one that you had aspired for and set out to achieve right from your college days! So what’s really happening here? Is there a way out of this and way to manage this? How long will this go on and what’s really the matter- the work or you?

Let’s start from the beginning! Do you remember few of the conversations that you had when you took up this job (which has now intruded into your privacy)? Yes, topics like- work-life-balance, respect for private time, no calls or emails on holidays and weekends, why you must move closer so that you can commute and be in the office! Why the office discourages working from home- because they respect your privacy! and now this very office is advocating the very opposite of all that was said and agreed upon- why? The Virus- not at all- you see, global businesses, whether you are selling donuts or some high end jwellery have been under stress even before the pandemic broke out and globally the capitalists led- world of corporate blue collared elites have been waiting for an opportunity to correct the systemic wrongs and the pandemic just happened to be the blessing in disguise that they were ecer waiting for! This once in a lifetime opportunity gave them the reason to dishonour their corporate lease agreements, defer payments to vendors and staff indefinitely (unless in few nations where in the governments intervened and set the rules of engagement – to salvage some sanity), get even with the governments of the day to extract deep discounting for the next few years so on and so forth, not to forget the reset of their banking terms and conditions (the corporate ones- even as at an individual levels you still get hounded by debt collection calls!) So you see, the real thing about asking you to work from home is the least interest of your safety- but in the larger interest of corporate finance and the compulsions that go around with the nexus of business and politics the world over- nothing to say good about and nothing to whine- because neither I am the business nor the government! and you ended up thinking the work-from-home- intrusion to your privacy was a sacrifice that you are doing for upholding your company! Well keep thinking that way- and wait for the next nightmare!

The other serious level problem that has happened is that as individuals begin working connected through distributed spaces- human brain the way it is- trust erodes rapidly and you add a personality angle to it, this differentiating rate of trust erosion for all the right and wrong reasons helps accelerate the fall of teams and bring in the “new order”- read creating lean teams as the new need of the day- thereby kicking in pay cuts and job losses- each and every aspect of this is linked to the innocent looking solution of “work-from-home”! The things that help this, are the ability to track meticulously- time everything to the nth second and no more- lobby meetings, board room chats and walk around the office so the sudden addition of a 60-80 minutes of additional time through the day- ironically enough ends up making you look more non-productive than ever before and you too begin to loose a grip as the normal way of planning does not help as work seems to get over sooner than you think and as the battle to prove efficiency amongst colleagues takes centre stage- each one send sup undoing the other one and eventually create enough fluidity so that when the time comes- all are swept away in one masterstroke of team realignment! The only way that individuals hope that the organization still holds interest in them is by understanding if their home-office furniture ordered is coming in or not! I mean really! So is there anything that we can do, if this is all a game cast at the upper crest of societies and nations, do we stand a chance?

Well, as history says, when the war is with the system, you need to be in the system to beat the system or develop and evolve it, never has anyone been able to alter the course of history by staying aloof, unaffected or away from it! The fact remains that even as we engage and present ourselves to work with corporates or business houses- irrespective how experienced or inexperienced you are- you need to have your own intrinsic non-negotiable terms and conditions! Like all offices have a office rule book or a manual or better still a code of work , you too need to come up with a code book for your life- I mean, after all isn’t that the most important thing that you should ever be bothered about? Something that core and intrinsic, because when all else and everyone leaves you at some point in time- which they will certainly do- what stands with you apart from your shadow will be the core values systems and the intrinsic systems that construct and make you who you are! This, my friend is the essence of being able to stand firmly and face all the storms and high waves that may ever come your way- by harnessing the strength of who you are and for that to happen you need to be connected within and know yourself as well as you know the vocation that you pursue nor the people who matter you! Once you have cracked this essential adb vital code, rest assured, there could be a hundred more vurusses coming your way, the next time an organization asks you to work-from- home,you will know what is coming your way and chances are you’ll either insist to work form office or politely ask them to get in touch with you once the offices reopen! Exposing your private life for the capitalist greed of businesses and politicians is the last thing that you should ever do- this is similar to a soldier allowing spies into the nation! Think about it! Is anything really worth it -at the cost of peace, harmony and the wellbeing of the core unit that you represent in the society- the family that you have!

The work-from-home pandemic is the greatest illusion and perhaps even more dangerous than the virus, the virus will eventually will be tamed- there be vaccines and solutions through medical interventions, but the pandemic of work-from-home if allowed to get a foothold- will end up eroding the basic functional units of the societies the world over- these units could be families- small or large, could be partners living together, could be friends, or good people working on something bigger and better together! All of it will be lost to be enslaved to the greed of the growing capitalist clut with or without collusion of the political class of the day! The only way through this and to stem this, is by knowing who you are, what your value systems are and very importantly having the courage to say No- when enough is enough and guarding your private zone with every ounce of courage that you have!

I leave you here with these thoughts, for you to reflect, what your experiences have been and possibly urging you to create a blueprint for yourself and the unit that you hold close to you- so that you guard yourself from the next attack that may come your way disguised as yet another some new way of living or working!

Ciao for now, grab that coffee and I will be back soon with another article!

Be formless to create form.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ 2 Comments

Learning from the elements around us is perhaps the biggest and the brightest classroom that we can ever walk into and it is in these open classrooms that the greatest and the most richest of learnings happen! Join me here as we explore to understand how by being formless, we can create within ourselves formidable power to bring to life the manifestations and dreams that we hold within!

If you have been ever inspired by nature- say, the great beach fronts or the lofty mountains that are sprinkled around the planet- it’s always worthwhile to remember that each of these magnificent and beautiful works of nature have only been possible through the power and perseverance of the elements who have remained formless for long stretches of time (continue to be so always) and have chipped away bit by bit what came in their way to create what inspires us today! This perhaps is the most fundamental of all learnings that we can ever collect and follow as humanity! It is this simple yet powerful fact that- it’s never about that great act done on one fine day- rather it is the efforts and smaller contributing acts that have gone to create that one big day- when the order was changed or the narrative was changed in a way that created a new lens to look at the same things in a different manner!

Even the great warriors of medieval times, knew this secret and often, nature and the terrain played a vital role when it came to devising strategies of war- when kings got them right- nature rewarded them by being on their side and ensuring a victory for them and when they got it wrong- nature became as ruthless as it can be and lessons learnt even by those costly mistakes went on to make permanent amends in the way wars were fought later! Such is the power of the formless forces of nature- water, light, wind and thunder. It’s no wonder that humanity has always been fascinated by them- their power and the pursuit to tame them to ones’ advantage is even today the centerpiece of all conflict across the world! So what is formlessness all about? What is there that we can learn from all this?

The word, “formlessness” is deceptive, the reason being that the moment we hear the “less” part of the word- our brain automatically gets programmed to discount the first part of the word and that’s where many of us end up doing a fatal mistake! We don’t understand the word “form” in its entirety to begin with and thereby completely miss out on gauging the depth and importance of the power that ” being formless” can bring along with it!

Form- as the word implies gives definite structure and dimension and this is what always makes us comfortable- as humans we are hardwired to deal with the finite that comes our way and depending upon our individual or collective capacity decide how to tame the finite or the form that stands in front of us – whether its about encountering a big animal or a small hostile group or its about taking upon an enemy group at a war theatre- the moment we are able to determine the “form” as humans we are equipped to devise strategies to defeat, delay or divert the challenge in front of us – all with one motive of “we” being the survivor at all costs! The moment this definite “form” gets ambiguous all hell breaks loose and this is where “formlessness” assumes proportions that baffle humanity even today! Consider this, we are more relaxed as we deal with dogs and cats- even if they are untamed- now suddenly you come across a snake- what happens- it still has form- it still is definite- but yet- the instant reaction (and in most of the cases the best one to have) is to move away as quickly as possible and just get into a zone of complete avoidance and fight only if no other option exists! So what just happened here- even when there was form- just because it is an “unknown” and completely new form to deal with- our brain takes us straight to the primordial, flight or fight response and this survival technique works well and has been perhaps the only reason why humans have been successful and survivors until now!

It is when the unknown becomes- formless that the real test begins and that is where the power- the ultimate power to create lies! If you have ever seen water flow down a stream and then see it grow as you hiked along to see it changing form from a serene mountain stream to a fast flowing stream then onto become a roaring river- complete with rapids and then descending down dramatically through waterfalls, gorges cutting across valleys and finally making itself as vast and as deep it can as it flows through the flood plains onwards to merge onto the Sea or an Ocean- what is happening here- well at every stage- water- which is finite- assumes radical formlessness by altering the way it behaves given the kind of obstacles and challenges that it faces enroute through its flow! This is what empowers formlessness- the strength of formlessness comes not from being formless but rather being able to alter oneself to meet the challenge head on and overcome it by becoming a completely new version of oneself! This is the essence and soul of the concept of formlessness- the ability to alter- stay dynamic and being able to prevail in face of the adversity that stands in front of you in the path that you have chosen to walk upon!

As with water, so with wind, so with fire- as long as we know the finiteness and the dimension of these entities we are comfortable to deal with them, the moment they present themselves as something which we are unsure how to deal with, these very elements become menacing problems and have the potential to etch new order simply by the power that their formlessness brings along with them! Think about it! The fire that you see bruning softly in the fireplace or the flame on the stove is the same element as what constitutes the forest fire! The fires erupting in the forests are no way techncially different then the ones’ that you have tamed and which have provided you life with are- yet the moment the element of fire- gets loose- it becomes one formidable entity which you really want to get away from- as far as possible! What does this all say about us and what is there for us to learn and take away from this space?

If you analyse the worldly problems that you face, day in and day out- you will see a similar trend- as long as you seem to have the ability to tame, deal, manage the problem that you are dealing with, everything seems to be just fine- this is the space where you are still holding the water in the jug on the table and this is the moment wherein your lighter still obeys you and lights the cigar when you command it! The moment you start to run out of ideas ort deal with your existing problems and as they start to transform into something else that what you have anticipated them to be- their finite forms quickly start to transform into something unknown and something far formless, then what you have earlier bargained for and this is where the water in the jug is threatening to run off as a flash flood and that lighter is threatening to set you ablaze, even without you trying to turn it on! So now the million dollar question what do you do? How do you deal with everyday fluidity and formlessness around you? Well the answer is deceptively simple, yet powerful! You attain formlessness in an equal measure to mitigate the power of the problems that you face! This alone is the wise way ahead- attain formlessness and create form- once you have mastered this element, no matter what the challenges that you come across- you will always find a way to stay a step ahead, over or above what the challenge seems to be and eventually will be able to create a definition for that problem so that it loses its potency of being a formless headache and this can be achieved only by you becoming formless and formidable! but how exactly do you attain formlessness? What’s the trick here?

Being formless, or becoming formless is all about being fluid, adaptable and responsive (not reactive) to the what’s happening around! It’s about changing your currencies, your priorities and being able to take those quick seemingly unworthy detours to ensure that you stay away form the grips of the problems that plague you, but you are always within striking distance to hit back at the problems and challenges and more importantly you get to choose when you hit back, how and with what intensity! This is the power that formlessness alone can bring to you- the power to choose when you deal with the challenge at hand and how exactly you deal with it! Once you have reached this space of being able to remain or stay formless- you will realise that it is this very space where you can co-create magic- you can create forms- alter narratives and create lasting impact by giving new directions to societies and individuals- on how they gho about dealing with what they face and suddenly your formless energies have acquired form by new acquired behavioral patterns that the society now adapts to and adheres to! In a way, the formlessness of an individual which gives vital power to deal with seemingly overbearing challenges creates and directs form to be developed within chaos and ambiguity which further empowers societies and communities at large! This is the true power and way to create form by assuming formlessness on an ongoing basis and when leaders do this- magic happens and you have responsive and vibrant societies that thrive on the power of individuals to steer them away from harm no matter how high or how deep the challenge that they face- individually and collectively!

The real essence of formlessness is being able to remain fluid and focussed to create forms and outcomes that serve the greater good and serve them well in time, so that the formless leaders are ready for the next challenge and today’s challenges are converted to routine tasks which people are left to manage with- to grow- learn and progress!

I leave you here with these thoughts for now; think about the last time when you acquired formlessness, what was it like! What purpose did it serve and how did that help you as an individual and how has that impacted the society that you work for? If not yet, when do you propose to assume formlessness and for what purpose? What is the form that you want to create by being formless yourself!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another article, until then stay wise and stay sublime!

The way of the wise.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

When you think you are mopving about the world, whioch by now resembles a fools’ paradise, all the more improtant then ever before to do what’s in your best intererst and the only key to ensure the safety and sanity of yourself and those around you! The only thing that you can do and must do is follow the “way of the wise”! Join me here as we undertsand what’s this great or rather simple “way of the wise” and why it is perhaps the only thing standing between humanity and insanity in the times that we are livibg by!

Dumbness, stupididty, idiocracy, not-being-so -right, well these and many more such thoughts and obesrevations are mroe or less widespread across the world at the moment as I pen this article! Whether you are in the USA, the European Union, the Middle East , Asia or any other place that you can think of- chances are that the society that you are a part of – is right now struggling (rather made to struggle about an issue or an event). The funniest part of all this is that everyone- who is part of the society has joined the cause to overcome and prevail over the problem without even bothering to define what the problem is in the first place! These are the vital initial signals that you can gauage coming form a society whichis in the bad need to explore and find out tthe “wsie way” that meets it’s requirement to unchackle itself and come out of the fatal interanalisation of problems which are ate times real adn many times- perceived!

Let me explain you with an example- so far the world has lived through the vice-like grip of the pandemic for the last about 7 months now!- yes! it’s 7 months already! What has changed? Well apart from the financial meltdowns, playing our true charatcer to the fornt row audience more often then evere before- nothing else has much changed! Has our behaviour altered- well yes and now- Yes- in terms of how we have managed to while away our time at hand- seeking new unproductive ways to kill it- and No- in terms of anything worthwhile that has been created by any of ius- whcih you could say- Well- I was stuck so I created this as a mark of my reselience and steadfastness! The reason why many of us have possiblly ended up whiling our time without creating or adding anything worthwhile to ourlseves or others around us is becuase we failed to understand the essence of the “Wise way” to go about dealing with oursleves when the unknown manifetss the way it did this time around!

The more we tend to seek normalcy around abnormal situations and circumstances by imittating and copying what seems ot be the normal way of doing- we set ourselves up for untold misery- acts that are often carried out without any forethought and contextual understadning of what’s relevant in a given specific area, are always bound to be shortlived solutions which come back haunting in the form of even larger ghosts that simply refuse to die or kill themsleves! One such vivid example of the recent time has been the “Lock down solution”, as the pandemic set, this became the proverbial master key to find a quick solution to a probelm whcih was hardly understood and was evolving each day! The consequecne- unwanted- unplanned and myopic lockdowns the world over have neded up finishing off livelihoods and lives with it- killing mroe people indirectly by stetting them up for financial distress and failures and if the Virus doesn’t kill them, the financial meltdown and disster resulting from itsurely will! So what’s the solution? What’s the right way? The right way and the only solution for all times- good and bad- easy and challeneging is to follow “The way of the wise”.

The “way of the wise” isn’t a magic bullet that answers all your problems, neither does it solve all your problems- what it does is- it allows you to deal objectively and effectively with the situartions and contexts that come your way! This is what changes the tide in an indidvidual’s favour and this is, indeed the essence of the “way of the wise”!

The Way of the Wise- is all about creating unique pathways and realities to better understand the developing contexts around oneself. It is about having minute to minute awareness and understaindg with ample clarity of what’s unfolding and how that will impact- where- which area- by what magnitude. You see, once you are able to be in the now- and are coinnected with whats around and witin you in the moment- you are empowered more then ever to take decisions that lead you to the contexts which begins to align with you, for your cuase and your objective with every right step that you build over the earlier one! Its these incremental right steps taken one after the other by being immersed in the ensuing moments that allows one to create a pathway which is empowering, liberating and above everything else able ot provide meaningful solutions to the evolving contexts as one keeps moving along in the right direction that one is locked on to!

The way of the wise- is certainly not about having all the answers to all the prblems that come in ones’ path, rather it’s also a pathway that’s littered with failures and unsuccessful attempts that have been done in one moment- to be corrected in the next and this moment to moment perfectioning of the imperfections of ones’ apporaches is also an essence of the wise way! It is a pathway that assures meaningful outcome only once all that is unmeaningful and unserving has been completely ejected within and around you! The way of the wise is about being achored to the objectives of the thought process that seek answers to a moment in time- in a way that these asnwers build upon over a period of time to provide reproduciblee and assured outcomes the way that humanity would want more of!

The way of the wise- is also about being one within and with people around you with an aim to serve and be serviced- this is different then the rigmarole of what can you do for me and how can I help you- believe it or not most of the problems- real and perceived that the world today is grappling with are a direct cosnequence of the second approach I just mentioned! Through the anals of history, turn any page and walk into any era that you wish to across any kingdom/civilization- the singular fact that you will come across will reveeal one thing- Each time that humanity and society has failed on the element of being “Of service” to one another and to each other in the real meaning of the term- humanity has set itself up for failures and disasters-over and over again! The endless pursuit of greed which has been written across all coisties that have ever been created by us- has always been at the cuase of the decline and eventual demise of those societies!

The way of the wise is all about- being glued to the path of purusing the greater good and creating what serves humanity rather being self-serving and self-centric! Its about developing pathways and solutions which resolve contextual challneges both as they develop and also create humanistic benchmarks to ensure that when similar challenegs crop up or seem to crop up- there exist proven and tested approache to deal with those kind of situations as long as the contextual compulsions reamain valid!

The way of the wise- is the collective way- a way that fosters collaboration- togetherness and thrives on shairng benefits and pitfalls alike so that humanity knows where to venture next and where to avoid next- this goes a long way to ensure that given the short life that each of us have as humns- we don’t end up pursuing what already has been achioeved or end up puruing someting that has already been recorded a pure utopia! A fignment of imagination! It’s only the colletcive concoiosuiness that can allow humanity to build upon itself and create societies and nations which are able to gravitate to work for teh greater good and the only way ton esnure that happens is to follow the Way of the Wise- without flinching a moment away from that space or path!

I will leave you here with these thoughts for you to relfect- if you have indeed ever walked the way of the wise- or if you have been among the wise- who had ambarked on that path? Were you ever able to service another human being around you? What was that moment like? Were you able to witness a society in action while it was following the way of the wise? How was that moment? How did that change you? If you have indeed not as yet, felt any of this, what’s your plan to create or follow “The Way of the Wise”?

Ciao for now, I will be back soon with another article! Until then stay wise, stay safe and yes, don’t fix what’s not broken and don’t re-invent what exists!

The power of “Quiet”!

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

Paradoxical as it may seem, amidst the growing chaos and noise the only real hope and sanity comes from the island of “quiet”. Join me here as we try to explore the gifted confines of quietness and appreciate how and why empowerment that comes from the stable of Quietness is more often – the most pivot one and has the ability to lead and effect change and order like nothing else that humanity has ever known! So here we go!

Before we understand how and why, “Quiet” hods formidable power, we must understand what do the unquiet spaces around us look like and what they really are! It is the magnitude, depth and the extreme difference between the Quiet and the Unquiet that directly creates the contrasting effect which makes us choose one over the other depending on what drives us and who we are!

Our routines have always, well almost always have been of getting something done- whether that’s a task at hand or whether it’s about achievement something that we have set out for – for that limited period of time! This simple and singular approach to loving our lives- results us getting into the famed Tunneled approach to life- wherein we start to shut off and ignore everything and anything that doesn’t seem to serve our purpose of movement in the direction of the task or act that we are all set out to accomplish! Well, so far there is nothing right or wrong about this space- each one to his own- as I always keep saying- the last thing you need is a prejudiced coach- which I am not! So even as people keep chipping away and racing ahead- what actually happens is that- people get drawn and consumed by the noise and sounds created around and within them- which are nothing more but the consequence of their own set pieces of priorities, solutions and challenges- at times convergent and many times divergent! It is from these ever increasing divergence of daily lives that people often end up creating more and more noise and sound with each passing moment and end up loosing and forgetting everything about what’s beyond the obvious and often hidden in plain sight!

The times that we live in, are cluttered with islands of noise and sound- few of these are our own creation and many other that surround us at all times are but echo chambers which we end up building and developing either by the element of “likeness” or by the “eclectic groups” that we create as we go by our busy lives- next important aspect to note is that as the multiplicity of these islands goes on increasing in space and time- even at an individual level we are all but drowned in an ever increasing maze of noise and chaos- at times this helps when the resonance is to do with the element of creativity and innovation, but in majority of the cases the whole space gets just drowned into one never ending space of noise and sound- at times the sounds of today and the bedrock of eternal noise for times ahead!

What is even more baffling is that humanity seems to have taken a strange liking to this whole phenomenon of begin heard to, speaking up and creating an impact- irrespective whether true depth and merit of content and context exists or not! In fact societies are increasingly even the rarer occurrence of calm and lack of chatter or noise as unwarranted regression and then are compelled to rake up something or the other just to ensure that there is that noise going around at all times regardless whether that is warranted or not and whether it makes sense or not! So why have we walked to this point? so much ahead that even when a part of our own thinking ability tries to indicate the contrary, we end creating the all too familiar patterns of noise and sound through our self driven compelling approach. What is this all about? What does it speak about societies and about us as Individuals and is there are way around this? Is there anything more powerful to vaporize this automated self consuming behaviour?

Well, to put it simply, globally societies have always been defined with regards to their opulence or success as a factor of how much noise and sound is being created within and around them! This fundamental flaw has ended up eroding any sense of contextual or content sanity that societies would have earlier had – through their traditional disposition, culture and arts! There were times and pauses in history when, no news was a great thing- for that meant- all’s well and no one is getting killed or no one is planing anything radical! Over a period of time, the never ending need (at times regulated, at times self- mandated) to be present in the news, discussions and even to feature within gossip has been made the norm- a social barometer of acceptance- so if you or your idea or your business has not been of late discussed at the eclectic circles and has had no mentions – whether the right or wrong (who really cares!) it meant that you have not yet arrived at the scene and you are yet to be recognized as a true entity! This kind of unforgiving societal bias and social compulsion is what has been at the foundation of the noise and sound laden society that we live by! This singular factor has contributed more than anything else to the tons of electronic garbage and media madness that plays out day in and day out across mediums and across channels endlessly irrespective whether any of that crap makes sense or not and this is the whole reason why this approach has now started to take a toll on the very people who devised this game and now even they are feeling the ice like grip of what I call as “failing fatigue” – the moment wherein you have no longer the power to either manage direct or sustain the nonsense that you had let loose and which is now all geared up to come back at you like a boomerang to extract it’s due!

No matter how hard or difficult it may seem to escape from the space around noise and sound, the fact remains that, perhaps this is the easiest of the things to do and the only way to do that is to tap into your internal power of “Quiet”. Once you have tapped into this small and calm island within yourself-trust me it holds unimaginable power to steer you clear away form all and any noise and sound that you may ever want to- irrespective whether you have been the person who has created it or whether you have the person who has played a role in amplifying it! You must be now wondering what makes “quiet” so effective and such a deadly force to reckon with!

Unlike everything else, “Quiet” needs no audience- for it, by itself is the audience and the artist! Once you know this bit and you have accepted this, your life is rest assured immune to the onslaught of any and all noise and sound that you can ever imagine coming your way! This is that space from where”Quiet” gets its power- that power comes from the deepest confines of who you really are- at times you are aware of and many times you simply are unaware or refuse to accept or acknowledge! The power of “Quiet” comes from the tranquil of the construct that each one of us is as uniquely as we must be and are- when we either decide not to accept or decide to challenge that island of calmness, is when we go about in the world- refusing to stay or remain “Quiet” and create enough Sound and Noise all along the way to such an extent that by the time we realize how far wasted all of that has been- even the largest of islands of “Quiet” becomes hopeless and helpless in front of you!

If you are even left in the slightest of doubts as yet, practice the pause and like the wise Himalayan masters often say- Feel your breadth- for once you have done that at least once- you will for once come to learn- how much of all the sound and noise around you has been worthwhile and if anything at all was ever! “Quietness” or “Quiet” is perhaps the the only virtue that takes you as close as possible to the universal energies that one must tap into or can tap into and once you have been to that place- no amount of attention/ inattention, sound, noise, appreciation or criticism can ever make you feel any way the way your “Quietness” makes you feel! At bliss with yourself- attuned to what matters and ignorant of all that one must be!

I will leave you here, with these thoughts- time for you to connect with your “Quietness” and disconnect with all that sound and noise! The only humans who ever made a difference to humanity have always been the ones’ who have been connected with others through themselves!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another article until, then Stay safe and stay wise! Stay Quiet!

The only thing that matters…

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

Well, as you get ready for your weekend during these times, what better way can there be, to urge you to spend you weekend in knowing and discovering that, there are really only a very few things that will matter or that ever matter and it’s always wise and sane to know them and stay anchored along them! Join me here to know what this is all about and why these are really the only things that matter!

Our lives are always filled up completely to the the brim! Irrespective whether that filled cup makes sense to us or not, that’s what we get to handle each day of our lives, that filled cup is at times you work, at times its your family and some other times its your network/ friends/colleagues or all those areas that you tend to stay invested! Well there can be nothing right or wrong about that, each one of us is free to choose what matters and how much priority one gives to which area of ones’ life! The real trick though, is being able to understand and appreciate the depth and quality of the things that you consider to be a priority for yourself and re-check if thats really what you want the cup of your life to be filled up with completely all the time!

Well you may be working for yourself or for someone else, many a times, this space contributes the major part as far as keeping our cup filled up goes, the question here, is what are you really doing? Are you really sure that you want, your work area to dominate and take up so much of volume in the cup that you hold? Is it really worth it? Look around you what are you coming across (not necessarily now, things have been the same way for a long time, only now they are becoming more and more evident!), pay cuts, job losses, realignments, new loyalties, shut downs, all this even as you had your cup filled up and put in your efforts at an individual level and did what was right throughout- no questions asked, yet when the time arrives, you are the first one to face the shock? Why do you think this develops? If this is an area that is so important for your cup? How can it become redundant so sharply and quickly? What have you missed? Hold on your thoughts here and read on as you will be able to decipher the same we we move ahead!

Let’s explore the other aspect which goes on to complete your cup, your network, in few cases this part often takes up more space than the work part, yet few other times, there is a heady cocktail between this space and the work space- at times because of the nature of the work, some other times as an occupational hazard- which if not managed can evaporate both the elements of the work and network form your cup rapidly even before you realise! But wait, how does this network really help you, I mean if say there’s no work, does this come to your rescue- as in not helping you get back the work that has gone missing- but as in being there for you! How many of your networks can stand by you like a mountain- not helping you with the money or the next break- but by just being there? Well if you haven’t got any of these type of mountainous network elements standing by you, then sadly enough, you have just added additional baggage to your cup which occupies space- adds to your wright and actually does nothing to enhance the favour of your cup! So that’s so much about your network element within the cup and yes, you can sure enough weigh and read through other elements like friends and acquaintances through the same lens,the people who say they are there and then disappear as if they never existed! Now let’s move to the final elements of your cup!

The family area which takes up again the decent volume of your cup! Well, now depending on the originality of the contents and how they play out with regards to the flavors and intensity, either you will get a cup with an additional dose of vanilla or have a cocktail of tastes- leaving your mind tipsy and brains fried all the time! Well, since it’s about the part of the family, you too are equally responsible to what you end up getting in the context of tastes that come back to you! If you have been able to provide the right conditions, temperature and ambiance, the flavors will always resonate that and if you haven’t; well might as well prepare for what you have done- whether intentionally or unintentionally! Needless to say this element overrides all other elements in your cup and has the potential to unleash havoc or create great balance depending on its own intrinsic character! But did you notice, even as your cup is so filled up and has all elements that you ever can ask for or think about- you know what’s missing here? Its You!

You may argue, that all other elements in the cup are but an extension of who you are, certainly they are, but they are your extensions- you- perceived by the others and not the real you! This is where people struggle the most and tend to get waylaid easily as they rush through their busy lives holding to their cup of life- not realizing that what they hold and are managing is what the world exactly wants them to be- not necessarily who they really are or want to be! This fundamentally folly is what makes many of the lives around us a struggle- simply because we are living lives- not of what we should be because of who we really are but rather because of who we are perceived to be, by others whom we have ended up collecting around us either by intention or by accident! So is there any way around this or further to this, can anything be done and if yes, whats it?

The only way to go around this and the only wise way, is to ensure that “you” end up filling as much as volume you can in the cup that you hold and let this volume be filled up with “who you really are” and no matter what comes your way- ensure that you don’t loose that element- because once you have anchored yourself to who you are- You will then automatically gravitate and end up attracting other elements of family and network circles based on who you really are and not end up becoming “who others want you to be” (which is possible only when you end up adding others to your cup before you could add yourself)!

You see, once you have developed a refined sense of understanding who you are, what ticks you and what ticks you off, you will be in a better position to connect to spaces, people, things and pursuits in line with what is helping and growing you- intrinsically rather than monetarily. Monetary growth no doubt, is important, but when done and pursued in divergence of all your founding elements of your life- family, network, work and yourself often will end up draining you in the long run and over time instead of making you stronger will end up making you weak and susceptible to the ravages of time and other powerful competition that you face which possibly are growing on virtue of their own internal core alignment!

What really matters is how well you have been able to craft the idea of who you are and how well do you want to execute that idea into the world with allies who are around you as network circles and families because of who you are! Once you have achieved this zen like space, trust me nothing at all will bother you- neither the ups and downs of your business neither the layoffs or the firing of the jobs that you are engaged with, because once you have connected within and know you worth well enough- these out worldly aberrations will not be ever strong enough to slow you down or knock you over!The only thing that matters is, how well you are connected with yourself and that one singular reality is what will help and empower the right things, people and contexts gravitate towards you!

I will leave you here, urging you to grab that cup and reflect on one simple point- How well are you connected within and how much of “you” is present in the cup of life that you hold so dearly close to you at all times!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another article! Until then stay safe and stay wise!

The hour-glass (effect) comes next.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ 2 Comments

Even as we emerge out of the shadows of the pandemic and pick up the pieces of what is remaining to rebuild and revisit our lives, livelihoods and priorities the fact remains that, we are not going to be coming back to the way the things were earlier at least for the next 12 – 24 months depending on which part of the world you are! Even as we overcome what has hit us, we must prepare for, what I like to call as the Hour-Glass Effect, something which has already started and will go on to dominate our lives for a couple of years at least! This article is about, understanding what this is and what we can possibly do or not do, to be sure that we have our dear life in the right areas of the emerging hour-glass! So here we go!

Let’s examine on the political front, what we see around is that there is an increasingly sharper division among the political class the world over, unlike the earlier times when there was space in the middle to ensure that a dynamic and progressive balance is offered to the nation (to keep moving ahead) without any extreme alignments to the right or the left, now it has become the survival of the either ends of the ideologies that the world of politics is known for- irrespective which nation you belong to what state government you are ruled by- if you are living in a democratic set up- you either are making a choice between a radically polarized nationalist front or trying to hold on o a liberal and more accommodating popular front.Well there is nothing, more that I want to suggest here; each of us is free to choose our own path to to our grave- doesn’t matter which end you lean because at both ends what you have are politicians, the real problem is the stretching of the hour-glass right in the middle- the stretch which would have normally been of an adequate proportion seems to be drawn out and made more and more thinner with each political move and this is what throws the society into further chaos- because the society is compelled to collapse onto itself with no space to move, act or even breathe- let alone exist!

If politics plays its part, how can society be left untouched! At the very moment that I am writing this, thousands of families would have either made it to the upper- more opulent part of the hour-glass escaping the intense pressure and crush at the thinned out central space and there would millions who would have been pushed down back to the bottom – most of them reaching back where they would have been a few years or perhaps even decades back! Don’t be surprised, its relatively simple- as the political class go on to play what they are good at, the economic indicators are often let loose to alter the disposition of societies- at times willingly and few times accidentally by oversight- it’s anyone’s guess about what it is – with regards to the events that we are witnessing now! As this happens, the societies move and adjust to get into the old two class system- those who have and those who don’t and each of these sets then begin to carve out their own goals to co-exist with or without confrontation and as this happens over the period of time you see once again the coming of age of the so-called middle strata- middle class once again and the whole cycle start again as the hour glass gets flipped by then! This is what really happens and given the lifespan that each one of us has- rarely will we have a chance to witness the whole cycle through the meaningful period of our lives- and as depending when this cycle hits us individually either we become those dazzling sunrise entrepreneurs or we are forced into the oblivion of darkness through early exit form the professional stage with no time or resources left to re-build or re-start anything meaningful all over again- simply because there is no time left!

If nations,societies can be impacted then what makes you think, that as an individual you will be spared! In fact to be honest, it is the impacted individuals who go on to make the choices which determine the stretch of the hour glass and the quantum of right choices then enables one to reach a comfortable zone within the right space in the hour-glass and bad decisions are routinely rewarded with uncomfortable positions and spaces which manifest as societal discord being played out in the streets on a daily basis! So you see, it is about the choices that we as individuals make that determines the stretch of the central section of the hour-glass and if we are wise and swift enough to make the right one, we are bound to be at the right place no matter how many times the hour-glass is flipped or shaken! The beauty is that the choice always remains with us and within us! So how do we go about ensuring that we are in that sweet spot and are able to be in a zone that is safe enough ton make the adjustment but stay relevant at all times? Well read on!

The trick is deceptively simple, firstly irrespective of everything and anything else, follow the old maxim of creating friends and enemies that you can live with but get get killed by! Once you have the contextual settings around you in control you are certain to always calibrate your aspirations, risk appetite and recklessness in direct contrast to your immediate surrounding- this ensures that even if you hit the deepest and the oddest of all potholes, you will survive and live to tell the tale and begin all over again! Next, calibrate and define your achievements/ success stories to yourself not to the settings around you! You see, if you are going ton end up building sandcastles by the beach, they will not last, that’s a fact, at some point of time either the sea will claim it or the crabs will use it! As long as your success comes from within you, because of who you are and not because of what is told to you- about who you are- you will be just fine! Each one of us is unique, needless to say, even the thought of comparing our success/achievement with anyone else around is the dumbest things that we can ever end up doing!, so never ever do that! Finally once you have a refined sense of what makes you- who you are; once you have a refined understanding about what is your definition of success; you will always then be scanning the contextual settings around you- at all times; not to compare but rather to know what’s out there which may harm and stall your progress. Your heightened self-awareness will go a long way to provide you with that vital early-warning system which will tell you well in time (more than others) to make the needed amends so that as the flip of the hour-glass occurs or as the constriction commences you are well ahead and safe enough to manage yourself and those around you!

Well the hour-glass will flip and will continue to constrict and expand around the centre in an endless cycle – that is perhaps what life is all about! What matters though is that in the short times that we have, it will only make sense that we make an effort to be at the right place within the hour-glass so that no matter how hard it is shaken, or how tight the constriction is, we are able to prevail for our own well being and for the people who depend on us- whether that’s our family, our society or our nation or the global community, depending on who you are, larger will be the dependence and higher the need to prevail and overcome the hour-glass effect and the only way to do it, is by – Being who you are!

I will leave you here with these thoughts for now, to reflect and contemplate , where you are within this hour-glass and how well you are prepared for whats happening now and what will happen later- because the hour-glass will keep flipping as and when its time arrives!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another article! Until then stay safe, stay wise and keep time!

Intellectual Fatigue.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ 1 Comment

The human brain is as amazing as anything there is in the universe! the only organ in the entire body, that can play the fool with you and offer you respite and nightmares in equal measure as you deserve them!This article is about trying to learn more about the human mind, the manifestation of intellectual fatigue and its’ about possibly learning to stop – when we must- because going about our daily lives with a tired and fatigued brain can cause more harm than you can ever imagine! This is about understanding how we end up possibly tiring our self (much of the time without a reason) and if there’s anything that we can do about- the tired brain and the manifesting intellectual fatigue!

We live in an era, where information is constantly evolving by the second, things change, contexts keep shifting and the mind is exposed to one new truth after the other, without any real time to explore the underlying causation and we are ever driven into a mode to course correct our approach to life, as we learn new things about the situations around us and this loop is driven more tighter by the intrinsic urge of “wanting to get control over our now” and this is the space where all complexities begin to get created and this is where simple things end up being complicated and we begin to add unwanted layers to existing problems- which at many times are nothing more but a passing phase!

The last two decades, have seen a literal explosion when it comes to access to information, knowledge and resources. As humans, we always have been aware of and as societies we have always strived to gain the upper hand when it comes to dominance of knowledge. Go by the number of patents files, the copyrights, the IPR’s all will tell you the same story- the urge and desire to dominate and control knowledge empowered bu human ingenuity which is propelled only by a fit mind- which is not tired and never defeated! This is where we arrive at a fundamental paradox, the abundance of information and knowledge causes intellectual fatigue at the one end while the same resources end up creating innovators and ingenious scientists among us- so what’s really happening? How can the same contextual set of information create two different results- one productive and progressive, while the other being withdrawn and regressive? The answer to this lies in the simple trick of keeping your mind lighter and in- the- moment (NOW) at all times! Let me explain!

When our mind is glued to the onslaught of information with no sense of direction/ purpose, the endless onslaught does noting more than tiring up our minds. At the same time if we are training our mind to seek a specific bit of information/knowledge for a limited period of time and for a particular objective that has been thought about- the same mind operates like a de-cluttering tool and blinds out everything else and gets going to the specific area of what you seek! So like a fine blowtorch the mind is sharp, intense and focused on a small area, unlike being diffused and blunt over a wide area- not knowing what it is supposed to do! This basic difference on how we use our mind either leaves it eternally fatigued or keeps it razor sharp and alert at all times- waiting to be unleashed for the next assignment! So now you may want to know, how to avoid this fatigue in the first place? Do we necessarily have to be always be alert and aiming for some invention? Well no, you don’t have to slog that hard to ensure your mind is healthy and not fatigued! You don’t need to be racing for innovation marathons either, what you must do is- keep things simple and be in the now!

The constant pressure to like/comment or wave at something over the social media space, that urge to contribute to opinions and pass judgement over the seemingly innocent cups of tea- creating half baked views about people and things (who really don’t care who you are and your views anyways don’t make a damn difference), instances like these and many more such episodes end up feeding our minds with an uninterrupted supply of intellectual garbage- and once your input is compromised- needless to say the output will be of a similar order and in the process ends up damaging the equipment- your brain! Remember that old saying- Watch your thoughts, they become your words- and watch your words for they will become your actions and so on and so forth- basically what you think and what you focus on thinking is what you will end up becoming and if your thinking is cluttered and tiring- you will never have an ounce of enthusiasm left to even pick the next grocery bag- forget about leading yourself or teams or organisations! Cluttered minds- are often the most tired ones’ not because they have been constantly at work- rather they have been grossly abused and put to action and think over- almost everything and anything that is around except what is relevant! This is the real reason why our minds get tired or fatigued- It’s not by doing what we want to- but more often it is by doing what we don’t want to , need to or are forced to do- the way we don’t want to!

Tackling Intellectual fatigue can be done by a simple process of alignment! Once you learn to align your thoughts and your approach to the contextual settings around you, with a definite purpose and you have clarity in how you go about your life- automatically the needless clutter will vaporize and you feel lighter and will surprisingly find that your mind too feels energetic! As you create a routine to stay focused to the purpose driven approach that you have and as all your thoughts and actions align to this approach- you will see – you won’t have time for gossip, that social media presence (which never really produces any worthwhile results) and hence with lesser non-productive stuff to deal with, your mind has enough energy left at all times to rise to the occasion and perform at things that really do matter and contribute to the alignment that you have chosen! This approach however must not be mistaken akin to someone to get serious with life- no way- this is about – creating an approach wherein you are aware and invested in your present time- so that you know how much of what to soak in and what to let go and what time- this ensures you have a lighter mental baggage to carry along at all times and as you travel light- you can adjust and harness the power of your minds as the situation at the hour demands form you!

At the workplace intellectual fatigue can manifest from areas and dimensions beyond one’s control, it could be as simple as doing what you don’t like- too easy or too hard or it could be the over riding manifestations of other people dynamics that play out- which seem to continually overplay and dominate the focus or approach that one plans to take- all these or any of these overbearing circumstances can make one feel mentally tired and eventually this reflects through work- lack of focus, mistakes, arguments, etc etc and this often results into the individual being ejected form the system! The way and perhaps the only way to arrest Intellectual fatigue from cropping up at the workplace is – having the right minds at the right places- (not right people). You see, we live in a hyper dynamic work arena and even if we were to have the right people but with the wrong minds- that is more than enough to trigger the fatigue syndrome and if we are speaking about close knit teams than this intellectual fatigue is as infectious as it can be! Sure enough you will be able to replace the old people with new minds across the team levels but you will still not know what hit you- because you will think you always had the right people- the only problem being you had the right people for sure but not the right minds at the right places!

The human mind, is amazing and in a way has a mind of it’s own! The fact remains that a tired and fatigued mind- doesn’t help anyone- nor the owner, neither the people around, a vibrant and energetic mind is always ready to pull off the incredible even in adverse times and provide respite to one and all for a greater good! This is the fundamental truth and the reason why we need to take more efforts to ensure we don’t end up tiring our precious mind for mindless things and the digital garbage that lies strewn across the digital landscape! Use your mind like it should be! If it’s a precious gift that you have, use it like one, if that’s the most potent weapon that you have, use it like one, if that’s the hope you have for humanity and the society you live in- use it to further that cause! Remember the mind is never fatigued when it is used with purpose and direction, it thrives & improves with challenges/ uncertainties and risks; it begins to experience fatigue when the surroundings are unbecoming and too junked for it to exist and operate!

I will leave you with my thoughts here; do think, if you experienced intellectual fatigue and what was it like- and why was it! I am sure whatever that reason would have been, your mind would have helped you to steer away from that clutter to ensure you keep progressing on a path of self- empowerment through an alert and vibrant mind!

Ciao for now, I will be back soon with another article, time for a coffee break! The mind needs one!

Harness your “superpower”!

~ Parimal Aluri ~ 1 Comment

Well, this is about sharing with you, what we perhaps all have, tend to overlook or possibly try to not use it the way we should be using it! Yes, this is about discussing the “superpower” that each one of us has within us; at times we are aware, yet other times, we are unaware and this singular difference between being aware or not, puts us on the pathway to easy success or success through struggle and detours! So join me here, as we try to understand the concept of “superpower” as I see it. Who knows, it may just end up being that aspect, which you always waited for; which may make your life that bit easy!

The most common mistake that people do with the thought of having or not having “superpower” is that it has to be massive, large scale or something that can alter and impact lives around the world- well the fact is. that it doesn’t have to be this way all the time! You see at times, your superpower can be only as much as to ensure that you don’t get killed! Surviving- don’t trust me, ask a war veteran- they will tell you why being able to survive is more than a superpower in the theaters of war! Like everything else, your “superpower” has to be set in the right contextual frame of your life, for you to recognize it to begin with and next use it!

I don’t want to get into a trap of trying to define what “superpower” means, you are good enough by yourself to factor and measure that bit (as it has to be seen the reality of where you are in terms of the circumstances that impact you!). What I can certainly tell you is that, the easiest way to discover the “superpower” that lies within you, is by knowing at the attributes/traits that create the differentiation between you and everyone else!– As we grow up, live our lives around, friends, family, colleagues all of us hand over generous badges or titles to us based on what they perceive us to be, someone may calls us, “smart”, someone may address us as a “hunk” yet another may address us as a “genius” or a “blessed soul”, there could be an endless list of these kind of quoted addresses, but hidden within these, are the first clues of what your superpower may be! The superpower- that we hold within us- has a funny way to it; whether we realize it or not, it keeps manifesting itself through our behaviour, especially at times when we are cornered or in a tight spot! Let me explain!

Have you ever observed people, the successful ones’- who make everything seem like a breeze, maybe you have seen that ace sales manager, who hits the numbers every quarter without fail, you would have seen that bank teller, who has that great eye for detail and speed to move fingers and crunch number insanely! Perhaps you met that ace recruiter, who read you like a book and ended up giving you that career break which made your professional life accelerate ahead! If you have ever met any of these aces, you will notice one thing, they bring their superpower to work and their superpower may never have anything to do with what their work is! You see that, awesome sales person would have been gifted with a personality which has been applied to the work, which came as a blessing! A naturally aggressive nature was met by an equally tough challenge to crack deals! Needles to say as the superpower of aggression got direction and purpose and was supported and developed- it only helped to propel the individual’s career and professional achievements! Likewise the bank teller, would have harnessed the “superpower of attention”, when it was rewarded by a profession, that too excelled and provided an opportunity for the individual to apply this superpower at work! That odd recruiter, would have used the superpower to read people, that intrinsic superpower ability to connect, counsel and help people which got amplified as the opportunity of working as a recruiter became a reality! I can go on giving more and more examples like these,across fields, vocations and subjects, however, the singular common factor that remains and confirms across all the people that I have studied and come across is –“The ability to know ones’ superpower and put it to use in the right contextual frame of time and space”

The question, now is, how does one know what their superpower is, well that’s really deceptively simple! I say, deceptively simple, because, unlike attributes/qualities your superpowers will qualify as superpowers only and only if they are able to serve other through you and not serve you by tapping into others! Consider this, you have this individual who has a great memory, can play songs over the guitar one after the other, without missing note or jumping the string, now how can this person use this ability to uplift themselves? People will often make a mistake by suggesting that playing the guitar is the superpower, well nope, sorry to disappoint you, you may further argue it is about playing the guitar well, well nope- when you play a guitar or any musical instrument you do it to play well, I mean no one plays a guitar to wreck the strings or torture the audience, so what is it?, you may ask, well, in this case, it’s the “Intrinsic qualities that an individual has within, which help that person to play the guitar well- which are his true superpower!“

We are a planet with over 7 billion people and each one of us can pretty much do what the other person does, like say, driving, walking, running, jogging, reading, writing, playing some game, working at some place, doing those jobs with job titles comparable and interchangeable the world over, similar businesses, similar products,services, that’s what is all around us and that’s what living on the planet is all about! Magic happens when we are able to bring from within us, our superpowers and apply them to whatever we choose to do! Perhaps you want to jog or run- you apply your superpowers- you end up becoming an athlete, you apply your superpower of patience and calm to your knowledge of medicine- you become that “ace” surgeon, you add that superpower to number crunching to your vocation- you are poised to rule the financial world! So you see, its never about doing the job well, it is always about getting into a job or a vocation that you can do well by applying the superpowers that you may have within!

The good thing about these superpowers is the fact that, they never go away, they are with us always, waiting to be tapped and used when the time is ripe, hence you find people flourishing and hitting their professional peaks at different times of their lives; by the time a CEO of a private firm is retiring perhaps its the dawn of youth for someone aiming for the high chair of the Prime Minister or President of a nation! Superpowers are essentially the traits and attributes that we have, these can be tangible and non-tangible- see few traits are easy to observe, record and reproduce- say like being good at numbers, ability to memorize, ability to manage and excel at complex science or technological developments, there are yet areas like music, art, creative arenas where the superpowers are not necessarily even and occur as flashes of vivid bursts of creative excellence, when there is consistency developed in these areas you have the icons of the respective field of arts/creative spaces walking amidst you!

As a coach, one of the major roles that we play is to help people realise their own potential and their superpowers, we don’t plant anything, we hold a mirror which allows the individual to reflect and see for themselves with clarity- what they are, who they are, what do they hold within and who they can become by doing what! Once this basic foundation has been established then it is just a matter of time, that people are able to start making progress and move in the direction which remains resonant with their core strengths and traits! You may want to argue, if that’s the case, why aren’t everyone equally successful? The answer to this as I said earlier is simple, if people continue to walk along the way they are meant to and practice and play to their intrinsic strengths and attributes in the right and nurturing contextual settings- we have what is called as an “event of congruence” wherein abilities, potential and opportunities all come together to allow an trait to be applied and developed“, when all these variables are at the same place and time and in-sync it unleashes the complete potential and provides an opportunity to excel way above average and this is the place where masters and leaders are created! If you change one-only one variable around this space of congruence and create a confrontational or non-conducive environment around. even the most gifted talent/person around you will falter and you will see an immediate dip and drag in the output and although people will survive and endure their ability to reach the zenith will get severely impaired and stand limited by the extent of the circumstantial disadvantage created by the time and space around!

The “Superpower” locked within each of us is a statement of who we are and what we can do and wish to do, as long as it serves the greater good of people around you, it remains your “superpower” , the day you try to self-serve yourself with it, rest assured you will feel begin to feel your shine fade away within you! The best part of your “superpower” is– It is your’s and it doesn’t come or go, if you change jobs, move places or eat more or less! It is intrinsic, it’s a statement of who you are and what you bring to the table- the way you do! So you may have millions of similar people doing what you do, but your superpower ensures; you can do it like the way you do it and no one else can replicate that, just as you can’t replicate them! Humanity has ever been as creative it has been and also as destructive as it has been as people harness their superpowers the right and wrong way- the balance of societies and civilizations changes and it all start from an individual and their intrinsic “superpower”!

I will leave your here, giving you time to reflect and assess what are your “superpowers” and let you imagine, how you want to put that to use to serve the greater good of the society around you! Always remember, your “superpowers” are often who you are and what you eventually become!”

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

Connected gadgets and disconnected people.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ 2 Comments

As the world starts to pull up itself from the shadows of an ongoing pandemic and tries to grapple with the severe economic melt down which has come along with it (no the virus didn’t cause the economic meltdown; how we dealt with it, caused it!). As humanity we are flirting dangerously with a strange alteration in human behavior for the first time in over hundred years- this new changed behaviour- of being connected with the world through gadgets and not people! This article tries to explore the aspects evolving around it and what perhaps may eventually manifest from this new trait! So let’s explore and get our grey matter working!

Even before the pandemic broke loose, we have been living in an era where we have had technology uncomfortably in-your-face kind of scenarios and with the latest slew of people tracking applications required- few optional and few mandatory, our connection with the digital- virtual world has got far more creepier than you think!As individuals more and more of us wait for an opportunity to get online- whether it is to check the weather, the status of the pandemic, the latest update on the neighborhood or just to know if people still like you over your social media handles! The reasons can be many, few valid and few as dumb as they can be! Any aspect of technology and online driven compulsiveness may be essential for one individual and the same can be an absolute disaster for another, it all depends on- who these individuals are! Say if you are a successful artist and want to stay connected with your follower base through some short videos or pics, it certainly works and perhaps works pretty well to uplift morale of your followers- if you carry that kind of an infectious and inspiring persona, but what about if you are that odd one who has been struggling and these times have made your struggle that bit more spicier! Well, for an individual who is already at logger heads with time and space an overwhelming experience over the virtual world can be really dangerous and make a person withdraw or become over-expressive in ways which may not help, especially during these times, when the vital people connect is, all but missing!

Add to this the latest fallout of the lockdowns the world over- organisations and business have been quick to announce policies and measures asking people to work form home! Now what this has ended up doing in majority of the cases, is create an even more challenging work space for individuals! (unless you own a 5 room apartments- where perhaps two rooms can be occupied by the working members of the house, one by the kids and one by the pet that you have, not to forget even the kitchen is held hostage either by your maid or your in-laws or parents as the case may be!) You see, as long as people went to their offices to create value or destroy the existing value at their work place- all that got played out away from the watchful eyes and ears of your spouses, parents, in-laws, kids and pets. Now that people are working form home, or anywhere that they are (but not at workplace) people around – family and friends- get a first row seat to individual personalities and complexities like never before! All that verbal abuse, emotional tantrums, abrupt meetings, calls being cut, truncated, work that never seems to end, a lunch break that never seems to happen and a weird situation which just stays to hang on- like forever! Earlier even if you had a bad day at work- people would dissipate much of that negative energy by the time they finished their commute and reached their residences- now when all that negativity has lad home in your residence- needless to say there will be unwanted reactions and behavioral patterns erupting with closed confines of your home as well! Add to this that extra element of not being able to talk to reach out to your colleague at office for guidance and counsel- like it used to normally happen- a short break- a cup of tea or coffee on the way back or that 45 min quick beer to plan for the next day to counter what would have unfolded this day- you just end up getting stuck and consumed with your work- with no real cut off in the real sense of it!

Sure enough, office video calls, con-calls, emails and all of them work and work pretty well, but think about it, these tools have been there for such a long time- if these were indeed really that effective- why do you think any major corporations or a business house would have spent millions and millions of dollars to create reputed and state of the art workplaces? There would be some reason right? Well think around that bit when you have time! The fact is remains that, humans always knew the relevance and importance of having place of work and place of residence as two separate locations and it was perhaps a wiser thing to do- ask any innovator or a scientist- they will tell you, many a great things and moments in their lives which proved to be a breakthrough movement either happened at their designated workplace, designated home, or during commute , but never while doing WFH (work from home!) – it never really works!

Importantly if you thought only working professionals are facing challenges, think about it, even kids who are studying at school or colleges are facing and even more crueler scenario! The most badly hit, if you ask me are the school going kids, the youngest of them under 10 years- they have been disconnected from other kids at a vital time of their life when they are supposed to forge, foster and develop the social skills that are an essence of being a human and vital for social engagements and development of the society as these kids become grown ups in the next two decades! But if they have a weak foundation for social engagement set up right now, the ramifications in the long term will never be the ones’ that we desire! You may ask me, but this is just for a year or a few months, how can it impact? well think about it, experts have said, it takes about 21 days for a habit to cultivate and about 10,000 hours to master something that you wish to excel at! So either ways choose your metric and if your kids have been exposed to any of these, rest assured the new emerging behavior of your kids will be not what they had earlier charted the course for! They will unwittingly end up embracing the death hug of technology over the vital compassionate hug of humanity which comes only by being connected with people! We may end up cultivating societal failures and in the next two decades form now , many failures of social engineering/engagement will get attributed to this generation which did not build the vital foundation of social engagement with fellow humans- intentionally or unintentionally! So is there something that we can do about it? Well the answer is yes and no! Yes we can, that’s what makes us, humans special, and No- if the capitalist greed of the top 1% of the world doesn’t stop doing from what it is currently doing; Globally societies will end up driving their young generations into a space where they may just end up being the human extension of technology! We may end up in a space where we don’t lead technology and set the pace for the future, rather get pulled and pushed all over the pace as technology decides how it wants to use/abuse or not use our human services for its propagation! Let’s leave out those 1% and see what we can do within what’s possible at our own individual levels to ensure that we stay connected the way humans should!

Create rituals! Yes, organised rituals at your work desk as you start to crunch you day- and make people to people- non-work talk an essential aspect of this space! Make it a point to use the famed 80:20 principle when you connect with other people- let this 20% of time be used to have that human conversation which revolves around shared values and aspects that go to define and uplift human life! It could be as simple as , “How’s everyone at home?”, to something like “How’s your novel writing coming up?” or perhaps “How’s your thesis going?”, it could be about good times, planing small get- together (law permitting in your space and city), anything but work! Next, make space for those corporate and work life related – bitching calls- no matter whether you are good or bad at the job that you do- you will be a part of this- either creating and leading it or at the receiving end- as long as these remain harmless and don’t impact the sanctity of the work values and ethics, things will be fun and needed to vent out your frustrations where they need to be done! There’s no point breaking crockery at home because you had a bad day- you just end up adding to your won expenses and unwanted next set of complications dealing with people at home! Make an effort and time your exit from the day’s work- this is easier said than done! But, unless you don’t put your foot down, things will not change, remember- the organisation pays you as per the contract that you have signed up for- anything extra that you do- is the loss of the seconds of your life and a windfall gain day-in and day-out for the organization! It’s kind of you work for 40 days of the months and get paid for 30! Limit your screen times to what is vital and essential, stay away from the screens unless you are going to end up someone getting killed! Stop that unwanted urge to keep checking and re-checking that like, comment or views on our social pages and presence, the fact is, trust me it doesn’t matter, unless you are in that fabled 1%!

When it comes to kids, sure enough quite challenging to ask other parents to send in their kids for play dates and all that (depends on IQ levels of the parents largely)! So if you have young kids around in your family or extended family take a few minutes off each day- talk to them and explain to them what’s happening and keep up that conversation and curiosity up and running, for heaven’s sake don’t let a search engine be the answer to all the questions that their inquisitive minds have and if you do this right, they will emerge the other side of this storm – still curious, young, inquisitive and full of life and courage! This us what we need as humanity more than anything else- A resilient younger generation which has been formed and forged by a severe storm, which has not been dented or broken but rather become stronger and even more sharper, the way the things have unfolded around them!

Think again, when you have that compelling urge to stay glued to your gadgets! If you are still reading this, well it’s about time you complete the next few sentences and race back to your family/friends for that quick chat and re-discover the joy of being connected with humanity!

I leave your here, urging you to reflect and decide for yourself, the balance that you wish to cultivate with the gadgets that you command and the people that you cherish!

Ciao for now, will be back with another article soon! Until then stay wise and stay safe!

“Guru” in the workplace!

~ Parimal Aluri ~ 1 Comment

As the title suggests, this article is about trying to understand and explore- what really does it mean when we call or refer people that we work with “Guru” and what makes or doesn’t make one a “Guru”. Well certainly enough, you can always say, who am I to take a shot and define this space, well I am not doing that and neither do I intend to do that! This is about reflecting upon the true essence of the word “Guru” and how that can be appreciated in the times that we live in! So let’s begin!

We have all walked through those so called “aces” at work in our work areas, someone good at sales, someone good at marketing, few others ace it with numbers, few dealing with people so on and so forth, but very few and rarely you will find people around you, when you come across them , seem to be institutions within themselves! These are radically different, they may not always have that coveted expensive degree, nor always will they have that infectious personality and neither will they always seem to be all that spic and span – almost ready for the next shoot of a corporate magazine cover! These are the ones’ who hold us in awe, and respect by virtue of being who they simply are and these, my friends are the real “Gurus” that we have around our workplace! I am sure you would have encountered a few, I had the privilege to be lead by a few and that’s what makes our lives all that more enriching!

This is beyond that help your senior provided you with and you repaid the same with an evening beer, this is beyond that odd shift you took up to help that unlucky junior who had a bad bout of food poisoning, it is different from saving the job of that finance rookie who had posted wrong entries on the forbidden side of the balance sheet! So, by now if you are still wondering, if it’s none of this, not the managers, not the seniors, not the work, not the help, not the guidance, then what is it about? Well, my friend to begin with, let’s start by understanding the philosophical concept of the very word that we are trying to understand here- “Guru” – One of the many golden words from the ancient Sanskrit Language from the Indian sub-continent (often referred to as the language of the Gods) , the word Guru primarily has two parts- Gu- which implies Darkness and Ru which implies Light. This word primarily has been used to anyone and everyone who has had a profound capacity and ability to guide and direct the life or people away from darkness and usher them into the area of light! As the old masters say, The Guru never tells what to see, The Guru just tells where to look!

Now, with this new information at your disposal, I am certain your mind has already started to get into an overdrive to possibly evaluate who are or have been your “Gurus” and for whom you think you have been, well hang in there, there is much more to be understood before you actually end up offering the title or receiving the same!

The genesis or the importance of the “Guru” evolved and developed through the rich ancient history of what is today India, back then historically societies, in terms of complexities were far simpler than what we are today and largely worked around the dignity of labour and definition of the work that an individual did within the contextual frame of the prevailing society, so you end ed up being a priest, a soldier or a farmer or a tradesman or a social worker based on the competence that was derived on basis of one’s lineage- well there would have been benefits and adverse impacts around this- but that is not for the current topic. So once you had these defined sets of social class, meant to perform tasks with exceeding levels of competence to rise and ensure the safety and well being of the society- read kingdom, the onus was only on one vocation- it was the Teachers- The “Gurus” were the only people who stood between a society- kingdom being assured a continual supply of aces across the work areas or incompetent people joining the work areas which would eventual result into the disintegration and falling apart of the kingdom- because once Incompetence sets in- sooner or later- collapse will be certain- whether it be an individual- a society or a kingdom!

Now that the onus of ensuring safety and well being of each and every soul firmly resting on the wise teachers, what do you think would have manifested further? Well yes, good teacher’s created good enough students who were able to hold on to the societies and kingdoms for a few generation perhaps and when extraordinary teachers created geniuses among students, their kingdoms had legacies which last centuries and in some cases have left an impeccable mark on the way we carry out our modern live as well- don’t believe me- well think about the India’s National Emblem you will possibly get a hint at what I mean here! The real “Gurus” have always been able to influence and create value for time periods lasting centuries- long after their physical presence has been lost by way of their structured teachings and eclectic followership- with only one goal- serve the larger and greater goal of the society and replenish the capabilities of an individual! So now that you have got the context, let’s come back to the “now” and what do you see now, do you still find an equivalent or a close comparison to these ancient “Gurus” within or around you? May be you do or may be you don’t, either ways, that’s fine-because that’s the irony of the times that we live in!

In the time that we live in, at the most what majority of the people involved in working around glass clad offices experience is the modern day concept of mentoring- that fabled mentor- mentee relationship- well it lasts as long as the objective of the organisation or the task at hand are met, post that no one really cares for the other! Nothing right or wrong with this aspect as this how the norm has been set whether we like it or not! Certainly there are ramifications for this, it works for that specific problem to be solved, but leaves both of them devoid of any learning which can set them up for future failures- as their focus is too focused and entrapped into one specific aspect- without considering the need of learning in depth of the mentee! The modern day office settings have invariably created pressures of work and time which simply don’t allow to foster in- depth understanding, which is needed for the real Gurus to present themselves, as the students too are almost never ready! There is an old saying, which I had read somewhere along, When the Student is Ready the Master arrives! Well in the modern day office where everyone is working from one pay check to the other, this wait of the students ends up becoming an eternal one, sometimes the Guru is there with no students and yet other times, the student is wailing for help with no Guru’s around! So what can be done about this, is there anything that can be really done?

For the Gurus to arrive and the student’s to thrive, we need to consider a radically different approach to work, an approach which thrives on debates, discussions and experimentation- with an emphasis to fail- rather than succeed (sure enough I am not suggesting the organisations to go bankrupt with this approach- whatever is within the limits of allowable failure). The ancient “Gurus” always had a great tenacity to teach through this approach and it worked because no one ever told the student what to do, they were always told what was required as a result- not how to get it done! The student who would have been the most creative and effective in providing the solution, would than be able to set a standard process for the given challenge for others to follow- this encouraged learning, competitiveness knowing well that- there is never only ONE right way and this ensured that students and Gurus alike ever remained humble! You see, Humility is the anchor stone to Learning and applicability of what is being learnt- Without humility, knowledge will just slip away like grains of sand from the fingers of your palm!

Another important way of knowing you are in company of a true Guru- “Gurus are not bonded to their designation/labels/business cards,they have a strong sense of assumed ownership and will jump straight into the challenge at hand and start providing directions for resolving the challenge- this will be needles to say, to the delight of many and the horror of a few others! Unlike the modern concept, people often misread the part tat the “Guru” has to be a senior person- your boss- or someone in the office who is about to get an heart attack or fade away or retire; well it doesn’t have to be that way! On the other extreme end, actually it could be that new intern sitting and smiling away in all glory to your dumbness! You see,- Guru- as the word implies- the ability to dispel darkness and show the light- also has an intrinsic aspect of common-sense woven into it, you don’t always need to have a deep philosophical bondage to it, just because the word and the manifestation of it have such deep rooted civilization tagged to it!

The fact remains though, for the master to appear, there has to readiness among the students!; You see businesses hire based on consideration sets of the services that have to be provided to the society, and unlike earlier times, we have warped workplaces cloaked and hidden away into far too much of incompetence- which is hidden not because of anything else but the pressure of loosing the livelihood– If businesses ensure that incompetence management is an anchor stone of their business turnaround policy- more than ever students will present themselves to be trained, retrained and skilled and for that to manifest, the masters’ the Gurus’s will appear like magic- This simple shift in the mindset of people to deal and engage with incompetence and not negate or hush it up will do a lot good not only to save livelihoods but create finer and sharper work force which in times ahead can unleash new ways of excellence pertaining to their work!

Well, if you ask me, the presence or absence of the real “guru” in a workplace speaks a lot about the place itself! All great places which have created an impact on human lives have been fortunate to have these unsung masters always around- some famous, many not so famous and it is these tiny elements that go on to make a big difference for an organisation to be considered among the best and being THE BEST! Not to forget, there is a “Guru” within each of us, perhaps you may be struggling with what you do, but something within you, can make a whole big difference in someone else’s life! It is about taking those pauses at work and reflect to see, what is that you know and what is that you know- that you don’t know- when you reach this space- you will have the Guru paying you a visit and at the same time you will end up being a Guru to someone else too!

I will leave you here, with these quasi-philosophical aspects around the concept of “Guru”, I have intentionally stopped short of getting into mundane examples of our office lives and will leave all of that for your imagination and experience to play it around for you! What is important is to have the realization that without The Guru- there is no light and without Light there is no Life! The Guru is sometimes within you and at times around you- You just need to seek THE GURU! Yes, I read this somewhere, never forget- The Guru doesn’t ever tell you what to see, but always guides you where to look! Think around this!

Ciao for now, will be back with another article and once again, Here’s Wishing Everyone A Very Blessed Guru Purnima!

The damaging myth of Immortality!

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

Ask anyone what they want to achieve in life and the eventual answer will lead you to one definite truth- “Everyone wants to be remembered”, Well reasons can be different-good or bad- duration can be different long or short- but the fact remains- people have this urge to be remembered and recalled and guess that is what is a hallmark of humanity- nothing wrong or right about this space- the real fun begins with the concept, the contextual relevance and the eventual reality of what “Immortality” really means and how it will in all probability manifest! Join me over the next few minutes in attempt to simplify and add clarity to this ambiguous space! to know and learn why, as humans we are the way we are!

To begin with the concept is as humorous it can be, I mean to be immortal essentially you have to die and the best part is once you are dead, you don’t ever know if you really have achieved what you had set out for while you are alive! Sounds weird right? but well that’s how plain stupid and ironic the whole shit is! But wait, in’st the world full of autobiographies and records of great people who have created or destroyed the world- Well sure it is, but if you dig deeper, you will realise the number of such documents only exploded exponentially since the mid- 1700’s once the ability to print and record became mechanical! Search any medieval time frame of history or even ancient records, you will always find that even the greatest of all civilizations that ever existed and flourished had a limited number of documented recordings (compared to the last 400 years) whether in text- or through inscriptions on the stones or whatever medium was possibly used! What does this tell you? A couple of things, firstly, majority of the people who got recorded in history in greater details- lived at a time when they were too brilliant or simply the finest among the best- either they weer surrounded by real idiots to look smarter or on that rare occasion (the period when science flourished early 18th century) you had a dazzling collection of the finest minds which catapulted the breakthroughs in science and technology almost simultaneously across Europe and the Atlantic! Secondly and most importantly, none of the people who came to be remembered for longer times post their departure, never lived their life pursuing “immortality” , they basically kept things as simple as they could for themselves and went through their lives doing what was best possible and the way they could create an impact with what they had within themselves and around themselves in terms of resources and competence! As they say- once you start acting to the best version of yourself the world aligns itself to serve you and your cause! Whether that is a good one or bad one – contextually differs and let’s leave it at that! So you may want to ask me around now, fine so what?

Well, the problem is that people, in today’s era go about their lives as if they are going to live forever and are so obsessed with the fallacy of creating so called “legacies at work”, “signature statements” and so on and so forth, without realizing that, given the level of complexities of our time, unless you don’t do anything which has a radical, immediate and sustaining value of creation for the greater good of humanity- you will too fade away as just another “death count” in the ocean of humanity! Perhaps you will be lucky enough if you your grand kids remember you, well that will be the maximum that you will earn- as far as your tryst with immortality is concerned! Consider this, each day whether you like of hate it- you will touch some form of plastic, nylon based material- how many of you would know the story about the people behind the invention of this material? We all know about the Wright Brothers and the first powered flight of humanity- how many of us know all the fine engineers and designers who went on to develop and build on those principles to shape the amazing machines that we fly today? Well, don’t panic neither do I know all of them, so even I am as blank as you are- this is exactly the point- you see many of these great people would have spent a major portion of their lives- at times their entire life- creating an amazing machine for humanity or some great technological value that made our lives so comfortable- but in their giving up of their whole life for this cause- what have they got in return? Unless you are some kind of driven by research and bitten by the “Why” bug, you will never want to walk into the library and find for yourself from the dusty books to learn what all transpired in those times, through the journals of science and know the efforts that went into making our lives what they are today! We are just fine with a search string on a search engine and more often then not quite happy with the unfiltered and unverified garbage that it throws at us!

As much as it is true that great inventors, innovator’s and fine people who aided and accelerated discoveries and contributed to make our lives the way they are today, never went after the maddening craze and urge to be remembered forever- by uploading selfies, writing and re-writing books or posting online videos etc– well, you may argue had the technology been there- they would have- well, who knows, may be you are right too! But the focus here is- critically about how they lived their lives- they lived their lives with a finite purpose and focus – and yes- except for those few lucky rich inventors and scientists a majority of them were average wealthy co-creators who were able to strike a balance between their work and personal lives even as they went about creating magic for the centuries ahead! So what is this telling you- Not to forsake your today for a tomorrow, especially when you are not going to be around to relish it! Well, don’t jump the gun and say, I am asking you to be selfish, I am just asking you to be honest and accept the fact that you will not be there forever- so for the time you are there- Learn to create more value and whatever that you want to create in the “now” of your time and not being bothered by anything else! Consider this, you may ace a new way to bake a chocolate cake- you use your today- each day two hours each day for a year to come up with this super wonderfully delicious chocolate cake- now you have two choices- either keep baking and serving people as long as you are alive and then the recipe dies with you or write a book – create a video and let the people relish the goodness of what they end up making for themselves! But if you try to start thinking how people will enjoy the cake over next three hundred years, after you are dead- well than you have a serious mental issue which is no more related to immortality but straight way exhibits hallucinatory streaks! These are the seemingly innocent spaces where, the misplaced understanding of immortality ends up damaging people beyond repair in their present! Want to know what immortality is really about? well read on!

If you see the classical texts of any religions or civilizations, chances are that the oldest, the finest and the most famous one’s have been written, inscribed anywhere between 5000-15000 years BCE and some of them are still revered as texts of great value- so if you now analyse the “content” of what these texts say, well they all in a way try to communicate the essence of way of living for humanity and albeit few of them would have created religious or spiritual pathways through the content created- few would be mere civilization documentations mentioning how they went about their daily lives- and whats was meant, how and why- eitehrways the common and the only thread that is unifying and found across all the continents within these seemingly “immortal” creations is the emphasis on “quality of human life, purpose, direction, way of living and societal construct”. So if you are aiming to be immortal- first and foremost your creation has to be at that caliber-that even after 5000 years from now, that work of your’s must hold good and true and if this initial challenge is not enough, you will need to have a mass followership and a real line of disciples who can continue to propagate the idea/thought in a structured manner on an ongoing basis -adapting the same with their tweaks as times evolves through the course of history!

So having given you this secret, if your business or office work- is not helping you come anywhere close to this what I just mentioned, you and I will be all, but a death count and the fallacy of immortality can rest within the confines of our families!- They too will remember if we have given anything to them of merit and value which they perceive! So if you have been wasting your present for those elusive awards, works of fiction, great business numbers and all that- thinking you will leave a legacy and people will remember you- well sorry to disappoint you- no one would really care enough! because we live in times when managing ourselves by itself has become a task unto itself and you too know it very well deep within! So what to do?

Well get a helpful dose of common-sense and start living your life by creating, co-creating experiences which will effect and lead to some value creation for the people around you and the people that you engage with! Stop hallucinating about the right and the wrong- see the context and measure what best can you deliver against the contextual frame that you operate from! If you frame is small and your delivery is large enough- who knows you may just become lucky and really be qualified enough to become an immortal soul! However like it is often the case, we move about societies wherein the societal frames are too wide and too deep and no matter how much we attempt to create a splash the water seldom causes a ripple beyond a small zone and before anyone even reacts/ reads those ripples your life is all but lost within the great history of humanity forever! Lasting fame which remains for the next century or so will be a huge achievement, if you were to ask me what constitutes to modern day equivalent of immortality! Well, and to share with you another secret, unless you work or associate with something that changes the fundamentals or builds further upon or creates value to them, rest assured all that you do or don’t will not go beyond your grand kids!

Living in the “now” to create lasting value makes more sense and is perhaps the only incremental way to achieve fame (although it may only last for a few generations), without wrecking your mind or the people around by pursuing immortality without any real context! Final words- Immortality is the domain of the fundamentals of human society which pivot on belief’s, religions, philosophies and allied areas- unless you don’t create a lasting disruption within these corridors- lasting immortality will not go beyond your third generation!

I will leave you with my thoughts here and urge you to reflect when you hold your next coffee and look away into the distant horizon, to really understand within yourself -for your own benefit- What is that you are pursuing in your “now”? Fame or Immortality or both? and importantly if you are in the right frame to grow large enough to make that count! Never wreck your today for an unchangeable past or an unknown future, the “now” alone matters and that’s the only thing that each of us has got! What we do with it alone maters!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another article! Before I forget, thank you for your ongoing support and the mails that come in! Keep writing and do let me know what next you want to read here!

Meaningful HR & Business Integration-The way ahead.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

Yes, I know what are the first thoughts that are crossing your mind, even as you read the title! No this is not about fault finding with the HR aspect of business neither this is a glorification of how business and HR need to work together and contribute- enough of unwarranted positive shit has been written about that and it seldom works! This is about knowing what really helps or strops from that critical integration from happening and is there anything at all that can be done to ensure true synergy which translates into individual empowerment to the people on the floor and at the desks, irrespective of the product or service that they collectively create!

The genesis of the today’s HR came through the dark allies of the industrialized world, where the given dictum was that the owners of the businesses were out there to exploit available resources (people and material), unfortunately some businesses did live up to that dubious label and with that saw the rise of the union movement which provided the much needed collective voice and put a plug to stop and arrest unwarranted exploitation form time to time across different sectors and industries. Certainly over time, few of these unions too lost their grounding – since they too were run by humans- add to that the element of greed and you have the right recipe to completely compromise business exploits and you reach a point where you really don’t know anymore which side is more wrong! Even as these aspects were unfolding businesses were busy working on scientific finding and technological break through to modernize and make processes and services more cost effective and thereby more profitable and just as businesses learnt to manage products and processes they soon understood that they could also manage people and there is the birth of the modern day HR! Sadly though the struggle of complete end-to-end integration of business and HR has always remained a challenge- at times for the right reasons- where businesses require that sterile distinction or segregation to function and more often than not, because of sheer incompetence either with one of the entities or both of them, in today’s context it is a heady cocktail of incompetence which keep shifting from one end to the other in a cyclical manner which results into a “dynamic yet static space”- hence many a times when you go back to organisations even after few years- seldom things are different! Nothing wrong or right about that- at times that’s what is needed and at times that’s exactly what limits the organisations! So what’s happening here, where’s the catch?

It all starts, with like everything else- right in the beginning, even today, in 2020, there would be hardly a few, maybe less than 1% of entrepreneurs who would want to look at HR as a strategic investment which will provide an ROI to their firm with regards to the qualified talent that it can get in and even more importantly manage and ensure that the ” talent”stays and grows with the organisation- sometimes leading it (at senior level), at times staying in-sync ( at mid-levels) and at yet other times, developing a followership (at the junior level). This foundational mistake of discounting the true value and essence of HR right at the begging- when a business starts afresh, or a new business unit is thought of causes more damage to the entity than anything else! I don’t need to explain I am sure about what price an organisation may end up paying for the wrong people at the wrong time, at the wrong place and at a wrong price! Importantly always remember people are never good or bad, it is their “contextual settings” that either make them shine and excel or dim and fade away! You may have an average intelligent person among dumb idiots and that person may end up looking like an angel to your eyes, out the same person against the backdrop of qualified hotshots from top A schools, you may might as well want to kill yourself for hiring that kind of an idiot! It also than says something about your ability to judge and hire people- well but I will leave that for now and maybe some other write up on that- some other time!

Unless HR is at the table with the business to understand and soak in every aspect of what the grand plan of business is and what’s the whole idea and importantly be listened to- there will never be a true integration! Sure enough in today’s times, even having people stick around at their own positions within the organisations- by itself is a challenge- and that just goes on to compound the integration challenge!– Even today,the normal brief always to HR can look like this- “The organisation would want to have an overhaul or a massive change once a CEO or a A level person moves on or just because the exiting one wants to have the HR do some work!”- you may ask “Why?” well you will almost always never get a sensible answer to that and with no “real HR” to question- the organisation will simply go into an overdrive to reinvent the same old wheel! Everyone will be happy doing that because it keeps everyone in the job and busy- but the fact remains , this unwarranted overdrive often ends up being the classical case of visiting history and needless to say- the results are always the same- “Nothing!” and every few years this nonsense continues and we have people coming and leaving and everything seems to stay exactly where it is! This is the fallacy of the much hyped integration of HR and Business when not carried out in a well thought and objective manner! So you may want to ask how does it look when it works and does it really work?

Well, when done right, HR can empower individuals, teams and business like nothing else can! You may want to ask me now, what is the right way, well the right way is the way of common-sense! If your business is heavily reliant on people and people are the reason for your businesses success or failure and if you don’t start your day without wishing “Good Day” to your HR Head, trust me no matter how big or small your business is, you will falter sooner or later and the reason for that faltering will be the disconnect with your people! So if you are a CEO, running a people centric business , make it a point to throw away your ego( which anyways is good to loose) and learn to walk out of you cabin to spend time with the person responsible for getting you the right people for your team- because when discussions happen here and the more often they do, you will begin to experience magic– magic in terms of the positive rub off that will happen within the existing people across your teams and the new ones that come to join your journey! You don’t need long meetings with endless one-sided communication expressing your dreams, fantasies or frustrations, you don’t need endless boring mails with subject lines reading something like “Form CEO’s Desk” or “It’s your HR” kind of gimmick! All that you need is a simple cup of tea or coffee once a day with the person who is responsible to get the right people for you day-in and day-out!

Now, don’t rush into patting your back, thinking that all the work to hold on to this integration lies only with the CEO’s or the business leader’s the HR leader’s too have to play their part and their part starts by behaving and acting like a business leader- who is leading the business of people! This approach seemingly deceptive but if played right, can make all the difference between having a HR and having a great HR! Awesomeness of HR comes not by knowing the rules and regulations and theories of HR, they do matter, but the real fun happens when HR understands and assimilates the business challenge as if they were their own (because they are their own problems- manifestations which are created by HR!) How?, you may ask, well here’s the simple test, When people leave when you least expect and business suffers, the question “How was this person evaluated and selected even?”, When a person leaves because he gets paid twice and more at the other place- “Why are we paying so less? are we?”, when the person destroys a million dollar machinery because of incompetence- “How did this person clear the evaluation and get in!” Well the lists and situations can go on and on- the fact is a HR disconnected with business problems and business plans is equally liable to fail as the business and what’s more a HR disconnected from it’s business can do more harm than a business that’s’ disconnected with HR!

True integration between HR and Business happens only when there is mutual respect and appreciation about what each of them do and how each one of them contribute to build and develop each other to ensure that the organisation keeps progressing with the right tools, both material and human! Unless Business teams stop discounting HR- assuming they don’t understand or see the point of business and until HR doesn’t stop hiding themselves away in files, operations and social media posts pertaining to job vacancy- this problem will persist! If you always wanted to understand why the HR never called you back or gave you an update for your hour long interview of multiple rounds of hour long interviews- well I presume you would have found your answer somewhere here! A disconnected HR with no insight into business revenues and business action plans- will try and continue the old classical way of reaching out to hundreds of candidates- when it is not required and eventually get stuck when the real time comes to hire- because by then externally the genuineness of the organisation has taken a beating!

There are and there always will be reasons and explanations for every connect and disconnect; some real and some are made up, irrespective of what they are, the fact remains that as long as people are involved and businesses require people, there will always remain a compelling need to to have people specialists and business aces to work together collaboratively in a transparent and purpose driven manner! This alone, If you ask me, this the real essence of integration, driven by purpose and proactive collaboration each playing to their strength, understanding the other team’s requirement!

I will leave you here, with these thoughts, depending on which team you are on- the business or the people team- do reflect on what worked and what didn’t and how can you make what matters work for you and the other team!

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