ABCD of India Shining

In India it takes ABCD to gather a crowd!
May be E and F can be added to it!!

A, for an Accident or Crisis.
B, for Bollywood (counter part of Hollywood).
C, for Cricket.
D, for Divine Discourses.

E, for Emotions. India runs on Emotions or rather ruins on Emotionalism.

F, for Fraudulent Politics that juices the country.

While I take these contexts one-by-one in separate blogposts, the context of this post is the misuse of accidents or crises to derive political mileage.

Whenever there is an accident or a crisis like say fire, suddenly you will see crowd appearing from nowhere. Even police can't control them.

If the crisis has political implications, then in addition to the public, suddenly you will find political (mega-mini) leaders of all (mega-mini) parties appearing from thin air! Along with their bhaldaar and chopdaars, they crowd the site surrounding the diseased or aggrieved fighting for survival, making job of rescue and medical teams more than difficult.

Be it a Terror-attack, a major 'Drought', a 'December-2012' kind rape-case or a '4-year old Seoni rape-victim dying in Nagpur', sometimes you will find well-protected mega-mini political-leaders ('mega' surrounded by commandos, 'mini' by police) crowding newspapers with pictures or news of being 'in-touch' with the sites on phone or remotely (from a helicopter).

Crisis or otherwise, being 'in-touch' from 'ivory towers'; through self-portraits in advertisements at the cost of Govt or Semi-Govt arms or through sponsored birthday hoardings, is what most smart Indian political leaders rarely ignore doing.

Other day a cartoon aptly conveyed how a politician certified that Mumbai roads were free-of-potholes. "Citizens seem to take authorities for a ride by unwanted hue-n-cry. I have myself assessed roads from a helicopter-ride across the city", he assured.

What is the objective of being 'in-touch'?

Commonsensically it is to exhibit sympathy to the aggreived! 

But actually it's the vested interests of being 'seen-shining' as its side-benefits (rather main-benefits)! The objective is to 'shine' in front of the vote bank and create opportunities to juice the country in future!!

History shows that rarely the political 'shining' has helped the aggreived in past.

What is desired?

Time and again it is proved that a crisis is a result of a small abnormality ignored as being trivial one. A big fire begins at a small ignored spark. 'Kargil' happened because of ignorance of many such so-called 'small' intrusions as 'signals' over the years!

In other words or in language of 'Safety-Maintenance-Pyramid' of Kaizen (the Japanese improvement) philosophy, every big fire (or a crisis before it's arrival) gives out over-300 number off small-signals in various forms or shapes over a period of time. The signals could be in terms of abnormal practices such as say an ignored spark-prone loose electrical connection, a smoke from a littered cigarette-butt or from a hot-iron left 'ON' inadvertently while pressing clothes, etc.

The small signals in rape-cases such as Mumbai-rape or Delhi-rape actually existed there in the form of complaints about abnormal behaviors or non-cognizable-offence/s (N/C/Os) involving some of the accused. The signals were also there in the form of ill-reputation concerning the involved place such as Shakti-mills-compound in case of Mumbai-rape. Most such signals might have gone unregistered or got ignored by corresponding agencies (be it Govt or Non-government).

My point in question is, isn't there a-way-or-will, political or otherwise, that can be re-directed to speedily remove bottlenecks that hinder fast-track action on seed-stage-signals to crimes rather more forcefully than fast-track postmortems of crimes themselves?

The objective being to consistently coordinate and follow-up with them and enable them for appropriate and speedy actions so that such so-called 'small' offences are prevented from recurring or rather from occurring. Thereby up-rooting a probable-potential crisis at seed-stage itself is actually a sign of being proactive.

I know it is as difficult as convincing one's spouse to take that extra care at so-called 'trivial-spark' stage itself. Very few in millions do believe in importance of being proactive or preventive. May be it's beyond the capacity & capability of some to visualize a 'probable-fire' until it's actually seen with their own eyes.

Conventionally evidence is necessary as the basis of conviction. Rightly so. Crime like a rape however is evident and hence is easier to prove than an intention to do so or than a typical harassment that over a period of time might grow into a rape.

Here comes the role of leaders to 'foresee' what others can't even 'see'. Not only they should enable law-enforcers to push corresponding powerful laws &/or regulations but also enable speeding up tough actions on offences at their so-called 'small' (the spark) stage itself.

Unfortunately, political leaders seem to do exactly the reverse. They 'shine' on wrong count exhibiting 'sense-of-urgency' to save their own skin and that of their criminal political-kith-n-kins at times even by passing ordinances in parliament as done in past to neutralize even supreme court judgements.

It's time now for good people-in-power in particular to 'shine-brighter-n-faster'. They need to enable each other in their network in right direction that of preventing such 'sparks' from flaring into 'crime-fires' or full grown crimes.

Leaving no stones un-turned to appreciate its percentage-elimination at root-cause level rather than appreciating in terms of reduction of the base i.e. the booked N/C/Os itself or in terms of 'conviction rates', etc. as metrics of performance will actually promote attitude of and actions towards prevention of crimes. Thereby the fire-fighting and hence routine workload will reduce as also the cry for extra manpower and other resources for the same.

Smaller countries like Japan, Singapore, Israel and even some Gulf countries have administered such proactivity successfully. We can do it too if selfish motives at individual level to begin with are out of the way.

Skin-saving metrics such as 'base-reduction' otherwise do discourage booking of an offence itself, be it cognizable or N/C/O. Such under-counting is analogous to 'pushing problems under the carpet'. Not to forget, problems do have a nasty habit of surfacing exactly at wrong time making their administration very stressful and strained.

So being politician-like 'in-touch' after-the-crisis also is surely a welcome step but only after performing more important and apparently non-urgent act that of being seriously 'in-touch' to enable elimination of 'sparks' of 'potential crises'.

Earlier and faster such 'prevention-better-than-cure' wisdom dawns, faster will the nation be saved of potential costs/losses (in terms of 'Kargils in-the-making' such as 'Ladakh', 'Arunachal', etc.) on-the-border and (law-and-order issues such as rape, illegal and unauthorized activities growing beyond control) inside-the-border.

With such an approach, not only will it reduce reactive workload on all concerned but also help leaders in earning goodwill of citizens in the long-run. We all know that it's very difficult to forget good leaders as also it's almost impossible to forget bad leaders.

If it's so simple and obvious then why doesn't it happen the desired-way?

Because, either it is not as easy to practice as simplistic it sounds or I am too poor to understand level of the complexity the politicians have taken political economics to.

Recently I came across a couple of cartoons in DNA. One (Courtesy Urban Dictionary) showed our politicians acting as childish and stubborn; rejecting commonsense in favor of self-interest regardless of consequences.

The other showing a senior politician advising his colleagues (over a court's verdict on a scam): "Make stories, concoct confusion, create doubts... Haven't you seen the court has given benefit of doubt to Sajjan Kumar?"

In corporate life I came across four kinds of workplaces.

1/ One, where some people 'create' crises and some others try to fight them out.

2/ Two, places where everybody fights crises with some wondering about it's source.

3/ In the third kind, both roles are played by same people.

4/ Fourth-one is very rare Proactive-one, where everybody is in a sense-of-urgency to fight crises although hardly any exist.

Characteristics of fourth kind of workplace are scattered around in this post itself. A smart reader may find them easily.

In first two kind of workplaces, the sources of crises can get controlled sometime or the other. Third type is most dangerous because detection itself is a big challenge.

In the first three types there is a drought of leadership, will-power and sense-of-urgency to be 'in-touch' with the reality until it bites the concerned themselves.

Before it eventually does, I hope all including (myself and) people-in-power in particular aim their acts at being the fourth-one for My-India to be really shining and shining faster!

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post via social media.

That's How Morons Work 
Functional-Aesthetics 
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 
Take Habits For A Ride 
Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow 
How To Make A Difference 
A Ride To Hell 
Make checklists your friends  
Drove To Hell ... Almost ! 
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms ! 
Nauseous Communication Gaps 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam! 
Will It Work Here?  
Some Moron ! Some Great !!! 
That's How Morons Work 
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 
Technology in-place, security dis-placed 
Succession-Plans In Fast Lane!  
Prevention: The Best Cure! ... Is it really so? 
How Many Times Do You Wash Hands 
What You See Isn't What's Made 
Am I 'Short-sighted' or 'Long-sighted'?  
Beware Of Political-Presentations 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Hoarders Of Filthy Hoardings 
Are You Good If Others Are Bad?

In a Problem?: No Problem ! Dwell A While !!

On a winter morning he was out to take an admission test. Just before boarding bus to the exam-center, he realized that he had forgotten hall-ticket at home.

He rushed back. The door-lock failed to open as he tried vehemently. Tension began mounting as he consulted his wrist-watch repeatedly.

The lock was behaving the way it wanted to: funnily. His body was trying to cope up by pumping in more adrenaline in reaction.

What to do? What to do?

He consulted neighbors. Called-up parents in office. Both advised him to calm down.

Taking a small break he sat on staircase. With closed eyes he meditated on sound the lift was making. Took a couple of deep breaths. Suddenly something clicked to him. He got up. Kept bag by the side. Inserted key in the lock. Pushed the door slightly up pulled it towards him gently while murmuring "Khul-ja Sim-Sim"!

Voila! The door opened.. He grabbed hall-ticket. Luckily he had (not luckily, he often has by-design) extra time at hand. So rest all went fine.

How does 'dwelling' help?

What had changed between 'non-working' and 'working' status of the lock? Three things changed.

1/ The break that he took offered him a moment to change his tensed mind into relaxed and uncluttered one.
2/ Uncluttered mind offered empty space for fresh thoughts that clicked an idea.
3/ The idea got implemented without tension.

After a couple of iterations the equipment did work. The problem that seemed very difficult, appeared exceedingly simple as it usually does in the end.

One thing was common among three things that changed: The Relaxed mind.

Non-judgmental relaxed mind coolly directed (hands to) focus on actions. It prevented negative reactions. It directed attention on choicely responding to the situation: Positive re-actions or simply put response instead of reactions as the respons-a-ble people give if you may like to call it.

Apart from quality of space and time it offers during the nano-dwelling-moment, there is a deep meaning behind 'mind' being 'relaxed' if one is willing to receive.

Mind gets more powerful to work efficiently and effectively if 'one doesn't allow' it to (overly) 'worry' about symptoms and end-result: be them good or bad. That's a gateway to equanimity! That is what Yog-Gurus advise and practitioners of meditation do.

Scientific explanation to how 'dwelling' helps

To put it in research-language of Behavioral-Modulation-Technique (BMT), peaceful 'dwelling' helps in providing a positive antecedent that encourages active-listening to the-self. As a result, instead of preconceived thoughts, facts of the matter get attention for further analysis and for follow-up action. Peaceful mind prohibits entry of negative emotions (the negative antecedents) that otherwise trigger ego-clashes and harmful consequences therefrom.

To put it in research-language of Dr Eric Bern's Transactional-Analysis (TA): In the later part, his 'relaxed' mind didn't 'worry' about the situation as a problem. It's parent-ego part however did stay 'concerned' about it while considering the situation as a passing-phase. It kept advising him to stay cool having experienced favorable benefits of doing so in past. Thereby his mind was free of 'emotions' of fear not allowing it's child-ego part to waver. It allowed it's 'logical' counterpart, the adult-ego, to take charge.

Adult-ego in turn kept both the child-ego and parent-ego in control and took next logical step.

It uncluttered the mind's passage off negative thoughts in order to accommodate flowing-in of more logical information and options in response to inquisitive questions such as 'what-when-where-who-why-how'. 

A factual information 'click-occurred' and surfaced out of that, that 'this-is-how' the door behaves sometimes during monsoon. And 'that's-the-way' it needs to be opened then.

While his mind was buried under the emotions of worry and tension, it's child-ego part was ruling and behaving funnily, prohibiting recall of abnormal behavioral patterns of the door.

According to Dr Eric Bern, mind chooses to behave differently in different situations. Sometimes it behaves as a 'parent', sometimes as an 'adult' and sometimes as a 'child'. In his words:

Parent-ego is one's 'Taught' concept of life (revolving around conventions, one's  past conditioning or programming) 

Adult-ego is one's 'Thought' concept of life (revolving around logic) 

Child-ego is one's 'Felt' concept of life (revolving around emotions)

In the language of BMT, each of the above egos have their pluses and minuses depending upon a given situation. Adult-ego is however supposed to prevent both the 'parent-ego' and 'child-ego' from hijacking a given situation. It also  treats others as 'adults' and 'respects' their opinions. That's what is called as 'respecting people' and behaving with maturity.

What is the learning?

What should one do when confronted with or when locked in an undesired situation such as above, or on failing in an exam, or on failing in an interview?

In a given situation it's but natural to have emotions. But it's important not to get emotional by getting carried away under the influence of emotions. Consciously keeping cool by meditative breathing does help here in getting over emotions.

Meditative Breathing To Help Dwelling

First of all count 1-2-3.. ...10 in order to arrest reaction and stay cool. 

Close eyes gently. 

Take a couple of de..eeeee-ep breaths. 

Focus on 'feeling' the 'cool' breathing-in and 'warm' breathing-out process.

The process de-focusses you from the clutter of undesired thoughts.

Hence you feel better! More composed!! 

Open eyes if you wish, but slow-o-ly and gen...nnnttt...tly.

Here is a beautiful time-slot you have 'hard-earned' for yourself. 
Now you can 'dwell-a-while-meaningfully' on the agenda on hand.

Focus on the facts that you see around concerning the situation.

Analyse the facts and process them in order to derive actionables.

That in turn helps one to choose, rather act by design like a parent, adult or a child as appropriate to a given situation. It prevents internal ego clashes and thereby prevents clashes with others i.e. external ego clashes (see in picture the red-colored arrows shooting out).

While stuck in messy situations or while making important decisions, 'parent-in-you' may help keeping your cool. It assists 'adult-in-you' to take charge of both the 'parent-in-you' as well as the 'child-in-you'. 'Adult-in-you' thereby can choose safe-n-sound course of action by striking a balance between emotions and logic.

While in play-ground, 'child-in-you' may take charge and enjoy while letting the 'adult-in-you' to keep both the 'parent' and 'child' in you in control and balanced.

At workplace or otherwise the 'adult' in you 'respects' other people. 

In this blog-post I have covered how 'dwelling' helps alongwith it's scientific explanation offered by BMT and TA. I have extended this learning and tips to my blog-posts titled "Success Or Failure: What Do You Like?" in order to understand equanimity and to "In A Big-Problem?: Wear Hats To Solve It !!" in order to see how it helps in solving chronic problems and larger issues. I hope it helps. Looking forward to your experiences. Do write those in comment box hereunder.

Also read a few relevant blog-posts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post.

Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 

Old-Problems, New-Reasons !

Ant Knocks Elephant Down 
Will It Work Here?
Can-changing-thoughts-change-nation?
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important 
Talent-Is-Latent: Enable It! 
Judge If It's Paralysis-By-Analysis 
Will It Work Here? 
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 
Does recognition really matter 
Who Comes First: Consumer Or Customer ? 
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms ! 
Do You Ask Right Questions?
Am I 'Short-sighted' or 'Long-sighted'? 

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

Comprehensive-Strategic-Audits

Prevention: The Best Cure! ... Is it really so?
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms !
When Safety Becomes Sorry 
Drove To Hell ... Almost !  
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 
In a Problem?: No Problem ! Dwell A While !!
Part-1
In-big-problem? Wear-hats-to-solve-it! Part-2
How To Make A Difference
Big-Be Or Bug-Be !
Make checklists your friends
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis
That's How Morons Work
You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable
Waste-to-eat-sea-to-drink

Listen to the iceberg of VOC to acquire customers

Having traveled over 500-Kilometers in a 'bus-to-hell', I requested the agent to "book my return-journey on a bus-service that follows road-safety norms (especially the overtaking related), doesn't honk horn excessively, nor does it overuse brakes."

There was no other convenient alternative mode. A debt-ridden airliner had stopped operating on that (the Mumbai-Hubli) sector.

The travel agent gave me a funny look as if he was booking a ticket for an alien.

Not his fault because he was used to conventional requests like "timeliness, cleanliness, bus-with-video", etc. But someone like an idiosyncratic like me had to do the nasty job of giving customer-feedback. I usually don't hesitate doing so, sometimes even by making unusual requests such as above although unsure of the cognizance of it. 

I'm optimistic that sometime someone will. I think every customer who isn't, deserves to get a shoddy quality if s/he does!

Anyway, whether a customer complains or not, is it difficult for owners/managers of tourist buses to prevent their bus-drivers from overdoing: honking, speeding-up, braking on-and-oft, etc. kind of bad work habits. Now a days even digital technology is available to do so. Drivers, especially the bus-drivers, are constantly in a mood to kiss other speeding vehicles passing by.

Perhaps only on Indian roads the passengers must be getting reduced to a continuously-rattling grain-in-a-sieve. One has to master the art of Napolean-nap (quick nap on horse that he's famous for) to be able to take one in between a couple of sets of honking and braking in buses in India.

Forget feedback or lodging a complaint, hardly anyone even dares to voice such abnormal driving behavior. Surely s/he won't for the fear of the 'boss'-driver particularly if forced to travel frequently in the same bus.

Some companies do have a mechanism to capture such voice-of-customer (VOC). Because they know that, although sounding like 'idiosyncratic' casual remarks, VOC are just a tip of the iceberg (of complaints not voiced by many others for various reasons).

Some of them are sensible and sensitive enough to take next steps that of digging into the iceberg to take corrective and preventive actions treating such voices as 'complaints', although at times they may not be so.

- But having taken actions, how many look at the resulting improved practices as a competitive advantage! 

- How many build upon them and deploy them horizontally as specifications enhancing their own standards over and above their 'core-offering'! 

- How many communicate them (through their marketing promotion programme) in order to differentiate their services from from others!

Those who do, do score over their competition!

What steps do such forward looking companies take?

1/ They educate their staff that hardly over 4-out-of-100 dissatisfied customers might end up complaining. Rest just quit without-telling even as the so-called satisfied customers continue to 'live' with abnormalities until of course they get alternative-options.

2/ They install various mechanisms such as follows to capture VOC.

- They actually travel like a ghost-customer (known as mystery-shopping practice) in order to learn by observing abnormal as also good practices, if any.

- They train their staff to speak and/or 'actively-listen' to customers just as a mother would do with her tiny tots in order to learn their unspoken-unmet needs over and above their 'crying' wants anyway.

3/ They put Kaizen-improvements in place on relevant VOC observations, abnormal as well as good practices of own as also that from customer's gemba, and unspoken-unmet needs as also wants.

4/ They train and re-train their stakeholders on the above for effective implementation.

Actually specifications such as timeliness, cleanliness, video, etc. are a given 'Must-Quality' norms to enter or at the most to be in business.

Additionally it is the satisfaction of VOC: unspoken-unmet needs as well as wants (that's why it is called as 'Quality-that-Delights' the customer) that has the power - to expand the base of customer as also of the business (Ansoff-Matrix) by not only helping to bring out innovative products/services but also - to pull in additional customers (brand-affinity) while retaining the existing ones on existing products/services (brand-loyalty).

Of course, effectively communicating the resultant differentiations among all its stakeholders is part and parcel of the process.

Very few companies actually administer such a conducive mechanism by-design. Imagine the scope to benefit from it in terms of top-line sales and bottom-line profits if they do.

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post.

No Time? Micro-Meditate!  
Functional-Aesthetics
Listen To The Iceberg Beyond Tip

Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up? 
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully 
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important? 
Eternally Happy! 
In-a-problem? No-problem! Dwell-a-while! 
I am afraid ! What do I do !! 
Fearful-Of-Death-of-Birth
Take Habits For A Ride 
Happy-Birthday-to-Youooo
Do You Celebrate Mean-or-Green 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam! 
Are You Good If Others Are Bad?  
Want Need-Or-Want 
How To Make A Difference 
Love is Care.. Care is Love !  
Deity is in the eyes of the beholder 
Success-or-failure! What-do-you-like?
Ball-Basin-Team Combine !  Maketh The Smile Divine !! 

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation