Why do strategies fail

Sometimes we get so obsessed with formulation of long-term strategy that we fail to see dangers closing-in around in immediate term.

Sometimes we fail to take course-corrective actions, PEST & SWOT analysis as they say, demanded by changes in the environment in VUCA¹ business-world.

Obsession of long-term thoughts prevents us from engaging into immediate-term actions although they are a must-do actions. We engage ourselves into good-to-do or want-to-do actions. Sometimes out of enthusiasm, sometimes inadvertently though.

Must-do actions are about giving first-aid in order to get immediate relief from a problem as well as preventing recurrence of it.

One can prevent recurrence by keeping a daily vigil on the lessons learnt.

Good-to-do actions are about preventing ocurrence itself of an undesired situation.

Want-to-do actions are about all those sundry ones of least or no consequence to the goal at all.

Secret of successful implementation of strategy lies not only in not allowing thought processes to get de-focused but also in balancing the Must-do, Good-to-do and Want-to-do actions in right proportions thereof.

It's about keeping one eye on long-range vision and the other on shorter-range planning and actions.
It's about keeping one eye on strategy, the other on tactics.
It's about keeping one eye on telescope, the other on microscope.

Footnote-1: VUCA is a Military term that characterises Volatilie Uncertain Complex Ambiguous environment in a war situation.

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Talk in-order-to Listen!

I came across an old Argnetine proverb: 'He who speaks, sows; he who listens, reaps.'

A couple of days later, on whatsapp received a picture of Swami Vivekananda that says, "talk to yourself once a day... ."

Do these statements convey different meanings?

First one emphasises listening more than speaking: Listening to others! We are given two ears and one mouth as the rhetoric goes. I often tend to forget this though. Of course at times you need to speak on behalf of the speaker herself to validate that you have understood. This is active listening.

The second statement too emphasises listening but; Listening to self!

Once the art of 'listening to self' is mastered 'listening to others' gets easier.

How does one 'listen to self'?

At subtler level, an intelligent but difficult way is to meditate!

At gross level a simple way is to write a diary; daily if possible!

Some do write a diary but conventionally it tends to be a chronology of events and problems. 

To go any closer to what Swami Vivekananda says, the diary should be about drawing lessons from the events and from one's own behavior.

Then the diary turns out to be 'listening to self' in real sense.
Thoughts and your response to situations change thereafter.
The lessons learnt from mistakes, if any, help improve one's self.
Journey from reaction to pro-action (proactive action) begins.
A step taken towards excellence!

Someday a day dawns with an appointment of a beautiful, handsome, strong and excellent person: The Self: The one that Swami Vivekananda had in mind!

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Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell Me Hey Raam!

The other day someone asked me how should s/he behave with a funny, unpredictable, sham character that always played games at workplace?

I told him to study the difference between epic characters RAAM and KRISHNA-Shyam in order to pick up a few cues and learn therefrom.

Both RAAM and KRISHNA (Shyam is his one of the famous names mostly used in songs and films) are epic characters to be learnt from while sailing through real life.

Both had good intentions!

RAAM always believed that - people always have good intentions, - people always do good. So RAAM always behaved 'good' with all people meaning he applied Saama (साम) strategies. He mostly left people, things and their given situations to themselves, open-ended in order for them to happen and evolve on their own.

Sometimes things did happen as 'good' because as in the epic called Ramayana those times were good as well as people were generally good.

KRISHNA (the character from epic called Mahabharata) also got good intentions delivered from others. But to get measurable delivery in a time-bound and desired manner, he had to keep changing tactics and strategies. He applied Saam (साम) strategies with Raama-like good people but applied guerrilla tactics and strategies (Daamaa-Dandaa-Bhedaa: दाम-दंड-भेद) with bad characters like KANSA.

KRISHNA kept modifying his strategies to suit a given situation because he had to achieve common-good while generally operating in bad times (Kalliyug: कलियुग). In Kalliyug one must face situations fearlessly and courageously.

One must read Bhagwad-Gita to understand Krishna philosophy. As Swami Vivekananda says, in order to understand it better, play football before reading it. You need to be strong physically and mentally to understand it's power.

What's the learning?

While leading our role in achieving a goal for common-good: Be RAAM-like with RAAM-like behavior of people.

But be KRISHNA-like with KANSA-like behavior of people.

A ©MaiKu Poem that the question inspired:

Whenever's a situation sham
Like Saama-Daamaa-Dandaa-Bhedaa' of KRISHNA-Shyam
Not 'Saama' like RAAM

©MaiKu Is My-Haiku
Freely ideate it's poetic rhymes
Any objective topic it chimes

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