JIT for sustainability!

What do you see in the pic... 

Some may respond, "I see... 

- two paper cups \ glasses of water, 

- One of the cups \ glasses half full, the other one empty! 

- cups \ glasses waiting to get disposed!" and so on!

Can you make a story of it!

(Immediately after boarding a flight) I'd asked for half glass of HOT WATER!

The airhostess promptly fetched me a full glass of lukewarm water!

Second time after a while, while she was on a service round, I 'showed' her the old cup and indicated to fill in it half (glass of) HOT WATER again!

She (ignored the old paper cup &) served me lukewarm water (by mixing cold water in it) in a fresh paper cup!

What's the learning!?

My learning is: 

1.. Ask for what you want (here the HOT WATER) clearly specifying (in this cup "please" &) not to mix cold water in it! Merely showing the cup may not be enough. The supplier need to clearly communicate her inability, if any, to supply as per specifications.

2.. Never take the customer's specification for granted. Always confirm specifications of her need!

3.. It's good to share such stories to train your own staff back in your office as also at your home about the - importance of customer specification\s in the JIT¹ way as in point-1 above! - need for sustainability (to re-use) specially when the customer has specified so! - need to express inability, if any, to supply with justified reasons in an honest, caring & gentle manner - importance of observation power and alertness to learn from each moment & from each happening around in order to generate opportunities for improvement (OFI) in self if not in others. The latter may be out of one's control!

4.. Although the above behaviours look commonsensical, they rarely happen. So change in attitude is needed at personal level reflecting it in the desired behaviours.

5.. Rather than being a mere spectator, an observer around may take lead in appreciating such desired behaviours. Positive reinforcement thereby may help recurrence of such desired behaviours!

By the way, this is not a story! 

It's an actual customer-experience. It actually reinforces - how much waste (here the cup & the water served in excess over the demand) gets generated in each of such transactions between a customer and a supplier! - how badly there is a need to educate and train people to reduce waste and help the sustainability movement in order to reduce global warming!

¹ JIT is - Just (i.e. exactly) what's needed, - Just (i.e. exactly) when it is needed, - Just (i.e. exactly) how & how much amount is needed! JIT approach to work provides unending OFI's or Kaizens as done by many companies the world over.

Mission Zero-Plastic!

Are dustbin bags, sticky bags, half liter water bottle, etc. banned?

Political posters in flex material are not penalised! So does it mean flex material is exempt selectively? Or is political fraternity exempt from discipline?

Do you mean to say citizens should carry steel vessels to buy milk, meat, fish, etc. all the way to their workplaces so that they can shop on their way back home after a long day?

Don't you think exempting branded packaged goods and foods in plastic is discriminatory to small businesses?

Such and many other doubts began circulating on WhatsApp as the plastic ban was announced by the State of Maharashtra.

If such confusion was expected by design as a strategy then it's a good move by the administrators.

Good because such confusion forces people to think intentionally as it has happened already. As a result, people have at least begun thinking of alternatives out of fear of punishment though.

But targeting to achieve any (Zero-Plastic kind of) result measures without enabling the corresponding processes in place always have had serious implications with associated costs. Time and again this has got proven by itself.

In Nagpur, for instance, out of fear some people got rid of banned plastic bags by dumping them in rivulets.

If such confusion, however, is by chance then there's a bigger worry.

Bigger worry because it might mean, there's a lack of well-designed time-bound plan, also lack of the design to execute the ban itself holistically expecting it to aim Zero-Plastic target! In fact, adequate design learning from others (especially from countries successful in handling the plastic menace) is the first step in any such project. Bigger worry because lack of meticulousness in such initiatives usually leads to sub-optimisation harming the nobility of the purpose itself.

Unless every stakeholder gets mindfully engaged in averting the plastic-pollution-menace and the forthcoming disaster therefrom, the costs of the short term approaches towards it will get out of control. There's a need to take a relook at it in order to scrutinise the blanket-ban, if any, if not done so already.

Better also to be innovative on making the recycling more effective. Not only does the arrest of the plastic need to be at manufacturing level but also at desire-based or want-based consumption level. A pictorial do-don't will go a long way in preventing the confusion among the users and the administrators.

In any case the Zero-Plastic target is an arduous task at least in near future since for some applications cost effective substitute is yet to get invented.

Sustainability of the planet is the priority number-1 but the ban itself needs to be sustainable for that!

Here's my 140 character Tweet plan of action (POA) revolving around the Kaizen technique: *MISER!

Be a MISER stakeholder on Plastic!

MINDFUL of enabling process to evolve Zero-Plastic result!
INNOVATE packaging!
SCRUTINISE blanket-ban!
ELIMINATE production!
REDUCE, REUSE! Collect to RECYCLE!

(*MISER: Minimise. Improvise. Simplify. Eliminate. Reduce.) 

Kaizen to overcome procrastination!

Caught a Kaizen
Delayed procrastination

Shunned hallucination

My above Haiku reminded me of the following quote....

Hallucinations are always evidence of cerebral derangement and are common phenomena of insanity. - W. A. Hammond

That's what the state of mind I used to experience whenever I used to step into my office-cum-library. My library is full of books, some bound photocopies, some box-files full of scribbled newspaper cuttings, and some full of case-studies, some manuscripts (including of my own), etc. spread all over the office in various pockets.

Let alone the sight of it, mere thought of visiting it, used to put my mind in disorder. It used to remind me of the pending work, literary in particular, and drive me insane. And then the shortcut used to be to procrastinate!

One day I thought of an instant solution... that of committing to apply Kaizen techniques to become leaner that I taught to others.

Few years ago, on this decision, the first thing I did was to make the office itself redundant over a few years.

In the first year, I forced myself to reduce it to ¹/3rd its original size and rent out the balance.
I did it by being ruthless on some documents that I hardly touched over a few years.
I got the rest of them all closer to each other to accommodate in half of the ¹/3rd space leaving the rest ¹/2 for sitting (and for packing our publications for onward dispatch).
That means so far I was wasting space utilization by almost 67 percent.

Next year onwards I stopped going to the office as a typical office goer.
In any case half my time involves travel in field. Technology made it possible for me to work rest of the month from wherever I was even from under a tree.
That means I was wasting time in logistics.

What did I do to my writing work...... The series of books that were in pipeline! My blogs! Tweets! Facebook, G+ and LinkedIn postings, Haiku, etc. etc.

That's what it was for which were all the funny collections in my library.

First thing I did was to remove all the etc. etc.
I decided 'to be' only on a couple of platforms in social media.

And of course to be Theme-based on that.

That helped me to prioritize the things that I 'must and need to do' rather than that I would 'want to do'. That gave me some time to allocate for writing the pending books.
Here's also an answer to why I 'hide' myself and avoid some non value calls on me.

I broke the writing work into a few palatable pieces. I compiled corresponding papers from the library into smaller files and brought them home. Scanned some for some focused writing that I could do anywhere during travel as well. Mission 'Zero laptop and desktop use' allowed me to use EVERNOTE app innovatively for the 'office under a tree' concept.

After completing the writing work (including publishing some blogposts) the papers and files were discarded.

In short, I applied 5-S on physical as well as on mental processes.
I learnt to 'Switch-On' and 'Switch-Off' at will.

I split work into small pieces that could be accomplished in bits and pieces each day, if not each hour, enjoying booster doses of small accomplishments at regular intervals.

Some tweets and Haiku poems that I could write instantly got converted into blogposts. Both together got converted into Facebook and G+ postings with relevant pictures that I took during travel. Some blogposts got compiled into chapters for the pending books.

In fact I started enjoying living in terms small bites of a few minutes together in order to 'just do it now and here' instead of being bogged down under the pressure of a large project of writing a book over a longer period of a few years say.

I didn't worry too much about mistakes and grammatical errors.
Kaizen approach created multiple chances for me to improve in next PDCA cycle. I could for instance always revise my tweets as well as blogposts.

The process is still ON until I make my remaining ¹/3rd office also redundant!
No doubt it was with some failures.
Although initially I feared failures, I learnt to get over them by working on their causes and committing to work upon failure modes adequately next time.
The PDCA cycle of Kaizen allowed me to forgive myself in the process!

In short,

Be leaner. 
Apply 5-S.
Use technology.
Focus on priorities.
Break work into a few palatable pieces.
Take and complete one piece at a time.
Don't fear mistakes and failures.
Revisit... Be a learner.

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

Kaizen, even in air!
In a Problem?: No Problem ! Dwell A While !! 
Forgive Or Don't? 
Soon... Waste-to-Eat ! Sea-to-Drink !!
About my first book World-Of-Kaizen
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers 

In-big-problem? Wear-hats-to-solve-it!

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 
Does recognition really matter 
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?
Do you know a Best-Career-Plan 
Take your career in fast lane! 
Succession-Plans In Fast Lane!  
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
You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable 
Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass  
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice? 
Make checklists your friends  
Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow 
How To Make A Difference 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
A customer gets what s/he deserves: Shoddy Quality! 
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers

Penny-Wise Pound-Wiser

Penny-Wise Pound-Wiser

Daily saving countless Water

Being an intelligent Miser

That's the Haiku poem I wrote at the sight of my dinner plate.
Actually each day I tried to be a miser and console myself that I'm an intelligent miser. 

I reason it out of being a so-called self-appointed "intelligent" miser. 

Why? Because I ask some "foolish" questions to every human activity that I see, rather, that "I probe" I should say. 

But I don't have control over some. 

So I be "funny" with myself, with what I've control over. 

My dinner plate for instance.
I 'want' a fresh one. That's my desire.
That's my healthy habit.
But can my 'need' be served by something else?

Can I choose a soiled one that's available from the kitchen after being used for its intended purpose in the cooking process? 

For instance, one in picture is the pot of balance quantity of rice and another one is that balance quantity of curd. 

One plate and one bowl stays fresh!

Also you can see an old newspaper used below the plate so that the table doesn't get soiled. 

Plate reused!

Water saved, waste eliminated!!
Economy for Ecology!!!

How many such activities and avenues possible in a day? 

How much time can be saved that can be used for more value-adding work? 

How much water can be saved each day?

Countless at times!!!

Penny-Wise Pound-Foolish it is to call the self so-called intelligent!

Read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Rise-n-Fall in the Rain-Fall 

Take Habits For A Ride 
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully

How To Make A Difference

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Poverty-to-Power of Poetry

Wish To Be Planet-Friendly?: Save ! 

Soon-waste-to-eat, Sea-to-drink !

Don't Save Water on Holi-day

Do You Celebrate Mean-or-Green

Not-Soon, Says Monsoon

Rise-n-Fall in the Rain-Fall   

Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-1)

Functional-Aesthetics
Bust-wants, Boom-needs

Should one care for value? 

What You See Isn't What's Made

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 

Less With More And More Gets Sore 

How To Make A Difference 

Some Moron ! Some Great !!! 

That's How Morons Work

Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass  

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 

Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice? 

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 

Don't Save Water on Holi-day

How often do you hear VOC

Given an opportunity, which air-conditioner would you buy: split or window?

Would you buy 'split' at the price point of the 'window' unit?

Of course, I would go for 'split' at the price point of the 'window' unit. Less noise at lesser price! 

But I've not done so yet.
Not because the split unit is not available at the price point of the window unit but because I've been on a search for a split air-conditioner of which the diffuser is small enough to fit into the opening for a window air-conditioner. I am yet to be delighted on such an offering.

Like in most houses provision for a window unit is a given. 

Same isn't the case for a split unit which actually needs a smaller hole, much smaller than one for the window unit. Is it a design-flaw or is the exclusion itself by-design?

Whatever may be the case but above paragraphs have some Voice Of Customer (VOC) hidden in there that has potential to differentiate an offering. 

1/ For a builder-developer and an architect by providing a hole for a split unit at construction stage itself. This is to avoid the wastage of breaking the wall open for split unit.

2/ For an air-conditioner manufacturer-designer by making diffuser of a split unit small enough to fit into the opening provided for a window unit. This will create an opportunity for increased sale of the split unit.

From the configurations (see figure) of a typical manufacturer, you may find that none of the diffusers of the 'split' unit fit the 'window' width that is about 660 millimeters (standard). Of course, this is not until someone makes it to fit into the window and makes the customers aware of it thereby pulling 'window' unit customers to buy 'split' unit.

There are many opportunities if marketers and designers choose to innovate by mining into VOC such as above. Differentiated offerings as above could be possible by simple frugal innovations though many real innovations themselves are possible with frugal expenses on R&D if at all.

"How often do you hear VOC?"
Jokingly many reply: "Hardly any! Because she (customer) doesn't speak!"

Although this is fit to be a whatsapp reply, part of it is certainly true.

Customers are difficult to get to speak. Hardly any tell you what they want.
Fewer know what they need although they want to design their own life.
So somehow both the above types get rid of you by filling in the blanks in customer satisfaction survey forms in order to comply to your request. Analysis of such 'tick-marks' on the forms adds a little value if at all. 

If at all any of them do (speak), hardly 4-out-of-100 that are not satisfied with the offering, do so to complain reluctantly.
Rest leave without telling the supplier and join hands with the competitor.

Knowing this well some excellent companies capture VOC proactively.

Komatsu for instance fitted GPS-enabled software (KOMTRAX) in their equipment so that their engineers can capture and 'visualize' customer problems, needs, etc. in real-time as also they can value-add to their operations by updating them on their equipment utilization, etc.

Toyota for instance, fitted micro-phones in their new car models during test marketing so that they could capture 'feelings and expressions' of their customers that could be built into the product before commercially releasing them as competition to their own current models.

So do you have guts to cannibalize your own products before your competitors do?

Can't you make your customer speak, capture it, and build it into your offering faster than your competitor just as the Komatsus and Toyotas did?

Why not? 

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-1)
Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-2)
Functional-Aesthetics
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling
How To Make A Difference
Nauseous Communication Gaps
Judge If It's Paralysis-By-Analysis
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !!
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily
Does recognition really matter
Customer or Custo-Mer ?
Experienced A Delightful Payment !
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul
Do you keep curing your brand ?
A customer gets what s/he deserves: Shoddy Quality!
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers
Do You Force Customers To Quit
Should one care for value ?
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms !
Do You Ask Right Questions ?
Talk In Order To Listen! 

Conscious Of Self-Esteem

"Hey, you ciant piark yer kyar thiees waye, kay?" Owner of neighboring parking slot in my society had picked up American accent.

Perhaps he recently had a week's stint somewhere there. A week ago I'd heard him saying, "Why can't you park your car this way?"

Do you find some people picking up a local slang, be it from a developed destination like in above case or from a rural-interior one from an under-developed geography?

Good if the purpose of such a behavior is to improve grammatical delivery. Or good if a newly learnt short-form is by design to add to personal vocabulary in order to increase productivity.

In both such cases the change might be good if it offers some corresponding functional benefit.

In case of 'American-accent' the change occurred over the week appears more to impress the 'foreign-return' stamp than any value-addition to herself or to the listener. In fact to the listener it was a non-value because the accent was difficult to comprehend. The behavior appears to be purely aesthetic.

In the latter case, corresponding person doesn't seem to be conscious of her self-esteem. She is allowing (rather choosing) it to get deteriorated inadvertently though.

Agreed that under some circumstances one does need to behave "Like Romans in Rome". But carrying Rome lock-stock-and-barrel back to your native place may not be a good idea.

It's like sacrificing your own identity merely to conform to others' expectations or purely to impress others. It's like refusing to take stock of "who you really are and are capable of doing". It's like lack of self-confidence or lack of belief in the self.

Lesson

It's fine if a change in behavior and in turn in personality is for the good or for the better. Alternatively if the change in personality leads to deterioration of current level of performance of the self or that of the others then it's a No.. No!

On this first day of the year, let me thank the year gone by for having given me so many opportunities such as above to learn from. Thank you the year to help me to reinforce as well as to enhance my self-esteem and to help me get ready to embrace the New-Year with newer zeal.

IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important? 
Talent-Is-Latent: Enable It! 
Take your career in fast lane!
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully
Do You Ask Right Questions?  
Do You Force Customers To Quit
Less-With-More Because More-Is-Sore
Should one care for value? 
Talk In Order To Listen!  
Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-2)
Functional-Aesthetics 

Who Comes First: Consumer Or Customer ?

Other day in one of my sessions, the marketing staff complained about (false) sale of some products. The goods sold by the company a couple of years ago were still lying in near-unpacked condition at buyer's end. The new staff at their client company appeared non-cooperative when the seller approached to effect a new sale.

The objective of the training workshop was to improve sales revenue. The case under study turned out to be one of a wrong-sale.

Why were the goods lying in near-unpacked condition for so long?

Because the user didn't find it fit-for-use.

Why?
Because the order was finalized by purchase manager without adequate involvement of the end-user.

What had happened was the seller knew the purchase manager who happened to have 'influence' on closing the deal. So he used his relationship to materialise the order.

In the process the real user got ignored.

Not only does ego of the user gets hurt due to such indifference but also some opportunities get lost.

Opportunity to understand real needs: the voices of grassroot level customers.
Opportunity to design-in such voices in order to make the offering robust.
Opportunity to outdo competition through customized offering.
Opportunity to enhance relationship.
Opportunity to create 'word-of-mouth' publicity advocates reinforced through delightful experience of the offering.

All this loss at the cost of loss of future business.

Buyer's management might succeed in forcing the end-user to use bought goods particularly if it's a costly capital equipment. But such forceful 'selling' calls for some long-term Costs-Of-Poor-Quality (COPQ): Costs due to reluctance to use. Costs of wrong use. Costs due to inadequate serving of purpose. Costs of sour relationships among people within and without.

All this waste because of overselling or inadequate selling.

What's the learning?

Understand the difference between Consumer and Customer! End-user of the pen or pencil, the child for instance, is the consumer. Buyer, the parents, are the customer.

Consider the voice of consumer regarding functional use (her needs) first while designing an offering.

Do consider the voice of customer as well in order to design-in peripheral aspects of the offering as well as nuts and bolts of the corresponding buying process: the wants.

Sometimes however the role of consumer as well of the customer may be played by the same personality.

In any case, she might take presence of both the needs and wants for granted as a 'must'. But the seller/marketeer can't afford to because the absence of both surely won't be taken for granted individually nor jointly by both the consumer as well as the customer.

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-1)
Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-2)
Functional-Aesthetics
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling
How To Make A Difference
Nauseous Communication Gaps
Judge If It's Paralysis-By-Analysis
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !!
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily
Does recognition really matter
Customer or Custo-Mer ? 
Experienced A Delightful Payment !
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul
Do you keep curing your brand ? 
A customer gets what s/he deserves: Shoddy Quality! 
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers
Do You Force Customers To Quit
Should one care for value ? 
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms !
Do You Ask Right Questions ? 
Talk In Order To Listen! 

Simplicity Of Theory Of Relativity

My google map was not responding.
Public transport was not in sight.

How far is Hill road, I asked at the roadside stall. 
"15 minutes", the stall-owner replied.

Just to reconfirm I asked same question to a person parking car nearby. It's hardly 2 minutes: He replied.

I was a bit confused. 15 minutes or 2 minutes?

After a couple of minutes walk, I asked same question to a lady waiting to cross the road.
She replied: It's about 30 minutes.

More confusion: 30 minutes after 5 minutes walk?

I continued walking down.
After 10 minutes walk, I asked someone for a landmark for the place I had reached. I thought someone could pick me up from there in order to reach me to my destination.

The person couldn't tell me one. She kept looking at the cow instead I was standing next to. Luckily she didn't tell me the cow as the landmark. Otherwise I would've ended up looking at 'google-guy' (snail) instead of google map. (Cow is pronounced as Guy in vernacular.)

The point I am driving home is it's all relative!
Long ago Einstein brought the concept of relativity. 
Perhaps by car it was 2 minutes.
By walk it was 15 minutes.
And by the walking speed of the lady it was 30 minutes.
Probably the lady was right. She was pregnant.

The only thing wrong was I didn't confirm the mode of travel. Nor did they specify.
Actually I was wrong not to ask right question.

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

Do You Ask Right Questions? 
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully
Make checklists your friends
Love is Care.. Care is Love ! 
Take Habits For A Ride
Are You Good If Others Are Bad? 
Bust-wants, Boom-needs
Do You Celebrate Mean-or-Green
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture
I am afraid ! What do I do !!
Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order
Success Or Failure: What Do You Like?
Fearful Death-Of-Birth !
Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell Me Hey Raam!

Functional-Aesthetics

"Almost all crime is due to the repressed desire for aesthetic expression." Evelyn Waugh English Writer. 

The concept in this blogpost was triggered by a picture that I saw painted on a wall of Rail Museum in Mysore.

It said: Way to Maharani (Queen) Saloon!

At its first sight, I was reminded of a term usually misspelled in India, Saloon for Salon: the term for a barber's shop.

I wondered what had the painting to do with the rail exhibits. In the wildest imagination, I could think of its links, if at all any, with the hairdressing of Queens of the dynasties in palaces of Mysore and around.

I found myself wrong after looking around for a while. I found the real Saloon. A part of the rail carriage was exhibited there. It was devoted to seated relaxation combined with a dining table: The Saloon!

Anyway, let me take an about-turn now. Let me expand on the thought that occurred to me at the sight of this picture at this site.

Why do people go to a salon: a barber's shop?

Some go for their Functional 'Needs'.
Some go for their Aesthetic 'Wants'.
Some go for "Functional-Aesthetics": This is the term & the concept that had instantaneously occurred to me then at the sight of the painting.

I 'googled' for the term "Functional-Aesthetics" and giggled that it didn't exist.

What is Functional-Aesthetics?

Typically a haircut that's acceptable with reference to military norms is functional.

Actually long hair can be unhealthy as well as dangerous, both in military as well as in other contexts. In military setting in particular, additional reasons of their typical haircut could be to preempt accidents due to long hair, its maintenance, distractions or undesired attractions due to them if stylized, as the case may be, in the warfield. The functions that it is expected to serve makes it a functional haircut.

A funny haircut acceptable only to a small group of trendy people as a fad could be termed as purely aesthetic one. It's generally acceptable as a style for its funny aesthetics more than for the function that it's expected to serve if at all.

On the same lines, a haircut typically acceptable to school norms could fall in the category of Functional-Aesthetics.

In short, 'needs' that stand the tests of an acceptable system's logically acceptable judiciously balanced norms or standards or criteria could be termed as Functionally-Aesthetic.

'Wants or desires' that go beyond such logical norms or criteria could be termed as Aesthetic more than Functional, with reference to a given system. 

A style that adds substance to the function (that it is supposed to serve) without any extra cost to the offering nor to the ecology may also stand the test of being Functionally-Aesthetic: A shirt for instance bought for its extra-large pockets or additional pockets unconventionally located on its sleeve, say, in order to eliminate carrying an extra hand-bag. 

Paradoxically, a functionally-aesthtic offering to be on the right path of evolution should truly lead to multi-functionality in its usage with minimalist use of resources while at the same time simplistic-to-use, maintain & facilitate eco-friendly disposal as a part of its total lifecycle. 

Functionally-Aesthetic offering in general should 'sell' more in the longer run than purely Functional or purely Aesthetic one. Because it offers value; because it offers Total Quality to all its stakeholders. On the contrary, rest of the offerings necessarily need marketing 'push' & overselling too. Or in its absence, the purely Aesthetic may fail to exploit its full potential. 

A Lesson!

If you mindfully observe, you may find that the Mother Nature and its every design itself is Functionally-Aesthetic both in its form-and-fit. It's intelligently crafted Aesthetics! That's why everything natural from food-to-fossil is pure, beautiful, lean, value-adding and valuable. Hope human race strives to maintain it that way. Hope it draws a lesson or two to learn from (it) and invests its finite time in adding value to life rather than destroying it by incorporating the unwanted waste under the disguise of so-called Aesthetics.

Only way to do so is by arresting unneeded human activities and unwise choice/s for want/s that create a materialistic world. Spoiled choices in particular take one away from being Functionally-Aesthetic: The choices that are far from being sustainable!

Here's a MaiKu© poem while on the subject:

On way to queen's saloon
Imagination took off in balloon
Finally landed Saloon in Salon

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

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Do You Celebrate Mean-or-Green

Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-1)

Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-2)

Should one care for value? 

Do you exercise your choice meaningfully

What You See Isn't What's Made

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Wish To Be Planet-Friendly?: Save! 

Less With More And More Gets Sore

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

That's How Morons Work

Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass 

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Eternally Happy

Eternally Happy: परमानंद

Beware Of Political-Presentations

At the time of elections they do two things.

One, political leaders make new promises without timeline to their election manifesto. Their tenure is supposed to be presumed as timeline without any commitment from the politicians. Tenure for National and
State level is five years.

Two, they show their performance as 'achieved' without making any reference to measures of the last manifesto: Measures such as what was promised, how much, of what specifications, within what timeline.

It's but natural that fake statements make up for their speeches. They manage the 'show' by 'show'ing sundries such as facades of rail-station's entries, an escalator here, a footover bridge there, etc. They put their 'best foot forward'. No reference to whether that was a priority nor whether it was in the corresponding election manifesto.

Sometimes the projects 'show'n as complete happen to be the ones that were begun during a couple of tenures before the current election. The one that was supposed to have been completed in the first tenure itself, got delayed until the third or fourth tenure and hence became eligible to be 'show'n.

It's like a local train that was supposed to reach destination within a couple of hours but eventually reached after a couple of days. Smart voters do not turn blind eye to that.

However the current politician does take advantage of marketing it as his own achievement. Credit grabbing! Funny part is sometimes out of their enthusiasm they even end up showing pictures of a rail-line of a railway station as 'achievement'. That had anyway been existing their for ages.

Although this might appear to be a bit of an exaggeration that's the way Indian political presentations are; aesthetic than functional. Look at newspaper advertisements and publicity material during election-time if you don't believe this.

What a good presentation be like?

A good presentation should be a no-presentation at all. 

Real work doesn't need 'presentation'. The surroundings, the workplace (Gemba) itself and each real-element of the process (Gembutsu) 'speaks' the 'dynamism' of the change in realtime (Genjitsu).

If for instance a presentation is needed for commercial reasons, as a checklist it should contain business like dimensions such as before-after pictures of improvements and achievements till-date, period-to-date (PTD), year-to-date (YTD), month-to-date (MTD), week-to-date (WTD), etc. 

Not only it should contain recognition and review of planned versus actual 'results' but also a log of the 'roles performed' and efforts taken during the 'means to the results'. The achievements be compared with promises in terms of productivity and quality-of-life measures, timelines vis-a-vis promises made with corresponding priorities.

I think even a hundredth of candidates won't be able to contest elections if they do so. That's why they don't do so. Rather they make it a 'political-show'.

Story in some corporate houses is no different. Sometimes their 'presentations' are 'better' than politician's ones especially during appraisal times.

Beware: Take a close look at the 'other foot' as well since the 'best foot forward' can be deceptively attractive! A way to do it is believing your eyes than ears. Make deep diving at the real-site (Gemba) 'to see changes' as primary rather than 'hear' presentations away from Gemba. 

Create awareness to compare 'what-was-planned', 'what-it-was' with the improved 'what-it-is-now' and 'what-it-could-be' next. And then present it with their timelines and multi-dimensional (holistic) measures.

Bring out vividly 'what-changes' were driven at root-cause level in order to make the change sustainable.

It does motivate, recognise and reinforce desired behavior of the people who matter if one measures achievements with correct reference lines. 

Otherwise it's sure to promote fire-fighters while demotivating the fire-preventers: A culture of promoting fire-fighting rather than fire-prevention! 

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Elections on anvil for voters' will

Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-1)

Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-2)

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order (Part-1) 

Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order (Part-2) 

Discrimination Cremated! But How Long? 

How To Make A Difference

Big-Be Or Bug-Be !

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture

That's how some business partnerships work

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !!

Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms !

Talk In Order To Listen! 

What You See Isn't What's Made

ABCD of India Shining

Shining On Farmer's Suicides!

Farmer's Suicides is not new to Vidarbha in India.

What's new is newer opportunities and innovations in 'claiming' compensations therefrom.

Few weeks ago a news flashed regarding 73 farmers in Marathwada killing themselves after a freak hailstorm that ruined their crops.

Whether it's a freak one or man-made is a separate topic. But there are strong evidences that this is nature's way to react to excessively unwanted human activities.

It got revived in my mind because of another news I read on twitter today. It was about 334 farmers getting compensated by over 10 million rupees in spite of not having any farm.

The news highlights cozy nexus among local goons, politicians, corrupt officials, other people in power in corresponding departments.

It's actually an open secret. At times a drunkard is worth half a million for such a nexus. Because when a drunkard dies, the nexus conspires. It 'makes' him a 'farmer' who 'committed suicide'. With the help of corrupt bank officials of a small-time cooperative credit society or a bank, it creates fake documents. It gets all other 'documents in order' so that the 'loan' can get compensated and the amount can be distributed.

A research on google will throw light on many such crooked innovations in order to dupe government. Greed drives them for more.

Innovators galore and shining but I am sure investigators are more intelligent and shining.

Will the really affected farmers forgive such conspirators ever?

A MaiKu© hereunder on the topic:

Crooked Innovators galore
Greed drives conspirators for more
Vigilante drives them to shore

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

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Prayer for drought-ridden 10822-Villages

ABCD of India Shining

Some Moron ! Some Great !!!

That's How Morons Work

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass 

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Do you know a Best-Career-Plan

Wish To Be Planet-Friendly?: Save! 

Don't Save Water on Holi-day

Be Shame-less Or Water-less

कधीतरी सापडेल का शोधता-शोधता ?

Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms !

You Can’t Take It With You, but You Still Want More

Do You Celebrate Mean-or-Green 

Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-1) 

Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-2) 

No Time? Micro-Meditate!

Just read about Mindfulness and Micro-Meditation.

It reminds me of the tips in blogpost on self-energizing in a minute. It's about meditation in order to overcome overworking and tension.

If you are short of time to 'sit down and meditate' in a conventional sense, don't worry. Even a single spiritual breath cycle can do the magic if you do exercise your choice.

Just 'catch a minute' in order to micro-meditate and self-energize.

Even a Lift that takes a couple of minutes to reach it's destination offers an opportunity. Of course you must commit yourself to do so.

Like a 'standing-corpse', lean in a comfortable position against a support in a corner of the lift.

Close eyelids gently. Taking advantage of gravity, 'throw in your head'.

Relax all facial and body muscles including eyelids and eyeballs. 'Visit' them with 'mental eyes' to do so. Eyes dissipate maximum energy. So more and faster they are relaxed, more and faster you gain.

Take a deep breath... Gently! ... Without appearing to force it down your wind pipe!

While doing so let 'mental eyes' traverse the path of the breath.

As you inhale, feel cool breath entering your nostrils, touching it's walls, going deep down into your belly as much as possible and naturally.

As you exhale, feel it moving up into your lower chest region, then to your shoulder region and then out of the nostrils. While exiting feel warmth of the breath.

Now dwell a moment on your eyelids. Slowly and deeply breathe into the muscles of the eyelids. Feel the heat being thrown away from eyeballs to eyelids and finally into atmosphere. Feel that eyelids as well as your facial and body muscles are relaxed. Dwell into this feeling until the time on hand permits.

Gently open your eyelids. See naught while staring into space. Just an empty look into Zero. Walkout of the lift slowly as it reaches destination. Now you are more happy, with reduced level of anxiety and fear, 'ready to go' with more energy and confidence.

If you did it right then it's likely that you just had a micro glimpse into the most secret phenomenon: the phenomenon of buddhahood. If yes, then celebrate your new 'self', the new birth!

If you couldn't do it right, don't worry. At least 'you' tried to make a difference to yourself. Keep practising it until it becomes a habit.

Enjoy the day!

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

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 !!

Don't Forget: Stir-Coffee-Well !

Sometimes we struggle through a tasteless coffee till its last sip. Then we find sugar lying at the bottom unused.

That's LIFE: (My Haiku on it...)

I fail, I fail !

Why blame others for the hell !!

It's sweet but not stirred well..!!!

That's the dilemma of a teacher or a coach or a guru: Students forget that they themselves are the sugar. Students forget that even 'the knowledge' is sugar. They forget to 'stir' it (as also to 'stir' themselves) well!

Above message received on social media reminded me of a student of Kaizen who bumped into me on a flight.

To my question, how was Kaizen journey-to-excellence going on in his company, his response was: "Well back to 'business as usual', 'full of fire-fighting, blaming-naming', 'no time to breath', etc."

Like most do typically on leaving school, he seemed to have forgotten 'teachings' of the Kaizen-school. That the Kaizen journey itself is to get rid of such ills so that it 'helps' to take 'full-breaths'. Kaizen journey is to get people aligned towards this thought.

It's human tendency to have divergent desires and get defocused by their changing thoughts and desires. They keep dragging themselves towards the undesired: typically in a corporate setting towards individual goals. However it's the role of the leadership team to help individuals to find leads for their 'desires' in the goals of the mutual interest, towards the very purpose of its existence. It's their prime role to keep them aligned towards achieving them.

It's a compulsion by market-forces. It's a compulsion to keep improving continuously to perform at higher levels marching towards excellence while serving the stakeholders; ultimately the society and the environment. In absence of this, the daily (unmeaningful) grind is sure to make you gasp for breath every moment and perish one day.

My friend, the leader himself, had forgotten the role of leadership taught in Kaizen-school: One, that of enabling all stakeholders to make improvements. Two, that of forcing 'crying' people in particular (the ones not having 'desire' to do so) to 'get off the way'.  

His leadership team had also forgotten to keep itself updated on newer ways and means to do so in order to adopt to changing environment. 

External coaches in Kaizen-school can show the what-why-how way and walk them by holding hands only a little far. Beyond that it is the role of internal leadership team to perform the corporate-parenting of passionately walking the shown way and taking their stakeholders along.

It was evident in his 'off the school' response that his company had forgotten it's responsibility of mastering the art and science of 'making the coffee'.

Their leadership team had forgotten it's role of being a learner, of keeping their knowledge warming. They had forgotten to keep their knowledge-of-sugar stirring.

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

How To Make A Difference

Will It Work Here? 

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

In-a-problem? No-problem-dwell-a-while

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !!

ABCD of India Shining

In-big-problem? Wear-hats-to-solve-it!

Do you exercise your choice meaningfully