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Showing posts from July, 2013

how do we pick-up threads...

...with some it is at an instant, perhaps the deeper confidence between people is far stronger than the gap in time, with some it is hesitant, the confidence is shaken not by time gap as much as the perceived gap in the mind, so the time it takes to comfort the mind is the time it takes to pick-up threads again, with others it is a fresh introduction, the mutual feeling of distance has to be overcome to pick-up threads if there is an intention  or necessity to do so ..so goes life. 

a Captain anointed...

A new Captain to the Ship is appointed, one that has neither had a ship nor been in sea before... ...the captain discovers new things as the ship sets its sail...walking one day on the deck, the 'paint locker' is discovered, the details mentally noted. next day the first officer talks of lack of quality of paints and issues due to that and the Captain with a self-satisfying smile, "yes, paint, 5 boxes in the paint locker", surprised the first officer says, "yes" muttering to himself, "there are four more paint lockers in the ship"...the issue is forgotten...another day, the Captain insists on helm, watches beautiful dolphin for an hour as the ship drifts from its course... ..the ship drifts some times, other times at anchor in mid-sea, it goes into speed when question spew out of the company, Captain goes into hiding in the cabin when the weather gets stormy leaving the steering to the crew, other time calls menials to trade small privile

...fighting for an inspiring cause, fighting spirit...

The competitive world in which we operate has made 'fighting' a rather important aspect of describing our transaction with the world for a lot of people. We are desperate to 'give a good fight', 'win', declare 'victory', 'sharpen our weapon', have many 'weapons in our arsenal , be 'fast to shoot', 'target' people, ideas and opportunities,  score 'bull's eye' ...the old books says that in some cases a war is desirable if in-justice in society is beyond bounds and a war is required to waged at all, then it goes on to add the qualities of a war - "that the fight has to be towards an inspiring goal" and that not fighting that war is seen as "infamy" for the fighting class ...guess in a class-less society, this applies to all of us. But, how many of us fight for a 'inspiring' cause or to right an in-justice, most of our wars are made up in our minds and the victories /failures too not fe

working with talented teams...

working with talented teams - the weak person with no confidence, feels threatened the mediocre person with no competence, feels overwhelmed the moderate person with capacity to learn, feels blessed the competent person with confidence, feels at home.

hierarchical systems sans the feedback loop...

officers of the govt. are not used to providing feedback! i realize it more as i continue to work with some of them. information in govt. is a bottom up flow and authority a top down one, so, when any information goes to the top, they assume that is the role of the person below to send a message and if they don't have any clarifications to seek, they stay silent. in my case, it adds another problem - i deal with all of them as equals, they are not used to dealing with equals, they either deal with people above or below. so, the minimum courtesies of team work that people working as equals, in terms of communication - is completely lacking with them. it is not that some individuals are bad, it is just that the system doesn't expect them to provide any such feedback and they are happy not to do so.

to U...a self-proclaimed social entrepreneur and leader

social leaders that stand the test of time start by listening, listening is premium in leadership and the 90% of communication. you never listened. aggression is not confidence, often you got it all mixed up. you masked your lack of time to think through things with un-warranted aggressive act to show your confidence, no one except you was fooled. in your ambition to do many things, you often assumed that you already knew all of them, in some cases you do, in others you were merely given an opportunity, in others, you were being perhaps tested by fate. you felt all of this was divine ordination, that it may be, but, the purposes could differ each time. 'divide and rule' is a very old control freak tactic, employing them in the long run, you isolate yourself from your team - each and everyone of them. there is no sense of either learning or of history unless it was personally delivered to you with a big bang or a sense of drama - drama is unnatural and often in the eye