R - E - S - P - E - C - T

I received a call a few days back where one of my Gurus wanted me to reflect on that rising lack of Respect in the society. There is a corresponding increasing in intolerance. You almost see a news item everyday on people actually getting whacked and killed because of some road rage or the other. Today there was a guy killed because his vehicle hit a parked car in Bangalore. Everyone seems to be blaming the society at large.

Organizations are in some terms society in a microcosm which operate with arguably tighter rules. How can we foster respect in organizations such that there is a culture of mutual respect that comes in. After working for about 4 varied settings over the last 15 years here are some thoughts that I had.

But before I get into those it is critical that there is more background about the type of companies that I worked in. The first was a university lab setting in the United states, the second was a multinational (both in the US and then in India), the third was a Indian Behemoth, the fourth (my current) is a start-up. Each of these settings has a unique culture and I was able to observe in close quarters how respect was built or broken down.

Lets see where respect is not going to get built. When each leader comes in to office with the thought that they are going to war. They need to kill or hurt someone else to survive. I have been in meetings where one department head called another in his group meeting as a Mentally Retarded Kid...MRK for short. Group meetings used to happen with this gentleman referred to us MRK and everyone had a chuckle to offer in return.

When each leader comes into office not knowing which way the boss man will swing today, respect for other colleagues is not going to happen. When companies are one-person shows, and the rest are merely rubber stamps, there is no way an individual is going to get respect.

Respect is not going to happen when the leadership is content mouthing big words such as process and does not walk the talk.

If we were to create a company where respect for the individual is part of the culture, it has to start at the top. It is all about leadership. Whatever the leader thinks personally about an individual, if the leader sinks into the muck by expressing his thoughts he is going to pull the organization with him down. A true leader has to have his or her game face on whenever they talk about people or teams. At no point of time can disappointment at the performance or action of a group or individual be expressed in disparaging terms.

Respect for the individual is also bent when the leadership is seen to be impartial and culture of back-stabbing is avoided. The leadership and HR have a critical role to play here. Everyone must be given to understand that this is not a knock-out championship in progress but rather coexistence to create higher value.

Human resources must always act by encouraging a positive behavior but more importantly nipping the negative thoughts in the bud. I think respect in companies get built when knowledge based leadership is recognized and consistent performance following the value system of the company is rewarded. Rewarding good performance that is a product of behavior outside the value system is NOT going to build respect. There was the highest scientific honor named after an Indian Nobel reward given out in this company to an individual that ignited scorn and disrespect of the system.

Even when HR which is supposed to keep its ear close to the ground and in some sense gathers intelligence on the happenings, the interactions have to be positive. The climate of the company where there is a lot of freedom to operate and failure is not regarded as the end of life seems to build an environment of trust and mutual respect.

End of the day, I don't think I have said anything new. But the actions of the leadership and HR have to be above board and based on a value system. Organization that practice value systems in a humane manner are healthy communities that foster respect. More such organizations would ensure that this is translated to the community.

Flash and back

It really did happen to me. A complete cinematic flashback! I swear it did.
I was driving on Ramasami Salai in West KK Nagar in Chennai this morning. When for a fleeting eternal second, I was transported to the time when I pedalled my red Hero cycle to school. From some remote corner of my brain, a neuron decided to party and psyche me out!
I think this is happening because of the confusion Chennai puts me through. May be it is a neural overload and the brain has said "Screw it". All the places I drove around this weekend looked so familiar and yet they were just not the same. Be it the school I studied or the area I grew up in.
I can still see the Majestic Ashok Pillar, but that is about it. All the places that form part of my memory of a childhood are getting erased very fast.
Sometimes I do wish that I was part of some quaint little town that never changes! But not Chennai! You can feel the energy of change even on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I was crossing my school when the naughty neuron decided to bamboozle me. You can literally see the my past being overwritten by someone else's present! But that is a good thing I suppose! Signs of progress, I rationalize. Of course, I do feel good that 20 years down the road when someone else drives by, he or she is going to have a flashback as they look at their vanishing past!

The legacy of the Elephant God

Vinayaka Chaturthi came and went. And as it did go by, the religious and the not so religious living in the North Bangalore area decided to bid farewell to the Elephant God in style. So the toxic paint coated Ganesha was taken dipped in a small tank inside Sankey Tank. And they all went home to return to their clean existence.
Poor Ganesha rotted and rotted and rotted! The pool in which he was soaked changed from Green to Black. It was bad. I could literally count some 5 dozen diseases waiting to be unleashed!
And to make matters worse, the caretakers for this morning walkers paradise, decided to pump the crappy water to the main tank. So this morning when I went walking, I saw a bottle of Bisleri floating towards me! Lays chips was hanging around! The whole tank had a sheen of the black goo floating around. We take something nice, as in the Sankey Tank, and with a vengance destroy it in the name of God. Why do we do this to ourselves...I don't understand. I am alrady dreading next year Vinayaka Chaturthi. More people, more poisonous Ganeshas.
And all this as a mark of respect to the most huggable, benevolent of the Gods! We must be crazy!

The Silent Killer

Not to get too dramatic or anything. But this is an issue that keeps bothering me and is not going away. Of course, I have not done anything that would make me proud. You see, I too am part of the problem!

For too long, there are too many of us who are part of the famed silent majority. We do not do anything. We think that things will take care of itself. Mad people moving around killing in the name of religion, usurp power in the name of democracy, strike in the name of language, we watch. We wait. We think the problems can be wished away. It does not really affect my roti, kapda or makan, does it? I do it very well, asking the question that is! Unfortunately, there are a whole lot of me, the silent majority out there. We are the rot that kills the tree! We are the cancer that eats the body. We are a problem for this country and civilization is general. You think we don't know it? Of course we do! So what are we going to do about it. We will wait watch! What else!

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Leave Santh Alone!

I was surfing channels the other day after the Kochi One Day hara-kiri. What made me stop and puke was the following comment on the NDTV voice over. The story was on Sreesanth, the current bad boy of Indian cricket. The reporter had the guts to make a statement that went something like "...Sreesanth's parents would be unhappy with him." I wondered whether the commentator was talking about this young man Sreesanth or some high school kid who copied in a test!

Every channel you see, and every newspaper you read is ranting and raving about the bad boy. How can he do this? How can be misbehave? My Re. 1 for these experts. SHUT UP! Let him be! Enough of going around with these good boy routines.

I suggest that they take all the attention from his antics and focus on his game. He gave 64 runs for crying out loud! Including 5 runs from a wide in the last ball! Let us focus on performance as in the game and not the theaterical kind. If the guy consistently delivers and does his thing then I am okay. Cricket can take these colorful characters. Instead of focusing on his game they are focusing on everthing else! And he can slip by with poor peformance.

So my two cents, leave Sreesanth alone! Let him play, if doesn't make him pay!

Why Doordarshan should stop cricket telecast

I am watching India fold up without much of a fight against Australia. There is no big deal in this. As all of us know this happens. And I am sure there are other games that India will do well or may be not. This does not matter.

What matters is the abysmal state of cricket telecast. I am talking about the one day series of course. Doordarshan is borrowing its feed from Neo sports and adding its 'masala'. I don't know how good the Neo sports telecast is. Looking at some of the commentators I am not too sure. However, Doordarshan is what we get where we stay in Bangalore. So we are stuck with it. Their fourth umpire show is what fills in between breaks. The only sane person in that whole mix is Anjum Chopra. She is concise and knows what she is talking. The rest are disasters who should be consigned to the dust bin.

The commentary takes the cake. Not because they don't talk. They talk total crap. The difference between a good commentary and a crappy one is whether the commentary is on an emotional (primal) level or on an intellectual level. Good commentators mix both well. They enjoy their job and at the same time give us knowledge and things we did not know. They talk strategy. DD's commentators start the whine engine. They watch a cricket match as if my mother was watching! They whine, moan, cry. Anything but commentary! If the game has to spread and people have to learn there has to be some kind of training school that these guys have to go to before they touch the mike. Of course, what I say here would be negated by the millions of rupees that is made in sponsorship. As long as the bean counters are happy, who cares who watches and who comments. Maybe we will have a cow coming to comment! Mooo power to that!

Buzz in Burma

The last few days we in India have been assaulted by the fight for freedom that the Buddhist monks are leading in Burma. And all India is doing is wait and watch which way the wind will blow. Wise men of all color are talking about how India is engaging Burma with her interests in mind.

The little lessons that I have learned so far tell me that you have to watch out as you make a deal with the devil. It may be for India's commercial gain that we are standing back and watching. It is sad that while the foundations of our country, the very air and space that gives me the freedom to feel this way is being taken out at our neighbors and we are doing nothing. Buddhist monks fight, and we watch. We are worried about China, we are worried about the Junta. Newspapers write about how Europe asking India to do something about this is being two faced! As per these esteemed journalists, Europe did not do anything for so long. By induction, then they seem to suggest that India should do nothing.

End of the day, when all the wise men go to sleep, oil or no oil, fighting extremists or no extremists, we need to ask whether we can tolerate such behavior in our neighborhood. India which should be the beacon of democracy is shying away. That is the wrong direction. If there is anything we should be doing is standing up for freedom all over the world. Sad to see that we are competing with China on who will win the oil well when the cities are burning.

Nero anyone?