A sage who had retired to the hills since many decades was once cajoled by his disciples to come down and experience the plains. One of the disciples was the probing kind; he was well read, intelligent, and full of rationale. When Swamiji reached the city, the disciple managed to convince him for an outing to a multiplex, very reluctantly though. The movie was a typical bollywood potboiler filled with every conceivable emotion on earth. Swamiji sat through the entire movie unflinchingly. At the end of the movie, as every one tried to make way towards the exit, the disciple asked, “What was the experience like, Swamiji?”
Swamiji replied, “As long as there was darkness there was love, hate, sadness, laughter, violence, and lust, but all of it dissolved the moment there was light." That was all he saw.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Count the threads
Multi-tasking as a skill set has fallen out of favor with the higher echelon of HR Gurus. Suddenly with all the Zen teachings floating around we have figured it out that the human brain is not wired for multi-tasking, hence all activities done in this mode may not contribute positively to the final goal.
Obviously what’s good for the CPU is not good for humans.
Creativity is supposed to be at its maximum when we are immersed into something to such an extent that nothing else can interrupt us. We must be totally aware of the situation, of the act, and every moment of that act to ensure flow of creativity.
But, CEOs/Managers all over the world have at least a dozen threads running every moment, and they are expected to respond to any situation in minimum possible time whereas take a trip to any of the Sarkari offices or facility counters- the babus/clerks across the table are ‘Vedanti’ in their approach to work, they remain totally engrossed in their work like stamping, putting glue, making an entry into the register, sipping tea, reading newspaper, talking back home or any other such great activity which has the potential of changing the world order, but the fact remains that you just can’t get their attention unless they are finished with what they are doing. You feel like crying out – For heavens sake why can’t you multi-task a little?
So now that we know who is the most creative person in the hierarchy there is another controversial issue I’d like to discuss. Some years back it was found that women are better managers because they can multi-task.
Any update on that?
Obviously what’s good for the CPU is not good for humans.
Creativity is supposed to be at its maximum when we are immersed into something to such an extent that nothing else can interrupt us. We must be totally aware of the situation, of the act, and every moment of that act to ensure flow of creativity.
But, CEOs/Managers all over the world have at least a dozen threads running every moment, and they are expected to respond to any situation in minimum possible time whereas take a trip to any of the Sarkari offices or facility counters- the babus/clerks across the table are ‘Vedanti’ in their approach to work, they remain totally engrossed in their work like stamping, putting glue, making an entry into the register, sipping tea, reading newspaper, talking back home or any other such great activity which has the potential of changing the world order, but the fact remains that you just can’t get their attention unless they are finished with what they are doing. You feel like crying out – For heavens sake why can’t you multi-task a little?
So now that we know who is the most creative person in the hierarchy there is another controversial issue I’d like to discuss. Some years back it was found that women are better managers because they can multi-task.
Any update on that?
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Are we learning?
It’s exam time once again and various education boards have established counseling centers for students who are almost on the verge of splitting vertically.
We live in very strange times and stranger still are our total acceptability of the ills and apathy towards them.
The failure of a student indicates the following
1) The failure of the framework which considers X amount of learning to be done in Y amount of time as success.
2) The failure of content developers who are not able to put forward knowledge in a form which is all inclusive.
3) The failure of the delivery mechanism wherein the actors involved are unable to inspire and motivate learners towards learning
4) The failure of parents who are not ready to work together with the child towards identification of their special gifts and aptitude.
….in fact everything except the failure of the student. While all of us are amidst this gold rush for seats in engineering, medicine and finance what we tend to forget is that these positions merely apply existing knowledge and are at best resource exploiters; history has shown us that the true masters of Science, Arts and Business are people who had been rejected by the traditional schooling methods. As to why we are not ready to work towards that big change which can create an environment fostering creativity is an unknown factor. Do you have any clue?
We live in very strange times and stranger still are our total acceptability of the ills and apathy towards them.
The failure of a student indicates the following
1) The failure of the framework which considers X amount of learning to be done in Y amount of time as success.
2) The failure of content developers who are not able to put forward knowledge in a form which is all inclusive.
3) The failure of the delivery mechanism wherein the actors involved are unable to inspire and motivate learners towards learning
4) The failure of parents who are not ready to work together with the child towards identification of their special gifts and aptitude.
….in fact everything except the failure of the student. While all of us are amidst this gold rush for seats in engineering, medicine and finance what we tend to forget is that these positions merely apply existing knowledge and are at best resource exploiters; history has shown us that the true masters of Science, Arts and Business are people who had been rejected by the traditional schooling methods. As to why we are not ready to work towards that big change which can create an environment fostering creativity is an unknown factor. Do you have any clue?
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