Mystics and metrics have conveniently been slotted separately. With an obvious allergy towards the ‘soft’, the mystical, by the macho number-crunching business managers.
It is quite possible though, that, at times, may be, bored with their futile chase of metrics, some corporate honchos would have secretly in the privacy of their closets wished that they had chosen the mystical path. To some sort of nirvana.
At other times, they would have, at the end of a draining ‘metrics-driven’ day could have also flirted with the mysticism of things. Through books (evidently best-sellers which have achieved their metrics) or TV channels or even a discourse by a self-proclaimed over-hyped guru.
Yet, one wouldn’t’ have in the craziest of their dreams ever considered that the both – mystics and metrics – can co-exist. Never ever imagined that the numbers that they are meant to reel out to sound (un)real may also be linked to the not-so-understood mystical ‘real’ reality. Never dreamt of one being respected and loved for being a Corporate Mystic – one who silently seems to carry with her the magic of making things happen without much effort and is valued and respected as one who always seems to be where one is meant to be.
The root of metrics, measure and maya is the same. In different ways it refers to the transient reality, the illusion that we live with, in our day to day life. It also refers to the space in which we are meant to engage with and experience the ‘play’ or the ‘leela’ and eventually from which get mystical glimpses of the Truth.
Mystics and metrics - one is not divorced from the other. In fact one is the way to the other. While metrics is all about matter and form of creation, the mystic is about the formless source of creation. The two realities are connected by the umbilical cord of life. It is only in moments of deep reflection and expanded consciousness that one can not only sense but experience the formless, the Home of all creation.
In this world of rampant change and chaos, the only sensible way of understanding how things work and get a wise understanding of the process, is to take a step back from the measurable finite to connect to the immeasurable infinite and get a perspective of things from that center point of existence. Nothing changes here. The Truth that one experiences in this realm is absolute, permanent and inert. And standing here, in the very vortex of life, one can not only comprehend the measurable transience in the periphery but also influence the same. This is how one bridges the Mystics to the Metrics.
Some possible applications of this approach in the business world are values leading to sustained value creation, organization purpose becoming a measurable differentiator, innovation becoming a way of life, amongst other.
Would love to hear from you your experience of traversing from the mystic to the metric or even the reverse.
