Nothing much has changed

Nothing much has changed.

In the year 2001 I started my first entrepreneurial initiative - iProdigy - with a commitment to enable business bottom lines by engendering evolution in organizations.

Amongst other things, what had inspired me the most in creating iProdigy was this epochal work of Seth Godin that was published the same year -Survival is not enough -  something which I believed would bring in a revolution of sorts in the way organizations conduct themselves and their business.

Yet, even after ten years and two massive down turns, nothing much has changed. 

Barring a few innovators, as Seth had bluntly stated, even today, "---most managers and CEOs do everything they can, to keep their companies from evolving. They deny that evolution is a powerful force for change and rarely consider how it might actually help them compete."

To be able to qualify this resistance to evolution, I had carried a research to arrive at what could be some of the symptoms of such self-defeating behaviors amongst the CXOs and came out with what I call as 10-O-O syndrome.

You still get to see management teams glossing over governance and not even stopping to reflect on value guardianship. In fact, values are hardly ever considered to be of significance in creating value. 
 

You will still get to see elaborate exercises on org structuring being done without involving those who are going to operate within those structures – their preferences, potentials and perceptions – as demonstrated, not as claimed - in a process of co-creation. More often than not leading to gross structural dis-engagement, bureaucracy and may be even toxic political dynamics.

You will still see wise business owners dictating the organization vision, mission and values to those down below hoping with naivety that they will, with all their servility, soak themselves in this context and start operating in a well aligned manner from the very next moment. There is hardly any respect demonstrated to these members, as stakeholders, in terms of giving them an opportunity to collectively cull out from their experiential engagement with the business, common recurring themes for achievement. Nor is there any investment made in enrolling them to co-create a context. Policies are still preferred to dialog, transactions to transformation and strategies to instincts.

Nothing much has changed and perhaps nothing much will ever change.

Despite several wake up calls and umpteen cases of evolving organizations having displayed miraculous resilience and recovery, most businesses prefer to dismiss this as another theory and bask in the illusion of control and a false sense of predictability. To continue dissipating energy in squabbles amongst stakeholder working with cross-purposes and report sub-optimal performance. They will continue to play a game of fooling themselves and others reporting the five mythical figures of growth - size, strength, spread, share of market and stocks - underneath which will be sleeping a bonsai which could have grown into a formidable icon.

Maybe, there is something in the systemic design which inherently makes business owners ignore the invitation to go for organization discovery and alignment and call upon themselves miseries which they would attribute to the economy. Maybe, this is a conspiracy of sorts which will lead to wiping off of non-evolving, non-living business entities for more alive institutions to thrive in the space. Maybe this is a part of the scheme of things as, inlaid in the design of enterprise evolution. 

I have been a wandering witness and the purpose of writing this blog is to report my observation, just in case someone is listening.

Cosmic induction: you are still going through it!

Your cosmic induction has been very simple. From the day you have arrived you have been exposed to terminality of life. Preparations for departure have been all around you. Getting you a good schooling, family guidance, nurturance & protection – these came to you unasked for because you were meant to be secure. Secure from the uncertain juncture of departure.

During your induction you were also exposed to the natural world around you, hoping that you will engage with it and draw from its resources in terms of learning and living. What you chose to pick up however was the fear, uncertainty & doubt that you saw around you and not the abundant love that you were meant to uncover, from within and around.

During your induction you heard a voice more as a forewarning than as a guideline which said, “be yourself” however what you chose to listen to and abide by was “behave yourself”. You were also given a framework of right and wrong, good and bad; and in your assumed powerlessness and worthlessness adopted those guidelines as what you are meant to follow the rest of your life. Though socially and otherwise it was brought to your cognition that life is terminal, you chose to believe that you will never die. And in the process died even before you lived. Nowhere during your induction it was made known to you that life is living up others’ expectations, yet till date in whatever you do and wherever you are you are carrying the donkey on your back. During induction you were introduced to your feelings -the language of your soul. The idea was that when you experience a certain feeling you will be led to its origin and would thereby be able to be with a part of you which was seeking attention. Yet it became so difficult for you to, forget experience your feelings, be even aware of it.

Painful experiences, right from the time you were born were introduced as a part of the induction process making you realize that all pain is a pre-cursor to growth, yet your investment in pain-killers – those explicit as well as implicit – has grown ever since your induction into the cosmic life.

It is the first time during your cosmic induction that you got an inkling of what your roles and relationships could be. You realized the dependencies and also some of the co-dependencies – those with whom unknown to you, you started playing games. Again the early warnings and symptoms on the dashboard of pain would warn you to get out of them, yet fearful of rejection and abandonment you chose to snub the pain and go along flouting the norms of life inc. by playing those games incessantly. You were right at the beginning exposed to the wonder of having your senses reach out to the world, however you were also guided to reach within to watch the effects of these sensory experiences inside you.

Finally it was during induction that for the first time you were introduced to the magical alchemy of Love. The burst of energy, the transformational nature and the sense of oneness with the cosmic reality that Love brings in was intensely made to be experienced by you. In fact, it is during the induction that while the design was to get you to lead a life which is love-led, your love met its shadowy counterpart fear. And you got a hang of the dyadic reality of life on earth – a certain given playfulness which makes you run from love led reality to fear led reality and vice versa. Somewhere deep inside carrying the knowing that love is who you are.

Cosmic induction: you can't escape !!!

After flying around the room, fretting and flitting, the sparrow tired and exhausted with its endeavor, sat on a window sill. It was looking for an opening unto the freedom of the blue sky. It sat engrossed in despair and despondency, unaware of the open window on the sill of which it was sitting. 

The master was watching this, bemused. He allowed for some minutes to pass by and the bird to become still. And then he suddenly he clapped loudly. 

The sparrow was startled. It was like a gentle shock that broke the reverie. And the moment this happened, it saw the open window and through it flew unto the freedom of the blue sky. Never to come back and get stuck within the confines of the room.

You have also come here to be awakened from your reverie and attain freedom to participate in the cosmic mission.

It is meant for you, you and also you. It is meant for all of us. Not just for a chosen few.

Startling, shocking events are welcome interventions to the process of attaining freedom from limits of your smallness and getting inducted into the cosmic organization of Life Inc.

You may choose to be lost in your endeavors and reveries allowing the interventions to go unheeded. Or you may choose to be restful and reflective, even as you go through the routine business of life, to be able to hear the sound of the clap and notice the gateway unto freedom.

The interventions are a part of the cosmic design to get you inducted. Every time you choose to let the interventions go unheeded, it promises to return with a harder and perhaps more painful shock. Which, if repeatedly ignored, can also be perishing.

Attaining freedom from the limits of small ness and getting inducted into the magnificent cosmic process and purpose is not a function of time. You don't have a road map with milestones. You don't need a learning curve to go through. You cannot 'try' to be there. These are mere excuses for you to skirt around the inevitable cosmic agenda.

Awakening, knowing and responding - it all happens in a moment. An explosion of sorts that launches you in the cosmic orbit. 

Each moment comes with an invitation to get inducted. Including this very moment! Now !!

Are you ready?

Life Inc.

You were born to join this cosmic organization called Life Inc. You were selected because of your only essential and desired qualification: being human. You were appointed to live a cosmic role, carry out certain cosmic responsibilities and be measured by certain cosmic KRAs. It was made ‘known’ to you on your date of joining (which in this case happens to be your date of birth too) and you were expected to bring this knowing to your cognition through an awakening of your consciousness.

But alas! Despite several wake up calls you are still not completely awake. In the need to acquire what you think you don’t have, you have forgotten to require what you already have. Your design of what you believe must happen has made you resign from what is meant to happen. Pursuit of indicators like happiness, success and wealth has drawn you away from the indicators of your cosmic engagement: peace, joy and love. You don’t even fear being laid off your cosmic engagement. For you are still not in touch with where and what is your existence in-laid. You have to, your are meant to serve the super-ordinate cosmic mission. And only in living your cosmic responsibilities will the cosmic mission be actualized.

Your stint with Life Inc. is for a life time. There is no scope for voluntary or involuntary attrition. Even despite your ignorant disengagement from your cosmic roles and distraction from fulfilling your cosmic responsibilities, you are repeatedly being brought on track through blessings in disguise which you often label as misfortunes. More than anyone including you, the CEO of this cosmic organization has faith in you humanness to bring you back to the very cause of your existence. One day, some day…

(This is the preface to my book-in-progress titled Life Inc.)

Kill the Buddha

For quite some time now I am getting to experience two apparently contradicting scenarios. 

Seven out of ten people, with ten-plus years of work experience I meet, would like me to believe that they are passionate about making a difference to the lives of people.

And eight out of ten individual contributors I meet would like me to believe that they have manager-mentors who restrict their growth and performance.

When I scratch the surface I realize there isn’t any contradiction but a strong correlation.

It’s is extremely gratifying for the ego to see people looking up for guidance. And this egoistic need has led to a proliferation of home-grown, self-proclaimed masters – called by different names like mentors, coaches, guides, gurus and trainers. In their need (and often greed) to be worshiped by their proteges for their knowledge and expertise, they, most often unconsciously end up hooking on to the guided in a toxic co-depending relationship, leading to a sense of powerlessness. The Global Workforce Study (2007-2008) conducted by Towers & Perrin engagement, no wonder, relates the quality of leadership and learning to employee engagement, retention and performance.

This is an institutional reality. Look around. You will see it at workplace, in social circles and even in your own families. About institutions propagating cults of organized religion, lesser said the better.

Seth Godin, the author of famous bestseller Linchpin, advises employee-protégés in one of his recent blogs, “The opportunity of our age is to get out of this boss as teacher as taskmaster as limiter mindset. We need more from you than that.”

It’s a call to all. A call to come out of the minimalistic mindset of doing what pleases the immediate authority and seek self -mastery instead.

Self-mastery, as phrase explains itself, is becoming one’s own master. It’s a journey which starts with acknowledging that, as human beings, we are not left in lurch to learn how to live maximally. It’s about a faith in a guiding spirit which lives in each one of us to guide us to our destiny.

I remember when I started my career more than two decades ago, feeling lost in the corporate jungle I had approached my manager to guide / mentor me so that I have a smooth sailing. He did not respond directly but the next day came to my desk and handed me over a copy of this book "If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him", by Sheldon Kopp. Kopp aptly summarizes the theme of his book in his quote, “A grown-up man can be no man’s disciple. The most important thing that each man must learn is that no one can teach him. Once he accepts this disappointment, he will be able to stop depending on … the guru who turns out to be just another struggling human being.”

That was the end of my search in the outside and beginning of my search in the inside – for a guru. I believe I have lived a fairly joyful career, a fulfilling life and a meaningful journey, thanks to not being gullible to fall to the designs of any self-proclaimed guru or teacher and held hostage for the rest of my life. I have lived a life of freedom and autonomy.

There has been tremendous learning from the class room of life. Even as I write, my consciousness makes me learn. And, the best part is that, whenever it has come to acquiring a skill or a competency I have always found a teacher at my door-step. Yes, it has been self-learning all the way.

What about you? Are you the sucker or the sucked? Either way there is salvation. Are you ready?