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?

Looking into the crystal ball - Year 2011

Year 2011 is going to be a year of strife, delays, isolation and insight. A year of corrections, confrontations and conflicts. 

This will be a year of sharpening of differences. Between the have-s and the have-nots. The powerful and the powerless.  There will also be a further widening of economic gaps in developed countries. The rich will get richer and the poor, poorer. Religions will also become more polarized reflecting in lesser tolerance and more likely violence. Political differences will also be blown out of proportion leading to possible shift in power equations. Authorities will be put under scrutiny and questioned. The currencies will go through major upheavals. The accepted denominators for economic success will begin to get questioned and proposal for adopting new denominators will be debated.

Details will be sought, frustration will rule and tunnel vision may become the accepted norm. On the whole dysfunction will be heightened to an extent where the world will question the viability of the existing order to begin re-constructing a new order. The inadequacy of linear processes will be severely exposed for the meander to be finally regarded with respect.

2011 is the 305th prime number. Its primacy will prevail in influencing all actions; no matter how powerful they may be, often leading to events of creative destruction / disruption.

While on the surface it may seem to be deterring and dismal, this year brings in disruption that is functional to a deeper process of evolution working towards bringing humanistic harmony in 2012 and the ensuing years.

Year 2011, being the 11th year of the 21st century and the 2000 millennia will continue to aid enhancement and creation of more spiritualistic than materialistic value in the system and sub-systems while making it conducive for advent of many masters who will come forward to facilitate this transformational process with their intuitive powers. Yes, year 2011 is a year of painstaking preparation for the arrival of the master and may be even the messiah.

With the Year 2011 begins the run up to the beginning of the third cycle of economy – the Human Economy. An economy which will no more treat human beings as resources, capital or means for meeting ends but will revolve around upholding humanness and value-creation. Through symbiotic awakening and expression of human limitlessness.  

Year 2011 will also prepare for the emergence of what may be called as networked enterprises. Enterprises, where, notwithstanding their legal identity, for all practical purposes, the process of value creation will happen through intra and inter enterprise networks.
 
In the emerging economy 

• Individual contribution will be sub-ordinated to community or group contribution. The equation will shift from being aggregative to being multiplicative, as mutually eco-harmonic groups of individuals will emerge to create unprecedented synergies.
• The benchmarks of contribution will be revisited and redefined as higher than realized levels of talent-centric contribution.
• Leadership styles will undergo sea-change. Innate influence and inspiration of individuals will replace positional power to guide group performance and participation.
• Institution building will be in focus. Explorations with respect to the very purpose of existence of an enterprise, its drivers and life forces will be instituted as an ongoing process of enterprise discovery. Employee-ship will give way to aligned membership. Clients too will be chosen based on a process of alignment and enrollment.  
• Business will be incidental as multiple bottom-lines, revolving around humanistic growth and evolution, will come in vogue. Practice of human values will be linked to quantifiable value creation and measured.
• The enterprise language will change to one which more appreciative and expansive. Delivery will become enablement; business development will be value engagement and growth, evolution.

Just as technology has been a strategic enabler of enterprise success in the Industrial Economy, Enterprise Learning will be the key enabler of growth and success of enterprises in the Human Economy. Learning, that will be transformational and will call for deeper acceptance of and drawing of insights from situational realities, for individuals and institutions to sail through and evolve.

Healing the corporate soul

This is an amazingly thought-provoking article written by Mohanbir Sawney and published in CIO on November 15, 2002.

Eight years have passed. Corporates have weathered one more recessionary storm. Yet, the voice of wisdom speaking through this article seems to remain unheard. Unless you have a story to prove it otherwise.

 
This is a column about creating value. Like you, I spend a lot of my time thinking, writing and talking about value. But as I look at the crisis of confidence plaguing corporate America, I am forced to consider a deeper question?in our unending quest for value, do we have to compromise our values? What is the relationship between values and value? Indeed, what is the purpose of a business?

Of course, a business exists to create value for its customers and profits for its shareholders. But is profit the ultimate goal of a business? Does a business have a higher purpose? Can this higher purpose be reconciled with the profit motive? And can companies do well by doing good?

Fear is functional ... contd

In my previous blog post I had raised certain leading questions:

How often do we get caught unaware in a scary situation to find an absolutely new way out? How does it all happen? What in us makes it happen?

If we closely examine what made some of the great leaders scale unimaginable heights of accomplishment, we will find fear and the associated pain playing a significant role out there.

In the movie Pursuit of Happyness, a real life saga of Chris Gardner, one of the most successful stock brokers of his time, the fear of starvation and being home-less, drove the protagonist to display unprecedented levels of grit and determination to finally come out successful as a broker, despite all possible odds. It seemed as if he was possessed with some unusual spirit of optimism and self-belief.

Fear, by its very nature, is capable of fanning the sparks of Intent for it to catch the flames of passion. And once that happens, it not only galvanizes all energies in the individual but also magically garners support from outside for the individual to display higher than realized capacities for participation and performance.

  

Question is, why then, are we not always at our best, when we feel scared, frightened or threatened.

Well, what exactly did you do last time when you encountered fear? Ran for help? Took a flight into something that could make you forget it? Or lashed out to an external entity which appeared to be causing the fear?

Fighting or taking a flight from fear is the most common reaction we are conditioned to display. However, if the situation is such where you can neither reach out for help, nor fight or take a flight, an entirely new alchemy happens. 

For the first time you confront fear - face-to-face. In a state of helpless-ness you tend to surrender and yet not give up the hope of staying alive. And at that very moment the transformation happens. Transformation from feeling powerless to 'knowing' the power you are. At that very moment, without any plan, strategy, approach or any such learned and imbibed practice you transcend your self-imposed limits to soar into a space of formidability.

For once, it shows you to yourself the true power within. It belies the smallness that you have been carrying around all these days and gives you an opportunity to begin living life from a perspective of limitlessness.

This was true of Mahatma Gandhi leading the country, against severe odds, to freedom from the colonial shackles. This was true of Subhash Bose marching in with the INA despite complete lack of cooperation from Japan. And this was true of Swami Vivekananda, establishing Vedanta as a way of life in the World Religious congress through his soul stirring speech, after being greeted with mockery by an absolutely alien crowd in Chicago.

It's true for all of us. There is nothing great in them which is not in us. No one is insulated from fear and its associated pain. Christ experienced fear on the cross. So did Buddha. It is not about fear but what we do with it that decides between mere survival and coming alive. 

Osho said, Fear is the basis of all institutions, and how can a frightened mind know the truth? 

What say you?
 

Fear is functional

Since the beginning of history of mankind, if there is one thing that has prevailed consistently in lives of men and women, across centuries, it is fear. 

There is not a single soul on the face of this planet - be it a saint or a sinner - who can claim that he / she has not encountered fear. Ranging from mild trepidation to mortal threat, not a single day passes by without each one of us experiencing fear in some form or other. Fundamentally being fear of loss, it shows up whenever we feel threatened in terms of loss of life or love, respect or relevance.

What could be the reason for fear to be so pervasively present in human lives? As we know, there is nothing in this world that exists without a cause. So, what about fear? Something that we have been conditioned to dread and avoid, what could be so functional about it?

Here is popular Zen story which may speak to you and leave with some insights. 

There was a very well known thief who was considered to be the best of the lot. He was so adept in his art that he had never been caught.

As he grew older his son requested his father to teach him the art of theft that the thief had mastered.The thief replied,”If you wish to learn come with me tonight when I go to work.” 

That night both father and son set out on their mission. The father drilled through the wall a hole for entrance as the son stood watching. The thief was so absorbed in drilling the hole that it would have put any artist to shame. It was as if he were lost in prayer. The son was awed by his father’s proficiency. No wonder, he was a master thief, the guru of so many others in his fraternity.

The son stood trembling with fear even in that warm night. His eyes darted everywhere, watching in all directions, but his father was lost in his work and didn’t lift his eyes even once. When they entered through the house through the hole the son was trembling like a leaf. Never before had he been so petrified. Yet, the father moved about as though the place belonged to him. He took the son in, broke the locks, opened a huge cupboard filled with clothes and jewels, and told the son to get inside.

As soon as the son entered, the father closed the cupboard, locked it and left the house for his home, taking the key with him. As he left, the father shouted, ”Thief, thief!”waking up the inmates of the house. The son was horrified and completely at a loss. He was sitting their in the wardrobe, locked out having no idea of how to escape.

He heard the footsteps of the servant who approached the wardrobe, looking for the thief. The poor boy was completely at his wits end, his mind completely blank. He had never imagined that such a thing can happen and was unprepared to deal with the situation.

Just as he went completely blank, at this very moment, something got awakened in him. Suddenly, as if in the grip of an unknown force, he began making a sound which resembled that of a rat, gnawing at the clothes inside the cupboard. He was astonished with this behavior of his; he had never done such a thing before. The servant brought a bunch of keys and opened it. As soon the the doors opened, he blew out the lamp she was holding and, giving her a push, ran out of the house through the hole in the wall, a whole multitude from the neighborhood chasing him.

There was a great deal of noise. The whole village was awake and looking for the thief. The boy ran for his life – ran as he had never run before. He had no idea it was he who was running. Suddenly, as he reached a well, he picked up a big stone, probably as heavy as he was and threw it in the well – all this without the slightest idea of what he was doing. It seemed that he was possessed by someone else. At the sound of the stone falling in the water the crowd gathered around the well, thinking the thief had fallen in. Thinking that he would have died, they gave up the search and went back.

All this time the boy stood behind the tree to rest a bit, then continued home muttering to himself. When he went in, to his surprise and annoyance, he found his father fast asleep with the blanket over his head. The son pulled off the cover to wake him up but the father continued snoring away. He shook him hard, yelling, "Why did you do this to me? Did you want to see me killed?" The father opened his eyes for a minute and said nonchalantly,"So you have returned? Good. I’ll hear the rest in the morning," and appeared to fall back asleep. The son pleaded with him,"Say something, father. Ask me what I went through or I shall not be able to sleep."

Relenting to the boys request the father woke up and said,"Now you are an expert in the art of theft. You don’t need to be taught anything. Nevertheless, you may share your experience, if you must." After the son recounted all that had happened the father answered, "So my son, you know now that this art cannot be taught. It can only be learnt the way you learnt. You are my son! My blood flows in your veins. You know the secret of success. I am pretty sure that you will carry on this heritage with the same expertise and deftness even after me. As long as you respond the way you did today, you will never get caught. Each time it will be a totally new experience, a new moment. And each time it will warrant a totally new response and the old experience will not be of any use."

Zen fakirs say: ”If you want to enter the house of God, you must learn the burglar’s art.”

Wonder how many of us can relate to this experience. How often do we get caught unaware in a scary situation to find an absolutely new way out? How does it all happen? What in us makes it happen?

Here's an invitation to the readers to may be re-read this story, this time imagining one's self to be the boy and reflect upon the insights that surface in you. 

Would love to hear them, as comments left behind. 

Humanity is sentenced to die

Vultures everywhere
Flying high, watching others die
Waiting to pounce
Seeking to suck
Vultures everywhere flying high

Scavenging birds
Not discerning
Between the dead and the still
Ravenous to feed
Out there on the hill
Swelling with greed
Vultures everywhere flying high



Let them be?
Let the living die?
Let the sucker live?
Let the master die?

I don’t know
Can’t question the flow
So be it
If the master has to die
And let the vultures fly
May be that’s what it is meant to be
For us to feign
To live even as
Humanity is sentenced
To die.

Life on a treadmill

I live in a layout which is adjacent to an arterial road that leads to the Electronic City, in Bangalore. There is an amusing spectacle that I observe every weekday on my way back from my morning walk. Men and women with their identities dangling from their neck, their body language as stiff as their collar and their expression as proper as the knot of their ties are speeding with a blank gaze towards their workplaces. Some in their swanky vehicles which they believe they own, some in company provided cabs and coaches and yet many others in public transports and autos. Racing to assure their livelihood, their survival. As if they would have stopped breathing and not survived had they not. And as if, by doing all this they can assure their breath for the very next moment. Thank God for small mercies. Man has yet not ventured to engineer a system that simulates breathing with 99.99% reliability. :)

The other side of the layout is a green patch which leads to a kind of woods.  Around the same time this traffic for survival is speeding to the Promised Land, a herd of cattle every day would be seen making their way from the stable towards the woods in search of their daily green. They too have some kind of identity dangling from their necks, move in a file with a sense of obedience and a lack of purpose similar to those who are seen on the road. However one remarkable difference between the two herds is that of the speed of movement. While men and women on the road seem to be practicing for the next Olympics or a Formula One, the cattle have all the time on this earth to leisurely amble down the fields to the land of promised greens.

What is this speed or hurry all about? What is this thing of wanting to reach ‘on time? This obsession for pace is not only apparent in their physical journeys to assume to destinations, it is evident in all facets of the journey of life of most men and women @ work.

Somewhere somehow it seems that there is a belief that one has to reach somewhere. T hat there is a destination. That the designed outcome is the destiny. In reality, if you look closely, every juncture which seems to you to be a destination is actually a mere stop over. Even the deliveries that you make to your client are just milestones, in a relationship. And if you get to see that there are no destinations but stop-over you will also realize that there is no need to predefine a stopover. After all if you were to reach Delhi from Bangalore, how does it matter whether you stop over at Hyderabad or not. And in case you manage to land at a stop-over that was not intelligently predesigned by you, isn’t it an opportunity for you to wondrously explore this new land for some amazing  discoveries.

Speed assumes linearity, predictability. In a terrain that is rough and unpredictable you would not dare to speed but be more watchful and agile. Life is more unpredictable than the most unexplored terrain one can imagine. It demands moment to moment response and therefore agility not patterned reactions from the past which assumes linearity. It has a rhythm of its own – the rhythm of chaos. It has apace of its own - the pace of pacelessness. When one moves with this pace and rhythm it becomes a dance - the cosmic dance. And when you allow the dance to happen there are only two things that you are definitely left with, wondrous and abundance. From aping animals to ensuring biological survival you suddenly come alive, you are not on time but time is with you because now you are in sync with the movement of eternity.

How does one move out of jogging on this treadmill of life and going nowhere? How does one adopt the responsive agility of life, moving out of reactive speeding? How does one come alive moving out of the obsession to survive?

(The photographs are not mine and are used to emphasize the reading experience. There is no intent to plagiarize, what so ever.)

We are living in strange times.

We are living in strange times.

Educators and enablers are busy selling knowledge, the kings are trading with people’s life, pundits are fighting for supremacy and service providers have become preachers on their own rights.

Bramhacharya is cut short and Grihasta preponed as school-leaving kids scurry to call centers. Vanaprastha is getting imposed as baby boomers are made to feel irrelevant and induced to take voluntary retirement. And, with life half lived and insatiation running like a subterranean stream Sannyas is better avoided.

The 5000 year old system of Varnashram which has also been recommended in Bhagwat Geeta as code of conduct for leading a ‘dharmic’ life seems to have been tossed out of our heritage to make room for quick-fix spirituality, peddled by charlatans, coming pre-dominantly from the West.

Workplace has also become quite funny. While the stake-holders play (seriously) Monopoly, workers who have embraced glorified captivity of some XPO, are twittering away the time left after having done CYA. There are talks of work-file balance in a world where no body works and nobody lives.

In this strange time, let’s zoom in to focus on what’s happening to those who are in their early fifties. Having been there done that, they are suddenly facing a relevance issue. At work as well as at home. All the qualities of being valued that they had demonstrated all this time seemed to have vanished like camphor. People around are talking of them retiring, as their children are either getting ready to go to work or are already there, living in a strange world of their own.

This guy is now living his self-fulfilling prophecy. A prophecy which was created out of age old collective social conditioning of imposed retirement and reclusion at this age. While a part of him wants to give up and call it a day, another part scares him of leaving the field as a failure. Then there are unfulfilled dreams that haunt and unfulfilled desires that seek fulfillment through covert means. It’s a life of fugitive who believes in not having the option of running away. The elephant has been chained for long and even though there is no chain now, the conditioning of helplessness and powerlessness remains.

What could be the way out for this not-so-irrelevant, significance-seeking soul? Well, at the root of this situation lies a social expectation. Said or unsaid, the colossal authority of society expects him to behave in a certain way. Sober, serious, withdrawn, reflective and definitely retired. This expectation is more a shadow being carried over generation and inherited unconsciously by us.  In a hi-context culture like ours, it is re-enforced by complementary behaviors of people around. There is nothing coded.

The first step to freedom from this illusory bondage is to break the phantom rules. Just like the adolescent does it.

Some of the ways could be:

• ·       Engaging in right brain creative activities like music, painting, drama or even dance. No wonder, MF Husain and Pandit Ravishankar are still going strong and command a lot of respect, despite repeatedly being in the storm of controversy, suspected to be cooked up by the hi-priests of the society.

• ·       Being in company of youthfulness and definitely out of the company of those who are pre-maturely ageing. Be with children, be with students and become like them. Even if it means playing fool. After all, don’t you, at time also want to be silly too?

•       That brings me to the powerful tool of self-humor. Even before you entertain anybody else, you kill your crying ego when you make fun of yourself. After all, a part of your playing victim is an egoic design, saying, “I am more unfortunate than anyone else” and thus being one-up. Please remember, even when you are quietly hating yourself, you respect and uphold that part of you which hates. So, turn the game on its head. You will ridicule that part of you that ridicules you and suddenly find the truth peering out of the illusion, the ‘maya’ of your story of yourself

• ·       The challenge of this pre-retirement stage is that something tells you to get detached. You are not supposed to binge as much as you would have done in the past. To make it a reality you have brought upon yourself pathological indicators like blood sugar and cholesterol. You are not supposed to go on a shopping spree, buying impulsively. Again to make it a reality, you have brought upon yourself financial constraints. And you are not supposed to freak out over week-end getting away to a nearby resort to chill. You have either sold your vehicle or your family has taken charge of it to carry out more important chores. Don’t bother about the vehicle. Any which way, given the traffic menace and lack of parking facility, it is more a possession of pain than pride. Hop on to a public transport. Take a day ticket. Or even go to the nearest railway station to take you a random destination. And remember do all this, quietly, by yourself. People around you won’t want you to freak out like this. They don’t know that to be detached you don’t need to leave the world. You leave the mind that the world lives in.

•        Look at your close relationships. Are you really living them or feigning to do so for collective convenience? Waste no time to put in your most open and honest effort to get them back on track. If it doesn’t work out, well, the world is waiting to embrace you. Go out and create new relationships. One that you can live by choice, not survive by chance. If you are not bothered, nobody is bothered about it.

•        Finally, your wisdom of having lived many more winters than most is extremely valuable. More valuable that what some bestsellers can dish out. Because it is first hand and existential. In such strange times as now, your wisdom is more than ever required to help the human race move through this crescendo of chaos to create a new harmony for itself. Look out. Many institutions need you. And if they don’t it’s all the more better. Make yourself an institution and go all out to touch and transform lives. You will feel more relevant, more significant and most importantly more purposeful than ever before.

 Go out, reach out. Now. And journal it the way I am doing it now.

Rembering my eternal friend Osho on Guru Purnima

There are people all around who are out to destroy your individuality, who are trying to enslave you and turn you into their camp-followers. It is their ego trip; it gratifies their ego to know so many people follow them. The larger the number of followers, the greater is their ego. Then they feel they are somebodies people have to follow. And then they try to enslave those who follow them, and enslave them in every way. They impose their will, even their whims on them, in the name of discipline. They take away their freedom and virtually reduce them to their serfs. Because their freedom poses a challenge to their egos, they do everything to destroy their freedom. All gurus, all masters do it. This statement of Krishna is extraordinary, rare, and it has tremendous significance. No guru, no master can have the courage to say what Krishna says to Arjuna, "Be immaculately yourself." Only a friend, a comrade can say it. And remember, Krishna is not a guru to Arjuna, he is his friend. He is with him as a friend and not as a master. No master could agree to be his disciple's charioteer as Krishna does with Arjuna in the war of the Mahabharat. Rather, a master would have his disciple as his charioteer; he would even use him for a horse for his chariot. (1970)

(Osho - Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy #4 )

A CASE OF THE MISSING CLIENT

As consultants, many of us are intrigued by the mysterious disappearance of clients, post recession.

Neither have they communicated any reason of their disappearance from the horizons of possible engagements. Nor have they left any forwarding address for us to attempt re-engaging.

What could have happened?

Well, in my experience, in this age of 'constant-beta', it seems that consulting as a profession seems to be going through radical redefinition.

This includes those in legal, medical, technical, financial and such other professions.

A completely new set of client expectations is spawning a new genre of consulting – New Age Consulting.

Clients are expecting consultants – employed with corporations, on contract or independent - to take on different roles. Sometimes that of a parent, sometimes a mid-wife and sometimes even a housewife. As one of my consultant friends aptly eulogized, consultants are now expected to become Draupadis. Not just in being comfortable with polygamy but also in terms of relating to different partners differently.

Are we prepared? Are we equipped to sense and respond to clients' needs of relating differently? From an expert, to a guide, to a facilitator, to a coach or just a trusted agent?

Are we ready to let go of the holier than thou posture of a sage-on-the-stage to become a guide-by-the side?

I guess, it's all about figuring out the nuances of balancing

• Holding on and letting go
• Dependency and independence
• Pushing back and empathizing
• Participating and facilitating and finally
• Clients' expectation and consultants' recommendations.

At a deeper level it's about the readiness to un-carve oneself from the traditional mold of what in my mind a consultant's role is to perhaps re-carve to take on the role of a New Age consultant. Some sort of coping with the insecurities of letting go of the familiar, faith in the unfamiliar and go-getting to respond to whatever seems to be the clients' crying need.

Which is all about listening. Listening that is surrendered, unconditional and devoid of any judgment or interpretation what so ever.

I invite comments from fellow consultants to get some clues to unravel the mystery of the missing clients.

A CASE OF THE MISSING CLIENTS

As consultants, many of us are intrigued by the mysterious disappearance of clients, post recession.

Neither have they communicated any reason of their disappearance from the horizons of possible engagements. Nor have they left any forwarding address for us to attempt re-engaging.

What could have happened?

Well, in my experience, in this age of 'constant-beta', it seems that consulting as a profession seems to be going through radical redefinition.

This includes those in legal, medical, technical, financial and such other professions.

A completely new set of client expectations is spawning a new genre of consulting – New Age Consulting.

Clients are expecting consultants – employed with corporations, on contract or independent - to take on different roles. Sometimes that of a parent, sometimes a mid-wife and sometimes even a housewife. As one of my consultant friends aptly eulogized, consultants are now expected to become Draupadis. Not just in being comfortable with polygamy but also in terms of relating to different partners differently.

Are we prepared? Are we equipped to sense and respond to clients' needs of relating differently? From an expert, to a guide, to a facilitator, to a coach or just a trusted agent?

Are we ready to let go of the holier than thou posture of a sage-on-the-stage to become a guide-by-the side?

I guess, it's all about figuring out the nuances of balancing

• Holding on and letting go
  
• Dependency and independence
  
• Pushing back and empathizing
  
• Participating and facilitating and finally
  
• Clients' expectation and consultants' recommendations.
  

At a deeper level it's about the readiness to un-carve oneself from the traditional mould of what in my mind a consultant's role is to perhaps re-carve to take on the role of a New Age consultant. Some sort of coping with the insecurities of letting go of the familiar, faith in the unfamiliar and go-getting to respond to whatever seems to be the clients' crying need.

Which is all about listening. Listening that is surrendered, unconditional and devoid of any judgment or interpretation what so ever.

I invite comments from fellow consultants to get some clues to unravel the mystery of the missing clients.

Teachers or terrorists?

It was a painfully eye-opening experience.

We were in Mangalore in the last week of May' 2010 to conduct a 2-day session for about 60 teachers of one of the most reputed schools in out there. Very hopefully and perhaps a shade foolishly we had named the session Enabling the Enablers. A complete misnomer when I look back at the two flawed assumptions on the basis of which we wanted to facilitate the program

1. The teachers were 'enabling' the students and
   
2. They were open to being 'enabled'.
   

As a practice we get the participants to 'contract' with us that they have come with intent to go through the experience of unlearning and learning to take away some actionable insights for individual and institutional development. Here also we did it. And this time, may be sensing some dis-connect, we at length explained the objective behind this process, the learning and participation norms that they are required to follow and how crucial it is to be authentic about their statements for us to partner in the learning process and make it effective.

Only y'day I was going through these forms which we call as Expression of Intent to Participate only to realize most of what most have written were outright lies. Just some good words, the right thing to say and something that will make me seen as 'respectable'.

Right from the word go, it seemed that they were doing a favor to us by feigning to participate. When I say 'they' I mean 90% of the 53 teachers present on day one, session one. Otherwise engaged in random side-talks, getting response from them to any inquiry was almost like magic. Barring a few, unless solicited, beseeched or provoked, most will look at you dumb as if they even haven't heard or seen anything, which was quite likely looking at their pre-occupation with their side-businesses during the workshop.

Only thing that worked sometime was provocation. And that too would be more a reaction of judgment, aggression or defiance.

Towards the end of day one, when they were brought together to work on a common agenda as a large group what came out to their shock and dismay was rampant false agreement and in authenticity. What came to our shock and dismay however was their collective defense of their in authentic behavior the excuse being that is the only way to be socially acceptable.

Day two wasn't much different. Even after we shifted gears and moved into being appreciative most of the group members continued to lie and defy. The writing was very clear on the wall – YOU CAN NOT 'ENABLE' US. WE ARE ALREADY 'ENABLED'. Enabled to disable. Designed to be resign. Their learning disabilities shamelessly peeking out of their masks as they reveled in being their positions (as custodians of knowledge and learning), finding the enemy out there (which included the management and parents) and of course finding comfort in the collective misery of the 'boiling frog'.

I was beginning to feel alarmed thinking of the 1400 students whose lives these teachers were impacting day in and day out. The best I thought I could do is wake them up from their self-imposed stupor of arrogance and aggression to hold a mirror for them to see what they have become. Getting them to see the ugly masks that they were donning. Some shied away, some cried while most, in their disgust and hatred of their own persona threw stones at the mirror breaking it into may more pieces. Showing them more of their self-imposed false-hood and incongruity.

Towards the end, I realized it was an organized movement of collective lose-lose. They have imbibed their conditioned comfort zones as operating beliefs. They have built a culture of collective disability. And they have co-created for themselves collective agendas to sabotage the mission of the institution believing that to be the right thing to do. With awesome conviction and passion. So much like the terrorists.

As one of the minority members of this group of teachers had commented, some teachers were there by choice and some by chance. It seemed, most of the group, which by now had reduced to 47, were there by chance, engaging in fooling themselves and believing that they could fool others too. Totally dis-interested to seek ordination to the very cause of them being in that role, that is, of molding 1400 young lives to be honorable and honest citizens of this country. And on the contrary pursuing for themselves their own selfish designs to take care of their deep seated sense of malice and misery.