I haven't travelled outside India, or even to a lot of places outside Mumbai. So I can't really give a perspective on this opinion. But being within a small place in this big world, I have come to realise that the human race has got a lot of things it doesn't really deserve.
One of them is the mobile phone.
Imagine this. You are going in a local train trying to reach your office on time. The train is packed like crazy and the air is hot and humid. You have probably been through two quarrels already from your way to this place in the train. You are trying to relax a bit.
And then rings loudly the phone of the person standing next to you. He answers it and then for some reason, starts talking as if he is living in the distant past when trunk calls were hard to hear. A minute into the talk, everyone in the coach knows what the conversation is about.
Now imagine this happening almost every alternate day in your real life.
Life does not stop there. If you are thinking it is only the people travelling in local trains who do this, galat jawaab! These incidents happen at all levels across social gatherings, be it office meetings, or people sitting on the dias, or people in the cinema hall. And I am sure I am not the minority when it comes to being on the receiving side of such incidences. Mobiles have become one of the biggest sources of rude behaviour in public.
Some time back, Hutch had started an ad campaign on mobile manners.
My opinion - PLEASE RESTART!!! We desparately need some teaching!!!
Aug 27, 2006
Jun 2, 2006
Competence vs. Change
Recently read an article by Seth Godin in Fast Company.
Here, he says "In the face of change, the competent are helpless."
To say that I was confused would be an understatement. Wasn't winning and being the market leader all about building competence? Wasn't core competency the most important edge a company could have?
On the face of it, it starts making sense after pondering for a while. Competence after all is a person's ability to be quite good at doing a particular job. And since he is good at doing it in its current form, he is resistant to any change with it.
This 'sense' is shortlived, though. Because the understanding of the word 'competence' is incomplete. Looks like even Mr. Godin got it wrong.
Competence, as defined by Wikipedia here, means it is about skills and abilities and knowledges. In other words, competence is not knowing just one successful formula and applying it everywhere. It is actually about knowing a full range of formulae and also knowing which one to apply in what situation.
Given that, a competent person might embrace change, not resist it, because he is constantly looking at better ways to do it.
In that sense, change = better competence!!!
Here, he says "In the face of change, the competent are helpless."
To say that I was confused would be an understatement. Wasn't winning and being the market leader all about building competence? Wasn't core competency the most important edge a company could have?
On the face of it, it starts making sense after pondering for a while. Competence after all is a person's ability to be quite good at doing a particular job. And since he is good at doing it in its current form, he is resistant to any change with it.
This 'sense' is shortlived, though. Because the understanding of the word 'competence' is incomplete. Looks like even Mr. Godin got it wrong.
Competence, as defined by Wikipedia here, means it is about skills and abilities and knowledges. In other words, competence is not knowing just one successful formula and applying it everywhere. It is actually about knowing a full range of formulae and also knowing which one to apply in what situation.
Given that, a competent person might embrace change, not resist it, because he is constantly looking at better ways to do it.
In that sense, change = better competence!!!
May 28, 2006
Swimming Pool vs. Well
I was watching a 'satsang' on TV today, that made me think about this.
The person gave this beautiful example about swimming pools and wells to substantiate his points. While the original point is ignoreable, this analogy isn't. He explained that with a swimming pool, we need to put in the water, whereas in case of a well, all we have to do is remove the dirt, and the gravel in there. Ground water automatically finds its way into that well.
What got me thinking about this was that this is the case with life.
Come to think of it, we expect the world to be treating us as a swimming pool, giving us what we want. Shouldn't we be more like a well, finding our own sources of what we need (ok ok... also of what we 'want')?
Of course, it's tough. Because we would have to start with doing the dirty job of cleaning up. But I guess it's worth it!!!
The person gave this beautiful example about swimming pools and wells to substantiate his points. While the original point is ignoreable, this analogy isn't. He explained that with a swimming pool, we need to put in the water, whereas in case of a well, all we have to do is remove the dirt, and the gravel in there. Ground water automatically finds its way into that well.
What got me thinking about this was that this is the case with life.
Come to think of it, we expect the world to be treating us as a swimming pool, giving us what we want. Shouldn't we be more like a well, finding our own sources of what we need (ok ok... also of what we 'want')?
Of course, it's tough. Because we would have to start with doing the dirty job of cleaning up. But I guess it's worth it!!!
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