It has been more than a week, we wake up to the no-water in the overhead tank of our wing of our residential complex. Initially, it was annoying. Daily, I or my wife went downstairs to tell the security to switch on the water pump. We raised the issue to the society manager, secretary, etc. I think it takes about 3 days to form a habit, soon we accepted this challenge as part of our life. The new ritual now is – wake up, open the tap – hoping system is fixed, go downstairs tell security to switch on the pump, come back and proceed as per the available resources. After a week, now security calls me daily to ask “do you have water in your taps now?”
Uncertainties and acceptance
Uncertainties make us jittery and annoyed. It depends on the situations, in some cases uncertainties make us anxious too. There was news that Deepika Padukone wanted to face the Narcotics Control Board (NCB) with her Husband because of anxiety; it is just an example. This initial annoyance made way for the acceptance of the situation. Once, we accepted the situation, we started planning our next day before we went off to sleep. The morning started with the acceptance of the unavailability of water and our workflow was changed to accommodate the situation. Once we had figured it out, life was easy, the disappointment of delay in fixing the problem was there but the annoyance and frustration ended. This happens many times in our business too.
A conversation
We had figured it out for our daily life. I and my wife were talking about it in the morning, the same evening I received a call from my ex-colleagues – Deepak Taunk. By chance, we happened to speak about the certainties of the outcome. The discussion started with analytics, human intelligence, AI, and business processes. It was an interesting discussion on how our brain connects the dots from analytics and business processes to our daily lives. He is a creative person who questions assumptions. So, when we spoke about some business processes he shared his displeasure with the templatization of work. When I say templatization, I mean making work process-driven and asking others to follow the guidelines. It is not that he is not process-driven – he is a very successful project manager. His point was the templatization results in blindly “follow the guidelines”. People are discouraged to ask questions.
It is a very valid objection. His point of view was – educated people must be allowed to understand “the why”, freedom to figure it out, otherwise what is the need of highly educated people when they have to always follow the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). I personally have seen this issue that even intelligent people follow things blindly or are asked to follow blindly. In case some ask questions they are termed as “unfit” or non-cooperative. This becomes the responsibility of the team leader or the leadership, in general, to figure out the best course of action. There is no right or wrong in being templatized for few things and creative for others. We need both the ways to run a business well – follow the process and question the assumptions.
World of possibilities
In business, personal life as well as in spiritual path too both the approaches are required. I had been an inquisitive person, including on my small journey of spirituality. I asked a lot of questions to many of my guides – Dr Saxena, Ramana uncle ji, my father, Sai Kaka, Dada ji, and Dr Agashe, my art of living teacher. Dr Agashe told me – “…for a few things you need to trust the predecessors/process for others ask questions, do not stop any of these. Indian spirituality offers you both the ways…” Interesting isn’t it?
Following the process brings certainty of outcome whereas questioning assumptions bring opportunities. Uncertainty many times brings opportunities. One has to be aware of the uncertainties, accept the situation, and find out options. When we look at situations, accept the situation(instead of fighting it), look for options, and be creative we have a whole world of possibilities.
