Out-Of-The-Box? We Need Better Than That!

It was his life. Yes, Mr. Change lived for it, and was ready to give all for it. He was a man on a mission - to change the world for good, through the work of the organization which he founded. Due to his commitment and due to the goal the organization stood for, he was able to build a team of highly motivated men and women, all of whom worked passionately for bringing in positive change in the lives of their fellow beings.

But they were then in a difficult spot. Something had happened, and they were in the midst of a big crisis: a crisis that threatened their very existence, the dreams and aspirations for which they had worked so hard for so long. Something had to be done. 

Change hence called an emergency meeting of Team Inbox, his top management team. They sat together for one long day, deliberating on  what could be done. Many solutions emerged, but most of their answers were slight variations and adaptations of known approaches. None of them was creative enough to help them get out of the crisis they were in. Though no workable answer came in sight, Inbox did realize one thing though: they needed a fresh approach, a new way of thinking. Inbox understood that it needed to get outside the box they were in.

So they called in Team Outbox, a well-known consultancy firm which had a diverse experience advising organizations and individuals solve various types of problems. Outbox was known for its remarkable ability at out-of-the-box thinking; the firm gave some really fresh ideas and suggested some very novel solutions. 

But the prescriptions given by Outbox did not appeal to Change or his top management team. They did seem to be out-of-the-box, but they were out-of-the-world as well! Outbox's ideas did not instill enough confidence in Change and his team so as to convince them to 'buy' them and decide to implement them. They were grossly out of touch with the reality of their organization, especially their values and culture.

In that grim situation, one of the members of the top management team suddenly recalled a recent innovation in the organization, which was a product of Team Manybox. Manybox was nothing but a creative informal coalition of the organization's own employees, drawn from various levels in the hierarchy. They meet regularly, often over lunch and over tea, discuss various matters at and outside work, and work together in identifying and solving problems. 

Team Manybox was very happy to accept the challenge and help out the organization - and themselves - in this situation. They put together not only their minds, but also their hearts and collective spirit, in developing a crystal-clear and unbiased formulation of what exactly the problem was. Yes, their first task was to define the box. Having characterized the problem correctly, they imagined the goals of a good solution - they came to a broad understanding of what a good solution should fulfill. They realized that they lacked the skills and knowledge to tackle some pieces of the puzzle, but not all. They hence took the cooperation of both Team Inbox and Team Outbox, in framing the problem intelligently, in generating solution alternatives and in charting out a plan for action. They found that the best solutions lay neither in the box nor out of the box: they were in multiple boxes, including the box they were in, and were of different shapes and sizes. 

#Innovators don't just #ThinkoutoftheBox!

They see & think both IN & OUT of MANY boxes. Open boxes.#Innovation

— Student of Life (@DheepJoy) March 27, 2015

Due to Manybox's intimate knowledge of the organizational history as well as the work they do on a daily basis, they had a richer and nuanced understanding of what works and what did not. Their inspiration and aspiration to multiply the impact of the work they do motivated them to seek out solution approaches which weaved the past and the present smoothly into the future they wanted to create. The desire to give wings to their dreams energized them to accept their areas of ignorance and learn from the expertise and experience of people and disciplines outside their box, to assert their knowledge and build on it and to creatively fuse knowledge and ignorance from various domains to create new ideas, mindsets and solutions. 

The end-result was nothing but amazing! Change and his top management team were surprised. Why did we not think of Manybox before? They wondered. 

Let us hope they do not have to wonder so any more.... 

What about us? Are we tapping into our Team Manybox?

- Dheep

Twitter: @DheepJoy; dheepjoym@gmail.com

October 9, 2017

A Q & A between Q and A

This is a short story of two friends, Q and A. 

Q always used to have the As, since she always asked Qs. 

A had only Qs, since he was fixated only on As!

Q wanted to help A find As.

And Q had them already.

But there was a catch! 

Q realized that telling A the As could lead to A never seeing them as As.

Q had to hence ask Qs to A - the type of Qs that led A to the As.

Slowly and unknowingly, A became ready to confront the Qs.

Q was always available to reflect along with A on the Qs.

This allowed A, over time, to discover the As himself.

Yes, A was able to get the As only and precisely because Q did not tell them to him.

And here is something which both Q and A realized:

"Only what is not said is really understood from the depths of the heart".

Indeed, they did not have to tell this to each other. 

(Inspired by Clayton Christensen)

- Dheep

Twitter: @DheepJoy; dheepjoym@gmail.com

October 6, 2017

Dear Life, Give Me My Money

There is more to life than riches.

Accumulation of material wealth alone will not bring you any enduring happiness.

He is so rich and wealthy, but how does it matter, look at his family life.

“If wealth is lost, nothing is lost…”

“You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” (The Gospel of St. Luke 12:20, The Holy Bible)

These statements would all be more than familiar for all of us. They figure frequently in the pieces of advice that we give and receive, in the rationalizations and judgements we make of both ourselves and others, in religious and moral discourses and in our daily reflections as well. Arguably, that is partly because all of them flow from or are themselves universally accepted truths of life. Indeed, there is more to life than material riches: who can possibly refute that, I wonder.

This integrative viewpoint of the multidimensional phenomenon called life and this appreciation of the larger picture of the journey of life and of what lies beyond it is one reason why the pursuit of wealth is often decried. It is viewed disrespectfully at best and as a necessary evil at worst.

At the same time, society does attach a high degree of social importance to financial status. Most of us would like to be in a better financial position; many of us envy those who are financially better off than us; almost all of us want our children and other loved ones to be financially solid; and a good financial standing is regarded as a mark of superior ability and accomplishment.

Is there a contradiction between the two attitudes, both of which are prevalent often in most of us? Well, perhaps no: we agree money is not everything, but it sure is important.

Ok, so is it just important? One of the numerous important things?

Money has played a fundamental role in the evolution of human civilization and it does play a very important role in the modern society. Entire wars have been fought due to differences in the principles, values and the form in which money has been structured into the fabric of the economic society. Further, the absence of adequate economic opportunities has been both a cause and an effect of the state of poverty, one of humanity’s long-standing problems. At the same time, the alleviation and eradication of poverty through an expansion of economic opportunities has been one of its biggest opportunities as well.

These reflections about the nature of money and our different attitudes to wealth have been triggered by the 1937 book by Napolean Hill, “Think and Grow Rich”, which I am now reading. The book talks about the path to riches, based on a 20-year study of various successful individuals. I would like to share three pieces of thought on this, based on my reading and reflection.

Are many people poor or otherwise not as wealthy as they wish they were, due to the absence of an ardent, intense desire to be rich? It seems so to me. Indeed, many people whom we call poor are very hard-working and many who have become rich were once poor and are respected precisely due to their journey from rags to riches, and not so much for the riches themselves. At the same time, it seems to me that many or most people go through life without achieving the wealth which they themselves would have liked to acquire, because they do not ardently intensely desire for the same! I realize that so far, I too have been one of them.

Secondly, I think we often tend to mix up wealth and income, which are in fact two very different concepts. Wealth is a stock variable, the total quantity which we have at any given moment. Income on the other hand, is a flow variable, denoting the quantity someone is able to earn on a regular basis. One can have high income and zero wealth, or high wealth and zero or even negative income.

I believe there is a need to differentiate between these two disparate concepts of wealth and income, while formulating our attitudes about money. I am given to think that the pursuit of high income is, in most cases, more meaningful than the pursuit of high wealth. Interestingly, the landlord in the Bible who amassed riches in his go-down was rebuked by Jesus, not for his income, but for his wealth. I think Jesus would not have found any fault with him if he had high income which he was regularly utilizing for the betterment of his fellow beings!

Lastly, I was wondering why exactly I was reading the book by Hill, when I did not really have an ardent desire (so far) to become richer; I was also wondering why the author thinks becoming wealthy is so important and honourable a pursuit. I think becoming rich is honourable, precisely because of the personal spiritual transformation that the pursuit of good wealth can bring. Is this then the real goal the author secretly exhorts the readers to pursue? To become spiritually rich in the process – and not so much as to become materially rich? I think so. And indeed, one who becomes rich in this manner can also be expected to be creating opportunities for others in abundance – economic, social and spiritual opportunities. Now, that would indeed be a worthy journey to undertake: what say?

- Dheep

@DheepJoy, dheepjoym@gmail.com

October 2, 2017