The motives behind Motivation

The motives behind Motivation was published by me on the Linked In.

The global economy follows a pattern of peaks and troughs and the mantra to survive those inclement phases of recession is to stay prepared in advance. Readiness calls for periodic retrospection or self-appraisal followed by an honest endeavor to upskill ourselves. There is an old saying "if you aren't growing, you're dying" and this drive for growth often is what separates the outstanding from the adequate.

The thought of “further development” invariably annoys us at the beginning and a common question that haunts us is “why bother about further development within our busy daily schedule?” A gentleman once confided that he would rather be investing that resources for the future of his children.

But the harsh reality of present day life is that no jobs are permanent. Over the past decades, we have witnessed numerous profit making business models employing thousands around the globe going bankrupt or venturing into a totally new arena.  Another fact is that majority of today’s top ranking companies are less than 20 years old, thanks to evolving technologies. Continuous training of employees including the managers in certain industries are no longer an option but a necessity.

Professional membership to institutions such as PMI and CIOB insists on tangible continuous development. These are quantified through “Professional Development Units” and “Continuous Development Units” respectively. Survival therefore comes only with meticulous self-planning and happenstance could only take us so far.

Self-development is complicated to categorize considering the potential to improve one of our many aspects, be it persona, character, Knowledge or skill. But in the context of professional improvement, it has to be measurable and it is more of a process rather than being a one-time endeavor.

The dilemma is that once personal time along with top dollar is spent, it’s not unusual for Individuals to equate self-developmental to promotion or pay rise. Senior professionals see improvement from a broader perspective while the junior leaders find their motivation in short term gains. After in-depth discussions with the peers, it was obvious that the factors which inspire professionals are very diverse as listed below:

• Increase the chance of promotion or a pay rise
• Attain mastery of a skill set as mastery provides increased autonomy
• Gain more control over work within one’s own organization or team
• Develop skills that may indirectly be of value in difficult times such as recessions and layoffs
• Seek avenues outside the narrower focus of their given career field
• Self-direct learning to broaden knowledge within one’s area of interest
• The drive to evolve as a better human being and increase individual resilience
• Create the potential to discover new areas of interest

Gulf talent (2016) provides an interesting insights into the postgraduate study trend in the Middle East and the percentage of willing individuals is surprisingly very high. Even though this trend is triggered by the instability within the job market, the reasons for further development aligns well with my personal findings. Following are few graphical excerpts:

Love is a mental disorder

It was a typical setup for such traditional restaurant,high back seats neatly packed against each other with a square table in between. He was sitting next to a young couple having an argumentative conversation and he inadvertently became part of a important chapter of their life story.

“Loving is not always an easy task. Love comes with it's share of pain and guilt. Men fall in love more than women but you simply do not care.” she said.  

“ Yea! when women do fall in love, they become addicted to the feeling more easily. But unfortunately I am not a woman” came the reply.

“People invariably find the person who they fall in love with attractive and they write poetry or sing love songs. You are so different and difficult,” she quipped.

“This is not funny!” he said. “ Love is a mental disorder and I cannot transform into an insane to impress you. I am what I am. Period.”

“What's that you said? Now I know, I must be mad to love you so much” she said with tears in her eyes.

“Different people may exhibit different symptoms of love but when you list them down and compare with the diagnostic criteria of madness, you will realize.I will give you some example..” but before he could continue, she snapped.

“ I do not want any of your stories and explanation. I would rather be mad than sane for the sake of my love.”

“Preoccupation with lover is no different from obsessional illness. Feeling the urge to cry or ecstasy are bipolar disorder often referred to as depression. All points to one reality ….. Love is a mental illness.” He wanted to clear out the smog collecting around their relationship. But she got up and walked of saying ...

“ I was in love but you are SICK! Tomorrow morning I will be better but you will remain a loner till you change yourself ”

She never saw him again........
#thatstory

Deception, thy name is Trompe-l'œil

There is an interesting story about deceptive painting involving two renowned Greek painters from around 464 BC. Zeuxis, once produced a still life so real that it convinced the birds to peck at the grapes in there. Parrahasius, a rival artist later invited Zeuxis to judge one of his paintings after pulling back a tattered curtains in his study. But when Zeuxis tried, he could not, as the curtains too were part of that Parrhasius's painting. 

This form of painting would probably be categorized as l trompe-l'œil.

Trompe-l'œil as defined by Wiki is French for "deceive the eye". This is a technique of art which uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three dimensions. A typical trompe-l'œil mural might depict a window, door, or hallway, intended to suggest a larger room.

This is also written as trompe l’oeil in English and is thought to have originated much earlier than our documented history. Examples are found in murals from Greek and Roman times.

This also reminds me of our own mythological story of Mahabharata. When the Pandevas invited their cousins Kauravas to their new palace, Duryodhan had trouble differentiating real from illusions making a clown of himself in the process.

About a decade ago, I was involved in a project for one of the royals and that was my introduction to the world of trompe l’oeil. We had crew of artist sent out from our Rome office to do carry out the task. It was the female bedroom of the suite in his so to say winter getaway. The idea was to have the drapes painted on the walls to match those installed on the windows. I was the architect overseeing the commissioning of the fit-out and was quite pleased to be part of the overall experience. While leave some imagery from that job here, I will save the description of its application process for another time and place.

Life is not fair

Life is not fair.It is a thought she felt started to cross her mind more often than anyone else in the whole world. This negative feelings came back without fail during her childhood whenever things went against her wishes. In the face of all odds of being a single parent, her mother was the epitome of positivity, who always kept her motivated. That was some 24 years back when she was just a little girl of 10 and could barely perceive what fairness in life really meant.

“ I am born out of a wedlock and have never seen my father” was her biggest complaint. As a teen, she could barely find solace in the assurance that she was a love child born out of deep love and affection between two persons. It was too deep a philosophy for her to understand the complexities of human lives, their social constraints, their limits and helplessness. A couple who love each other cannot always get married and it is their love that let one see the constraints and shines the light to move on.

“ Life's not fair!”was the first thought that came to her mind this morning. She could feel that he was gone. And, soon this house, this bedroom, the furniture, the garden with the trees they planted together will have little meaning. The hibiscus, the rose, the marigold in the garden will lose their colors and look pale.

They both agreed that this relationship was on borrowed time with no future of its own. The temptation of stealing this period of togetherness weighed much heavier than being with someone else for eternity.  Now that he is gone, it was the strangest feeling she ever had.

Maybe it is her destiny that she was re-living a chapter from her mother’s life or perhaps it was coded into her genes...

Manhandling a Jacket, Allen Solly way

Till this time “mishandling” and “yours truly” never featured in the same sentence. Last week an attempt has been made to tarnish the reputation built over years by representatives of Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, the company that owns the brand Allen Solly.  I have been accused of mishandling a jacket, for Christ’s sake! By this post I shall make others aware and caution others to be careful as this could happen to anyone. I could approach them as I purchased from a physical store in a high end mall, I shudder to imagine how desperate who purchases online would be.

We used to buy Allen Solly products as it is an Indian brand and in the same time lending support to the Make in India initiative in our own way. A premium brand is distinguishable by its willingness to accept its deficiencies and addressing those to ensure total value to their customer. Little did we know that Allen Solly in its dealing with us will demonstrate none of these characteristics while pretended to be one.

The shocker came in the form of my Allen Solly Jacket which I had worn sparingly for 3 odd months.  A casual jacket is seldom worn and more so when one resides in the Middle east where the opportunity to use worm clothes comes once in a blue moon.  After using it on a few occasions, I noticed the collar of the jacket having a defect of peeling.  Following winter, I took it back to the store in Kolkata. The staffs were visibly embarrassed and decided to send it to Bangalore for replacement, verbally assuring us that it was a manufacturing defect and the company would compensate.

A month later the store informed that the quality team has sent the jacket back and I received a letter stating that it was neither a defect of the fabric nor that of manufacturing. On a follow-up email they informed that based on comprehensive analysis by “Quality Care Cell” they concluded that the damage is noticed due to mishandling of the product. 

How does one mishandle the collar of a jacket that it starts peeling off?  Obviously, they did not accept the product is of substandard material and shied off from their responsibility of replacing the faulty product. At the very least they could have rendered an apology for selling substandard material to a customer in the garb of premier product.

I have made my decision not to purchase their products again and would caution people to learn from my experience and be prudent while making the next purchase decision. It’s another reminder for, “all that glitters are most certainly not gold”.

I am reproducing the mail that they had sent 

Our old teacher

Myanmar is under the spotlight as Ann Suu Kyi is finally set to have a say on her country’s affairs. She made big sacrifices to ensure democratic rights for common people and in the process becoming an inspiration for countless young people around the world. Myanmar has been under international scanner in the past decades but this time it brought back one childhood memory.

The only time we had a private tutor coming to our home was when I was in grade 3 and my elder sibling was in the 4th. He was an old man in his sixties with balding head, thick eyebrows and a hardened face that bore marks of tough journey his life has endured. Our association lasted less than a year but I still have some memory from those early days. His primarily role when I think back was to help with our homework and engage us in some routine activities. As a consequence we were disciplined about our afternoon study sessions, something that continued all through our student life. 

For us he was irritatingly punctual, never missing to turn up at the correct time every afternoon. My sister once demonstrated how easily ink from her pen got soaked into his khadi kurta. I thought it was a sweet revenge but her argument was that she was verifying if he washes his clothes.

At times he shared some of his life experiences and the one that I remember vividly was his escape from Rangoon on foot. In 1941 when Japan was planning to attack British administration in Burma, he told us the law and order situation in Rangoon worsened rapidly. Indians with the scars of Burmese riots of the past decade still fresh, panicked and prepared to leave. The Japanese air raids on Rangoon in December that year created chaos. The perception of people was that the British would withdraw leaving behind the Burmese mob to plunder the Indians. A mass exodus started.

The British administration restricted the exit through waterway to British and Anglo Indians only. With the railroads bombed, they were left with no other choice but walk on foot. Even the shorter road known as the “White path” were reserved for army and other government personnel. They were forced to take the long and perilous path called the “black route”. It was a long trek through the mountains and forests in the north. They were clearly not prepared for such a journey. The transit camps along the route were running above capacity. Rainwater trapped in the layers of banana plants once saved his life inside a dense forest and many a times they improvised in order to filter stagnant water.

People moved in closed groups of trustworthy companions and mostly within their tribes. The worst sufferers were women, children and many perished on the way. There were no one to remove the corpses as people left behind their deceased. Some even walked off to save their life without completing the cremation of their own children. Their state of the mind was such that no one even bothered to remove the gold ornaments from their dead before marching away.

It was too difficult for young minds to reason such miseries inflicted by human on fellow beings. There were lessons to be learned from the story our father had explained, “You need to believe in yourself and have determination to successfully make a journey of such magnitude. When one is struck between a rock and a hard place with no alternatives, one gets enormous strength to fight for survival”, he told us.

Unfortunately, people around the world continue to push others to make such perilous journeys and they continue to perish in large numbers.

Checklists & Construction Success

This was first published in LinkedIn

I have been a proponent of checklist all through my construction management days and I usually practice what I champion. The checklists has been part and parcel of construction process and procedures for years. Other high risk industries like Aviation, or ship building too uses this as missing a step could result into expensive losses of time, money and sometimes human lives. The Hedge fund managers too have their own checklists.

In our industry it is mandatory to attach a checklist while submitting “method statements” or ITP (Inspection and Testing Protocol) for consultant’s review. These are equally important while conducting a Risk Assessment before commencing a fresh construction activity at sites.

It is difficult to apprehend why there should be such resistance in implementing a powerful tool like this one in their day to day work activities. It would be interesting if a research was carried out to find out if the reason behind this reticence is ignorance, over confidence, the “I don’t need it, I know it all” state of mind or a combination of many such factors.

As a matter of fact, Checklist are tools to make an expert perform better. Human memory and attention often fails when it comes to routine matters and important aspects can be easily overlooked. Checklist can solve our dilemma about when to follow the protocol and when one’s own instincts. It also comes handy when faced with a situation requiring us to process high volume of information.

Aviation pilots uses one before takeoff and landing and someone once explained that is not a recipe for how to fly a plane but a reminder of key things that often get forgotten or missed if not checked. Since then when I notice the aircrew making the routine checks before takeoff, I get reassured.

The organizations that practically implement these processes are few and far in-between. This results in high volume of avoidable rework and frequent incidents leading to life changing losses to humans. The direct impact on the project is invariably low quality, higher cost and delayed completion.

It was a shot in the arm listening to Dr. Atul Gawande, a Boston based surgeon highlighting the advantages of using Checklists in his TED talk. His narration about collaborating with WHO to develop a universal “surgical checklist” and making significant difference to the world was very intense. He admitted that the idea of checklist was borrowed from high risk industries such as aviation and skyscraper construction. Interestingly enough it was a team from Boeing who provided him assistance while preparing the first checklist for medical field.

Checklist can be categorized into two distinct types. The first one is “Do-Compare” checklist for general routine tasks which one does out of memory and compare against the list. The second one is “Read-Do” checklist are like recipe and mainly for events that are very new for the users.

I wish we play our part to use this powerful tools more extensively to improve the KPI (key performance indicators) as well as make our construction project sites a safer place to work.