Enjoyed reading couple of short & simple books. There is a Credit Union (US parlance for a small bank type institution that is non-profit and member owned) in the town where we live in. I serve as a Supervisory Committee volunteer. This is similar to being on the board, monitoring the functioning of the organization as an outsider (i.e. not part of the paid management chain) to ensure that it is run well. The CEO of the CU selects a book each year during the annual retreat and gives a copy of the book to all the employees. Thus, ended up with a copy of "Humble Leadership: The Power of Relationships, Openness, and Trust" by Edgar H. Schein & Peter A. Schein. I found the title appealing and so picked it up to read. They seemed to have created an industry out of this idea, writing multiple books, starting a consultancy business, etc. all connected with the "Humble" notion.
Basic thesis of the book is this: In the Western hemisphere, relationships, interactions and even how people are managed, all tend to be too transactional. This is not good in the long run as it becomes difficult to develop trust with people you work with but don't really know well. So getting to know the other side a little better will be beneficial in the long run.
I have noticed this overall trend in US over the last three decades since many of my colleagues often know next to nothing about their other colleagues or their managers. Even simple personal details like is someone married or have kids might not be known as many think those are personal details we don't need to know or divulge. The authors call this Level 1 relationship, where there is a not a lot of context to interactions. What is being said could be taken at face value without any underlying meaning. Book encourages everyone to get to Level 2 relationships where you know the person you are dealing with a bit better, understand their background, family, social/political/business views so that you are able to understand what they are saying/committing to a lot better. Trust can be high when you know the person you are interacting with very well. Authors then talk about Level 3 relationships where you know the other person extremely well, almost like a close family member. While it may be a desirable state, cultivating such close relationship with everyone is very difficult as it involves a lot of time and effort. So, the authors advice the readers to focus on getting to Level 2 at the least, with all those you work with regularly. They go on to cite examples of how this mode of working will be better in hospital, military, business and other settings.
This is all very different from the Eastern culture, where the pendulum tends to swing to the other extreme. Among Indian colleagues, it is a very common practice to invite all the office colleagues for their sons/daughter's weddings or other family functions. In Asian cultures what is being said often need to be contextualized based on who says it, what are the circumstances, etc. While I understand the authors' p.o.v., since I have been on both sides, I do think both sides have advantages/disadvantages and so we need to find a balance. I like the low context models where a commitment is a simple promise that will be kept & delivered without any need for context/interpretation. Of course the authors are careful to point out that they don't mean letting people slide or not take responsibilities for the commitments they make. I came away thinking that while there is certainly value in what they are prescribing to the Western hemisphere, the East can benefit from a flipped version of the prescription. :-)
On a totally different area, read a small book called "IKIGAI - The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life" by Héctor García and Frances Miralles (translated into English by Heather Cleary) based on a pointer my brother gave me. Authors have done a lot of research in areas defined as Blue Zones on the planet that have a very high density of centenarians. Okinawa in Japan, Sardinia in Italy, Loma Linda, CA in USA, The Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica and Ikaria in Greece are these blue zones. Digging through the life styles of the residents of these five places, authors derive simple conclusions that can potentially keep us all happy and healthy living long lives. The Japanese word Ikigai, symbolizes this whole life style and roughly means "the joy of being busy". People in these places are not extraordinarily wealthy or has accomplished some great career success or any such thing by which society may be measuring each other. But they all have a continuing purpose to get out of bed each day, never retire (even when they are 90+), form close knit communities they consistently hangout with, help each other, each simple meals to fill only up to 80% of their stomach and in the end develop the needed physical and psychological resilience to lead a long and happy life. The Ikigai notion (similar to raison d’etre in French) while practiced in the other four blue zones as well, its integration into daily lives is a cultural part in Japan and hence the title of the book. Authors point out a lady who works in a paint brush manufacturing plant and an owner of a sushi restaurant, who all seems to have found an inner peace in doing a perfect version of their what appears to be a simple job for years. They are respected by their peers for achieving this zen quality in their work though it may not have resulted in a lot of material wealth for them. For example the sushi restaurant owner never bothers to franchise their business or even make their one restaurant much larger but continue to focus on the quality for so many decades while still shutting down the restaurant once their purchased stock has been consumed. There is a chapter dedicated to discussing Logotherapy invented by Viktor Frankl (whose thin book Man's Search For Meaning is another great read) and mapping it to this domain. While we continue to live in world bombarding us relentlessly with Western individualism and material wealth & success, this book's prescription of a simple life with everything in moderation that is possible for anyone to follow is quite a welcome message as we grow into our old age.
Regards.
-sundar.
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