Neo-normalcy after the Pandemic:
Covid-19 pandemic has wrought havoc globally, nationally, locally, and personally (to most of us). We have seen it, experienced it, and are even affected by it. According to a recent survey, as reported in India Today (05May2021), majority of Indians, to be precise 61%, are depressed and angry on the wake of the second wave of Covid-19 resulting in burdening the healthcare system, domestic violence, depression due to loss of job etc. As the second wave spread like an uncontrollable forest fire there came down a gloom reeking of exhaustion amid a shortage of oxygen and emergency medicines – There was unprecedented medical crisis all over the world. We have lost 448,090 people to Covid-19 in India, which is over 9% of people died of Covid-19 in the world (World: 4,743,971). This has affected the student-world as well: prolonged lockdown period thrusting upon them online classes have not helped them much. They are anxious about their future in terms of further studies and employment. The fear becomes unbearable when we know that corona has come to stay with us – It would be infecting people just like a few other viral infections every year.
Covid-19 has changed our world-view and life-outlook for ever. We have become conscious of hygiene and standard operating procedures; we have become accustomed to online communication, at times from within our own homes and institutions; we have become strangers to our friends as we do not meet them that often – In short, we each one have become an island and we feel lonely amidst myriads of communication gadgets. We know we cannot stay stuck but we do not know how to take the next step. We look for someone for handholding; we long for someone to walk with us as the days are still gloom; we are in need of people who would tell us: Get up – Dress up – Show up. And we look for this boost from among our friends and family members.
Now we look to adopt ourselves to new normal life. And it starts with new thinking about our life. Time and history flow along one-way traffic. We cannot change the past but we need the intelligence to learn from the past in order to evolve and adapt strategies for the future. We are looking for ways and means how to absorb the shock and how to bounce forward in life, studies, and work. We need to explore the possibilities of moving from a volatile situation to a stable position; we need to pass from crisis to creativity; and we need to bring out certainty from amidst the rubbles of uncertainties. We need to put on the spirit of age old wisdom: counteract uncertainty with certainty. We need to look for factoring these attitudes into our present situation to create a formidable tomorrow. We have not created a fail-safe. Honey bees have, for they could survive change of environment. When spiders were taken to the space, it was amazing to see they could still make spider-webs even under zero gravity. Human kind is still in learning mode.
Socio-Economic Darwinism:
Today we have an economy that impoverishes and brutalizes the poor more and more. We are living in a phase of socio-economic Darwinism. Social Darwinism believes in the ‘survival of the fittest’ or the ‘reign of the strongest’ – It justifies certain people becoming more powerful in society because they have the ability with more bargain power and global networking etc which bring in imperialism, racism, religious and social fundamentalism leading to social inequality and economic supremacy. The world of Haves and Have-Nots are characterized by the people with Property – Position – Power at one extreme, which is contrasted with people who are Landless – Illiterate – Menial Workers at the other extreme. The talisman that would bring in a better world of dignity and equity is, as the Jesuit pedagogy aims, Education – Enlightenment – Empowerment.
This needs an evolution, if not revolution. The Darwinian scheme, namely, ‘descent with modification’ should be replaced by the Ignatian pedagogy of ‘ascent with empowerment’. As people in the business school who are potential business people and entrepreneurs sooner or later, you need to revisit the Weltanschauung (world-view) that leads to extreme inequality. The business world of top-down where orders and directions percolates to the bottom of the social pyramid, should be transformed into a world of bottom-up where the common needs and aspirations goes up, like reverse osmosis, to the top of the decision making executives. In other words, the bottom of the social pyramid should be the principle and foundation of any business world, for the best is at the bottom. We need social transformation and not social supremacy.
Team building:
Change or transformation is ignited by sparks of inspiration. And it also needs a team of people who could initiate, effect, bring to fruition this transformation. Any effective team undergoes four stages, namely forming, storming, norming, and performing. This was first proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965. According to him these phases are all necessary and inevitable in order for a team to grow, face up to challenges, tackle problems, find solutions, plan work, and deliver results for the betterment of the world.
- Forming: The working team is formed not according to the wish of individuals but people are brought together, perhaps with varied levels of creativity, competence, and commitment. The team is formed with varied attitudes and aptitudes.
- Storming: This non-homogeneous mindset brings in initial conflict, triggering storming of concepts, ideas, ways and means to reach the set goals. Nothing is to be worried, for calm comes in after the storm. Eventually people get convergent with regard to the goal of the team or company.
- Norming: Once this level is reached, it is known as norming. Now, people are ready to take off and contribute and to network together. Once one understands his/her part in the whole performance of the team or company, one’s conviction and commitment become optimal.
- Performing: Then, begins the performance – The common understanding among the team members and their effective relationship between among themselves and with the customers ensures the performance of the team.
It is basically an effective team. These days, the arrival of migratory birds from the northern hemisphere to the Indian subcontinent, especially to Tamilnadu, has begun. We could learn something from the formation of flocks of migratory birds flying non-stop thousands of Kms. According to ornithologists, migratory birds take hundreds of naps as they fly:
- They practice unilateral eye closure – They could close one eye, permitting half of the brain to sleep. It is simply amazing to know their energetic and enthusiasm-filled efficiency.
- They adopt the ‘V’ formation while flying long distances. This helps aerodynamic efficiency. They fly in particular formations to tap into their navigating instincts. Further, they switch the lead bird position so that the leader does not suffer exhaustion. This is the classic example of shared leadership for the success of any company.
- Adaptability is the buzzword. As life is changing faster than ever before, failure to adapt is the root cause of catastrophic crisis. The migratory birds adapt by flying to safe and conducive sanctuaries, rather than perishing in their winter homes; and while flying, the migratory birds synergize their wing-flapping for optimal efficiency. Do we see and understand the lean-management here?
- After their migratory sojourn, the birds return to their original habitats – We need to learn resilience from the migratory birds, especially during the covid-19 pandemic time, how to overcome enormous challenges in life. We have seen how nations have been in a hurry to conduct their own medical research, hoping to save their own citizens first, rather than helping the global humanity. If there were a Resilience Quotient (RQ) humanity would have profited much more than at present.
We could learn from the humble migratory flocks of birds how to adapt ourselves to the changing environments and how to surpass challenges through collaboration and networking (https://medium.com/illumination/life-lessons-from-migratory-birds-8b95ae946a9c).
Agile Team:
We focus on the agile team. An agile team is expected to consist of experts with necessary competencies, whether technical, networking or marketing, and who consider competition as complementary. The agile team is expected to be dedicated and committed 24×7, dreaming, breathing, talking, seeing, and working for the success of the project at hand. No limit is a barrier, for mental limits are self-imposed. If your object of your goal is infinite, to borrow the words of St Ignatius, you can always do more and more perfectly. ‘Small is beautiful’ is applicable to the agile team as a small core team would make things move forward and upward. This small team inspires and not controls the decision making process. Leadership begins with leading oneself – And the best way is to be the change you want to bring about.
The agile team is expected to grow in knowledge and wisdom in the following:
- They should be persons of insight, far-sight, and foresight, knowing that the road to success is always under construction;
- They should be men and women of 5’Cs, namely, creativity, competence, commitment, compassion, and conscience/consciousness.
- At the same time they should be experts of 3’Ms, which are Mapping – Making – Meshing (T. Henry, Die Empty). Understanding the present scenario, they should evolve a goal to achieve through networking, especially with the so called competitors.
- The team should choose between money and mindset: At the end of the day, they should know whether they want to make profit or win people over. People and profit might be, for some, like yin and yang of Chinese philosophy. The team should choose between being maker and manager: A maker does or creates, while a manager just oversees or directs.
- In a world of multi-front competition, the agile team should find out at least one area of non-competition to reign supreme. To be humane and compassionate is an area to be considered.
- The team should promote multi-layer leadership: The leader at the top should exercise the tea-bag leadership: to be immersed with the team members with open mind to bring out the maximum out of any situation. The team should be like a beehive with readiness for multiple as well as multi-tasking. And the individual should be like the ants which concentrate on their duty and accomplish most through constant and continuous communication with others.
What a business could do?:
A company or business, normally, hangs between two columns: goal and achievement. And the bridge to reach from goal to success is relationships. Relationship building is the secret of success for any company or business. It is not the money one makes but it is the blessing of the employees and the customers that makes the company thrive on satisfaction or credibility. It is not the accolades of achievements but the accumulated fulness of people’s satisfaction that would keep the company or business going and thriving.
Just think of a couple of companies which put people before profit: During the pandemic, one of my friends told me, that about 50 of employees of Tata company died. But Tata administration decided to continue with their salary and later with pension of the dead to the family. During an earlier meeting here in LIBA, Mr Sujith Kumar, mentioned that InfoSys faced with the dilemma, during the pandemic lockdown, whether to impose a pay cut for the already employed or to stop new recruitment. He said that the employees went in for pay cut and encouraged new recruitments. Here in Loyola, when we faced with financial crunch as students tuition fees were not coming in, the Jesuit management decided not to cut down the salary of the staff members in all the institutions in the campus. These are the acts that would be fondly remembered by the people and which would fill you with feeling great to be of service to the needy at the crisis time. And we are here at LIBA, where excellence with ethics matters.
Conclusion:
Let me conclude with the question raised by G. Keller and J. Papasan in their book The One Thing (2021): What’s the ONE Thing I can do/ such that/ by doing it/ everything else will be easier or unnecessary? The answer would decide between the quantity and quality of your business. We are running after success but success is a short race. The real success is doing the right thing. It is not doing but being that matters. We need to live with purpose; we should live by priority; and we could live for productivity that generates peace and harmony in the external world and joy and happiness in the inner world of each person. All the best.
Francis P Xavier SJ
22Oct2021