172 Monday Musings: The four cases of nuts!

172 Monday Musings: The four cases of nuts!

In my younger days, I held the belief that a person choosing to study psychology was in dire straits and was perhaps studying the subject as a cover for his need to be go through therapy. Overall it indicated to me a study of those who had lost it. Luckily there are always plenty of those who had lost it, and for the want of a better word, were popularly christened as nuts. I don’t know what they had against nuts. These nuts are not be eaten, but to avoided. When your opinions elicit dismay, crossed eyebrows, surprise, and when the listener is unable to take it any further, even a groan, then you must know that you have earned the dubious distinction of being called a nutcase. You might have company, but that still will not limit your power to destabilise social harmony. If it was not for politeness that people studied in the moral science lessons, you might have a broken skull long time ago. You might earn the epithet of a nut by any of the following methods. Your mental models resemble the Neanderthal, your tastes resembles the primitives, your jokes are an assault on senses, your decision making process must be framed and put in the museum and your take on things might prove life on mars!

On the other hand, you are simply amazed how everyone disagrees with you violently,  is always hyper with their reaction to your views, are at their edges when they have to deal with you, are ready to pick up a fight even when you make a harmless suggestion – overall they all seem to be, well – nuts. Bingo, that is yet another proof of Newtonian brilliance, that ‘every action has an equal and opposite reaction’.

There are four ways in which a sentence around nuts can be structured and has to be interpreted appropriately, a failure to do so leading to disastrous consequences.

Case 1 :‘Are you nuts or what?’ is not a question germinating out of curiosity, it is a statement of finally, stamped, notarised and registered!. Do not be fooled by the question mark, it exists to mislead you that your view about the question matters and your answer will make a difference.

Case 2: ‘You  must be nuts’ is a judgement proclaimed with the sanctity of the Supreme court. It cannot be questioned or opined upon. You can always look forward to a Presidential pardon, but a reputation tarnished is damage done. As far as the person who has issued the statement to you is concerned, the verdict is out. You better find a way to deal with it.

Case 3 :‘You are a nutcase’ indicates that you are congenitally deformed and there is no hope for correction and cure. It is proclaimed when the attempt is make you feel less guilty about your nutcase status as all blame can be assigned to interplay of the XX and YY chromosomes, sourced obviously from your predecessors.

Case 4: ‘Are you nuts!’ Well, don’t lose the exclamation mark because it is the only sign that differentiates it from case 1. It is expressed as a surprise, almost a shock, mostly pleasant, and often by the fairer gender to express the absolute unimaginable joy, amongst other things, of finding the right shade of nail paint, getting the Gucci bag in a bargain, finding a new shop that sells clothes that you don’t need etc. 

Guru

171 Monday Musings: What NOT to do

171 Monday Musings: What NOT to do

To do or not to do was a Shakespearean dilemma, but it is as much a dilemma of the cubiclist, a creature whose life begins and ends at the cubicle. While you must have noticed, but i shall still insist, it is not the cabin, but the cubicle that this ailment besieges. 

All wisdom that is peddled, through books and blogs alike, by the arrived and the wannabe, exhorts us what to do. The subtext is difficult to hide, that this-is-what-i-did, so now i have the divine right to share it as prasadam for all corporate salvation. Eat it and you shall be redeemed from your lowly life. Mind you, this is never articulated this way, but you can hear it at unexpressed frequencies. Like dogs who hear sounds at frequencies much lower than humans, you must be able to hear what is left unsaid, or else you shall burn in eternal damnation. 

It is in this context, that a refreshing thought was shared recently from the tribe of the arrived, why not focus on what-not-to-do! Why cannot there be a compendium of things that one must NOT do, stories of things that were done but with disastrous consequences, manner in which things were done that yielded suboptimal results so on and so forth. What a brilliant idea sirjee!!

Imagine a book called "10 step guide on how NOT to build a career" or another one "How NOT to build a business" or yet another one "10 ways of NOT leading teams". Imagine articles upon article which talk about failures and near misses and messes, written by none other than the best. Imagine Jack Welch were to write about "My 10 mistakes in GE" or Steve Jobs saying "How i messed up at Apple". Imgagine what a treasure it would be. 

Now imagine if all the role models we hero worship in organisations, were to take a one hour coaching session per month talking about mistakes they made in life and what did they learn from them, rather than only glorifying only on what they did successfully (and by the way what they did successfully is as important, but is only a part of their story), how much more richer will be their narrative. 

Imagning, is not such a bad thing. 

Guru

170 Monday Musings: Motivation and Motivators

170 Monday Musings: Motivation and Motivators

"Motivation and bathing are not permanent - that is why you need them both everyday" - Zig Ziglar

Motivation is a cash cow and every tom, dick, harry, his aunt and her dog are milking it. If the number of books on motivation and number of motivators are any indication, then de-motivation is no longer a problem, its an epidemic. 

Why do so many people need so much motivation so many times? Often folks find absence of something demotivating, but its presence only an entitlement, which stops motivating as soon as it is given or achieved. Parched throats have a solution, parched soul don't! A bad hair day is an anomaly, a foul mood an aberration, but a perpetually demotivated soul is a disease. Go and get yourself treated. Restlessness with the status quo, mundane and ordinary can be the mark of ambition and drive, but too much of it required for its own sake is addiction. 

On the other side are the so called motivators, a tribe that appear to be mutants straight from the Robin Cook laboratory. Overhyped and overemphasised, they are merchants of myths. They propagate falsehoods around their mythical ability to motivate others, if at all such a possibility ever existed. A chorus by the audience can be evidence of strong vocal chords, but extremely tenuous evidence of sustainable motivation. If Mr Ziglar is to be believed, one needs motivation daily, then it appears to me that motivation is more a substance abuse needed daily than a truly life altering experience.

Every truism has an equally compelling counter truism. It is true that we do find some people inspiring, either in their own stories or in the manner in which they tell stories. Getting motivated is an individual choice, the motivator has a very limited, if at all any, role to play in it. One chooses to be motivated for his own reason. So every time i see the ever increasing tribe of motivators and the web of lies they weave, and who knows tommorow by strange twist of fate, i might be one of them, i realise that for every one genuine healer, there are a dozen quacks. Be careful!

Guru