Little Things That Matter

Learn From The Past, Live The Present and Have An Open Mind to Face Tomorrow

Leadership and Bias

By 10 Comments

Encourage Objectivity & Avoid Bias

Encourage Objectivity & Avoid Bias

“She is quiet; she has probably nothing interesting to say”

“Investment bankers are all extroverts and make a lot of money”

“Oh you are Indian; you must have grown up in a caste system.”

“She is successful and has come up the ranks on the fast path. She must have achieved this because she is a flirt and has used her influence”

“A leader is one who manages team and is part of senior management”

 →What do these statements sound like to you?←

Asian/American, Male/Female, Extroverts/introverts, rich/poor, aggressive/meek is the common single story we hear or are categorized into.

You are categorized, stereotyped and generalized and not seen for your uniqueness, for your passions, your interests. Nor do you see others.

Bias creeps in our day-to-day life, and communication. This comes from our culture, our exposure or non-exposure, and our experiences.

♣But the real question is do we get so taken in by others beliefs and by our limited experience that we fail to see the uniqueness of the person in front of us♣

♣Do we fail to see that one person or a group of people don’t represent an entire country or gender?♣

Can Bias be fixed?

“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” ~Mother Teresa

There are people around you, in history, famous and not so quite famous who are changing bias and proving it by way of their actions. Some examples of people who fought bias…

Gender Bias – one of the most common biases that exists even in this day and age.

After graduation, Sudha Murthy became the first female engineer hired at India’s largest auto manufacturer TATA Engineering and Locomotive Company or TELCO. Murthy had written a postcard to the company’s Chairman complaining of the “men only” gender bias at TELCO. As a result, she was granted a special interview and hired immediately.

Disability bias – Man who lost his legs as a child scales 19,000ft-high Kilimanjaro by crawling on his HANDS for seven days.

There are many other stories of women and men who have not taken bias in their stride because they chose not to.

Eight Ways as Leaders to Overcome bias

->Ask yourself

  1. Is the issue with the person and how they behave or someone they remind you of?
  2. Does that person remind you of your fears or insecurities which triggers a bias ?
  3. Does this person behave or act in a manner that resembles that of a group that you know?
  4. Does any of the above impact you, your team or their work ?

-> Whenever you are in a moment when you think you will give in to generalizations, pause and reflect

  1. Have I been a victim of bias? What was the experience like?
  2. Would I like to be stereotyped?
  3. What if my creativity and who I am is not given recognition to?
  4. For every wrongful act done by someone from my gender or my country, or my industry would I like to be blamed?

 ->Remind yourself

  • Your mental models frame your thoughts and your thoughts in turn dictate your words. By reframing you create the environment and EI to respond to realities and communicate effectively.
  • Make a choice to step back and not allow spontaneity and your closed mind to create your bias.
  • Take responsibility to look around you, to observe the difference and to recognize that each individual is different in their own way.

As leaders, discover, become aware and deactivate your inappropriate biases. Isn’t leadership about your ability to connect, empathize, communicate and influence those around you by your words and actions ?

Reflective Questions for the Road to Identify and Introspect

As leaders, are you showing the character, the courage and the ability to do the right thing?

Are you happy to maintain your status quo and not challenge the accepted practices and stereotyping?

How are you growing and inculcating the change that you wish to see?

♦What would you like to add to this discussion?♦

Are You An Ode To Your Dogmas?

By 4 Comments

We are more than a decade into the twenty-first century and yet we live by dogmas…….

Beliefs rule our work and personal world. Beliefs are more often than not a lie. Beliefs lead us to act or think about something in a way not because we have experienced it but because it is just believed to be true.  Beliefs are not necessarily based on logic. Each of us have our belief system and some of them are acquired along the journey of life or some that is ingrained into us from childhood. Most of them we choose not to question.

I grew up in India, and some of the common beliefs are

– if the husband dies soon after marriage, the wife has brought the bad luck
– widow needs to wear white
– if you are good you will go to heaven when you die
– a marriage is all about compromises
– if a particular dish is cooked in a specific way and this is a family tradition it is carried out from generation to generation without anyone asking why is it done the way it is done & is it necessary?
– crying is bad and makes you weak. Controlling your feelings makes you strong
– when a black cat crosses the road whilst you are walking it is a bad omen

In an organizational context beliefs can take the following shape

  • to join us as a coach or as a leadership trainer, you need to be trained by us. It doesn’t matter if you have been certified.
  • this is the only way to service a customer efficiently and it has worked for us for several years.
  • we will continue to service our existing customers with our existing products and there is no necessity to look at growing our range of products and services we offer to them.

Many of us become so intertwined with our beliefs that we practice it as a behavior & impose it on others. Beliefs are created by some data or knowledge that may have been gathered or gained without actually experiencing it or questioning the logic of the information.

Only when we separate our lives from beliefs and start living based on our own experiences, we start to be in control of our true journey of life.

Impact of beliefs

1. Fear – most people don’t want to question because they Fear that they will be excluded or thought of as unconventional. If I ask questions on their adopted practices, I cut my career progression.  In a larger context, if organizations refuse to break away from their conventional thinking they run the risk of not adapting. They short change themselves from creative thinking, growth, and development.

 2. Happiness – many of us for a large part our lives define success and well-being in terms of the external world. We live in this myth that our happiness is linked to the materialistic world. We continue to seek peace of mind from the external world.

Have you questioned if that gives you peace of mind, happiness and fulfillment?  Have you tried going on an inner journey?

3. Thoughts – Our thoughts reflect in our feelings and our actions. If we refuse to relinquish our deep-seated beliefs, they become our thoughts. These thoughts control us, dictate our actions and define who we are.

Would you like to be known by your beliefs or would you like to live your experiences?

Would you like to limit your potential by these beliefs?

 Let your fear, thoughts or dogmas not restrict your innate potential. Ask relevant questions

  • Have you asked yourself why is something done the way it is done?
  • What is stopping me from getting what I need?
  • Would you rather be part of a group who question, challenge and help you grow rather than agreeing with you on everything you say and do?
  • Are you a product of your beliefs?
image source

“Be My Valentine – 1 Billion Rising”

By 1 Comment

As I’m writing this in the wee hours of the morning, before the crack of dawn, Valentine’s Day is slowly but surely rolling out.

The Valentine Day fever or retail mania has started off a week to 10 days back even in the non Western world. From India, Pakistan, Hong Kong, China and various nook and corners of Asia, it is almost impossible to miss the fervor of this special day.

What is Valentine’s Day ? I won’t bore you with details but for the curios mind, you can check the link.

The significance from what I have read and understood is that it marks the Feast day of Saint Valentine; the celebration of Love and affection.

In my view, love and affection can be to your mother, wife, girl friend, boy friend, spouse, friend, brother, sister, father, child or for that matter to any human being.

I’ve never been a big fan of Valentine’s Day because the true meaning has been lost over the years in the way it is commercialized and has in my view become one of the biggest money-making business. One loses their peace of mind with advance restaurant bookings, retailers wooing you with the Valentine’s Day clichés, set menus in restaurants with no choice left to you to choose what you desire to eat.

On this Valentine’s Day and going forward ask yourself 

  • Is this all that Love and Affection is about ?
  • Are you further victimizing a woman who has already been sexually assaulted by your attitude and lewd comments ?
  • Do you find power in degrading a woman mentally and physically ?
  • Are you not ostracizing woman when you make statements to the effect that woman walk in perpetual consent when they dress the way they want?
  • Are you not being an oppressor watching a rape or sexual assault silently ?
  • Are you not contributing to violence against woman when you watch TV shows and movies that show woman as a commodity ?
  • Are you not being a sexist when you engage in verbal sexual assaults or silently watch the same against a woman ?
  • Are you not bringing disdain to love and affection when you decide to abort a child when you determine the sex of the child is female ?
  • Are you not aiding and abetting with the oppressors when you don’t raise your voice against Female Genital Mutation, sexual abuse or harassment or female feticide or any other form of violence against women. 
  • For anyone who thinks women should ignore online harassment, and not react, would you do so?  Would you ignore it if you are abused, and threatened on-line ?
  • Why do you as society victimize a female and view her with a cacophony of distrust ?
  • Are you treating the woman in your life with love, affection, respect and care? 
  • Are you being human while dealing with a woman ?

Key Highlights from onebillionrising.org. Watch the Video  http://t.co/uK97Qnko.

“ONE IN THREE WOMEN ON THE PLANET WILL BE RAPED OR BEATEN IN HER LIFETIME.

ONE BILLION WOMEN VIOLATED IS AN ATROCITY

ONE BILLION WOMEN DANCING IS A REVOLUTION

On V-Day’s 15th Anniversary, 14 February 2013, we are inviting ONE BILLION women and those who love them to WALK OUT, DANCE, RISE UP, and DEMAND an end to this violence. ONE BILLION RISING will move the earth, activating women and men across every country. V-Day wants the world to see our collective strength, our numbers, our solidarity across borders.

What does ONE BILLION look like? On 14 February 2013, it will look like a REVOLUTION.

ONE BILLION RISING IS:

A global strike

An invitation to dance

A call to men and women to refuse to participate in the status quo until rape and rape culture ends

An act of solidarity, demonstrating to women the commonality of their struggles and their power in numbers

A refusal to accept violence against women and girls as a given

A new time and a new way of being.”

Change starts with you, with your family. If you change your mindsets and attitudes, and every member of your family did the same, this world will no longer have woman who are treated as a Sexual Commodity to be harassed, tortured, raped, humiliated or killed. 

Start now, start today. Speak up, spread the good word of Be A Human and a Woman is Human. Raise your voice as a human being and bring Violence Against Women to an END. 

Image Source 

Violence Against Women

By 2 Comments

Violence Against Women is one of the worst crimes and pandemic that exists in our society. Violence exists because we choose to live with it, we choose to allow women to be treated badly.

Please watch my video below on my views on Violence Against Women and what you can do to put an end to this torture that continues to be inflicted against women.

Violence Against Women

Freedom Of Speech

By Leave a Comment

Image Source

Mr. Kapil Sibal,

Freedom of speech and expression is a natural right guaranteed under the Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution of India. Freedom of speech and expression implies the right to express one’s thoughts and ideas freely via any medium, such as gestures, signs, verbal communication, print media, radio or television.

The Supreme Court has broadened the scope of the right to freedom of speech and expression. It has held that the government has NO Monopoly over the electronic media.

Mr. Kapil Sibal, in the interest to protect the Nehru-Gandhi family and the Congress, you have led yourself out-of-bounds by intervening with the basic rights given to the citizens of India in the Freedom of Speech, by the Constitution, when you recently asked that content on Twitter, Facebook & Google be pre-screened.

As a minister who supposedly has been appointed to deliver your duties to the country, have you forgotten that changing the Constitution per your whim & fancy is not part of that duty!

On the internet, through Tweets, Facebook, there is a democratic discussion on what the political parties do or what they don’t do? After all isn’t democracy By the people, For the people and Of the people. Who are you to Stop this?

Mr.Sibal, if you are that concerned about vulgarity shouldn’t your Government be concerned about the daily Dowry Deaths, 90 innocent people dying from a fire because someone decided to flout every rule, about the increasing violence against women, about Female feticide, about the rampant corruption existing in every walk of life, about the distrust that your Government has created by taking a U-turn on FDI.

Or you consider free & frank discussion re: deaths, violence & other forms of mishaps caused by the act of some corrupt official vulgar because they are too candid for you to digest ?

Have you as a minister looked at where the Economic Development of Our country is going? We seemed to be mired in political tussle on a daily basis at the cost of economic growth & development.

Surely you seemed extra concerned on the power of the Internet. Only one with guilt would be worried about the Impact of the conversations on Twitter, Facebook & other social media.

We Indians have always been proud of and boasted about our freedom of speech which is missing in dictatorship countries like China. Recently, when Pakistan tried to impose ban on some words to be used in SMS, I laughed at the thought little realizing that our minister would also sneakily find ways and means to censor and control content on the Internet.

Why don’t you endeavor to instill the good practices of countries like China and Pakistan rather than adopt the not favored practices of censorship.

Mr. Sibal, remember that the more you curtail and the more you hide, you will only be opening the doors of revolution and protest.

Image Source

Do not be a hurdle to a true democratic process and don’t intervene in the rights granted by Our Constitution.

From A Citizen Of India

India Corruption- An Open Letter

By Leave a Comment

Corruption

Image Source

[http://indiacurrentaffairs.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/corruption_india.jpg]

This is an old letter but was well written and shows that each of us can make our valid contribution to the change we seek to achieve. A lot of the points are still relevant inspite of Anna Hazare’s win.

Shiv Visvanathan’s open letter to the PM

Source :Shiv Visvanathan, IBNLive Specials, Updated Aug 16, 2011 at 12:54pm IST

Dear Mr Prime Minister,

I am writing this to you as I always assumed, you were a decent man. I was waiting for your speech on August 15th, hoping you would somehow say something meaningful on corruption that would redeem your long silence.

Your speech was disappointing. What you said was inane and trite, while you held on to the tenet the corruption cannot be fought with hunger strikes. I think you did more to insult the Indian independence movement which fought through reason, fought through faith, fought through the reasonableness of the fast and the hunger strike. Hunger strikes do not threaten you. They only ask you to look deeper within your self. Gandhi fasted so that a society and the government could literally come back to its senses.

You, seen as a very timid man, Mr Prime Minister, you call on us to follow proper procedure. You seem to think politics is only a bit of table manners which does not allow people to object to what is allegedly served as food on the table. I think you are wrong Mr. Prime Minister and wrong in more ways than one. When you stood at Lal Qila, this time, one realized your goodness was not enough, because your goodness hides the arrogance and incompetence of your colleagues.

Think of Anna Hazare, Mr Prime Minister. He is another mild man like you and today he stands for the ideals the Congress has forgotten. Let me list them out- the dreams of honesty and idealism, the diligence that politics demands and the intelligence that morality requires.

For the young, Hazare represents the national movement today. He is a reminder of what the nation could have been. You are reminder of what the nation has become, a goodness that became timid as it fell prey to power. The sadness Mr Prime Minister is you should have protested. Mentioning tamely that you do not mind being under the scrutiny of the Lok Pal is not enough. Such coyness would be dismissed by your colleagues who know it is not meant for you but for Prime Ministers in waiting. You can still create history by joining Hazare.

One does not have to ask permission to fast. We do not need it. History and ethics do not ask permission from the inanity of politicians. Step down from power to be powerful again Mr Prime Minister. Join Hazare. Walk with the people. Dispense with blue turbaned technocrats and your conniving colleagues. They are forgettable anyway. Hazare has a sense of the lived past. He is showing the possibility of a cleaner future.

I am telling you all this Mr Prime Minister because someone must tell you that you have let down a generation that believed in you. Long years ago James Otis, the American politician, said, “No taxation without representation.” Another great American, whose writings Gandhi thrived on talked of The Duty of Civil Disobedience. It is out of Thoreau’s ideas that Gandhi wove his ideas of Satyagraha. Now Mr Prime Minister it is time to tell you “Representation without responsibility is corruption, Legislation without accountability is a farce.”

You and the Congress have perpetuated this situation. It is time you accept that a legislator who breaks the law or connive so that others break it, cannot be above the law. He no longer represents the people. Corruption is an act of legislative betrayal. It hollows out the act of representation and destroys democracy.

Anna Hazare and his team will go on fast, the battle of JP Park will begin. Hazare’s team has asked you and your government for permission for space. They have tried to dialogue with you and your cabinet colleagues. Mr Prime Minister, the role of dynasties is over and it is time that you recognize that no Prime Minister can be above the law.
I admit Hazare is a difficult man. I think there are many who feel he is overheating legislation by speeding it up. By prefabricating legislation you might actually be dis-institutionalizing the very processes you want to sustain. Maybe this is the point and it is a valid one. It is the kind of argument Aruna Roy and others might have made. But what deflates your view is your move to deny Hazare and the people the right to protest at Jantar Mantar.

To treat truth as a law and order problem is unforgivable Mr Prime Minister, to think that Section 144 can control the fight against corruption is the final irony of law, to use law against those fighting the lawless is the final sign of an empty regime. Arresting Hazare shows the emptiness of your colleagues. Forget 2G and 3G and all the other scams you slept through. When the ABC of democracy is taught, you and the Congress will appear anti- democratic and cowardly about your responsibility. Timidity becomes unforgivable at this moment in history.

As a citizen, I must protest, as a teacher and an academic I must state that you have violated the rules of dialogue and the norms of protest. I must accept that civil disobedience becomes the only alternative.

I wish there was a virtual Jantar Mantar and I am sure there soon will be. So at this virtual monument I, as a citizen, protest against your unlawful use of Section 144. It is not Hazare’s battle. It is now the dream of every Indian to fight corruption and fight it with a courage and commitment your politics lacks. Not all of us will be in Delhi tomorrow but now at this virtual Jantar Mantar, this network as sacred space, let us openly say it is time to defy you and your regime. Corruption has to be fought and fought truthfully. You, Mr Prime Minister, have forgotten the difference between being correct and being true and even if you did, you seem to prefer the first.

Think of the symbolic contrast between morning and evening of Independence Day. At the Red Fort one saw the dull rituals of a tired state being enacted inanely. At Rajghat, a Khadi clad man sits waiting quietly in an act of prayer, silent in reflection as if waiting for a message from the Mahatma himself. The point is Mr Prime Minister that it is not your twenty two point riders that he has to answer. It is his questions about freedom that you must respond to. What according to the Government is freedom? Is election merely the increased circulation of corruption every five years.

There are moments when protest is a form of duty. When citizens realize that a government has abdicated its responsibility. So at this new Jantar Mantar I light my candle and send my SMS message of protest against a regime that denies the dream of the future. Civil disobedience is my right and now my duty. You give me no alternative, Mr Prime Minister. In arresting Hazare, you have made a mockery of democracy.
As a citizen who believes in the rule of law, as a democrat who believes in the necessity of governance and as an Indian who recognizes what history means, I stand by Hazare and what he fights for.

Regards,
Shiv Visvanathan

Water..

By 2 Comments

“Water has no taste, no color, no odor; it cannot be defined, art relished while ever mysterious. Not necessary to life, but rather life itself. It fills us with a gratification that exceeds the delight of the senses.”ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPERY

Recently published data reports that some one billion people are chronically undernourished and 100,000 people die of starvation every day, 16,000 of whom are children.  Unfortunately, it’s only going to get worse! With a projected 50% increase in our global population within the next 40 years, 80% of whom will be living in or near urban areas, we must take steps now to plan for future generations.  As a result, increasing global awareness of land and water use has become front page news & something which each of us need to address and take steps

I have grown up in India, having lived most of my years in Bombay. I lived 2 years in Madras (Chennai) where there is a perennial water shortage.  When water  is available  24*7  we rarely realize the value of water and take it for granted.

In my two years in Madras, I realized the importance of saving water, and the pain of storing water and rationing its use.  In many parts of India, including Bombay, there are houses and condominiums that get water from a water truck (tankers as they are called in Bombay) on a daily basis since there is no regular supply of water. Clearly there is a huge water shortage & with the growing population things can only get worse.

It is a common site  in India to watch people fighting in the streets and/or queuing for access to fresh water, which is in limited supply.  Conservation of water is of utmost importance and More so for countries like India, which battles with ever-growing population and faces the fear of drought with lack of monsoons.

What the Water Crisis Really Means for You & The Planet

We know we’re using too much water and depleting our ground water sources. But by how much? And exactly where is it going? And which steps improve water use? In these ways, accounting for water consumption is much like trying to account for carbon emissions—we ask the same questions about how we account for it, so that we can know how to measure it, so that we can know how to cut back and if the cut-back measures are effective. While the accounting may seem difficult, we know we have to do it because—as we noted when we discussed sustainability earlier this month—we know we aren’t being sustainable with our water consumption and we know we have to change. For full article please read Planet Green.

For, How can each of us make a difference, please read my Article on Earth Hour.

Women & Empowerment-Role of Media

By 4 Comments

I don’t watch much TV but on the one odd occasions that I happen to flick through channels, there is one song of an Indian serial that keeps catching my attention over & over.  The Serial appears on one of the leading channels of India, StarPlus and name of the serial is Bidaai and title song is “Betiyan toh hoti hai paraai…. Bidaai”  which means Daughters are strangers!! I fume every time I hear this.

In India where the masses watch Televsion and channels such as Zee , StarPlus, are among the top favorites, I find these kind of title songs &  messages derogatory. This kind of content is in no way forward looking nor does it  seek to empower women, which is the latest Hot Topic in India.

Many of these TV channels, Bollywood, serials depict and glorify domestic violence, stereotype women and in no way are ready to change their content. Viewers who care do not raise their voice  but shut off their TV set or switch channels. And for those who don’t care, it becomes a family highlight evening after evening.

How will our society ever progress? Is our country really ready to Empower Women? Can We ??

I found this article in the Hindu very interesting. It raises some valid questions.