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IN
THIS ISSUE
Enliven,
Enlighten and Inspire Love...
Recently,
in one of our Practical
Vedanta sessions, we had a lively dialogue on what
keeps us stuck and depletes our energy, effectiveness
and creativity. We began to explore what the relationship
is between guilt and consciousness and that led to deeper
understanding of the vicious cycle that links Guilt,
Pride and Shame. Read More >>
Interview
with Alan Mulally,
CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes
As
part of our Leadership
and Many Ways of Knowing project, we interview accomplished
leaders in various domains and in December 2005, we
had an opportunity to interview one of the remarkable
leaders of Boeing, Alan Mulally, CEO of Boeing Commercial
Airplanes. Business Week had elected him to be #2 behind
Steve Jobs among the 25
best leaders of 2005.
Read
More >>
Comment
on Last Newsletter by K.V. Matthew,
ex-CEO of L&T-McNeil
It
was interesting to read your newsletter on the need
for synthesising spirituality, technology and business.
I was reminded of the dilemma I felt while I was CEO
of L&T-McNeil. I was engaged in trying to bring
about a transformation in the company through TQM and
after two years of implementation of TQM when we felt
the atmosphere was right we tried a total change in
the way we do business with a BPR particularly focusing
on the Order Execution Process. I was faced with the
dilemma... Read
More >>
eBook:
Discontinuous
Learning:
Igniting the Genius Within by Aligning Self, Work
and Family
Conventional
learning is the acquisition of knowledge and skills
to function efficiently in known and recurring situations.
It is the learning that allows us to add to what we
knew before, develop a new skill without having to change
our perspective and helps us to solve problems that
have been recognized as problems. Conventional learning
does not demand that we shift who we are in terms of
perspective, assumptions, beliefs and values and it
attempts to maintain the systems that we live in.
On the other hand, in times of turbulence, a discontinuity,
uncertainty and rapid change, another kind of learning
brings about a major shift in perspective. The interruption
of continuous learning leads us to a shift in how we
look at the world and how we view ourselves. Discontinuous
learning raises our awareness about our awareness.
We
have opensourced the book (through creative commons
license) so that reader could enhance the book by adding
more concepts, stories, facts and real life experiences.
To
download the book, please go here.
Enliven,
Enlighten and Inspire Love...
We
experience guilt, pride and shame (GPS) individually
and collectively influenced by religious, familial and
social norms. Some of us feel one of the three emotions
more than others but majority of the people we know,
experience some amount of guilt, pride or shame on a
regular basis.
Whenever we do not measure up to our internal standards
(unsaid expectations) or standards that we have accepted
from others, we feel guilty. If we exceed those subconscious
standards, we feel proud. If we cheated on the standards,
and justify our own behavior, later we might feel shameful.
These standards come from values, beliefs, attitudes
and expectations that we have picked up from our family,
society, religion and culture. Wherever we go, whomever
we meet, it is generally noticed that these three feelings
-"GPS" - can be tracked and honed in.
As we explored the nature of these feelings and their
hold on our emotional state and how they are connected
with manipulating one another, we began to ask ourselves
the following questions: Could guild, pride and shame
(GPS) be likened to a navigational tool that we have
developed to know our current mental position in our
life? If so, how useful is this GPS?
 How
do we become aware of the grip of GPS on us? Is there
an alarm system that we can develop to pay attention
to the effects of GPS on us and others? Are GPS ‘control
mechanisms’ used in society to manipulate others?
What are the positive ways in which GPS assists in our
development?
As our dialogue progressed, we became more interested
in identifying the times when GPS were not dominating
our responses and when we experienced appreciative and
positive emotions.
Wallowing in our emotions and digging into these states
might have deleterious effects instead of positive effects
because what we focus on becomes more important and
gets magnified in our mental space and sometimes in
our physical body also.
During the same session, one of the participants read
the Universal Invocation or Prayer of the Theosophical
Society. It was written by Annie Besant, one of the
influential thinkers and leaders of that society in
the early 20th century. It reads like this:
O
hidden life, vibrant in every atom;
O hidden light, shining in every creature;
O hidden love, embracing all in Oneness;
May each, who feels himself as one with Thee,
Know he is also one with every other.
As we reflected on this invocation, along with other
questions that came about during the dialogue on GPS,
suddenly three words stood out -- Love, Life, and Light!
Could these replace Guilt, Pride and Shame? What is
the connection between them? We continued our dialogue
and focused on the connections.
Guilt makes a person dwell on the past and turn a blind
eye to the precious Life evolving in the present moment.
So whenever we feel guilty, we could shift our attention
from the past that is dead to the present that is alive
and suspend being anxious about the future. Thus every
moment is an opportunity for us to enliven our life
and the lives of others around us by tapping into the
vibrancy of life and focusing on what makes ourselves
and others energized, excited and lively.
 Some
people enliven the room by walking into it and some
people do so by leaving the room, according to Swami
Chinmayananda. How about each of us? Do we enliven the
room or deaden it with our guilt? Do we spend time making
corrections and helping others because we feel guilty
or because we choose to make a difference?
If we come from a space of choice instead of guilt,
then the focus will be on what needs to get done instead
of who does it.
I
always found that whenever somebody makes a difference
to me without focusing too much on themselves, I feel
a sense of gratitude instead of feeling like 'I owe
them’. Experiencing Grace or a sense of gratitude
allows me to bring that experience into others’
lives.
Whenever I felt proud about any accomplishment, I stay
focused on the past and on myself. Pride makes us arrogant
and turns us blind to the gifts others bring. So, whenever
we feel proud, we tend to ignore the contribution of
others and get bogged down by self-importance.
If we can remember to acknowledge and appreciate other
people's contribution at that time and make light of
our role, then others feel good and want to be part
of our team again.
 Another
way of saying it is, if we can tread lightly in
the zone of pride and shine that light on others, we
ignite their genius. Though we would never know
where that genius could show up.
In a practical sense, ‘enlightening’ is
bringing light to where there is darkness and many times
darkness is present when arrogance or conceit or self-importance
is dominant. It is important to not shine our light
on others (not make ourselves important even while giving
credit to others) but assist others to bring their own
light to the world (through genuine praise, appreciation
or acknowledgment).
It is about playing the role of a mentor, a coach and/or
a friend to others and showing a sacred mirror in which
they get to see who they truly are and learn to be courageous
in bringing their own greatness and light to the world.
Pride also leads to complacency and core incompetence.
Whatever we are proud of, we rarely reexamine it critically.
Considering that our core incompetence comes out of
our past successes instead of past failures, pride is
a very important factor in making us fail in the future.
While guilt leads us to operate with a ‘black
and white’ mentality and pride makes us complacent,
shame makes us hide from others and ultimately ourselves.
Shaming others is a powerful social control mechanism
used around the world because it brings strong reactions
from many of us. Whenever we are shamed, we lose our
ability to bring our best, our confidence weakens and
sometimes we meekly submit to the demand of others.
Eventually, this feeling also leads to guilt and perpetuates
the vicious cycle of GPS.
 Imagine
if we could accept our shameful-selves and, instead
of a critical voice of judgment, find way to bring some
love and kindness that could turn the situation around.
When we can accept our own faults and learn to deal
with shame, we can help others to accept themselves
by appreciating the good in others and by accepting
their follies and being kind when they are vulnerable.
Through self-acceptance and love, we inspire similar
reaction in others and I have seen that it creates a
strong field of love very quickly.
Summarizing, if we can use our sensing system to track
our GPS -- guilt, pride and shame and bring life, light
and love, we might bring about a major shift in our
perspective.
The practice that I am attempting since our session
several weeks ago is to enliven the atmosphere wherever
I go, en-lighten (bring light or make the situation
to be light) the room I am in and inspire love and acceptance
through my own behavior. Whenever I can bring these
three qualities, I found others to become energized,
inspired and collaborative around me.
When I was interviewing Mr. MBN Rao, the chairman and
managing director of Canara Bank (second largest public
sector bank in India) a few months ago, he said that
his self-development occurs whenever he focuses on developing
others. In the same way, I found turning GPS into enlivening,
enlightening and inspiring love operationalizes what
I learned in serving others.
Please
write your comments or questions on GPS/Love, Life and
Light to threecircles@kaipagroup.com.
Top
Interview
with Alan Mulally,
CEO
of Boeing Commercial Airplanes
Prasad:
Tell me what makes you come alive.
What makes you who you are?
Alan: I am not sure where I got this, but inside of
me is this desire to contribute. Not just to make a
difference but to contribute to something that is really,
really important.
I believe that one of the most important things about
leadership is to provide opportunities to focus on compelling
things that benefit a lot of people. Like the airplanes…
My passion is that airplanes should get people together
around the world. So it is like the first Internet,
the people are the package, they are the protocol. The
reason is even bigger than that, it even goes back to
this mask, all around the world… discover how
different we are and how very much alike. When you look
at anything that has beauty - people or cultures, I
see more of how we are alike and everything else is
tapestries, beauty of its extra… because airplanes
get people together and if you get a chance to know
each other and work together then we find that we have
more in common than not.
So it is peace, economic development, it’s moving
up Maslow’s hierarchy, it’s everybody benefits,
it’s not having have-nots and everybody is independent
and its ok. You used the spiritual word (in an earlier
meeting), and I really think there is something in there,
because in this intersection of everything I do, it’s
got to be the contribution, getting people together,
it’s got to be important, it’s got to be
meaningful and that is my first filter. And if it is
not associated with that then I never would have been
interested.
Prasad: Can you tell me any stories about your desire
to contribute?
Alan: I was a liberal arts major when I was starting
out in college. And John F Kennedy was on the TV one
night and he said we are going to the moon. And he said
it is bigger than going to the moon. Nobody has gone
to the moon and I was very excited. And it was about…
we are searching for the meaning of the universe and
meaning of life and how did creation happened and we
are going to take one step into one little planet that
is close… and so we are going to take this first
step. So it was not about going to the moon but it was
about what we are going to learn about ourselves. It’s
about the boundaries that we are going to push.
So in one month I switched over from liberal arts to
engineering. They said they may need pilots and so I
went out and got a pilot’s license. I joined the
air force. So I went from liberal arts to calculus,
physics, chemistry, quantum mechanics, and it was all
so different and I loved it all because it married liberal
arts with this global challenge/contribution of going
to the moon. I was doing great in the program, I was
an astronaut! And… I found that I had color blindness
between colors of grey. They were going to land on the
moon that always has grey colors and you have to manually
fly and so that might be an issue. So I couldn’t
go on. I was in a state of despair. I was in aeronautical
engineering and my thesis advisor was the head of aeronautics
in Boeing and so he said “Alan, let me show you
a different vision: talented people that were making
these planes and how sophisticated these planes were
that take people half way around the world safely”
He said, “You have talent. You could combine the
engineering with design and creativity… you like
working with people and you could really make a big
contribution.
It seemed very compelling -- going down that road. And
I got here. I got a chance to travel and be in every
country. It helped my desire to be one with the world.
I know this sounds too corny but then all of a sudden
it was like -- my gosh -- it was holistic, it was one
life now. I had all these pieces – airplane design,
creativity, science, art, physics, people, linking…
so it was like I was home.
We
were all creating this together and always stressed
out and I was at peace. I was in the middle of this
and [I said to myself] if we get everybody focused,
bring together customers, viewpoints around the world,
it will be ok.
Prasad: So you created an eco system…
Alan: That is right. It serves me till date as I am
never by myself [with everyone together] it’s
always ok, we can solve anything and… create sophisticated
airplanes.
Prasad: How did you know it? Once you know it, obviously,
it is clear to you. But how did you arrive at that knowing,
about the holistic living…
 Alan:
When you grow up, you put yourself in these categories
– work life, personal life, spiritual life, family
life, all the things one could worship or discipline.
But really it is kind of like one life and life’s
work. (Alan draws four interconnected circles and writes
in the middle “to love – be loved”).
To
read the full interview, go to the Leadership
and Many Ways of Knowing site and click on Alan
Mulally on the left menu.
If
you have any comment on the interview or would like
to suggest a leader to interview, mail to: threecircles@kaipagroup.com
Top
Comment
on Last Newsletter by K.V. Matthew,
ex-CEO of L&T-McNeil
It
was interesting to read your newsletter on the need
for synthesising spirituality, technology and business.
I was reminded of the dilemma I felt while I was CEO
of L&T-McNeil.
I
was engaged in trying to bring about a transformation
in the company through TQM and after two years of implementation
of TQM when we felt the atmosphere was right we tried
a total change in the way we do business with a BPR
particularly focusing on
the Order Execution Process. I was faced with the dilemma
that substantial benefits were being envisaged for the
company, and we had been repeating the Mantra that everybody
should take ownership, we had no scheme of sharing the
benefits with the employees except those at the top,
who had some amount of performance bonus.
After
a great deal of debate within myself, I decided to approach
our Board with a " gain-sharing" scheme, which
was unknown in the entire L&T organisation.
Fortunately,
I was able to win Board support, and we announced a
scheme by which every employee, even including drivers
and telephone operators, would get a certain share of
the profit of the company, indexed by the delivery commitment
of each order ( this was a major problem) and the cost
of quality.
We
also announced that no employee will be retrenched as
a result of BPR. We successfully put through the BPR
which gave the company tremendous benefits, including
a 67% increase in per capita productivity. We were of
course helped by a large order inflow which further
increased as we were able to supply every equipment
on time.
A
year after this was implemented, I retired from L&T,
but I understand the scheme is still continuing. I must
also record the overwhelming love that I enjoyed from
the employees, which still continues.
Your
newsletter reminded me of this and hence this response.
Best
wishes.
Sincerely,
K.V.Mathew (Chennai, India)
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