Why should every little life matter?

India has, in the recent times, lost innocent lives of young infants and in Children in Uttar Pradesh and lately in Rajasthan in what can be termed as an avoidable disaster.

These were large public hospitals operated by the Government who are not geared to meet the huge unmet demand of its citizens.  The users are from the socially and economically challenged sections of the society who cannot afford private healthcare because of prohibitive costing.  They have no choice but to access these public hospitals and the cost they end up paying is loss of their most loved ones, grief for their rest of their lives, mental agony to the parents and relatives, not to mention a huge loss to the future economy as they could become effective administrators, businessmen and professionals.  The latter is a matter of conjecture but important all the same.

Coming to the Public Healthcare Infrastructure, why is it being allowed to crumble?  Why are no masters to oversee their operations?  Is the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare or Ministry of Health, only reading numbers?  Where is there no periodic physical inspection?  If indeed there are, then what is happening to those reports? Why are the recommendations being brushed aside? Where is the lag in decision making? Why is the need to upgrade technology, infrastructure, systems and process not being given attention?  Why is it so easy to give compensation to the families who have lost their members but not divert that money to upgrading the healthcare infrastructure?  It would be interesting to find out the money paid towards compensation to such affected families and how many institutions could have been easily upgraded within that amount?

The government wants its citizens to access secondary and tertiary healthcare through its ambitious Ayushman Bharat Healthcare scheme.  Imaging if more and more citizens started accessing these already burdened hospitals, how will they get the desired level of care and treatment.  Will they not be putting themselves at additional risks to their lives? With a decrease in budget allocation for the public healthcare, the two extremes do not seem coming to a common merging point.

It will be interesting to know what is the government’s plan to ensure that no further lives, not even one life is lost henceforth and if and all it happens, who is to be held accountable and responsible?  Certainly not the medical staff for negligence because they are operating under already strained infrastructure, heavy patient load, obsolete medical technology, lack of maintenance of equipment.  It has to be the mangers and their bosses who should be held responsible and be penalised.

It is time that the Minister of Health and the respective Minister of Health at each of the State Government level take up his pledge to reduce what could be termed as “avoidable deaths” because each life is precious not because of any of the other factors stated above but purely because that every individual has the fundamental right to life and access to good quality of health care and education in addition to the other basic fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution of India.

Best Wishes.

Why are there poor Managers?

Management is an evolving science and over generations, I realise that the more we study about management, the lesser we are getting to know about it. 

Management is a function of an organisation that integrates smaller functions to drive the purpose of an organisation.  The larger the organisation, there will be layers and layers of managementfunctionaries but ultimately, it will be the top functionary who matters because he has a larger say in the operations.  And when power is vested in that individual, it tends to deflect his attention away from his colleagues.  S/he is more inclined to display his own performance before her/his paymasters because he too wants to get ahead in life

In the entire management process, one forgets that an organisation is merely a legal entry in a government’s books or the bank accounts.  What makes an organisation is the people and the reason why company’s flourish or fall victim to the clock is people do not feel the need to be engaged. 

Humans need compassion, empathy, motivation, mentoring, direction, encouragement, clarity, support, guidance as to an organisation’s functioning.  A senior manager’s whims and fancies that are not aligned to the organisation or which are in stark contrast to the organisational culture drives people to withdraw, leading to a decline in their performance, disintegration, office gossip, drooping of shoulders and poor body language.  The coffee machine gossip picks up, people talk in hush tones and private meetings and mini-conferences begin to be seen.

The reason why most organisations begin to crackle is because managers forget that they are dealing with humans with emotions.  In order to achieve targets and bottom line, they often forget humans have their own problems to deal with.  A person burdened with problems at home is likely to carry them over to work.  S/he is not a robot to cut them off at the work place and it will definitely affect her/his performance.  A good manager is one who will spot such an employee’s behaviour over a period of time and will have an open chat to see where adjustments can be made.  The manager has the discretion to move things around, tap on available resources, give people space and other team members will be more than willing to accommodate their colleague.  It also helps the affected employee to resolve his own situations quickly so that he can back into the grove and possibly give back or compensate for the lean period.  This builds up a healthy temp spirit and there are instances in history where co-employees have gone out of their way to extend support because they know full well that, God forbid, it could be them tomorrow and they may require such a support system.

If a manager is purely focussed on this organisational performance, then it is a good recipe for disaster.  People then work mechanically, don’t apply their hearts and mind, make mistakes which grows into an uncontrollable fireball.

Management experts have often said that employee’s don’t leave organisations but they leave poor bosses only to find another of the same type in the new one.  Perhaps, this search never ends because such managers are all over the place.

My advice to Managers is to have a humane approach, take interest in the lives of their employee and over a period of time, results will be seen.  People can clearly see care and concern for others and will give their arm and leg to be a part of such a team.  I say this out of experiences of building high-performance teams, converting low-performance, disintegrated workers into delivering results that have never been achieved earlier.  I have seen employees beginning to contribute ideas and suggestions to further improve because they feel recognised, appreciated and valued.

Best Wishes.

Sarfaraz

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#organisationalculture

Be Inspired – Inspire Others

Can you recall a moment in life where you were motivated or inspired by someone? Do you recall feeling ecstatic by seeing something that brought you immense joy and which brought incremental learning to your existing knowledge.  Did someone, even your school or college teacher or an elderly person from the family, pat you on the back and appreciated you on your achievements.  Was this the defining moment of your life?

The world is round and symbolically, what comes to you from somewhere, ultimately, passes on to others.  This happens in two ways.  You encourage others or pass on the inspiration at a conscious level or people get inspired by you without your knowledge.

Sometimes, mere encouragement of others can be the defining moment in someone’s life.  When people meet and interact, there is some exchange of information, and those seeking knowledge actively, will be the wiser, no matter how short the interaction is.  It is important that in all our interactions, we exude a positive attitude, especially when you find that the other person is going through a lean time in his/her life.  Ensure that you have positive words not directly targeted at him but all your communication and messages must carry messages that convey enthusiasm and that lifts up his/her spirit.  You never know how it will inspire him and give him that source of encouragement that he is looking out for.  Offer help and direction to help him sort out his/her problems.  It is not always money that helps resolve issues.  Sometimes, mere guidance helps him clear his mind.  Ask any person and he will tell you that he was inspired, encouraged and motivated by someone at some point of time in their life.

You don’t have to be a parent, teacher, coach or guide to encourage others.  You do not have to be a subject matter expert to do so.  You need not have attended the top B-School somewhere in the world and a wealth of experience to guide others.  Life teaches us a lot of things during our daily interactions.  Social media has been a great avenue for learning.  Everyday, you receive messages that someone sends to inspire you.  It is your life’s experiences, your own learning's and own failures which leave a lot of learning for you.  Bring those to the fore and lend a piece of knowledge at the most opportune moment.

You do not lose anything by staying motivated.  It actually rubs on you. You will feel charged and see things in positive live.  You only share knowledge and that knowledge will go further down from generation to generation.  No one will remember you for a specific act or advice given but it will have a multiplier effect on the betterment of this world.

Therefore, always stay motivated, look at the positives and the moment you see someone at the edge of life, help him cross over to the better side. 

Is craziness the template?

I have been thinking a lot on the recent success of new age entrepreneurs and that process took me back down to the industrial age when the real development of technology started happening.

There are numerous instances of people with ideas who converted them into products and services for the public good.  Amongst those that can be included are Graham Bell, Edison, Henry Ford, Johannes Gutenberg who invented the first printing press right upto Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerburg and a long list of individuals who have to their credit some invention or a creation that has help public lead a quality of life.  I do not want to exclude from list this, people who have help revolutionise the service industry as well and that includes the McDonalds, the KFC, PizzaHut, Dunking Donuts, Cafe Coffee Day, Uber, Ola, etc., because they have made good quality food and quality services accessible to us, in the vicinity of our homes.  I include every entrepreneur, every risk taker who has either failed or succeeded.  It is a different thing that a failed person never stood up again to rise like never before but they also deserve a mention.

Come to think of it, what were the top qualities that they possessed.  Yes, they definitely had a vision and a zeal to achieve it. 

But... 

• Did they have the resources to achieve the success? 
• Did they have the knowledge to achieve what they did? 
• Did they have mentors to guide them in the process? 
• Did they see it growing to where it is today? 
• Did they have knowledge of SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats like it is now taught in B-Schools)? 
• Did they have Financial Planning skills? 
• Did they have knowledge of goal settings and factors that should be considered whilst goal setting? 
• Did they fear failure or have any other types of fears? Were they confident of their success? 
• Were were they ready to bear the scorn of their family and closed relatives?

I imagine that they all had these shortcomings.  They all feared, every moment, every day.  Yes, they learnt something everyday and persevered with their goals.  Two things can happen to you every day.  You meet failures everyday and you get success everyday.  When you meet with one success, it eggs you on to do better.  But not all days are the same.  Sometimes, a small failure pulls you down relatively faster than a major success because we are trained to think like that.  

However, successful people know that they have two options – either to learn from the failures and keep going or to give up completely.  Those that give up at a few obstacles are weak hearted.  That alone is not the factor that deters them from going further.  There are constraints like staring at complete bankruptcy after having invested everything that they had.  They stare at the sad fate of hunger, poverty, shame, having to live with that past and so many other aspects. Very rarely do you have friends who support you during such times.  Nobody supports you with their money during your downward spiral.  Everyone wants to be with the winner.

When we analyse how people overcame their miseries to emerge successful, there is just one trait that tops the chart and that is craziness.  When you have that crazy streak of mind that is full of self-confidence and belief in their work that they are able to see beyond the immediate shortcoming.  Bring the “Law of Attraction” into the picture and you have the complete image of a success that pulls all the universe’s resources and help at your disposal.  Craziness is not something that is short-lived.  It is a sustained effort that keeps you going ahead, no matter the size of the hurdles.  Craziness is the ability that allows the person so see, even at the beginning of the tune, the light that is far ahead in the tunnel.  It is an imaginary process and not everybody is able to relate it.  Not everyone is blessed to visualise that.  We are all equally gifted with such abilities but not all people can invoke them at the right time to become great.  The same logic applies to eternal lovers like Romeo and Juliet, Laila and Majnu, Shireen & Farhat and so many others who had vision for their love. 

Everyone has a foresight about something or the other.  Not many are themselves convinced about them.  Only a handful of people have a strong conviction about their vision and the roadmap that leads them to success.

• Can you develop this streak of craziness?  
• Do you already have this streak of craziness? 
• Can anybody help you identify this attribute? 

I am not too sure if there are any ready-made answers to the above.

Can you learn this from others? – Yes and No.  No matter how much classroom theory lectures you attend to learn this, you will probably not learn unless you have a strong conviction about a story or an idea or a vision.  But yes, if you have an idea, however, small and you mentally prepare yourself by observing their behavioural pattern, then surely, you can imbibe those habits and maybe even do better.  But this calls for a dedicated pursuit, close study, investment of time and resources. 

And lastly, do not aim to copy but seek inspiration.

Sarfaraz Lakhani