TAKING INITIATIVE!

Training sessions are enhanced by the use of appropriate videos. One of personal favourites - a video created in 2007 as part of the Lead India Campaign launched by the Times of India Group – is an excellent example of ‘taking initiative’. It can be easily viewed on the internet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFs5vWxW-vc

The early morning traffic is blocked by a fallen tree. On either side, people await a solution to the problem. But a young child drops his school bag and ventures to push aside the big tree. The onlookers, one by one start joining him and together they are able to shift the obstacle. Obviously they were inspired by the initiative of the proactive child.

Surely, the child did not have a false estimation of his own strengths and abilities. Yet he initiated action since it was needed. Taking initiative is not about measuring up to achievable tasks. Taking initiative is about taking up a worthwhile mission. It is about stepping out of our comfort zone and taking up the responsibility to set right a situation. Proactive persons do not wait for others to join their action… they show the way by taking initiative and thus inspire others to join along.

However, it is not enough to start off. A famous Buddha quote identifies two mistakes while walking the road (to truth)… one is not starting and the second is not going all the way. So many good initiatives are reduced to nought because people give up before the initiative is actualised. We must choose to be better at sustaining a continuous commitment to the initiative we take on or the one we join in. And we must overcome our own negative thoughts and doubts.

Let’s BE BETTER at taking initiative

By overcoming every looming negative!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Light, please!

Once, Alexander the Great went in person to see the Greek theorist, Diogenes and found him lying in the sun. When the monarch offered to fulfil his stated wish, Diogenes promptly requested, ‘please stand out of my light!’

The above anecdote raises pertinent points for mentoring as well as leadership. Too often we suffocate and stifle the very people we want to help out by dominating their space with our overbearing presence and shadowing their own inspired guiding light. So often, even mothers smother their children!

All this seems so strange, as all of us, as young children, have resented the same domineering by parents, teachers and elders. Yet we repeat the same story of shadowy surveillance, interfering interruptions and back seat driving with the same people who we wish would do something on their own! However there is nothing wrong in standing besides as long as don’t eclipse their light!

To be better at helping and supporting anyone, we must be able to give them the space to take ownership of their dreams, their plans and actions as seen in their own guiding light. In fact, after the incident with Diogenes, Alexander reportedly told his men who were jesting about the philosopher, ‘if I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes!’

Let’s BE BETTER at helping others grow

By standing out of their light’s glow!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

AUGUST, 16th!

In India, the Independence Day is celebrated on 15 August by wearing patriotism on our sleeves. Our clothes, our facebook status, our group SMS and everything possible, proudly declares our pride in being an Indian. Almost all such publicly stated sentiments of patriotic pride are genuine and sincere.

However, it is pertinent to notice the same sentiment in the same people on the subsequent day – 16 August! Some years back, on the day after Independence Day, ace lensman Rajtilak Naik captured a plastic tricolour flag lying amidst similarly discarded garbage irresponsibly thrown along the sides of a road. Surely, on Independence Day that same flag must have been held firmly by a patriotically charged person.

The best of words and the grandest of posturing mean nothing. Plastic patriotism is nothing but a superficial mask that is worn on convenient occasions. In fact, posturing through only superficial symbols pushes us away from the earnestness of our real sentiments. Real patriotism is not about feeling proud, rather it is about doing our country proud through responsible and responsive deeds.

What we do or say on Independence Day is an occasional emotion. What we do or say on 16 August, and the other days, is of greater importance. If we want to be better at real patriotism, let’s be better at saying and doing whatever it takes for everyone to equally reap the benefits of real freedom, dignity and opportunity!

Plastic patriotism is nothing, but just an occasional emotion…
Let’s BE BETTER at backing intention with consistent action!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

HOBSON’S CHOICE

‘Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants, so long as it is black.’ - Choice offered on the Ford Model T.

In the late 16th century, Thomas Hobson rented out horses to university students at Cambridge. The students picked up their favourite steeds, and hence a few of Hobson's horses were overworked. To remedy the situation, Hobson began a rotation system, giving the customer the choice of taking the mount nearest the stable door or none at all. This rule became known as ‘Hobson's choice’.

Although, the term is used to mean ‘no choice at all’, Hobson’s choice is not an illusion of choice. Also, it is not the same as Morton’s fork which is a choice between two unfavourable options. It is a free choice in which only one option is offered. A person may refuse to take that option. The choice is therefore between taking the option or not. It is about aligning with either of the two alternatives: take it or leave it!

So often, we find ourselves in a bind over a situation of Hobson’s choice. We feel cornered as we think we have no choice. However, it is pertinent to note that every road offers the option to walk or not. If we consider the option of opting out, we are liberated from the situation of single choice. Many people have made a successful paradigm shift in their lives and careers because the chose to be better at understanding the second option in Hobson’s choice.

Let’s BE BETTER at a choice that seems only one

Hobson’s choice is about take that or none!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

THE OTHER SIDE

Once, a wanderer came to the banks of a wide river. He wondered on ways to cross the broad barrier, but in vain. Just as he was about to turn back, he saw a Zen master on the other side of the river. He shouted out, ‘Sir, please tell me how to get to the other side of this river’? The monk promptly yelled back, ‘Young man, you are on the other side’.

Like all Zen stories, this tale too holds multiple lessons. However, let’s consider it for the aspect of interpersonal skills. The two banks of the river represent two individual personalities that lie aligned parallel to each other. The river represents the space between the relationships.

While we seek to travel the journey to the other side, it would be better to understand that our side too is the other side with regards to the person across. So getting to the other side necessarily includes connect with initiative on the side that one stands on. The same concept is articulated with great simplicity in the quote, ‘if it is to be, it is up to me!’

More often than not, our closest friends are the ones where we take the initiative for maintaining and empowering the relationship. The onus of friendship cannot be on the other person. The responsibility lies with me to be better at doing everything necessary for my friend to see a friend on the other side… which is where I stand!

to BE BETTER at connecting to the other side

let’s do the needful, on the side that I reside!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

THE OTHER SIDE

Once, a wanderer came to the banks of a wide river. He wondered on ways to cross the broad barrier, but in vain. Just as he was about to turn back, he saw a Zen master on the other side of the river. He shouted out, ‘Sir, please tell me how to get to the other side of this river’? The monk promptly yelled back, ‘Young man, you are on the other side’.

Like all Zen stories, this tale too holds multiple lessons. However, let’s consider it for the aspect of interpersonal skills. The two banks of the river represent two individual personalities that lie aligned parallel to each other. The river represents the space between the relationships.

While we seek to travel the journey to the other side, it would be better to understand that our side too is the other side with regards to the person across. So getting to the other side necessarily includes connect with initiative on the side that one stands on. The same concept is articulated with great simplicity in the quote, ‘if it is to be, it is up to me!’

More often than not, our closest friends are the ones where we take the initiative for maintaining and empowering the relationship. The onus of friendship cannot be on the other person. The responsibility lies with me to be better at doing everything necessary for my friend to see a friend on the other side… which is where I stand!

to BE BETTER at connecting to the other side

let’s do the needful, on the side that I reside!

- Pravin K. Sabnis