Greatness…some anecdotes…

Some celebrate life and believe the whole world is their stage. They enjoy the game of life’s ups and downs. They’re easy and disarming and this trait attracts people like bees to a flower. They are curious about what makes people and things tick; for appropriately responding. Show keenness to develop rapport with people; and show no hints of power, money or position.

Why be simple….

One wise bard said, “The greatest ideas are the simple.” Two incidents were not only serendipitous but quite revealing to me:

1. ET article dated 15^th march 23 highlighted how Sandeep Bakshi rebuilt ICICI Bank after taking over in 2018.  Institution building, innovations, reengineering, culture sound utopian but not practical. He built an organization that is simple, collaborative and congestion free. In being simple, what not to do is critical. He eradicated, ‘eat what you kill’ principle that’s banker’s primary objective in recent times. Bakshi’s main motto – serve the customer rather than milk the customer for revenue. He scrapped the bell curve for performance assessment and moved to team achievements on market share and profitability. To highlight team achievements, he places more thrust on centre half Ajit Pal Singh, whose pass helped India win its first World Cup Hockey tournament in 1975 when the nation celebrated Ashok Kumar’s goal.   Humility and team spirit come above all for Bakshi who has banned of use of superlatives in promotions. He says, there are no prima donnas in banking. 
2. Throughout Olympic history, the most popular high jump technique continuously changed and developed over the decades, including scissor, cut-off and straddle techniques. In 1968 Olympics, Dick Fosbury revolutionized the high jump by using the straddle’s technique of bending the body to lower the center of mass, however Fosbury changed this by jumping off his outside foot, and leading with his upper body while facing upwards, then quickly raising his legs as momentum carried him over the bar. Fosbury set a new Olympic record at 2.24 meters and took the gold medal. More than 50 years later, “the Fosbury Flop” technique continues to be used by almost all top level high jumpers.

Being one with our world

We can realize our personal and professional aspirations much faster; if we are one with this world. It’s about assimilating or being part of others; as far as or as much as possible. Being one with the world is about accepting and helping others’ personal and professional aspirations. A Japanese proverb, “the nail that sticks out gets hammered”, sums up trying to stand out from the crowd or being different from others. It’s true that different aspirations/intentions of others make the world confusing and bewildering; when we want to meaningfully interact. It’s even more confusing and bewildering when we interact with others with our own views and opinions and believing them to be as the right ones.   Here’s what we can hopefully do!