Friday Reflections

Am I in Good Hands?

POINT TO PONDER: “If your systems are “world class”, why am I still hurting?”  - One customer

 

STORY LINE: In early 90s, on my 5^th day at a new company, my boss invited me to join a quarterly review meeting that was to take place with a major computer manufacturer based in Texas. Our sales department had gotten wind of the customer's unhappiness with the performance  of our products. The sales department had alerted our headquarters in the Silicon Valley that it was not going to be a pleasant meeting.

 

The conference room was over loaded; our side having a full entourage; President, various Vice Presidents with their staff members, and some working level people (like me) were in attendance. Twenty minutes into the meeting it was clear that our sales person's Forecast was right. The customer was very unhappy with our performance and their internal department had recommended to give us one quarter to shape up or we would be disqualified.

 

After patiently listening to the customer's complaints (we had to - there was no choice), our Vice President of Engineering got up to present his response. He explained the details of how problems occurs due to the forming, trimming and singulation tools. The next foil was an organization chart. Our VP introduced,  "this person is my chief technologist, holds 28 patents," and the foil following, "the person in the next box had a Ph.D. in XYZ with specialization..." As he was introducing the impressive technical qualifications of the person in the third box, one of the customer's personnel intervened , "Can they solve my problem?”

 

There was a stunned silence in the room. Was this an innocent question or a deliberately sarcastic one? If it was sarcastic, it was rude to do that to him in front of so many of our executives and subordinates. But thinking deeper, it sounded very basic.

 

REFLECTION:The lesson that I learnt that day was very profound and carried with me throughout my career. In final analysis, what the customer was looking for was, "Am I in good hands?” Do these people give me enough confidence that they can solve my current problems?

 

This lesson has been also very helpful to me in designing the organization structure and recruiting people with relevant qualifications for the purpose for which an organization exists. Organization composition must not be about elegance but about people with the mindset of solving “Real” problems of customer and investors.

Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us

Artist for the Picture unknown. Thanks to Evelyn Tan from Philippines for sending this.

 

Points to Ponder:“Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us.” - Marianne Williamson

Story Line: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”- from A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson

For more than two decades the profound message that Marianne Williamson wrote in her 1992 book A Return to Love was falsely attributed to Nelson Mandela. For those interested in learning more about the background here is the link

https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/7/30/20699833/marianne-williamson-our-deepest-fear-nelson-mandela-return-to-love

Reflection: We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?.......And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

 

 

 

 

Reflection: 

Ode To Reason - As The Year Ends

Point to Ponder: “For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?” – guess who said this?

Ode to Reason- as the year ends

“Man!

Why do you hate,

When there is love?

Why do you hate,

Your own fellow man?

Each one of us, born to die,

In so little time, on this, our planet earth,

So why hate and why not love,

All things that live and breathe,

Including your fellow man

There is so little time.” Erza Mir

Reflection:

I cannot but hate the prospect of slavery’s expansion. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world-enables the enemies of the free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites-causes the real life friends of freedom to doubt sincerity- What Abraham Lincoln said about Slavery applies as well to Hate and Prejudice.

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honored by the humiliation of fellow beings- Mahatma Gandhi, The story of my experiments with Truth.

No one is born hating another person because of color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.–Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom

All of your life, you will be faced with a choice. You can choose love or hate…I choose love. - Johnny Cash

 

Holiday Humor: To err is human, to forgive divine

Point to Ponder: To err is human, to forgive Divine. But then someone said: To err is human, isn’t that Divine?

Reflection: George Bush Sr. was not the only President who had a Vice President who used to goof.......

Vice President Dan Quayle (1988-1992) in his various speeches:

One word probably sums up the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is ‘to be prepared’.

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy but that could change.

El Salvador is a democracy so it’s not surprising that there are many voices to be heard hear. Yet in my conversations with Salvadorans…I have heard a single voice.

We expect them (Salvadorian Officials) to work toward the elimination of human rights.

If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure.

Hawaii has always been a very pivotal role in the Pacific. It is in the Pacific. It is a part of the United States that is an island that is right here. –in his visit to Hawaii in September 1989

What a terrible thing to have lost one’s mind, or not to have one at all.

Ronald Reagan had one too.

Source: San Jose Mercury News or Parade Magazine in 1980s. I have Saved it in my collectibles since then.

Story Line: Last week’s Friday Reflection titled No Man is a Failure who has Friends had an error in the spelling of the word Failure in the title. It was spelled Faillure. Thanks to Sharon for letting me know and  My apology for the mistake. Trying to make the change in the title would have changed the link to the article that was sent out worldwide. So a footnote was placed in the article explaining the situation. My 92 years old mom witnessing my face tried to soothe my pain by reminding me of some stories I had told her a few decades ago. Thinking of those made me laugh and I am sharing some of those with the readers.

The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember

 

Points to Ponder: If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of others you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.- Mister Rogers

Discovering the truth, about ourselves is a lifetime’s work, but it’s worth the effort. -Mister Rogers

Story Line: The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember

You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are.

The thing I remember best about successful people I’ve met all through the years is their obvious delight in what they’re doing and it seems have very little to do with worldly success. They just love what they’re doing, and they love it in front of others.

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of “disaster”, I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers-so many caring people in the world.

It’s very dramatic when two people come together to work something out.  It’s easy to take a gun and annihilate your opposition, but what is really exciting to me is to see people with differing views come together and finally respect each other.

Mutual caring relationships require kindness and patience, tolerance, optimism, joy in other’s achievements, confidence in oneself, and the ability to give without undue thought of gain.

Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.

Reflection: From Mr. Rogers’ speech at Emmy for Life Time Achievement Award*

"So many people have helped me to come here to this night. Some of you are here, some are far away and some are even in Heaven. All of us have special ones who loved us into being. 

Would you just take, along with me, 10 seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are, those who cared about you and wanted what was best for you in life."

"10 seconds of silence. I'll watch the time. "

"Whomever you've been thinking about, how pleased they must be to know the difference you feel they have made.”  

*Entire speech is in the video at the top of this reflection. Thanks to Mary Abel, former colleague and a good friend, for introducing me to this video. It inspired me to write this Friday Reflection; coincidently a day before the movie A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood with Tom Hanks as Mister Rogers is going to be released.

Leaking Bucket

Points to Ponder: We struggle to fill our lives with earnings of knowledge, hoping it will retain it all, but it leaks due to the many flaws that we commit daily.

Reflection: One of my bosses had a special skill. Whenever anyone in the organization started criticizing other people, other organizations or unleashed superiority complex, he would gently nudge the conversation and make us realize that we too had enough problems of our own and a lot of things to focus on. Also in my last job, we had a group of employees who wouldn’t hesitate to point out if my words and actions showed gaps. Both those experiences been humbling and they have helped in the journey of continuous improvement.

Today I received the following story from a reader* that reminded me of those people and good to reflect on it for the holidays.

Story Line: Leaking Bucket

You're very kind to outsiders/people in power and speak with them gently, but with your own family/employees you're inconsiderate and rude. (A leaking bucket)

You honor and treat your guests well but when they leave, you gossip about them and talk about their flaws. (A leaking bucket)

You try to read as many religious books, listen to sermons, participate in social services but you judge, criticize, hate, insult and curse daily. (A leaking bucket)

You frequently advice/preach others, but hardly practice it yourself. (A leaking bucket)

You slander people with different believes, culture, choices and Faith out of hatred when their views do not align with yours. (A leaking bucket)

You look down on others and feel more superior to them; judging their level of knowledge and socials status based on your perceptions, incomplete facts & external appearances. (A leaking bucket)

You wake up early morning trying to do Prayers but your mind is elsewhere and before you know it, you're done with it, without being mindful of it. (A leaking bucket)

We struggle to fill our "lives"(the bucket) with "earnings" of knowledge (the water), hoping it will retain it all, but it leaks due to the many flaws (the holes) that we commit daily.*

An excellent reminder for all including MYSELF to try and mend these holes up so we may progress further through this inevitable curriculum of life.

*story sent by a reader in India with a humble request not to use his name because he read this somewhere and does not know the original source.

Loose lips sink ships. Especially after a few drinks.

World War II poster by Seymour R. Goff. 

Points to Ponder: When it comes to senior management there are no casual conversations. Anything you say or do can be used against you at an appropriate time in the courts of the corporation.

Storyline: Most Senior Managers live A Purpose Driven Life. That purpose is connected to objectives, key results, associated success indicators and that extends into all aspects of their life including home life (that story in future FR). They feel the time is very precious and every moment has to be used into some productive output and even casual conversations fall into those categories. Here are two of the many stories I have encountered during my career.

 Story One: First Impression and knowing the audience.

One day I received an email from a guy in my group who was visiting a facility in a foreign country. He was very excited that he had run into my boss in the hotel restaurant, and as he mentioned “We had an exciting shoot the breeze session (casual conversation)”. A week later in my 1:1, the boss told me about that meeting and said “Your guy told me that he was there to just check out on things. Seemed to me that he didn’t have a very clear purpose for the trip. For just checking out, why didn’t you use our local people?” There was some other conversation that is not mentioned here for confidentiality reasons. But the same meeting and the same words but very different interpretations. The guy was there for a very critical supply line issue but in the half an hour with the VP, in his excitement to “Break the Ice”, he had broken the Iceberg that I had to tackle for years after.

Story Two: Holiday Season Parties and after a few Drinks (1976)

The General Manager (GM) of our division had invited his direct staff, some engineers and the spouses to his place to celebrate holidays and to appreciate 60-70 hours per week that we had put in for the entire year to start the new manufacturing plant and introduce the flagship product. At dinner very delicious food and exotic drinks were served. After dinner more vintage wine started flowing and the people seemed determined to shed their inhibitions and let the night take its course.

In one room the casual conversations between spouses drifted in the direction of the work life effectiveness. Many Spouses felt that because of long work weeks, their partners did not have enough time at home for children or themselves. They came to the other room to express their feelings to the general manager. The spouse of the design manager (DM) took the lead in starting the conversation on behalf of the team, but with the drinks warming up the blood, and more joining, it got very intense. Words got out of control and looking at our general managers’ face, I felt that things were not looking good. The event ended soon after. As our still gracious GM was walking us towards our parked cars, I heard him tell the DM: (name) I have never been humiliated so badly by anybody.

A month after the incidence, DM office had been moved from Mahogany Lane to our lane: the lane of the working class. His special privileges like having a secretary were suspended and he was stripped of his title and staff. He left our company a few weeks after.

Reflection: Yes in both stories above, supreme EGOs were involved and there were better ways to handle the situations. The stories like above have happened in other places and with all genders. In my 40 years career, I have witnessed episodes of casual conversations resulting in unwanted consequences; not only the type mentioned above but also others where they were brought up during performance review discussions, key job assignments and promotional considerations.

On the flip side, FR has and will continue to publish stories that have resulted in positive outcomes and good benefits.

Holiday Season is fast approaching and the readers may encounter more articles on this subject (about caution and moderation) in other publications too.

This FR is: One For The Road.

 

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

Points to Ponder: Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed. - Mahatma Gandhi

Story Line: Timeless teachings from Gandhi on his 150th Birth Anniversary (October 2)

I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the fault of others.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

Nobody can hurt me without my permission.

You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results.

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.

If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.

My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God. Non Violence is the means of realising Him.

There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always.”

Reflection: Hate the sin, love (forgive) the sinner.

During Noakhali religious riots in 1946, Gandhi started fasting until death unless the people stopped killing one another. The People from different rioting parties approached Gandhi to promise they would stop and asked him to eat. The real event from that time is shown very well in the movie Gandhi by Sir Richard Attenborough.

Gandhi suggests A Way Out of Hell for the man who had killed a young boy from the opposing side.

“Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.” ― Albert Einstein.

 

 

Feedback is the Breakfast of Champions*

POINT TO PONDER

“It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.”  - Steve Jobs

STORY LINE

The year was 1984. My boss and I were in a one on one meeting. As I was explaining the details of one project, my boss intervened and said, “you are defensive”. I was taken aback by the comment and immediately replied, “I am not defensive,” and started explaining why.

A few minutes into my explanation, my boss put his pen on the table and with a cunning smile on his face he said, “I rest my case. Let us move on to the next subject”. 

It took me a while, a long while, to understand the depth of the feedback he had given me.  For a considerable period of time I criticized him for being so blunt. But over the years, I realized how valuable his feedback was and how helpful it became in my career.

For example, there was a time in my career when I decided to go into business for myself. I bounced the idea off of my mentor, an accomplished executive. He endorsed the idea. Initially, the business grew, doing quite well, but I also discovered that it I did not like to do many of the minor tasks that are required for running a business. 

Noticing that, my mentor said to me, “you need to go back to work for a company. You have lost the discipline to run the business as an individual owner. But you have a lot of experience and track record that will be helpful when you have resources available to guide”. Yes it was a tough pill to swallow... But it was also very true. 

So I went back to work at a company, and looking back, it was a very good advice. I had a stellar career in the corporate world and could focus my strengths in places I could maximize them most and led to a successful and fulfilling career. 

REFLECTION

Feedback is a valuable gift but many times it comes in forms that can be hard to take, especially if comes wrapped in the form of blunt honesty. But after the initial hurt and anger wears off, and you can look at the feedback for what it is, it can lead to tremendous growth. We just have to be able to put our ego aside to see it. 

*Title is a quote from Ken Blanchard

Being republished due to Readers' requests. Original date August 27, 2015.

 

 

Happy Birthday to “Oracle of Omaha”- Warren Buffett at 89

Points to Ponder: “When you get to my age you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you.”

“Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.”

Story Line: Warren Buffett, an extra ordinary human being who has given away most of his $88 billion in wealth to Bill Gates Foundation, turns 89 today. With his profound wisdom, practical experience and the great sense of humor, he has continued to inspire us. Below, Warren's views about political and socio-economic system that he shared in Q&A with University of Maryland MBA students.

How has your understanding of markets contributed towards your political views?

WB: I wouldn’t say knowledge of markets has. My political views were formed by this process.  Just imagine that it is 24 hours before you are born. A genie comes and says to you in the womb, “You look like an extraordinarily responsible, intelligent, potential human being. Going to emerge in 24 hours and it is an enormous responsibility I am going to assign to you – determination of the political, economic and social system into which you are going to emerge. You set the rules, any political system, democracy, parliamentary, anything you wish, can set the economic structure, communistic, capitalistic, set anything in motion and I guarantee you that when you emerge this world will exist for you, your children and grandchildren.

What’s the catch? One catch – just before you emerge you have to go through a huge bucket with 7 billion slips, one for each human. Dip your hand in and that is what you get – you could be born intelligent or not intelligent, born healthy or disabled, born black or white, born in the US or in Bangladesh, etc. You have no idea which slip you will get. Not knowing which slip you are going to get, how would you design the world? Do you want men to push around females? It’s a 50/50 chance you get female.

If you think about the political world, you want a system that gets what people want. You want more and more output because you’ll have more wealth to share around. The US is a great system, turns out $50,000 GDP per capita, 6 times the amount when I was born in just one lifetime. But not knowing what slip you get, you want a system that once it produces output, you don’t want anyone to be left behind. You want to incentivize the top performers, don’t want equality in results, but do want something that those who get the bad tickets still have a decent life. You also don’t want fear in people’s minds – fear of lack of money in old age, fear of cost of health care.  I call this the “Ovarian Lottery”. My sisters didn’t get the same ticket. Expectations for them were that they would marry well, or if they work, would work as a nurse, teacher, etc. If you are designing the world knowing 50/50 male or female, you don’t want this type of world for women – you could get female. Design your world this way; this should be your philosophy.

I look at Forbes 400, look at their figures and see how it’s gone up in the last 30 years. Americans at the bottom are also improving, and that is great, but we don’t want that degree of inequality. Only governments can correct that. Right way to look at it is the standpoint of how you would view the world if you didn’t know who you would be. If you’re not willing to gamble with your slip out of 100 random slips, you are lucky! The top 1% of 7 billion people. Everyone is wired differently. You can’t say you do everything yourself. We all have teachers, and people before us who led us to where we are. We can’t let people fall too far behind. You all definitely got good slips.

You are one of the few male CEO’s who champions women in the workplace. Can you talk about your reasoning and how we can contribute our intelligence to the workplace?

WB:  We wrote the Declaration of Independence in 1776 – “All men are created equal” etc. In 1789 we wrote a Constitution – on second thoughts… blacks are only 3/5 of a person. They slipped up. They wrote in such a way that they didn’t have to use gender pronouns. They gave themselves away in presidency, they said “He”. Pretty soon all men are created equal became all males are created equal……….…………..

Everyone had expectations of me as a child, but my sisters who were just as smart, were delegated to something different. Here is this country, think about how far we came from using half our talent. Now we are beginning to unleash the potential of the other half.

Notes of the all Q&A are in the following link:

https://blogs.rhsmith.umd.edu/davidkass/uncategorized/warren-buffetts-meeting-with-university-of-maryland-mbams-students-november-15-2013/

Reflection:  A man’s true wealth hereafter is the good he has done for his fellowmen.  Mahatma Gandhi

For those yearning for more Golden Nuggets of Wisdom from Warren ……see following articles

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/30/warren-buffett-why-you-should-focus-on-your-communication-skills.html

https://fridayreflections.typepad.com/weblog/2014/02/warren-buffetts-magnificent-seven-.html