Bertrand Russell, was once asked, what is a good time to educate a child? Without pausing, he replied, “At least a hundred years before he is born”. Was Russell being facetious? Certainly not! Education has to be planned.
Looking at present day syllabi at school, colleges, and universities, I find it not significantly different from the curriculum I went through almost four decades back. I therefore wonder more with awe and shock than with hope of how today’s child of say 5-10 years of age, will be ready to face and cope with the challenges of this nation on its hundredth birthday in 2047, AD. It is not a revelation to anyone, that the talent and skill required then will certainly be very different from what they are being taught and trained today. The thought is frightening. There is nothing static in the life of a nation, organisation, entity or an individual; everything around is changing with the speed of light. The ability to speedily , unlearn, a bad practice or habit or even more so to acquire, swiftly and learn from colleagues or other market participants, good practice today is a prime requisite for progress.
Today’s best, will certainly render itself, to being at best, the second best. In every single facet, the ante has to be upped. Outdated knowledge or rusting experience will be of no help while facing the dynamically changing future.
Take communication for example. We have in about four centuries, moved from pigeons as transmitters of information to the internet, with its various formats and manifestations. Nobody had believed, Thomas Addison, when he talked of telegraph or teleprinter - his assertion, “you write in New York and it will be read, a few minutes later in London”, wasn’t believed upon. But it happened. Today our communications are instant between senders and recipients; milli seconds are considered, a long time. Despite the existence of digital immigrants, who have transitioned from information to digital age, like myself have also embraced, some reluctantly, some with enthusiasm, the technological developments. What those, born as “digital children”, will do to the speed of learning and unlearning is in fact beyond the imaginary guess.
To all those who wish to be managers of men and material, will find that continuous learning is critical to being in that position. The open-minded and well-intentioned managers would keep themselves engaged wondering if ‘good is the enemy of great; isn’t ‘best the enemy of better?’ Each single day then has to witness investment into new learning. One has to be a better manager today, then yesterday and has to strive to be still better, tomorrow. Change is faster than the speed of light. Every single thought and concept is undergoing a paradigm shift. Today’s economic principle does not match or coincide with the old outdated preamble disclaimer to economic theories of “...If all things remain the same…”. It is befittingly replaced with, “when all things are under the hammer of change”.
Leadership cannot be ‘judged’ without its response to a changed tomorrow. If today, we lose then surely tomorrow ought to be better. Yesterday cannot be retrieved. But tomorrow is a wonderful and worthwhile wait, for winning or achieving a new milestone. A manager’s mind must perennially be questioning. When was the last time, I did something better or new? I have come across many managers who obstinately stick to doing things the way they have done for all their careers. The fear of trying to do anything new has enslaved their mind, to go down the beaten path; to keep the status and to let sleeping dogs lie.
Barring the fundamental and universally accepted principles, all other things change; should change and must change. Core values cannot be amended or altered. “Truth” cannot be replaced with “half-truth” or “almost true”. Do not therefore attempt to unlearn your values as you climb up the corporate ladder. Instead bind and glue them, with greater solidity.
Personally, I have been marveled since childhood on the role of a conductor of a music ensemble. As a young lad, I would wonder, with those two wands or bows, how does this man, manage to communicate with a 120 piece orchestra! It is with amazement we find every single instrument player responding to the conductors command and to marvel is the harmony between the 120 odd musical instruments. Watching this, I have come to realise, that in composing the melody involving the 120-150 pieces, they would know, the importance of every single gadget and its proper usage, within the composition.
A manager is no different, He has one or more than 100 instruments (the human resource of the organisation), where each, like the musical instrument is different and unique, producing a distinct sound of performance, skill and abilities - that he assembles them towards production of a single corporate symphony (objectives). Different, yet united in purpose, to be able to get all of these units to work in unison requires ability to learn from each constituent. So exactly is expected of a manager, who must know where to apply, what type of human resource. This is to be learnt, both by watching and experiencing it. The ability to discern between the qualities of human resource, I believe, will be a critical skill that all managers, should be possessed of, now and in future.
No root, no fruit. Rivers need a spring. The first blow is half the battle. Change brings life. There is pleasure in variety. Change the pasture and you have fat calves. To change, knowledge is critical, and that is a wild thing and must be hunted before it is tamed (Persian proverb). Fresh and new knowledge like a new broom sweeps clean. What is learnt during youthful years is no good for use in middle age, nor will the learning of middle age hold anyone in good stead, in older years.
Learning, to be adept at adopting change, has to be a continuous activity. Never be shy to admit, you are a learner. Those who admit get closest to knowledge. The world is enlightened, not you. By not learning to change for newer aspects of life, you make yourself dead to the future.
I have found always, Mao Tsetung’s following words, extremely inspirational: “Our attitude towards ourselves should be to be insatiable in learning and towards others, to be tireless in teaching”. An enlightened manager is one who has learned how to learn and consequently, change. As leaders, we must never forget that we can’t step on the same water in the river, it is continually changing, so is the leader’s job, to change according to changes in the market place. Constancy and obstinacy are estranged neighbours to the concept of change. We must change for perfection.
“Today, loving change, tumult, even chaos, is a prerequisite for survival, let alone pursuit of success” (Tom Peters). In the last five years or so, hasn’t the word, “disruption” become a manager’s mantra and catch-word -earlier it had negative connotation, not so today. Disruption is encouraged, adopted and harnessed. Survival lies in embracing change. Any resistance to it will sway you from the path of progress.
A person, organisation, entity or the nation, that chooses to live on past glories, is doomed to fail.
Change or at least be the agent of change. The results will hold pronounced.
The writer is a freelance contributor