Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Excellent Thought
One should never doubt one's capacity to undertake a particular task. If one has faith in oneself, one can accomplish anything. Vedanta (Vedic philosophy) declares that a person who doubts himself can never realize the Atma (spirit). If one tells oneself that one does not have a particular skill or attribute, then that will psychologically affect him or her in a negative manner.
Develop the courage that one can accomplish anything, then one will be able to do so. The real devotee is one who makes an effort to develop confidence in the self. Whatever one undertakes, one should do it with a divine and sacred feeling.
Saturday, December 18, 2004
Vivekananda's Speech in The World Parliament of Religions, Chicago- Part II
The concluding Address
The World's Parliament of Religions has become an accomplished fact, and the merciful Father has helped those who laboured to bring it into existence, and crowned with success their most unselfish labour.
My thanks to those noble souls whose large hearts and love of truth first dreamed this wonderful dream and then realized it. My thanks to the shower of liberal sentiments that has overflowed this platform. My thanks to this enlightened audience for their uniform kindness to me and for their appreciation of every thought that tends to smooth the friction of religions. A few jarring notes were heard from time to time in this harmony. My special thanks to them, for they have, by their striking contrast, made general harmony the sweeter.
Much has been said of the common ground of religious unity. I am not going just now to venture my own theory. But if any one here hopes that this unity will come by the triumph of any one of the religions and the destruction of the others, to him I say, "Brother, yours is an impossible hope." Do I wish that the Christian would become Hindu? God forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu or Buddhist would become Christian? God forbid.
The seed is put in the ground, and earth and air and water are placed around it. Does the seed become the earth, or the air, or the water? No. It becomes a plant. It develops after the law of its own growth, assimilates the air, the earth, and the water, converts them into plant substance, and grows into a plant.
Similar is the case with religion. The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth.
If the Parliament of Religions has shown anything to the world, it is this: It has proved to the world that holiness, purity and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character. In the face of this evidence, if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of every religion will soon be written in spite of resistance: "Help and not fight," "Assimilation and not Destruction," "Harmony and Peace and not Dissension."
The World's Parliament of Religions has become an accomplished fact, and the merciful Father has helped those who laboured to bring it into existence, and crowned with success their most unselfish labour.
My thanks to those noble souls whose large hearts and love of truth first dreamed this wonderful dream and then realized it. My thanks to the shower of liberal sentiments that has overflowed this platform. My thanks to this enlightened audience for their uniform kindness to me and for their appreciation of every thought that tends to smooth the friction of religions. A few jarring notes were heard from time to time in this harmony. My special thanks to them, for they have, by their striking contrast, made general harmony the sweeter.
Much has been said of the common ground of religious unity. I am not going just now to venture my own theory. But if any one here hopes that this unity will come by the triumph of any one of the religions and the destruction of the others, to him I say, "Brother, yours is an impossible hope." Do I wish that the Christian would become Hindu? God forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu or Buddhist would become Christian? God forbid.
The seed is put in the ground, and earth and air and water are placed around it. Does the seed become the earth, or the air, or the water? No. It becomes a plant. It develops after the law of its own growth, assimilates the air, the earth, and the water, converts them into plant substance, and grows into a plant.
Similar is the case with religion. The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth.
If the Parliament of Religions has shown anything to the world, it is this: It has proved to the world that holiness, purity and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character. In the face of this evidence, if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of every religion will soon be written in spite of resistance: "Help and not fight," "Assimilation and not Destruction," "Harmony and Peace and not Dissension."
Vivekananda's Speech in The World Parliament of Religions, Chicago- Part I
WELCOME ADDRESS - Chicago, Sept 11, 1893
Sisters and Brothers of America,
It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank you in the name of the mother of religions, and I thank you in the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.
My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates from the Orient, have told you that these men from far-off nations may well claim the honor of bearing to different lands the idea of toleration. I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: "As the different streams having their sources in different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.
"The present convention, which is one of the most august assemblies ever held, is in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita: "Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me." Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.
Sisters and Brothers of America,
It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank you in the name of the mother of religions, and I thank you in the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.
My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates from the Orient, have told you that these men from far-off nations may well claim the honor of bearing to different lands the idea of toleration. I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: "As the different streams having their sources in different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.
"The present convention, which is one of the most august assemblies ever held, is in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita: "Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me." Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.
Friday, December 17, 2004
Vivekananda's Teachings
"Every man is potentially divine...the quest to realise the divinity within me and to view God in every living soul."
Swami Vivekananda's Teachings
See God in all
This is the gist of all worship - to be pure and to do good to others. He who sees Siva in the poor, in the weak, and in the diseased, really worships Siva, and if he sees Siva only in the image, his worship is but preliminary. He who has served and helped one poor man seeing Siva in him, without thinking of his cast, creed, or race, or anything, with him Siva is more pleased than with the man who sees Him only in temples.
God is within You
It is impossible to find God outside of ourselves. Our own souls contribute all of the divinity that is outside of us. We are the greatest temple. The objectification is only a faint imitation of what we see within ourselves.
Persevere in search of God
To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. "I will drink the ocean," says the persevering soul, "at my will mountains will crumble up." Have that sort of energy, that sort of will, work hard, and you will reach the goal.
Trust completely in God
Stand up for God; let the world go.
Love of God is essential
Giving up all other thoughts, with the whole mind day and night worship God. Thus being worshipped day and night, He reveals himself and makes His worshippers feel His presence.
Swami Vivekananda's Teachings
See God in all
This is the gist of all worship - to be pure and to do good to others. He who sees Siva in the poor, in the weak, and in the diseased, really worships Siva, and if he sees Siva only in the image, his worship is but preliminary. He who has served and helped one poor man seeing Siva in him, without thinking of his cast, creed, or race, or anything, with him Siva is more pleased than with the man who sees Him only in temples.
God is within You
It is impossible to find God outside of ourselves. Our own souls contribute all of the divinity that is outside of us. We are the greatest temple. The objectification is only a faint imitation of what we see within ourselves.
Persevere in search of God
To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. "I will drink the ocean," says the persevering soul, "at my will mountains will crumble up." Have that sort of energy, that sort of will, work hard, and you will reach the goal.
Trust completely in God
Stand up for God; let the world go.
Love of God is essential
Giving up all other thoughts, with the whole mind day and night worship God. Thus being worshipped day and night, He reveals himself and makes His worshippers feel His presence.
Looking beyond TCO
Looking beyond TCO
TCO isn't the only means of measuring business value. Some Indian CIOs have devised their own methods to do it, says Srikanth R P
TCO is a fair method of measuring the value of IT investments. Many CIOs would agree with this statement as there is no other foolproof method that helps IT decision-makers choose products. TCO brings out valid IT-related costs which are overlooked during product acquisition. For instance, Gartner estimates that the cost of a PC over its lifetime can be more than five times its cost of acquisition. Details like these change the dynamics of purchasing software, and consequently the concept of TCO has become popular.
An important fact has been overlooked in all this. Many CIOs simply forget to measure the business value of their IT investments. (We are talking about the business growth that IT investments can deliver.) For example, by letting companies track customer behaviour, a good CRM system can help them introduce a new product in the market that may command higher margins. In such a case, the incremental revenue gains and cost savings through business process improvements can be far greater than costs incurred in purchase and maintenance. Oftentimes CIOs do not take business value into account while making IT investments.
Doubts about TCO
TCO is just one measure of the value IT creates. It is more important to measure the overall impact that a solution will have Arun GuptaCIOPfizer
So the question becomes ‘Is TCO a fair method of choosing a product or making an IT investment decision?’ While most organisations base their IT decisions on TCO, some Indian CIOs have gone beyond the hype and developed their own models for measuring business value. Take the example of pharmaceuticals major Pfizer, which does not base its IT investments solely upon TCO.
Says Arun Gupta, the company’s CIO, Pfizer, “TCO is just one measure of the value IT investments create. It is far more important to measure the overall impact that a solution will have on an organisation. This is the reason we have created our own model for evaluating IT investments.” Pfizer currently measures IT investments using a formal process called Benefits Realisation Matrix (BRM), which is agreed upon by the business heads and the technology team. BRM is done before commencing work on any project. This methodology captures three different aspects of each project: new or improved business capability, financial benefits (topline or bottomline) and intangible benefits. All these aspects have a realisation date and a key person for monitoring and measuring business value. Pfizer uses this model to measure the value of IT investments instead of the traditional TCO model. The company also asks vendors to benchmark their products against its BRM model to gauge the kind of impact a particular technology or product will have on the company. Going further, the company sometimes links vendor payments to the realisation of promised deliverables.
Although the TCO model is not flawed, organisations need to look beyond it. While the model is a useful concept for evaluating and selecting technology products as it factors in the future cost of maintenance, operation and support, it also needs to be looked at in the context of different countries. For example, the cost of support in India is several times lower than it is in the west.
Explains Varun Jha, CIO, Tata Steel, “One needs to use published data on TCO with care. Such data is generally based on cost structures that are applicable in developed countries where the cost of manpower is higher. Thus, their published data on TCO tends to overstate the cost of the services component and understate the cost of products, which may skew the decision in favour of higher-priced products.” There are no Indian models of TCO for reference. Therefore CIOs have to build their own models based upon their experiences. Currently, Tata Steel uses the concept of TCO to choose IT systems, but the company also seeks to measure the value of business change enabled by an IT investment. The important thing to note is that the company seeks to measure the value generated by an IT investment. As Jha says, “The objective of introducing any business change is to improve some aspect of business performance. Improvements in key performance indicators can be translated in most cases. Even the non-financial key performance indicators—such as employee satisfaction—can be quantified.”
Hence, if you choose a product simply because it is cheaper to maintain and operate without measuring the business value that it can create, it may deprive the organisation of the very benefits the product was selected to provide. Says Zoeb Adenwala, CIO, Pidilite, “Evaluating products based on TCO can be misleading. One has to look beyond the vendor’s claims to judge products.” However, he is quick to add that in some cases the concept of TCO can be used for choosing products. For example, if you’re buying IP phones for routing your calls using VoIP, it can be a simple case of comparing your current communication costs with the cost of acquisition and the period for recovering your investment.
Beyond the spiel
The TCO model needs to be studied specifically when a vendor introduces a new product and says that the customer organisation can derive a lower TCO if it upgrades to the new version. Says Eruch Batliwala, head of IT, Tata Power, “We feel that the TCO model is a biased way of looking at facts as vendors tend to downplay many important factors. For instance, many ERP vendors typically ask their clients to upgrade to the latest version promising lower TCO. But if your organisation has fine tuned its processes and the business value your organisation would derive is far less, then there is no reason for an organisation to go in for an upgrade.” Though nascent, the trend to look beyond TCO is gaining ground among Indian organisations. For instance, one solution for Pfizer’s sales force links revenue growth to sales personnel activity.
Bajaj Auto uses the TCO concept for planning investments and not necessarily for choosing products. Explains Anil Khopkar, CIO of the company, “TCO is not the first criterion. We look for functional fitness, process improvement and best practices. Secondly, we look to achieve business benefits. We do not believe that the lowest TCO product will provide us with the best value. Some solutions we selected had significantly higher TCO over other solutions.” Bajaj is using this concept in some of its projects. For example, in the warehouse management system, TCO is measured from the perspective of overall project cost. Bajaj has also set objectives for the warehouse; it plans to improve service levels from the current 85 percent to 99 percent in addition to eliminating packing errors. Pidilite too does not depend on the concept of TCO, but uses indicators such as reduction in inventory, reduction in errors and lesser stock-outs to gauge the value of its IT investments.
Quantifying investments
Taking the stand that CIOs should look at business value rather than TCO, the next question that arises is whether IT investments can always be quantified.
Says Gupta of Pfizer, “With the exception of some IT infrastructure projects, all other IT investments can be quantified. To give an example, setting up a LAN or desktop acquisition may not provide a good vehicle to measure the impact of IT. However, the implementation of any technology-based solution can definitely be quantified. If a project does not have a business impact, there is no compulsion for an organisation to do it. It should also be measured against another parameter—‘What will be the impact of not implementing this particular solution?’”
Thus, while the business value method may look attractive, it is not always possible to judge if a technology decision will provide business value for sure. Says Khopkar, “In the case of business development projects, we do not measure the value of IT investments directly as there is no way of really quantifying these values.” For instance, can we say that sales will increase five percent due to a CRM implementation? That’s hard to say. What can be ensured is that the specific improvements required in current business operations can be defined, and then we can ask whether IT initiatives will improve matters. If the answer is yes, then the investments are justified.
A TCO model may be one of the parameters employed in choosing a product, but it should not be the only reason for making a decision. It’s time Indian CIOs look at measuring the full business value instead of only the TCO.
TCO isn't the only means of measuring business value. Some Indian CIOs have devised their own methods to do it, says Srikanth R P
TCO is a fair method of measuring the value of IT investments. Many CIOs would agree with this statement as there is no other foolproof method that helps IT decision-makers choose products. TCO brings out valid IT-related costs which are overlooked during product acquisition. For instance, Gartner estimates that the cost of a PC over its lifetime can be more than five times its cost of acquisition. Details like these change the dynamics of purchasing software, and consequently the concept of TCO has become popular.
An important fact has been overlooked in all this. Many CIOs simply forget to measure the business value of their IT investments. (We are talking about the business growth that IT investments can deliver.) For example, by letting companies track customer behaviour, a good CRM system can help them introduce a new product in the market that may command higher margins. In such a case, the incremental revenue gains and cost savings through business process improvements can be far greater than costs incurred in purchase and maintenance. Oftentimes CIOs do not take business value into account while making IT investments.
Doubts about TCO
TCO is just one measure of the value IT creates. It is more important to measure the overall impact that a solution will have Arun GuptaCIOPfizer
So the question becomes ‘Is TCO a fair method of choosing a product or making an IT investment decision?’ While most organisations base their IT decisions on TCO, some Indian CIOs have gone beyond the hype and developed their own models for measuring business value. Take the example of pharmaceuticals major Pfizer, which does not base its IT investments solely upon TCO.
Says Arun Gupta, the company’s CIO, Pfizer, “TCO is just one measure of the value IT investments create. It is far more important to measure the overall impact that a solution will have on an organisation. This is the reason we have created our own model for evaluating IT investments.” Pfizer currently measures IT investments using a formal process called Benefits Realisation Matrix (BRM), which is agreed upon by the business heads and the technology team. BRM is done before commencing work on any project. This methodology captures three different aspects of each project: new or improved business capability, financial benefits (topline or bottomline) and intangible benefits. All these aspects have a realisation date and a key person for monitoring and measuring business value. Pfizer uses this model to measure the value of IT investments instead of the traditional TCO model. The company also asks vendors to benchmark their products against its BRM model to gauge the kind of impact a particular technology or product will have on the company. Going further, the company sometimes links vendor payments to the realisation of promised deliverables.
Although the TCO model is not flawed, organisations need to look beyond it. While the model is a useful concept for evaluating and selecting technology products as it factors in the future cost of maintenance, operation and support, it also needs to be looked at in the context of different countries. For example, the cost of support in India is several times lower than it is in the west.
Explains Varun Jha, CIO, Tata Steel, “One needs to use published data on TCO with care. Such data is generally based on cost structures that are applicable in developed countries where the cost of manpower is higher. Thus, their published data on TCO tends to overstate the cost of the services component and understate the cost of products, which may skew the decision in favour of higher-priced products.” There are no Indian models of TCO for reference. Therefore CIOs have to build their own models based upon their experiences. Currently, Tata Steel uses the concept of TCO to choose IT systems, but the company also seeks to measure the value of business change enabled by an IT investment. The important thing to note is that the company seeks to measure the value generated by an IT investment. As Jha says, “The objective of introducing any business change is to improve some aspect of business performance. Improvements in key performance indicators can be translated in most cases. Even the non-financial key performance indicators—such as employee satisfaction—can be quantified.”
Hence, if you choose a product simply because it is cheaper to maintain and operate without measuring the business value that it can create, it may deprive the organisation of the very benefits the product was selected to provide. Says Zoeb Adenwala, CIO, Pidilite, “Evaluating products based on TCO can be misleading. One has to look beyond the vendor’s claims to judge products.” However, he is quick to add that in some cases the concept of TCO can be used for choosing products. For example, if you’re buying IP phones for routing your calls using VoIP, it can be a simple case of comparing your current communication costs with the cost of acquisition and the period for recovering your investment.
Beyond the spiel
The TCO model needs to be studied specifically when a vendor introduces a new product and says that the customer organisation can derive a lower TCO if it upgrades to the new version. Says Eruch Batliwala, head of IT, Tata Power, “We feel that the TCO model is a biased way of looking at facts as vendors tend to downplay many important factors. For instance, many ERP vendors typically ask their clients to upgrade to the latest version promising lower TCO. But if your organisation has fine tuned its processes and the business value your organisation would derive is far less, then there is no reason for an organisation to go in for an upgrade.” Though nascent, the trend to look beyond TCO is gaining ground among Indian organisations. For instance, one solution for Pfizer’s sales force links revenue growth to sales personnel activity.
Bajaj Auto uses the TCO concept for planning investments and not necessarily for choosing products. Explains Anil Khopkar, CIO of the company, “TCO is not the first criterion. We look for functional fitness, process improvement and best practices. Secondly, we look to achieve business benefits. We do not believe that the lowest TCO product will provide us with the best value. Some solutions we selected had significantly higher TCO over other solutions.” Bajaj is using this concept in some of its projects. For example, in the warehouse management system, TCO is measured from the perspective of overall project cost. Bajaj has also set objectives for the warehouse; it plans to improve service levels from the current 85 percent to 99 percent in addition to eliminating packing errors. Pidilite too does not depend on the concept of TCO, but uses indicators such as reduction in inventory, reduction in errors and lesser stock-outs to gauge the value of its IT investments.
Quantifying investments
Taking the stand that CIOs should look at business value rather than TCO, the next question that arises is whether IT investments can always be quantified.
Says Gupta of Pfizer, “With the exception of some IT infrastructure projects, all other IT investments can be quantified. To give an example, setting up a LAN or desktop acquisition may not provide a good vehicle to measure the impact of IT. However, the implementation of any technology-based solution can definitely be quantified. If a project does not have a business impact, there is no compulsion for an organisation to do it. It should also be measured against another parameter—‘What will be the impact of not implementing this particular solution?’”
Thus, while the business value method may look attractive, it is not always possible to judge if a technology decision will provide business value for sure. Says Khopkar, “In the case of business development projects, we do not measure the value of IT investments directly as there is no way of really quantifying these values.” For instance, can we say that sales will increase five percent due to a CRM implementation? That’s hard to say. What can be ensured is that the specific improvements required in current business operations can be defined, and then we can ask whether IT initiatives will improve matters. If the answer is yes, then the investments are justified.
A TCO model may be one of the parameters employed in choosing a product, but it should not be the only reason for making a decision. It’s time Indian CIOs look at measuring the full business value instead of only the TCO.
J Krishnamurthy's Thoughts
Questioner: Otherwise how do I know whether my life is good or bad?
Krishnamurti: Just listen to the question. Don’t we know what conflict is? Do I have to have a concept of non-conflict before I am aware of conflict? I know what conflict is — the struggle, the pain. Don’t I know that, without knowing a state when there is no conflict? When I formulate what is good, I will formulate it according to my conditioning, according to my way of thinking, feeling, my particular idiosyncrasy and all the rest of my cultural conditioning. Is the good to be projected by thought? — and will thought then tell me what is good and bad in my life? Or has goodness nothing whatsoever to do with thought, or with a formula? Where does goodness flower? — do tell me. In a concept? In some idea, in some ideal that lies in the future? A concept means a future, a tomorrow. It may be very far away, or very close, but it is still in time. And when you have a concept, projected by thought — thought being the response of memory, the response of accumulated knowledge depending on the culture in which you have lived — do you find that goodness in the future, created by thought? Or do you find it when you begin to understand conflict, pain and sorrow? So in the understanding of "what is" — not by comparing "what is" with "what should be" — in that understanding flowers goodness. Surely, goodness has nothing whatsoever to do with thought — has it? Has love got anything to do with thought? Can you cultivate love by formulating it and saying "My ideal of love is that"? Do you know what happens when you cultivate love? You are not loving. You think you will have love at some future date; in the meantime you are violent. So is goodness the product of thought? Is love the product of experience, of knowledge? What was the second question, Sir?
Questioner: The second question was about sharing.
Krishnamurti: What do you share? What are we sharing now? We talked about death, we talked about love, about the necessity of total revolution, about complete psychological change, not to live in the old pattern of formulas, of struggle, pain, imitation, conformity and all the rest of those things man has lived for through millennia and has produced this marvellous, messy world! We have talked about death. How do we share that together? — share the understanding of it, not the verbal statement, not the description, not the explanations of it? What does sharing mean? — to share the understanding, to share the truth which comes with the understanding. And what does understanding mean? You tell me something which is serious, which is vital, which is relevant, important, and I listen to it completely, because it is vital to me. To listen vitally, my mind must be quiet, mustn’t it? If I am chattering, if I am looking somewhere else, if I am comparing what you are saying with what I know, my mind is not quiet. It is only when my mind is quiet and listens completely, that there is understanding of the truth of the thing, that we share together. Otherwise we can’t share; we can’t share the words — we can only share the truth of something. You and I can only see the truth of something when the mind is totally committed to the observation. To see the beauty of a sunset, the lovely hills, the shadows and the moonlight — how do you share it with a friend? By telling him, "Do look at that marvelous hill"? You may say it, but is that sharing? When you actually share something with another, it means you must both have the same intensity, at the same time, at the same level. Otherwise you can’t share, can you? You must both have a common interest, at the same level, with the same passion — otherwise how can you share something? You can share a piece of bread — but that’s not what we are talking about. To see together — which is sharing together — we must both of us see; not agree or disagree, but see together what actually is; not interpret it according to my conditioning or your conditioning, but see together what it is. And to see together one must be free to observe, one must be free to listen. That means to have no prejudice. Then only, with that quality of love, is there sharing.
Krishnamurti: Just listen to the question. Don’t we know what conflict is? Do I have to have a concept of non-conflict before I am aware of conflict? I know what conflict is — the struggle, the pain. Don’t I know that, without knowing a state when there is no conflict? When I formulate what is good, I will formulate it according to my conditioning, according to my way of thinking, feeling, my particular idiosyncrasy and all the rest of my cultural conditioning. Is the good to be projected by thought? — and will thought then tell me what is good and bad in my life? Or has goodness nothing whatsoever to do with thought, or with a formula? Where does goodness flower? — do tell me. In a concept? In some idea, in some ideal that lies in the future? A concept means a future, a tomorrow. It may be very far away, or very close, but it is still in time. And when you have a concept, projected by thought — thought being the response of memory, the response of accumulated knowledge depending on the culture in which you have lived — do you find that goodness in the future, created by thought? Or do you find it when you begin to understand conflict, pain and sorrow? So in the understanding of "what is" — not by comparing "what is" with "what should be" — in that understanding flowers goodness. Surely, goodness has nothing whatsoever to do with thought — has it? Has love got anything to do with thought? Can you cultivate love by formulating it and saying "My ideal of love is that"? Do you know what happens when you cultivate love? You are not loving. You think you will have love at some future date; in the meantime you are violent. So is goodness the product of thought? Is love the product of experience, of knowledge? What was the second question, Sir?
Questioner: The second question was about sharing.
Krishnamurti: What do you share? What are we sharing now? We talked about death, we talked about love, about the necessity of total revolution, about complete psychological change, not to live in the old pattern of formulas, of struggle, pain, imitation, conformity and all the rest of those things man has lived for through millennia and has produced this marvellous, messy world! We have talked about death. How do we share that together? — share the understanding of it, not the verbal statement, not the description, not the explanations of it? What does sharing mean? — to share the understanding, to share the truth which comes with the understanding. And what does understanding mean? You tell me something which is serious, which is vital, which is relevant, important, and I listen to it completely, because it is vital to me. To listen vitally, my mind must be quiet, mustn’t it? If I am chattering, if I am looking somewhere else, if I am comparing what you are saying with what I know, my mind is not quiet. It is only when my mind is quiet and listens completely, that there is understanding of the truth of the thing, that we share together. Otherwise we can’t share; we can’t share the words — we can only share the truth of something. You and I can only see the truth of something when the mind is totally committed to the observation. To see the beauty of a sunset, the lovely hills, the shadows and the moonlight — how do you share it with a friend? By telling him, "Do look at that marvelous hill"? You may say it, but is that sharing? When you actually share something with another, it means you must both have the same intensity, at the same time, at the same level. Otherwise you can’t share, can you? You must both have a common interest, at the same level, with the same passion — otherwise how can you share something? You can share a piece of bread — but that’s not what we are talking about. To see together — which is sharing together — we must both of us see; not agree or disagree, but see together what actually is; not interpret it according to my conditioning or your conditioning, but see together what it is. And to see together one must be free to observe, one must be free to listen. That means to have no prejudice. Then only, with that quality of love, is there sharing.
Is a leader’s creativity different?
Is a leader’s creativity different?
What are the first images that come to mind when we think about creativity? Most of us conjure up images of the brilliant scientist with unkempt hair dashing around frantically creating experiments in a laboratory, or the artist in his lonely garret designing and painting his latest creation.
Creativity in a leader has a form that’s different from these classical images; it is also different from the kind of creativity that we might expect from the managers and executives who work for them.
The creativity of leaders is directly related to their role as the creator of the mission of the organisation. The creativity of the leader is based upon his judgement about the potential of the total mix of human competencies and capital wealth of the organisation he leads.
Undoubtedly, the best long-term organisation growth can only come as a combination of the profoundest use of both Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EIQ) feeling and IQ thinking.
Normal creativity and leadership
A standard definition of creative thinking is ‘the ability to think out of the box.’ People who are able to do this generate genuine fresh ideas from within themselves. In terms of the Belbin Team Skills Test, they are the ‘plants’ of a team, because when you plant somebody with these skills in a team the whole team becomes more creative. This is not the creativity that leaders usually have or need. People with the ‘plant’ skill often lack both interpersonal skills and judgement about how well other peoples’ ideas compare with their own. They are not, usually, skilled team players; they often need help to communicate their ideas, a chairman who knows how to handle them and maintain their self-esteem and flow of ideas when others reject what they think are their best insights. The chair is more likely to be the leader who ensures the plant gets a hearing in the meeting.
The leader’s special creativity comes from the ability to take the best ideas from the team, analyse the external market situation, judge the attitudes of all the stakeholders, and then take an optimal decision on behalf of everybody involved. That is the special skill that I believe is right to call ‘creativity in leadership.’
Leadership creativity?
The creativity of leaders is different from other employees in an organisation because it’s concerned with strategy and vision. They have to create a corporate mission statement that is perceived as smart by all the stakeholders.
This will include such diverse sets of eyes as the brightest people in the city, investing shareholders, customers, and every ordinary member of the staff who will use the mission statement as a guide to where the company is going.
The leader has to scan the external environment, often around the globe, and find the essential parts which offer exciting growth opportunities. He has to spot fresh dangers when others cannot imagine any hazard at all; he needs the creative ability to decide which opportunities to take and when, then how to avoid the dangers and embrace the opportunities with the minimum risk to the business. Leaders have to scrutinise the inner workings of the organisation to understand how to exploit the strengths and culture of the firm, and the best and fastest way to repair any weakness.
They will appreciate the core competencies of the business, and know how to acquire whatever additional skills may be needed to complete the set necessary to achieve the goals profitably. When all this data is assembled, the leader can begin the process of innovative strategic creative leadership into the dark chasms of the unknowable future of the organisation.
After deciding what to do, the leader then has to find ways of communicating it in a digestible form to all the recipients. Comprehensive brevity is hard to accomplish, and takes creative genius to do successfully. Great leaders do it and don’t show the strain.
What are the first images that come to mind when we think about creativity? Most of us conjure up images of the brilliant scientist with unkempt hair dashing around frantically creating experiments in a laboratory, or the artist in his lonely garret designing and painting his latest creation.
Creativity in a leader has a form that’s different from these classical images; it is also different from the kind of creativity that we might expect from the managers and executives who work for them.
The creativity of leaders is directly related to their role as the creator of the mission of the organisation. The creativity of the leader is based upon his judgement about the potential of the total mix of human competencies and capital wealth of the organisation he leads.
Undoubtedly, the best long-term organisation growth can only come as a combination of the profoundest use of both Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EIQ) feeling and IQ thinking.
Normal creativity and leadership
A standard definition of creative thinking is ‘the ability to think out of the box.’ People who are able to do this generate genuine fresh ideas from within themselves. In terms of the Belbin Team Skills Test, they are the ‘plants’ of a team, because when you plant somebody with these skills in a team the whole team becomes more creative. This is not the creativity that leaders usually have or need. People with the ‘plant’ skill often lack both interpersonal skills and judgement about how well other peoples’ ideas compare with their own. They are not, usually, skilled team players; they often need help to communicate their ideas, a chairman who knows how to handle them and maintain their self-esteem and flow of ideas when others reject what they think are their best insights. The chair is more likely to be the leader who ensures the plant gets a hearing in the meeting.
The leader’s special creativity comes from the ability to take the best ideas from the team, analyse the external market situation, judge the attitudes of all the stakeholders, and then take an optimal decision on behalf of everybody involved. That is the special skill that I believe is right to call ‘creativity in leadership.’
Leadership creativity?
The creativity of leaders is different from other employees in an organisation because it’s concerned with strategy and vision. They have to create a corporate mission statement that is perceived as smart by all the stakeholders.
This will include such diverse sets of eyes as the brightest people in the city, investing shareholders, customers, and every ordinary member of the staff who will use the mission statement as a guide to where the company is going.
The leader has to scan the external environment, often around the globe, and find the essential parts which offer exciting growth opportunities. He has to spot fresh dangers when others cannot imagine any hazard at all; he needs the creative ability to decide which opportunities to take and when, then how to avoid the dangers and embrace the opportunities with the minimum risk to the business. Leaders have to scrutinise the inner workings of the organisation to understand how to exploit the strengths and culture of the firm, and the best and fastest way to repair any weakness.
They will appreciate the core competencies of the business, and know how to acquire whatever additional skills may be needed to complete the set necessary to achieve the goals profitably. When all this data is assembled, the leader can begin the process of innovative strategic creative leadership into the dark chasms of the unknowable future of the organisation.
After deciding what to do, the leader then has to find ways of communicating it in a digestible form to all the recipients. Comprehensive brevity is hard to accomplish, and takes creative genius to do successfully. Great leaders do it and don’t show the strain.
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Coaching Charisma - Boost your natural magnetism
BECOME AN IRRESISTIBLE PERSON
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines charisma as “a personal magic of leadership arousing special popular loyalty or enthusiasm for a public figure.”
DEVELOP PERSONAL MAGNETISM
Charisma is also that special quality of magnetism that each person has and that each person uses to a certain degree. You have a special charisma to the people who look up to you, who respect and admire you, the members of your family and your friends and co-workers. Whenever and wherever a person feels a positive emotion towards another, he imbues that person with charisma, or attractiveness.
PROJECT YOURSELF POSITIVELY
In trying to explain charisma, some people speak of an “aura.” This aura is a light that is invisible to most people, but not to everyone, and that radiates out from a person and affects the people around that person in a positive or negative way. The halo around the heads of saints and mystics in many religious paintings was the artist’s attempt to depict the light that people reported seeing around the heads of these men and women when they were speaking or praying, or in an intense emotional state.
CONTROL THE IMPRESSION YOU MAKE
You also have an aura around you that most people cannot see but that is there, nevertheless. This aura affects the way people react and respond to you, either positively or negatively. There is a lot that you can do, and a lot of good reasons for you to do it, to control this aura and make it work in your best interests.
SELL YOUR WAY TO THE TOP
If you’re in sales, this aura, reflecting your level of charisma, can have a major impact on the way your prospects and customers treat you and deal with you. Top salespeople seem to be far more successful than the average salespeople in getting along with their customers. They’re always more welcome, more positively received and more trusted than the others. They sell more, and they sell more easily. They make a better living, and they build better lives. Salespeople with charisma get far more pleasure out of their work and suffer far less from stress and rejection. The charismatic salesperson is almost invariably a top performer in his field and enjoys all the rewards that go with superior sales.
INFLUENCE PEOPLE AROUND YOU
If you’re in business, developing greater charisma can help you tremendously in working with your staff, your suppliers, your bankers, your customers and everyone else upon whom you depend for your success. People seem naturally drawn to those who possess charisma.
They want to help them and support them. When you have charisma, people will open doors for you and bring you opportunities that otherwise would not have been available to you.
EXCHANGE YOUR PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS
In your personal relationships, the quality of charisma can make your life more joyous, happier. People will naturally want to be around you. Members of your family and your friends will be far happier in your company, and you will have a greater influence on them, causing them to feel better about themselves and to do better at the important things in their lives.
ACTION EXERCISES
First, identify the people with whom you seem to have a lot of charisma - the people who know you, like you, respect you the most. How could you increase your charisma with these people?
Second, identify the people who have charisma to you, the people you most like and respect and admire. What is there about them that you could copy or emulate?
If you think charisma, you’ll have more of it.
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines charisma as “a personal magic of leadership arousing special popular loyalty or enthusiasm for a public figure.”
DEVELOP PERSONAL MAGNETISM
Charisma is also that special quality of magnetism that each person has and that each person uses to a certain degree. You have a special charisma to the people who look up to you, who respect and admire you, the members of your family and your friends and co-workers. Whenever and wherever a person feels a positive emotion towards another, he imbues that person with charisma, or attractiveness.
PROJECT YOURSELF POSITIVELY
In trying to explain charisma, some people speak of an “aura.” This aura is a light that is invisible to most people, but not to everyone, and that radiates out from a person and affects the people around that person in a positive or negative way. The halo around the heads of saints and mystics in many religious paintings was the artist’s attempt to depict the light that people reported seeing around the heads of these men and women when they were speaking or praying, or in an intense emotional state.
CONTROL THE IMPRESSION YOU MAKE
You also have an aura around you that most people cannot see but that is there, nevertheless. This aura affects the way people react and respond to you, either positively or negatively. There is a lot that you can do, and a lot of good reasons for you to do it, to control this aura and make it work in your best interests.
SELL YOUR WAY TO THE TOP
If you’re in sales, this aura, reflecting your level of charisma, can have a major impact on the way your prospects and customers treat you and deal with you. Top salespeople seem to be far more successful than the average salespeople in getting along with their customers. They’re always more welcome, more positively received and more trusted than the others. They sell more, and they sell more easily. They make a better living, and they build better lives. Salespeople with charisma get far more pleasure out of their work and suffer far less from stress and rejection. The charismatic salesperson is almost invariably a top performer in his field and enjoys all the rewards that go with superior sales.
INFLUENCE PEOPLE AROUND YOU
If you’re in business, developing greater charisma can help you tremendously in working with your staff, your suppliers, your bankers, your customers and everyone else upon whom you depend for your success. People seem naturally drawn to those who possess charisma.
They want to help them and support them. When you have charisma, people will open doors for you and bring you opportunities that otherwise would not have been available to you.
EXCHANGE YOUR PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS
In your personal relationships, the quality of charisma can make your life more joyous, happier. People will naturally want to be around you. Members of your family and your friends will be far happier in your company, and you will have a greater influence on them, causing them to feel better about themselves and to do better at the important things in their lives.
ACTION EXERCISES
First, identify the people with whom you seem to have a lot of charisma - the people who know you, like you, respect you the most. How could you increase your charisma with these people?
Second, identify the people who have charisma to you, the people you most like and respect and admire. What is there about them that you could copy or emulate?
If you think charisma, you’ll have more of it.
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