Better Communication Improves Productivity.

Productivity of an organization is a collaborative effort of all the stack holders where:
There are no misunderstandings….managers communicate clearly the tasks to be performed by the employees….

Good listening skills empower the staff to correctly perceive and work in tandem… gathering the relevant data and presenting to the higher ups for policy decisions….

All above and many more productivity relating activities depend on communications. Therefore, good communication skills form the nucleus of a progressive organization. Clear effective communications at all level are necessary for an organization to prosper. The wastages are cutout and both the employees and customers find their satisfaction using this highly effective tool. Let’s look at the following:

 

Good Communications Avoid Misunderstanding: Misunderstandings created by poor communications can be very expensive to the organization. The resulting confusion can cause heavy losses. Unclear instructions often make the juniors confused and afraid to clarify. The result is disastrous.

 

Effective Communications Provide Direction: The team efforts have to be aligned with the company’s vision and goals. It’s only when all concerned contribute to the goals that both top line and bottom line rise. This is not possible without effective communication.

 

Healthy Communications Breed Healthy Culture: every organization carves out a culture of its own. When the staff members coming from different backgrounds effectively communicate with each other, corporate culture becomes healthy. Therefore good training in communications is critical towards promoting a healthy corporate culture.

 

Focused Articulate Communication Encourages Accountability: It’s only when an organization practices effective communications skills that the staff are empowered to keep one another accountable. Effective communication provides such instruction as enables each employee to know exactly what is expected of him/her. In the process a good level of accountability with one another is maintained. This in turn increases productivity.

In the competitive environment of today, business houses have to harness their resources to maintain an edge in the market place. This is possible only if at every level clear, lucid communications are practiced.

Thanks for reading.

Public Announcements.

 

 Subway in New York.

“Good Morning….. Good morning to all of you. Have a wonderful day…” This was the cheerful announcement I heard in a subway train in New York travelling from Queens to Times Square. The enthusiastic greetings were interspersed with interesting happy anecdotes. The compartment which I was travelling was disfigured with some writings which made no sense to me. But the announcements were so pleasing to hear that I was filled with energy to encounter great things in Manhattan (New York). 

 

Linatte Airport, Milan

Then again I remembered when I got down first time at Linatte Airport in Milan, Italy. The announcements were music to my ears. That was my first visit to Italy and I didn’t know one word of Italian language. But the tone, the clarity and the cordiality with which announcements were being made filled me with joy. I thought it was a wonderful country.

I know that comparisons are odious and should be avoided. But if these leave us with lessons to learn, I consider comparisons serve a good cause and should not be despised. So I draw a comparison with my most recent experience.

Last week I went for to Delhi for a day. As per my habit I reached the airport well in advance and was waiting for the flight announcement after my security check. There was no announcement but there was a call on my mobile. Suddenly the caller almost shouted “Where are you Mr. Kakri. You are the last passenger to board the flight.” Hurriedly I went to the gate and boarded the bus trying to avoid the sarcastic looks prowling my entire body.

  

SpiceJet- Delhi Airport

I did my work and next day & returned by SpiceJet flight. The departure time of the flight was 4 pm. As usual I was early. I seated myself after searching a lone empty chair and started browsing the book my nephew had given me. At the counter I was informed the boarding will start at 3:30 pm. Around that time there was some feeble announcement about Spice Jet Flight. As I could not decode the words spoken an in an inarticulate fashion, I looked for the announcement board. The flight was delayed by half an hour. So I thought the boarding will take place at 4 pm instead of 3:30 pm. After some time a worried looking elderly person told me that the flight was further delayed. However there was no announcement. We were all waiting on the 1^st floor while the boarding takes place on the ground floor. So slowly I went down and reached gate no 12 where I was supposed to board the flight. There was a huge queue and I also took my place in the queue. But it did not move for more than half an hour. Some of the passengers lost their temper. There were hot arguments with the airline staff. It was an uncivil ugly sight. This could have been easily avoided with proper articulate and cordial announcements.

Our political leaders often go to foreign countries for study tours. I hope one day they will come back realizing the importance of polite and clear announcements to guide our concerned people.

Thanks for reading. ­­­

Anton Chekhov- The Great Russian Short Story Writer.

Anton Chekhov was born in 29^th January 1860 and died on 15^th July 1904. Though he was a doctor by profession, he is remembered as one of the finest short story writers in the world. Some of his stories have been adapted as plays, films etc. He died young at the age of 44 years. He practiced his medical profession throughout his literary career. Jocularly, he would say ‘medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress.’

 

Young Anton.

He also wrote a number of plays. These are: ‘Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard’. However his play ‘The seagull’ was a big flop. That’s why he stopped writing plays. He introduced stream of consciousness technique in his stories. This was well ahead of time. But his treatment of this technique was quite simple and therefore his stories are merited by one and all. Later Russian literary writers lauded creativity of technique and his imagination. 

 

 Painting of Anton Chekhov.

He had to spend lot of time attending to his patients. At times, they would come from far of places. He had also to visit the patients who could not come to his clinic. Such visits were time consuming but he continued. His interaction with patients gave him lot of material which he used in literary creations. 

 

Anton with Leo Tolstoy.

Today is his death anniversary. Our deepest regards to one of the greatest short story writer the world had seen so far.

Thanks for reading.

 

3 Aspects of Personality.

 

Simply said, any person must assess himself/herself on the 3 important aspects of personality: i) Acquiring knowledge ii) Developing an ability to explain what you know iii) Using your knowledge for your work and activities.

1. Acquiring Knowledge: One acquires knowledge with formal educations. More importantly practical knowledge is acquired once you entered your business or profession. Every day can give us some lesson provided we sit down and contemplate to review the day. So knowledge is a continuous, never ending process. Even when we have learnt something in our formal education, we may have to supplement the same with additional information during life.                                                                             

2. Ability to transfer knowledge: Anything that we do is a collaborative effort, today. Thus, you have to communicate your ideas, your views and so on. Unless you are adept in this aspect of personality, your growth will have some kind of limitation. So ability to transfer knowledge and make others do what you want to them to do is crucial to the success of your project. If there is any deficiency in this ability to communicate, the same will show in the progress of the project.  

 

3. Putting knowledge to work: One may have acquired great knowledge but unless they put it to use its value will never be discovered. So, thoughts are not enough. Thoughts must be converted in to action. It is the action which can bring about any result. The more efforts you put in, the better results are rewarded. But one should never have the expectation that all efforts will bring in results. Some time you work very hard but the result are not commensurate with the amount of efforts made. That is the way life works. No one should ever expect the poetic justice in life.

 

It is observed that those who excel in the first aspect of personality may become philosophers and the kind. They are generally good advisors but not so good in performance. They need to develop a perspective so that they are not lost in the ocean of knowledge. Knowledge is unending, indeed. They have to limit themselves to what is needed by them.

Other people, who are quiet, apply their mind and rely more on action. They are often the risk takers. They are the mostly likely people to become business leaders. They hire people for various functions which they feel that they are not able to perform. But because of their rich and sometime checkered experience, they have a lot to talk about. But they tend to become self centered.

People who develop excellent ability to transfer knowledge become teachers, lecturers, public speakers, trainers and performers. The nucleolus of their progress always remains communication skills. The world today, is heading toward the situation where communication skills have assumed a great importance. We spend more time on conference calls, on social media, on organizing/conducting/participating in meetings and so on. The human communication skills have only brought about all the progress that we see around us. During the last century world has seen maximum material progress which has been achieved with maximum communicative collaboration.

Thanks for reading.

Lessons of Life from Shakespeare.

 

Any great literary writer is invariably a great teacher. Writer will not sermonize. Life of the current time (normally) is beautifully portrayed. Yet, one could draw great inferences and learn very useful lessons that help humans to live life better. I don’t claim to have read much of Shakespeare, but I am one of his great admirers.

Works of Shakespeare transcend the limits of time and space. He is as relevant today as he was in his time. He is as relevant in India as in England. I have picked up 4 of his tragedies. According to me these are eye openers for common people like us. The four plays I have chosen to talk about are: Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and King Lear.

When we read these plays thoughtfully and contemplate, we are able to identify short comings of similar nature in our personalities. We may be quite surprised. How and why these did not receive our attention. We would like to remove these faults even though they may be in very small measure. The classified blemishes I am talking about are:

1. Suspicion, Jealousy (Othello)    

 

2. Greed that led to extinction (Macbeth)

 

3. Credulity Prone to flattery (Lear)    

 

4. Indecision that reaches tragic proportions (Hamlet)

 

As I said above reading these plays, we observe that all these weaknesses were foolishly repetitive in the tragic characters. We might find that similarly we too harbor some habits that make us do something which we don’t want, repetitively. It is here that we learn a lesson. One can purge one’s personality if so desire. Undoubtedly, the exercise will require a mentor or a guide.

Thanks for reading.

Thoughts are Important

Thought is a process of using your mind to consider something. Thought can also be a product of that process which may be known as idea. Such a thought or an idea is conscious deliberation but we get many thoughts without our conscious effort. Thus, we may be thinking of certain things at most inopportune times. For example during our prayer, if we are not able to concentrate, certain unhappy, weird or even obscene thoughts may just crop in. At times, it is difficult to control thoughts. It requires constant efforts on the part of our consciousness to meditate on certain topics. When we are totally involved in the process only then unnecessary unrelated thoughts can be kept at bay.

 

Positive Thoughts

We must have only positive thoughts. These positive thoughts will encourage us to take action on the decisions that we make. Wandering thoughts are a waste. Haphazard thinking on a subject or a problem will not lead us anywhere. So the important point is that we must have an objective before starting to meditate on any subject. Solutions to problems can be found or worked out only after deep thinking, focusing or meditating on the subject.

How to secure positive thoughts? Positive environment will surely help breed positive thoughts. When you see only good things, listen and read good material, it will help generating positive thoughts. Thus, we should expose ourselves to decent and encouraging media. It’s also good to have role model/models that would influence our thoughts. Since thoughts also depends on our interaction with others, so good progressive people as our contacts will be helpful.

Our Wishes and Desires

Our wishes and desires also influence our thoughts. Therefore it is best to fix goals: short term goals, medium term goals and long term goals. After crystallizing the goals it’s necessary to devise action points and to act on these. At the same time, reviewing them regularly is necessary. Such a course of action will surely carve out the course of our thoughts. Since we can always school our desires or wishes which should be positive we will be able to generate positive thoughts.

 

Goals, Thoughts and Action

Once we have fixed our goals and our action points, if we keep on thinking about these, we will be encourage to take action. When we action our plan it gives satisfaction. This in turn enhances our self esteem and believe in ourselves. On the one side we moved towards achievement of our goals, on the other we are creating an environment for nurturing positive thoughts.

It may also be worth to think of our major achievements of the past. We may have had identify the pillars of our success but recollecting this is also helpful. At the same time lessons that we have learn from our failures during the past should also not be ignored.

On an average an individual has around 50000 thoughts during 24 hours. The above process will control our thoughts during the period that we are awake. However thought process continuous during our sleep. These cause various dreams good or bad. Our day to day positive thoughts and believe in ourselves is bound to have positive impact on our thoughts during the sleeping hours.

Thanks for reading.

The Science of Living

Life has many facets: habits, aspirations, goals, significance etc. It is rare that there has been an artist who was also a good householder and a progressive human being. When I say a good householder, I mean one who facilitates the family in all respects. He not only provides for them materially but also emotionally. This is so, typically for a family man. But when we talk of an individual who doesn’t have a family they too will have to find out their goals, what they want to do in life by controlling or changing their habits. In these circumstances it is difficult to imagine an artist who is totally devoted to his/her passion for art putting similar stress on all the other aspects of life, as said above.

Therefore I think we must understand and practice the ‘Science of living’.

The first facet of this science, according to me, would be ‘Self Awareness’. An individual needs to be conscious of his own body, state of mind including thoughts, actions, ideas, feeling and interaction with others. Besides, self awareness has to be a continuous process. It’s only then that you can mould your thoughts, actions and relationship with others. Without doubt, this requires a constant review – a study that is scientific in nature. It teaches you how to go about finding solutions to the problems.

 

Once you are self aware, you must set your priorities. It is not only fixing the priorities but also scheduling them according to their relative importance. We must remember that when we schedule a task and provide a time slot, it is not necessary that time allocated will always be found to be sufficient. Time management is another important aspect to be reviewed from time to time. The discipline that you require for constant follow up requires a scientific approach. It should have nothing to do with the moods of the person. When a particular task is not finished as per schedule you need to provide the next slot and abide by it. This protocol alone can bring about the desired results.

  

Once we are self aware, and we know what to do and we have also fixed our priorities, it is necessary to develop a keen sense of focus. To my mind doing only one thing at a time is the best approach. As far as possible there should be no interruption. Equally important is your total mind and soul into what you are doing. One has to start living in the present, moment to moment. Deliberate effort may be required for some time but then it becomes your habit and you start navigating you life as if you are flying an airplane.

 

Lastly, I would say that your speech is very important. Because we have to interact with colleagues, family members and the society at large, we must choose our words and use them effectively. Any wrong choice or casual approach towards this very important aspect of human personality can be disastrous. Speech must always be clear; words should be chosen with discretion and spoken effectively. Speech helps to maintain and improve our relations in any environment.

 

To conclude I would like to say that a successful life in modern times requires us to know and practice the ‘Science of living’.

Thanks for reading.