“I am because We are: Dependence on God

The way each of us acts and reacts in the circumstances that we come across in our Organization portrays the culture that we are in. What is this culture, we must have read in our school , college and university books, taught by our teachers, parents and in church too. Therefore, we are into some culture, which is exhibited by our behavior. It reminds me of the LCP tool, i.e. ABC ( Attitude, Behaviour and Culture), which we have used a number of times in our project pre and post assessment. The principles of ABC can be applied to our work culture too, our attitudes and our culture defines our behavior.

Before we go into any details, let me share with you some definitions to familiarize on the culture perspective. In the words of Hofstede (1980) culture is, “ The collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another …. The interactive aggregate of common characteristics that influences a human group’s response to its environment.” We can reword it for ourselves, it is a collective programming of the minds of colleagues in World Vision India which distinguishes us from other offices in the partnership as well as from other Organizations in the development field. We exhibit some common characteristics that influence our response to the environment. E.g. when we take a decision, why we take-when we take-what we take.

Work culture, on the other hand, is a totality of various levels of interaction among organizational factors (boundaries, goals, objectives, technology, managerial practices, material and human resources, and the constraints) and organismic factors (skills, knowledge, needs, and expectations) interact among themselves at various levels. Over a period they develop roles, norms and values focusing work and are called work culture.

Dependence on God means we completely depend on God acknowledging that He is the source of everything, staying connected with Him through disciplined prayer and intentional study of the Word, constantly aligning ourselves to the will of God so that our vision values and behaviour are congruent with His Mission. In every decision that we take we need to exhibit that we depend on God in our work, in all plans or designs that we make, in all strategies we develop, implementing them, we depend on God to manage our teams, perform in our work, deal with our internal and external stakeholders.

Another aspect of dependence on God show when we are worried.

Are you wondering how to make things happen the right way? Here is the simple formula= Do your best and trust God to do the rest.

We have often seen that while leading teams, or leading our work in our communities or carry organizational responsibility, we find more than enough reasons to worry – deadlines, financial pressures and economic crisis’s, changing stakeholder demands , multitasking demands, under-spending, boggle our minds, churns our stomach and account for many stressful situations. Nevertheless, Jesus cautions us against worrying about anything – even the food we eat or the clothes we wear: Matthew 6:25-34

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

As leaders in our teams and communities, we need to lead in a way that allows others to see our faith in God. If the communities see our faith in our God, when our team members see our faith in God, it is bearing witness to the kingdom of God at all times. One way we can do that is by depending on God in the face of our daily work pressures. The next time you are under pressure, pray for the grace you need to depend on God, who is perfectly and eternally worthy of your trust. Remember that those you lead (communities, volunteers or our team members) will see how you respond to such pressures and will follow your actions.

The distinct characteristic of those who have not placed their faith in God often live only for the moment. Their peace of mind or anxiety is tied to their work and life circumstances, its fire fighting always. However, those whose faith is secure in the One who is secure are able to live above the worries of this world. This faith is dependence on God, we plan our future and live or present in HIM. Here is a small reflection on the Organization’s characteristic i.e. Dependence on God.

A little extra helps...

How many times have you found this phrase a reality in your life. Human nature is such that being content is always with a little extra.

Funny but true, all the philosophies of contentment fails just in the moment when we look forward to a little extra. In life matters, be in money, relationships, dreams, achievements and more, in every matter a little extra always matters. There would be a hundred things that a little extra will help us but lets us look at few things that a little extra if we did, will really help us. Remember the times you have struggled in your work or life, had setbacks in life, if you think why me, then look the story from this angle, setbacks and struggles are inevitable but how you respond to them defines your success and achievements. The lesson from life what I have learnt and have believed thus far is that its better to focus on what we still have than to what we have lost. A loser always looks at what s/he has lost but a winner sees what s/he has gained from the situation. So lesson number one is to win in every situation. If situation wins over you then you are a loser , if you win over every situations in life then though you lose still you will be winner because you can never remain in the situation of losing, you will rise up to success. You need to have the willingness to work hard , have determination to succeed, and more than anything have the mindset of a winner. Just take life's challenges as one more challenge to overcome on the road to success.

When we live through the situations in life, it’s a rat race and the tragedy of the this race is that even when you win the race still you are “a rat”. So winning as you are and winning big makes you a winner. Everybody wants to be a winner, we run like we have machines performing at our best and if we do not we will be replaced. We just forget that everyone in this world is different with undoubtedly unique strengths and weaknesses. How is it to feel winning your own race rather than winning a race through cutthroat competition? Winning a race is always about how you perceive yourself and how others perceive you. Winning your own race is always being a inspiration to your own world. You consider yourself to be the best in what you do and others perceive you the best in what you do and not what they do. So compete with yourself to excel in life situations, to win your own race. 2000 employees may not become the National Director or CEO of an Organisation, but definitely they can do their best in what they are good at doing. Comparing yourself with others is stress-diarrhoea, its just wont stop, so what do you do, just don’t compare yourself with others, do the best you can. That I understand as self direction, being a successful manager, being a successful specialist is big in itself.

I was watching this Jim Carrey’s movie, “Yes man”, apart from the comic timings of the actor, which is entertaining, what I liked is the message that came accross. We loose life opportunities when we say no, or keep saying no. Its an attitude as keep saying yes is. But helping people and saying yes to doing good always pays handsomely. Going an extra mile, lending an extra hand is always helpful for everybody. The world teaches us to be selfish, ask to yourself, who likes an selfish guy, you wont be a friend to a selfish guy, you wont marry a selfish guy or gal, so we all like people who can do that little extra, the simple logic is if we do the little extra people like us too. From my life experiences I have found that its very easy to say no and very hard to say yes, coz says yes means you are putting yourself into a situation where you have to do a little extra. Do an extra effort to help somebody, your friend, your colleague , your spouse, your kid, your neighbor, just a little extra will help you to be the influencer, leader and inspiration.

A little extra effort in your career will make you success, a little extra time with your spouse will make your relationship healthy, a little extra time with your friends will make them your best friends, and a little extra help work for your colleagues will make you a leader in your own right. Remember friends, life with a little extra always helps in a lot big ways. Keep doing the little extra and your Father in Heaven will bless you abundantly for the little extra that you do.

How Will You Measure Your Life

How Will You Measure Your Life- Ajit Parida

As I read this article in the Havard Business Review, “How Will You Measure Your Life?by Clayton M. Christensen”, some interesting principles Clayton speaks to his members of class of 2010 who entered the business school. There are a number of things he has said, but here are few that I really liked and it applies to each one of us as individuals in Organizations, corporate office and in our families too.

He asks three questions to his students, I have taken the first two, though the last one too is pretty important, First, how can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career? Second, how can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness?

The first question—how to be sure we find happiness in our careers—is from Frederick Herzberg, who asserts that the powerful motivator in our lives isn’t money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute to others, and be recognized for achievements. Doing deals doesn’t yield the deep rewards that come from building up people.

He then goes on to talk about how to build up a good culture, I think this is a very important aspect that comes to our mind. We want to build a good family culture, a good team culture and a good organization culture. He says, “Ultimately, people don’t even think about whether their way of doing things yields success. They embrace priorities and follow procedures by instinct and assumption rather than by explicit decision—which means that they’ve created a culture. Culture, in compelling but unspoken ways, dictates the proven, acceptable methods by which members of the group address recurrent problems. And culture defines the priority given to different types of problems. It can be a powerful management tool.

Here is another interesting aspect he talks about and its one of my favorites, I believe that life principles and priorities should nto be compromised, coz it is the basis of our being in this world. Here is what Clayton says, “it turned out the championship game was scheduled to be played on a Sunday. I had made a personal commitment to God at age 16 that I would never play ball on Sunday. So I went to the coach and explained my problem. He was incredulous. My teammates were, too, because I was the starting center. Every one of the guys on the team came to me and said, “You’ve got to play. Can’t you break the rule just this one time?”

I’m a deeply religious man, so I went away and prayed about what I should do. I got a very clear feeling that I shouldn’t breakmy commitment—so I didn’t play in the championship game.In many ways that was a small decision—involving one of several thousand Sundays in my life. In theory, surely I could have crossed over the line just that one time and then not done it again. But looking back on it, resisting the temptation whose logic was “In this extenuating circumstance, just this once, it’s OK” has proven to be one of the most important decisions of my life. Why? My life has been one unending stream of extenuating circumstances. Had I crossed the line that one time, I would have done it over and over in the years that followed.

The lesson I learned from this is that it’s easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time. If you give in to “just this once,” based on a marginal cost analysis, as some of my former classmates have done, you’ll regret where you end up. You’ve got to define for yourself what you stand for and draw the line in a safe place.

Another important aspect that he talks about is about having humility and the importance of it We also decided that humility was defined not by self deprecating behavior or attitudes but by the esteem with which you regard others. Good behavior flows naturally from that kind of humility. For example, you would never steal from someone, because you respect that person too much. You’d never lie to someone, either. It’s crucial to take a sense of humility into the world. And if your attitude is that only smarter people have something to teach you, your learning opportunities will be very limited. But if you have a humble eagerness to learn something from everybody, your learning opportunities will be unlimited. Generally, you can be humble only if you feel really good about yourself—and you want to help those around you feel really good about themselves, too. When we see people acting in an abusive, arrogant, or demeaning manner toward others, their behavior almost always is a symptom of their lack of self-esteem. They need to put someone else down to feel good about themselves.

In his concluding points , he talks about choosing the right yardstick, it goes on to say , “ Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people. This is my final recommendation: Think about the metric by which your life will be judged, and make a resolution to live every day so that in the end, your life will be judged a success.

I think its very important for us to live life with the right principles, the right decision, the right directions, the right choices, you may question, “ what is the right one?”, the right one is the one which makes you a better human being at work, family and when alone too. I hope it’s not a difficult one to do right, if we can’t be right we can’t be righteous too.

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The Field Demands Rain

The Field Demands Rain- by Ajit Parida

A dry parched land can only have the ream desire for the drops of rain to quench its insatiable thirst. It’s not a luxury but a necessity for the fields to get its due rain. In our country, we face the extremes of conditions due to rain, the lack of it or the excess of it. When the field demands rain, at times, it gets more than its share and the land gets flooded, destroying the productivity of the fields, so also if it gets scanty rain, it looses its very intent to be productive. Isn’t it one of the paradoxical principles of nature that you and I are in? However, here is an extension to the story…

It’s not so with the fields only or with the ample of rain, its very true for each one of us. It makes us wonder why the principles placed in the world works in such a similitude. We as employees in an Organization are under this principle of lack and excess, we too are like the field, as the field requires all its minerals, tilling, etc, and it needs rain more than anything else does. For people like us, with all the perks, development, etc, our rain is “appreciation”.

Appreciation from our supervisor, appreciation from our team members, appreciation from our management, etc. Appreciation like rain has to be very timely, it is just like rain which the field needs before the harvest, if the timing of the rain is wrong then the rain looses its charm and purpose for which it is awaited. For any employee in an Organisation , appreciation is a must. Why appreciate? The simple reasons to which it is directly proportional to are , it increases productivity of the employee and team, encourage them to reach higher goals from themselves, their team and the Organisation. Excess and untimely appreciation often leads to complacency, something very similar to excess rain on the fields- it floods and destroys productivity.

The field demands rain, so also an employee demands appreciation, as the field cannot ensure rain so also an employee cannot ensure appreciation, it has to come when it is due to come. If the timing and quantity is altered, it affects the individuals in an Organization. The supervisor takes the Organisational, Moral and Spiritual responsibility to give the due appreciation to their team members.

It makes me wonder sometimes, how difficult it is for human beings to appreciate each other, what could be the reasons, each one of us know it so I leave it for you deal with it. But something that works as a constant reminder to me is that Somebody could say “it is good” and “very good”, when He created the world. This definitely requires a unselfish downpour of care and concern for the person with whom we work, who envisages a similar vision for the Organisation as we do, and this definitely will lead to “APPRECIATION”.

You ask me, “who needs it?”

I say , “ who doesn’t?”

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Humility

HUMILITY

- Huzaifa Khorakiwala

Confucius (551-479 BCE), thinker, political figure, educator, and founder of the Ru School of Chinese Philosophy, said humility is the foundation of all virtues.

We often confuse humility with timidity. Humility is not clothing ourselves in an attitude of self-abasement or self-denigration. Humility is all about maintaining our self-worth about who we are, and about our worth, but without arrogance.

It's about being content to let others discover the layers of our talents without having to boast about them. It's a lack of arrogance, not a lack of aggressiveness in the pursuit of achievement.

Humility is absence of pride, ego, and conceit. A humble person is not filled with excess pride about his status, achievements, or skills. He realizes that all his great qualifications and achievements are attributable to a higher power - God. Thus, he readily accepts his limitations and in lieu of this bows to God.

Remember what Mahatma Gandhi said: It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the mightiest might tumble and the wisest might go astray.

In humility, you recognize that your fellow human being has the same right to live with dignity and happiness as yourself. Thus, humility does not allow you to belittle others. It practices the respecting of its fellow human in brotherhood.

Humility leads to strength and not to weakness. It is the highest form of self-respect to admit mistakes and to make amends for them. As Mother Teresa put it, "If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are."

In humility, you seek the glory of a higher cause or higher purpose or a higher entity. You do not seek the glory of your name.

Modesty and gentleness are the twins of humility. When worn with humility, they bestow grace, dignity, honour, and elegance to the wearer. Humility is the best dress. Wear it.

(This is part of "Huzaifa Khorakiwala Inspiration Articles")

A Life called Balloon

Sometimes looking at the balloons scares , its so unpredictable to lose a beautiful balloon that one has. Just a gust of warm air, just a cool AC temperature, the walls, roof, etc, everything is a potential instrument to burst a balloon. If you look at a balloon and its life, it just cant take anything for granted. it just survives at the mercy of everything around it, including the air inside and the air outside. Life too is most often like a balloon but we ignore this aspect when we live it the way we want it. We believe our today, tomorrow and day after is in our control, but rarely so.

Today morning my colleague, Ruth was narrating a horrifying sight that she saw while travelling in her van to office. one kid run over by bus and and his head covered by a cloth by the people who had gathered around them. What a shock to some of us , though we are not related to him but related by humanity, related to the emotions and feelings that the child would have when he started for school, related to the feelings of the parents who lost their children to be never found again. Isn't it the life of a balloon that you and me live.

As a balloon proudly pumps up with extra air to grow big, but doesn't realize that in a fraction of a second it will burst and then not to be valued or used or enjoyed. If the balloon is not blown to its full, it looses the shape and beauty. so also our life if its not used to the maximum for the good purposes and opportunities, we loose the beauty and happiness in life.

Sometimes I wonder why people keep running after things which then so love or enjoy and before they have an idea of what they are running after they loose the race of life. We run after love, before we have enjoyed the full of love we start taking it for granted, we run after money and soon find that our family and friends have changed while we were busy running after money. We keep working to succeed and earn more and then we realize how much moment of life we have wasted just working for earning and not enjoying the time and work that we have got. cut-throat competition, poor economy, inflation, more people less job openings, qualification vs skills, etc. Isn't it so complex and worrying?

Just think for a moment what actually are we running after, how long are we given the opportunity to run in the manner we are running? Remember the balloon? I believe the fun of life lies in the moments we live, we live not to die, we live to life. The moments we enjoyed are the moments we lived. A life of a balloon is small, maybe sometimes a bit long, and then it bursts or shrinks, but it does well serve the purpose. Our life too is made to serve the purpose, are we running after money , fame , success, etc. The solution is, just be good and every thing will follow. never take anything in life for granted, people, relationships, things, etc, all are worth in this life. The moment we take things for granted, that is the same moment we have started to lose the life's race. Very similar to the balloon, it doesn't take anything for granted till it exists. :-)