Yeh Hi Right Choice Baby !!
Well, when I was wondering what I write today, when I realized a chat with a friend last week. This friend of mine, sorry that I cannot reveal the name nor provide you with a hint since he/she (remember told u no hint!!) has asked me a promise not to reveal anything about what we spoke, but this blog would touch the essence of what we spoke. OK, with too much of justification, let me move on to the subject now – Integrity. There are many definitions to Integrity – you would get realms of literature on the web, in the books, Granths and the Shastras. Each of the corporates would have Integrity as one of its core values in some form or another and each would have loads of explanations as to what it is to follow Integrity. The corporates spend loads of money to transpire their take on integrity. So what is integrity? The words that come to mind are honest, truthful, conscientious, and the like. They all explain integrity and yet do not capture the essence of integrity.
Apart from many other trainings, we were imparted the ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ based on Stephen Covey’s book as a part to develop as individuals and one of the many concepts that essenced out in the book was integrity. As those young and idealistic engineers who were trying to question every thing in life – we started questioning Stephen Covey’s 7 habits with respect to their relevance in the Indian context. We were of the opinion that every Indian kid would have been imparted these values as a part of the legacy through their parents and their guardians and that the Indian epics provide us with such voluminous examples that we hardly have to look beyond them for reference and we firmly believed that books like 7 habits were not meant for us Indians. We were of the opinion, that the values have to be institutionalized into the kids’ genes by the parents. As I read somewhere, the author said the key is to leave a legacy, so that the successors do better than you: They sit on your shoulders, and they make greater contributions than you have made. That’s the concept of institutionalizing.
But over the last 8 years, I have softened my stand but not toned down it completely – yes you may be right in concluding that I am not all that young any more ;-). But over the years, I have experienced that integrity is such a hazy matter that can be easily understood but many find it difficult to live it when the push comes to the shove. Difficult may be a wrong term here, its just that its RPN (risk priority number) is high with high probability of occurrence, low detection and a high severity rate – sorry that I got into FMEA, but that is one of our professional hazards (or a expertise – am not sure), getting into technical terms to confuse the other person because we believe if we cannot convince, confuse them ;-). In simple terms, we got to be extra careful in our ways because there are plenty of opportunities where we can go wrong and the ability to falter is very much the human tendency. To overcome this, we have to keep sharpening our saw and such books help you to an extent. However, I am still firm that Indian kids fare much better than their other counterparts, in their assimilation of the values and that the Indian epics are a better alternative than such books. (It’s sad that youth today would flaunt a, 7 habits spinning lots of cash over it and would rather not touch the epics which are biting the dust in their own cupboard shelves!!)
Back to the core subject now, for me, one definition that has struck a chord ‘Do the right thing and not what is convenient’. This is such a simple statement, yet it covers all aspects of what is all integrity about. Most of the integrity dilemmas in everyday life – corporate and personal would be solved by just asking this question. I say most of the problems because I have found that there are a very few dilemmas which cannot be solved and this is where the subjectivity and haziness as to what Integrity is all about. What if you think that both the options are right? – There are many problems where we might encounter this. Even Yudhisthir faced such a dilemma many a times – yet I want to bring the case where he faltered – the Ashwatama episode – When Dronacharya was not sure if his son had really died, he thought let me ask Yudhisthir to confirm the news, because he believed that only Yudhisthir cannot tell a lie. Yudhisthir, influenced by the ‘Chalu’ Krishna did tell him a truth that Ashwatama had indeed died, referring to the elephant Ashwatama which had lost its life in the battle. Dronacharya was broken and this news had achieved its objective to make him vulnerable. It’s said that once this had happened, the chariot of Yudhisthir, which was always 6 inches above the ground, fell down and rested on the ground from that point indicating that even the Dharamraj Yudhisthir had made a mistake and after all, he was a human being. Now that I am faltering my way, let me get back – examples where there are 2 rights to be chosen. I remember this friend (not the one above) who was doing a cost reduction project and he was faced with such a dilemma. He started with Value Engineering of the part and found that there was plenty of scope for it, yet these changes required plenty of tests which he completed with a supplier A, who supported him through out for the resources required for testing and proved that the changes can be implemented. Now my friend found that the variant he had made from the existing part can be supplied by another supplier, Supplier B at a much lesser cost. What to do? – Does he have to buy the part from Supplier A, who supported him for the changes Or Does he have buy the part from Supplier B, which would give his company a great cost saving. When he asked me about this dilemma, I suggested him an approach to deal with this problem which might or might not solve the integrity dilemma – I am not a purchasing guy and therefore I am not sure if this is a ‘textbook’ approach. I asked him what would be his gut feeling to solve the problem – He told me that he would not disclose that the Supplier B ever gave a quotation for this part and this would save him from the fact that he did not ditch the Supplier A, who helped him in the project. I told him that this is not a right approach and asked him to talk directly to Supplier A that Supplier B is giving him the part at a much lesser cost and how much less he would be able to accommodate? The supplier A agreed for a discount which was much less than the difference between the 2 suppliers. I then asked him to talk to Supplier A and asked him if he can further bring down the cost by changing the process or bringing new technology and if the answer was in negation for that too, ask him, how much purchasing commitment time would he require for the efforts and money he spent on the testing? Check out with some expert, if indeed his expectation is true, go ahead and apprise the top management that we have committed to Supplier A until this period and then switching over to Supplier B after that. It’s better to be transparent to all the stakeholders when we deal with such issues!!
This was just one of the many such instances where we come across with official issues and yet many of us sail though them exceedingly well. It’s really not the same with personal issues. Personal issues might be even hazier and with all those emotions attached, the choices seem really incoherent. There may be many issues, where the notion of the perfect whole, the ultimate solution in which all good things coexist seems unobtainable. We are doomed to choose, and every choice that we make may entail an irreparable loss.
And as they say,
Eager or not, earnest or gay,
Lively or dull through out the day,
It’s you, who must say,
And make your own way!!
Well, I have just found that during the course of drafting this, either I have lost my way in dealing with this topic or made a new ground for myself, whatever it is, it is too late in the night to continue with this. I would like to end with a Adolf Hitler quote – yes I know, it’s strange to quote Hitler in a blog focusing on integrity, yet it goes like “If you win, you need not have to explain...If you lose, you should not be there to explain!". This means that no one would ask you to explain your moves if you make the right choice and even if you falter in your choice, you don’t have to justify it or regret it anyways, kyon ki, the choice that you made always remains to be “yeh hi hain right choice, baby”
But over the last 8 years, I have softened my stand but not toned down it completely – yes you may be right in concluding that I am not all that young any more ;-). But over the years, I have experienced that integrity is such a hazy matter that can be easily understood but many find it difficult to live it when the push comes to the shove. Difficult may be a wrong term here, its just that its RPN (risk priority number) is high with high probability of occurrence, low detection and a high severity rate – sorry that I got into FMEA, but that is one of our professional hazards (or a expertise – am not sure), getting into technical terms to confuse the other person because we believe if we cannot convince, confuse them ;-). In simple terms, we got to be extra careful in our ways because there are plenty of opportunities where we can go wrong and the ability to falter is very much the human tendency. To overcome this, we have to keep sharpening our saw and such books help you to an extent. However, I am still firm that Indian kids fare much better than their other counterparts, in their assimilation of the values and that the Indian epics are a better alternative than such books. (It’s sad that youth today would flaunt a, 7 habits spinning lots of cash over it and would rather not touch the epics which are biting the dust in their own cupboard shelves!!)
Back to the core subject now, for me, one definition that has struck a chord ‘Do the right thing and not what is convenient’. This is such a simple statement, yet it covers all aspects of what is all integrity about. Most of the integrity dilemmas in everyday life – corporate and personal would be solved by just asking this question. I say most of the problems because I have found that there are a very few dilemmas which cannot be solved and this is where the subjectivity and haziness as to what Integrity is all about. What if you think that both the options are right? – There are many problems where we might encounter this. Even Yudhisthir faced such a dilemma many a times – yet I want to bring the case where he faltered – the Ashwatama episode – When Dronacharya was not sure if his son had really died, he thought let me ask Yudhisthir to confirm the news, because he believed that only Yudhisthir cannot tell a lie. Yudhisthir, influenced by the ‘Chalu’ Krishna did tell him a truth that Ashwatama had indeed died, referring to the elephant Ashwatama which had lost its life in the battle. Dronacharya was broken and this news had achieved its objective to make him vulnerable. It’s said that once this had happened, the chariot of Yudhisthir, which was always 6 inches above the ground, fell down and rested on the ground from that point indicating that even the Dharamraj Yudhisthir had made a mistake and after all, he was a human being. Now that I am faltering my way, let me get back – examples where there are 2 rights to be chosen. I remember this friend (not the one above) who was doing a cost reduction project and he was faced with such a dilemma. He started with Value Engineering of the part and found that there was plenty of scope for it, yet these changes required plenty of tests which he completed with a supplier A, who supported him through out for the resources required for testing and proved that the changes can be implemented. Now my friend found that the variant he had made from the existing part can be supplied by another supplier, Supplier B at a much lesser cost. What to do? – Does he have to buy the part from Supplier A, who supported him for the changes Or Does he have buy the part from Supplier B, which would give his company a great cost saving. When he asked me about this dilemma, I suggested him an approach to deal with this problem which might or might not solve the integrity dilemma – I am not a purchasing guy and therefore I am not sure if this is a ‘textbook’ approach. I asked him what would be his gut feeling to solve the problem – He told me that he would not disclose that the Supplier B ever gave a quotation for this part and this would save him from the fact that he did not ditch the Supplier A, who helped him in the project. I told him that this is not a right approach and asked him to talk directly to Supplier A that Supplier B is giving him the part at a much lesser cost and how much less he would be able to accommodate? The supplier A agreed for a discount which was much less than the difference between the 2 suppliers. I then asked him to talk to Supplier A and asked him if he can further bring down the cost by changing the process or bringing new technology and if the answer was in negation for that too, ask him, how much purchasing commitment time would he require for the efforts and money he spent on the testing? Check out with some expert, if indeed his expectation is true, go ahead and apprise the top management that we have committed to Supplier A until this period and then switching over to Supplier B after that. It’s better to be transparent to all the stakeholders when we deal with such issues!!
This was just one of the many such instances where we come across with official issues and yet many of us sail though them exceedingly well. It’s really not the same with personal issues. Personal issues might be even hazier and with all those emotions attached, the choices seem really incoherent. There may be many issues, where the notion of the perfect whole, the ultimate solution in which all good things coexist seems unobtainable. We are doomed to choose, and every choice that we make may entail an irreparable loss.
And as they say,
Eager or not, earnest or gay,
Lively or dull through out the day,
It’s you, who must say,
And make your own way!!
Well, I have just found that during the course of drafting this, either I have lost my way in dealing with this topic or made a new ground for myself, whatever it is, it is too late in the night to continue with this. I would like to end with a Adolf Hitler quote – yes I know, it’s strange to quote Hitler in a blog focusing on integrity, yet it goes like “If you win, you need not have to explain...If you lose, you should not be there to explain!". This means that no one would ask you to explain your moves if you make the right choice and even if you falter in your choice, you don’t have to justify it or regret it anyways, kyon ki, the choice that you made always remains to be “yeh hi hain right choice, baby”
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