POUND OF BUTTER

We learnt a very important lesson through a story we were told in school. A farmer sold a pound of butter to a baker. One day the baker decided to weigh the butter to see if he was getting a pound and he found that he was not. This angered him and he dragged the farmer to court.

The judge asked the farmer if he was using any measure. The farmer replied, ‘I don't have a proper measure, but I do have a scale.’ The judge asked, ‘Then how do you weigh the butter?’ The farmer replied ‘long before the baker started buying butter from me, I have been buying a pound loaf of bread from him. Every day when the baker brings the bread, I put it on the scale and give him the same weight in butter. If anyone is to be blamed, it is the baker.’

We get back in life what we give to others. Whenever we take an action, we need to ask the pertinent question: Am I giving fair value for the wages or money I hope to make? Honesty and dishonesty become a habit. Some people practice dishonesty and can lie with a straight face. Others lie so much that they don't even know what the truth is anymore. But they deceive only themselves.

 Don’t ignore or don’t you forget

What we give is what we get!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

PRAVIN SABNIS conducts UNLEARNING UNLIMITED workshops for corporate & other teams. Since 2004, he has been writing MONDAY MUSE. He can be contacted on unlearning.unlimited@gmail.com and 91-9422640141 or 91-8698672080

Competency

 Last week, I got a call from senior trainer, Sagar Dalvi who is not just my friend and mentor... he is a muse who is restless until he can share his thinking. He was telling me what is quite common but not commonly known. Full of excitement, he said, ‘Success is not the guarantee of competency’!

What a simple yet lofty truth. While success can spur the process of empowering competency, it can also be a flash in the pan, with no assurance of competence building. On the other hand, lack of success does not confirm the lack of ability. It just means that performance did not match the potential.

It is pertinent to note that competence increases the probability of success. Hence, we must focus on capacity building rather than insist on success. Interestingly, one of the contributing factors in competence creation is the lessons that come with failure. And eventually success is about the journey and not a few milestones. And such journeys are stories of credible competence!

Focus on competence, instead of insisting on a win

Success means very little... if it’s a sometime spin!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

CENTIPEDE’S DILEMMA

A centipede was happy

Until a toad in fun

Said, ‘Pray, which leg moves after which?’

This raised her doubts to such a pitch,

She fell exhausted in the ditch

Not knowing how to run!

The poem underlines the psychological ‘centipede effect’ that occurs when an otherwise unconscious activity is disrupted by consciousness of it. When asked how he played a certain passage of Beethoven, violinist Adolf Busch replied that it was quite simple – and then found that he could no longer play the same passage.

George Humphrey identified the effect as hyper-reflection and said that ‘no man skilled at a trade needs to put his constant attention on routine work... If he does, the job is apt to be spoiled’. Humphrey's law states that once performance of a task has become habitual, conscious thought about the task, while performing it, impairs performance.  

Habit reduces and then removes the attention required for routine tasks. This automaticity is upset by attention to a regular unconscious competence. For example, someone thinking too much about how they knot their tie may find their performance of the task impaired. Hence, we must not allow the centipede’s dilemma to derail what has turned a habitual performance.

The centipede need not reflect on keeping feet in line,

But if it starts to ponder they get twisted all the time!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

I KILLED AN OLD MAN

I have my justifications for stomping his devious plan
I have my explanations... for killing that old man!

It was time for him to recede and retire
But the old man chose to stoke the fire...
He ignored the violent reaction of our rage clan
He paid for his crime... that stupid old man!

Might is right is the brutal fact of my dare
I hate those who stand for values they care...
Imagine the audacity of doing what he can
He deserved to die...  that obstinate old man!

He should have played dead to the things I do
But he kept asking those damn questions too...
I have the support of many an angry fan
They will argue my defense... for killing an old man!

Don't call me a murderer, I have a better word
It was to stop those who step out of the herd...
Those who step out of the herd, deserve a tan
He deserved to die... that foolish old man!

Don't you call me a coward just because I hide
Don't you forget that I have powers on my side...
I will kill again those that oppose my plan...
I will kill again and again... all such old men!

How dare he play alive in the Kingdom of the dead
How dare he put proactivism in many a head...
This killing will deter his colleague young men
If not, they too will die... before they are old men!

When I look into the future, I see me as a celebrated hero
As my actions will not be challenged by the modern Nero
Like before, I will kill again to a similar plan
Yet he keeps alive... that bloody old man!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

 (Written on 20 February 2015 Triggered by the cowardly killing of yet another old man who stood up to the crooks)

Tourist Benefactor

In November 1991, Rudolf and his wife Elfie, on their first visit to Goa, noticed children working in fields instead of attending school, due to monetary snags. With the help of Umberto who worked at a night club, they gave scholarships to four needy students. Since then, Rudolf Schwartz from Oldenburg, Germany has empowered the education of over 2500 young Goans through his Indian Students Educational Aid Foundation.

In 1995, he started Bhumika Technical Institute for dropouts in Paliem. A good response encouraged the start of Keerti Vidhyalaya Technical Institute in Siolim  and Indo-German Techno Centre and Institute of Hotel Management at Marna. Courses offered included computer hardware, software programming, electronics, fitter, turner, welding, plumbing, motor mechanics, electrician, tailoring, air-conditioning-refrigeration, cutting–embroidery and home nursing.

Rudolf, who is a retired banker, collects money from his friends in a unique manner. He returns to Germany after every visit to Goa with Indian tea and spices. Inviting his friends for a home-cooked meal he talks to them about his organization and convinces them to sponsor needy, bright students in Goa.

There are many success stories of different students from across Goa who benefited to secure their career and support their families.

A tourist moved beyond early interventions to progressive contributions and developed an amazing team of collaborators. Rudolf united others like him and the impact is for all of us to see and emulate... to tour the land... to notice the need... to make a positive intervention... and to back it with repeated efforts by growing the tribe of selfless givers... some giving money, some giving their time and some transferring skills...

The tourist turned benefactor not just by intervention
Rudolf got others to unite to impact collaboration!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

Bull's Head

One day, in a pile of objects all jumbled up together, he found an old bicycle seat right next to a rusty set of handlebars. In a flash, they joined together in his head. He welded them together to create the association with the seat appearing like the head of the bull and the handlebars making for the horns. Bull's Head is a famous artwork by Pablo Picasso, created in 1942.

Picasso brought together two things to make a third. This practice of bringing together two things is called bisociation. Arthur Koestler coined the term in order to make a distinction between the routine skills of thinking on a single plane and the creative act, which always operates on more than one plane.

Koestler states that ‘every creative act involves bisociation, a process that brings together and combines previously unrelated ideas’. While association refers to previously established connections among ideas, bisociation involves making entirely new connections among ideas..

Bisociation involves a readiness to connect to the unconnected as we approach every routine situation with an open mind. Most importantly bisociation is a constant innovation as seen in the Gilette razor which kept adding blades, springs, lubricating strips to create a greater product.

We can associate with bisociation in everything we do. Like Picasso, we first need to see the bisociation first in our mind and then put it together in reality. So whether it is in design, art, science or humour, we can choose to use our right brain and unite the parts to impact a new whole.

First envision, follow with action... that’s Bisociation…
Unite to impact two parts to create a new innovation!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

KATOR RE BHAJI

Jose stood on the pulpit of the royal chapel. He faced the Queen, the King and the Court of Lisbon. Seized by stage fright, he was tongue-tied. His father, who sat below the pulpit, whispered in Konkani: ‘Hi sogli bhaji, kator re bhaji’ (they are mere vegetables, chop the vegetables). The son lost his dread and delivered an articulate sermon to great appreciation and generous applause.

From then on, Jose Custodio Faria deliberated how a mere phrase from his father could alter his state of mind so drastically as to wipe off his stage fright. This thinking had far reaching consequences in his life. Abbe Faria was one of the pioneers of the scientific study of hypnotism. He defined the power of suggestion and demonstrated the impact of ‘autosuggestion’.

So often, we find ourselves overwhelmed by the situation. We know what to say but our thoughts go numb and actions get paralysed. Seeing his son’s predicament, senior Faria was able to make the suggestion that the task was never greater than chopping vegetables. He got his son to realise that since he knew what to say, he had no reason to fear.

Self belief is empowered by suggestion. However we may not always have the benefit of someone making the suggestion. Hence, we must choose the option of autosuggestion. We must cheer ourselves on. Of course, to be good at chopping vegetables or delivering speeches or taking on challenges, we must unite preparation and practise with the power of positive autosuggestion.

We must ‘unite to impact’ practise & preparation

With the liberating power of auto-suggestion!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.