What do Designers/Problem Solvers do?
Do they design 'things'?
Do they solve problems?
Do they 'right' the mistakes, limitations, assumptions, imperfections in an existing situation?
Do they 'change' situations and thereby the circumstances that help people in some way?
What is so special about Design?
Well it is not everything but it has an insidious way of seeping into anything around us as we are, so to say, completely dependent on the 'designed' world of ours. Even if we were to go back thousands of years to our simplistic way of living,which is a quite unlikely possibility, to save ourselves from premature extinction we would need to design that world too!
Whatever we might choose to do, designers who are basically problem solvers would need 'software' or a 'mantra' to inform, drive and remind them of the task ahead and how best it might be done.
To me the simplest possible 'software' or 'mantra' may be captured by three Indian words, as said in India, 'Satyam, Shivam Sundaram'.
While 'Satyam' stands for truth, 'Shivam' symbolizes unification of the male and female energies to create something new and Sundaram represents anything that is both beautiful and useful.
That can be a fine 'mantra' for design and designers since it first asks us to 'see' the reality to find out what exactly is to made 'right' and then use our creative energies that lends expression to some form of artifact that would be both beautiful and useful to people.
Not only the mantra is simple to remember but also captures the essence and purpose of design to continually 'right' things.
Many people take creativity and design to mean making things from 'spoons to cities' as the famous adage goes.
Sure it is. But there is something vital, which we generally tend to overlook.
I quote from Ralph Caplan's book, 'By Design: Why There are no Locks in the Bathroom'.
"...design at its best is the process of making things right. That is designers, at their best, create things and places that work. But things often do not work. And making things right is not just a generative but a corrective process - a way of righting things of straigtening them out and holding them together coherently."
In other words, it is a continual effort to correct problems or 'solve them' as they crop up, which they, for some strange reasons, come up every minute.
That is what the term Design Thinking is all about. It can be applied to 'right' anything we do as human beings.
Though the creative ability to 'right things' lies in every one of us we often don't get to see it being applied to make things 'right'.
Why is that?
CL - acronym that stands for Creative Leadership
“When so many scholars in the world are calculating, is it not right that some, who can, dream?” – René Thom
Rene Thom was a creative leader because he was the first to bring out a mathematical treatment for 'complexity' a 'wicked problem' that evaded us for long.
Thom was the spiritual leader in the development of catastrophe theory, used to study and classify phenomena characterized by sudden shifts in behavior arising from small perturbations, that is, a mathematical treatment of continuous action producing a discontinuous result.
It was extremely useful and is now the basis of further development in this new and interesting study of the phenomenon of complexity.
Although Thom introduced the theory in the late 1960’s it didn’t appear in book form until 1972 with the publication of Christopher Zeeman, who named the theory, brought it to the attention of the general public and pioneered its application to the biological and behavioral sciences.
The motivation for its development was laudable since the need to develop appropriate mathematical tools for use in the biological, behavioral and social sciences is not disputed.
Ian Stewart in Life’s Other Secret (1998) wrote: “…it completely revolutionized bifurcation theory. It was a bloodless revolution, accomplished under an assumed name (singularity theory), and it took place largely within mathematics, so hardly anybody noticed.” Catastrophe theory paved the way for the more influential chaos theory.But some critics claimed catastrophe theory was little more than an intellectual fad. Thom reluctantly announced its demise in 1990: “Catastrophe theory is dead. For as soon as it became clear that the theory did not permit quantitative prediction, all good minds … decided in was of no value.”
Does that not remind us of Galileo Galilei who was forced to retract his support for the 'heliocentric' view under the pressure of the church and of Giordano Bruno, the fine mathematician and philosopher, who became a martyr at the stakes for propagating free thought and modern scientific ideas?
Creative leaders who lead the path less taken usually suffer when their ideas are far ahead of their times and the ignorant society rejects them.
Now we shift focus to another pioneering, self sacrificing Entrepreneur Son of Mother India – Shri Ghanshyamdasji Birla (G.D.Birla). He was born in Pilani and at the tender age of five he witnessed severe famine and whole families starving and bones of animals being picked clean in the desert. His grandfather had started the family business of broking and trading in the then Bombay (now called Mumbai). Sri Shivnarain Birla has also built a temple, a well for the use of all the villages and family Haveli at Pilani.
G.D.Birla’s early schooling was at Pilani and later he went to a city school in Calcutta. The city slickers made fun of a rustic “bumpkin” for the village and the young boy preferred to roam the city streets to being teased and tormented at school. The streets obviously were an educational forum of practical action for him for he developed into a keen sharp broker with strong nerves and skillful foresight.
He came under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi at the age of 19. G.D.Birla’s life went forward on may traders – 1) Family life 2) Industrial 3) Political-Emotional-Spiritual 4) Philanthropic and Charitable.
1) Family life at the age of 14 he married Smt. Durga Devi she bore him a son Laxminiwas (L.N.Birla) and died when he was 19. He again married at the age of 19 to Smt. Maha Devi. But after a number of children she too contracted tuberculosis and expired so he was a widower at 32. His political mentor Mahatma Gandhi advised him to remain celibate and devote the rest of his life to the country and he followed the advice.
2) INDUSTRIAL CAREER : Ghanshyamdasji had inherited the sharp business acumen of his grandfather. He purchased a lot of jute in his younger days and held to make a huge profit by dint of economic foresight. During the First World War his father and he made around Rs. 80 lakhs a princely sum in those days (if you adjust for inflation). He advised his father to set up a jute mill. But the venerable old trader cautious and conservative by nature refused to embark on a journey into uncharted territory. But G.D. was determined. His determination was sharpened by insults and jibes to Indians by the European Businessmen ! Once he was not allowed to board a life because he was a non European ! Also the officer who used to sell him jute called him a “black native.” His ears burned with outraged nationalistic pride and shame. He secretly bought a small piece of land from a zamindar and appointed a trusted aide J.P. Mandelia to look after operations. The British Imperial Bank refused G.D. any loan so he issued public shares and his shares were oversubscribed. The Scottish supervisor of the Mill refused to teach Mandelia the intricacies of jute processing so G.D. and Mandelia would watch him secretly and observe his action. They also scoured the bookshops of Kolkata and Mumbai. Mandelia found one second-hand book on jute Technology which they pored over and made themselves knowledgeable regarding the technology. The British controlled Jute Mill Owners association refused G.D. entry. This made G.D. sure that the British were scared of Indians and they knew if Indians broke free of their Economic Domination their Political Domination too would be strangled and eliminated so he fought them tooth and nail and set up more industries. By the time G.D. died he had set up Hindalco, Gwalior Rayon, Kesoram, United Commercial Bank and many other Industries. India too won freedom on 15th August, 1947.
3) Political – Emotional – Spiritual views Politically before coming under the spell of the Mahatma, G.D. was a friend of the revolutionaries and even hid some guns in his office, was raided and went underground. But from the age of 19 onwards he was a devotee of Mohandas Gandhi. When the boys of Kolkata opened the horses from the carriage and pulled Mahatma’s carriage themselves G.D. was one of them. He may not have agreed with the theory of cottage industry but in obedience to Gandhian philosophy he practiced the Charkha daily. Mahatma Gandhi pressed upon his consciousness the concept of trusteeship and the disciple responded sincerely. Under the urging of Gandhiji G.D. became the President of the Harijan Upliftment Committee. When C.V.Raman needed some money for experiments G.D. immediately sent him the required funds. When he came to know that the Poet Rabindranath Tagore required around Rs.60,000/- for Shantiniketan, Vishwa Bharati University he anonymously sent a draft for the amount. G.D. Birla’s philanthropic projects are numerous – Birla’s Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, BITS Mesra, the Laxmi Narayan Temple, New Delhi, Birla Science Museum-Kolkata, Birla Planetorium-Kolkata, B.M.Birla Hospital, Bombay Hospital – the list is too numerous to quote ! He also donated money to the Aligarh Muslim University. There is a special Saraswati Temple in Pilani covered with statuettes of famous scholars and scientists. At his mentor’s behest he started “The Hindustan Times” and English daily newspaper to counter the vicious, malicious propaganda that was put out by the British owned English Anti-Indian Independence newspapers – that paper is still flourishing today !
4) A little known incident in G.D.Birla’s life is that the British Bulldog Sir Winston Churchill, at that time out of Political Power, invited G.D.Birla to his country home in England. Filled with trepidation G.D. agreed to visit. To his utter surprise, the staunch opponent of Indian Independence was a most hospitable host to the staunch follower of Mahatma Gandhi ! Needless to say both men probed each other’s minds to gather vital intelligence helpful to their opposing causes ! Mahatma Gandhi tragically was shot dead at Birla House while leading a prayer meeting. He used to say at Birla House whenever in Delhi.
5) If anybody is interested in reading about there 2 stalwarts I would recommend Amar Chitra Katha’s “Jamshedji Tata” and “Ghanshyamdas Birla”. I have relied totally on there 2 publications for my factoids and pictures. Thank you ACK, thank you Uncle Pai for such depth of research and infotainment !!
6) In my analysis and study of these pioneering, entrepreneurial souls. I stumbled upon one bright shining jewel of a fact – these two patriots had an overwhelming burning desire to serve the Motherland and that desire sharpened their Entrepreneurial skills to Excellence in the World of Business, Industry and Commerce ! Nisarga datta Maharaj has said “if you have a vast, deep and noble ambition to serve the world, the people, the country the Universe itself will help you – It will go out of its way to help you !” But the ambition should be noble and vast !
No IPO, NO Angel Investors, No Entrepreneurship Incubator can substitute for Vast and Noble Ambition. Spectacular short-term burn outs like Enron or Satyam can never challenge an Arvind Eye Hospital, a Bharat Sevashram, a Wipro or an Infosys because when a mere Entrepreneur becomes an Ardha Sanyassin (sage) Entrepreneur like Jamshedji or G.D.Birla he or she becomes Unstoppable, Towering Dynamos for the Power of Good in the World !!! Here I would like to caution that smart Buzzwords may sound phonetically attractive but are actually useless in the Real World. For instance in the environs of 5-Star Air Conditioned” comfort, a Seminar Speaker may very cleverly say “Bill Gates entered the Gates of the World Economy by selling Electronic Windows !”
But by repeating the saying a 1000 times one will not create even a mini-Microsoft !
Cleverness and Smartness can never substitute Hard Work, Self Sacrifice and a Vast, Noble Ambition !
I would like to close with a saying by Swami Vivekananda, “No Noble and Great Activity was ever accomplished by mere Cleverness !”
Jamshedji and Ghanshyamji would have heartily agreed on this.
This is the concluding portion of the two part series. Part 1 was published on 15th August on this blog site.
Ashesh Ghosh, FCA, CEO of RollPack Pvt. Ltd. is the author of this story. He lives in Mumbai, the commercial capital of India, with his wife and their son and daughter.
CL - stands for Creative Leadership
Just for a moment consider the possibility of an organization that punishes 'laughing' and 'smiling'.
You might think, 'This is ridiculous. Is that possible?'.
But such was the 'law' in Ford Motor Company. At Ford's River Rouge plant, laughter was a disciplinary offence. Anyone caught humming, whistling or smiling were punished by instant sacking. Such acts were considered to be acts of insubordination.
Not long ago, in 1940, John Gallo was sacked because he was 'caught in the act of smiling' after having committed an earlier breach of 'laughing with the other fellows and slowing down the line by may be half a minute'.
This was the overall philosophy of the times which did not escape Henry Ford who said, 'When we are at work we ought to be at work. When we are at play we ought to be at play. There is no use trying to mix the two.'
Though it seems a bit weird in today's context I still find this attitude prevalent in the factories of today where the ingrained attitude rooted deep enough is 'NO PLAY; IF IT IS PLAY YOU AREN'T SERIOUS'.
It is such a deeply held belief that not long ago British Airways initiated a change management program that implored their flight attendants to 'simply smile'.
Having fun and joy in work is the new mantra of work today. May be modern organizations need more balance and integration of the Right and Left Brains for survival, growth and productivity enhancement! Having exhausted the old and tested methods of enhancing productivity we must realize the innate but hidden strengths that lie in the new ways to laugh at our own stupidity and our deeply held assumptions on everything only to find new ways of creating value for the society in the future.
During the 1920s, quantum physicists struggled to conceptually move from the paradigm of parts to the paradigm of the whole. However, it was hard to break down the Cartesian mechanistic mindset till it was spectacularly broken down in physics by Heisenberg who saw the shift from the 'parts' to the 'whole' as the central aspect of that conceptual revolution.
He was so impressed by it that he titled his scientific autobiography Der Teil und das Ganze ('The Part and the Whole').
Unfortunately, Heisenberg's British and American publishers did not realize the significance of this title and renamed the book as 'Physics and Beyond'.
How funny!
A ship “The Empress of India” set sail from the then Yokohama harbour to Vancouver, Canada in 1893.
On the upper deck two Indian met during their morning and evening walks and became fast friends. One was a young unknown monk and the other was a rich Parsi trader from Bombay. The monk and the Parsi businessman agreed starting some industry, not in mere cotton or textile but in the core sector e.g. Cement or Steel or Chemicals would help India progress from the coils of Foreign Domination !
The monk told the would-be industrialist there were 2 aspects to industry- the manufacturing aspect and the knowledge science and to run the Steel furnaces, plant and mill. An institute had to be built for imparting knowledge in Science and Technology to Indians as the British were eager to teach Literature and Arts but not science to Indians ! Both also felt if a country has to progress the poor people can only be uplifted vide indigenous Industry and not Foreign Charity or the imaginary Benevolence of Colonial Masters !!!
The two men were Jamshedji Tata and Swami Vivekananda !!! Jamshedji was visiting the Chicago World Fair and Swamiji continued onwards to his historic address at the Parliament of Religions, Chicago but the burning words of the visionary monk left an indelible impression on his listener’s mind !
Jamshedji Tata set up India’s first Steel Plant in Jamshedpur, a hydro electric power plant at Khandala near Mumbai and the Indian Institute of Science of Bangalore. In 1898 five years later Jamshedji requested Swamiji to head his dream “Monastery of science where in a spirit of asceticism students would worship Science !”
Reluctalantly Swami Vivekanand had to turn down the offer as he was then pre-occupied with the Ramakrishna Mission and Math Organisation. The first Indian Director of the Indian Institute of Science was the Nobel Laureate Dr. C.V. Raman !
“Imbued with an intensely patriotic and enlightened spirit, Jamshedji started India’s first Provident Fund Scheme, 8 hours working day, planned township for workmen including hospitals and schools !!
When Jamshedji was refused entry to a hotel in Bombay as he was a non European, he built the Taj Hotel in Apollo Bunder opposite the Gateway of India. His sense of patriotic Indian ness had been outraged at the incident but in his magnanimity he allowed Europeans entry to his Hotel ! When it opened it was the best in Asia ! In his search for excellence Jamshedji imported pipelines from Germany, water wheels from Switzerland, Generators from America, Electrical machinery from Dusseldorf, Chandeliers from Berlin, cast iron pillars from Paris etc.
When he wanted to start the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, the British Viceroy Curzon opposed it tooth and nail saying “How can Indians learn Science and Technology and where will you find students ?”
Contrast Curzon’s sayings with US President Obama’s constant exhortations to American Children “Indian students are very good in Maths and Science – Americans should study hard and catch up with the Indians !”
Curzon’s racial arrogance and White European supremacism only spurred Jamshedji onto greater determination !”
Jamshedji duputed Prof. Burjor Padishah to tour all the great Universities of Europe and USA and suggest a model for the Indian Institute of Science. Prof. Burjor recommended the John Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA.
Nobel Laureate Sir William Ramsay, the inventor of neon, visited India at Mr. Tata’s invitation and recommended Bangalore as our ideal location vis-à-vis Mysore and Mumbai. Mr. Tata said this will be a national monument & never tried to glorify his own name !
When the British Chairman of Indian Railways heard about Tata Steel he said “If Mr. Tata produces steel, I will eat up every pound of it !”
Despite such condescending attitudes and even Vice regal opposition Jamshedji’s dream projects – Tata Steel, Taj Hotel, Tata Power and Indian Institute of Science stand as magnificent monuments to his sagacity, planning, execution and team-building.
This excellent Zoarastrian son of Mother India really lived up to the tenets of Humata, Hubhakta and H’varsta – Good Thoughts, Good Words and Good Action !!!
Part 2 would be published on 22nd August on this blog site.
Ashesh Ghosh, FCA, CEO of RollPack Pvt. Ltd. is the author of this story. The next part would be published on 22nd August 2011. He lives in Mumbai, the commercial capital of India, with his wife and their son and daughter.
CL - stands for Creative Leadership
An intriguing Koan to crack:
Ride your horse along the edge of a sword; hide yourself in the middle of flames.
What on earth does that mean?
One day a young disciple came to his Guru with a very worried look on his face.
The Guru asked, "What happened? Why do you look so gloomy?"
The disciple replied, 'Oh, Guruji, there is one question that is weighing heavily on my mind.'
Curious, Guruji asked, 'What is that?'
With lot of hesitation in his voice the pupil narrated his problem, 'Well, I wanted to know the secret of earning wealth. My family is not very well off and I feel that time has come for me to help my family become wealthy enough and live life without much anxiety."
The Guruji broke into peels of laughter. 'Well then young man, now listen to this mantra that holds the secret of gaining wealth.' With this the Guruji unveiled the sacred mantra for success.
" As you know Saraswati and Lakhmi are two sisters. And you also know that while Saraswati stands for knowledge and wisdom Lakhmi stands for wealth. However, of the two sisters, Lakhmi is very jealous of Saraswati though Saraswati is the kind, forgiving and the gentle one. So here is the mantra. If you choose to love Lakhmi more than Saraswati, Saraswati won't mind that and let you be with Lakhmi. But then Lakhmi would soon desert you. But if you choose to love Saraswati much more than Lakhmi then Lakhmi would be very jealous and would constantly follow you and try to allure you all the while. Do keep taking her costly gift of wealth but don't desert Saraswati because once you have done that Lakhmi would desert you soon."
The disciple was more than happy to receive this sacred mantra before he left his Guruji's place with Saraswati clearly placed in his heart.
One day Rabindra Nath Tagore was very upset. His wife was constantly pestering him to pay the electricity and the credit card bills. Tagore found he had no money left. Now what to do? He never worked for anyone. People were not ready to accept him as a poet, author nor an intellectual. But he has to run the household expenses. He decided that he will do a job as per his liking and capability. He applied for the post of a “creative editor” in a giant engineering firm dealing with steel, automobiles, chemicals etc.
The giant engineering firm had a lot of in-house journals which were circulated among the employees so as to keep them abreast of the latest “visions”, “goals” and “ideals” of the company. Similarly for their “promos” of different products they needed a person with a creative talent who could coin in ‘catchy’ phrase lines which would appeal to the public, shareholders, connected even remotely with the Company.
Mrs. Renuka Agarwal, HR Head of the company was given the task of finding out a “creative editor” for the company. After doing her graduation she opted for a PGDM in HR from a reputed Management Institute. Immediately she got a job at an equally reputed steel company owned by an illiterate steel magnate. There were no stopping for her as she jumped from one company to another with the ease of a trapeze artist. The only thing worried her was her upper lip hair growth.
Mrs. Agarwal handed over the whole job of hunting down a creative editor to an outside agency. They promptly gave ads in the job portals and waited for the applications to arrive. A huge number of applications were received by the company which included the application of Tagore also. Then they shortlisted the applications through a computer. Certain key words like creative writing, leadership qualities, essays, write ups were fed into the computer. The soft ware programs designed to scan the applications rejected the application of Tagore as his CV and covering letter did not had those key words. Tagore’s application was not thrown in to the dust bin but went straight into the recycle bin.
Tagore felt irritated. He headed to the company Headquarters and met one of the Directors with a copy of the application. The Director looked at him and the application. “So you have written poems and novels, can you show us some poems which have been published?” Say, how you call yourself a creative person? Tagore was dumb struck. He just murmured --- “Can I meet the Chairman of the Company?” The director grudgingly allowed him to go the Chairman’s chamber.
“See Mr. Tagore, how can I take you in my company when I see you have not done any formal education whereas the other applicants are highly educated with also a Management degree? You do not have any leadership qualities nor did you participated in any “group activities” and you are trying to impress me in believing that you will open a “gurukul” type school some where in Bolpur. Have you done any financial management otherwise how will you manage a school and later a university? Mrs. Renuka Agarwal, our HR Head has also pointed out that you write disastrous poetry in your Face book. Look how smart is she? She had already done an Internet search about you. So Mr. Tagore I am sorry ……
The cell phone of Rabindra Nath Tagore rings. The caller at the other end informs him his selection for the Nobel Prize in literature. Mr. Tagore ends the call and tells the Chairman --- “so you can select an army commissioned officer, he will be having leadership qualities and also creative skills in penetrating the enemy territory, best of luck Mr.Chairman”.
Sitendu De is the author of this post.
Disclaimer: This is not a real story. It is a satire only which is not intended to hurt anyone in particular.
CL is the short form for Creative Leadership.
A Koan:
A monk asked Master Yun-men: “What is the fundamental teaching in life?”
Yun-men: “No question, no answer.”
What does that mean?
Sahadeva, the prince, was the youngest of the five brothers known in the grand Indian epic Mahabharata, as 'Pancha Pandavs' (5 sons of King Pandu). Collectively, the five brothers had five qualities of a perfect king -- honesty, strength, skill, beauty and wisdom.
Sahadeva was the wise one bestowed with a strange gift. By observing the present moment he immediately knew everything that had had happened in the past that created the present and what would happen in the future by studying the causal relationships within a phenomenon. He realized that one might predict the possibilities in the future if one cared to observe nature and reality very carefully.
But he was bound by a promise he made to Lord Krishna who instructed him, 'Never tell what you know to anyone voluntarily. And when a question is asked reply with a question."
Thus, even if he knew what was happening or going to happen he could neither able to tell people what he knew nor do anything to avert the inevitable.
So, for himself, Sahadeva waited for people to ask him the right question. People did ask him many questions -- but almost never the right ones. Hence he was always wistful and forlorn.
Moral:
This story gives us many important lessons.
1. The present moment is the most useful moment to understand what caused it and what might be the consequences in the future.
2. The ability to see reality can only be developed through the ability to question since proper questions have the power to lead us to the right answer.
3. Questioning is an important part in designing something new, solviing problems, finding why something happens so that wise decisons might be taken. Hence this art of questioning is useful for Innovation, Design Thinking, Systems Thinking and a whole lot of issues.
4. Wisdom can't be transferred, taught, shared or given to someone. One has to find it out for himself/herself through one's own doubts and questions.
5. There is a price to be paid for gaining wisdom. The vision a wise person sees is difficult to communicate and share with others. Hence a wise person is also a lonely person.
6. However, a good leader/teacher initiatates learning in others to improve their performance by employing the skillful art of questioning.
There was a recent and still on-going discussion on a Linkedin forum on "Pursue Design Kata" initiated by Paula Thornton, the owner of the Design Thinking group on Linkedin.
It tells very clearly what a 'kata' is. It is not a technique but a way of life for an organization to remain adaptive to constantly changing social and business environment.
In the video she refers to I wanted to portray this 'way of life' for an organization, which in this case shows a factory.
The case depicts the way in which people pursue a 'wicked problem' which in this case was that of a repetitive customer complaint. Wicked problems are not very easy to crack since these can't be defined and don't have very straightforward solutions or any single right answers.
Usually, in such cases industries try to resolve such problems by amending their 'check sheets' to include more inspections and precautions. Some of them would go a step further by simply reviewing and augmenting their existing systems without really finding out the real answers to the problem, which would generally call for a change in design -- of processes, products, design and existing practices much of which would be challenged especially the tacit assumptions that get woven into our daily work.
It is probably clear from viewing the video why finding answers to wicked problems, which every organization faces, are difficult to figure out. They are so because of the interdependent nature of various things that go into making and shipping of the products and services.The advantage of cracking such 'wicked' problem is enormous -- it opens up great opportunities to solve many problems and issues simulataneously. I would like to compare solving such 'wicked' problems with the resonnance phenomenon -- we get the maximum work done for a small amount of effort.
Confidentiality terms prevent me from delving any deeper into this case. However, the educational intent and content, which form the worth of this video artifact have not been sacrificed or comprised with. Hopefully, it would not disappoint you in any way. Rather you may enjoy viewing a 'new way of life' in organizations that accept 'complexity' and 'chaos' as natural emergent phenomenon and visually determine the interactions between things and people that produce 'wicked' or 'vexing' problems so as to 'balance' their systems and continously amend their way of working for the benefit of the society at large.
It helps organizations to be adaptive and innovative and at the same time helps them hone and maintain their creative leadership edge.
CL is the short form for Creative Leadership
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