Being Ethical is not for the Chicken Hearted!

In a show on the biography of Stalin in History Channel, there were few hair-raising facts for people who believe in ethics and attempt being ethical. Sample this:

· Hitler would break promise and agreement of no war with Russia and attacks Russia during WWII;

· Stalin would have his wife murdered for arguments and fight with him and nobody would even raise a word against it;

· Hitler and Stalin would get their associates killed if they did not suit their designs; everyone had to follow the orders even if they were diabolical in their designs.

Now sample some of the wide spread unethical issues floating in the environment in New Delhi:

· Eighty two out of seven hundred odd officers and staff of sales tax department of Delhi govt is caught in video asking and talking bribes as shown by the news channel; it names sales tax office as Ghus-Mahal where almost hundred percent of the employees are corrupt in one way orthe other. In fact one gets the posting there after one gives bribe to the babus and ministers;

· Shakti Kapoor, a film actor is caught in a sting operation asking for sexual favours in return for entry into acting assignments for budding actress;

· Wide spread corruption in Income tax department even for taking refund of excess income tax paid;

· I know a case in Pune university where a naval officer’s wife was giving sexual favours to her PhD guide in return for recommendations for PhD degree;

· An ex chief secretary of UP, Akhand Pratap Singh is found to possess more than humdred crores of property with a an annual income of about few lakhs . He was voted the most corrupt officer by the IAS association of UP where he was Chief Secretary about eight years ago. Nobody could touch him while he was in service; he is caught only after retirement now i.e. eight years after he was voted most corrupt;

· Doctors enjoy the hospitality and expensive gifts of pharmaceutical companies by prescribing their expensive medicines;

· School students indulge in proscribed sexual activities even before attaining the maturity required in such acts;

· Office romancing and unethical sexual liaisons and exploitations are also frequently reported in newspaper. Recently a head of meteorological department in New Delhi was caught in sexual exploitation case;

· Tehelka case of corruption and sexual favours to military officials and politicians is still fresh in our memory;

· Widespread software and music piracy by even ordinarily so-called ethical persons, which includes me, has sent such companies in losses.

Corruption is a well known and even well accepted fact of life in India. We have come to take it as normal and natural and also exploit it for our gain.

Does talk of ethics in this environment seems foolish? Should we generalise the issue and say that it is human nature to tell a lie, take bribe, gain undue advantages and so on. Apparently our culture seems to validate this.

If we examine the forces that encourage unethical behaviour and ethical behaviour, perhaps the dynamics of cultural, environmental and psychological factors will become more clear.

Consider cultural and environmental factor, the most important factors which encourage unethical behaviour. In our present day culture people with money seem to enjoy higher status irrespective of the method by which the wealth has been acquired. Corrupt person is not ostracised by society, rather he continues to enjoy the status he does even after it is known that he is corrupt. I know of one revenue official’s wife who openly boasts of huge income of her husband and enjoys all the modern gadgets like expensive laptop, digital camera etc. She is not ashamed of the ill-gotten wealth, she seems to be proud of it. And mind you, none of us who know her ever raise even a word about it. Our present day culture openly permits corruption; there is a sanction available in our culture for unethical behaviour of corruption at least. In case of sexual exploitation, still some hue and cry is raised while a little noise is made for cheating on your spouse. None whatsoever for piracy in music and software. For crimes like theft, dacoity and rape a lot of hue and cry is raised, thankfully. There are degrees of sanctions for unethical behaviour, some are acceptable while others not acceptable at all. Acceptable unethical behavioura are committed by majority while unacceptable unethical behaviour is committed by minority. The relationship with cultural sanction is direct and visible.

Consider the environmental factors. Stable political system and honest bureaucratic setup, ethical business practises of business houses encourage ethical behaviour in downstream

Consider psychological factors:

While growing up, children have no ethical role models to follow. Children instinctively follow the behaviour of their adults and not their verbal instructions. Developing ethical make up is a long drawn process in which one is programmed internally not to cheat or do anything unethical even in the absence of outside controls. In pursuing ethical practices, one may have to sacrifice self interest in the short run, therefore it needs an ability to see life in longer perspective. In today’s outside environment where there is little incentive to be ethical, it becomes all the more difficult to resist temptations. Under these circumstances, to become ethical in one’s dealings with clients, friends, relatives, family and even with oneself, is no easy task.

The incentives to be ethical can be listed thus:

· One may earn one’s own respect and respect of others who value ethics;

· One may get trust of people one deals with and therefore gain consequentially;

· One may build stronger relationships based on high level of trust and respect;

· One will have a clear conscience and relatively peaceful existence;

The disincentives for being ethical may be:

· One may not earn that much money or gain that much power or enjoy sexual escapades etc; and hence lose out on some good materialistic stuff;

· One may earn the wrath of dishonest and unethical persons who abound in today’s environment;

On balance, one can say that being ethical will require a high level of understanding of life and sensitivity. A sensitivity where one can follow the golden rule: Do not do unto others which do not want others to do unto you. Only a highly sensitive person can follow this golden rule; one who feels one’s own feelings and is sensitive to the feelings of others. Such person does not need outside controls, he/she is driven by how he feels for others and himself/herself.

Another talisman one can use is whether one can be transparent to others about what one is doing. Is it possible for me to reveal to the world about what I am doing or I need to hide it from others and am afraid of being found out? For instance, can I disclose to the world that I am having a romantic relationship in office to my wife and kids and colleagues or do I need to hide this affair from the world? Can I say that I watch pirated DVDs of movies and music and software? And so on for taking and giving bribe.

This test to some extent resolves the dilemma whether breaking a law is ethical or unethical. For instance Gandhiji’s breaking the salt making law in Dandi is ethical by this test. He is being transparent in disobeying the law which is exploitative. But can one justify using pirated software and music and movies about which one admits openly? Here one needs to combine the golden rule as well and then perhaps…… Can I resolve the dilemma of paying huge costs for software here? At least I can not and I do use pirated software. Am I ready to be punished for this? That is why I say being ethical is not for the chicken hearted.

Can one bring the third test? Is the vast majority breaking this law? Can I justify my unethical behaviour thus? Pragmatically speaking very few can pass this test and this determines the boundary of ethics in the society. Indian society has not crossed this boundary and fails this ethical test where piracy in software, music and movies is the accepted norm and one openly does the same.

In ethics there are various degrees to which one can rise as can be seen from above.

Now comes the crucial observation. Unethical people seem to have enjoyed the power and pelf throughout the history of mankind. Be it Hitler, Stalin, Changes Khan, Aurangzeb, Saddam Hussain, Idi Amin, Zia-Ul-Haq or Musharraf or for that matter present day majority of Indian politicians like Chautala, Lalu, Badal, Paswan, Mayawati. I am not saying good and ethical people do not hold power and pelf but majority seem to be of unethical people.

How this lack of ethics in the society and rule by unethical persons affect a common man? Sample this:

· The tragedy of world war happened to the comman man and can be understood when we know the character of people responsible for this havoc on this beautiful world;

· The present day Iraq & Afganistan war, Iran-Iraq conflict, Palestine conflict, Osam Bin Laden terrorist attacks, terrorism in Kashmir is directly affecting the life of a common man;

· Wide spread corruption in government makes a mockery of meritocracy; only those bureaucrats who can facilitate and help in corruption for the politicians are given important assignments in governments and the honest one’s are sidetracked to unimportant assignments. This directly affects the development of state and poor get poorer while the rich get richer. It increases the misery of the common man.

· Corruption in income tax, excise tax, sales tax and other revenue collection departments directly affects the revenue of government and thereby hampers the development. Many cases of Excise & Income Tax department senior officers with disproportionate assets are all to well known. Corrupt ministers like Ex Communications minister Sukh Ram, Lalu Yadav, Paswan and others directly harm the interest of the common man. Sample this. It was told to me by the ex head of the PSU organisation based in Delhi and Mumbai who were introducing cheaper mobile tariffs but were not allowed by the minister because the private operators had some understanding with the him. Every mobile user had to pay more because minister got his cut.

· How does it affect the family life? Most of the corrupt persons whose news I have read in paper also have some intimate women friends. Cheating their spouses is also wide spread here. Naturally poor ethics are all across one’s dealings. A Delhi High Court judge Shamit Mukerjee was recently caught for displaying undue favours to some persons in return for ‘entertainment by society women’ (exact words used by the judge himself in his confession). How will be the family life for them and their spouses and kids is for anybody to guess.

What is the impact of above on me? One it hurts, and hurts hard. Second, there is an element of pessimism when one examines these phenomena throughout history and poor progress of mankind towards ethical behaviour. There is tremendous cultural lag here. Mankind has progressed tremendously in its power to build and destroy but has lagged woefully in psychological and cultural development. What if the nuclear weapons come in the hands of people like Hitler and Stalin and Osama?

Here comes the tremendous responsibility of ethical people. Let ethical persons do all that they can to ensure that political power remains in the hands of reasonably ethical people. Second, sooner or later we need to realise that all the unethical persons have died without a trace but ethical persons like Jesus, Mohamad, Buddha, Indian saints and sages continue to live in our hearts. There is tremendous power in ethical behaviour too but it is a very soft power like the light of stars unlike the power of unethical behaviour which is like the explosion of crackers in the sky. The stars continue to shine brightly through the ages while the crackers shine brightly for a fraction of a second and then die their natural death. The hidden power that rules this world somehow ensures this balance from where my optimism springs. The world has survived the despots of history.

I have no doubt that ethical persons enjoy a better quality of life and relationships . It may not be materially rich but it is qualitatively much richer. This is the pull of ethical growth for which one need to invest time and energy. It does not come of its own, one has to work towards it.

24^th June,05

The Power of Empathy: The Joy of It’s Expression And The Pain of Its Absence

I called up Prof Minhas in Psychology department the other day to offer a programme on Sensitivity Training for their PG students. I was not sure whether I shall get a positive response, whether he will understand the value of this programme for his students and my motivation to offer the same. All these doubts were coming up in my mind when I called him on the phone. As our talk progressed, I felt delighted because he understood the value of what I wanted to do, he could put himself in my shoes and appreciated my effort to reach out to the students with something of professional value to them. In short, he had full empathy with my location. It built some bonds of affection between us and I felt closer and warmer towards him and this brought a childlike joy in my relationship to him.

This was the joy of empathy. Empathy means being able to experience the other person’s world with his/her eyes. It means knowing what the other person is feeling, why and how one is feeling this way and lastly conveying one’s empathic understanding to the concerned person. This eases the tension in another person, one feels understood and feels relaxed at that. It is another dimension of love because the union of understanding occurs at the moment of empathy.

Empathy does not mean sympathising with another person at all. It simply means complete understanding of another’s psychological location, feelings, their intensity and stance and reasons for the same.

Now take another event where there was lack of empathy. My mother is old and she often feels lonely and upset because she is losing control on her household activities due to health problems. And my father who has his own interests in newspaper and TV programmes takes her for granted (this is diplomatic way of saying does not empathise with her), she feels hurt, withdrawn and lonely. Naturally so. This is the pain of lack of empathy from one’s close relations. It increases distance between two people because lack of empathy is akin to lack of love. The process of understanding the location of another person, his/her feelings is the primary way to build bridges and bonds. In its absence two persons may be in physical proximity with each other but will remain as islands. Whenever in relationship, I experienced absence of empathy, it led to sapping of my energy and pain of loneliness. The reverse is equally true as illustrated in the example at the begining.

From above it is clear that empathy in relationships is a critical factor for their blossoming. The ability to empathise varies widely among people like any other personal quality. However, it is something that can be enhanced with practice and guidance. The first step to build the skill of empathy is to become aware of its value in one’s life. Next, one needs to know that there is scope of its improvement in oneself i.e. know one’s competence level. And then make efforts to improve it.

Empathy can vary in scope. For instance it can be for one person’s feelings and location, for a group’s or for a large gathering’s feelings.

The actual process of enhancing empathy is the same old style. One attempts to practice empathy, first with closed one’s, then with acquaintances and strangers and then check with people whether they are actually experiencing these feelings that you thought they were. This feedback facilitates further growth and experimentation.

Before one can do the process above, most important step is to become aware of one’s own feelings, thoughts and instinctive reactions of the body-mind system. Humans experience others feelings only because they themselves go through the same feelings. When somebody is experiencing, say sorrow, it evokes in us some feelings in response to the signs of sorrow that we are seeing in the person. Unless I am aware of these evoked feelings in me I will not be able to empathise with the person. Critical factor in empathising with other is sensitivity to one’s own feelings. Let me disclose this from my experiencing that very few people are in touch with their feelings; the reasons could be far to many for the same. This is the prime reason why there is so much pain and suffering in relationships that we are all witness to in our everyday life.

I have seen and done few tests for measuring one’s empathy levels. Some of these are the multiple choice questions type while some use audio-visuals too. The latter category of tests have powerful impact wherein one hears the voice and looks at the facial expressions and then guesses the feelings of the actors. Such test can be used to measure one’s progress in this direction.

It is important to move from being empathic to individuals to empathy towards groups. Groups are an arena where all kinds of feelings are floating and one’s effectiveness in group enhances in direct proportion to one’s sensitivity to these feelings and then addressing the same. It is critical for maintenance of the team or group. One of the secrets of effective leaders is their empathy with individuals and groups.

The benefits of empathy are numerous:

· It improves one’s relationships both at home and work;

· One becomes more understanding and this leads to less conflicts with others;

· One becomes effective team member;

· This is one of the most important skill for counseling others;

· One lives more genuine life and gets rid of artificiality.

So far I have talked about developing empathy later in life. However, one of the most important gift that parents can give their children is to make them skilful in this trait. This would require giving importance to experiencing and expression of wide variety of feelings that a child goes through. Parents need to give permission to their kids that it is OK to feel feelings and to express them in a safe way. In our Indian culture, especially boys are given injunction against expressing feelings especially the vulnerable feelings. And this has many damaging consequences for them and others in their lives later in life. Learn to guard against this cultural drawback and overcome the same. Empathic children are a reward in themselves and it will improve the overall climate at home in the present as well as in future when they have to look after the old parents.

Let me close with a message that empathy leads to love and Love is God. So the way to God is through empathy.

Organisation Climate & Environment

Introduction:

Every organisation, whether new or old, acquires a particular climate which can be felt by anyone who comes in contact with the organization. Climate affects most deeply the people who work for it. The smell and flavour of mountains is different from the sea beach or the desert. One starts experiencing the same as soon as one is coming near the mountains or beaches or deserts. Same holds true for organisation climate.

Here are few concrete experiences from my consulting experience:

This is a semi government organisation in Madhya Pradesh under the control of a ministry in the state. It has a strength of about 200 persons of which about 50 are executives and rest is staff. As soon as one enters the office premises there are clearly two well demarcated areas. One area that has offices of Director General (DG), Executive Director(ED), reception and conference. This area is neat and clean with floor tiles and good light fittings. Another area is of old world dilapidated partitions full of dust and grime that houses rest of the executives and staff. There is an air of ease and unhurried pace all around the place. People walk in for office from 10.30am till 12.00pm whereas the office opening time is 10am.DG and ED are both holding additional charge therefore they come for one to three hours only in a day. Some of the executives have been waiting for their promotions for more than ten years. Most of their time is spent in socialising within the office in their small subgroups/cliques where office politics and service benefits remain the principal agenda of discussion. In my personal interview with these executives their promotions, rivalry and backbiting was on top of their mind. Few of the court cases against each other and against the managements are pending. Many applications under RTI Act are filed to get routine information. Most of the people have been with the organisation for almost twenty years and are likely to retire from here only in another few years .Some of them shared that they feel miserable on getting up in the morning as they dread coming to the office where the work experience is totally unrewarding and office politics energy sapping. In their perception, situation seems to be in control of some people at the top while the rest of the people are victims of their fates. Yet they are going to work here only as it provides them a job security and monthly income to keep their home fires burning. This is a painful example of alienation of people at work places! I am not sure I have captured the agony of these people the way I have experienced it but suffice it to say that climate of an organisation has direct bearing on the well being of the employees. Here is the irony: young university pass outs working on temporary assignments were too eager to get permanent job here!

Take another case: This is a private enterprise involved in training of children and adults. It has a strength of 50 persons spread at all levels and mostly between 25 and 45 years of age. The entire place has a modern look and employees are in the office before the official opening time of 9. Each one is seen busy with his/her work and one gets a sense of belonging, courtesy and respect for each individual in the climate. They get a healthy lunch in a neat cafeteria which again is a place of lively discussions about work as well as social and personal issues. Each one is continually given opportunity to extend their boundaries in professional spheres. Employee turnover is about 5% which is below industry standards. Achievements counts more than empty status symbols and their market share is constantly growing. Top management is bullish about their future. This is in absolute contrast with the example above.

Take a third case: This is an educational institute of higher learning in New Delhi. This illustrates how with the change of Director the climate of the work place changed. Before the new director took over, promotions were long overdue, no new recruitment had taken place in last 12 years, office politics had totally vitiated the atmosphere. Actually it was very similar to the case one above. After the new director took over, the climate is steadily changing from non-caring to caring attitude towards staff and faculty. People are moving away from status orientation to achievement orientation in terms of paper publications in journals & starting new courses as well as revising of syllabus. Open and authentic communication is replacing fearful and suspicious atmosphere where information sharing was avoided. Quick grievance handling processes are in place. Once again one can sense enthusiasm and energy in people for their work.

Wide variations in work climate are possible depending o variety of factors that we shall discuss here. This paper focuses on various human processes that influence organization’s climate and what makes for a conducive work climate. Objective is to understand and learn about these and then apply them to enhance work climate whenever we have an opportunity to do so.

Climate Influencing Factors:

A simple model to understand climate focuses on four fundamental factors that influence it. These are as under:

How people are treated: the attitude of management towards employees: A good climate will come about when employees feel respected and cared for, have growth and development opportunities, feel fairly rewarded and treated, and can be their real selves without having to put up masks. Management and staff treat people with respect and dignity. People are considered most important assets of the organisation. This may lead to greater sense of belonging with the organisation and pride in being its employee. There will be much less stress due to cliquing and politicking and petty quarrels. Employees are part of decision making that affects their lives and feel empowered to influence decisions and policies. People are not afraid to make mistakes because mistakes are hard knocks of lessons to be used and learnt from. People can raise issues as problems are confronted and not escaped from. Healthy conflict amongst employees is not only tolerated but encouraged so that issues are resolved and not brushed under the carpet. Good climate is also engendered when management makes sure that integrity is an important value and ensures that people behave ethically. When such climate exists here is no need for people to be defensive and this enables a game free interpersonal relationships amongst employees based on authentic interactions. All the above build high level of trust and support amongst people which makes an environment very light, healthy and conducice to high achievements.
Motivational Orientation ( Power, Achievement, Extension, Affiliation) : Organisational climate is also distinguished by its motivational orientation. For instance the climate in an Indian government office is one of power, influence, status symbol based and control as seen by styles of offices and behaviour of officers. Contrast this with that of a high performing business enterprise where achievement, business shares and excellence is the theme of all interactions and decisions. And if we look at climate in social organisations like Rotary Club, the main theme is fellowship, networking and affiliation. Depending upon the motivational orientation, the climate develops and affects the people who are its employees, customers or stake holders.
Values ( Rational, Traditional, Opportunistic): Different organisations can also be distinguished from the flavour of their values. Whether they are adapting a rational, modern, progressive, open to change values or are traditional in their approach. Or contrast this with the climate of an unethical setup where their only concern is following their vested interests irrespective of its impact on the society. For instance Military Dictatorships.
Norms and beliefs: Last , but not least, norms are the small rules of behaviour that affect climate drastically. For instance, how mistakes are treated, how rewards and punishment is given, how dishonesty is dealt with, how deviant behaviour is confronted and set right, how decisions are taken, how easily approachable the bosses are, how conflicts are managed , what are the common modes of communication and so on. All these norms ultimately affect the favourableness of the climate.

Moving from simple fundamental factors, let’s understand how we actually experience climate. Following dimensions of human processes indicate the climate of an organisation:

Level of trust and support
Manner of dealing with feelings of individuals and group
Absence of defensive behaviour in people
Authentic relationships amongst people
Dispensation of rewards and punishment
Opportunities for growth and development of employees
Easy accessibility of people in general and top management in particular
Levels of experimentation and innovation or risk taking
The way in which conflicts and problems are handled
Participation in decision making and sense of empowerment
Mistake management
Motivational orientation
Interpersonal relationships amongst employees
Openness and transparency in actions and communication
Openness to change

It is not easy to implement and it requires high level of leadership and commitment to bring about such a climate. However, if we understand and value it, it is possible to achieve it by bringing about growth in the people who work in the organisation. It is a win-win for people: they grow as well as the organisation grows.

The Glass Boundaries We Set For Our Achievements

A new driver came for a job with me. He could drive the small car well but had never driven the luxury car. He refused to take the test for driving because he believed that he could not drive the big car. He had set a limit to his skills, an imaginary limit, a glass ceiling about his ability to drive the car.

Similarly I have set a limit to my earnings, I relax the moment I have achieved them. This glass ceiling prevents me from utilising my full earning potential. Not only earning but also professional heights that I can achieve remain far away from me because of unconscious belief that I am not yet capable of achieving the same. The beliefs that set the boundaries to our achievements operate beneath our full consciousness like that invisible glass ceiling- it is there yet hidden from our sight.

A beautiful sufi story illustrates this well. Once a cub of a lion is separated from its mother and other lions. As luck would have it a herd of sheep while passing nearby includes it in its herd. Years pass and the cub picks up the culture of the sheep herd. It speaks like them, eats like them and plays like them. And of course it believes itself to be a sheep, though a little larger in size and shape. In fact it develops an inferiority complex that it is dissimilar from other sheep in some important respects. It has no way to know that it is far more physically and otherwise superior to sheep.

One fine day another lion spots this herd and is surprised to see a lion with them. It was a lion but behaving like as if it was sheep. What has happened to this lion? Why is it moving with the sheep and behaving like a sheep? He roars aloud to attract attention of the sheep lion. The sheep lion becomes as afraid as the other sheep and starts running in the herd nervously. This makes the king lion suspicious. He runs and catches hold of the sheep lion. “Look dear lion” asks the king lion,” why are you behaving like a sheep and moving with them?” “ What do you mean?” asks the sheep lion, “ I am a sheep and have grown up with them”. The king lion understands the whole story. He takes the sheep lion to the bridge above the clean river of water. He says, “Look into your image in the water. Are you a lion or a sheep? Poor chap, you are a lion like me and the king of this jungle. Realise your true self and cast aside your belief that you are a sheep. Awake arise and stop not till you truly become the king of the jungle.”

This realisation at the exhortation of the king lion changes his life forever. From a sheep he becomes the Lion King.

It will be good if we become alert to the limitations we set for ourselves. The process of the same goes somewhat like this. First I become aware of the glass ceiling in the form of limitation or boundary for my achievements that I have set for my self. From awareness I move to understand its operational dynamics as to how because of that I do not look at or refuse opportunities, become risk averse, loose my focus and energy. This sets the cycle of poor achievement in motion.

For instance, I have a limitation set for myself that if I earn about 20000Rs it is enough for me. This glass ceiling stops me from looking at opportunities where I can earn more for the same or even less amount of efforts. While if I extend my limit to Rs 500,000 per month, then I look for opportunities where I can earn that much and not waste my energies at low return on investment (ROI) activities. I awaken all my dormant energies towards achievement of this goal. Moreover, I see persons of my level of capabilities earning more which inspires me that I can do it too. This demonstration effect, that is others similar to me doing it, is very powerful phenomenon.

Until the Mount Everest was not scaled, it seemed impossible. Once, Tenzing and Hillary broke that achievement barrier, it has been scaled umpteen times under more stringent conditions and paths. Similarly, once the barrier of covering 100 meters sprint in 4 seconds was broken, the record has been set to new heights by many more people. Same is the case in other sports records.

This desire to set new record gives one focus, discipline and energy and sets in motion the virtuous cycle of achievement. It prevents the waste of our energies in useless pursuits and harnesses all our energies towards the achievement of our “sacred” goal. We see only the goal and nothing else like the legendary Arjun seeing only the bird’s eye in the huge tree; that level of concentration comes from focus of our attention to the goal. A good golfer sees only the ball and the hole, nothing else seems to take his attention; that is the attraction of good golf or maybe the same in other games.

In nutshell, break the glass ceiling of limitation on achievemnt, set the realistic goal, make it a sacred and all consuming passion, focus all attention and energy on its achievement. No power on earth can stop one from achieving it.