The class of self-leadership on 15th October
started with summarizing what we did till now. It included the discussion on
the six layers, study of one’s own self and appreciative inquiry. Then we went
on and discussed about how we learnt Appreciative inquiry at Sidhbari and then practiced
it during our trip to nearby villages where CORD has done tremendous amount of work
for upliftment of people and how people have taken responsibility of their own
growth.
Then we talked about the framework by Doctor Ron Howard at Stanford University for strategic
decision making. This framework tells us about how we make choices for
ourselves. It has various steps where:
·
The first step is to define the most important
question we are trying to find the answer to.
·
Then we collect meaningful and reliable
information related to question defined in step one, followed by defining
several creative and do able alternatives.
·
Then we need to define logic for evaluating risk
and return. For example if the board of Tata Steel has to decide the next MD,
then they may define the framework of competencies required and based on that they
can take unbiased decision.
·
We must also decide upon the values and
tradeoffs related to each alternative. E.g. some decisions may sound compelling
but they may go against your core values so you need to discard such decisions.
·
Finally once the question and alternatives are
defined and the best alternative is found, we need to formulate the strategy to
implement the same.
This framework is a great tool in decision making but is
only useful when the list of alternatives is exhaustive and we clearly know our
values and tradeoffs. I could see the importance and use of this framework in
making career choice. For example the question one may ask is “What career to
take up that keeps me happy?” and use the framework to get best possible solution.
Many a times we feel that to gain
something, one needs to lose something. When such a situation arises, one
must revisit his list of alternatives and redefine them more creatively in way
that you need not lose anything.
Building upon it, we then talked about the creativity one
may have and tests to measure creativity. According to a survey done, all of us
are most creative in the age group of 5 to 15 years. India is among the worst
in the world on creativity level. The reason for the same is our education
system that keeps on putting layers of conditioning on our creative minds to
shut them down. Then we discussed about the dimensions of creativity:
·
Ideational fluency: means coming up with large
number of ideas in limited amount of time.
·
Originality of thinking: how original your ideas
are
·
Associational fluency: it is combining images
with different aspects. E.g. Concorde design was inspired by grasshopper.
Creativity can be increased by using these dimensions and
also by overcoming our fears. There are many tools to measure our fears. This gives
rise to five laws that prevent us from being creative. Using this framework, we
need to answer some questions on 1-10 scale, 1 being lowest and 10 highest.
Whenever I am trying to do something new, to what extent:
·
the failure strikes me?
·
am I conscious of what others will say?
·
am I concerned about ambiguity?
·
am I concerned about lack of time and resources?
·
it bothers me when what I want to do requires me
to be outside and in touch with nature?
One good thing about creativity is that each one of us having
total score more than 25 has scope of reducing the same. Getting out of our
comfort zone and going to Mother Nature helps to reduce fears.
Then we prepared our life maps showcasing our high and low
points throughout our lives. We marked the most critical moments we encountered
in life and which impacted our life. This analysis helped us to study our set
of core values.
During the final session of the day, we went through the
ladder of inference. It states that we begin to think our beliefs are truth,
our beliefs are real data, the truth is obvious, the data we select is real
data and we have all the data we need. But Stanford studied that 80% of
information presented as facts was biased and was based on beliefs of few
folks. It shows that the decision makers do not use real information. They base
their decisions on data they have and feel it to be authentic. We must use the
ladder to challenge our questions and find are they based on real data or our
biases. Then we closed the day with closing circle and an important
message-LOVE means loving your own values eternally and LOVE helps to overcome
all fears.
In continuation to the class on 15th October, the
class on 22nd October stated where we left last time. We discussed
that how we can overcome our fears. Sir shared his story from 1984 riots in
Delhi. It gave us clear picture that when love for a cause is so intense that
you forget your own family, you transcend all the fears and show extra courage.
Then we did a small exercise in pairs and shared with each other, the moments
in life when we showed extraordinary courage. Through this exercise we could
capture the essence of courage as: courage comes from the passion, the goal one
has in life. It comes from selflessness, when you serve for the higher cause. Service
or sewa strengthens one’s courage. Courage
is not the absence of fear but the realization that something else is more
important than fear. Then we talked about how an IAS officer had courage to
help Tata Steel to fight for mines. The officer got the courage to do so for Tatas
because they are the people with integrity.
We then went on to discuss about our dreams in life. Then we
shared them with our classmates. One of us has a dream to see India as major
player in the Olympics. So for this he is ready to do whatever it takes. Then was
the time for the video on the habits of happiness by Matthew Ricard. The video taught
us about the happiness associated with living in the present moment, power of
meditation to stay happy and much more. The happiest mind is far more strong
and brilliant than an agitated mind. Also happiness comes to those who choose
to be happy and transforming your mind for the better is happiness. We always
say “I want happiness” where I is our
Ego and want is desire. So when we get rid of our ego and desires, we are
left with happiness.
Then we also talked about Immunity X-ray and how it can be
useful to change ourselves for the better. Towards the end of the day, we talked
about how unconditional love is the key to happiness. Unconditional love
calms our minds and gives us permanent joy. Sir ended the day with beautiful
message- power of unconditional love is inside you. Everything that comes
between you and happiness can be removed and you have full right to stay happy.
J
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