Monday, September 29, 2008

Excerpt Change


(Continuing campaign: Change)

There is nothing permanent in this world. Every thing changes except the law of change.

History is witness to all survived setbacks & defeats; to all joys & victories. All have passed away. If there are problems in the present, they too will pass away. If there were solutions in the past, they too have passed away. Because nothing remains forever. Things will change with the time.

We are witness of all this. We are the perceiver. Life comes and goes. Happiness comes and goes. Sorrows come and go.

This reminds me of one of my close friends who mentioned the golden words casually –
“This too will pass.”
May it be oil crisis, IT crisis, political/ economic crisis or quote latest topic of crisis in financial sector..!! Even the business statistics concepts are based on existence of cyclical waves. Thousands or at least hundreds of theories to back it up.

Think of the moments of joy and victory in your life. Think of the moment of Sorrow and defeat. Are they permanent? They all come and pass away. Life just passes away.

There were friends in past. They all have gone.
There are friends today. They too will go.
There will be new friends tomorrow. They too will go.

There were enemies in past. They have gone.
There may be enemy in present. They too will go.
There will be new enemies tomorrow and......they too will go.

If this too is going to pass, it is not yours.
The defeat was not yours, the victory is not yours.
You are just a watcher. Everything passes by…

You are just a witness of change. Experience it, understand it..!!

Friday, September 19, 2008

Subject Evolution


Let me continue with my Incredible India campaign.. (The experiences aren’t incredible as yet..!!)

The picture to your left is the newly packed police station of Satellite area, Ahmedabad where I live. As they say, never judge a book by its cover – pictures may be deceptive. Yesterday, I had an opportunity to visit (Quote me for visit. I am choked when I write this. Laughs.. I will not announce the reason for the visit in public forum) this so called state of art police station.

Indian police, I understand, is changing – improving like any other government department. However, like any other Indian patriot, I am not satisfied with the ‘pace’ of improvement. There is wide rift in the world class performance (recently coined jargon which is very much true) and the pace at which our systems are developing. (I am not complaining/ whining about the systems. It’s we, somehow, who are responsible for the entire system.)

Anyways, I was pondering if there is some way of putting the basic technologies to practice in our primitive systems. Forget technology, can we have better processes. Simplified procedures..!! Now here, I am not promoting my organization – Kaizen. But change is called for. You can coin any damn term for it – process improvement, process re-engineering, Kaizen. But the underlined concept here is Evolution (as coined by Charles Darwin). As it’s always highlighted change is the only constant thing in this universe. No one will dare to argue with it. My big question to you is can we have better paced evolution?

May it be any government department – police, education board, law and the list goes on. The entire system is full of redundancies, non value adding activities, erratic processes (again the list is limitless). I have seen departments maintaining ‘dual entry accounting systems’ –By dual entry, I am not talking about the traditional book keeping system but departments maintaining & updating the accounts on paper as well as on the computers. And if I may mention the reason it’s just due to improper change management systems or total lack of change management.

Out of all states, Gujarat is one of the most progressive Indian states. Recently (in quarter 1, 2008), it launched a novel concept of eFIR. Now if we consider this as the pace of improvement & development, it gives a unclear picture of the actual truth. The police stations are still following age old procedures, with hand written heaps of papers (should I dare to call it papers ‘cos most of them are hardly acted upon), carbon papers, etc. So, the next question that arises is the evolution uniform throughout the system?

Everyone is aware of the snail paced Indian judiciary system which is one of the pillars of Democracy. The number of pending cases almost exceeds 4 million. The system calls for improvement, change for betterment – rather than following traditional methods which were inherited from the British rule. Many of which suited their way of working or needs amendment with consideration to changing times. Can we question the age old practices/ procedures? Can we have better improved processes in place? I can continue writing, but let me cut it short. I understand, it’s easy said than done. But something should be started from somewhere.

(I understand, it would appear that I am contradicting my thoughts in the earlier post. However, the previous post is correct in the context and this one is extension to it. I am speaking about government departments ‘cos I feel (which will hardly be questioned) that they lag way behind in terms of change management)

The entire post reminds me of George Bernard Shaw who said - People see things; and say, 'Why?' But I see things; and say, "Why not?"