The VUCA Age

Yesterday, I visited one of the financial institutions at Wangdue to do some domestic transactions. It took me with a surprise for taking almost an hour to observe one man’s job getting done. The service was at damn snail’s pace.  

That waiting hour was adequate to heat my temper chamber. So, I resorted to giving my token to a man sitting next to me and drove towards Khuruthang to continue the work. Eventually, it was done.

I realized that the public services next to the doorsteps are seldom unpredictable and inadequate in exercising their functional duties.

But more than anything else, amidst the myriads of questions that cropped up, I kept wondering if our financial institutions or public institutions for that matter were aware of that VUCA factor in the world of work.

The credit for the etymology of this VUCA acronym goes to the U.S. Army War College. But today, this military vocabulary is extensively employed in the fields of business conglomerates and educational enterprises due to its strategic insight and concept for managing the present and concerning the future. 

Image Courtesy: Click LINK

VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity.

Volatility stands for an unpredictable pattern and dynamics of change in terms of its nature, speed, volume and magnitude. As the world gets exposed to increasingly faster growth of globalization, digitalization and commercialization each day, it pushes our world of work further into more complex settings. Under such a systematically volatile system, change is thus, an inevitable but certain outcome. The rate of change today is much faster and different than ever before. Accordingly, reinventing a working system with a strategic vision that is resilient, dynamic and adaptable has to be in place to answer such problems.

In a move to build such flexible and malleable systems, organizations have to look beyond in finding a new approach to optimize their productivity. Critical to the success of steering its productivity exponentially for any business is giving equivalent efforts in considering customer feedback and understanding available competitors in the business market. When there is a lack of clarity or lapses in understanding such complex systems, organizations are undoubtedly doomed to fail miserably.

This is predictable in our systems which are complexly formed of people from diverse backgrounds, education, culture and beliefs that are intensely interconnected and interdependent. The organizations that cater to such diversity have to focus on surrendering any ineffectual strategies to emphasize creating enabling conditions to boom their business. There is no room for that traditional belief or complacency characteristics of assuming their business to be doing OK without having a clear sense of such complexity. In an attempt to thrive the success of the organization, the network of chaos that maximizes the likelihood of creating public nuisances and curtails the general progress of the institutions has to be sorted out neatly.  

Such an act of understanding the cause and effect relationships, and being open to conceptualizing threats and opportunities can clear the ambiguous path of the institution. When such vagueness is resolved, so many contextual events can flow in place. Designing an improved but newer and faster way of delivering service after welcoming every public outcry will only upsurge the number of customers by leaps and bounds.      

It is crucial in the business world to accept customer satisfaction as the cause of the success of any organization. But the VUCA concept is more so important in preparing the entity to respond to the fast changing environment and drive for the change.

But it depends on how we buffer the effect of such changing landscapes in the complexly fast emerging world.  

 “Back in 1958, a company could expect to stay on the list for 61 years. These days, the average is just 18 years”

Antonio Regalado MIT Technology Review

Effective Communication

Communication is one central human phenomenon that takes place daily in our life. We communicate to exchange our thoughts and ideas with the purpose of transmitting the information.

But how successful we are in transferring the message across to the audience would be gauged by how capable we are in communicating effectively.

Having the right skill on how best one can explain their ideas and thoughts while making others understand can make a sea of differences in synchronizing workflow in the system, deciphering problems, making wise decisions, building positive rapports, and decorating one’s career besides creating a civilized society. This merits the fact that effective communication is also a process that involves hearing what isn’t being said.    

For teachers, effective communication is more so important than any other life skill. How they architect the future of our generations and engineer the construction of knowledge in the otherwise misconstrued compartment of a child’s neuron, largely rests on the pivot of effective communication.

A highly proficient and competent teacher never fails to calculate listening, reading and writing as other major elements of the effective communication equation. But more than these things, body language takes a lion's share in being an effective communication constituent. The transferal of knowledge, skills and values are only productive when all these components function as one system of effective communication.

The recent professional development course entitled “English for Effective Communication Training” by the Ministry of Education for the teachers throughout the nation only warrants such significant magnificence. Such professional crusade can at best, inspire the educators to be more reflective in teaching while at least, can assist them to grow some characteristics of an effective communicator. 

“… You cannot tell children to be strong if you are not strong yourself. If you don’t know anything about the subject you are teaching how much of it are you going to give to your students, you cannot give what you do not have…”

– His Majesty King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck

Drukpa TsheZhi

Every fourth day of the six month in the Lunar calendar is observed as the First Sermon of Lord Buddha.

Natively known as Drukpa Tshe Zhi, it is regarded as one of the most sacred and auspicious days in the Buddhist calendar. It is on this day that the Buddha Shakyamuni, gave the first sermon regarding the Middle Path and the doctrine of the “Four Noble Truths” (བདེན་པ་བཞི), spiritually revered as Turning the Wheel of Dharma (Choe Khor Duechen). 

The First Sermon of Lord Buddha       Image courtesy: Click LINK

Bhutan celebrates the day by paying visits to the holy sites such as temples and monasteries, offer prayers and butter lamps, chant the religious mantras and receive blessings from the religious figures, relics and murals (thongdrels). Any noble and virtuous deeds steered on this day is believed to multiple thousand times and a person will earn all the merits and blessings in manifolds.

Some 2500 years ago at Deer Park, Sarnath in India, the Lord Buddha has given a religious discourse to the five ascetics who were his former companions about The Four Noble Truths which are:

1. སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱི་བདེན་པ། Life is full of suffering:

2. ཀུན་འབྱུང་གྱི་བདེན་པ། There is a cause to suffering.

3. འགོག་པའི་བདེན་པ། There is an end to suffering.

4. ལམ་གྱི་བདེན་པ། The end to suffering is contained in the eightfold path. 

1. སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱི་བདེན་པ། Life is full of suffering

Buddha said that life is full of suffering. Birth, ageing, sickness and death are all suffering. Pain and grief, lamentation and agony, despair and misery are suffering. Separation of emotions, detachment from the beloveds and dissociations from the pleasant is suffering. Not getting what you desire is suffering.  

       

2. ཀུན་འབྱུང་གྱི་བདེན་པ། There is a cause to suffering.

Buddha said that all suffering is caused by desire. Craving for sensual pleasures, delight and lust is what causes sufferings.

3. འགོག་པའི་བདེན་པ། There is an end to suffering.

Buddha said that the end to suffering is to cease our desire and thirst, renounce or relinquish and detach completely from worldly desires.     

4. ལམ་གྱི་བདེན་པ། The end to suffering is contained in the eightfold path.

Buddha said that the noble truth of the way that will lead to cease the suffering is following the Eightfold Path. The Eightfold path is:

Right View

Right Intention

Right Speech

Right Action

Right Livelihood

Right Effort

Right Mindfulness and

Right Concentration.

 

Eightfold Path       Image courtesy: Click LINK

Buddhist narration has it that as soon as the sermon of the Lord Buddha concluded, the five ascetics got enlightenment. It is due to this spiritual magnificence that Bhutanese who are Buddhist since times immemorial get to remind and realize the fundamental teachings of the Lord Buddha on this very day.    

“Three things cannot hide for long: the moon, the sun and the truth”

Lord Buddha

Of Superstitions and Faiths

That ‘excessive credulous belief in considering something is true or will occur’ and a ‘belief in devotion or trust’ exists across the globe. But for all those cultural credulity and belief, a very transparent line of variations subsists in a sense that all are irrationally rational.

However, some ‘irrational beliefs’ as one may call them are sometimes genetic and territorial in nature. So, what one belief firmly may sound ridiculous to the other, which in turn qualifies to be a substance enough to ignite a tsunami of laughter.

Late recently, a lady from Shillong chortled after the valediction of the International Conference we attended together at Sherubtse College when I said, “May you have a rebirth in my country” in response to her recurrent would-be-missing-the-tranquillity-and-serenity of my country avowal.  

Wheel of life in Buddhism.                           

As much as it sounded derisive for my spiritual belief by this lady from the ‘Scotland of the East’, factually, rebirth doctrine is one instrumental string of belief that helms one’s faith in Buddhism. Buddhists, in general, have this ancient and historical belief in the blood that virtuous and pious deeds during our current existence will result in a swift rebirth, better than the present human realm due to one’s karmic action. We believe in that ‘environmental result’ where the present wealthy and the prosperous are the desired outcomes of relinquishing the material possessions in their previous life and have therefore offered to others in need. The poor and unhealthy at present are simply the otherwise.

In the same vein, most of the beliefs in Buddhism are mostly intertwined with logical extractions. Dreams that are grotesquely odd and mysterious are often considered a bad omen or premonitions, thus demanding suitable spiritual interventions to pacify them. Days and dates in the lunar calendar are programmed with the astrological interpretations of being auspicious and promising or inauspicious and ominous. The choice of colour of the new car, wedding dates and roofing of the newly constructed structures to name a few, are never free of such transcendent interpretations. That ‘spiritual connectivity allowing us to show reverence to nature as life-bearing identity grounds our belief to further ennoble it.   

These age-old beliefs and interpretations have withstood the storm of globalization. So for me, as long as that psychological and psychosomatic well being is taken care of, the beliefs embedded with the principles of Buddhism shall never shrink from the amulet of my mind.

“Superstition is the religion of feeble minds”           Edmund Burke

Challenges of Anthropocene

The recent international conference on “Challenges of the Anthropocene” held at Sherubtse College was undoubtedly a brilliant educational setting for the researchers, academicians and scholars to exchange and deliberate the dominant human invasion on Earth’s geology and the ecosystem.

As we live at the crossroads of the accelerating yet annihilating anthropogenic activity and decelerating and shrinking ecology, the forum as to such, plays a vibrant role in amalgamating ideas to counter the consequences of our unlimited greed posed over the limited mother nature. It was also an era of opportunity for the intellectuals to draw the meaning of our existence and question the sustenance of our survival at the time when Anthropocene is witnessed as the era of challenge universally.

As one of the presenters during the conference, it was an electrifying honour for me to present in the attendance of the experts and the elites. Such privilege which is occasional and priceless, not only exposed me to the world of academics and research constructions but also facilitated professional growth in me by having access to network with the scholars around. After toiling with abundant sacrifices to shape my research paper into a scholarly form, getting a chance to present in the calibre of such a conference rekindled my enthusiasm with a renewed motivation which would only bolster to pursuit further.

For making this dream possible, I would like to thank Mr Tshering Wangdi, the President of the Sherubtse College and the Geography Department for conceiving and hosting the conference. Also thanks to Mr Pema Dorji, the Chief District Education Officer of Wangdue district and Mr Shankar Lal Dahal, Principal of Bajothang Higher Secondary School for granting me leave. My gratitude also extends to Mr Ugyen Penjor, Bhutan Power Corporation, Mr Pema Wangdi, Lecturer, Sherubtse College, Mr Tashi Rabten, Teacher, Tashigang Pam CPS, and Mr Tawai Tshering for the hospitality. 

Acceptance Letter from the Organizing Committee

Certificate of participation

Abstract of my manuscript

 

President of the Sherubtse College welcoming the participants

The presentation slide

 “We’re living in the Anthropocene age and now human beings will be the shapers of our future, that totally control the overall functions of not just our plant, but our relationship with other planets”

Vandana Shiva

Fishbone Analysis

A

lso known as Cause and Effect Diagram or Ishikawa Diagram after its innovation by the Japanese quality expert Dr Kaoru Ishikawa, the fishbone diagram is a tool that can catalogue prospective source of a problem so as to diagnose its principal causes. Brainstorming instruments such as this can not only assist to address the symptoms of a much larger problem but can also be used to the advantage of an individual’s appraisal.

While success is subjective and temporary in nature, an unenlightened human instinct that is also genetic to me as well like many others sometimes troubles me to mull over the lightning speed of accomplishments and downpour of success that befall almost frequently to some even if we are a species alike that habitats in the same ecosystem. A mythical success story of such at times impacts me to question and awakens the corpse of my self-actualization.  

Success is a painful journey that requires the stamina of sacrifices. A complete body of success is networked with invisible organs of obstacles that either limit or miscarriage our goals.   

After nine years into the service, I have managed to sculpt why the excursion of my success is still so lengthy and gruelling to achieve. 

Possible factors (causes) affecting the success (Effect)

The following were the principal causes to name a few:

a)        Skill

b)        Environment

c)        Efficiency

d)        Leadership

e)        Performance

              f)   Motivation

In the world dominated by the dogmas of Darwin’s natural law of survival of the fittest, SKILL is probably one wick that can help us burn the immortal flame of our existence. How indispensable a person is can be largely determined by the uniqueness of an individual’s ability to be more artistic cognitively, creative intellectually, and competent in problem-solving. Having the same colour and taste of skill as others is perhaps vulnerable to the erosion of our dream at any time due to its dullness and similarity. Hence more uniquely skilful a person is, the better the chances of being successful.

Be it natural, manmade or human, Environment is one larger part that encompasses the tiny individual. This means that, directly or indirectly, the elements of natural (land, air, water), man-made (road, electricity, safe drinking water, internet connectivity) and human environment (family, community, religion, politics, economy) can affect the success of an individual. When any of these elements are not favourable and keep fluctuating, so do the priorities of an individual to accommodate such variations and thus, probably delay or deny the access to success.  

If Efficiency is one of the ribs that give shape to an individual’s success, personal qualities (education, mental power, resourcefulness, innovativeness) and environmental factors (working place, working hours, incentives and promotion) are crucial components to sustain it. No matter how honestly our innovation is showcased or how resourcefully one has worked with a high sense of integrity and diligence, in an environment that has lesser prospects of incentives and promotion, it’s like trying to fly with a broken wing.

If the engine is to the flywheel, Leader is to the institution. Many leaders are ignorant to realize that the heartbeat of the subordinates’ motivation, morale, and perseverance lies in the quality of their work. How honestly and dedicatedly they work without being seen by anyone visibly, how faithfully they walk the talk, how neatly they handle subordinates without prejudices, nepotism and favouritism, and how incorrupt they are when in power and control largely determines the geometry of subordinates’ performances. 

The leaders who are transformational (a leader who works in tandem with subordinates to identify change), charismatic (possessing a great charm of influence and personality) and transactional (rewarding the high performers and reprimanding the low performers) can be the harbinger of change for the subordinates’ road to success.

A level playfield that allows an individual a ticket of equity to work and expectation committed and timely assistance when in dire need, and fair and just evaluation significantly boosts the performance of an individual. When performance is better, the road to success is swift and smooth.

Eventually, Motivation in any form – intrinsic or extrinsic is critical to the realization of an individual’s success. As a social animal, Maslow’s Hierarchal needs namely social needs (friendship, community, acceptance), safety needs (security), and esteem needs (responsibility, recognition) are necessary for the self-realization (independence) of an individual. An independent individual is undoubtedly a good synonym for being successful.

“Think of at least four factors which influence your problem. See if a shift in one of these ‘causes’ can give you a different ‘effect’ to explore” –Kaoru Ishikawa