Systems

We had an EEP -II class (Economic Environment and Policy) sometime back. Our professor was talking about the phases of colonisation of India and the underlying economics at play. He painted an interesting picture of the situation existing at that time and also explained the underlying economics in various phases of colonisation. That sort of set me thinking. It was fascinating to explore the interactions between various institutions, people and interests.

It also was a lesson in trying to get the "big picture" from the details. It requires an ability to sift through large amounts of detail and discerning patterns, trends and interactions from that detail. It also requires immense concentration, an ability to keep stacking data in the mind as and when it accumulates and an ability to run over that data at regular intervals. Sounds tough?

Well, it is. But as managers, it will be critical to balance and manage the interests of various stakeholders while arriving at a decision. The truly successful managers will be the ones who manage to strike that balance more often than others. Probably the one thing that matters more than everything in that scenario is something that will help us integrate all that information in our mind. It is something that I have written about earlier as well... Common sense- and that too in no mean measure.

The systems approach is what we need to take back from this institute to the workplace. What it really means is that I need to have Clarity of thought (remember my post on Lord Hanuman earlier?) so that I can focus on the problem at hand and arrive at decisions that hopefully strike the right balance between various interests that are often conflicting.

God Save Me!
Sitan