Every act has an outcome that is noted as
success or failure. Act, in this context, is considered to include a plan or strategy
that is intended to be implemented.
Human beings and organizational entities are increasingly concerned and
preoccupied with the results or outcomes of their acts. The more the investment
of resources in an act, be it time, effort or money, the greater is the
expectation of success. The resources can be tangible ones as above or
intangible ones such as encouragement, environment and ecosystem. The student who
invests a lot in seeking admission to a premier course in a premium institute
as well as his or her family that provides the resources, tangible and
intangible, both aim for success and are deeply affected by failure. Organizational
entities which are backed by founders, investors and other share holders with
investments of resources are also severally and collectively impacted by
successes and failures.
Hindu philosophy, probably and other
philosophies too, consider successes and failures as events in the wheel of
life, scripted and written by Destiny. While the Hindu philosophy exhorts the
individual to perform his ’dharma’ or duty, it expects the individual to
perform the duty without expectations. It also postulates “nirvana’ as the
ultimate life’s goal. Practically, however, in the day to day life individuals
and organizations live to succeed while performing their duties, with the
objective of success casting an overwhelming hue on the call of duty. Premier education
thus becomes a lever for social recognition and financial prosperity for the
student and the family. Growth and profitability become the platform for global
competitiveness and economic dominance for the entities and investors. Various individual
and corporate acts, including adoption of technologies and management
processes, are designed and practiced by individuals and entities to achieve
success and avoid failure.
Success and failure
Despite the fact that everyone sets up
himself or his organization for success there tend to be successes and failures
in the long run. There are two ways of looking at this; the statistical way and
the karmic way. The statistical approach teaches us that in any universe or its
representative large sample, the chosen dimension, be it an attribute or
outcome, statistically follows a distribution, in most cases the normal
distribution. There would be as many outperformers as underperformers around a
statistically determined median, with the shape of the bell curve in terms of
the peak and spread depending upon the characteristics of the universe. The extreme
outperformers as well as the extreme underperformers have low probability while
the mid-rangers have the maximum probability of occurrence. Extending the
statistical approach, success and failure, in the long term, are seen as resultants
of an environmental and a competitive landscape rather than as something that
is completely determined by the performer.
The Hindu karmic approach, on the other hand,
postulates as in Christianity that one reaps as one sows. The more good efforts
one puts in, the more successful would one be. That said, what constitutes good
and what constitutes bad is an individualistic determination. Going through a
coaching institution would be good for one class of students while studying and
stretching on one’s own would be good for another class. While a strategy of
product specialization would be appropriate for one class of firms a strategy
of product diversification could be appropriate for another class of firms. Even
within the karmic approach, therefore, the choice of right seed could be of
importance. While statistical approach focuses on the distribution of a range
of outcomes, the karmic approach teaches us to choose the right ingredients. Yet,
many individuals and entities fail to be circumspect and objective in their
choices. The cloudiness is due to the spectral effects of success and failure
on the psyche of individuals and organizations.
Spectral effects of success and failure
The outcomes of success and failure have
three effects each on the psychology of an individual or entity. These six shades
of success and failure together with the central disposition of being unmoved
by success or failure together constitute the spectrum of success and failure. As
is said, nothing succeeds like success, and nothing fails like failure too. As an
individual or organization goes through repeated successes or failures the psychological
disposition with which such repeated successes and failures are absorbed and
assimilated in the human or enterprise psychological system determines the
future propensity to success or failure. At the core of individual as well as
organizational mindset, the individual constitutes the core, the only difference
perhaps being that in an organizational setting the collective disposition of
individuals determines the predisposition.
The three effects of success could be
increasingly intoxicating on an individual or entity, eroding the very platform
of success. The first feeling of “confidence” that accompanies initial success
is a much needed and well deserved index of success. Repeated successes, unless
one is mindful, lead to “complacence” of success whereby success is taken to be
granted leading to a lowering of guard. When successes follow one after the
other, by design or default, even in a situation of complacence, one tends to
slip into “arrogance” of success, whereby one fails to accept feedback or
ignores to act on it. Each of the three states has a different influence on the
psychological disposition. Confidence (a belief in one’s ability to be
successful) is an essential ingredient of success; it leads to success and also
gets reinforced by success. Complacency (a feeling of being too satisfied to
recognize the need for change) is an outcome of ignorance of the factors that
drove successes of the past. Arrogance (a feeling of excessive pride that rejects
or alienates other people and other inputs) is an outcome of the false sense of
infallibility that some acquire as a result of continued success.
The three effects of failure could be
increasingly debilitating on an individual or entity, eroding the resilience to
recover and succeed which is possible even after failure. The first feeling of “concern”
that accompanies initial failure is a much needed and well advised
introspection of failure. Repeated failures, unless one analyzes the root
causes, lead to “helplessness” of failure whereby failure is taken to be
inevitable, leading to lowered or misdirected efforts to succeed. When failures
follow one after the other, by design or default, one tends to slip into a
state of “despondency”, whereby one fails to recognize the residual strengths
and opportunities. Concern (a feeling of responsibility to an unexpected
outcome) is an essential first step to recognizing failure; it leads to
introspection which, in turn, must help eliminate causes of failure. Helplessness
(a feeling of inability to take care by oneself) is an outcome of an inability
to introspect for root causes which, in turn, makes one rely on external
miracles than internal strengths. Despondency (a feeling of sadness and
hopelessness) is the sense of defeat that some slip into as a result of
continued failures.
“Equanimity” is a calm state of mind that
does not respond with excessive emotions, positive or negative, to one’s
successes and failures. If the six effects of success and failure described
above, ranging from “despondency, helplessness and concern” of failure to “confidence,
complacence and arrogance” of success, are a sequential part of a spectrum, the
mid-point is the feeling of equanimity. Equanimity does not mean that a person
or an entity is either unmindful of successes and failures or driven by extreme
confidence or despondency. Rather, equanimity requires that one analyzes one’s
successes and failures in terms of key drivers and root causes respectively and
works on them for ensuring further successes and overcoming failures. Each success
and failure requires prompt and considered attention as part of the equanimity
approach.
Nirvana of performance
Nirvana,
in Hinduism or Buddhism refers to the state of peace and happiness that a
person achieves after giving up all personal desires. Performance in life’s
context requires pursuit of advancement based on core competencies and core
values until one believes that the end state of total peace and happiness
without any further desires (or ‘nirvana’) is reached. This state is typically
reached at the end of one’s career, capping a series of successes and failures,
with successes hopefully being many more than failures. In the pursuit of
nirvana, however, one needs to manage the spectral effects of successes and
failures in such a manner that one is within the band of confidence and
concern, letting equanimity determining how one manages successes and failures.
For entities, however, there can be no end-state
as they are perpetual instruments for generating economic wealth and social
equity. The key to enterprise equanimity lies in the elegant and effective manner
in which the team members individually and collectively manage the spectral
impact of successes and failures. The considerations in the blog post are powerful
emotional or philosophical guides to understand and manage the drivers and impacts
of successes and failures. To provide a practical platform one would need to
see specific examples of how the spectral effects are evident in leaders and
managers, and how they impact the management of the spectral effects of
successes and failures in their own and their entities’ lives. These would be
covered in a sequel to this blog post.
Posted by Dr CB Rao on February 10, 2013
1 comment:
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