- CHARLES HANDY Charles Handy, the author in his book “The Empty Raincoat” stresses on life being a struggle for many but a puzzle for most of us. He also outlines on paradox being an over used idea in today’s days and time but he also tells us to find ways to make sense of the paradoxes, so as to use them to shape a better destiny.
In The Dark Wood: Confused By Paradox
Times have changed! Work in the olden times used to be a place one went to, not something one did. Now-a-days its all about profit, performance, pay and productivity in organizations. Competition is healthy and essential but there is more to life then winning or we all would be losers but however much times have changed the trends remain the same – the rich getting richer and the poor are getting relatively poorer. It’s a waste of all our progress if we sacrifice human spirit to get some imagined efficiency. The market is a mechanism for sorting the efficient from the inefficient and not a substitute for responsibility. Management and control are breaking but we now know there are limits to management.
Paradox is inevitable and to accept it as a feature of our lives is recommended. There is paradox in everything and everywhere and is not comfortable or easy to live with. There is a never a final solution to anything in this world. There are prophets and kings – the kings have the power and prophets have principles. Kings need prophets to help them during confusions but prophets tell us the truth but cannot tell us what should be done. One must start whatever on his own and not wait for a leader to guide him.
Framing the confusion is the first step to doing something about it. There are nine principle paradoxes explaining what goes on in societies and why confusion is inevitable. It need not be resolved but just managed.
Paradox Of Intelligence
New source of wealth is focused intelligence called the intelligent quotient. It cannot be redistributed or left for ones children - that’s why it’s sticky and extraordinarily difficult to measure.
Paradox Of Work
People have started giving importance to work but have failed to live upon the expectations. Europeans believe no work is better than bad work unlike the Americans and the British, who believe that bad work is better than no work. Increase in efficiency in today’s time has led to dull and idle minds. People today use money as the measure of efficiency as the more money earned
proves more efficiency in a person. Organizations want more work done for least amount money whereas; people want more money for lesser amount of work.
The Paradox Of Productivity
Productivity means better work done by a fewer people. The new age demands a person to do things on his own. It’s a do- it yourself economy. Self-employment is the new rage today but even though it is paid work no one counts that work. When work is compared in money terms it is often destroyed.
The Paradox Of Time
Organizations today want fewer people working longer hours as it helps them save money. Problem now-a-days is that time is converted into a commodity. In organizations peoples time is being bought instead if their talent. Today’s time busy people spend money to save time whereas, people who are idle spend money to buy time. Organizations demand more flexibility in time today, as time is not fixed.
The Paradox Of Riches
The growth of a economy depends on more people buying more things. Rich people today believe in producing few kids and also living longer which hampers the growth of the economy. Rich today are few in number and very choosy about their products which all leads to shortage of growth potential.
The Paradox Of Organizations
Successful organizations are ones which are planned and yet are flexible, they are global as well as local, centralized as well as decentralized when necessary, they should be able to be mass marketers and also be able to cater for niches. In short, they should be able to find a way to reconcile opposites instead, of choosing between the opposites.
The Paradox Of Age
The generations are changing drastically today. They are yet affected by history but they all tend to grow differently. New generation work lives are totally different. All generations think they are different from the older generations but think they are the similar to the future generations.
The Paradox Of The Individual
Individuals today want to do things on their own and also want to belong to an organization. And the paradox lies in the ‘I’ and the ‘We’.
The Paradox of Justice
Justice is a bond of society. The paradox lies in the distributive justice – as it is said that those who achieve most should get more but again it rebuffs the idea of the one who needs most should get more.
Finding The Balance: Pathways Through Paradox
The world keeps changing. Success never stays with a person. It is said that the thing that gets a person at a particular position in life, is rarely the thing that keeps him at that position.
The Sigmoid Curve: - This curve is a device for finding a balance between contradictions. To keep a company running one should start a new sigmoid curve before the earlier one diminishes. To keep a company at its peak one needs to develop the second curve i.e., think of new strategies, new ideas, and new personnel, etc. Making a new future while maintaining the present and getting a balance between both is a way to manage paradox. It’s easier to move on from disaster than from success. Organizations need to be prepared to cope with the new age by being ready to change the product life cycles and come up with better strategies. Everything has its ups and downs and nothing lasts forever. One must find answers to their problems on there own as the world is ever changing. There is nothing as self-satisfaction as one forever wants more. The second curve has to grow out of the first curve, as it needs resources and time, which the first curve provides. In the above diagram, the overlapping area shows that the second curve is starting with the help of the first curve. The first curve has to support the initial stages of the second curve i.e., any new business needs a driving force from the existing business to flourish. To balance things in a time of problems one has to let the past and the future meet in the present. Best way of managing problems is to live with them and then analyze them. Organizations often use outsides to help them build the second curve, as they are more open to ideas and have a more objective mind.
OUTER SPACE
CORE
The Doughnut Principle: - It is a method of finding the balance between what one must do and what one can do or be. In this principle the doughnut is an inside-out doughnut with the core in the middle and this core contains the things, which need to be done in a job etc. if one doesn’t want to fail. An organization represents a doughnut today s they have the jobs as the core and the workers as he space outside the core. The long-term problem for organizations is to decide what people need to be placed for which activity. To find a right balance between duty and responsibility is a big problem which organizations face. Successful entrepreneurs lay down limits and targets and are also discreet about it. A sensible job is a balanced doughnut. Errors are of two types – type1 error is getting it wrong and type2 error is not getting it right and that full possibilities of a situation are not exploited or developed. The doughnut principle suggests that if one is not satisfied with their current job they should change their job. Empty doughnuts are not easily to live with. Organizations everywhere are being ‘reorganized’ and ‘reinvented’. They are creating work doughnuts, groups with complete responsibility for doing work and with specified rules and duties. It is a paradox that people demand for rights but ignore their responsibility, people want democracy but want others to sort out their problems, they also complain when other
take the initiative but don’t want to take any themselves. Doughnuts should be adjusted to the capacity of an individual or group.
The Chinese Contract: - It highlights the importance of compromise and flexibility in any mode of life. One must be able to trust others. A Chinese contract is self-enforcing. A person who is sure and doubtless never wants to compromise. A good leader is one who is certain and self- assured as well as who learns to compromise. Compromise is essential to democracy as wrong compromise can block progress instead of promoting it. To balance the demands of the present and he future one must learn to compromise. One always compromises for his own selfish interests and a personal compromise states that one always likes things, which harms one. A person must learn to sacrifice things in life to be able to get better things in life. British believe that conflict between opposites is the best recipe for fairness. Thinking from a third angle always helps to find solutions, which reconcile and illuminate opposites.
Practicing The Preaching: Managing Paradox
Different cultures give different projections of the idea of individuals in life. Federalism means changing of structures and systems to show a new balance of power. Federalism matches paradox with paradox. Federalism relies on a set of Chinese contracts and operates through doughnuts, which leave space for decisions. Federal organizations cannot be made or worked in as per one's wishes or liking. Organizations having clear objective or purpose would want to be federal. The key concepts in federalism are Twin Citizenship and Subsidiarity, which are old ideas specially reinvented for today's world.
Twin Citizenship: - It is a dicey component of federalism. Everyone has twin citizenship
situations in their lives. Organizations are going federal, because they want local units or specialized groups to be independent and retain the benefits. Federalism is an old device to maintain balance between small and big units. It means allowing the small units to be independent while still belonging or being a part of the big unit i.e., being different but part of the same. Organizations spend a lot of time on the common goal - establishing it, communicating it and reinforcing it. Organizations that communicate always prosper and grow. Common legal framework conveys the basic guidelines of the organization whereas, the common currency translates the information system so that inputs and outputs get measured and compared.
Subsidiarity: - It the idea of making people realize their responsibilities for themselves. Subsidiarity means 'reverse delegation' and organizations work on this principle. Organizations are to negotiate what should be done and also allow discretion to its parts as sensibly and possibly. Horizontal Organizations have ten key principles to find the optimum level of responsibility and get deeply into it so that the group gets the means to do what they have to do. In organizations, no longer do people feel that the ones at the top or the centre know the best but the centre should be strong and must be informed as ultimate responsibility lies on them. Subsidiarity depends on mutual confidence. Those in the centre must have confidence in their unit, while the unit needs to have confidence in the centre and also the members of the units should have confidence in each other. Subsidiarity is not easy and one has to understand his responsibilities and do what's needed and one should also be ready to face disagreements. Disagreements, Conflicts and arguments can be handled well only if there is mutual confidence. Subsidiarity is essential to differentiate between right and wrong.
The Corporate Contract: - Capitalism is increasing everyday and so are trade and industry flourishing. Capitalism includes free markets, private ownership of assets, private direction of investment and also the idea of the hexagon contract. The main aim or goal of any company is to make profits in order to continue to make things and do things in a better way and at a larger scale. Profit is a mean to other ends and not an end in itself. They are the principle yardsticks. Existentialism in business is not selfishness but a purpose to achieve something and is concerned with growth and development. Robert Wood Johnson president of Johnson and Johnson listed corporate priorities as - Service to customers comes first - Service to its employees and management comes second - Service to the community comes third - Service to stockholders comes last.
The Membership Business: - Managers and investors in organizations have different time perspectives regarding their responsibilities. Owners of companies do not take active part in business and so they should be regarded as punters i.e., they are given the privilege to vote. In any business the 'human resources' are the key assets as they are extremely creative, have technical knowledge, also have network of contacts, as well as human kills and lots of experience. Organizations are communities of people and a community is not a property also a community has 'members' and not employers'. They don't sell their people assets and buy others. They all want to reach globally and not increase the size globally. A Company must strive to do better what it does best i.e., increase its efficiency and fully exploit the potential. The concentration on power and the need for it has led to irregularities and negligence in management rather than increased efficiency and effectiveness. Therefore, powers need to be separated. Loyalty is also extremely important and goes first to one's team and project, then to one's profession or discipline and lastly to the organization where skills are practiced. Company loyalty should be there on a long-term basis. Ownership is not that important than membership as twin citizenship and subsidiarity in an organization can create membership. By adding value to closer teams and stressing on better boards may help owners do their role more effectively. Law always tends to follow practice and not lead it.
Organizations must change its structures and products as and when times change. One can only add meaning and value to his life by living those lives. A time of Chaos is a time of opportunity. New thinking, new information technology helps in making changes in ones workplace, work time and way of work. Work is becoming individualized, informal, invisible and unregulated.
Working time: - Paradox of time mixes with the changing nature of work and forces one to think of new ideas and strategies for work. Everything today is changing and losing its meaning. Career, Job title, etc all mean different today. Organizations are important today as organizers and not employers. British Organizations are featured with clear definitions of role and responsibilities and has well defined boundaries within different parts of the organization. Whereas, Japanese organizations are blurred and there is no proper definition of responsibilities and functions and there is constant change taking place. Any organization should be able to change quickly and easily and not see as per the convenience of easy recognized roles. They should divide their work into project teams, task-forces, small business units, cluster of work groups so as it is convenient to change as per the needs of the organization. Organizations today are also offering 'career opportunities'. An advertising agency, consultancy firm, hospital ward, etc are all fluid-matrix organizations as they are all doughnuts, with their members drawn from other specialist doughnuts. Doughnuts work well when the purpose and standards of work are
clearly defined and known. Today more and more people are being professionals and charging fees for the work they do. They are all 'going portfolio'. 'Going portfolio' means exchanging full- time employment for independence. A portfolio is a collection of different bits and pieces of work for different clients. Job now means a client. The difference between employers and professionals is that the latter can group their time as per their needs in different ways if they want whereas, the former cannot do so. Organizations want quality people - well educated, adaptable and skilled, who can juggle with several tasks and assignments at one time, people who aren't concerned with power and influence, people valuing instinct and intuition and are rational and can analyze, who can be focused and friendly, who can be tough and tender, people who can cope with these necessary contradictions. Therefore, women are most wanted for these jobs. Rethinking working time makes difficulties more manageable and makes one more responsible in return for more independence.
Spliced Lives: - "Live as if u will die tomorrow, but plan to live forever" is a useful maxim because perceptions change with age. One tends to look as far ahead as one looks back. One can now bend four traditions of work and the four types of work. One can also put work in a variety of combinations and make a new life. Work is a useful activity and comes in four varieties. First is paid work - it comes in various forms like wages, fees, etc. Second is gift work, which is done for free. Third is home work, which relates to homely chores and does not mean the usual school work. Fourth is study work, which pertains to the development and acquisition of intelligence. A balanced life is a mixture or blend of all the four different types of works. A full 'portfolio' has little of all the four different types of work. Like work there are four different types of ages. The first age is the age of preparation for life and work including schooling, work experience, etc. It is the age of forming oneself and includes much more than formal education. The second age is time of the main attempt in the form of parenting, paid work or home work. At this stage one can keep oneself extremely busy or totally idle. The third age is the time for living a second life, which could be a continuation of the second age or something entirely different. To do nothing is not a realistic option anymore. This age is not the retirement stage but to start something different. It's an opportunity to be another person altogether. The fourth age is the age of dependency. It is the anteroom to death and the more one tries to postpone this age the better it is. The success of any of the ages depends on the earlier ages. One must see life completely or as a whole to use the opportunities of the three ages to live a happy life. Every generation's life paths or courses are different. Life is long and there are difficult choices to make for all. Contradictions, problems and paradoxes in any person's life cannot be removed entirely. One cannot always get what one wants out of life at a particular time and may also not be able to give as one might like at a particular stage. The solution for this problem is the taking and giving of different things to life at different stages of life. There is always a downward beginning followed by an upward swing in anyone's life. Life is full of possibilities and opportunities for the start of a second curve. The first three ages of life can be lived in any sort of order as the new and ever changing world makes it unusually possible to be different from the normal or usual.
A State Of Justice: -The problem of an undivided society exists everywhere. The paradox of justice as well as the paradox of intelligence needs to be tackled. If the problem is not solved it gets very difficult for many of the poor to live beside the very few rich. More intelligence in a person does not mean less intelligence in other people. Intelligence being a property it is crazy and immoral not to want to create a full property owning democracy. Justice is the bond of society, which helps everyone to live together in unity, and also helps in coming to a better understanding between the rights and responsibilities of individuals to his own fellow human beings. This justice also helps people in learning to love their neighbours as well as themselves. Justice means fairness and fairness always is complicated. Fairness is a compromise when it has to move from principles to decisions i.e., the mixing of two 'oughts' or 'strong probabilities'.
Justice always finds a balance between the needs of an individual and needs of the whole society. Fairness emphasizes on people to educate themselves and give everyone a chance to live on the second curve. Everyone should get a chance to win in life and not to lose in life. Justice needs one to take out all inequalities and not stress on all people being the same.
The Intelligence Investment: - Everyone today should be educated and be allowed to invest in intelligence to have a fair and just society. To avoid inequalities and a divided society one must invest in intelligence. Real intelligence is not a product, which can be pre-packaged, sorted or delivered. Only intelligence in information form can be treated as a product or substance as it can be sorted and delivered. To be aware of everything and to know everything does not mean that one can do everything. Intelligence is classified in nine ways –
1) Factual Intelligence: - People who are extremely learned and whose general knowledge is good. These are people who have abundant amount of knowledge of their surroundings and business.
2) Analytical Intelligence: - People who like reducing complex or complicated data to a more a simple form. E.g. solving puzzles, crosswords, etc. An intellectual person is one with this kind of intelligence.
3) Linguistic Intelligence: - Any person knowing seven languages and can learn another language in a month.
4) Spatial Intelligence: - The people who see patterns in things. E.g. Artists, mathematicians etc.
5) Musical Intelligence: - People having low factual and analytical intelligence. E.g. Mozart, any band making music.
6) Practical Intelligence: - To put things together but not be able to explain how one did it. For people having this kind of intelligence find analytical and factual intelligence impractical and unworldly.
7) Physical Intelligence: - Talent or intelligence seen in sport stars.
8) Intuitive Intelligence: - Gifts, which some people have of seeing things which others, cannot see and which the person cannot explain. Women have this gift or intelligence in a greater number than men.
9) Interpersonal Intelligence: - The ability and wit to get things done from other people. This intelligence does not blend with analytical or information intelligence. This is an important kind of intelligence for people who are brilliant. Great minds are wasted if this form of intelligence does not exist.
Intelligence is multi-facet and is extremely useful and is known as potential property. Everyone is said to be intelligent in one of the nine ways. But intelligence one has acquired or discovered should be applied or used otherwise it is wasted. The three C's are the core of an educational doughnut. They are conceptualizing, coordinating, and consolidating. Portfolios are the way to develop one's career in organizations. Organizations encourage people to add new credentials at every level by giving them new experiences or providing them with certified tests or courses. One learns about life by living it and one learns about work through working and also a mixture of coaching and teaching.
Every young person at the age of 18 years should be presented with a double bond. A double bond is a bond where one part of the bond guarantees to pay fees for full-time study upto a defined level and at a recognized institution for an individual. The other part of the bond is to guarantee to find a full-time job for an individual who has worked for two years in the local region, either at a voluntary or a government organization, at a level equivalent to the minimum wage. The bonds can be used together or in connection if the individual so wishes. The double bond is a way to help launch individuals in the 'intelligent society'.
In life what does not get counted does not ever count. The author believes in what Macnamara stated in the Macnamra Fallacy that the first step in life is to measure what can be measured. The second step is to disregard what cannot be measured or give it a random quantitative value. But by doing this we are misleading and not stating the facts. The third step is to believe that what cannot be measured is not important enough. But here we are getting blinded. The fourth step is that what cannot be measured is what does not really exist. But this is again is suicide. Therefore, money is the measure of all things as it is easily counted. A society appears rich, as people tend to throw away things, which stop working and buy new things instead of repairing the old things. Leisure is said to be a precious commodity as it gets counted as one spends money on it. The way a one looks at things in life or the way one perceives those things is the way one counts them too. Even a nation needs to set of national accounts, one account, which records money transactions, and the other account listing the indicators of life. A Company or an organization should also follow the same policy. Both sets of figures are necessary in life for making a more balanced and just society. Any organization should count the invisible factors also as these invisible factors help in balancing the present against the future and the interest groups against each other. To measure anything, which is more in, quantity is always easy but the problem or difficulty occurs when one has to measure a thing better in quality.
The Search For Meaning: Making Sense Of Paradox
The Three senses: - It is said that nothing is particularly right or wrong in today's times. Its also wrong to suggest that one way of living life is superior to another way of living life. People to have a better stand in life and not feel lost or disoriented should build on the three senses namely - a sense of continuity, sense of connection, and a sensed of direction.
A sense of continuity: - Faith is very important today, as one has to have faith in the future to make sense or give meaning to one's present. One should believe in the continuity of life and the world and also the people residing in this world. For a country to be federal it needs a common law and a common currency and where there is a common currency, devaluation of the currency is no longer a possibility. Immorality is frightening but to believe in continuity of life helps and is a much easier option in life. To believe in the sense of continuity helps one to sacrifice one's present for one's future.
A sense of connection: - People today are very wary and unsure of commitments, as they believe in individualism and liberalism. When there is no sense of commitment among people duty and conscience loose their meaning. Community organizations help promote in making connections across boundaries and divides, both horizontally and vertically and help people meet. The sense of connection found in mixed communities is an excellent way of removing defects and flaws in people. People need to make their own connections and relations and also create one's own virtual city and one's own virtual village in life.
A sense of direction: - Everybody today needs to have a sense of direction in his or her lives.
Visions are necessary to see the future of an enterprise or an organization but others should understand this vision and people should be able to relate to this vision. People should fashion or make their own places, paths and directions in life.
Conclusion
The author Charles Handy sums up his book by asking people to be themselves and also asking them to fill their empty raincoats to the full as well as their doughnuts. He says one cannot do everything in life so its better if one tries to do all that he can do. He explains to us that we have to make our own lives and live them to the total. He says that while moving along in life if a mountain comes in the way one cannot wait for the mountain to move from one's way, one has to climb it to cross it. Therefore, the author asks people to overcome the hurdles and obstacles in their lives on their own and not wait for others to help them to overcome the obstacles or wait for these hurdles to disappear on their own. People have to learn to create opportunities and not wait for them to come to them on a silver platter. He ends his book by saying that one should light his own small fires in the darkness.
Such were the Conditions: The Kahnplay Incident: A memoir with ground-level, front-row views of Africa’s truncated development through coups, war, and geopolitics
Such were the Conditions: The Kahnplay Incident: A memoir with ground-level, front-row views of Africa’s truncated development through coups, war, and geopolitics
