Tunnels are designed to get us there. Get us there straight. Straight and safely. ‘Certainty’ and ‘Safety’ being the operative thoughts here.
Metaphorically speaking, we are constantly building and using tunnels to ‘get there’.
This ‘there’ could be a milestone in a project that we are handling or a holiday we are planning for.
A foolproof plan is a tunnel. A well thought through plan ensures that you will ‘get there’ for sure. And you’ll get there straight, without a hitch.
What kind of holidays would people like? This seemed like a no-brainer to us – a small group of people working on an innovation project for a holiday company. Obviously a well-planned holiday! A no-brainer enough to be accepted as ‘the truth’ we could base our thinking on.
Most people we engaged with had happy memories of well-planned, well-executed holidays.
You get answers to questions you ask. New questions get you new answers. We decided to ask the reverse question: “Have you ever had a holiday that was totally unplanned yet very enjoyable?”
We came across some amazing holiday stories. More amazing than the stories, was their refreshingly different narrative and idiom. They were full of serendipity, unexpected discoveries, impossible situations, success in the face of odds, foolish errors, goose flesh, adrenalin and thrill.
They all agreed that a ‘tunnelled holiday’ could never have given them all this. “Unplanned holiday was it!” we inferred. “The whole industry has been targeting only the tunnellers - people who will not venture out without a well thought through plan. We will offer a compelling proposition to the non-tunneller.” There is an unaware non-tunneller in each one of us.
Tunnels are reassuring. They assure you that you WILL get there. And that it will be amazing once you get there. Assumption being: ‘There’ is better than ‘here’. Don’t let the ‘here’ waver you from your true goal.
A lot of us feel lost without tunnels. Look at how we tunnel our lives and that of our children.
Children are made to believe that their ‘real life’ is somewhere ‘there’ in the future. And the ‘here’ is only about preparing for a great ‘there’. Parents and teachers offload their anxieties on to their children in a concerted manner, trying hard to strip them of their natural live-the-moment attitude and morph into ‘adults’ like them – risk-averse, predictability seeking tunnellers.
“My child must become an engineer and I must provide him a robust ‘engineering tunnel’ (I must...I must...I must provide him everything that I pined for but never got).”
The tunnel ensures that the child doesn’t get distracted by temptations like, say a desire to become a filmmaker.
“Don’t waste your time with that camera son, work hard.”
“Children must learn delayed gratification. Study even if you don’t like it. You will love it once you get ‘there’.”
What about the ‘here’? Don’t we realize that the life is really a string of ‘heres’? An amazing life is a string of amazing ‘heres’. The tunnellers become great at pursuing ‘theres’ but are clumsy at dealing with ‘heres’. The moment their ‘there’ becomes a ‘here’, they don’t know what to do with it so they get busy with what they know best - pursuing the next elusive 'there'.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
My Fresh & Juicy Tomato No. 4 - PROPPED-UP PEOPLE
Purnatva. The Sanskrit word for that blissful state we all crave. Absolute complete fulfillment. As we grow up, we find our own different ways of pursuing it.
The most basic form is the one related to our basic primitive needs – food for example.
Deficiency makes us hungry. Hunger drives us to consume. Consumption leads to fulfillment. Overtime we get hardwired to find fulfillment through consumption.
Consumption-fuelled fulfillment doesn’t just make us eat more it makes us who the economic-society wants us to be – a consumer.
Whenever we feel lifestyle-deficient we acquire and consume a lifestyle fix. Fixes come in many forms. A badge-car. A badge-suit. A badge-bag. A badge-job. Or sometimes even a badge-accent.
Our life-script (with translations):
“A Louis Vuitton bag! I-want-it-I-want-it-I-so-want it! I wish I could afford one.”
Translation: All the nice people I know own one. I would like to be like them (and not the miserable self I really am)
“It’ll be great if I could get one for the next party.”
Translation: I can’t be carrying a cheap Janpath when everyone out there will walk in holding LVs! It looks so cheap (my ‘cheapness’ will get found out!)
“Wow! I will really make an impact.”
Translation: I don’t really belong in there. The LV is my passport. It’ll help me announce my arrival and make me feel ‘equal’.
A FEW MONTHS LATER… the next party is upon me
“I can’t be carrying the same bag to the next party! I want another one.”
Translation: Now that I have established my image, I have to live up to it. I don’t want people to see my wretchedness.
“God! I can’t afford it this month. Let me somehow scrounge it.”
THE NEW BAG HAS BEEN BOUGHT… the party is behind me. A new LV advertisement in a badge-magazine I have just subscribed to, jumps at me. “The brand new range of LVs – blah-blah-blah”
Translation: If you are still using the old range, you are fuddy-duddy and totally uncool. You buy badge-bags to look cooler than you really are… remember? Come on, be a good consumer. Throw away that well-preserved collection you own – feel lifestyle-deficient again. Be ‘hungry’ and consume the new range. Fulfillment Guaranteed!
“The all-new Louis Vuitton collection! I-want-it-I-want-it-I-so-want it! I wish I could afford one.”
We are ‘just right’ for the world we live in. The ‘big corporate’ wants us to buy & consume props – “Profits”! The government wants us to buy & consume props – “Economic activity, GDP, Taxes”! We want to buy & consume props – “to feed our chronically deficient self-esteem”! Win-win-win!
Sunday, April 4, 2010
My Fresh & Juicy Tomato No. 3 - INSIGHT IS A JOKE
We loved doing it. We also loved the way it ended. I guess we loved doing it because we totally loved the way it ended. It ended with an ‘aha’, suddenly. We loved both the ‘aha’ and the suddenness of it. Joining dots. Remember?
Was it the sudden appearance of an unexpected figure or was it the fact that we surprised ourselves by ending up with something while trying to do something else? After all, the only skill we used was to get our number counting right. And lo and behold there was a ‘monkey’ staring at us!
Isn’t that what an insight is? A new meaning that surprises us by becoming apparent suddenly? Our joy comes from discovering something that seems obvious in hindsight but was invisible to us earlier. And once we see the new meaning we can’t unsee it? Try ignoring it, the ‘monkey’ won’t let you!
So the monkey was done and cast aside. We loved bringing it alive. What next? While we were wishing we had another join-the-dots puzzle, someone told us there actually is another puzzle within the puzzle! “Now join the prime numbers from 13 - 31.” we were told. And we did. And to our surprise bananas appeared out of nowhere! A whole bunch of them hanging right in front of the monkey!
That done, we were asked to look for red triangles and join them too. And you know what! Till then we had not even noticed the tiny triangles in the puzzle! Once discovered, they became the most prominent, screamy elements demanding action from us. Result: a baby monkey next to the mama monkey struggling with a baby banana.
Well, the excitement did not end there. We were informed that just like the tiny triangles there are some more elements that we have not noticed yet. “Give up!” We said. “Hold the paper against the Sun” – The whole monkey family was now visible – the big sister and dad were there all along!
With the paper up against the Sun, something else caught our attention. There was an unusual fold in the paper. The flap unfolded to reveal a hunter behind the bushes with his gun trained at something. No, it wasn’t the monkeys for sure. We knew there was much more to be discovered in that little piece of paper. Not just as much as the paper creator intended but really as much as we wanted.
Do you see insights in the situation above? Isn’t this what the whole world is trying to do through all sorts of ‘insighting’ tools? Trying hard to pull out that differentiated insight that could lead to a truly differentiated idea, which in turn could lead to a disproportionately big prize for them.
Insighting is about spotting new dots and making new connections and it’s a cinch if we are able to change our lenses, our perspectives and our boundaries of thinking, at will.
Simple? Now go solve the puzzle called life :)
PS. Oops! Forgot to weave in the title-thought into the article. Let me make the connection now: Try decoding a joke. There’s always an insight hidden in it… right in its tail. The hilarious twist at the end is an unexpected dot being connected unexpectedly. Go ahead crack up on all the stuff that you are seriously serious about in life. It’s the easiest and most fun way to spot those elusive insights!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
My Fresh & Juicy Tomato No. 2 - Can Undo will Do
Computers have gotten us used to the amazing concept of ‘Undo’ – Ctrl Z. Every time we miss-do we can undo and then redo.
Let’s look at the impact that this amazing action has on our lives.
We’ve always had our erasers or whiteners to undo our errors. Thanks to these undo devices we are braver in our doing. We just go ahead and do-undo-do till we get it right.
An easy exit makes the entry easy - An easy undo makes the do easy – at the end of the day it is about stakes. What is at stake? What / How much are we committing ourselves to? What is the value of our decision? A reversible action is an easy to take action.
Just-do-it with a pencil is always much easier than just-do-it with a pen as the just-undo-it with the latter is not that easy.
There are other undo devices we have been using for a long time. The one that works like magic, we are taught from our childhood, is called Sorry. Just utter the word and you have undone the damage…well, almost.
Post meal digestives like chooran have been used in Asian cuisine for a long time. They help us undo some of the guilt inducing binging we do. In fact they legitimize some of the binging…don’t they?
We now live almost half of our lives in the virtual world. Ctrl Z (Undo key) is our friendly neighborhood savior device here. This one device is responsible for a whole generation becoming much more entrepreneurial, adventurous and audacious as compared to the past, uninitiated-to-the-computers one. They are ‘just doing it’. And this just-do-it attitude is not even being frowned upon by the custodians of yesterday anymore - they are grudgingly tolerating it. The attitude has suddenly become the default social norm. In fact custodians of today romance it and celebrate it.
The Ctrl-Z generation looks for and finds the undo button in almost every aspect of their lives.
The society is getting used to transacting for and consuming fixes – solutions that can be undone easily. A sachet is a fix. A shampoo sachet gives you a clean-hair fix without you having to commit yourselves to a larger pack. Fixes are everywhere – functional fixes (food, drink sachets, pre-paid mobile phone recharge packs), indulgence fixes (Tequila shots, downloadable video clips). Some things that were just too sacrosanct to be messed around with haven’t been left untouched either – sachets of marriages and jobs!
Marriages: Saying ‘I do’ is easier today. It is not an irreversible step that it used to be – you can always undo it. Getting into a live-in relationship is much easier as the stakes are very low. You commit yourselves to a day (or a night) at a time. A one-night-stand is a sachet of a marriage.
Jobs: People don’t get in to stay-in anymore. They get in to get out soon, by design.
It has led to a more led-by-heart living. You don’t feel the need to justify your actions anymore. “What feels good right now, is right for me.” The ‘think before you leap’ way seems like a distant past. You don’t think too much before you click that picture on a digital camera – it can always be deleted. You don’t think too much before jumping into bed with someone – there’s always the night-after pill.
The character of the outcome of the do that we do is changing too. The pictures don’t look that deliberate and posy anymore. The newscasters don’t sport a deliberately perfect diction anymore. Even the encyclopedias don’t look deliberate and uptight anymore. Husbands, wives, sons, daughters, bosses, workers don’t seem deliberate and self-conscious in their roles anymore.
They all seem to be saying “can undo will do to our hearts content” :)
Let’s look at the impact that this amazing action has on our lives.
We’ve always had our erasers or whiteners to undo our errors. Thanks to these undo devices we are braver in our doing. We just go ahead and do-undo-do till we get it right.
An easy exit makes the entry easy - An easy undo makes the do easy – at the end of the day it is about stakes. What is at stake? What / How much are we committing ourselves to? What is the value of our decision? A reversible action is an easy to take action.
Just-do-it with a pencil is always much easier than just-do-it with a pen as the just-undo-it with the latter is not that easy.
There are other undo devices we have been using for a long time. The one that works like magic, we are taught from our childhood, is called Sorry. Just utter the word and you have undone the damage…well, almost.
Post meal digestives like chooran have been used in Asian cuisine for a long time. They help us undo some of the guilt inducing binging we do. In fact they legitimize some of the binging…don’t they?
We now live almost half of our lives in the virtual world. Ctrl Z (Undo key) is our friendly neighborhood savior device here. This one device is responsible for a whole generation becoming much more entrepreneurial, adventurous and audacious as compared to the past, uninitiated-to-the-computers one. They are ‘just doing it’. And this just-do-it attitude is not even being frowned upon by the custodians of yesterday anymore - they are grudgingly tolerating it. The attitude has suddenly become the default social norm. In fact custodians of today romance it and celebrate it.
The Ctrl-Z generation looks for and finds the undo button in almost every aspect of their lives.
The society is getting used to transacting for and consuming fixes – solutions that can be undone easily. A sachet is a fix. A shampoo sachet gives you a clean-hair fix without you having to commit yourselves to a larger pack. Fixes are everywhere – functional fixes (food, drink sachets, pre-paid mobile phone recharge packs), indulgence fixes (Tequila shots, downloadable video clips). Some things that were just too sacrosanct to be messed around with haven’t been left untouched either – sachets of marriages and jobs!
Marriages: Saying ‘I do’ is easier today. It is not an irreversible step that it used to be – you can always undo it. Getting into a live-in relationship is much easier as the stakes are very low. You commit yourselves to a day (or a night) at a time. A one-night-stand is a sachet of a marriage.
Jobs: People don’t get in to stay-in anymore. They get in to get out soon, by design.
It has led to a more led-by-heart living. You don’t feel the need to justify your actions anymore. “What feels good right now, is right for me.” The ‘think before you leap’ way seems like a distant past. You don’t think too much before you click that picture on a digital camera – it can always be deleted. You don’t think too much before jumping into bed with someone – there’s always the night-after pill.
The character of the outcome of the do that we do is changing too. The pictures don’t look that deliberate and posy anymore. The newscasters don’t sport a deliberately perfect diction anymore. Even the encyclopedias don’t look deliberate and uptight anymore. Husbands, wives, sons, daughters, bosses, workers don’t seem deliberate and self-conscious in their roles anymore.
They all seem to be saying “can undo will do to our hearts content” :)
Sunday, March 28, 2010
My Fresh & Juicy Tomato No. 1 - Quick & Dirty. And much much better than processed & polished.
“Process it a little more and add some polish to it” is what we tell others or do ourselves to improve a creation. Unprocessed & unpolished is somehow seen as inelegant. Let’s turn the thought on its head and ask ourselves the reverse question:
In what situations does ‘quick & dirty’ become more desirable than ‘processed & polished’?
Recall that moment? In your kitchen garden? When you spotted that fresh tomato hidden in that plant? You wanted it straight off the plant… right then! Without bothering about that little dirt on it. The dirt really assured you of its freshness. A bottle of ketchup made from the best tomatoes, untouched by human hand and processed using the best additives in the world wouldn’t have done for you. It would have been totally inappropriate and inelegant.
Now let’s consider an analogous scenario. A team is racking its brains at coming up with an idea that could form the central theme for the presentation they have to make to the client in a few hours. Nothing really fresh seems to be bubbling up. One of the members decides to call a friend who usually has interesting perspectives to things. A quick five-minute call later the team has four rough but totally fresh themes to work on. For this team four inelegantly articulated thought starters thought aloud by an unprepared friend casually, are much much better than a well written out presentation by an ‘expert’ the next day.
There’s something about the raw, the unpolished, the ‘inelegant’ thoughts that makes them more playable, more malleable, more inclusive, more easy to own and therefore really far more elegant.
Picasso said: "You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea."
Too clear an idea ensures you end up with just that. A vague idea lets you grow it in many serendipitous ways ☺
You know what! The Tribe of Greedy Givers is about the Quick & Dirty. That’s our character. So quick just punch in a few perspectives on this fresh, juicy, slightly dirty tomato. Let a few typos creeep in (I admit this one was planned ;) … this tribe’s not about elegant English but really about elegant new thoughts ☺
In what situations does ‘quick & dirty’ become more desirable than ‘processed & polished’?
Recall that moment? In your kitchen garden? When you spotted that fresh tomato hidden in that plant? You wanted it straight off the plant… right then! Without bothering about that little dirt on it. The dirt really assured you of its freshness. A bottle of ketchup made from the best tomatoes, untouched by human hand and processed using the best additives in the world wouldn’t have done for you. It would have been totally inappropriate and inelegant.
Now let’s consider an analogous scenario. A team is racking its brains at coming up with an idea that could form the central theme for the presentation they have to make to the client in a few hours. Nothing really fresh seems to be bubbling up. One of the members decides to call a friend who usually has interesting perspectives to things. A quick five-minute call later the team has four rough but totally fresh themes to work on. For this team four inelegantly articulated thought starters thought aloud by an unprepared friend casually, are much much better than a well written out presentation by an ‘expert’ the next day.
There’s something about the raw, the unpolished, the ‘inelegant’ thoughts that makes them more playable, more malleable, more inclusive, more easy to own and therefore really far more elegant.
Picasso said: "You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea."
Too clear an idea ensures you end up with just that. A vague idea lets you grow it in many serendipitous ways ☺
You know what! The Tribe of Greedy Givers is about the Quick & Dirty. That’s our character. So quick just punch in a few perspectives on this fresh, juicy, slightly dirty tomato. Let a few typos creeep in (I admit this one was planned ;) … this tribe’s not about elegant English but really about elegant new thoughts ☺
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Where's your first Fresh Tomato for the Tribe?
We are Greedy Givers. A Tribes-person must begin by first 'giving'. We want a fresh tomato from you quick! :)
A Fresh Tomato in the Tribe refers to 'a fresh insight / perspective'. Something that has been a personal 'aha' for you and will be fresh for the Tribe. Go ahead share it. An insight is a new discovery / realization. New dots that suddenly joined for you and a refreshingly new picture emerged. The 'new' could be new patterns, new perspectives or even new cause & effect relationships that suddenly became apparent to you.
Your tomato could be from any area - your work, your hobby or your home... or even something nice stolen from someone else's work/hobby/home :) Go ahead steal with pride!
Great thing about an insight is that once you see it you can't unsee it. The moment you see it you own it for your use... it's yours! The more you share it the richer it gets! :)
Waiting!
A Fresh Tomato in the Tribe refers to 'a fresh insight / perspective'. Something that has been a personal 'aha' for you and will be fresh for the Tribe. Go ahead share it. An insight is a new discovery / realization. New dots that suddenly joined for you and a refreshingly new picture emerged. The 'new' could be new patterns, new perspectives or even new cause & effect relationships that suddenly became apparent to you.
Your tomato could be from any area - your work, your hobby or your home... or even something nice stolen from someone else's work/hobby/home :) Go ahead steal with pride!
Great thing about an insight is that once you see it you can't unsee it. The moment you see it you own it for your use... it's yours! The more you share it the richer it gets! :)
Waiting!
A word about the Tribe
It doesn't matter who you are in the world outside the tribe. You could be a painter, a corporate executive, a home maker, a prime minister or a school student. For us you are just a fellow tribal. A tribal who loves to greedily share his/her unique perspective with others without expecting a return.
Our tribe has just come into being. We will grow fast. A large tribe will mean a large number of unique perspectives. We are choosing the fellow tribes-people with care. Send in your request today. Or better still get invited by a member.
Watch this space! The tribe is evolving. We are evolving our own idiom, our own rituals... some will spill over into the real world too.
To make sure we have a healthy diversity in the Tribe, I am inviting Greedy Givers to join in using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Blogpost. I will connect the clans every once in a while manually till it can go into an auto mode.
Our tribe has just come into being. We will grow fast. A large tribe will mean a large number of unique perspectives. We are choosing the fellow tribes-people with care. Send in your request today. Or better still get invited by a member.
Watch this space! The tribe is evolving. We are evolving our own idiom, our own rituals... some will spill over into the real world too.
To make sure we have a healthy diversity in the Tribe, I am inviting Greedy Givers to join in using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Blogpost. I will connect the clans every once in a while manually till it can go into an auto mode.
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