India Inc needs a ‘Chief Happiness Officer’

There is a call for an article by TOI in their column Voice of HR on the theme India Inc needs a ‘Chief Happiness Officer’. This is my entry for their space on “It’s My Ascent”. One can only hope that it gets published. If not, my blog is good enough for me…
________________________________________________________________________________

The CxO title has been in for quite some time now and it’s time to understand what the CxO actually does and what’s in it for the organisation. Technically speaking, CxO is a way to refer, collectively, to corporate executives, at what is sometimes called the C-level, whose job description titles typically start with Chief and end with Officer (Chief Executive / Financial/ Compliance / Security / Information Officer). Their roles and responsibilities are clearly drawn out. They are individuals taking responsibility for Finance, Internal and External Information Systems, Physical Security and Compliance requirements for their organisation.    Fundamentally, the individual is accountable for corporate leadership, strategy, and concept development in his/her specific area. So then, what exactly would the Chief Happiness Officer be responsible for?  Designing a strategy on how to keep people happy?

I tried to Google to understand this better. Ronald McDonald (essentially a clown character) was officially styled as the Chief Happiness Officer of McDonald’s Corporation. The character was used as the primary mascot of the McDonald’s fast food restaurant chain. The clown inhabits a fantasy world called McDonaldland and embarks on adventures with friends Mayor McCheese, the hamburglar, and the Fry Kids.  Then we have Alexander Kjerulf, who is seen as one of the world’s leading experts on happiness at work, differentiating between job satisfaction and happiness at work.  One might want to listen to him at the TEDx Copenhagen event. We have Tony Hsieh, CEO, now CHO of Zappos.  There is also a CHO Facebook page! Do a search on LinkedIn for CHOs and there will be a list that will unfold. Outwardly, there seems to be a reason for this role to exist; albeit ill-defined.  I do see its relevance in the classic McDonald outlets and perhaps even in the Happy Hours at the local pubs. My struggle though is to comprehend its role within the framework of an organisation! What is certain is that it needs to be cemented with the needs of the organisation’s most important asset – People!!!

People take up jobs for a variety of reasons – money,  growth, identity, social status, success, and a chance to contribute. The underlying rejoinder to one of the above is consistent and collective – Happiness – and it comes with a rejoinder that “What makes one Happy?” is inimitable and personal. So, do we really want to have a CHO making an attempt to reach out to each and every employee? Plainly speaking, a company strategy that guarantees happiness seems a very tough sell. Hence, do we really want to outsource this to one person and have an individual be responsible for it? I guess one word that has been misused for the last couple of decades has been ‘outsourcing’. We started with outsourcing businesses, processes, and then jobs. Now, with a CHO onboard, we seem to be outsourcing our supervisory responsibilities too. Imagine a job description that starts with “Achieve Happy Hours: 9 to 5”! What would the individual’s qualifications be for the job? And more importantly, how would we measure the success of that role?  

The people who know best what makes them happy are the individuals themselves and perhaps their manager. One can hope for a connect between the manager and the employee, that directs a collaborative effort between the two.  Also, I can’t think of one person in our day and age who would want to know the so-called ‘Happiness Quotient’ of an organisation or attempt to understand its underlying Happiness strategy.  There needs to be a ‘collective’ effort to enable individuals and teams to better work with each other, and as an organisation promise and live up to a reality that has been envisioned. “This is who we are … and this is where we want to be”. This is the responsibility of every manager, irrespective of whether he /she is a CxO or not ! India Inc will then not need a CHO!!!!!

  

“Wheels and Lens” – Bandipur, Ooty (Almost there) March 2013

It was another opportunity, an instance to steer towards another destination, feel the power of the long stretched road and the natural greenery of Bandipur forest, for the first time drive through hairpin bends to Ooty and be back in 3 days’ time refreshed, and of having lived my life again! Well, most of it happened; albeit, in an altered way. I just didn’t reach Bandipur. Got waylaid at Mandya, offloaded to Mysore and then back piggy backed to Bangalore…..

So, we started off on a Sunday morning, with the intent to spend three days amidst nature, and of course doing what I love to do the most – driving!!!! The start was good, a 100kms /hour on NICE road, and then down to a nice 50 till we get on to Mysore road only to traffic anywhere between 60 and 80 till we reached Kadamba – and this is where I sulked for the first time. At 10am, the restaurant didn’t have my favorite breakfast! The beginning of a sulk is like testing quick sand. Too much testing can only lead to being sucked into it. It’s an effort to regain balance then. Having regained the much needed composure, I treaded back towards the car to head straight now to Bandipur. A smooth road, a cool interior, and a bright blue sky … what more could one ask for?! And then all of a sudden, I felt the crash, splinters all across and the shocked faces of a dozen or two around me. The love of my life had gone crashing into a Bolero and what resulted was the shattering of the headlights, the engine going kaput, the radiator burst, and the AC getting jammed. Not to miss the breakage of the registration plate, the front bumper in pieces, and the left front door wedged. The sight of the 6 footer sitting alongside me in the front seat struggling to get out was enough to make someone grimace amidst the disaster that one was surrounded by. The crash of multiple cars one into another had damaged enough to ensure a business of close to INR 500,000 across some of the top brands in India. Insurance or no, there was the assurance of a lot of work that technicians would have in the country, thanks to the naïve skills of a young woman exercising her driving dexterities (dare I say) in a Maruti 800, full of kids. One wonders if the need to display her flair of urging her vehicle between spaces that the naked eye could hardly discern was a reflection of her belief in a super power.  And if it was, I wondered if she had turned an atheist!!! 

So, there I had met one more Mad Hatter in this strange Rabbit Hole that we all live in – someone who believes in the red hot pursuit of an easy going empty road, and in the bargain witnessing vanity overtake wisdom and finally plain simple common sense!!!! Driving is like being in a place…

“….like no place on earth.  A land full of wonder, mystery, and danger! Some say to survive it: You need to be as mad as Hatter”

Lord, give me the strength to be as mad as mad can be. All the best people I have known are bonkers, so, guess, it’s ok to be one! Here’s to going bonkers!!!!

The journey then takes a twist and turn. Now, from leading, we are the led!!! A tow truck lifts our dilapidated selves and we trudge along 30kms to the nearest service station. The AC turned off, the heat turned on, the music shut off, all of us were like a box full of frogs…. Jumping at the smallest and slightest provocation! Now imagine this sight –the car wheels itself into the service station and we are all allowed to step out. A bunch of frogs in self-imposed hibernation leaping out to a frame directed by the wizard of Oz in technicolour! The technician walks towards the car, surveys it, smiles, stifles it and then with regained poise gives us the “I’ll be back” Terminator Schwarzenegger look and disappears into the depths of his garage! This was the followed by an hour long stop at the station and a revisit the next day to get a feel of the extent of the damage.  The minutes turned ‘’curiouser and curiouser’’ (as Alice would say). Guess there is very little that one can say or explain in situations like this.

                “I can’t explain myself, I afraid Sir, because I’m not myself you see” (Alice)

I am waiting to get back to being myself, …. And so is my Innova…. We are both on the bend and mend!!!  I had wanted to experience wildlife in Bandipur. I did, but not in Bandipur. Cats and monkeys, monkeys and cats, all human life is here.   I can go on and on about the 3 days. I choose not to. Reliving it in any form is like participating in a cat and mouse never-ending battle.  Signing off with the understanding that I have joined the circus and I gotta live with the acrobats and jokers!!!!  

Law of Two Feet!!!

I guess Woody Allen saw life in a far more humorous light when he said, “Interestingly, accordingly to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought particularly for people who cannot remember where they left things”.  He makes light of a key aspect that holds our imagination most of the time – space. And for the last few days, I seem to have interacted with people who in more ways than one seem to be talking to me about this.

The use of space in our  typical Indian TV serial is one such case in point. I was watching the daily soap ‘na bole tum na maine kuch kahaan’. The story line is pretty much standard –a romance blooms between a newspaper reporter and a young widow with 2 kids in season 1. They fall in love and despite all odds as confronted in a typical Indian setting, get married; only to lose their son to a kidnapper. The husband moves out with a promise to get the boy back. Season 2 commences (12yrs later) depicting their struggle to locate the lost boy. The relationships play out in as routine a manner as would in any soap. What differentiates Na Bole Tum from the rest is the force of the dialogues. 

Experience this moment when the lead character is compelled to  rationalize the situation and is asked to look at the kidnapping from a different perspective. It’s about looking at the same situation from a different space.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xy6bk2_na-bole-tum-na-maine-13th-march-2013-video-watch-online-pt1_fun&start=2

Holding a space (happy, sad, celebratory, ambiguous, or empty) has its advantages. The individual,  in that moment is looking in, and at the variables that impact the situation that he or she is in. However, there comes a time when one needs to use their two feet and move beyond the immediate and enter into an open space – an area that is relatively neutral with greater choices and where there exists a sparcity of 'already made' connections.  

“If at any time during our time together , you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning not contributing, use your two feet, go someplace else”

One can only hope that we see this movement effervescing through this week with ‘na maine..’…. And for all of us who want to look for indulging in the proverbial ‘pushing the envelope’!    

“Wheels and Lens” – Belgaum, March 2013

There is nothing more intoxicating than to get into your car, buckle up, start the ignition and get the machines rolling! And once you do that, there is nothing that can get you to stop that roll! It’s an addiction. The joy of steering a movement, the fun of zipping through passages of vehicles is like weaving a crusade. Wheels and Lens is the impression of my love affair with my car, the road, the sheer delight of travelling and steering from one point to another.   

Driving to Belgaum was a lot more than fun! It was a purpose….The Intent of the journey itself was to facilitate a workshop for 80 students at the Jain college of Management. The theme was well-defined - Clarity, Conviction and Confidence – the 3 Cs of my life. It took me a couple of days to weave the content of the program together. Trying to pull together a training program on what you believe in has its own set of challenges.  One is never satisfied with the power that mere words have to offer as a standby for your passion.  The locus of the enthusiasm resides in your belief which is so often inexplicable.  One needs to experience it in more ways than one before attempting to articulate it. And so, I departed with an overall framework in mind and deliberated on the methods to translate the experience. The wheel / drive was at hand; the lens was missing. The thought wedged its way through the onward journey only to find its home in my rearview mirror…. “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear”!  The answer was right there which had escaped my attention for ever so long.

Driving through the countryside in India is like Alice taking a trip down the rabbit hole. The journey is packed with bursts of magical moments. The journey is where it all begins. Like the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland, it’s a one way trip – the entry, not the exit to the magical world. The green expanse unfolding itself, the sky displaying its temper tantrums (blue to white to grey to black and then again to blue), the zeal of the sun drumming in its varying beats, and finally watching the rustic, naïve country folk whisking their way through the drudgery with a smile. Incredible India.! One wonders if Alice walked through this country and mistook it for a mystical rabbit hole.  I definitely did and my conviction was endorsed with the innumerable Mad Hatters we met with. 

Take to the wheel on the highway, and you will realize that the experience qualifies for space travel in more ways than one.  One encounters the impossible, a world where the day to day norms hardly apply, and a time that refuses to say tick tock. The laws of driving do not apply to Wonderland.

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would be. You see?” (Mad Hatter, Alice in Wonderland)

The excitement of dealing with the unknown and the contrary is what gives way to Clarity of thought. One must necessarily experience the strange and the conflicting to come into contact with clarity.  That was going to be my first mantra.  

And now experience the world as a woman who is driving a 7-seater, heavy powered SUV that is weighing approx. 2000kg, on a national highway. Her co-passengers are male and she is attempting to leave behind smaller vehicles (sometimes bigger ones too)! The experience for a lot many will be nothing short of overwhelming. The look of awe (not sure if the suffix is ‘some’ or ‘ful’) has a significant impact on the driver.  It makes you ponder with the metaphorical touch-me-not – for a moment, just a moment (should I, shouldn’t I). That fleeting thought many a times has the power to take on the life of a meditation which slows the process and therefore the progress down.  One begins to brood over it. It is that precise moment that demands for the driver’s conviction. The weight of the truth that one carries mandates a voice and in this case it is the potential of the automobile.   That one moment of dithering is like

“If you drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison’ it is certain to disagree with you sooner or later.”

The acknowledgement of the truth in me is what spearheads to Conviction of that thought.  Therein was born my second mantra. The test is in the execution – the basic to keep your foot on the gas pedal and to operate it with the flexibility of a dancer. Slow down, speed up, and maneuver the twists and turns with the confidence of a maven!

“Only a few find the way, some don’t recognize it when they do – some… don’t ever want to.” (The Cheshire Cat, Alice in Wonderland)

The accomplishment of the deed is what gives structure to the Confidence in the thought. This was the third mantra that I would attempt to unravel to the students.   Every day of our waking life, we wake up and get ready to reach our place of work. And to bring ease to our commute we try to procure a mode of transport. The smaller the mode, the easier to maneuver; the bigger it gets, so do the challenges. And so is life! We prefer smaller dares, the trouble-free roads, the affluent and painless courses.  What gets noticed though are what we do with the bigger braves and how we face up to them.  

“I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think. Was I same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is ‘Who in the world am I?’ Ah, that’s the great puzzle?”

I don’t intend to get out of this rabbit hole. My seat belts are on and my hands itching to speed through to meet more Mad Hatters!!!  Wheels and Lens…. I am ready for my next….. 

More Chicken than people in the world!!!

The last one week has been filled with events in the business and political arena that have startled any normal human thinking brain. Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer’s decision to pull back the ‘work from home’ policy and Wharton’s decision to cancel Narendra Modi’s address at the Wharton India Conference being two of them. There is definitely one thing established when we witness the outcry let loose by these events - there are more chicken than people in the world!!!!!

The fundamental for any school or educational institute (especially a B-School) is to provide to its students a platform of diverse thoughts and perspectives.  Subsequent to that, would be to encourage students to listen to the idea, understand its fundamental character, study decisions taken and forecast the impending, and debate the possible implications (considered or not) within the context in which the idea was born. An absence of any of the 2 ingredients – diversity and context/ framework -  gives rise to a mob mentality. One witnesses a crowd hysteria that in more ways than one plays out like songs from an IPod running on a shuffle mode.!  Ramdom thoughts played out attempting to slam a revolving door!

Many have questioned Marissa’s decision on pulling back the ‘work from home’ policy at Yahoo. Her decision has sparked off a debate on whether it was a wise decision, the relevance of the policy itself, and of course, on her ability to lead Yahoo through tough times. Does it take an IQ more than a double digit to realize that none of these are at play when the organisation (Yahoo) is at the brink of a shut down and that Innovation and Collaboration is the only way out?

“And for the rest of us who occasionally have to stay at home for the cable guy, please use your best judgment in the spirit of collaboration. Yahoo isn’t just about your day-to-day job, it is about the interactions and experiences that are possible in our offices”.

Strong, candid words expecting people to THINK! The quality and relevance of the decision and the conviction with which it was rendered is definitely deserving of praise!  Marissa Mayer’s leadership seems reflective of the magical art of alchemy! Like an alchemist, she is defining and re-defining Yahoo’s activities as comprising an art and science of transformation and transmutation. She is leveraging basic ideas, ordinary human beings, and classic organisation structures to turn the Yahoo image into gold. Let’s get back to the drawing board, get our heads together, and get the blue print out!!!! If this is not a powerful metaphor for basic management principles and effective leadership, then we need to revisit the curriculum in our management schools.

Now, compare the language of this email to the official statement put out by Wharton! It’s like watching a game of chess and twister at the same time.  Like a game of chess, there can be only 2 players at the max. And as in Twister, there is no limit to how many can play. The players are required to put themselves in unlikely or precarious positions, eventually causing someone to fall.  No prizes here for recognizing who is playing which game!!!

Wharton – a premier biz school, with its vision to produce graduates who would become ‘pillars of the state, whether in private or public life’ has failed miserably in living up to it. For many years, I studied in a well-known Institute in India, where I witnessed active debates on core issues that plague our nation – at a social and political level. There were many a times when I didn’t agree with what was being debated, the premise on which it was debated, and plenty a time when I was against it. It was a debate nonetheless. It doesn’t matter whether you agree or not. What’s important is that you hear it. Listening doesn’t imply acceptance. As Voltaire said, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it.” What I believe in, when voiced, needs to be substantiated, logically and rationally. And to believe in something, and be convinced about it, one needs to necessarily listen to both sides (if not all) of the argument. The essence of leadership is building the courage to speak up and displaying the consideration to listen- both of which Wharton has failed miserably at - “There go my people. I must find out where they are going, so I can lead them.”

Moreso, a premier business school invited an individual to speak at their conference. The invitation was made public. And in 24hours, rescinded, again publicly! BECAUSE there was a public outcry within the Wharton campus questioning the decision on inviting Mr Modi!!!!  

“However, as a responsible student body within the Univ of Pennsylvania, we must consider the impact on multiple stakeholders in our ecosystem. Even as we stand by our decision to invite him, we believe that this course of action would be the most appropriate in light of the reactions of the multiple stakeholders involved”… so says the official statement released on March 3, 2013.

It’s baffling to think that a biz school wishes to stay on neutral ground and is shocking to see it defend its stance in a language that defines ‘political correctness’ and ‘arcane empathy’ towards the invitee. A classic game of twister!

Whatever be the circumstances of the actions taken by either Marissa or Wharton, there are definitely two lessons learned here:

a)      Dear Marissa… thank you for teaching me that “The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg and not smashing it!”

b)      Dear Wharton….You can do better than this! “I did not become a vegetarian for my health. I did it for the health of the chickens.”… IS just NOT good enough!

So Consumed by ‘The Glass Ceiling’…

I remember reading somewhere that “…after a visit to the beach, it’s hard to believe that we live in a material society”! But we do live in a material society – a society that is replete with routines that are financially, socially, and time demanding. There is no legal need, no real penalty but a pressure, a kind of symbolic violence that makes us succumb to the routine. We seem to live in a society that barrages us with the incessant need to make certain investments, buy a particular shampoo, eat in a special restaurant, buy a house,.. The list is endless. And this cajolery happens in very structured ways – advertisements, marketing, peer pressure and last but definitely not the least ‘word of mouth’. If the ads don’t get to us, our family will. If our family will let us be, our friends might not! We will hear about it, and we will make a choice. The question though being, “Is it US who really make up our mind?” The influential information that we receive about fashion, beauty, mass culture, comes to us through the media, such as magazines, posters, flyers, TV, radio, and the internet – modern technologies of mass persuasion. It crystallizes public opinion and in a way controls the masses – the elements that constitute consumerism!!

Consumerism has become a corner stone of today’s post-industrial age material society. By the age of 10, a child today has seen at least a million commercial messages via the TV, radio, newspaper and billboards, and over the years is exposed to an even more complex society where he / she grapples with ideas and concepts and then struggles to find answers. What career should I pursue? What languages should I learn? What should I invest in? Does God exist? Am I getting a fair deal? With this kind of exposure, it’s tough to live in a modern world today without being a product of consumer society.

Consumerism is a concept that an expanding consumption of goods is advantageous to the economy! This can also be applied to the intake of a thought or a belief. The theory of consumerism maintains that consumers are psychically manipulated by the mass media to crave more and more consumer goods, and thus power an economy that depends on constantly expanding sales. There is the product / thought that someone (a Jane Doe) believes in and perhaps has experienced its existence in whatever form.  Jane Doe then talks about it. The locus of consumerism resides in the production function.  And when Jane talks about it, the locus resides in the production, which in this case, is in the ‘talking’ of that thought. Once articulated, the creator of that thought has no control over it. The thought takes a life of its own and is further disseminated in varied forms.

The concept of ‘the glass ceiling’ is one such. The proliferation of a conviction that ‘the glass ceiling’ exists is unpretentious and comes across as a powerful compensation for oppression!  So, when we speak of the existence of a glass ceiling, and substantiate it with examples, case studies, numbers and the works, it reflects a belief in its all-pervading presence. One of the biggest conundrums in this age of plenty, addictions, and depression is that the debate on ‘the glass ceiling’ has become a part of an everyday conversation in the corporate world.  It has become the norm for leadership forums, seminars, conferences, training programs, articles to examine the glass ceiling! When we talk about it in schools, colleges and to anyone who is starting off on her career, it reads as “It’s out there and you need to be ready for it!” With our co-workers in Corporate India, the debate is centered on what needs to be done to break through the ceiling, and the symptoms displayed thereof. The discussion is centered on the premise that the glass ceiling is not simply an obstacle for a person based on his /her inability to handle a higher level job. Rather, the glass ceiling applies to women as a group who are kept from advancing higher because they are women”.  The debate is kept alive in more ways than one to ensure that, as a society, we stay focused on the symbol of oppression –the glass ceiling!!!! If this fact does not get a woman to pause and realize that her naiveté is taken for granted, then dare I say, that the product has well consumed its target audience.

There is a lot debated on what ‘causes the glass ceiling?’ And rightfully so!  The deliberations are an attempt to create a fair, diverse and healthy environment to the work force.  However, these discussions, in more ways than one, also tend to reinforce and strengthen the presence of the glass ceiling. We sashay through the formative years of our careers convinced that there is a need to display a set of behaviors to cope with the glass ceiling. These debates, thus take on the appearance of a “conscious and intelligent manipulation of organized habits and opinions of the mass” (Bernays, Edward).  And those who influence, constitute the ‘invisible government’ – a force that reinforces the idea in a way that it gains immense speed and strength as it spreads rapidly. In this context, the female consumer is definitely not happily consuming but is now being consumed by the inestimable reflections on how to counteract this invisible barrier! We begin to play vigilante to ourselves!  Watch it unfurl in conversations at the workplace, in conference rooms, during appraisal discussions, in the movies, ads, and on TV!!  

We spend an immense amount of time dealing with the consequences of the ‘glass ceiling’. As a society, we find our answers through policies, procedures and within the legal framework. How do we deal with harassment at the workplace? What are the laws that we need to ensure a society that is free of discrimination? At an individual level, there is a great deal of time and effort being spent in being that ‘special’ and ‘perfect’ person at home and at work. And in the process we forget the essence of ourselves as an individual. Therein, lies the rationale of why and when we experience the proverbial ‘glass ceiling’. Our life, therefore, turns out to be a series of moments where we move from one role to another attempting to display one perfect behaviour after another.  This show can’t go on forever!! It needs to come to a stop at some point. It is at that exact moment when we say ‘ENOUGH’ that the glass ceiling materializes. The ability to ‘walk the talk’; a dialogue which we have perfected is now at the brink of a menopause. We get tired of ambling that talk. It is a struggle to put the real me in a box in order to go back and do my job. We do our job, as do most of us, in all integrity, at the end shredding a piece of us. The essence of being is in our ability to be ourselves minus the mask. We don’t need to be a vigilante to deal with the glass ceiling.   

Can we pull back the conventional tentacles of debating the symbols of oppression to make new rules for a more fair game? Rejecting the consumption of the idea of a ‘glass ceiling’ is liberating. The need is to create or look for an alternative – a choice that goes beyond the invisible and debilitating forces, a thought that is empowering in its very essence and guarantees a freedom to explore the universe.  How about some simple Blue Sky Thinking?