Management Sutra - Part 1

अन्नमयकोश Annamaya Kosh (Physical Layer / Physical Body) is related to the basic and physical entities of any Business Organisation. The physical aspects of organisation (namely Men, Machine and Material) by itself cannot create products and services as required by the customers. It is difficult to imagine our body as a shape, which is made up of material alone.

प्राणमयकोश Pranamaya Kosh (Vitality Layer/ Pranic Body/ Life)

The प्राणमयकोश Pranamaya Kosh (Vitality Layer/ Pranic Body/ Life) takes the physical system to a functional system.

The body requires certain vital system to be called as living organism. Existence and continuity of life depends upon Respiratory System and Blood Circulation System. While there are several other systems that support our body, these two are vital. For example, failure to digestive takes longer time for the life to come to an end; Reproductive system’s absence has no impact in ones’ life.

We know from our current day’s knowledge of science that you can keep the hope of a patient recovering as long as you can ensure blood is circulated and respiratory functions are on. One of basic understanding of these two system tells us that they are together responsible

1. To provide positive energy which is vital for all organs to carry out their task/ function.
2. To remove negative energy which can choke the functions of organs.

The ABC concept in First Aid guides to check and focus on Airway, Breathing and Circulation aspects in any victim. If these are taken care during golden hour of medical emergency, the life can always be saved.

In any organisation, these vital parts can be equated to “Process or FLOW” that enables use of the physical resources. The processes within the system are necessary. Non adherence to process flow leads to scenarios of Medical Emergency in the organisation. While organisations may have generic or unique processes, they cannot survive in absence of a process (formal or informal).

“Process Flow in Organisation is what ABC is in First Aid”

मनोमयकोश Manomaya Kosh (Consciousness Layer/ Senses)

Medical science has established over a period of time that the Central Nervous System (CNS) is possibly most important to make our life meaningful. Even though the functioning of the CNS requires the same ABC, the direction to the organs and its function is controlled by the Nervous System. The key components of CNS are Brain and Spinal Chord. Through which the entire body system and organ is managed and controlled. It is CNS that enables us to use our senses.

The brain has three levels of consciousness.

• Conscious
• Unconscious
• Subconscious

Business Organisation requires similar system to enable the Processes and Resource to give desired outputs. The Policy and Goals drive the organisations resources to do what the Think Tank within organisation wants the organisation to achieve.

The think tank (brain equivalent of organisation) decides what need to achieved. Policies and Goal are defined and drilled through a chain of systems and processes to each part (organs) of the organisation. The alignment of the goals of each part with the larger picture is critical to success. Absence of that leads to organisational problems similar to Psycho-Motor disorders in Human System.

Like our Brain the Think Tank of Organisation is available at different levels. Think tank works on to create

• Vision/ Mission
•  Strategy
• Values System 

Excellent organisation need to provide support and maintain प्राणमयकोश Pranamaya Kosh (Vitality Layer/ Pranic Body/ Life) and मनोमयकोश Manomaya Kosh (Consciousness Layer/ Senses) in good shape all the time.

I will continue with other Koshas in next issue.

Management Sutra - Preamble

Human race has always led a life that required efforts in Managing the environment in which he lived. Though all other living system has its own mechanism to manage its environment, mankind was unique in many ways.  The word environment is used here in much larger context. Human was probably the most expressive and thoughtful product of nature. The method of expression and language used may have changed over a period of time. The essence have remain by and large same.

I am personally a curious reader of this such literatures as close to its original form as possible. I attempt to seek relevance of the Practices explained in the books of History and Religion including Mythology in current context. While many may ridicule the mythology or may look at them only a passion of "devouts", I see them as a way of communicating "Best Practices".

I intend to share some insights, through these books of past, on current days Management Practices and Concepts. Some may even label it as Old Wine in New Bottle. I cannot disagree with them. That is why the Old Wine are precious and we should not loose them in oblivion of disbelief or modernism.

I intend to share some insights from the books of past on current days Management Practices and Concepts. Some may even label it as Old Wine in New Bottle. I cannot disagree with them. That is why the Old Wine are precious and we should not loose them in oblivion of disbelief or modernism.

In the current series I have chosen Maharishi Patanjali's Yoga Sutra. This is a Hindu Scripture and foundation of Yoga. It forms part of Sutra literature dating to India's Mauryan period. This period also gave us famous Kautilya Shastra which is even today a reference book on Management and Economy. 

Yoga is defined (as sourced from web)

1.       A Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which, including breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practiced for health and relaxation

2.       Hindu discipline aimed at training the consciousness for a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquillity that is achieved through the three paths of actions and knowledge and devotion

3.       A system of exercises practiced as part of the Hindu discipline to promote control of the body and mind

4.       Yoga (Sanskrit, Pāli) refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India. The word is associated with meditative practices in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.

Wikipedia link on Yoga (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga) describes it further as below:

Major branches of yoga in Hindu philosophy include Rāja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Hatha Yoga. Yoga based on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, comprises one of the six main Hindu schools of philosophy (darshanas), together with Kapila's Samkhya, Gautama's Nyaya, Kanada's Vaisheshika, Jaimini's Purva Mimamsa, and Badarayana's Uttara Mimamsa or Vedanta. Many other Hindu texts discuss aspects of yoga, including the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the Shiva Samhita and various Tantras.

The Sanskrit word yoga has many meanings and is derived from the Sanskrit root "yuj," meaning "to control," "to yoke" or "to unite."  Translations include "joining," "uniting," "union," "conjunction," and "means."

The word yoga may also derive from the root "yujir samadhau," which means "contemplation" or "absorption".

The attempt to define the term Yoga is more to do with the market of Yoga as mean to gain control over mind and body. In the process, the strength of Yoga in wholesome is lost. Yoga has become a Packaged Product like any other Premium FMCG product in the market. Like any other product and services, it attempts to capture the attention through something that is Sulabha (easy). The wholistic approach of Yoga is explained in Patanjali Yoga Sutras and several other texts.

Our body system is made up of a system called panchakosha पंचकोश, which literally means - five layers of existence; Kosh means layers of existence.

The existence of human beings has been described having five layers (Tattiriyopanishad). This is the primary Upanishad for Krishna Yajurveda. The five koshas are -

1. अन्नमयकोश Annamaya Kosh (Physical Layer / Physical Body)
2. प्राणमयकोश Pranamaya Kosh (Vitality Layer/ Pranic Body/ Life)
3. मनोमयकोश Manomaya Kosh (Consciousness Layer/ Senses)
4. विज्ञानमयकोश Vigyanamaya Kosh (Intellect Layer/ Budhhi - Knowledge/ Ahankara- EGO)
5. आनंदमयकोश Anandmaya Kosh (Blissful Layer / Ultimate Joy)

The existence of a business organisation can be depicted as below:

The outer layer represents the अन्नमयकोश Annamaya Kosh. They are physical in nature. They decay. They change. They get revived, renewed, lost, discovered etc. Most organisations that have lived long enough would realise that their products & services have gone through changes in form and content through the period. Some of these changes may be driven by external or internal needs. The new Body makes way for new Body. Windows and Apple made DOS based system redundant. The market segment undergoes change. Rural Market that was once considered “Not”worth has become “Note”worthy for most marketing professionals.

अन्नमयकोश Annamaya Kosh from organisation perspective can be shown physically in form of Men, Machineries, Materials in various forms, Infrastructures. Each of these undergoes change over period of time. Let us look at the change that has happened to each of them. These changes made the science and art of management challenging.

Men

 Men (here indicated workforce without any bias to a specific gender) has undergone significant change in its intellect (Knowledge), ability to perform (Skill) and behaviour (Attributes).

 At a basic level we correlate knowledge to education level (though that may not be always true). One cannot fail to notice the increase in number of qualified people in almost every field. If one want to ignore the qualification, the understanding and vastness in knowledge that the next generation demonstrates is far from imagination. While the early men were also good at reasoning and thinking, which is the base for “knowledge”, the number of such people has increased.

“Ability to Perform” refers to one’s ability to do or perform a task. The advancement in technology has enabled even ordinary people to perform extraordinary both in terms of quality and quantity. In today’s job market if an organisation wants a hire an accountant who may not know how to use accounting software is next to impossible. Stephen Hawking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking) is an example of how technology can enable people to achieve feats that are unimaginable earlier. With advancement in office automation, the role of secretaries is disappearing.

Behaviour (Attribute) of job seekers and Job providers has also changed. Job Seekers are more open to path less travelled. Job Providers are now moving from industry specific experience to generic skill background. The traditional employment process driven by “apprenticeship” associated individuals to an industry or trade. A “papermaker” was “papermaker” for life. Today people migration from one industry to another and one function to another function is order of the day. 

Machineries

Machineries have changed that way home or factory used to operate. They have influenced people’s ability to work. Many have become obsolete. For example it extremely difficult to locate a convention printing press. It is not possible for one to now use statistical machines that were used in colleges earlier for large scale computing.

Material

Material in almost all area have either already become rare or on the verge of becoming one. The conservation of material is the key. Most struggles between countries today can be traced to a desire to gain control over Material.

Infrastructures

The change in infrastructure need not be highlighted. Almost every form of infrastructure has undergone change since mankind discovered wheel. Thinking Global and Acting Local is feasible only because of reduction in the geographical boundaries.

I will continue with other Koshas in next issue.

Management Lessons from History - 1

History as subject most of us do not like to read in school or at least do nto like to appear for the tests on history. Some of my recent readings on history gave me certain insights on the Management Lessons that can be drawn from the pages of History. I am not the only one to have this insight. I thought to share my thoughts as well.

Babur's Invasion into Hindustan

Zahir ud-din Muhammad Babur,( 1483 — 1531) was a Muslim conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty of India. He was a direct descendant of Timur through his father, and a descendant also of Genghis Khan through his mother. Babur in his journey of conquering nations starting from Faragana (Present day Uzbegistan) had largely battled in the terrain that supported his style of battled. He was more used close combat in hilly region. His success factors were tactical use of terrain and surprise factor in attacks.
When he had to succeed in war against Ibrahim Lodi, his difficulty was the open terrain in battlefield of Panipat. He knew his strength and created environment in the Battlefield by digging ditches and creating obstacles by felling large trees. This enabled him to restrict Ibrahim Lodi's size, as large number of forces cannot be deployed in the constricted space. The trees and ditches enabled Babur's force to deploy element of surprises.

Knowing one's strength and deploying that under any circumstances makes a winner. Even in adverse situation if one creates environment that would be conducive to the known strength, one can succeed. To me success stories of Cavin Kare and Nirma are example of this. Both knew that they cannot take on the giant in the industry. They knew that they are small and they also knew that there strength is in meeting need for Bottom of Pyramid market. They went on to play to their strength. Cavin Kare today has range of products that are sold in sachet form. Nirma has range of products that cater to "bottom of pyramid" market.


 

Management Lessons from Srimad Bhagvat Geeta

We have read and heard about the “”warriors” who would waste your energy. They would also create all kinds of distraction (Physical, Psychological, or any other means). Let’s discuss now to work around and succeed without wasting energy to identify and defeat these warriors without shedding any blood. The solution lies within us. When we are getting distracted we are not because of noise factors outside. The story of deaf frog in my earlier blog should reiterate this.

The key lies in converting ourselves and our abilities that can enable us to focus on what we want to achieve.

You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself.

Jim Rohn

41. “On this auspicious path, O Kurunandan (Arjun), the resolute mind is one, but the minds of the ignorant are divided and many.’’

The most important step towards this would to build a mind which is earnestly and firmly oriented to selfless action towards the goals that has been set. If we have to compare with those who propagate more than one mode of action, we must observe at the dilemma they constantly enter into. The minds of such employees are endlessly divided and that is why they conjure up endless ways. This is often visible in form of confused state of functioning by such employees.

It is these employees who tend to blame every one else for their failures. I am reminded of statement from the book The Success Principle by Jack Canfield, the co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul

Quote:

In fact most of have been conditioned to blame something outside of ourselves for the parts of our life we don’t like. We blame our parents, our bosses, our friends, the media, our coworkers, our clients, our spouse, the weather, the economy, our astrological chart, our lack of money – anyone or anything we can pin blame on. Wee never want to look at where the real problem is – ourselves

Unquote

47. “Since you are entitled only to the performance of action but never to the fruits thereof, you should neither desire rewards of action nor be drawn to inaction.”

This is most misunderstood or misinterpreted part of the text from Geeta. The word karma means both action and its consequence. We should not worry about the fruits that we would get. Consequence here is with reference to the user of output of the processes that we manage. In my view its fits in with process approach to management where the belief is that OUTPUT is result of your PROCESSES and INPUTS. The concepts of Process Approach to Management include:

1. Focus on the Inputs criterion and quality
2. Focus of the Process controls and factors that lead to Process Management. They are
1. Rules of the process
2. Methods (Steps) deployed
3. Skills and experience of the people managing/ executing the process
4. Facilities and equipments provided for the process.
3. Understand consequences of errors and omissions in following the process. This would need to be understood from end user perspective whether a final customer or internal customer.

The characteristics of KARMA as described are

1. Initial trigger of action is indestructible. Once it is initiated, we would not be able to eliminate the same. (The Chinese proverb “Journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step” is true) Having taken the first step it is not possible to erase the footprints left.

2. Any flaw in action will never abandons us
3. Performance of this action, even in small proportions, can give us great amount of confidence and motivation.

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.

Zig Ziglar

Future Directions in Quality Journey – Some Views

Quality as a profession has evolved over a period of time. In prehistoric period Quality was practiced in form of the regulatory requirement. Hammurabi Code is known for the punishment to be met out by the builders/ masons if the house collapses and the people residing in the house suffer injury or death.

1. Evolution is a process that is characterized by
   
2. Variation
   or change in more generic sense
   

The selection of variant that is most suitable and follows the principle of Evolution namely "Survival of the Fittest"

Quality journey in formal sense became necessary with industrialization. The era before mass production was characterized by the individual artisans, who managed the quality of their outputs by themselves. The initial methods of managing Quality were driven by INSPECTION and were controlled by profession that we know as Inspectors/ Testers etc. This new role actually created significant divide between the role of producer and the inspector. This divide is visible even today in many organizations and eliminating this divide is one of the biggest change management exercise for the Quality Professional.

The usage of statistics is the scientific community was well known. The tools used by the researchers crept into the organizations to manage business processes. These got formal name of Statistical Quality Control (initially used primarily by Inspectors) and then came Statistical Process Control (expected to be used by the Process Owners and Operators).

In the 1920's Shewhart introduced the concepts of statistical quality control. Statistical quality control provided the foundation for understanding and reducing variability through application of statistical theories. SPC tools provided the ability to ensure that processes and variability were controlled to provide consistent high quality telephones and networks for Western Electric and AT&T.

Dr. Deming provided the management philosophy of his theory of profound knowledge, and his 14 points, which were quite radical in his day

The process orientation led to think in terms of using tools to improve

1. Effectiveness of the Process
   
2. Efficiency of the Process.
   

The lack of above is expressed or reflected as problems in the operations.

The analysis of processes led to concepts of Business Process Reengineering. BPR Focused on making the business processes meaningful and eliminates unnecessary steps / activities. The concept emerged strongly later with Lean Methodologies.

On the productivity Side, in the first part of the 20th century Henry Ford introduced the Ford Production System, which provided the ability to mass-produce a Model T Ford in any color the customer wanted, as long as it was black. The Ford production system was the basis for the Toyota Production system. The Toyota Production System emphasized employee learning and empowerment for the first time. In the 80's, Just-in-Time principles arose as an off-shoot of the Toyota production system. The focus on JIT was to pull supplies and components through a system to arrive where and when they are needed.

As the Toyota Production System and JIT evolved and coalesced into Lean, the philosophies of TQM and the statistical theories of SQC evolved into Six Sigma.

Lean starts with an external focus on supplying the customer with exactly what the customer wants when they want it, through the value chain.

Six Sigma captured the voice of the customer and critical to quality characteristics, a rigorous and structured problem solving methodology, as well as a formal knowledge and tool belt structure, focus on the bottom-line impact of process improvement, and measurement and metrics.

Information Technology has evolved along with the management philosophies and problem solving tools, going from stand-alone software packages, with non-integrated modules, such as the financials, separate from MRP, separate from engineering, process, and production data, as well as customer information. ERP evolved to integrate the wide spectrum of processes and information that wasn't possible in the MRP and MRP II days.

Integration of Lean and Six Sigma enhanced the focus on eliminating waste AND reducing variability at the same time. Supply Chain concepts and tools have integrated the value chain with the information chain.

Further integration of the supply chain with lean six-sigma is already being most talk about concept today. This will lead to focus on improving up and downstream through the supply chain with the suppliers and the distributors.

TQM - Total Quality Management became huge in the 80's and 90's, and was the formulation of many of the quality guru's management philosophies, including Deming, Juran, Crosby, and Feigenbaum.

It was light on statistical tools and problem solving methodology and left that almost to chance, but provided for employee involvement, team-based brainstorming and problem solving, employee empowerment.

Innovation:

Innovation has remained part of Human Evolution in different form. Use of wheel and fire for enhancing quality of life is an example of early innovations.

Innovation as an economic concept includes development of new:

• Products and services (Ginger Hotel Chain)
  
• Methods of production or provision (Cellular Manufacturing concept)
  
• Methods of transportation or service delivery (ATM)
  
• Business models (Crowd Sourcing and Social Networking Platform for business)
  
• Markets
  
• Forms of organization
  

Stereotypically innovation is considered a product of genius, a flash of light. However, the practitioners have evolved systematically planned and organized innovations.

Future of the Quality Tools

Tools:

Tools developed and evolved can be classified in broadly two categories

1. People Centric
   

   These tools have evolved and become stronger due to
   

• Availability of better skills
  
• Aspiration of more skilled employees to be part of improvement journey
  
• Most employees reaching and striving for higher level of Maslow's hierarchy of motivation
  

1. Data Centric
   

   The tools here were largely through statistics and application of statistical approaches. Initially it was largely Bayesian statistics and later the inferential statistics become stronghold. This is becoming stronger with quantity of data that is available now for studies.
   

   It was easier to implement largely due to availability of skilled manpower and also availability of software that assist in using these tools easily.
   

Some direction on specific areas could be

1. Six Sigma
   

• Reduction in Cycle Time as project area is most common and is considered to be most beneficial to the customer and industry
  
• Inclusion of Vendor's organization in Six Sigma Projects
  
• Integrating Six Sigma with other initiatives
  
• Restructuring of time allocation within the DMAIC and PDCA Structure
  
• The Impact of Technological Advancements
  
• Modeling Tools
  
• Impact of Global Recession
  

1. Open Source Innovation
   
2. Quality Tools Deployment would be through automation and also building AI / Neural Network concepts
   
3. Documentation of learning and project would become a specialized skill
   

Challenges in Quality Management

1. Larger base of knowledge and data
   
2. The pace at which the options are available to consumer
   
3. The fast pace life of consumer and hence changes in demand at high speed
   

   The challenges in general can be detailed as below:
   

   Ever Demanding Customers
   

   Increased options and greater knowledge on the product life cycle has definitely led to ever increasing demands.
   

   Shifting Customer Value Perception
   

   The life of a value perception is shorter as the product life itself is coming down. The new products introduction, which used to take years, now takes months. The value perception is also frequently subjected to changes due presence of strong media and internet that provides faster information about product and businesses.
   

   Increasing Economic Pressures
   

   Generally demand on all resources has increased sharply. The pressure on organization to perform at higher level is increasing. The organizations performance is being micro viewed by the investors in short run. In fact long term has become either obsolete or the period of long term has come down significantly.
   

   Reduced Control over Data and Information
   

   With internet and computerization, the access and availability of data is relatively easier. RTI has further changed the dimension of the data availability for any analysis and working.
   

   Recognition of Softer Issues in Business Process
   

   With growth in the knowledge of the worker, and the trend of businesses becoming more knowledge focus, the management processes calls for looking into softer issues of Human Relations within and out of the Business Processes. In early part of 20th century Ford wanted only two hands and two legs, but today organizations want the matter above the shoulder more importantly than the limbs. This has definitely forced organization to look into the softer side of human management. The human resource management moved from treating human as another article to a resource that can contribute and enable better utilization of other resources.
   

   Risk Based Management Approach
   

   Risk based management approaches emerged more strongly towards the end of the 20th century and is becoming stronger area of specialization and focus for business entities. While initially the risk was associated only with finance management, but today the risk based approach has been extended to management of Product Development, Process, Employees, Environment etc.
   

   The risk based approach itself has moved from being subjective to an objective evaluation of the risk.
   

Ways to minimize the BOSS Effect in Meetings

I saw this on LinkedIn posted by a friend of mine.

Quote

meetings are funny. productivity is determined by how focussed or awake the boss is. you can see group attention change as does boss'

Unquote

It is so true that most of would not even think of disagreeing with the situation. This is result of our approach of one or many of the following:

1. Rule number 9 & 10| Rule 9—BOSS is always right| Rule 10 – If BOSS is wrong refer rule 9
   
2. Several centuries of having ruled under slavery like environment, differing with BOSS is often considered to be courageous (read suicidal)
   
3. Path of easy approach
   
4. Avoiding confrontation
   
5. …
   

The meetings as I have experienced are of three types:

1. Exploratory
   
   1. These meetings are often to develop New Plan / New Approaches/ New strategies
      
   2. Most often the agenda is futuristic
      
   3. The current information is only used to look into future (forecast or predict)
      
   4. It is more like brainstorming
      
2. Review
   
   1. These meeting are for reviewing
      
      1. the status of a project
         
      2. performance as against the target
         
      3. operations
         
      4. …
         
   2. These involve
      
      1. the presentation of data on performance
         
      2. comparative statements on performance
         
3. Information Sharing
   
   1. These are of the type where the senior is expected to communicate on certain important issues like union meeting progress, special business situation etc.
      

The last type is not an area of concern. I would try to put my thoughts on how to minimize impact of BOSS in first two type of meeting

Exploratory Meetings:

1. While the meeting is expected to be exploratory, it is necessary to bringing objectivity in the meeting. For example, if we are doing a meeting in to build a strategic plan for the business the steps that could help are
   
   1. Making the topic specific for example in place of saying Business Strategy we can "Strategy to meeting the risk ABC"
      
   2. Insistence of Home work on the topic and circulation of the opinion/ views prior to meeting (This rarely happens)
      
2. Most important of all these that BOSS should speak in the last. Most meeting would begin with a "lecture" by the BOSS. Making this last thing in the agenda itself can help in making meeting more productive.
   

Review Meetings:

1. The problem begins with not having an objective response to following questions on review:
   
   1. What to review?
      
      1. Can I say "Sales Actual versus Budget for a period" instead of saying Sales Department Performance
         
   2. Data for review
      
      1. Often the review comments or the comments on the performance would be subjective. For example "the sales have improved". Instead we should seek to know improved from "where to where in what period".
         
2. The review presentation should be made with data and interpretation based on information presented in following order
   
   1. Current Level of Performance
      
   2. Trend in the performance (minimum of 3 data points)
      
   3. Comparison of performance with target, benchmark etc
      
3. Interpretation must include the linkage to the process that has resulted in the change in performance.
   

I have tried to list the above based on my experience. These cannot eliminate the impact of BOSS on behavior during meeting, but would reduce. The most important step toward this would be acceptance of the BOSS to reduce his/her role in the meeting.

Management Lessons from Srimad Bhagvat Geeta

The more I reflect the more I get absorbed at how certain basic tenets do not change over time. Anyone who has read the book by Partha Bose "Alexander the Great's Art of Strategy" would agree with me that corporate strategy and warfare have not changed since then. I would dwell on that some time later. Continuing from the earlier issue, I would like to explore the aspects around Performance and Performance Management. This time I am picking up shlokas from Chapter 2 of Srimad Bhagawat Geeta.

"And if you do not engage in this righteous war, you will lose the dharma of your Self and glory, and be guilty of sin.''

"And all will for ever speak of your disgrace and such disgrace is worse than death itself for a man of honour.''

 

All of us engaged with the organization to perform a particular task (dharma) in a righteous manner. What is righteous is driven by the Values and Beliefs of the organization. In absence of Values and Beliefs the "Right" becomes subjective and can get trapped into interpretation of convenience.

If we do not perform our duty (Dharma) we are losing our self and would be guilty of misdeed (sin). We can probably make ourselves believe that we only acted / behaved as instructed, but a simple soul search will tell us the truth. One can lie to all but not to oneself. Abraham Lincoln quoted most appropriately

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

"Unknown"

People will long speak ill of errors and omissions committed by one. We often forget the goods done by individuals, but remember the misdeeds in granular details. We all remember the misdeeds of Indira Gandhi during emergency much more than her contribution to the country.

One must act based on what people would like to write in their epitaph rather than what people would say behind their back. When your life has ended (maybe after you have lived a long, long time), how would you like your friends to remember you? Write a dialogue between two of your friends. What do they say about you?

"Those who say that life is worth living at any cost have already written an epitaph of infamy, for there is no cause and no person that they will not betray to stay alive"

--- Sidney Hook

We must perform at levels where we can make the wish expressed by Iqbal in his famous lyrics true in organization.

"Khudi ko kar buland itna ke har taqder se pehle

Khuda bande se ye poche bata teri raza kia hai"

(simple meaning of this lyric is one must make oneself such that god would ask one before deciding one's fate)

We must also be aware of the forces that would prevent us from achieving this kind of success. We would definitely remember the famous story of a frog that succeeded only because it was deaf enough not to hear the discouraging calls by his friends.

We try to identify these others. Who are these other great warriors? They have to be warriors as they would either fight for your growth or against your growth. They could be one among your seniors, peers and at time even subordinates at your work place.

"Even the great warriors who have a high regard for you will then scorn you for having turned your back upon the war out of fear.''

 

The other formidable warriors are those who desire for pleasure/ opportunity towards your visible acts that may not righteous, even if you did it out of ignorance (We do have people who have sadistic pleasure in your failure). These people would prevent you from taking the right path partly out of ignorance and partly intentionally. It is these who would be more critical of you when you fail. Beware of them. Let them not transgress you from your path of success. Identify them as quickly as possible.

We would continue later to discuss how to work around and succeed without wasting energy to identify these warriors.