Santhosh's ramblings

We have been in God’s own country with family engaged in the funeral arrangements of an uncle who passed away suddenly, at a young age of 77. Yes for Kerala 77 is young to pass away! For those of us in North it might appear a bit confusing! But this is not about age and aging – but about life and death. My uncle who passed away was not one who “made it” in the general understanding of “Making it” as of today. But the funeral was a reminder of what is “Significant; Success and Security”. The many who came and shared about my uncle, talked about – how he made their lives find significance by accepting them and being a friend to them. This was the simple “Aam Aadmi” – the local shop keepers and others, to - one Central government Principal Secretary who was his class mate and many others including family members. Many shared about how his life was about relationships with people from all religions and walks of life. Others shared about the security of a legacy he is leaving and the...

If vision is what should drive us and people are the ones who have to take forward the vision, then there has to be a way in which this is communicated and people are aligned to the vision. What is that we have to communicate?  We have to communicate the big picture. May be the institutional or organizational or even the Kingdom vision. And then how the so called vision we have developed fits into the same. At the same time, we have to communicate how the big picture makes sense for the urgent, immediate and the critical. We have communicate how the big picture fits into the 8 to 5 job that each of us do. And how this if not understood can destroy the institution, the team and even the individual. Not an easy task. What for that we communicate - so that "my vision" becomes and "Shared vision" and also fits into the "kingdom vision". So that we work towards a community who holds this vision together! But with the paradox of people whom we have with us...

It is one thing to talk about aligning vision and institutions to the vision etc., but end of the day, if one has to take the vision forward, there has to be the alignment of people to this vision. But people are the paradox!  On one hand there will be the 9 to 5 people who are only bothered about their daily work and emoluments and on the other hand people who want to change the world. For the latter even the institutional or organizational vision is too small and the former, all these vison discussions are “foreign” and "irrelevant". There will be others for whom the “one patient cured” is enough whereas for someone else the health care system has to change through what they do! A just and equitable society is what drives the latter whereas thanks from one patient helped is what drives the former. Some will see “New Heaven” and New Earth” as their dream others will see one life saved as their dream. There will be many who are only there for the job and willing to go al...

Taking over the leadership of organizations or institutions, one is expected to fulfil the mandate and aspirations of a whole set of stake holders. There will be the board and or the governance structures who will see things from one “set of glasses”. There will the team who is with you that will have totally different expectation. And the staff whose aspirations and desires will be from yet another perspective. Leadership is primarily is about vision and influence. So when one starts off in the role, the immediate thing to work towards is to develop a vision for the role and tenure one has been inducted for. There might be an institutional or organizational vision, which provides an overall directional frame work, but developing a time bound personal vision for the role and tenure is key if one wants to lead well. The challenge will be – how to develop this vision and what will guide this vision. Generally organizational visons are too “nebulous and airy fairy” and instituti...

Last night we were in a dinner with some close friends. Friends whom we got to know over last few years, developed close relationships, and been of support to each other. It was more like a “fare well dinner” for us. Looking back at the last year, there has been many “Goodbyes” in our life. Some final goodbyes, some short term partings, some others medium term. The last one week or so has been filled with medium term goodbyes with the hope that we will see each other again, soon, though we might not be around in Delhi. It was an emotional moment for us, where we were reminiscing on the past events and recognizing that one phase of life was over. For the disciples who saw Jesus on the cross, on that Friday noon, it would have been like a final goodbye to their master and teacher, whom they thought they might never see again. And the Saturday would have been filled with emotions of confusion, anger, sorrow, fear and distress. The men could not even get out of their rooms but on Su...

Jesus, who had the mandate of redemption of the world, through his death and resurrection, in his earthy life, engaged with various people with different inner motives. He would walk into a wedding party and turn water into wine to protect the status of the family in the community. He would walk into houses to care one to one for people, or stop to spend time with selected individuals.  At the same time, he walked to the temple and cleaned out the market, he would interact with large groups, teaching them of upcoming Kingdom and structures which need to change. The former out of an inner compassion and the latter a deep desire to see just structures and systems in place. Compassion for individuals and families on one hand and righteous anger against systems and structures which prevent people from fulfilling Gods purposes for their lives.  And as people started joining him in this movement of compassion and righteous anger, he would walk away from them, because it will not be ...

The buzz word today is development. Everywhere we turn around we are bombarded by this, and all are called to align to this agenda of development. Even in high level meetings, leaders of the country clearly make this indication that we have to forget our differences for the sake of development. Religious, cultural, ethnic all have to be forgotten for the sake of development. Very true and important. But what is the development are we talking about. The indicators we use are purely economic. GDP, % of poor, investments into the country, inflation reduction, Consumer Price Index, and may others. I do not understand most of these! But I do understand one thing, it is all about economy and money. And the drivers of these economic development seems to be in the hand of a few big time Indian corporates. With the FDI caps being raised, many seems to be waiting at the doors of Indian embassies, waiting for the right time to enter. Policies being passed and in the draft stages, clearly are ...