cadillac
I saw the Andy Walo Trio play at House of Blues in Los Angeles, and haven’t been able to get this song out of my head for a year. It’s called Cadillac and you can find it on their Myspace Music page. There’s something about blues-rock that I can throw myself in to. (It’s not as self-indulgent as either just blues or just rock – gives you more of a chance to get out of yourself and in to its groove.) But don’t let me trivialize this tune as merely a good distraction. It’s great! The gimmicky get-back to the main riff is totally awesome, each and every time they do it.
making it work
Back to work culture like I said I would.
I think one of the most important qualities to engage in the work place is flatness. By that I mean – a strong check on hierarchical behavior. Everyone has contributions to make and worrying about what the boss might say/think/feel is the best way to bring about clamming up of employees, or even worse – them expressing thoughts they believe will be favored by those “in power.” This creates a space where people are motivated by fear, leads to a fake consensus, and culminates in a non-progressive environment. What we need are work cultures in which people are intrinsically motivated. Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your work with excellence. Sucking up is not conducive to this kind of sentiment.
A facet related to the first is this: companies must be very careful to inculcate an atmosphere that is not idea-killing. The role of two-way communication needs to be deeply underscored. It’s easy to be dismissive of thoughts that are not articulate enough or stated confidently enough or are perhaps slightly tangential to the topic at hand. But true respect is always due to input offered – so value all that is said, dig a bit deeper to get at the essence, certainly don’t discount anyone. Someone once said: The paradox of innovation is this: CEOs often complain about lack of innovation, while employees often say that leaders are hostile to new ideas.
The next thing I can think of is affirmation of who employees are – in a holistic sense. It is not often that people feel known/understood where they work. (There is plenty of research in organizational psychology showing that verifying people’s sense of self is greatly useful.) So, for example, let’s say you have an engineer who can paint, let it be known. Perhaps a showcasing of employee’s talents outside of their job descriptions is worthwhile. People are unique and should be seen as such; cliques should be avoided at all cost. A related aspect is of giving people autonomy. Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what needs to be done, and then let them surprise you with the results.
An openness to change is vital. A great quote speaking to it: To survive in the future, every organization must be prepared to abandon everything it does. The world is engulfed in a revolution, on a social and psychological level, and this must reflect at the organizational level as well. I’m obviously not saying the focus should be on abandoning everything, but that there should be a readiness to doing so, if need be.
Money is an unavoidable but surprising variable in creating a good work culture. Another neat quote that talks to the point: There is no contest between the company that buys the grudging compliance of its workforce and the company that enjoys the enterprising participation of its employees. You could pay people a ton of money and not have their faithfulness. (Employee turnover rates are not as muted by high salaries as one might like to think.) Or you could value an employee tremendously and have his loyalty forever, even if you couldn’t pay him the best that is out there.
Management must develop a clear ideology and let it be implemented by all – from the guy who wheels the coffee and croissants in to the conference room to the one who heads the table. It is more than vital! A powerful quote that I believe gets at it most thoroughly: A visionary company creates a total environment that envelops employees, bombarding them with signals so consistent and mutually reinforcing that it’s virtually impossible to misunderstand the company’s ideologies and ambitions. This ties in inextricably with giving meaning to the work employees do. A vision is exceedingly important.
Finally, a thoughtful and honest Corporate Responsibility policy is imperative today. When institutionalized right, it can cover almost all of the points touched upon above – and more! The idea of Corporate Responsibility is NOT anti-profit, as many like to believe; it is just a more long-term orientation than the short-term one to which we are accustomed. Ultimately, CR is about nothing but profit, actually. I will write about it some more in another post.
deck the wall
I have a friend, a highly talented art director, who’s created an amazing series of Dubai cityscapes. It’s not glamor-and-glitz but down-to-earth and often gritty stuff that he captures. Most of it is done on used, flattened cardboard boxes, although he does have a fruit paper-tray or two in the mix! Click on each for a closer look at these two pieces of his art, now happily mine. He has more, so if you like what you see, let me know and I will gladly get you in touch with Fabo.
think like a kid!
We sometimes use a cool creative tool to brainstorm at work. Basically, you each pull one of a pack of cards. (Every card bears a different anecdote and an associated technique.) Then you play the role that the card suggests within the team for a bit, until it’s time to pull the next card. It’s a fun and remarkably useful exercise! Here is one I especially like…
dissatisfied?
Consider the following aspects of job satisfaction.
1) The EMOTIONAL (i.e. people are doing work they personally enjoy and when they know that the outcome of their work is meaningful)
2) The SOCIAL (when one works with people one likes and respects, where feedback is appropriate, and where the motivation to perform is positive)
3) The PHYSICAL (whether it be manual labor that is not abusive or about a comfortable, easily accessible office for a white-collar worker)
4) The FINANCIAL (I realize how subjective the phrase “well-paid” is; but let’s say that “well” implies a cool savings of at least a fifth of monthly pay.)
I have a feeling that a strong fulfillment of just one or two of the above could lead a person to say they are pretty satisfied at their job overall. For example, let’s say you are getting remunerated at a high level; that might negate the ill effects of all other aspects. Or for example, if you aren’t, but you adore your colleagues, you may grin and bear the fact that you don’t absolutely love your work either. This might be a tad simplistic, but you get the drift…
And yet, the percentage of people who are extremely dissatisfied at their jobs these days is spectacular. Well, why?
It would be easy to primarily blame issues with the last factor on the list – inadequate compensation is indeed a major concern in most economies today. But how about we focus on the first two for a bit.
The kind of work you choose to do obviously influences to a great extent how much you enjoy your work. Do your aptitude and abilities match your profession? If not, you are probably not alone. People are often socially pressured to take up jobs they are doomed to dislike. Many of us have heard things like: “Don’t do music, you won’t get a job doing that!” or “Where’s the money in studying art?” or “Whatever would you do with a degree in language when you grow up?”
Sir Ken Robinson has given a remarkable speech (Do schools kill creativity?) on what the consequences of discouraging kids from their natural affinities are. I do not blame society for putting pressure on their children to become engineers and accountants. I see that the advice is well-intentioned – but it is not necessarily right. And what ends up happening is the creation of a world where people are not synched up with their jobs, which then contributes significantly to job dissatisfaction – and ultimately reduces commitment and productivity at personal and organizational levels.
The issue above is a huge one and needs much attention. Even so, let’s say you chose to do what you want to, or even if you chose to do what you can at least tolerate doing. Unfortunately, there’s a bigger hurdle that often creeps up. Typically, after the initial novelty of a work place has worn away, you begin to grapple with a work culture that is far from ideal.
It’s not often that workplaces elicit the kind of sentiment that companies like Google do…
More on work culture in an upcoming post.
grim
I was on vacation in South India this last week. My cousin and I traveled a few hours from Mysore to a beautiful resort in Coorg. Coffee plantations, elephants roaming free, lush greenery, and plenty of rain-induced relaxation later, we decided to return by bus. It was a charming ride through tiny villages that made me feel connected with India again after years – even as we were at times tossed a foot off our seats by monsoon potholes galore!
That was all until about a hour and a half in, when we heard a sickening crunch, as we rumbled through a village called Kamalapur. The bus ground to a halt and there it was, plain for all to see, a 4 year-old kid splattered on the street. Words cannot describe the feeling and I will – for my peace of mind and yours – omit gory details.
What was almost more disturbing was the reaction of the villagers. They gathered around in hordes within minutes, all looking for someone to blame. Apparently, drivers of all vehicles involved, whether directly or not, were considered criminals. The driver and conductor of our bus simply ran away in a jiffy. Perhaps they thought escaping in to a neighbouring village would be safer than facing the wrath of the mob that had gathered. And what a mob it was! A buzz spread through our bus; we were strongly advised to get away as soon as possible, owing to a good chance that the bus would be stoned by people provoked before the arrival of cops. We left and walked a few kilometres down the highway, where we eventually hitched a ride to the nearest town.
What I could not get past is that, in all this, the remains of the child were ignored, with no one to simply cover him up with a piece of cloth. In fact, it seemed like people wanted to keep the terrible sight there, in order that the anger that was seething would not wane. Were the incident to be covered by a foreign press, it would be easy to portray India as a brutal land of ignorant people. We somehow could not blame the dirt-poor and vastly uneducated villagers for their reaction however. All we could hope for as we brisked ourselves away – on the eve of Independence Day no less – was more of a drive towards literacy.
a brimful of asha
I have written a lot about Western music on this blahg, but never about music from the Indian Subcontinent somehow – even though I consider it one of the most rich and nuanced musical traditions of the world. Much of my regard comes from being born to a house filled with it and also because I trained in singing a classical version for many years growing up.
One thing is for sure, no matter how great it is, it is not packaged for popularity in the Western parts of the world. Of course, there are some Indian artists like Ravi Shankar and Zakir Husain that have gained some fame overseas. But for most music aficionados, it’s the Bollywood type stuff that is off-putting. One of the reasons is that it it’s typically sung in an octave so high, it sounds like Mickey Mouse music to those unaccustomed! Anyway, criticisms and analyses aside, here are two folk songs by Asha Bhosle - the one from the Cornershop song this post is named after.
The first of the two songs is in Hindi/Urdu and is a beautiful song, the music of which is by the great Pakistani musician Ghulam Ali. The second is one of the loveliest Marathi folk songs that I have ever heard. (I think both these would be much nicer at a lower pitch too, but ah well.) If you aren’t familiar with Indian music, and happen to have a listen, please do leave a comment about what you think. Lyrics aside, I am curious as to how the melody sounds to the uninitiated…
brand: dubai
Caught the recently released Will Smith movie Hancock the other day. In a scene, one of the main characters refers to the top 5 cities of the world – London, Paris, New York, Hongkong, and Dubai. I mentioned the slightly surprising fact – that Dubai was so solidly on that list already – to a couple of people in the media biz.
They had similar responses: “It might well be product placement!” Now product placement I understand – like how the judges of American Idol slug down massive Coca Colas and not Pepsis or how Sarah Jessica Parker has a Mac and not a PC on Sex & the City. But city placement as well? Wow.
Apparently, there’s a media operation called ‘in-programming’ whereby moviemakers solicit those who would like a snatch of good publicity. Once the appropriate dollar amount is determined, a contract is signed, and the ‘product’ in question is woven seamlessly in to the plot. Unbelievable! (Even to an advertising person, somehow.)
man in black
Just watched Walk The Line (2005), a sort of biopic on Johnny Cash and June Carter. It’s a riveting film that recreates the 50s in which the two musicians met, performed, and eventually married. The music scene at the time had Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Dylan, and Waylon Jennings amongst others, and it’s so great to see them appear on and off through the film. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon are brilliant and the story of how their love returns him to his former glory, after a pill-popping roller-coaster ride, is touching. Music, history, a Hollywood film made with a measure of sensitivity; what more could you ask for on a lazy last day of the weekend. Here’s an original video of the title song.
phew
I’ve always felt you can take the pulse of a city by its cab drivers – kinda like you can tell how good the sushi will be based on the miso soup. Or something like that! Anyway, in some places, meaningful conversation in a taxi is easy to come by – with someone from a much different world than yours. But for that inching hour, the traffic is an odd equalizer. You might talk about the state of the city, the politicians who run it, the people who breathe its polluted yet addictive air. It makes for a happy tipper. Here, on the other hand, it’s once in a blue moon that you get a semi-sane driver. Leave conversation alone, you spend most of the time cringing or clinging. Yanne, you tip solely if you are in one piece – both mentally and physically – as the taxi screeches to a halt, khalaas!
