IOU - Understanding the Whole

This is a famous and well known story but I don't mind repeating it with a question at the end.

Four blind men went to the zoo and visited the elephant. One blind man touched its side and said, ‘The elephant is like a wall.’ The next blind man touched its trunk and said, ‘The elephant is like a snake.’ The next blind man touched its leg and said, ‘The elephant is like a column.’ The last blind man touched its tail and said, ‘The elephant is like a broom.’ Then the four blind men started to fight, each one believing that his opinion was the right one. Each only understood the part he had touched; none of them understood the whole.

Question: How can one understand the whole?

CL - SWOT analysis of a System as a Whole

Once upon a time, there lived a stag in a dense forest. One day he went to the nearby water hole to quench his thirst. There he saw his reflection in the water and thought to himself, “I have got beautiful antlers but my legs are ugly. I can’t understand why God has given me such thin legs.”

Just then he heard a lion roaring at a short distance. The stag knew that if he stayed there, the lion would kill him. So he started running. The lion too started chasing the stag, The stag ran faster and faster and soon outdistanced the lion. But alas! All of a sudden the antlers of the stag got entangled with the overhanging branches of a tree. The stag struggled hard, but could not get his antlers free from the branches. He thought to himself, “My thin legs helped me to get away from the danger, but my antlers proved dangerous for me”. By that time the lion had reached there. He pounced upon the stag and killed him.  

 

MORAL:  SWOT Analysis must be done objectively keeping in mind the dynamics of a system that would change with time. It is the balance that we seek not the features of any part of a system in particular. The purpose of a system is what it does. It is the whole that is important. So there is a need to take a holistic view of anything.

 

Strengths:  Strength is a resource, a skill to be in tune to meet the market demands and stand firm with competitors. Systems are designed with certain intentions to produce a desired output.

 Weaknesses:  It is a limitation or deficiency of resources, skills, capabilities, potentialities, that affect effective performance. Or we can think of them as imperfections in the system that produces 'mess' during operation. These need to be identified early enough to avoid disasters.

Opportunities: One needs to grab the opportunities analyzing the positive and negative sides of the coin. A quick shift in viewpoint or perspective is needed. Multiple perspectives are welcome.

 Threat: They are like ticking time bombs which are to be diffused before they blast. These are unintended consequences that urges us to actively search them out.

 

Notes:

Indian story from Panchantrantra retold.

CL stands for Creative Leadership

Nanak's Blessings -- Changing Perspective in Leadership Thinking

Guru Nanak was a great spiritual master and leader of India.

One day he along with his disciple, Mardana, visited a village. They were greeted with great respect and well taken care of during their stay.

People came to the master to learn from his the secrets of living successfully even though they knew a lot about it.

Nanak and Mardana were very pleased with the gentle nature and exemplary behavior of the people of that village.

When the master and his disciple left the village, Mardana asked his master, ‘What good wishes you would have for these villagers?’

Nanak said, ‘I wish that this village is completed destroyed and ruined so that none can live here anymore.’

Mardana was shocked into disbelief by what he heard. But he did not question his master. They kept traveling.

After a few days they came to another village. Here their experience was completely different. The people were hostile. They hurled abuses at them. Some even threw stones at them. None offered them food or a place to rest. They refused to even offer them water to drink.

The master and the disciple somehow spent the night in that village under a tree and by day break they were on their way out of the village.

While they left the village, Mardana asked the master, ‘Master, what curse would you like to cast upon such heartless villagers?’

Nanak softly replied, ‘Did you ask me to cast a curse on these villagers? I would not do that at all. I in fact would bless them that their village grows more prosperous and the villagers lead a better standard of life and have more food to live on.’

By this time Mardana have had enough. He simply could not understand his Master’s strange ways of thinking and could not figure out why his Master cursed the villagers who were so kind and courteous to them and blessed the villagers who were out to almost kill them.

But he knew that his master was a very unusual leader of men. So after some time, unable to contain his curiosity any longer, he asked Nanak, ‘Master, I don’t understand. Why did you bless the people who were so unkind to us and curse the people who were so good and nice to us?’

‘It is simple’, replied Nanak. ‘The villagers who were kind to us were exceptional men and women. I haven’t seen such a group of people anywhere so far. So in a way I did curse them by wishing that their village be destroyed forever so that these good people are scattered and are forced to settle in other lands. This would brighten up the lives of others since they can only enlighten them with their way of thinking and living. On the other hand, I blessed the notorious villagers to be more prosperous so that such people are never forced to leave their place to live in other villages. For if they do that they would contaminate the minds of others forcing them to follow their evil ways in thought, words and actions. It would then harm the world so much that it would be difficult to restore.’