Soft Science

I was looking at some articles on good governance and I came across a quote by Mr. Narayana Murthy, Chairman Emeritus of Infosys. He says, "The primary purpose of corporate leadership is to create wealth legally and ethically. This translates to bringing a high level of satisfaction to five constituencies – customers, employees, investors, vendors and the society-at-large. The raison d'être of every corporate body is to ensure predictability, sustainability and profitability of revenues year after year." This statement makes for interesting reading, that the primary purpose of corporate leadership is to create wealth. But, then he goes on to qualify it by saying – both legally and ethically.  Those become the rails on which good corporate governance must run.

 

That's a change in governance over the years. Probably 10 or 15 years back, or even less, corporate governance was more hard-nosed; it was dealing with more pragmatic approaches. Bottom line profitability was all that mattered. And yet today, more and more we are seeing that there is a softer approach that is coming in. more soft sciences are being introduced to leadership and there's something that is being asked of employees beyond just bottom-line profit.

 

Schumpeter, writing in The Economist on 'The Art of Management' in an article entitled 'Business has Much to learn from the Arts' talks about how the hard sciences, for so long, have been at the core of leadership management studies. But he says, "The bias starts at business school, where "hard" things such as numbers and case studies rule. It is reinforced by everyday experience. Bosses constantly remind their underlings that if you can't count it, it doesn't count. Quarterly results impress the stock market; little else does. However, more and more soft sciences are coming into leadership and management, bring a change into this hard-nosed concept of leading."

 

I was talking to a friend the other day about the many suicides that were happening in the southern part of India, especially in a particular town. The policemen there had appealed to some of the people there to come and help in counseling. He said, "We can look after the law. It's very clear – black and white. But there are aspects that we don't have any idea about, like how do you talk people out of suicide?" they felt completely inadequate to deal with these things. It made me think about how the softer sciences are so needed in today's world. Many people are beginning to realize that it is crucial for our navigation.

 

In fact, I came across an article entitled 'Why Soft Science is the Key to regaining Leadership in Marketing Knowledge' by Alan Tapp and Tim Hughes, out of the Bristol Business School. They had the same idea, that there's a great need for soft science to begin to help understand corporate governance and leadership.

 

I was intrigued when I saw that the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, had a program a couple of years back called 'Spirituality and Management International Conference on Indigenous Models of Sustainability, Good Governance and Spiritual Transformation'. I thought that very slowly, we are beginning to realize that there is a spiritual component that can help in governance. As I reflected on that, I thought "Why not?" So often we intuitively feel that something is not right, or something is not adding up, or we like to go with our gut response which is not backed up by any of the hard sciences. I like to think that it is in these places that God is speaking, that He brings a certain amount of wisdom and understanding that is far beyond our capabilities to help us work well in the spheres that we have. He is all-knowing. He has wisdom. Often, I think these hunches that we have could actually be God trying to break through our legal, pragmatic, hard-nosed world, saying, "I want to bring to your attention something that you need to look at."

 

I get solace from our Scriptures that say, "The eyes of the Lord roam over the whole earth to encourage those who are devoted to Him wholeheartedly." I would love that encouragement.

Another verse in our Bible says, "He will not let your foot slip; He who watches over you will not slumber." How nice! I would love to yield to this Godly influence in my life because I know that in everything I do, there could be more space for wisdom.

 

Friends, maybe today, the Lord is the soft science that we need to bring into our hard-nosed world of profitability. Just a thought for you and for me today. Maybe that's the invitation that we need to make today as we go through the day. Invite Him to be a part of our day at the office.

 

May I pray with you? Almighty God, we do invite You into our spaces this morning and we ask that You would come and give Your wisdom. Let Your wisdom come to bear on all the decisions that we make, that they may be tinged with godliness and divinity. I pray a blessing on each one of these who will read this post. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

 

·       Mr. Narayana Murthy quotes: https://www.scribd.com/document/48809293/INFOSYS-SERVICES

·       Schumpeter, "Business has much to learn from the Arts." https://www.economist.com/node/18175675

·       Conference on Spirituality, http://www.iimb.ac.in/sites/default/files/SPIRITUALITY%20AND%20MANAGEMENT%20Latest%20(3).pdf

·       Bible references: 2 Chronicles 16:9a and Psalm 121:3

I Was Wrong. I'm Sorry

Some time ago, a few of us were talking about new cars in the market when the conversation veered towards Volkswagen and how they had been caught intentionally adding software that was designed to prevent them getting caught from emissions standards that were over the normal. It was surprising that this was the very first time that an auto company had been caught for something that they had done very intentionally, and the EPA caught up with them.

 

It made me think of the various infringements of companies these days. Jeffrey Liker, in an article for Harvard Business Review, chronicles the fate of these companies. First, Toyota – a highly respected and revered company, accused of selling cars with unintended acceleration problems that led to quite a few serious injuries. Toyota put it down to faulty and mismatched mats that were causing the problem. They didn't take it seriously for a long time hoping the storm would pass. It didn't, and they ended up with a $1.2 billion settlement.

 

Then, General Motors had a faulty ignition switch that led to 124 deaths and 274 injured over a span of 10 years. They too, didn't take it very seriously and finally paid up $900 million as an out-of-court settlement with the Department of Justice.

 

It made me think! How do companies bounce back from such a place of lost credibility? How do they regain the customers' goodwill on which a lot of sales depend? Do they minimize it and hope that it will pass? Or do they come clean and say, "We made a mess and we need to rectify it and do everything that is necessary"?

 

It took me back to the days when Tylenol had a problem and they found out that cyanide had been put into the capsules in Chicago and it led to nine deaths. How quickly they handled the situation while responding with such honesty, candour and responsibility. They apologized to the public, took Tylenol off the shelves, admitted responsibility, and came back with tamper-proof bottles that re-instated the public's faith in J & J as a good, ethically sound company.

 

So, how should companies handle these situations? What happens in the aftermath? There's a nice article called 'The Organizational Apology'. In it, the author says that basically one needs to ask the questions: who, what, where, when and how, and make sure that the apology sits right in those areas.

 

1.     Who apologizes? Who is the one who stands up and says, "We made a mistake, and we're sorry." We need to make sure that it has to be a senior leader who does that.

2.     What is the substance of the apology? They go on to say that there are 3 things that you must have: candor, remorse and a commitment to change.

3.     Where - what kind of coverage must that apology have? Wide coverage, or wide enough to cover all the places where the mistake has had an impact.

4.     When should an apology be made? The key here is to make it quickly. "Speed equals sincerity" as the authors say.

5.     How should the apology be made? In person, through a letter, or through social media and with great empathy.

 

That's the corporate end of the talk. But I also think that sometimes we can make those mistakes that hurt people, and because we don't really take it seriously, or we have more power than the people with whom wrong has been done, that apologies are withheld. For example, it can happen in the family, to a spouse, or to children, or to colleagues around us who may be in a lower position than we are. Sometimes it's difficult to really say, "I need to apologize to these people," because they can't really do anything to you.

 

Yet, the question is not about whether they can or cannot. But the question is whether it is the right thing to do. If hurt has been perpetrated, if something wrong has been done, then an apology is warranted. Maybe today is a day that you look at somebody who is hurting. Maybe it's in your own family, or your circle of friends. It's something that you did wrong, but you haven't apologized for. Could it be that today is the day that you say, "I did wrong, and I apologize,"? My hope is that you will.

 

But, there's another aspect that I think we need to understand. In the wrongs that we do, we do wrong even to the Almighty God who has placed us in these positions and trusted us with the responsibilities that we have. We owe God an apology too. We need to say that we are sorry that we took advantage of a situation that He has given us. But it also comes with good news. Our Scriptures say, "If we confess our wrong-doing, then God is faithful and just, and will forgive us for these wrong-doings, and will cleanse us and make us clean again, and take away any unrighteous in us." That is good news for me because it takes away the guilt as well. It's a wonderful thing!

 

A word for us today! We may not do things on the scale of General Motors or Volkswagen or Toyota, but in our day-to-day life, when we mess up, let's make sure that we take responsibility and apologize. Do it sincerely, both to the people whom we may have wronged, and to God who gave us the responsibility, and then only, move on.

 

May I offer this prayer on our behalf? Almighty God, bless each one of us who reads this post. Give us the wisdom to say the right thing at the right time, for some of the wrong things that we might have done. We pray that you would lead and guide us, and accept our voices of apology both to people and to you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

 

•       Jeffery Liker, "Assessing the Sins of Volkswagen, Toyota and General Motors," https://hbr.org/2015/09/assessing-the-sins-of-volkswagen-toyota-and-general-motors

•       Maurice E. Schweitzer, Alison Wood Brooks & Adam D. Galinsky, "The Organizational Apology." https://hbr.org/2015/09/the-organizational-apology

•       Scripture reference: 1 John 1:9 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20John%201:9&version=TLB

 

Confrontations@the Workplace

I remember reading a sociologist's account that the United States, in the early 1960s was considered a 'melting pot', meaning that there were many, many people from different countries all over the world  coming into the US and then coming together as one nation, with one set of values. The melting pot symbolized that. Increasingly, however, these days it's being referred to more as a salad bowl, where people from different countries are coming into the United States and maintaining their own ethnicities.

 

I think that's a good example of the office spaces that we are in. With high attrition rates today, there isn't too much space to develop relationships that are long lasting and for people to mesh together, form real friendships that move in one direction. There's a sense of: "I'm here for a particular time; what's in it for me? How can I contribute to what I am supposed to do here and then when the time is right, move on?" This is more of a 'salad bowl' mentality that is fertile soil for a lot of misunderstandings that are often  not cleared up – maybe an unwarranted memo, a colleague talking behind your back, a directive not followed, somebody else taking credit for what you've done, or you feel you've been slighted. All of these are things that can happen in the context of a working space. Often times, we don't have the ability or the time or the inclination to deal with it. And instead of expressing or processing what's going on, we let it simmer within ourselves. And that normally leads to, on the milder side, irritation, or at the other end of the spectrum, resentment, anger, or sometimes, even outright hatred! These are emotions that are not healthy for anyone.

 

How do we deal with that in the context of an office? The obvious answer is to confront it. Confrontation, in and of itself, is a little bit of a difficult place to be. For some people, it may come easier than others because confrontation, or the ability to confront, has a lot to do with personality types as well. yet, I believe that confrontation must happen. It is something that we ought to do whether we like it or not, whether we feel like it or not ,because it helps to clear the air of some of these debilitating attitudes that we may have.

 

I want to give you something that I read by Angela Smith. She says, "There are 5 things that you need to know when you confront.

 

1.     Give the Person the Benefit of the Doubt.

Don't go in aggressively because it could be that you are completely wrong in the motive that they had for doing what they did. Always go in soft, asking questions and then be able to retreat if you need to.

 

2.     Resist the Urge to Email

Putting things down in an email is not the best thing because it doesn't convey any emotion. However good a writer you may be, however good you are at putting sentences together, they rarely capture emotion. That is something that a face-to-face is better at.

 

3.     Sit Down and Talk

Invite the other person for a chat and explain very clearly what happened; explain your own feelings. Don't in any way be aggressive about it or shout at the other person, but explain just how you felt about the whole thing. For example, "When you made that presentation to the boss the other day, I hear that my contribution was not mentioned. It made me feel like I was left out of the team," rather than "You always leave me out and take the credit." Coming back from words like that is very difficult.

 

4.     Write it Down

Keep a written record of how you handled the situation. It's not always that you escalate things to your supervisor or your boss. There are some things that they expect you to handle yourself. Keep a written note of what happened and how you handled it, so that if it does escalate later, then you have evidence of how you handled it yourself when it happened.

 

5.     Pick Your Battles

There are some things that you just need to let go, like water off a duck's back, have a thick skin, and there are some things that are worth fighting for. So, make sure that you pick your battles.

 

Well, this may, or may not, work for you. Sometimes confrontations turn out positively, and sometimes they turn out negatively. The choice of words, the occasion, the place, all of these have a bearing on how to confront another person. I've often found that to get the best scenario is sometimes way beyond my own capability and my own thinking. I, for one, reach out to the Almighty God and say, "How do I address this particular situation? I know that I need to confront. Will You help me?"

 

Our Scriptures give us wonderful words of affirmation from God. "If you want to know what God wants you to do, ask Him and He will gladly tell you, for He is always ready to give a bountiful supply of wisdom to all who ask Him. He will not resent it." Those are wonderful words! Whenever we are wondering how to handle something, not sure of ourselves, not sure how to do it – just lean on God's understanding, who always sees far more than we do, always seeing the big picture.

 

So just a word to you as you navigate through corporate spaces and your own particular space and some of the things that may come up in the 'salad bowl' culture that we are in. Be able to confront, but do it with God's wisdom which is readily available for you.

 

May I pray with you? Almighty God, we are all different personalities and we have different ways of handling things. Yet, in our work spaces, oftentimes there is misunderstanding. There may be anger and resentment. We ask that instead of holding on to these emotions that can hurt us negatively, we pray that You would give us wisdom to know how to confront the issue and the person, so that it can be handled positively. We yield to Your knowledge and understanding, Lord Jesus, and it's in Your name that we pray. Amen.

 

·       Angela Smith, "How to Confront Someone at Work," https://www.themuse.com/advice/can-we-talk-how-to-confront-someone-at-work

·       Scripture James 1:5