I am often reminded of a puzzle form
my early years in school. Teacher drew a line on blackboard and asked the
class, do you know how to make it small without touching it? (B in picture
here). None of us could figure out answer. She drew bigger line (A) parallel to
B and asked which one is smaller. All of us answered B. She went on to concept
of hard work and being positive. Best way to win is to put in more effort and
produce better results, avoid indulging in negative behaviors like cheating,
jealousy and so on.
This example keeps coming back, – “best
way to make a line smaller is by drawing bigger one”, in talks, interviews,
training etc. Key challenges in this message are –
- Control remains with competition; your success is measured and quantified by achievements of someone else.
- Supports comparison, root cause of negative and dysfunctional behaviors
- Message is counter intuitive to multiplicity of ideas and pluralism.
In 1990s when Coke, decided to
re-enter Indian market post liberalization Pepsi was well established in
Indian market with head start of almost 7-8 years. Senior Coke executive was visiting India and
a journalist asked about how they plan to grow and gain market share from
rivals mainly Pepsi. Coke executive responded that their target market was not
only consumers of carbonated drinks but everyone who drank water or lemon drink
to quench thrust. In one statement, the person redefined entire market and
possible opportunities for Coke. This illustrates power of taking control while
facing adversity. (Surviving Adversity)
Once we start seeing competitors as
inspiration instead of enemies. Our communication, expected behaviors rewards
and recognition strategy undergoes a complete change for positive. The
rhetorical statements, over zealousness and unnecessary aggression give way to
desire for continuous improvement, sense of fulfillment and enjoyment. We spend
so much time and resources in improving processes to remove non value added
activities but we spend so little on improving human processes and take out non
value adding emotions from people’ life. (HOW: Retaining Leadership).
Message of exercise remains well
intended and noble. Taking a selfish perspective, it still is worthwhile to
continue working on your line instead of trying to sabotage other line. For
example, B’s line represents current net worth of $ 1 mm and A’s line $ 1.2 mm.
If B tries to sabotage and bring down A to 900K, in absolute terms he still is
at $ 1 mm. Instead if B spends his resources (energy, time, effort, money etc)
only on extending his line to $1.1 mm, and during same period A extends her
line to $ 1.5 mm, in absolute terms B is still much better off.
In the picture, four lines started
parallel to B ending up as A, Leaf, flower and a boat. A was driven by making B
smaller, she can carry this line far but it will be always X of B and there
lies the limitation of this method. Whereas leaf, flower and boat created there own
vision and took their respective paths. They worked on extending their lines.
Further, to color and target a totally different audience. Freeing them from
having to compete and be compared with A&B.
Never define yourself as a
product and, in fact, I would augment it; never define yourself by your
competition, either. If you live and define yourself by your product or
competition, you will loose sight of who your customer is. -
Benchmarking, understanding
competition, trying to win in market place, setting ambitious targets and goals
are good. Even cliché “Whatever it takes” isn’t unwanted. Challenge is in
understanding associated cliché - “end doesn’t justify means”. It’s a combo
deal. We keep thinking that our challenge is second cliché, in reality challenges
and failures come from first part “whatever it takes” and life time of
conditioning with - “best way to make a line smaller is by drawing bigger one”.
"Live
in accordance with how one thinks. Be yourself and don't try to impose your
criteria on the rest. I don't expect others to live like me. I want to respect
people's freedom, but I defend my freedom. And that comes with the courage to
say what you think, even if sometimes others don't share those views." -
José "Pepe" Mujica, President of Uruguay
Warm Regards,
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