Can changing thoughts change a nation

"Change-Your-Thoughts, Change-Nation !" 

That's what "Soch-Badlo-Desh-Badlo" means in Hindi (the national language of India)! Recently I saw telecast of this advertisement in Hindi in prime slot on TV.

How does one change her own thoughts and influence that of others?: 

By listening to 'thought leaders'? Or 
By watching 'leader's preaching' or what they 'practise' in real-life? Or 
By watching promotional advertisements loaded with jingles and celebrities as  brand ambassadors vouching for it?

With the state of Maharashtra reeling under pressure of one of the worst drought years, DNA After Hrs newspaper decided to initiate a Water-less Holi Campaign. The film industry in their own symbolic way came out with their commitment in support of the cause.

Good job done DNA. Although symbolic, involvement of film-stars (and cricketers) does attract readership as well as some commitment of few of their fans to such initiatives.

Some self-starters do take such initiatives as commitment to self. But how to get that of others? How to get masses to change their thoughts and convert those into actions? Are such campaigns backed by promotional advertisements enough to make a real impact? 

Usually most campaigns turn out to be flash-in-pan in grabbing attention. They fade away with 'the day' in spite of their prohibitively large promotional budgets.

To counter this, a most expensive way is to let a crisis erupt (as has already happened in case of water, food, fuel, power, etc.) thinking that innovations and inventions would happen as a necessity. 

Another way is to provide a recognition platform in order to recognize improvement actions that prevent crisis. 

The latter is proactive and proven one. Continuity is an essential feature so that proactive as well as reactive improvement attitude is nurtured in right direction as also is arrested from fading. 

The continuity is specially important for larger causes of national interest. For instance, saving water the known nectar is not only national but a global cause.

So, knowing it's link to Holi the Indian festival of colors, how about media providing Holi-day as a yearly scheduled platform to individuals as well as entities like business houses, housing societies, educational institutes such as schools/colleges, etc. On the platform they can publish their innovative water-saving practices (actions) that they already performed at personal, public or professional level during last year. 

Remember the platform is for practices i.e. for actions-already-taken. It is not for generating ideas. Ideas often evaporate because people have them in abundance but for someone else to implement. 

Very often CEO of an entity gets so much obsessed with newer ideas and her administrators get so much busy and bureaucratic with installation and enforcement of laws and regulations to 'choose-ideas' from that that both forget to build culture that enables nurturing their implementation.

As a result not only the ideation process gets killed but also a few ideas that might emerge as implementable stay un-implemented. 

Very often CEO-involvement does not go beyond 'storming' stage of 'brain' for newer ideas. It hardly reaches 'storming-the-hands'. As a result, in absence of culture-that-nurtures, there is diarrhea-of-ideas and constipation-of-implementation as they say.

Of course, there should be a separate idea-platform as a sequel in order to systematically improvise (PDCA) and scale-up (SDCA) the practices declared on action-platform. Both the platforms together should build a knowledge-bank concerning 'the cause' under consideration.

The action-platform as above may be backed by organizing similar platforms at the level of individual entities referred above where (in a designated few minutes) anyone can declare, demonstrate or show multi-media visuals of the right practices implemented in past towards the cause or theme. 

Actually these practices are nothing but real-time innovations. Mostly they might be practised in crude-form autonomously while facing a typical adverse situation or while surviving a crisis. 

Everyone in the audience intently 'listens' to & claps for EACH such practised behavior without ridicule or without discrimination. The celebration is irrespective of it's so-called success or failure and magnitude of it's impact on savings or benefits.

Celebration is more for the volume of actions that reflect values rather than value per-se. 'Catching' (rather providing platform to appreciate) people taking right-actions 'touches their hearts', enhances their self-esteem and thereby reinforces their thoughts that in the first place triggered right-actions autonomously.

'Catching' people taking lawful-actions (although one may argue "abiding by law is mandatory anyway") alongwith catching law-breakers for appropriate consequences may be warranted at least in case of strategic regulations needing enhanced compliance and positive attitude towards it. That in turn is likely to create a pull-effect on others to take right-and-lawful-actions and thereby imbibe or reinforce right thoughts. 

The movement in turn is more likely to be self-supporting spreading to the neighborhood and to the nation unless continuity of the platform itself is broken.

So the sequencing is:

1/ Autonomously-taken right-actions get captured. That creates 'feel-good' effect which in turn reinforces autonomous-thoughts that prompted 'actions' in first place although some of which might be 'inadvertent-failures'.

2/ Right-actions get repeated & multiplied (although the 'Independent' thinker/actor the 'I' attaches herself to the appreciated-one 'my' kind of 'right-actions').

3/ Movement spreads to the neighborhood & across the nation.

4/ Somewhere during the 'continued platform/process', 'Independent' thinker / actor 'I', realizes need to get 'detach'ed (off the 'ego' from 'I' the-self) in order to transform 'Me-vs-They'-ness into appreciating others as 'We-n-Our' actions. The 'Independent' thinker/actor transforms into 'Inter-dependent' team thinker/actor, 'the-spiritual-self'.

(Concept from 'World-Of-Kaizen: A Total Quality Culture For Survival!' book of the author.)

Journey to internal world of change in thoughts (head) and feelings (heart) is more likely to succeed through external worldly-actions (hands) because they are easier to be sensed and felt. In that case, 'Soch-Badlo Desh-Badlo' slogan needs to be primed by 'looking for, catching and appreciating right-action/s' i.e. by Right 'Action-Pakadlo'.

Journey to mindset change i.e. journey to 'head' is less of mathematics and more of soft-intelligence: a mix of sequential & simultaneous expression through 'hands' (physical action) and 'heart' (emotional involvement). It is one of give-n-take of respect. It is one of 'mutual-trust' that communicates that 'I am interested in learning from you' and 'I am not here to ridicule your mistakes'. 

In this journey people-in-power need to protect people with right-and-lawful-actions: Protection from fear-of-failures (while experimenting), fear-of-others (whose inefficiency might get exposed), and fear-of-job-cuts if any as a result of improved productivity.

There is a world of difference between 'doing' and 'saying'. Saying "Respect-others-to-get-respected" or saying slogans "Change-your-thoughts, change-nation", etc. is easier. 

In absence of institutionalizing a soft-mechanism such as above to appreciate and recognize right actions, shooting slogans and truck-loads of 'fire-fighting' kind of reactive solutions may not be adequate to change mindsets towards whatever may be the crises: Be that at local level on smaller causes such as to achieve 'Pot-Hole-Free-Roads', or be that at national level to achieve 'Hole-Free-Treasury-Pots'.

Developed economies, especially post-war Japan and few other south-east nations following in it's footsteps, focused upon similar such mechanisms under the umbrella of Kaizen-culture in order to engage and develop their human resource by their 'Right-Action-Pakadlo' process before expecting result in the form of 'Soch-Badlo Desh-Badlo' to happen. 

Latter was the effect of the former being firmly grounded in-place as the cause (the-Karma) created unbeatable innovation-factories there such as Toyotas and Hondas! 

PDCA is Plan-Do-Check-Act improvement cycle. 

SDCA is Standardize-Do-Check-Act cycle for sustenance and scale-up.

Also read a few relevant blog-posts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post.

Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 

Old-Problems, New-Reasons !

Ant Knocks Elephant Down 
Will It Work Here?
Can-changing-thoughts-change-nation?
In-big-problem-wear-hats-to-solve-it 
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important 
Talent-Is-Latent: Enable It! 
Judge If It's Paralysis-By-Analysis 
Will It Work Here? 
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 
Does recognition really matter 
Who Comes First: Consumer Or Customer ? 
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms ! 
ABCD of India Shining 
Do You Ask Right Questions?
Am I 'Short-sighted' or 'Long-sighted'? 

Who Comes First: Consumer Or Customer ? 

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

Comprehensive-Strategic-Audits

Don't Save Water on Holi-day

Holi the Indian festival of colors squirting colored water on passers-by, dunking friends in mud pool, etc. brings it's own charm each year in the same month when World-Water-Day (22nd March) is celebrated. 

Film industry refuses to ignore incorporating watery Holi-songs, one of the main ingredients of show-business, in a film even if a script may not permit it.

This time reeling under pressure of one of the worst drought years, there appears to be consensus for a 'holiday to using water on the Holi-day'.

Actress Juhi Chawla tells DNA: "To be honest I do plan to play Holi with kids & friends with water & safe colors."

Some others insisted on playing "dry Holi this year".

Who appears more sensitive is obvious based on above.

But that's the story half-told.

Actually Juhi's full comment in DNA newspaper was: "To be honest I do plan to play Holi with the kids and friends with water and safe colours. But why just Holi? I am conscious about water conservation all the time. And try to save water every day in my own little ways. I avoid running taps unnecessarily, and I get all leaks repaired instantly. I buy linen and clothes which can be used without frequent washing."

Doesn't Juhi appear to be more sensitive and sensible? Why?

Obviously because she appears to be committed to save water everyday.

Many a time even fragrance of such 'flavor-of-the-day' initiatives fades away by evening, leave alone (the 'flavor') rest 364 days.

Of course those were published thoughts. They could turn out to be filmy.

Material changes happen if thoughts are in action. Actions, not merely as gestures on 'flavor-of-the-day' in public but evident more frequently in private when no one is around to watch.

So a 'lesson' from film-star's comments is the commitment to 'Save-Water not-only-on Holi-day but Everyday'.

In absence of such a commitment to self, 'flavor-of-day' may not last beyond evening of the day. A typical maid might continue her love to bathe utensils under running tap. A typical male might continue to leave water tap ON during shaving. A typical female might continue to empty so-called 'stale' stocked-water in order to refill buckets when 'fresh' one 'arrives' at scheduled municipal timings.

One may test one's own commitment right away and salute self if results are affirmative.

Hats off to those who (for instance, may be reading this on their cell say while fetching a glass of water in a wedding hall or in a restaurant, do not feel ashamed of telling the bearer there to) fill their glass with just the amount of water that is going to be consumed.

While writing this post, so-called 'countdown to EARTH HOUR (23rd March at 20.30 hrs)' has 'begun'. Hats off to those who instead of waiting until 20.30 hrs head right away to 'Switch-off' an appliance if left 'ON' inadvertently without being used. Hats off to those who ensure that windows are fully open before heading to switch ON a fan. Power generation needs human activity, water and other resources. Salutation is because they are able to see direct or indirect linkage of almost every other human activity and it's wastage to that of water wastage. Hats off to those who do not ridicule if someone plays e-colors on e-photos instead of using water-colors in Holi.

Hats off to those who commit not to wait for such HOURS and DAYS to remind them to be conscious of a cause. Hats off to their commitment, not to allow thoughts to constipate by just being knowledgeable of 'zero-wastage' but to be the learned ones who make others learn by demonstrating 'an-action-a-day'.

One must experience the satisfaction one derives and the respect one earns in the eyes of her own mind by committing to 'Save Even-A-Drop At-Each-Opportunity, Each-day'.

Wish To Be Planet-Friendly?: Save!

It's a tough competition out there in market.

Good for the customer who is expected to get better quality and better delivery.

But does s/he get it at better price?

Not always, because innovative marketeers have learnt to intelligently 'differentiate' their deceptively pricey 'offers' in order to make the comparison difficult and also to prevent their customers running away to the competition's 'low-cost' and rarely 'high-quality' offers. Sometimes they resort to  'predatory pricing' so low for a limited period of time that competitors get wiped out by then.

Other day I read about a housing complex being 'differentiated' as a 'Sports City' and another one promising to bring home 'Europe' and it's 'use-&-throw' life-style.

What happens if the offers are (low-in-value, in other words are) prohibitively pricey under the disguise of promising a differentiated offer?

Customer might get monitorily wiped out over a period of time if s/he 'falls' for (each of) such wasteful 'differentiations' and 'offers'. Not to mention the mental agony if 'differentiating' features such as 'Olympic-style swimming pool' inside the complex or 'Man-made-beach' there becomes dyfunct with 'dead-trees' around.

So what to do?

No one would want to interfere in one's policy-matter if one goes for buying 'differentiation'. But fact of the matter is to learn to 'differentiate' among so-called 'offers' as: the ones that offer quick-superficial results and the ones that offer long-term value focussed towards needs rather than wants.

Or else find out innovative cost-effective alternatives that not only serve functional (rather than fictional) needs but also reduce consumption expenditure.

For instance, if one finds 'differentiated offer' in picture (lemon being the differentiator) as a value-offer then alongwith it why not leave left-over lemon peels in wash-basin intentionally that could additionally serve as an alternative disinfectant. Similarly why not use orange peels for a quick hand-wash or as a natural skincare tool for a face-wash before considering an 'offer' of a synthetic-cosmetic product's "Look fair in a couple of days" kind of promise. 

Actually consumerism has been pushing both the suppliers and customers away from many such grand 'grand-motherly' solutions that are not only 'eco-friendly' but are also capable of value-adding to one's life if-not-to (life-)style.

Isn't it good to be an eco-sensible and planet-sensitive consumer?

Isn't it good to make a difference by 'being' different rather than falling for want-based differentiations?

Isn't it good to Save-On-Something (S.O.S.) to Save Planet And Life?