DEVELOPING A VALUE CHAIN

 What is value? Is it only associated with relationship and culture? No. It has much more to it. If we preach something and do something else then we don’t follow right values. When there is lack of trust also we lack values. People questioned me in public if we can trust Debasis? They are not wrong people, they are quite honest in their dealings and something came out of their mind as a natural flow of their thoughts which is quite true for them. Unless we understand a person we can never trust him/her completely. When there is lack of understanding, there is lack of trust too. A strong and deep rooted value system can help us here. Sometime we can’t make people understand our point because of certain obligation and constraints imposed which is beyond our control. You will loose trust of people that time. How many people have you come across in your life who can trust you blindly even they don’t know much about you? I met few people with whom I could not keep in touch out of fear of uncertainties about my career, my friend’s career and theirs too. They have shown me the way to live and maintained highest standard of trust and values. They kept their word sacrificing their own career to build me and to protect humanity and human values. They are real managers and very hard to find. How could I afford to loose them for my selfish needs? My career is not that important to me when my well wishers are in danger. My decision could give protection to few of them and not all. I must sharpen my skills here and learn new skills to understand human beings better.

We learn from our parents, brothers, sisters, friends, well wishers and all elder people whom we respect. I often learn from kids and people much younger to me. There is no learning where there is a lack of respect. In this regard we must have respect for all. Children don’t learn from there mistakes because they don’t understand what we call as their mistake. They sometimes learn out of fear and most of the time observing and imitating their elders. I know this from my past experiences and I believe all of us should have similar experiences in their childhood. People have a “who cares” attitude only because of lack of respect and knowledge. With this attitude we don’t listen to others, fail to evaluate situations correctly and unable to perform well. Sometimes it gives us extra freedom to indulge ourselves in all kind of nonsense activities because we don’t know what is right and wrong and what is appropriate for us and the humanity at large. Sometimes we prove our foolishness trying to prove our innocence.

Respect comes from within for anybody we know. It can’t be generated artificially or compulsively. We respect our parents, teachers and elders because of their values. They show us the right direction when we find ourselves lost in unproductive thoughts. Human beings are all emotional to a different degree. Some has more and few have less depending on the situation. Can we gain control over all situations that we come across? No. We may become the almighty at a particular situation and may find ourselves helpless at some other. Why does this happen? By Murphy’s Law something that is bound to happen will happen at any cost and no body can have control over that. The implication could be a little carelessness if we don’t understand it properly. My understanding is that we may not gain control over all the unpleasant situations we come across but we can act as damage controllers by taking necessary steps to prevent further damage. Also it’s required to take precautionary measures to meet or avoid similar situations in future. There is a need to gain control over emotions here which may seem unrealistic at present but there is a real possibility.

I often ask myself a question how much value I am adding to my company and people around me. Is that enough where I am at present or should I do something more about it? Again a question comes to mind can we build a company without values and trust? A company is nothing but a unit of like-minded people who work together for a common cause irrespective of their gender, cast, creed and religion and the cause is the growth of all and humanity at large. When I ask this to my friends I get a mixed response. Some say yes and for others the answer is no. People who say yes believe that there is no connection between values and building a company. They argue that different people have different values and we are all multicultural, so we can build a company taking all of them and everybody can live happily if we have respect for each other. They say trust is required but we can’t change people if they don’t trust us. It’s there problem and they are like that. We can’t do much about it. The question still remains there that how can we build a company with those people? These groups of people have less understanding of values, thy live in their present and unable to foresee their future. The other groups of people who say no have much understanding of values and they are our future leaders who can build a society. We need change everywhere to build a society for sustainable growth. In this regard we must take care of our workplace like we do that at our home. A simple example could be we keep our home clean and don’t waste resources but forget that at our workplace. This is because we don’t understand values and unable to generate a sense of belongingness and fellow feeling at workplace. We have a strong bond with people at home but fail to do that at our workplace. This is so only because of lack of trust and values. Let’s develop as much value as we can and as soon as possible for a sustainable growth of our society.

 

* First published at http://writersatchatterati.blogspot.in/ on Wednesday, 12 March 2008