Improvisation is an experiential process that actualizes the “Broaden-and-Build Theory” of positive emotion developed by Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, Phd,— and demonstrates the skills and practices that promote sustainable positive emotional states. As a creative experience, improv parallels the real life challenge of negotiating uncertainty day to day through interaction with other people who may or may not be familiar to us. The rules and structures and inprov are designed so that a group of people can agree to support one another through a process of great uncertainty. Complete strangers can come together and successfully improvise, if agreements are made and honored. The conscious choice to try to co-create with strangers is an act of faith in itself, one that elevates the brain chemistry of curiosity and reward. To make this dynamic process even possible, improvisers must generate good will, humor, warmth and a high energy that drives spontaneity. If anyone is going to take a creative risk — which is, in the end, putting our ideas and our sense of self on the line and therefore a genuine emotional risk- there must an atmosphere of support and sense of trust. Even when there is trust and a collaborative spirit, improv is like real life in that there is always the risk that a perfect storm of performance anxiety, self-consciousness, and the element of uncertainty that is part of the improvisation experience, can trigger an “amygdala hijacking.”

Vikram Badhwar, CEO, Syngrity, is a communications coach, an experiential educator, and an artist trying to bridge the gap between the creative and the analytical side of our brain. He consults individuals and teams in the space of learning & development to enable transformations at a personal, professional and organizational level.

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In 1947, a lot of our families migrated from, now Pakistan. Some of these families lost everything in the migration. People who lived in huge houses and kothis, had to run away with their bare essential belongings in suitcases. A lot of families never made it to India and vice versa. Without going into the gory details of partition, people needed to start afresh. It was a matter of survival – of the basic needs.

In 1943, Maslow had written in his paper, “A theory of Human Motivation” about the hierarchy of needs. He stated that the most basic needs represented by physiological needs was one of the most basic needs and only when those are met, people are willing to look at other factors in the hierarchy. It took India almost 50 years after partition to be introduced to the concept of abundance.

How did this translate into actual living?

Whilst the partitioned families scrambled to make ends meet and to gather their resources and start afresh, a lot of morals and value systems were compromised. The idea of establishing a new reality in a new space came with its own set of perils. Wide spread corruption started. Legal systems were compromised and a certain section of the popular got richer whilst the majority suffered in poverty. People became very possessive about their money. What started off as a money saving measure graduated to full blown exploitation, which continues even till today. The whole idea of getting the maximum out of people for the least amount of wage became the mantra. Nehru spoke on the eve of August 15, 1947; not about the holocaust that people had survived in India but about a newer India, a newer idea. The New India was headed towards industrialisation and growth and higher GDP. We needed that. Kind courtesy the British, we were left with not too much.

As the post partition days were scarce of resources, people weren’t able to look at abundance as a principle. Its a bit ironical because if you go into the history of this land, there was always enough to share. Scarcity in the heart results in scarcity outside. And because we were seeing a scarce outer world because of our own scarcity inside, we started becoming selfish. We forgot to acknowledge and appreciate. Our world became EXCLUSIVE rather than INCLUSIVE.

So whats the problem?

There isn’t one. There could be many problem that arise out of a scarce perspective of life. I’ll try to list some.
As I mentioned, inner scarcity more often results in scarcity outside. One of the basic problems of this scarcity and exclusivity is that people stop connecting with each other. For eg: joint families started suffering from what I call HIFS (Happy Indian Family Syndrome). Siblings started fighting over immovable assets. Families moved from joint to nuclear to sometimes not even existing.
One of the biggest issues with exclusion is an inflated sense of ego because by definition exclusion means that you feel that you are different from the other person and that your benefit is the only thing that matters. We can observe this in how we have treated our forests and rivers. We can also see this in the way we treat our domestic help and security guards. We can see this in the way we deal with relationships – personal and professional. The “Ji huzuri” still persists.
Competitors bad mouth each other trying to convince the customer that my product is Better than their competitions. The advertisements on television are based on accentuating deficit, on creating a false need; always pushing for what you don’t have and why you don’t need it. Rather than abundance, fear is used as a tool and a weapon to control peoples minds.
This sense of self righteousness and self centeredness keeps the muscles tight at all times and can be quite exhausting. It’s not a sustainable space.

So then what is to be done?

For years, in my workshops and talks, I have been saying that Freedom = Gratitude + Forgiveness. And I find this formula very easy to understand. It may be difficult to apply but its easy. Try it.
I think one of the first and foremost things that we need to do is to RECONNECT WITH OURSELVES and be THANKFUL and FORGIVE ourselves for all the stuff we beat ourselves for.
Secondly, we need to reconnect with people around us – be it our family and friends or acquaintances. It’s nice to reconnect with those we often forget to thank and forgive or seek forgiveness.
And instead of an exclusive space, we need to start feeling connected with people around us. Instead of beating our own trumpet ( we are masters at it), we need to start ensuring that the person to our left or right looks good. It is lovely to bask in the glory of someone that you have pushed forward. And when they look good, so do you.

What is in it for me?

Relaxed muscles in the body hence lesser fatigue.
A happier space of inclusion
Lesser fear, hence better stomachs.
Better relationships with yourself, your families and friends.
Try it!

Vikram Badhwar, CEO, Syngrity, is a communications coach, an experiential educator, and an artist trying to bridge the gap between the creative and the analytical side of our brain. He consults individuals and teams in the space of learning & development to enable transformations at a personal, professional and organizational level.

The post INCLUSION – time to go back! appeared first on Syngrity Transformation Solutions.

I attended a talk recently where L&D heads of various organisations came together to discuss the Future of Leadership Development. The main discussion was “where we are” and “where we aspire to be in the next 10 years”. Everyone was talking DIGITAL and AI. There was also AGILITY; a need that organisational HR Heads present there, kept going back to, again and again.

The Cambridge dictionary defines AGILITY as the ability to move about quickly and easily. For the last two decades, organisations in India have been training their businesses to respond with swiftness in the ever changing market conditions. Business Agility has been a trait that we have trained ourselves in, for the last two decades. Processes had been adopted which allowed continuity of business even in adverse situations.

As a qualified BCP/DRP (Business Continuity Plan/ Disaster Recovery Plan) facilitator, way back in 2002, when I worked at GECIS, was one such example of how businesses moved towards being agile. There were people who were skilled In various tasks that would ensure that the business did not suffer, the data didn’t suffer etc. There were drills that were carried out to see how fast the business could start operations in a different geographic location. A very regimented way. It was quite fascinating to watch.

These processes, naturally, started putting mechanistic orders in place. That was the aim. We all understand that Processes succeed. But there was a problem. Business Agility was making businesses fluid but the people who were a part of the business were becoming rigid and losing their own creative spark. That is one downside to processes. Personal creativity and passion takes a back seat. Pandit Nehru’s speech of Independence at the dawn of Aug 15th, 1945 marked the era of an Industrial thought process. He spoke about the future, about industrialisation, about hard work, about progress. There was little to no mention about the struggle of independence. The vision was progressive and futuristic and mechanistic.

In Europe too, around the same time, post the World War 2, countries were determined to rebuild themselves and saw an industrial way to be the direction to progress. Once again, a mechanistic vision.

The definition of agility is changing again. And it is becoming people centric, rather than being fixated on Business Agility. Organisations today have started realising that people are not just resources or assets, but are people. Organisations are beginning to see that any mechanistic process that hampers creative input is not beneficial to the employee and hence forth the business. Organisations want to behave better with their employees.

What do organisations need to do to cultivate agility as a strength in their employees?

A Creative Corporate Culture

We need to stop teaching people creativity as it is a natural skill. For creativity to emerge, we need to just allow a safe, non-judgemental space where people can experiment and exercise their minds. Once a free space is given, then specific creative skills can be taught. But first, the leadership should be committed to creating a culture of embracing creativity, across boards. Click here to read about Creative Corporate Culture.

Invest in personal lives

Organisations use their employees for over 20 hours, in a 10 hour day. If organisations start investing into the personal lives of their employees, the employee would be free to allow himself or herself to work better. If organisations invest in their employees’s passions, they are going to fuel the fire that makes the employee tick. It’s a win-win solution.

Award Failure

This requires organisations and its leadership to start redefining failure – awarding failure as a part of the KRA. The failure needs to be relooked not as unsuccessful attempts but as successful data collection, for what doesn’t work. This will allow people to experiment more and finally think out of the box.

Authenticity

Authenticity is an under rated trait. It has been, for many decades. The “Ji Hazoori” which still goes on rampantly in organisations are a continuous reminder of our feudal past. For people to be authentic, this would need to stop. People should be offered a safe space to be authentic with themselves and others, and QUESTION, the constructs of the mind.

It is imperative that organisations start looking at their processes also from an organic and holistic process where the employee and all related people are at the centre of their existence, down the value chain. Happy employees make happier organisations!

Once the organisations commit themselves to being organic and holistic in their employee vision, specific training and learning interventions can be used to train the people in specific skills. I will write about these specific skills that people can start working on, for themselves, in a separate blog.

Vikram Badhwar, CEO, Syngrity, is a communications coach, an experiential educator, and an artist trying to bridge the gap between the creative and the analytical side of our brain. He consults individuals and teams in the space of learning & development to enable transformations at a personal, professional and organizational level.

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