Joining the dots

Navaratri is a time for great celebration in South India — as joyously celebrated as Dussehra in the North and Durga Pooja in the East. As I passed by many residences during that festive time, I saw creativity at work in the kolams that adorned the front of the houses. ( Kolam is decorative artwork drawn on the floor in front of houses and in front of the deities in pooja rooms in South India.)

They were intricate and beautifully done; each one a tribute to the skill and the spirit of the artist. The patterns encompassed the range from the traditional to the ultramodern — while the traditional kolam consists of geometric patterns, here I saw everything from religious images to a representation of the cricket World Cup that India lifted a couple of years ago!

Suddenly, my mind went back a few decades to a time when as a young child of about five, I used to watch my aunt do the kolams . She used to talk to me as she went about creating magical pictures on a rough patch of concrete in front of our house, using simple, coarse rice powder. She would place dots of the powder, seemingly at random, and then would join them effortlessly and lo and behold, an intricate pattern would emerge!

I would foolishly insist on doing my own kolams and she would always indulge me. My efforts, as can be expected, would end up misshapen and frankly horrible to look at. Nevertheless, my aunt was always full of praise for my efforts and I can still hear her saying, “You will get good at this soon. Form a mental picture of what you wish to draw and the dots will fall into place. Just keep trying and don't give up.”

Information overload

The knowledge age has brought with it major challenges for all of us. There is simply too much data and information out there and the potent combination of technology and social media is only making things more and more frenetic. The task of the professional manager is to make sense out of this chaos and see how best to choose what one needs and, equally importantly, cordon off the distractions.

The data/ information thus gathered then needs be analysed, converted into knowledge, and further refined into business advantage. This is a very difficult process, rendered ever more difficult today because nothing seems static. What could be considered an exercise that should be conducted on firm ground, now seemingly needs to be conducted on a rocking boat negotiating turbulent seas.

One way to address this complex issue is to take a view from a higher altitude, try and see the patterns in the swirling dots and then devise a plan to connect the dots.

Making sense of it all

We also need to keep in mind that given the pace of change, any picture thus drawn may need to be redrawn frequently and quickly, given the emerging realities.

The other part of the challenge is to be able to coherently explain to everyone else in the organisation each time we draw a new picture and make sure that they understand and internalise the need for such rapid changes. This can only be done if mutual respect is a strong component of the organisation's DNA.

Success will lie in picking out the useful dots and quickly weaving a picture out of them and to be ever vigilant to dots that may be pulling away from the picture; then, to patiently conjure up the next picture. Surely, there will be algorithmic ways to do a lot of the grunt work. But, in the final analysis, the human touch will be needed to string together the output from the algorithms and make it a picture that seems to carry meaning for human beings. Professional managers will need to be experts at both the art and the science of how to do this if they have to be successful.

My aunt was an extraordinary lady for her time — it was important for her to teach a young boy the intricacies of kolam , something that was considered a woman's domain then, because she wanted him to grow up curious about many things in life, and to be able to join the dots to make sense and get joy out of them.

The age we live in is full of dots that keep swirling about madly. What she taught me then — to conjure up a mental picture of dispersed dots and then connect them to make up the picture — has helped me immensely as a professional.

Her other lesson of gently encouraging me despite my multiple failures, has greatly helped me in trying to pass on the same message of hope to younger folks and helping them realise their own potential.

Today's whirligig would not have frightened her; she would have jumped in with fervour and delighted in drawing her pictures by joining the rapidly moving dots.

The writer is corporate advisor to Manipal Education and Medical Group and an IIM-A alumnus. mcshekaran@gmail.com