Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Are you using interdependency in your career?

Today, i was reading the news in the Times of India about the Norway case where Norway Government had taken a formal custody of two children , 1 and 3 year old, from their Indian parents. 

Whenever i discussed this news with the various friends in the last two months, everyone strongly suggested that "Norway Government is biased and is completely wrong in taking the custody of the two children". Lot of 'unattested evidence' was also mentioned such as the family saying that 'their children had been taken away because of cultural differences - such as, the fact that the children were fed by hand, or that they slept with their parents." Whenever i argued that there could be 'another view' or 'fact' that we are not aware of, my argument would be summarily dismissed.

Why am i discussing this case on the career blog? Because, our tendency to see things in black and white (single dimensional way) blocks us from using the 'interdependency' that is prevalent in our society today. Our society is so interdependent that, instead of running away from it, it helps us more if we can utilise that 'interdependency' for our benefit.

Successful entrepreneurs are masters in using interdependency  in their careers; they find and exploit this interdependency, instead of shunning away from it. If you are not using it in your career, then your tendency to see things in single dimension in relation with people is blocking your path.

When you view relations between people in single dimension, you always believe you are always 'rational, smart, and right while others are 'stupid, arrogant and irrational' whenever you are in conflict with others.With regards to the issues between people, you always conclude that " there is only one right answer", that "any rational person can see that your view is right" and if someone does not see it that way then " he must change his view'. It is always 'their problem'.

With this single dimensional view, even when you see a conflict between Norway Government and Indian family, you view Norway Government as 'arrogant and high handed' while Indians as ' right and rational', perhaps because we are all 'Indians'. In the conflict between Norway Government and Indian family, only one view is 'right and rational' and if other person ( in this case the Norway Government) can change its view, the conflict will be settled. A person with single dimensional view will not even wait for any evidence to conclude something else, like all my friends did.

Successful entrepreneurs, on the other hand, behave differently. They have a multi-dimensional view of people and their relations. In every conflict, they assume that 'a situation has multiple dimensions' because of which one may see something which other misses and vice versa. Due to these different 'angles', even reasonable people may disagree on something. They therefore believe that other people who disagree with them ( or in conflict with them) may also be as rational and right as they are. They do not attribute traits like 'stupid, irrational and arrogant' to others, nor to themselves.

For instance, in the case of Norway Government, they will 'assume' that Norway Government may be right because it is seeing something which they have not seen. Now it has become public that the parents of these two Indian children do not have a healthy relation with each other and they have filed for divorce. Now we know that Norway Government did not publicly said anything about the parents, because 'this information was confidential' and public disclosure of such information may may 'hurt the children when they grow'.

Besides using interdependency in their relations, this view also pervades the personal lives of these successful entrepreneurs. As we have discussed in this blog, even their personal view about themselves is 'multi-dimensonal'.They believe that even their motivation and confidence has multiple dimensions; it is true only in a specific dimension ( or context).

Most corporate professionals learn to use interdependency because the colleagues and bosses make them realise that their 'single dimensional views' may be wrong. But if you are an entrepreneur, you do not have colleagues and bosses to tell you that your 'views' may be single-dimensional. What are you doing to capitalise on the interdependency inherent in the society?

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