Foot washing

We are all familiar with the expression, ‘walk in another’s shoes’. It is frequently used in training programmes to explain and develop empathy. In the past year, I had been hearing of retreats where participants wash another person’s feet.

The practice itself has its roots in the hospitality customs of ancient civilizations, particularly in the East. Perhaps the most well known account is found in the Gospel of John (13: 1-15), where Jesus washes the feet of the apostles at the Last Supper. This narrative is frequently referred to when describing servant leadership, a term coined by the late Robert Greenleaf in an essay “The Servant as Leader” written in 1970. Several others have since written and commented on this leadership style.

So, while I was familiar with the biblical event I had never actually experienced it for myself until recently – at the close of a one-day retreat for women. We, the participants, were told that the retreat leaders would wash our feet. I experienced a confusion of thoughts and feelings which I will try to describe here.

I was not at all comfortable with the idea of someone else touching my feet. I was then distracted by the mundane – “Will the water be changed?” (For the hygiene minded – the water was changed, soap used to rinse out the basins, and fresh towels used to dry feet.). The lady who washed my feet was senior in years and position. So, I felt even more uncomfortable. I felt unworthy. I then realised this was conceit. Everyday I depend on others for my basic needs to be met. Hence, to resist being served was pride – a less than honest need for self-sufficiency.

Later I asked one of the ‘foot washers’ if I could wash her feet, and she agreed. As I knelt down to wash her feet, I felt exposed, vulnerable, and uncertain. We then discovered that the basin was too small! This was funny and embarrassing for both of us. I also realised that washing another’s feet can tell us a lot about that person. The calluses on her feet told me this was a person who walked a lot – to serve others.

P.S. Take time to reflect both before and after the activity.

 

Integrity

Heard of speed money?  I am told this is the term used when payments are made to ‘facilitate’ the issue of required documents when a business meets all the stipulated criteria.  A bribe on the other hand, is for payments made to facilitate business goals even though the organization does not meet specific criteria.  I fail to see the difference.

 

Numbers and Percentages

Does the meaning change if percentages are used instead of numbers and vice versa?  According to the Planning Commission of India, 27.5% of the population was living below the poverty line in 2004–2005. This would suggest that the number of people living in poverty has decreased by nearly half since 1977-1978 when the percentage was 51.3% of the population.  However, going by population number, the actual decrease is less than 10 million people.

 

Fair Trade

I came across the tagline ‘fight poverty through trade’  for an international NGO. As I browsed through the organization’s website, I thought about that tagline in the context of India.  The Indian economy has grown spectacularly, touching  $1-trillion in 2007.  This would suggest a healthy trade environment in the country which then should have secured poverty reduction. But that has not been so.  As we all know from the World Bank’s statistics, over 40% of the population lives below the international poverty line.

Given these facts, I would insert the word ‘fair’ in the tagline, i.e. ‘fight poverty through fair trade’.  It is the lack of fair and ethical business practices that hinders poverty reduction efforts in India.  While the poor are the worst affected, the problem of unethical business practices affects even those higher up the socio-economic ladder.

For instance, it would be easy to assume that I, an urban, educated professional, wouldn’t encounter the kind of unhelpful business practices that the NGO is working to change.  And yet, I have. For instance, a client expected me to handover all my training material – without compensation – for its internal trainers to use.  Meanwhile, this company’s CSR and green initiatives are greatly publicized across its offices. 

In interactions with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) the complaint is always about delayed payments by customers.  Countless small businesses struggle to stay solvent as their large business clients just simply refuse to honour the mutually agreed upon credit period. A 30-day credit limit can extend to six months.  With expected revenues not being realised, but with expenses continuing, SMEs are pushed into becoming non-performing assets for the banks.  The SMEs receive no help.  Instead they are regarded as the problem.  After all, they are bad debts.

Earlier this week, I was interviewing an applicant to an MBA programme at a business school in the city.  The candidate described how his job had become uncertain because his employer’s key client was taking long to make payments.  He then wryly smiled and added, “We are now doing to our vendors what our client is doing to us”.  Sooner or later, those at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid will be impacted and face far worse instability than the loss of a well paid job.  Which is why I say, ‘fight poverty through fair trade’.

 

Creativity & Problem Solving

Following on from the post, Take a Walk, a reader shares two creative approaches to problem solving:

In past years as a director of application development, I often mentored junior developers through the creative process of designing the solution to a problem we were faced with. The first radical approach was to have Friday mornings be a free-time. By that I mean my staff was to pick an idea for an experiment that they were intrigued by but which had no direct application to any work they were currently assigned to. This process was to stretch their minds to try things whereby there was no risk of failure. Simply experiment and see what happens.

The result?

Often, someone would rush into my office on Friday mornings all excited because they inadvertently solved a problem that was totally unrelated to what their experiment was that morning.

The other approach I took was to call my staff into an orientation session where I would use a large white board to diagram a problem that we had been asked to solve. I expected each participant in the session to copy down exactly what I drew on the board and ask any questions as they thought of them. After spending whatever time needed to completely frame the problem on the board, I would ask that the last person to finish note taking erase the board when they left the room and then instructed the group that when finished note taking, they were to close their notebooks, and not reopen them to the diagrams, nor discuss the session with anyone. In essence they were to “forget about it” – Not give the problem another conscious thought.

Any guess as to what happened after I instructed everyone to forget about it?

 

Communication Skills

A reader writes:

Not to take away from the frustrations people experience either from layoffs or wrongful termination, I echo your point about the importance of ever improving communication skills. In this I include both written and verbal. Ironically, few resume’s exclude the phrase “strong communication skills,” yet the typical resume reflects exactly the opposite.

So, what exactly are good communication skills? In my mind we need to work on several areas to enhance them:

• Organization of ideas
• Building compelling arguments
• Careful word selection to convey precise meaning
• Concise delivery

Whether speaking or writing, the above list are 4 core areas that can be worked on separately. One of my favorite techniques is to respond to radio news stories as if I were being asked to respond to the question being posed.

I cannot tell you the number of times I personally have been granted “expert” status in a conversation, simply because I have become an above average communicator. The lesson for your audience is that often the credibility of your personal credentials, experience, and knowledge are largely dependent on your ability to communicate effectively.

 

Communication skills

In an earlier post, I had referred to the website www.lay-off.org . To be honest, when I read the posts I find it hard to sympathise with the writers. I can understand their angst and anger at being unemployed. Unfortunately their communication skills are so poor that their grievance lacks credibility.

Wrong grammar and syntax together with poor tone combine to present a picture of immaturity and incompetence. Behaviours, unwelcome in the workplace even at the best of times. That they were hired at all reflects poorly on their former employers.

The conventional wisdom on communication skills, particularly in India, is that it is optional rather than essential. What many do not see is how vital these skills are in building credibility, creating goodwill and influencing people.  At school, in college and in the workplace the focus is on quantitative rather than verbal skills. And yet study after study has shown that it is the latter which determines success. Perhaps the current hard times will encourage a new appreciation for this much neglected skill.

 

Violence against women

As a UN Online Volunteer, I have just finished editing a report on gender-based violence being published by the UNDP office in Botswana. It was a difficult task. At several points, the report was just too painful to read.

I found that both prosperity and poverty are triggers for violence against women and their children. More discouraging is the fact that women are themselves instrumental in continuing social mores which encourage such violence. These painful realities are not limited to Botswana, but are universal. Abusers will hide behind anything – culture, tradition, poverty and prosperity – to carry out abuse.

 

Business and human rights

In early June there were news stories on the financial payment made as a “humanitarian gesture” by Shell to the families of Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others who were executed by the state as a consequence of what many see as their protests against the oil company’s business practices in Nigeria.

Reading stories about human rights abuses by companies, it is easy to fall into the trap of demonising business and all associated with it. Having worked with both businesses and NGOs, I find the good, bad and the ugly exist in both. One of the darker jokes about the post-tsunami relief and rehabilitation efforts is that it resulted in two groups of people – the TVs and the TBs, i.e. tsunami victims and tsunami beneficiaries.

In my work I have frequently encountered extraordinary and unconditional grace, goodness and kindness in people. However, if I were to probe, I would find that these same people harbour views that disregard or deny human rights. This is not because they want to be abusers, but because they are ignorant of what constitutes abuse. An example is the issue of child labour. I have heard people defend their decision to employ children as an act of charity which helps support a poor family.

I believe in engaging with and educating businesses. Companies are trying to get their act together – corporate social responsibility is very much in. But managers are trying to do this without a sufficient or right understanding of why CSR is needed/important. My suggestion is an introductory workshop on human rights. Executives would begin to see that they are as much affected by human rights abuse as the poor are.
The premise for such a workshop is fairly simple. Businesses would be more supportive of human rights initiatives when the people who run/manage the business have a right understanding of what human rights are, their impact on all people and on the bottom line.

 

Excellence

Nearly 20 years ago, an undergraduate student received a scholarship from a benefactor who remained a stranger to her.  This young woman was the gold medallist in her graduating class.  She then went on to do an MCA, at the end of which she was hired by a software company and sent to its client’s site in the US.  That Christmas, she sent a cheque for $100 to her alma mater requesting that the money be used to support a student.  She wrote in her Christmas card, “Just as someone helped me when I needed help, I now want to help a student who needs help.”