Dialogues and Questions

Ancient wisdom from both the East and the West has surprisingly insightful lessons for modern management.

It was about 30 years ago. I was a student of Mechanical Engineering in Jadavpur University in Kolkata. Beyond the corridors of the structured academic curriculum, I had spread my wings of interest and passion across multiple areas including literature, films, theatre and philosophy. During that time, one day I came across a pearl of wisdom from an illumined mind. It said that a planned life is closed. It can be endured but it cannot be lived (emphasis added).

Till then, my life had been flowing according to a plan. Beginning with those sunny days in school, it went ahead through engineering studies, a brief stint in the corporate world, then a return to academics at IIM Calcutta as a student and then back to India Inc. The going was good and smooth by and large. And then something happened.

All plans of linear progress in my career went for a toss in 1993 when, one day, I felt a spark of inspiration. I joined the Management Centre for Human Values at IIM Calcutta to engage in teaching and research on Indian Ethos and Human Values in Management. All along, I had somewhere nurtured the conviction that those who can look the deepest into the past can also see the farthest into the future. That marked the beginning of my new voyage—and adventure into the realm of the unconventional wisdom for management and leadership in the new millennium. It was indeed a leap into the void but with firm faith that there would be light at the end of the tunnel.

Let me share a few insights from the West and the East in my personal journey through Values and Ethics in Management Education.

I choose deliberately to move away from the conventional literature on management, leadership and communication to cull out a few pertinent insights from world wisdom literature—East and West, past and present. We can begin from the West—Greece and Rome—from where civilization sprang in Europe.

In ancient Greece, there was this public space called gymnasium—not quite the “gym” as we commonly understand today. This was where the great Greek stalwarts from science, philosophy and literature (Socrates, Plato, Aristophanes and so on) would meet to discuss and share new ideas and opinions to nurture the mind and the body. The mode of conversation in which they spoke was in a spirit of Dialogue rather than a Debate. In a Debate, we contest each other in a win-lose mode through arguments, whereas in a Dialogue, we gather more than we bring to the table for a win-win mutual enrichment. This may be a great source of learning for modern organizations prior to an engagement in Stakeholders Dialogue.

Rome, then. “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears./ I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him”—the words with which Mark Antony began his speech in in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. An ethically enlightened and emotionally intelligent leader like Antony was able to orchestrate a complete turnaround of the attitudes of the Roman people, following right after a fiery oration by Brutus, who charged the late ruler for being overambitious. Antony started from a position that can at best be called “against the tide”. But he had the wisdom and elegance to turn the tide around to his advantage.

A unique and exceptional feature of Antony was the capacity to withdraw into spells of silence to observe and study the impact on the mob psychology as he made his speech. This gave him new ideas and inspiration to move ahead and plan out his next strategy of communication. Mark Antony is a classic case of strategic communication by a leader inspired with a vision to fulfill.

Like many great leaders, Antony personalized feelings through words. Abraham Lincoln is noted for his exhortation: “I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing here…the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to principle, from which sprang the institutions under which we live…” The voice of Martin Luther King still rings in the ears: “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but the content of their character.” Leaders communicate their best messages using their head but the words spring from the depth of the heart, balancing reason and emotion.

Let us now turn to the East where the sun rises. The Upanishads constitute the quintessence of classical Indian wisdom. In one of the Upanishads, we find the sage giving the clarion call; “Listen! O Children of Immortality the world over!” (Srinvantu vishwe amritasya putrah) It may be noted that the voice of the Indian seer reached out to humanity at large.

A truly global leader of thoughts, words and action, Swami Vivekananda internalized the import of this message. As we know, his address in the Parliament of Religions in Chicago began: “Sisters and brothers of America…” It was enough to conquer the hearts of the Western audience. The rest is history.

The Srimat Bhagavadgita is a classic testament of learning on Leadership and Communication from a great conversation. The opening chapter unfolds a drama. The Leader, the charioteer Sri Bhagavan is silent in the first chapter. His disciple, or the protagonist, Arjuna makes a statement resonating with confidence in the first chapter: “Please place my chariot between the two camps as I want to take a good look at the enemy line-up.” The Lord never spoke but drove the chariot in front of the two veterans in the enemy army—the grandfather Bhishma and the guru Dronacharya. That was enough to cause an emotional collapse in Arjuna because to both these elders, Arjuna was the dearest among all the Pandava and the Kaurava brothers. He dropped his bow and arrows and declared that he was not going to fight.

It is interesting to note how the Lord elevates Arjuna from this state of inaction in the second chapter. Here, Sri Bhagavan opens his conversation with a question: “From where did this feeling of weakness arise in you, Arjuna? It does not suit the warrior.” He literally blasts his disciple with this searching question. This is the classic example of a great leader who attacks you with searching questions and then helps you find your own answers from within. Only then does life become interesting and adventurous, as no good student would want the teacher to spell out the answer but instead, help them find his or her own answer. What is more intriguing is that the Lord concludes his conversation in the 18th chapter with two questions: “Have you listened to me with single pointed attention?/ Has it cleared your mind from all confusions?“

Thus, we find a teacher from millennia ago asking for feedback at the end of his lecture! The message for us is to begin and end a dialogue with questions so that the quest for purpose goes on and remains enlivening.

On 26 July 1941, 10 days before his death, Rabindranath Tagore wrote a poem that read:

The first day’s sun

At the beginning of life

Asked a question:

‘Who are you?’

No answer came.

The last day’s sun

The last question asks

In the western seashore

In the silent evening

‘Who are you?’

There was no answer.”

(Translation by Amiya Chakravarty)

Does it mean that the Nobel Laureate poet never found answers to his searching questions throughout his life? We do not think so. In fact, he probably wanted us to keep the burning quest alive within us all life long, so that someday we may find our own answers.

Where then do we find the answer? Bob Dylan, in his famous song, had raised nine deep questions about life. But like all great leaders and teachers, he never gave an answer to any of them. But he left us with an assurance: “The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind/ The answer is blowing in the wind.”

Shall we help each other to ask the deeper questions in life and then find our own answers?