The Art of Zooming

As the number of areas one has to manage increase, the need for perspective also increases. The degree to which we can handle multiple important and urgent tasks successfully will have a big effect on our success and the speed of our progression. Handling multiple responsibilities requires discipline, the ability to differentiate, and most importantly the ability to take perspective; the ability to take a step back and zoom in and zoom out regularly. If one takes a deeper and broader perspective in life at large, it is far easier to practice this discipline and manage multiple areas; this is because outside is in, and inside is out; what we do at work has a baring on how we are outside work, and what we do outside of work, has a baring on how we are at work; it is inevitable. So what does taking perspective mean?

The Daily Tsuen Wan line Stampede

As you come off the Tsuen Wan MTR train at Admiralty station, there is a distance of about 20 to 30 meters to the train connecting Hong Kong Island Line train. As the train arrives, this distance separates the commuters from their connecting train. Sometimes, just when the doors open, the opposite trains’ doors are closing and it leaves, without taking the connecting commuters; they were late. More often than not however, there is a small window for commuters to transfer and get on. Knowing of this regular small window, passengers alight in a great rush, sometimes almost like a panic, banging into each other, sometimes even dropping their shopping on the way, and run the 20 to 30 meter distance in order to get onto the soon departing train. Now, before the train arrives, the platform is usually quiet and stable with only the sound of the large TV speakers being heard. As soon as the train arrives, there is mayhem for a few minutes. As soon as the connecting train leaves, it is quiet again. This is on-going for hours. On the Tsuen Wan line, I have never in 5 months waited more than 3 minutes for a train. Yet people, often elderly people are running, pushing others, to get onto the train just incase they need to wait for 3 minutes. There is always a small percentile of people however who wait for everyone to leave, and then walk in peace, and often times still make the train. Perhaps it is understandable if there is a tight meeting, or one is running late, but I wonder how many of the hundreds of people alighting each time, are in such a hurry every time; the importance, and scarcity of perspective.

The Way of the Wise

Sometimes we have so much on our minds that we cannot zoom out in order to select our next task or action. This has many implications, which have varying degrees of severity in the way they damage our route to success. In the best case, a clouded mind will lead to inability to act swiftly. It may lead to a lack of conviction as in our minds we’re still evaluating so many other alternatives, but the time to act has come. And in the worst case, it may lead to us choosing the wrong action. If our mind is clouded, we will find it more difficult to focus. When we lack focus, it may degrade our ability to evaluate situations and activities objectively. When we cannot evaluate objectively, we may choose unwisely. How do we facilitate the process of zooming out and getting perspective? Through remembrance. If we recall a very serious incident in our lives, the fact we often need to make an effort to recall it means that, whilst it may be very significant, its prominence fades over time. Time takes away all things no matter how great they may be, and remembrance of this can help us put things into perspective. As a catalyst to this process of gaining perspective, other people can help. Asking experienced people at work or elsewhere can add great value. Certainly this has been the way of Vedic thought. When King Yuddhistira was banished from the kingdom of Hastinapur unrighteously, often times he and his brothers would speak with great wise sages like Agastya Muni; to get perspective. When the younger brother of Lord Rama, Bharata was in a moral dilemma about what his duty was when his Father passed away and Lord Rama could not be crowned King due to being banished to the forest, he sought the advice of Guru Vasishta Muni; to gain perspective. When Vyasa Muni’s mind was perturbed after completing his authoring of the Mahabharata, he sought the counsel of Guru Narada Muni; to gain perspective. Training our minds and getting the help of our seniors, we can gain perspective.

Ultimately Perspective is Down to Us

Keshava Bharati Goswami said “You may have the greatest Guru in the Universe, but you have to do it yourself.” This is very relevant for us in the workplace and in life also; whilst guidance and the help and advice of so many very experienced and high caliber people may be there, and may be a huge help in our endeavours, ultimately our ability to handle multiple responsibilities well comes down to our own clarity of thought, decisiveness, and regularly taking perspective. Perspective, by its very nature can lead to great level of strategic position and taking advantage of big opportunities, and this is important. The greatest people however, don’t just apply it in the workplace; they apply it in life. This is why you will find the greatest leaders like the Warren Buffet’s, the Bill Gate’s of this world, whilst unparalleled in their success, do things that embody a broader, and deeper meaning. Whilst perspective is a journey and an on-going challenge, like all great things, it all begins with our thoughts.

Knowing the Importance

We know focus is the key to success, but what is the cause of focus? What makes focus successful? In order to dissect these important equations, it is important we break down the dependencies and understand them. Keeping things simple usually works well; and it is refreshing how the cause of focus comes down some very simple messages, which can lead to very powerful results, not just immediately, but even more so in the longer run.

Knowing the importance

Action requires and impetus to act. At 16.30 on Tuesday we got a warning message to go home as soon as possible due to a typhoon in the area. People left their work like I had never seen before. Before we knew it, most people had left the floor. Within a couple of hours, I could see debris flying up in front of my apartment window; and I am on the 32^nd floor. This was serious matter. As I stood by the harbour, a tourist from New Zealand came and asked me, Are we going to be ok? Will the buildings be able to stay standing? Over 600 trees had been uprooted, over 100 people were admitted to hospital, as Cyclone Vicente, the worst in Hong Kong for 15 years bought Hong Kong to a halt. What prompted the action to leave work? It was knowing the importance of the event which was to come. We should also note that knowledge of the cyclone helped people realise the importance of the necessary action. On the journey back, I had to wait 9 trains before being able to get onto one. When the doors would open each time, within perhaps 10-15 seconds the train would be packed and would need to leave. There were small arguments, and people were really concentrating on getting on, they were positioning themselves well in advance of the train arriving; they were focused, they were determined. What prompted their determination and focus? They knew and felt the importance of getting home on time very very tangibly, and therefore their minds were fixed, and their actions were in line with their priority. Knowing the importance of what we are doing, is the single most determining factor in cultivating focus.

Choosing the right type of action

I sat down with some of my bosses last week to discuss what the key qualities for a particular role we wanted to bring in are. I specified the technical areas quite quickly, and then asked them about the non-technical factors that were most important. They said, the person needs to be able to flag things according to the “real” priority, and that “not everything should be urgent and important.” This would be the make or break of that persons success. This comes down to prioritisation and consciousness. More importantly, how do we know we’re doing the right things? There are certain tasks we conduct that are strategic, which will not yield immediate results, but results over time, and there are other tasks which are operational and will simply keep you out of trouble, with a plethora in the middle of tactical tasks. If we are not aware of this range of tasks, and cannot identify, or differentiate between them, then we effectively lose control of our success. We can learn what is strategic, what is tactical, and what is operational in a number of ways; we can find out what is strategic is by finding out what the organisations seniors want to do; what direction they want to go in, and align ourselves with this using our discrimination and intelligence sharply; not just blindly. To identify what we need to do tactically, we can often learn this from slightly more experienced peers who can offer such advice, and looking at their example, and to determine what we need to do operationally, we just need to follow the guidebook so to speak. We will notice, most of this relies on receiving knowledge from some source. Once we then break a balance between activities in those three areas, and cultivate focus through knowing their importance, we will be powerfully positioned.

Keep on-guard

If we do not keep our focus when we have more time, we will tend to waste our time, and then we will be forced to focus, which does not make for a good balance. This is very much in line with the teachings of the Vedic scriptures, where the five year old son of the King Hiranyakashipu, Sri Prahalad, was explaining to his friends that it is very important to learn the science of devotional service from a young age, and not when you are very old and dysfunctional. He had exactly that in mind; the benefits of becoming enlightened early, and not waiting until a later age. In a similar way, we can follow this principle in the workplace; not taking advantage of having less pressure and procrastinating, but rather using this time wisely to strategise, to learn from others, and to replenish our intellect in many ways. To keep focused, requires a chain of events; we need knowledge of the categories of activity; strategic, tactical and operation, we then need to prioritise and balance these intelligently, and finally we need to continually be aware of the importance of this in order to be able to maintain focused and be undisturbed by those events that may distract us. If we do this, we will be content in each of the tasks we are doing, because we will know their place in the broader scheme.

Excellence is a Habit

This morning there was a thunderstorm in Hong Kong. At 5am, I could see the taxi drivers driving very slowly. They never drive slowly in Hong Kong, it is the place where everything is 100mph. This circumstance forced the taxi drivers to slow down and go back to basics. In our careers we may experience times where there is a drastic change in circumstance, akin to a thunderstorm. The way we react will determine whether we survive the storm, or we succumb to it. The points below argue that the basics are always fundamental, although we notice their importance more in tough times.

Changing our strategy

At work, there are sometimes only a few chances given to you; how we react to failures can be critical. So what is the best way to react to failure or a setback? Go back to basics. Get the basics right. Do not let circumstances, emotional rollercoasters, ego dynamics, powerplays, etc distract you. Just simply go back to basics. Getting caught up in something else whilst you’re in a tough situation is very likely to take the boat further ashore. When the thunderstorm alerts went out, drivers went back down to the speed limits; often far slower in fact. They carefully signaled well in advance of turnings. They were checking their mirrors extremely diligently, and all in all, they survived. They went back to basics. When the skies are clear, it may be a different story and they go faster; when the path is clear for us in the workplace, the work you’re getting plays to your strengths, everyone co-operates nicely, there is proper recognition of efforts, and so on, certainly there is avenue to be more dynamic, however when the going gets tough, we must very quickly revert to getting the basics right.

Basics are fundamental

We can learn this example from spiritual life. Spiritual life teaches that whilst you’re in this world, you’re actually always in a very dangerous place. The potential to lose touch with our deeper identity is so much, that it is naturally a place of difficulty in that sense. Yes, there are spiritually safer places, but all in all, the principles of spiritual life teach us to keep alert. As for reverting to basics, spiritual life is founded entirely on “basics.” Chanting, reading, and associating with like minded persons are the A, B, C of spiritual life, and spiritual life teaches that never is there a stage where you are beyond these things. In fact, as one progresses, the depth at which they perform these tasks increases, not that they change their fundamental activities through advancement. The basic, building block activities become conducted with a deeper sense of realisation of their importance. This brings in the concept of being very robust. It is a basic requirement in the workplace that one must be self-organised and disciplined. We will generally find that most senior executives have a non-compromising attitude towards self-discipline. This is a core pillar of success, not only when the going gets tough, yes, this is when its need is most noticeable, but actually, to really build endured strength, such discipline over basic tasks should be there all the time.

Excellence is a habit

If we are to really take this point further, if we conduct our basics in a highly disciplined way, with no expectation of what may arise as a result, we will become even stronger. How is that? Because when we are removed from what the outcome is, there is less emotional attachment. With less emotional attachment we are less vulnerable to being disturbed from keeping the focus on performing the basics. The philosopher Aristotle famously once said that, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Therefore, if we focus on the basics, and get better at performing them whilst growing, we can become truly excellent.