Devastating Decision and the Blame Game

In our day-to-day life, we many times arrive at decisions which are faulty and childish. Such decisions are, many times, an outcome of a perturbed mind, poor understanding of internal and external variables or over-consideration of causes and effects. The mistakes incorporated in the initial process triggers a chain reaction that ensures validation of Murphy’s law- “anything that can go wrong will go wrong”. But not all the decisions are devastating, only a few are. 

We all have seen people blaming external forces, others, the situation for the unfavourable outcomes. However, it’s absolutely painful to see people justifying their devastating decisions which affects millions of people saying- “So what? Other people are also indulged in such wrong doing? Why are you asking us?” It is even more disturbing to see such flimsy response from public personalities. 

“Godhra riots? Huh….why don’t you talk about 1984 anti-Sikh riots?”

“Assam riots? Huh….why don’t you talk about Godhra riots?”

“Coffins scam? Huh….let’s talk about Bofors? ”

“No auctions in our time? Huh….there was no auction in your time as well? ”

The devastating decisions of governments (I presume most of them are inadvertent) followed by a blame game is detrimental to parliamentary democracy. If I am caught stealing, let me talk about the other person’s stealing; once we both are in the same colour, the other one cannot even point out at my mistake. As a resultof this blame game, the public figures and organizations are at the brink of losing confidence of the common man. The common man is increasingly becoming more and more detached from matters of national interest. And the devastating decision makers enjoy their power at the cost of democratic values and public accountability.  

Book Review: The Upside of Irrationality- Dan Ariely

Dan Ariely has divided the books into two broad parts: Part 1- The unexpected way we defy logic at work and Part 2- The unexpected way we defy logic at home. Each part has five chapters covering five different areas where so called rational human being behaves irrationally.

Why and bonuses work in motivating employees? How much bonus should be paid to employees performing physical work and mental work?  When do we derive joy from our work, how comes the sense of contribution? Do people satisfy themselves with compensation despite having no attachment for the work they are performing? Is there actually an upside of revenge, why people inflict pain upon themselves to teach lessons to others? These questions are covered in the first part of the book with simple narrative and various examples. The second part primarily deals with ability to adapt, emotion and decision making.

Most of the conclusions and finding of the book will look logical if you already know that rational man is not so rational. However, the beauty of the book is the gamut of experiments conducted to validate the logical aspects of irrationality. Dan Ariely adds his own experiences, esp. with burn injuries to elaborate some of the points.

A good book to understand how you and the world around you behave in various situations. Dan goes further to explain how the irrational side could be harnessed for the benefit of companies, society and at personal level.

Worth spending your time and money for this 334 page book.

Book Review: The Choice - Eliyahu Goldratt

The Choice starts with more generic issues that people face in their lives- how to leave a meaningful life? Whether or not to leave an easy life? How do people behave and what's the rationale for their behavior? But it goes to the frontiers of operation management in retail business.

Goldratt (he needs to introduction)draws a parallel with apparel retail business and human behavior. The entire book is in the form of a conversation between a father and his daughter. The case-lets discussed in the book are interesting and adds to the perspective of the reader. Goldratt, as usual sticks to his commonsensical approach of finding logical solutions to issues...be it a matter of handling apparel retail, supply chain, discounts, business development, replenishment cycle of breads. The book teaches how to acknowledge one's lack of understanding, move out of the general notion of trade-offs and how to arrive at a structure approach to problems at hand. 

If you are interested in retail, supply chain management a book will be a good purchase/borrow. Don't try the book if you want to understand how to leave a meaningful life.