Engagement | Looking Inside-out..and outside-in...and then again

We interact with the outside world..interpret the external stimuli based on numerous variables, process the new info - add/subtract/reinforce and move on to the next. The interpretation is a complex function with numerous variables like previous experience, previous knowledge, hearsay from trusted or un-trusted sources, research, trends etc etc etc...a long list. And as a result, we take a decision to get engaged, or commit to an idea or a cause. The level of engagement can decide on the level of participation or contribution we make. To keep things simple, it can be considered as the interaction between  'inside' and the 'outside'. 

If I want to engage someone - actively, I should be aiming at all quadrants except the Outside-outside, where there is no active engagement. The future behavior for people in the O-O quadrant might change to active - but we can always analyse that using other models (Standing ovation model...maybe!!)

Social Progress Index (SPI) is what measures

On my quest to find out if there are other means or mechanisms being developed to co-relate measures of economic abundance with real human satisfaction, I came across the Social Progress Imperative. The opening statement on the page - About the imperative - which explains the mission says it all:

Numerous studies have found a high correlation between economic growth and a wide variety of social indicators, yet there is growing awareness that economic measures alone do not fully capture social progress.

Their first initiative is the Social Progress Index (SPI), which aims at evaluating to what extent the governments have been successful in providing for the social and environmental needs of their citizens, and it takes into account 52 indicators across 3 major categories of Basic human needs, Foundations of well being and Opportunity.

There are 50 countries which have been evaluated and ranked in the first version, but more will follow.
US still seems to the land of opportunity..cliched..huh ;-)

Social Progress Network is another of their initiatives, and I do they can make a tangible difference by helping governments and policy makers understand where they stand and helping them formulate action plans for the future.

GDP vs Happiness

While taking a class on Macroeconomics, I was intrigued by two examples cited, where economists tried to evaluate if the GDP has a bearing on people's extent of being happy. The evaluation question in itself is a natural consequence of self-introspection on the behalf of the macro-economists, because they are trying to find out if all the effort and focus bestowed on GDP is really worth something else than the sum of the produce. The first example was for US - and this is the graph which was referred to:

The researchers observed that the increase in GDP did not have any effect on the general level of happiness in the US. At the same time, another example - East Germany - was cited to also show that the US trend does not hold good for all counties.

East Germany's example was cited more importantly to analyse what happened when the circumstances of the people was changed drastically. The observations are very different from the observations in the US, and the survey showed that the level of happiness did increase with the increase in GDP.
Somewhere, the conclusion seems to be that there is a certain threshold of income up to which the GDP/happiness co-relation holds well.
No doubt this endeavor is a noble one, since GDP is the measure of how modern economies hold up. Correspondingly, there are ways which psychologists have been trying to measure human satisfaction levels. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is one such way.
GDP, by virtue of what is stands for, does seem to correspond to the second level in the hierarchy - safety needs. But then that might not be enough. From here on, the discussion becomes very subjective - that of respect, and love, and self actualization, which pertains to feelings of the individuals who are part of the system and the economy.
It seems GDP became a little over ambitious thinking it could influence an ever elusive emotion of happiness. It contributes surely and the examples cited are perfect to show how much.

Finding scientific reasons for practices or principles prevelant in India

This post will run continuously, getting updated with more information.
The intention is to find plausible reasons for practices/principles in India which are being followed at their face value. People do no have an answer to 'Why?' when asked.

I am starting off with a only 2 which I can remember just off my head...

1. Every person is born with a certain number of breaths allocated to him.
So, maybe this is a a suggestion to  breathe deep..good breathing..pranayaam.

2. Have curd before going to take an exam.
Proven that a tense mind plays with your stomach, resulting in acidity etc. Curd counters the acidity.

Things that we are leaving behind

Reading about the discovery of the Harappan and Mesopotamian civilizations, I realized that most of the information we have about them is from the things these civilizations have left behind. We've been able to decipher some and maybe not all of it. Similarly, what are we leaving behind? We're leaving behind the virtual world, passwords, cryptography and so much more which cannot run without electricity and batteries and computers. A few thousand years down the line, anyone trying to find out what we did in our days will have to learn not only the alphabet, but also physics, electricity generation, power usage, understand how to use computers, password management, cryptography..and much much more.

Not only this, but from BCP-DR perspective too, there is so much knowledge required to run things today, that if even a part of humanity was wiped off coz of a natural disaster it might take a long time to get things running back again....and maybe right from scratch.

There are efforts on to document this knowledge already.

I found some very interesting web portals, which you also might appreciate.

http://www.cd3wd.com/cd3wd_40/cd3wd/index.htm

http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Main_Page

Blaming someone for the culture that erodes

Everyone seems to have an opinion these days that the Indian culture is being eroded, and each of these people has sought to blame someone or something for it, ranging from Hollywood to technological innovations (true story!). I believe it is not the culture but the practices which are impacted. I did not realize this myself until I read through Geert Hofstede's theory on this. There is a huge difference between culture - national, organizational..and practices. But what may be affecting the culture? If I assume the reasons for continuity of culture, then maybe the work-life balance, where we don't get enough time to spend with our family might be one. Like a knowledge transfer from one exec to another, we inherit culture from the previous generation. Maybe we are not spending enough time on the inheritance....maybe we don't have enough time for it..but these are all maybes. What is definitely changing is practices. And they have been changing since Harappa five thousand years ago. More on that later.. Anyone interested in Geert Hofstede and his research on cultural dimensions must visit www.hofstede.com. I havn't read his books, but they are at the top of my to-read list now.

Commentary on SMJ EP05

From projects to organisation, we see a need to have a top-down approach to bring about major changes or paradigm shifts. It becomes more pertinent in the case of a country. All seems to be in place as far as the constitution and the judiciary is concerned (but we seldom do everything that is right in the court of law.) If we have to stop talking and discussing castes, the political parties have to do their bit too. But, they all went ahead and set a bad example when they wanted caste data to be collected for the 2011 census. No doubt the change will happen coz of ppl, but then why do we need leaders? Aren't they supposed to show the direction we are heading towards?