Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.

Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.

Apparently there is a rush of diamond fever on the beach near the Hare Krishna temple in Juhu. Someone found a diamond on the beach and now every man, woman and their dog are down there trying to strike it rich, well almost everyone….

Cybernoon.com

We can’t waste time searching for diamonds,” replies Vijay who makes yummy candyfloss. “The diamonds are fake. What is the point?” asks Sameer, a chanawala. “We don’t want any diamonds. We are earning honestly and that fills our stomach,” says Shivshankar Prasad who is in charge of valet parking opposite Chowpatty.

Here is another good resource on the HBS site: How Leaders Create Winning Streaks.

This is an executive summary of an audio conference delivered by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, author of Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End, a book that deals with the importance of confidence as a driver of organizational success.

Rupa Goswami defines confidence or niscayat, as an important element in success in spiritual endeavour.

Here is the overview:

Confidence in an organization is more than just a spirit of “We can do it.” It is the foundation, systems, and culture involving positive behaviors such as open communication, self-scrutiny, respect, teamwork, accountability, collaboration, and initiative that result in winning. In turn, winning breeds greater confidence and raises the company to an even higher level.

Building organizational confidence, especially in turnaround situations where organizations have been on losing streaks, is the work of leaders. Leaders must instill confidence by combining short-term “bold strokes” to quickly mobilize the organization, with initiating a “long march” that changes systems and habits. Leaders must start by building credibility and confidence in the organization through small wins. This can occur by fixing the work environment that people see every day and investing in people even prior to the achievement of results.

From the media-monitor list at work, here’s an article on leadership styles from the Harvard Business School.

An interesting quote:

At the core of empowering leadership is the ability to energize the people in a company. Jack Welch commented, “You may be a great manager, but unless you can energize other people, you are of no value to General Electric as a leader.”

One angle that I think this article misses on is the idea of “Total Leadership”, also known as “Situational Leadership”. The author speaks of five distinct leadership styles, which he considers different approaches or different philosophies of leadership. Situational Leadership, or what I personally refer to as Total Leadership, consists in utilizing any and all of the styles depending on the necessity. They are merely tools by which to exert influence. I think that this way of understanding the situation comes from the idea of leadership deriving from transformation rather than technique. Leadership does not arise from what you do, it’s primarily a product of what you are. What you do is secondary to that.

With that caveat in mind, check out the article:

HBS Working Knowledge: Leadership: Asian and American Leadership Styles: How Are They Unique?

Get Everyone in Your Boat Rowing in the Same Direction: 5 Leadership Principles to Follow So Others Will Follow You is another great book. I don’t have a copy of this, having borrowed it from the library, but it is going on my “to get for the library” list.

Author Bob Boylan gives a very clear cut and very practical explanation of the process of generating shared vision. Leadership, in the words of Marcus Buckingham, is all about “emphasizing the universal”. Boylan’s book is broken down into simple concepts, accompanied by very practical exercises that can be carried out to explore and implement those concepts.

The subtitle of the book is “5 Leadership Principles to Follow So Others Will Follow You “. One of the chapters is about knowing what to talk about. A leader should constantly emphasize shared values and the common vision. This will generate organizational cohesion. If a leader emphasizes a message that involves values or vision that are not shared by some in the organization, those people will be alienated.

Shared vision is generated in two ways, it is either created, or discovered. One way of thinking of values and vision is to think of the destination sign on a bus. The vision part is the final destination (where we are going), the values part represent the route (how we are going to get there).

You can think of the function of the leader as being that of the driver. He or she gets onto the bus and there are then a number of options, depending on whether there are already people on the bus or not. If the bus is empty, the driver can put up a sign with a destination and route on it, and then wait to see who gets on. The driver could wait for people to get on and then ask them where they want to go, then put the sign up. If the bus already has people on it, the driver can ask them where they want to go, then put the sign up, or the driver could simply announce to the people where the bus is going.

Shared vision is created when a leader announces the vision and then looks for people who share that vision. Shared vision is discovered when a group undertakes a process of discovering their values and vision and looking for the common ground.

Let me give some examples from my personal experience.

I have already previously spoken about the difference in my level of influence from my time in Wellington to my time in Peru. In Wellington I was there from day one, and had long standing relationships with the team members. I had invested time and energy in many of them, and in reciprocation for that there was a high level of trust and the concession of influence. People agreed to allow me to have influence on them (exercise leadership) due to these relationships.

When I was made a leader in Peru, however, my leadership was positional, in name only. I did not have established relationships with people as I had had in Wellington. My sphere of influence was considerably reduced. Of course, this is not something that was clearly explained to me at the time. That’s a function of two things, my particular style of learning, and a lack of availability (awareness) of appropriate resources. I had to learn all these things through hard experience, and it is only doing a review with the help of literature such as this that I am able now to understand what happened. As Maxwell says, experience is not the best teacher - evaluated experience is.

In Wellington basically those who were attracted to the vision and values that we established from the beginning joined the organization, so there was a high degree of alignment. Maneuvering the organization was easy. In Peru it was like steering the Titanic - trying to make a slight adjustment was nearly impossible.

I was able to achieve a lot with the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust there because I worked with my team that I travelled with from New Zealand and a family who were happy to work on the same platform of vision and values. I announced the vision and values, and it was harmonious with them.

In another sphere I was put in charge of an inner city temple. I called a community meeting to do some exploration of the vision and values of the people. Understand that I wasn’t following any kind of procedure or really deeply understanding what I was doing, because I had had no formal training. I was winging it. I have a degree of natural ability and intuition with leadership, but that only takes you so far….

The meeting was really a combination of two things, looking back on it. Basically I wanted to discover the vision and values of the existing members of the organization, and to look for the common ground with my own. Based on the commonalities, I would construct a platform to move forward.

What I discovered was a high degree of disparity between the vision and values of the existing members. Some people thought we should do one thing, others thought another. Some thought it should be done this way, others another. At the same time, people were not really clear about the differences, or really in touch with themselves and their values. People did not understand the positions of others. There wasn’t any clear direction to align with, what to speak of alignment!

What I should have done is spent a lot of time from this point forward working on discovering people’s values and their vision, helping them to really connect with their values and refine their vision for themselves, then discover what the common platform was.

What I did instead is basically construct a platform based on my own vision and values, incorporating some of the elements that I could detect as common from everyone else, and then start implementing it.

The result of this, predictably, returning to our bus analogy, is that a number of people realized that the bus wasn’t going their way or to their destination, and got off. Others, in true South American style, and again predictably, tried to seize control of the wheel.

I ended up fighting a massive rearguard action, with little support (those with something concrete to lose will fight hard, those with only potential gains won’t). Progress was frustratingly slow. Alienation and attrition were high. Motivation was low, obstructionism was rife.

OK, so chalk that one up to experience. Round two. I was put in charge of another inner city temple / preaching center. At the same time. I was also put in charge of another restaurant. Let me deal with the restaurant experience in my review of Good to Great, because that lead me to purchase that book.

In terms of the other preaching center (this one had no people living in it), I moved a little more slowly, having gained some expensive experience at the first place. I spent a lot more time trying to build trust and a common platform. Again however, I ran into the same problem. You see, if you get on the bus with people already on it, you have basically two options. Find out where they want to go and go there, or go where you want to go, and deal with the fact that at least some of those people on that bus are not going to want to go there.

My realization at the end was that I was not getting any love this way. Remember that previously I revealed that in my personal value structure progress ranks over harmony? I’m not the harmonizing team-building leader of Maxwell’s Leadership Aptitudes explanation. I’m a Directive / Strategic Leader. If this bus ain’t going somewhere, and at a decent speed, then I’m on the wrong bus, not matter how much fun everyone is having. It’s not right or wrong, it’s just the way it is.

I got off the bus.

I had attracted a number of people who were of a similar mind - similar value structure - and who had faith in my leadership. I had faith in them. With similar values a common vision is more easily constructed - a picture of the future and the path to get there. These were all foreigners. Harmony is valued over progress in the standard Peruvian value structure.

We find that as people mature they go from being progress over harmony to harmony over progress. From pioneers to community builders. It’s a natural progression. Putting the right person in the right job allows that person to utilize their talents and propensities effectively, and happily. I suffered intensely for three years there in Peru, and I caused a lot of suffering for others. It was all for a good cause though, and now afterwards we’re all the better for it. After I left others who opposed me tried their hand at it and ran into the same problems, learnt the same lessons, and now we correspond with each other, fellow graduates of the school of hard knocks.

When I came to Australia from Peru I stopped off in Auckland, New Zealand, for the opening of the new temple. Before I left New Zealand for South America I had gone to Sri Sri Radha-Giridhari and prayed to Them: “Please, never let me go”.

Somehow they mystically arranged everything so that my time in Peru ended right on schedule for me to be present at the opening of Their new temple. I continue to serve Them in separation.

Anyway, at the opening of the temple I ran into Tirtharaj das, who had “head-hunted” us from Peru. My Guru Maharaja gave me some indications of his desires, and based on that I made the choice to come to Brisbane. Really it was easy. We were flat broke after three years in South America and had no way of getting back. Tirtharaj offered to front the money for our tickets so it was pretty clear where the path forward lay.

At the opening of the temple Tirtharaj came up to me and said: “Our temple president just resigned.” I started to get a little nervous. I was hoping to be able to work in with some kind of stable, compatible situation. I knew that Tirtharaj had faith in, if not me, at least in the recommendation of my spiritual master, who would encourage him to give me some scope to act. “Who is going to take over?” I asked. Tirtharaj’s hand descended onto my shoulder, accompanied by a big smile: “That’s where you come in!”

Anyway, I dropped that like a hot potato.

Here in Brisbane I have started with an empty bus. My vision is not completely formed, but I have a direction, and my values are clear to me, and becoming clearer. I am attached to working in a particular way and I’m out of the closet about it. I am not about to go through years more of suffering, and put others through suffering at the same time. Let those who wish to work with me and work in this way do so, and let others have space to do as they wish.

I am trying to balance my life using the 80/20 principle, something that I picked up from Simply Strategic Volunteers. 80% in your strength zone, 20% outside. It’s not just about self-actualization and to hell with everyone else, but it’s not about twisting yourself out of shape and burning out either.

As we go forward and our particular organizational unit becomes successful and develops, I will have the ability to compromise on other points and contribute to platforms where, while I can appreciate the values and vision, it just doesn’t do it for me. As long as my own need to work in a particular way is taken care of I won’t become frustrated.

People are getting on, and because it is clear from the outset what the values of this particular platform are, it’s either what they want to do, or they don’t get onboard. As a result alignment is high and very easily we generate a shared vision. Spiritual life is not about impersonalism or homogenity. Within a wider community there are many groups, and when people’s needs are being met in a way that doesn’t threaten others they are able to respect others who have different needs.

We don’t all have to think the same way, be the same way, or do things the same way.

Being attached to working in a particular way is a product of the modes of material nature. Being aware of that, and familiar with the particular nature of that way, and recognizing it, not as an absolute truth that all others must abide by to be “right”, but merely as an expression of your own particular nature, is a product of the sattva-guna, or mode of goodness. Knowing what your adhikara is and acting according to that will call your progress, and it will enable wider organizational harmony.

When people confuse their own nature with absolute reality and demand that others work in that way or get out of the organization it creates a difficult situation. It’s not “all or nothing”, or “my way or the high way”. In the house that Srila Prabhupada has built there are many rooms.

Conclusion: Be yourself and make a contribution. If you want to do it with others, read this book to get some clarity on how to help yourself and others to discover and connect with their values, and be able to recognize what will, and will not work in terms of organization of people into functional teams that can deliver results and fulfil the needs of the members.

Here’s a great article that talks about the difference between a web site and a web ministry.

Foreshadowing my review of Good to Great, this distinction is between thinking that technology is some kind of end in itself, and realizing that technology can only be an accelerator.

In order to actually be effective, technology has to be integrated with the core business activity of the enterprise. Technology, when properly applied, can enhance, magnify, accelerate, whatever, that core business activity.

If your core business model is broken, undefined, or not integrated with the technology, you’re just playing around with shiny toys.

Check it out:12 Steps Apart - SILAS partners

Beautiful Vrndavana is filled with cintamani gems and many jewel palaces and temples. Many regal swans play in the waters of the Yamuna, and in those waters a splendid golden lotus flower grows.

In the middle of that lotus is a golden place surrounded by eight petals. On these eight petals the eight principal gopis reside, and in the centre Lord Syamasundara and beautiful Srimati Radharani sit on a jewel throne.

The great beauty of the Divine couple and Their charming joking and laughter continually showers nectar everywhere. Narottama dasa says: I pray that these blissful eternal transcendental pastimes of the Divine Couple may be always manifest in my heart.

——————-
This song, written by Narottama das Thakura and included in his Prarthana, was given to His Holiness Visnujana Maharaja by Srila Prabhupada with the request that he write a melody for it. Visnujana Swami returned the next day with a melody that pleased Srila Prabhupada. I could not find a recording of this anywhere, but lived in great desire to hear this song. One day while living near the temple in Lima a melody came to me, and I recorded it.

His Holiness Visnujana Swami worshipped the deities of Sri Sri Radha Damodara that preside over Gita-Nagari, the holy dhama where Bhakti Tirtha Swami recently left his body. They are pictured above in a photo taken in 2004. Today I listened to Bhakti Tirtha Swami’s last public lecture, where he stated that he was retiring from active preaching and administration and would concentrate only on Vrndavan and hearing of Vrndavan.

So all these things made me think of this song today. Here is an mp3 (7.7 MB) of the recording that I made of it.

When I try to focus on something at the moment, I can’t find any energy. Then when I look at a picture of Bhakti Tirtha Swami I suddenly become aware that I will not see him again in this lifetime. I will never again be in one of his kirtans. And worse than that, no-one else will. My son will grow up in a world without Bhakti Tirtha Swami’s manifest physical presence. What a wonderful man, and what a shame, in one sense, that the only contact Prahlad will have with him will consist of looking at a photo taken in Peru before Prahlad turned one, Bhakti Tirtha Swami smiling and holding him up, waving his little hand at the camera.

In another sense, the indirect connection is the more substantial one. The mood of Narottama das Thakura expressed in his song “Saparsada-bhagavad-viraha-janita-vilapa” is becoming more accessible to us.

Bhakti Tirtha Swami was a very charismatic man. He had a powerful and beautiful physique and an impeccable dress sense. He radiated confidence. Whenever you were around him you felt assured. He was powerful and confident. He inspired others to feel confident. He was a harmonizing force that drew communities together. He was a powerful believer in Prabhupada’s movement, and the power of his belief helped others to believe in it too. He would dance in kirtan for hours, and would inspire others to dance in kirtan for hours. He had boundless energy. He had a mellifluous voice and beautiful teeth. He made everyone feel they were special and that he belonged to them. He was a Remarkable Person.

He drew out the essence of teachings and explained them in a way that connected with people. He was concerned about fundamental principles. He was a communicator, speaking to people in their language. He went to where people were at, to bring them back with him. He appreciated and valued people. He sought abiding truth. He spoke out against the abuse of power. He demanded accountability. He demonstrated the power of forgiveness. Above all, I believe, he demonstrated the characteristic of an authentic leader: he created lasting value by leaving behind him a legacy that will continue in his absence.

To the Spiritual Warrior’s greatest victory! His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami Maharaja ki jay!

Here is a nice letter from His Holiness Satsvarupa das Goswami about the departure of His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami.

A realization comes to me stronger and stronger. Such a heavy responsibility:

“We are called upon not simply to lead within our own organization, but to construct an organization to lead the world”.

———————————————
“…instead of running a godless civilization in the present context of the world situation, if the leadership of world affairs is entrusted to the devotees of the Lord, for which a worldwide organization under the name and style of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness has already been started, then by the grace of the Almighty Lord there can be a thorough change of heart in human beings all over the world because the devotees of the Lord are able authorities to effect such a change by purifying the dust-worn minds of the people in general.” SB. 2.4.18 purport

Departure ceremony for His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami in Brisbane, Australia:

Saturday July 2 10 am
ISKCON Brisbane
95 Bank Rd, Graceville

Last night we had an impromptu program at the temple in honour of His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami. In the morning, when we found out we walked across Graceville to the temple in the rain. I thought that Krishnapada, who is a disciple of Bhakti Tirtha Swami, might be there already. He came a while later and told us there would be a program in the evening.

We rearranged things with the Loft and Elliot, Channell and Alison took care of that. Param, Prahlad, and I went back to temple, again in the rain, for the program in the evening. After a near drought, parts of Australia are experiencing record rainfall. The world weeps upon the departure of a great saintly personality.

Vrajadhama was also there. Krishnapada asked me to lead kirtan at the end of the evening, so I played harmonium and lead one tune. This morning Vrajadhama and I sang that same tune, one that Madhava das sings, and Vraja also sang a tune that Madhava sang at the wake of Srimati Sucirani devi dasi.

Saturday at 10 am will be the formal depature ceremony. Krishnapada is making the arrangements. I will arrange to get time off from work to attend. Yesterday was my rest day, so I was able to reschedule everything easily.

Right now we are all just trying to manage the moment to moment necesities of maintaining our programs, but everyone is feeling very strung out. It is good that the program will be on Saturday at 10 am, because most of us will be able to attend, and it will be a healthy part of the grieving process.

We have had a long time to prepare for Maharaja’s departure, but it is still a powerful event. Maharaja powerfully affects the heart with everything that he does.

Maybe I will be able to write something more later. At the moment I am finding everything very difficult. Even the most simple things are very hard. This morning I chanted 32 rounds. Yesterday was going to be a sadhana reform day, but that didn’t happen, so it was today instead. We all chanted our rounds straight after getting up, before doing anything else.

His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami has departed from his manifest pastimes here on Earth. I will write something about my insignificant realization of the glories of His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami Krishnapada later today.

(editor’s note: I’m sharpening up for a presentation I am going to be giving on the difference between software licenses for the Red Hat User Group)

“MICROSOFT plans to add Really Simple Syndication, better known as RSS, to its next version of Windows.

The technology, invented by one-time arch-rival Netscape, allows internet users to track freshly updated information - without having to surf through a long list of web pages.

Microsoft said it wants to reach beyond the current limited audience of hard-core internet users by making RSS convenient for mainstream computer users in its upcoming version of Windows, code-named Longhorn.”
Australian IT - Microsoft ties RSS into Longhorn (Spencer Swartz in San Francisco, JUNE 27, 2005)

In the article the author writes: “Microsoft is set to embrace the Creative Commons licence backed by many leading RSS supporters. The licence provides looser copyright restrictions on creative work but stops short of entirely giving up all claims of ownership.”

In an obvious backhand against free software (or am I paranoid?), the article leaves us with the impression that there are other licenses (could they have had the GPL in mind?) that are all about “giving up all claims of ownership”.

Can you even have a license that “gives up all claims of ownership”? It doesn’t seem possible. How can you have a license that applies to something if you have no rights on it? A license is a legal document giving official permission to do something. If you give up all claims to ownership, you have no right to grant any kind of permission. The only thing I can think of when I read this is that the author is referring to the GPL, the General Public License, developed by Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation, and the basis of the free software movement that is causing such a right royal pain in Microsoft’s rear.

Free software is not about “giving up ownership”, a common misconception. On the contrary, it’s about retaining ownership and explicitly granting rights to others. It’s necessary to retain ownership as a defensive measure, because otherwise someone else will claim ownership and start denying access to everyone else. “Ownership” in the minds of some is synonomous with monopolization and exploitation.

As an example, think of the land grabs of the colonial era. White man arrives and says: “Who owns this land?” Of course, the present inhabitants don’t have an idea really of what that means. In their conception they belong to the land, and exist to serve it in a stewardship role. So they say: “Well, no-one.” White man throws them a few beads and blankets and starts putting up fences.

The GPL is not about “giving up all claims to ownership”. It’s about saying: “The copyright to this belongs squarely to me, and I hereby grant free usage to anyone, on the condition that they do not try to restrict others from using it.”

Radical concept, huh?

This is from the foreword to Network Centric Warfare: Developing and Leveraging Information Superiority

I’ve adapted it to apply to the Bhaktivrksa “Network Centric Preaching” concept (I just replaced the word Warfare with Preaching in the text), because I think this is really where we need to start from in order to get something that works. This is how the Bhaktivrska manual should start out, with a clear caveat that it is an attempt to kickstart something, a proposal of sorts. This would help to manage expectations, and also would communicate the need for application, experimentation, observation and modification in order to develop the system into something workable.

“It will be decades before the real book on Network Centric Preaching will be written. This effort is designed to help prepare for the journey that will take us from an emerging concept to the fielding of real operational capability. The success of any journey depends in great measure upon the preparations made. These preparations include a shared sense of purpose, a destination, education and training, and provisions. Many challenges remain. One that is already causing problems is not having a concrete destination, but rather a broad vision of the characteristics of the destination. In a journey such as this, the process becomes the concrete objective for those who are guided by a vision. It is hoped that this book will contribute to the preparations for this journey in two ways. First, by articulating the nature of the characteristics of Network Centric Preaching (NCP). Second, by suggesting a process for developing mission capability packages designed to transform NCP concepts into operational capabilities.”

I’ve added a Network Centric Preaching category to my blog, because I am going to start writing about this now. You can check out a prototype system that I started trialling last year here. I’ll be writing about my experiences and observations of that later.

Here’s some love on $SUBJECT.

One of the things that can impede understanding common threads or shared underlying principles is that different authors, research communities, or religious groups frequently have their own specific lexicon, or body of terms that they use to describe concepts. In order to really get into what they are talking about you often have to take the time to learn the buzzwords and what they mean. I’ll try to give you an overview understanding of Network-centric Warfare by bridging the gap, as well as giving you pointers to original source material that you can look at.

I don’t think that many of you will really get much out of the source material (or will have the time or inclination to check it out), but some might, and for the rest, well, at least you’ll know that it exists and that that’s where this information comes from.

The four tenets of network-centric Warfare are:

1. A robustly networked force improves information sharing.
2. Information sharing and collaboration enhance the quality of information and shared situational awareness.
3. Shared situational awareness enables self-synchronization.
4. These, in turn, dramatically increase mission effectiveness.

(Source: Command and control research program)

Point number 3, shared situational awareness enables self-synchronization, is an interesting one.

In an organization with a high degree of alignment, in other words where the people are committed to common goals (shared vision) and have clear and common internalized guidelines about what they consider to be valid and invalid means of achieving these goals (shared values), people are able to act autonomously, in a way that benefits the organization, to a much greater degree than in organizations where this alignment is missing.

Many organizations face obstacles to efficiency due to lack of internal alignment, more than anything else. Such organizations often do not have a clearly defined mission and many times the organizational values are not explicitly stated, or if they are they are, are not taken seriously. In this case there is a lot of confusion within the organization about what should be done and how it should be done. Leaders in organizations such as this usually “lead through legislation”, utilizing a beaucracy heavy with process in order to compensate for incompetence and indiscipline that otherwise threaten to get out of hand.

In the case of the US Army, the values are clearly defined, and if you’ve played America’s Army you’ve had to go through a simulation of basic training, and have been exposed to them. Check out this link to read about the LDRSHIP values that permeate and define the organizational culture of the US Army. You’ll find a link to the values page on every page of that website.

In the case of an organization with a high degree of alignment, one of the most significant internal barriers to efficiency is simply getting the right information to the right people. When the people in the organization are competent and aligned, they can be relied on to make intelligent decisions, given the information they need to make these decisions.

Shared situational awareness will only enhance self-synchronization when alignment is present. Otherwise it is useless. People with shared vision and values operate at cross-purposes if they have different information about the situation. People with differing visions and values will operate differently, and sometimes at cross-purposes, even when they have the same information.

Those of you who are following my activities might have noticed that my emphasis has gone back a step from the development and deployment of tools, to the development of mission statements and the process of value clarification. This is an essential initial step. Without this, you can’t build anything that will scale appreciably. What seem like minor frictions in a small group become full blown schisms as the group expands. What could be made to work with 4 starts to bog down with 14, becomes unmanagable (if it arrives) at 40, and produces what are effectively several different organizations at 400.

I’ll write a little more about creating alignment in the organization in a review of Bob Boylan’s book “Getting Everyone in Your Boat Rowing in the Same Direction”, which is coming up soon (after Collins book - actually I might do it first, because it is a nice elaboration of a subset of the principles discussed in Good to Great).

Anyway, in an organization with a high degree of alignment, a network-centric model can be used to generate greater efficiency by leveraging information superiority. We’re going a lot further than most of us need to go right now, because that first step of creating alignment in our organization is really where our adhikara lies, but anyway, let us discuss higher steps for some theoretical appreciation.

Here is a diagram from a nice introductory article found here in the US Naval Institute:

Let me help you understand this. This is a logical model that they are using to guide their development. The logical model has three grids: The Sensor Grid, the Information Grid, and the Engagement Grid.

The Sensor grid consists of sensor platforms such as Predator drones, satellite imaging, spy planes, ground based radar, soldiers with laser targeting devices, cameras, and so on and so forth.

The Sensor grid is networked with the Information Grid, which consists of command and control centers located behind the front line in mobile command centers, in airborne control centers, in a mobile command post on the front line, or any other location, depending on its level. It may be a unit commander with information from his immediate reports, or it could be a central control center with information of the entire battlespace. Here decisions are made on the information flowing in from the sensor grid. These decisions are made with help of expert systems that analyze huge amounts of information and can present formatted views as well as expert-system recommendations. The decisions are then fed over the network to the Engagement grid.

This allows decisions to be made that take into account a view of the bigger picture, which then allows the “devices” of the Engagement grid, automated weapons platforms, tanks, airplanes, foot soldiers, whatever, to engage the enemy more effectively.

Objects go in, “Negated Objects” come out, heh heh heh….

As an example: a satellite (sensor grid) detects something suspicious on the ground. This triggers an alert in the command and control center (information grid). A Predator drone then flies over and gets more precise information. Based on the imagery, the brains in the control center estimate the size and power of the enemy force: it’s a group of 5 Soviet-era T-80 tanks.

At the same time the control center is receiving information from all the networked units in the battle space. The decision-making systems then calculate. The system knows about the armour of the T-80 and what armaments are needed to engage and destroy them. There is an A10 tank buster squadron on the ground that can be there in 30 minutes. There is an F-15 airbourne in the vicinity, returning from a reconnaisance mission. The command and control systems have access to real time data - how much fuel is in the F-15’s tanks, what it’s armament levels are, it’s GPS location - from sensors, as well as information such as maximum flight speed, with which they can calculate time to target and probability of successful engagment.

The systems do the calculations, then present recommendations to the officers, who then use this as inputs to the decision making process. A decision is made, and orders given over the network. As the engagement progresses, the process is reiterated continuously, with information flowing into the information grid nodes at all levels of the network, and decisions being made and relayed to the units in the engagement grid. The entire force begins to act harmoniously, adapting to the rapidly changing nature of the battlefield.

The idea is to get within the timing cycle of the adversary, to be able to respond to his actions faster than he can respond to ours, in this way taking the upper hand and defining the terms and outcome of the conflict.

So that’s a little bit about the theory of Network-centric Warfare, in a very rough form. Here’s the source material that I got most of my grasp on the subject from: The Department of Defense Report to Congress “Network Centric Warfare: Developing and Leveraging Information Superiority“.

I studied this last year, so this is a bit of a review for me as well.

Here’s the latest flyer for the Loft. It’s a DLE (3 to a landscape A4) format, with the new class schedule, and the piece de resistance, a coupon for a free Loft class for the recipient and a friend.

I’m going to send out a mail out later on with the new schedule and the free yoga class offer. Remember - people are your best asset (well, at least the “right” people are), so the existing crowd, and their powerful personal recommendation to friends, are the best advertising channel for our center.

We gave these flyers out last night at the Sunday feast. I was at work with Prahlad during the day. I only had one call, at 8.45 am. One unfortunate customer had tried to relabel the drive in his production Oracle database server using mke2fs -L, which does relabel it, but unfortunately reformats it at the same time. I had to tell him that, basically, he’s toast on Monday when the boss gets in. Nothing we could do to help him.

Param, Alison, Channell, and Elliot, along with Elliot’s friend and now Sunday feast regular Philipa and Loftie Buwani prepared the Sunday feast, and Prahlad and I arrived in time to participate in the singing at the beginning, along with Ram das and Bala Gopal. His Holiness Ramai Swami gave the talk and lead the kirtan at the end.

We were on the back foot doing the serving out. Param’s usual technique is to finish right at the last minute, and I’m used to leading the kirtan to the tempo of messages from the kitchen: “15 minutes more” “10 minutes more” “5 minutes more” “10 minutes more” “5 minutes more” “It’s ready!”. Anyway, Maharaja is used to the feast being ready earlier in the day and finishing the program at his leisure. This lead us to a mad rush to serve out. I don’t think the guests really noticed anything too untoward, but it did lead to the situation where we were rushing to keep up and could not give much energy to interacting personally with the people.

The last couple of weeks we have made some changes. Gone are the disposable plates and we are using stainless steel ones. Instead of having everyone sit in lines and then serving out we have been serving out the plates and then having the guests file through the door, collecting a plate as they go. This last week I observed how people naturally arranged themselves into circles and groups when given the opportunity to seek their own seating arrangements.

We vigorously debate the different procedures. Serving out complete plates, or going around with individual preparations, serving each person individually? Complete plates means people get their meal quicker and with more consistency (as long as you have the lead time to serve the plates out beforehand, this is where we tripped up this week). Going around and serving each person is a unique experience and very personal. What do people think? How do they respond? What are the resourcing requirements for each method, and our capacity?

One idea is a hybrid. Give them a basic plate with enough to get them started and keep them happy, then go around with some other preparations and top ups. This gives the best of both worlds. We don’t have people sitting there with nothing, or just rice, for 10 or 15 minutes, and we still get to come around to everyone and serve them. I remember standing in the long line at one Sunday Feast waiting as they served out each plate as people came up to the serving area. That’s definitely the worst of all combinations. Serving individually at a centralized point. Serving individually at distributed points is what we had before, and prepared plates at a centralized point is what we have done for the past two weeks.

Sitting in lines is definitely better when there are large numbers of people in order to efficiently serve everyone. Sitting around in circles is better, when it can be managed, in order to converse with people.

Here is an article from the Christian Science Monitor: “Wilted Europe eyes global warming (and air conditioners)”

“The arrival of what seems on the verge of becoming the annual summer heat wave might help explain why Europeans generally are more worried about global warming than Americans. The Dutch, who inhabit a country largely built on land reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean, may be more preoccupied with projections of rising sea levels. But for most Europeans, the link between hotter summers and global warming seems too obvious to doubt.

The heat here and the widespread acceptance that it is one effect of global warming may also play a subtle role in the generally low esteem that America suffers in much of Western Europe. The war in Iraq and “the arrogance of the world’s only superpower” may be higher on Europeans’ list of why the US is not always well viewed, but keep probing and the Bush administration’s rejection of the Kyoto treaty on global warming is bound to come up.”

knowing which one can develop the feel needed for the art.”

That was the subtitle to a small booklet I put together called “The Art and Science of Harinam Sankirtan Yajna”. It’s a universal principle. If you grasp the theoretical principles you have the basis to develop the feel needed to truly master (serve) the subject matter.

I have a high reading speed under normal circumstances and can assimilate and process large amounts of information rapidly. My service is to read and regurgitate for those who do not have the time or talent to do this with this information. I took a speed reading course, but I rarely use the techniques, preferring to wrestle with the subject matter consciously.

I will continue with my item by item report on my reading, but I wanted at this point to take a little break to talk about some of the wider patterns that I am seeing emerging.

In 1996 I undertook the study of yoga, and read every book that I could get my hands on. After reading a fair number, I found that there was no new material, I was simply reading the same things. There were only three unresolved threads that I could see to go further. One was the statement, oft repeated, that “all yoga comes from the Bhagavad-gita”. The second was that “you can only go so far on your own. To go further you need a guru, a teacher.” The third was a saying I read in one book: “When the chela (student) is ready, their guru (teacher) will appear.”

Armed with these three indicators I set off on a quest to find the Gita and a guru, encountering His Holiness Bhaktisiddhanta Swami in the street a couple of weeks later and many hundreds of kilometers down the road, and accepting the Bhagavad-gita from him, and finally recognizing my guru (you are ready when you can recognize your eternal guru, without any doubt - just like you know when you are full) at the Loft in Auckland a few months later.

Okay, so those were the macro patterns that arose through exhaustive reading of the literature on yoga, for me. Here are a few patterns that are emerging from an partially completed exhaustive reading of the literature on leadership.

First of all, here is how I got into it:

First of all, I have a natural talent for leadership. As my Keirsey personality profile describes, I have always found myself in charge in groups I am a part of, and am often mystified as to how it happened. Often I would try to back away from the leadership and the group would collapse. Now I no longer do that. It is what I am, so I just have to learn to do it properly.

I was sent to South America to learn to lead and manage, but without any formal training. As I was given more and more managerial responsibility and formal positional leadership within the organization, I became more and more acutely aware of this lack of understanding about what should be done. Everywhere people are complaining about leadership. As Jim Collins explains (his book will be reviewed next), “Leadership” has become the “God” of the present age. If there is something that people don’t understand, they will blame it on “Leadership”. Why are things not working? “It’s because of the Leadership!”.

There are few good examples of leadership, and less people who can coherently lay it out in black and white terms. It’s a science like any other, with principles that can be learned.

With no resources at my disposal (there is no “ISKCON Restaurant Manager’s Handbook” or “ISKCON Temple Manager’s Handbook” like there are US Army Manuals), I had to find some resources. I bought a book “at random”, based on its title: “Empresas que sobresalen” (”Businesses That Stand Out”). It now turns out that this is the Spanish translation of Jim Collins’ book “Good to Great” (review coming soon). My hand was being guided.

At the same time I got hold of the “Bhaktivrksa Manual”, a book about a proposed method of massive congregational preaching through cell groups. I am passionate about preaching, so I was very interested in this book.

One thing that I am realizing is that preaching and leadership are very closely related. In fact, one Sanskrit term is used to describe both: acarya. We are all called to lead through example, the most powerful testimony, to be (acar) before we do (pracar).

I was inspired by this Bhaktivrksa manual, and I wanted to know more. So I went out and bought a book called Iglesia Celular (The Cell Church) by Larry Stockstill (I will review this one later). Reading this book I realized that Bhaktivrksa was a concept, an idea, a proposal. If you have read The Nectar of Book Distribution you will recognize the format of The Cell Church - it was filled with testimonies, histories, and tales of lessons learnt in the field. The Bhaktivrksa manual has none of that.

I then began to try to implement the Bhaktivrksa preaching model, using the experiences described in The Cell Church. I, along with intrepid Bhaktivrksa preacher Omkara Krishna das, also began to explore more resources that were used by the Christians in this type of preaching. One of the books that we got is called “Manual de Formacion de Lideres” (Leadership Training Manual). I also started to get into John Maxwell through Leadership Wired and The Pastor’s Coach.

Just before I left South America I bought a CD with a number of Maxwell’s books in Spanish (like a Vedabase folio), and three of his books, in Spanish: “Develop the Leader Within You”, “The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork”, and “The 21 Most Important Minutes of a Leader’s Day”.

So here we see a thread that leads between congregational preaching, cellular church and small group organization, and leadership. As Maxwell explains in his “21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”: “To add growth, lead followers. To multiply growth, lead leaders.” This is the “Discipleship” model, modelled after Jesus’ example of training his 12 disciples to become “fishers of men” (preachers / leaders).

Before I went to South America we had met some Christians at a catering gig we did. When Vraj and I told them that we were headed to the mission fields of South America they invited us to come to their church to view a video entitled: “Transformations”.

We went to their church and watched the video. It started out: “We have all experienced a transformation in our own personal lives. Some of us have even experienced a transformation of our church. But how many of us have experienced the transformation of an entire city? We are going to show you now the transformation of five entire cities.”

They then proceeded to show the results of preaching in five cities, three of them in South America (one of those was in Mexico, which is north of Central America).

Later, reading The Cell Church, I recognized that video as documenting the results of cell preaching.

When I arrived in Australia, I continued with a low grade of leadership reading, but turned my attention to analyzing two other things, 1. The Open Source software phenomenon, and 2. The US military’s new doctrine of “Network-centric Warfare”. I was examining how these two systems with extreme competitive advantage are aligned with and tap into fundamental principles, and how these principles might be applied in preaching and organization of a preaching movement.

The US military material (primarily a great document from one of their think tanks on the theoretical underpinnings of Network-centric Warfare) pointed out the development. Based on the development of new models of operation, interoperation and cooperation in the business world, and the competitive advantage derived there, the US military was implementing the same principles in the military sphere. Those principles in the business world derived from a revolution that was sparked from the information technology sphere, in the realm of network-centric computing. Instead of devices operating in isolation, and focusing on making more powerful individual devices, the focus is on getting massive amounts of devices to work efficiently and effectively together.

That is the realm of leadership.

That is an eternal principle. All jivas (parts) cooperate to serve the whole. That is their fundamental identity and function. It is an eternal principle - sanatana-dharma in Sanskrit.

So I investigated this further, and tried to extrapolate how these principles could manifest in the sphere of preaching and organization.

I kept reading and assimilating information, then I was one day triggered to respond to a situation in another country. In the course of doing that I shared some of the knowledge that I had assimilated, and hadn’t even realized that I had. Knowledge is meant for sharing. By giving, we get more.

I then dove back into reading leadership material, and here is what I have discovered.

Basically all the powerful leadership information is coming from preachers who are developing it for preaching, and are then feeding it back into the secular world. Many of these preachers themselves have day jobs, or companies, and there is a synergy between their secular organizational and leadership activities, and their religious ones. That the most powerful leadership experts are preachers is because they are connected with fundamental principles through their religious systems:

John Maxwell - Christian
Stephen Covey - Mormon
Ken Blanchard - Christian
Mark Miller - Christian

This leadership is being developed and tested in preaching situations, and the principles learned are then being applied in the business world, and from there picked up by the US military.

As John Maxwell says: “Leadership in its most purest form is found in voluntary organizations.” In a voluntary organization, such as a Church, or the Open Source community, there is no leverage of pay or job security. People can walk at any moment, and they don’t have to cooperate even begrudgingly.

John Maxwell, Andy Stanley, Bill Hybels, Rick Warren - these are all leadership authors and leaders of preaching organizations, and they have all graduated from Robert A. Schuller’s Institute of Successful Church Leadership.

Especially Rick Warren’s book “The Purpose-driven Life” (and the related “The Purpose-driven Church”) has been driving leadership models of late. This book is based on a powerful presentation of the principles that Krishna describes in Bhagavad-gita 18.45 and 46.

What is real is universal.

I just finished reading this book, The Secret - What Great Leaders Know — and Do, by Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller.

Ken Blanchard co-authored “The One Minute Manager” with Spencer Johnson, the author of “Who Moved My Cheese?“. These three books fall into the category of “business fiction”, fictional narratives of a contrived scenario with the principles that the authors wish to share communicated through the dialogue of the characters. As John Maxwell says about communication: “Principles fade, stories stick”. This is the same format used by Vaisnava author and thought-leader Bhaktivinode Thakura.

John Maxwell wrote the forward to this book, and he is quoted within it. I’ll speak a little more about the relationship between these authors in another post.

I’ve read The One Minute Manager. I found a lot of useful things in it, especially the resolution of the apparent dichotomy between results and relationships through the idea of valuing both results and relationships, however I thought it could easily lead to an undue emphasis on technique over transformation, due to not emphasizing the necessity of leaders to work on their character, and be before they do.

In this book Blanchard strikes the right balance, I feel. He introduces the SERVE model through the illustration of an iceberg. The 20% above water represents a leader’s visible leadership. The 80% below water represents their character, poignantly illustrating the principle summarized in US Army Leadership Training materials as the mantra “Be-Know-Do”. Blanchard urges us to consider whether we are serving leaders, or self-serving leaders.

The story of The Secret is that of Debbie, a floundering executive who is doing everything wrong. In fact I winced when I read the description of her perceptions and her leadership in the first chapter, mainly because I recognized myself - but let me save that for the next review, as I had planned. Debbie enrolls in the company’s mentoring program as a last resort, and winds up being mentored by Jeff, the CEO.

He introduces her to the SERVE model of leadership (developed at the company that author Mark Miller works at), and reveals what each letter stands for in successive monthly meetings, which are punctuated by Debbie’s attempts to put the principles into practice, and her experiences and realizations doing that.

Here is the SERVE model of leadership:

S - See the future

Leaders have to have vision, to see the bigger picture. They need to make sure that “Heads Up” work is done, defining direction, in addition to the indispensable “Heads Down” work of implementation.

E - Engage and Develop Others

Leaders need to make sure that the right people are situated in the right position, and they need to take an interest and make an investment in developing those people. As one article put it in a recent edition of Building Church Leaders, it’s not about finding people to fill roles, it’s about finding roles to fulfil people.

R - Reinvent Continuously

Yesterday’s formula for success is today’s recipe for mediocrity and tomorrow’s risk-free path to failure. Leaders need to continuously reinvent on three levels:

1. Personal

   Leaders need to engage in continuous self-development and education.

   Quote: “I believe that personal reinvention should be one of a leader’s highest priorities because we have a stewardship responsibility to maximize our God-given talents. We can only do that as we continuously learn and grow.“

2. Process

   Leaders need to stimulate the reinvention of processes, how the work is done, in order to drive continuous improvement.

   Quote: “Leaders must also work to instill the desire for improvement into the people doing the day-to-day work.“

3. Structural

   Leaders need to constantly re-examine the structure of the organization.

   Quote: “Many people assume that an organizational structure is permanent. In many cases, the organizational structure no longer serves the business - the people are serving the structure. Great leaders don’t change the structure just for something to do. However, they understand that their organizational structure should be fluid and flexible.“

V - Value Results and Relationships

Sometimes leaders may be driven by the “bottom line”. However, an exclusive focus there paradoxically brings diminishing returns. The reason is that it is the contribution of the people of the organization that generates the bottom line, and people are all about relationships. So a leader values both results, and relationships, investing time in cultivating and maintaining them.

E - Embody the Values

By embodying the values a leaders gains credibility and creates trust.

A chapter is dedicated to speaking of leaders who model servant leadership, and Jesus of Nazareth makes an appearance there, as well as a little later, as the ideal of a servant leader. Both Blanchard and Miller are Christians, with Miller participating along with Maxwell in the Million Leader Mandate, a project to train and equip 1 million leaders worldwide to lead the church in its future expansion. Maxwell is also part of Billion Soul.org, a project with the motto: “No One Left Behind” (playing off both the US military mentality of “Leave No-one Behind”, and the wildly popular right-wing Christian apocalyptic fiction series “Left Behind“).

The book ends with a quote from Martin Luther King: “Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve.”

I feel that this small book (115 pages - easily digested in a week even for a slow reader) would be a worthy addition to any leadership library, and would even be good as “the only book you ever read on leadership”. It gives a concise and easily remembered model that captures the essence of leadership principles. I would definitely recommend reading this to get the wider context before (or even after, if that’s the situation now) reading The One Minute Manager.

Last night we went out on Harinam with Ramai Swami. Maharaja lead the chanting, and I played the accordion. I like to play along with other people, for two reasons. Number one, I am able to make a significant contribution that in turn enables others to increase the value of their contribution. This makes them feel good, and that makes me feel good. Number two, when I play along with other people it pushes me outside my comfort zone. I am forced to adapt dynamically to the melodies and key they sing in. This pushes my playing and makes me better. Ramai Swami used a number of melodies I haven’t played before, and changed key several times. Mystically I was able to keep up with changes. I think that there are some keys that my accordion just doesn’t play in, so it was definitely divine arrangement that everything meshed so well.

Afterwards we went back to the Loft and Ramai Swami spoke with the guests. There were 7 guests, and 7 staff members, including Ramai Swami, Rama and Bala Gopal.

This weekend I am manning the cellphone, so I take any severity 1 calls that come in over the next two days. I took one call today so far, and gave Stanley some pointers on overcoming the 2 GB file limitation on Oracle exports. Tonight we are having pizza at home. Rama and Bala are coming over and Rama is going to cook.

I’ve been finishing my rounds at lunchtime lately. In the mornings our morning program takes up an hour, riding to work takes a half an hour, so there is not so much time to get everything done when I start at 8 am, especially with late nights at the Loft. Retreating from the office at lunchtime for an hour or so and chanting by myself is a spiritually recharging event. It helps me to regain my focus for the afternoon, and I often find myself with new insights afterwards.

In the Srimad Bhagavatam (SB. 12.2.5) it is explained that in the present “Age of Deterioration” (remember this was written thousands of years ago) persons will consider themselves fit to appear in public simply by taking a bath. In his purport to this verse His Holiness Hrdayananda Goswami mentions that Vaisnavas wear tilak (markings made with clay from sacred rivers). I don’t like to go out without putting on tilak first, I feel uncomfortable if I do (remembering one statement that the face of a person without tilak is like a crematorium). The guys at work are used to seeing me with my tilak in the mornings, in fact sometimes quizzing me on where it is if it gets inadvertently washed off in a second shower before I go to work and is not replaced. However, I think also that this verse refers to cleansing of the consciousness.

Too often today we are focused on superficial, quick fixes. The other day while waiting in the supermarket checkout line I read a headline on a magazine that promised “224 quick fixes for all aspects of your life!”. Rather than addressing the underlying causes and doing the hard work needed for a true reformation and rectification, we seek a short cut. So in this age, people will think that they have sufficiently made themselves presentable and attractive merely by making their skin clean and attractive. As for what lies in their heart - this is a different story.

Bathing for cleansing the outside, chanting and meditation for cleansing the inside. I don’t like to leave the house or interact with others without chanting at least four rounds. My godsister Sudevi once shared with me a letter from Srila Prabhupada to one of his disciples where he said: “If you finish your 16 rounds before 10 am, you will be free from anxiety”. Is it a universal principle or a specific observation for the recipient of the letter? I don’t know, but it works for me.

I don’t claim to have the absolute truth, the one and only way. I can only do what I understand to be right, and share with you my observations of the results of that. If you find something valuable in that, you are most welcome.