those 35 runs

There are many occasions when we live our life the only way we know to live. In the retrospect, we often feel that we have acted stupid or have been exemplary. Everyone will have these memories to cherish and I am no different. I have a similar story to tell. Let me tell you, in the face of it, it was just another day. But, being inspired by the dramatics that we get to see in television every day, I tried to relook at this another day in the history. Here is what I have to say and the learning’s out of it. Please pardon me for keeping this so long. I will not be able to do justice to this by keping it short.
I was a member of a 17 member squad, that had gone to Thodupuzha (a lesser known place in Kerala) to play state selection matches. The squad size was beefed up to include the favorites of various districts and being a state team reserve the previous year, I was a senior member of this densely populated team. I was accompanied by around 3 members from my club team; another 3 friends from a rival club, a few district mates and the rest were the not-so-familiar faces that got into this level. There were a few localities whom the organizers and a few selectors were pushing hard for selection (probably the selectors were more keen to have them than the players themselves).
Before the 1st match had started (we were playing a 3 day match against the North Zone), there were a lot of confusions in my team regarding the team selection (our captain, Deepak, had his pick of players and the team manager had his list). After lot of arguments between the captain and the manager, we found that we had a different problem to confront - overnight rain and the lack of experience of hosting matches of this seriousness resulted in further delays in the match getting started. Ultimately, the moment of truth arrived. The match started at around 10.30 (sorry, can’t make it more dramatic as I don’t have the exact timings). Sanju, a ferocious opening batsmen of our days, a senior to me, and I had to walk in to bat. I have never liked late starts and this was playing in my mind. I also knew that the margin of error was less as a failure here and curtains would have been down for a player of my clout (or the lack of it). I was never keen on taking the strike first and Sanju did the honors. The 1st ball of the delayed start bore a single and I was here to take the strike. Still trying to wake up, I was least focused. The late start, the confusion in the team, probably my last chance, all these were playing in my mind. I am not sure if I had followed the normal mannerisms I would normally follow before I face a ball. I took my stance; I don’t remember what was going through my mind. Shibith, a decent bowler of our days was steaming in. I saw the first ball had kept a bit low. It had rained the previous night. New ball, attacking field and the calm after chatter-before-the-bowler-started. I saw Shibith reach close to the bowling crease. He delivered an almost perfect out swinger. I have never liked being tested in that area. I played the ball straight to covers (or at least I thought I did). The ball had by then kissed the outside edge, a faint one at that. I started walking back. I got only a single ball to play. All the preparation, only for a ball. All the expectations had drained in the rain that delayed the start and made the wicket damp. I was a failure. Deepak had fought hard to get me batting in this crowded side and I had let him down. Time was not moving and I thought the walk back to the pavilion was the longest I have ever had. A few people watching this failure from outside the ground, a few selectors smiling, a very happy Shibith and the North Zone team, including the opening batsman of their side (he has now a better chance to perform and be a part of the state side). I was being welcomed by a set of blank faces, some of whom didn’t know how to console and a few others who didn’t know how not to express their happiness (because they were in a better position to play the next match).
A few good innings’, a few more failures, a decent days play (obviously not for me), all these summed up day 1 of the match. With 2 more days to go will I get another chance to prove myself? Will I be able to go back to Kochin, back to my team mates with my head held high? I know that a 1st ball duck is not the end of life and that there is nothing to be ashamed of. But in reality, it is something one has to face to realize, how difficult it is to go back as a loser.
North Zone batted next day. We didn’t have a great start but wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals. With every wicket falling, I was becoming more and more happier, not for the success of the team, but with every wicket, I saw myself getting a better go in the 2nd innings. This is that kind of a tournament where you as an individual have everything to gain and lose. The team doesn’t come into picture. The 2nd day was very good for me. I did not play a great part in that day’s proceedings, but North Zone conceded a lead, and more importantly, I was getting a chance to bat next day. The first ball of the next day will see me bat again with Sanju.
This was a very consequential evening for me. I had some good time chatting with my friends and most of the time; I guess I sounded a loser. But it was fun to get some time off cricket. I had my dinner. I had my roommates with whom I chatted deep into the night. Then we called it quits and decided to sleep.
I required a break from the fun we were having all evening. All because I had a very important day to play. A make or break day. May be more of “break” and less of “make”. All negative thoughts started crossing my mind. The difficulty in batting (both teams got dismissed in a day each), the decent opposition bowling, probably a bad patch of batting form to beat, last chance, if not a big one. I started thinking of the 10 odd years I had toiled to become a cricketer. I thought of the sacrifices I made in life. I thought of the expectations I had set for myself and my loved ones. All for a ball on day one? Now I had a chance to prove. I had 3 opponents to overcome. The opposition team, my team management and the selectors. Ironically, the opposition team was the easiest to negotiate. I didn’t have a great inter-district tournament where I led Palakkad. I started off well but then gave away my wicket. I was well prepared for any kind of bowling. But match situations had been troubling me. I started thinking of people who had doubted my talent. The selectors, the club, the district, I was giving everyone a chance to doubt my talent. More than anything else, I started doubting myself. It is a very difficult situation to handle. The last person who will doubt your talent is you, and I had already reached there.
Then I said to myself that if there was a chance, it was there in offing the next day. I had started putting pressure on myself. It was one of the toughest hours of my life. All 10 years of effort and now I question myself. All 10 years of sacrifices, and now I question myself. I decided that it was time I stopped thinking of what others would perceive about me. I had to prove to myself that I could hold the bat and score runs. I set a target for myself. 35 runs in the 2nd inning. I very well knew that an innings as mediocre as this would neither clinch me a spot in the state team, nor will it ensure me a berth in next match. But I needed just 35 runs, all to prove to myself that I am a decent cricketer. I am not sure if I could sleep all night. I was wondering where those 35 runs would come from. I was under a lot of pressure. I could see numerous balls that could have dismissed me but very few of which I could have scored off. All the negative vibes that could have come had starter descending in my mind. But all I wanted was just 35 runs, just to prove to myself and no one else. I was thinking that I will stop playing cricket after returning to Kochin, satisfied, had I scored those 35 runs.
I woke up the next day (if I had slept the previous night) not hearing what others were saying. My mind was clogged. I was just thinking of those 35 runs. I went into the ground. I did the warm up and catching practice. I never tap before batting in the match (one of the many superstitions I had). I didn’t realize that there was life around me and within me too. All I had in my mind were those 35 runs. I somehow had to get those runs.
I padded up and went on to bat. All my friends in the team wished me luck. It hardly mattered, though I wanted all those luck. If I could count 10 runs for each wish I got that day! I again did not take the strike and Sanju was welcoming that. I saw off the 1st ball that I had to face. I was hardly able to lift my bat during the 1st over I played. I had also left a ball that went just over the stumps. I had to see of a lot of balls before I could get off the mark in the match. The 1st run gave me a great deal of relief. It reduced my margin by a run and each run was costlier than gold. I counted till I reached 18. Those 18 runs were very difficult to come by. But yes, they had come. I started feeling more and more comfortable and I had scored 18. This was one of my slowest 18s after I moved out to Kochin. I went on to bat well till lunch. I didn’t have a score in mind. I had a target and that was the next ball. I had to survive that ball and then the next. I played a perfect waiting game. I batted till lunch. I had scored around 38 by that time. I had crossed score I wanted to cross. I had proven to myself that I belonged there. Nothing I did all 10 years had gone waste. I came back after lunch, more relieved. I continued to go on and score my 50. I continued to bat the same way, ball by ball, ball after ball. Then came the moment when I did the unthinkable. I scored a century. I would have given anything for a 3 figure mark the previous night. And here I was, standing with my bat high in the air, more relieved than excited. A proud moment of my life, not for having scored a century, but for having overcome many odds in doing so. I went on to score 135 and was given out LBW.
In reality, that innings was just another 100 I had scored. The occasion was a good one as I had scored it at a very important time in my career. It was sweet because I had responded to my doubts about myself. It was great because I had only one way to survive, and I did exactly that. It was fulfilling because I alone had fight multiple battles on a single day, the most ferocious of them being the one in my mind. I wouldn’t have achieved anything, had I not had an undivided objective of scoring those 35 runs.
I scored those 35 runs and my determination gave me the other 100 !

HR practices in India – The FISO model

Associate developed market with the Americas, heavy and precision engineering with Europe, rich market with Middle East, mass production with China, mass production in mid 19th century and quality manufacturing and processes now with Japan and Fosters with Australia.
What would you associate with India?
The dump yard for the west and now the east too? The industrialists who are growing beyond India and making a name for themselves and the country in the international market? The second fastest growing economy?
Apart from these, this country is known for a city that made its mark for India in the international business map – Bangalore. This city and the BPO (which later spread to cities like Pune, Gurgaon, Hyderabad etc) have almost become synonyms to India (there are other synonyms too, but ignored for the benefit of this article) in the west.
And once you are in India, you find a few common characteristics in the BPO industry here (probably across the world). Late nights, challenging the body clock, youth, language foreign to their mother tongue, cabs crowding the roads and the lack of employee loyalty.
Lack of employee loyalty is now slowing creeping to the work culture of Indians across industries. There was a time when employment in this country was like a traditional Indian marriage. Like a mother advising her daughter to live out her life with her husband and in-laws, an employee was expected to live out his/her career in the first organization he/she joins. Switching jobs in between was taboo and not a fashion. Today, a person working in the same organization for more than 2 – 3 years is considered to be old-fashioned and incapable. I recollect an induction in one of the many companies I have worked in, during this short career of mine. The HR tells us that the COO of the company has recently completed 25 years in the organization and immediately, I hear a comment, “he wouldn’t have prepared well for his interviews”, there was another comment, “poor us, we are going to work for a nerd”.
What has brought about this drastic change in work discipline? Trying to answer this question, I have a numerous reasons popping up my mind. It could be because of the abundant employment opportunities that are being created by this ever developing economy. It could be because of the increasing salary levels in the industry, the BPO community could have initiated a contagious cultural shift. Or it could also be the impact of the blending of the cultures with a lot of cross border trade and employee movement happening today.
I fiddled with these reasons once again. All these are external to the organization. Is the organization doing anything to stall this attrition rate that the industry is observing today? Who is responsible for this? What are the reasons why an employee could shift? Who is responsible for managing the human resource in an organization? This investigation takes me to one division in an organization with which I interact the least – the Human Resource Management.
In a knowledge industry where knowledge is supposed to be the biggest asset an organization owns, the most important function has to be the one that manages that knowledge pool – the HR. This is the division that has to constantly interact with this knowledge pool, create a sense of belonging, and motivate them to contribute their share of knowledge for organizational success. On the contrary, I have seen is a model that Indian HR community follows – the FISO.
FISO Model of Human Resource Management
This is a model commonly found to be prevalent in the industry today. A very successful model in mathematical terms, the advocates of FISO model argue that they are able to recruit 2 % more than the attrition rate of an organization which is hovering around the 30% mark. The name FISO has been benchmarked against the inventory management jargons and stand for First In Second Out. No. Unlike the inventory management concept, this does not mean that the first recruited employee is likely to leave the organization second. FISO is the series of interactions every employee has with the HR in their organization. The first time they see them is the day they are recruited and the second time is when they leave the organization (that too, thanks to processes called exit interview). All this while, an HR is toiling to find a replacement for a person whom he/she has recruited a few months back. Human resource management is thus thrust upon a person who does not have anything to do with human beings and is only accountable to the work he is responsible for. The employee in between is an orphan in the system. A manager is not answerable for the attrition rate, and the HR manager manages to salvage his pride by increasing the recruitment percentage. Where does this employee go to? And then he has another HR from some other organization calling him (this HRM is also facing the similar challenge of increasing the recruits in his kitty). Obvious, with no reason/person to show loyalty towards, the employee moves on in his life to the next organization, with a larger purse, which otherwise he wouldn’t have dreamt of.
Do a research and statistics would prove that an organization would spend more money trying to retain an employee who is serving his notice period, than what would have cost the department with regular interactions. I have been a part of heated discussion (not sure why the person who was drunk had to object me) arguing that HR role in India is yet another BPO job, a call center briefing prospects, probable employees in this case, selling a seat in the organization highlighting money/travel opportunities and not the job/profile. And there is this new “not at all loyal” employee community who wants to compare the 2 or 3 offers in hand and bargain with the sellers – the HR. This is a free buyers market where there is nothing other than price and demand that counts. “Is there something that I lose in this organization if I quit today? Nothing other than money that the company will give me after I complete one full year (many companies feel that this is a way to reduce employee attrition). Oh! So what, the company that is going to recruit me will pay that to me”. This is the effect of a money market for employment.
I don’t want to write this article just cribbing about a profile that is responsible for me getting my salaries in time, conducting my appraisal in time (might get delayed at times also), get me printed copies of letter from the company, and also give me opportunities to earn money when I help them in recruitment. I wonder if it is this difficult to be friend to a set of employees, understand them, and spend time with them and when needed give the carrot or use the stick? Has any organization experimented with their human resource? Apart from the annual/quarterly games and cultural events organized, have any organization tried to proactively interact with its employees? Have they tried to retain their employees by not just showing them money? Have any HR department tried to be the best friends of the employees of that organization? If yes, these companies are the ones that will have the best motivated employees. HRM’s will not have to call up prospects. There will be people willing to work for you. If ever, I get an opportunity to manage this wealth, you will find positive answers to many questions I have posed here.

Work can be fun, if it is done in an atmosphere that supports it.