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06.08.2014 Feature Article

From mirage...a leadership message for corporate people

From mirage...a leadership message for corporate people
06.08.2014 LISTEN

What you have seen need not be what you have seen or what you think of it to be. It means, someone is fooling you, muddling your understanding and makes your interpretations distorted, grotesque and away from the facts. What your eyes see and how your brain interprets are different. But your understanding and its expressions are largely controlled by your brain and hence when such understandings/expressions occur at interpersonal level, conflicts become the byproduct. Such situations are very common in most corporate.

Look at the beauty of 'mirage', an optical illusion. Many people would have seen mirage, especially during summer months, in open plains. When eyes pick up such scenes, the brain makes us believe that what our eyes see is true and authentic. But the brain has the power to differentiate it to be different and such is possible only when the brain questions the images supplied by the eyes.

The mirage is purely an optical phenomenon. The light from sun comes in straight line. However, the rate of refraction of light differs when it falls on cold and warm air. The air, although in circulation, always hotter close to earths surface than above the earth. When light travels through cold air and warm air, the rate of refraction differs and that creates an illusion of wave or water like appearance. Our eyes receive the object the way it sees and the brain simply supports it.

Only when we question the above, the science of illusion and how our eyes fail to differentiate it and how our brain also fails to differentiate it, known to us. The message is that go scientifically, only then the hidden facts and truth can be excavated.

The understandings of most of the people in corporate are like what they hear, see and told became the gospel truth. What each one perceive to be true also remain true to them forever. They do not want to have any scientific understanding of the above. The brain and eyes see and interpret the object the way they see due to own limitation. They are made only to do such job. Beyond the brief, they do not want to go. Whereas the human mind must scientifically question and verify the understanding and should not gets into the cocoon of perception and illusion.

The scientists have asked why such optical illusion exists in nature. Before asking such question, they also would have gone after the mirage in search of 'water'. They would have realized that as and when they move forward, the wave or water like appearance also would have moved ahead of them. That is how the scientists have unraveled the science of optical illusion.

To better the relationship and minimize the conflicts in corporate setup, such scientific quest is inevitable. Leaders and HR function must keep improving and improvising their knowledge and understanding and only then they can transform from cocoon world of 'perception' and 'illusion' to 'real'.

Dr S Ranganathan, ClinRise Derma Pvt., Ltd., Chennai

Desire, Dream and Destination – Social Entrepreneur Forum

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