Apply Your Mind

The Supreme Court has limited power when it comes to punishing erring Ministers. In the event of a damage done through a malafide or otherwise ministerial action, the best Supreme Court can come up with is a stricture 'the concerned minister did not APPLY HIS MIND while taking the decision'. Though the current day ministers do not care a fig for such strictures, this is considered to be a severe indictment as it denotes unprofessionalism.

In 1997, I changed the location of my NIIT Training Institute to a more spacious building nearby with a large courtyard. The previous building barely had space to park one car. This one had a compound with lot of mango, neem trees, enough space to have a garden, an open air canteen, and parking space for nearly 10-15 cars. Being a great believer of keeping the premises spotless, I had to grapple with the problem as to how to keep the courtyard clean of falling leaves. This called for someone to sweep the huge courtyard everyday. The maid in my house, Mary, used to do the cleaning at the Institute. She was a wisp of a girl, illeterate and it was cruel to ask her to do this backbreaking job of cleaning the courtyard. For a month I was fretting and fuming, tried 3 other labourers, who came, had one look at the size of the courtyard and vanished. I was prepared to pay even Rs 500 (a princely sum those days). I had also requested my energetic, educated team to find me a solution but to no avail.

Mary normally goes to the Institute in the morning, finishes her cleaning job and comes to my house by 8 am. One day, I was having coffee reading the morning paper when I overheard her telling in the Kitchen that ' there is solution to Sirs problem. why dont we ask Lakshmiamma to do this job?'.

Now who is Lakshmiamma? She was a cantenkorous old woman who comes everyday to clean our toilets at the Institute. Half the time she was drunk but I had a soft corner for her as I had always felt that she was doing a job which no human being should be doing. Normally no one talks to her as she used filthy language and didn't give a damn come what may, but I always made it a point to speak a few kind words everytime I met her and she in turn had lot of respect for me.

I questioned Mary as to why she thought that Lakshmiamma was suitable to do this job. She said "Sir, her main job is to clean the streets and her beat starts from one kilometer before our Institute. She cleans the street using a peculiar kind of broom which has a fan like broom attached to a long stick that facilitates her to clean the streets without bending her back. I have been watching her come to our place, place this broom on the wall, get inside and clean the toilets and then continue with her work. For her, who cleans 4 kms of road everyday, this job of cleaning the courtyard with her special broom is childs play. And more important, you dont have to pay her Rs 500. All you have to do is pay her Rs 100 (Mary in fact didn't know the difference between Rs 500 and Rs 100. All she knew was that 500 was a much bigger sum than 100)"

I was stunned at her application of mind and the simplicity of the solution to a problem that has been begging for a solution for a month. I called up the Institute, asked Lakshmiamma to wait, put on a shirt, went there and asked her whether she can do this. She gladly agreed and told me that I can give her whatever I like as compensation.

The problem was solved because Mary got involved without me ever asking her, took ownership of the problem and strived hard to find a solution for the betterment of the Organization of which she was a part of. This is what is meant by Application of the Mind and a very very essential quality for any aspiring managers.

Whenever you are confronted with a problem or even otherwise, give it all you can, get involved and try to come up with innovative solutions. In short, Apply your Mind.