Expanding ourselves 251024

In Gaza, trapped people are suffering unbearably. Humanitarian supplies of food, medicine, shelter are not reaching them. The Israel-Iran conflict is intensifying. Russia-Ukraine war persists. Ceasefire, ceasefire, and ceasefire please. 

Enterprises, Collectives. Should we go the FPO way or treat FPOs as exceptions here and there? Companies. Do we have to such a narrow focus? Can we not focus on all collectives and individual and collective enterprises? Collectives of women, federations of self-help groups, cooperatives, producer companies, organizations, and their enterprises? Can they make and supply inputs? Can they become input-output shops? Can these collectives provide services? Certification? Aggregators? Buy and sell? Add value and reach out to wholesalers, retailers, and consumers? Can they have brands? Umbrella brands. Quality control through branding? Can they be limited to natural farming, natural living domain? Can they take up programme management, self-reliance, and sustainability, beyond the programme tenure? 

We may design something with our architecture, forum, and platform – for a particular end, purpose, and the use may be different. More often, the purposes not envisaged may take dominant usage. We should be open. We should use multiple platforms to achieve ‘connections’ to fructify into personal, business, and professional relationships in the relevant domains. 

We do not learn from doing, experiencing much. By reflecting on it, we unlearn, learn. This calls for setting aside time for sitting down, pausing for meditating, reflecting and writing on the reflection – through action-experience, thinking critically and feeling, assessment-evaluation, analysis, theory versus reality, future plan. Diary, journal, and log of experiences, followed by meditation, reflection, can be the base for this. How do we transcend AI aided ‘notes’? Rather than banning AI use, can we work with tasks that take AI in? Can we bring in teamwork here? Can we see this as a continuum – literacy, number literacy, digital literacy, and AI literacy – and build on this? Can we move away from rote memorizing, data et al, towards experience, skill-tool practice, application, deployment et al?

Indian employee surveys say: 86% are ‘struggling’ at the workplaces; 62% experience ‘burnout’, more than 30% face ‘anxiety’ issues. Most work 9-10 hours; 2-3 hours commute; 5-6 hours sleep. This pattern is seeking us to survive at least, forget about thriving. Supportive culture, peer groups make the difference in this state. Can we take a break, some 2-3 days; 2-3 weeks; 2-3 months; or more? Can we have listeners, buddies, and mentors? Can we transcend and succeed? Maybe by diligence, perseverance, resilience, and taking ‘calculated’ risk(s), in addition to talent and luck. Can we keep doing it? Can we keep pushing beyond our limits, learning from failures intelligently, and seizing opportunities that come our way? Can we be bold? On the other hand, can we be firm in dealing with cheaters, liars? Can we push out non-performers and non-deliverers of the agreed agenda? Can we prevent or disallow wrong things about us being spread, circulated?

Can we have open communications, conversations in our teams? Can we co-journey often? Can we invest emotions in our teams? Can we recognize hard work, achievements? Offer opportunities to deliver, grow? Flexible work, work hours? Trust, autonomy, value alignment? 

Yes, we can. If we coexist, keep flowing in team(s) bandied. In N? brndaavanayoga for 7L.

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