(The First in the Series-III of ‘The 7 Mavens of SOPs’)
By Dinesh P. Bhrushundi @ dbknowledgey©
Profound Gratitudes, yet again from ᵭᵱᵬ’the मितवा’ for Great Response to Series-I & II, and a grand welcome to Series-III of ‘The 7 Mavens of SOPs’
As you know by now, ‘ᵭᵱᵬ’ is my initial and ‘मितवा’, a Marathi acronym for Friend (मित्र), Philosopher (तत्वज्ञ) and Guide (वाटाड्या), my humble role to ‘Sit Back and Give Back’, after 4 decades of career.
Series Title: ‘7 Mavens of SOPs’ is expression for instilling some of my learnings as “seven propositions in sets of seven SOPs (norms)”, befitting the human mental capacity and attention span. The topic of ‘7 Shots Of Peening’ is rather unconventional. However it is perfectly relevant, more so in the prevailing situation.
Shot peening, in simplest words, is an engineering process of blasting metallic or ceramic shots (balls) at very high speed on metallic surface to increase its fatigue strength. In today’s fast-paced life cycle we get bombarded by some unescapable shots(ref figure). If the size and speed of these shots can be regulated, it can induce right fatigue strength for our mind and body.
PRELOAD: The concept makes its way from the early training in the axle assembly shop of a truck manufacturer. The bearings are assembled by inducing a right preload by tightening the inner and outer races against each other. It ensures the reduction of clearance and proper alignment. Similarly, body and mind too need to be pre-loaded in the morning by appropriate physical activity and meditation for eliminating slackness and elevating focus.
UPLOAD: Enter the workspace and you begin to encounter the frenzied flow of information, from relevant and important to extraneous and insignificant, vital voice hidden into nonsense noise. The velocity, variety, and uncertainty about the veracity of this UPLOAD of data and information suck you in vortex of volatility. The war between the mind-full-ness and mindfulness is won by the active body and alert mind practising the ‘Preload’ technique.
DOWNLOAD: One needs sense-making to develop ideas and insights from the information ‘Upload’ and communicate them down for implementation. The cycle of imaginative interpretation, creative communication, meticulous monitoring, and conscientious control which can fetch engaged execution and productive performance is an exhausting endeavor. This DOWNLOAD drag too, is extremely energy-demanding and emotion-draining. And of course, ‘Preload’ is again a great savior.
OFFLOAD: In the myth ‘The work continues to flow to the competent person until he submerges under the very flow’ lies the reality. OFFLOAD your tasks, commensurately to your competent team-members, shading the procrastination and perfectionism, lest you are flooded and flowed away. Most people are skeptical of using this ‘Shot’, particularly in the critical situations. However, judicious use of this ‘Shot’, up-down and across, is crucial to one’s successful task-turnarounds and physical and mental well-being.
UNLOAD: Mr. Ian was my expat predecessor at an Auto tier-I multinational. We were returning from an unfruitful global supplier survey. He offered a quick cup of tea at his residence. At entrance, the lady of house greeted, took Ian’s briefcase, and walked us in and got seated. After telling her domestic help about my choice of tea, she asked Ian about his day. Their conversation happened as if I was not there. He told her day’s positives and negatives. She kept nodding and humming. After 5-7 minutes he summed up that the supplier will not get through, then our conversation began…! Next day at office I checked with Ian whether his wife was conversant with supplier surveys, laughing heartily he remarked that she was not, but that used to be his way, every evening, to UNLOAD day’s wows and woes to free his mind for the family time.
RELOAD: Howsoever you try, the above load cycle continues to RELOAD you time and again. Here are two must DO’s to Recharge for Reload-Readiness. First, let your Workload never exceed your Payload than your Overload limit. The opium of work will kick you up to push your limit beyond your limit. However, you should set, remember, remind, and restrict it at this tipping point. Second, this cycle winds you daily, weekly and periodically, so you need to similarly unwind yourself by apt breakouts of smart ‘indulgences’, The time for planned downtime is vital for your BMW: Body-Mind Welfare.
CROSS-LOAD: An important shot, often understood but seldom utilized is the CROSS-LOAD. Your time is your only resource which needs to be appropriately allocated to your Profession, Personal (Interests) and People (Family). The ‘cross-load’ between these three most (and perhaps only) important aspect of your life is a big DON’T. It is very easy and quite natural for the work to first engulf the entire family time and then eat into some personal time. You need to consciously control your subconscious against this. When must, never hesitate to even sacrifice little BACKLOAD of Professional Success for Satisfaction of Personal and Family matters.
I appreciate your time for reading this article, understanding well, and deciding the right sizes of shots and suitable speed of peening to enhance the fatigue strength of your body and mind.
Bestest.
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