(The Third in the Series-IV 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 & III, and a warm welcome to Series-IV of ‘The 7 Mavens of SOPs’. As you know by now, ‘ᵭᵱᵬ’ is my initial and ‘मितवा’ (Mi-Ta-Wa), a Marathi acronym for Friend (मित्र-Mi ), Philosopher (तत्वज्ञ-Ta) and Guide (वाटाड्या- Wa), 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 learning as “seven propositions in sets of seven SOPs (norms)”, befitting the human mental capacity and attention span. Following text features my thoughts about the entire life cycle of the relationships – forming to finishing.
Our team was discussing the concept of ‘Customer Life Cycle’ to address certain Business Excellence Criteria. What emerged effortlessly first, was the natural stages of life – the entry into the world, the existence therein and the exit therefrom. While adopting this natural life cycle to the topic on hand, arose some questions. What happens before and after the basic ENTER-EXIST-EXIT stages when it comes to actual customer scenario? Some more deliberation and we got our answers. As we completed the task and concluded the topic; a theme, and a pattern was discovered which is depicted alongside.
The action verbs in the diagram are quite self-explanatory and the flow logical. However, please allow me few lines each, to explain the thought behind choosing these verbs and viewpoint in linking them the very way.
Explore: The three types of relationships, one to one, one to many, many to one, begin with the stage, ’Explore’. Either sides seeking to start a relationship search, survey the options suiting each other’s reasons, requirements, and rubrics. Goes a saying, ‘Well beginning is half done’. Thus, it is important to do a thoughtful soul-searching around these and similar aspects. It gets defined subconsciously though, but a crossmember of consciousness would support to refine the outcome.
Evaluate: What naturally follows is this stage, which also occurs indistinctly with most in every situation. An explicit appreciation of the stage and its mindful application is required. It will be perhaps the differentiator for moving further towards the potentially fructifying relationships. The stage does ‘Evaluate’, the automatically defined and/or obviously refined aspects of a side against perceived particulars of other side.
Establish: On a lighter note, this stage is like the trial period or probation. It is meant to ‘Establish’ or corroborate what was compared in ‘Evaluate’ with what was conceived in ‘Explore’. Again, done instinctively, it attempts to ascertain the probability of cordial co-existence, longevity of togetherness and mutual fruitfulness. It is beneficial to do this stage physically, aided by a well-designed checklist.
Enter: An in-gate to the natural life cycle of the living beings with the mother earth, this stage of ‘Enter’ does not require any explanation. It marks the beginning of the relationship. The curious combination of hope and belief prevails on the minds of both the sides. They anticipate that the experience will match up to the expectation. After all, there is quite a groundwork that has gone in, implicitly and/or explicitly, before stepping in.
Exist: This stage, basic purpose of the relationship lifecycle, is a crucial one. It is perhaps the longest, may be everlasting/lifelong or unfortunately can be a quick-terminating one. Enlightening experiences and Enjoyable events and similar are the enhancers of ‘Exist’. Empathy and endurance are the key for its surviving and thriving. Equanimity is the pivot to balance the sides on the see-saw of ups and downs. The ups and downs brought in by joy-sorrow, good-bad, and expected-unexpected. Disrespect, misbehavior, trust deficit/deficiency and many such are the predators, permanently preying for it.
Exit: The stage earmarks the ‘End’ in the natural cycle due to completion of life span. This can be compared to the fulfilment of the ‘tenure’ in the practical scenario. However, there is one more way in which the ‘Exit’ takes place due to severance reasons. There are enough signals of estrangement emanated initially, which if not captured and counteracted can culminate the relationship prematurely.
Examine: What is different in the practical life is the chance and scope for renewing relationship or entering the new ones. And to this effect the stage of ‘Examine’ is essential. A thorough introspection of the situations gone by and analysis of new on hand is a must. It will help to enumerate the facts and enact on the factors. It will further pave way to re-enter the ‘Explore’ stage with new learning to leverage.
Life is all about excelling in its peculiar feature of ‘Give and Receive’ Relationships. It applies to all in most situations explicitly or implicitly. (of course, except eternally evolved entities). This feature fetches two roles to everyone- giver, and receiver, encompassing experience and expectations, respectively. Lower the expectation and more the experience, better is the bond. A cognizance of these stages and conscious efforts at each of them is key to relationship management and thus networking.
There are two more points finally. First, the Relationship lifecycle is regenerative in nature and provides scope for recovering and rejuvenating. Second, depending on type of relationship, one might be required to use three basic stages, Enter-Exist-Exit and additional ones if and as necessary.
I hope this reading will fetch the readers the finesse for managing relationship lifecycle: from finding, fathoming, forming, finishing (polishing) fulfilling to finally finishing (ending).
Hearty Greetings for Happy Third Decade of the Century and Happy new year 2021.
Wish you all safe Social Networking (with social distancing) that will result into successful Networthing.
Bestest!
Comments