7 Stories Of Power

(The Fifth in the series of ‘The 7 Mavens of SOPs’)

-By Dinesh P. Bhrushundi @ dbknowledgey

A great Hello from ᵭᵱᵬ’the मितवा’ ! ‘ᵭᵱᵬ’ is my initial and ‘मितवा’, a Marathi acronym for Friend, Philosopher and Guide, my humble role to ‘Sit Back and Give Back’, after 4 decades of career-cruise.

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 collection, ‘7 Stories Of Power’ is a tribute to one mentor, who, midstream my executive-expedition, enabled me with the knack to power-pack stories in communication. I also sincerely acknowledge the authors of these stories.

1: A Rabbit and a Frog accidentally fell into a deep pit. Rabbit jumped out but despite best efforts, Frog couldn’t, Frog requested Rabbit to fetch help. Rabbit, on return, frowned in question, seeing Frog already outside the pit. Frog answered that on hearing a snake-hiss, it jumped off with full force to save life. Push Limits-Crush Crisis.

2: A little girl importuned her mother, why she always chopped head and tail of a fish while cooking in large pan enough for whole fish. Mother replied that she just followed ‘her mother’. Curious girl on getting same answer from grandmother too, unrelentingly chased till the great-grandmother. Chopping was required because pan, she could afford then, was too small to fit whole fish. Probe Status quo-Prevent Wasteful Practices.

3: Japanese are particular about fresh fish. The water around Japan doesn’t hold enough fish. Big boats fishing for longer and deeper got large quantities but the taste of stale fish dissatisfied customers. Installation of deep freezers was in vein, since the taste wasn’t as fresh. Replacing freezers with water tanks, only temporarily helped. Brainstorming revealed that stagnant fish, parked fin to fin in the tanks, tasted different from an active fish. Flouting norms, a baby shark was added to each tank which though ate a few, but challenged all to keep moving and active. Paradigm Shift: Think Different-Make Difference.

4: A mouse saw the farmer bringing a mousetrap. He warned his other farm-partners: ‘Mousetrap in the house!’ Chicken saw no threat, pig sympathized and cow felt sorry for him. It wasn’t their problem. That night, on hearing a thud, farmer's wife checked if the mouse was caught. The snake whose tail was trapped instead, bit her. She fell sick. Her high fever was treated with fresh chicken soup. Pig was cooked for well-wishers coming to meet her. Cow was slaughtered for enough meat for funeral on her unfortunate death. Partnership can’t Preclude Problem Ownership.

5: An American and a Japanese were returning after playing golf. The American sited a grizzly bear charging in, screamed and started running. The Japanese stopped, and began changing his golf shoes for running shoes. The American shouted, ‘Do you think you can run faster than the bear by changing shoes. The Japanese, continuing the job, replied,’ I only have to run faster than you.’ Proactiveness Prevails.

6: An Excursionist visiting the countryside saw an idol being sculpted. Noticing a similar complete idol, lying nearby, he asked the sculptor if two statues of the same idol were being installed. The sculptor denied and added that he was making new one since the earlier had a deep chip-off on the eyebrow. The visitor, on learning that the 16 feet idol would be raised on 6 feet platform, remarked that no worshipper would even know about the flaw at such a height. The sculptor smilingly replied that he would know and his God would. Quality Consciousness is an intrinsic instinct.

7: When a fire broke in the jungle, all animals started running to their lives. Seeing a little sparrow picking water in her beak and sprinkling to douse the fire, one of the elephants said that it wouldn’t make any difference and warned the sparrow that she might get burnt. The sparrow said she was sure if they and other inmates joined in, their collective efforts could save the forest. As she continued the efforts, all the inmates joined one after another. Demonstration, Determination and Deliberation drives Stakeholders Engagement

While relating these stories in nut shell, it is worth sharing R&R technique. On reading something worth R&R, simply narrate it to 3 persons every day for 3 days, in own version. The stories will be Retained and Recalled at right time in right contest.

Happy Reading, Retaining & Recalling and Relaying these Stories OF Power and more!

Bestest!!