The horizon beyond which the imagination unfolds its veil, the sky which ends with a nihilistic echo in the vacuum (the space), the depth of the ocean where the light fails to penetrate, the degree beyond which the water tends to transform its form……..only to drive the engine which marked a revolution in the history of the mankind.
An extra degree which lies between the water and the steam, an extra degree which can run a turbine, an extra degree which changed the course of history, an extra degree which marked the change of an era. This extra degree is nothing but the shadow between all what is accomplished and what is still to be accomplished. Life is a journey and this journey continues because there lies no shadow between the two opposite desires to live. What could be better example to this thought other than the “myth of Sisyphus” . In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was punished with a meaningless task to pick the rock back at the top of the mountain as soon as it rolls down, only till eternity. His life seems really meaningless until Albert Camu (an existentialist philosopher), pours down the idea of imagining as if Sisyphus were happy with the work he does. He enjoys every moment of his work and thus the entire thing doesn’t seem meaningless to him. The idea is that there is nothing in this world which can be categorized and kept in the labeled basket. What holds true for one may not be true for the other. The interpretation may differ with different context too. There always lies a shadow between the truth and truth. Interestingly truth also changes with contingencies.
Life remains untouched with this shadow and the real change takes place when there is a light to displace that shadow to a different location. That light can be internal or external. What could be better than the self interventionist light which enables the change and ensures the shadow being lost? Sometimes, we need others to help us cross the threshold and make a change. We seek light from others to serve our purposes. Well, whatever may be the source of light, the goal is to remove the shadow and realize our objective by action.
This action and inaction of the shadow is a continuous process. The shadow never dies. It only changes its shape, location and appearances. This implies that change is a continuous process and nothing changes for the final. There is no final stage and therefore, there is no permanent shadow or the light. Change is only to realize that it serves the most beneficial purpose in a given situation. But again, even the idea of what serves best is questionable as there is nothing which is final or the best. Hence, the quest for the best is a continuous process and is unfathomable. And so is the change because the change is always sought for the best and the best doesn’t really exist in actuality. Thus it implies that the shadow can never be reduced to nothing. It only smartly changes its position. In my view removing the shadow is a true analogy to the “Myth of Sisyphus”.
The shadow is like the horizon which seems to be a limit but in fact it opens in to an eternity. Change is nothing but the mere action to touch that horizon and thus is an unending process. According to the Gestalt`s theory the whole is the sum of its parts. Now the question arises what is the whole? The idea of the “whole” amounts to the universe and therefore what we call whole is actually a part of that eternal “sum of the parts”.
Nevertheless, as the subject Organization Design suggests, the change can be applicable to the parts if not to the whole. All the so called great deeds have happened because the heroes have been able to cross the threshold of their negative emotions. Had Gandhi discarded the need to serve the country, he wouldn’t have been able to pressurize the British crown to knuckle down. All the great men e.g. Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther king junior, Abraham Lincoln etc had put on a little extra effort and changed their contemporary socio-political milieu. Their valour lies in their action. Had the thoughts remained and had they not been able to overcome the shadow, their names also would have had lost in oblivion. Hence, between the thought and action lies the shadow. And for a better change to take place the shadow has to be overcome.
In the Holy Geeta when Arjuna asks Krishna when he had to face Bhisma during the war, that how can he overcome his emotions and shoot him. Then Krishna says that duty is the foremost thing. Do your duty and don’t worry about the results. Likewise we humans always face this dilemma of emotions while performing our duties. This dilemma is what shadow is and it can be overcome only by being focused towards our penultimate Goal.
In corporate world the Organization change is an action towards the fulfillment of the Organization`s mission and vision. Hence it is bound to take place with changing market or else it shall be left to its doom. There had been few examples in this regard e.g. Jack Welch changed the entire structure of General Electric in the late 90`s because he was sure of the Goal of the organization i.e. its growth and sustainability. It can be implied that Jack Welch had been instrumental in overcoming his shadow and acted positively in this regard. Other examples include Wipro technologies which changed from a mere vegetable company to one of the largest IT companies in India. Walgreens also changed itself from a restaurant business to drug store houses. Had their CEO`s not overcome the shadow, they would definitely have doomed.
All the inventions, discoveries, philosophies are investments for the transformation or change so that the society is able to invent more, discover more or think more for its benign interests.
The change is unending as well as self serving in nature. The adapting change tends to survive and vice versa. Hence utmost care has to be taken while deciding the change process which is to be undertaken. The real challenge lies in analyzing what change has to be brought about so that the change nourishes the growth and sustainability of the organization. The capitalistic mode of production since its inception has undergone numerous changes, for e.g. the shift from the commoditization of the labor to participatory environment in the present scenario. The rise of the personnel department and further the human resource management depicts the positive change that has taken place with changing environment and the need of the hour. Today, we talk about human capital and “people first strategy second”. It was not there before. It happened because today there is a need to enhance productivity through human resources as all other factors of productivity for e.g. technology, labor supply etc remains almost the same amongst the rival Organizations. There always existed a shadow between the philosophy of human resource management and its implementation. This is also an ongoing process and will continue till eternity.
Thesis and antithesis gives rise to synthesis. Needless to say how dialectical materialism in Marxian terminology depicts the change in terms of evolution of the ideas. Between thesis and antithesis lies the shadow. The shadow is toppled up only to enable the synthesis, for e.g. Marxism and Capitalism have synthesized to give rise to the present human resource management and it’s also an ongoing process. Interestingly, the evolution of ideas is continuous and therefore the change is again a continuous process.
In a nutshell I would like to summarize the whole essay by reiterating that change is a product of the action on the shadow which lies between the two subsequent thoughts. Unless one has not crossed the shadow the idea to jump to the next level is almost next to impossible. As famously used words by the great French warrior, Napoleon Bonaparte that the word “impossible” itself says “I m Possible”, we can say that the words “I m” is the shadow which has to be overcome for a positive and productive change to take place.
