Easier way to spot insights

Perhaps I should not have used the word easier, because not everyone has the capacity to see this type of insights. But it is fun. Give it a shot. It comes from seeing the similarities in different systems. The word “system” here, refers to complicated relationships between many variables in a given situation, discipline or organization. There is a way all elements are arranged, sometimes visible to the naked eye but most often not.

If you look at world politics, you can clearly see a pattern. Today, most of the powerful countries and emerging superpowers are focusing on terrorism, because terrorism is the latest way of controlling everything that affects governance, starting from the people who voted the party in to power. It has complex relationships between culture, economics and world trade. Besides, focusing on terrorism also becomes a vehicle of communicating the superiority of the state. That would explain why some countries with out any terrorist threat would still focus on the subject.

What is the easiest way to prove Russia’s superiority to the rest of the world? I am sure there are many ways to do it including stats on economic and social welfare. But they chose the most effective way - engage in a cold war 11 with the US. That’s exactly what they started a couple of years ago and yes it is working well.

Let’s move on from world politics to something a bit simpler. In Sri Lanka, we have narrow roads and lots of bad drivers. A radio research conducted, revealed who these real bad drivers are. The second runner up in this notorious list, went to the Diplomatic community, for abusing power - hit and run was perfectly legal for them. Tuk tuk drivers earned the first runner up for trying to creep thru every possible nook & cranny. The list was topped by drivers of privately owned buses, who would not hesitate even to overtake a competing bus driver at a narrow bend. If you find one of those monsters head’on don’t start praying – it doesn’t work. Try something new.

I noticed, they have boardroom meetings too – just like corporate offices do. The only difference being that, they do it right in the middle of the road, instead of in a fully air conditioned boardroom and without the usual bullshit. These drivers would have a quick chat, exchange information about where the traffic cops and the passengers are and the distance between the bus ahead of them, and clear their course. Instead of learning from corporate boardrooms, what if we reverse our learning process to make all our meeting brisk, 100% contextualized?

But how did I spot this similarity between bus drivers and corporate employees? It is simple. Driving a bus has many similarities to a corporate job. Only the context changes. Why they do it, how they do it, and where they do it may be different, but most of the other things are very similar in nature.