A Court Jester in a Board Room!

What made me open this post of yours was the number of comments listed against it. Just 9 ? Unbelievable ,considering that your posts generally garner nothing less than two dozen.

KSM's story is unfolded in a nice, unhurried ,old fashioned way, that is just right for a lazy weekend reading. I liked the way KSM grew into the situations thrust upon him , be it the study of history or the stress-laden position of head honcho.And it was nice visualising Akbar not turning a hair in despair in the hot Delhi air, inspite of his kilos of jewelry , layers of clothing and the often practically vexing practical jokes of his impractical jester.

The trick of reversing the chart to show a more optimistic design was in an old cartoon strip drawn by R.K.Laxman . Ofcourse, though the cartoon made us laugh, we never got to know the consequences of it in the cartoon boardroom. Now I know. They certainly dint laugh and live happily ever after ! Least of all, the poor, sartorially-abused jester himself ! Perhaps Akbar's boardroom had more tolerant members.

 

Dear Cheeniya Sir,

After reading this post, I have come to the same conclusion that it is the best of your posts. It is remarkable that you compared Akbar's court with the board room. It is a wonderful idea to have a board member with a responsibility to keep the board room in lighter mindset. With people of varying experience, the time they have to discuss wide variety of topics, dominance of specific board members, etc. no doubts the board meetings are always conducted in a tense situation. We need someone who would break the tension and have all the board members in good humor.

The biggest problem generally faced by the executive board members is their need to brief the external board members all over again on information which was already furnished to them in writing. Mostly, it is very common that a lot of members come unprepared to the board meeting either due to lack of time or their lack of interest in the subject matter. However, when the executive board ask them a question whether they had a chance to review the information sent earlier, they invariably say "yes" or "briefly". No one admits that they never read. Sometimes, I feel they should be tested by sending some irrelevant information with graphs and find out how they answer when such question was asked at the beginning of the meeting.

 

Dear Sri,

It is a gem of an article.KSMs do exist....yes you are right, in the rich belt of Godavari Districts. I also read some anecdotes about them.

What I liked most in the article....we all need stress busters to face problems in a better way. It cools the mind...when the mind is cool we can take better decisions and cope up with life. And sense of humour makes big problems look like small ones. In one of the books of Lin Yu Tang......he recommends showing cartoon films and make them laugh for a while to the parliamentarians before the session. Of course that is way back when they belonged to a different clan and not like the present ones.

 

A very ineresting article Sri sir!
A classic example of "moderation is key"!
While it was a good idea to keep the Board room atmosphere more friendly and light, the purpose and the nature of the gathering should never be forgotten.
There can be no better example than this article to portray that!
Many times we have seen too many jests at the wrong time and place. Some people think that if laugh at their first joke we will do for the next few and do not know their limit.
Whenever I find myself in that situation i will always remember this aticle sir.
I will also narrate this to my sons if and when the need arises to tell them the need for discretion.

I too have seen the upside down graph by Sri. R.K. Laxman.

Very good article sir. As always.