Planet earth and global family

by Gamini T Pandikorala

How many human beings are dying at this moment due to ethnic and religious conflicts? Various groups are also constantly involved directly or indirectly in these killings with their own agendas.

Thankfully, we are not experiencing such tragedies, but as all of us are born to this planet earth, invariably we too feel such sufferings. Hats off for those great people who are behind technological miracles available to us today.

It's a pity that the world is not able to see the fruits of their efforts - the emergence of a beautifully functioning single global family.

Misguided leaders in various levels appear to be the spoilers. It's believed that with the stabilisation of the currently forming network of seekers of truth and with the help of various facilities available such as You-tube, Skype, e-mail, sms communications those who refuse to see the truth will go into oblivion. Very soon the technology will develop making it possible to obtain genuine, free and fair world opinion in a matter of a few minutes! Then the world will be full of creative people to cater to needs of the hour.

Today, the proud recipients of respect from the human race are the dedicated professionals who labour to develop the world somewhat from a secular base. They naturally get attracted towards seekers of truth if opportunities are available.

The researches from this calibre of people are badly needed today. Such people heading organisations or performing any leadership role (even a house holder in the capacity of chief occupant/housewife) can immensely contribute to eradicate sufferings/miseries of the world. As the writings on this subject using words (the words are always in the dead past) are not helpful for leaders and researchers, they must have discussions with knowledgeable people or use internet facilities.

Inner journey

Resource personnel on this subject for such activities appear to be very active in the west. However, it's a great relief to hear of seminars held in Sri Lanka attracting seekers of truth.

The first step of 'inner journey' is knowing who you are and your liberated position.' This is the appropriate beginning to answer the issues raised at this seminar such as 'Innovation cannot succeed in isolation.

A successful innovation system connects and brings together various actors - public and private organisations. It requires the inputs of technical, commercial and financial expertise'.

As reported in Sunday Observer of December 22, 2013, the fascinating title of the seminar was: 'Unleash your Mind for Tomorrow: spurring the growth of Innovation in Sri Lanka.'

The contents of this valuable news report should be brought to the attention of all professionals and leaders of the world in all categories. The creativity is the bedrock for innovation.

A perusal of recent research activities in the west indicates this need of the hour. And their using Asian philosophy is a proof of new thinking - advent of an ego-less society - spreading all over the world.

They handle the topic, business ethics and try to use it as a tool to solve the ethical problems hindering honest business development. They say the ethics should become a part of the DNA of an organisation for best results.

As per their observations lack of proper monitoring is the reason for failures. In an effort to motivate people to be ethical their advice is to do 'the right thing' even when no one is looking. One wonders whether these researches have been influenced by the teachings of the Buddha. 'Not committing a sin even secretly' became a quality of the Buddha when He saw the absence of 'self' 'a doer' inside physical body.

The reason why this truth cannot be seen easily is due to the age old practice of looking at an object as a person. Every word represents a person. Hence there is a difficulty in learning the universal truth from books. Researches in the west miss this subtle point.

Asians are prepared to share this wisdom capable of solving major problems of the world. Westerners look for more and more ethical codes gaining specialised knowledge about ethics and supervising its application etc to achieve their objectives successfully.

Ethical code

Western researchers also try to link ethical code with risk assessment and compliance, important area in modern management. For best results leaders should be taught to see basically the egolessness-absence of 'self,' then they can proceed to adopt any suitable method according to circumstances to build up an ethical culture in their organisations. Where the ethics are concerned all departments of an organisation should work together.

In modern banking 'Risk management' is a subject assigned to a very efficient senior officer in a bank.

They should know the reasons for poor lending which are not always negligence and inefficiency. To avoid ethical factors causing bad lending, invariably a risk management department should work together with an operations dept.

A leader from any cultural background has no difficulty to get himself liberated from undue conditioning, specially to look at any problem from a liberated position free from illusory 'self' or 'doer' inside. All leaders and researchers should make use of resources available on the Web. Now this philosophic material along with other resources are becoming popular and fruitful learning method.

Failure of the western researches lacking this knowledge is well illustrated when their research on the same topic conducted about one year later towards the end of 2013 is perused. Here, they quote the case of Nick Leeson who defrauded Barings Bank to the tune of $1.3bn. They have gone to the extent of almost believing Leesons's explanation to the effect that the bank should have properly guarded against 'incompetence' and 'negligence'.

The competency of the researchers cannot be ruled out as they have admitted the need of a change in the mindset with reference to ethical side of risk management. An author to quote in this regard is Margaret Heffernan who wrote the book Wilful Blindness: Why we ignore the Obvious at Our Peril.

Her message which should not be missed by any leader in risk management or researches in any field: 'Openness won't help until we develop the skills and the talent and the moral courage to use it.' She adds, 'Openness isn't the end - it's the beginning'. Leaders and followers are humans who have been subject to influence of the society for thousands of years.

If people do not gain the benefits of modern technology in the proper way at least a few leaders should become researchers and join the discussions progressing on the subject to change the world to ensure achieving global family status in every sense of the word.