I wish I could always realize ‘how dumb I was’

Commonsense is not so common, be it a friendly discussion, a sarcastic comment by a high school teacher ... oops or a status message symbol on the chat window we all must have come across this phrase somewhere or the other. And like me, if you are also going back to find when did you last use this one liner, then nothing wrong in it. As this reminded me of an anecdote from my school days...
During my early school days, a thought used to run through my mind quite often “why is it we are forced to mug up multiple definitions to understand one simple word, and that too if we have to write only one in the exam”, and I burst into laughter today unable to figure out how I couldn’t understand such a simple thing.
The obvious reason was that in couple of years I could discover the basic fact, the reason behind it. The reason is same as we all know “to understand the multiple perspectives behind the usage of a word”. Really!! how dumb I was, it took me more than a year to get to the simplest fact.

Lately after reading the GOAL I realized that ...

The reason we are put across multiple perspectives is “When required try all the definitions one by one and if all of them are unable to give a suitable answer then it’s time to define a new one”
And now I think is it always bad to be dumb?
Set back with these thoughts I was wondering how at times the simplest thing solves a conflict, “yeah, it was conflict of thoughts with the present system and the system being winner I could easily align my thoughts”.

So here are the first 2 lessons that I learnt:-

• There can be nothing called the best solution to any problem as long as it’s the last time one encounters that problem.
• The change is the easiest thing in the world if we realize we need to change.
  

Well, the next thought that occurred to me was, 'Are we so gifted that we can always solve our conflicts autonomously?' and the answer was apparently ‘NO’. So the question is how to reach to a conclusion and this time without much thought, all cells of my central nervous system in chorus echoed “Go!! and find Johnah”. I silently nodded and I stepped forward but something pulled me back, 'Do I really know what the problem is?'

And the 3rd lesson came up:-

• Until we know what the problem is, no Johnah can help us.

Then it was the time for me to follow the standard procedure... defining the problem, identifying the GOAL, choosing alternatives and blabbla ... by now we all engineers turning to managers are expert in this process, aren’t we? It’s just that, at times we forget few basic things like:-

• The word “problem” has not been copyrighted by operations or manufacturing giants. Its definition holds true for a simplest task such as 'deciding electives' as well. (Lesson 4)
  
• There can be multiple purposes associated with a task but ‘Goal’ around which the solution resolves should be unique and every other activity must be interrelated to it. (Lesson 5)

I think now it’s time to keep the pen down and give it a thought before we proceed further. These were glimpses of the learning that I could accomplish after reading one of the bestsellers GOAL.
I hereby, declare that the information shared above it true to my knowledge and I could very well relate all these lessons practically. But, no one knows, may be after few years when I think over these lines, I again realize “how dumb I was” .... :)

Best Regards,
Deepika Malhotra
PGDIE 39