I do not know if I want to call him my opposite, because he is an intimate too. Now that he is active on the blogdom, he gives me the opportunity to add him here as ‘My Intimate Opposite‘; for that is how  I would like to invite him. It is now of his choice to read through me here, and see if we are opposites, or intimates or still the same old intimate opposites.

Firstly, I wanted to have a clearer understanding of the word, devil’s advocate; because, that is where my perceptions formed and deformed. A brief read on wiki tells me that its origin was as a part of a religious process called canonization (recognizing a deceased christian as saint) where ‘promoter of faith’ plays devil’s advocate trying to resist canonization, ‘promoter of cause’ plays god’s advocate trying to argue for canonization, and ‘promoter of justice’ evaluates the argument on both sides and comes up with a decision. Good! I think I have a better understanding of that word now. Let me sketch my understanding here. There are two distinct things in the origin of the word: one, it is a part of the process, and two, the role exists at a decision-making point. And as I read and infer deeply into who can be these advocates, I see that the skills they should have is fundamentally that of argumentation which further inherently possesses the qualities such as ‘being richly informed’ and ‘being able to ask intelligent questions’. Hmm! Now I know that my initial understanding of the word was not complete. I am much better after reading some history.

Secondly, coming back to what people around me do, I see now, that they are playing devil’s advocate at a point where ideas are still in discussion mode (not a decision-making point), and the role they took up has certainly become more a part of their attitude than as a part of the process. Wow! Those are serious problems. This small misunderstanding of the role has made the one who is supposed to be a devil’s advocate into someone who is a relentless critic with no purpose, no outcomes, but a rotten attitude in the impressions of others around.

Not having a correct understanding of the word itself was a problem big enough for me. Devil’s advocates not playing the role rightly, I am sure, must be a bigger problem for the institution. Now, this is the challenge for you readers with me:

How do you tell someone that they are not really being a devil’s advocate, but are being something else?

There would be at least one instance in life where everyone would question the meaning of life.

That should be a sufficient argument to claim that each one of us, whether we like it or not, becomes a philosopher; one who questions the fundamentals. It is a different matter if we stay that way or not, because people tend to quickly fall out being unable to cope up with the depths (or emotional/mental highs) that philosophy can take us to.

There was a time I read a fabulous book that introduced philosophy, scientifically. It just reduced the notion that philosophy is a higher discipline to make it a discipline worth a scientific pursuit. However, to think of it that the author had his own way of thinking (philosophy) and that I filtered his thoughts through mine to give my understanding a different colour…all that gets me back to the question: have I understood what philosophy means? or is the subject so volatile that each one gives his own meaning and gets away with it? or is it the nature of the subject, like hindutva, to be accommodating diverseness?

A close friend once told me, I am a reductionist. I think of myself as a pragmatist. There was a person who called me pessimist, and someone else made me believe that a pessimist is an optimist with just more information. I thought that it was all a game of words, semantics; and someone else confirmed it that philosophy too is manacled by language constructions. But then how different is it from socially constructed reality?

Why am I writing all this? Why, all of a sudden, my mind talks philosophy?

Sorry guys! It is just that I am not appropriately loaded on a Monday morning, but am still having to suck it up at the workplace. I have no other place to vent that would stay quiet in response. Hope you could tolerate, you would forgive my Monday morning philosophy howls. And I wish you have a great day ahead!

PS: I guess I have just given an idea to make Monday mornings more thrilling.

Data Collection Woes of Scholars

Having been a doctoral student for the last 30 months, I figured out data collection is indeed the toughest job in all the work I am set to do. Blame the kind of rotten surveys that  fly around which present senseless questions with insane options; our people have grown intolerant of responding to junk. I am hoping that my survey doesn’t fit in there! However bad the situation is for me to enter and pull you into, I still need to request your opinion in my study too. Honestly, I would have preferred talking to you to learn more, but am limited in options when it comes to submitting my thesis.

Unlike most other surveys, at least I have taken precautions: discussed this with a few of my smart students who nitpicked certain things and had let me refine the survey. Also, I am asking for your suggestions if you find a part (or the whole) of it can be improved. Also, unlike surveys that eat away tens of minutes in reading and understanding, this one I have designed for my study takes roughly around 3 minutes to respond to. You can participate in the study here.

Am I presenting reasons why you should consider responding to my survey? Yes!

My study is on communication style (not skill). I seem to be of the opinion that lots of trainers and irate managers out there lay unnecessary emphasis on the word communication skill, where as they actually refer to possessing good english. Even otherwise, I do not see communication as a skill that people can be trained for, because if at all, it is communication that separates one from another; so, training people and prescribing the right skill wouldn’t always work. The notion of skill is not apt for something like communication, unless we can be more specific of the communication act we are referring to. For example, if you talk about being able to deliver bad news to a client, probably I would say it is a specific communication act for which someone can be prepared (made a scapegoat/trained/whatever!?). Alternatively, I stumbled on a long forgotten theory of communication style which seems more pragmatic in its argument and conclusions. While we all have the language necessary for communication, it is style that gives us a unique identity. And the study of styles is appreciated in diverse fields such as psychology too. Putting all that allegedly scholarly stuff aside, it is still common sense; that calling someone as having lesser skill may not really make sense, when you can alternatively think of the candidate as not having appropriately spoken in a given situation. Appropriate here refers to the style match between you and the one talking to you. Just think of it; how often would we want to talk to someone (anyone) if they are passive, unfriendly, and frowning, however logical and intelligent that person is.

So, here I am. I have reviewed literature (which means I read about 300 published articles, 20 different books). I have gone through the rubbish that people could write, and found pearls of wisdom in between (hoping I had the eyes to catch them rightly). And then I have carefully designed my survey to keep it straight, simple and short. You can participate here.

If differentiating my survey from others’ is not a reason sufficient, let me share with you what some of my study participants have shared in their comments.

The study is very impressive as it tries to find out how good a communicator you are and also how you would like to communicate with others and try to improve or change it. Moreover it was interesting. cheers!!!

~ Software Professional

Thanks for making me understand my communication style. I had not thought about it before! Best of luck.

~ Teacher

To think that I am changing my communication depending on who I am speaking to is uncomfortable, but at the same time I can also think of the efforts others have put in to adapt their communication style to suit mine. This survey made me reflect into how we converse.

~ Sales Manager

And there are more comments which said, ‘good study‘, ‘nice research‘, ‘looking forward for the results‘ and so on. There is hope that such comments and responses are building in, while there is also fear that I may not be able to reach my data collection targets. I am looking for a really big sample to make my study more credible. Every response I get is now treasured. I appeal to you to see if you can find three minutes to respond to my survey here, at least.

Have I done enough to convince you to respond to my survey? I do not know. But if you are participating, I must have done something reasonably good. And thanks for being my friend in the study.

తరగతిలో ఈ ప్రక్రియ ఇలా సాగుతుండగా…

ఓ నిద్రపోతున్న విద్యార్ధికి జాతకం అఘోరించింది; వాడిని నేను ఇంటర్వ్యు చెయ్యాల్సిన సమయం వచ్చింది.

నా ప్రశ్న: బాబూ, నా పేరు జగన్నాధం. ఇక్కడ ఇంటర్వ్యూలు చేసి ఉత్తమ విధ్యార్ధికి ఉద్యోగం ఇద్దామని వచ్చాను. మరి, నీ గురించి చెప్తావా?

అతని జవాబు: నా పేరు రంగడండి. నేను ఇంటర్వ్యు చేయించుకోడానికి వచ్చానండి.

వాడి తెలివి మీరి, తరగతి విద్యార్ధులంతా పక పకా నవ్వారు, మాష్టారు కూడా కొంత సంకోచించి అదే ఉచితమని భావించారు, నాదేముంది, మరో మాటతో ఇంటర్వ్యూకు స్వస్తి చెప్పాను.

నా సలహా: ఏది చేస్తే అది చేయించుకుంటానంటే, ఇక జీవితంలో నువ్వేం చేస్తావు నాయనా? 

For a while, my old father entertained the kid by becoming her catching partner in the ball game. But she was soon to find her daddy sitting relaxed and not joining in. Her next move was swift; turn towards my old father, and throw the ball towards her daddy who was in an opposite direction. Understanding that he doesn’t have much choice, her daddy joined in; and  my father relaxed to enjoy the scene. Now, slowly, the baby’s mom too occupied the pitch of play and started kicking the ball, encouraging the baby to kick it too.

After a minute, it was evident that her parents were knocking the ball to each other while the baby was trying to catch it in between and show that she is a part in the game too. She ran in all directions where the ball went; by the kicks of parents who acted as amateur footballers kicking a volley ball. The minute that went by must have been a larger part of her life than ours, for she was tired enough to resent what was happening with her cry. It took that minute, and a little more, for her parents to realize that they bullied on the pitch already, and that they were expected to do something else. In trying to convince their child about their effort and bringing her back into the game, her daddy wanted to kick the ball last time, and this time to the baby only. And his foot touched the ball, only to end up in a wrong move, to slip and fall. Consequence was simple. Baby started smiling, she regained control on her toy, and her mother began to be concerned about her property, the husband. And the husband, or the baby’s daddy, was on the ground trying to recollect his senses.

Had this happened between adults, I would have called it an embarrassing fall. But it happened in a scene with a kid, and for a kid. I now think, it is not just a fall, but it is a fall that makes the kid smile. For the beauty that smile brings, I am ready to fall a hundred times every day. Did I say I was tired? Oops, let me rethink. I am planning to visit the park again, today.

But then some piece of information gives me a hint that plagiarism prevails in the institution even in teaching! Wohoo! I am not talking about information sharing, intellectually stimulating discussions, or teaching methodology, but I am talking about “getting to know what happens in other class through students, and then repeating the same in some other class“. Hmm! Honestly, I appreciate it at some level, because one person works for his class, and the students of some other class also benefit from it. At least, its worth was well recognized because some other teacher copied it; only there is no ownership, and only there is no imagination any further. I sometimes pity the students who become instruments of such teachers as to assisting them information about other teachers/classes (a culture I came running away from). They do not understand that they are hurting the system by doing things that are not their job.

Any explanation I offer now seems to me of little use, because of the happy climate that prevails. I understand, plagiarism is keeping everyone happy, including me though I am copied. But then, the question that started my day still follows… How do we get rid of it? Academics can be lot better without plagiarism, but how do we convince the stakeholders? Any more ideas…