Sunday, March 7, 2010

Solution 2

There must be ways to get things done your way...
It's a subtle and nuanced art where Artist makes you see what he wants you to see.

I have witnessed three instances where one type of command didn't get the desired result
but tweaking the command a little got you the anticipated results.

Instance 1

Goal--Delhi Metro authorities want only the old and the handicapped to use the lifts.
Problem -Young people are using the lifts and that too very often.
Solution 1 - A notice was put outside the lifts which said "Only for Old and physically handicapped".

Now the solution was authoritarian and that's one reason it was not obeyed,we ignored the notice time and again .
Lifts were still being used by the young people blatantly.

Solution 2 - Another notice which said "If you are young don't use lift...or even if you feel young don't use lift".
Me and my father were about to take the lift,i read the notice.
I was obviously young and hence told my father that he could take the lift and i would be meeting him on the platform.
Watching me leave ..he probably read the second line and stopped me.He said "Beta i feel young...i'll also not use it"

Solution 2 rocked...

Instance 2...

Goal - I wanted my family members to stop the Masala Gossips and discuss something worthy of a discussion.
Problem - How do i tell the seniors of the family that their discussion is worthless crap?

Solution 1- I told them to discuss ideas..new ideas .how we can make a better society.I told them to take initiative and improve the facilities in the society etc.

They just didn't listen.They nodded in agreement when i was lecturing them but very soon they  resorted to the juicy gossips.

Solution 2 - I read them a quote
"Small minds -discuss people
 average minds - discuss events
 great minds - discuss ideas"

After i told them this quote..a self correction mechanism was set into place.No body would talk about the juicy gossip as that would make him/her a small mind.
Just because every one wanted to be a great mind,they started coming up with weird ideas.

"One of my uncles came up with an idea that why don't we make roads that move.
We'll just put a car on the moving road and the road will take us to the destination."

Anyways no matter how weird the ideas were..they were ideas and gossips had stopped.
Solution 2 worked again..


Instance 3..

Goal -To prevent people from peeing on the walls.
Problem - Peeing on the walls.
 
Solution 1--Authorities wrote several messages for the person urinating in open ."Yahan peshaab karna mana hai "-Khosla Ka Ghosla fame
None worked.Our chatur lingams  cursed the authorities for not providing enough urinals..and kept on irrigating the walls.Solution 1 failed badly.
No message could help the person control his pressures.

Solution 2 - In New Delhi  i have seen those weird messages being rubbed and instead..the authorities are putting TILES on the walls with GODS on them at evey 3 metres.

Ganesha-3 mtrs-Lakshmi-Another 3 mtrs-Vishnu-3 mtrs -Rama.This pattern is repeated for 100-200 mtrs.

However lousy we may be in our public ettiquetes but we respect our GODS.
We can't be urinating in front of them.
After so many years walls have realised "The joy of being DRY".

Solution 2 proved effective yet again and this makes me believes that things do work out...

Next time i'll not stop if the plans don't work out in Solution 1....

...there has to be a Solution 2.

20 comments:

lony said...

All three makes perfect cases for applied psychology.

Only problem, they could have been used as the first solution in the first place rather than as solution 2.

tapu said...

hahaha...nice 1 sir ji..makes a point
but I guess public administration out there doesn't enjoy the luxury of 'Solution 2' guys like you donning the thinking caps for them..

Till then...I guess we shall have to live with 'Solution 1'

:)

Rajkarn said...

Woh......this post gives concrete examples to show that there's always another way to sort your matters. It just requires some wit[1] & understanding people psychology[2]. And really, it's Solution 2 that mostly works coz Solution 1 gives us understanding of [1] & [2].
Also, how can I forget the line "Why don't we make the roads that move". :P

Suresh said...

nice post...kya mast idea hai yar...gaadi b ni seekhni pdegi....:)

Suresh said...

nice post...kya mast idea hai yar...gaadi b ni seekhni pdegi....:)

Shamail said...

Haha!
On your third case, I was playing back all the quotes within my mind that I had ever seen ;-)

Dekho gadha ....
Teri behen dekh rahi hai ...
Age ja... Aur age ja..
Fine 500/-
And few of very vulgar of 'em..

But this idea is indeed cool :-)

Haha! Good one!

Anonymous said...

Why can't things be simpler?

Why is it that there will be lot of complications and one'll have to tweak one's ways to resolve those complications?

I acknowledge the worth of this blog, and the usefulness of Solution 2 in almost all cases, but I just don't get well with it.

I want an ideal world around where my Solution 0 works fine

i. You don't need to put notice boards outside lifts -- only elderly use them, youunger ones simply don't
ii. People are buzzing with ideas -- each discussion is useful, growth oriented
iii. We don't have Chatur's peeing on walls - WITHOUT a Rancho-type way of preventing it OR solution 2.

Too imprefect a world to live in -- gotta make it perfect!! How?

Arjun B S said...

Hey man!.. this is so true! Well captured... amazing!

Vivek Shah said...

There is always a solution a problem. In each of these situations we had to hit the majority of people with a solution which is where the finding a solution for these people becomes pertinent. The comment by Rookie mentioning it as a case for psychology becomes very pertinent.

Loved the humour, you are becoming more of a satirical humorous optimist :)

Gaurav Vashist said...

@Rookie and Tapas
Yup i think we need a lot of people who understand behavioural science,much more then they understand the adminstritative sciences.
Administration is not necessarily authoritaraian in nature.



@Shamail and Rajkaran

Very true...idea works and works like magic yar.
We need to come up with out of the box ideas to sort out the matters.
If we keep doing things the same way as we always have done...we will keep getting the same results as we always have got.
Tweak mangta hai boss

Gaurav Vashist said...

@suresh
Gadi to seekhni nahi padegi...but how do you stop a moving road.ab jab utarna hoga road se to gadi sath le ke kudna padega :D

@Abhishek -Hmm nice question.

I think first two solutions are pretty good as they are more psychological than anything else.
I would stand by the first two as they are just a very good understanding of the human nature.

However in the third instance..

The solution is a patch up solution,It's not a real solution.

Instead of putting up the tiles at every three metres ,erect a urinal at every 200 mtrs.

Doing that would fix the issue.

Baki if we want that everyone should do the righteous without any notices or warnings.

that i think calls for more basic fixes such as fixing our moral systems(education).

People don't feel peeing in the open is bad because they have always been like that.They do that everyday,there children don't know that it's wrong.

We know it because luckily GOD chose us to take birth in a family which could provide those basic necessities to us.

a lot of things need to be fixed before we question the person urinating in the open.

Gaurav Vashist said...

@Arjun
thanks man...it was a nice little coincidence that you have also noticed this thing. :P

@Vivek
Behavioral Sciences should be compulsory subject in public administration.i hope it already is.

Satirical Humorous optimist :)

I have become the SHO. :P

lony said...

u can say satirical humorous optimist entity

nd u'll be a "shoe"

Gaurav Vashist said...

:) shoe LOL

Vishal said...

Good hai u r going khappi and khappi day by day... :D

katzview said...

Really nice blog. A pragmatic attitude towards problems.

Some probs and solutions I have come across.:

>> High traffic incidence roads/intersection/turns.

*Threatening with fines/harsher punishment etc doesn't tend to make people want to change, it usually gives people a sense of challenge/adenture to break laws.

Solution: Post the number of accidents(and pics)having taken place there. People will more likely be receptive to that. This is common in many cities now.

>> Spitting/littering problem

My home city of Cochin tries really hard to stop people from spitting/littering in public, mainly coz it doesnt goes down well for its image as a tourist destination. The police has come out with very harsh fines but to no avail.

Soln: Create a sense of ownership of the city to the people. No body litters/spy its in their own property. Banglore does a good job at that with the Namma Bangalore(My Bangalore) campaigns though cochin has still to catch up.

>> Cigarette smoking

India has one of the highest smoking related death in the world.

Soln: the Govt's idea of printing pictures, though not sure how it would turn out. Anyway its better than raising the cost of cigarettes.

BTW its good to see you are having luck preventing other people from gossiping. I never could do that.

Cheers man. Great blog entry.


Anoop W

katzview said...

Really nice blog. A pragmatic attitude towards problems.

Some probs and solutions I have come across.:

>> High traffic incidence roads/intersection/turns.

*Threatening with fines/harsher punishment etc doesn't tend to make people want to change, it usually gives people a sense of challenge/adenture to break laws.

Solution: Post the number of accidents(and pics)having taken place there. People will more likely be receptive to that. This is common in many cities now.

>> Spitting/littering problem

My home city of Cochin tries really hard to stop people from spitting/littering in public, mainly coz it doesnt goes down well for its image as a tourist destination. The police has come out with very harsh fines but to no avail.

Soln: Create a sense of ownership of the city to the people. No body litters/spy its in their own property. Banglore does a good job at that with the Namma Bangalore(My Bangalore) campaigns though cochin has still to catch up.

>> Cigarette smoking

India has one of the highest smoking related death in the world.

Soln: the Govt's idea of printing pictures, though not sure how it would turn out. Anyway its better than raising the cost of cigarettes.

BTW its good to see you are having luck preventing other people from gossiping. I never could do that.

Cheers man. Great blog entry.


Anoop W

Saurabh Baghel said...

Another nice post to go by.....but somehow the idea doesn't click....the real concern being...the educated ones are the main culprits of these issues(may be this is what i feel..so no issues).....the real cause that makes these concerns arise being TIME Factor(which every educated person seems to use as a flawless answer to many questions...TIME NAHI HAI YAAR...KAUN KARE).

Even if you issue a public notice that MORAL EDUCATION be made complusory(or whatever Behavioural Sciences) we are talking about....what change has this brought to the so called MODERN INDIA...I'll say pathetically ....a big NONE.

These conditions prevail and as time passes....the educated person always finds amusement in these tasks(however one is most of the times carrying it out being unconcerned) and thus how different is one from the uneducated or what we say the BEVKOOF Class.....i suppose this is the main concern that we all need to study and think about.

Its well said, " If you want cleanliness around, start cleaning your home first."

The thing is what we all have been ignoring is the MORAL HABITS that we undertake everyday. What we've been doing today is somehow what we've learnt in our families from past many years(Plz don't make this an issue.....Just think on this line carefully).....Until & Unless we learn to carry out the MORAL HABITS on our own ...how do we expect the others to carry it out just because you don't like it or its happening around an area near you....and i ask.....even if this continues to happen.....then what are you doing in this regard?

NOTHING....Is what is the answer to this question.....and what we all educated tags have been doing it all around.......we talk of a better society.....better people...better understanding....better thinking.....but we never ever think of a better ACT!

I think ..... the sooner we learn to ACT...the sooner these problems will finish.



To Every Problem ...there is a solution......but somethings are not IITJEE / AIEEE or any competitive exam.......somethings can be struck with the Solution Zero(what tondon spoke of)....all we have to do is just ACT...I know its difficult...but can always TRY!

PS:- This comment doesn't mean to harm anyone's feelings.

Gaurav Vashist said...

@Willi ---Thanks bro...ya pragmatism and understanding of behavior is all that is needed to solve these issues.

thanks for your addition as welll...

@Baghel-- : )...I love it when the comment gets bigger than the post. :D

I think ...Action to less hai hi...but i am a firm beleiver of a sanskrit shloka...which says
Mansa .... Vacha ....Karmana.
Thought....Speeech...Action.

It starts with a thought...then words coincide with your thoughts and finally actions coincide with the other two.

It has to start with thought agar wo hi nahi hoga to discussion nahi hogi aur agar speech nahi hogi to action shayad ho hi nahi sakta.

Anyways thanks for your time and a very well thought out and passionate comment...

@All-It is really nice that so many of us have voiced on this very sensitive topic..Put all this into action coz thats only when it all becomes fruitful.

Saurabh Baghel said...

Hahaaha.....I don't read many blogs as such...though i've been trying to read and write one(ever since i created my blog in 2007)...but somehow i don't have the power like you to keep the words in a versed manner.....but soon i'll write one.....:)

Keep blogging!

:)