Kumble-ing Lessons

Recently, Anil Kumble, one of the pillars of Indian cricket, resigned (or was forced to resign?) from the position of coach of the Indian Cricket Team. The team had a very good run under his leadership. The resignation, was due to reports in the media, that there was a rift between the Captain of the cricket team, Virat Kohli and Anil Kumble. There are also reports that the players felt suffocated b y 

Kumble’s approach to practice sessions and his leadership.

The media is gaga about how it is a sad day for Indian cricket, or how Indian cricket will be at a loss due to Kumble’s departure. There are also narratives about how Virat Kohli (a superstar in his own right) is growing too big for his boots. I would like to present two perspectives here.

Firstly, India as a society is very patriarchal. Our culture talks about respecting elders, and the word of elders is final. There is no appeal, no reasoning. However, there is a difference between listening to elders and respecting elders. People can chart their own paths, deviating from elders’ advice, without disrespecting them. The narrative can be “Fine, I heard you, but I beg to differ. Let us agree to disagree.” There is no feeling of disrespect to the elders. For eg. I love my father, respect him, but don’t agree with his perspectives.

The elders have good intentions in their heart. They don’t want the juniors to make the mistakes that they have made. But what they don’t realise, is that their strength has only been obtained by learning through these mistakes. Our society frowns upon disobedience confusing it with disrespect.

This is exactly the narrative that is being played out. I don’t think Virat Kohli disrespects Anil Kumble. He may not be agreeing to his methods and hence wants someone with whom he can be more comfortable.

The other perspective is from the corporate world. Many times when two strong personalities, clash, something has to give. Let’s take this case of a very strong Leader who is extremely hands on, bright, brilliant and very talented. And then there is another person who is recruited as a second in command, let us say the Deputy, who is equally bright and equally aggressive. Something has to give. There have to be times, when one of them takes the back seat and allows the other to prevail. Leaders tend to get blinded. I am differentiating blindness from arrogance. They get blinded by their own success and confidence in their own abilities. This confidence leads them to want to have their own way, always.

Initially the Deputy soaks in everything that the Leader says. He is also in awe of the Leader and wants to learn from him. However this continues for not more than 6 months. Being bright and talented himself, the Deputy has his own mind. And slowly starts getting stifled. He believes (rightly or wrongly is not relevant here) that some decisions of the Leader may not be right. He wants to try things in a different manner. But the Deputy does not get the independence. The longer that happens, chances are that this relationship will break.

It is not who is right or who is wrong. This is a reason, a lot of children fight with their parents. The stubbornness is transferred genetically, which leads to clashes. This is exactly what happened in the Kohli –Kumble saga.

In Corporate Life, employees leave their bosses. In sport, players sack their managers. Ravi Shastri was more successful in managing the boys than Anil Kumble. Who was the better player? No doubt Anil Kumble. But maybe Shastri was the better coach.

I personally think this divorce is very good for Indian cricket. The victor is not always the villain as is being painted in this picture. 

The Trust App

Today, you have apps for everything. Apps for movie tickets, fitness, flight tickets, banks, payment, religion, spirituality etc. Name the service and you have an app. Kar lo duniya apni mutthi me..is actually a reality. I am waiting for the day, when I click something on a phone and it goes and burns my bulging fat.

The other day, I met someone who came to me with a tech solution. She runs multiple training centres and uses technology to keep tab on the trainers, the quality of teaching etc. She has an army of trainers conducting training sessions simultaneously across multiple locations. She has a tracker which tracks where every trainer is and whether he / she is going to reach in time for the session.

The need for this feature, is based on the inherent premise that normal trainer behavior is to be late. But why would a trainer be deliberately late? His / Her bread and butter depends on the training, so they will always try to be on time.

I wonder if I am one of her trainers, and 10 minutes before the start of the session, she comes to know I am not going to reach in time. Say there is a traffic jam, or the local train electricity grid snaps, or I have an accident, or I have just started late. What can she do? Sitting some hundred miles away, can she fire a command and have a jet or drone, or time machine sent to me, which will lift me from my current place and transport me to the training centre? The answer is no. The only benefit is that the app will automatically shoot an email or a message to the training co-ordinator at the location that the trainer will be late. But then this can even be done by the trainer himself or herself.

What if the trainer is a habitual late comer? Three sessions and he / she will be found out by customer complaints. You don’t need to build a sophisticated tracker. As a customer this feature is good, but like a lot of such features is just a mirage. Just simple trust in the trainer, saves me the cost of building this tracking feature. However, trust isn’t sexy, apps and technology are.

Another feature tells you how much time the trainer has spent on which slide. The whole focus is on following the process, the assumption is that if you follow the process the results will be fruitful.

Unfortunately training is different from manufacturing. In manufacturing, multiple raw materials need to be subjected to different processes in specific environments to get desired outputs. Training is more of an art. By focusing too much on the process, you will kill the art and slowly robots will take over training. Then you will find that training is not effective, and you will go back to the trainers.

Every trainer is different, brings with them their own flair, style, creativity, anecdotes. Being a trainer for 20 years, I can see into a participant’s eyes and decipher whether they have understood the subject or not. There have been instances, when I have seen into somebody’s eyes, and asked the query what they wanted to ask. This my dear friends, is the art. There are so many other trainers I know, who have superb flair and are great trainers and story tellers and are also effective. The best trainer is one who runs the session without slides.

I am personally uncomfortable with such tracking features and later being appraised by ‘analysts’ who rely on ‘data’ to tell me where I am going wrong. If you employ me, trust my abilities, else I don’t want to work with you.

Remember, freedom comes with responsibility. The sign of effective law and order is minimum policing. What the world needs today is a Trust App.