The pyramid of planning is about being able to deconstruct everything that is not required during the day. For instance, there may be activities during the day that are inevitably lost in the daily humdrum of life and these activities may not be required for further perusal. These need to be deconstructed and by that I mean that they need to be built from grounds up again.
Anjali had been facing a lot of flak at work, she loved her job but with every available ounce of her energy going into the work itself, she was unavailable to think through the complete process, so to say that the big picture was missing.
"The day was awful, boss is turning hostile, there are people who are shouting at each other and I hardly get time to think at work," she said in a sad tone. "There is one particular guy in the office who keeps up with this charade of extensive work while he actually does nothing."
"Have you spoken to somebody about it ?"
"Who do I talk to, they all seem distant and far away," she said with melancholy.
"This may be the time to sit back everyday in the morning and think about the overall scheme of things in the office."
"I seem to be doing things at work that have no particular significance to my day."
"Why don't you deconstruct," I said knowing that she would probably not understand immediately.
I had driven a bike during my college days, it was an old machine with a feel of a friend, I had been driving it for over 4 years and still thought nothing of replacing it. It broke down on the old highway to Lucknow one day and I sat there waiting for it to cool down, it was evidently overheating. The idea being that the key word here was "evidently", there was no logic to this, but the cylinder was hot and the exhaust was too. I waited for it to cool down so that I could at least touch it to work on it.
The thought that it was hot was predominant on my mind and so according to this logic that staying in my mind I had to wait for it to cool down. While waiting under the tree I could see a few butterflies that flew through over flowers, they were buzzing through without a sound, there was logic here too, it looked peaceful and very serene apart from me with my bike waiting for it to cool down. It was a typical case of a conflict, one that arose from mother natures peaceful environment and man's creation having broken down in midst of it.
When conflicts arise in our vicinity, our first thought is to fight them, the peaceful environment disturbed my state of mind which was in state of conflict, so I took out my notebook and started writing notes in them, overheating can occur due to the following things :
1. Spark Plug
2. Engine Cylinder
3. Clogged Air Filter
If this was the case then each of these items would have to be evaluated and the activity that was not required needed to be broken down into its smaller part. I carefully opened the spark plug, the butterflies had strangely vanished now to be replaced by chirping birds and it seemed that nature was moving things to a rhythm.
The spark plug gap was mismatched, the cylinder though the head had not been opened yet seemed intact. I let the cylinder stay where it was, would look at it when I got to a workshop, and took out the slider that matched the spark plug gaps and set the gap to the exact measurement. It required a little bit of effort, however it was plain to see where the problem lay, the spark plug is a device that generates the spark to ignite the fuel mixture which is a combination of air and fuel, this mixture is pumped into the engine cylinder using the jets and then the spark plug ignite the mixture at the right time, this is the combustion cycle and though the spark plug is a small part it is a very critical part, the timing is important.
Anjali returned with a smile on her face, "Good Day, travelled to a couple of sites and then returned later to office everything working as planned."
"So what was unusual about the day and how did it work out ?" I asked curious as to how she had deconstructed the unwanted activities.
"I spoke to the boss when I was writing my schedule for the day, she told exactly what her deadlines were and that sorted the contradictions. I had few activities that seemed large for the day but then on getting the big picture they seemed unimportant."
"Contradictions are a big part of our lives and it makes sense to honour them."
"I will get back to these unwanted tasks later in the month, but today they weren't required and everybody agreed." she said happily.
I had understood what she was saying, we went back to the interdependence part and she had carried the concept back to her professional life.
"The only thing that works is what sells."
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