On Decision Making and ‘Elephantine’ way of doing it – II

In my earlier post today, I wrote about decision making in general and “elephantine” way of decision making where I shared a short story of a tamed elephant. The subject did not leave my brain for the entire day and my mind pushed me to think a little further on it – dig a little more and find something deeper than the explicit lessons mentioned in the earlier post.

Ultimately, I could relate this topic to the discussion we had with our mentor – Prof. M. S. Pillai during a Management Development Programme on breaking mental barriers.

He told us a very interesting story about a circus lion – who was so tamed and trained to follow pre-decided instructions that he never knew what his real strenghts were as a Lion. He even din’t know that he was considered King of the Jungle. His mental programming (result of circus training) did not allow him to think that way.

One day when he was left in a jungle where real lions lived – this tamed lion started running fiercely when he saw other lions moving freely around. Gripped in fear, he ran for hours togather and finally got exhausted. He was thirsty and went to a pond to drink some water. While drinking water, when he saw his face being reflected on water surface, he realized that he is no different from the actual lion – he realized that he is as powerful as any other lion is. All his fears faded away and he realized his potential.

Pillai Sir (as we fondly called him during the MDP) is the founder of Sadhana Center of Management and Leadership Development in Pune, India.  On his organization’s website, he writes:

“It is easier to break a metal chain. But breaking the mental one is a tough task. Although in the open, it is imprisoned. Walking free is not breaking free.”

This means decision making is largely governed by mental programming (result of our education, past experiences) and our ability to see ourselves beyond our mental frame and limitations.

I continue to think further on this – and that should hopefully result in another blog post! Till that time, I leave you with these thoughts to ponder upon.

Happy thinking!