Ghosts from the past still haunt in thought and deed

The notion of being haunted is an uncomfortable one, and the annual Halloween media frenzy, not to mention the plethora of TV series in recent years, which seem to have unearthed these haunted and bewitched themes, only seeks to keep the spirit of these non-worldly creatures alive. 

I myself have ever so often felt haunted by this particular spirit, that I thought it worthwhile to pen a few lines on these experiences. I am referring to the “ghosts from the past” who seems to find a way to hang around most of our lives, sometimes doing quite a lot of good, but more often than not becoming a negative force to reckon with.

The ghost of the past for me is none other than the spirit, thinking, culture and practice connected with people who have since passed on from the environment that we are operating in. They are no longer with us in the here and now, but they happily live on among us in thought and deed. A few examples shed more light on this phenomenon. 

Dutch and the British laws 
The Dutch and the British still seem to float around many of our country’s laws, where several of the penalties and punishments no longer serve as a deterrent and even the intent of the law is no longer relevant. No one seems to want to periodically bring laws up to speed in any structured manner, and we live on as if the world stopped turning.

Examples would include our Trust Ordinance which dates back a century, or that the fine under Vagrants Law is still Rs. 100, or that the government gets people to still fork out 4 percent stamp duty on land acquisitions when it was defined at a time that land values were much lower and the rate of land value appreciation since has greatly outstripped the cost of living increase rate. 

Law amendments would usually come via the Law Commission for example, but that is under-resourced and overburdened, and generally only focuses on key amendments, which are pressing for whatever reason. It could also come via the line ministry, who again often only prioritizes politically-charged topics or areas of crisis. Couple that with possible delays at the Legal Draftsman’s point (they are often given priority bills courtesy of political winds of change), and it is no wonder that most of our laws will not become updated in any structured form in the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, the country is held hostage with practices that heavily constrain our development thrust. In many conversations, we are quick to blame our past foreign occupiers (or their ghosts), rather than question if we have done enough ourselves, post being empowered with Independence for so long.

Dark power griping country
The notion of wanting ‘foreigners out’ was understandable under years of foreign occupation and lack of independence. Sadly, that dark power still grips the country. 

Today, building a ‘hub nation’ with a globally competitive workforce, requires many skills that we may not possess or do not have adequate resourcing in. But we make it extremely difficult for any foreign personnel to work in Sri Lanka, and even make it cumbersome for migrant Sri Lankans to return and play a part in our development. 

Compare the hub nations of Singapore or Dubai which has leveraged foreign skill sets, while still retaining the elements which nationalistically need to be held onto. India even grants preferential status for any overseas resident who can establish their roots going back two generations to Indian soil. On a lighter note, I wonder if we need a National level exorcism to get rid of this ghost. In general, politicians do a good job of keeping their opposition ghosts alive to blame for everything, rather than take adequate and firm first steps towards problem resolution in the medium term under their watch.

Old cultural practices
We also have an entire set of old cultural practices (as opposed to religious). While some help preserve our identity and makes us what we are, others are limiting at times.  Recently a friend of mine had to deal with a death in the family, and was under severe pressure not to have the funeral on a particular day of the week, as it was considered ‘a bad’ day.  

In days long gone, monks would go to the river for bathing on particular days of the week, and the public were asked not to use the river on those days. To-date, there are people who think bathing on some days of the week is taboo. 

Saying “bless you” when someone sneezes has almost worked its’ way into Western etiquette, when its origins go way back to the Plague when sneezing was a sure first sign of the disease, and people said bless you because they felt you were almost certainly doomed.  So culturally, we go on with many practices today that have long since lost their relevance; but rarely stop to ponder why!
In the same manner, action is very much needed in corporations, contrary to popular perception to get out of the mold of many processes or controls, which have been set up long ago, but over time have become stumbling blocks for an efficient modern workforce. Many of them provide a false sense of security, but the cost of prevention far outweigh the impacts. 

Most often it goes back to an action taken over a specific issue at a particular point in time. Ever ponder why so many people are in attendance for meetings? The daily work attendance of many senior executives is being physically logged and monitored, in an era where time and place have much less relevance in terms of being able to work. Technology has also made more things redundant than people realize. 

Meeting styles and structure are still maintained when most meetings could do with remote dial in or web based connectivity when needed. The efforts put into detailed budgeting in a modern era of rapid change are easily questionable. Ideas are considered bad and impractical by teams, since they were rejected years ago, amidst different conditions in an organization. There are many great examples where you can find ghostly practices simply kept alive through repetition and time. 

Land of ghost busters
This being the case, there is a need for every CEO and business leader to become a ghost buster. If we are to reinvent, innovate, and keep our companies agile and successful, we need to constantly keep questioning assumptions and practices and ask why we do things the way we do. If we can do this to a far greater extent on national issues, practices and cultural hang overs, we can indeed become successful, progressive and even be seen as a “land of ghost busters”. Failure to do so, could probably relegate us to a “land of the living dead” if we are not careful. 

(The writer is the MD/CEO of Textured Jersey Lanka PLC and a former Country Manager of Microsoft, and is actively engaged with Chambers, Charities, Academic and other organizations who further Sri Lanka’s development agenda).