Preserving the Shamrock in Us

Charles Handy in his profound work “Age of Unreason” writes about the next generation of organizations called “Shamrock Organizations”. The appellation has been derived from the Irish national emblem, a small clover like plant with three leaves. The author compares the gen-nex organizations with this shamrock, where the first leaf represents the core workers who are essential to the organization, the second leaf are the organizations to whom the non-core work is contracted and the third leaf is the flexible labor force consisting of part-time and temporary workers. Handy predicts that for the future organizations to be successful, they need to understand and espouse the shamrock.

The analogy to our individual selves with this thought stems from an article by the author of ‘Conversation with God’, Neil Donald Walsch. While expressing his thoughts on ‘compromise’ he quoted an incident where a woman once commented on the not-so-pleasant quality in his laugh and to his own surprise, he attempted to change the way he laughed so as not to irk the woman! Rattling our brains, am sure we can come up with innumerable such examples where we had done something similar in order to be accepted, liked, avoid conflict or simply because we are expected to do it. But how far we can go before it’s too far is something we need to pause and understand.

It is like the ubiquitous definition of ‘core values’ of organizations taught in business schools, its quintessence being its uncompromising character because that is the root or the spirit of the organization. Everything else might alter, die, get re-born or fade, but the values are the raison detre for the institution, which if negotiated can only profess demise. On the same note, each one of us has our unique core, developed over the years via incessant experience, learning and reflecting on the same. It is our personal set of beliefs, our reason for existence and hence it is our responsibility to protect and reinforce it.

The most important part here, needless to say, is understanding what is core and what can be compromised to evade the attached costs. Having understood that, it also is essential for us to respect what another has identified as her core, irrespective of our perception of the depth of the belief held by her. I remember a single mom being grilled on a talk show for her lack of commitment toward her eight year old because she chose to go out with friends four times a week, ignoring to spend time with her son. She was being attacked from all corners because social mores demand a pause in the personal life of a parent as they don that role. But this still leaves us with the question of how far is too far. If we accept the fact that everyone possesses their own individual core, providing the leeway to them to exercise their set of beliefs is a logical execution of that fact. The mnemonic I learnt while going through a word-list for the word ‘self-abnegation’ was ‘mother’. The analogy though true, thoroughly appalled me. What if the person chooses to be a mother but also opts to fix her own scope of so called sacrifices because she wants to hold on to her core. Teri Hatcher, the author of the book ‘Burnt Toast and other philosophies of life’ describes how women keep eating that burnt toast because they do not want to give it to anyone else in the family. Irrespective of our gender, each one of us should have the privilege to decide our periphery of self-abnegation.

My yoga instructor often describes the sixty minute session of yoga as a treat we give to our bodies, to restore, rejuvenate and recharge. Once we enter the class, the next hour is only for ourselves, sans cell-phones to attend to, chores to perform and roles to live up to. It is surprising how unknowingly we confine what should be the way of life to a limited defined time period. What is more surprising is that most of us do not even do that, what we believed in is shoved back to the farthest corner of the highest shelf, never to be brought out in the open again. If we understand the design of our shamrock, we owe it to ourselves to preserve it.