The Chimera of The Finality of  Solutions

रात को जीत तो पाता नहीं लेकिन ये चराग़ //

कम से कम रात का नुक़सान बहुत करता है

𝐑𝐚𝐚𝐭 𝐤𝐨 𝐣𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐧𝐚𝐡𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐞𝐤𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐡//

𝐊𝐚𝐦 𝐬𝐞 𝐤𝐚𝐦 𝐫𝐚𝐚𝐭 𝐤𝐚 𝐧𝐮𝐪𝐬𝐚𝐧 𝐛𝐚𝐡𝐮𝐭 𝐤𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐚 𝐡𝐚𝐢

Though night is not defeated by the lamp, but //

Conspicuously it ruins much of the night’s rut  

This couplet by the legendary Urdu poet Irfan Siddiqui hints towards the lesser acknowledged perceptions associated with the theme of our problems and solutions. Our perceptions makes much of a difference to our leadership actions.

Yes, not all battles are fought to completely win over our misfortunes and troubles. Sometimes we fight to minimize the effects of the troubles. Finality or the conclusive nature in most of our struggles are difficult landmarks. 

We all plan to win completely but it must also be seen that if such plans do not work out, we must plan to contain the damages at least. This ability to read the reality of the situation must be natural to any accomplished leader. 

The Containment Policy

The reading of the situation makes all the difference especially if it is anticipatory in nature. If you, as a leader, have anticipated the nature of the problem and realised that finality is not possible then it is the first step to the redemption of the problem itself. The accomplished leader will try to execute the plan to contain the problem to its maximum. 

But there are occasions when an inexperienced leader after getting overwhelmed by the enormity of the problem starts to press the “withdrawal” button. Such leaders make themselves as well as their team believe that there exists no perfect solutions to their problems. They do nothing and allow the troubles to grow even bigger in size. 

The only thing such leaders do not realise is that absence of the “perfect solution” is not the license to ignore the “ containment solution” 

We must not think that deploying the “ containment solution” is a defeat of our strategy. Infact “ containment ” becomes a problem solving strategy sometimes and the earlier we realise in certain situations the better it is. 

Containment is one of the most potent decisions that we take till the solutions of repute arrives.  But let me tell you there are “problems issues”  which are likely to never go away and we have to keep on containing them.  There can be no better example than the pandemic itself. We may  aspire to eradicate it completely but the lesson we have been drawing recently is that minimisation and contentment is the best policy as of now. 

The Moral of The Story 

The moral of the story is that in the long drawn missions we must always have containment policies as a part of the planned strategy itself. If we hold on initially and contain our problem issues, we are actually allowing space for the potent solutions to arrive.  The more we contain the insurmountable problems the more we are getting a chance to solve it later. The idea is not to lose the ground and do nothing. Something is always better than nothing in dealing with problems. 

At the end there is always a caveat to every strategy.  Containment and limiting the damages should not deter us from finding everlasting solutions. 

This is where the leadership comes in. An accomplished leader must know where and when  to deploy the containment policy and also when to turn it off to employ the next policy. 

If you cannot transform the night into the day, the least you can do is to light the lamp.

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