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Random Forays | Institutional traditions: A legacy worth preserving
In India, the defence forces must be praised, first and foremost, for maintaining traditions, procedures and protocols quite flawlessly and to the hilt. Knowledge management, too, is much more ingrained in the three wings of our armed forces than in any other public institution in India.
One of the main skills that we can imbibe from the British is to institutionalise memory and knowledge. The passing of Queen Elizabeth has brought to the fore the unerring focus of Old Blighty on tradition, norms, processes and decorum.
The meticulous manner of King Charles’ ascension to the throne, the place of burial of the erstwhile Prince of Wales, and the last rites of the departed queen, are not subject to the whims of decision makers at the helm but will be followed to the “T” in letter and spirit, as per traditions laid down by the ages.
In India, the defence forces must be praised, first and foremost, for maintaining traditions, procedures and protocols quite flawlessly and to the hilt. Knowledge management, too, is much more ingrained in the three wings of our armed forces than in any other public institution in India.
In civil life, swearing-in-ceremonies of chief ministers have been known to take place in sports stadia and norms have been violated in many more areas of governance than can be counted. Hitherto normal practices like handing over/taking over the charge of a particular post, the writing of regular reports by officers posted in any department or courtesies like “calling on” seniors after joining a new assignment, have long been consigned to the back burner in the civil services today.
The excuse, which is paradoxically not without reason, is that every activity in government is so pressing, so urgent and so compelling, that there is no time at all to follow such niceties any more.
Yet, the more galling and even appalling aspect of government institutions in India, is the sheer sketchiness of institutional memory. Initiatives taken even five years ago by previous incumbents are forgotten and consigned to dusty file racks, or nowadays to clouded “cloud” memories. Almost every officer who takes over an important assignment thinks that he or she is the originator of brilliant ideas, but has no idea that the same path has been traversed a few years ago, though almost always with mixed results.
Colonel DS Cheema, a prolific author, who is an expert in knowledge management, emphasizes the need for institutional memory thus,
“There is a central difference between the old and new economies; whereas the earlier ones were driven by economies of scale, the new information economy is driven by economies of networks. Under such operating environments, Knowledge Management must become an area of national priority, since managing what is between the two ears is an effective tool for sustainable development.”
The irony is that while India and Indians continue to follow religious practices with an eye for detail and hardly ever deviate from the norm in them, we are pretty lackadaisical when it comes to institutional procedures.
During a recent visit to the Lawrence School, Sanawar, I was treated to an insightful tour of the campus by Himmat Singh Dhillon, the erudite headmaster. The pride and care with which each artefact relating to the history of the school has been maintained, boggled the mind.
With humongous data servers at the disposal of mankind today, there is little excuse for lapses in collective memory, but the learnings of the past are often overlooked. Arbitrariness is a trait which might seem appealing in the case of teenaged lovers, but certainly not when it comes to organisational rigour.
Institutions like the Indian Army, much of the judicial framework, some educational institutions and certain semi government organizations like the Reserve Bank of India, may be cited as role models for the rest of the ‘system’ in upholding recognized practices and norms.
Thus, whenever an old uniform is unravelled for a unique ceremony, or an age old check list is revisited to ensure propriety without a modicum of deviation, the institutions involved are able to exemplify solidity and grace.
Many a youngster who walks into the hallowed portals of the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun, for instance, would not fail to be stirred by the sheer might of what is right, and what should be done, down to the last detail. We need to realise that tradition, legacy, heritage and values are not mere buzz words, but invaluable assets.
vivek.atray@gmail.com
