The Father Says This Today

By Dana Calit The Father says today, My love is the single prime mover in your life. Regardless of the people around you, the circumstances of your birth - you have to know that My love determines your future more than any other thing. This isn't about earning anything or being good enough. My love for you is unconditional and in fact was fully poured out in your behalf before the foundation of the world was laid. Before you had any opportunity to disqualify yourself or to attempt to measure up to any expectation you think I have - before all of this - love gave all for you and to you in the interests of your existence, being an absolute reflection of the depth and height of the everlasting love wherewith I love you. So, luxuriate in My love today. Regardless of what you may be facing, know that My love originates from a motivation in My heart more resolute than the deepest hatred that the enemy has to destroy you. All of the opposition coming against you from man or circumstance is effortlessly swept away by the torrent of love that I pour out to you as renewed mercy each and every day. I challenge you to exhaust My love, for it is inexhaustible. I dare you to find out the fullest extent of My love today. Run today the course before you with a full and complete expectation that the love that I woke you with this morning will be the favor that will attend you as you lay your head to rest in the confidence that My promises hold you safe and assure you outcome in life beyond your most extreme hopes.

Unleavened Bread Pudding

I am not a good cook; neither am I, a professional baker; but, during occupational therapy at the Penn Rehabilitation Center, I stretched myself and baked Bread Pudding with my exercise partner Miss Lois. In the first attempt, the dough did not rise in the oven; because, we did not give enough time for the yeast to rise prior to putting it in the oven. Miss Lois and I were frustrated; but, we made a second attempt. We learned from our mistakes and made changes to our approach. We were happy because we succeeded and our pudding was a hit. All the hospital staff got to taste it. It has been one year already since I got discharged after five weeks of intense rehabilitation in the hospital. This taught me to be patient with recovery and to try new things like baking Bread Pudding; because, life is a gift meant to be shared. It is with this framework that I come to this course, Coaching and Facilitating Teams. This course is like the heat in the oven; and, I am the dough that is to rise. It has not been easy, much like learning to walk again. Each step is a struggle to win back the dream of possibilities. I am stretched and worked out, both in walking and in learning, while attending Coaching and Facilitating Teams. I celebrate every hard earned win with the increment metric as a milestone. I come to every class to learn courage. As Smith and Berg (1987) note, “It demands courage to fully belong to a group, to struggle with forming an identity through involvement with others… To trust enough to self-disclose, when the available signs suggest the instability of the social contexts in which we find ourselves, requires courage.” (Gillete, J. & McCollom, M., 1995) I have avoided group settings in the work place; and, I realize I am a loner. My career roles have always been lonely roles of a writer and a teacher. I am comfortable with this fact. It is who I am. This explains as I have learned that I am Adapting Dealing and Supporting Giving in my LIFO scores in Groups. I am not configured for, and I suck at planning or giving out directions. I am not comfortable being in authority. I am more sporadic and under the influence of muse and adventure. I work in silos. And I admit that I have to work on learning how to communicate “processes and results” to others so that we may collaborate. The murder activity and the scavenger hunt made me think back on why I cringe on the inside. Is it because I always played by myself, ran after news stories, and wrote about them by myself? Or that I studied in the classroom by myself? Through reflection of how I had behaved as our team “formed”, I realize that instead of getting in the way of group synergy, I almost always decide to keep quiet in the classroom activities and refuse leadership roles. I am silent because I also believe that “Courageous speech is indeed one mark of a leader, and it has long held people in awe. While some politicians and managers still fake it – and somehow manage to win elections and keep their jobs – the men and women with authentic presence do no such thing. They are as comfortable with silence as they are with speaking. And when they speak, they something worth saying, and they say it in a voice that emerges from deep inside them. And in their tone and presence we hear their distinctive emotional resonance as it represents their inner world and convictions.” (Cooper, 1996, p. 73-74) I have shared to the team that I am quiet; just because, I am scared, what if the group doesn’t like me, what if I stick out like a sore thumb, what if the group members isolate and alienate me? What if I don’t keep up? What if I can’t deliver? This fear is a result of the fact that I have been the victim of group bullying both in the school and in the workplace. This fear is a result of having failed to lead my work teams to succeed when I am assigned the leadership. This is why I have anxiety coming to this class. What new activity are we doing? Please, I don’t want to fondle oranges and get blindfolded today. Why so? The pressing question: Will this be the day when I fail my group? I contain this fear and I take the heat. I note my responses in group situations where I don’t do very well unlike when the task is to work in silos. I do this with positive attitude; because, I have decided after surviving surgery that I would spend some time to learn to play with the other kids. It is time for the bread to rise. As I struggle, I find that everyone seems so smart and competent, and is able to share new insights. Natalie is so competent and a qualified leader. Neil is systematic and thoughtful. John takes risks and puts himself out there. Rob is a true sports man and plays to win. I, on the other hand, am just lost on how to manage myself. But I put on a brave face, and stay on nonetheless. My strategy is to decide to be authentic in this class. I decide to be Sara and be consistent to the integrity of my life story while searching for symbols for our team rules, while offering a suggestion in maintenance meetings, while assuming a quiet kind of leadership. I end by saying I have already faced the possibility of death. I have been poked, sliced, examined, and drugged. I also have baked bread pudding. It is time to stretch a bit, take the heat, and learn that I have leadership potential to make a difference in other people’s lives. I do so as I aim for authentic presence. I commit myself to “wholehearted attentiveness, genuine concern, and creative curiosity rather than politics, evasiveness, spite, manipulation, dominance, or entitlement.” (Cooper, 1996, p. 68)

Philadelphia

I came to Philadelphia in the fall of 2008 to take up Organizational Dynamics. A lot was going on in my life, I decided to break the flow of negative chi and do what makes me happy. Something most Asians do is to break the cycle of bad elements to find a suitable balance. I was finding it difficult to adjust to the organizations that I worked for – whether it was as a journalist for a newspaper, a teacher at the university, or a corporate strategy writer and manager for a multinational IT company. The last time I was happy was when I was studying and interacting in a school setting. So I decided to come back to school and get to have some fun again; but mainly to discover myself and gauge the patterns of my life’s story. I guess this reiterates the results of my Hermann International Survey (2008). I love the adventure of a “spiritual” and “emotional” journey (Hermann International, 2008). Fun was every time I felt I learned about the truth, I presume it is the same for other employees – whether it was the truth of my surroundings (culture), my organization (politics and how organizations grow), my self (power), my work (codifier of organizational experiences/individual and organizational identities), and my employment (organizational change). And as student of truth, I had different roles: the cultural outsider/foreigner, game player, victim, writer, and employee amidst organizational change. Questions arise like why did I come to assume these roles? Was I successful in executing them? Did they cause internal or external conflict? Did these roles inhibit my growth, productivity, and development? Was I being “authentic” (Eldred, 2008)? Based on stories I have heard from colleagues and other employees who like me have difficulty integrating into organizations they work for, there are common issues that seem to cause the imbalance. In this paper, I cite instances where I found difficulty in fitting to existing norms and informal dynamics at work and my questions stem from this root. Skill and work performance were never issues for me. I was able to comply with requirements at acceptable levels, however, when it came to working dynamics and interpersonal relationships, I was a misfit in almost all the organizations that I worked for. Through Organizational Dynamics, I would like to discover why this is a recurring issue for me. And what would be the next steps in the learning process to help me be able to cope and adjust but still remain authentic? I begin by examining five specific questions stemming from five typical roles an employee like me would act out in an organization setting. The questions start from the individual at a micro level and expand to include her relationship in an organization at the macro level. From the framework presented during the first day of class, this paper examines the “I” as an individual and my transformation in the course of time – past, present, moving towards a future. I present five of my own unique narratives to be looked at. But before that, I review the importance of metaphors in the organizational setting in order to see if they are relevant to employee “fit”. My first class in my student life taking up Organizational Dynamics is this Foundation class. The very first lesson was on metaphors. In his book, Morgan (2006) argues how metaphors help organizational players develop and understand organizational life. “All theories of organization and management are based on implicit images or metaphors that lead us to see, understand, and 3 manage organizations in distinctive yet partial ways.” (Morgan, 2006, p. 4) If this is the case, can it be assumed that skilled employees who are unable to fully integrate into their organization have a misunderstood perception of what is actually happening in a given situation, and therefore could not appropriate the exact metaphor? To follow Morgan’s example, I would like to begin this paper with my own metaphor, a story of a mother and her daughter. One Sunday morning after church, the mother brought her daughter to the toy store to buy a gift for the coming holidays. As the mother watched her daughter look around the toy store, she said, “You can have any toy that you want.” The toy store was huge filled every floor inch with the latest toys and play things. Needless to say, it took a while for the daughter to find the perfect gift. The daughter moved around, and moved around, looking at every nook and cranny, seeing many novel toys with high tech features, but nothing called her to reach out for that perfect toy for the holidays. Until finally, the daughter saw, in the corner of the back shelf where simple, unwanted, no technology toys were kept, -- a ragged, last-holiday-season, and dirty doll. She knew in her heart that this was the toy for her. She bent over, picked up the doll, and ran to her mother. The daughter was happy in her heart, saying to her mom, “Mama, look what I found. I want to bring her home.” The mother looked at her daughter with surprise. She couldn’t believe that with all the toys that the daughter can have to take home, the daughter chose an ugly doll. So the mother asked the daughter, “Dear, why did you choose that old and ugly doll? There are so many other beautiful toys you can have.” “Mama,” the daughter said, “Don’t you remember what you said to me? When you love something, it becomes beautiful.” (Pasricha, 2008) I feel that this story is a good metaphor for describing my search for truth because truth is beautiful and also a formative metaphor for my sensibility as an employee. My life has been an existential search for the ragged, last-holiday-season, dirty doll. It might be absurd but this is how I can best describe it. So the search begins with my first question. A. To start with, I focus on Sara: The Cultural Outsider/Foreigner. The journal and the session by Professor Dana was an eye-opener for me, and it has been an opportunity to address what had been bothering me for thirty years now – Why is it difficult to accept myself in relation to different others? “However, from my experiences, I have been troubled about the question which I asked in class. How do you remedy or fix a cultural misunderstanding committed during the first impression? In India, things -- whether food, money, gifts or anything -- are offered with the right hand. To offer with the left hand is an insult because the left hand is used to wash oneself as there are no toilet papers. In Japan, executives give their calling cards which are facing the receiver, with both hands and a bow. The slant of the bow denotes positions and hierarchy. In Europe, people are addressed as sir/madam, not by their first names especially during first meetings. In France, it is rude to disturb a person for an unannounced meeting during meal.” (Pasricha, 2008) “What if people do not know these rules as they are not explicit codified statements? What if people make mistakes during the initial encounter? Does a mistake destroy a possibly beneficial relationship? Is there a way one can wiggle out of a mistake on the fly? I could never really figure out the answer to that. Because I do not come from one set culture and I do not operate in one set culture, I do not know the rules. I make a lot of big mistakes sometimes where I go beyond what is acceptable. As the world becomes more globalized, I guess these kinds of mistakes are becoming more common. But how can it be remedied or forgiven?” (Pasricha, 2008) The responses from my professors to my journal have proven to be a learning opportunity for me in understanding the issues involved in the context of culture: “You are the author of your own – no matter how multinational the story.” (Greco, 2008); “I think the global society will need to wrestle with this issue – a single tribal identity will no longer be possible or even religion or nationality as we homogenize.” (Greco, 2008); “Appreciation of differences and other cultures goes a long way to not making "wrong" moves… culturally speaking. But, as you point out, one does make mistakes. I think there are two general approaches...both can work but neither one is a 100% guaranteed to work. The first approach is to act first and apologize if you make a mistake. This is typically American, and perhaps more typically male. The second approach is to inquire and ask, before you act. This helps to assure a better first step and impression when one does act… but one will still make mistakes. This approach is more feminine… in terms of Hofstede's masculine- feminine cultural dimensions.” (Barstow, 2008) “Tolerance and appreciation is an important area for personal and organizational development in the global arena. If one has a developed sense of awareness, one can avoid mistakes and also know when one has made a mistake or miss step and apologize.” (Barstow, 2008) However much we think cross-national culture is becoming increasingly unified and tolerant of each other, we see how variations are fashioned in different areas of language, rituals, philosophies, ethics, etc. There is truly a dichotomy between the foreign and the local. So when skilled employees from various cultural contexts come together and work inside multinational organizations where all regions are represented, can there be some form of misunderstanding that can lead to disintegration? Why do foreign employees have a hard time fitting in? Cultural misunderstandings and remedying a cultural mistake continue to be an area of interest for me. I want to understand this deeply. Perhaps I will take classes on culture in the coming terms. As I explore this further, I find that cultural and political issues interrelate. I ask myself are political dynamics in the workplace a significant cause of why skilled employees fail to integrate as well? Skilled employees may have the abilities to deliver outputs but they do not necessarily effect a positive outcome. Is it probably due to the fact that they cannot get along with others? I would like to know what a skilled employee can do to understand politics better and be able to use it in her work environment as in Professor Eldred’s words -- an “artist?” B. Sara: The Game Player or if I had the guts to call myself, Sara: The Game Changer Through this class, I have learned that politics is defined as the resolution of different interests as found in Morgan’s book, “In its original meaning the idea of politics stems from the view that, where interests are divergent, society should provide a means of allowing individuals to reconcile their differences through consultation and negotiation.” (Morgan, 2006, p. 150) These move me to ask: Why can’t we just do our jobs, relate with one another without an agenda, and remain authentic with ourselves? Wouldn’t it be nice if we all worked in a self-actualized organization where there is no power grabbing, wheeling and dealing, or Machiavellian maneuvering for leadership position? Wouldn’t it be nice if we played in the sandbox and “shared the peanut butter sandwich” (Obama, 2008)? Wouldn’t it be nice if we really lived up to what politics really meant according to Aristotle? In the game of work, though, we are supposedly bonded by a shared vision and common values, practically everybody wants different things. “These difficulties are often linked to another set of problems: the development of subgoals and sets of interests that undermine the organization’s ability to meet its primary objective” (Morgan, 2006, p. 30). Could this dissonance in subgoals and interests be the reason why skilled employees are unable to integrate into their organizations? There comes a time in an employee’s life that she begins to wonder, am I giving way too much of myself to my organization, compromising important factors such as peace of mind, health, and sanity? Is this a fair trade? In this regard, I would like to explore the possibility that a skilled employee does not integrate to her organization because she becomes part of the victim list. I would like to pursue the validity of this question further in the course of my Organizational Dynamics study through taking courses on power and leadership to help me better understand these areas of study. Employees are unable to articulate what they really want from their work, their organization, and even from own life for that matter. If an individual does not know what she wants, she walks blindly without expectations for herself and her organization. She becomes a victim. I do not want to be a victim. C. Sara: The Victim “If you don’t know what you want, you are on the victim list” (Eldred, 2008). This comment struck a chord. All these years I have been playing the victim role. I was floating from one moment to another and I really did not know what I wanted for myself and from life. Perhaps, this is why I was erratic and unsteady. I would jump from one project to another, never completing either one to my best ability. I was easily distracted by what my peers or superiors would say – even when inside I knew I made sense. I did not argue. I did not suggest. I did not rock the boat or offer ideas out of the box when really that is who I am on the inside. I was not comfortable in holding power. I wanted to get along. Be liked. Not offend anyone who I care about or work with. (Power Management Inventory, 2000) I went to the college and graduate business school that my parents convinced me to attend. I took the degree that they chose for me. I took the jobs my parents approved. I came home by midnight even when deep inside I wanted to continue the engaging discussions with my friends. These are light situations but they nevertheless demonstrate how I let others decide for me. If I let these happen for small things, then what more with the big things? I was not being authentic, I was being a victim. Perhaps, this is why I was not happy, and that I wanted to break the cycle and go for change. I wanted to be the Sara I really am. So the question is composed of three parts: (a) What does one do to know what she wants? (b) What does one not do to get victimized? (c) How does one become authentic? “It is better to be authentic than to be participative” (Eldred, 2008). Throughout the program, my search and interests revolved around authenticity. Authenticity comes from a certain sense of shared identities between the skilled employee and the organization. True, common values and shared vision bind them together but when identities are shared as well, then, there becomes a meaningful relationship of partners and collaborators. However, I find that identities of skilled employees are relatively fixed; it is the identities of organizations that are in flux especially during times of crises. This leads me to my next question: How can skilled employees in homeostasis and organizations in flux find a certain sense of shared identities? I do not want to stop here. “As boundaries become more fluid, identity becomes more important” (DYNM 501 Class notes, 2008). I am interested in finding out how organizations form their unique identities as well. Names do not identify an organization, just as names do not identify us as persons. We are the sum of our different experiences (Psychodynamics) and we are who we are at this moment in time (Existentialism). So just as persons identify and differentiate themselves, how can organizations? D. Sara: The Writer In my role as manager and writer for the Corporate Strategy Group at Satyam, I am part of the team that manages and disseminates the SatyamWay. SatyamWay is a corporate wide initiative spearheaded by the company’s chairman and founder. SatyamWay provides the framework for how employees treat their stakeholders and provide a One Satyam Experience, in spite of the distributed leadership model adapted by the company that caters to a virtualized service offering. For the last three years, I have been responsible for the language and writing part of SatyamWay. I have looked at SatyamWay as a handbook that should be free of grammatical and typographical errors, and omissions. However, as I have matured as an individual far away from my home country and as I have gained understanding of the greater influence of my work, I see that SatyamWay is a game-changing proposition that when applied multiplies value both intrinsic and monetary by greater than 2x. This can be compared to the butterfly effect, where the movement of butterflies affects at the macro level the world’s weather patterns by more than just a linear and direct relationship. Similarly, SatyamWay seeks to have a snowball effect as an added value resource when combined to the daily operations of the business. SatyamWay is the company’s key differentiator in a competition of low-cost IT service companies losing its clients to the global economic meltdown. Doing SatyamWay leads me to ask -- How can a skilled employee integrate to an organization amidst change? How does a skilled employee cope with internal and external change? Is she able to be resilient and adaptive? Is she mature enough to handle tough situations in a cool, calm, and collected way? Can she take the heat of the kitchen? Would it be reasonable then to say that a less skilled employee who can better adapt to volatile situations produces better results for herself and her organization than a highly skilled employee who is maladjusted? E. Sara: The Employee Amidst Organizational Change Currently, with the global economic meltdown and the slowing American economy in which Satyam is highly dependent on, Satyam is experiencing narrowing margins and a diminishing competitive advantage. To combat these, Satyam has initiated an organization-wide restructuring of its leaders and employees in an effort to streamline and be more cost efficient as a company. One division has been greatly affected by this reorganization, and that is the division which I worked for – Corporate Strategy. From what I can say, however much the profits may be increasing, the founder is displeased by the five-year declining margins caused by the Rupee Appreciation, Subprime and Financial Crises, the Oil Price Increase, etc. I learn that: “The problems at these companies are rooted more in the past decisions than in present events or market dynamics. Yet management, in its haste to grow, often overlooks such critical developmental questions as, where has our organization been? Where is it now? And what do the answers to these questions mean for where it is going? Instead, management fixes its gaze outward on the environment and toward the future, as if more precise market projections will provide the organization with a new identity.” (Greiner, 1998) I would like to know how can one convince people up the totem pole that change is a natural part of the “evolution and revolution as organizations grow” (Greiner, 1998). There is no need to panic, wag the finger, and shoot at whoever is standing. But leaders and founders take things personally, instead of realizing that “Managerial problems and practices are rooted in time. They do not last throughout the life of an organization” (Greiner, 1998). If we calmly come together as reasonable adults and take the chaos as a natural part of how the organization is developing to the next level, we can come up with reasonable solutions instead of creating distress and anxiety. But how many leaders, founders, managers listen to those who are below them in the organizational hierarchy? As the popular adage goes, business is not personal. Every employee who has lost his or her job, who is struggling to pay the mortgage, buy the groceries, etc. will tell you otherwise. CONCLUSION I have begun a new chapter in my life. This is a new narrative. In three years, when I finish the program, I would like to pursue a career in coaching and change management whether as a consultant, a teacher, a writer, or all three together. But by pursuing the roads that lead me to discovering the truth about Sara: The Cultural Outsider/Foreigner, Sara: The Game Player, Sara: The Victim, Sara: The Writer, and Sara: The Employee Amidst Organizational Change, I would like to answer the most important question of all. Who is Sara? I believe if I am able to completely and honestly answer this question, I would resolve the issues of not being able to integrate into the workplace, and be a role model to others like me who are different. References: Greiner, L. (1998, May-June 1998). Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow, Harvard Business Review. Hall, J., & Hawker, J. (2000). Power Management Inventory, Teleometrics International Inc. Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument Morgan, G. (2006). Images of Organization, Toronto: Sage Publications. Peltier, B. (2001). The Psychology of Executive Coaching, Theory and Application, New York: Routledge. Rogers, J. (2008). Coaching Skills: A Handbook, Second Edition, New York: Open University Press Satyam Computer Services, Inc. (2006). SatyamWay, Hyderabad: Satyam Computer Services, Inc. Sorenson, S. (2000). Webster’s New World Student Writing Handbook, 4th Edition, Cleveland: Wiley Publishing, Inc. Turabian, K. (2007). A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Thesis, and Dissertations, 7th Edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Tips for the first day of school at University of Pennsylvania

I am a full time International student. If you are like me, it would be the same for you as it was for me last year. You would just be coming to the United States to start your first day of school as an Organizational Dynamics student. Welcome. Here are ten survival tips to help you adjust to your new life at Penn. 1. Get your immunization shots as soon as possible at the Penn Student Health located at 3535 Market Street. There are ten or more vaccines to be spread out in six months. If you do not schedule and take your shots, your enrollment would be placed on hold and you would not be able to register for Spring. Do not be afraid. The nurses are kind. You can even sing while they give you your shot. 2. The cheapest place to buy ready to eat meals is at the Food Trucks located in front of the Wharton School Huntsman Hall. There is a choice of Chinese, Japanese, Indian, or Italian. Four dollars would give you a full meal. The nearest McDonald’s is located at 40th Street beside Fresh Grocers where you can buy your groceries. When you have the time, you can go to Chinatown where you can find an assortment of cheap stuff as well. 3. You would need a good winter coat, gloves, caps, thermal wear, and boots in time for the heavy snow. GAP goes on sale for winter coats just before Christmas. The store is located at Walnut Street. 4. Take advantage of the online Library resource as well as the brick and mortar Library– there are three libraries at the University. You can even ask for help regarding references to consider for a particular paper topic from the reference librarian. You submit your topic and in a few days you can get your complete list of references related to your topic. Online is much faster of course. Good references are a mark of a good paper. 5. After sitting with Benjamin Franklin and taking your historic photo, near the Chemistry building there is a secret place where you can sit and meditate. Here there is a pond with ducks, turtles, and a lone swan. Warning, please be careful going home after our night classes. Do not put yourself at risk while going home. You can ask for security escort service while walking to your car or walking home if you live on campus. In any emergency, just lift the blue phones on the sidewalks and security will come. 6. You have free access to Morris Arboretum, the garden of the University. Although it is outside the University grounds, it is worth seeing the flowers and the trees, all 22,000 species of plants in times of fall and spring. 7. There are two Starbucks outlets in case of emergency. One in Chestnut street, and another in Walnut street. They are wifi ready for your mobile devices. 8. Souvenir for the family back at home is available at the Penn Bookstore. You will find Penn shirts and other items like diaries, sweatshirts, notebooks, etc. with the University logo. Items with the Organizational Dynamics logo are given exclusively by the department. 9. Choose your adviser/mentor as early as possible so you can take advantage of the learning opportunity. Have conversations with the faculty and your classmates while having dinner at the Inn at the Penn. Attend the special lectures open to OD students. That is what life at the University of Pennsylvania is all about. Send colleagues and teachers emails with your thoughts and ideas. Blog here. Believe me, the University of Pennsylvania is committed to ensuring your academic achievement. 10. Attend orientations, parties, brunches, Thanksgiving day, Passover, and other networking events. You will never feel alone that way.

An Animal called "I.T"

(confidence) In between my life then in Manila and now in Philadelphia, I used to be manager/writer for Corporate Strategy at Satyam, India’s Top 4 IT services company where I had been working for three years. Satyam, at the time, was a highly respected company that served the Fortune 500. Indians who worked for Satyam had good salaries and high prestige – a requirement for marrying well which was the goal of every engineer. There were very few of us writers in this company compared to the many programmers/computer technicians (85% of total employees). (stories) As an employee, I was part of the writing team tasked to compile and write down the organizational story as part of a company-wide strategy initiative in partnership with McKinsey and Co. Needless to say, it was very difficult to do this due to a number of factors. First, the founder and senior leaders had little time to give us so we could not collect compelling nuggets. Second, when we were able to, the next predicament came from the employees who did not find a reason to buy into the organizational stories, much less find them credible. Looking back I attribute our failure to influence people on a variety of factors. The storytelling did not flow smoothly and ideally as we would like. There was no hero or main character overcoming an adversity. The average employee could not continue the story or find themselves as part of the story, etc. (corruption) It was much later when I left India and came to Penn that I realized the tragic flaw of our storytelling. We did not have integrity and honesty in our story. This could be seen when Satyam's chairman and founder, Ramalinga Raju, took responsibility in his letter to the board of directors for broad accounting improprieties that overstated the company's revenues and profits, and reported a cash holding of approximately $1.04 billion that did not exist. The chairman along with his brother (the CEO/managing director), and the chief financial officer are in jail now but out on bail for breaking the law. (fairness) For weeks after the shocking announcement of resignation, the Indian public, including Satyam’s very own employees who committed their lives and efforts to the company, was to discover the unraveling of a tragic story of where the money went and the disillusionment with a giant of a man who was even given the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 and the Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Governance 2008. (money illusion) The damage to the Indian public as a result of the founder’s fall from grace called for righteous anger from stockholders who have lost 60% of their stock value, their retirement and pension now gone, and to other stakeholders who have lost their investment returns and salaries. (conclusion) But like the Deus Ex Machina found in Greek Drama, our story continues in the form of a takeover like all comedies that end in the merriment of a wedding. The criminals are finding the voice of god through meditation while sitting in jail. Exit villains. Government intervenes and places new leadership at the helm. Enter mythic heroes also known as venture capitalists. The invisible hand castigates and corrects. Economic forces are normal again. Animal Spirit, “spiritus animalis” in ancient and medieval Latin, means mental energy or life force, according to Akerlof and Shiller in their book, “Animal Spirits.”Animal Spirits are referred to our attitude in times of uncertainty. These animal spirits are identified by the book as confidence, fairness, corruption, money illusion, and stories. All are present and described in the case of Satyam Computer Services Ltd. From the case, I am interested in knowing -- If an individual’s economic status is dependent on the actions of others like those of their leadership, how does one at the base of the totem pole localize the effects of superior forces in times of uncertainty? Question: 1. How do you calm an upset economy? How do you calm an upset industry? How do you calm an upset company? How do you calm an upset public? References: Akerlof, G. and Shiller, R. (2009). Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why it Matters for Global Capitalism, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Satyam Computer Services, Inc. (2006). SatyamWay, Hyderabad: Satyam Computer Services, Inc.

Prayer

PRAYER You are my peace Thank you, Lord that I love your Law which is your word and because I do, I have great peace. I will not fret and have anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, continue to make my wants known to you. Your Peace will be mine; that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ. So fearing nothing from God, and content with my earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over my heart and mind in Christ Jesus. I will speak and think only upon whatsoever is worthy of reverence, and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just and whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, I will think and weigh and take account of these things. Thank you father, that the effect of righteousness is peace – external and internal, and the result of righteousness, quietness and confident trust forever. I believe I shall dwell in a peaceful habitation, in safe dwellings in quiet resting places. For though the mountains be removed and the hills be shaken, your love Oh Lord shall not depart from me, nor shall your covenant of peace and completeness be removed. I shall be far from the thought of oppression or destruction, for I shall not fear and from terror, for it shall not come near me. Because I hearken to wisdom, I shall dwell securely in confident trust and shall be quiet without fear or dread of evil. Great Peace is mine, because I love your law. Nothing shall offend me or make me stumble. I belong to you Because I am a child of God, I belong to Him. I have overcome and defeated the agents of antichrist because; He that is in me is greater, mightier than he that is in the world. I understand that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. It is his sanctuary and he has permanent dwelling in me. He is at home in me and will never leave me nor forsake me. My Lord Jesus has given me all power and authority to trample down serpents and scorpions and physical and mental strength and ability, to overcome all the powers the enemy possesses, and nothing shall in any way harm me. I believe that you will grant me whatever I ask in your name according to your will, so that the father will be glorified and exalted through the Son. Therefore I have strength for all things in Christ who empowers me. I am ready for anything and equal to anything, through Jesus who infuses inner strength into me, Grant me out of the rich treasury of your glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the Holy Spirit. Therefore though I feel weak I say I am strong – I am a warrior and you have crowned me with glory and honor. Health and abundant life follow me Father in Jesus name, I thank you that my Lord Jesus came to me life and life more abundantly. Jesus himself bore all sickness, disease, infirmity, death, cancer, virus bacteria infectious diseases etc., on his own body on the tree and therefore death, sickness (be specific) has no power over me for by his stripes I am healed. Father I thank you in Jesus name that I am redeemed from the curse of the law – virus, sickness (be specific) are under the curse and therefore I am redeemed from (name them) and it has no dominion over me. On the contrary, I am alive to righteousness and health. Those sins from our forefathers have no supremacy over me because the blood of Jesus stripped these sins and (be specific) of its power and made a show of it openly. The blood of Jesus has obtained for me an everlasting release by visiting and destroying these curses form our forefathers and made the memory of them to perish in Jesus name. Because you Lord bless the water and food in my house and because I serve the Lord my God sickness cannot dwell in me and the number of my days I will fulfill. My body is the temple of the Living God and the Spirit of the Living God indwells me. I am not my own but have been bought with a price – the precious blood of Jesus. The very presence of the living God within me preserves me from the evil of sin, sickness (be specific) . Therefore Satan, you take your hands off God’s property and temple. My Body glorifies God by being in diving health so hat we can serve our God with our whole heart soul and mind and strength. Jesus came to destroy the works of Satan. Therefore your work in my body and life is finished. I belong to God and am God’s property. I have been delivered out of the powers of darkness and have been translated into the kingdom of God’s dear son Jesus. I have no fear because Jesus brought to nothing Satan who had the power of death. Satan, Jesus brought your power to nothing. Therefore you loose my body from all sin sickness and disease (be specific) Body (name parts) come in line with the word of God. Sickness, bow to the name of Jesus. The name of Jesus is above your name. Old things are passed away and all things are become new. Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. Satan you obey and take your lies and run, staying off my mind and body. Thank you Father in Jesus name, for divine health. Thank you that at the name of Jesus, the anointing of the Holy Spirit breaks every enslaving yoke, and light, healing restoration, and the power of a new life spring forth speedily, even as the dawn of a new day in my family. Author Unknown

Lolit Compas

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