Phewwwww!!! Thought this happens only in India but, wait, realized not true at all. Grade frenzy is everywhere and so is at Hult. The competitive human being in us makes us this way, I guess. No matter even if we have been out of an competitive educational environment for many years, we start behaving the same way once put back in such an environment.
There are side effects if we become part of such a frenzy- most important one is happiness. I have known of my friends getting a 90 out of 100 and still being unhappy because someone else got a 100. The other side effects is, it creates ill feeling. Foe eg: I have also known of a friend who got a lil more marks then me (though still way less then the maximum) and hence his face was all lit up.
It also effects our mindset. We stop gaining the required knowledge. For eg: just recently, I had my friend studying for a MBA subject. He had everything mugged up. If I ask him reasons for why the answer should be a particular way, he will say, I don't know. This was not a 12th standard student, I am talking of an MBA student. He in-fact gave me an advice not to study so seriously. I responded that I am studying for knowledge that also gets me grade and hence need to be serious. No other way I know. My friend is too young and will get better I am sure. This is where a grade-frenzy free environment will also help and we all can contribute in creating one.
The effect on mindset are far and beyond. We stop to share knowledge, we start to treat everyone as competitors every time and somewhere along the line friendship is affected. Importantly, unintentionally, we start contributing to the crab story.
What if I tell you that there could be a better approach and a better environment? Lets hear it.....
When I was in 5th grade, I was having this mindset because was in a similar environment. I still think the competitiveness at my school was unreasonable and childish (after all we were a child). My friends will not tell me what they studies, how much they studied and in fact will make special efforts to misrepresent that they have not studied. I hate lying so I wouldn't tell lie but I will also not tell them how much or what I studied.
This was the year also when my older brother came back to stay with us. He had gone to study in BITS, Pilani. He gave me an advice and groomed me to be where I am today. He told, Umesh the environment you and you friends have created has long term negative impact on your career and life in general. He told that there is no point competing against just 60 people in your class when the world consists of millions of aspiring students like you. You can compare yourself against 60 people and be the best but what good it is to be the best among-st just a handful.
He also said you can't compare yourself with the millions on the world even if you want to. He then stressed the point is, the entire approach of competing between each other and also by creating an unreasonable environment is uncalled for and is stress full.
The idea, he said is to compete with yourself and be better each day. The idea is to challenge yourself and keep increasing the bar. The idea was to gain wealth of knowledge and help the knowledge get you the grade. Competing with others often ends you in becoming what they want you to become or what they would become. Life is about exploring what you want to be and then working to get there.
After a year of mentoring and coaching from my older brother, I found out who I want to be and what I want to do. I decided that I will take maths as a major in high school and will do computer engineering after that.
From that point onward, I had my bar set and I will compete against myself to reach the bar and then set new one. Casing point, as I needed to do mathematics major, my bar was to get above 80 percent in 10th grade so that I well qualify. I got 84 percent and was topper in my school and missed being in merit by a percent. But I was happy, very happy as I had achieved the bar that I had set for me. There were many u got above me and were in merit list. I didn't envy them or became jealous. I was happy for them and satisfied for me because I was following my plan.
When in 12th standards, I had to prioritize between grades that I want in 12th vs preparing to crack engineering entrance exams. I decided I will focus more for entrance exams and hence only got 65 percent in 12th standard. Good news was that I cracked engineering exams. Being a topper throughout, a 65 percent was definitely not a good feeling but I knew that I will have to compromise on one thing to get another so I came over it. Many of my friends got way better grades and for the first time surpassed me in grades. But I was still happy for them and for myself. I went on to do my engineering in Bangalore, Karnataka. While many had to take another year to crack engine exam, I started my engineering immediately.
I followed the same approach of self competition there too. Though my teachers and fellow students had a lot of expectations from me and they wanted me to be getting above 80%, I had set my bar to be getting 75% and above as I wanted to gain a lot of practical and diverse knowledge during engineering. Studying to get 80 and above would have meant compromising on the approach of exploring various books, doing a lot of practicals and hence I created a plan which was more reasonable. Few of my friends will get more percentages than me, but I still not envy or be jealous of them. I will be happy for them and also for me.
This carried on in my work. Most recently when, I implemented performance management program, the entire approach was to measure incremental progress employee is making against his own past performance and against goals set for him. No stack ranking, comparison with others of sorts. This allowed us to create a more happier, creative, collaborative and a high performing team environment rather than creating an environment where in only a few stars shine.
To conclude, I will appeal to all my amazing friends to contribute towards a grade-frenzy free environment and contribute in each others success. Let's stop making grades a status thing. It's not and it should not be.
Comments
Post a Comment