22nd April 2011
Constructive use of pressure
Anyone can become angry---that is easy?
But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way---this is not easy.
- Aristotle
This morning I went to the kitchen and closed the outlet of my rice pressure cooker with a valve like stopper. This stopper is specifically designed for each pressure cooker taking into account the size of the pressure cooker, the metal with which it is made, the capacity of the cooker, the design of the lid etc. If properly designed, the pressure cooker is a convenient kitchen gadget and you can cook rice and vegetable within a short period of time. If the pressure cooker is not designed properly, it could turn out to be dangerous and even lead to loss of life. Sometimes the steam stopper gets worn out and the contents of the pressure cooker are not cooked properly since there is a loss of steam.
As I was in the kitchen on this `important portfolio', I looked at the pressure cooker. Something struck me. Are we not like a pressure cooker cooking a lot of ideas into action within us? Don't we use our emotions and feelings to process of food of thoughts and ideas? Are we not expected to use our emotional pressure carefully and appropriately? What happens when we let go our steam and explode? What happens when our outburst of emotions are most inappropriate?
Like the pressure cooker, there is an engineering which makes us to be effective or ineffective. I call this as `attitude engineering'. These days a product is not to be tested at the final stage of quality inspection. This was the practice some three decades ago. Now is the age of scientific management. If a product is rejected, engineers go to the design stage of the production process and correct the process and not the product.
This principle is relevant in managing human behaviour also. We should not manipulate our behaviour by suppressing all our emotions and feelings. This is similar to using a defective steam stopper and the pressure cooker will explode. We should `engineer right attitude' so that our behaviour is well modulated and controlled.
Just think about this analogy and ponder if what I have written is sensible!
N C Sridharan
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