Are we not parsimonious with our ears? A HR message from animal world

Are the corporate people, generous or parsimonious? We should look at the question closely from the point of view of interpersonal relationship and not from the gesture of philanthropy.

All vertebrate animals such as fishes, amphibian, reptiles, birds and mammals including the man have both ear and vocal cord. The sense organ ‘ear’ in every animal helps them to know only about others/its surrounding and on the other hand, the vocal cord is to makes others know about the self. In animal world, the ear is used more than the vocal cord as most animals are ‘calm and silent’ than noisy in their natural world, quite contrary to corporate man. Animals have a strong reason to be calm and silent as they live in the world full of ‘opportunity (prey) and danger (predators). Not to loose the prey (opportunity) or loose own life to a predator, the animals in jungle prefers to be silent and calm.

In corporate world, the life is quite different. People often are noisy, loud and talkative in advertising and showcasing how great they are and how great and unique their work is. In corporate, people always want to get noticed by others whereas in jungle, animals in general do not want to get noticed either by their prey or by the predator. In corporate, how often one comes to limelight determines the greater success rate of such people but the same is not the case with animals in nature.

The above interesting analogy also has an effect in the biology of creation of humans as well. In human world, we often encounter the medical problem called deafness. The deafness or hearing impairment of the corporate world is more due to the least use of ‘ears’. Because most people do not wants to know or understand or listen to their fellow being. They are simply interested only in talking and advertising about themselves and nothing else.

The people loosing ability to speak or become mute as a medical problem is quite rare. Even with senility, people become more talkative than silent. Whereas, in animal world, many animals (evolved) does not even have the well developed vocal cord to produce loud and effective sound. But in contrast, they all will have acute sense of hearing and listening.

The question is why corporate man is different? The simple reason is that man’s life is daunted by the fear from within whereas the life of animals in general is determined by the world outside of each animal. Therefore they have learned the art of managing their inner mind and have developed the astute sense of knowing and recognizing the world outside.

If the corporate man ever learns the importance of knowing the self than go on engaging in proving his ‘worth and mettle’ to others, the corporate world would become serene, calm and silent. Further, such silence also would help people to improve and build the interpersonal relationship and also the equation of the boss & subordinates and issues relating to the corporate hierarchy.

Instead of engaging in self advertisement to catch the attention of others one must the self.

In simple sense, do not be generous but be parsimonious in talking to people. Or in other words, be generous in listening than be parsimonious. Remember, if you use your ears less, you may go deaf soon due to theory of ‘use and disuse’ of Lamarck.

Let you not be generous with your tongue but with your ears, it means speak less and listen more.

Dr S Ranganathan