Is appearance deceptive? HR message from Polar bear

Appearance is always deceptive. Never go by appearance or how things look. One needs to always verify the above saying to get to the truth. This is not just a scientific truth/statement, but indeed a great management message as well to the corporate world as a whole. Nature has sufficient proof for the above for the corporate to learn.

Polar bears look/appear snow white from a distance. The snow white fur coloration of the polar bears is considered to be one of the adaptations to conceal or mask their identity to their prey animals. Only when they could successfully hide their identity in the polar region where the temperature is below freezing, vegetation is scarce, cover and protection from the biting cold is extremely low, visibility is high, these predatory animals can hunt the prey animals. Availability of the prey animals are also extremely less in such regions. The above situation perfectly justifies the fur colour of the polar bears.

But the science of fur colour of polar bears has totally a different story to tell. The truth is that, the fur of the polar bears is totally transparent or is colour less. Further the colour of the skin of polar bears is dark or black. The pigment less hairs when join together, appear white and that covers the black skin of the bear.

This is how the polar bears appear snow white in polar region. When one go close to them or see them from a distance, the image would be the same. Only when the colour of the fur and skin of the animal is carefully examined, the truth can be understood.

If the truth or the science is not understood, then the appearance alone would ride our understanding, knowledge and decisions. This is what commonly happening in most corporate. By just seeing how things appear, conclusions are made and final judgment is pronounced. Corporate people in general seldom verify, may be due to paucity of time or due to the popular philosophy of the corporate that ‘one could grow only at others ruin’.

The message is not to demean or belittle the people in corporate, but to provide best ‘sense’ that would help people to develop the understanding through verification of facts and people would never make judgment out of how things appear or look. Polar bears are the best examples for the corporate to learn ‘how appearance is deceptive’.

The HR function and the corporate leaders must essentially understand the above truth and only then right decisions can be taken. Science and not the perception or appearance should prevail and that alone should be the major component the leadership and decision making.

Dr S Ranganathan