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By:

Rashmi Kulkarni

23 March 2025 at 2:58:52 pm

Making a New Normal Feel Obvious

Normal is not what’s written. Normal is what repeats. The temple bell rings at the same time every day. Not everyone prays. Not everyone even walks in. Some people don’t care at all. And yet when that bell rings, the whole neighborhood syncs. Shops open, chores move, calls pause. The bell doesn’t convince anyone. It simply creates rhythm. That’s how “normal” is built inside a legacy MSME too. Not by speeches. By repetition. Quick recap: Week 1: You inherited an equilibrium. Week 2: People...

Making a New Normal Feel Obvious

Normal is not what’s written. Normal is what repeats. The temple bell rings at the same time every day. Not everyone prays. Not everyone even walks in. Some people don’t care at all. And yet when that bell rings, the whole neighborhood syncs. Shops open, chores move, calls pause. The bell doesn’t convince anyone. It simply creates rhythm. That’s how “normal” is built inside a legacy MSME too. Not by speeches. By repetition. Quick recap: Week 1: You inherited an equilibrium. Week 2: People resist loss, not improvement. Week 3: Status quo wins when your new way is harder. Week 4 is the next problem: even when your idea is good and even when it is easy, it can still fail because people don’t move together. One team starts. Another team waits. One person follows. Another person quietly returns to the old way. So, the old normal comes back … not because your idea was wrong, but because your new normal never became normal. Which Seat? • Inherited : people expect direction, but they only shift when they see what you consistently protect. • Hired : people wait for proof “Is this just a corporate habit you’ll drop in a month?” • Promoted : people watch whether you stay consistent under pressure. Now here’s the useful idea from Thomas Schelling: a “focal point”. Don’t worry about the term. In simple words, it means: you don’t need everyone convinced. You need one clear anchor that everyone can align around. In a legacy MSME, that anchor is rarely a policy document. It’s not a rollout email. It’s a ritual. Why Rituals? These firms run on informal rules, relationships, memory, and quick calls. That flexibility keeps work moving, but it also makes change socially risky. Even supportive people hesitate because they’re thinking: “If I follow this and others don’t, I’ll look foolish.” “If I share real numbers, will I become the target?” “If I push this new flow, will I upset a senior person?” “If I do it properly, will it slow me down?” When people feel that risk, they wait. And waiting is how the status quo survives. A focal ritual breaks the waiting. It sends one clean signal: “This is real. This is how we work now.” Focal Ritual It’s a short, fixed review that repeats with the same format. For example: a weekly scoreboard review (15 minutes) a daily dispatch huddle (10 minutes) a fixed purchase-approval window (cutoff + queue) The meeting isn’t the magic. The repetition is. When it repeats without drama, it becomes believable. When it becomes believable, people start syncing to it, even the ones who were unsure. Common Mistake New leaders enter with energy and pressure: “show impact”. So they try to fix reporting, planning, quality, procurement, digitization … everything. The result is predictable. People don’t know what is truly “must follow”. So everything becomes “optional”. They do a little of each, and nothing holds. If you want change to stick, pick one focal ritual and make it sacred. Not forever. Just long enough for the bell to become the bell. Field Test Step 1 : Pick one pain area that creates daily chaos: delayed dispatch, pending purchase approvals, rework, overdue collections. Step 2 : Set the ritual: Fixed time, fixed duration (15 minutes). One scoreboard (one page, one screen). Same three questions every time: – What moved since last time? – What is stuck and why? – What decision is needed today? One owner who closes the loop (decisions + due dates). Step 3 : Protect it for 8 weeks. Don’t cancel because you’re busy. Don’t skip because a VIP came. Don’t “postpone once” because someone complained. I’ve seen a simple weekly dispatch scoreboard die this exact way. Week one was sharp. By week three, it got pushed “just this once” because someone had a client visit. Week four, it moved again for “urgent work”. After that, nobody took it seriously. The old follow-ups returned, and the leader was back to chasing people daily. The first casual cancellation tells the system: “This was a phase”. And the old normal returns fast. One Warning Don’t turn the ritual into policing. If it becomes humiliation, people will hide information. If it becomes shouting, people will stop speaking. If it becomes a lecture, people will mentally leave. Keep it calm. Keep it consistent. Keep it useful. A bell doesn’t shout. It just rings. (The author is Co-founder at PPS Consulting and a business operations advisor. She helps businesses across sectors and geographies improve execution through global best practices. She could be reached at rashmi@ppsconsulting.biz)

Nitish Kumar set for historic 10th term as Chief Minister

PM Modi, Amit Shah to attend grand ceremony at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan today

Patna: In a meticulous display of unanimity, the NDA legislative party on Wednesday endorsed Nitish Kumar to be sworn in as Chief Minister of Bihar for a record tenth time - an unprecedented milestone in Indian politics. He will take the oath at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday before a gallery of national heavyweights, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and chief ministers from 11 states.


According to sources, Shah is expected to reach Patna on Wednesday evening. Earlier, at the NDA meeting in the Central Hall of the Bihar Assembly, BJP leader Samrat Chaudhary proposed Kumar’s name - an endorsement seconded without murmur. Soon after, Kumar, accompanied by Chaudhary, LJP (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan and other allies drove to Raj Bhavan to tender his resignation to Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and staked claim to form the next government. With that, the 17th Bihar Assembly was dissolved, clearing the path for the NDA to begin afresh.


Prior to this, Nitish Kumar was unanimously chosen as the leader of the JD(U) legislative party, with all newly elected JD(U) lawmakers giving him their full support. Similarly, in the BJP legislative party meeting, Samrat Chaudhary was unanimously elected leader and Vijay Sinha the deputy leader. This indicates that Chaudhary and Sinha are likely to become Deputy Chief Ministers. Another speculation is that Chaudhary will continue as Deputy Chief Minister and the second Deputy CM post could go to the LJP (Ram Vilas).


For all his political zigzags, Kumar remains unmatched in oath-taking longevity. He has already been sworn in nine times - eclipsing J. Jayalalithaa’s six terms in Tamil Nadu and will extend his record further. November, it seems, is his political talisman: Thursday’s ceremony will be his fifth November oath since 2005.


In sheer tenure, he still trails Pawan Kumar Chamling of Sikkim (24 years and 165 days), Naveen Patnaik of Odisha (24 years and 99 days), and Jyoti Basu of West Bengal (23 years and 137 days). Yet, Kumar’s near two-decade span - 19.2 years - has been achieved in a far more fractious political marketplace.


Intense wrangling

The NDA’s sweeping 202-seat victory in the 243-member Assembly sets the stage for a cabinet reshuffle of considerable breadth. Based on the alliance’s formula, the BJP may claim 15–16 berths, the JD(U) around 14–15, the LJP (Ram Vilas) two or three, and one each for the Hindustani Awam Morcha and Rashtriya Lok Morcha. Between eight and ten newcomers are expected to enter the ministry, with more women likely to feature this time.


The BJP’s list of probables includes Chaudhary, Nitin Naveen, Mangal Pandey and Hari Sahni, while younger aspirants like Rana Randhir, Gayatri Devi, Vijay Khemka and Maithili Thakur have begun making their case.


On the JD(U) side, stalwarts such as Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Shrawan Kumar and Ashok Chaudhary are tipped to return. Fresh faces may include Umesh Kushwaha, Kaladhar Mandal, Rahul Singh, Sudhanshu Shekhar and Panna Lal Singh Patel. Juma Khan, the NDA’s lone Muslim MLA, is also likely to be inducted.


Minor allies, too, will extract their pound of flesh: Santosh Suman of the Hindustani Awam Morcha, and Upendra Kushwaha’s spouse from the Rashtriya Lok Morcha, are poised for slots. Mr Paswan’s LJP may secure three berths, with Raju Tiwari, Sanjay Paswan and Sanjay Singh among the frontrunners.


The real wrangling is over the choicest posts. The JD(U) is pushing hard for the Assembly Speakership and the Home portfolio; the BJP would prefer to keep them. That the LJP now wants a deputy chief ministership further thickens the broth. Negotiations are continuing at the national level, and the veneer of consensus could thin quickly if the distribution of spoils is deemed unequal.


Nitish Kumar resigns as Bihar CM, Guv accepts it

JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar on Wednesday submitted his resignation as the head of the outgoing NDA government in Bihar to Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, state BJP president Dilip Jaiswal said.


The governor accepted his resignation and asked him to continue as caretaker chief minister until a new government is formed, Jaiswal told reporters. Kumar was accompanied by Union minister Chirag Paswan, RLM chief Upendra Kushwaha and Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya during his visit to Raj Bhavan.

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