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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)

Sharad Pawar ticks off Fadnavis on merger comment

MUMBAI: Nationalist Congress Party (SP) President Sharad Pawar scorned Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for his comments a couple of days ago that the late Deputy CM Ajit Pawar “ had not informed the Bharatiya Janata Party” of the impending purported merger of his Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

 

Shooting a dart at Fadnavis in his characteristic style, Pawar  said that “the CM was not involved in the talks between the two parties” - which split in July 2023.

 

“I cannot understand what right he (CM) has to mention my name. Since he was nowhere involved in the reunification discussions, he has no right to make any comments on it,” Pawar told the media in Baramati today.

 

Fadnavis’ utterances were viewed as directly questioning the credibility of Pawar, 86, a former CM and Union Minister, and uncle to the late Ajit Pawar, that left the NCP (SP) seething with rage.

 

Some NCP (SP)-NCP leaders also privately questioned whether allies are required to consult the BJP before taking any actions concerning their independent parties, and whether it was reciprocated in equal measure.

 

Asked if the merger would still go ahead, Pawar deftly replied saying the immediate priority is to support each other before deciding to chart the path ahead, but admitted that “as far as political discussions on the reunion are concerned, there are no talks on”.

 

He reiterated that the merger talks were being conducted by the late Ajit Pawar along with NCP (SP) leader Jayant R. Patil – who also confirmed the same independently last weekend.

 

Pawar had made the explosive revelation that the Ajit Pawar-Patil duo had fixed the merger date as Feb. 12 – as endorsed by Patil – but everything was put on hold owing to Ajit Pawar’s sudden death in an air-crash on Jan. 28.

 

Fadnavis’ comments that riled the NCP (SP) supremo went thus: “Ajitdada was part of the (MahaYuti) government. The NCP is an independent party in the alliance. Could he (Ajit Pawar) take such a decision without informing us (BJP). He was stable in the regime. In fact, the day before (the air tragedy), we were together (post-Cabinet meeting) and even chatted for an hour”.

 

To a query, Pawar said “we are very happy that Sunetra Pawar has become the Deputy CM”. “It’s a matter of joy and satisfaction that she has got the opportunity to serve in this high post,” he said.

 

However, Pawar denied any knowledge of plans for memorial to be erected on the campus of Vidya Pratisthan he had founded in 1972, and Sunetra Pawar is one of the Trustees, along with NCP (SP) Working President Supriya Sule, other family members and prominent personalities.

 

Ajit Pawar's last sentiments

In a final call made by the late Ajit Pawar before the ill-fated plane crash on Jan. 28, to a NCP worker Shrijit Pawar from Katewadi, he reportedly spoke about “taking everyone from all religions and castes along” in his political journey.

 

Shrijit claimed that Ajit Pawar spoke with him just nine minutes before the crash outside Baramati airport and even played excerpts of that tele-con when the ill-fated aircraft was on the descent.

 

The short conversation, barely a minute, took place at 0837 am, but almost 20 minutes earlier, Ajit Pawar had sent a message to Shrijit suggesting a Mali community (OBC)  candidate should be fielded for the Zilla Parishad elections.

 

Later, they spoke. “Ajitdada and I hail from the same village. When he was in range, he returned the call, saying that the NCP should take all communities, castes and religions along,” said Shrijit on that brief telephonic chat.

 

“The Mali community has been given representation in the ZP polls from the Supe group” said Ajit Pawar, to which Shrijit affirmed: “Yes, Dada, take whatever decision you feel is right”.

 

Lauding his late leader, Shrijit said that the call recordings proved how Ajitdada was keen to take every community along without any discrimination in the elections.

 

 


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