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By:

Rahul Kulkarni

30 March 2025 at 3:32:54 pm

The Boundary Collapse

When kindness becomes micromanagement It started with a simple leave request.   “Hey, can I take Friday off? Need a personal day,” Meera messaged Rohit. Rohit replied instantly:   “Of course. All good. Just stay reachable if anything urgent comes up.”   He meant it as reassurance. But the team didn’t hear reassurance. They heard a rule.   By noon, two things had shifted inside The Workshop:   Meera felt guilty for even asking. Everyone else quietly updated their mental handbook: Leave is...

The Boundary Collapse

When kindness becomes micromanagement It started with a simple leave request.   “Hey, can I take Friday off? Need a personal day,” Meera messaged Rohit. Rohit replied instantly:   “Of course. All good. Just stay reachable if anything urgent comes up.”   He meant it as reassurance. But the team didn’t hear reassurance. They heard a rule.   By noon, two things had shifted inside The Workshop:   Meera felt guilty for even asking. Everyone else quietly updated their mental handbook: Leave is allowed… but not really. This is boundary collapse… when a leader’s good intentions unintentionally blur the limits that protect autonomy and rest. When care quietly turns into control Founders rarely intend to micromanage.   What looks like control from the outside often starts as care from the inside. “Let me help before something breaks.” “Let me stay involved so we don’t lose time.” “Loop me in… I don’t want you stressed.” Supportive tone.   Good intentions.   But one invisible truth defines workplace psychology: When power says “optional,” it never feels optional.
So when a client requested a revision, Rohit gently pinged:   “If you’re free, could you take a look?” Of course she logged in.   Of course she handled it.   And by Monday, the cultural shift was complete: Leave = location change, not a boundary.   A founder’s instinct had quietly become a system. Pattern 1: The Generous Micromanager Modern micromanagement rarely looks aggressive. It looks thoughtful :   “Let me refine this so you’re not stuck.” “I’ll review it quickly.”   “Share drafts so we stay aligned.”   Leaders believe they’re being helpful. Teams hear:   “You don’t fully trust me.” “I should check with you before finishing anything.”   “My decisions aren’t final.” Gentle micromanagement shrinks ownership faster than harsh micromanagement ever did because people can’t challenge kindness. Pattern 2: Cultural conditioning around availability In many Indian workplaces, “time off” has an unspoken footnote: Be reachable. Just in case. No one says it directly.   No one pushes back openly.   The expectation survives through habit: Leave… but monitor messages. Rest… but don’t disconnect. Recover… but stay alert. Contrast this with a global team we worked with: A designer wrote,   “I’ll be off Friday, but available if needed.” Her manager replied:   “If you’re working on your off-day, we mismanaged the workload… not the boundary.”   One conversation.   Two cultural philosophies.   Two completely different emotional outcomes.   Pattern 3: The override reflex Every founder has a version of this reflex.   Whenever Rohit sensed risk, real or imagined, he stepped in: Rewriting copy.   Adjusting a design.   Rescoping a task.   Reframing an email. Always fast.   Always polite.   Always “just helping.” But each override delivered one message:   “Your autonomy is conditional.” You own decisions…   until the founder feels uneasy.   You take initiative…   until instinct replaces delegation.   No confrontation.   No drama.   Just quiet erosion of confidence.   The family-business amplification Boundary collapse becomes extreme in family-managed companies.   We worked with one firm where four family members… founder, spouse, father, cousin… all had informal authority. Everyone cared.   Everyone meant well.   But for employees, decision-making became a maze: Strategy approved by the founder.   Aesthetics by the spouse.   Finance by the father. Tone by the cousin.   They didn’t need leadership.   They needed clarity.   Good intentions without boundaries create internal anarchy. The global contrast A European product team offered a striking counterexample.   There, the founder rarely intervened mid-stream… not because of distance, but because of design:   “If you own the decision, you own the consequences.” Decision rights were clear.   Escalation paths were explicit.   Authority didn’t shift with mood or urgency. No late-night edits.   No surprise rewrites.   No “quick checks.”   No emotional overrides. As one designer put it:   “If my boss wants to intervene, he has to call a decision review. That friction protects my autonomy.” The result:   Faster execution, higher ownership and zero emotional whiplash. Boundaries weren’t personal.   They were structural .   That difference changes everything. Why boundary collapse is so costly Its damage is not dramatic.   It’s cumulative.   People stop resting → you get presence, not energy.   People stop taking initiative → decisions freeze.   People stop trusting empowerment → autonomy becomes theatre.   People start anticipating the boss → performance becomes emotional labour.   People burn out silently → not from work, but from vigilance.   Boundary collapse doesn’t create chaos.   It creates hyper-alertness, the heaviest tax on any team. The real paradox Leaders think they’re being supportive. Teams experience supervision.   Leaders assume boundaries are obvious. Teams see boundaries as fluid. Leaders think autonomy is granted. Teams act as though autonomy can be revoked at any moment. This is the Boundary Collapse → a misunderstanding born not from intent, but from the invisible weight of power. Micromanagement today rarely looks like anger.   More often,   it looks like kindness without limits. (Rahul Kulkarni is Co-founder at PPS Consulting. He patterns the human mechanics of scaling where workplace behavior quietly shapes business outcomes. Views personal.)

The Art of Justice: Drawn to Solve

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

The Art of Justice

Forensic sketches, the hand-drawn portraits crafted by skilled artists, have been an invaluable tool in criminal investigations for decades. These simple pencil-paper illustrations remain a cornerstone of criminal justice, bridging the gap between eyewitness accounts and the pursuit of justice.

Forensic artists take scattered fragments and turn them into vivid portraits that can catch a criminal. These sketches are a psychological bridge between memory and reality. When witnesses are unable to recall specific details, forensic artists use interview techniques to draw out hidden memories. But it’s not just about art; it’s about the science behind it. Cognitive psychology plays a crucial role in sketch creation, as artists must understand how memory works under stress.

Forensic sketching originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the early artists who were often police officers with an innate talent for drawing. These officers would sketch suspects based on witness descriptions, and these images were then distributed in the form of “wanted” posters. In India, it gained prominence in the mid-20th century. The use of software like FACES and E-FIT in the late 20th century improved the accuracy and reach of forensic sketches, allowing for quicker and more widespread distribution.

One of the most significant cases in India where forensic sketches played a crucial role was the investigation into the Nithari killings in 2006. The case involved gruesome murders in Nithari, Uttar Pradesh, involving abduction, murder, and mutilation. Forensic artists created sketches based on witness descriptions, apprehending suspects Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic helper Surinder Koli, narrowing down the search and leading to their conviction.

The notorious “Black Widow” killer involving Jolly Joseph in Kerala is drawn from a witness’s brief encounter, circulated widely, and eventually led to her capture. She is accused of poisoning six members of her family with cyanide-laced food between 2002 and 2016. Without a single photograph or fingerprint, the sketch became the face of the investigation.

Recently, the Uttar Pradesh police released a sketch of the accused man and showed the sketch to the villagers and most of them pointed to the sketch of a man called Kuldeep Gangwar. Eventually, the police arrested the suspected serial killer in August 2024.

The Supreme Court of India has recognized the value of forensic sketches in criminal investigations. In the case of “State of Rajasthan v. Mahesh Kumar” (1986), the Court upheld the accused’s conviction based on a forensic sketch that matched multiple witnesses’ descriptions. The court emphasized the importance of forensic sketches as valuable tools when corroborated with other evidence. It also stressed the need for trained professionals to maintain accuracy and avoid wrongful convictions, underscoring the judiciary’s recognition of their crucial role in identifying suspects.

While the rise of AI and facial recognition software might seem like a death knell for traditional forensic sketches, the truth is that these two worlds are merging. Cognitive interviewing techniques and AI integration are being used to enhance memory recall and identify suspects. AI-powered software can analyse multiple sketches and compare them with existing databases, while virtual reality is being explored for aiding in the recall by immersing witnesses in a crime scene-like environment.

Forensic sketching remains an essential tool in the justice system, complementing modern technologies by capturing the essence of a suspect’s identity with a human touch. Its relevance in criminal investigations is evident in India’s history. The Supreme Court’s recognition ensures that this artistic discipline continues to play a vital role in the pursuit of justice. As technology advances, forensic sketching is expected to become even more effective in helping law enforcement bring criminals to justice.

(Dr. Kumar is a retired IPS officer and forensic advisor to the Assam Government. Das is a researcher with NFSU, Guwahati)

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