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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)

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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