ARUN JAIN'S DIARY

One of the greatest creations of humankind is language. Language is by itself complex, comprising multiple grammatical rules, writing techniques, and different writing styles such as poetry and prose.

Language is the outcome of wonderful design. The greatness of its design is that it is sustainable and indeed, future-proof. An apt example of such sustainable timeless designs is that of the Indian languages. They are quite extraordinary and unique when compared to the other languages spoken across the world.

#design #designthinking #sodt

Article: Published on May 7, 2020
Codifying language

Bringing order to sound

One of the greatest creations of humankind is language. Language is by itself complex, comprising multiple grammatical rules, writing techniques, and different writing styles such as poetry and prose.

Language is the outcome of wonderful design. The greatness of its design is that it is sustainable and indeed, future-proof. An apt example of such sustainable timeless designs is that of the Indian languages. They are quite extraordinary and unique when compared to the other languages spoken across the world.

Language groups in the Indian subcontinent

The languages spoken in this subcontinent, especially their written form, can be grouped into two broad categories. Devanagiri script, that is popularly seen in languages such as Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi and other languages, has its origins from the Brahmi script. Interestingly, it is said to be visually similar to the script of South Indian languages that are said to be based on Nandinagari script.

If you observe any language closely, you would notice that they consist of several vowels and many consonants. For example, almost all Indian languages have vowels such as A, Aa, E, Ee, U, Ooh and consonants that include Ka, Kha, Ga, Gha and so on.

An interesting pattern

Have you noticed an interesting pattern here? This is about grouping certain consonants in one sequence and grouping few others in the next. This grouping is done based on what parts of the vocal chords are used to utter the consonants.

For example, the first sequence involves consonants such as Ka, Kha, Ga, and Gha. A major effort here involves the usage of the epiglottis only and not the tongue.

The next sequence involves consonants such as Cha, ChCha, Ja, and Jha. To utter every consonant, you have to hit the tongue to the roof of the mouth. The next sequence involves the consonants Ṭa, Ṭha, Ḍa, and Ḍha. A substantial effort will involve using the epiglottis as well as the tongue to hit the roof of the mouth hard. The next sequence is Ta, Tha, Da, and Dha. All of these consonants require more or less similar effort. The final piece involves the consonants Pa, Pha, Ba, Bha, and Ma. Here there is a need to open and close the lips each time to utter these consonants.

The creator of the language system has observed this carefully and placed similar consonants together so as to improve the receptivity of the learner.

Indian languages were developed thousands of years ago but imagine how a simple design phenomenon of patterns has gone into its genesis! Languages have not only flourished for ages, but have helped in the creation of timeless literature, novels and epics such as the Mahabharata and the Ramayana and holy books like the Bhagwad Gita, to name a few. 

For anything to become sustainable and flourish for ages to come, design is critical.

The author is also a deep researcher of culture, tradition and social fabric that shaped the thinking of different communities and faith systems. He works closely with the Gram Panchayat system to bring a design mindset for sustainable change. His years of research work in connecting Design Thinking elements in various sectors is now captured in a comprehensive book UnMukt: Science and Art of Design Thinking which can be downloaded for free

from http://d-thinking.com/registration/register.php

Today, I was conducting a Design Thinking Workshop for one of the top law firms in Mumbai. In Design Thinking, we identify 5 frictional forces that need awareness for effective problem solving – DCAFE – Doubt, Conflict, Anger, Fear and Ego.
We define Conflict as
A. Difference of Opinion
B. Difference of Perspective
C. Difference of Expectations

We also understand that for any creativity, we need all the above three ingredients in a team.

Thus, creativity and conflict are two sides of the same coin.

Then why should we call it Dispute Management Practice, when it accentuates a ‘win-lose’ mindset in both parties.

Why can’t we call it ‘Creative Solutioning for Managing Differences’?

Just a thought to ponder upon…

My learning for the day…

#designthinking #leadershipdevelopment

Today is a great day as Tamil Nadu celebrates Tamil New Year, Kerala celebrates Vishu and Punjab celebrates Baisakhi. The day is also celebrated as Pana Sankranti in Odisha, Pohela Boishakh in West Bengal and Bihu in Assam. Some of these States also celebrate the harvest festival today.

When we think of festivals and celebrations, the thought of food cannot be far behind. However, in this time of national lockdown due to the global pandemic, food sources have become scarce. While for many people, this period allows them to spend quality time with their families, it has also increased the efforts of women who ‘work for home’ and ‘who work from home’, and thus juggle their time between the kitchen and the laptop.

I am reminded of a wonderful Design analogy that I have shared in my Design Thinking workshops. In the current context, this analogy seems appropriate to be shared with you again. 

Let’s start with a question
Can we utilize constraints for a positive outcome? I believe we definitely can! Design Thinking advocates see constraints as friends when leveraged effectively.

Much of South Indian food is based on flour-based batter that ferments pretty soon due to the temperature. However, South Indians have come up with a unique process of using batter across extended periods just by changing the design of food around this.

Make friends with fermentation!

Let me expand this further.

What are the possible design objectives of the food chain? It should have (a) Nutrition (b) Variety in taste (c) Ease of cooking (d) Easy to digest and (e) Minimum wastage.

A deeper look at South Indian food
Let’s examine some food varieties such as dosa, idli, utthapam, different varieties of rice and gravies such as sambhar, in the light of the above parameters. There are insightful observations that revolve around interesting innovations and design elements.

1. The Dosa batter has the right mix of proteins and carbohydrates with pre-mixed portions of 1/3 dal and 2/3 rice as input/ingredients and this gives the essential nutrition
2. In Sambhar, one can mix any kind of vegetable from potato, tomato, pumpkin to okra along with spices. These items not only impart taste to the food but also provide essential nutritional value.
3. Variety is the spice of life, right? The same dosa batter can later be used to create other items, such as idli, utthapam, paniyaram and so on, based on the fermentation level – and as the days go by.
4. Simplicity is component based cooking. For example, when you cook rice, you can make multiple varieties of flavoured rice, such as curd rice, tamarind rice, sambhar rice, coconut rice, lemon rice, etc. The major part of cooking is done once in the morning and for each serving of a meal, very little work is left to be completed.
5. Easy on digestion: Pre-fermentation of proteins and carbohydrates help in easy digestion. The job is already half done even before it enters the mouth!
6. Almost zero wastage: The dosa batter can be used for multiple days till it is exhausted. Boiled left over rice can be used for multiple recipes including recipes for the next morning. One can even just add a single okra into Sambhar without it getting wasted.
7. The chances of so many design elements coming together cannot be a part of the evolution of food chain. Initial thinkers, who simplified many elements in human lives, must have applied their thinking in simplifying the food chain.

Food is essential to sustain life. In the current scenario, where food is scarce, leveraging batter-based foods like idly, dosa and utthapam helps in cutting down on boredom by bringing variety and helps the women at home.

Have you relished any food or heard about any cuisine that has an interesting design aspect to it? I would like to hear your thoughts

Today, Business Standard published my article on “Potential of Design Thinking” highlighting Design Thinking approach to stretch the vision of startups beyond the current reality to a desired state of 10X growth.

Traditionally, startups in India were limited to local geography-driven, short-term vision of ‘produce local’ and ‘sell local’. Recent trends in globalisation and liberalisation have provided greater opportunities to explore markets beyond the country and this warrants a wider thinking — a complete shift in the way we approach problem solving.

The success of this journey for startups will hover around the focus on “who is my customer”, “what does my customer wants” and not “what can I offer”.

#designthinking #startups

#ruralhealthcare #designthinking #eyespecialityhospital #designthinkingforhealthcare

Article: Published on November 26, 2019
Applying Design Thinking for rural healthcare

I am a practitioner of Design Thinking and have been conducting open workshops for over a decade. We apply Design Thinking for designing the world’s best banking software at Intellect Design Arena.

In one of the design workshops, someone asked a question, “How can we apply Design Thinking practices in solving complex rural development problems?” In another workshop, I received a similar question, “How do you solve the tertiary healthcare problem of rural India?”

Yes, it’s all about the ‘right questions’ which are more important in Design Thinking parlance. We need to understand the persona of the customer first. Understanding his emotional map is equally important. We need to understand the Desirability, Feasibility and Viability triangle for designing the right experience for the customer.

We observed that most of the specialist hospitals are in urban cities and not closer to rural customers. The hospital’s rural service teams bring patients to these hospitals for appropriate treatment. It’s an efficient model because of 2 reasons:
A. Viability of hospital infrastructure against high capital expenses in rural settings.
B. Lack of availability of specialist doctors in rural spaces.

But from a customer’s perspective, the urban setting is intimidating and built on the crutches of ‘someone else’s help’. It takes a lot of effort and time to enter the city hospital, just navigating the roads of the urban city on its own is a ‘project’ for the family of the patient besides the other expenses they have to incur.

With this insight we decided to setup a not for profit, charitable ADK Jain Eye Hospital at Khekra, a village in the Baghpat district near the community. Designed with a capacity to serve more than two hundred thousand patients and twenty thousand surgeries a year, this facility spans across 50,000 sqft. Dr Manju Jain Verma, MD, PhD and Ophthalmic Surgeon from Sydney, Australia personally designed all the services at world class level. Dr Ruma Gupta, MD and Ophthalmic Surgeon has dedicated her services to run this hospital.

It was a humbling experience for me at the opening ceremony of the ADK Jain Eye Hospital yesterday by Shri. Atul Garg, Hon’ble Minister for Health Services for the State of UP and Shri. Satyapal Singh, Member of Parliament, Baghpat district in the presence of hundreds of participants from the local community. In just 8 weeks of the alpha launch of the operation theatre, the hospital has performed Cataract surgeries for over 600 patients and OPD for 10,000 needy.

I must appreciate through this message the power of the team who believed in this lateral vision and helped in completing the hospital from land acquisition to building completion to interior design to equipping with a world class operation theatre in just 21 months. Pramod Balakrishnan designed the 5 floor which has the ‘Non-hospital’ building concept interconnected with light, visual and green spaces. The community’s amphitheatre in front of the hospital invites patients and they participate in treatment with well-trained local community staff and expert doctors.

I must acknowledge a few who have participated in this mission of creating a world class hospital near a rural community – Dr Manju J Verma, Dr Ruma Gupta, Prabhjyot Singh Sambhy, Pramod Balakrishnan, Dr Amod Kumar, Manju Jain, Dr Sudarshan Gupta, Dr Vivek Gupta, Dr Aravind, Arun Arora, Yogesh Andlay, Adish Jain, Vinod Jain, Dr Uma Gupta, Rajesh Jain, Maruthi Machani, Umesh Gupta from Ish Putra, Navin Gupta, Dr P K Gupta, Dr Shalini Agarwal, Dr Vikas Anand, Dr Deepak Dhama, Sangita and many, many more.

#DesignThinking #DesignThinkingForHealthcare #Healthcare #EyeSpecialityHospital

J&K Design Thinking workshop: Today, I got the opportunity to meet 20 Sarpanches from Rajouri and Poonch District of J&K. Mission Samriddhi and Gramonnati along with the Indian Army organised a Samriddhi Yatra to expand the world’s view of the newly elected Sarpanches. They have visited Hiware Bazar, Ralegan Siddhi and Pune before this 2-day Unmukt workshop.

There are many development accelerators participating to help ‘Connect the Dots’ to build a development highway with intrinsic strength of self-belief and effective planning.

I personally learnt a lot about the villages in J&K and about ‘Kashmiriat’.