The Birbal way - unleashing creativity and change through positive personas

Birbal was a minister in the court of Emperor Akbar, who ruled India during the 15th century. Birbal became famous across the land for his wit, and ingenuity in problem solving. Subjects, courtiers, and kings alike sought his help in solving difficult problems. Birbal's stories of cleverly helping his king, and his people solve many a dilemma are folklore, and popular as comics, cartoons, and story books amongst children of all ages.

My work keeps me regularly out of town, and I find myself frequently parenting my young daughter over the phone. As any parent can imagine, the issues that crop up are sometimes unpredictable and complex, and not the most amenable to guidance over a phone call - especially when you are pressed for time.

And then my daughter had the opportunity to go to school halfway across the earth in a remote area of India for a few months. We spoke once during weekends. Over long phone conversations an anxious parent began a ritual of reading stories to his little one every week. Birbal's stories were the most popular, and I observed how my daughter remarked that he was so smart, and  he had such a creative way to solve every problem that came his way.

Gradually I introduced an inquiry into our conversations. As she shared her challenges and difficulties, I would ask, " if Birbal were here with us, what would you ask him to do? ....And how do you think he'd go about solving it?"

 These two inquiries, simulated step by step for many a problem, gradually created a shift in the conversation. I began to notice her moving away from just sharing her problems to leveraging her imagination - describing not just challenges, but how she would approach the situation. She started talking about other broader issues that did not impact her directly per se, and pose possible alternatives to how we could better these situations. The mindset was shifting away from a problem to a solution orientation, and Birbal's persona was there to help spark her imagination and creative side.

Our conditionings, inhibitions, and fears, accumulated since childhood, become an inner voice (or inner critic) that holds us back when we want to be creative, try new approaches, or resolve to make a change in our life.  This inner critic is seeded during our formative years, for example by parental instruction  (rightfully or wrongly - parents are trying to instill survival skills in us, "don't touch that, it can give you a shock"), and criticisms. Such external interactions become internalized  and acquire a persona of their own - our inner critic - residing as a voice in our head, and constantly carrying on a conversation in the background. The background conversation modulates our natural instincts, urges us to take the safe, well beaten path, or undermines our resolve to make changes, no matter how much we may wish to make them. (In an organizational setting, it is these individual background conversations, going on within every employee that makes organizational change so difficult)

As we seek change, as we seek to harness our creativity, we work to over come our inner critic - recognizing it, and making a conscious effort to keep it from holding us back.

Perhaps there is another persona that we can acquaint ourselves with as we deal with the inner critic. This is a persona that epitomizes our values, our purposes, and speaks to our most imaginative, creative, and resourceful self. We can name this persona, describe its values and abilities, maybe even find a real person, and use him in our inner conversations to help empower us to make choices that resonate with our deeper purpose and values.

Your inner critic can hold you back, but your positive persona is there to lead you. He has been where you wish to go, and knows the path well.

Ready to give it a try?

Effective persona building requires more than a superficial level of knowledge. Birbal to my daughter was an authentic individual who had used his ingenuity to overcome many an obstacle. His problems, deliberations, and tactics were vividly described in the stories and comic books that she had read.

 Likewise, if I pick an individual as a positive persona I need to know how he solved problems, what were his values, his deliberation in moments of choice. I have to be immersed in the situations about his persona that would appeal to me.

 A great example is in the movie Invictus, when  Matt Damon's character (Francois Pienaar) visits Robben Island days before the rugby world cup final (Robben Island is where Nelson Mandela had been imprisoned for twenty seven years during apartheid) . The moments of him imagining how Mandela spent his time there, getting a feel for the cramped space, the harsh environment, and yet the personal transformation that he underwent in that prison cell, connect him to Mandela's persona, and the higher purpose of his mission. Towards the end of the Rugby world cup final, this persona helps him inspire his team by appealing to something far greater than themselves ("Listen to your country...this is our destiny"), strengthen their resolve, and win the world cup.