Perception and National Development

Deng Xiaoping, the architect of Modern China was invited by Lee Yuankew , then President of Singapore to witness first hand the economic miracle wrought under his leadership in Singapore. That visit transformed Deng's perception of the utility of capitalism and the virtue of free enterprise. Thereafter, he sent several delegations of Chinese officials to Singapore. They too felt that a similar economic transformation was possible in mainland China. Altered perceptions of the path of economic development led China to give up Communist notions of state ownership of capitalism and the crushing of private initiative. It led to the concept of the Special Economic Zone. Deng's new orientation to policy was famously summed up in his aphorism that " it does not matter if a cat was black or red, as long as it caught the mice." Communist Capitalism was the net result with the political reins of power in the hands of the Communist Party of China and the reins of economic development in the hands of private enterprise funded by foreign capital.

Chrysalis phase synonymous with metacognition

The chrysalis stage is synonymous with metacognition where apparently a person is dormant and lying inert and still but massive invisible internal formation is taking place within. Metacognition involves the exercise of all the powers of intuition, imagination and faith. Unlike the phase of the caterpillar marked by hyperactivity, a person soars on the wings of imagination, develops the strength of conviction and takes risks to discover purpose and find fulfilment. This is a phase marked by intensity. Prayer, meditation and other spiritual disciplines connects us during this phase with a higher consciousness.

Perception Re-engineering leads to metamorphosis

The new perception is akin to the egg or seed of development. The caterpillar phase is the pre-cognition and the cognition phase where a caterpillar focusses on consuming leaves all around, a person (s)focusses on learning or acquiring as much information or knowledge as possible. The re-cognition and meta-cognition phases integrates wisdeom with knowledge.

As Stephen Covey wrote, " Private victory precedes public victory." But, the path from private victory to public victory or recognition proceeds along these four phases of Pre-cognition, cognition, re-cognition and meta-cognition. These four phases correspond to the egg, caterpillar, and chrysallis stages that precede the emergence of the beautiful butterfly. Our ideas and our work also take wing through such a process.

The Process of Perception Re-engineering

The process through which perceptions transform our reality comprises of four stages- Pre-cognition , Cognition, Re-cognition and Meta-cognition. The final output is recognition at the three dimensional reality level. The Pre-cognition phase is the initiation through desires, goals, dreams,hopes. Working to fan the nascent desires or hopes into full flame and into concrete, tangible, measurable goals is the signal contribution of this phase. The Cognition phase is the time of working on the plans, implementing, learning and developing. This is the most substantive stage in any project. The Re-cognition phase is the time for re-learning and unlearning, revision of plans in the light of experience, mistakes and understanding of the practical issues involved. The Meta-cognition phase is the stage that involves the psychological and spiritual dimension in any human endeavour when we know the fruitfulness of our efforts and endeavour is not entirely in our control or domain of knowledge. Some of these four phases can be co-terminous, parallel, some sequential. The Recognition phase is the final outcome when the world around sees and knows the results of all the efforts that preceded it. Virtually, all human projects go through all these phases of realization, be it a student preparing for a competitive examination or a real estate investor executing a new building project or a head of state or government planning a new policy or program of economic development.

The Copernican Revolution, an instance of perception re-engineering

The Copernican affirmation that the earth was indeed spherical and not flat led to a spurt of geographical explorations and discoveries in the 16th century AD. This is a historical example of how perception broke an age-old myth and enabled mankind to overcome the fear of falling off the edge of the earth. Similarly, John F Kennedy's perception that the USA would be able to able to undertake a manned space expedition to the moon led to technological developments that actually enabled the feat.
It is certainly not an easy task to change perceptions as age-old conditioning and deeply held prejudices are involved. Often, interested parties would do all they can to prevent the new perception from capturing the imagination of the masses. The establishment in Copernicus's times too saw the view that the earth is round as a threat to their position. Nations have gone to war over the perception that they are a superior nation or race. As long as members of the so called higher castes perceive themselves to be superior, it will be difficult to rid India of the pernicious caste system. Police reform, too is a difficult process as the ruling political class in tandem with the higher bureaucracy are reluctant to release the control they exercise over the police in India and create conditions of autonomy, accountability and transparency for the police to function freely and effectively.

Perception Re-engineering

Actually, the concept and technique is more aptly called Perception re-engineering because on account of our past conditioning, we already have some perceptions on various subjects but re-engineering it is what will bring about a virtual transformation of our psyche, personality,life and environment. For instance, to bring about a change in the die-hard no change policing process in India, there are a large number of police chiefs as well as the rank and file on the one hand and sceptical public on the other who do not perceive reform happening. But if they take a cue from the UHM's remark in a DGP's conference that the police are treated like a football, and police chiefs all over the country organize football tournaments between police and public or FOPs(Friends of Police) during this season of the World Cup tournament in South Africa, global and national attention is focussed on police reform in India. The football can have police written on one side and public on the other. A creative stone thrown in the big pond of public opinion will have a ripple effect creating unforeseen changes on distant shores. Mahatma Gandhi attempted something similar when he took the common man's daily necessity, salt and undertook a long walk to a seashore to violate the new British made tax law on salt, unleashing torrents of transformation on the Indian political scene.