By Dr Jagdish Chandra Rout
While browsing the internet for the biological nomenclature ‘Homo sapiens’, we come across the elucidation: ‘Homo’ is the Latin word for ‘human’ or ‘man’, and ‘sapiens’ is derived from a Latin word that means ‘wise’ or ‘astute’.
An animal that leads a social life is called a social animal, and thus, the best example is a human being.
Humans prefer to live in a community. Hence, ‘social animal’ refers to “an animal which is highly interactive with other members of its species.”
Eminent Greek philosopher Aristotle has viewed: “Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human.”
He has opined this because: “Human beings live in groups whether they are smaller like a family or larger like a city or country.”
In this context, it would be wise to quote here American memoirist and poet Maya Angelou.
As we all learn from experience, Maya Angelou also recounts saying, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
In this era of Information & Technology (IT), and the predominance of social media platforms like Facebook, X (formerly called Twitter), WhatsApp, Instagram, et al, social relationships has been construed to be an ultra-modern paradigm.
Nevertheless, Brian Solis opines, “Social media is about sociology and psychology more than technology.”
Brian Solis is not only an award-winning author and global keynote speaker, but also a world-renowned digital anthropologist and futurist.
For the business world, Solis comments, “It’s not business to consumer, it’s not business to business, it’s people to people.”
Carroll Quigley, who is remembered for his teaching work as a professor at Georgetown University as well as for being an American historian and theorist of the evolution of civilizations, contends, “The basis of social relationship is reciprocity; if you cooperate with others, others will cooperate with you.”
This professor in his famous book “The Evolution of Civilizations” has put forth:
“For years I have told my students that I have been trying to train executives rather than clerks. The distinction between the two is parallel to the distinction previously made between understanding and knowledge. It is a mighty low executive who cannot hire several people with command of more knowledge than he has himself. And he can always buy reference works or electronic devices with better memories for facts than any subordinate.”
Prof Carroll adds, “The chief quality of an executive is that he has understanding. He should be able to make decisions that make it possible to utilize the knowledge of other persons. Such executive capacity can be taught, but it cannot be taught by an educational program that emphasizes knowledge and only knowledge. Knowledge must be assumed as given, and if it is not sufficient, the candidate must be eliminated. But the vital thing is understanding.”
Let’s sign off with a quotable quote from noted American author and speaker Joyce Meyer:
“We can improve our relationships with others by leaps and bounds if we become encouragers instead of critics.”
(The author is the founder & CEO of JB Consulting and Strategies)