Time Swing Analysis™

What is Time Swing Analysis?

The method of Time Swing Analysis™ is a mental exercise evolved by Prem Kamble which encourages you to:

Mentally go back in time several centuries to a primitive era and imagine with full details as if you are living in that period, not just in terms of the lifestyle, but also with respect to the beliefs prevelant then. When settled in that era, you think of the present world with the technological advances and gadgets of today. Realise fully how unimaginable today's lifestyle and scientific achievements feels to you as a primitive human. Your reaction is sure to be "Not Possible".
Then come back to the present and realise how primitive were the methods, thoughts and beliefs of that period. See how ridiculous and funny the beliefs of the past appear. Then take a swing into the future, a few hundred or thousand years from now and imagine the lifestyle and the world then. This time let your imagination go wild, as you had to when you were looking at the present world from the underdeveloped world. Remove "Not Possible" from your vocabulary, and imagine the world, the technology and the gadgets of future in the fullest details.
Also when into the future world, look back at your life and beliefs in the world today. Do your technologies and some of your beliefs appear as ridiculous as those in the period when it was believed that the earth is flat, and that you could fall into hell if you ever went to the edge of the earth?

What Does Time Swing Analysis Achieve?

Time Swing Analysis helps you to

Realise that however advanced you may have been today, you are still on a journey where unimaginable surprises are still in store. It brings humility in your approach.
Realise that technology is ever evolving, and looking at the way it has empowered humans till today, it is bound to empower us with unimaginable and unthinkable new innovations.
Cope with the changes which are happening now. Understand the current changes and be prepared for the possible future changes
Overcome the typical resistance to change
Open our eyes to certain facts and fallacies regarding our current situations which we may be unaware of.
Foresee the future or predict the future with more openness, without the barrier of a "not possible" or negative attitude.
Imagine and foresee what is in store in future technology and beliefs.

When situations are analyzed in terms of past, present and future, they give useful insights to deal with in the present. When there is clarity in understanding the current situation, it is easier to deal with it, and improve it.

Most importantly, it helps you to realise that if yesterday's beliefs were destroyed like a pack of cards, the same may await your beliefs of today which you swear for.

In other words, "Time Swing Analysis" is a technique involving the following simple steps: go back in time, look at events and their fallout in the past, learn from those, swing back in time to the present and apply the learning to analyze what is happening now. You also swing into the future and extrapolate from the past to get insights into what the world is likely to be in future.

Sounds too primitive? Let us look at how it is used.

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How Time Swing Analysis Can be Used

Prem Kamble has used this method in two very diverse areas

to examine the current beliefs in God and Religion and be able to more openly visualise the future, and
to ensure successful IT Transitions by Managing Resistance to IT-Driven Change.

Let us see how it can be used in the two cases listed above.

Time Swing Analysis To Examine the Current Beliefs about God and Religion

Prem Kamble uses the Time Swing to swing between the past, the present and the future to examine the beliefs about God and Religion.

Prem Kamble visits the past to examin the origin of religion and the concept of god. He believes that the concept of god and religion was conceived by some very well meaning saints for the benefit of mankind. But today, the total deaths due to religious conflicts are believed to be more than deaths due to all natural calamities put together. This proves that the plan of the sages who conceived this idea for people's welfare has not really worked. Prem Kamble uses Time Swing Analysis technique to analyze why this method has failed, what was the original objective of the method, where we went wrong and what the future has in store for us.

Time Swing Analysis asks the reader to move backwards through scientific history, return to the present, and then imagine the future, precisely to loosen the assumption that today's knowledge represents the endpoint.

In his book "God in Two Minutes", Prem Kamble has used Time Swing Analysis to swing back in time to examine beliefs and myths of the past. Swinging back to the present, he analyses how advances in science have transformed our old beliefs. He then swings forward in time to the future and extrapolates the past trends to imagine a world several years from now, particularly to examin whether our current beliefs stand the test of time and survive the imminent technological advances. When we look at the past and the possible future, it helps open our eyes to the possibility that our strongly held beliefs of today can also turn out to be myths in the future, just like old beliefs have today.

Read my book God in Two Minutes available as e-book or Paperback
God in Two Minutes-A Summary
Prem Spirituality Model: Spirituality as a Science
See More Articles Related to God, Religion and Spirituality

Time Swing Analysis for Successful IT Transitions

While Prem Kamble used the Time Swing to visit the past, the present and the future to examine the beliefs about God and Religion to manage IT-Driven Change, he uses it to swing between the past and the present to gain valuable inferences by comparing the hurdles of the Industrial Revolution with the turmoil of the Information Revolution.

According to renowned IT Research Analysts, the failure rate of IT projects, particularly ERP implementations is 70-80%. In case of ERPs, this is really alarming looking at the fact that most companies implement the most trusted ERP packages through the world's best consultants.

Prem Kamble believes that the cause of these failures is more socio-cultural than technical. It is a problem of adopting the new technology and managing IT-Driven change. Prem Kamble has used Time Swing Analysis very effectively to get to the bottom of this problem and identify the root cause of the problem. It helps managers understand this technology better without the inherent fear of IT and the inferiority complex associated with lack of IT knowledge.

Prem Kamble goes back to industrial technology of industrial era and industrial revolution, examine the pitfalls of industrial machines and revisit the huge upheaval and resistance to machines that was there (in other words, he looks at the Turmoil of the Industrial Revolution). Yet, today we are extremely happy with the industrial age machines and devices like cars, aeroplanes, electricity, etc.

But each of these had some serious limitations or prerequisites to their effective use. There is something we do to insulate ourselves from the dangers, or to compensate for the weaknesses or disadvantages of the machine and then we still use it effectively. For instance, to use trains, we need to lay a huge network of railway tracks, the aircraft needs a huge aerodrome for takeoff and landing, electricity needs heavy insulation else it can kill. We need to 'give' something to 'get' the benefits of industrial age technology. We have now learnt the rules of the game to benefit from those technologies while avoiding the pitfalls.

What were the rules of the game? How did we overcome them? Are we stuck in Industrial Age mindset while trying to solve Information age problems? What is the mindset change required and how do we achieve it?

While we have now matured in the industrial age, we are still novices in the information age. We are fully comfortabl and highly successful while using industrial age technology. Why we fail in using information technology is because we have not learnt the rules of the game. We have not learnt to 'give' what the technology needs to give us the desired benefits. In fact, we have not even identified what we need to give what the technology expects from us. The problem is compounded by the fact that, unlike industrial technology, for which the prerequisites were physical, the prerequisites for information technology are more subtle – more of changes in attitude, behavior and expectations.

What are the rules of the game which impact today's changes which are happening around us? How do we play by the rules of the game and win?

Time swing Analysis, or visiting and analysing the past, helps us to get insights into these subtle issues.

Please see:

Manager's Success Kit for an IT-Driven World
Behavioral IT® - Managers Need not Fear IT
Behavioral IT®: A Multi-disciplinary Approach
See More Articles Related to IT

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