“Man falls into routine when they are tired and slack; it has all the appearance of activity with a few of its burdens” (Walter Lippmann). A manager confined to routine abdicates a very rich realm of thought and possibilities. Progress is dependent upon the confidence to take another route - a new and may be difficult route, but that which ensures growth and progress.
Perhaps, it is true of all of us that the many things we learn and read, at the earliest years of schooling, do not resonate upon our thinking or behavior, with their real impact and implications, till many decades later.
“Leisure” was one such poem that I not only enjoyed reading but was always a willing volunteer to recite in rhythm and melody, to the demand and instruction of Rev. Bro. Robert - my English teacher in the Fourth Standard. The poet who composed this is William Henry Davies (1871 1940); he was welsh and an adventurer too; he established himself as a poet, after doing a trip to the USA, by boat. Using a boat was a departure from regular steamship!
The poem is an inspiration to stop, look, evaluate, ponder and then conclude, if there is any enduring value to undertake a task, a responsibility or an obligation. It invites rethinking.
To create the perspective of my thought on the daily drudgery; the poem reads: (only few stanza’s quoted here!). “What is this life, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare.” “No time to stand beneath the boughs, And stare as long as sheep or cows”and further, “No time to see in broad daylight, streams full of stars, like skies at night”.
To find stars during daylight is not meant to extend an invitation for daydreaming, but to be able to see beyond the obvious. It is all about reflecting today for a better tomorrow. We should not allow the pleasure of doing something, in the now and here, to seize upon and stifle the quest to be able to do better or even do differently, with better outcome. Processes and systems must change for upgradation with time. We ought to free ourselves from the enslavement of past practices-- a fresh view is always inevitably desirable.
Managers who are victim’s of unvarying run-of-the-mill assignment are always extremely busy. They are tied to their tradition, practice and pattern of everyday work. The repetitive activity day in and day out, drives away over the period of time, the naturally blessed ability and skill for quality imagination. The mind is trained to only think about completion of the day’s routine - all boxes must marked and ticked; that’s all. No room for creative thought to find its way into the formulation of thought and strategy. Propensity to stick to routine jobs ensures that there is never a possibility of a serious reconciliation with change. The greatest threat and enemy to progress and evolution is mundane routine; and monotonous habits are generated by unseen and unnoticeable degrees.
The process of dismantling the status quo emanating from traditional work habits is critical for the growth of any organization. If fresh thinking isn’t introduced into what’s done on a daily basis, the likelihood of decay settling into the organization only gets more pronounced.
The ability to judge is put to sleep by our habits. In the local corporate environment, the entrepreneur (or in other words, the Seths of the old school of thought) usually believe, and that too, with no malice he /she hires labor (read Slaves!) to, do “the assigned work”; the employees dare not venture into the arena of “thinking”. To the seth, “thinking” by a staff, hired to do a job tantamounts to heresy. ‘Doing’ is their assignment and thinking is not. Fortunately, we are now witnessing the decline of this outdated approach.
Ability needs no help to soar, nor can it be hindered: routine to the contrary, even if it be blessed with talent, however creates more average or less than average competencies. For the emergence of new vistas and dimensions of thinking, one has to shed off the beaten path of tradition.
Admittedly, it can’t be expected of someone who is working on an assembly line, say either in Pharmaceutical industry or an auto assembler, to create variety in everyday work. The process/ job assigned has to be strictly adhered to. Here, in this piece, the emphasis is on those(managers) who have under their supervision, a large workforce, to be able to revisit periodically on evaluating the current or existing business practices. The intent and purpose being to offer to team mates a chance to do variety of work; to give them a break from monotony. Humans aren’t robots, to function, without sentiment, emotion or imagination. All workers desire diversity in their experience.
Organization have to keep in focus that it is not merely through upward vertical movement on the corporate ladder that the staff can attain some change from their routine work; it is much achieved through lateral movement. Institution must develop HR policies where it must be enshrined that no position should be occupied by a single individual beyond a period of 24-36 months. Past this stated time, movement must take place. Such policy would yield benefit of having a staff force that is skilled on multi-disciplinary basis. This also takes away dependability and reliance upon the few - there is then available a large pool of resource. The organization is not held hostage for want of talent, skill and knowledge.
Those managers who do not find time enough to be able to develop resources to their positions, ultimately find themselves trapped in the mire of their limited thinking. Such lose out on atleast two counts; firstly they are unable to grow in terms of assignment and responsibility within the organization because their replacements are not ready to take up responsibility for lack of necessary skill set; and secondly, this type of manager has also chosen to rot with existing levels of knowledge and skills. It is unwise for managers to expect that their monotonous nature of work will be undone by others, nay, the dismantling of old work habits will have to be done by himself. A manager ought to undertake the difficult job of finding(thinking) new ways of doing old things. Routine is an eternal foe of growth.
In an amazing analysis, Norbert Wiener, in “The human use of Human beings”, suggests, that those who are condemned and restricted to enact the same function, over and over again, will not be good, not merely because of diminishing productivity but also due to, machine like behavior, will cease to be human.
There is a death of creative dignity in the consistent following of norms and traditions. Strict adherence to the run-of-the-mill processes and activity can become a permanent cause of great comfort and stability, for all the wrong reasons.
A poor life this if, full of care, we have no time….”
The writer is a senior banker and freelance columnist