It was kind of an epiphany that hit me in the middle of a conversation I was having with a close friend of mine. And to be true, it wasn't an epiphany, as much as I would like to call it one. What it was, was something my that friend just said while we were talking. We both are running our own little marathons, behind our dream-trains, he behind his, I behind mine.. It's probably why we get along well. Anyway, Here's how this post started...
My friend recently started a band of his own with two more blokes, which makes them a 3 piece band, in case no one's keeping a head count. From whatever little I know of the way the band functions, from what my friend tells me, it looks like this friend of mine seems to be the most enthusiastic of the lot to go ahead with what these folks started off with, which is another way of saying that he does all the running around. Now that is a good thing. Why it is so, I know not.
So we were chatting about the band's latest performance, and how he was happy about how things were working out. I asked him, if he minds doing all the donkey-work. As a response, he said "Someone has to do it...".
The line hit me like a wave. There's no arguing the fact that what he said had nothing profound in it.
But what hit me was the simplicity, rather the truth in what he said.
I have a story of my own, my dream-train I am running after... I have my own team of blokes who is into doing 'stuff', which involves wading through a lot of red-tapism to get things done. Now that has it's own set of perks and quirks. But sometimes, the perks and quirks get all mixed up and I get really shit-pissed... Okay, that came out wrong.
Basically, I feel I am the only one running around to get things done, or the only one who wants to do 'stuff' in the first place. A strange sense of despondence surrounds me sometimes, to see the absolute lack of enthusiasm in my folks, who are supposed to come along and conspire along with the universe to make my dream come true. Surely it is a dream that all my folks and I share, and wish it be fulfilled someday in the near future, but these things don't strike you when you are at a low point of your day.
But someone, I don't know who, throws a stone at my head, and then this thought hits my head that "Whatever it is I am doing, I am doing it for my own satisfaction more than anyone else". And just just to prevent getting beaten up the next time I see my blokes, in case any of them happens to read this, I must also mention that, its not like they are not there at all. They do manage to cover my backside when needed. Phew!!
As a matter of fact, the very fact that I have the liberty to call my blokes 'my blokes', itself is a constant reminder of how things eventually work out between us, somehow... Anyhow..
There is a thing about the fancy term called 'organisational behaviour', from the little I do/don't understand about the terminology. No matter how much psychology we put into the working of an organisation, irrespective of it's size, no one can circumvent donkey-work.
As far as individual roles in an organisation are concerned, there is an article I had read a while ago. It's called 'I, pencil' written by this fellow called Leonard Read, somewhere in 1958. It is a biography of a pencil.
Now, how a pencil's biography can have anything related to the behavior of an organisation is anyone's guess. To begin with, why would anyone write a biography for a pencil??
Actually, the article could have been about anything. For all we know, it could have been called 'I, pod'. But Steve Jobs was about 6, so it surely couldn't have been 'I,pod'...
What this article describes is how a pencil comes into the form we recognize a pencil in. It all starts in graphite quarries, where all the graphite gets mined, which then goes into the core of a pencil. The quarry workers haven't a clue where the graphite will go. It is sad, although safe to say that they might not even know what a pencil is. They get payed their daily wages, go home to make ends meet, give their children a better future, which may involve buying pencils for them, some of which might have the same graphite in their cores, which might be coming out of the quarry the worker gets his daily pay from.
The article then talks about all the subsequent procuring and processing steps that go into giving a pencil it's shape. What the article focuses on is that no single one in the 'Pencil-making' industry knows how to make a pencil from scratch. Few may know the entire chain of processes involved in making a pencil. But here's the deal. Knowing about a step, and successfully executing that step are two things, a world apart. You and I may have learnt about the equipment used for mining graphite(for instance). That knowledge, in no way, necessarily translates into out ability to execute the mining process, given that we have all the requisite equipment at our disposal. Mind you, the key word here is 'necessarily'. Of course, there are those of us who love DIY(do-it-yourself) kits!
But point here being that we need professionals at some, if not all steps of making anything.
Just to oversimplify things, the bet footballer may have no idea of how to make the best shoe for playing football. That involves sports scientists working nights off to study and understand the anatomy and bio-mechanics of the human foot. These scientists may know about the working of the human foot, but in most cases, they'll suck at playing football, because these folks had buried themselves in books when the football players were out playing.
What it all boils down to is that at the end of the day, to accomplish a task, we do not need everyone on the team to have the knowledge about everything that there is to pulling off the task. Each one standing up to what they are good at, at the right time is more than enough to deliver a happy ending. More importantly, we need to have faith that somehow, anyhow... each one of our blokes will stand up to the occasion when needed of them....
Below is the link to the article 'I, Pencil' for anyone interested in checking it out..
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