Employee "A" in a company walked up to his manager and asked what my job is for
the day?
•The manager took "A" to the bank of a river and asked him to
cross the river and reach the other side of the bank.
•"A" completed
this task successfully and reported back to the manager about the completion
of the task assigned. The manager smiled and said "GOOD JOB". Next day
Employee "B" reported to the same manager and asked him the job for the day.
The manager assigned the same task as above to this person also.
•The
Employee "B' before starting the task saw Employee "C" struggling in the
river to reach the other side of the bank. He realised "C" has the same
task.
•Now "B" not only crossed the river but also helped "C" to cross
the river.
•"B" reported back to the manager and the manager smiled and
said "VERY GOOD JOB" The following day Employee "Q" reported to the same
manager and asked him the job for the day. The manager assigned the same
task again.
•Employee "Q" before starting the work did some home work
and realised "A", "B" & "C" all has done this task before. He met them
and understood how they performed.
•He realised that there is a need
for a guide and training for doing this task.
•He sat first and wrote
down the procedure for crossing the river, he documented the common mistakes
people made, and tricks to do the task efficiently and effortlessly.
•Using the methodology he had written down he crossed the river and reported back to the manager along with documented procedure and training
material.
•The manger said "Q" you have done an "EXCELLENT JOB".
The following day Employee "O' reported to the manager and asked him the
job for the day. The manager assigned the same task again.
"O"
studied the procedure written down by "Q" and sat and thought about the whole
task.
He realised company is spending lot of money in getting this task
completed. He decided not to cross the river, but sat and designed and
implemented a bridge across the river and went back to his manager and said,
"You no longer need to assign this task to any one".
The manager smiled
and said "Outstanding job 'O'. I am very proud of you." What is the
difference between A, B, Q & O???????? Many a times in life we get tasks
to be done at home, at office, at play., Most of us end up doing what is
expected out of us. Do we feel happy? Most probably yes. We would be often
disappointed when the recognition is not meeting our expectation.
Let us
compare ourselves with "B". Helping someone else the problem often improves our
own skills. There is an old proverb (I do not know the author) "learn to teach
and teach to learn". From a company point of view "B" has demonstrated much
better skills than "A" since one more task for the company is
completed.
"Q" created knowledge base for the team. More often than not,
we do the task assigned to us without checking history. Learning from other's
mistake is the best way to improve efficiency. This knowledge creation for the
team is of immense help. Re-usability reduces cost there by increases
productivity of the team. "Q" demonstrated good "team-player" skills, Now
to the outstanding person, "O" made the task irrelevant; he created a Permanent
Asset to the team.
If you notice B, Q and O all have demonstrated "team
performance" over and above individual performance; they have also demonstrated
a very invaluable characteristic known as "INITIATIVE".
Initiative pays
of everywhere whether at work or at personal life. If you have initiative you
will succeed. Initiative is a continual process and it never ends. This is
because this year's achievement is next year's task. You cannot use the same
success story every year.
The story provides an instance of performance,
where as measurement needs to be spread across at least 6-12 months.
Consequently performance should be consistent and evenly spread.
Out-of-Box
thinkers are always premium and that is what everyone constantly looks out for.
Initiative, Out-of-Box thinking and commitment are the stepping stone to
success.
Initiative should be lifelong.
Think of out of the
box.
