The Art of Work:
Today’s session started with a discussion on yesterday’s topic of the CAN groups. Most of the things that I reflected in my yesterdays email were reinforced with the example given to us by Professor Borromeo. He talked about an incident back in 1993 where the news of choosing your CAN group mates reached the students. And their reactions to this news were very different than what was expected of them. The high graders got together in groups and the laggers were left all by themselves. There I saw an opportunity for any of the high graders to assume a position of leadership by taking responsibility of the weaker students. But that did not happen. Obviously very disappointing. This goes on to say how important it is to "Learn" human behaviour. Both, to understand others around you but more importantly to understand oneself. How human beings behave in groups vs. individually; how they behave in the good times vs. the tough times; is a very interesting concept to study and I pursue it carefully. What I can reflect right now in reference to the example shared by Professor Borromeo is that any person can be nice when he/she is surrounded by nice easy surroundings. The true self of a person really emerges in situations that are high pressure and difficult.
The discussion for today mostly revolved around motivation: Self motivation and motivating others. Folks reflected on their understanding of motivation and what motivates them. There were as may versions as voices I could hear. But all thought really neared around defining motivation as a feeling to do a particular thing. The act of making your objective so attractive that it drives you for it.
So where does motivation come from?
Some amount / sort of motivation can be sought from your surroundings. In other words you can be motivated by people / things around you. But such motivation is usually short lived and usually dies down with the accomplishment or failure of the objective. Further, one has to 'depend' on other people / things to seek motivation which may not always happen. Over the past few years that I have spent working I realize that true and sustainable motivation really comes from within the person. I can motivate myself. I know what works best for me; not others. More importantly, I set my own challenges, however big or small they may be, and so in order to live upto my self esteem, I have to fulfil the promises I have made to myself.
The case in today’s HBO class today was Billy Bonsai. It has taken me a while to appreciate that every case being discussed in the class doesn't really have a solution or a key. And the more I realize this fact that more openly I am able to think. Realizing that these isn't a perfect solution for the case makes me thing out of the box. I think this has been the most important learning at AIM yet. If I imagine being in the situation of Hidayat (the case character) I would most probably consider Billy as a valuable employee that I may not want to lose. He is a positive character of skill, motivation and high on energy. Someone who is always an important ingredient of a team. the issues at hand is really about having Billy be a little more dedicated to his work. And this is never a difficult task as long as the person in question has motivation and positive energy. It is only channelling his energy. As a manager, the most difficult people I have come across are the people who do not have a drive. When there isn't a drive, the only thing you can do is constant monitoring and that can really become very energy sapping.
No comments:
Post a Comment