Why is it that people seem to stifle or hold back in expressing themselves in the office environment especially in colleges? Why is it that they look up to their higher ups for taking even smaller decisions? Why is it that they don’t want to take chances in doing new things? Why don’t they question the status quo? Why do they carry on with same old, routine, manual, ineffective procedures? Well, answer seems to be obvious– they don’t want to risk themselves by getting into any trouble!
Now look at the other side of it. Express yourself clearly to avoid any communication gaps and misunderstandings. I see people are not able to delineate between official / business relationships and personal relationships. If you are not satisfied with the work done by any of your colleague friends, is it possible to articulate it to him / her clearly and directly? I bet if it's possible in such environment for you think that s/he will feel bad if you say so. (It’s also difficult because you expect a favor from him / her in the future!). Moreover, the likelihood of that colleague taking it personally and carrying it along is also higher. That’s got to do with the Indian culture anyway! I’m still finding a way out of this. :-)
Is it that in a more hierarchical org. structure, making even trivial decisions becomes non-trivial? Does the manager need to decide which color & font to use for the presentation, whether to come by the college bus or not, whether to conduct the class in room no. 100 or 101!? Or is it the trend set by the superiors themselves by not empowering their subordinates enough – a chicken-egg problem?
The net result of it – people become ‘busy’ (?) in their mundane work without questioning the status quo, accepting whatever standards or procedures, not realizing inefficiency in the system, seemingly happy in their own comfort zones. :-) Probably, that’s what may be expected of them too – any change to the system is a pain for everybody. Why take that chance anyway? Little they realize that this questioning attitude itself is a great trait of a leader. Remember, there is no charm in life, if you don't take risks. I think we need open up more and see the outside world …!
1 comment:
An 'open mind' helps to get more 'exposure'; 'exposure' helps in getting better 'experience'; 'Experience' makes a better 'expertise'. Nothing new in it of course. A simple stuff.
However getting the 'e's above is not possible without the first 'o'. Having an open mind is in one's own hand. It's simple. Open, I mean to new ideas (irrespective of who it is coming from), open to new methods / procedures, open to new people and so on. I think 'mental weakness' of a person is inversely proportional to how much 'open' s/he is. Get exposed to the world more (travel, talk to people but not gossip, read, read, read a lot to overcome this weakness)
Not having an open mind may not be a problem to that person, but it is certainly to others! It's difficult to interact with them, they think they know a lot; hence it's difficult to convince them. In the process, they become party to inefficient systems. Rest of them can clearly see it; however they will not be able to see themselves (like a frog in a well just can't imagine how big the ocean is nor it would listen to explanation of largeness of the ocean.)
You also might have come across such people. But be aware of these facts and try to open up as much as possible. It doesn't mean that revealing all your secrets on the other hand though.
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