Serious fun. Anyone ?

By Ranjan Yumnam *

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt.

There is a huge difference between our work culture and that of other society's attitude to work. We consider work as a drudgery that must be done as a matter of compulsion; we literally drag ourselves to offices and when we reach there we ruminate and stare at the workload like it's the millstone in our neck. We waste time and postpone laying our hands on the job that we are supposed to do until the last minute, thereby compromising the quality and our own credibility.

How different this kind of lackadaisical approach to work is from say, the Japanese work culture. While we invent ways of whiling away the time, the famous stereotypes being knitting, eating singju, playing rummy or plain gossiping about the boss' peccadilloes, the Japanese workers actually die out of overwork. They even have a name for this phenomenon of casualties from toiling so hard, and it's called karoshi. There are so many karoshi cases in Japan that the authorities have had to intervene to set limits on number of hours that an employee can work overtime beyond the normal hours.

I don't want karoshi type work culture in Manipur, because ultimately one should enjoy one's work and if the work kills you, what's the point buddy? We work to find our sustenance, self-esteem, pride and a meaning in our life. Our workplaces should attract us, infuse us with hopes of growth and provide reasonable degree of independence.

Unfortunately, our work culture has neither work nor culture. Majority of the employees does little or nothing and sleeps from paycheck to paycheck. The Pareto's principle of 80/20 is very true in the Manipur context. Only twenty per cent of the employees perform eighty per cent of the work, while the rest contributes nothing but problems. 80/20 principle also postulates that twenty per cent of an organisation's activities bring it more results than the other eighty per cent of what it does. If we combine these two axioms, what gets distilled is this management mantra: focus on your high performance workers and high-impact activities and eliminate or outsource the other low-return activities that gobble up eighty per cent of your time and resources.

Efficiency is desirable, but our main aim should be effectiveness. That's why an organisation should concentrate on the golden goose activities (the core activities) that can yield it maximum and most effective results and leave other routine matters to, well, the deadwood staff.

Working smart is the new way to work. Think corporate culture, think new work ethics. We need to adopt some of the best ingredients of corporate culture that multinationals have fostered consciously to boost employees' motivation level and optimise their contribution to the companies' bottomline.

Corporate culture is nothing but a set of shared values and objectives within an entity and the ones that come to mind is the role of leadership. Different organisations need different types of leadership. But what is generally accepted is that democratic leaders who listen to their subordinates and involve them in decision making is the most effective one. Such leaders bring cohesiveness and make team spirit possible.

Another dictum of the corporate culture is the catchy phrase "Work hard, play harder". There should be rewards and incentives system in place in an organisation to let the performers know their efforts are being recognised and to warn off the slackers.

The most important element of corporate work culture is performance, that is, getting the work done by whatever means. I remember having worked non-stop for 19 hours in a day in a corporate concern to meet an important deadline and I thought I was going to be a karoshi victim. Luckily for me, I didn't die. After the assignment was complete, I got a long paid vacation which was worth all my sacrifices for a few days of slogging. The point is, the play hard part should also not be forgotten to motivate the employees.

The internet search giant Google plays up the 'work hard, play hard line' to its heart and it has cultivated what has now come to be known as the Google Culture. The Googleplex, located at Mountain View, California, is every worker's dream come true. It has a lobby decorated with a piano, lava lamps, old server clusters, and a projection of search queries on the wall.

The hallways are full of exercise balls and bicycles. Each employee has access to the corporate recreation centre having gyms, locker rooms, washers and dryers, a massage room, assorted video games, foosball, a baby grand piano, a pool table, and ping pong. In addition to the rec room, there are snack rooms stocked with various foods and drinks.

While I was browsing through its company's website and looking at the various snapshots of its facilities, I also read its philosophy and this one struck me which says, "You can be serious without a suit." At another place, it reads, "work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun." No, wonder, their Director of Human Resources is designated as the Chief Culture Officer (read Fun Officer).

But the most important innovation in the realm of work culture by Google is the freedom it gives to the employees to spend 20 per cent of the company's time and resources on their own private pet projects (Pareto effect?). The results speak for themselves. Gmail, Google News, Orkut and Adsense originated from such individual endeavours and they have captured the world's attention.

The big question is : Can we bring such employees-friendly work culture in bureaucracy? This is a tough call. Bureaucracy is a big slob anywhere in the world. Max Weber said it is the most stable, rational and efficient form of administrative system. Yes, it may be stable but he is wrong about the efficient part. The rules of bureaucracy and the hierarchy sometimes stifle speed and innovation. On the other hand, it promotes group-think and can only bring about incremental changes, too little too late.

Well, you can't change the system. Our only consolation is to create islands of unique and fun-filled, anti-boring work culture in our own way at our own level with our own capacity.

Let's work up some serious fun.

Ranjan Yumnam

* Ranjan Yumnam, presently an MCS probationer, is a frequent contributor to e-pao.net. He can be contacted at ranjanyumnam(at)gmail(dot)com. This article was webcasted on October 03, 2009.