What’s your Perfect Spaghetti Sauce? ‘Tossing the Myth around ‘A Perfect Worklife Balance’

What’s your Perfect Spaghetti Sauce?

‘Tossing the Myth around ‘A Perfect Worklife Balance’

7:30 pm Monday _14^th Sep 2018 _India _My Office cabin

 It’s my well balanced self, trying to take just the best call around ‘WORKLIFE BALANCE’ 

Handheld reminder beeps in for the long pending family get together

Red hues on the Outlook To-do list give me a haunting look

VIP Inbox beeps in with a desperate call

And I am zoned out, telling myself, how do I manage my work & life and have it all!

7:30 pm Monday_21^st Sep 2018_ India _ My office cabin

 It’s again me & my well balanced self , however this time a real well balanced one , telling myself that all this while I was looking for dramatic transformations to get my utopian work life balance in place and here I am now, a witness to all the botched attempts at it !

My article today , is definitely not an attempt to have a laundry list given to the readers on how can they manage their work life balance but it is definitely a hard try yet an attempted one to Toss out the myth around a perfect work life balance .

So here’s a simple analogy I could draw on this whole hoo-ha on Work life balance drawing some relevant logics from the Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell insights into the food industry's pursuit of the perfect spaghetti sauce & I and make a larger argument about the nature of choice and happiness https://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce

Few straight correlations drawn here that may help us ease out the whole pressure we assumingly brought upon ourselves.

·         Mind knows not what the tongue wants - Classic study at Harvard for the 600 $m profits made by Prego taught us the biggest lesson that we may not always know what we really want , simplistically put as a pressure we brought us into, while solving the puzzle on how can I not manage when others can ?

·         Life runs on a horizontal plane _There is no good / bad or perfect /imperfect... There are only varieties that suit us, different & unique for each one of us   

·         Platonic notion – On being able to have it all, 50:50 work & life!!

·         Obsessed with universals – created by self & that by the societal pressures

Now, as we peel out the unwanted set principles on work life balance, we must base our choices on understanding the variabilities and not in the search for universals

So, here is the next part of the article where I put down things I do to treat myself well in my well balance environment... now like I said there is no one size fit all, however some of these are too easy to execute and I am happy so far, again it’s my notion of managing it, you would know what’s the best Spaghetti sauce for you!!

ü  Focus on small changes & not dramatic transformations – We all took baby steps first before running around & this simple rule should get you started 

ü  Toss out the myth  - There is no such thing called work life balance , and if this line has caught your attention enough , I am sure this article would make sense to you just as much it is making to me

ü  Have your own defined equilibrium – Remember no size fits all and all cannot be force fitted in one size!

ü  Control & responsibility – should always lie with the one wanting to control his/her life and no one else , that’s the success design code    

ü  The have it all attitude takes us nowhere , or else superman would never be beaten by the silly iron man, we all come with the best and can’t have it all

ü  Crossover between WANT TO BE & SHOULD BE – takes us to a tipping point! Tell yourself , I am and I solely am who I should be cos’ all others are already taken ; being yourself is the modus-operandi to walk this tricky worklife balance crossroad

ü  KEEP TIME or IT KEEPS YOU - It’s the stronger who wins, when its time vs us, the success lies on how well we manage all we need within the 24 hours that all of us have ; time is rude and doesn’t budge so managing it well is the key, Trite but true!

ü  Bad habits are tough to break – 21 day rule could be a game changer , health is wealth and if we run low on this resource , we would be dehydrated in the long run we take in pursuit of happiness & balance 

ü  Ask for support – I am no superman and this constant reminder to yourself helps , outsourcing non value add , delegating , asking for support is sure an enabler 

ü  Darken the Blurring technology boundaries – while technology helps us cheat the time, it often transcends the work & life bounds, so keep a watch... Few hours off phone/twitter, emails!

ü  Fine art of saying NO – often misjudged , but tell yourself if it’s a No , it’s a No

ü  Eat the passion fruit _ Pursue what you love is the key here , time out for your own self , pursuing your passion or a hobby is a soul food 

ü  If you want to crack it – Track it _ Timetables and self-made mechanism to track where you are on your charters are really helpful , simple fridge post its are a boom

ü  Self-Reward is the highest reward – I did it and I am treating myself is the new reward , some me time , a small 30 mins coffee with blueberry tarts aren’t bad  at all J 

So as I head out to my favorite café for some spaghetti, I would urge you to think about what you’d like on your platter too!

I would be happy to hear from you on how did you like / dislike this article.

Official ID: shilpi.saklani@3ds.com

My personal Blog: A lil’ more marmalade- http://shipsmusings.blogspot.in/

High performance Organisation = Ownership+Accountability+Trust

High performance Organisation = Ownership, Accountability & Trust 

 

 

It was just last week during my leadership engagements when someone asked me,

‘How would you define a high performance organisation?’  

The definition per se at the top of my mind though, did not appear to the answer per se. I thus, reflected on the question over the weekend, read through some studies and delved into the nuances of a high performing organisation basis learnings from my one decade old career. 

 

The outcome was a simple truth finding, the key to define or create a high performing organisation lies in the culture rather than in mechanics. Culture, like a brand, is misunderstood and often discounted as a touchy-feely component of business that belongs to HR! Now that I have held your thought on the culture statement, let me bring in another variable into the equation ‘VUCA’, the buzz world of today’s organisation ecosystem where we operate in the environment of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity & Ambiguity and thus it’s a no brainer to say that organizations today are facing the need for change at a faster pace than ever before. The successful ones would only emanate from a culture fabric built in with what defines high performance. 

 

Apple, Google, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, GE, Unilever, Coca-Cola are members of an elite circle where exceptional performance is an everyday event, these groups operate on a different plane. We can name them - but can we explain them? When does High-Performance happen? What does it feel like? Can it be replicated?

So, here’s my attempt to articulate what it takes to be a high performing organisation. 

 

For high-performance organizations, there’s a strong link between taking ownership, having a culture of accountability, and having a high trust workplace. All three are critical to embed into the culture and values of an organization.

 

Taking Ownership means when I believe that that taking action is not someone else’s responsibility & that I have an obligation to the results. ‘I’ here denotes all of us who make the organisation, from the last rung in the ladder to the ones at the top. Simply put Ownership is about the initiative, not anyone’s but ours!

Accountability is about being responsible for the result. Ownership is about initiative & accountability is about follow-through. When you say “I’ve got this”, accountability means you will deliver as promised. 

Trust in the workplace tells others — “I believe in you. I believe you’ll do the right thing and I believe you’ll do what you say you’re going to do.”

Let’s take an example here, around Performance management, we often call it an HR responsibility and thus forget the ownership element here. A high performance organisation rests on the foundation of all taking ownership of the actions & results thereof. So how do we do it differently is the question? Aligning employees to the ‘WHY’ of the exercise, Bringing all on the same page for its execution, respecting the timelines on the exercise as if they were mine fully. All of us thus become the owners and participate fully in the initiative.

Accountability on the other hand as described earlier would mean that the stakeholders here, employees, HR function,leaders say ‘I have got it’, ‘I would follow-through’ and ‘we shall deliver’. The results thus are arrived from an ‘intrinsic pull’ rather than an ‘organisation / HR push’. 

Now the element of trust to seal the equation would entail that all stakeholders are trusted partners; we believe in the exercise & more importantly believe in the outcome thereof. Now this needs an approach where we connect the dots between big picture strategy elements such as mission (our purpose), vision (what we aspire for), core values (what we believe in), strategic focus areas (themes, results and/or goals) and the more operational elements such as objectives (continuous improvement activities), measures (KPIs), which track strategic performance, targets (our desired level of performance). If I know in doing what am I really doing, you have aligned me well to the organisation vision, now I trust what we are doing & I trust the KPIs set for me as an employee to ensure we get there! The trust equation is now realized & reaffirmed.

Ownership, Accountability & Trust, when used to sew the cultural fabric of an organisation creates a high performing organisation and this is what defines the winners from the followers! 

Let’s come together & create an even bigger brighter better team!