Pages

Sunday, February 20, 2011

To be or not to be - Part 8 'GET it Right or DO it Right ?'

Managers can be classified into two broad types. Type 1 consists of managers who want to make things happen, who give priority to what is good for the organisation (not just in the short term), for whom private agenda is second priority, who is willing to give his best to the job, motivates and supports his team members,who is willing to take responsibility for his actions and who takes pride in what he creates for its relevance to the organisation and to the society Let us call him the “Doer”

Type 2 consists of those who like to put-in minimum effort for maximum glory, for whom private agenda is the top priority, who spends more time in massaging the ego of his boss, who sees his team as just a means for his end, who is happy to take credit but finds ways to shift blame for any failure and for whom the output is just a means to self beatification. Let us call him the “Passenger”

I agree that being Doer or Passenger is not a binary option. They are two ends of a continuum and we fall somewhere in between. We may also move left and right in or take position based on circumstance, stage of life and personal experience. In this post I have categorized them into two buckets with Doer being more than a 50% doer and vice versa.

Every organisation will have both doers and passengers. Doers give priority of what they contribute for the organisation and the passengers give priority for what they get for themselves. Doers often put their head down and focus on deliverables while passengers are on the look out for personal credits (In our school life also we would have seen these two types; those who burned the midnight oil to complete the project / assignment and those who were smart to ‘copy paste’)

The Doers are looking for continuous improvement, looking for ways to make things better, to find a better solution, to better serve the customer, thinking of ways to to empower the team and to strengthen the organisation so that it continuous to deliver even after they are gone.

The passengers are focused on maximisation of short-term glory which can be quickly monetized, on avoidance of problem, are too happy to maintain status quo and take no decisions. They don’t care what happens after they are gone.

Eventually in most organisations the passengers do grow faster than the doers because they are better at managing their environment and more than willing to sell their souls for a price.. End justifies the means with ‘end’ defined as maximising personal agenda. They are too happy to live off the hard work of the doers and smart in edging out the doers in due course.They graduate from passengers to pirates.

Eventually the passenger/ pirate ends up being in the driving seat and the doers leave. This is aided by supervising bodies who are happy to certify technical compliance than try to understand and act upon deeper issues and root causes. Then the passengers will maximise their private interests leading to long tern ruin of the organization. If the organisation is operating in less volatile industry it may live a little longer.

This is the real world and in this world which course should I take? If I can respect what I am then I should be a Doer, If I judge myself on the riches and glory that I have amassed, then it is better to be a passenger. The choice is mine and I will pay the price for the choice I make.This could be what we may term as the the conflict of pragmatism and idealism


‘Laws’ control the lesser man. ‘Right conduct’ controls the greater one. ~Chinese Proverb

7 comments:

  1. Yes.. very true. But what is the solution for this since mostly passengers or "manipulators" will go to the top since they are good at that... And ultimately isnt managing a bit of being a passenger than a doer.. Your thougts on this.....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good one.. Just listened to a speech by Steve Jobs in a commencement ceremony (in face book) on a similar subject, which talks about connecting the dots backwards, do what you love and also being hungry and foolish, from his experience - even getting kicked out of APPLE - the organization that he created, at the age of 30. Which led him to create NEXT and PIXAR, that finally got him back to APPLE and he driving it back from near bankruptcy with the IPOD, IPAD and the like.
    The major character of a “doer “ is the passion with which they approach the work which can never be taken away from him. As rightly named, “a passenger” always need some vehicle or the other to go through their life, whereas as a doer could even create his own vehicle with the same passion and love, and finally in the end - the DOER would have had the best journey.
    Steve Jobs is the best living example - after being kicked out of Apple – the same organization that he founded and that too at a young age of 30. So be a DOER - change the world, and enjoy the journey too…

    ReplyDelete
  3. So true, loved the analytical approach on this. Passengers do move up faster, but they heavily depend on Doers, right?

    ReplyDelete
  4. many 'passengers' go on to do well in life because many of them genuinely believe they are 'doers' and manage convince the people that matter, at least for a short term that they are doers.

    ReplyDelete
  5. In Hindu mythology the doer is equivalent to the "asur shakti" ( most people mistake asur with evil and they are different from rakshas)and passengers are pleasure loving souls who are called "devtas". in any system it is a constant stuggle between the two and sometime the big GOD has to kill an asura becuause the disruptive energy need to be contained for the system to exist. The doers need to understand this "laxman rekha". It is ture sometimes the lesser god for smaller benift cheats an asura and is succesful. But then they also pay the price !!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Passengers are the smart ones. They move up the ladder in no time! Robert Greene ('48 Laws of Power') find such people brilliant.Less pain; more gain!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Amit,
    Your logic is not clear. Are you saying that doers are permeating disruptive energy? Are you suggesting that the GOD prefers status quo.
    You have also talked about Lakshman Rekha. Who draws the laxman rekha GOD or the passengers. Laxman Rekha was a shield of protection of the weak and not God's sanction or cover to private agenda of individuals. Do u remember, Hanuman who broke in to the fort of such usurpers of somebody else property for private interest. Hanuman was arrested, Udhishtira was cheated, draupadi was disrobed. There are many who supported all these actions and even justified. THE justification based on immediate outcomes and not no principals. As Koshy has concluded in his post, it is for each to take a call based on his conviction of what is right and there is no need to look into puranas for find excuses for lack of a sturdy spine!

    ReplyDelete