Riding on a broom to the Moon

Many would have heard this story of JFK visiting NASA space center. He spots a janitor with a broom, introduces himself, and asks him what he is doing. 

"Well, Mr. President," the janitor responded, "I'm helping put a man on the moon." 

To many, this janitor was a menial worker just cleaning the building and his contribution to the stopped there. But the larger story unfolding around him in the background, he was the proud member of a team that was helping to make history. Is it not?

Here is the point. It's not the janitor but the leader behind this mission who had injected that sense of belongingness into the team which aligned everyone with a higher purpose which the organization is pursuing.

Was he an aberration or we can find such motivated members across organizations? How many people do you feel we would bump into in an organization who have that sense of pride because of the purpose of the organization and also for the direct and indirect contribution of their role to the organization achieving its objectives? 

A trip in public transport, a field trip or a visit to an organization offers beautiful opportunities to us to observe people and their relationship with the organizations they work for. More technically speaking if they are aligned with the purpose of the organization they are working for.

A question about their work mostly does not elicit anything beyond the department and their job description at the most. The relationship between his role and its contribution to the organization in achieving its goals will always be missing. No matter how large or small your role, you are contributing to the larger story unfolding within your life, your business, and your organization. Why is this lost on most of the members?

What do organization leaders do about it?

Dr. John Paul Kotter, Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School, author, and founder of the management consulting firm Kotter International created this organizational change business strategy.

[Read more at: https://www.experiencetolead.com/three-methods-of-organizational-alignment/]

It’s one thing to hope for such alignment in an organization but very difficult to achieve in its totality. Many variables at each of its constituents and the ecosystem it is being tried in make it a challenging task. But when your entire team embraces that type of attitude and belief system, incredible things can happen.

So let us give it a try!

The Culture of Quality

A few days back few of my friends got into a casual conversation over someone’s posting on his Facebook wall on this slogan ‘Make in India’.

I commented that our country will continue to remain hopeless if there is general feeling and accepted belief that to excel in one's chosen field, he has to leave his own country. Because we have not produced anything worthwhile after giving ‘0’ to humanity, hence we do not get the world’s investment attention. To which a friend quipped, quality is available to people who Value quality, and we don’t value quality. 

Don’t we value quality? Don’t we expect quality? Yes, we do.

Most of our cribbing hovers around the falling standards in every sphere around us. From relationships, the education system, organizations, and society at large. Start any discussion on quality everyone jumps into this trip – how they only see mediocrity and averages around them. This blame narrative is mostly heard in the academic communities which now are infamous for their dangerously falling standards.

When everyone expects high quality, then why don’t we get it?

If our chat on Fb both of us were talking about the same thing - about the culture of the society which values quality, but I additionally was hinting at our behavior which contributes to the collective societal value system. Around that time, I chanced upon a video snippet by the author Simon Sinek where he was breaking down the society with its Culture as Value + Behaviour. 

Though the value can be at the collective and individual level, the behavior is always individual. I had this personal experience recently which is relevant to this issue of individual behavior and how it evolves in its ecosystem.

I had written a small note on my project as a primer. Though I felt that this is good enough for the immediate needs, something deep inside told me that this needs improvement. And only experts from this field can help. I sent it across to two academician friends who work in the related space; expecting them to find that elusive scope for improvement.

One sent back after few hours with few corrections which were nothing more than typos - was expectedly disappointed. The other sent it back a day later with detailed comments and suggestions. Enthused by the feedback, I joined the editing effort and made changes as suggested and sent back hoping that it’s the end of it.

No! she sent back with more comments. That went on more than 4 times.

If one compares the product with the first version; he can see two different documents – both classes apart. The end-product bore the signature of that habit of someone to naturally push things for excellence and not to stop before achieving it.

Was the former insincere? My answer will be no!

Both are the product of two different cultures. One culture values quality and the other does not. Because the former does not let average pass the gate; she has grown in the culture of striving to achieve excellence in her work and that has formed into a habit that now manifests in her behavior. Thousands like her are produced in that culture and contribute back to the culture through their behavior. Quality is a by-product of what our Society collectively values and nurtures and the discipline to which we individually agree to submit ourselves to.

Let us face the truth and bite the bitter pill. To expect a culture of quality or excellence in our own lives, in our organizations we need to start practicing it ourselves. It can only happen by first not accepting the average quality just because there are people around us who accept it. Let us submit ourselves to the grind of polishing our work through umpteen iterations till it reaches a higher level of excellence. When we expect it from our employees, our clients would be expecting it from us.