STOP THE GLORIFICATION OF BUSY.

I often hear, “I am so busy that I don’t have time to breath,   I have no time, I am so full of work, I will have to stay back today, I work from home even on holiday,  My boss keeps me busy” etc. etc…. Have you ever observed the CEO, MD or even the PM of the company quoting the above statements!

And I feel like shouting aloud “STOP THE GLORIFICATION OF BUSY”. Such people are the most incapable people or are highly overloaded. There is solution for overload of work but treating incapability is a bigger issues and a bigger problem. During one of our training program on time management, our trainer had identified some of the late sitters of our organization and to our surprise she was able to identity as much as 50% of the their total time as being put into unproductive, repetitive and time wasters activities. Every assignment that you do has a set of productive and non-productive set activities. Idea is to identify the unproductive ones and reduce/remove/re-engineer them to optimize the time.

No work requires more than 8 hours of effective time. We tend to stretch our work to fit the time. It’s ok at time but a perpetual habit creates a work dent and eventually a he backlog. And that’s what keeps people busy and over occupied forever.

Few things can help to identify such people:

·        Check the internet/Desk phone(not the personal hand-set) log history after office hours

·        Whenever they say they are sooooo busy just ask them can we discuss what keeps you so busy. Let me help you.

·        For weekend workers- I will compensate the day off if you are able to give me list of things that you did and are productive. MIS making, documentation etc. etc. do not qualify as these can be a one- time activity.

I recommend the HOUSE-WIFE therapy for people who look forward to balance their work life. Being a working mom, I am working 24 X 7 either in office or at work. (24X7 because ever since my son was born my brain is occupied with things like “is he sleeping in right posture”, “did he wet the bed”, “are the pullovers on” etc.). But believe I am happy that I never use the term “busy”. I would rather say “I am little tied up”.

OK coming to the HOUSE WIFE therapy, few points to note:

·        She exactly knows what’s where and how much(grocery)

·        She knows what she needs to do the whole day(cleaning, dusting, shopping)

·        She does multi- tasking wherever possible(cooking, using washing machine and say ironing)

·        She has perfected the art of doing routine things and saves lot of time (keeping the masala/gravy for the whole week ready, chopping, cutting etc.). And mind it she does this in her spare time may be watching TV, talking to a girlfriend etc.

·        If she makes the pending list, she never keeps it for more than a week and ensure she closes all of them(reorganizing the almirah, dusting the store room )

And so many of them!

“BEING BUSY” is old fashioned. The new mantra is “BEING ENGAGED”.  A mother is never busy but always engaged and she is the back-bone of our family. Similarly if you engaged and not busy in your work you will not only enjoy but also become the most valued member of your organization. Let your work keep you growing than busy.

# the views are purely of personal experience of the author and does not reflect against anybody in particular

Innovation in employee engagement activities- Part 2

Virtual Dahi Handi !!!

This idea stuck me when I was finishing my day at home, could be close 12.30 in night, I guess. What is virtual dahi handi my ED asked the next day? I explained him and he said good let us make these guys do some running, "bahut mote ho gaye hai jagah par baithe baithe" ( They have grown fat by seating at one place).

Team size: I had 50 staff, so 5 teams of 10 staff each. 

Preparation: 

1. We wanted to created a ten layer dahi handi so we made around 100 question of General Awareness quiz (mostly bollywood ) sealed in a plain envelope. We used white envelopes which matched the wall color. Stick a two sided tape(called as china tape) on each envelope.We numbered the questions and the corresponding correct answers to these were printed in an excel sheet to be kept with the moderator of the game.
2. One blank paper with 5 columns drawn on it, a maker/soft pen  etc. 

How did we play:

We have our team spread over three floors and you have to use stairs. We vacated the entire office and took them on the ground floor. Our MD kept them busy by giving some gyan on janmashtamai. In the meantime I with couple of my office staff and other ED stuck these envelopes across the three floors at various places and location like on the ceiling, behind the chairs,washrooms, inside the dustbin and all the wackiest places we could think off. 

We tagged the columned paper on the reception where the game was played.

Now we came out and explained the game - All you have to do is search the envelopes, get correct answers, be the first one to reach the reception, match your answer with the moderator's answer and      woah !! you create your first layer of handi. Each correct answer would represent a hangman and the team to create ten hangman one above the other wins the game!

One important thing please ensure that you do not touch the confidential areas like files and folders and ask people to maintain safety while moving around in office to avoid getting hurt and damaging any office asset.

It was chaos, it was fun and most importantly it was entertaining for the staff. They loved the whole idea and concept of these virtual Dahi Handi. It was an "Adrenalin Rush" as they described. It was remembered for weeks thereof, you know how ? They kept discovering the hidden envelopes under their desks, in washrooms, under the chairs and where not !!!

The whole idea of our HR activity is basically to let people loose and give them something fresh every time.

Will come back next time with a women's day celebration !

Innovation in employee engagement activities- Part 1

We all love Surprises isn't it? I always believe in doing unique acts/games/activities when it comes to employee engagement. Reason- I love the element of surprise in everything that I do in my life be it gifting , cooking ,parenting (my 4 yr son expects a surprise everyday when I come home, I surprise him most of days) or even my profession. And i have found that its takes lot of efforts and thinking in getting the right element of surprise. Also I personally dislike to adapt games from international books as they lack our Indian touch :)

I am sharing few of such activities that I had done in my previous organisations where the budget and time schedule were tight. I  would spend lot of time researching on creating a relevant and innovative game/event every time

We played Juaa (Gambling ) to celebrate Diwali Day

Gambling is played as a part of tradition in Diwali in some Hindu communities. So during one of Diwali celebration I thought why not play Juaa or gamble. My staff were puzzled when I announced the event.

What you need: I had two teams of around 15 staffs each. You can have more teams and higher numbers in each team.

1. Fake notes, I had printed Rs. 2 lac for each team out of rough paper ranging from 5000 to 50000 to be used for betting
2. Two sets of a simple story of 10 lines typed in a 10 rows and torn into 10 small strips with a line of story on each strip. Ensure that they are arranged randomly. 
3. Around 10 chits of few well known bollywood songs.

You can add few more acts. I had only an hour.

I created two team by random selection and distributed the money to the leaders of the team.Teams have to bet money before each game, no limit and whoever wins the act wins the betting and the money. Winner is who has  more money at the end of the game.

Game 1: Arrange the random story faster than the other team.

Game 2: An arm wrestling competition. To my surprise both the teams recommended female colleagues and it was the most happening event.

Game 3: Do dumb charades for 3 or more songs and whichever team does it in the least time in totality wins

We ended  the day with unlimited pani puris and sev puris:)

Will tell you about Virtual janmashtami/Dahi handi celebration tomorrow :)

Loyal liabilities

How do you do deal with people who are stagnant in their careers in a company but loyal?. Loyal - What do you mean by loyal? Does corporate need loyal  staff today? Yes, of course ! So why am I calling loyal staff of company as a liability?

I am referring to those breed of employee who think that the company is running on their shoulders, may be yes - initially/partially.But this thought blocks their visibility for a path to self improvement and up-gradation after a certain period. And since they are with the company for the longest time, the company tends to overlook their potential and question their capability at regular interval. And this is where the company does its biggest mistake. This reminds me of an habit of one of my aunt. She loved getting gifts and storing them. She would use them only on the rarest occasions. This way she has accumulated loads of similar gifts and would hardly use them. They were kept gift wrapped and locked in the cupboard. One day she could see some insects coming out of the cupboard and when she opened the cupboard, she found to her horror that all the wooden gifts were eaten by mites. Not only this but they have also spoil the other collections and the newly added gifts. What a waste of beautiful resources. Wish if she had used and consumed those gifts.She still feels the guilt of losing precious collection she had.

Similarly if the company fails to identify its loyal but ever stagnant staff, they will soon start  becoming a liability which is borne by monthly salary. The result - A bunch of good/not so good/loyal staff getting into their comfort zones and eventually loosing their luster. They end up getting lucrative position and salaries by the mere presence in the company.

What an HR can do in these scenario? How can HR create some space and volatility in the organisation chart for upward movement of staff who needs to grow as per their performance but are stuck one they come close to the loyal but Not Performing Asset .

1. Create  a competitor for the comfort zoners. Eg; Parallel band width of roles, profiles or just a parallel SBU.
2. Do workshops for similar band width staff like problem solving, team building or a technical workshop. Idea is not to corner your comfort zoners but to loosen up the environment. So make it as casual and activity based. In this phase you will identify where the gaps are. Is it the technical area, behavioural area or simply the laid back attitude or something else.
3. Create a report and recommend what can be done in each area. Mind it that it needs lot of courage to point out to the management that they need to take some tough calls. 
4. It is always advisable to do so through an external coach or trainer.

What happens when you come across people who are close to the management and may not be easily accessible for such a drastic makeover? Relax. Leave them alone. Do you know the story of small stream of water which was blocked by a huge rock? How can  a little stream water create a way out for itself? But through its persistence and presence, one day the spring erodes the hill and create a small, very small vent for itself.Eventually it is able to create a whole way out for itself and rocks have no way but to give in.

The management has to be educated on taking some tough decisions while handling such staffs at times. I came across one of senior staff who refused to do the reviews( recently initiated) quoting that he has no work and i should ask his seniors to fill the form for him as they would know his job well. I was taken aback but stayed calm and said no issues I will add this as comment on the review form. I am waiting to see my bosses reaction and action to this.

This a serious issue since we have the highest age diversity nowadays in  most of the company. Creating a parity in role and compensation has always been a challenge for HR.Though we cannot negate that change becomes a challenge if you are not use to it but eventually it is " Perform or perish".

Your comments, thoughts, views will be highly appreciated.

# The views are purely of personal experience of the author and does not reflect against anybody in particular