Over the last couple of weeks my inclination is increasing towards a scientific approach of doing things. I am especially excited about using a planned or process based approach at my work. I may call this a scientific approach as science is all about using a process or methodology to arrive at logical conclusions.
The trigger has been multiple , although not in the same order or priority – the great Indian elections, the commencement of IPL season, the mismanagement of bureaucracy at cyclone Aila, the incumbent recession providing tremendous opportunities for change, and my own feelings of not giving an adequate shot at a number of opportunities. The messages I took out from these different triggers overlapped into a decisive conclusion that success and failure are differentiated by following a scientific approach involving planning and preparedness.
The victory of Congress aside, Indian elections are an exercise in minute planning and steadfast execution. All the parties plan the caste equations, vote bank appeal, street fights, and coalitions at block level to win a particular seat. The IPL teams win matches by planning the response at every ball as a solitary dot ball can swing matches. The failure of bureaucracy at Aila is shameful – ignoring the victims and setting up relief centres where they cannot be accessed – is not successful by any means.
After a little bit of introspection, I intuitively found out that I have a very unstructured and un-planned way of doing things. I take up things as they come up and rarely plan or follow up on the tasks already on my plate. Looking around, I believe it is more of a desi way of doing things. I do not see application of planning based approach at work or among my friends. It is in stark contrast to my friends in Europe who are excellent in this aspect and thus are able to get a lot more things done while maintaining a healthy work life balance. It might be to do with the kind of our rote based education system rather than application based system. However, I think the root cause is ignorance.
Apart from planning, there should be a process to execute a plan. Roles need to be assigned to various resources in the plan and a clear benchmark must be set for the resources to acheive.
However, one of the biggest flaw of the process is that its application is restricted on human resources. There is a high chance that a human resource will resist something that is not planned by him and is thrusted upon by someone in the hierarchy. Moreover, if a resource is performing a particular task in the plan repeatedly, he might lose interest in the task failing the purpose of plan to achieve efficiency. Thus, it is imperative that the plan should be tailor made to the capabilities and aspirations of the constituents. I have myself seen many instances of failure where this is not kept in mind.
Getting on to do a task with out a plan is bound to be a failure.
A word of caution: following a planned approach is different from following a theoretical approach to doing things. I think there is a healthy disdain of following a text book approach to solving problems. Theoretical approach a number of times involves a lot of effort and is a bit away from reality.
