Competition comes naturally to us, are we taming it enough?

The other day, we were reflecting & debriefing on an experiential activity in which a group of young executives had participated. 

They were thrilled to realize that they were killingly competitive, and that it came naturally to them! When giving instructions to the activity, though I had divided them into two teams, and had suggested different vantage points to operate from, I had never asked them to compete with each other (between teams). But they did!

1. Thanks to our warrior archetypes of the archaeological past, and socio-educational upbringing of the recent past. Competition - willing to pick up a fight, taking pleasure in the opposition's adversity, and assuming an opposition in the first place, happens so seamlessly and naturally.

2. Most often, organizational structures, channels of communication (presence or absence of them), team boundaries based on nature of work, and even the way people are seated in the workspace seem to trigger those competitive streaks in us, though not intended.

The cost of competition amongst employees, and amongst teams within an organization could be very significant.

Competition in itself is not destructive. But a misplaced competition is. And hence maturity is in demonstrating discretion - where to compete and where not to.

Before mastering collaboration, it only makes sense to know & tame competition within us, and outside of us.

The author is a principal consultant at Bisykle Learning Systems

He could be reached at naveen@bisykle.com

Your work can benefit you or kill you depending on where you are sitting

It is that time of the year, where appraisal letters are out!

A well-known statistical data says that in a given financial year, 80% of the employees in a typical organization think they are the top 20% performers which explains the enormity of disappointment and sulking that the managers and supervisors have to handle every year during appraisals. Well, they seem to be doing a fairly good job on that, getting better year on year!

Let’s look at the other side of the story: The story of the one who is disappointed and sulking.

The following is usually the story line “I gave my best, stretched my time, and worked really hard, but look what they give me?!” Most employees feel un-recognized, un-appreciated, un-noticed, cheated, and treated un-fairly. The root of these feelings is that they feel ‘not valued’. You could be one of those who is feeling ‘un-valued’.

If your only (primary) source of “self – value” is work, then you might perhaps be sitting on the tip of the branch, working hard to kill yourself (kill your spirit, I mean)! It is obvious that any business organization’s existential intent is not ‘valuing you’. It is everything else – valuing customers, valuing growth, valuing revenues, valuing profits and valuing business sustainability. When ‘valuing you’ happens, it is either secondary or strategic positioning to sustain business and results. And your equation in this is simply this - that you agreed to invest your valuable time and get compensated for that. It is called ‘compensation’ because organizations know that they can never equate the actual value of your time. Be happy that the world of business is clear and articulate about it.

Change your seating position. Sit towards the trunk – find alternate sources for your ‘self-value’. Then work hard, give your best, and when the branch falls, it’s only the branch that falls, and not you. Expand the canvas, and clarify what really is important to you in life, and get grounded there.
Your work is important. But that’s only a part of the generosity of life’s providence. Get a perspective, and that perhaps will help you sail through this little disappointment called appraisal paper!

Wishing you the best, as always! J

Some popular ways how people find their self-value in their professions:

1. Learning – becoming competent, skillful and knowledgeable
2. Finding a purpose and meaning in their work
3. Building relationships
4. Pursuing hobbies and interests (often making their hobby as work)

Respond with your views on how one can find self-value in life

If you would like to change a 'bad' habit, know its benefits first.

 

I had always been nervous when speaking to authorities. I had to change that habit because it was a bad one, and not so beneficial to myself and to the team that I worked with. I wanted to quit being nervous. I reasoned out just like a smoker who is wanting to quit smoking would – what are the harmful effects of my habit of being nervous? In other words, what do I loose when I am nervous? And the list looked something like this: It would not let me articulate what I had to; it would not let authorities notice me for who I am, and it would make me lose out on recognition. So I tried real hard to 'NOT be nervous' only to find that nervousness continued showing up every time I am faced with authority, each time in a different texture.

You could perhaps be on a similar engagement with yourself to change habits, both small and big. If you are like me and most other people, you would have quit working on habits, hoping they change on their own, or expecting some significant event in life could possibly alter your habit once for all, or you could be relying on a particular life stage that would make your habit disappear – after all you are not the same person you were ten years ago, for the good. All of the above stances of yours are valid and most often they do alter you and make you better.

But I am going to propose a three step approach that will empower you and me to alter habits of our choice. This is inspired by research work done by Lahey and Kegan of The Harvard University fame, who published their work in the book titled “Immunity to Change”.

1.       Ask the right question
When it comes to changing habits, it is essential to ask the right question. Ask what the benefits are, and not what loses or ill effects are! What are the benefits of smoking? The fundamental premise is that we as people will not engage in any behavior if there is no significant benefit in it for us, though often the benefit is unconscious.  So when I asked the question ‘what are the benefits of being nervous when speaking to authorities’, to my surprise I had a list of answers as follows: felt good and right about upholding my value of respect to authorities; I felt comfortable in acknowledging that authorities are more competent than I am; my nervousness pleased them and I felt secured in pleasing them; and that I let them make final decisions which enabled me to be free of responsibility, and so on. And I realized I had more benefits from being nervous than loses! A smoker most often enjoys benefits of being socially connected and related. Why would he want to let go smoking? Makes sense, right?

 2.       Validate your fundamental assumptions 
Now that we know the benefits of our habits, and hence are no more surprised by the grip they have on us, we should move further to explore the fundamental assumptions we hold on our perceived benefits. One of the strong assumptions that I held was that ‘I respect authorities when I am nervous’! Well, that does not sound valid, does it? Hence when I worked on my assumption by reasoning that it's not the only way of being respectful, I suddenly found myself staring at many alternatives to being respectful to authorities - by paying attention, by acknowledging, by responding promptly to requests, and by many more ways. Interestingly nervousness lost its stronghold and appeal, in the context of what I really wanted to express through it – respect.
 
3.      Replace, and don’t change
Now that I have alternatives, I just had to replace my behaviour of being nervous with a behavior that has better benefits to myself and to others in the presence of my authorities. You notice that I did not try to change ‘being nervous’ rather, I only replaced it. And nervousness remains as one of my options always, even today. But that does not matter because science of evolution suggests, that which is not in use, would eventually disappear, and that which is used consistently gets strengthened! And to use, not to use, and what to use is my choice. I am empowered.

So we will never change – we will continue to be human beings, and we should only look at moving on, moving forward, and transform in ways that is beneficial to contexts of our work and life. Trying to change is frustrating, but transforming is empowering.

We (at Bisykle) collaborate and work with teams and individuals to surface the benefits and fundamental assumptions behind their habits, that influences efficiency and effectiveness to deliver results.

 

Are your employees just placing bricks or building a mansion?

Just ask them -  which in itself takes some effort and commitment. Assuming that you found ways to ask that question, their answers to your question will have huge implications on your business.

It is essential that individual employees, teams and leaders in the organization clarify and know the contribution of their brick, in the overall scheme of business and market.
Young engineers in a manufacturing organization (a B2C business) asked exactly that question - How in my role as an engineer am influencing  my end customer's decision? Having asked that question they evolved answers to that question (and some just got on that journey) by engaging in a simulated production system. It turns out that three things they do or don't do in their role influences their customers decision - A) Knowing and adhering to standards, B) Articulating ideas, especially if they are silly, and C) Commitment to not repeating the same mistake again.

I thought that was some significant realization, though not a discovery.