Culture Crush- Is the work culture tuning people to become machines?
A lot has changed in a decade’s time. With the ever growing technology; Information Technology(IT) sector has grown exponentially. IT became global with workforce everywhere and the supply is available whenever there is a demand. Companies are reaping benefits, constantly looking at their ROI’s(Return On Investment) and KPI’s(Key Performance Index). Measuring success, measuring numbers, measuring rankings. Each of those fortune companies while making a fortune are competing with each other. Replicating things that they can do to bring a bigger ROI and obtain a better ranking. And the Time To Market(TTM) sat on the top of the world. While it is a great parameter and a goal to keep, for any company to decrease the TTM value, they should hire more resources, so the work is done in a shorter period of time. Again, if you are looking at greater ROI and lesser TTM, something should be lost. What is lost in this process? The very essence of this human existence and the value of its very own brain that actually invented the technology.
In today’s world, the employees are pretty much forced to do things in a fast mode. It is a speed mania, which counts every minute of the time you spent so you are able to produce the maximum output and hence the executives are able to measure the benefits/cost savings. The core of the human values are lost. Treating your employee with respect and trust.
You are questioned every day of your capacity and bandwidth(in other words micromanagement- which has always proven to be failing) or you are asked to question the capacity of your team by your boss. Always the push mechanisms are exercised. The Senior management or C-level executives stopped seeking inputs, rather they brute forced stuff assuming things or caring for none. And this has become a culture to the point that we forgot what the original culture was and has to be !! Hence we welcomed a word called ‘stress’ and soaked into a stressful world which shut down your senses and gave you a slew of other set of problems.
So, what can you do as your share if you are in management that are also constantly(maybe) swirling in this cycle of machine mechanisms calculating just the ROI and looking at your KPI’s.
Pause and think, what as a manager you can do to gain trust and develop relationship with your direct reports and also to your boss. Make a relationship, a good one with everyone. That will in disguise bring both the cultural values and also the ROI. Because the core values are touched upon and he/she will gain a sense of responsibility because of the trust you keep in them. It is self management that eliminates stress and brings the best in them and in you. Next time, when your boss tells you to question your stakeholders/direct report’s capacity and tries to put pressure(either verbally or through emotionally), refuse to do so. Trust yourself and your reports and ensure they are able to balance their work. This will automatically bring the best results to your project/work and also best results to the company.
At the end of the day, everywhere and anywhere, what we think is what we do and it is contagious. If you start thinking right, and doing right, your team will do the same and will spread prolifically. So, head in the direction of building trust and relationships with your team and enjoy the success and benefits it brings and show an example.
