Friday, June 23, 2006

Output in work-life is created by being part of a system

Output is created never by an individual alone. Image of a hero working in a dungeon alone over a invention and shouting 'Eureka' after his discovery is a myth. That era of creating output alone is over.

Even a sportsplayer who is supposed to play his or her game to succeed has to be part of different systems before his/her contribution can produce rewards. For instance, a tennis player has to part of four systems to ensure that he plays consistently in a tennis circuit: adminstrative system to ensure that tickets, staying and support activity is managed without any hassle, coaching system to ensure that prospective competitors flaws are tracked and specific localised situations are understood, physiotherapists who helps him/her keep fit, and his emotional support system to ensure that he/she feels does not get homesick and 'alone'. Without these four systems, no tennis player can 'perform' consistently. A failure in any of these four systems can derail him/her and therefore affect his/her output in a negative manner.

The same is true of a corporate professional working in a company. He has to work in three generic systems: work-output systems to generate different outputs, perception systems to generate the 'right' perception in the organisation and the reward system to get the requisite reward from the output.

Working alone as a lone ranger does not help. Even when a corporate professional is working in a highly individualistic function like 'sales', he or she has to be part these three systems to ensure that his/her effort is converted into useful output.

Welcome to the systemic world of organisations. Although becoming part of a system is highly unsettling, that is the only way to generate outputs in a system.

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