It happened about 30 years ago. We were in our early teens, returning from NCC camp. One of my close friends and fellow cadets Ashish Awasthi ask me – “Pravin, whats your take on solving bigger problems of India such as cleanliness?” It is ironic, we were at Indore bus stand it was dirty. By the way Indore is the cleanest city now in India!
I was one of those ultra-aggressive and kind of Subhash Chandra Bose kind of person. Subhash Chandra Bose wanted authoritarian rule (source Institute of Historical Review) in India for 20 years to ensure national unity and reforms. I bluntly replied – It requires hard handedness, strictness and big penalties plus severe punishment. Once done, everyone will fall in line.
Ashish asked the same question at the same time to my cousin, Hitesh. We all had been studying in same school, same locality and city. Hitesh’s response was complete opposite. He responded – “If everyone starts taking responsibilities, respecting the set guidelines and does his job as per the ask, that would solve not only the problem of cleanliness.”
Hitesh’s response was itched in Ashish’s conscience. Ashish, Hitesh and I met in 2023 incidentally again in Indore – consecutively winning cleanest city in India! In our conversations, this incident popped up. Ashish reminded this discussion to both of us. Unfortunately, both Hitesh and I had forgotten it.
We were teens, the maturity of Hitesh’s response was so deep for Ashish that he always remembered it. While narrating this incident he added, that response was so profound for me that I kept thinking about it, and the depth helped me realize what if everyone does his or her job as per the expectations, no one would need to monitor or push for results. The outcomes will follow!
This applies to our work life as well. The need for goals, metrics are for youngsters who are new in the company. Senior people must define what outcome is expected and what additional new things are expected from the company’s growth.
I was speaking with one HR professional recently, he was discussing about performance and outcomes of some of the people. My response to him was – at what experience level you would feel someone saying “It is not my KRA” as an acceptable response? The question was about ownership and growth of individuals and professionals.
My cousin – Hitesh – knew ownership at an of 14, some do not have it even at 40!
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