The Comfort Zone That Doesn’t Exist MOVE

MOVE

I was talking to my colleague about reporting change so that I could focus on strategic priorities that help grow business. I often say, “Maa bann gaya” - means I am like a Mom who works hard every day. Husband walks in asking for a coffee, then kids with their own demands.

My idea of Mom is what I saw in my mom and grandmother. They were busy whole day and end of day the only takeaway they had was the breakfast planning for next day. And then their performance appraisal was on the day when things everyone in family expected were not done. Questions start - what were you doing whole day? Nothing cooked? House not in order? When not done, anyone will question. No one is ready to accept the excuse of illness beyond a point. Let us hire a maid. Same holds true at work.

We all long for an equilibrium, a status quo, ideal state. How comfortable we are doing things that are now habit. But in reality everything is changing and evolving.

I see people fighting and defending loudly about the amount of work they do and others in team doing nothing. The mindset is do as less than what you get paid for to have a self-fulfilling prophecy of doing good and paid enough. Everyone is aiming to be smart not at the work but at relationship, to be controlled at work in a way that gets them the ‘power’ and ‘information advantage’ to influence.

Why are we all defending our turf? Where are we wrong?

SEE

If we revisit the situation of a mom, she can give reasons. But she is the only one in this world who is truly unreasonable. Whether sick or not, food has to be cooked and served. Forget physical pain or illness, family first.

But do we have ‘moms’ at work too? No we don’t. We are all there for money to take home. Everything links back to money and profits whether shareholders profit or appraisals at employee level. The arrangement is pure commercial - you give hours and talent and in return you get paid, of course a price that discounts your true value by paying you fixed amount every month and plus choice of leaves, ESOPs etc.

So at work when it is all about money, the relationships are also anchored around self interest and bias. We don’t have friends at the workplace. It is a fight or battle situation, everyone defending their own turf and then roles and hierarchies to make the command flow clear. In this set up talents are rarely appreciated - ethics, values do not matter. The only thing that matters or decides one’s longevity and relevance at work is “dependence”. How dependent are others on you? And here the roots of politics and manipulation originate.

To defend their dependence and future proof it, they play on information asymmetry. Information asymmetry in its crude form - you do Chaploosi of your senior and seek information that works in your favor and you use it against your colleagues who vouch to be at par or above in eyes of the so called ‘senior’ - senior who is senior because of a title or control and not necessarily due to intelligence or competence. Here is where the roots of politics go deep. Distrust, cross checking, judging, and all of this since all humans we are working with.

One thing I pick from Elon Musk’s podcast with Nikhil Kamath, robots will be productive and intelligent but devoid of self interest. They will think and act in ‘present’ moment unlike humans who have desires and biases to deal with and as a consequence less on output and more on talk.

I at work see colleagues failing to be fluid, stuck in a rhetoric, being judged and judging others about inefficiency, foolishness and cleverness. This is not the ideal future workplace. If this is so we better get replaced by robots.

REFLECT

In modern work, you have to be an individual contributor. I do not see the role of a manager anymore. If we are able to structure work and get people with skills that are holistic and complete, then we do not need managers.

Second is fluidity in skills and learning new ones. I often say be water and not the vessel.

Here the intent is to correct ourselves by learning. And before learning, a learner mindset is important and hence the corollary of being water rather than a vessel. With mindfulness if brain can have fluidity, why not one using the same brain build a mindset of fluidity, malleability? Why not build range or depth of skills that make you or keep you focused on what is to be done at hand and now, in present moment? Forget what you learned, just achieve in present. Maybe it is like micro credentials - learn swimming when you know you are often in deep waters.

I have a scanty idea that this mindset is not in sync with Gita - Karma Yoga.

Karma Yoga - selfless work with full submission. All in present and in control. A complete forgetfulness of the ‘fruit’ or desired outcome. But we are doing opposite. We are attached to outcome - promotion, recognition, territory - but not doing the action, the real work. We defend the turf but don’t create value. This is the mismatch.

One thing if we could change at work: don’t build dependencies or play on bias to sustain. Just be focused and selfless to the task. Even if some may call you slogger, slave etc. This mindset delivers - you get to know what you’re good at or not, what you need to work on.

There is no comfort zone anymore. Get better at what you do just to save more time doing same thing. Gone are days when one could work for 8 hours, go back, talk, enjoy and rest with no worries about work. That is not anymore. The new genre entering workplace has clear priorities - no more 9 to 5 job with no flexibility.

Stop complaining. Accept and move ahead or move on. The choice has always been yours.