Back into the box

In our quest for better solutions to our problems, we have been asked to think out of the box. To look for resources which are non-conventional. To look for approaches that are non-traditional. To relate with others in other ways like linking with other networks to expand our circle of influence. We were asked to be innovative, creative, and dynamic.

There is nothing really wrong with this. Our being broad-minded has led us to interesting solutions to problems that are workable and we would never have imagined possible. We have made wider contacts, expanding our reach and relationships to a cyber level.

We have gathered resources that do not even need much expense but a simple honing of present skills and talents or utilization of resources that are after all present but never tapped.

So what do I mean by going back into the box?

I am reminded to an old joke about a dying Chinese merchant who asked where his children were and did the rolls. After accounting for each child’s presence at his dying bed, he then inquired “Who is minding the store?”

We have forgotten a lot of basic things as we are caught up in modern technologies and solutions. 

We have sacrificed the normal process of thinking and feeling as we look at things from a distance and dissociate feelings from our decisions. Being objective does not mean we will not be sensitive. Neither does it mean that we will make emotional choices. It simply means that we have to look at the impact of our choices on those who will be affected by them.

There has to be a balance between the targets and what makes the person accomplish those targets.

A sustaining achievement is reached when the company goes back to acknowledging that in the pursuit of tasks, maintenance functions are still satisfied. People have to be motivated to give their best. It is up to the higher rank to find out what makes his people want to work. What brings a spring to their feet to make them want to be in the office every day and not prolong their breaks.

An employer who was moving his best supervisor to another location sat listening to his employee say “…but sir, if you transfer me there, I will not be happy at all.” The employer gave his supervisor a pat in the back and a push of encouragement saying that he trusts this supervisor will change his mind. After a year in the new assignment the supervisor opted to retire. In his exit interview, the employer asked the supervisor why. The outgoing supervisor said “Because when I joined the company fifteen years ago, our voice was heard and our concerns acted upon. I worked the best I could because I was serving a good master. Now, it is only our company’s directions that are pursued and we are no longer given ear to. Our happiness has not value. But that is what makes us live. So I have to leave.”

As employers we find ourselves building training activities and motivational programs. But basic to all these is to introspect and look back into the humanity of every person at work. There is a need to go back inside the box and find the real treasures there.