The Alibi... Nothing more but an excuse or a lie...

I don't know what is wrong with people nowadays but most always have an alibi for the things that they are supposed to do but doesn't want to do it for a reason I can never fathom. More than often they seem to be blaming their circumstances on others.

A classic line of "I work even on sundays and holidays and I don't need to follow the normal work time because my job is different." or "I'm doing this as a sacrifice". A job is a job and every job has a certain job description and a job responsibility and there are organizational rules. May I ask what's special about your job and how special are you that you're exempted from the rest?

"You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgement on someone else, for whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgement do the same thing" ~ Romans 2:1

I alway believe in taking responsibility for your actions and not blaming it on others. Simple, you're late for work because you were not up early or you were doing other unnecessary stuffs not related to work that is eating your time and then you can't come to the office on time. Don't blame it on the organization, your boss or your peers. The point is that you are late and you are the reason.

Truth of the matter is, that if you are required to report for work on an eight to five job, you can't do anything but follow the rules. If you don't like it, then be responsible enough and leave. Those are the rules and nobody is above that. I come to work early despite me having the option not too but I decided too come early and I take responsibility for that action. I will never ask the organization to praise me for that.

Another truth is working beyond the time required is always a sacrifice if the organization is not asking for it. You can only be compensated for something (overtime pay) if the organization itself is asking for it from you or is requiring you to go beyond the normal working hours. If you "volunteered", don't expect anything in return.

If you have to do something because you failed to do it before and then you have to work overtime to get the task done, then that is the same. Take responsibility for not finishing the task on time but don't take it out on the organization and the people by asking for an overtime for something you failed to finish on a given time.

I always remember the story of a friend of mine who had this very rude officemate. She does not go overtime but of course get things done always on time. One time while she was on her way out, she saw my friend was still on a meeting with his subordinates. She candidly passed by and said, "You're still not done? Very inefficient!" and then left with all of them numb-folded. Look at that, you can't blame her for finishing her job on time and for being very efficient. It may be rude but there was some truth in it and I'm sorry to say this but the truth always hurts.

Now regardless if that sacrifice is recognized on not, its was a decision you made. Nobody told you to work beyond the required time, you decided to work beyond that and you volunteered. The organizations decision to recognize that or can never in your control sphere so deal with it.

Trade-off: Efficiency and Innovation

I forgot to tell you that the conference I attended last week which I mentioned in my previous entry in this blog was that in the afternoon there was a great debate whether there is a "trade-off" between innovation and efficiency. Before I begin, let us try to define what innovation and efficiency are.

By definition in Merriam-Webster dictionary, innovation is the introduction of something new and is synonymous to creation, invention and coinage to name a few. Efficiency on the other hand coming from the same source is the quality or degree of being efficient. There is not much there, don't you think? :-)

Now let's look at this on an organizational stand point. Innovation in my opinion is the ability of an organization to create something new, something that can affect or change an organization internally and externally. As an example, the creation of a new product like a new software application or a new service like offering text messaging services to followup on a particular document are considered as innovations.

Efficiency on the other hand in my opinion is maximizing the organizations resources and making things run smoothly. It is something measurable and is always tied to input versus output.

On the question if there is a trade-off in anyway? I say "YES". If you do innovation, then you will always risk affecting existing processes, policies and procedure to accommodate such an innovation. Over-all organizational efficiency will suffer. That is the greatest trade-off when you have innovation. Which goes to the next question on whether an organization should go for innovation. The answer depends on how ready the organization is for change. Depending on how flexible and mature an organization is for change will determine the success of an innovation being introduced. YES, we need to innovate. Innovation brings new blood, new life to an organization. If IBM remained as a company making typewriters, do you think they will still be here with the advent of new technologies available? The answer is too obvious.

In one famous case about a big industry before on ice cuting and on how none of the ice cutters eventually evolved into ice makers and eventually none of the ice maker evolved into companies that makes home freezers and refrigerators is a classic example of companies without innovation at all. Which brings me to the term organizational ambidexterity.

Organizational ambidexterity is the ability on an organization to efficiently manage change in the organization and be able to adapt to change in the business environment which affects its survival and growth. Meaning just like a person who is ambidextrous, one should be able to use the left and the right hand with the same level of efficiency. In my opinion, efficiency and innovation are both on the opposite ends of an organization's operation.

Innovation is exploratory in nature while efficiency is exploiting to the least. YES there will always be trade-offs between efficiency and innovation but if the organization is willing to take up the challenge and is ready, trade-offs can be contained or minimized. If an organization is flexible enough and is ready for the change then innovation should explored every time an opportunity comes.