Diwas Karki
Often, we come across lots of events, information sharing and experiences as we move ahead with our daily chores. We have also been fortunate enough to hear lots of things from lots of people all the time at different points in time. The source of such information need not be necessarily from the ones we know but may even be from complete strangers even while traveling in a public vehicle. The sources of information are limitless and abound.
To add to the complexity, today’s time is even more chaotic given the fact that we are constantly being bombarded with information every other second including from social media along with all sorts of other mediums. We on our part are going that extra mile to expand the reach of such information in our network and network of networks by sharing it with others. Of course, there is no guarantee that all information that we come across is genuine and verifiable. What’s more interesting is the fact that most of us are strongly opinionated and are unwilling to budge from what we come across and hold is correct.
Over the period of time, like anyone of us, I too have come across many people from different sectors and had the chance to observe lots of scenarios involving two or more people. In the past, people used to be receptive and only a certain number of people would be doing the talking and presenting opinions. The opinions thus presented would be further discussed amicably to come to a logical conclusion and thus set the direction for the road ahead.
The point that I am trying to make is unlike in the past, these days people have lots of information through various channels and hence they can form opinions. The source of information could be own experience or experience of others, research, journals, network (personal or professional), social networking sites, etc. and of course not limited to the ones mentioned. The opportunity to form such opinions is a great blessing as it would give opportunity for people to engage in healthy discussion and come up with appropriate solutions. However, if the discussion goes another way around and the parties involved are not at all ready to budge then this would lead to chaos. It will not take much time for the conflict to become dysfunctional in an instant and bring disruptive disruption to the organization.
Needless to say, much attention is given by all the companies just to ensure that there is functional conflict in the workplace and much attention is given to inducing functional conflict in the organization so that there always remains scope for healthy competition in order to remain competitive in the marketplace and be there for the long run. However, a slight miss in the judgment and inability to determine where the people are heading might lead to catastrophe and disaster in the organization.
In lots of situations in the work setting, we get to hear different suggestions for problems by making inferences and references from other companies. It has been seen that most often such companies are successful in their respective domains. While we give emphasis on success stories and the need to adopt best practices, it on the other hand tries to influence and undermine the problem that the company is facing in order to match the solution offered by such success stories.
In the pursuit to adopt best practices and success stories of other companies, we tend to downplay our own problems. While I am not suggesting that we should not look for best practices, all I am suggesting is that in the desire to implement such best practices, the original problem that we had in hand should not be forgotten. Like every individual each and every company is unique and every company has its own unique sets of problems. The best that we could do is make references but not copy the success story as organizations are unique and their problems too are unique.
It always works in our favor to do some research and try to learn the best practices, however, learning such practices for the sake of implementing such practices might not be fully compatible with the need of every other organization. Instead recognizing our needs and trying to come up with our own unique solution by making inferences from success stories might be a better strategy in the long run.
In my experience, oftentimes during seminars and conferences, whatever is recommended or said from the point of view of suggestion for other organizations might not be very relevant as every organizational culture differs every organization has different sets of people. Amidst all this what makes us different from others is primarily the fact that we all are diverse and all our needs are diverse too.
As a team and as an organization, our culture differs from other organizations and as an individual, one individual’s opinion differs from another. The challenge, as well as opportunity for us, is to understand and respect the difference in order to create a vibrant organization. One thing to remember at this point becomes very important which is “Not every good decision may be a right decision”.
Karki is an HR professional.
