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Every task an adventure

After years of organizational development, lifelong learning has come to business reality with the Generation Y. Born between 1980 and 2000, they rely on basic things, like their private and business groups, the balance between work and life, opportunities, where they can prove themselves and having fun. At the same time they are always online. Unfortunately, not all tasks are on the edge of innovation or deliver fast success stories in the shortest possible time. This is why companies ask themselves what inspires employees. Maybe it helps to make tasks an adventure?

However, what makes an adventure out of regular tasks, as they occur a thousand times? An important obstacle is the fact that adventures are created in the mind of each person. From the outside, you can only make proposals, but the required attitude everybody develops for oneself. Which explanations foster the desired attitude?

  • New tasks are exciting
    Of course. Unknown fields must be discovered. There is no standard solution that can be or even has to be copied. All participants are on the same level playing field. Here you can show what you are able to do. The fact that the tasks are again and again similar disturbs some people. In order to let the halo of the new outshines everything, it helps to draw the attention to the things that are different, that are applied for the first time. Even the extraordinary length can create this charm of unconventional. Projects are per se unique activities and have never happened before. Great tasks are, of course, always an adventure.
  • Routine tasks can be continually improved
    The horror for the adventurer are habitual activities that are repeated. There is nothing new in it that provokes excitement. And yet the practice introduced has its charms. In addition to the continuous improvement, which aims to generate progress from every cycle and every simple result, there is a danger in the exercise of the impractical work which must be avoided. Regular practice makes the processes so internal that they are handled unconsciously. Just as piano players play a piece of music so often from the sheet, until the fingers take control and the musicians can concentrate on the subtle nuances, the same way the routine facilitates to take care of the subtleties of the business. This internalization of the processes and the possible perfection makes routine tasks an adventure.
  • Simple tasks can be improved
    Even the simplest activities, which seem to require little talent at first sight, which usually take the form of routine tasks, but which obviously do not require any genius, offer unexpected senses of achievement to the attentive people. The accomplishment of simple tasks seems to be beneath the dignity of well-educated people. It is just that the small things that pull the great ones off. It is crucial to focus all senses on the ongoing activity. If you forget the world around you and the time flies unnoticed, you develop the feeling of happiness, which Mihály Csikeszentmihályi calls flow. Looking at the slightest differences and improvement opportunities that are in the execution of a simple activity, make the execution a sensual adventure.
  • Unintended tasks expand the capabilities
    The biggest obstacle to an adventurous task are the resistances that are built up before the actual activity even starts. This non-willingness often has simple reasons. The most difficult thing is, when the concerned people do not know the task – What has to be done? What do you have to consider? How long can it last? And why at all? At the same time, the advertisers usually know the answer to these questions and could convey the right answers in a challenging language. Sometimes the workforce can not cope with the task – How does it work? How should I create this with my language skills? How can I cope with this without training? Just as farmers prepare their field for sowing, a manager should prepare his employees for a task. As unbelievable as it sounds, but sometimes employees are even not allowed performing the tasks. There are regulations, which prohibit the execution of the activity or because a superior has something else in mind for them. In these cases, you should help the employees by obtaining approval beforehand. If none of the three cases are valid and they still do not want, the resistance has deeper reasons which may have nothing to do with the task. Maybe they just need a new job. Wanted tasks are always an adventure.

Bottom line: Most orders are not a mission to Mars. This, however, does not bother the fact of being an adventure. In every day business, there are always new tasks, which are per se adventurous. In addition, routine tasks or simple activities also offer venture. In the end, it is important that the employees develop the will to carry out the task and commit themselves to the duty. Even the mission to Mars is always rehearsed – actually pure routine. Since adventures happen in mind, means that they are a question of personal attitudes and understanding, the leaders should take care of breathing adventure spirit into every task, according to the motto: Every task an adventure.

The flipside of the way of the slightest resistance

Water and sand, bees and ants as well as large herds and crowds, all follow a common principle. Frozen water sticks to it and aims for the valley. Pheromones show it to ants. Herds of animals adapt to each other, in order to find it. Even in the crush of a crowd of people, they all find it and create thereby order – the path of least resistance.

For some people it is the best way, since they connect little effort with maximum impact -although some aspects are not always desirable.

  • The way that everybody goes
    As soon as this path appears, all and everything follows this way. Regardless of whether it is snow or sand, the discovered attractor, i.e. the place, where all energies go, attracts you magically. In competition that is not really the path that should be aimed for, since you will be where everybody is and the fewest differentiators are found. The answer to the question about your originality, the Unique Selling proposition (USP), lets you stand out of the other crowd and makes the intended laurels on a long-term basis possible. As soon as you get lost on the path of least resistance, the search should start for a different approach. Even though this leads to larger efforts, it yields more in the end. Otherwise nothing else remains than resting in mediocrity.
  • The way that the problems go
    Mountain climbers know that the areas of the least resistance should be avoided, since there is the largest risk to be caught by an avalanche. The business problems also find this direct way, in order to spread at no expense. This begins with computer viruses that spread within networks from one computer to the next. It goes to the particularly harmful fight for market share that is fought through prices. Surprisingly the understanding that the cheaper offers are reduced, not necessarily equal services is missing to the customers. All pounce on this simple way of competition, without considering that the own viability is at risk. Their offers suffer one day under the bad quality and destroy the customer confidence. Certifications are worth nothing, since the customers already turned away.
  • The way that passes real opportunities
    The way of the slightest resistance is not necessarily the best, since outside can be found significantly more. In business the genuine opportunities are also outside of the well-trodden tracks. In the context of former conditions only a few people thought about the fact that a World Wide Web creates new possibilities. Meanwhile everybody understands. And already niche markets are emerging that promote again more physical community – meeting places, where one enjoys its coffee with a group of people; teams that co-ordinate their tasks personally in daily stand ups; meetings, where music is made again by hand. Since the daily routine leads to more and more regulations and standards, the responsible people forget to dare a view beyond the edge of the plate. Thus they miss lucrative opportunities.
  • The way that often takes detours
    With a river that flows in its natural bed, the way of the slightest resistance appears. It meanders itself in far and close, again and again changing loops. This shows that the nature does not follow the most direct or shortest way. In business life intuitive operational sequences are also not looking for the fastest way. On contrary, they lead often to much branched out and difficult-to-understand processes that cannot be steered out of one hand. Distributed, self-organized leadership is essentially more effective, as long as it concerns naturally grown sequences. Procedures that must be implemented in IT-programs, limit this free run of the things. The standardization is thereby a compromise that has to reconcile all interests and to overcome resistances.

Each of us will also take the way of the slightest resistance again and again. Why should you make it difficult for yourself? We are afraid of uncertainty and rarely change something that worked well so far. This is valid also for those, who always take the way of permanent change and who will therefore never come to peace.

Bottom line: The way of the slightest resistance is despite its momentum and its apparent coziness the least way to strive for. Here you find most people. Here the problems are happening. Here you have the smallest chances to set off from the pack. Here you accept detours. And nevertheless many let themselves drift and complain afterwards that they didn’t get more out of it. As soon as you feel the fact that you are on this path, a side step or a spontaneous direction change or just trying out something completely different is recommended. The flipside of the way of the slightest resistance is the unnoticed corset that prevents long-term viability.