“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”Albert Einstein
As a continuation of my previous article on Step 2 of 7: Cherish Extraordinary Desires , which discusses the idea that when efficiency and productivity improve, one should achieve more output with same or reduced time and effort. If it is not so, improvement was not achieved.
Extraordinary desires become daydream sooner than later, if the intent for quest is missing.
Many questions haunt us the moment we cherish extraordinary desires. Moment, we face a little discomfort or sense risk, we convince ourselves by telling, “Let me look into it when I have time, and time never happens”.
Remember, extraordinary desires can only be accomplished with extraordinary efforts. There are no shortcuts; you need to prepare your own armour and weapons to travel ahead. Learning lies all along the way, have perseverance, believe that you can do it, and seek no support from without, the best teacher lies within.
Have faith in yourself first, and begin the journey. Answers are where questions belong, need is to pick the right questions one after another.
I set on my quest years back to explore the science behind achieving breakthrough performance improvements, after twelve years on the path I am writing this article.
All of us can become scientists if we have a question and follow it up till we find a suitable answer that quenches our quest. How did Newton discover laws of gravitation? Did the Apple or the tree teach it to him? He brought the question from within, found the answer within; he set himself on a quest and didn’t rest till he found the answer. It all starts and ends in the mind. For people like me and you, falling of an apple to the ground seems obvious, only those who question the obvious manage to make a difference in this world.
There are no shortcuts to success, and there is no ‘luck’, this is my perception. Learning is always personal, and best learning is the one which you attain by your own experience. One in hundred prefer to tread the unknown, rest prefer to follow an already traversed path. What deters us from preferring the less traversed path is but fear of unknown?
Condition, judgement and attachment preventsprevent us from launching and following up on a quest.
-
Condition- I will try to achieve 30% productivity only if it reflects on my annual appraisal as at least 20% pay hike!
-
Judgement – To achieve 30% productivity is not a joke; it is not possible to achieve it without technological changes!
-
Attachment - To the results, and not the efforts!
‘How can I apply this (ABC) tool in my work area?’- is- is the most common question I come across in my coaching sessions. “Why do we expect, readymade questions and answers?” Why we don’t help ourselves? ‘We don’t have time’, most of us say so! WellWell, I am no exception; I have said this to myself several times over. Reality is that time is nobody’s personal property in this world and we eventually do what we think is important at that moment. It is the choice that we make and it has nothing much to do with time.
How do I improve productivity by 30%? What tools and techniques will help? How to go about? What are the steps involved?
After a while of re-search you should be able to figure out what do you need to know more about?
At the end of your quest, you should come up with your own PDCA (famously known as Plan, Do, Check and Act, or Deming’s PDCA cycle) plan. Intensity of quest decides the time it takes to arrive at sound logical conclusions and way ahead. A rule of thumb is to put a deadline and work backwards. We pay attention to only those tasks which we feel are important and urgent; tasks which are important but not urgent will have to wait! Your sense of urgency holds the key to successful quest achieved in short span of time.
About the Author
Sreedher Kadambi serves as the Principal Consultant and Managing Director at Skil Global Business Solutions Private Limited. With over two decades of experience, he specializes in consulting for Operations Excellence practices within the industry. Kadambi has collaborated with over 20 diverse business segments across India, the USA, and the Middle East, catering to small, medium, large-scale enterprises, as well as multinational companies. Additionally, he holds a position as a visiting faculty member at the Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur.
Kadambi has contributed to the field by authoring numerous articles and case studies focused on the implementation of world-class operational excellence practices, available, under blog section, on www.skilglobal.com. He is also the author of "Cracking the Six Sigma Black Belt Exam," a publication by McGraw Hill, which is currently out of print.