To be or Not to be Appraised...

I did learn about Maslow's theory of need and motivation, and other relating theories of motivating individuals to work and perform under given parameters, during my graduation and post graduation days. I along with others did attempt to apply that theory in many of the stints we've done, and seen it work at places. If you want to learn more - google for it.

But when you come to organisation life - this changes a bit; reason - age (for the more technical reader - maturity). As, we grow old in life our needs increases - it's not the other way round - ofcourse we are looking at cumulative need of recognition and money. And then, comes mid-life crisis - where virtually most of the things are either going too good or the inevitable becomes reality.

Where I work, it's not about old people, but about young talented individuals who have suddenly been exposed to the concept of relative grading and percentile (this does not goes in saying that I also understand the concept or I am on the higher level of the intellect scale or I am old, we'll never talk about that).

On the absolute front we all are talented individuals - what makes our talent vanish or deplete is the whole funda of comparison, productivity figures, and others questioning the ability of a creative person. But that's how business functions - procedures, policies, productivity and people. It's just that procedure and policy effect the people productivity (now count the number of "p" in this paragraph).

That's what appraisals are all about - a policy which initiates a procedure to help people improve their productivity (competitively). What you actually see at the end of it is some smiling faces and some facing inevitability.

And, life goes on...

Tweaking Numbers

Today, I write almost after a month. This does not goes to signify that I had lot's of work to finish, so I couldn't write about the exciting life of PM's. Well, actually it was more of work away from work.

Lives of many PM's around me haven't changed a bit, some when I returned looked thinner with the colors of their skin almost turning to white. It was not about projects, but a annual epidemic called "quality check". It happens every year just to ensure lives of many people will be better (probably), systems will function (hopefully), and the cash register will ring when the next cheque arrives (affirmative). Stuff which I again read during MBA.

Many companies strive to achieve the SIXth sigma, it's a zone of nirvana for the operation guys - who dream of producing only 3.4 error(s) amongst a million productive units. Many individuals who get smarter in tweaking productivity numbers get belt's in different color - just like in karate. Just that you are practicing a discipline of improving processes.

Trust me, it is yet to make the lives of the people working in that process better, I like karate over six sigma practices.

Untill then - practise self discipline :)