The Hindu Business Line : Discern opportunities around, when others don't

TOM whitewashing the fence is an episode in a kids' book by Mark Twain. If you remember, Tom `sold' the job to his chums by marketing it as something very interesting to do.

What a smart kid, one might remark, but the story had a philosophical message for the discerning. "Whether one is motivated to work or not depends on the attitude one has toward one's job," writes Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in Good Business, published by Coronet Books (www.madaboutbooks.com). "For no matter how uninspiring that job may be, it is possible to find redeeming value in it if one knows what to look for."

There are three options, says the author, for a manager who wants to build an organisation that will last, one in which people are motivated to contribute and to stay. "First, make the objective conditions of the workplace as attractive as possible. Second, find ways to imbue the job with meaning and value. Third, select and reward individuals who find satisfaction in their work."

What is happiness? Not something happening to us, but something that we make happen, emphasises Mihaly. "It results from our doing our best. Feeling fulfilled when we live up to our potentialities is what motivates differentiation and leads to evolution."

If you don't enjoy your work, you can't be successful is the message. When so enjoying, there is the flow experience. When in flow, your goals are clear, but you wouldn't be overly concerned with the ultimate result. "If a tennis player thinks only of winning the match, she won't be able to respond to her opponent's powerful serve. The salesman who is too concerned with earning his commission, and is not sufficiently attentive to the buyer's moods, is less likely to make the sale." Feedback is immediate and `online'. "Some individuals have developed such strong internal standards that they no longer need the opinion of others to judge whether they have performed a task well or not. The ability to give objective feedback to oneself is in fact the mark of the expert."

What, among human talents, is the most precious one? "The ability to discern opportunities around oneself, when others do not," answers the author. "The individual who is truly engaged with the world — interested, curious, excited — is never at a loss for opportunities to experience flow."

In a chapter titled "why flow doesn't happen on the job", the author mentions that the first reason is that few jobs have clear goals. "Much of what modern workers are required to do on the job is dictated by demands that make sense at some higher organisational level but are obscure to the worker."

Next, "contemporary jobs seldom provide adequate feedback." There is no expression of skills, and with increasing rationalisation of jobs, "it is hard to get deeply involved in an activity where one's performance is a minor factor, where a good job is scarcely noticed, and where even the worker can't determine whether his work was well done." Also, "skills of worker are not well matched to the opportunities for action."

Hard to believe, but even today, there are some jobs that do call upon the full range of a worker's talents, assures the author. "The few remaining independent farmers must learn to be economists, mechanics, veterinarians, weathermen, and all-around problem solvers if they want to prosper." One wonders how many of our B-school products could boast of such comprehensive and functional skills.

ManageMentor@hotmail.com

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