The Hindu Business Line : From promise to performance

Brownian motion would be an apt description for most of the overtly active people gracing such weddings. Despite all this, in some mysterious fashion, weddings do get solemnised and everyone disperses to create more chaos another day, at another wedding!

Weddings are complex affairs combining the best elements of planning, execution, exceptional handling, escalations, expectation setting, management of those expectations and teamwork.

The word `planning' is deeply embedded in our psyche; we are used to the Five-Year Plans of the Government and strategic planning exercises, annual operating plan exercises, and so on, which are staples of the corporate world.

In a sense, this seems to reinforce the supremacy of planning as a meta goal in itself and, by extension, an implicit lower order of importance for execution/implementation of the plan.

This is not a denial of the importance of activities such as monthly/quarterly reviews, performance appraisals, marketing, customer relations management and branding, but only that they seem to be lower down the pecking order.

At the end of the day, as much as intentions matter, it is the delivery of results that matters the most. In essence, outcomes should form the ultimate benchmark against which judgments should be made, be they for individuals or companies.

While performance is important for companies to showcase their achievements, it is equally crucial for the individuals within the systems. Unmet expectations invariably lead to dissatisfaction, disconnects with the system, and ultimately to loss of self-confidence. The advent of technology and the imperatives of managing rapid change seemingly conspire to dilute efforts at staying focused on performance. E-mail, the mobile phone, and now the Blackberry, have made communicating with and accessing a person very easy. However, they have also made it increasingly difficult for a person to concentrate on the issues at hand.Management and communication by what may be termed mode interruptus has become the order of the day. This often leads to confusing activity with action.

Performance is all about action; it is all about outcomes. While activities are an integral part of the action cycle, they do not by themselves constitute action. This difference is crucial and the need for speed often blurs the line between the two, leading to impaired decision-making.

This also leads to increased workloads for individuals who are busy being busy. They feel stressed out as a result and ultimately lose out on accomplishments in their work lives and joy in their personal lives.

In order that we continue to stay relevant in an ever-changing context and accomplish our individual goals, it becomes crucial to make sure that even as we plan, we also think through ways to implement our plans. Plans and ways to implement the plans have to be simultaneous activities; they form two sides of the same coin.

It is important to cultivate a mindset that helps us focus on both. This balance will hopefully assist in developing techniques that will help us achieve our goals and position us effectively to face an increasingly frenetic and changeable future.

It's time to transform all those pious intentions to desired outcomes; time for those PowerPoints to be transformed to performance.

(The writer is corporate advisor to 3i Infotech Ltd and Manipal Education and Medical Group.)