Crocodiles are prehistoric animals who during the earlier periods grew up to a length of 15 meters. Today’s longest crocodiles are about 60% of that size. A lot of places particularly in the African continent have mastered the technique of reducing the size of the crocodiles by enclosing them in small cages during their growth stages. So, while the crocodiles were still fed as per their requirement the lack of space stunted their growth and made them into bonsai crocodiles which are at times even 90% smaller than their normal sizes.
A similar experiment was also done by the Ramakrishna mission in the Sundarbans region of West Bengal using the local delicacy fish called katla. The baby katla fishes were placed in ponds dug in the paddy fields just before the onset of the monsoons. With the monsoon setting in the ponds would fill up and the katla fish would have the full paddy fields to swim around. What was observed was the katla fish which grew in these situations would achieve within 3 months the same size which would otherwise take 9 to 10 months if they were grown when water was only within the same pond. Another example of faster growth when the fish had bigger space to swim around.
What would be some of the parameters in our work environment which influence us to continuously develop ourselves and help us realize our real capabilities and potential?
It could be:
- The nature of the industry and company that we are working in
- The type of work a person does and his role within the organization
- The people relationships he is involved with both within and outside the organization
- The treats or obstacles he must overcome and manage to be successful in his role.
When do we consider that a person has started getting stunted at work like what we saw in the case of the crocodiles?
It could be when the person is operating and working at a level which is well below his potential. Very often while others might take time to realize that a person is operating below his potential the individual can make out the same in the early stages of this stagnation itself. But the individual at times is not inclined to change the environment around him because he is more concerned with security than with satisfaction. The person could be avoiding the change because he finds it too much of effort to seek change. It could also be that he is low on self-esteem and is worried to alter his situation. At times it could even be that the person is trying his best but the dynamics around him is so strong that it pushes him back into the same groove.
Once the person continues in this state for a very long time the situation becomes irreversible, and he has reached the same state as what happened to the crocodiles whose growth stunted once they were enclosed in a small cage which limited their growth options.
Let’s understand the change options that a person has in a work environment. Work that a manager perceives that he is doing can vary from each person’s mind but can be broadly defined into the below four dimensions.
- Function
- Organization
- Domain or Industry
- Location or Geography of responsibility
At times changes are forcibly brought in because of technology changes or with the industry getting disrupted with the entry of a new player of changes in certain regulations.
Depending on our aspirations we could look at bringing in variety or change in any of these 4 dimensions. We could also add exposure on different parameters depending on the opportunities and the career stage that we are in.
What happens when we change any of the above four dimensions is there is a lot of new things we will be exposed to. There will be a lot of earlier learnings which we had learned in our earlier job which we might try to implement in our new job and role or geography which will not really work. Was listening to an interview with Sunil Bharati Mittal today morning where he was sharing how when they entered the African telecom sector, they tried doing things the same way which they had successfully done in India. The results that they got from Africa was very different rather very negative. So, they had to unlearn and remodify their learnings to suite the market and customer requirements of Africa. The same is the case with each of the dimensions. So, changes in each of these dimensions will make us unlearn and relearn a lot of things and always keep us on our toes such expanding our space as we can call it.
In addition to this there are always opportunities which I often call as efficiency improvements. These are small improvements that we can always do in the way in which routine things are done. But to bring in these improvements we will first need to be aware of the same so that we can identify the gaps and make small and small improvements which cumulated leads to huge differentiation over a longer period.
Several organizations provide various programs to ensure better exposure and learning. Like always we can choose to cite lack of time and stay away from these programs or use these as opportunities to unlock our potential. The growth of various technologies has also made this easier to do and achieve.
Space is just one of the parameters that helps us realize our potential and not become bonsai professionals like we saw in the case of the crocodiles. There are several other parameters also which are equally important some of which that I talked about briefly in this article which are forced on us because of external and internal changes. To continue getting more details about the various other parameters do subscribe to this LinkedIn newsletter Rejo’s Biz Bytes, subscribe to my YT Channel Rejo Francis – YouTube or visit my website Rejo Francis – Inspirational Business Leader
