Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
not fat reports received in his office. This alone can guide, develop, and inspire his
people, and not written memos calling forth explanations for shortfalls and failures.
An experienced manager will acquire a knack of getting the overall feel of things
once he is there—like the vocabulary of the chess champions. Being in constant
touch with the field situation (the 'action') in a spontaneous manner can provide the
leader with new ideas, insights, and directions in which to develop his organisation.
Compared to this, the pre-planned, detailed, stiff, and formal inspections—often
producing volumes of directions to improve things—leads nowhere.
8.2.3
Strategies for Sustained Performance
Organisations that last for long have certain characteristics in common. Though—in
the span of the organisational life cycle—every organisation must perish eventually,
some organisations may die a premature death, or become dysfunctional in early
stage. Organisational sustainability, like that of any other system, requires that the
organisation stays healthy, vital, growing, and relevant to its goals. Sustainability
requires alertness towards the principles, the strategies, and the cultures that go into
the making of great organisations.
Continuous innovation involves search for both doing things better and doing
better things. While innovation implies changes of greater significance, it is the
continuous improvement that forms the main strength of an organisation. An eye for
detail, getting down to the nitty-gritty, and constant evaluation of work with a view to
improving on every front in every conceivable way, is the secret of a sustained good
performance. Waiting for big improvements and transformations at all times does not
help. Placing undue emphasis on certain aspects, at the cost of other aspects, leads to
distortion and misplaced or missed priorities. It is rightly said that one should strive
to do a thousand things one percent better rather than one thing a thousand percent
better.
There is no single way to drive innovation in an organisation. It is a combination
of many things—the need, the context, the general mood, the atmosphere, and a free-
dom to experiment—that generates innovative ideas. Support and encouragement to
change, to experiment, and to think freely breeds an atmosphere where innovation
is more likely to happen. Free interaction, ease of communication within the organ-
isation and with the external environment such as the local communities and other
stakeholders, can provide new ideas. Ideas that spring from the grassroots level are
more likely to be of practical consequences than the elegant theories designed by
expensive consultants using sophisticated software running on hi-tech computers.
An ability to change in response to needs from within or outside the organisation is
a crucial strength. An organisation exists to fulfil certain goals that lie outside it, rather
than to be an end in itself. Responsive organisations fulfil the inherent needs of their
own people to grow, but also take cues from the outside environment. They realise
that it is not easy to abandon old habits, and that calcification can set in imperceptibly
but doggedly. Inertia, beaten track mentality, and compulsive obsession with habitual
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