This is the way - Not always.

When I moved into a technology organization from sales and marketing role, I found myself a fish out of water and that state continued for few months, and I was wondering did I made the right choice in my career, till I met one of my mentor in India. He taught me a very important lesson which I still follow - This is what he said in exact words.

‘Ask questions when you are #uncertain, when you need an #explanation, when you need to #understand better, or when you want people to #think again.  If you are scared to ask question anticipating people may consider you a fool, then let me assure you -by not asking, you improve your chance to be fool for ever’. – golden words. .

Let me share an interesting story in this context. The story is about fish, cook and the cooking and more ..

A tired salesperson (Mr. X) landed into a roadside restaurant in a village in India, it was late afternoon for lunch and he asked the owner what is available quickly. No one was available except the cook. The owner responded -freshly cooked fish curry and rice – specially prepared for him. Mr. X was hungry but was excited about the freshly cooked hot plate- looks like warm home food, and he agreed. Here the actual story started, he saw the cook got up, took a fresh fish out from a tank, cut it into two pieces from the centre.

 Mr. X went to the cook and asked, ‘why did you cut the fish like that?’

The cook replied, ‘that’s the way’ and Mr. X questioned again -can you please explain again why that’s the way.

The cook sounded a little irritated and responded he was trained to cut the fish in that way – hence that’s the way. Mr. X now wanted to meet the trainer to understand – why that was the way. The cook later took Mr. X to his trainer who was also a cook in that restaurant in the past.  Mr. X asked the same question to explain the background. The trainer mentioned when the restaurant was opened years ago, it was small and was run by the husband and wife- duo. The husband manages the customers, accept the payments and wife use to manage the kitchen and when he joined, he was shown and told to cut fish in that way, hence this was the only way known to him.

Mr. X wanted to go to the root to understand why that was the way, finally Mr. X was able to trace the person  who trained the trainer. Mr. X presented his usual question – Why that’s the way? The lady (ex-owners’ wife ) showed her mother-in-law who was old, feeble and was lying in the bed. She answered  she learned it from her mother-in-law hence that is the way.

 Now the final one – why her mother-in-law use that way?  She explained that during her time, she managed a large family where men use to go for farming in the morning and come back in the evening. Being the only responsible lady in the family she had to cook their meals, which they will eat in the morning and take a portion as their food for the day.

She found this was the best, easiest, convenient, and fastest way for her to prepare the food for them- that can serve the purpose of two meals of the day.

So this remained the way for ages because no one questioned the way but followed it blindly.

The moral is -what was easiest, fastest, and convenient for somebody over time became the undisputed that’s the way process, till someone challenged the status quo and shook it up. Isn’t a good story? Probably Yes, because it talked about a simple discovery process which sometimes is missing in our day to day life. We do not challenge the status quo.

In an organizational context sometimes it happens in large business institutions where conformity is nurtured and challenging the status quo is considered a rebellious act.

How often we see leaders challenge the status quo or ask employees to think outside the box? That’s the question the Harvard Business Review put to more than 1,000 employees across industries nationwide. The result? 42% said never or almost never, 32% said sometimes, and 26% said often or very often. Only 3% said always. It is also found in organizational research that going against the crowd gives us confidence in our actions, which makes us feel unique and engaged and translates to higher performance and greater creativity.

In an interesting research by another research group, they explained often there is a conflict where people are instructed to conform to strict organizational policies but are pushed to innovate and be creative. It is like training a parrot to fly within a cage.

There are benefits for encouraging constructive nonconformity , the challenge is how to break -the adhere to status quo, which is often embedded in some institutional DNA. Where the fear of failure engulfs the excitement for the glory of discovery, the joy of unwrapping the unknown, it always result to the death of risk appetite, missing excellence  due to malnutrition .

How to overcome this? Building a culture by removing the fear of failure, encouraging the concept of fortune favor the brave. Continuously visiting and revisiting the basics, building the foundation so strong in everyone mind ,so that  people thrive to get it right once, once again, one more time, always , every time and keep challenging the status quo – why this is the way ?

Will it not encourage us to learn some unknown or #discover a new way, a new beginning? What is your story ?