Prescriptive mindset - a few thoughts

Prescriptive mindset - a few thoughts

Aniruddha Sarkar

18 October 2022, 10-30 AM

One morning, at around nine o'clock, my mother was looking for me urgently. I was studying in a secluded place on the first floor.

That was the time when my mother used to prepare for her daily school attendance.

By nine-thirty to ten o'clock, she would leave for her teaching job.

I rushed down the stairs.

What happened? I asked.

She said I can not find the duplicate key to the wall almirah. It is locked from the outside. My school bag is inside. The original key bunch is there inside.

She pointed her finger towards the glass window cover of the almirah. I could find the original key bunch very close to the glass cover.

Mother said, do something. I am getting late.

She was out of ideas.

I suddenly remembered there is a magnet with me that was gifted by one of my classmates.

I pulled out the magnet. And, I put the magnet on the glass cover. Alas, the key bunch was too heavy to be moved.

Then a flash of ideas came to my mind.

I picked up a small fishing hook (Barshi in Bengali) from a secured place, then tied it to a strong thin thread, and lowered the fishing hook from the top clearance of the two split almirah shutters. Even with the lock put outside, the clearance was good enough to hang the fishing hook inside and place it closer to the bunch of keys inside.

Now the fishing hook was hanging next to the key bunch.

I applied the magnet from outside the glass cover to pull the fishing hook and then suddenly removed the magnet.

The fishing hook started swinging. After I tried a few swinging and maneuvering with the magnet, the hook got stuck inside the ring of the key bunch!

It was now easy to pull out the whole bunch of keys from the top clearances of the split glass window panes.

Mother could collect her bag and leave for her school on time.

Later, on the same day, the lost duplicate key was also traced.

One point is loud and clear here.

There was a problem. Mother asked me to solve it. She did not prescribe what I should do. She trusted that I would be able to solve this problem quickly.

The key point here was: trust that someone would be able to solve the problem.

Now let me share another life story from the corporate world.

One night, around eight o'clock in the evening, I attended our office to participate in a few overseas calls along with one more colleague.

We were preparing to initiate interview calls for the next eight to ten hours back to back in another time zone twelve hours behind us. All these calls were pre-scheduled.

Except for two of us, there was nobody on the office floor at that hour.

Suddenly I noticed a cluster where someone was seated.

I inquired. That was one of our reasonably senior associates.

I asked, what happened, Raja (not his real name)? Staying late?

He said my boss has asked me to send the site status of an ongoing back-office operation once every hour.

I again asked: where are the boys who are on the job?

Raja said they are in the customer site a few furlongs away from here.

I again said, then you may collect the status from your home as well over the phone and update. Right?

Raja replied boss has asked me to call from the office land phone only.

I did not ask any further questions.

The only thing, that was missing here, was trust.

The boss felt Raja may not send factual updates once he leaves office.

The boss wanted Raja to stay in the office until the operation was over by the next early morning.

The chap was there in the office at nine o'clock morning. And he would be leaving the office by the next morning.

Was the ongoing back-office job a regular batch activity?

The answer was: yes. I knew that.

Then was it necessary to keep Raja tied up for almost a whole day in the office?

Frankly, I didn't know what the rationale was.

Sometimes, a few of the very senior management team try to issue dictums, prescriptions, dos and don't, right and wrong.

They may always guide the team: consult me before doing anything.

They also use punishment as a tool to silence an independent voice.

Such a boss receives frequent phone calls around the clock.

The team members, both seniors and juniors alike, call up the boss, update the status, and then ask for direction.

The boss keeps track of who didn't call up regularly.

For them, life would be hell.

I call this Prescriptive Management.

Here all the team members are treated like slaves (apology for using a harsh word).

Slave driving is the norm.

The Boss creates a regimented army of followers and eases out the leaders.

This one-person show makes the boss important and valuable to the organization.

He shows great performance by driving a team of followers.

Creativity, lateral thinking, alternate ideas, and challenging questions are not appreciated.

The performance evaluations and reward mechanisms are driven by loyalty and favouritism.

Such a suffocating environment is ok for the followers, but not ok for the leaders.

So, high performers, independent thinkers, creative geniuses, etc., leave the organization.

The slave driving continues.

This one-man show is not halted by the top person just because the revenue stream is maintained.

A black spot is allowed to continue in an otherwise good cultural environment.

In my opinion, an organization should be careful about the existence of such an island of black spots.

It can thoroughly obliterate virtues like trust, creativity, and lateral thinking from the face of an organization.

----------×----------