We need to change how we look at work and people

If you are in India and have been following the socials recently, a statement made by Mr. N. R. Narayana Murthy has been going viral.

The man needs no introduction. He's a beacon for the Indian and global software industry. He is a legend.

Keeping all that aside, recently, in an interview, he made a statement where he urged the youth of India to work hard, and he explicitly quantified hard work using '70 hours per week'. The internet didn't take it too kindly. Many supported Mr. Murthy, and many vehemently expressed their concerns about such an idea.

Once you get past the initial reaction to the statement, there is so much to unravel about people, work, and leadership in that statement. So here are my reflections.

People - Not everyone is the same.

Probably the most complicated element in this whole scenario. In the 1980s, when IT services started in India, the landscape was very different from what it is now. The economics of demand and supply of skills and overall cost-effectiveness propelled IT growth in India. People were happy to do the same job for a fraction of the salary their Western counterparts demanded. Also, there were few alternatives at that time to make such a living.

And we all know how that story panned out. It has been five decades since, and the IT industry has matured, and so has the population.

I don't recall ever in the documented history of the human race that people worked hard because someone asked them to work hard. What drove them was either rewards and punishments, or they were motivated by a cause and purpose.

So, people always belonged to either Camp A or Camp B.

Camp A is motivated by rewards and punishments. Camp B cares for meaning and growth.

Today, the youth is more aware primarily due to technology and has many avenues to explore. It has divided the working population into two camps, one works to make a living, make money, and does not expect anything more from their work. Let's call them Camp A. The other, though, still works to make a living but expects more from the work they do, things like meaning, fun, and growth. Camp B

Given the population of India and the competitive landscape, there will always be people in Camp A for the foreseeable future. But more and more brain trust will shift towards Camp B. Without touching upon the quality of work produced by these two camps, I want to state that corporate leaders need to decide which camp they want to address and employ the techniques that work for the respective camps because no one is going to work hard because you merely asked them to.

Now, if you address Camp 2 instead of asking them to work 70 hours a week, give them a cause that resonates with them, give them a vision they can rally behind, make the process fun and rewarding, and see productivity skyrocket.

For Camp 1, I don't need to elaborate.

Work - Means different things in different contexts.

Measuring predominantly white-collar work in the number of hours is archaic. It escapes me why we still use a hammer when we need a scalpel.

Productivity was measured in factories and assembly lines by tracking how many hours people spent at work, where more hours at the assembly line meant more production.

It is not valid for knowledge work. We should measure outcomes. Whether you achieve the outcomes in 7 or 70 hours isn't relevant. If you can achieve the same outcome in less time, it should be rewarded.

Here is an example. Suppose your car breaks down in the middle of the highway while you are on your way to an important meeting. You have two mechanics who come to your rescue. One says he will follow all the steps in the manual, take the estimated 4 hours as prescribed, and then see what happens at the end of those 4 hours. The other one says he will have the car running in 30 mins. He will probably disregard the manual but guarantees the outcome. Who will you pick to fix your car?

We need a mindset shift. If we want to propel the nation's growth, we need to teach an outcome-driven approach to our youth rather than ask them to clock 70 hours a week. It requires immense trust in ourselves and others to accept that people will always find the most optimal way of solving a problem if they are well-equipped and empowered. And if we can't muster up that trust, it tells a lot about ourselves and the people we work with.

Leaders - They are human too.

We live in extraordinary times where the likes of Mr. Murthy and the immense experience they have are available to us to learn from. And there is so much to learn. But it is also easy to get enamored by the magnanimous personas these leaders have and take their word as gospel. At the same time, it is also easy to hate them because of their stature and accomplishments.

Leaders have the responsibility to control how they influence other people, but at the same time, people also have the responsibility to think objectively about things that come their way.

I want to mention a cognitive bias called the 'Halo Effect' here. A derivative of this bias is that once we see someone as successful or knowledgeable in a particular endeavor, we assume they are equally successful and knowledgeable in all walks of life. This halo effect is quite rampant in today's day and age with social media, where accomplished actors advise about office work, spiritual gurus advise about politics, and so on. And we take that at face value.

We should learn to identify this bias and think through what we hear on social media and not react instinctively.

Ultimately, there will always be multiple ways of looking at the same thing. There will always be opinions, and these are mine. So, there's no need to get riled up.