What #Bangaloretraffic teaches us about what successful organizations look like

As a thoroughbred and spoilt Banglorean for over five decades, I’ve seen how the city has disintegrated and perhaps, no longer the ‘garden city’. But I’ve also learned along the way, how traffic in this city is closely corelated to an organization’s success. Let’s dive in?

360-degree (and may be ADAS) essential: Gone are the days when just a rear view and side view mirrors would suffice. Now, we need to be aware all around and watch out constantly. Same with careers nowadays. While you may have your core competencies, you need to be sufficiently knowledgeable about other areas. More importantly one must spend time to understand how his or her role impacts a team or the organization. For example, a sales person working on large contracts, must understand risk management, a bit about project management and finance perhaps?

Using indicators: Ever noticed how very few of us, use indicators – wither while taking a turn or switching lanes? Hardly a handful, right? This is like sharing #strategy and not letting teams and their managers what needs to be done. Can you figure out if the vehicle in front of you is going to take a right or left, while you are coming full speed (safely) and all of a sudden, someone ahead takes a right! Leaders need to explain themselves and clarify the #purpose of #strategy, why it’s exciting and how we will execute a strategy. No employee can read a leader’s mind, or for that matter anyone else’s.

Lane discipline: Faster vehicles on the right, while slower ones on the left! But who cares, where I find a gap and way out, I will rush there. It does not matter if someone is inconvenienced or stressed out. Its all about me and getting fast to my destination. This is where the importance of understanding your role and executing it well matters so much. If we did not stick to our lane, went slow on the right lane, it would upset and frustrate someone coming faster? We ought to do our jobs well, and do it well from the role standpoint and what we have committed to.

Zip-zap-zoom: We’ve seen 2- and 3-wheelers wiggle through the traffic, causing most of us to stress out, brake suddenly, causing even more commotion behind us. Probably these riders/drivers have not experienced driving other vehicles, so can’t empathise the pain others are put through? Being empathetic and compassionate, builds teams, fosters #collaboration and overall improved team #productivity. For this to happen we need to #respect one another, understand not just our responsibilities but also that of others, albeit to a reasonable extent.

Honking: Its pandemonium on our roads. Even before the signals turn green, you hear the honking in Dolby surround quality. Impatience? Urgency? Instant gratification? When it comes to our professional world, how many of us are ready or care enough to be patient enough to understand situations, challenges and opportunities? We jump to conclusions about our jobs, managers and the company. It takes courage and conviction to seize challenges and opportunities alike.

Jumping the signal: Even when someone tries to follow signals, there are people behind hoking and putting pressure to move ahead. Is this even reasonable and good civic sense? A business can only exist, if its profitable and growing. Yes, ambition is awesome. But do we meet this ambition by stressing out teams, putting the pressure, without doing a reality check? There are capable people and teams, but is the capacity there, to stretch, bend and summersault to achieve those ambitious goals? Being inclusive and helping the team with possible pitfalls, mentoring them and supporting them, goes a long way to build a healthy and sustainable organization.

Parking: With pace at which the city has grown, we did add buildings, but forgot to account for the number of vehicles we would be adding. No matter where we go, there is no parking. If there is, its haphazard – cars and two wheelers parked in different directions. As finding a parking spot is a huge sense of relief, #employeewellbeing and #work-life balance are important aspects organization need to be more conscious of. Sensitising leaders and managers alike is an important part #HR can play.

Bus stops near traffic signals: This is simply stupendous. We approach a traffic light, and there you have buses standstill waiting for passengers to board or get off the bus. The signal is green, the bus leaves, but by the time you come to the signal, it’s all red! All we have to do is, move the bus stops so that it does not affect other vehicles. It’s similar to clarity on #careerpaths and #performanceappraisals. Why wait for a year, and then tell an employee they did not do so well, so all you get is so much of a raise. If we spent time giving feedback to improve through the year, the employee has a better chance of doing well. Organizations need to focus more on removing blocks, especially the invisible ones, that are not so obvious.

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#Refreshinglyc2 (Caring and Curious) is an idea that was conceived to help future proof organizations by delivering beyond mandates and delivering ‘business’ value.

From approach to #strategy, #planning, #execution and sustenance, we view a #brand, not as a singular communication entity, but as an ecosystem. This helps us deliver a unified and memorable #brandexperience consistent with #brandpromise - by addressing all the 'touchpoints of a brand', across external and internal stakeholders and audiences.

We work inclusively across the breadth and depth of an #organization and its businesses, #operatingmodel and #stakeholders, #audiences and #customers. This fundamental approach allows us to unravel gaps, redundancies and opportunities and ‘connect the dots’ to develop and execute effective and sustainable #communications and #marketing programs.

Our whole approach is to deliver programs, not just campaigns and creatives, and strategies and plans. We deploy models (Zoom-in, Zoom-out, ADKAR change management and fishbone methodology) and processes to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.

We appreciate the nuances of the corporate world, the creative power of agencies and the strategic thought process of consulting firms. Which is why our ‘program’ focused approach goes beyond just #campaigns and #creatives.

Welcome to the world of #refreshinglyc2.

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