There was a time when a manufacturing or technology company got into exporting carpets, incense sticks, leather goods and the like, just to import materials or components essential for their core manufacturing activity.
That is getting around policies that were a major obstacle to doing business. The much celebrated Indian "Jugaad" was born. Jugaad is the Indian( read Hindi) word for working around obstacles. Working around is defined as methods adopted to work around obstacles but those that do not remove or eliminate obstacles. While results, though not always the most ideal ones, are achieved, the problems remain.
The above image is from http://gizmoghost.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/the-jugaad-riding-through-dusty-village-roads/
The celebration is a tribute to innovation at grassroots levels. Where, being a common man is not easy, such innovations are hailed as the spirit of India overcoming obstacles that exist at every step of the way.
At some point, Jugaad found its way, from the grassroots up into every level, right upto the decision making level. This is when the country, people included, started loosing out on their thought process, work culture, outcomes and opportunities.
Extend the same argument to an organization. How many of us could say that we work in a culture that does not support "working-around". A culture of jugaad creates heroes out of those who find a better way to work around and such heroes are the biggest stumbling blocks in the way of implementing systems that replace "jugaad" with processes.
Jugaad benefits employees; they get a chance at becoming a hero. It benefits organizations; they get their results, quick and cheap, without bothering about policies or systems. But little do they realize that jugaad eventually works out costlier by way of
- A poor work culture
- Employee burnout
- Whimsical or invented Just-In-Time decisions
- Low respect
- Employee indifference
Jugaad is here to stay unless excellence becomes a foundation upon which every organizational initiative is built. With our attention firmly on short term quarterly results, lowest-cost suppliers, lowest operating costs, does Jugaad have any chance of getting out of our work culture ?
As you rightly said, there are many Jugaad Heros in our company who are continuously hurdling many of our drives towards process approach and systems implementation. Hope some day they would recognize the benefits and align with the system.
ReplyDeleteNice article Sir! Please keep us posted with such ones.