Have fun while you do it...

It was an odd day today. Missed attending a close friend's wedding - thanks to the insane weather at Rajastan around this time of the year. Decided to attend TEDx Bangalore instead... Disappointed again as it turned out to be a live streaming of a global event.

Anyway this led me to have a session of jogging after quite sometime. A relaxation in the park after the jog and I sat down observing the kids playing nearby. Kids have always been an interesting mode of observation for me. The amount of need, urge, innocence, inquisitiveness and the resultant joy is immense... There was an old fellow teaching his grandson to count from 1-10 in various languages while he was playing on a swing. Every time the count reached 10, the kid used to be filled with joy and look forward for the next series. This made me think... Can we ever create such an environment at work / academia? Can we have so much passion and fun associated with learning that pride is associated with it?

In the due course of 'growing up', humans usually learn a lot of Dos and Don'ts associated with every activity they perform. These rules of Dos and Don'ts however is associated with the kind of environment they grow up in; the kind of situations they encounter in life. The amount of influence each event in life has on a person's mind generally decides who he turns out as. So, is it just innocence that makes the community of kids enjoy whatever they do? Probably not... It is a combination of many things...

If you think about it and consider all the parameters that influence this thought process, the whole question of passion and fun getting associated revolves around the attitude of an individual. As a person who will groom people, should the maximum time be spent on getting the right attitude in the individual? How does a change in attitude affect the association of a person with his work? Before we do that, is it all that easy to change the attitude of a 'grown-up'? :)

The answers to these questions differs from person to person based on the level of experience, exposure and maturity. For now, from my perspective all I would say is - Yes! A change in attitude can be brought. It takes time, requires effort to customize it, requires a lot of patience and needs to under-go an act of 'getting screwed at the grass root level' ...

Anyway... getting back - Can we create such an environment at work? I think we sure can... All it requires is energy, creativity, right attitude, inquisitiveness, maturity and an open mind. Well, deadly and a rare combination for sure... But where can we find such a combination at all levels of a growing economy? Its humanely not practical. All we require is a top layer which ooze out this combination. Style of leadership differs for sure... but however it is, all we require is a proper mechanism of grooming around the behavioral parameters which should help this to be percolated till the ground level... This will mean that as an organization, there will be attrition, weeding exercises etc... To counter this a proper recruitment team who have the same intent should help build the organization. So basically, a holistic approach towards building an organization from all the associated support functions and we should be there ... Difficult; but achievable.