Cross Functional Awareness
A number of parallels can be drawn between a Family and an Organisation as they are no different as far as group working and inter-relationships are concerned.
Both have numerous players with different roles.
They depend on each other for their own individual function, interact with each other and have their own communication and inter-personal problems, which symptomatically get reflected in behavioural aberrations.
The problems largely arise out of lack of cross functional awareness and appreciation of the value of contribution that the other player is making which results in lack of goal congruence and hence suboptimal achievements for the group as a whole.
It is essential that the jigsaw puzzle of role interplay is solved successfully to ensure that all act in unison to achieve the same set of goals.
Every one/every department has/have their own assigned roles which have to be played such that everyone works towards achievement of a common goal by complimenting each other.
A harmoniously interactive organisation can be compared with an orchestra where hundreds of musicians converge to a single tune.
It is necessary to appreciate the fact that no single role is menial or derogatory.
Even if a small element does not work properly, the whole machinery comes to a grinding halt.
In a car there may be hundreds of parts but even a loose screw, or a valve, or a contact can bring the car to a complete halt.
Our schoolbook had a story about a farmer who regarded his job as highly valuable in running the family while he considered his wife's role as menial.
On his constant taunting and grunting, the shrewd lady offers for exchange of roles till one of the two accepted the others point of view.
She was quite sure that her husband's inflated male ego would come down to reasonable level only by demonstrating the basic principles of cross functional awareness.
The tragedy that occurs with the farmer attending his wife's daily chores (which he thought were menial) like lighting fire in the kitchen, milking the cows, bringing water from the village well, attending to children etc.
; made him bow before his wife and plead for reversal to original roles.
So let us not learn the hard way like the farmer! Old schoolbook story on Cross Functional Awareness A farmer who regarded his job as highly valuable in running the family, considered his wife's role as menial.
On his constant taunting by him, instead of arguing without any proof, the wife offered to exchange of roles till either of them accepted the others point of view.
The earlier story was as follows: The farmer's wife would get up early in the morning and start finishing the morning chores deftly.
She would prepare tea for the farmer, make ready his Babul brush, and fill up a jar of water for him to wash his face and mouth and then wake him up.
He would wake up when she had made three or four attempts.
She will quickly prepare food for which he would take away with him when he went to the farm.
Once the husband went to farm, she would take up other daily chores like getting water from the well, milching the cows and buffaloes, making whey and butter out of curds made from milk and deliver milk to her customers.
Then her small children would get up and had to be cleaned, bathed and fed before they were made ready to go to school.
By the time she finished all this, it would be noon and she would have a short siesta after lunch.
She would get up and start working again on evening activities.
Once in a while she would grind the grains to augment stock of flour.
She would start preparing evening meal and some eatables for children who would return from school in early evening.
She would get ready water and fresh clothes so that her husband can take a refreshing bath when he returned from farm.
Before sunset she had to clean and fill up lanterns to provide light at night.
When the herd returned from grazing she had to secure them in their places, feed them and then milch cows and buffaloes.
After providing dinner to her husband and children, she could go to bed after cleaning the utensils.
The challenge story: Since the first to wake up in the family anyway, was the wife she had no trouble getting up and getting ready on time.
Being a farmer's daughter and wife she had no trouble harnessing the bullocks and drive away to the farm.
She had cooked her own lunch as a precaution.
She found working in open field in sun somewhat tenuous but not impossible.
At home, since the husband had never awakened on his own, he awoke only when the sun had gone up in the sky.
He was habituated to having everything ready for him when he woke up.
Now that he had to fend for himself, he floundered.
He could not lay hands on Babul brush nor could he find the jug to fill up water for his use.
Somehow he finished this activity and wanted to have tea.
He tried to light up the hearth but did not know how to go about it.
The kitchen was filled up with smoke due to improper burning of wood and he started coughing and was breathless.
Somehow he managed to make tea and went out and barely took a sip when the children woke up and started bawling for their mother.
He had a hard time cleaning, bathing and feeding them.
He almost blew his top due to simultaneous cacophony of children who wanted something or the other which he could not provide.
With great effort he succeeded in getting them ready and dispatching them to school.
Once the children were gone he suddenly realised that he had not eaten anything since morning and he did not have anything ready to eat.
He once again went through the ordeal of lighting the hearth and faced more smoke than heat.
Somehow he managed to prepare some modicum of lunch.
In the very first bite he winced at the bad taste and regretted at not having tasty food prepared by his wife.
When he lay down for afternoon siesta his stomach was virtually empty, his body was aching and he had a severe headache.
In the early evening the children came from school and started hollering for snacks.
He did not know where things were stored and had hard time keeping them under control till his wife returned from farm.
The wife tauntingly said, "Array, will you give me a glass of water? I am so tired.
" The farmer was pissed off but kept a tightlipped silence.
The wife smilingly went about the chores that he was supposed to carry out as per the challenge.
Moral of the Story Due to the male ego of the farmer the tragedy continued for a week before he lost steam and sheepishly accepted the defeat.
He learned the lesson of the "cross functional awareness and appreciation" the hard way.
Let us not go through the trials and tribulations before we learn the lesson.
Role Reversal taught him to appreciate his Wife's Point of View.
So let us not learn the hard way like the farmer! Principles of healthy cross-functional appreciation/awareness 1.
Respect roles or jobs of others however small or menial it may apparently look like.
Imagine not getting a sweeper on discovering that you have a dead rotting cat or dog lying in your compound.
2.
Understanding the complimentary or supportive nature of each job for proper functioning of other jobs.
Just remember the difficulties you face while getting ready for office when your wife is away from home.
3.
It is essential to acquire a thorough understanding of the inter-functional interface for clarity of communication, which is the prerequisite for successful working of any group.
It is essential that you understand language in which your colleagues talk and their way of expression to ensure that:"LALAJI AJMER GAYE" does not get transmitted as "LALAJI AAJ MAR GAYE".
4.
It needs to be ensured that there is no watertight compartmentalisation of the functions.
Apparently there may be conflicting objectives of different functions, but it needs to be ensured that there is goal congruence to meet organisational objectives.
-Prod.
-longest run length -Maint.
-preventive maintenance -Prodn- Achievement of Prodn.
Targets -Maint.
-Avoidance of breakdown shutdown -Maint.
-Ensuring healthy machine condition -Finance- Control on expenditure -Mktg.
-Advt.
-need for aggressive marketing -Finance-Need for cutting frivolous expenditure -Mktg.
- Extending credit as a selling point -Finance-Credit costs dearly to the company 5.
Seeing things from the point of view of the other fellow.
6.
Educating the colleagues about our way of looking at things.
7.
Before pressing any demand on the other function you need to understand their priorities.
Tail Piece Talking about importance of different roles: Imagine the situation where a dead rat is found in the Chairman's office when he is about to arrive in office and no one can find the Sweeper!
Both have numerous players with different roles.
They depend on each other for their own individual function, interact with each other and have their own communication and inter-personal problems, which symptomatically get reflected in behavioural aberrations.
The problems largely arise out of lack of cross functional awareness and appreciation of the value of contribution that the other player is making which results in lack of goal congruence and hence suboptimal achievements for the group as a whole.
It is essential that the jigsaw puzzle of role interplay is solved successfully to ensure that all act in unison to achieve the same set of goals.
Every one/every department has/have their own assigned roles which have to be played such that everyone works towards achievement of a common goal by complimenting each other.
A harmoniously interactive organisation can be compared with an orchestra where hundreds of musicians converge to a single tune.
It is necessary to appreciate the fact that no single role is menial or derogatory.
Even if a small element does not work properly, the whole machinery comes to a grinding halt.
In a car there may be hundreds of parts but even a loose screw, or a valve, or a contact can bring the car to a complete halt.
Our schoolbook had a story about a farmer who regarded his job as highly valuable in running the family while he considered his wife's role as menial.
On his constant taunting and grunting, the shrewd lady offers for exchange of roles till one of the two accepted the others point of view.
She was quite sure that her husband's inflated male ego would come down to reasonable level only by demonstrating the basic principles of cross functional awareness.
The tragedy that occurs with the farmer attending his wife's daily chores (which he thought were menial) like lighting fire in the kitchen, milking the cows, bringing water from the village well, attending to children etc.
; made him bow before his wife and plead for reversal to original roles.
So let us not learn the hard way like the farmer! Old schoolbook story on Cross Functional Awareness A farmer who regarded his job as highly valuable in running the family, considered his wife's role as menial.
On his constant taunting by him, instead of arguing without any proof, the wife offered to exchange of roles till either of them accepted the others point of view.
The earlier story was as follows: The farmer's wife would get up early in the morning and start finishing the morning chores deftly.
She would prepare tea for the farmer, make ready his Babul brush, and fill up a jar of water for him to wash his face and mouth and then wake him up.
He would wake up when she had made three or four attempts.
She will quickly prepare food for which he would take away with him when he went to the farm.
Once the husband went to farm, she would take up other daily chores like getting water from the well, milching the cows and buffaloes, making whey and butter out of curds made from milk and deliver milk to her customers.
Then her small children would get up and had to be cleaned, bathed and fed before they were made ready to go to school.
By the time she finished all this, it would be noon and she would have a short siesta after lunch.
She would get up and start working again on evening activities.
Once in a while she would grind the grains to augment stock of flour.
She would start preparing evening meal and some eatables for children who would return from school in early evening.
She would get ready water and fresh clothes so that her husband can take a refreshing bath when he returned from farm.
Before sunset she had to clean and fill up lanterns to provide light at night.
When the herd returned from grazing she had to secure them in their places, feed them and then milch cows and buffaloes.
After providing dinner to her husband and children, she could go to bed after cleaning the utensils.
The challenge story: Since the first to wake up in the family anyway, was the wife she had no trouble getting up and getting ready on time.
Being a farmer's daughter and wife she had no trouble harnessing the bullocks and drive away to the farm.
She had cooked her own lunch as a precaution.
She found working in open field in sun somewhat tenuous but not impossible.
At home, since the husband had never awakened on his own, he awoke only when the sun had gone up in the sky.
He was habituated to having everything ready for him when he woke up.
Now that he had to fend for himself, he floundered.
He could not lay hands on Babul brush nor could he find the jug to fill up water for his use.
Somehow he finished this activity and wanted to have tea.
He tried to light up the hearth but did not know how to go about it.
The kitchen was filled up with smoke due to improper burning of wood and he started coughing and was breathless.
Somehow he managed to make tea and went out and barely took a sip when the children woke up and started bawling for their mother.
He had a hard time cleaning, bathing and feeding them.
He almost blew his top due to simultaneous cacophony of children who wanted something or the other which he could not provide.
With great effort he succeeded in getting them ready and dispatching them to school.
Once the children were gone he suddenly realised that he had not eaten anything since morning and he did not have anything ready to eat.
He once again went through the ordeal of lighting the hearth and faced more smoke than heat.
Somehow he managed to prepare some modicum of lunch.
In the very first bite he winced at the bad taste and regretted at not having tasty food prepared by his wife.
When he lay down for afternoon siesta his stomach was virtually empty, his body was aching and he had a severe headache.
In the early evening the children came from school and started hollering for snacks.
He did not know where things were stored and had hard time keeping them under control till his wife returned from farm.
The wife tauntingly said, "Array, will you give me a glass of water? I am so tired.
" The farmer was pissed off but kept a tightlipped silence.
The wife smilingly went about the chores that he was supposed to carry out as per the challenge.
Moral of the Story Due to the male ego of the farmer the tragedy continued for a week before he lost steam and sheepishly accepted the defeat.
He learned the lesson of the "cross functional awareness and appreciation" the hard way.
Let us not go through the trials and tribulations before we learn the lesson.
Role Reversal taught him to appreciate his Wife's Point of View.
So let us not learn the hard way like the farmer! Principles of healthy cross-functional appreciation/awareness 1.
Respect roles or jobs of others however small or menial it may apparently look like.
Imagine not getting a sweeper on discovering that you have a dead rotting cat or dog lying in your compound.
2.
Understanding the complimentary or supportive nature of each job for proper functioning of other jobs.
Just remember the difficulties you face while getting ready for office when your wife is away from home.
3.
It is essential to acquire a thorough understanding of the inter-functional interface for clarity of communication, which is the prerequisite for successful working of any group.
It is essential that you understand language in which your colleagues talk and their way of expression to ensure that:"LALAJI AJMER GAYE" does not get transmitted as "LALAJI AAJ MAR GAYE".
4.
It needs to be ensured that there is no watertight compartmentalisation of the functions.
Apparently there may be conflicting objectives of different functions, but it needs to be ensured that there is goal congruence to meet organisational objectives.
-Prod.
-longest run length -Maint.
-preventive maintenance -Prodn- Achievement of Prodn.
Targets -Maint.
-Avoidance of breakdown shutdown -Maint.
-Ensuring healthy machine condition -Finance- Control on expenditure -Mktg.
-Advt.
-need for aggressive marketing -Finance-Need for cutting frivolous expenditure -Mktg.
- Extending credit as a selling point -Finance-Credit costs dearly to the company 5.
Seeing things from the point of view of the other fellow.
6.
Educating the colleagues about our way of looking at things.
7.
Before pressing any demand on the other function you need to understand their priorities.
Tail Piece Talking about importance of different roles: Imagine the situation where a dead rat is found in the Chairman's office when he is about to arrive in office and no one can find the Sweeper!
