We need good quality people at work. We need them to be serving one another, to do the work that needs to be done. And corporate cogs, people who just follow the script, who push buttons based on a set of instructions neatly put down by someone else tend not to be the good quality people I’m referring to. And in recent conversations, I found out that the excuses that the cogs had for poor work includes, “I can’t find my notes”, “But this is different from what you told me”, “But we are not allowed to change this setting”.
When the conversation does not go towards, “I was wrong, let me take over and correct it.” then to me, the person is just not taking ownership of the work. And it is important that we are allowing people to take ownership; to not just leave the end product to others. When people fail to take ownership of their work, they need to be questioned. What can help them make sure that mistakes are corrected before work submission? What do they need to do to make sure they are applying the knowledge or instruction with understanding and not just blindly.
And more importantly, how would they be able to respond autonomously to a change in situation? Taking ownership, adopting a common sense approach to situations, and being willing to stand up to the rules, and produce results independently is so important. Hence it is important when people bend and break rules, we understand the intent and purpose rather than just go on a finger-pointing spree and miss the opportunity to praise someone for taking charge and not just being a cog.