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January 18, 2005
Efforts Vs Results
Today I had a conversation with my friend Sudhakar Ram about effort vs. result. He told me how some people focus on putting in great effort and how they attribute what they got to fate.
Some others on the other hand, focus on result. In some sense, he said, maybe effort and result are not quite connected. He quoted our mutual friend Dr. Mohan Rao and said �only barbers can measure results based on their efforts with certainty.� Is that really true? Does effort have no connection with result?
My mind immediately went to Bhagavad Gita statement about not focusing on the result but putting in our effort. I felt that what Sudhakar is saying is contradictory to this statement. Is that really so? I kept thinking.
It is true that our effort is only one of the parameters that produces result. As Sudhakar said, If I start at point A and getting to point B that is twenty miles away is not just based on my effort. Traffic, weather, my car not breaking down on the road and I not getting into the accident are some of the other parameters that might help me or stop me from reaching point B.
If so, what kind of credit can I get for producing any result? Maybe my commitment and intention are more important factors. Then, obviously, I have to put in my effort but with no attention to result. If the result is produced, it is because I am committed and that commitment showed up in my effort. In a weird sense, it makes perfect sense.
If I stop putting in my effort, that means my commitment and intention are no longer to produce results.
So, when somebody says �it is real hard, really hard (with a Texas accent) to produce results,� he is right. Even if he is not President Bush, one has to reexamine the focus on good faith effort.
When I came to US, I was realizing that here the focus is on the outcomes and results and not on the effort. They don�t say I worked 14 hour days but say that I produced the following outcome. It is implied that they did what they needed to produce that result. On the other hand, I found many people I knew were focusing on what they put in � input vs. output � instead of what they produced.
Maybe we need to create different measures in the services business � not the hourly or daily rates but milestone based or result based charges. It is beginning to happen in some places already.
What do you think? Do you focus on effort or result? What does your past performance say that you do?
Posted by pkaipa at January 18, 2005 05:17 PM
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