A few months ago I read an article named “Sanctified Infidelity” based on an interview of Indian actor Irrfan Khan. The article was about the Open Marriage concept (yeah… I am one of the majority of readers who came across this term for the first time) which says that it’s a situation where both the spouses have freedom of having sex (guess I’ve just used one of the most searched word over the internet… good for my blog, maybe) with anyone. Adding to this, Irrfan backs that there are a few down moments for people where they get themselves involve more than they should; but feels in such instances, everyone should consider the emotional mind state and take the positives ahead leaving the minuses in the black box. It progresses the relations in a more healthier and natural form keeping everything free and allowing the instincts to take the charge. Also, he believes that an ideal marriage would be having freedom to sleep with anyone but choosing not to.
You might be thinking why I’m discussing all this? Is it really the right place to discuss this? Well… being a normal straight guy, I smell some liberalization here, still I’m not the right person to comment anything on it as I’m still a bachelor and of course, not as lucky as Irrfan. BUT DUDE… WHY ARE WE DISCUSSING IT HERE, well for a simple reason that this topic enthused me to think and I could relate it with today’s organization culture, rather I should say emerging organizational trend.
There are many situations when people think they should look out for working in other profiles or feel that their profile sucks (sorry to use the word) and they should try for another job. It’s a common saying “GRASS IS GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE”, but the real test is while making a decision. No wonder that each decision has equal chances of success and failure but as a matter of fact, a person can either think from his mind or from the heart (read instinct), ideal should be a balanced combination of both.
To explain my point, let me frame a case here…
A person professionally qualified into Human Resources and extremely good at his communication skills, joins the T&D department of a company. After working in T&D for a considerable time (getting bored actually), he feels that now he wants to work into corporate communications. Of course he can do well with some basic guidance as he has got the required skills but the question is, is the company ready to accommodate him in a new role (rather department we should say)?
Thinking the other way, what if the company wants him to work in a new role feeling that he can contribute more effectively at a new position, but not sure how would the employee react in such a situation. He might think of getting signals to leave the organization OR simply that he’s getting opportunity to learn and grow further.
Hope you’ve got what scenarios I wanted to portray…
Although not so frequently as it should, such situations occur mostly in either big MNC’s or very small organizations (do I need to explain WHY??). There’s a well known and very old concept called Job Rotations already being practiced in many organizations, seeing it as the sufficient source to remove boredom (I’m being quite frank here) and testing multiple skills of their employees. BUT as I opine, it should serve as a primary medium to test the skills and permanently settle RELEVANTLY SKILLED employees in their righteous position. Not to mention that skills should be given priority over experience (in terms of age) and qualifications.
Relevantly Skilled?? Well, there are several qualifications and skills suitable for various profiles, and in some cases people acquire qualifications of more than one stream. For instances, a Chartered Accountant & Company Secretary; Engineer & Management degree; Chartered Accountant & Management degree et cetera are some of the qualification combos people acquire. Here, qualification shows the concerned people are suitable for various profiles (ACTUALLY?? Think again…).
COMMUNICATIONS is one of some profiles (in many organizations) stuck in tug-of-war between HR & Marketing functions struggling to prove their ownership over it (or the other way). Again it can be governed by either of the functions, but the question is, who (I’m talking about the individual and the skill bearer) is going to handle the responsibilities?
Then there are some AMPHIBIAN SKILLS (I think I have just invented a new term… feeling honoured) which are dominant requirement of multiple profiles. To name some we have CREATIVITY: dominating the marketing, branding, trainings, product designing et cetera. Then we have LOGICAL THINKING, without which the logistics function will become a burden and business process re-engineering will remain just a name. Why Amphibian?? Well, as the skill is a MUST HAVE for different profiles and the skill bearer can work in either of them (only if organizations prefer skills over qualifications), we can very well term them as Amphibian Skills.
Also, to facilitate this concept to work effectively, the organization (HR department to be precise) should start building a culture where employees should have the liberty to mention their interests in alternative profiles or raise their job DISsatisfaction without the fear of negative actions AND the company management should have proper measures to testify skills and have the open mind to give preference to the employees’ choices (obviously after considering company’s interests).
I think I’ve given a nice bait for your thought flow and explained the concept well enough. There’s a lot to discuss and research on it and I’m open for any discussions or debates on the same and trying on various permutations & combinations. Of course not everything can be covered in just a blog.
In the meantime I’ll keep on thinking further on the Amphibian thing… 🙂
The Unconventional Optimist 