“Take charge, he told me and so I did, and things went for a toss in the project,” Swami mused and took charge of the muffin while sipping his coffee the other day.
“Who told you?” Jigneshbhai asked.
“Who else but Raichand?” Swami replied with a faint smile.
“So what happened?” I enquired.
Well, that started a series of stories about his project that led to two more cups of coffee and two more muffins.
Swami told us that he asked everyone in his project to plan and give him a daily update. Everyone gave an update, but the project moved nowhere. If at all it moved it moved in the opposite direction, he said. Then he followed up every day with every member of the project to get them on track. All of that because he had to take charge of the project.
One thing led to another and tempers flew. Team members didn’t like the follow up. For a while, the project was back on track but then people waited for more instructions and didn’t do anything on their own. Raichand fumed and Swami got shaken.
“As a result of my taking charge, the project is now out of control, and now Raichand is also out of control, running behind me every day. My peace of mind is gone,” Swami ended his bitter grumbling.
Jigneshbhai and I looked at each other.
“Maybe you shouldn’t have taken charge,” Jigneshbhai said.
“But Raichand would have been behind me, and my peace of mind would have gone anyway then,” Swami argued.
“And would the project have been out of control?” Jigneshbhai probed.
“Maybe. Or maybe not in such a bad state,” Swami mused. “Sometimes when we try to control, things get more out of control. Especially in this type of project, when we take control, others give up control,” Swami did a flip-flop and reconsidered.
“So, there was a chance that at least one thing out of the two, that is the project, might have been in a better state. Even though the state of your peace of mind might have been the same,” Jigneshbhai continued presenting his rationale.
“Hmm.., possibly,” Swami thought out aloud.
“And the project being in better state might have improved Raichand and your peace of mind,” Jigneshbhai remarked.
“Perhaps, maybe” Swami speculated.
“Though I doubt that,” Jigneshbhai added with a wink.
Swami neglected it and thought out aloud again. “I sometimes wonder what value taking charge and control adds,” he mused.
“It does sometimes. But does it at all times? Always?” Jigneshbhai probed.
“Hmm.., don’t think so, not every time, not with everyone. It sometimes messes things up that would have sorted themselves out on their own,” Swami concluded.
“Seize control isn’t always good,” he declared.
He dropped the control over his muffin from his hand into the common plate.
With a twinkle in his eye, Jigneshbhai grinned and said, “And cease control isn’t always bad.”
Saying so, he seized control of that muffin which Swami had ceased control over.
***