Wading into "70-hour" debate
After the famous "70 minute" speech by SRK in popular Hindi film "Chak de India", number 70 is buzzing again! This time it's "70 hours" comment by Hon. Mr. NR Narayana Murthy in one of his interviews. As with most topics these days, it seems to have divided people into either strong supporters or strong opponents of the idea.
Having watched the full interview, here's my take on the controversial headline itself:
It was the worst possible headline that could have been given to that interview. It was an excellent discussion on wide ranging topics related to India's economic progress in past 75 years and future ahead. But media intentionally chose to pick a juicy statement without context, and made it a click-bait headline. It absolutely does not capture the essence of the full interview in my view.
Mr. Murthy was talking about how India needs to work in a "mission mode" to not only become a #2 economy in "Total GDP" terms, but also to rise in the "Per Capita GDP" terms, given its 1.4 Bn+ population. And how India's youth should take it upon themselves.
If media really wanted to highlight this topic, they could have made the headline in a much better way. For example, "NRN has a dream for India, and a clarion call for its youth"... or something on those lines.
Unfortunately, many people fell for the headline without even watching the full interview. And given the illustrious legacy of Mr. Murthy as Infosys founder, and a pioneer of IT-services industry, this 70-hour tagline was construed as an ask from IT professionals to work for 70-hours a week! Totally rubbish in my view.
On a positive note though, it also created a lot of constructive discussion on social media and WhatsApp groups. And made all of us reflect on this topic. 70-hours is not uncommon and there are a lot of examples it already:
Critical professions like Doctors and medical staff, Emergency services, Police, etc.
People spending 3-4 hours a day on work commute, especially in large cities
Many of us have spent similar hours during early days in career or during critical projects / go-lives.
Last, and most important, housewives, mothers and working women (and many men), who "run the household" and enable the "professional work" for many of us.
If organizations were to enable 70-hour work, what would it take? In my view, there are 6 key ingredients - 6P's
Purpose: There has to be a larger mission to go after and the whole team rallying around the core purpose. For routine operational work, this will not work.
People: It needs a great team and collaboration - Team leaders, management, supporting functions, staff - all working in unison.
Passion: Each individual must be passionate about their own work towards achieving the purpose, and fully committed to it.
Physical connect: In-person connects for problem-solving, ideation or even gossips are crucial, especially for complex and long-term missions. Full-time in-person work is not needed, but ~50% would be ideal in my view.
Pay: Unless this is a non-commercial mission, the payment / compensation must be commensurate to the hours and efforts spent.
Personal development: Each individual should be able, and encouraged, to spend portion of that time towards their self-development and honing the skills.
In my view, a 70-hour work should not be a one-size-fits-all solution. But it is essential for certain "missions", and can work with the above ingredients in place.
What's your take?
Comments
Post a Comment