Laziness born out of loyalty

By S. Ranganathan, Dr.

9/22/2012 5:25:12 PM -

Dogs are always described as loyal, faithful, reliable etc., and the best companion of man ever since time immemorial. On the contrary, cats never enjoy such titles. Do dogs really worth all these titles. From the management point of view, dogs may not really deserve such 'worship by adjectives' or 'titles'.

If we dissect the facts from the management perspective, we can understand that dogs may fit for such descriptions but the manifestations of all such behavioural traits of dogs are born strictly out of their inefficiencies or lack of self belief or may be out of over intelligence.

When, the man first start domesticating the dogs, dogs presumably would have realized the fact that all they need to do is 'be as loyal as possible' so their food and shelter is assured. If dogs want to hunt its prey, it has to do in 'packs'. When the number of animals in the pack is large, the individual share of the hunt also will accordingly be less.

Instinct would have guided the dogs to choose the best option when man made attempt to domesticate them. Dogs are indeed very intelligent and smart. By being loyal, faithful and reliable to man, they loose nothing. But in return, they can ensure their basic needs in life at ease.

Be faithful and loyal means, be lazy and inefficient. But the reward for being so is very high. On the contrary, cats are always lone hunters. They have none to share with their meal in general. If the food is made available to them, they eat and if they feel like a change in their diet, they go for hunting. Hence they did not get addicted to human domestication.

Cats also never wished to be lazy or may not want any reward for being loyal and simultaneously inefficient.

Corporate needs to extrapolate this insight beyond cats and dogs. Many employees show their height of loyalty to their bosses or the top management. While, some employees may not cares to do such things. One needs to understand whether such loyalty of people is born out of laziness and inefficiency or not.

Most of the bosses and the top management in corporate loves to have loyal people around them, however inefficient or lazy they may be. Such 'syndrome' is very vivid in corporate that are governed by single man.

Perhaps, dogs would have been wise in their choice so are the loyal employees. But view it from the corporate angle as what value such people offer to the growth of your organization except flattering and fanning the ego of the boss and the top management.

One should ask to oneself, whether ones ego is bigger or the growth and welfare of the organization is bigger.

Do not get lost in the popular statements, but see the interpretations and its implications. Keep the welfare of the corporate above your ego, only then you can lead your corporate and its people to success. Dogs surrendered their ego to human domestications and become successful. Learn the success instinct from dogs and not the method they followed.

Dr S Ranganathan, ClinRise Derma Pvt., Ltd.
Learn more from the management book - 'Jungle wisdom for corporate management - lessons from the university of nature' by Swami Sukhabodhananda and Dr S Ranganathan
