Doing the things right or Doing the right things

I have been in the armed forces for over a decade and now with the corporate for some time. An organization is formed for a single function. Collective work for a common cause where each individual contribute his/ her  might to achieve a common goal. The organizations have rules and regulations, policies and culture which differ in each organization. Employees join organizations either on the strength of their technical skills or managerial skills and commence their partnership with the organization. Policies and processes emerge from experiences and goals of the organization and a standardization of work flow is achieved when employees start following these rules and follow them very well indeed .i.e., employees start doing the THINGS RIGHT . They are appreciated, recognized and rewarded for this behavior. The employee in turn is motivated by this recognition and continues to do the right things.

The simile is applicable for students as well. Computer Science engineers earn well and are appreciated by their social peers. Hence the entire society encourages a herd mentality where in all students are forced to take up engineering. To achieve this a studentSacrifices his entire life in preparing for entrance exams, works diligently, burns  the mid night oil to secure that rank in an IIT/ good engineering college. The student is doing THINGS RIGHT. But often these poor souls who spend their entire lives in pursuit of dreams, end up as failures when the systems and processes in which they are working suddenly collapse in a dynamic and evolving world. The theory of the “Survival of the fittest”  espoused by Darwin holds true not only to natural history but to human civilization of the world.

So the question is what is more important                Doing things right    OR                Doing the right things………….

A student seeking an alternative mode is often discouraged and looked down upon. It would not be incorrect to say that the changes that the world has witnessed in the last century have been more profound than all the changes that the sum of all changes in the entire human history. This fact holds good for  number of inventions and discoveries as well. I do not have to go far to observe the changes. My father walked 10 hrs to attend school. I used to travel 2 hrs each day in my child hood. My child may have no need to travel at all in future. All the content may be available on line and he may tele commute each day to school. That means that the rules that my

The world is dynamic and the pace of change has been increasing at a very rapid rate. There will be no right way of doing things in the future. The only would be to keep an eye on the future and the requirements that may like to come up in future. There is no longer a concept of a permanent job with a single skill. Gone are the days of finding gainful employment on completion of graduation and retiring 30 yrs later with a pension. Globalization  and the internet have ushered in an era of democratization of knowledge. A job is no longer bound by geographical limits whether it is in manufacturing or the services industry. Te competition for employment has just increased by a multiple of the number of all countries in the world.

How do we survive in such a world. How do we find a foot hold in this new order. Is there a place for us in this dynamic world. What do graduates of BCA and BSc in India do to get employment.

These are some questions that remain unanswered for most graduates, I will talk more about this in the next article.