Targets at work – crushing, cruising or not relevant?
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Targets at work – crushing, cruising or not relevant?
Many jobs nowadays have what are called targets or KPIs. What used to be applicable for only conveyor belt workers is now a standard in most bigger companies.
Conceived at the start of the Industrial Age in the 1800s, targets were used to see how much productivity each work sector had. E.g. the number of screws somebody was able to set or how much of a product would be finished within a certain time frame.
A measurement of output and standard of what it should be that would then all be added up to determine the output of a factory. The same standard is set for every employee, no matter the physical state, background or ability. People had been turned into production units.
Perhaps this way of working is even older than the industrial age, because plantations expected their slaves to have a certain output. But it was only in the industrial age that this way of working kicked off to be measured so accurately and turned into a science.
This measuring of output was then cast upon the worker, a standard that they should meet and one they are being evaluated upon. If you are a ‘good’ employee you would meet this standard, and the ‘excellent’ employees would exceed this target. The ‘bad’ employee would not meet this standard or this target, and that gives the employee the right to judge him or her, have them improve their output or even fire them when they could not step it up. In the late 1900s, Human Resource Management came into play, where the name basically says it all. It was about ‘managing’, making the ‘units’ more productive on behalf of the management. Humans had been turned into production units.
This way of working basically divides the workforce into two camps. The ones that easily meet the target, exceed it and after that do nothing because the standard has been met. This type of worker is basically well aware what they should do and know what they have to do to meet the standard. The employer cannot say anything, because, hey, I have done my job, met the standards, so I am a good employee.
The second group will mostly start working very hard to meet this target. They will do so because they want to avoid the label of being a ‘bad’ employee, avoid difficult discussions with management, avoid the pressure or out of fear of getting fired.
People will determine their output on the levels that are set for them from the outside and work on meeting them. It is one size fits all for every employee.
But this is not our true way of working.
We are not beings that in a natural state of being determine their output based on an external set standard. What if a bee would work with an external standard and started working harder or stopped midday when the target has been met? Have you ever seen a bee doing that? Bees don’t work with targets, they just work. It is their job to work. Their output is continuous. They seem to be buzzing around joyfully with a constant output. No effort, no stop moments.
And if work is like play is for children, do children play to meet external standards? Do they play harder to meet these standards? Or do they stop when a standard has been met? Unless they do sport, they don’t. Children play, and that just flows. Until it feels complete on the inside. They don’t look outside themselves for confirmation if what they ‘produce’ is right or wrong or is meeting a standard. They just play with joy, with no effort, producing things, which can be really amazing to see and experience, especially for us adults who have lost that ability to just play and produce with lots of joy, showing how we, as adults, could work as well. Giving our all, no effort, just with the tap on, joyfully, not measuring ourselves by our output.
How does this look on a practical basis – to be on every moment? It means for example that after a great meeting with a client, we don’t reward ourselves with the right for an unnecessary conversation with a colleague. Or have a stop moment with a cup of coffee. Or start doing emails in a casual, non-focused way. We all have great moments when we experience flow in doing things and have meetings with colleagues or clients, and the key is to stay tuned to that flow.
This flow does not make you feel tired. It is the flow of no delay. No calculating that we have done enough to meet an external target. We all know when we feel into it, what the next thing to do is. And there is only one, even if the list of things that we should do is endless. After a task has been completed, there is always the next thing which is there to be done. But only one thing that comes first. That could also be a walk to confirm the great feeling you have in your body of having completed a meeting with colleagues where you delivered a great presentation that was uplifting for your audience. The body will show you the way to go as you get impulsed what is the next thing to do. And if you put all these things together, you have a continuous flow of simplicity that is magical to experience with lots of joy.
We are back to where we were when playing as children. Or working like a bee. Simple. Simply staying on. And meeting targets that are set by an internal measure of responsibility and responsivity to what is required moment by moment and not because we have to or need to get paid, please others or keep our job.
Filed under
Productivity, Teamwork, Work stress
