Balance in Organization & Family

 (Short adaptation from my earlier published article on my earlier blog space, republished from medium.com)

 In my last article on ‘A Sense of Balance’, I wrote about work-life balance and the different aspects in our life including family, culture, work, and the various environmental and systemic constraints that spurs the imbalance. I am trying to explore here to look at what can really help in bringing back the balance at each of our levels of action, without worrying about the different factors and constraints.

So, let us go a little philosophical? In certain life situations, we often hear the term “Only time will tell”, “Time alone will heal”, “hope for better times”, etc. Don’t we?

Times are changing. Since the time I started writing the original version of these blogs a lot has changed. And the rate of change is also probably exponentially increasing. The beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, just a year back, the changes almost every month since then and the changes that are continuously happening, not just at individual or regional level but at the global level, perhaps even across the cosmos! And it does not seem to slow down, rather accelerate.

Few years back, when technology seems to be the buzzword and the business were looking at a brighter side to expand more, the world apparently seemed to be going ‘right’ while several also perceived it heading into more unpredictability. (VUCA) The nagging questions for organizations, institutions, governments, family and individual were — “How are we going to — adapt? do business? increase spending? earn more? provide for an increasing need across family?” All these while trying to retain a certain lifestyle. Can we hope for better times? Will time alone tell?

Let us go into a little back in time, into our past. By ‘past’ I mean a few decades ago when things were ‘a little greener’. I remember when I was in schooling, my elders used to say to complete basic degree and get settled in a government job. In the community I grew up, a government job was looked at providing stability and enough benefits. Any other ideas of venturing into creative field, or private jobs were shunned. Business were mostly family run and passed on to the next generation. Was there balance then? Perhaps not. But it certainly seems the rate of change was comparatively less than now, and it meant adults of those generation, had to adapting lesser to changes on the monthly or yearly level. And this provided a sense of steadiness, while other factors were creating systemic, environmental changes that was to be passed on to the newer ‘fast paced’ generation. Few factors that I can attribute that allowed the newer generation to adopt to a new paradigm of change, while inheriting certain incompatible factors from the earlier changes listed below:

 

 

 Looking at the organizational balance and triggering them to address what I dealt with in the earlier article of work-life balance and the need for Human Resources (HR) strategies. This is a broad topic but would simplify to two main aspects they contribute — a) Organizational strategies and b) Employee Relations. HR is an important component playing an integrated support role for the organization. Their thinking needs to be structured in to these two core aspects, in-order to have a smooth interface to the two sides — a) the management that focuses on the core business drivers and b) the ‘human’ ‘resources’ trying to maximize ‘productivity’ to improve ‘performance’ and ‘operational efficiency’. In the last couple of decades, HR teams were initially very successful in maintaining this bridge and focusing on their core functions. There were employee friendly policies, compensation, performance management, aspiration management and businesses too were riding towards the top of the charts. Change being constant, was slowly impacting business drivers and at the same time cultural aspects were impacting the working conditions and employee expectations. The paradigms were changing and consequently ‘stress’ developed in the organization layers. The physics of it was — more the layering in an organization — greater the ‘stress’ as each layer added its own friction (viscosity). The gap between organizational strategies and employee engagements were becoming hard to bridge. My observation and inference during this period (when most of my career was spent) was that employee friendly initiatives were less effective in the spirit of their initiatives, and more tuned towards ‘rising business growth’ as was in earlier times. As the change drivers were accelerating, the business focus came down from ‘growth’ to ‘sustenance’ on one end and HR side dwindled down from ‘managing aspirations’ to ‘performance motivation’. Looking at the current times, when HR is going through a huge transformation, pre-pandemic, during pandemic and possibly post pandemic, Wellness Management and initiatives are the need of time for oiling the layers and keeping the organization glued. Several choices at all levels that will be necessary to make. Few listed below:

 

What is at organizational level, scales down to family level. Of course, different regions of the world were experiencing these based on where they were in their economic charts. In the Indian/Eastern context, there has been a strong tug of war between the cultural hold and the lifestyle changes. When I took to project management in my career and started learning the art of planning, tracking and managing stakeholders and their perception, I realized brining up a family was similar to managing a project, except that the heart and emotions are more involved than the mind. But I couldn’t stop comparing as I grew in my career. To start a project, run into operations and close down or hand over required enormous training, planning, resources, support structures and to pass on the baton. Then how on earth can a couple in a nuclear family situation with each having their own professional aspiration be able to start and run a family. Who is to take what role? What more resources are required? Who will play the supporting/integrating functions as the HR did for the organization? Viewed in this manner, it looked almost a helpless situation and the project of creating and running a family could be unsuccessful to many leading naturally towards separation, depressive mentality or sacrificial attitudes and running towards further disruption. Balance in the family needs to be restored and required societal support. There are many examples of people who have been successful, and mentoring others. The mushrooming of mindfulness and heartfulness methods of meditation, life coaches, focus on mental illness were important in the society for providing the integrating functions. During the pandemic the lines between work and life thinned as people worked from home, and performing familial duties side by side, and thus triggering another transformational journey for the HR to provide a more integrated role.

At the cusp of a post pandemic global situation, with lots of hope as well as uncertainties, will time tell? Can we make certain conscious choices NOW to correct the anomalies to the extent we can, and pass on to the next generation? Or would it be too late before the situation turns cancerous? Or are my views expressed here too pessimistic in a virtually imposed viewpoints and believe our leaders or someone above will make it happen for us? Or should we introspect, take quality time, and make an individual choice with a more rigorous resolution backed by the enormous hope and faith in a process that echoes ‘a task well begun is half done’? Whatever! But do bring balance unto yourself and to your circle. There are a plenty of health and wellness initiative to take help from, which we should not shy anymore. Seek help, take help, share what you believe has worked for you with a freedom of choice for them to take it heartfully and willingly. Equip yourself well and wishing all of us better times to come.