Right to Information

I am sure that many people have heard of the RTI, specially its effectiveness. However, in India, the common man tends to view any government initiative with scepticism. I recently witnessed first hand the effectiveness of the RTI.

My mother, who retired as a Principal of a Kendriya Vidyalaya about 2 years back had been waiting for a ~Rs 30,000 bill for clearance from her regional office. Innumerable phone calls, polite conversations, request letters later, the matter was nowhere near being closed. I was aghast at the disrespect any institution can show to a person who served it for 40 long years. Anyway, my mother filed an RTI application asking the day to day progress on the application. Lo and behold! Within 5 working days of filing the application, her cheque is on the way and discreet enquiries are being made regarding my mother's well-being from high officials in the regional office!

Morale of the story is-citizens of the country should not hesitate to come forward and register their grievances against government instituions. To the elder generation, I would request that they do not consider it a favor when what is rightfully due to them is actually given to them by the government. Over the last 50 years, all arms of the government have successfully created the impression that if the government servant does his job, he is actually rendering a personal favor to the citizen. To eradicate and eliminate this attitude, we must also be prepared to follow the law-let us pay a traffic challan instead of bribing the policeman. Let us demand an explanation from the government babu with courage instead of begging before him. Let us use the courts and the RTI to address our issues.

We are educated citizens of the country-let us act like one as well.

Impact and Career Progression

I just got my first promotion in my current organization. People often think that working hard and sincere alone will enable career progression. It is undoubtedly a fundamental necessity, but there are some other equally important actions which can reinforce your claim to a good appraisal result. Here, I am laying down my understanding of what else an help in your career progression:

1. Hard, sincere work isn't alone going to make sure you move up-Yes, its true. In the big, bad world out there, leaders are people who know skills beyond the hard skills which their jobs require. So, what should one do? ( a. ) Be proactive. Keep your eye open for other happenings at various levels in your organization (deppt, group, company etc). For example, your department might be setting up a team to deal with a challenge ex vendor quality. Ask your manager if you can contribute towards it in any way. People at the leadership level are always looking for other people who can take up some of the ground work that needs to be done (& trust me, every strategy, action etc entails getting hands dirty). (b) Deliver on the responsibility that you have undertaken. This means (i)meeting deadlines on the normal work and the initiative simultaneously (ii) ensuring that your end product is accurate, for ex if you are generating a report, ensure that its accurate and hence reliable and (iii) Value Creating-Consistently analyzing if you can do things differently/ do different things so that both effectiveness and efficiency are significantly improved (c) Know your deliverables inside out, so in the above mentioned report, don't treat it as another set of numbers, analyse those numbers so that when someone asks a question , you have a ready, confident reply (d) Don't crib to others in an effort to reduce your workload at least not initially-you wanted to do this that's why you are doing this, that is the line my most managers will take if you crib to them right from the start. Scale up on your work, prove to seniors that what you are doing is valuable and then people will be willing to give you the flexibility you require
2. Network- Make use of projects mentioned above and others to make yourself visible to the senior managers in your organization. Talk to them, ask their opinions and advice. Experience teaches a lot. That and the fact that when you ask someone for advice, you make him feel important and appreciated
3. Be fact based- Decisions are not made on hunches and hypothesis. While these may influence your line of thinking, you must justify these with solid indisputable facts. So, do your due diligence before suggesting a solution to others. Similarly, in any discussion, do not accept a suggestion which is not based on some fact finding. At the same time, appreciate people who have done fact finding and are suggesting something
4. Speak up- Please don't confuse this with 'speaking out' (as in against injustice etc, it works in a corporate environment only in exceptional circumstances). What I mean is that in meetings or discussions, don't be a passive listener. Observe what is happening and give your opinion (fact based of course). Too much speaking indicates immaturity/attention-grabbing, too little indicates dumbness.
5. Be friendly to all- Again, do not confuse this with making friends (it'll be great of you are able to do that but the primary object of employment is to deliver on your work). This just means that you are polite to both juniors and seniors. NOTHING is more important than human dignity, so curb your instinct to go ballistic on a junior/reportee in full public view. Similarly, having a difference of opinion doesn't make you enemies with your seniors-its just work. With your reportees, one on one conversations in rooms work like charms. With your seniors, having frank discussions about things bothering you, in time, help. As they say, you can disagree in an agreeable manner. Good relationships are imperative to your progress since for your progress, other people should want you to move up as much as you want to move up yourself. In any case, being good at and in constant touch with your appraiser's boss will ensure that your appraiser is doing what he 'should' be doing rather than what he 'wants' to do.
6. Evaluate your appraiser- Ok, you know and are doing all of the above to a T. But is the person who is going to convince others to reward you appreciating that? Is (s)he genuinely interested in your progress? Or is (s)he involved in his/her own work too much and sees your appraisal as one of the things to be ticked off? You can judge all of this in one or two one on one meetings. Meet with your appraiser for a progress update at least twice a year. In your very first meeting, clarify expectations out of your role. In subsequent meetings, get his specific feedback on things you are doing right and areas you need to improve on. In case he is unable to provide any specific feedback, it means that (i) he is really doing a tick mark job of your appraisal or (ii) your organization policy regarding people movement is based on tenure rather than performance. If its either of the above and you are confident of your capabilities, look for a change, because spending more time in your current organization will only frustrate you.