Management by Exception & Symptomatic Treatment

Here are some thoughts I had penned down a few years back about the need for pro-activity in HR processes.

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“Prevention is better than cure” – is a maxim we hear oft but the relevance of this statement, in our day-to-day lives’ & especially outside the realm of medical sciences, is seldom appreciated. The words “prevention” and “cure” come to fore when there is a “Problem”. There essentially are 2 kinds of problems:

a) the root causes of which are "finite and predictable"– Hence these constitute a set and when we speak of “dynamism” it can only happen between the different points on this “finite and predictable set”.

b) The root causes of which are “infinite and unpredictable”- Hence there’s no fixed set which can be defined here and hence this is a case of “unpredictable dynamicism”.

In the 1^st case different “fault control mechanisms” can be designed and implemented “at a single point of time” to ensure that prevention is there. Till the time no symptoms arise, everything is running fine. But if symptoms arise, let’s cure it!!. Hence there is a requirement only to “manage the exceptions’”, and you would do that only when the symptoms arise.

And then I am reminded of Pavlov’s dog experiment - 'Conditioned Behavior'. We get conditioned to respond in a particular way to the environment. If we aren’t wise or self aware enough to understand “subtle changes” in the external environment – then we would continue responding to two different situations requiring different approaches in the same way. What would be the consequences? Not pleasant to say the least!

In my immediate environment I see a strong focus on reliability of services, and hence on scenario 1. But somewhere I see a “stretch – over” of the scenario 1 behavioural pattern when it comes to people related decisions (which fall in the realm of scenario 2). If you have a cough, I’ll get you a cough syrup. But I wouldn’t look at preventing the cough. The problem is at times the cough becomes so acute that the cough syrup just doesn’t work. Hence “cure” as a strategy fails as “prevention” was never focussed upon. Hence scenario 1 response is made for a scenario 2 case – set up systems and get into the Management by Exception trap. A self-defeating but self-reinforcing circle!

Sometimes I hear the term ‘intellectual discipline’ being used to justify scenario 1 responses. I find it more of ‘color blindness’-in the same picture, one isn’t able to make out the different hues, and colours, and respond accordingly.

“Hey, this guy is cribbing too much. All these years he has performed well but has never cribbed! What should we do? Transfer him? Give him a role change? Recognize him in some other way ?”

But what do you do if you are from the school of thought “performance speaks for itself”?

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We have a certain image in our minds when we think of systems and processes. That image is about stability and predictability. HR processes can act as guiding posts but every interaction is new and needs to be shaped. Secondly HR processes are designed around minimum number of interactions you need to have. What is required is pro-activeness? People management is much more than just handling and ensuring HR processes are in order.

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Sourav