Utility centric uniqueness.... corporate message from some birds

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Do birds fly in reverse direction or do they have such ability?  No birds except one can ever fly in reverse direction.  The exception is the humming bird.  Humming birds can fly in both forward and reverse direction.  If we compare this feat of the small humming bird with other birds, no doubt that all other birds have to envy or be jealous of this small bird.

 

Eagle has powerful eyesight, Kiwi has acute sense of smell, crow has high level of intelligence, Ostrich is the fastest runner etc., but none of them can fly backward.  These birds have exemplary qualities/talents in the entire bird kingdom.   But none of these birds can ever fly in reverse direction like a humming bird. 

 

What does this unique skill or ability of a humming bird conveys to the corporate.  All unique skills or abilities are ‘utility’ specific or ‘utility’ centric.  When the utility is cleaved, the ability would disappear or vanish. 

 

Humming birds predominantly thrive by eating the nectar and pollen grains.  Much before the humming bird could find the nectar; many other insects would have taken the nectar.  The insect, due to its light body weight, collects the nectar from flowers without damaging them.

 

Since the nectar being the best preferred food of humming birds, it has evolved with some specialties to collect the nectar without damaging the flowers.  Flowers are produced generally at the terminal end of the branches.  The humming birds cannot sit either on the branch of the tree where the flowers are located, as it is weak or on the flowers.  It has to balance in the air while collecting the nectar from flowers. 

 

To balance means, one has to be in the centre/mid point.  To be in the centre point, one has to balance the both ends.  For the humming birds, the ability to fly forward and reverse direction, while collecting the nectar helps them to balance in the air.  The management message, the corporate should derive is that the uniqueness of humming bird is essentially useful only for collecting the nectar from flowers.

 

The above uniqueness of the bird is indeed unique and a rare ability, but it has limited scope and utility or specificity. 

 

The corporate in general, tends to extrapolate and even define some ‘uniqueness’ of the employees beyond the scope and boundaries.  If someone is good in one job or have specialized skills to do some job, they need not be equally good in other jobs.  But most corporate never understand this fact. 

 

Never a humming bird with its ability to fly forward and reverse direction makes it to be equal to an eagle or an eagle without such ability becomes humming bird.  Nature has such wisdom but the question is do corporate understand and follow the same. 

 

Remember, all skills and unique abilities are ‘utility’ centric or specific.  When an employee is hired, the skills should be understood for its ‘utility’ first and the corporate should not think of how far the same can be stretched to any extent.  

 

Facilitate the employees to develop newer skills and abilities but never think that the ‘pre-existing’ skills or abilities in them become an answer to all kinds of job.

 

Dr S Ranganathan, ClinRise Derma Pvt., Ltd., Chennai

 

Learn more from the following management books

 

1. Jungle wisdom for corporate management – lessons from the university of nature by Swami Sukhabodhananda and Dr S Ranganathan
2. Nature – The entrepreneur by Dr S Ranganathan

 

 

 

 

 

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