Indispensable???

Ram had left Ayodhya and gone into forest exile. Bharat had yet to return from his uncle's house. Dashrath lay dying in the palace. He turned to his wife, Kaushalya, and said, "What will happen to Ayodhya without me. Can I afford to die?" To this Kaushalya replied, "Nothing will happen. The sun will rise and set. People will go about doing their duties. There will be joy and sorrow, frustration and excitement, hope and despair, as there always was. Everyone thinks the world cannot exist without him. But it does."

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Every day organizations hire new people and old people leave the company, either angrily, or happily or because they have no choice. This is birth of a new employee and death of an old employee. Both events are filled with insecurity. The arrival of a new employee threatens the old discourse, and so there is need to induct the new into the old ways of the company. The departure of the old employee also threatens the old discourse hence the desperate need for a talent pool and pipeline.

Very rarely does an individual determine the fate of an institution. There is always someone who can take his place. It is a thought that invalidates human beings and so no one wants to accept it. Vermaji had served the company as an accountant for over thirty-eight years. He was famous for managing the accounts so well that the owner of the company felt he was indispensible. So did Vermaji. But then the owner of the company died. And his nephew took over. And the nephew did not think too much of Vermaji. He was given a nice salary and a nice cabin but no real work.

Vermaji was furious and submitted his resignation later in a huff, which was accepted without even the pretense of a resistance. "Let me see how they solve the accounts," he said as he left the building the last time. Five years have since passed. Vermaji is waiting for his new management to call him back. They have not. They have managed without him. It's a feeling he does not like.

The management did suffer a bit without Vermaji. But his absence created a vacuum and new talent emerged. That was a good thing. But now that apparently indispensible Vermaji has been replaced, those left behind in the company feel they too are dispensible. It is a feeling no one likes. Suddenly they all feel like "Full Time Equivalents" or FTE, numbers on an excel sheet, that can be deleted at any moment. Insecurity seeps into the organization. And in insecurity, everybody clings to their roles and responsibilities with tenacity. New talent is not allowed to come in and if they do come in they are not allowed to thrive. Everyone wants to make themselves indispensible. They will all die trying.

[The author is the Chief Belief Officer of the Future Group.]