Two weekends ago, Dr Pawan
Agarwal had everyone spellbound at BNI Goa Member’s Day. His zeal was reflected
in his fluently flowing presentation based on his research of an amazing
community. With his trademark flair, he shared the motives and the methods of
Mumbai’s Dabbawallas.
Every working day, over 5,000 white-capped ‘dabbawallas’
get on cycles, each loaded with about 40 lunch boxes. Weaving their way through
the gridlocked traffic of India's business capital, they collect,
deliver and bring back lunch boxes from home to office and back using the
railways. The
logistics needed would almost certainly defeat the best efforts of any other
supply chain network. In fact, they maintain the same method over the years and
it works!
It is testimony to what simplicity can achieve.
Dabbawallas are recognised for consistently delivering efficiency but sans a
complex, technology-driven system. They have built a reputation of
trustworthiness by using simple ways of coding, delegation and team working. All
these are further empowered by fortnightly meetings to resolve conflicts and
bolster best practices. Come storm or rain, they ensure that no external or
interpersonal conflict will derail their efficiency.
So often we invest
on complex technological systems and lose focus on the most important human
resource. We focus on the method and skip the importance of team building.
Eventually success comes from using simple innovative methods and empowering
ownership among the team members. The Dabbawallas carry devout commitment to
their work along with happiness that comes from pride in their community.
Indeed, to deliver
efficiency we need to focus on building such devotion to work and feeling of
ownership in our teams. This is done best by connecting to best practices and
regular sharing at meetings to cope with incidental issues. These basics unite
to impact our capacities when applied to simple systems that have worked over
the years.
No need
to reinvent the wheel, stick to basics plain
When teams ‘unite to impact’ efficiency
is the gain!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
Goa, India.
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