Sin 4 – Sloth

The next four sins are the sins that hurt the body.  These sins SLOWLY but surely poison your body.  That’s right you are literally committing self annihilation if you allow these to take over. 

During the 6th Century, this Pope had already known that laziness kills the body.  

Today the same fight against sloth is still on.  Look at the advice from almost every health advocate – exercise.  Unless you exercise; in otherwords, be less lazy, you may even die…

Picked this from the news - see inactivity kills

Sloth is a sin.   Hardly surprising.  Sloth is found everywhere.  Let’s start from the very begining.  The bible has it that Adam and Eve sinned when they ate the apple offered by Satan.   Had they been less lazy, planted their own apple tree, outside Garden of Eden, they might have laid a better future for all of us. 

If only they had planted their apples outside Eden!

Sloth in WIT Management.

The WIT Manager should be one that is concerned with the progress of the team’s project.  If the manager lays back and thinks that by waiting for the team to experiment and claims that he/she is ’empowering’ the team, my experience shows that that won’t work. 

WITS Managers must always pop by!

My experience shows that that total empowerment – as argued by many idealist who advocate pure empowerment – is pure fantasy.  Empowering without control is giving away the shop, and it is just for marketing, in reality this approach won’t work.    

The best way to get good results from your WITs is to make an effort to pop by at their meetings once in a while (not every meeting though). 

Be tactfully involved.  

My experience is that the WITs once a month, or once every four meetings you should attend their meetings, listen in on their views, share a thought or two. 

Your presence creates a magic that inspires.  It makes a difference in the way the team sees an issue. 

However, do not attend all meetings as that tempts you to develop dominance.  Constantly making the decisions, and ‘breathing down their necks’ is a recipe for disaster. 

Hit a balance.   Be there when they need it, be away when they need space.  Do not be ‘greedy’ nor ‘overpowering’ but be involved.

Sin 3. Wrath

What is wrath?   The third sin is WRATH.  Stripped to the basics, it is essentially anger.   But it is anger that destroys.  

This Chinese Diety has a weapon ready to strike at anyone literally. That is Wrath. It shows that the oldest civilisation in the East believe that there is such a thing as supremo anger - wrath!

Wrath always run ahead of our good sense.

It does not need to surface at all if we are in control, but many of us allow wrath to poke its ugly head into our lives; creating havoc.   We have to learn to control it.  If we have the will, the right perspective and positive we can manage it.

When I was much younger, at my first few job appointment, I used to listen to experienced managers telling me that in order to manage others, one must be able to manage ourselves. 

Later into my career, I realised that although in management textbooks, essential skills are organising, controlling and planning, the most difficult component of management is really controlling. 

And controlling begins with self-control; essentially, controlling our own anger.  This translates into controlling our wrath!  Good managers are those who can control their own temperament without boling over. 

 

Boiling over spoils the taste of soups, destroys the nutritional value and may even spoil the pot.

I came across a useful phrase :

“Danger is only one alphabet away from anger. 
Therefore if you can keep ‘anger’ at bay, your life will have less dangers.”

“How can we control Wrath such as these?”  You may ask, “How about those whose love ones were killed by totally strangers, in road accidents, insane or mentally unstable people on the prowl; what about the mass murders of the last two wars, and today’s indiscriminate sucide bombers;  innocent families, innocent men and women lining up to enter a mosque or church for prayers are bombed.   Innocent children returning home from school taking a short-cut through some lonely path, was waylaid by someone looking for some fun, but the practical joke went too far. 

They did not do anything wrong, yet were victims. How can one who witness these not feel angry?

Wrath controlled – An example.     The mother of a ten year old daughter lost her daughter to a 42 year old murderer in 2006.   The family decided to forgive the man. 

“Engla always knew that she was going to be something special, and now we know that she became a light-bearer that united our hearts all over the world… We understand that we are one…. Our life will never be the same but we will strive to return to everyday life… where we will find a way to carry the light of Engla onward to something great and positive for us all.”    

This family made a choice – to forgive the murderer.

It is our Choice – but as mortals we are influenced.   

Exactly why certain people choose wrath, get angry and seek destruction when faced with problems, while others find the same challenging and choose to change and improve is exactly why people choose lust over love.  It is up to the person, thus sin is tied to choice making. 

WRATH and the WITS Manager.

Sin is not related to problem solving, but because the manager can affect the way the team feels or choose to view a problem or even the way he/she infleunces the team when they choose the solutions, the source of sin may arise from the actions of WITS managers. 

i)   Setting Impossible Target .  Setting them impossible targets are potential for wrath to take root.  The managers are the final authority on the approving of a team’s target.  By telling or agreeing that the team achieve some impossible level of outcome is just pushing the team into Wrath.  The objective of the target is to give them a challenge not to break them into excesses and greed.

Zero Defects is a easy, convenient, and perfect target?? Before setting zero defects as their target, make sure that there are few if not no uncontrollable factors.

What can managers do?   

Examine the circumstances surrounding the problem before approving their target.  Look for circumstances, examine the availability of resources, consider all upcoming events and all possible related events which may strain the resources and affect outcomes. 

ii)   Setting Impossible Deadline = Wrath.  Many  kiasu managers (see sin 2 for ‘kiasu’) who will only set their priority on their teams winning awards that they have forgotten about problem solving process.  Some problems which are complicated and may not predictable.  Irregularities may arise mid-term during tht project.  The more complicated the project, the less likely the team can predict the deadline.

What can managers do?  As responsible managers, it is wise to set the team a deadline to foster commitment; yet managers must be willing to listen to the eventualities that arise.  The more complex the project, remember to consider as many associated events before setting their deadline; and allow more leeway for changes.

Timeline can only be properly set if the team is able to tell for certain that each component activity or sub-activity can be predicted with great accuracy.

iii)  Unresolved Cross-boundary Conflicts = Wrath. 

Many teams may projects that affect other departments.  They realised that some form of endorsement from people outside their team or department may be needed before they can proceed.  As their manager, it is important for you to be the contact person for all external liaison unless arrangements have be made between managers from both sides.

To avoid conflict - the Chinese Emperor built this great wall around his kingdom.

Today's conflict are not based on avoidance, it is based on resolution through dialogues

Effective WITS managers bring teams together; they help settle differences between teams.  Never allow the teams to approach the other department heads before you have made arrangements with your counterpart from the other department.  This way, they can make sure that the situation is under control.

Remember : Uncontrolled Anger Turns Into Danger