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Is your uniqueness, your trap as well – Learn the HR wisdom from river rat
Highlights
The behaviour of a rodent called ‘Nutria’ can be seen among many corporate employees. The animal Nutria is otherwise called as river rat or coypu. The stereotyped behaviour of the river rat only helps the farmers to trap them easily despite many unique abilities of this animal to outsmart man.
The behaviour of a rodent called ‘Nutria’ can be seen among many corporate employees. The animal Nutria is otherwise called as river rat or coypu. The stereotyped behaviour of the river rat only helps the farmers to trap them easily despite many unique abilities of this animal to outsmart man.
The animal nutria prefers to live in marsh lands and wet lands near river or water bodies. They are excellent swimmers, can hold breath for 5 minutes under water and eat large variety of foods. They also reproduce aggressively. Once a land is colonized by nutria (coypu), it is difficult to eliminate them. But scientists have found the way to curb them from proliferation.
Interesting aspect of the behaviour of the animal is that they used to follow a rigid/same path for foraging, without making any change. It means, once their path is tracked, trapping them becomes easy. When a trap is set on their path, the river rat would easily walk inside the trap and get trapped. Nutria seldom changes its path and that is its limitation.
Only the discovery of its limitation helps man to limit its menace or infestation. Many employees in most corporate follow such fixed paths or work style or thinking pattern. They also go by the logic of ‘crow is always black’ whether it is in east or west. They believe that the corporate situations remain constant in all organizations and hence they have to endure it. Therefore they never explore the opportunities elsewhere.
These employees may be richly talented. But they seldom exploit their talents. Because of their stereotyped belief system or thinking, they get trapped to many limitations.
When they make their limitations visible, vivid and conspicuous, naturally their boss and peer group has enough to celebrate and enjoy.
The repetitiveness and following the same doctrine/dogma is not wrong but validate their relevance. By following the same path will reach you only to the same destination. The same destination means, the same tyranny or joy and nothing different. Also learn to create newer paths.
When you fix your work style, remember, the fixed work style becomes your trap as well. One needs to become creative and innovative. Otherwise all your talents, experience and knowledge may go redundant.
What traps the river rat is the ‘permanent’ path that, it follows. Among various rodents, river rats are the most successful animals. Their amphibious mode of survival and the choice of inaccessible marsh land as their dwelling place have indeed enable the river rats to be a force to reckon with by man. But their stereotyped behaviour of following the same path only has weakened their strength.
Time is up for the employees to introspect whether they live like river rats in the corporate. Break the path, indeed you can become a path breaker. One should start learning the management wisdom of nature, and from where, one can learn and relate the behavour many plants and animals in nature with many management insights.
Dr S Ranganathan
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