Man-hours: The ROI game!

Think about your day — you either consume a bunch of items or work towards selling some items. Your decision to buy is influenced by a quick mapping of the value of an item, affordability. (We will talk about value shortly). Your inexorable efforts to sell depend on how you can convince your audience that they absolutely need something.

In this buy and sell game, there is no interlude.

You are selling/ buying a product

You are selling/ buying a service

You are selling/ buying yourself (the value that you add/ potentially add)

Does it sound like a vigilante process if every one of these items can be run through a quantifiable matrix, an intersection return vs cost alongside four quadrants.

Is there a third line of intersection to this matrix? Would that be ‘all the intangible benefits’ that this rather insipid matrix cannot offer?

Think about your decision to purchase an iPhone — ofcourse its on the expensive spectrum of phones -

1. Can you justify the delta cost that you bear? Is it the effortless UX, the camera, the seamless interface and single touchpoint for all devices?
2. Would you think that reduces your unproductive time that can be channeled for better activities? (Say better quality of work which benefits your organization, creating a segway for your promotions. The organization achieving its goals, meeting targets, selling more and contributing to a better society? The society reaping the benefits of your organization’s products and improving daily lifestyle — well well, in a jiffy the iphone has become our superhero)
3. Come back here — Stay on the unproductive man-hours that could be channeled in better avenues — Can you map these unproductive hours and put a cost to your productive hours for comparison?
4. Is there a third bucket? What about the premium experience? The sense of belonging to an affluent class of society, the status symbol? (we all strive to get there — no shame in admitting it)

The same analogy holds good for selling any service, or even yourself!

Now, we spoke about your efforts that could contribute to organizational upscale. True in a Utopian world.

However, have you often wondered what each department in your organization is doing? Do you think you are overstaffed or understaffed? Have you thought about your productivity and structure vs the Organizations?

An unbeknownst feeling — what if I am doing everything in my capacity, but there are other bottlenecks not aligned towards organizational growth?

If you are a stickler to details and a fastidious manager, you have astutely assessed the situation and would want alignment within an organization.

Think of every activity in your organization as a T-Code (a deposit into an account which tracks hours). This could be client interactions, internal meetings, structured thinking, planning, team alignment, tea breaks, interaction breaks — everything, anything!

If each stakeholder has an activity he owns and works on putting together a calendar of the number of hours he needs on it, every employee has become his own manager because he now knows his cost and his return to the company. This also entrusts employers with a rather important factor — the need to know your employee’s priorities, be empathetic and yet drive organizational goals/

In a world that is moving far from micro-management, and rightly so, enablers that help individuals understand their worth and contribution for any activity (however small or insignificant today) would pave way for an affable, empathetic and strong work culture that companies can move towards. End of the day, you are important and you know that!