Vacation

I was recently reading an article somewhere on how more and more of the work-force carries their cellphone / laptop / blackberry etc. etc with them on their vacation. If that was not enough, a large population actually checks their email while on vacation. To complete the story, quite a few of them actually join conference calls while they are on vacation.

Having said all this, picture the other side. As executives we promote the concept of implementing self-sustaining generic processes which are not "individual dependent" and also implement systems to remove the "human dependency" which basically implies that we implement process where A SPECIFIC person does not need to be involved in completing a process, anyone or someone can fill-in a slot when THE SPECIFIC person in not available.

Something is not correct with this picture - because we contradict ourselves. We try to achieve self-sustaining, scaleable processes and at the same time we are so dependent on specific individuals that a mere mention of a vacation puts us into "who is your back-up mode"? It does not end there - for the folks who go on a vacation supposedly without a Blackberry or a laptop or a cellphone they are always worried - "how is the work going on"? Think of it like this - will the IRS stop functioning if you left planet earth today? What about GE? Will that function if you died today (if you are an employee at GE or IRS? Of course they will continue to exists. So then, why is vacation a big deal for us as managers / executives?

So the next time around, someone on you team is planning a vacation - are you going to ask for their contact information while on vacation or are you going to use this as an opportunity to implement a process that is not person specific? Think about it !