Doing It Right

By Tayeb Barodawala

It is very important to achieve our goals, our objectives, our targets and it is even more important to achieve these in the right way.

Let me take an example which we all live through daily;

There is a important project deadline which has to be met. The customer is continuously calling asking when the task will be completed, your colleagues are waiting for you to complete what you are doing so that they can begin their activities and the pressure is mounting.

Now there is a choice … The first choice is to give a quick and dirty solution, something which will allow the work to proceed ………“ Abhi kaam chal jayega..Baad mein dekhenge kya karna hai ”, then wait for a problem to occur and tackle it (of course secretly hoping that the problem will happen after you have moved on to another assignment and some other person has taken over the responsibility) OR

Calm down the customer, explain to your colleagues that you need some more time and focus on providing a solution which will not compromise on fundamentals, which is robust and simple to use, which will not give way in a week or a month but will endure and is long lasting.

So what would you do?

I have chosen the first option many times and believe me every time, absolutely every time it has backfired. This has not stopped me from repeating the same mistake time and again, having to rework, redo and spend even more time than if I had chosen to get it done the right way. It is not at all easy to choose the second option. You will be under even more pressure from the others to finish quickly, you are not sure whether the customer will ever require the robustness which has been built into the solution and you have doubts on whether it will be worth the extra effort.

So to reach the target is extremely important but it is more important in the manner in which the target is achieved. The means are more important than the end. It requires a steadfast and determined belief that doing it the right way is the only way and there is no alternative and no compromise.

Doing It Right is the AAKIT way.