Working Smarter, Not Harder

Abstract

Working smarter, not harder, is an age-old adage. The embracers of this concept are able to streamline their entire working life with higher productivity at lower costs. The various tools which facilitate achieving such levels of metrics include: Motivation, Competency and Compensation. When such attributes are maximised, targeting excellence – which has been termed in Hindi as of Chak De! Quality. The Paradigm of ‘Chak De’ incidentally, has already graduated from an austere term to a global one, thanks to the Bollywood movie of the same title. The movie thus acted not only as an exemplar for each ‘manpower development’ (MPD) programme to successfully meet and beat challenges, but also tends to take on an advisory role to exert the vitality of team spirit. Teaming itself is a prelude to excellence. As the acronym TEAM (expanded as “Together Everyone Achieves More”) also suffices to increase smartness of the individuals in the group. A 6 point programme has been counted on, and as an exemplar aligned to the teaching domain. This paper attempts to sketch the imperatives of the working smarter for achieving excellence, which is illustrated and defended using a case study driven from an autobiographical sketch – working harder for needed accomplishments.