O for Responsibility (Odgovornost in Slovenian language)
04. 09. 2024
In fact, one could say that in a sense, this person is superior to the others. A boss for a thing or a boss to someone. He is the decision maker and makes decisions based on his knowledge, experience, feeling, opportunities, etc. He has, after all, demonstrated competence in the past and is therefore nominated to take on responsibility, if he is willing to accept it and do a more “responsible” job, of course.
Taking responsibility is easy to observe in our daily lives in many situations that are not only related to professional work. Certainly, in professional life, responsibility is more emphasised. The match referee is responsible for the correct and fair conduct of the match and thus accepts his responsibility. In any case, it cannot and should not be said that he is responsible for the game itself or the quality of the game. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the teams, the coaches and probably somebody else, but certainly not the referee.
In a court of law, the judge is responsible for ensuring that the trial is conducted properly, and that the verdict is ultimately fair. So, there are professions that seemingly take on more responsibility. They take on responsibilities that carry more “weight”. They take more important decisions. But if we look at the substance, there is only one responsibility that counts. Responsibility to oneself. To everything we do. And therefore, to everyone who is touched or affected by what we do. To ourselves first. And only to ourselves.
Response-ibility. The word itself suggests that the basic point of responsibility is to give a response(s). Especially when someone expects us to do so. Parents give response (answer) to the child. They teach, educate and set an example so that one day they can be responsible. Because until a child has no knowledge, he cannot be responsible. And so, it is logical that the parents take responsibility for them. Similarly, the superior must respond to the subordinates if and when they are interested in anything. Therefore, the leader must always be responsible.
What does this actually mean from a parent’s point of view and what does it mean from a supervisor’s point of view? What does it mean to be responsible? If he is to give responds, he should be all-knowing. But we know very well that no one is. Nobody ever will be. Because that is impossible. When can we give someone a proper respond? Simple. When we know the answer. So we need to know more, better, faster… I would say the key virtue of responsibility is to learn. I would define responsibility as: knowing more tomorrow than I know today. If I keep repeating this, I will know a lot, and I will be more responsible. When we learn the alphabet as a child, we learn a new letter every day (or every so many days). And as the days, weeks, months go by, we learn the whole alphabet. Interestingly, maybe we don’t take it so much for granted every time we need to learn something. Today, as you read this, knowing the alphabet is even more obvious. But believe me, the day you were shown the letter A, you were amazed. It was hard. But you learned. In a way, you were responsible.
No one is saying that anything is easy to learn. Everything is difficult in some way, or easy. It’s how you approach learning. If you understand that you need it, then it is not difficult. And whatever you learn in life can only be good for you and the people around you. But nowadays we seem to live in a world full of contradictions. And contradictions in the basic things of life. Everyone (well, most of us) complains about the terrible pace of life today. But not long ago, in the days of the corona, they all had time to spare. Time to calm down. To relax. To learn, if you like. More than enough time for everything. But these same people complained that they couldn’t. That everything is forbidden. Illogical, but very true. For me, it was one of the more enjoyable periods, apart from the virus itself, of course. Moving on. Everybody (again, the majority) complains about the way the country is. Yet they are not prepared to do anything, anything at all, to change it. Because the country is we the people, we who live here. Are we ready to take on more responsibility? Not really. Barring really big exceptions. Because that means more work and less time for our pleasures. To go to an even greater extreme. Everyone (most of) complains about how little they earn. Or at least wish they had more money. But what are they willing to do for it? Nothing, or very little. They say that the individual must be paid a fair wage for his work. How much is that? Who is it that decides that? Is it each one of us? It will not work. Well, to make the matter even more banal, I cannot imagine the stress these same people would feel when they had a pile of money. Literally a pile of money in the middle of their home. Millions in banknotes in the middle of your home. Can you imagine their fear? Of being robbed? If not something worse. I myself believe that everyone (most) gets the pay they deserve. It depends on the effort that the same individual puts in. And it is not only physical effort, but also mental effort. How much is the individual willing to learn, to advance in his own mind, in order to be able to improve the work processes in his workplace. Improvements mean easier work, more efficiency (more work done) and consequently more earnings. And this is where everyone should look for their share of the pie. It means being responsible to yourself, and therefore to your colleagues, to the company, to society… Not just to whine and moan about how bad everything is and how nothing happens. Nothing happens by itself. One has to give something first in order to get something afterwards. To expect anything without one’s own effort is a sin. It is a mortal sin, to put it in a Christian way.
The most interesting thing for me is when I am challenged on all this, that not everyone has the same gifts. That not everyone is equally capable. What have they done for that? Are they prepared to do something more? To learn something more? That is the key question. Because the opportunities are really huge these days. Too many, I would say. Not all people are willing to learn. Not even every day. Not even once a week, or once a month. We all see an athlete, a top athlete, and we admire him when he succeeds. Do you realise how many more like him are out there that you do not see and will never see?
And how many hours, sweat and sometimes blood, has that same top athlete put in to get to the level you see? It is exactly the same with every other skill. If you put in enough effort, enough time, you can learn a lot. Practically anything, anything at all. Nowadays, with all the possibilities to access information (knowledge), it is really easy to learn. So much information available to you today at the click of a button has never been available to mankind. And tomorrow there will be even more. And the day after tomorrow, even more. Banal. The World Wide Web behaves more responsibly (figuratively, of course) than many of us. Because tomorrow it knows more (has more data) than it knows today!
Whatever you decide, and you do it, you follow it, you learn, you will be responsible to yourself to the greatest extent. And the more you know, the easier it will be to get a job. After all, there is a good chance that you will also get a better paid job over time. If you want to and take on more responsibility, of course. Because being a leader doesn’t mean doing less or nothing. It means doing more. It means taking responsibility. And those are the things that go wrong most of the time. When something is not right, it is not good. So, a leader, above all, takes responsibility for the bad things. Because for the good ones he should praise his team, his people.
I was talking to a volleyball referee a while ago who said that it often happens that the head referee blames the assistant referee for his wrong decisions. In a match, they each have their own authority. But authority is not the same as responsibility. We both quickly agreed on this. And also that things will not get better until there is an awareness that the responsibility is already divided between the head referee and the assistant referee, but the responsibility is and must be entirely with the head referee. Also, for the decisions of the assistant referee.
The management system standards that I cover have some very nice requirements in the direction of responsibility. ISO/IEC 17020 in clause 6.1.3 says: “they shall understand the significance of deviation found with regard to the normal use of the product …”. ISO/IEC 17025 in clause 7.9.4 says: “The laboratory receiving the complaint shall be responsible for gathering and verifying all necessary information to validate the complaint.”. ISO/IEC 17065, clause 7.6.1 says: “The certification body shall be responsible for, and shall retain authority for, its decisions relating to certification.”
What can we learn from the requirements of the standards? That there is no transfer of responsibility. That everyone is responsible for their own actions. That each person decides for himself and not for others. So, it is entirely up to us to take care of ourselves. To learn. To be better tomorrow than we are today. As such, we learn responsibility throughout our lives. Lifelong learning. At the end of our lives, so to speak, we are the most responsible. At least in theory we are, because we know the most.
Are we ready to be responsible? Fully? For all our actions? Always and everywhere. Dedicate one day. One day and observe yourself. How many decisions do you take and are you fully responsible for? How many times do you have to decide, but you shrug it off and leave it to others? How many times do you have to answer, but you remain silent? It adds up in a day. You will be surprised. And when you realise where you are, you can start working on yourself. And yes, the hardest thing to change is yourself. It’s much easier to change others. Or at least to want to change yourself. But that is not the meaning of life. If you want to change someone, then you have to take responsibility for them. Just like you take responsibility for your child. But once he grows up, you want him to be responsible for himself. To look after himself. Because you want to be proud of him when he succeeds in this world. So be responsible and teach him to be better tomorrow than he is today. Don’t be protective, don’t protect him. Teach your child responsibility. That is the best you can give him.
Primoz
Next time, 18 September 2024, Quality manual (Poslovnik kakovosti in Slovenian language)