Yesterday I was doing “pico” on one of my new saris and suddenly realised that the sewing machine has lessons for “leaders” and “managers”. A sewing machine needs two threads – one threaded top down and the other bottoms up from the bobbin. Exactly the way we have in a company … the Management and the front line folks have to tread together to sew success !
Interestingly, the thread from the top is threaded into the eye of the needle and then the thread from the bobbin is pulled up – Management and people who are leaders need to help the frontline move up. Also remember, the needle is pointing down, looking at the bobbin … much like the leaders always looking at the frontline folks, for input, since the frontline knows a lot more about what the customers are saying.
Generally when you stitch something, you try and use the same colour thread as the cloth’s color in both the thread on the top and the one in the bobbin. Ah, here’s where the exact opposite happens usually at work – the management, or leaders think differently about the business and sometimes fail to communicate it to the frontline or vice versa and then you have mismatched outcomes.
Nice and easy lessons ? Guess even a sewing machine has things we can learn from, so imagine how much we can learn from another person ? So, look up, shake hands with your colleague and see what he/she has to teach you today.