Smiling face or filled box

It was Saturday afternoon…a lazy afternoon. My sister was at our place. Discussion got into special dishes they prepared for last festival and how they felt about the effort and experience of the preparation. My mother was giving some tips to my sister and my wife and sharing her experiences.

I was a mute spectator. I bored to be so…….. I jumped into the discussion. I asked them a question. How do you feel after the almost a day long effort in preparing those oil fried dishes? my sister quick to answer …”very tired….”. She is doing this from past 15 years. My mother said….” It is not tiring at all…”.

Some back ground about my mother and sisters cooking skills and cooking behaviors. Both of there preparation taste absolutely same, both try to share there dishes with atleast 2 or 3 other s (other than there own house)…it will either neighbors or relatives or friends or all. They love to prepare and share. They do prepare these dishes bit and fill it in quite a big boxes.

I asked them second question, “what images you see in your mind when you are preparing or what you will be thinking during cooking”. Obviously they will not be thinking about the recipe as preparing these dishes are their expertise. My sister said “I keep thinking about the box which I need to fill to ensure I serve enough to all”. My mother said “I keeping thinking about smiling faces of my grand children, Harish saying ‘this is very good!!!’ and other smiling faces……”

It was big learning for me…….my mother was not getting tiered as she was thinking smiling faces with life. My sister who was thinking lifeless object of filling the box was ending up tiered.
This incident can get interpreted in many different ways. But striking resemblance which I was able to connect was………….what happens in companies with people who work to make the Metrics right compared to people who try to see smile on the customer face.

Well I didn’t mention about my wife response…as she didn’t give one…… though I can imagine her response would have been ….”I keep thinking about the new dress my husband would get me for preparing delicious dishes….”. Well that reminds me of people in companies who work keeping the performance review in mind. Your guess is right….she also feels tired after such cooking.