What is coordination?

What is coordination?

Let us understand the coordination at little greater depth;

What would happen if we put food in our mouth and our teeth refuse to chew, or we want to rush for an emergency and our feet just don’t move? Unimaginable situation, isn’t it? Be it body organs, people or processes, there needs to be close co-ordination or synchronization. Let us take two industry examples in which lack of co-ordination has proved to be disastrous for the employees and organization responsible for the loss;

1. Mr. XXX is the sales head of ABC Company that manufactures machines and is on the verge of finalizing a huge order with a very important client. The client wants a little change in the specification given earlier and insists the sales head to call someone from quality department to ensure that there is zero deviation. The sales head calls up the Quality Manager and asks him to join them for the discussion. The Quality Manager is in a regular group meeting with the Quality Head who refuses to release the manager from the meeting (the Sales Head & the Quality Head had a rift recently and the latter is looking for a chance to set scores right). The client postpones the order and later gives it to a competitor of ABC company.
2. Delivery of shares is given by the client “A” on the last day to his bank where he maintains his Demat account. His broker calls him up after the settlement period informing him that his shares have been auctioned due to non-delivery. He goes to the Demat bank and is informed that the shares were delivered after banking hours. The client shows the bank a copy of the delivery slip in which the time is recorded and insists on knowing the true reason, and then he is informed that the server of the bank was down so there was a delay in processing the delivery. The client closes not all the accounts he and his family members maintained with the bank.

Such instances are fateful not just for the employees but for the organization too. Let us look into the reasons for lack of co-ordination and take corrective measures;

Some apparent reasons for lack of coordination are:

1. Fear to seek help and clarity
2. Lack of initiative
3. Lack of clarity
4. Complicated and unclear systems
5. Misuse of power
6. Lack of sense of responsibility or ownership
7. Insufficient standby arrangement in face of system failure

A few suggested solutions:

1. Create a value based work environment
2. Make the workplace employee friendly
3. Integrate system with employee understanding (and common sense)
4. Keep systems simple and brief
5. Ensure adequate learning and development
6. Appreciate new ideas

Last but not the least, remember that co-ordination between one’s thoughts, words & actions is very important before expecting co-ordination from others.