Rediscovering Aristotle for Managing Discretionary Effort

It is said that the vast majority of the workforce do not use their discretionary effort for the purpose of organizational improvement. Discretionary effort refers to that extra bit of initiative and energy that an individual has total control over and has within him self or her self the absolute power whether to use or otherwise. Many high performers do not actually direct their discretionary effort and energy towards work related aspects. They do just enough to be at the high performing level but of course there are others who merely get by doing the bare minimum and just stay above water so to speak. We are interested in the former while the latter is a matter for more efficient and effective performance management systems and processes.

Those high performers who direct their discretionary effort and initiative away from the organization should be a cause for concern simply because I strongly believe that the best ideas, process improvements and such are produced in the 'zone of discretionary effort' not while doing the daily job description directed tasks. I suspect that the sheer wastage of human capital capacity and capability when there isn't a critical mass of people using their discretionary effort for the organization can be staggering.I hope somebody will research on this and give us a number for this in financial terms.

It is relatively easy to make a poor performer to become a high performer. There are many coercive and non-coercive tools for this. However, the decision to use any available discretionary effort lies entirely with the individual and there is no organizational tool that can compel her to use it for the benefit of the organization. Or is there?

Enter Aristotle. Yes,I know...can we still learn something from Aristotle in the age of Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey? I think so.

Lets look at the concept of telos. Telos or goal or a final purpose is central to the study of teleology. Aristotle was one of the earliest thinkers who propounded the idea that the behavior of everything in the universe can be understood from the aspect of telos or purpose. He also believed that everything has a natural function (destiny?fate?predisposition?)and it will strive to ac hive an equilibrium between being and doing that function.

Now, what could compel an individual employee to direct his or her discretionary effort for the benefit of the organization? How about a sense of purpose...a telos?
If you believe what Aristotle (and many subsequent thinkers and schools of thought)say about the driving force of motivation than you have to believe that it is a strong sense of purpose that moves people to do things that sometimes even surprise themselves. It is not the everyday 'get-by' screen saver mode kind of work or play but something more. Come August 8, we will see this on the playing fields and stadias of Beijing. The winners are those with a clear telos. They are able to extend that one last bit of effort to the finishing line.

So my advise to leaders and managers : Beyond your existing performance management systems and processes, watch out for your high performers who are not directing their discretionary effort towards the organization. Remember, the goal is to have a critical mass of those who do. There is a winning idea lurking somewhere....give that idea a telos to be voiced.