The Drive to Excel

The Jakarta Post, 30 July 2006

What drives excellent performance? We are sure many organizations are in search for an answer to this question. Many of us are also in search for an answer to this question, in the quest to elevate our own performance, be it in our further studies, work or hobbies.

This article will explore and offer an answer to this question by way of two examples: one that resulted in a huge impact and changed the operation of a major industry in the world, and another of a person of ordinary background in an everyday life setting.

Have you watched “The Insider” (1999), a film produced by Michael Mann? This film is based on a real story that revealed tobacco companies’ role in what is dubbed in the film as “the delivery of nicotine”. Al Pacino played Lowell Bergman, an investigative reporter and ex-producer of CBS “60 Minutes”, who arranged an interview with a Dr. Jeffrey Wigand (played by Russel Crowe). Dr. Wigand was fired from his position as the Vice President of Research at Brown & Williamson, one of the Big Seven tobacco companies in the world, because the company was not willing to pull out their products that according to Dr. Wigand contained a substance that endangered customers’ health.

The film dramatized how CBS News, under the pressure of CBS Corporate, tried to pull the plug and abandoned the interview for the fear of being sued by the Big Seven, disregarding the fact that Dr. Wigand had undergone major personal, psychological, and financial stress to come forward. Bergman, being the producer who was personally involved with Dr. Wigand, did not relent to the pressure and instead put up a strategy – which you would have to find out for yourself in the film – at the risk of his own career. He succeeded in making CBS News release the full version of the interview, and resigned immediately after because he could no longer feel confident that he could give his words to his future interviewees, protect them, and deliver their words into action.

Both Bergman and Dr. Wigand took great personal risks, which they could have easily avoided if only they had not been compelled to take personal responsibilities for what they did. Now why would they do that? They both shared the same beliefs: that what they did was important and could make a difference. Bergman and Dr. Wigand had a clear purpose in what they were doing and also a sense of mission.

Having a clear purpose, sense of mission in life, and courage, are among the characteristics of what Dr. E. Paul Torrance – Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the University of Georgia and the so-called father of the field of Creative Studies – called the “beyonders”. Dr. Torrance started a longitudinal study in 1959 that tested high school students’ creative thinking abilities. Thirty years later, he followed up with the same group of people to find out whether creative thinking abilities predicted an individual’s performance. Dr. Torrance found that there were people who performed beyond expectations as predicted by the test. He called this group of individuals “beyonders” (Torrance & Safter, 1999).

You may think that the incentive of fame and the scale of impact in what one does may have contributed to the actions that Bergman and Dr. Wigand took; that they are the so-called “chosen” ones. But even if there were no incentive of fame and the impact of what we do is limited, does that mean we ordinary people don’t need to feel that what we do is important? That we don’t need to take our jobs and actions very seriously, and be driven by our own integrity as emulated by Bergman and Dr. Wigand?

We believe that, no matter how small an impact, every act of performance has great value. We also believe that, the same underlying attitude of ‘great’ people when applied to the everyday life of ‘ordinary’ people is what makes the difference between excellent and acceptable or mediocre performance. To illustrate this point, we will not turn to the story of Ibu Tini, who has been working as a housekeeper in a family for almost four years.

Every morning, Ibu Tini would wake up before dawn and start a series of household chores to ensure that three people are well fed and looked after. She would have finished her routine tasks, and other smaller tasks, before 10am every day.

The family realizes that Ibu Tini has a tremendous amount of work, and from time to time they would suggest hiring an extra pair of hands. Instead of saying yes, Ibu Tini would start talking about housekeepers who work in the neighboring houses, criticizing how inefficient and how irresponsible they are with their time, work, and employers’ money, especially when the owners of the house are not around.

Ibu Tini often complains about how expensive things are in Jakarta and shares her experiences in haggling with vegetable peddlars for the Rp.1000,- difference in prices with the wet market. What the family has realized over time is that Ibu Tini’s actions are driven by her own sense of integrity and taking her work seriously. Ibu Tini takes care of the family and the house, as if it was her own.

Mind you, she comes from a remote village in Trenggalek, East Java; has very little education and is barely literate. Compared to most of us who read The Jakarta Post, she obviously comes from a very humble background. Yet, she has an incredible sense of integrity, she knows that what she does is very important for the family, and she takes serious responsibility in what she does. By any terms, Ibu Tini exhibits excellent performance.

What Bergman, Dr. Wigand and Ibu Tini have in common are: a sense of purpose in what they do, which we believe drive their attitude in their work. The attitude of taking and doing one’s work seriously and with a sense of integrity.

The importance of attitude cannot be over emphasized, especially in the context of working in Indonesia. We are often frustrated by the lack of discipline and motivation in the work context, which seem to stem from these thoughts: someone else will take care of the responsibility if I don’t; no need to rush, I can do it later; this is not my money, facilities, nor vision/ mission in life, so why should I care? But the truth of the matter is, we must care about what we do. As Dr. Covey so succinctly put it in his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”: how do you want to have lived your life when you are on your deathbed? If we don’t care about what we do, maybe it’s time to find something we do care about.

After being fired from Brown & Williamson, Dr. Wigand applied for the position of Japanese and Science teacher at duPont Manual High School, from which he was awarded the Sallie Mae First Class Teacher in 1996. He now continues his efforts to reduce the use of tobacco among teenagers through a non-profit organization he founded, Smoke-Free Kids. In 2000 he won World Health Organization Award for Tobacco Control, and in 2002 he won Hero of the Year Award from American Heart Association.

Lowell Bergman is currently teaching at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. He is an investigative reporter for The New York Times, and a producer and correspondent for the PBS documentary series “Frontline”. He investigated and reported on the Enron Corporation before it collapsed, the roots of terrorism crisis, and 30-year history of the war on drugs among many others. In 2004, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

While Ibu Tini has not won any award (since there is no such thing as Best Housekeeper Award), she continues to do the same daily routine and she remains very much appreciated in the family. Although many great performers of everyday life may never be recognized for their contribution to society, it has never stopped them from performing excellently, for the simple reason that they care about what they do.

In the search of personal excellence, we ought to ask ourselves these questions: “What do we care about?” and “With what attitude will we approach our work?”