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Are you the engine, a malfunctioning boggy, or a go-along?

Dr Rajesh K Pillania, Professor, Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, explores how individuals drive progress, hinder growth, or simply follow along in their occupations.

Rajesh Pillania 22 February 2025 06:00

Dr Rajesh K Pillania

The world is an exciting place, and so are our minds and how we use them to make choices and actions including in our occupations!

Over the years, the writer has explored how individuals work in multiple discussions across various locations, occupations, genders, and age groups. At the risk of oversimplification, one outcome of these discussions can be put forward using the example of a rail having an engine and bogies.

One category is engines that drive the rail. In different occupations, a tiny minority are working really hard, thinking differently, innovating, and taking the occupation forward with them.

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Another category is a minority of malfunctioning boogies stopping trains on tracks. In different occupations, there is a minority who works against the occupation and hinders it.

The third category is boogies that follow and go along with the engine. In different occupations, the majority do what is required by their job position and role, sometimes just like machines and following the stream.

All these three categories are present across occupations. Which one do you belong to? Are you the engine that is innovating and taking the occupation forward, or are the bogus bogies trying to stop the train or just the go along? Almost all of us are quite equipped to be any of these three categories, and whatever the background or environment may be, it depends on us to decide which one of the three we want to be. We have a choice; it would help the world if more of us moved to the engine category. If we cannot be the engine, then stop being the bogus bogies stopping the trains.

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We have reached this stage of evolution through the many learnings and innovations of previous generations over the centuries. The world needs more innovative thinking and innovations to solve the various challenges facing humanity, and by trying to be engines or at least not being bogus bogies, we can all help humanity survive and progress on Earth and other planets.

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