Digital CV and some fun moments

As a part of our POM course, we were asked to make and upload our digital CV on Youtube. Here is my attempt for this new experience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfSzor4-7U4&feature=em-upload_owner

The course journey with Dr. Prasad (commonly known as Dr. Mandi) was a beautiful learning experience. The course helped me learn management concepts from an entirely new perspective. The blog writing experience is the major takeaway for me and I will continue to post blogs for other subjects also. Some other concepts which I feel very connected with are Deskill & Skill and process improvement and I will try to inculcate these concepts in my personal and professional life.

Below are some of the snapshots from the class. The beauty of the class was from the innovative examples and toys which Dr. Prasad used to teach us various management concepts.

tower building exercise#1

tower building exercise#2

3 people crossing the valley

Guitarist Dr. Prasad

art#1

art turned to hat###

art32

art#3

navrang puzzle solving

navrang puzzle

mid-term exam

Thank You Dr. Prasad for a great learning experience!!!

NAVRANG - The nine color puzzle

We often come across numerous toys and puzzles in the market or in streets, but very few of them attract us to them. One such toy puzzle is "NAVRANG CUBE". Navrang cube looks similar to a rubik cube but it differs from it on the fact that navrang can be dismantled into 27 pieces separately unlike rubik which one cannot dismantle. On one very fine morning, our POM professor Dr. Prasad dismantled the cube and distributed its pieces among the students. As we all now knew, their was something not very simple with this puzzle and we all were waiting for the further instructions from our professor.

THE GAME BEGINS:

The task that Dr. Mandi gave to the students was to re-assemble the cube in such a way that each face of the cube has all the nine colors in it i.e on any face there will not be two same color appearing. However as in every managerial situation, time was a constraint and the puzzle was to be solved in minimum steps and time. After students tried a few times and were not able to solve the puzzle, dr. mandi solved the puzzle through a well defined logical method.

The purpose of this exercise was to teach us basic concepts of logic, systematic thinking process and solution approach. All these things can be linked with management such as for organizational structure or decision making etc.

  

The very basic learning takeaway is that any problem can be solved if we employ certain concepts of logical thinking, systematic approach to solution and understanding of the problem. It is very common in organizations that under certain conditions, people gets confused, and demotivated quite early in the process. It is through proper, calculative thinking that organizations thrive in problematic conditions.

    In management, areas like organization structure and decision making requires logical, systematic thinking and planning. Through the process oriented approach only, one can find an early solution of a problem. All the management concepts start with a clear objective. Here also, understanding the problem and setting the objective is the primary step towards solving the problem. Then through logical approach, continuous improvement and systematic thinking will find answers to any kind of problem. Unity of objective is also an example common objective exists for both the organization and its employee and through systematic, scientific steps both are made to work in synchronization with each other. 

Thus all decision in management should be a result of rational thinking, process knowledge, systematic solution approach and creative performance.

Happy Learning!!!!

Muhammad Yunus's Grameen Bank

Grameen bank finds its root in Bangladesh. The origin of Grameen Bank can be traced back to 1976 when Professor Muhammad Yunus, Head of the Rural Economics Program at the University of Chittagong, launched an action research project to examine the possibility of designing a credit delivery system to provide banking services targeted at the rural poor. The Grameen Bank Project (Grameen means "rural" or "village" in Bangla language) came into operation with the following objectives: 

1. extend banking facility to poor men and women
2. eliminate the exploitation of the poor by money launders
3. create opportunities for self-employment for the vast multitude of unemployed people in rural Bangladesh
4. bring the disadvantaged, mostly the women from the poorest household, within the fold of an organizational format which they can understand and manage by themselves and
5. reverse the age-old vicious cycle of "low income, low saving and low investment", into virtuous cycle of "low income, injection of credit, investment, more income, more savings, more investments, more income". 

In October 1983, the Grameen Bank Project was transformed into an independent bank by government legislation. Today Grameen Bank is owned by the rural poor whom it serves. Borrowers of the Bank own 90% of its shares, while the remaining 10% is owned by the government. 

A group-based credit approach is applied to use peer-pressure within a group to ensure the borrowers follow through and conduct their financial affairs with discipline, ensuring repayment and allowing the borrowers to develop good credit standing. The bank also accepts deposits, provides other services, and runs several development-oriented businesses including fabric, telephone and energy companies. The bank's credit policy to support under-served populations has led to the overwhelming majority (98%) of its borrowers being women.

GRAMEEN BANK	CONVENTIONAL BANK
To bring economic and social change to the poor.	To make profit
Based on trust	Based on collateral
For poor people	For businessman
Small amount	Large amount
In Rural area	In Developed area
Flexible payment scheme	Strict payment scheme
Simple interest	Compound interest
Loans for productive activity	Loans could be used for consumption or other activities

The bank has diversified among different applications of micro-credit. In the Village Phone program, women entrepreneurs can start businesses to provide wireless payphone service in rural areas. This program earned the bank the 2004 Petersburg Prize worth EUR 100,000, for its contribution of Technology to Development.

The Nobel Committee awarded Grameen Bank and its founder, Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below”.

Here is the video of Muhammad Yunus which we were asked to watch.

We can link Management By Objective and Organizational Culture management concepts with the functioning of Grameen Bank. It is the Organisation Culture that affects the way people and groups interact with each other, with clients, and with stakeholders. The basis of this type of management is trust, community and meaning. The managerial orientation is caring and compassion while the employee orientation is psychological ownership which leads to the passion and commitment to organisation goals in more effective manner. This model reflects the values underlying positive organisational behaviour, where managers focus their attention on helping employees develop feelings of hope, optimism, self-confidence and courage.

What can I learn from a Magnet??

I find it amusing sometimes that from what all things we can learn management; toys, towers, cartoons and now magnets.

In yet another lesson Prof. Mandi placed some very basic questions in front of the class. WHAT DOES A MAGNET DO??  Not a hard question to answer but the class took some time to arrive at the word which guided our discussion on management -ALIGNMENT.

A magnet has the power to align magnetic forces. Any material having metallic atoms will align itself according to the polarity of the magnet. In natural world, a magnet aligns natural forces. Similarly in a organization, Managers align human forces. Managers acts as magnets to align his/her employees according to the tasks and objectives. They synchronize both time and space. Here comes the management learning of the session - Management by Objectives. 

Management by Objective (MBO) is a process of defining objectives within a organization so that the management and employees agree and align themselves according to the objectives and understand what they have to do in order to achieve them. MBO works if the employees knows the objectives of the organization and knowing the objectives is usually the hardest thing to know for the employees.

The success of MBO lies in participative goal setting and decision making. The employees are encouraged to set the goals and the course of action themselves. There are more chances of success when the measurement and comparison of employee's actual performance is done with the standards set by them only. The Managers should implement a range of performance system to help the organization stay on the right track.He should focus on the results and the processes to achieve them. The MBO system makes sure that the aims and objectives of the organization and that of the employees are synchronized; when managers and employees work to achieve their plans, the plans of the organization are automatically achieved. This whole process gives a purpose to the employees and when provided with the methods, employees achieves their goals.

Managers can use MBO in any key area of management - marketing, HR, finance, CSR or operations. MBO can be divided into some steps as setting objectives,  organizing the group, motivation, measuring the performance and developing people. This process starts from the top corporate level and runs down to the lowest employee level. De-skill, Re-skill and Un-learn, Re-learn are the practices of modern management.

We conclude our knowledge sharing by putting a cartoon of Arbit Choudhary.

Happy learning!!!

Cartoons as a tool for Management Learning

3 Idiots crossing the valley

Here is the cartoon that is used in this post for understanding some key management lessons:

This is a cartoon depicting 3 people crossing a valley. The task at hand is not so simple as is visible in the picture. There are some constraints attached with the problem:

1. The gap or distance between the two edge of the valley is more than one single step of man but less than two steps.

2. Jumping across the valley is not possible as the team has to carry a pole along with themselves with using minimum risk involved methods.

3. Maintaining the balance of the pole, speed of the group and synchronization of the team is the key tasks which a manager has to plan and execute.

I came across quite a few situations at my project where such teamwork was required for project success. One such instance was of client invoicing where two people (one manager and one engineer) were under equipped for the task and one additional employee was required to facilitate the whole process. The balancing part was of balancing the bill and approval and time and synchronization were of prime importance. At that time we were able to achieve the target through pre-planned processes and division of responsibility. This cartoon, too, teaches us management concepts that are necessary for any project execution and success.

A Manager has to device a solution for the problem under given resource constraints such that human deficiencies are irrelevant. He has to plan a process which can help the team to cross the valley. Under given conditions it requires three people to work as a team to cross the valley. The whole activity of valley crossing can be planned in the following way:

where the positions of different people are categorized as Fully Safe, Half Safe/Half Risky & Fully Unsafe.

A Manager should work for process improvement. Under the given solution the task will be completed but there still is a chance of improvement. In the given solution, any team member A, B or C is in Risky state for 3 steps out of 9 steps, that is, he is in risky state for 33% of the work. We can further reduce this figure by implementing processes such as use of extra safety items (reducing risk at full risky position), better understanding and coordination between team members (for sharing load of the person in the full risky position) and proper training and motivation for the team members.

As per the table above, out of total 27 steps the arrangement is:

A manager's task is to reduce the unsafe and half safe steps to zero and maximize safe steps to 27.

Ideal arrangement:

Learning from this exercise:

1. Structuring of Tasks-

•  The role of all the three team members is equal and there is no differentiation between the responsibilities of any two persons. i.e Role A = Role B = Role C
• All three team members are equally responsible for the success of the task

2. Team Management-

• Mutual Trust - Trust is an important factor which is shared among any team members. Here, at the point of fully unsafe positions, the unsafe person has to trust his team members for support and successful execution of task.
• Managing Conflicts -  Any conflicts within the team should be solved transparently and there should be complete trust among team members.
• Effective communication - It is a necessary requirement for task completion
• Bonding of team members helps them to perform efficiently under stressful conditions

3. Process Improvement - 

• Proper Planning should be undertaken to ensure that the task is a success at each and every step.
• Synchronization  - The steps of the people should be synchronized during valley crossing
• Training and  Development - The team members should be trained and motivated to perform any risky tasks.
• Planning - The prime requirement of any task is planning. Planning can be explained under 3 categories

           - Work Planning - Distribution of physical work is planned in work planning

           - Authority Planning - It defines roles distribution, Team Leader selection and proper communication                                             of information 

           - Control Planning - Standards, safety precautions, system forms control planning.

Thus with the use of above mentioned methods it is the task of a team manager to design, execute and control the whole process.

Thanking you!!!

Three Monks Story - The Importance of Processes and Teamwork

About the film:

Three Monks is a Chinese animated short film, released in 1980 and directed by A Da. It is one of the most famous and beloved films of Shanghai Animation Film Studio's productions, and has won awards at film festivals throughout the world including:

• Outstanding film award at China's Ministry of Culture
• Best animated film prize at the Golden Rooster awards in 1981.

The film is based on the ancient Chinese proverb "One monk will shoulder two buckets of water, two monks will share the load, but add a third and no one will want to fetch water." If you watch the film, you'll notice that the film does not contain any dialogues, allowing it to be watched by any culture, and a different music instrument signifies each monk.

Plot of the movie:

The movie starts with a monk living peacefully in a monastery. His daily routine involved fetching water from the river, watering a plant and meditation. When alone, he fetches 2 buckets of water in one trip. On the arrival of a older monk, the young monk found him taking the responsibility of fetching the water from the river down the hill. He rejoiced on being feeling relieved from the daily hard work. But soon the older monk realizes that now only he himself was doing the hard work and the young monk was not helping. So he ropes in the young monk also in the daily work. This soon leads to differences on load sharing of the work, apart from reduction in the productivity. On clearing the differences, now both together fetches 1 bucket of water at a time.On the arrival of third monk, the other two monks expected him to fetch the water.He drinks all the stored water of older monks and fetches water from the river alone now. Soon he also realizes that he is fetching the water alone for all 3 of them and he drinks all the water he fetches to quench his thirst. As a result of the conflict, there is no water left and no one is ready to fetch the water. All the 3 monks come together when at night, one mouse comes to scrounge and knocks the candle holder leading to a devastating fire in the temple. They work in a team to put off the fire and were successful in their efforts. At last, the 3 monks together, devised a process of team-work, technology and separate responsibilities to fetch and store water in the temple.

Interpretations and Management Learning;

1. Productivity :-

    

    When one monk was fetching water, his responsibility was defined (2 buckets of water). On the arrival of the second monk, they together fetched the water thus decreasing the output of the process (1 bucket of water). Although by working together, their efforts were reduced but the output of the process decreased. When the third monk moves in, both monks try to delegate entire work to the newcomer. After arguing with each other constantly over whose turn it is to fetch the water, nobody goes to fetch the water and the productivity is zero.

Different processes have different productivity level. One of the important functions of a manager is to optimize the process, improve the work design and try to aim for the most productive processes.

By closely observing,we can find that the second process was more productive, that is 2 monks carrying 1 bucket of water.

Event	Output (No. of buckets)	Inputs (worker units)	Productivity = Output/Input
1 Monk- 2 bucket	2	2	1
2 Monks – 1 bucket	1	0.5	2

 

Thus it lays importance on equal division of work, teamwork and use of scientific method to increase productivity. Simply increase in number of workers will not lead to increased productivity. In the film increased productivity was achieved when both the monks, through the use of scientific method, clearly divided their stick and coordinated. 

2. Work Method :-

    

     Excellence = Efficiency X Effectiveness

In the movie, stress was laid on improvement of work methods. On the arrival of the second monk, when there was a dispute of where the center of the stick is, the use of technology came to the rescue. As it is usually said that the solutions of the biggest problems lies in the simplest of the methods, a scale was used in the film to resolve the dispute. The scale is a representation of fixed standards and the use of the technology along with the standards improves the method of work.  

Very often at my work place, there were conflicts to choose anyone from process or people to complete the work. Usually the management trusts the people approach to achieve their goals. Through experiences, I have learned that it is the process approach which is easy and a sure way to get a solution. Everyone on my team and project was equally experienced, competent and qualified. What was required was a modification in the process or work method to achieve the goal which could be executed by anyone from the team. 

3. Technology :-

    Technology is of great use to a manager to improve work methods and processes. A manager should not create any processes or decisions based of  appearance or size of the people.At the end of the film,after fighting the temple fire together, the 3 monks devised a process with the help of technology and used a pulley system to fetch water. Here, they had clear knowledge of their roles and responsibilities, no undue advantage was given to anyone and the process was scientific, i.e it reduced their efforts and also increased the productivity. Today's manager has to has to design an operating system based on technology. It is a continuous process of optimizing the work so that maximum efficiency could be derived from it.

4. Teamwork :-

     Management is maintaining normal behavior at abnormal times. Teamwork and synergy are the things to be remembered during times of disaster and anarchy. Management generates discipline and the absence of management will lead to loss of character. In the film, when fire broke out in the temple, all the 3 monks worked in coordination and in a team to put off the fire. Their behavior to each other was positive and helping. Drastic problems requires drastic innovations and solutions. They adds an altogether dimension to the process and improves it.   

Major takeaways :-

1. Process management is more important than people management.
2. Standards have to be set and rules should be defined. Otherwise things head to a haywire.
3. Team work and coordination is the key to success.
4. There should be a sustainable model is place to achieve the goals.
5. Technology and productivity are directly proportional to each other. 

Here is the Youtube link of the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rolBiHfWokY

Thank You!!!

Setting Goals the S.M.A.R.T way!!!

Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land amongst the stars...

                                                                                                    - Les Brown

Setting goals is a fundamental component to long term success. The basic reason for this is that you can't get where you are trying to go until you clearly define where that is. Every organisation focuses on its goal and allot time and resources for it. Goals help employee stay aware of what is expected from them and leave little room for people to hide behind the curtain of unspecified expectations.

Taking further the tower building discussion, where it was showed that through clear and separate roles and responsibilities, teams were able to over-achieve their targets, we can understand how they over achieved their target The Goal setting of a team should be synchronized with its potential.

The main purpose of setting a goal is to REALIZE THE POTENTIAL. And a smart way to set one's goal is the S.M.A.R.T approach.

The letters broadly conform to the words specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. But other references could be drawn like
S - Significant, Simple
M - Motivational, Meaningful, Manageable
A - Achievable, Adjustable, Ambitious, Aligned, Acceptable, Aspiration, Assignable
R - Resourceful, Result-oriented, Realistic
T - Traceable, Time-oriented, Time-specific

Developing SMART Goals
1. Specific - Goals should be simplistically written and clearly define what one is going to do. A specific goal will answer the 5 W's

• What - What do I want to accomplish
• Why - Specific reasons and purpose
• Who - Who is involved?
• Where - location
• Which - requirements and constraints

2. Measurable - Goals should be measurable so that one have tangible evidence that I have accomplished the goal. There should be concrete criteria for measuring progress. A measurable goal will answer to the following questions:

• How much
• How many
• How to know when it is accomplished

3. Attainable - Goals should be achievable well enough so that one can achieve them. One must possess the appropriate knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to achieve the goal. Achievable goals motivate employees. Impossible goals demotivate them.

4. Relevant - The goals must be relevant to one's purpose and for one's team. It stresses the importance of choosing the goals that matters to teams, organisations, departments etc.

5. Time-Bounded - Goals should have a time frame as it will provide the required urgency, care, direction and focus to achieve the goal. It answers the "When" question of the goal setting.

Goal Achievement should not be equal to Goal Setting. They are different and they should affect each other actively and positively.
Goals Set should always be above than Goals achieved and Goals achieved should in turn be greater than Historical record. Also Goals should be set in such a way that the Potential is always equal or greater than the goals.

Pygmalion Effect and Performance:

In the Greek myth Pygmalion, a prince carved an ivory statue of his ideal woman. He fell in love with the statue and named it Galatea. The prince's expectations were realized when Galatea was given life by the Goddess of Love.

The central theme of the story is that the expectations of one person can impact the action of others. It is a phenomenon in which greater the expectation placed upon people, the better they perform. One's expectations of people and their expectations of themselves are the key factors in how well people perform at work This fundamental principle is applied for performance and potential performance improvement at work The Pygmalion effect is best explained through a Fibonacci curve.

Fibonacci curve

 Thanks!!!