Alignment of employees with the organisation : POM lecture 9.

Learning objectives:

Demonstrate and learn the principle of alignment of employees with an organisation with the help of a Magnet.

This time Dr. Mandi used a magnet to make his point. As the magnet induces the magnetic force in soft metals the same way a manager can influence the behaviour of its employees towards the organisation. It can be done by aligning them with the organisation. This alignment can happen in the following ways:

1.       Alignment of Roles

2.       Alignment of People

3.       Alignment of Goals

Alignment of roles is necessary to make a coherent organisation so that each position of responsibility play a strategic part. People must be aligned to generate, improve and retain skills and knowledge which is important for organisation.

Alignment of Goals is the most important part of alignment. It is a humanitarian aspect of management which is captured by Henry Fayol. Any organisation cannot reach to its full potential until individual interests of its employees are aligned with organisational interest.

It is not an exaggeration to say:

Goal attainment is equal to goal alignment

In the above figure, all the sphere are assumed to be the factors of production. In absence of magnetic field, all factors works hap hazardously according to their individual aspirations. But a good manager can have the magnetic influence and is able to align all the factors of production with the organisation. Dr. Mandi’s concept of teaching management by using just a simple magnet is very well taken by the students.

For aligning the goals, following three must be aligned:

Aspirations

Beliefs

Action

All in all, to integrate the employees in the organisation structure and to enjoy maximum productivity, all the individual aspirations, beliefs and Actions of Employees must be aligned with the goal of organisation.

demonstrating Taylor's claims using Navrang puzzle: POM Lesson 8.

Learning objective: learn the importance of process management by using a Navrang cube puzzle and critical examination of Taylor’s scientific management theory.

Navrang cube puzzle

It’s a practical demonstration of Taylor’s principle of Scientific Management. Taylor said to improve the productivity Replace working by "rule of thumb," or simple habit and common sense, and instead use the scientific method to study work and determine the most efficient way to perform specific tasks.

To check the gravity of Taylor’s argument, Dr. Mandi came up with this interesting new puzzle in which all students were challenged to arrange 27 cubes of 9 colours and make 1 big cube. The catch lied in the fact that each face should contain all the 9 colours.

Many students tried, performed well to an extent but the outcome was not satisfactory. There was no set process or procedure defined to arrange the cube. Every student had to spend a lot of time in thinking. It may not be a great hitch at individual level, but from an organization’s point of view it’s a disaster. If each individual worker/employee keep on spending so much of thinking time on the same job again and again it will never be productive. It calls for the need of standard operating procedure and deskilling of the process.

On the second phase of the puzzle, Dr. Mandi defined 9 simple steps to arrange the smaller cubes. The process was so simple and didn’t involve any mental work. Then students were invited once again to arrange the cubes and this time there was a drastic change in their productivity. Results were very conspicuous that process planning is the key to increase productivity. This is exactly the same that Taylor claimed. Dr. Mandi was again able to prove his point in his own strange way.

you can read more about Taylor's theory of scientific management from the below link:

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_Taylor.htm

the Value addition by Amit Shah : Alum Talk 1

objective: capture the learning and take away from a brief discussion with Mr. Amit Shah.

Topic: Discussion was specifically centered around the topic that how one can add value to his/her existing skills and recognize & develop new competencies. 

Below is the current profile of Mr. Amit Shah coupled with a link to his Linkedin page:

Amit Shah 

Executive VP & Country Head, Corporate Branding, Marketing and Strategic Communication at YES Bank

http://in.linkedin.com/in/amitkshah

  

the best thing about the open house discussions is that the presenter himself doesn't know that where the discussion will lead to. It adds a special flavor to the discussion which is mostly induced by the audience itself. I call it a DEMOCRATIC discussions as it is driven by audience. the discussion which i am talking about is the democracy at its best because it led to lots of value creation. 

talking about humans:

We are not snakes that at once we will shed the old skin and will get a new avatar altogether, Our Habits Defines Our Capabilities.

Secret of success:

Competencies, Knowledge and Skills and Delivery are the wagons of success which are pulled by an engine of aspirations.

The theme of the text might give a misleading idea that one should contemplate and dig deep within himself for his real area of passions and must devote his heart and soul to satiate that desire. this might be correct for some great souls but here i am taking my bet on the majority of population who is not very much clear about its actual desires. you might be interested in reading it further if you happen to be in the later & major category of people.

there are good chances that here you will find some good ways to shine bright out of the corporate haystack and sell your credentials at benefits that you outline for yourself. 

 What You Can Do ? 

            What You Should Do ?

                 To break the clutter ??

before we move forward, the sole motive of anything you do should be the value addition. Well, of course one can't do much about his age, sex, looks, height and other outward characteristics but there is lot to be explored and polished.

Step 1: Evaluate yourself.

evaluating yourself is just the first step of the ladder, the purpose of evaluation should be to identify the areas where one is yet to develop a level of competency. having said that, it is needless to say that all the four areas are equally important because we are not talking about scientists, we are taking about managers. there can be some natural contradiction between influence and adaptability but logic is always there to bail you out.

<< click on the image to enlarge.

  

Step 2: Secrets of success.

knowledge and skills are generally thought to be the sufficient criteria for excellence. for managers, its a lie. As a manager or entrepreneur one has to leverage on the skills and knowledge of the people. in that case Competencies i.e the behavioral traits and delivery carries good gravity. at the same time knowledge and skills are also necessary to maintain the right balance and the most important credibility.

step 3: What B-school can provide you?

earlier we touched on value addition and a B-school provides you ample opportunities of evolution. things listed are self explanatory and don't require any explanation.

the gist of the discussion is :

Just play to a plan, a philosophy and to your Strengths…!!

I shall write more on such discussions. I am thankful to Dr. Mandi for arranging such sessions.

teamwork let you cross valleys : POM Lesson 6.

Objective: Learn about importance of teamwork and its constituting elements with the help of a valley crossing exercise.

The valley crossing exercise was performed in order to demonstrate the importance of team work. Team work involves many facets some of them being communication, coordination, interdependence,  trust, support, contribution from members and cohesion between members.

the exercise: Valley Crossing

The activity involved 3 persons crossing a valley with the support of the rod. The distance between two ends of the cliff was more than 1 step but less than 2 steps. The activity was to be performed in such a way, that at any instance of time during the crossing of valley, not more than 1 member was at risk, i.e. if one person was at risk during the act of valley crossing, the other two members would take up that person’s weight. In this way the inter-dependency between the members was tightly coupled which is one of the most facets of team work.

It is also to be noted that when one of the persons is at risk, that person has to trust the other two persons to ensure that the objective is achieved. In this way, during the entire exercise, all the persons are at equal risk and need confidence and trust between the members to achieve the objective. 

 Three wise men Crossing the valley  - Detailed task process

earlier we learnt about de-skilling (breaking an element into small small processes and thus precluding the need for expertise) and its far reaching impact. in the same manner, if we apply the process of de-skilling to this problem we can break it into 9 steps. the pictorial representation of the process flow is as follows:

based on the step per step situation, we can draw following inferences:

Persons	First Person	Second Person	Third person
Steps
1	Safe	Safe	Safe
2	Half Risky
3	Full Risky
4	Half Risky	Half Risky
5		Full Risky
6		Half Risky	Half Risky
7			Full Risky
8			Half Risky
9	Safe	Safe	Safe

• Safe - Both the legs of the person have full support
• Half Risky – One leg in the air and the other leg has support
• Full risky - Both the legs are in the air without any support
• Half risky – One leg is in the air and the other leg has support
• Safe - Both the legs have full support

Lessons Learnt

Responsibility

When a team is assigned a work or has to achieve an objective, each member of the team should be responsible enough to complete their portion of the task. If even one member of the team is not responsible to complete their portion, then the entire objective is at a risk and can lead to harsh consequences.

Communication

During the process of performing a task, there needs to be effective communication between the group members for two main reasons.

The first reason can be to know the status of the work performed so that the percentage task completion of the task can be gauged  The second reason can be related to the clarity of the task between the members. If even one member interprets the task incorrectly, the whole objective of the group is put at stake.

Confidence and Trust

The organization cannot be successful if there is no element of trust in it. As in the case of valley exercise, persons can take the risk to cross the valley only since they trust the other two. Similarly for the organization to be successful, managers and workers have to follow the Theory X which tells the people or managers have trust on the other people or employees for the job to be completed effectively.

Innovation

When the team members have gelled , then innovation is something that comes on its own. A good team always has a good number of people who come up with innovative ideas all the time.

 Clear goals The goals were clear, defined and each member in the team fully understood the gravity of the problem.  

after all, as it is said:

One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bonafide stupidity, there ain't nothing can beat teamwork.

We shall discuss more about organization management principle in future. please write your comments and suggestion.

The three monks & productivity management - POM lesson 5

objective: to learn the productivity management.

Productivity is a measure of the efficiency of production. Productivity is a ratio of production output to what is required to produce it (inputs).

Productivity= total output / one unit of a total input.

its a simple assertion that as the resources of an organisation increase, its output tend to increase commensurately.  but, unfortunately, this is not the case with real time organisation. lack of management and absence of direction to channelize the resources readily turns the resources into liability. It harms the productivity and thus materially affects the financial health of a company.

the argument stated above is captured by A Da's award winning animation film: the three monks. the plot of the movie goes like this:

A young monk lives a simple life in a temple on top of a hill. He has one daily task of hauling two buckets of water up the hill. He tries to share the job with another monk, but now two monks were fetching one bucket in contrast of one monk fetching the two bucket. The arrival of a third monk prompts everyone to expect that someone else will take on the chore. Consequently, no one fetches water though everybody is thirsty. At night, a rat came and knocked the candle holder  leading to a devastating fire in the temple. The three monks finally unite together and make a concerted effort to put out the fire. Since then they understand the old saying "unity is strength" and begin to live a harmonious life. The temple never lacks water again.

If we consider monks as the resource for an organisation and fetching the water as the final product, productivity should have increased as the resources increased. but what actually happened is summarized as follows:

case 1. one monk carrying two buckets.

case 2. two monks carrying one bucket.

case 3. 1 monk carrying one bucket.

the productivity table for the three cases is as follows:

.as we see, the productivity is highest when only one monk is working. something went wrong in the process as the productivity is falling. the process didn't change even when the resources were tripled. increase in resources always calls for change or modification in process or sometimes for a new process altogether. that is why, management always have to be vigilant about these changes however subtle may be. this principle is to be use in correlation with the smart goal principle that we discussed in the last blog. because, in the absence of a common driving motive internal conflicts may corrupt the whole process.

if you are interested to dig in the process change that the three monk employed to increase their productivity, watch the following video.

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

please share your valuable feedback. further discussion on the topic are most welcomed. keep reading.

setting SMART goals - POM Lesson 4.

Objective:

Today's objective is to understand the importance on setting goals and the things we must keep in mind while setting ourselves SMART goals.

"Success can't be a pleasant surprise,

It has to be Planned.

setting a SMART goal is the first step to it. "

Dr. Edwin Locke, who began goal setting research in the 1960’s revealed an inductive relationship between goal setting and improved production performance. Goal setting involves the conscious process of establishing levels of performance in order to obtain desirable outcomes. If individuals or teams find that their current performance is not achieving desired goals, they typically become motivated to increase effort or change their strategy.Setting a goal should include setting a structure that directs actions and behaviors which improve the unsatisfactory performance.  Setting a goal serves us in the following ways:

1. When an individual or team can focus attention on behaviors that will accomplish a goal, they also divert attention away from behaviors that will not achieve the goal. 
2. Goals energize people to expend more effort based upon the effort that is required to reach a certain goal. 
3. Goals also lead to a persistent pursuit of reaching the goal by providing a purpose for that pursuit.

How to set a Goal:

A smartly set goal leads to excellence. when you set a specific and measurable; challenging yet realistic goal for yourself and go for it with full devotion, its then you come face to face with the depth of potential. take some time out to watch this thrilling video.

now lets try to associate the video with the following characteristics that a goal must have. 

i am quite sure that you must have related the video with the five S.M.A.R.T. points which are mentioned in the above picture in several ways. here is some supplement to it.

A goal must be specific and measurable. It should answer the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the expectations of the goal. A goal to just jump higher is too general. Instead, an example of a specific goal would be to improve high jump by three inches.

They should be set high enough to encourage high performance but low enough to be attainable.  setting goals that are too high not only jeopardizes motivation and commitment but also can create a culture of corruption, dishonesty, and cutting corners.

The goal must be challenging, yet realistic. Lowering the bar for a high jumper could not realistically increase motivation nor enhance performance. Similarly, setting a goal to raise the bar ten feet is not a realistic or attainable goal and would therefore not positively affect motivation or performance. 

In order for goals to positively affect motivation and performance, goals must be time-related. For the high jumper, he may set a time within three months which may provide a realistic time frame to meet his goal. But again, time lines should be arranged such that it will keep the goal challenging yet achievable.

the goal.

So friends next time when you set a goal for yourself, be SMART about it. please keep reading for management GYAN and give your valuable feedback.