Learning POM @ NITIE

See this video to see the story of my learning through POM @ NITIE -

Learning POM @ NITIE

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LE 05 - A different sort of "Exam"!

The night of Jul-11-2012

People reading blogs, glancing through book (Yes, glancing, NOT reading), trying to find simple, one word answers to very simple looking questions!

Now, you might be wondering, what's going on?

Well, here's the answer!

Jul-12-2012 - Mid-term examination of Principles of management!

And, I must say, this was the most different examination I have given till date! Why? Because, at PG level you do not expect an exam to be of True/False and Fill in the blanks type!

Was it simple? I don’t know what to say, probably for the other section who received the complete test questions as they were taking it later. But, still, what is the definition of “simple” for you? Because, people had tough time scoring 16 marks, and 10-12 was the mean! (Out of a test of 20 marks)

But, was it effective? Yes! There was no scope for anyone to write (or invent in JIT) lengthy theories or share their opinions. You either know what is on the table or you don’t! And, that’s all is required to measure the knowledge of a person.

For example, “Bounded Rationality enables managers to be gamblers!” State whether given statement is true or false with one line of reason. This kind of questions do not allow one to share “gyan” and fool the examiner which otherwise is the case when asked “Write in brief about Bounded Rationality” and then examiner is forced to give “some” marks if the candidate has written anything.

The test had 10 such discrete questions (consisting of True/False and FIB type questions). Time given was 1 hour. It may seem that people were given a lot of time, but that is true only if you know your subject well, and understand the applications of it.

So, to sum up, not only this test was different, but also refreshing to take where one’s knowledge and understanding of the subject was tested rather than his ability to bluff!!

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Lessons from The Three Monks

Three Monks (also referred to as The Three Buddhist Priests) is an animated film 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." A note about the columns of text that appear at the beginning: the first column reads, "one monk fetches water to drink", the second column reads, "two monks carry water to drink", and the third one merely says, "three monks". With a simple and fresh directing style, the film depicts the comparisons of the different attitudes of the three monks when staying alone, staying with one other, and staying with two others.

But, as always we raise the question, is that all this beautiful film wants to say, or is there more to it? Let's find out!

Three Monks

Plot

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 the carry pole is only long enough for one 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 comes to scrounge and then knocks the candleholder, 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.
[Source - Three Monks]

Let's divide the plot in 3 parts -

1. First part where the first monk reaches temple and brings water for himself.
2. After the second monk arrives, how the behavior of each monk changes; and how the conflict for bringing water arises & the way they solve it.
3. The change in behavior of each monk after arrival of third monk and conflict faced by them in bringing water. And finally, how they collaborate to bring the water when adversity arises.

The final part, where the improvises to get the water up to temple - I won't consider in any of above three parts and would rather treat as an additional/bonus discussion!

Part 1 - First Monk :

The monk gets water whenever required from the lake at bottom of hill. For accomplishing this task, he uses a stick with a bucket hanging on each side.

Part 2 - Second Monk :

When the second monk arrives, both monk need to contribute equally to the task required. But, since two monks are going to be sharing the same stick (available resources at hand), now only one bucket can be used for bringing the water. Initially, the conflict arises as the task in not well-defined for each monk, but once done, it reduces the efforts for both the monks and things are settled for a while.

Now, before we move on to the third part, let's discuss certain things.
As always, as managers, first question we need to ask is - Are there any other feasible solutions? Let's ponder over some other solutions (we will also explain why the particular solution is not feasible alongside) -

1 - Two monks go to bring the water alternately (on daily or weekly basis)

Is it feasible - No. Two person, means higher resources, this should, must, will, always has to reduce the effort. If one person has to go even when two are available, this simply is under utilization of the resources, or in simpler terms, waste of your resource.

2 - Carry more than one bucket with two monks carrying from each side.
Is it feasible - No. As already stated, we have a stick of given length which can allow only one bucket to be carried at the moment, so we cannot do anything about it. This is condition where your capacity is limited due to unavailability of proper resources.

3 - Use a bigger stick to carry more buckets.
Is it feasible - In a way Yes. The thing is, while this could be done, at present the problem is that resource at hand is "stick of given length". Thus, it is not feasible at present. But, if in future they can arrange a longer stick, then my be yes. But again, there are more constraints to it, like the strength of stick, and ease of holding it with more weight. Thus, it must be noted that when upgrading resources, we must not only consider one criteria to judge the suitability of the resource. When we change the one factor, other factors are relatively affected, and we must make sure to reduce its ripple effect further.

So, is the current solution the best one?

YES. Because, this not only allows the proper utilization of our resources, it also reduces the effort per bucket significantly for each monk.
Quantitatively speaking, the effort for each monk reduces to one fourth. Suppose 1 be effort per bucket for one monk, then for each monk effort in older method would be 2. But, with the current scenario, it would be 1/2.
Now, let's talk from the perspective of productivity in terms of effort spent, then, we can come up with table like following -

Scenario	Output	Effort (per monk per bucket)	Input	Productivity = Output / Input
1 Monk	2 Buckets	1	2	1
2 Monk	1 Bucket	½	½	2

This table clearly demonstrated the reduction of effort and increase in an overall productivity for each monk!

Resolving Conflict -

One more thing to be observed here is when there are two monks involved, the conflict arises, and the way they solve this conflict. 
It can be seen that the conflict arises because the task division is not clearly defined and each monk tries to deliberate the work over to another one. This is natural in any organization and is bound to happen if the tasks are to be done in collaboration. Thus, a system to avoid such conflicts and maintain the harmony must be there.
In case of monks, they resolve this conflict by marking the exact half on stick and balancing bucket in that position.

NOTE - As we have discussed in earlier blogs also, it has to be always kept in mind that the physical structure or ability must not be thought about. In an organization, everyone is equal.

Part 3 - Third Monk :

Third monk is very thirsty when he arrives and finishes all the water at once. He is made to bring the water by other monks, but when he brings the water to top, he is again so thirsty that he finishes it again at once. After this, none of the monks are ready to take the responsibility and neither is anyone willing to find a way to solve the conflict among them.

Here, it should be noted that, conflict again arises as the task distribution fails again. Also, each monk acts being self-centric, thus trying to avoid the work.

The tendency to delegate work to others may lead to crisis!

But, in this case, the conflict is not resolved by anyone nor does anyone make efforts responsibility to face the situation. Thus, in the end, they all collectively come to work together only when the monastery is on fire (one caused by the mouse, which is ignored by each monk individually). While at the end, they do come up to work together, it must be noted that, since the conflicts at hand were not resolved pro-actively by each of them, the condition becomes so worse that not only the monastery but their individual lives are at stake at one point of time. Thus, it is very necessary to have a proper coordination and communication whenever one is working in an organization, where more than one person are involved and everyone has to assume individual responsibilities.

Here, for putting out the fire, each monk takes responsibility of bringing water from certain location to another point, thereby working in team not only to reduce the efforts but also to work efficiently.

Final Part - Improvising :

Towards the end of film, it can be observed that the monks have suitable alterations to the system of bringing the water up which has -

• reduced their efforts
• increased individual and group productivity
• improved efficiency
• higher capacity
• innovative work practices
• scientific work tools
• effective communication
• And, clearly defined task roles.

Improvisation is important, but feasibility of solution must remain.

Thus, it is important to remember that management always strives to make the work easier, and efficient. It continuously strives for the innovative methods of solving problems. Because, there always is a simpler solution!!

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LE 03 - Crossing the Valley

Picture below shows the classical depiction of valley crossing, used very often to demonstrate the concept of teamwork. But, is it just the team work, or there is more to it? Any management lessons? Any learning about running the organizations? Provoking thoughts?

Crossing The Valley

Probably, we never thought about it. We usually got content with the concept of teamwork. Well, no doubt, that's the essence of this exercise, or the cartoon. But, if we investigate it further, we can find that it holds some very interesting management lessons inside it. The skills of problem solving, approaching the problem in right way, decision making (is the way shown only way to cross the valley?), interdependence, importance of effective communication (role of feedback), structuring the team, planning and execution would be just some of it!!!

Overview of the Problem

As such the problem statement is pretty self-explanatory from the picture; but let's put words into it -

1. There are three people who need to cross the valley.
2. The width of the valley is less than 2 steps but more than 1 step. (It can be proved that, if the width is more than 2 steps, it cannot be crossed. To know why, check the attachment later in this blog).
3. The only resource available with the team is a piece of wood (or a bamboo or a pipe - let the length be as much as you want).
4. All three of them must cross the valley safely, none should be left behind or fall into valley.
5. Optional. We would like to retain the bamboo as far as possible!

Now that problem is defined, let's think about the solution, the different ways we can solve it, and ingredients of crossing the valley with excellence!

The Solution

One solution for this problem is depicted above, but there could be multiple solutions. No, not could be, there must be! Creativity demands the multiple solutions. It's then function of management that helps us in choosing the best of all available solutions.

We'll demonstrate some solutions below -

Can't we just walk over this thing??

An Engineer's Approach

Or, lets go pole vaulting !!

While all these solutions may appear interesting and simpler enough, there are just few things that we would not like to do! Why the above implemented solutions cannot be chosen, we will study in due time (in this post only).

The one solution which would work really well, is actually the one depicted in the introduction of this post.

Step-by-step guide for this solution is available here.

Valley Crossing exercise conducted at NITIE

(IM-18, with Professor Mandi)

Teamwork

As we said earlier, the something, that comes to mind almost immediately upon watching the picture is TEAMWORK. It is beautifully defined above - teamwork is application of talents of individuals in pursuit of a goal so that it leads to success ultimately.

All the three people trying to cross the valley must contribute to the goal, i.e. crossing the valley (as described by the problem). As a part of this teamwork, there are few more attributes that inherently come to the play -

Share The Responsibility -

Every one must contribute to the process of crossing the valley and should assume the responsibility that best suites his/her skill-sets.
Similarly, in an organization, every single member of it, be it the upper level manager, or a frontline manager or even a worker need to be responsible. The trait of responsibility of an individual shows his/her dedication to the work and justifies the significance of the work undertaken. If everyone assumes the responsibility of the task provided willingly, the other person can do his work independently without getting worried about if the rest work would be done properly or not! Obviously, there is no "I" in the team.

Trust the Other Person -

As the solution depicts, that at any point of time, the valley crossing must not get completely unsafe for any of the involved parties. It is important, as if there is no trust among the team members, the efforts put in might just be futile. When the person is being sent to the other end of valley, he must have trust enough that people behind him won't let him fall; similarly the last person must have enough trust that he won't be left behind. If any of them can't have this trust, the job might not be possible to complete. The 1st person would never be willing to go ahead, and the last one would not put the complete efforts due to apprehension that he might be left behind.
In an organization as well, this holds very true. If managers can't trust the workers for doing their work, and vice-versa (Theory X environment), the workplace might not remain the motivating place to work.

Interdependence -

It can be observed that for a given valley crossing problem, the interdependence is very crucial, and is maximum. If any of the persons is affected, the whole exercise is sabotaged. If any of the person falls into the valley or abandons his/her responsibility, the whole team would be highly affected.
Exactly in the same way, interdependence is an integral part of any organization. The higher the interdependence, the higher is the risk, but along with this, even the returns are higher. If organization is run well, with high interdependence, it might just get you the pure excellence!!

Coordination & Cooperation -

Coordination means the act of organizing, making different people or things work together for a goal or effect to fulfill desired goals in an organization. Coordination plays an important role in the valley crossing, as if the coordination fails at any moment, all of the factors discussed above fails. Even if the persons are responsible, and have complete trust on each member, it will all be of no use, if the coordination fails among them.
In any organization, there are large no. of people involved who need to work with each-other. Thus, coordination assumes even more important role.

Everyone Is Equal 

While doing this exercise, one thing that should always be kept in mind is that, everyone is equal. All the three of people involved are equal. As already explained, the roles for everyone are clearly defined, and everyone is responsible for their respective roles. Everyones has equal roles, and  so should their contribution be.

Why is it important to treat everyone is equal - It must be always be remembered, when one is running an organization, there is never a choice about what kind of worker he/she gets to work with. It's a manager's job to achieve the results in best possible way with available resources and man-power!

 Making the Correct Decisions

We earlier discussed some different solutions for the valley crossing problem. One of them was "An Engineer's Approach". While the solution may seem simple enough, what we must not forget is the risk associated with it.

• We do not know if all the three person are capable enough to walk over the bamboo to get across the valley or not.
• We have no control over the movement of the bamboo (it may roll to one side or just keep shaking) making it difficult to walk over it.
• We have no idea about the surface of the bamboo, if it's very slippery, one cannot walk over it to the other side with safety.

As it can be seen, while walking over the plank appears a simple enough solution, it is not very safe. It has a very high amount of risk factor associated with it and compromises highly on the safety factor.

Thus, before choosing any solution, it is very important to study the options, and risk associated with them. This makes the decision making an extremely important trait in corporate environment. A wrongly taken decision without completely studying the consequences of same might lead to awry results!

Do Not Leave Scope for Specialization - Generalize/Simplify The Solution

While we are analyzing the solutions, let us also think about the pole vaulting solution for a while. This solution seems less risky than walking over plank now, but, only if you know the pole vaulting. This represents the specialization in a corporate environment. Specialization limits your ability to get the work done. Because, in case of pole vaulting, one will need a team where everyone is expert in pole vaulting. (This again contradicts our observation - Everyone is equal. In a corporate environment, you do not have so much flexibility as to ask for resources of your choice).
The correct approach is to break the task into limited number of activities and let everyone do it repeatedly. One must generalize the solution to the extent that even a common man could do it.

Structuring the Team Correctly

From the discussion above, we can identify important attributes for structuring our team correctly. These attributes would be -

• Interdependent Roles (Interlocking Roles) - Every team member should have an interdependent role. This helps individuals in taking up the responsibility, as mistake of one would cost everyone. Roles may differ for everyone, but the overall impact remains same, the end result remains same.
• Autonomous but Interdependent Team - While the roles may be interdependent, team may be autonomous and should be able to function and operate independently. (The team and not the members).
• No scope for the social loafing
• Instantaneous Feedback - When the team members have interlocking roles, it is important to have an instantaneous feedback system. The effect of any action should be communicated almost instantaneously to every member of the team.
• Decentralized Management - Here for valley crossing problem, there is no centralized management that takes all decisions. Everyone contributes to the decision making, planning and execution part of the problem solving.

So, after all, there are many of the learnings worth learning, from Valley Crossing problem!!  And these are not all!!

More lessons to learn, in the next post!!

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LE02 & LE03 – Building POM Concepts with study of Khan Academy

In this blog we are going to talk about various POM concepts, but all keeping the Khan Academy in perspective. We are going to study the venture of Salman Khan, i.e. Khan Academy, how it makes use of different POM concepts to build a strong organization. We will be talk about vision, mission, Technical/Human/Conceptual skills, Theory x and Theory y assumptions application, creative problem solving, decision making, entrepreneurship, etc. in regards of Khan Academy.

What is Khan Academy?

The Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization, created in 2006 by Bangladeshi American educator Salman Khan, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School. The idea of this inspired simply from his household teaching to help his cousin. In late 2004, Khan began tutoring his cousin Nadia in mathematics using Yahoo!'s Doodle notepad. When other relatives and friends sought similar help, he decided it would be more practical to distribute the tutorials on YouTube. And as the Khan describes it, his cousins liked his videos more than the teaching in person. The advantages were that they could go back to some concept, if they did not understand something they did not have to be embarrassed of anything or wait for specific time to begin the learning. They could learn whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted!

The lessons can be taken online at KhanAcademy.org. All of the site's resources are available to anyone. It doesn't matter if you are a student, teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology. The Khan Academy's materials and resources are available to everyone completely free of charge. At present, Khan Academy has delivered a whopping 165,799,636 number of lessons!!

Let’s begin the learning!

Vision & Mission –

Vision and Mission are often confused with each other. But, they are different and even the way of designing both of them is far apart.

A vision is the preferred future, a desirable state, and ideal state. It is an expression of optimism. A vision is a general statement encompassing the direction an agency wants to take and the desired end result once it gets there. It is the vision of what those involved what their organization to become. A striking characteristic of a vision is, it is short, crisp and “impossible to achieve” !

Mission, on the other hand, is more focused on the specifics of what an organization is to accomplish. It differs from a vision in that it focuses on function, is accomplishable and measurable, and is often statutorily or bureaucratically established. The mission statement is a statement of an organization's basic purposes, often in terms of broad outcomes that it is committed to achieving or the major function it carries out. A mission can also be the reason an agency exists. When staffs meet to write a mission statement, they may ask "Why are we here? What do we want to do? How we want to do?" The mission statement should guide the actions of the organization, spell out its overall goal, provide a path, and guide decision-making. It provides "the framework or context within which the company's strategies are formulated."

In very simple terms –

Vision – articulates the future of the organization

Mission – explains why the organization exists — its overall purpose

To read more about vision & mission (and how to write one), see following resources -

Mission & Vision

How to Write a Mission Statement

In context of the Khan Academy, the mission is stated as – “providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere”. Thus, a vision could be – “Education for every living thing!”

Some of the examples of vision are –

Google – To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. (Google hints that vision & mission are same for it)

Microsoft – Create experiences that combine the magic of software with the power of internet services across a world of devices.

GE – We bring good things to life.

Amazon – To be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.

Some examples of mission are –

Apple –  Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings.

Microsoft – To enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential.

Dell – To be the most successful computer company in the world at delivering the best customer experience in markets we serve.

Yahoo! –   To be the most essential global Internet service for consumers and businesses

Theory X and Theory Y –

We have earlier discussed this in my last blog (LE01). Nevertheless, we can extend the same in context of Khan Academy.

Before proceeding any further, one important thing that needs to be realized is that, Theory X & Theory Y are not just management jargons but they actually pertain to each and every single human being.

From our previous discussion we can conclude that –

Theory X person is one who does not believe in working. He cannot accept the fact that anyone would like to work on their own. He believes, a person cannot take an initiative on his own and there has to be an enabler (a motivation) to drive him to work. According to this theory, people must be pushed to make them work.

On the other hand, Theory Y person is an optimist, who believes that people like to work and are willing to take up the work and responsibility. They need not be pushed; they can take up the work on their own.

Taking Khan Academy into consideration, we can see that the organization’s view are closer to the Theory Y concepts. They believe –

• People are willing to learn, we only need to make the material available and they will make the learning themselves
• People are willing to contribute to a good cause, there is no need to provide incentives for doing so (See, volunteer section of site). This contribution could be monetary or even a simple help like making a language specific subtitle.
• People are willing to share their time and stories, to inspire others.

 Managerial Skills – Technical, Human & Conceptual –

What makes a good manager? Innate traits or acquired skills? A manager is one who directs the activities of other persons and undertakes the responsibility for achievement of objectives through such efforts. It requires certain skills to accomplish such a challenge. Thus, essential skills which every manager needs for doing a better management are called as Managerial Skills.

As per Professor Katz, there are three managerial skills, viz.,

• Technical Skills
• Human Skills
• Managerial Skills

The relative importance of these three skills varies with the level of managerial responsibility.

Technical Skills –

A technical skill is the ability to perform the given job. The technical skill implies an understanding of and proficiency in a specific kind of activity, particularly one involving methods, processes, procedures, or techniques; it involves specialized knowledge, analytical ability within that specialty, and facility in the use of the tools and techniques of the specific discipline. As earlier depicted, the importance of the technical skill diminishes as we go up the hierarchy from front-line managers to top management.

Human Skills –

This refers to the ability to work with, understand and motivate other people; the way the individual perceives (and recognizes the perceptions of) his superiors, equals, and subordinates, and the way he behaves subsequently. They are many times, also referred to as Interpersonal skills. In short, it is the ability to work with people. It helps the managers to understand, communicate and work with others. It also helps the managers to lead, motivate and develop team spirit. Human relations skills are required by all managers at all levels of management. This can be easily seen from the diagram below.

 Conceptual Skills –

Conceptual skill is the ability to visualize (see) the organization as a whole. It includes Analytical, Creative and Initiative skills. According to Prof. Katz, conceptual skills are mostly required by the top-level management because they spend more time in planning, organizing and problem solving. The better the conceptual skills, the higher is the impact of the effective organizing. This is very well depicted in the figure below as well.

To be updated soon! More content coming, keep tuned!

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LE01

I remember the last (& first) time I took a course in introductory management; it was called “Principles of Management” in the 4^th semester of my undergraduate studies. And the way we studied the course that time was – professor would come to class, dictate us some notes (and we religiously believed that we won’t be able to live our lives if the Mintzberg’s management roles were not in place!!) and give us some assignment (which would be preparing the more notes) and in tests we would write all that we have “learned”. So, in this first class of “Principles of Organizing & Management” of Module – I at NITIE, I was expecting something similar. I deliberated before coming to class if I should furnish my under-grad “knowledge”. Anyways, I came to class expecting it to be a hardcore theoretical subject.

                But, when the class started, it was everything but anything I had expected. Not only the class was fun and full of learning, it was something that I had never seen before. Our professor was not Dr. T Prasad anymore, but Dr. Mandi for us. During his introduction, we learned the first Mantra of the course, or the Mandi, so to say, “Socho Becho, Becho Seekho, Seekho Socho!” While this was something that puts one thinking, the real first learning came with “Aaj ki roti aaj hi kamana”.

Learning – “Aaj Ki Roti Aaj Hi Kamaenge”

                What does it mean? It’s amazing that we all know this but never really care to think about it. Literally, this statement means, today’s bread needs to be earned today only.

Question is – how does it matter to us?  We, as students, right now are not earning anything, or making any contribution in any way to the nation or the society, or even our family. Whereas, lots of money is being spent on us right now, that can only be repaid later. But, as the motto itself says, what of today? We must make the best of our individual abilities to balance out this effectively.

The Learning is as simple as that. A person can indulge in any activity that helps him in doing something useful. It is true, when we are spending lot of money for this education, and the study (i.e. MBA) is not just about learning money but also about earning money! So, why not start thinking about making some while we are here, then it might as well be true learning!

 

 The Tower –

                During the lectures, we were given the one cube. And the task was to do make the tower out of this one cubes. Following were the rules –

1.  The tower must consist of one cubes placed one above the other and must not fall.
2. You can only use your odd hand
3. You will be blind-folded and need to rely on the instructions of the co-player to put together the tower.
4. You must bet money in order to play. If you win, you get the money back, else you lose the money.
5. In order to win, you must construct the tower of height predicted by you.

While this all exercise appeared simple enough, it was only at the end of lecture we realized the amazing learning we had.

Three students were ready to bet the money and play the game. The roles were as follows for playing the game –

• One student will be blind-folded and will be putting the cubes one over another to make the tower, with odd hand.
• A second student will guide him from very close to put cubes in order
• Another student, who will be at a distance will observe the things from the distance, and can chip-in only limited number of times, if he wishes to suggest something. (He can collect the ideas & opinions of the other students while game will go on)

 

 The Tower – Management Lessons –

In the above exercise –

1. First student is the worker – He is supposed to build the tower. He may not be aware of the overall building and exact situation, but he will do the work assigned to him in best way possible.
2. Second student is the Middle Management – He will work closely with the worker to get things done. He will directly monitor and guide the worker and make sure the target is achieved.
3. Third student is the Top Management – He will not be directly involved in the process but will interrupt only when he feels things are not functioning properly. He will occasionally collect reviews from the clients/customers (other students) and see if everything is as per expectation.
4. Employee Care – There were instances when the worker got tired and needed rest. At these times, he was properly given water/soft-drink and allowed to take proper rest. This explains how it is the management’s responsibility to take proper care of its employees and ensure the proper working environment.
5. Resource Allocation – Before starting the exercise, the student in themselves decided the roles each one will play. This is to stress the importance of correct resource allocation. Individuals must be given roles to fit their strengths.
6. Customer Feedback (Customer wants you to win) – Although, the other students had nothing to lose they were constantly cheering the team and wanted them to win. Because, it is important to understand that customer wants you to win! There were instances when other students were coming forward to give suggestions when they thought something could be done better. This is the customer feedback.
7. Being Ethical – It is one of the most important factors of all. Towards the end, when the exercise started getting tiring and even lecture was prolonged, there were suggestions to third student to cheat when the professor was not looking. While it was never done, it tells very important fact that, there will be times when pressure might be there to go against the ethics to reach the targets faster or other, but it is management’s responsibility that such things are handled with utmost care & sensitivity, obviously in an ethical manner!

Students were asked two questions before beginning the exercise (The rules about the blindfolds and left-hand were not told at this point of time) –

1. How many cube towers will you make?
2. Do you want the highest number of the previous year exercise?

After this, the rules for blindfold & left-hand were told and students were asked to make the guess for (i) above again.

These simple questions were actually the foundations of goal setting!

The Learning – How:

·         Question (1) was to check how an individual rates himself. To establish the importance of goal-setting.

·         Question (2) was to help you establish the correctness of your set goal.

These were the foundations of the next learning – SMART Goals!

Learning – SMART Goals

SMART goals were first described by Paul J Meyer in his work – “Attitude is Everything”. SMART is basically an acronym to check the feasibility of one’s goal based on several parameters, as below – 

• Specific – This means the goal is clear and unambiguous; without vagaries and platitudes. 
• Measurable – The goal should be quantifiable, so that performance and current level can be gauged whenever needed. 
• Attainable – This parameter stresses the importance of goal being realistic & achievable. The set goal should not be in any extreme (i.e. either too easy to achieve or too difficult that it can never be reached). It should be set so that it is beyond limits of the person and at the same time, also provides room for improvement. 
• Relevant – The goal should also be relevant. A bank-manager setting a goal to make 500 sandwiches does not make any sense. It should be in alignment with the kind of work you are planning to get done; or for long term, your purpose in life. 
•  Time-bound – This is to ensure that your goal is grounded by the fixed time-line, within a target date. A commitment to a deadline helps one focus on the goal, with a sense of urgency.

 

 SMART Goals in “The Tower” –

Previous year’s data indicated that the tower’s height was 17 cubes (which was highest till the date). Individual estimates of the students were – 13, 15 and 20. (Average is 16). Consensually, the height for tower was decided to be 17 cubes.

The goals for making the tower were as follows – 

•  Specific – Tower should be highest till now (since, last year’s estimate was 17, it should be at least 18 cubes high) 
•  Measurable – The height should be 18 cubes.
• Attainable – Since the 17 has already been proven to be achievable, 18 seems a worthwhile target.
• Relevant – The exercise is to establish the importance of goal-setting in itself, so it makes sense to have the set goal as given. 
•  Time Bound – It should be finished in the given lecture.
• The End Result – Team ended up making a tower of 18 cubes!

Learning – Theory X and Theory Y

“Theory X and Theory Y” has been given by eminent psychologist Douglas McGregor. These are theories of human motivation, which are theories of human motivation.

Assumptions of Theory X –

1. The average human being is inherently lazy by nature and desires to work as little as possible. He dislikes the work and will like to avoid it, if he can.
2.  He avoids accepting responsibility and prefers to be led or directed by some other.
3. He is self-centered and indifferent to organizational needs.
4. He has little ambition, dislikes responsibility, prefers to be led but wants security.
5. He is not very intelligent and lacks creativity in solving organizational problems.
6. He by nature resists changing of any type.

Assumptions of Theory Y –

1. Work is as natural as play, provided the work environment is favorable. Work may act as a source of satisfaction or punishment. An average man is not really against doing work.
2. People can be self-directed and creative at work if they are motivated properly.
3. Self-control on the part of people is useful for achieving organizational goal. External control and threats of punishment alone do not bring out efforts towards organizational objectives.
4. People have capacity to exercise imagination and creativity.
5. People are not by nature passive or resistant to organizational needs. They have become so as a result of experience in organizations.
6. An average human being learns under proper conditions. He is also willing to accept responsibility.
7. The intellectual capacity of an average human being is utilized partially under the conditions of modern industrial life.

Role of the Management in Theory X & Theory Y–

While these sound like it is about the person doing the work, but it is actually more about the management.

Propositions of Theory X –

• Management is responsible for organizing the elements of productive enterprise-money, materials, equipment, and people-in the interests of economic ends.
• With respect to people, this is a process of directing their efforts, motivating them, controlling their actions, and modifying their behavior to fit the needs of the organization.
• Without this active intervention by management, people would be passive-even resistant-to organizational needs. They must therefore be persuaded, rewarded, punished, and controlled. Their activities must be directed. Management's task was thus simply getting things done through other people.

Propositions of Theory Y –

• Management is responsible for organizing the elements of productive enterprise-money, materials, equipment, and people in the interests of economic ends.
• People are not by nature passive or resistant to organizational needs. They have become so as a result of experience in organizations.
• The motivation, potential for development, capacity for assuming responsibility, and readiness to direct behavior toward organizational goals are all present in people-management does not put them there. It is a responsibility of management to make it possible for people to recognize and develop these human characteristics for themselves.
• The essential task of management is to arrange organizational conditions and methods of operation so that people can achieve their own goals by directing their efforts toward organizational objectives.

Learning from The Tower –

The Tower exercise in a way explained in parts about these theories.

• Having the money on line, it kept the students motivated enough to keep building the tower even when it got very tiring.
• 2^nd and 3^rd student were continuously supporting 1^st student. It was realized by 1^st student that if he makes one mistake then everyone will lose the money (i.e. aligning with organizational goals and taking up responsibilities).

While I cannot write all the small things I have learned in this lecture here, I am sure these learnings would remain with me and is going to be of much use at some time or the other!

Looking forward to the next lecture!

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