Enlightening Session by Mr. Amit Shah

Yet another enriching experience in Dr. Mandi's Class.

This time it was through an Illustrious Alum Mr. Amit Shah .

The session began with an introductory note, soon after which Mr. Amit asked us about our expectations from the session. Students shared their expectations about various issues pertaining to a typical B-School life. 

Mr. Shah divided the queries into two clusters, 'The issues which are in one's control' and 'Issues which are not in one's control', lets have a look at them:

He emphasised that one should concentrate their energy and efforts in the first area wherein the 'issues are in one's control' as one can work on those to improve the final outcome. However, concentrating on issues under second heading, which are not under one's control, leads to more frustrations as these factors are driven by external affects. 

Mr Amit also elaborated on how everyone in our batch is equally competant, we all cleared CAT with almost similar percentiles, but the situation at summer or final placement is diiferent. He explained the situation by giving a quote "You don't pick a potato by choice, its more by chance". Hence, in a cluster of equally competant people, its heavily a matter of chance that some people get better placements than others.

To break this barrier, one has to stand out of the crowd, its an ongoing WAR FOR TALENT and one needs to consistently perform well to achieve the best of the lot.

However, one needs to understand that everything doesn't goes as per the plan. So, he/she needs to hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. there should always be a plan 'B'. A person should be able to survive the jitters which comes along and should perform with the best of his/her ability.

To prepare for the best, one should realise that there are ample amount of opportunities which are available for everyone, so make the best use of the two years of this course and come out with flying colours. Mr. Amit shah shared some simple tips:

·                     Do Different things: One can only stand out of the crowd if he/she does different things..

·                     Be Consistent: One should be consistent in whatever one does, only a consistent effort can guarentee a way to success.

So is there any predefined secret to success? Might be, might not be, its all a sum of different parts. to be successfull one needs to have:

·                     Competencies: Behavioural traits, eg. people leadership and entreprenuership

·                     Knowledge and skills: having varied knowledge in different areas.

·                     Delivery:Ability to hit and exceed set targets: meeting revenue goals, client service objectives.

But to achieve success, all these parts have to be interlinked by "Aspiration", without aspiration to succeed, one cannot achieve his/her goal. To sum up:

 Sharing his experience of studying at NITIE, Mr. Amit shah said that all the three factors of "Competencies", "Knowledge and skills" and "Delivery" are available at NITIE. he described it in the below mentioned way:

 Clearing the doubts of students regarding the job profile which they will get in future, Mr. Amit shah mentioned that there are two types of jobs in the industry: "Revenue Generating" and "Supporting", each one of us have to be a part of one of these job roles in one or other time of our career.

 Moving on, he emphasised on the need to evaluate one self regularly, he categorised the evaluation criteria into four dimensions, 'Thought', 'Influence', 'Adaptability', 'Delivery'. Every job role requires a mix of these factors and one should aspire to aquire them accordingly.

He Concluded by giving an important life lesson "Just play to a plan, a philosophy and to your strengths"

Theory X and Theory Y

What is it?

Douglas McGregor's 1960 publication which highlighted the concepts of Theory X and Theory Y managers have forever been used to explain the art of motivation based on human behaviour. It encapsulated a fundamental distinction between the different management styles and is a valid basic principle from which to develop positive management style and techniques to propel organisations towards excellence.

Theory X and Theory Y

Organisations consist of employees and managers. The theory delves on the attitude and outlook of managers - the direction and growth of the organisation is in the hands of managers and it is solely their way of managing things which leads to proper motivation of the employees and in the process, achieve growth in the organisation.It is important to note here that Theory X and Theory Y looks into managerial psychology and their way of planning and running the organisation. Thus, it focuses on the class of managers and their behavioral attributes and attitude. 

Theory X Managers

His Theory of Motivation states that there is a certain class of mangers who fall in the bracket of Theory X. In this theory management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can. Because of this, workers need to be closely supervised and comprehensive systems of control put in place. A hierarchical structure is needed, with narrow span of control at each level, for effective management. According to this theory employees will show little ambition without an enticing incentive program and will avoid responsibility whenever they can.

The managers influenced by Theory X believe that everything must end in blaming someone. They think most employees are only out for themselves and their sole interest in the job is to earn money. They tend to blame employees in most situations, without questioning the systems, policy, or lack of training which could be the real cause of failures.

Theory Y Managers

Management influenced by this theory assumes that employees are ambitious, self-motivated, anxious to accept greater responsibility and exercise self-control, self-direction, autonomy and empowerment. Management believes that employees enjoy their work. They also believe that, given a chance, employees have the desire to be creative at their work place and become forward looking. There is a chance for greater productivity by giving employees the freedom to perform to the best of their abilities, without being bogged down by rules.

A Theory Y manager believes that, given the right conditions, most people will want to do well at work and that there is a pool of unused creativity in the workforce. They believe that the satisfaction of doing a good job is a strong motivation in itself. A Theory Y manager will try to remove the barriers that prevent workers from fully actualizing themselves.

The following diagram gives a clear explanation about Theory X and Theory Y managers:

Now we further discuss the role of such managers and the effect on employees through the following four cases. As and where possible, examples from my experience of working under such managers has been highlighted.

Situation I:   Employee dislikes his work and manager assumes he is lazy

This kind of a situation is seen in many organisations where lack of clear directive principles and ineffective goal setting leads to disillusionment and non-motivation among the employees to perform better. During my working days, while working in various committees as junior members, I often found seniors at the leadership didn't care much about us or the betterment of the club as a whole. Gradually, we assumed a stance where we also didn't work or care much and slowly started disliking working in it. They assumed we were lazy and went about it in that manner. This is a classic case of Theory X Managers where both the management and employees assume that the top rung will be giving orders to the lower rungs and they will follow the same.

Situation II:   Employee likes his work and manager assumes he is lazy

This is probably the most dangerous out of all the four possible situations where the employee likes his work and finds himself highly motivated from within to work and contribute, however the manager still assumes he is lazy and thus is greatly harmful to the motivational growth of the employee and the organisation as a whole.  I had the (mis)fortune of having such a manager during my initial days at my workplace. The team members would work extra hard to achieve already stringent deadlines and produce quality work, often doing value addition on their own and inspiring each other to work harder and stay focused. However, our manager still assumed we were a group of lazy employees and would constantly point out minor issues, without focusing on the larger picture of employee's performance. Even with whole-hearted contributions, the team was deemed to be performing below par and not meeting objectives. Such managers can be detrimental to the success of the organisation as often, good employees might leave the organisation to other rival companies, leading to further attrition.

Situation III:  Employee dislikes his work and manager assumes he is not lazy

In this case, even though employees dislike their work, there is a strong focus from management to think they  can do better and perform much more to aid the organisation. Immense morale boosting attitude, a definite belief that employees will perform better given more optimistic managers at the helm, performance based incentives at all levels are some of the means of getting the employees up to speed. This kind of a workplace is where the Theory Y managers exhibit their true mettle and where the attitude they adopt crucially shapes the future of the organisation.

Situation IV:  Employee likes his work and manager assumes he is not lazy

 This is the most ideal case where the employee is focused and likes his work and performs it to the fullest extent. This is achieved as a result of hardworking employees working in an environment of synergy with the management who leave no stones unturned to motivate them through their positive attitude. I had the fortune of being under such a manager during my last days at the workplace. He would focus greatly on the employee's performance on a weekly basis. If there ever came any reasons which could demotivate the employees, he would take it up on an immediate basis and have it solved as soon as possible. An ever-supportive person for the employees, especially in front of the senior management during appraisal times, he had succeeded in bringing harmony in a team which had initially lost all faith in the management due to prior incidents. He would take time out from his personal schedule to interact on a person-to-person basis with us, understand each person's problems and offer solutions and his own help to sort them out so that the employee didn't go home disgruntled. It showed in our work as we too started to scale up and exceed the goals set in front of us, thus leading to excellence of the organisation. Such Theory Y managers make great organisations greater.

In a diverse world of different organisations with different philosophies, I believe that managers should try to become Theory Y managers in situation IV as this leads to successful growth of all stakeholders involved. Even in the case where such a situation becomes hypothetical, I feel that Theory X managers shown in situation II above are the worst managers as the negative vibe they give out harms all the parties.

Crossing the Valley : Lesson on Teamwork

Teamwork is defined as efforts done by a group of people to achieve a common goal. In essence, each team member leaves his/her individual priorities aside for a larger cause and works together. A strong team is one in which the strengths and skills of individual team members are combined in an efficient and effective manner to achieve the goals.

To explain the significance of teamwork, our Professor Prasad gave the example of Valley Crossing:

In this, three persons had to cross from left block to right block. Both the blocks were separated by a distance of more than one step of each person thus making it impossible for single person to achieve it individually.

To accomplish the task, we derived a workflow and split the task into 9 steps. Then all the steps were followed and demonstrated in class to achieve the goal.

The above task could be accomplished only by coordination, effective communication, cooperation and shared responsibility making it as teamwork.

Following characteristics of teamwork can be observed on completing the task:

1) Purpose: A clear goal should be present before initiating the task. This helps team members to prioritize their tasks and work efficiently towards achieving the targets. Just like in the task above, the goal was clearly defined to cross from left block to right block.

2) Communication: This one of the most important factors for effective teamwork. Team members should communicate with each other without hesitation and share their experiences and opinions. They should listen to each other and discuss problems or any issues in a healthy manner. This promotes harmony and trust within the team. Like in this task, an efficient way to achieve the goal could not be achieved without effective communication. 

     

      3) Individual Roles: Roles should be well defined among team members. This helps them in understanding their responsibilities and synchronizing their day to day activities with the team goals. Tasks should be evenly divided among team members to avoid overload on one member. Roles need to be defined based on the strengths and skills of individual team members.

 In the task above, all the persons had to do the same task and move in similar way to avoid any overwork.

4) Coordination: In today’s world, there are at times huge teams working together to achieve the common goal. This often leads to inter-dependency among team members. To avoid any conflicting situation members should approach each other without hesitation and provide status of their tasks and any related information. Members should coordinate properly so that nobody lags behind in their task as it will affect the team’s goal also.

5) Managing Conflict situation: At times there can be conflicts within the team. It is important that these conflicts be identified and resolved at appropriate time in a manner which maintains the positive environment and harmony in team.

6) Success and Failure: It is important that team members celebrate the success together and acknowledge each other for their work. It is equally important to work together without blaming others at the time of failures.

7) Team Leadership: It is important to have leaders who can help in boosting the morale of team during bad times. They should try to facilitate communication among members if it lacks and promote cooperation and sense of responsibility among the team members.

Taylor's Management Theory through Navrang Puzzle

To teach Taylor’s principles of Scientific Management, 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 challenge was to have 9 different color cubes on each face.

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. 

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.

Modern management theories do not undermine Taylor’s concepts .Taylor’s principles are basics of management. Modern management theories with focus on people are addition after applying Taylor’s principle. Only after mastering Taylors’s concepts should we move to next level of management theories

Three Monks !!!!!

Background:

Three Monks  is a Chinese animated feature film produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio in 1976, It is also referred to as The Three Buddhist Priests.
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.

 

Plot:

There was a monk who lived in a temple built on the top of a hill everyday he used to get two buckets full of water from down the hill and carry them back to temple using a shoulder pole. The water he got was more than enough for one person.

One day a monk visited the temple and started living there. Next day when they got up, first monk thought of giving the responsibility to bring water to the new monk.

But the new monk refused to do it alone. Therefore they decided to share the responsibility but the shoulder pole was small and could accommodate only one bucket then.

The water they got was still enough for both of them.

Later a third monk came to stay with them. On the next day morning when all the monks got up, nobody took the responsibility to fill the buckets as the shoulder pole could accommodate only two persons and they could not decide who should stay back. On that day, they began to suffer from thirst since water had finished. That night temple caught fire.

Finally all the three monks got together to fight the fire and started working together to get the water every morning and no one suffered from thirst thereafter.

Video link as below :

Learnings

1. As the saying goes: “Unity is strength" we should co-operate with each other and work  together in a harmonious manner.
2. Team work is the fuel that allows common to attain uncommon results.
3. Process improvement can reduce effort to a great extent.
4. Work distribution , work segregation and proper utilization of resources leads to increase in   productivity.

Real Life example :

In first year of graduation, I and some friends thought of participating in a dramatics events. When we teamed up for the very first time, we were bunch of enthusiastic people who lacked professionalism. Each of us had one’s own idea with a feeling about that idea as the best one. No one was ready to give much thought to the ideas of others.

We kept moving without reaching any consensus and got too late in finalizing the script and scene. Though we had worked hard but we ourselves felt that the finalized play was not up to the mark. Our play got rejected.

The failure turned out to be a big learning for us. As all of us were friends, we sat together and introspected about the reason. We realized that we worked as a group and not as a team.We were more focused on our idea getting accepted. Had we been open to accept each other’s ideas we could have qualified for the final round.

The incident taught me the importance of team work and leaving behind one’s ego for the common goal. I also learnt that failures are biggest learning in life and team work is the fuel that allows common to attain uncommon results.

Goals ..... Smart Goals !!!

The third lecture on Principles of Management came with yet another interesting concept. We keep reading and listening that setting goals is important in life.

But successful managers not only focus on setting goals , they focus on setting SMART Goals.
By definition , SMART stands for : specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound .








But again teaching in his own style Prof. Mandi asked us to open our minds and come with our own definition of SMART.

There was an open discussion and some interesting definitions came for each letter of word smart and thus helping in learning more aspects of setting a goal. 

Some of them were Sustainable , Structured , Sensible , Miraculous , Majestic , Ambitious , Rational , Realistic , Tangible ....... and so on ..







Dr. Mandi further explained us the importance of expectations and motivation to make people achieve higher targets and goals .The concept is known as Pygmalion effect which states that greater the expectation placed upon people, the better they perform. The simplest example of this effect is the expectation of teachers in our schools which lead us to perform better.

Smart Goals makes smart people , thus leading to smart societies and smart organisations.

As stated by Robert Brault :

"The shortest distance between two points assumes you know where you're going.”

Set SMART Goals .......


And Smart Learning Continues..............

Art of Modern Management !!!

I have always believed that teamwork is something which can make common people do uncommon things . Its one of those energies which if correctly channelized can do wonders. This belief has developed through various experiences.

 But still when Prof. Mandi gave an option whether a blind person with the help of instructions of a normal person can build a taller building   than another open eyed person , a doubt came in my mind. I was not sure about the capability of the blind person. But in the end I was proven wrong but most importantly I could learn the art of modern management in a way I couldn't have ever understood through textbooks or anything

.

Backlash ::

Unlike the first lecture when Prof. Mandi had to ask us to sit on ground with him , most of us leave our seats and sit on the ground all excited for the second lecture. He takes out some small blocks from his bag and throws them towards us . Then the game begins ......

 The challenge is to build a single cube tower with blocks provided. The first person will do it blindfolded whereas in second case there would be one blindfolded person and two other people guiding him. First person with open eyes built a tower with 22 blocks . In the second case , three people were divided as CEO , Manager and worker. The blindfolded worker had to build the tower  with the guidance of manager.

To the surprise of all of us , the second team surpassed 22 blocks. And this is how modern management works.With the correct guidance of a manager who is knowledgeable and can motivate well , any person can do the assigned task.This is because the decision making part has been transferred to the manager and worker can focus on his work. Whereas CEO can just observe the progress of the work.Unfortunately , there is no skill development of that person but still the productivity is higher than the first one. 


Though there lies a challenge of job satisfaction because there is no intellectual effort needed by worker. But then Dr. Mandi ended the session saying that how much we control human mind , it will find a way to get out of it .I was amazed to learn concept in such a simple way.


                                                         

Its learning by doing !!!! 

              And the learning continues...!!