Digital CV : finally the CV speaks

They say that your CV should speak for you and whenever there is a challenge Mandi sir always has something innovative to offer. This time he motivated us for a Digital CV and finally our CV speaks :-)

So here is my version of Digital CV
Check it out
http://youtu.be/4bAJcqrb0Dk

Magnet : Management Guru Avatar

Mandi sir, as always infused another learning session into us through a very innovative method .
He brought .........err...any guesses ? ...ahh  I know you must have guessed by know (should have changed the title,anyways ) ..yes a magnet .

Next question of Mandi sir was : What does a magnet do ?

Helpless by our habits,we engineer got into the the technicalities of it . But what sir wanted to hear was the very important word in management -->Alignment   


A magnet has the power to align magnet forces .
Any material with metallic atoms have the power to align itself according to the polarity .

By the same analogy a good manager align it employees to drive success for organisation .

This alignment calls for one the most important concept in management --> Management by objectives ,

Peter Drucker developed MBO, and published it in his 1954 book, "The Practice of Management." 

Using Management by Objectives with your team offers several benefits.

First, MBO ensures that team members are clear about their work and how it benefits the whole organization. It's easy to see why this type of managing makes sense: when the individual parts of an organization work well together, the whole operates smoothly and efficiently. By focusing on what you're trying to achieve, you can quickly distinguish between tasks that you must complete, and those that may not be worth your time.Implemented on a team level, MBO can be seen in many of the key techniques needed for effective team management, including team briefing, goal setting, performance appraisal, delegation, and feedback.

On an individual level, we all want to see our work as purposeful and meaningful, and MBO makes a clear link between individual effort and the organization's mission – this is great for our sense of purpose!

Theory X and Theory Y : Two Management attitude , Which one is yours ?

Douglas McGregor, a management professor, first talked about two theories called Theory X and Theory Y. He identified an approach of creating an environment within which employees are motivated via authoritative, direction and control or integration and self-control, and called it Theory X and Theory Y.

Theory X 

With Theory X assumptions, management's role is to coerce and control employees.

• People have an inherent dislike for work and will avoid it whenever possible.
• People must be coerced, controlled, directed, or threatened with punishment in order to get them to achieve the organizational objectives.
• People prefer to be directed, do not want responsibility, and have little or no ambition.
• People seek security above all else.

Theory Y 

With Theory Y assumptions, management's role is to develop the potential in employees and help them to release that potential towards common goals.

• Work is as natural as play and rest.
• People will exercise self-direction if they are committed to the objectives (they are NOT lazy).
• Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated with their achievement.
• People learn to accept and seek responsibility.
• Creativity, ingenuity, and imagination are widely distributed among the population. People are capable of using these abilities to solve an organizational problem.
• People have potential.

Comparing Theory X and Theory Y

·      Motivation
Theory X assumes that people dislike work; they want to avoid it and do not want to take responsibility. Theory Y assumes that people are self-motivated, and thrive on responsibility.

·      

       Management Style and Control
In a Theory X organization, management is authoritarian, and centralized control is retained, whilst in Theory Y, the management style is participative: Management involves employees in decision making, but retains power to implement decisions.

·     Work Organization
Theory X employees tend to have specialized and often repetitive work. In Theory Y, the work tends to be organized around wider areas of skill or knowledge; Employees are also encouraged to develop expertise and make suggestions and improvements.

·         

      Rewards and Appraisals
Theory X organizations work on a ‘carrot and stick’ basis, and performance appraisal is part of the overall mechanisms of control and remuneration. In Theory Y organizations, appraisal is also regular and important, but is usually a separate mechanism from organizational controls. Theory Y organizations also give employees frequent opportunities for promotion.

·        

      Application 
      Although Theory X management style is widely accepted as inferior to others, it has its place in large scale production operation and unskilled production-line work. Many of the principles of Theory Y are widely adopted by types of organization that value and encourage participation. Theory Y-style management is suited to knowledge work and professional services. Professional service organizations naturally evolve Theory Y-type practices by the nature of their work; Even highly structure knowledge work, such as call center operations, can benefits from Theory Y principles to encourage knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.

Theory X and Y in tower Building exercise

In the task of Tower building exercise manager could have handled the situation in two ways:

     

      Theory X in Tower Building exercise:   the manager believes that the builder is lazy.   He tell  the person building the tower, that he is not building it high enough and that he has given up too early.

Theory Y in Tower Building exercise:  he could have believed that the person building the tower liked his work and needed no extra motivation. Here the manager believes that the builder is not lazy

In our scenario, the student believed that the person building the tower was not lazy and thereby displayed Theory Y form of management. Eventually, the task was completed. A job well done and learning for a lifetime received!!

Not all is well with three Idiots ,They are up for crossing the valley

As always Mandi sir came up with something really exciting .The task is to cross a deep valley. Now this may seem exciting and adventurous, but this feeling would change after realizing that there are no ropes to cross the valley. It has to be done using a bamboo. Now enters a different parameter called ‘risk’ and it seems a difficult and dangerous task to begin with. 
There are three main protagonists who have a bamboo strong enough to take the weight of each of them at a time. The three Protagonists devise a plan. They stand in a straight line, resting the bamboo on their shoulders. Step by step they negotiate the hurdles coming their way. Helping each other out in the times of need and finally conquering the valley.

Lets look into the valley crossing problem which will give us the insight in how the things work in any organisation and how every link is important to achieve the goal as set by the organisation.If one of the link fails,the whole connected system can collapse

Observations:

• Each team member is fully safe once and half safe twice i.e. the risk is distributed.
• All of them will have to safeguard each other when they get into a risky situation i.e. the work is equitably distributed.
• All of them have to ensure instantaneous communication and cooperation to finish the task.

The Learning

Teamwork:

An organisation works primarily on the concept of “TEAMWORK”. All employees, as a part of organisation, work together to achieve a common goal. A team is a group of people with various complementary skills,working together towards a common vision. Members of a team operate with high degree of trust,accountability and interdependence.

                                                                                                           Trust:

Trust is of utmost importance, be it in personal relationships of professional ones. Lack of trust creates doubts and becomes a major headwind for smooth flow of information.

                                                                                                           Continuous Communication:

Just like in this puzzle, in real life organisations rapid and continuous flow of information in both directions is of utmost importance. Neither the employees nor the managers should be kept in the dark about new developments, however unsettling they may be.

Co-ordination:

In today’s fast moving world even a delay of few seconds causes major losses. Perfect co-ordination between the numerous chains involved ensures desired results.

Three Monks Story : A Management Perspective

Most of you must have seen the famous Chinese three monks short film.

If not I am attaching it below. It is a short and interesting film.

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."

The story 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 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 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.

There are quite a few interesting observations from the film in management perspective.

One Monk.

•  When only one monk was to do the task, he was doing it diligently day and day out.
• The effort and time required was more since he was the only one and has to carry two buckets.
• He was carrying the other required activities as well like praying and filling the water in the pot.

Two monks.

• When the second monk came, positive behavior at the start was followed by the negative behavior. Initially the first monk greeted the second monk with a bow and water.But as time progressed things turned bitter on the ground that who will fill the water.
• They decided to do it together. But there was reluctance to take the responsibility.Each one wanted to shift the bucket to the side of other.It is a common problem faced in management world where no one wants to take responsibility. To cope with this management has rating and appraisal system so that it acts as incentive to some extent .
• Reduction in output as the pole was short and can hold only one bucket.This signifies that the current process was not fit for two people and hence as compared to one ,when two were employed output got reduced.
• Mutually they decided to bring about slight improvement in process.They agreed to mark a point in between so that bucket remains there and load get shared equally.Though output was less but there was reduction in effort.

Three Monks

•  Initially they made the third monk to fill the water but soon monk 3 realized that he is the only one doing the work, so he also stopped working.
• Things got stalled completely.This signifies the situation where the process in place was not fit for three people and since it was overcrowded now, this brought about a complete stop to work.
• Reduction in character as they stopped performing the task such as praying and filling water in pot.In fact when the quench for water peaked they even drank the water in the pot.

Three monks and the crisis. 

• They brought about the crisis as the place was set to fire .It is very obvious situation in management wherein if employees stop abiding to their responsibility the crisis is never far away.

• They finally united and bring about the end to fire .This shows that if employees work in tandem then any crisis can be brought to halt.

Three monks and the pulley system .

• They improved on the current process and installed the pulley system .Continuous process improvement is the most significant part of good management .This is the essence of kaizen theory as well .
•  Process was fit for the three monks and they participated equally.This is known as Participative Management.  Number of people employed is in sync with process and every one participates to almost equal extent based on the role.

•  Deskilled – they were deskilled since no one was doing the complete work.But it also calls for specialization in one skill. So everyone here is specialist in his or her own skill and does only that.This brings in expertise, perfection and ease of doing the work .
• Reduction in effort.
• Increase in output.
• Significant Increase in efficiency because of increase in output and reduction in effort.

• Synergy and team work.Improved process also brings in synergy and harmony in the team.Team work becomes an important area and calls for keen eye from management as to how to improve it further by various team building activities.

In nutshell , right process is the most significant factor in any organisation where employee base is large .

Easing the process with the proper use of technology and enabling efficient team work is what drives an organisation towards success . 

Happy reading...

Setting goals the Pygmalion way

Dream is the crux of all our efforts . It is something which keeps us going in hardest of time .

We all dream but in order to realize our dreams we need to write it down .

Because when we write our dream it becomes a goal .

Goal setting not only allows us to take control of our life's direction; it also provides a benchmark for determining whether we are actually succeeding. 

So effectively it all boils down to setting our goals .

This time mandi sir explained one very important element of goal setting through Pygmalion effect .

Pygmalion a play by George Bernard Shaw, and the musical My Fair Lady. 

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

In My Fair Lady a character by the name of Eliza Doolittle is transformed from a flower girl into a sophisticated lady by professor Higgins who believed in her. 

The common theme in both of these stories is that the expectations of one person can impact the actions of another. 

Robert Merton a at Columbia University who conceptualized the self-fulfilling prophecy defines it as, "A false definition of the situation evokes a new behavior which makes the original false conception come true" . 

In other words, if one believes an individual ,will act or react in a certain way, one will create a situation that will cause the expected behavior to occur. This is the Pygmalion effect in action. 

So greater the expectation placed upon employees, the better they perform .

Shoot for the moon, if you miss you’ll still be in the stars
The attached video explains quite a lot about Pygmalion effect in practice .

Other thing about goal setting that we all are aware about, that they need to be SMART i.e. specific , measurable achievable , relevant , time-bound .

But we did not restricted ourselves to this existing acronym , in fact it can be extended as below :-

S ---> Simple , stunning , Stupendous , satisfactory
M---> miraculous , marvelous , mind boggling , motivating 
A ---> amazing , affluent , attractive , admirable 
R ---> refined , reliable , remarkable , respectable
T ---> terrific , thrilling , transforming , truthful

In summary performance in individuals or teams can usually be increased 20 to 30% by addressing the factors of expectation

happy reading ...

Old Management V/s New Management : an interesting contrast

Clock struck 2 and it means it was our chance to get lucky for the second time .
Yes you got it Right !! time for our another class with Mandi Sir .

Let's see what magic he has in his bag this time .

He took out some blocks and asked two very simple questions to us :-

Question 1 : How many blocks will any of us be able to keep one over the other ?

Our response : 17 , 18 , 20 ...14..22, 25  many response came in .

Question 1 : How many blocks will any of us be able to keep one over the other , when blind folded .
He'll be not alone and will be guided by one of our another fellow mate who will not be blindfolded .

Our response : number suddenly dropped ..and came down to 8 , 10 , 12 .....
every one sighted the reason that being blindfolded and guided by someone else would be difficult and hence less blocks can be put in .

sir nodded with a smile on his face and asked us to come forward and perform both the scenario .

So here goes the action :

One of our batch mate volunteered and he managed to put in 22 blocks .

Now it was the turn of blind folded person to do the same exercise and he was to be guided by another person .


And he managed to put in......hmmm..
any guesses ...
...
...
...
...
....
well it is 25 .

We all were awestruck and amazed to see the result of this exercise .


The reasoning behind this task was to bring forth the differences between new management and old management .


Here , the first instance resembles the way old management works and the blindfolded instance can be equated to new management and some important difference between them can be listed down as below : -

Difference 1 : Type of work 

Old management resembles the way craftsman use to work , where few of the person do the work completely .
Example : Shoe maker , he makes the shoes completely by himself .
or a tailor who stitches the complete shirt by himself .

In New management , work is divided into segments or different units , where each unit handles specific kind of work .
Example : So if same shirt to be made in factory equipped with new management , then each part of it viz color , pocket , sleeves , front side , back side will be stitched in different units and assembled into one in final stage .

Conclusion  : The process is ambiguous and not very clear in old management .
In contrast to this new management defines every process lucidly and clearly  . Thus complete process becomes easy and faster .

Difference 2  : Decision making

In old management ,decision making lies completely in the hand of worker .
the success and failures of the task is dependent completely on him .
as in the apropos experiment , in first case the person was solely responsible for all the blocks that he'll put .
This will put pressure on him as he is responsible for all the perils .

While in new management all the decision making lies with leadership . Thus worker is to act as if blindfolded and only follow instruction .

Conclusion : Process becomes more crystal clear as the decision making lies completely in the ambit of leadership  . At the same time role of worker becomes limited and he is to only follow instruction and not think on his own about decision making .
This can be one ill effect as worker may get irked because of monotonous job . This has to be handled carefully by HR department .

Difference 3 : Skill set 

In old management the skill set is more ,since all the task are performed by the worker himself .
This gets highlighted in the example of tailor as he is the one who makes all the units of shirts and finally stitches them together .
While in new management , skill set decreases for the very obvious reason that each worker always works on one particular unit only .

Conclusion : In new management system skill set of worker decreases .
It fact here Management aims at deskilling worker . Thus idea is to make things more process oriented rather then resource oriented . This reduces the dependency on resources and amplifies the role of management as it gives them more control and it is easier to get hold of processes  when compared to resource  .


Difference 4 : Satisfaction level 

Since there are less controls and decision making abilities in the hand of worker , satisfaction levels are low in new management system as compared to old management system .

Conclusion : HR has a very important and critical role to play in new management system because of low satisfaction level . Thus HR department has to make sure that employee does not get frustrated because of this .


Thus Mandi sir was yet again successful in oiling our brains with some great and new learning combined with fun .
It was a two hour class only, but it managed to teach some serious happenings of management world and the way new age companies work .