Score a SMART Goal and be the Winner!

Hello World,

A middle aged person walked into the class with very simple clothes on and carrying a bag (precisely 'Jhola'). He simply walks up to the table, takes off his sandals and turned towards class, greeting our beggar generation. Yes, its our beloved Prof. Mandi, with a very unique style of his own. Well, how often you see a professor of that level as Prof. Mandi, coming to teach in sandals and then taking it off and roaming freely bare footed, in whole class. This is one man to be seen for his simplicity and vision.

This time Prof. Mandi had a cube made of straws and a wooden elephant attached to some 3D picture attached to it. That simple looking cube was expansion of the formulas  (a+b)^2 and (a+b)^3, as simple as it could be. Being an engineer, I must confess, I witnessed for the first time the real world implication of a mathematical formula, that too in such simple manner. I wonder if teachers in school start using this model for teaching, life of students would be much more easy.

 Later we came to know about the elephant toy, it was a product of NITIE in house production of 3D printing. The visionary man's answer to costly 3D printing available in the market. Thus again recalling the concept about the organisation, to build business around an idea. But how to tackle various situations which are bound to obstruct our way. Then the magic man gave us the wizard to think beyond normal regulations, think in a SMARTer way.

Today's objective was focused on  building SMART Goals.

Smart in here act as an acronym.Following few snaps will illustrate its complete orientation.

The concept was brought about by George T. Doran in the November 1981 issue of Management Review. In depth detail could be read here.

The above 2 videos explains the concept of setting a SMART Goal to achieve the desired success. Now let me describe the happenings and learning of Prof. Mandi's session.

The magician continued from where he left- Tower building exercise. But this time it has to be done in a group. Before starting building the tower he wanted all of us to write down on paper our perspective.

1. Goal Set
2. Goal Achieved
3. History
4. Potential

People came out with different numbers but not to please Prof. Mandi. We all lacked in some or the other aspect of SMART Goal. Then he explained things mathematically.

1. Goal Set              - Should always be greater than the potential
2. Goal Achieved     - Should be less than or equal to goal set
3. History                 - n/a
4. Potential               - Sky is the limit. Its infinite.

Thus he talks about -

    5. Realistic Goal Set

    6. Realistic Goal Achieved

    7. Performance           - Which depends upon the factor 5th and 6th.

Performance can only be optimized by striking a balance between the realistic goal set and achieved. Any deviance from the two would depreciate the performance. Precisely, performance should always enhance the potential.

Thus this time we came up with a more soothing figure for the tower building activity.

1. Goal Set                 30
2. Goal Achieved        31 (tower collapsed on 32nd block)
3. History                    27
4. Potential                  35

But before falling, the tower achieved what we aimed at, giving some sort of consolatory happiness to the whole lot. Motivated by the happening, one of my mate borrowed all the cube from Prof. Mandi to give it a try at his room. So here we come to sum up our learning about the SMART Goal setting. The below snap would sum up it all.

Looking forward for your valuable suggestions and feedback. Do mentions areas for improvement so that will help me communicate the ideas of that magician to the world in even better way.

Cheers.
Ashutosh

X and Y of Organisational Management

Hello World,

X and Y have been only unknown variables to us. Since childhood, teachers have been asking us to find X and Y. After finding these 2 variables countless number of times, these 2 stubborn still remains the unknown.Damn!

Finally it was Douglas McGregor at MIT Sloan School Of Management who developed X and Y as Theories of Human Motivation.

Theory X and Theory Y have been used in human resource management, Organizational behavior and organizational development. They describe 2 very different attitudes toward workforce motivation.  Every company follow either of the 2 approaches.

To understand the theories better, let us make few assumptions-

Theory X:
In this theory, management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can and that they inherently dislike work. As a result of this, management believes that workers need to be closely supervised and various policies are developed to control them. Theory X managers think that employees main motivation is to work for money and hence incentives are included according to work done.

Theory Y:
In this theory, management assumes that employees are happy to work, are self-motivated and creative, and enjoy working with greater responsibility. In Y-Type organizations, people at lower levels of the organization are involved in decision making and have more responsibility. Managers provide a comfortable working environment to the employees.

Look at this video for a better understanding.

Now let us test our understanding about the 2 theories. Consider following statements and their implications:

1- Theory X: Manager assumes LAZY workers as LAZY and makes them work .

In this case people are already lazy/not working, if they are not controlled, productivity will keep falling which is not good for an organisation. So, a tighter control of management will lead to some increase in productivity which leads to better results. 

 2 - Theory X: Manager assumes NOT LAZY workers as LAZY and makes them work.

This is a case where hard working workers are treated as lazy workers, this demotivates the hard working employee. It also leads to conflict between worker and manager, which ultimately results in decrease in productivity of the organisation.

3 - Theory Y: Manager assumes LAZY workers as NOT LAZY and makes them work.

This is one of the most dangerous situations wherein the employees are Lazy but the management thinks they are hard working. There is not much control exercised over employees which results in much more decrease in productivity. Also, it demotivates those employees who work hard as they are paid equal to those who are not working properly.

4 - Theory Y: Manager assumes NOT LAZY workers as NOT LAZY and makes them work.

This is the best situation which can exist in an organisation. In this case, employees seek and accept responsibility and do not need much direction. They are motivated to fulfill the goals that are given to them. This leads to better results and better productivity which leads to timely achievement of organisations goals.

Thus, above statements clearly indicates few scenarios in the current corporate world. Any company can be randomly picked up and can be related to one of the above statements and its implications can be adjudged. Above theory also gives us all an insight into the human behavior and can surely be a milestone in the making of ourselves as a great manager, only choice has to be made between the 2 theories.

 Cheers.
Ashutosh

Craftsmanship v/s Modern Management

In the previous post, evolution of Organisation and Organisation Management from Craftsmanship was talked upon. Lets ponder over the differences between Craftsmanship and Modern Management.

Craftsmanship is all about -                                                        Modern Management is all about-

• building one tower                                                           building more than one tower
• without following any process                                           following a process
• in absence of parallel activities                                           by executing the activities in parallel
• integrating the work to be done by worker                        using division of labor & dexterity
• by improvising his skills                                                     by de-skilling the worker
• making him the boss                                                          and a non-worker becomes the boss.

Above diagram categorically describes the stages of craftsmanship which focus more on the completion of the work. Thus whole work becomes a black box in the hands of craftsman.Instead modern management concentrate more on the element part of the work. Thus, it removes the inter-dependency by meaningfully employing the dexterity of various craftsman.

Modern management, thus replaces the person based work by process based work. The same waiter, which clears your table in some local  roadside restaurant, would serve you your meal. While 2 different waiters would be performing the jobs simultaneously in some luxurious restaurant and thus justifying the higher cost one pays for the services. Modern management, thus not only gets the work done effectively but would also earn some extra bucks, improving the efficiency on the other hand.

Hence comes the 3 E's of management and meaningfully it covers the whole management- Excellence, Effectiveness and Efficiency. Mathematically it can be written as-

Excellence = Effectiveness x Efficiency

Effectiveness is meant for doing the right things while efficiency is derived by doing the things rightly. Thus this mathematical equation broadly covers the social responsibility aspect with low cost under effectiveness while efficiency controls the input-output factor, which makes it measurable. The product of the two entities, in turn, determines the excellence of the work. Excellence of any work is nothing but producing 'more out of less for more.'  In other words, if the management can enhance the production with limited resources in order to benefit a larger number of needs, then its driving towards excellence.

In craftsmanship, effectiveness might be same as in case of modern management, but efficiency would definitely be affected as a large number of factors would be involved. Hence modern management has the upper hand over craftsmanship.

Prof. Mandi has beautifully designed the learning around the fun games. And here we are, making a desperate effort to capture the same for the world. I might not be the best in showcasing everything but 'perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.' So please do post your suggestions and comments, we will sort it out together.

Cheers.

Ashutosh  

Craftsman to Organisation - Need of Management

A terrific day, we all woke up, surprisingly to bright sunlight smiling on us, first time since we landed in Mumbai. To fine tune the day, it was Prof. Mandi's session at 9am. A good surprise was surely on the cards.

And the professor did not disappointed.

A bunch of small wooden cubes were flying in the air. Today's task was to build a 'Tower of Blocks'; as high as possible but with single base. Interestingly we were made to bid to volunteer, sheer business fun- who would invest to grab opportunity as good as this. A guy sealed it with 500/-INR and went on to build a tower of 16 cubes. Job well done! Sheer demonstration of craftsmanship, earning full satisfaction and credit and without any peer pressure.

              Craftsmanship

Next he asked people to volunteer again as group for the same task and we got 8. But the biggest dilemma that troubled everyone was about the need of the rest 7. Prof. Mandi brought the twist here by making the worker blind folded, 1 person as supervisor who can just instruct, but cannot help the worker in any form. rest 6 were just asked to observe at various levels. This time tower could not stand beyond 7 blocks (1 less than what I guessed). 

             


               Organisation 

The idea was to introduce the working in organisation., where a large number of people combine to attain a similar target but handles various roles. And thus we are introduced to concept of 'Organisation Management.'

Let us first ponder the craftsmanship and its issues. First look gives the impression of high satisfaction. He is accountable for the the skills he showcase. There is no one monitoring and interfering with his job. This is a typical village scenario where you can find people like farmer,cobbler,fisherman etc. working quietly. But the major drawback is the credibility loss when a particular worker is gone. There is hardly anyone to replace the skills. This concept could be justified through a sports person or some celebrity. Just for instance, style and class that Dravid had in his batting on the field of cricket, simply has no match.

On the other hand, we have the organisation, which is a social entity combining people for the common goal by dividing the work as per the specialization. In an organisation every person is accountable for his bit. Thus division of labor ensures the efficiency of the worker and quality of the product. And once the numbers are introduced, it paves the path for the need of management.

Organisation Management comprises of 2 important factors - organisation and management. Management will ensure the optimum utilization of every available resource. Hence it involves factors like planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling. The most tedious part of management is to define the role and hierarchy of every person in organisation. Failure in this regard leads to overheads to the organisation.

The above concept was precisely demonstrated by Prof. Mandi when he asked the group to rebuild the tower. The guy who was building the tower, only by listening to the instructions of rest of the people, accepted that he was confused by so many instructions pouring on him from everyone. This was a very clever example of mismanagement, overheads. But unfortunately, most of the organisation works with such overheads leading to disastrous quarterly results.

Thus Organisational Management is not just about bringing the craftsmen together and managing them but also about meaningful division of labor to avoid overheads. It also deals with setting an achievable goal. Worker might be blindfolded but smooth instructions and good leadership can still ensure jaw-dropping success for the organisation.

I will continue this post in my next post. Looking forward for suggestions to improve.

Cheers.
Ashutosh

NITIE Begins!

Leaving a company like Infosys would never have been easy if it has to be for some other cause. But NITIE made it all simple for me. Finally I made it to India's top b-school and yes, it's NITIE Mumbai. And what more can I expect than the famous Mumbai rains welcoming me to the God's own campus, a lush green surrounded by ponds.

And it feels even better when I realized that my batch is the Golden Jubilee Batch of NITIE, that will surely make my campus life more enjoyable, more entertaining, more exciting.

It all started with Prof. Mandi' class on June 17th, 2013 at 9 am in Syndi 1, who was substituting for the absence of our communication's professor.  A regular student would expect professor to run through some PPT and deliver the lecture on 'Principles of Management'. But Prof. Mandi has purely different plans. Soon we found 2 globe (depicting) stress balls flying in air, 2 pink colored butterfly shaped toy going hand to hand and a wooden hen with a inclined stand chirping our heads for the purpose of their introduction in India's top business school's management lecture. Prof. Mandi gave us a short intro about himself and then began to teach us in the most fascinating way one could ever imagine. The props circulated were all actually Physics Made Fun toys. Stress ball with whole world map on it, plastic butterfly which can be balanced on a single point and the hen which oscillate its way down the inclined stand without any external interference. Thus we were made to realize the old forgotten concepts of center of gravity, balancing, inertia and most importantly the concept of building business around an idea.

Prof. Mandi explained about the importance of earning and supporting oneself with his mind boggling words-"Aaj ki roti, aaj hi kamana hai (Today's bread shall be earned today itself)." With his spectacular way of teaching, he made us calculate our PDC which roughly estimates to 2500/- INR. If we are able to earn merely 10% of this amount then most of the problems of this 'begger' generation (which depends upon their guardian's money) would vanish. Thus explaining the insights of "Socho Becho, Becho Seekho, Seekho Socho (Think & Sell; Sell & Learn; Learn & Think)." Prof. Mundi also referred to Mr. Mrunmay Chakraborty of PGDIM 6th Batch who stood on those words and founded Cyprus Semiconductors. His idea was to end the era of education through institutions but to take education to mass free of cost.

Internet would play the vital role in taking education to suburbs and the deprived. All we need to do is to make our education available to them on internet. It is our responsibility, who are fortunate enough to manage our education, to make our education reach these people. Hence we would be writing blogs on the topics we will be learning in the coming days. In this way, quality learning would no longer would be institution bound. What a visionary idea!!

Lately, we were introduced to a song by Pink Floyd titled- 'Another Brick in the Wall'. My buddies- Ishan, Anupam and Abhinav sang it superbly and we followed. Too good to be a song. Learning achieved should not make us just another hay in stack, but one should be able to stand out for the betterment of the people and the society, was the lesson we learned from this song.

Probably, I covered all the happenings of Day 1. Stay tuned as I would be posting more in upcoming days about 'Principles Of Management'. Comments and compliments are most welcomed.

Cheers,
Ashutosh