My Learnings of Principles of Organization & Management

HI Friends,

It is the end of our module 1 and hereby I post this video about what was my learning about this course so differently taught to me than ever before i have experienced.

Thank You Dr. MANDI

 

Enjoy and Learn! 

VALLEY CROSSING - TEAMWORK EXERCISE

Another in the series of wonderful activities was Valley Crossing. It took us a path of understanding about what exactly Team building and Team Work is all about and the role of Effective communication within the team and importance of role definitions in a Team.

We should use teamwork and do the mentioned task in the best possible way.

The task at hand required a group of three people to move from left side of the valley to the right side with the help of a pole(Resource). 

The task demanded a good conceptual knowledge of the problem at hand & building an effective strategy to implement the same. The strategy required setting of SMART goals that were specific for each team member, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely. We closely analyzed the task & broke it down into 9 sub-tasks.  Post analysis of the VC problem, the key ingredient to success was coordination among team members & efficient execution of the strategy devised.
With all the strategies & processes in place we went ahead with the execution. But while executing what was found that the Trust factor among team members was missing. The Unity of Command a key ingredient for team success was not adhered to.

Breaking up the task into 9 sub tasks:

In various levels of this task the team members needed to consider the following aspects:
Brainstorming: What should be exact position of holding the rod..?? such reasoning will definitely help in better performance.
Communication: It meant that the team mates discuss the problem and communicate their issues to the superiors as well as to their peers. They must have a clear understanding of the situation before attempting the task.

Conflicts resolution among team member: Optimizing different opinion and come up with a most feasible solution and come up with one member that should lead the group.

Clearly defined standards - Team members must know what is expected of them individually in quantitative terms and not qualitative and vague terms like "positive attitude" and "high growth", as these words are ambiguous in their meaning.

Commitment – “Individual commitment to a group effort -- that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”

THE LEARNINGS:

1. TEAM WORK-   The essence of Team Work lies in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of every team member and utilizing them to achieve optimum efficiency
2. EFFECTIVE STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION-  Strategy and planning are futile without effective implementation
3. TRAINING- Proper training is essential to achieve the desired level of results
4. GOAL- There should be a well defined goal and every team member should have absolute clarity about it
5. TRUST-  Mutual trust and belief are the foundation of a good team
6. LEADERSHIP- Leadership and team work aren’t two separate entities. Collective leadership from the team delivers optimum results
7. ACCOUNTABILITY AND RESPONSIBILITY- Every team member is accountable and responsible for the job at hand
8. INNOVATION- There has to be openness in terms of new ideas and suggestion

Theory of Motivation - X vs Y - the 2 viewpoints

   

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.

The 3 Monks - Team Work and Synergy for Achieving Goals

The Principles of Management can be understood by a short animation on three monks. Three Monks is a Chinese animated feature film produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. After the Cultural Revolution and the fall of the political Gang of Four in 1976, the film was one of the first animations created as part of the rebirth period. It is also referred to as The Three Buddhist Priests. 

Have a look...

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 film does not contain any dialogues, allowing it to be viewed by any culture, and a different music instrument was used to signify each monk. The film tells the story from the aspect of the Buddhist bhikkhu.

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.

We can relate a few management lessons from the story: 

1. Teamwork does enhances the efficiency in the working of task

The Three monks allow personal pride to interfere with the performance of daily tasks, each believing that the other two should be the ones to go downhill to fetch water. When a fire breaks out, however, they understand how silly they have been and work together to save the temple. So, from this we learn that in an organization and in a team, its important to take personal vanity out of the equation and to perform the duty at hand so that there is no regret later. A Manager has to take a note of this and check for any signs of work-delegation to others in his team.

                                       

2.  Disputes tend to arise when there is more than one person involved

When the third monk went downhill to fetch water for the first time, he came back and drank water all by himself, exhibiting a selfish tendency not aligned to the goals of the team ie. To have water stored at all times. This led to further animosity among the 3 monks and the task never got completed. Hence even in an organization, selfish motives should be discouraged. A team working towards a common goal is the best direction to be heading to!

3. Scientific and objectives measurements and instruments should be used to resolve the conflict

Complex Problems, Simple Solutions - This is the motto of decision making for any manager or team member in an organization. When the first two monks were trying to push the weight of the bucket towards each other, we in the class were asked to give a possible solution to the problem. And well, a simple solution was suggested by Pulkit Goenka (Roll No 115) that they should mark the middle of the stick so that they do not fight.

There were a lot of other possible alternates given by others too like:

• One person getting water one day
• Two persons more bucket
• Two sticks, four buckets
• Divide the work in half
• Get a motor and connect a pipe
• Attitude problem - Brain wash

But in an organization, the above mentioned alternates cannot be applied. We have to think rationally and not in a bounded territory.

4. The most efficient method to solve a problem evolves over a period of time

When posed with a question from our professor, that whether the two monks should get 2 buckets on alternate days or a bucket shared by both of them, most of us answered "Alternate Days" and by now it's easy to guess that it was the wrong answer because it was driven by common sense and not Productivity analysis according to which getting 1 bucket shared by the two monks is a much better proposition. Just to make it clearer, here is a table illustrating the productivity statistics in either case. Assuming 1 Man uses 1 unit of energy to lift 1 bucket.

Event	Output (No. of buckets)	Input(Worker Energy units)	Productivity = Output/Input
1 Man – 2 buckets	2	2	1
2 Men – 1 bucket	1	0.5	2

5. Teamwork and team interest should take precedence over the personal interest

Teamwork can lead to better decisions, products, or services. The quality of teamwork may be measured by analyzing the following six components of collaboration among team members: communication, coordination, balance of member contributions, mutual support, effort, and cohesion. Teamwork quality as measured in this manner correlated with team performance in the areas of effectiveness (i.e., producing high quality work) and efficiency (i.e., meeting schedules and budgets).

6. Experiences in crisis management comes handy to come up with new innovative methods to solve a problems

The monks out of egoistic behavior did not fill water till the fire broke out and they were left high and dry! Had they not waited for the fire to break out and had kept some water, they would not have been in a crisis. The management lesson here is to have a proactive approach! Do not wait for fire to break out in the organization (Fire is a metaphor for something ungainly in the organization)

7 Attitude of each team member determines the fate of the task and decides for the success rate

When the two monks were trying to divide the load of the bucket equally, the taller monk used his bigger hands to show that the bucket should be hung closer to the first monk, but the presence of a measuring instrument helped them get the exact center and resolved the problem. Hence it is important for a team and a manger to have the right attitude.

8. Synergistic roles:   Individual sums become bigger than what was there individually

To put out the fire each monk panicked and tried his best to run down to the river and bring the bucket full of water. But this process was long and tiring, and also had too many glitches on the road. So it proved to be ineffective.

Coordinated effort dosed of fire very easily and without being tired.

Productivity is Important. Productivity is about how well an organization converts resource inputs into goods or services. Workplace productivity is about how firms can utilize labor and skills, innovation, technology and organizational structure to improve the quantity and quality of their output.

Basically it's about exploring all the ways that can make a working environment more efficient.

Why is productivity important?

• Basis for improvements in real incomes and economic well-being.

• Monetary policy (inflationary pressures)

• Fiscal policy (financing of health, education, welfare)

• Slow productivity growth = conflicting demands for distribution of income more likely

THE BIG QUESTION - HOW TO RESOLVE DISPUTES AND WORK TOWARDS A COLLECTIVE GOAL?

CONCLUSION

From the above video analysis, we have come to the following conclusion :

• The productivity increases with the increase in the number of persons 
• There is more than 100% increase in the production with 100% increase in resources with good co-ordination
• One monk carrying water every day will become boring after a while but two monks carrying water will not be boring and productivity will not be hampered
• Disputes and conflicts are bound to arise but they need to be minimized so as to make the most out of the available resources
• Team work and coordination is the key to success
• Synergy is the magic word here!

An Inspirational Pioneer – ‘Khan Academy’ – Free world-class education for anyone anywhere.

Here are some interesting facts about The ‘KHAN ACADEMY’, brainchild of Salman Khan(And I am not talking bollywood here!), who started it as video based learning for his cousins went on to be a pioneer in education sector.

1.     Salman Khan, is a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School.

2.     Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization.

3.  Salman Khan was a successful hedge fund analyst at Connective Capital Management till 2009, before he quit for starting Khan Academy.

4.   He has got a significant backing from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Google.

5.  Khan Academy has eclipsed MIT's Open Course Ware (OCW) in terms of videos viewed—its YouTube channel has over 150 million total views, compared to MIT's 38 million. It also has twice as many subscribers, at more than 320,000!

Impressive, isn’t it! I think it is.

Now why I am writing it under Principles of Organization & Management is that as an organization it has redefined teaching, learning & education and thus on the way applied various principles of organization & management thereby providing me an opportunity to explore this perspective and learn.

Let us explore

Vision:

Changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere.

Tech-human conceptualization:

It has a library of 3200 videos covers K-12 math, science topics such as biology, chemistry, and physics, and even reaches into the humanities with playlists on finance and history. Each video is a digestible chunk, approximately 10 minutes long, and especially purposed for viewing on the computer.

Students can make use of our extensive video library, interactive challenges, and assessments from any computer with access to the web.

Khan Academy provides:-1. Complete custom self-paced learning tool

    2. A dynamic system for getting help

    3. A custom profile, points, and badges to measure progress

Coaches, parents, and teachers have unprecedented visibility into what their students are learning and doing on the Khan Academy.

1.     Ability to see any student in detail

2.     A real-time class report for all students

3.     Better intelligence for doing targeted interventions

Innovation:

The academy is an educational transformation that de-emphasizes classrooms, campus and administrative infrastructure, and even brand-name instructors.

Revenue model:
It is a not-for- profit organization with strong backing from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Google. It also has contributions from various individuals and entities. Its resources are provided free of charge.

Creative problem solving:
Khan chose to avoid the standard format of a person standing by a whiteboard, deciding instead to present the learning concepts as if "popping out of a darkened universe and into one's mind with a voice out of nowhere" in a way akin to sitting next to someone and working out a problem on a sheet of paper

Strategies:
1.  Easy Accessibility- Logging into the site can be done via a Google or a Facebook account for those who don't want to create a separate Khan Academy account.
2. Serving to different customer needs- web-based exercise system that generates problems for students based on their skill level and performance.
3. Increased Customer Satisfaction – Letting students earn badges as they learn which they can brag about amongst peers or Khan’s fellow customers.
4. Increasing Customer base – Translating Khan Academy’s content in different languages
            There can be more aspects looked into to further enhance our learning from this wonderful initiative.


I am putting up 2 links for viewing this commendable effort and people response to the founder Salman Khan (not the Bollywood one but the other hero !)


Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTFEUsudhfs
Rethinking Learning with Salman Khan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-vj6BhQa5w

                                                                                           SALMAN KHAN
The Team - Some Members...