Saturday, 6 July 2013

SMART goals

SSpecificSignificant, stretching, simple
MMeasurableMotivational, manageable, meaningful
AAttainableAppropriate, achievable, agreed, assignable, actionable, action-oriented, adjustable, ambitious, aligned with corporate goals, aspirational, acceptable
RRelevantResult-based, results-oriented, resourced, resonant, realistic, reasonable
TTime-boundTime-oriented, time framed, timed, time-based, timeboxed, time-specific, timetabled, time limited, trackable, tangible, timely
EEvaluateEvaluated, evaluate consistently, ethical, excitable, enjoyable, engaging, ecological, evidenced
RReevaluateReviewed, rewarded, reassess, revisit, recordable, rewarding, reaching, recognise mastery

There is a further addition to the SMART goals. Now it has transformed into SMARTER goals.

Setting goals affect outcomes in 4 ways:
  1. Choice: goals narrow attention and direct efforts to goal relevant activities, and away from perceived undesirable and goal-irrelevant actions
  2. Effort: Goal can lead to more effort
  3. Persistence: Someone becomes more prone to work through setbacks if pursuing a goal
  4. Cognition: goals can lead individuals to develop and change their behaviour
The Pygmalion Effect is the phenomenon in which the greater the expectation placed upon people, the better they perform. The corollary of the Pygmalion effect is the golem effect, in which low expectations lead to a decrease in performance.

Jugaad is a Hindi term widely used in India and by people of Indian origin around the world. Jugaad is a term applied to a creative or innovative idea providing a quick, alternative way of solving or fixing a problem. Jugaad literally means an improvised arrangement or work-around, which has to be used because of lack of resources.

Goal Setting and achievement should be in a spiral pattern.
 


In any team there are some significant people and some insignificant people, some of them are mentioned below:

SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE                                            INSIGNIFICANT COUNTERPARTS
      Mother                                    -----------                              Child
     Teacher                                    -----------                            Student
     Captain                                    -----------                             Player
     Performer                                -----------                             Audience

Goal setting affects a lot in goal achievement and both goal setting and goal achievement in turn affects performance. Also, goal achievement affects further goal setting.
Goals should be set high

Competing Value Framework (CVF): Competing Values is about understanding how to appreciate conflicting values and integrate them successfully so that the organization is open to collaboration and growth

 

Tower Building

Sula Vineyard
Situated 180 km northeast of Mumbai, Nashik is India’s largest grape-growing region, but had traditionally never been used to grow wine grapes. Wondering why, an enterprising, Stanford-trained engineer named Rajeev Samant quit his hi-tech Silicon Valley job in 1993 to do some investigating.
A little research quickly showed that the Nashik climate was not only perfect for wine grapes, but was also on par with winegrowing regions in Spain, California, and Australia. His determination doubled and Rajeev returned to California in search of a winemaker. In Sonoma County he found Kerry Damskey, an eminent Californian winemaker, who enthusiastically agreed to help start a winery on Rajeev’s 30 acre family estate.

In 1997, the duo took the revolutionary step of planting French Sauvignon Blanc and Californian Chenin Blanc, varieties that had never before been planted in India. The first Sula wines, released in 2000, were widely acclaimed as India’s best white wines.
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The above courageous initiative shows quite clearly that there is infinite potential in doing any job and it depends on the seeker where he wants to go. Every enterprise have a vision, mission, goals (Short term and long term) and objectives. Only difference between a successful and an unsuccessful enterprise is that one thinks beyond the past and one doesn't.

The set goal should be smart:
S - Specific, Single, Super, Strategic, Structured, Sustainable, Sensible etc.
M - Measurable
A - Achievable
R - Realistic, Rational
T - Time bound, Tangible

All these characteristics should work in harmony.

Lets talk about a simple job: Build a tower with small cubes by putting one on another, tower's base should be of 1 cube width and no support is allowed. If I own my franchisee, I will keep my goals as below :
                               Last time             My take
Goal Set              :      20                       30
Goal achieved     :      16                       25
Goal Historical   :      27                       27
Potential             :      ?                         oo

  • Goal Set should always be greater than Goal Historical for any kind of job
  • Also, potential is always infinite because potential of a team cannot be judged in mere numbers it is much more than that.
  • Realistic goal should be set
  • And that goal should be achieved
  • Performance is always (Realistic goal set) X (Realistic goal achieved)
  • Realistic goal should not be achieved regressively but in a progressive manner
  • Performance should enhance the potential
  • Planning of an organization should be strategic
POSDCORB is an acronym widely used in the field of Management and Public Administration that reflects the classic view of administrative management. Largely drawn from the work of French industrialist Henri Fayol, it first appeared in a 1937 staff paper by Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick written for the Brownlow Committee. The acronym stands for steps in the administrative process: Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting and Budgeting.
 

Thursday, 20 June 2013

Craftsmanship vs Modern Management

In this post, we will discuss about the differences about the Craftsmanship and Modern Management:

  1. Distribution of Work: In craftsmanship, a single man manages everything whereas in modern management distribution of work-load is one of the major characteristic. In craftsmanship there is only 1 'tower' whereas in modern management there are many (refer to previous post)
  2. In craftsmanship the person running the business should be the jack of all trades, whereas in Modern Management each person must have dexterity. The dexterity comes from the repetitive kind of job performed by each person of a modern organization. 
  3. Craftsmanship generally provides high satisfaction to the person involved in it, whereas modern management generally leads to alienation because the person is only involved in a very small part of the whole production and distribution line.
  4. In craftsmanship worker is the central figure of the business, whereas in modern management  the top positions in the hierarchy is not occupied by the worker.
  5. In modern management, interdependency is quite evident as each process is connected to the other process which in turn is connected to some other. In craftsmanship all processes are united by the very person who runs the business.
  6. In craftsmanship, skill is very important and so generally skill set is very high but in modern management, people involved are 'deskilled' because as they are involved in elemental form of work where generating or showing skill is very difficult.
  7. In craftsmanship, there are no fixed process of business, whereas in modern management practices a structured way of processes are laid out beforehand.
  8. In craftsmanship, no managers are required rather artists are more suitable, whereas modern management system is based on managers.

3Es in Management

  1. Effectiveness
  2. Excellence
  3. Efficiency
Excellence = Effectiveness X Efficiency

More out of less for more is excellence.

Douglas McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y

Theory X and Theory Y are theories of human motivation given by Douglas McGregor
 
Theory X suggests that Manager thinks
  • that employees are lazy by nature and avoids work
  • has no ambition and follow rather than lead
  • never worries about organizational goal but their own
  • managers have to use threat of punishment in order to make them work
Theory Y suggests that Manager thinks
  • that employees are not lazy and like to work
  • has their own ambition and aspiration
  • they understand the organizational goal
  • managers have to just guide the employees to work
Fig. 2.1. Snapshot of our Green-board

As shown in the figure there can be two types of worker:
  1. Good Worker
  2. Bad Worker

Also, there can be two types of managers:
  1. Hopeful manager with positive attitude
  2. Hopeless manager with negative attitude

From the above, four situation can arise:
  1. Bad worker working under positive manager
  2. Bad worker working under negative manager
  3. Good worker working under positive manager
  4. Good worker working under negative manager

Let us analyse the situation one by one,

Situation 1: This situation has a decent scope of improvement, a good/positive manager can strive this situation towards the situation 3.
eg. A manager comes from a good company to work for another company where there is Industrial Union problem.
Situation 2: This is the worst situation and from here the situation can't improve.
eg. The manager doesn't like his job and wants to leave it and there are various worker unions in the company which regularly calls for strike
Situation 3: This is the ideal situation, all the other situation should strive to this situation.
eg. All the big production and manufacturing companies which is running profitably for last many decades.
Situation 4: This situation will degrade to situation 2 in due time.
eg. A manager who is transferred from some other department and he is not happy with it, but the workers are all experienced and happy with their jobs.

It is evident that the Theory X leads to depressing work environment and Theory Y leads to more stimulating environment for development of the organization as a whole. In today's world where Theory Y is more pertinent the mid level management is loosing its purpose. Also, with technology advancement it is very easy for the top management to be in touch with the low level management, which is leading us to believe that mid level management has become a thing of the past.

Any business must be oriented towards following heads:
  • Objective
  • Performance
  • Result
The top management sets the objective and the low level management perform to give results.

Craftsmanship - an introduction
It can generally be described as a one man management where he/she is responsible for all the jobs related to the business.
eg. A guy vending clay toys on a thela - He is responsible for the finance (money), procurement of raw material (clay), production of toys and sales of those toys.

This generally requires great skill and is meant for the profit of single individual.


Activities in the class:

Activity 1: One person was required fro this activity and choice was done through bidding, whoever bids the highest would be given the place on the dais for tower building.
Job: To build tallest single block thick tower.
Highest bid:  Rs. 500
He built a tower 16 blocks high, much higher than our expectation of 7,8 or even 10

Activity 2: A group of 8 people volunteered
Job: To build tallest single block thick tower with a blind-folded builder.
1 person was assisting him closely and 6 watching from a distance and commenting now and then. They made a tower 8 blocks high. The builder complained of too many directions and commands.

Tuesday, 18 June 2013

L"EARNING"


Prof. Mandi in the class




 I have seen the word "learning" a number of times, but Prof. Mandi pointed out the earning that is  there in learning. His motto - "Aaj ki roti aaj hi kamaana" - is quite motivating. In his first class he connected with the whole class and I felt for the first time, that  classes can be fun.

He stressed on the practice of sharing the knowledge by extensive blogging and envisioned a world where the management colleges may not be necessary. Whenever anyone wants to know about a topic he can simply browse the net.

In the class we calculated the average cost of our study to be around Rs. 2500/day. Prof. Mandi asked us to reduce the cost by earning while learning.

We listened to the Pink Floyd's "Another brick in the wall" track and He asked us not to become another brick in the wall and do something useful with your life and be different from others. http://youtu.be/SJGsI8wsNZU

I experienced a unique experience in his class, where we don't attend the class we live it.


Prof. Mandi with Ankit Gehlot (reciting a poetry)