VALLEY CROSSING- TEAMWORK EXERCISE

The Valley Crossing Exercise aptly portrays the importance of teamwork in performing any activity, e.g. team formation, team norms, competition, cooperation etc.

This time Dr. Mandi asked us to perform valley crossing  in a group of three. At first I thought it was more of a team building activity, but slowly & gradually I realized the importance of the same.

To understand the task better, let's take a look on the video of valley crossing that was performed by our seniors (IM19 batch)..

OBJECTIVE

There are three people trying to cross a valley. The gap of the valley is in the range of one foot to two feet. Assume that each of them has the same footstep. They have a rod of a convenient size and they have to cross the valley using the rod as a support. Direct jumping is considered fatal assuming the valley is fathomless.

Now we can break 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 : 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.”

LESSONS:

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.

EFFECTIVE STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION-  Strategy and planning are futile without effective implementation.

TRAINING- Proper training is essential to achieve the desired level of results.

GOAL- There should be a well defined goal and every team member should have absolute clarity about it.

TRUST-  Mutual trust and belief are the foundation of a good team.

LEADERSHIP- Leadership and team work aren’t two separate entities. Collective leadership from the team delivers optimum results.

ACCOUNTABILITY AND RESPONSIBILITY- Every team member is accountable and responsible for the job at hand.

INNOVATION- There has to be openness in terms of new ideas and suggestion.

Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank

Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus (Bengali: মুহাম্মদ ইউনূস; born 28 June 1940) is an Bangladeshi banker, economist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient. As a professor of economics, he developed the concepts of microcredit and microfinance. These loans are given to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. In 2006 Yunus and Grameen Bank received the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts through microcredit to create economic and social development from below". Yunus has received several other national and international honours. He was awarded the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal in 2010, and presented with it at a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on 17 April 2013.

In 2008, he was rated #2 in Foreign Policy magazine's list of the 'Top 100 Global Thinkers'.

In 2012, he became Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland. He is a member of the advisory board at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology. Previously, he was a professor of economics at Chittagong University in Bangladesh. He published several books related to his finance work. He is a founding board member of Grameen America and Grameen Foundation, which support microcredit.

Yunus also serves on the board of directors of the United Nations Foundation, a public charity created in 1998 by American philanthropist Ted Turner’s $1 billion gift to support UN causes.

In March 2011, the Bangladesh government fired Yunus from his position at Grameen Bank, citing legal violations and an age limit on his position. Bangladesh's High Court affirmed the removal on 8 March. Yunus and Grameen Bank are appealing the decision, claiming Yunus' removal was politically motivated.

The Bangladesh Government forced Muhammad Yunus to resign from Grameen Bank, saying that at age 72, he was years beyond the legal limit for the position

Grameen Bank

The Grameen Bank (Bengali: গ্রামীণ বাংক) is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning microfinance organization and community development bank founded in Bangladesh. It makes small loans (known as microcredit or "grameencredit") to the impoverished without requiring collateral. The name Grameen is derived from the word gram which means "rural" or "village" in the Bengali language.

Micro-credit loans are based on the concept that the poor have skills that are under-utilized, and with incentive, they can earn more money. A group-based credit approach is applied to use peer-pressure within a group to ensure the borrowers follow through and conduct their financial affairs with discipline, ensuring repayment and allowing the borrowers to develop good credit standing. The bank also accepts deposits, provides other services, and runs several development-oriented businesses including fabric, telephone and energy companies. The bank's credit policy to support under-served populations has led to the overwhelming majority (98%) of its borrowers being women.

Grameen Bank originated in 1976, in the work of Professor Muhammad Yunus, Professor at University of Chittagong, who launched a research project to study how to design a credit delivery system to provide banking services to the rural poor. Based on his positive results, in October 1983 the Grameen Bank was authorized by national legislation as an independent bank. In 2006, the bank and its founder, Muhammad Yunus, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1998 the Bank's "Low-cost Housing Program" won a World Habitat Award. 

16 Decisions important taken by Grameen Bank

1. We shall follow and advance the four principles of Grameen Bank: Discipline, Unity, Courage and Hard work – in all walks of our lives.
2. Prosperity we shall bring to our families.
3. We shall not live in dilapidated houses. We shall repair our houses and work towards constructing new houses at the earliest.
4. We shall grow vegetables all the year round. We shall eat plenty of them and sell the surplus.
5. During the planting seasons, we shall plant as many seedlings as possible.
6. We shall plan to keep our families small. We shall minimize our expenditures. We shall look after our health.
7. We shall educate our children and ensure that they can earn to pay for their education.
8. We shall always keep our children and the environment clean.
9. We shall build and use pit-latrines.
10. We shall drink water from tube-wells. If it is not available, we shall boil water or use alum.
11. We shall not take any dowry at our sons' weddings, neither shall we give any dowry at our daughters' weddings. We shall keep our center free from the curse of dowry. We shall not practice child marriage.
12. We shall not inflict any injustice on anyone, neither shall we allow anyone to do so.
13. We shall collectively undertake bigger investments for higher incomes.
14. We shall always be ready to help each other. If anyone is in difficulty, we shall all help him or her.
15. If we come to know of any breach of discipline in any center, we shall all go there and help restore discipline.
16. We shall take part in all social activities collectively.

SUMMARY

	TRADITIONAL BANKING	GRAMEEN BANK
Purpose	Maximising Profit	To reduce Poverty
Collateral	Without Collateral security no loans will be given.	No collateral needed
Ownership	Businessmen – Rich People	By the Poor
Loan Amount	Large Amounts	Very Small Amounts
Type of Lending	To individuals	To small groups of people –Solidarity lending
Type of Interest	Usually Interest is compounded	Simple Interest
People Money given to	In most developing countries there seem to be a bias towards men.	Women are the primary focus. In fact women make up 97% of Grameen Bank Customers
Location	Primarily located in urban areas	Primarily located in rural areas

Hidden Management treasure in Navarang Puzzle

The Navarang Puzzle

This time Dr. Mandi came into the class with a multicolored cube, which at first I thought is a Rubik's Cube. That day I was first introduced to the Navarang puzzle.

The Navarang Puzzle

Unlike a standard Rubik's Cube, the Navrang Puzzle can be dismanteled and reassembled. Then Dr. Mandi started throwing dismantled pieces of this cube to students sitting around him. There were 27 Pieces in total.

Rubik's Cube

Now he gave us a challenge to find an algorithm or method to reassemble the Puzzle. According to him the challenge was...

Challenge

You should fix all the 27 blocks in to a systematic ‘Cube’  of 3 x 3 x 3 = 27  blocks where in:

All the nine colours must be represented

in each of the six sides of the final 3 X 3 X 3 Cube.

Said in other words:

No two same colours can appear

on the same side of the 3 X 3 X 3 Cube you are trying to make.

This challenge is called ‘ Navrang – Nine Colors’ puzzle .

(source: http://nnhyderabad.blogspot.in/2013/07/navrang-puzzle-what-to-learn-from-it.html )

But then Prof. Mandi solved the Puzzle in about 2 minutes using an well-defined method. Sir had used a 3-step algorithm to solve the puzzle.

The Navarng cube is a great example to define unity of command. Why Is It Important???

The principle of unity of command is applied throughout the world today in organizations ranging from the military, government bureaucracies and companies, from a small business all the way up to multinational corporations. Learning about unity of command will help us to understand how a great, many of private and public organizations operate and may make you a better employee or manager. Unity of Command is one of the Henri Fayol's 14 principles of Management. The 14 principles are..

1. Division of Work
2. Discipline
3. Authority and responsibility
4. Subordination of Individual Interest to General Interest
5. Remuneration
6. Centralisation
7. Order
8. Equity
9. Initiative
10. Esprit De Corps (Team Spirit)
11. Stability of Tenure
12. Unity of Direction
13. Scalar Chain
14. Unity of Command

Definition & Principles

Unity of command provides that an employee is responsible to only one supervisor, who in turn is responsible to only one supervisor, and so on up the organizational hierarchy. This is true even if the top of the organization is led by a group of people. For example, imagine you are the CEO of a technology firm in Silicon Valley. While the board of directors of your company governs the policy making and strategic planning, under the concept of unity of command, you do not answer to all members of the board but only the chairman of the board.

Summary

Unity of command is a classic principle of management that is used in many hierarchical organizations, such as the military, government agencies, and corporations. Unity of command holds that an employee should only be answerable to one person. Management authority is vested in the position and as a manager climbs up the hierarchy, she is able to use prior knowledge and information gained in the new management position.

The Three Monks.....

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.

Background

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 watched 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.

Plot

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.

Awards

1. Won the outstanding film award at China's Ministry of Culture.
2. Won the Best animated film prize at the first Golden Rooster Awards in 1981.
3. Won four international awards including a Silver Bear for Short Film at the 32nd Berlin Film Festival in 1982.

Lessons

1.Teamwork 

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).

2. crisis management

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 .

2. Work methods (efficient and effective methods)

How	One man carrying one bucket M1	One man carrying two bucket M2	Two men carrying one bucket M3	Three men carrying one bucket, assembly line M4
Effort	Most	< M1	< M2	< M3
output	1	2	1	1
Efficiency	Low output with more effort	More output with high effort, i.e. > M1	More output with Less effort i.e. > M2	Very high output with very less effort i.e. > M3

CONCLUSION

1. The productivity increases with the increase in the number of persons
2. There is more than 100% increase in the production with 100% increase in resources with good co-ordination
3. Disputes and conflicts are bound to arise but they need to be minimized so as to make the most out of the available resources
4. Team work and coordination is the key to success.

Pygmalion Effect and Study of Goal Setting....

Hello again...well..today we are going to discuss about Pygmalion effect, Goal-Setting and its importance and about SMART goal and conceptual skills.

The Pygmalion effect is type of self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP) in which raising manager expectations regarding subordinate performance boosts subordinate's performance. Managers who are led to expect more of their subordinates lead them to greater achievement.

Expectations play an important role in determining leadership  effectiveness. Scholars and practitioners have assumed for a long time that leaders who expect more get more. Despite this general awareness, until recently there was little empirical research illuminating how and why leader expectation effects operate, and how they can be profitably utilized in practice. In parallel, work motivation theorists have long postulated the central role of self-expectations in motivating the exertion of  effort in job performance and in determining the level of productivity achieved .

Moreover, theory and research have largely ignored the interface between the manager’s expectations of the subordinate and the subordinate’s self-expectations. The  manager-as-Pygmalion model is unique in focusing on the interlinking expectations of managers and subordinates as a  key  to understanding- and enhancing-the motivational power  of effective leadership.



A goal is a desired result  a person or a system envisions, plans and commits to achieve a personal or organizational desired end-point in some sort of assumed development. Many people endeavor to reach to goals within a finite time by setting deadlines.

It is roughly similar to purpose or aim, the anticipated result which guides reaction, or an end, which is an object, either a physical object or an abstract object, that has intrinsic value.

Goal-setting ideally involves establishing specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bounded (S.M.A.R.T) objectives. Work on the goal-setting theory suggests that it can serve as an effective tool for making progress by ensuring that participants have a clear awareness of what they must do to achieve or help achieve an object. On a personal level, the process of setting goals allows people to specify and then work towards their own objectives most commonly, financial or career-based goals.

S.M.A.R.T. Goal

Specific
The first term stresses the need for a specific goal over and against a more general one. This means the goal is clear and unambiguous; without vagaries and platitudes. To make goals specific, they must tell a team exactly what is expected, why is it important, who's involved, where is it going to happen and which attributes are important.

Measurable
The second term stresses the need for concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of the goal. The thought behind this is that if a goal is not measurable, it is not possible to know whether a team is making progress toward successful completion. Measuring progress is supposed to help a team stay on track, reach its target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs it on continued effort required to reach the ultimate goal.

Attainable
The third term stresses the importance of goals that are realistic and attainable. While an attainable goal may stretch a team in order to achieve it, the goal is not extreme. That is , the goals are neither out of reach nor below standard performance, as these may be considered meaningless. When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them come true. You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. The theory states that an attainable goal may cause goal-setters to identify previously overlooked opportunities to bring themselves closer to the achievement of their goals

Relevant
The fourth term stresses the importance of choosing that matter. Many times you will need support to accomplish a goal; resources, a champion voice, someone to knock down obstacles. Goals that are relevant to your boss, your team, your organization will receive that needed support.
Relevant goals (when met) drive the team, department, and organization forward. A goal that supports or is in alignment with other goals would be considered a relevant goal

Time-bounded
The fifth term stresses the importance of grounding goals within a time frame, giving them a target date. A commitment to a deadline helps a team focus their efforts on completion of the goal on or before the due date. This part of the SMART goal criteria is intended to prevent goals from being overtaken by the day-to-day crises that invariably arise in an organization. A time-bound goal is intended to establish a sense of urgency.


Achieving the goal, one has set for himself is a measure of success, and being able to meet job challenges is a way one measures success in the workplace. It has been said that "Goal setting capitalizes on the humans brain's amazing powers: our brains are problem-solving, goal-achieving machines."


Conceptual skill is the ability to visualize the organization as a whole. It includes Analytical, Creative and Initiative skills. It helps the manager to identify the causes of the problem and note the symptoms. It helps him to solve the problems for the benefit of the entire organization. It helps the manager to fix goals for the whole organization and to plan for every situation. Conceptual skills are mostly required by the top-level management because they spend more time in planning, organizing and problem solving.

Conceptual skill involve knowing how to and being able to formulate ideas. Individuals who have strong conceptual skills typically have excellent cognitive abilities to think creatively and solve problems. In a business environment, someone who has these skills might come up with an idea for a new product or a new process. He or she is able to examine a complex issue and formulate a specific, effective course of action.

well, I end up my today's discussion here, will be posting again..till the, keep blogging......

Modern Management.......

Continuing from my last blog, this time our beloved professor Dr. Mandi entered in the class to teach the basic difference between Craft management and Modern management system. So once again we sat on the floor along with him and this time he brought a number of cubical blocks with him to make it more practical. As the class progressed he gave us an example of shoes made by a cobbler and an organization (e.g Reebok, Nike, woodland etc) where people prefers the later one even if people knows that cobbler is expert on that. Here we can compare cobbler as craft management and organization  as modern management (where lots of people are involved).

To understand the theory better he introduced a task to build a single base tower using those cubes. He gave us two situation where in the first an open eyed person will have to build the tower and in the second the same has to be done by a blind folded person provided there will be another person to guide him but can't touch the cubes.
It looked like an easy guess to me, how can a blind folded person would build the tower? So i choose to be on the first team.

For this task a random student was selected and asked to
set a goal for himself.  He choose to make a tower of
15 cubes but ended up with 22 cubes, the tower being collapsed.

Now it comes to the second stage, where a guy was blind folded who choose to make a tower of 14 blocks. But to my surprise the team built a tower of 26 blocks



So we can consider the first scenario as a craftsmanship and the second as organization.


Now lets try to go deep into the situation, where in Craftsmanship a person works individually and has to set his own goal so the time needed to finish the task.
So the advantages of being a craftsman are

1.   Skills are high
2.   High level of satisfaction
3.   No dependency on others

and the disadvantages are

1. The management in this kind of set up is zero.
2. The alienation is very high.
3. The work is not done in parallel. 

On the other hand in an Organization there is a chain of command and instructions which has to be passed from one person to another. e.g the blind folded person was doing what he was guided by his manager.

The advantages of this are

1. Productivity is very high
2. Work is crystal clear as responsibilities are divided among many people.
3. Manager decides the strategy and how to involve people.

The main drawbacks of this kind are

1.  Employee satisfaction level is low
2. Since the work is divided into many parts so skills of each employee is limited.
3. Inter dependency is more.

At the end of the class he explained that organization management is at three level, Lower, Middle and Upper Management. By flattered organization concept they are trying to remove the Middle management provided Lower and Upper management are much needed.

So this is the end of our discussion for today,.... will b posting more as the class progresses.

Till then enjoy your studies ...goodbye..

The First Class

I had always wanted to do MBA from a premier B-school and getting  an opportunity to do the same from NITIE is like my dream come true. After the hostel and academic registration process was over, we went for   some group interaction processes among with our friends.

17th June 2013, here it comes the most awaited day of my life, "The first class".
Though I felt very sleepy because of late night activities/hangouts with friends, somehow I managed myself to move on and climb 96 stairs for the first class and so were my friends.

 The first day was as usual I'd expected, two hours of a class, assignments and lots of business theories.



The second day of the program started just like the first day. After the first class the next was "Principles of Organization and Management", as usual we stood up when our professor came in who straight away kept aside the table and chair and sat on the dais folding his legs, and yes I am talking about Dr. T. Prasad also known as Dr. MANDI, the person responsible for the famous marketing event MANDI, who asked us to do the same.

Mandi is a non profitable social organization created to make a difference in the lives of thousands children who lose out on basic education. Its a field classroom for NITIE students to learn about principles of Management and marketing as well.





He has started the class by showing us some products once that were sold by NITIE students. He taught us the basic principles of management with those toys and other scientific toys like Newtons craddle to make it more practical than theoretical and with a slogan

                                     "Socho !! Becho !! Sekho !! (Think !! Sell !! Learn)

Later he taught about goal setting and willingness which are powerful way of  motivating people and yourself as well. For that he gave us the example of Newtons craddle which was invented by some engineering students and can be used as tool to teach in schools. Now a days the value of goal setting is well recognized in the entire management system and accepted as among the most valid and motivation theories in industrial organization psychology, human resource management and organizational behavior. By the end of the class he gave us the basic aim/goal of  PGDIM (Post Graduate Diploma in Industrial Engineering) course.

This is a small contribution from my side, hope u have liked it. There is more to come.
Till then enjoy your studies. thanks for the time....!!!