Tower building, Learning Goal Setting and What is Performance

This week's lecture also encompassed a discussion on the goal setting procedure that is to be efficiently and effectively followed by each of the employee in any firm. For an effective manager these goal settings are of utmost importance because they are parameters with which he judges team members. These goals can be of many types as described below.
Specific
Measurable
Acheivable
Realistic
Timely
Hence, SMART Goals.

These are goals which are to be accomplished by any employee in any firm. A tower building activity  was  organised wherein 3 major designations in an organisation and their attributes were highlighted along with the relationship between Supervisory Planning & Employee Morale, which was highlighted in an aesthetically pragmatic manner.

Some of the questions the activity answered for us were:
->How is the classification of goals achieved?
->How are these goals attained?
->Why do we have fatigue in employees?
-> How the manager and top management deal with it?

All these concepts came out brilliantly and thus there was no need to learn it through books when we could actually see it in person. Overall the entire activity can be explained in following stages:

STAGE 1:
During this session, everybody was asked to volunteer for an game called THE BLIND TOWER BUILDER! In the game you have to build a tower of cube but you will be blindfolded and have to use only one hand. But there was a condition involved, which was whosoever wants to be a part of this game has to bet some money! Those guys have to risk that money to accomplish this task.
The situation above is similar to a company where interested people invest money to build a entity which can thus generate some profit in return. The risk involved is also shared by those people. So as a principle for any business, you need a set of like-minded people who can work together and face problems but are determined to succeed.
Any big business want founders like that, so we had quite a few students who volunteered by investing a mere sum of Rs. 300 to start with .

STAGE 2:
Group was made and objectives are set, now it was time to implement ideas into reality .These guys have to decide the structure of their organization first before moving forward:
a. Workforce Selection: Blindfolded guy to perform the activity who can be considered as the work force required to perform the operation of the project.
b. Middle Management Selection: A guy who can help blindfolded guy to place the cubes. This represents middle management who is responsible to direct , achieve the desired objective, optimum use of resources and maintain the timeline for the project. After doing all these work, he has to report to  top management  for discussing the progress of the project.
c. Top Management Selection: A guy who can strategies about how to achieve goals, direct entire company and stream line the thought process of employees in favor of companies objectives. A guy was selected to do this task .

STAGE 3:
Business or activity is in progress to perform certain task which can benefit the company or that group. A lot of difficulties have been faced by this group as it happens in case of a company. In this workers were doing hard work to make the product. Middle management was managing the whole process of tower building. Top management was involved in crucial times of difficulties, where it pitched in to advice and give motivation. This benefits both middle management guy and worker to perform as per plans.

STAGE 4:
At the end of the activity, the given task was achieved and everybody in the group was feeling a sense of achievement. This association of human beings can be seen in any group activity and this is very important. It shows the human side of a profit building entity and promotes the culture of any organization. This belongingness helps an organization to grow in healthy and focused manner. Everybody should have a defined share of appreciation as it was in the activity. So it very essential to start but more important is to finish with sense of achievement and pride.

MANAGEMENT LESSONS FROM THE ACTIVITY:
· As top management is responsible for giving direction to whole company. So first they should be themselves clear about the goal of the company and should define it on paper. We have seen that industries help build nations and they are the building blocks. So Company leader should be ethical and socially responsible to benefit both company and society
· As middle management, you have to be approachable and should understand the difficulties faced by workforce. You have to focus on achieving the target but also decide according to working conditions, remuneration and benefits provided to the employee. For example , when I worked in TCS, I observed that every individual wants space to work and freedom to perform in his own way .It is very essential to recognize that balance of organization policy and personal freedom given to employee
· Workforce should also have sense of responsibility towards the organization. This is shown by hard work, on time work and dedication toward work.
· As I have seen the activity, a lot of students other than these guys were involved in suggesting the ways to accomplish task. These days in businesses, these people are called Consultants. Consultants are people who do analysis of your company and try to give you genuine feedback and suggestions to improve running of your company.

Let's throw a googly now. So what do we make of the following table?

This table, actually, is a Management Lesson in itself. It shows the co-relation between the factors of an efficient Manager who sets SMART Goals:

Gap if any between Tower height Performance so far achieved and Achievable performance of tower (Factor 3 and 7)
In Sc1, the height achieved was equal to the achievable height. Though the target was achieved and the management might be commended, the limits of productivity were not pushed and hence potential was wasted.
In Sc2, even the achievable performance was not reached. This shows poor planning and wastage of the collective intellectual resources of the team.
In Sc3, scenario 2 is repeated but with a greater intensity. The result is same, that is the team did not utilize their full potential and performed below expectations.
In Sc4, the above scenarios are repeated with the worst effect as the gap between their actual and achievable performance was the greatest.

Gap if any between goal proposed by the manager and mutually agreed goal by team (Factor 4 and 6)
In any scenario, the goal that a manager sets for his personnel would be higher or equal to the goal that the team sets for itself. This is due to the presence of people with diverse background, experience, knowledge and judgement.
In Sc1, not only the overall aspirations of the group are low, the target set by the team is even lower. This organisation is headed for some very tough times ahead as the competition only gets tougher.
In Sc2, the manager is able to convince the team regarding the potential of the group and consequently the target set by the manager is not lowered by the team. I would say this scenario is the best one out of all the four given scenarios.
In Sc3, though the aspirations are high, the manager is not able to convince the team of their own potential. It should be remembered all the while that it is the manager who is responsible for the team's performance; in fact that is his Raison d'être.
Sc4 represents a grave situation for the organisation as not only the team, but also the manager has very low sense of the true potential of the organisation. Such companies, despite being extremely promising, would fade out in today's fast-paced world.

Gap if any between goal proposed by the manger and the goal proposed  by the worker(Factor 4 & 5)
The manager in the first three scenarios seems to be Theory Y manager; he assumes that the employees are highly motivated and enthusiastic and sets a high target for them.
In Sc1, the employees are either complacent or are not confident or trusting of their own capabilities.
Same is the case with Sc2 and Sc3 also. The employees have the same attitude as above.
In Sc4, while the goal set by the manager is low, the workers have high faith in their abilities and are highly motivated, and hence set a higher goal for themselves.

Gap if any between goal proposed by the worker and mutually agreed goal by team (Factor 5 and 6)
Sc1 shows that while the goal set by the workers is low, manager has been able to motivate them to some extent and the final target lies somewhat in the middle.
Sc2 shows a leader present as a manager. He has been able to convince workers who are either very lazy or highly under-confident.
Sc3 also shows that though the manager has set higher goals, the workers have been able to get them reduced to a level they feel achievable.
Sc4 depicts what can be called a poor management. Though the workers have set a high target for themselves, the manager has been unable to appreciate the capabilities of his own team. These managers are always an anchor weighing down the performance of the company and eventually even the workers become complacent.

Gap if any between achievable performance  and potential tower (Factor 3 and 8)
Everyone in this world has infinite potential. So "achievable" is just the limit that is set in the minds and not in the real world. In all the scenarios, the performance potential is higher than the actual performance that the company would be able to deliver.

Gap if any between actual performance achieved and  goal mutually agreed by manger and the worker (Factor 6 and 7)
In Sc1 and Sc4 the expectations are exceeded as the actual height is more than the height previously envisaged.
In Sc3 it is exactly equal while in Sc2 the height has actually reduced. This might probably be due to the unrealistically high expectations by the manager of his employees. A manager should have a correct estimate of his team's capacities and capabilities.

Gap if any between actual performance achieved and achievable goal (Factor 7 and 3)
Barring Sc1, the achievable goal is higher than the goal finally achieved, in varying degrees. It is a manager's job to properly assess the capacities and capabilities of his team and set goals accordingly so that an optimum, but increasingly higher, balance is reached between team's potential and actual performance.

Gap if any between actual performance achieved and the potential (Factor 7 and 8)
The actual performance of the team is the sum total of the assessment of the manager of his team and himself, and the self-assessment of the team of the organisation's capacities and capabilities. Care has to be taken at every step of the way - assessing, planning, target setting and execution - so that the final result is as high as possible. Ultimately it should lead to an ever upward spiral towards the potential.

Enough of management lessons for today.
Story of three monks coming up next! Stay tuned!

Yes we set our own record of 24 blocks! 

Future Businessmen learning Goal Setting and Tower Building

Two hands better than one?

Day 3 was a day of many new and interesting managerial concepts.
We will discuss them in detail in this post.

Craftsmanship

In this a person is working as an individual, has to set his own goals. The time period in which the work has to be completed is decided by the craftsman himself.

Advantages
· Skills are high.
· Level of satisfaction is also high.
· No dependency.

 Disadvantages
· The management in this kind of set-up is zero.
· Alienation is high.
·  Work is not done in parallel.

Modern Management

Modern Management Theory - Management is one or the other form has existed in every nook and corner of the world since the dawn of civilization. Modern Management has grown with the growth of social-economics and scientific institution. Modern view consists that a worker does not work for only money. They work for their satisfaction and happiness with good living style. Here Non- financial award is most important factor.

In an organisation there is a chain of command, a hierarchy which has to be followed. Instructions have to be passed on from one person to another. This was tried to be demonstrated in the 2nd exercise, but the objective was not achieved and the reason being too many instructions passed on to the person building the tower. This is the condition of every middle management in any organisation, on which Dr. Mandi explained the importance of the role of middle management in an organisation. The role of middle managers has to be defined by the top management to minimise this confusion. The pro’s and con’s of an organisation are as follows:

Advantages
·  Work can be performed in parallel.
·  Specialisation in work can be achieved.
·  Dexterity is achieved.
·  More Profits.
·  De-skilling is done.

 Disadvantages
· Skills are less.
· Satisfaction level is also less.
·  Inter- Dependency is more.
·  De-skilling is done.

So in an organisation a group of people are working together to attain a single goal. Small fraction of the total work is assigned to an individual, which is called specialisation. This in turn increases the proficiency and hence reduces the time taken to complete a particular task.

We now come to the 3 E's of Management.

What does an organisation trying to achieve by fragmenting the work and specialisation?

 “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

 They are trying to achieve excellence. To achieve excellence what we need is effectiveness and efficiency in our actions.  Excellence, effectiveness and efficiency together make the 3 E’s of Management, and the co-relation between these three is as follows:

Mathematically,
Excellence = Efficiency x Effectiveness
                         (Speed) x (Direction)

In this equation, we can measure the efficiency by using the corresponding techniques whereas there is no way in which we can measure the effectiveness of an action. So, the efficiency and effectiveness are like speed and direction respectively, by which an organisation is heading towards excellence

“More out of less for more is Excellence”

“More out of less is Efficiency”

Effectiveness can tell us whether we are moving in the same direction or not, it can tell us whether we are focusing our resources in an efficient way or not. For e.g., Internet help us increase our efficiency, but how we use internet is effectiveness.

Hope this post helps you understand the concepts better :)

So you think X and Y meant Algebra?

What exactly are X and Y? Someone who loves maths would immediately jump to start solving values for x and y, looking for known and unknown variables. Pretty normal for a sixth grader, but not when you are sitting in Prof. Mandi's class and you're in a POM lecture at NITIE!

Theory X and Y refer to two STYLES of Managers who come under the X and Y type.

Theory X ('authoritarian management' style):

• The average person dislikes work and will avoid it he/she can.

• People must be forced with the threat of punishment to work towards organisational objectives.

• The average person prefers to avoid responsibility; is relatively unambitious, and wants security above all else.
  
  Theory Y ('participative management' style):
  

• Effort in work is as natural as work and play.

• People will apply self-control and self-direction in the pursuit of organisational objectives, without external control or the threat of punishment.

• Commitment to objectives is a function of rewards associated with their achievement.

• People usually accept and often seek responsibility.

• The capacity to use a high degree of imagination, ingenuity and creativity in solving organisational problems is widely, not narrowly, distributed in the population.

• In industry the intellectual potential of the average person is only partly utilised. 

The X and Y characteristics can be further explained as follows:

So we faced a similar contraption on the blackboard on Day Two of Prof. Mandi's class. In clockwise manner from the top left, the quarters were marked as 1 2 3 and 4 and the qualities of each of the 4 kinds of persons was put to discussion.

A grid containing the four characteristics can be formed with 1 being a Good Worker and a Hopeful Manager, 2 being Good Worker and Hopeless Manager, 3 being Bad Worker and Hopeful Manager and 4 being Bad Worker and Hopeless Manager. We all aspire to be number 1, as he represents all positive qualities. But all four forms of managers exist in today's corporate scenario. What really matters is how the manager extracts work from his employees and gets his assigned job complete in time.

My conclusions regarding the four kinds of managers are:
Type 1 - pleasant and amicable, manage people and resources well and optimally. Employees enjoy working under them. They always look upward for success and are always rewarded for their efforts and their colleagues' hardwork. Eg. Ratan Tata, Steve Jobs
Type 2 - hardworking but a poor manager. His employees are unmotivated and he is often let down by the lack of interest in working by his employees. His determination is not given due justice as he fails to manage his resources well. Eg. CEOs of struggling businnesess
Type 3 - good with people and resources, but doesn't know how to go about with the task defined to him. He often makes mistakes in management of time or resources but his employees are always motivated to work hard for success. Eg. Naveen Jindal
Type 4 - the worst kind of managers. These kind of managers always bring the corporate down and are often responsible for an organization's failure.

Coming up next, the importance of Craftsmanship as compared to Modern Management.

"Technology has evolved, and so should we" - Henry Ford

Day One

I have been a fan of pagalguy.com and have always wanted to make a "All I wanted to speak about CAT" and a "GDPI Experience" post. But this post beats all. The very first day of the epic sprint in the marathon of Life, NITIE. God's own campus has always been a dream for me, more so as the coveted BLACKI, XL, FMS and all that jazz has been exactly that: Jazz. After a 97.48 in the CAT and the GEM tag firmly tagged on to me, it was do or die for the race to NITIE and here I am, raring to key in my first post as a proud member of PGDIM XX batch of NITIE, 2013-15!

And what could have been a better start to Life at NITIE than Prof. Mandi's class!

Globe shaped stress balls flying everywhere, pink birds exchanging hands, a crude hen and a wooden channel finding its way through Syndi 1 were how we began the class at 9am. Luckily we had Prof. Mandi taking over as a substitute for our Communication prof's absence. We started off with a small introduction by Prof. Mandi followed by questions from our side. We learnt during the course of the class about how important it is for today's 'beggar' generation to be able enough to earn and support oneself. Even if we earn a mere 10% of what is spent on us by our parents, we are destined to sail in life. Our PDC is roughly 2500 rupees and we were challenged to earn atleast 25 rupees on a daily basis. The very famous lines 'Socho Becho, Becho Sikho, Sikho Socho' were hummed by all quite a few times. We even took an oath on our hearts to earn our own rotis. And sir, this oath we shall remember! We were also told about illustrious NITIE alumni who have made it big in the world, like Mrunmay Chakraborty of IM6, the CEO of the globally famous Cyprus Semiconductors. We were motivated to one day reach the heights and cross the standard set by our famed alumni. At the end of the introduction class we were explained the significance of those toys. they were actually Physics made fun! The hen could oscillate as well as slide down the inclined plane while the birds could be balanced on a single point, thus explaining concepts like COG, balancing, rotation, etc.

We were told to write a blog on our everyday learnings. We should educate the masses using the free technology of blogs. If 100 students write 100 blogs, we have no use of any college education and the deprived students can learn important management concepts for free. We would be evaluated on the blogs. One student who wrote poems on his blog was asked to recite a few lines which he did beautifully. The importance of writing quality words on our blogs was stressed upon. Student Enterprises were an important part of NITIE and were given due support by the profs here, so we were advised to make full use of this enterprise.

The POM class commenced at 2pm with important concepts being discussed. The beauty of Prof. Mandi's class is that students study with their eyes and ears, not their hands. We don't have to touch our pens if we listened carefully. The high point of the class was me singing Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall with my buddy Anupam Dhamija and Abhinav Sirohi. We have much to learn from this song, said Prof. Mandi. We should not just be bricks in the wall but change the system for the better. The section mates didn't join us too enthusiastically though! Next time we'll sing at the top of our voices for sure!

So this was Day One in a nutshell. Stay tuned for regular updates on Principles of Management, I shall be posting my everyday learnings here. Hope one good soul gets some benefit from this blog!

Signing off for now, enjoy the scenic beauty of God's Own Campus! :D

 New Academic block from faaaar away

 Lush greenery in the campus

Breathtaking NITIE pond at night

Clicked using Google Nexus 4 ;)