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Three Idiots crossing the valley

Valley crossing task is where three persons should cross a valley. Here there is a constraint that the valley should be crossed only by using a pole and not by jumping across the valley or walking on the pole placed on the two edges. The width of the valley is more than a foot and less than two feet. The following figure shows the method to be used in crossing the valley. As the task seems to be adventurous, there needs to be lot of planning like the roles that each person will take, the training that is required both mentally and physically. Consider the three persons crossing the valley as A, B, C

The various steps involved in this process are

         Step 1:  A, B and C are safe.                            

Step 2:  A is half safe; B and C are safe                          

Step 3:  A is unsafe; B and C are safe                          

Step 4:  A and B are half safe; C is safe                 

Step 5:  B is unsafe; A and C are safe                                        

Step 6:  B and C are half safe; A is safe                   

Step 7: C is unsafe; B and A are safe                                                        

Step 8: C is half safe; A and B are safe                     

     Step 9: A, B, C are safe          
The key ingredients to cross the valley are the following:                                                                                                  

Leadership:

A leader is a person who takes risk whenever it is necessary. So  A has to be the leader who crosses the valley first. 'A' should be a person who motivates the team.

Team Work:

Crossing the valley requires lot of planning. Planning in turn requires team work. Had crossing of valley been done individually it would have taken longer than the normal duration. But when people work in a team, strengths and ideas of each and every individual contribute to the overall outcome. Moreover, timing that is required in crossing the valley comes out of coordination among the team members.

The other method of crossing the valley that I suggest is done on an individual basis. The pole can be used in the same way as a pole vaulter uses. Though superficially it may seem like an individual effort, it still requires team work as there should be sharing of knowledge and each one should train one another.   

         

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ALUMNI SESSION

Last weekend started with an inspiring session given by our alumnus, Mr. Amit Shah who is the Executive Vice President and Country head -Corporate Branding, Marketing, Marketing and Strategic Communications at Yes Bank. The session gave us a clear idea as to what all we need to do in next two years as a management student to come out with flying colours.
The session started with Mr. Amit Shah telling us that as students we have certain issues that are under our control, like our studies and those that are not under our control, like the economic scenario etc. He added that most of our background is similar since we are all engineers and most of us have same kind of work experience. It is what we do in next two years that makes a difference. Typically there are three main aspects that we need to develop as a management student. They are Knowledge and skills, Competencies and delivery. He stressed that though knowledge and skills are very important it is the competencies like leadership skills that we posses, makes us stand apart. He explained that there may be a gap between the competencies that we have and the competencies that are required for our aspirations to come true. In order to bridge that gap, what do we do? And how do we bridge the gap? Firstly we need to evaluate our competency level by undergoing various competency tests. Secondly we need to bridge that distance by taking part in various activities that we will come across in next two years at NITIE.

Towards the end he gave a very interesting example that at the beginning of these two years we are all pawns in a chess board with almost same qualification and same kind of work experience. But at the end of the course the same pawn can go across the board and become a Queen.On the whole, it turned out to be a very inspiring and an informative session to us.

 

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SMART Goals and Pygmalion Effect

SMART goals have three main characteristics where in there are easy to understand, are achievable and have clear point of success. SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, and realistic and time bound.

a. Specific goal:

A specific goal should answer who, what, when, where and why.

For instance, if my goal is to become rich I need to answer 5 Ws

Who: It is me who has set the goal.

What: I should quantify my goal in monetary terms.

When: I should set a deadline, say 10 years.

Why: I should have concrete reason to become rich.

b. Measurable goal:

The reason to have a measurable goal is that we need to know where the finish line is. Imagine yourself running a race. You keep running as you complete one lap and two laps and so on and you don’t know if you are won until you see the finish line. In a SMART goal the finish line should be true/ false, a number or yes/no so that we know for sure that we have attained a goal.

c. Attainable goal:

A goal has to very realistic .There is no way a person can save Rs 20000 when he is left with Rs.10000 after all his monthly expenses.

d. Relevant goal:

Relevant goal is one which clearly answers the question why?  For example a person’s goal is to save Rs 10 lakhs to retire. Here the answer to why? is retirement. But if a person says that he should buy Mercedes Benz so that he could retire, it becomes irrelevant.

e. Time bound goal:

A time bound goal is one which has a deadline. If we consider the previous example, the goal would become time bound  if the person wants to save Rs.10 lakhs before the age of 50.

Most people set their goals based on their present levels to do what they already know. Here are some of the key points to be taken into consideration as far as setting goals is concerned.

         a. Goal set: Goal set is the target that we aim to achieve. In the case of building a tower we take goal set to be the number of blocks in a tower. Goal setting and goal achievement should be evolving in a spiral fashion. One should affect another constantly so that the goal is attained.

b. Goal history:  It is very important that goal set is always greater than the goal history.

c. Potential: Potential should always be greater than the historical achievement.

Potential is influenced by two parameters according to the following equation

                  Goal Setting *Goal achievement = Potential

Pygmalion Effect:

According to Pygmalion effect, the more the expectations are placed on people the more they perform well and vice versa. This effect happens often between relationships like mother & child, teacher & student, Manager & Employee, captain &player, Performer & audience and so on.

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THREE MONKS

Three monks is an animated film that is based on the Chinese proverb that says, “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 movie begins with a young monk doing his ritual of fetching water from the pond, watering a plant in front of the god and worshiping all day long. As a new monk comes to the monastery, the work of carrying water is shared by the two monks. But there arises the problem of balancing the bucket in the middle of the pole. The problem escalates further when a third monk joins them. The first two monks delegate the work to the third monk. But soon there is chaos and confusion and finally nobody fetches water. As the three monks stay aloof, a rat causes a fire accident which puts the three monks into swift action. They work as a team and extinguish the fire. Later on they install a pulley and fetch water with one monk filling water in the bucket, the other operating the pulley and the third storing the water in the barrel. Since each of them has a separate task to do, the process of fetching water becomes more efficient.

A lot could be learnt from the movie, where in it clearly says that unity is strength. Another key learning is that when there is not much work and there are more people than is required to work, the productivity decreases and there is no efficient utilization of resources. I could relate the same with my own experience. I was a part of a project where there were 14 members in a team. But the work allotted to the team was disproportionate to the number of members in the team. As result there was always a few people worked and the rest whiled away their time. Finally the team was dismantled altogether since there was no proper utilization of human resources.

‘Three monks’ tells about the efficient utilization of resources in order to get the desired output with more efficiency. Here is an illustration of efficient utilization of resources to get the maximum productivity. Combination (e) is considered to be the most efficient among all.

No of persons		Combination	Method	Effort (Joules)
1	a.	One person carrying one bucket		20
	b.	One person carrying 2 bucket		5
2	c	Two persons carrying one bucket each		(20+20)
	d	Two persons carrying one bucket together		2.5
	e	Two persons carrying two buckets each		(5+5)

As the three monks shifted to mechanized way of fetching water there was modern management in place. Furthermore, there was deskilling which is the most important aspect of modern management.

Craftsmanship and Modern management

A craftsman is a person who is talented in one skill. It could a blacksmith or a tailor who shows his skill right from transforming a raw material into a finished product. It is similar to one person building a tower and there is no parallel in his work. The craftsman has the liberty to use his creativity to maximum extent as he doesn't have a boss. 

The following videos illustrate craftsmanship and modern management in carpentry.

But in modern times craftsmanship seems to lose its charm. Everywhere we see the presence of modern management. Here, the person who makes a machine is not going to be the person who operates it to deliver the final product. Therefore modern management lies on the crux of deskilling where each worker is assigned a different task. This kind of disintegration decreases the skill of the workers and increases the inter-dependability. As workers each do the smallest of the work, they hone their dexterity over a period of time.One important feature of modern management is that it gives job to people from bottom of the pyramid. It does come with one disadvantage where there is a chance of over exploitation of labour. However, this can be tackled by taking appropriate measures.

THEORY X AND THEORY Y

Theory X and Theory Y are theories of motivation developed by Douglas McGregor in 1960s. They are like two sides of a coin that tell about the understanding the managers have towards their employees.

Theory X

Theory X managers believe that the workers are lazy and that they wait for the opportunity to slack off. They perform well below their true potential. Without strict rules and coercion they cannot be managed. One important feature of theory X management is that whenever a problem arises employees are blamed first without analyzing the issue.

Theory Y

Theory Y managers in contrast believe that most of the employees are striving hard to improve the productivity. Here the manager gives freedom and trusts the employees, which acts as a motivation to the them. Whenever a problem arises the managers and employees come together as a team and sort out the issue.

My perception

It is always a better idea to approach management from theory Y perspective. Managers need to give credits to the employees and believe that they are working hard genuinely. If a problem arises the manager should examine various factors and take actions with positive attitude.If the problem still continues and the manager notices that the employees avoid work deliberately then it is the right time to adopt theory X approach. It does not mean that the manager should abuse the employee but he should take necessary actions to make the employee work. So, to be precise a manager should not cling to one style all the time but should analyze the situation and adapt to required style of management. 

My first day at NITIE

 

I had been curious to know how classes at a business school would differ from that of an engineering college. Well, the first day of my life at NITIE proved me that this journey is going to be a whole new experience. It was Dr. Prasad’s class and in the very beginning itself he made us feel relaxed by randomly throwing rubber balls towards us and asking us to pass them on to others. He stressed on how we should be independent with respect to our financial needs and the importance of entrepreneurship.

 

Dr. Prasad’s teaching combines learning and fun .It came as a pleasant surprise when he made us sing 'Another brick in the wall'. He urged students not to be just another brick in the wall and that our thoughts cannot be controlled by others. For a person like me who has so far just read blogs, I realized how writing blogs could help millions out there who don’t get the opportunity to learn. Altogether, it was a very good start at NITIE.