DIGITAL CV

Tortoise vs Rabbit Race

(Learning for Managers)

There were two rival groups in the forest- Rabbit and Tortoise. Once they decided to participate in a competition. The winner will prove the superiority of 1 team over another. Each team chose a leader and decide to compete. Lion, the king of jungle decided that there will be a race from one corner of the jungle to another. Tortoise group became upset because they knew they move very slowly and rabbits move very fast. But they could not say no to the king and reluctantly decided to compete with rabbit.

Competition 1:

Tortoise and Rabbit both started together. Tortoise was having a very slow pace and rabbit was having a very high pace of moving towards the finish line. When almost half done with the race, rabbit became very hungry. He ate some radish on the way and felt drowsy. He thought that tortoise would be lacking far behind. He thought of taking rest and went for a nap. While he was sleeping tortoise who was consistent throughout kept on moving without break, crossed rabbit on the way and reached the finish line earlier than rabbit. So Tortoise slowly and steadily won the race.

Rabbit team became very angry and dissatisfied. They told the king that it was not fair. They complained that tortoise took advantage of weak health of their leader. They lied that he had become sick during the race.

King agreed and planned for another race. This time it will be a race in water. They have to cross a river. And any number of participants can participate as 1 single team.

Competition 2:

A large boat was hired by both teams. Rabbit team leader took 30 rabbit in his team which were 10 more than actually needed. Tortoise leader took 25 which were 5 more than the requirement. The course of race was very long. It would take almost a day to go and return back. Both teams started. In the beginning rabbit team took lead again. But Tortoise team had better knowledge of short cuts in water as they live in it. When the rabbit leader saw tortoise ship approaching he started pressurizing his team. He was a theory X manager. He started showing distrust in his team. He started shouting at all. Also since the food item the team was given was with respect to 20 people but he had 30 rabbit in his team. So food stock started depleting fast. He started laying off people. He though since he has excess members, it doesn’t make any difference. But this had a wrong psychological effect in the minds of team worker. They thought they would be laid off anytime. The insecurity reduced their efficiency. The leader forgot the importance of ‘Fayol’s principle of Espirit de corpse’ which emphasised the importance of amicable relation between worker and manager. He did not plan which rabbit is best suited for rowing at front end and which rabbit is suited for rowing at rear end of the boat. He also did not give them required break and defied all working hours. Thus he failed again in job design and Scientific management.  After some time due to misuse of his power and ruthless behaviour, some rabbit formed a union and told that they don’t want to work under him anymore. Many more joined in. Rabbit could not tackle the union problem and the worker left the race. He was left alone and so he couldn’t even complete the race.

On the other hand Tortoise team leader was Theory Y manager. He motivated them  throughout the way. He carefully designed job as to who should row where. He had taken 5 extra so that those who become tired can go for job rotation with these 5 and do some light work like serving water and food to the team. He made sure that oar to row boat was of right weight and length and scientifically found 1 best method to do the job which was ergonomically sound. Naturally they won the race.

Though Tortoise are slow worker but they proved once again that a good manager can make better utilization of available resources with his managerial skills and vice versa a bad manager can fail the entire organization even though the workers are very skilled and have high potential and competency.

MODERN MANAGEMENT THEORIES

I will discuss two modern management theories which are very important for any manager entrusted with critical decision- making responsibilities. They are- System Theory and Contingency theory. Let us take them one by one:

1) System Theory:

Systems theory assumes that views the organization as unified purposeful systems composed of interrelated parts. It believes that any activity taken up by any single department will affect other departments in varying degree of proportions.

Some key concepts:

    a)Subsystem- The department is a subsystem of plant, plant is a subsystem of company, company is        subsystem of conglomerate  or industry , industry is subsystem of national economy and national economy is   subsystem of world economy.

         

      b)  Synergy- It means that each department working  separate and independently will be less efficient that all     departments working in coordination towards goal.

     

       c)  Open and closed subsystem- If a subsystem interacts with the environment , it is called open subsystem  and those subsystems which do not interacts with the environment are called closed system.

     

      d)  System Boundary- Closed system boundary is rigid and less subjected to change. On the other hand    Open Systems are more flexible.

     

      e)    Feedback: In order to control systems, feedback is very important. It can be related to product,                 process, market, demand and changing trends and needs of the customer. It helps company evolve and          pass the test of time.

2) Contingency Theory:

This theory believes that no particular method is best fit for all situations. It depends on many factors which will vary from condition to condition. A contingency manager is expected to see which method to use in that particular case after analysing it thoroughly.

Example:  Suppose a situation where a manager has to decide what is to be done to encourage worker to increase productivity. A classical theorist will say that work methods needs to be changed to simplify the process for worker. A behavioral scientist may say to incorporate job enrichment to allow for greater autonomy and break the monotony by giving more responsibility. In such case it is the responsibility of the manager to decide what to be used. If the labour is unskilled and training cost is high or unfeasible, he should go for work simplification method.  And if worker is skilled driven by pride in their ability, job enrichment will be a better option.

These two theories always need to be kept in mind before taking any decision as it affects the whole company.

SMS- Safety Management System

SMS- Safety Management System

Breaking away from my previous trends of writing about general management technique, today  I want to discuss something different yet most important- Safety Management System. It is defined as “A businesslike approach to safety. It is a systematic, explicit and comprehensive process for managing safety risks”. As with all management systems, a safety management system provides for goal setting, planning, and measuring performance. A safety management system is woven into the fabric of an organization. It becomes part of the culture, the way people do their jobs.

Let us understand this with a situation.

Three men Ram, Shyam and Raman have to cross a valley which is more than one step of the member and less than two steps. They started thinking of ways they can cross valley.

Ram’s Solution: He came with the idea to use a long rod with sufficient length. He suggested that they attempt to cross the gap with everyone holding on to the rod. As soon as someone is on the gap, he would hang from the rod and the other two members would take his weight. This way they can cross the gap. 

Valley Crossing method as per Ram

Shyam’s Opinon

Shyam analysed the solution proposed by Ram quickly and he felt that this way the load distribution was effectively managed. Also, the role of one will depend on the role of another. He came up with the following chart showing various stages when each will face fully safe, half safe and fully unsafe conditions.

He also told that his solutions relied on following concepts:

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.

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

DISTRIBUTIVE 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

COMMUNICATION- A team member must clearly understand what his fellow team members are up to. He should be very clear about his roles and responsibilities in the team. It is the duty of the team leader to delegate responsibilities as per the interest and specializations of the team members without imposing things on them. Never confuse any employee.

But Raman was not satisfied with the solution proposed. He differed in the view that in spite of it being a good method, it still involves a lot of risk to them. Instead he came with an even better solution. He suggested that instead of using rod and hanging on to it while crossing, they should use a plank which can be placed down and can be used for crossing with minimum risk involved.

Crossing using plank instead of Rod

He also made comparison between the two methods as follows:

Comparison between two Solutions

Ram Method ( Old Process)	Raman Method (New Process)
Relatively High Risk	Very Low Risk
Too much dependent on Trust among people	Less Dependency
Training was needed	No training required
Time Consuming	Less Time taking
Physical strength is important	Physical strength not needed

After listening to Raman’s viewpoint all agreed that his solutions included Safety Management System Techniques which is in the interest of all of them. They all readily agreed and decided that they will use a plank so that threat to their life becomes 0........

 This is better Management.

Tower of Management

Tower Of Management

In one of my class an activity of tower making was conducted .Dr Mandi came to class with 2 boxes of wooden cubes of about 2 cm length and asked who could build the highest tower with those blocks with a single block as base. Many students raised hands to get the opportunity. Finally tall tower of 16 blocks was made. Professor asked what are the management learning involved in this activity. Based on the answers by the students and the faculty I felt that each block placed over one another had something important worth sharing. It is as follows:

These 16 qualities for me are the Towers of Management.................

Learn from Mistakes

LEARN FROM MISTAKES

When I saw the Chinese animated movie 3 monk directed by A Da, I couldn’t help but laugh thinking of my childhood when I encountered a very similar situation. Every year during summer vacations we used to visit our grandparents’ house. My family and 2 of my paternal uncle’s family used to gather there and stay together for a week or two. I was the oldest of all the children which include my brother and 2 cousins.

It is great fun meeting extended family as it involves sharing food, interesting stories, life events, and what not. It was summer time and since my mother and my aunts would be busy most of the time in making arrangements for lunch and dinner, my father asked all children to make sure that we fill water bottles and keep it in refrigerators so that everybody gets cold water to drink. Though it seems so simple task but due to high consumption the frequency of filling bottles was very high and so nobody wanted to do it. Each of us thought it was other person’s responsibility and not theirs. We were reminded many times and warned but we did not take it seriously. We thought someone will do it.

But one day my grandfather went out for doing some work and when he came back in afternoon he was very thirsty. It seemed as if he was fully exhausted and drained of all energy. He asked for cold water. My father went to bring it. But to his shock it was not available- not a single bottle. He became very furious. He came out and let loose all his anger on us. He told that we were entrusted with just one task which we couldn’t do. All persons in the family were doing something or the other and we couldn’t even provide water to our old grandfather. Also he said that from now on he himself will do it.

I felt very ashamed of myself. I was the oldest son there and was trying to shirk from simple duties. Not just me in fact all my cousins felt very bad and we promised my father that we will make sure that from now on nothing like this happens again. All of us apologised each other and accepted their mistake of being selfish and stupid. 

We came with a plan and divided the work among ourselves. We divided day into 4 slots – 1 each before and after lunch and dinner. Since after lunch its the maximum amount of bottles which needs to be filled, taking the initiative I took that slot. The cousin of same age as me took fter dinner slot. Similarly each one decided their time of the day when they will fill the bottles. Since then onwards nobody ever got a chance to complain. Everybody was happy with our self formed strategy and we were applauded many times.

WHAT did I learn from this incident which is same as that of the case of 3 monks? Many things like:

Team Work: Somebody truly said “ United we stand divided we fall”. When we thought of working in team all negative energy vanished. We worked in coordination and our relation also strengthened.

Innovation and Creativity: When people come together with the intention to achieve common goal, they help the team in constructive manner in giving valuable suggestions and ideas.

Efficiency and productivity: The output improved and there was no error reported in the outcome.

Difficult to initiate but easy to finish: I also realised that each of us was capable enough to complete the task but nobody wanted to take the initiative. Once the process was set in motion things improved and everybody could realise their full potential.

Work Division: Since we divide our work based on the the capability of each person. Not only it strengthened the whole organisation structure it also instilled confidence among our juniors that work has been fairly divided.

I realised that management is there in many things. Either you learn from someone else or you learn from your own mistakes.................

SMART Goal Technique and My Brother

Today when the importance of ‘SMART’ goal setting was taught to me in my management class I felt that some of us are learning what it means whereas there are some people who might not know what it is called but they definitely are aware of the concept inside out and follow it in their lives. The moment I understood what it is, the very moment I started thinking of my younger brother who had used this smart goal setting to get into India’s no 1 law college NLS Bangalore with an AIR of 19 in CLAT exam.

I remember talking to him two years back when he told me his Specific goal of getting into National Law School. He told me this with such an optimism and confidence as if he had seen the future and knew it for sure. I remember in one way or the other he answered all the 5 W questions required for a goal to be specific:

·         What: What did he want to accomplish?

·         Why: Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.

·         Who: Who was involved?

·         Where: Identified the location.

·         Which: Identified requirements and constraints

Being the older brother I had told him the difficulty I faced in accomplishing what I had set for. To this he told that he will always keep in track his performance. He would keep Measuring his improvements and record it. He had already set a benchmark for himself and was competing with himself to beat that record. He very well knew how to achieve his goal.

I remember he had pasted a poster on the wall of his room written in bold “ AIR 1”. I never understood its importance then. But now when I look at it from management perspective I realise that this small activity he did made his goal Attainable to him. Seeing it every day multiple number of times made him believe that his goal was achievable.

Then he also displayed the fourth factor of Relevancy in his pursuit. He discarded or prevented doing any activity that was not relevant to his goal. He weighed his options on the sieve which questioned :

·         Does this seem worthwhile?

• Is this the right time?
• Does this match my other efforts/needs?

Also all his actions were Time bound. He had a mental scheduling of what to be done and when. He gave a time frame to his endeavour and avoided unnecessary wastage of precious gift of time.

Thus his goal was Specific- Measurable- Attainable-Relevant-Time bound. In short it was a SMART goal setting.

And it is because of these practices that he has accomplished what he always wanted. He fulfilled his dream and is progressing towards a brilliant future. I wish him all the best and hope that he keeps employing this concept throughout his life..............