A couple of weeks ago, when we were all waiting eagerly to
get started with our Monday morning classes, Dr. Mandi walked in. After his
initial exchange of pleasantries with the class, he took out from his bag, a
collection of 27 different cubes of 9 colors. While we all were thinking on the
lines of a ‘Rubix cube’ challenge, he challenged us to arrange the cubes in
such a manner that no face of the larger cube thus formed, would have any
repetitive color among it. In a more clear manner, it meant that each color
should occur once and only once in each and every face of the larger cube.
With every challenge there is the initial enthusiasm. We all
started having our own tries at the assignment without a bit of planning or
coordination. One or two of us, even boldly ventured out to take it as a
challenge and try it in front of the class. Mr. Mandi ridiculed us for having
an unorganized approach of doing it and took an opportunity to show the class
how it was to be done.
Following this, he challenged us to make a demonstration video
of the activity, so that anyone watching the video could understand how the
task could be accomplished in a simple manner. The catch was this: There had to
be 2 volunteers; one who would talk about what is being done; and the other who
would actually perform the process of arriving at the answer. It is anyone’s
guess as to whose hand would’ve shot up to the air first. Yes, me and my friend
volunteered to do it and I’d let you people have a look at what unfolded after
we did.
As all of you have already seen, it was a very valuable
lesson for us on how one should convey a message across the virtual medium. The
systematic manner in which our professor conveyed the methodology left us
ashamed at the job that we had done. This was followed by another team’s
attempt and then we were asked to present the same in our vernacular in order
to maximize the reach of the video. Overall, it was an enlightening experience
where we could hone our communication and marketing skills which go hand in
hand with organizational efficiency.
Going back to our places
of education is always quite an experience. While I haven’t paid a visit to my engineering
college, I can relate to this feeling from the visits that I have had to my 2
schools. This part here, is to appreciate that experience of the gentlemen
that I am going to be talking about. After all, this is one of the very few
days when time seems to be moving in the opposite direction.
It all started with a single mail. We were
told that we would be given a guest lecture by two of our alumni on the
subsequent Saturday. While our initial reactions were of irritation at the
prospect of our weekend getting disturbed, we came around to the idea eventually. In fact, we were all buzzing with enthusiasm when Dr. Mandi
walked in with a neat looking gentleman and gestured us to take our seats. We
had our first look at Mr. Nikhil, who I understand is a Manager at KPMG
Consulting, and immediately our ears were attentive to what he was
starting to say. He started out with the question of why the lot of us were
present at NITIE at that moment of time. A lot of commonly heard answers in MBA
schools came forth and some were even specific to the forte of NITIE. Nothing
untoward came about and the general consensus was that everyone was there to
get a good job. The question shifted to entrepreneurship and this was where the
fun started. People were asked about whether they wanted to become entrepreneurs
and if so, why. A lot of answers like freedom, satisfaction, money, power,
accountability, passion were thrown around and everyone seemed to agree with
what the other person had to say. Mr. Nikhil went on to dissect this
information and assured us that after a couple of years, even a manager’s job
will be as challenging as what an entrepreneur looks for. The takeaway for us,
was this: ‘Don’t become an entrepreneur for the wrong reasons. Not because you
have a bad boss, not because you have tight working hours and not because you
hate your job. Become one for the right reason and you will have the stomach to
take everything that it throws at you.’
Having said that, he moved on to his presentation. I, personally,
was interested in knowing what he had in his presentation because the title
slide said this: ‘What they don’t teach you at’. While the place of concern
needs not an explicit mention, the point of interest was what other things we
could learn. It started with an interesting slide with two cartoons
representing two students standing on the two sides of an emblem which read ‘Mastishk’.
We heard this term throughout the event and for those who’re wondering what it
is: It is a Business simulation event that is part of Prerana, the management
fest of NITIE. It was during his talk about this that his friend and co-founder
of Mastishk, Hemanth, walked in to join us. He started off with two questions:
1) what is the NITIE sarovar? 2) What is
called the ladder of success? It was quite clear that he was a bundle of energy
and there was an obvious difference and an inherent completeness in the way the
two of them went about the activity. Testimony to this, is the fact that ‘Mastishk’
was their brain-child in their second year and they went against a lot of flak
together and succeeded in making it a reality. It was during this phase of
explanation that I realized the importance of the gift of time that has been
endowed to us as NITIE students. It was quite clear that how we used that time
could figure out what we eventually become.
The importance of taking such activities up, was stressed
enough by Hemanth and Nikhil. Both of them mentioned that their final
interviews were centered around what they had done as organizers and creators
of Mastishk. We were initially intrigued by the validity of this. Hemanth came
on to answer our unraised questions: we face a lot of decision making dilemmas
that we would in a corporate organization, in a committee like Mastishk.
Nikhil was quick to come up with the example of choosing between two employees
for a promotion and relating it to selecting a fellow student for a role in a
committee. We were shown the original
business model of Mastishk and it was awe inspiring to hear the creators talk
about their creation. Given here is the website of Mastishk and a small video on the concept of online b-school events.
There were a lot of subtle takeaways for us.
Some were about the importance of winning the confidence of our subordinates.
Some was about the importance of spending time on knowing stuff. We were told
about the concept of ‘Google before you gargle’ and reminded about the
importance of using the internet in the right manner. We were told to keep the
NITIE flag flying high and the importance of taking the value out of what the
professors had to give even though some of their ideas might seem irrational at
that point in time. Nikhil suggested some movies and inspirational books to read
and it just reminded me how much I missed reading and convinced me to make it a
point to read atleast one book a month. The final slide had the best message of
all:
‘Be Inquisitive and Enthusiastic throughout. This will
result in Creativity. Then comes Competence. But without Consistency, even
competence cannot result in Credibility’
As part of a learning activity, I was asked to watch
this animation movie, ‘Three monks’ the other day. I was taken aback by how
something so simple, could convey so much meaning. A Chinese feature film shot
in the aftermath of the fall of the notorious ‘Gang of four’ in 1976, it is a
movie which has a subtle and yet strong message. The lack of dialogues makes it
an ideal candidate for anyone regardless of their vernacular. It also has
animations which children would appreciate making it an ideal lesson for
children at a very young age.
To give a brief idea about the plot of the film, it
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”. 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 candle-holder 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.
Now that I have talked enough about the movie, let
me dive right into what I could interpret from it. Each of the point mentioned
here would first talk about the implication that I derived and also how I have
faced it in my life.
From
Craftsman to a team:
It was really refreshing to see the first monk worshiping the deity with so much vigor and zeal. But it is quite obvious that
after a couple of days, he finds it monotonous and lacks the motivation to do
anything. This is very much the case with a lot of craftsmen who are all alone
in their battles against life and regardless of how good they are at their job,
their perspective is minimized which results in the lack of a vision in what they’re
doing. But it is quite clear that when the team is established, the monks get a
common purpose and end up rejoicing what they are doing. While I have not
really had any craftsmanship experience, I have often found that forming a team
helps in enjoying the little things more and also gives a second perspective to
what we do. This can come in handy, while facing any problem or while trying to
scale up into a larger magnitude.
The
need for a standard:
There is a single incident in the movie where when
the first two monks are measuring the stick with their hands, the find
differences in the resultant measurement. It was then that the first monk got
the idea of using a scale. While the importance of this in the movie was not
emphasized much, I’d like to say this: Our lives have become so much simpler
because of the existence of standard units of measurement. Imagine weighing
vegetables and computers through nothing but our hands!
Every
team has a problem, and there is a definite solution.
“People who are winning at
working don't ignore the problems they encounter.”
While this was said by some intelligent gentleman
who knew what he was talking about, I think all of us can relate to this. In
the movie, even though we see that none of the monks are evil (there are
actually instances of each of them showing kindness to a living thing), they
end up having problems and misunderstandings when they start working together.
And what next? They find the solutions which make their life much easier.
Differences in personalities of people always results in the initial friction
but this is the place where the manager needs to utilize his expertise in order
to make them work together on a problem and give the team a chance to click. In
fact, this is a direct application of the Pygmalion effect that we saw in the
previous post. I, personally, have been in a lot of situations
where there were initial frictions in the teams that I worked for, but
eventually the chemistry kicked in and everything becomes normal and in fact,
better.
Three
is greater than one.
In fact any positive integer other than one itself,
is. We see this depicted in the movie through the final scene where each of the
three monks’ life is made easier through the arrangement of the pulley and
bucket setup. It is this principle which drives organizations to scale up and
it is this very principle which makes companies better than a craftsman.
While there can be many more interpretations of this
movie, I would like my readers to throw in their perspectives as comments.
"The
ingenuity of the average worker is sufficient to outwit any system of controls
devised by management"
-Douglas Mcgregor
While it might be confusing as to why I have
mentioned this quote at the beginning of this post, I would like to throw some
light on the person who made this statement, to start things off. Douglas
Mcgregor, while working at MIT Sloan School of Management, created and
developed the two great theories of human motivation, namely: Theory X and
Theory Y during the 1960s. These have been used extensively in human resource
management, organizational behavior, organizational communication and
organizational development.
While
the pictures are pretty self-explanatory, some more understanding should be
there about these two theories. Theory X has been deemed highly counterproductive.
It leads to mistrust, highly restrictive supervision and a punitive atmosphere.
Phrases and words like intolerant, deadline-driven, aloof and arrogant, demands
yet never asks are associated with a manager who follows this theory. It is
quite clear that such managers wouldn't last one day in the current world and
it is surprising that such class of managers do exist. On the other hand, Mr.
McGregor rates Theory Y quite highly. In 'The Human Side of Enterprise' he
simply argues for managers to be open to a more positive view of the employees.
He explains that this would go a long way in creating an environment of Trust,
that is indispensable for human resource development.
Something not as popular as these two theories is
called Theory Z. This was not developed by Mr. Mcgregor but by William Ouchi in
his book, 'Theory Z: How American management can meet the
Japanese Challenge'. Theory Z essentially advocates a combination of all
that's best about theory Y and modern Japanese management, which places a large
amount of freedom and trust with workers, and assumes that workers have a
strong loyalty and interest in team-working and the organization. Theory Z
also places more reliance on the attitude and responsibilities of the workers,
whereas Mcgregor's X and Y theory is mainly focused on management and
motivation from the manager's and organization’s perspective. There is no doubt
that Ouchi's Theory Z model offers excellent ideas, albeit it lacking the simple
elegance of McGregor’s model, which let's face it, thousands of organizations
and managers around the world have still yet to embrace.
Coming to the question of managers that I have personally
had a chance to work with, I have had two of them. Mr N and Ms. G. I am
choosing to avoid using their names to avoid talking about them in public forum
with their names. Both of my managers always went by Theory Y and it should be
mentioned as a credit to the work culture at my organization that all the
managers were encouraged to do so. I believe I’ll make a manager who will go by
Theory Y with a subtle hint of Theory X when something important needs some
urgent follow up and I am not sure if the concerned resource will get it done
on time.
Ever since watching this video(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuELGdxwBCg), I have been really excited about the prospect of joining a beautiful and reputed institute like NITIE. One of the USPs of this particular video by MTV is the way Professor T. Prasad, more popularly known as Dr. Mandi, entertains while promising to teach his students the art of management. But it was not until 9: 05 am yesterday did I come to know that my very first class will be his.
It was extremely interesting to listen to how he went about explaining us the opportunity cost that we were incurring in order to be part of the course. It was really refreshing for the whole class to listen to Doctor Mandi's practical yet effective way of teaching. In a subtle yet strong message, he explained to us, the importance of self-sustenance and with a hint of derision, rightly called the attitude of spending hard-earned parents' money the equivalent of begging. He put his point across using the phrase 'Aaj khi roooti Aaj hi khamana hai', which in Hindi means one has to earn his every meal on the same day. It was pretty apparent from his manners that he was a technology enthusiast and we have all been asked to join his ride of educating the masses through the social media. Starting with this post, I will try to do justice to the magnitude of this objective. My posts here will concentrate more on ' The Principles of Organisation and Management' and in our first class yesterday, we were told about the importance of this course. In a nutshell, we were asked to 'stop being nuts & bolts in a car and start imagining and appreciating and understanding the car itself'. For those of you who do not understand, the car here is analogous to the organization and the employees being the small parts of the organization which make it run. This beginning has really made the lot of us want to learn more and more about the fundamentals of an 'Organization' and more importantly, teach the millions out there, what we are going to learn!
