My Learning from POM Course by Dr. Mandi

Hi Everyone,

Below is the Video about my learning from the Principles of organisational management taught by Prof Mandi at NITIE.

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.

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.

STORY HIGHLIGHT

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.

Management Lessons:

1. Teamwork enhances efficiency

In starting all three monks fight among them and no one wants to go downhill to bring water.They allow personal pride to interfere with the performance of the task and their ego or laziness whatever it is, drive them to fight rather than concentrating on completion of the task. But when fire breaks out, they understand their responsibility and work in a team to save the temple.So, the lesson here is that ego/laziness & personal vanity must be kept out and duty should be performed so that there is no any regret later. A manager should take a note of this and make sure that there is no any work-delegation to others in his team.

2. Conflicts/disputes arises when there is more than one person involved in a task

We can infer from the video that the goal is to keep water stored all the times. But when the 3rd monk brings water he drink all by himself and nothing remains for next time. This led to further animosity among the 3 monks and the task never got completed. Hence even in an organization, selfish motives should be discouraged. A team working towards a common goal is the best direction to be heading to!

3. Scientific & Objective measurements and instruments must be used in order to resolve conflict

omplex Problems, Simple Solutions - This is the motto of decision making for any manager or team member in an organization. When the first two monks were trying to push the weight of the bucket towards each other, we in the class were asked to give a possible solution to the problem. And well, a simple solution was suggested by one of the student that they should mark the middle of the stick so that they do not fight. For marking purpose, they should use the standard scale so that, there is  no any conflicts remaining.

There were a lot of other possible alternative solutions given by others too like:

One person getting water one day

Two persons more bucket

Two sticks, four buckets

Divide the work in half

Get a motor and connect a pipe

Attitude problem - Brain wash

But in an organization, the above mentioned alternates cannot be applied. We have to think rationally and not in a bounded territory.

When posed with a question from our professor, that whether the two monks should get 2 buckets on alternate days or a bucket shared by both of them, most of us answered "Alternate Days" and by now it's easy to guess that it was the wrong answer because it was driven by common sense and not Productivity analysis according to which getting 1 bucket shared by the two monks is a much better proposition. Just to make it clearer, here is a table illustrating the productivity statistics in either case. Assuming 1 Man uses 1 unit of energy to lift 1 bucket.

- Teamwork and organisation interest should take precedence over personal interest

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). 

Efficient methods evolves over a period of time or by experimenting

- Experiences in crisis management comes handy to come up with new innovative methods to solve a problems

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 (Fire is a metaphor for something ungainly in the organization).

- Attitude of team member plays an important role in successful completion of the task

When the two monks were trying to divide the load of the bucket equally, the taller monk used his bigger hands to show that the bucket should be hung closer to the first monk, but the presence of a measuring instrument helped them get the exact center and resolved the problem. Hence it is important for a team and a manger to have the right attitude.

- Synergy: sum of two components is bigger than the whole 

To put out the fire each monk panicked and tried his best to run down to the river and bring the bucket full of water. But this process was long and tiring, and also had too many glitches on the road. So it proved to be ineffective.

Coordinated effort dosed of fire very easily and without being tired.

  

Productivity is Important. Productivity is about how well an organization converts resource inputs into goods or services. Workplace productivity is about how firms can utilize labor and skills, innovation, technology and organizational structure to improve the quantity and quality of their output.

Basically it's about exploring all the ways that can make a working environment more efficient.

Why is productivity important?

• Basis for improvements in real incomes and economic well-being.

• Monetary policy (inflationary pressures)

• Fiscal policy (financing of health, education, welfare)

• Slow productivity growth = conflicting demands for distribution of income more likely

CONCLUSION

From the above video analysis, we have come to the following conclusion :

1. Disputes and conflicts are bound to arise but they need to be minimized so as to make the most out of the available resources
2. Team work and coordination is the key to success
3. The productivity increases with the increase in the number of persons
4. One monk carrying water every day will become boring after a while but two monks carrying water will not be boring and productivity will not be hampered
5. Synergy is the magic word here!
6. There is more than 100% increase in the production with 100% increase in resources with good co-ordination

Creative Problem Solving Strategies

Creative Problem Solving Strategies

Before implementing any problem solving strategy, make sure you’ve identified the real problem. To use creative problem solving techniques, we must understand creative thinking.

Creative thinking is allowing our imaginations to feed off our memory, and knowledge, to cause one idea to lead to another, otherwise known as the "association of ideas."

The key factors needed for creative thinking are:

1) No Judgments

By far the most important characteristic of effective creative problem solving, is to have an open mind, don’t criticize any idea that may come to mind, but rather write each idea down.

For example:

PROBLEM:

Not enough money

IDEAS:

Sell any miscellaneous home items I can do without, on eBay and Craigslist

2) Self Assessment

So that we can figure out the best solution to our problem, it’s helpful to identify any opinions we may have about our problem, and about any of our ideas on how to fix the problem. Literally, ask yourself, “Do I have an opinion about this?”

For example:

IDEA: Drop water filter service OPINION: I think unfiltered water is unhealthy

3) Positive Attitude

Develop an attitude that all ideas are good ideas, as cynicism only inhibits creative thinking.

4) Use Checklists

There are a couple reasons why you should write down EVERY idea, no matter how far-fetched it may seem at the moment. Writing down all ideas will ensure that nothing important is forgotten, and will give us an opportunity to go back, and combine parts of one idea with another, letting our ideas feed off each other.

5) Be Self Confident

Remember that many of the world's greatest ideas were ridiculed at first. Have faith in your creativity! Some of our most basic scientific principles like that the Earth is round and revolves around the sun never would have been advanced without the confidence and courage to go against the grain.

Stages in Creative Problem Solving

Orientation Stage

Make sure you have a comfortable, maybe private, place to brainstorm. Generate a list of topic headings, used to gather ideas to solve the problem.

Preparation and Analysis Stage

Think of this step as the fact-finding time. Getting bogged down in too many details at this stage may actually restrain creative thinking efforts. There will be time later to go back and fill in the facts you need as you further develop your ideas.

1) Go back to the headings you created. 
Are there any headings that don't seem relevant?

Will gathering facts for these topic headings help me solve my problem? Scratch out any topic headings you think are not truly relevant.

2) Analyze your topic headings now by looking for similarities, and differences. You may end up deleting more headings, or adding a few new ones, or end up combining a few topic-idea headings. This will help you develop a framework for generating your solution.

Brainstorming

Generating possible solutions. The philosophy behind brainstorming is that the more ideas there are on the table, the more likely a suitable solution will emerge. This stage of the process is a "freewheeling" exchange of ideas, to create a list of as many possibilities as you can think up. Remember to write all ideas down, no matter how far-fetched they may seem, and to maintain an open mind at all times. Let ideas feed off one another and feel free to combine parts of one solution with another or alter ideas in various ways.

Incubation

Taking a break to encourage illumination. Incubation is the "time-out" stage of the process you step away from the problem, and potential solutions, freeing up your mind to let your ideas grow and to encourage "illumination" of the correct solution. While a time-out may not always be practical for every problem-solving situation, it is an important part of the creative process, don’t overwork the mind.

Whether the time-out is a quick walk, or a night's sleep, the purpose should be not to force the mind to think about any particular aspect of the problem or solution, but to let the mind meander as it wants. Some of the world's most creative people rely on these moments of silence, and solitude, for their best ideas.

Synthesis and verification

Out of all the possibilities you’ve generated during your brainstorming session, the ideal solution should be a combination of the best qualities of each idea. Rather than continuing to dissect the problem, we now can combine ideas generated by our brainstorming, to come up with the best solution, with recommendations that will solve our problem.

1) Make a list of all the desirable qualities, or disadvantages, that a solution might have, and then rate each idea generated. Each quality or disadvantage can be weighted in terms of its importance, or applied, without weighting. The idea with the best overall profile can then be identified. 

You may want to create an outline or grouping of ideas, with similar ideas assigned to the same group, and relations, between groups of ideas, mapped out. 

Verification is the final phase of the process and requires testing the solution you have chosen to see if it is able to solve the problem.

Valley Crossing

"United we stand, Divided we fall" . The value of teamwork has been shown umpteen numbers of time in history. It has enabled man to come out of cages and reach the moon. What a single man cannot achieve individually can be easily achieved working as a team and that to with manifold increase in scale.

Three people have to cross a valley which is more than one step of the member and less than two steps. They have a long rod with sufficient length. 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. Also it must be noted that load distribution was effectively managed.

There are several stages which are  systematically divided to structure the task :-

1st step - All 3 are safe .

2nd step - Front one is Half safe. Middle and Last one is fully  safe

3rd step - Front one is Fully Risky; Middle one and Last one is Fully SAFE

4th step - Front one and middle one are HALF RISKY; Rear one is SAFE

5th step - Front one SAFE: Middle one is Fully Risky; Last one is SAFE.

6th step - Front one and  Middle ones are Fully Safe; Last one is Fully Risky

7th step - Front and Middle one is safe; 

8th step - Last one is half risky

9th step - All three are Safe

Management Lesson learnt

Planning: 

Suppose, we are 3 people. We are provided with a pole and we need to cross the valley. Our 1st step will be to form a Team and formulate the plan. The plan should be focused on how we can leverage our strength as a team. Though, we have already seen the picture, plan was already  out.

Leadership:

In the exercise, each member has the same set of tasks, burdens and responsibilities. But , not every member in the team would take the initiative to go first as the first person is the first risk taker and not everyone in the team would be willing to follow anyone else. Yet, the show has to run and the team has to do its job and this is where a manager comes in.

The Manager is responsible for taking the initiative because he visualizes the goal in his mind. The manager is responsible for the work division, for giving the interdependent roles to the team workers and finally take them all along to achieve the target.

Work Division and Interdependence:

Now, it would not be practical if each role in an organization can be crafted as in the above case with similar risks borne by everyone and expect everyone else to follow the leader thereby satisfying every employee.

Synchronization:

An individual as a team member has to perform his/her task with utmost diligence such that the output of team as a whole should not be affected. This exercise throws light on the concept of smooth execution of individual tasks which in turn would accomplish the complete task perfectly. Any single flaw in execution could result in inapt outcomes. For example in this case, if last person doesn't carry the load appropriately, the first person might fall in very first step.

Unity of Direction:

It is one of the several Principles of Management which is responsible for a sound organisation. It is related to the functioning of departments, or organisation as a whole that avoids duplication of efforts and wastage of resources. Thus, in this valley crossing case, without Unity of direction, Unity of Action is not achievable!!!

Trust: 

As a Team member, we need to trust other team members. In the valley crossing exercise, if all three people do not trust each other, nobody will get ready to hang on pole in the valley with their life at stake. Trust is build over time and as a manager we must ensure to create an environment where one team member can trust other.

Real-time communication:

This is most necessary for the proper coordination between many players as it helps in the maintenance of “Unity of Command” principle.Effective communication is a pre-requisite. There should be a smooth flow of communication even at the time of executing task. As, we saw during activity, assuming the solution to be simple, people didn’t allocate proper time to understand their role clearly. It resulted in bad co-ordination. One person moved one step ahead while other person stood at same place. People were hanging on pole in wrong sequence or at wrong time. Though, Task was finally completed with the help of proper communication at the execution time. There may be possibility that while formulating the plan people are not 100% clear about their role, though they think so. Effective initial communication can avoid this situation and proper communication during task performance will ensure a successful task even if there was some gap at 1st stage.

KHAN Academy : Global One-World Classroom

It teaches over 4 millions of students a month. It might change the conventional education system of the world. It is trying our best to improve the way the world learns. Too many people around the globe don’t have access to high quality educational materials, or are forced to learn through a system that doesn't allow them to learn at their own pace. 

Who is it?

It is KHAN Academy. KHAN Academy is not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a free world class education for anyone, anywhere. Created in 2006 by by Bangladeshi American  educator Salman Khan, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School. The website supplies a free online collection of more than 3,200 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube teaching all the subjects.

Let us absorb how he has built on simple idea to make one of the breakthrough non-profit educational organization.

Inception of idea

Salman Khan has the habit of teaching his cousins and relatives children. Khan used to tutor his cousin Nadia in mathematics using yahoo doodle notepad. When other relative children asked him taught same thing, he decided to make a tutorial video  and uploaded it in youtube.

His cousins like the video as they could rewind and revisit anytime and anywhere. Accidently few unintended surfer also visited his video and put some encouraging comment. This  prompted Khan to quit his job in finance as a hedge fund and began working out of his closet in a non-profit endeavour to "provide a free, world class education for anyone, anywhere."

Vision

To build a global one-world classroom

Mission

Provide a free, world class education for anyone, anywhere

Conceptual model

1. -         To create video library on various subject from basic topic areas to advanced topics.
2. -       Flip the classroom.  In traditional way of learning, students are taught basic concept in class and were given homework to find out the his understanding on the topic. Now with videos on various topics are available on the site, student can watch the video at home and do homework at school.
3.       Online assessment on various topics
4. -       To provide data and analytics to teachers so that they can track the progress of student. It should also highlight in which questions or topics student is struggling to understand.

Scalability

As Khan Academy is not for profit organization, scalability has been the issue for propagation of the breakthrough idea. He has following expansion initiatives :

1.      Expanding the teaching faculty

2.      Working on data analytics for teacher to track the student progress.

3.      Extending content through crowd-sourced contributions following a Wikipedia-style model.

On noticing highest possible social return on value many philanthropists has donated handsome  amount of money. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates discovered Khan's videos for his own kids; he invited Khan up to his foundation to discuss Khan Academy. Soon, millions of dollars were donated to his efforts, much of it from Google and the Gates Foundation.

Participative Management Style – Theory Y:

(Assuming student as the employee)

-       Student (Employee) learn as naturally as they play because they don’t have to feel the pressure of teacher being monitoring him. Also, they don’t have to feel shy if they don’t understand certain part as they can any rewind it or restart it. There is no strict time-table to follow. They can follow their on pace.

-  Student (Employee) will apply self-control and self-direction in the pursuit of learnings (organisational objectives), without external control or the threat of punishment (Appraisal)

-        Student (Employee) usually accept and often seek responsibility. It has been absorb that students were studying even during vacations and at 3 a.m.

Constant restructuring of Organisation:

They keep on taking constant feedbacks of teachers regarding the progress of the student as well as on the software for data analysis. Depending upon the requirement of teacher (customer) they on changing the software as well as curriculum and teaching style.

Future Prospects and Globalization:

Topics to be covered in open ended, from basic physics to metaphysics, algebra to calculus. There are unlimited topics to covered. Moreover, there won’t be any competition as everything available is for free.

Internet is source of global expansion. One can access it sitting silicon valley as well as one sitting in rural India. Also, with collaboration with google for language translation, more and more will be able to understand it. Currently all the videos are translated into 10 foreign language.

LE01 : Goal Settings

We have experienced significant difficulties in overcoming fear of uncertainties.  We have bounded ourselves in self-limiting boundaries and prevent ourselves from thinking out-of-box. Dr T. Prasad’s first session on principle of organization management provoked us to think beyond self comforting boundaries. He encouraged us to start with our own ventures ‘Hamara Dhandha’ where we can apply our management learning’s of next 2 years to grow it up to self sustainable level. Few students in our class made money by writing blogs in their area of interests.

Moreover he also raised question on our education system which gives more emphasis on theoretical knowledge rather than knowing practicality of the concepts.  Also, he showed us few toys which can be innovatively used to explain and derive basic mathematical formulas rather than traditional rote learning. Video of ‘Another brick on the wall’ by Pink Floyd best describes the above said situation. 

He showed us the video of ‘Maha-Mandi’, an initiative by Dr. T Prasad to make student have firsthand experience about how marketing and sales has been done in real world. I have gained few key learning’s through this video .

1. Strategizing before approaching the customer plays a very pivotal role. Like, explaining the educational aspects of the toys to the parent as they are very concern about their children’s education. Giving chocolates to the children and inviting them to see our product.
2. One should not get disheartened by initial failures. One should keep trying till he gets the success.

Latter we were introduced to term SMART goals. Goal setting plays a very vital role in growth of the organization or individual. It provides sense of direction and purpose.  These five key letter means:

Goal setting encourages participants to put in substantial effort. Also, because every member has defined expectations for their role. Importance of goals setting was explained through ‘Tower Building’ activity.

Team of 3 was divided into different hierarchy:

• -       Top Management
• -        Manager
• -       Sub-ordinate

These levels are fundamental and basic hierarchy of any organization. I could co-relate this to my organizational structure of my previous employer. Each member has specific and defined roles and responsibilities.

There few take-aways from the above activity. These are:

1. Goals can lead to more effort. Goals serve as an energizer; higher goals induce greater effort while low goals induce lesser effort. For example, most of the students were of opinion that tower of more than 15 cube can’t be build with sub-ordinate being blind-folded and using his odd hand. But they set the goal of 18 cubes which they achieved in the end with their determination.
2. Persistence – Persistence is also their
3. Goals can lead individuals to develop and change their behaviour. Initially, the sub-ordinate was of opinion that tower of more 10 cubes can’t be built looking at the difficulty level of the task. But later, he started believing in himself and with proper guidance from management they attained the milestone.
4. The more employees are motivated, the more they are more interested in accepting goals.
5. One's belief that he is able to achieve the goals plays a very important role in attainment of goals.

The session on Goal-setting suggests that it's an effective tool for making progress by ensuring that participants in a group with a common goal are clearly aware of what is expected from them.