Difference is what makes a difference ;)

The Power of Being Different

This blog of mine explores the concept of Smart Goals and also the art of being different at the same time which can take you places!

Life is a Sum of All Your Choices

It was a usual working day at NITIE and I was all set to take a note of this upcoming lecture. But as he started with the conversation, it was no longer an ordinary Wednesday morning. One thing common among all my batchmates… We are ‘Engineers’. So, when he began to ask about some of the latest technologies like 3D Printers, etc., it was no surprise. Then, he further asked some basic questions related to an individual. Eg. He asked some students what would they like to print using a 3D Printer (I was one of those) and my answer to this question was….. ofcourse “Chocolate”. Others had their own likings too and some guys were still perplexed thinking what kind of an answer is this Professor seeking for or what could flatter him. But, to my surprise, for the confused people, Dr. Mandi made them realize that the decision that we finally take in context with what is to be printed using that wonderful Printer is as important as one makes when it comes to deciding on his girlfriend. These were some measures that he incorporated in his lecture to keep it light. BUT, if thought in depth, it had a substantial meaning. Decisions are not about what you should be but what you want to be.

I was completely engrossed when he said,”The best way to learn is to get ones hands dirty….”. I could really feel the fact that, today someone else is slogging himself so that I could live and learn in this institute. 

“Aaj ki Roti Aaj hi Kamana..!” is not just a slogan; the very essence of it is far deeper which says about the real life scenario, ones hard work, ones sense of responsibility and fortitude. Its more about people like us, who have been blessed to have the best of education, who can earn for themselves. Paying heavy money for studies, & just getting a good Degree is not what should be the scenario. I should rather earn for my own living. It’s like every man for himself. So that I could say to the world…”I was born without you, so obviously I don’t need you for my survival…”

I just asked myself if this was just for the time being that I am feeling so enriched or should I instigate in me the most of what Dr.Mandi taught. After analyzing it all, I felt, that in the end, we only regret the chances we don’t take.

I realized that it’s Not Hard to Make Decision when we Know what Our Values are.

Dare To Be Different

When he further elaborated on what we as engineers have to offer to the world in the real time scenario, I realized that the education imparted in today’s scenario in schools and colleges is futile if one cannot apply them to the practical situations or use them in creating a model that would stand as a representative of a particular concept. We tend to solve and write theories, laws and concepts on paper, use them in further solving other bookish questions and score decent enough in our exams, which gives us a sense of satisfaction, confidence and confirmation that we have, and yet we further can, excel in our lives using this knowledge and perform well in later pursuits. BUT, the reality is miles away from this perception. In a group of nearly 70 people, very few could interpret the concepts behind the structural models of the mathematical formulas and scientific laws because only they could visualize it and at the same time relate it to the theoretical concepts we have been studying since school.

The lecture went on to a whole different level when we were shown the video of “Another Brick in the Wall” by Pink Floyd. It inspired me a lot and instigated in me the very feeling of ‘Dare To Be Different’… Moreover, in order to be irreplaceable, one should be different and not just follow the crowd being another brick in the wall.

The mantra “Socho Becho…. Becho Seekho…. Seekho Socho…!” was then embedded in our learning to make us understand that, Anything that is new, innovative and usable, if really given a serious thought and optimized almost approximately to the desired level can be made to sell easily.

Goal Setting

Often it happens that whenever we choose to pick up a specific task or choose a particular option out of the given options, we fail to analyze this choice on a personal level. That is why ‘Goal Setting’ is one of the most important, significant and effective aspects of our lives.

When we are surrounded by thousands of options, possibilities and opportunities to choose between, it is extremely vital to know ourselves and our capabilities on individual levels, so that we can set optimally achievable goals for ourselves.

SMART Goals

We learnt the SMART goals through the ‘Tower Challenge’ wherein the rules were:-

Three people, a Manager, Owner and a Worker play

Worker has to follow the instructions of the Manager

Owner can interfere in the Work planned to achieve the goal only in worst conditions

Worker has to be blindfolded

Manager has to give the proper instructions to the Worker so that he puts the cubes one on top of the other in a manner that the tower does not fall

Build a tower of maximum possible length

Once the tower falls, game ends

Given: A tower of 17 cubes was built in the past

Specific Goals were determined by sorting out these 3 important aspects of the task:-

The first, and fundamentally the most important factor in Goal Setting is to realize that WHY do we want to or WHY should we set a goal. The moment we get an answer to this ‘WHY’, it acts as a thrust in the remaining process of Goal Setting. As soon as we realize the needs or the wants behind setting these goals, we recognize our own competence and ability in establishing these goals. The ‘WHY’ acts as the triggering factor for it. Eg. if I am told that I have to make a tower using cubes, I might not get enough answers from my conscience, that act as a boost to take up this task, i.e. my insight is still hazy about the ‘WHY’ of this task. This might inculcate laziness and procrastination. But if I am told that I have to make a tower using cubes along with the fact that some other person (who was in my shoes at some point of time) managed to create it as long as 17 units, then it gives me a sense of confidence, determination, and competence because I know that it is achievable and maybe I might be able to outstand this task if I concentrate on my abilities and perform optimally. This inculcates a sense of purpose and direction. It also increases desire, passion, motivation and certainty.

Once we realize ‘WHY’, the next step is to think on a broader scale that WHAT do we want to achieve. As soon as we realize it, we have just sought our vision. But this vision is to be divided into smaller goals in order to accomplish it. These smaller goals are nothing but the missions to be accomplished which aid in achieving the vision set in the beginning. Eg. a task of building a tower of maximum height by keeping cubes one over the other is a larger goal. This goal is further divided into smaller goals wherein each smaller goal is a task of putting one cube successfully over the previous cube.

The next step is to figure out the ‘HOW’ part of it. Here is when the managers need to apply their managing techniques wherein the conceptual skills come into picture. The towers, cubes, how to create, what it will be in the end, is a big gamble. So how one brings in the Conceptual aspect in the planning, the execution and the changes is what makes the Big Difference.

Measurable Goal: It should be maximum possible, atleast 17 cubes. The measurability of a goal is indispensible for the management of actions required to achieve the goals.

Attainable Goal: Previously, a tower of 17 cubes was made, so the target of 18 cubes was attainable.

Relevant Goals: This aspect is like a check point. We try to go back to the above three goals and verify if our goals are realistic or doable.

Time-Bound Goals: This aspect sets a timeframe for the goal. E.g.The completion of tower building within the lecture timings.

Execution and Performance

The tower of 18 cubes was finally built. It was a tremendous execution of the plan. 

Change In Thoughts

The Managerial Skills are classified into Conceptual Skills, HR skills and Technical Skills, out of which the most important and the key element is the Conceptual skills. Being an engineer I always thought that it is the Technical aspect that matters the most. But to my surprise, the Conceptual aspect is the most influential aspect of Managerial Skills. The vision and mission should be carefully set by the Managers as they can imagine the Goal. The Worker cannot imagine the tower, they can only build the tower. They do not know how to sell the tower. So in any activity, how do we incorporate the Conceptual aspect of the Managerial Skills is what matters. More the loading of Conceptual aspect, more will be the value.

I am amazed to see how such a simple activity could bring about such enormous change in the way of thinking. How wonderfully it could become a representative model of all the targeted goals and the way to achieve them taking into consideration the real time scenario.

Hats Off to Dr. Mandi………!!

It was the most unexpected but undoubtedly the most enjoyable lecture based on practical learning I ever attended.

Looking forward to many more such experiences....

Theory X and Theory Y : Understanding the 'humane' side to Human Resource Management!!

An organization often depends upon how good its Managers are. Attitude of a manager is usually directly related to the work culture which prevails at the work place. Manager with a positive outlook can drive his/her subordinates to strive hard to deliver the desired results and there may also be a case when another manager with the same set of subordinates may deliver abysmal results.  

Broadly speaking, we can divide the managerial style in to two categories, X &Y. Theory X is the one where the team members are not motivated about their work, nobody wants to take responsibility and the results are unsatisfactory. Contrary to this Theory Y team members are the self motivated ones who deliver results. Their results are a clear reflection how much they love their work and are rewarded duly for the same. The first thought which comes to our mind regarding these two styles is that, Theory Xmust be consisting of workers who are not capable of producing the results, or may be not up to the requirement, say the bad employees, whereas on the other hand, we must be thinking that Theory Y is blessed by highly skilled work force, say the good employees. This is where the contradiction lies. These two categories are wholly dependent on the type of managers leading the teams. This is not about the workers involved. Manager being the captain of the ship can dictate the terms. He can either make the environment at the workplace as authoritarian or make it as participative. 

                    Authoritarian Type

Participative Type

As we are talking about the managers, let us assume that there are two types of workers present with any manager. Say lazy workers and not lazy workers. Managers can also assume their workers to be lazy and not lazy.With a simple permutation, we can see that there are four possible cases arising in front of us. I will quoting examples from the place I used to work, subsequently after every case.

• Case A: Given the Workers are lazy and their Manager assumes them to be lazy, then the Manager falls under Theory X.Having worked in a PSU, there were a set of employees who were just promoted on the basis of the years of their service instead of any academic qualification. The usual nature which used to be there with these set of workers was to "let go" things. They hardly used to bother much about the effect of their attitude on the work. Manager knew this very well and he has excepted this, hardly bothering them to work hard and produce result, instead loading the few people who used to work hard. Due to this, the set of workers who were working better than the former ones started feeling that they were being exploited and with due course of time, even they became unproductive. So this type of managerial style falls under Theory X.
• Case B: Given the Workers are lazy and their Manager assumes them to be not lazy, then the Manager falls under Theory Y.
  In the very same organization being talked about, there was a team headed by a different Manager also consisted of team members who were the same as above quoted example. Instead of accepting them as unproductive, he has decided to assign work according to the competencies of the individual. As it is a well known fact that every human on this planet possess immense potential, so it just depends on your guide/mentor, how they can extract the same out of you. With such type of Manger's attitude, the results were quite visible. So, even having a lazy set of workers, the Manager did not assume that his workers are lazy and hence, this type of managerial style falls under Theory Y.
• Case C: Given the Workers are not lazy and their Manager assumes them to be lazy, then the Manager falls under Theory X.
  This particular case is very harmful for any organization. Having a motivated, talented pool of individuals and then assuming that hey are good for nothing just rips off the team dynamics. This case is a very common incident in the current scenario. I have seen many of my friends and colleagues who are a premium example of this case. I will take an example from my work place itself. A very young, dynamic boy from one of the premier engineering institute joins this PSU. Now this boy was very keen on doing things differently, due to which his name was in good books in a short span of time. Manager under whom this boy was working had different thoughts. He thought that due to the pro activeness of this young chap, his position as a flag bearer is threatened so he started side lining him from the coveted jobs. All this made the working conditions for the new boy difficult and hence made the boy to look out for other options. So, we  can say that just because of the wrong doing of the manager, the company had to lose an able employee and it is also sure that many others around him would have sensed what happened. These type of managers can be easily classified as Theory X. 
• Case D: Given the Workers are not lazy and their Manager assumes them to be not lazy, then the Manager falls under Theory Y.
  This is a win-win situation for any organization. The overall work atmosphere is so positive under such kind of managers that the desired results float out automatically. Again coming back to my previous experiences, I would like to quote an example from my six month long summer internship at Mercedes Benz Research & Development India, Bangalore. I was working there as a Research Trainee. My project manager was such a dynamic personality that working under him was a pleasure to any employee. The pool of individuals working under him were all devoted to the cause and so was he to the subordinates and the company. Experiences like this do leave a pleasant patch in your memory which you do cherish year after year. I would say that his manager would be an ideal manager for any organization and he would fall under Theory Y.

With the above cited examples, I would like to convey my message that Theory Y type Managers are always desirable and these are the ones who thrive an organization towards excellence and innovation unlike Theory X type Managers. Now, being in a premier management institute, what I can learn from this is immeasurable. Prior to this lecture, I used to always think that both the workers and managers at fault. But after this session, I being a future manager, have to imbibe these teachings upon me and make a promise to myself that I turn out to be a Theory Y manager. Whatever be the available resources with an individual, he has an immense caliber to turn things to his favor. 

Digital Platform for learning revolutionizing the concept of studies

Back in the summers of 2004, a 12 year old kid had come to spend her vacations at her cousin's place. This kid used to bicker and backer about basic elementary math and had vowed not to take math at the high school. A worried mother spoke her heart out to the cousin and asked if he could do anything? This cousin of the young kid started teaching her over the phone and things went alright. As few days have passed, there started creeping in fatigue and other factors which made this learning over the phone unproductive. 

One fine evening when the cousin was having dinner with his old friend from college, he suggested him to make videos and post them over YouTube. Gradually the hits on the videos increased and noticed hits from unknown people, who by distance were not related to this gentleman. He was perplexed as to how come this is possible? 

No points for guessing who the cousin was! Yes, we are talking about the dynamic Salman Khan. A pioneer, who is an MBA and double Masters in Science from the coveted Harvard Business School (HBS)and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), respectively. He had a vision in mind, "changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere". Below is the MIT 2012 commencement in which clearly states the vision of his organisation. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn24jP0YbTI

What is Khan Academy all about? 

Khan Academy (KA) is an innovative resource which challenges the conventional way of education system by providing world class education, anywhere and everywhere free of cost.  KA boasts a collection of around 4,500 videos spread over the domains of elementary math to college level science with a hint of humanities and soft skills courses too. Below are few numbers which are mind boggling. Have a look! 

• Around 5 million unique students have watched videos over KA last month.
• Every month there are around 80 million lectures delivered.
• Till date, there have been around 260 million exercises completed

On a different note, Sal (as he is more often known as to the Silicon Valley) says that KA has taught more students than what HBS has taught till date from the time of its inception. Which is like WOW!! 

What triggered Sal to upload his tutorial videos? 

It was around 2006, when Sal started approaching his close friends and relatives and started offering tuition for their kids. There were times when Sal found the entire teaching process as mundane and wished why was he required every single time to teach the same stuff to different kids. These students had many doubts but they couldn't ask him as the kids had a preconceived notion that the teacher would be judgmental about their understanding. Say for example, "Oh! you can't even understand this??" 

He then decided to put up the videos on YouTube. One of his students left him a note that, "It's better to have you in video, rather than having you in person". This made him believe that students require a different way of learning things, unlike the elementary way of learning. 

Difference between the thought processes of the two systems

What do we learn as Managers till now? 

There are two very important things which we can learn till now. 

• Never blame the top most person of any organization, rather dig deep and analyse the root cause of the problem
  How do I support this statement in the above context? Say, we need to build a house of three floors. We are there with the plot and lay down the foundation. Now, contractor says that the work done is around 70-80% and it will do, lay start the work with the next floor. The same thing we apple for the next floor also and ultimately when we are erecting the last one, the entire house falls down. Now, whom would you blame? Contractor on the top most floor or the foundation one? 
  
  The same goes with education, when the fixed features are the ones which are with the traditional system highlighted in the image above, problems like these are bound to happen. You got to have the fixed feature as, "How well do you learn the stuff?". Only then you can have satisfactory results. 

• Optimization of the most scarce resource
  
  How effective a manager is? This is a trait which every organization looks for in a manager. In this context, the most scare resource is the time for the human being, that is the student here. Now, if we can maximize this, then we can do wonders. So, KA has developed resources through which it has optimized the "student to valuable time ratio".
• Human potential is immense, you just need the right tools to harness it
  
  According to a survey conducted, in a class it was observed that there was a student who was doing very bad at math. Now, the traditional way of education had forced him to consider himself good for nothing. But then the very same student when was given the liberty to study the subject at his own pace, only motive being that how much he learns. The results were surprising. The very same student after a period of 6-7 months had topped among the same set of students. What can we infer by this survey? Every individual (student here) has  the same potential, you just need the right person who can act as mentor to him/her and harness the same.
  
  If we stretch this example to the previously learnt Theory X & Y type Managers and the available workers to him. We can say that no matter what set of workers a manager gets, its always the Manager who can drive the results. He has to approach the situation with a Theory Y type of mindset. 

What do we learn as Budding Entrepreneurs?

Salman Khan was working with a successful hedge fund company. He started imparting telephonic tutorials and slowly he started with video tutorials for his cousins. One day he finds a need to upload these videos over the Internet. He starts getting multiple hits on his videos which excites a social servant within himself. He then decides that, whether I remain on not, my videos should and they should do some benefit to the society. So, he quits his jobs and starts a Non Profit Organization which will educate the students for free, everywhere and anywhere. Somewhere down the line, he had a belief that he would be able to lure financial supporters. With this intent he quits his job full time and sticks to his organization. 

Weeks passed by and still there were no financial support for this brilliant idea. Though he knew what he was doing, but then too for a minute he thought of updating his resume and hunt for job. he used to get donations of few dollars now and then bu then that wasn't enough to carry on this NPO. 

One fine day, he finds a donation into his Pay Pal account of $ 10,000, which is a huge amount of money. He contacted the lady who donated the amount and she finally set him up a meeting with "The Bill Gates". Slowly, things were starting to look brighter. Big players like Google, Melinda & Bill Gates Foundation roped in and rest you know is history. 

Key Learnings 

• One should always have a bigger picture in mind when you come up with a venture. There should be long term thinking. Here, he wanted to impart free and world class education to students all around the globe, irrespective of the profits to be earned. 
• One has to back his/her instincts and shouldn't just give up.

The Monks who changed their lives and their living!!

THREE MONKS

Prof Mandi - a monk in terms of his teaching pedagogy has yet again arrived with a distinguishing style of teaching.Graphics coupled with good audio enhances the impact of the Educational medium.

Three Monks is a Chinese animated short, released in 1980 and directed by A Da. It is one of the most famous and beloved of Shanghai Animation Film Studio's productions, and has won awards at film festivals throughout the world.
In the movie : -
"one monk fetches water to drink",
"two monks carry water to drink"
"three monks"
The unfinished third sentence reflects the film's central question, which is whether the three main characters will learn to work together so that they can all have water to drink.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rolBiHfWokY

The movie highlights the following learnings that we must incorporate in order to achieve the management in an organization. 

1. Designing Team Work.
2. Defining Team Roles.
3. Cohesiveness.
4. Achieving Excellence Efficiency & Effectiveness.

Designing Team Work: -

The movie succinctly portrays the transformation monks carried while designing the work; 
In first case monk 1 carries two buckets of water on his shoulders so as to achieve the best possible ergonomics and efficiency.

In case 2 monks design the system using scale to design the best possible way to carry the bucket of water with minimum effort i.e. max efficiency.

In case 3 monks design a system using Pulley (an involvement of innovation) to come up with a solution to divide the work. 

Scientific and objectives measurements and instruments  used to resolve the conflict.

Defining team roles : -

When only one Monk was there he was doing all the work necessary for the monastery but as the monks increased the work increased and they started facing problems. Even though they came with a design to solve the efficiency they could not work effectively.

The problem of effectiveness could only be solved when they designated the roles to each other in the end. The roles were not only specific but also equivalent.

Cohesiveness : -

In the situation of crises Individual sums become bigger than what was there individually .

Excellence Efficiency & Effectiveness : - 
Workplace efficiency, performance and productivity can often be improved by introducing and measuring any change to working practice.
Three Monks did it by making change in the working practice by pulling the water through pulley instead of fetching it each time.

monks