LE03: Clearing the Air

Entrepreneurship, Management and the Organization

Human behaviour is a paradox! It is amazing how smart we are as compared to other species but, on the other hand, it is equally, if not overwhelmingly amazing, how fleeting our minds are. The latter is, in all probability, the root cause for all complexity. To outline a trivial example, if developers were to develop some code and the resultant product without any mistakes, there is no necessity of a test team. Yet, in many organizations, as you can probably testify, the Test team is arguably equal to the development team in terms of strength and skill. Obviously, when things get complex, there has to be a central authority running the show and making decisions and that is where Managers come in.

Entrepreneur vs Manager

Just like a building is designed by the architect, the organization is designed with the help of managers. However, the architect is directed by the owner of the plot in terms of the owner’s needs and wants. So, who directs managers? The entrepreneurs! They are the owners, the creators, the incubators and the group who understand the need for the organization in the first place better than anyone else. An entrepreneur sets up an organization with a Vision in his mind, which basically stems from a need to satisfy a gap in hunger, disease or ignorance, three basic needs of humans. Don’t believe me? Watch Sanjay Goenka, the President of the All India Management Association speak about it in the video below. Right then, that takes us very nicely to question the role of a manager. This aspect is often underestimated, speculated and misperceived yet the significance of the role of a manager becomes very clear in the failure of an organization. Let us keep it simple to say that a manager is basically supposed to design, plan, organize, lead and control the organization’s goals towards meeting a vision. Achieving this with 10 employees is reasonable but the trick is to achieve organizational goals with 10000 employees or at even higher scales. And, let us just say now that this is never easy. The reason? Human behaviour!

Sanjay Goenka’s interview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUl21VWyeGs&feature=list_other&playnext=1&list=SPCEEE725193C26F57

Management – Impossible made possible

Everyone has come across the word “Jugaad” and almost everyone has come to associate the word with management. Why? Well, understanding us humans can be no science, in spite of the mightiest attempts at making it one. Imagine a manager trying to understand egos and human nature for hundreds or thousands of employees. Not a possible task, right? But, it is made possible with a plethora of examples not just in India but across the world where organizations have prospered without any boundaries. How is it achieved? Perhaps, the answer lies in creating a base, a system or a design to which every employee of the organization must conform to. The system or design itself stems from the vision, mission and the derived organizational goals to be achieved. And in this context, an ideal case of an organization would be where every employee is satisfied, all roles are designed equally strong and are similar in terms of efforts or risk and interdependence among the roles is the maximum and finally, the organization achieves its goals. The above lines are quite abstract to read but could be realized better with the pictures below.

So, how does the team of three cross a valley that is wider than a step and narrower than 2 steps put together? Answer: Step by Step. From the picture on top, when the first person sets foot on the valley he is at half risk. Why so? Well, one of his steps is in air and the other on land and the next step takes him to the full risk stage with both feet in the air. While the first person is at risk, the other two persons behind him cover up and ride the proverbial tide. The same sequence is followed till all the three cross over from one side to the other completely. It is a trivial march past of sorts, if you come to imagine it that way. Don't believe me? A summary of the step by step analysis is shown in the table below. Let me tell you that this is something you can definitely try at home! But, what is so special about it all?

Persons	First Person	Second Person	Third person
Step
1	Safe	Safe	Safe
2	Half Risky
3	Full Risky
4	Half Risky	Half Risky
5		Full Risky
6		Half Risky	Half Risky
7			Full Risky
8			Half Risky
9	Safe	Safe	Safe

Forget about "Two states" because the above table has four of them described below:

• Safe - Both the legs of the person are on land
• Half Risky - One leg in the air and the other leg on land
• Full risky - Both the legs are in the air without any support
• Safe - Both the legs have full support

In the exercise, each member has the same sum total of total tasks, burdens and responsibilities with the functioning of the organization independent of the physical ability of a single team member. Again, an ideal scenario! Not every member in the team would take the initiative to go first and not everyone in the team would be upbeat about following anyone else. Yet, the show has to run and the team has to do its job and this is where a manager comes in.


Imagine yourself being one in that team of three. Where would you like to be in positionally? Well, in any case just a mere thought should tell you that the person leading the queue is leading from the front and bears the brunt of the risk in terms of conquering something new or overcoming the fear of the unknown. However, if he gives up after he himself has crossed the valley, then the team would fail in its objective to cross the valley together. Hence, the leader or Discoverer has to compromise on his self goal and lead the two followers across. Now, wouldn't it be ideal 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 Discoverer thereby satisfying every employee?

Well, we certainly cannot have an organization designed to satisfy every employee but we surely can have a design and fit employees into the roles designed such that the fit is appropriate and correct. Pretty much like fitting shoes to one’s feet! Of course, one’s feet to change in size or form. But, one cannot expect the shoe to change itself to fit our feet again!

However, an ideal concept is a myth and not suited to the real world. And, that is where the challenge for a manager lies. The truest test!

What makes a good manager?

How would a manager be judged as top notch or bottom of the barrel? Good or bad? The key lies in decision making, one of the key aspects of the role of a manager. What is there to decide? Basically, the position of three knobs:

• How to organize work and people in terms of specializing people in specific work or distributing a common chunk of work among all?
• How to organize power or authority in terms of decentralizing into departments, each responsible for their own performance and decisions, or centralizing decision making across the organization?
• How to regulate work? By a set of hard enforced rules or a set of norms “supposed” to be followed?

The decision on the position of these knobs lies with the manager and the quest is to find the combination which can achieve organizational goals not just today but over a length of time. Seems like no ordinary task and it isn’t as it demands a set of skills as the below matrix describes.

While technical and human skills are apparent and easily understood and related to, the most important skill to master among the three are conceptual skills. The ability to view the organization as a single entity with a collection of groups and the influence of a change in a group to the organization and the ability to co-ordinate and integrate activities on the organization’s scale comes from experience and guile. If you are wondering why CEOs of organizations are quite old or how amazing is it a feat to be the CEO of an organization at a relatively young age, you have your answer!

LE01_200612: Moving against the tide

Insights into the current education system and learning by application

I am day-dreaming on a sultry summer evening when the thought comes to mind about how better the world would be where talent meets opportunity. In fact, wouldn’t that be a perfect world after all? Every human being is satisfied with rewards he or she considers commensurate with their abilities. Yet, this remains a dream and perhaps will continue to do so forever. And, quite arguably, all the fun is lost if everyone is there is no competition for resources, money, time, shelter or education. How would a state of a perfect society be capable for motivating people to push boundaries, to innovate and to transform it? So, competition is good right? It does have its own adverse consequences in terms of divisions in society, someone loses and someone else wins. But, the one who wins, has, without bringing corruption or malpractice in picture, quite rightly earned the win. We can be rest assured of this fact and hence, the people at the top are people who are competent enough to have reached there and are motivated enough to put in efforts to improve and stay there. Yet, when there is a divide which takes a wide bridge to gap, the society has to look back and introspect on where it is heading. And, that initiative has to be led by people who have won and been successful over times. Well then, perhaps the question begs, if you have read so far, about what I am really talking about by means of this article. Ladies and gentlemen, my intent is to reflect upon the state and substance of the Indian education system. In my humble opinion, the bridge between the ones who have won with educating themselves and the ones who have not has been quite wide already and perhaps has exacerbated now more than ever. And, the system needs help not just from the doctorates, scientists and engineers but from each one of us in terms of changing our mindsets to transform the system and expand its reach.

Education: A fresh start

Of course, the tendency to cliché this article as just another would definitely creep in considering that the subject is neither new for debate and nor for cultural expressions in the form of movies or music. Pardon me for verbalizing the word “cliché”, but it seemed apt to do it to convey the point. Did I do anything wrong? As per the textbook, yes! But, then not everything needs to go by the book. At least, Dhoni would certainly think so! Anyway, the point of this article is not to criticize, condemn or suggest. The point is to realize! Realize that the time has come for a “Change” in Barrack Obama parlance, a change for good. Unless this change occurs, opportunities will be scarce and perhaps others may fail to open up in the first place, for a nation brewing with as much talent as India does have.

Why can’t we just forget about marks and textbooks and learn concepts the “real way”, a way where each formula, each concept being taught is associated with a significance? Why can’t we learn Permutations and Combinations or algebraic number patterns via a Pascal’s triangle? Why can’t physics be learnt from sports like football, billiards or golf? Ultimately, a concept should be learnt to be applied not to fetch marks. And, perhaps learning the concept through its application is, arguably, the most effective way.  Answers perhaps lie in our mentality and psyche towards studies and the obsession of the system to relate talent with marks. The real irony lies in the fact we do recognize the flaws but are either oblivious to the severity of these flaws or selfish to change the system that suits a few and undeservedly debunks many others.  6 sigma project or a case study analysis anyone? J

Learning by application

For an MBA student like me, if we were to transform the system, it would not be about marks but about moolah, not about concepts of management but about concepts for making money. Did I know this before? Hell, No! It is only when I got introduced to the circle of “think and sell, sell and learn and learn and think” in my first week in B-school that I am enlightened to it. It makes me realize that opportunities need not be awaited for but rather they need to be created. What fun copying Ronaldo tricks and failing on the football pitch? Invent your own trick and let the world know about it! At the end of the day, society improves no end by innovation, by opportunity creation. There are no limits, no bounds!

Anyway, I am perhaps being rather too judgemental given my humble credentials but I do feel absolutely miffed at the same time. The reason? Well, Argentina, given the talent that they bring to the football pitch, could win every cup they participate in had they been guided by better coaches, displayed greater resolve and team spirit. They could be the Barcelona amongst football playing nations. India, today, is in a similar situation on the education pitch, per se. Given the talent that we as a nation possess, it is amazing how we are not able to set things right even when we have a fair idea of what needs to be set right! It is unimaginable to think of our reach and prowess if the education system is transformed for good and perhaps for that exact same reason, destiny does not want it to occur. Too good to be true! And, until that time I guess we would just produce students and engineers with bottle after bottle of the same old wine which, by the way, does not get better with age!

LE02_200612: Of roots and dots

Intricacies into organization management and teamwork

To quote Lao Tzu, the journey of a thousand miles commences with a single step. To try and solve a problem, the first step is to begin. Yet the question remains of how to begin and in which direction to take that first step? A step in the wrong direction of an overlooking gorge can leave one plunging downwards. Yes, that might still be a thousand miles down perhaps but not quite in the direction one would want to go! Anyway, to understand the significance of the first step in reaching for the proverbial skyscraper, what better than learning through application?

Tower building: Simple yet emphatic
It is amazing to think how the power in simple things is so elusive to be recognized. My class on Principles of Management begins with one of such exercise to understand a concept of mammoth importance. Blocks made of light wood need to be placed one above the other and the placement of the blocks reflects on the stability of the tower being constructed. Simple, isn’t it? Yet, the underlying learning involved is fantastic with the blocks representing organization expansion milestones and the tower of blocks, the organization itself. An important question to ask when it comes to the difficulty in setting up a new organization or maintaining its pedigree is WHY. Why is it difficult to get your start-up successful? Why is it difficult for larger organizations to sustain their performance? The reach for the skyscraper, to put our exercise figuratively, did answer it all and quite emphatically.

The first block needs to be placed on a firm footing as in the case of a start-up. If the idea itself is not worth the buck, then the organization may not survive for long.  As the draft of fans invades on the base of the block, I start to think of market and funding pressures. If the block itself was too light, it could perhaps be blown off the table as in the case of quite a number of start-ups. So, the first step needs to be firm, strong to establish the organization on a sound footing. Anyway, the organization is being built block by block by three folks while the rest of the class watches. Only one of the three can touch the blocks and place them on the tower blindfolded while the other two represent two levels of management to guide our worker. Initial training of the workers takes time and the same is the case here with building the tower. And thereafter, each incremental step needs to be carefully planned and executed with timely contributions from the each member of the team. 

The organization needs to get acclimatized to the market scenario and assess its next step yet improve in terms of productivity and efficiency. All of this is learnt or rather, realized, while the tower is built and as the tower gains height its stability is threatened, both because of its own foundation and because of competition from our simulated market. 


SMARTER Goal Setting

Not just with respect to setting up organizations, but this simple tower building exercise demonstrates the importance of SMARTER Goal Setting. What is SMARTER by the way? Well, it stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time Bound, Evaluate and Re-evaluate. SMARTER is easier to remember, isn’t it? In any case, goals provide direction and purpose in general and are viewed from different perspectives. Consider the case of a manager close by who is supervising the worker (the one actually placing the blocks one over the other) in an organizational perspective. Before they set out on the tower building exercise, they look at historical data to come to an estimate or an educated guess of an achievable performance in terms of the tower height. Based on this, the manager and the worker propose goals from their individual perspectives. Now, either of these goals or none of them might be aligned with organizational goals and here is where the manager’s task is of utmost importance in terms of getting the best out of the worker, use his negotiation skills to persuade the worker to come to a common consensus of a SMARTER goal. Of course, not all managers are the same and hence, convincing the worker may be easier said than done!

Let us look at a set of scenarios I-IV as per the table below:

Parameter	Index	I	II	III	IV
Historical Tower height achieved by team LOW	1	5	5	5	5
Historical Tower height achieved by team HIGH	2	18	20	21	23
Achievable Performance -(Estimate / Guess )	3	18	20	22	25
Goal proposed by the Manager	4	18	22	22	18
Goal proposed by the worker	5	12	12	12	20
Goal Mutually agreed for building the tower between worker and manager with the support of the manager	6	15	22	18	15
No. of cubes Tower manager and worker team could build / achieve at the end of the exercise	7	18	18	18	18

With respect to goal setting, an analysis of gaps reveals a lot about the types of managers in organizations as shown below. The analysis is carried out with respect to the manager’s traits and the four basic functions of a manager in mind.

Gaps	How to?	I	II	III	IV
Gap if any between Tower height Performance so far achieved and Achievable performance of tower	3-7	0	2	4	7
Gap if any between goal proposed by the manager and mutually agreed goal by team	4-6	3	0	4	3
Gap if any between goal proposed by the manager and the goal proposed  by the worker	4-5	6	10	10	-2
Gap if any between goal proposed by the worker and mutually agreed goal by team	5-6	-3	-10	-6	5
Gap if any between  performance achieved ( at the end of the exercise ) and  goal mutually agreed by manger and the worker	6-7	-3	4	0	-3
Gap if any between  performance achieved ( at the end of the exercise ) and  achievable goal	7-3	0	-2	-4	-7

Scenario I is more or less an ideal case with the manager and worker proposing goals at opposite ends of the spectrum. However, both the manager and the worker compromised on their ambitions to equal degrees and the team achieved the goal in the end. One could fault the manager for not being enterprising and establishing a goal equal to that indicated by historical data which, in turn, was further compromised on negotiation with the worker. The manager did act a bit timid to start with but the team achieved the desired performance in the end which goes to show that the worker was kept motivated throughout.

How about Scenario II? The manager has proposed a goal to create a new record. I can assure you that Usain Bolt did not participate in this exercise! However, the most striking part is that the manager has more or less enforced the goal upon the worker. The manager has, probably in arrogance or ignorance, failed to consider the perspective of the worker and stood firm with his goal by not letting the goal get compromised. In the end, both the manager and the worker are left disappointed because of a lofty ambition which was not quite achievable. Shows the importance of “A” in SMARTER goal, doesn’t it?

Scenario III is perhaps the most interesting amongst all and offers powerful insights. Not just with respect to a realistic initial goal setting, but the manager has been successful in mutually agreeing to a goal with the worker which reflects a sense of motivation in the initial stages itself. The worker has raised the bar to 6 towers from his proposal of 12 while the manager has dropped the bar just enough to 4 towers to motivate the worker and make him realize his value. As a result, the goal achieved by the team has been in line with the mutually agreed goal. Certainly, in this case, the manager has taken a holistic view and not compromised either on the organizational goals or the feedback from the worker. However, there is a catch! When compared to the historic HIGH, the team has fallen short at the end of the exercise leaving some shoe strings to be tied to perform better the next time. A possible cause could be that the worker was not motivated enough to reach beyond the goal mutually agreed upon.

Scenario IV is a submissive case of a manager who does not believe in his worker. Even if the worker has demonstrated zeal and ambition towards the organization goal, the manager has done a brilliant job in suppressing it even more with a mutually agreed goal way below the historic team HIGH and Achievable Performance measures. Finally, the worker’s zeal has come through by saving grace in terms of the eventual tower height. This is a case of one rotten apple spoiling the basket when it comes to the negative mindset of the manager undermining the team performance at the end of the day. Not the kind of manager one would like to have in their organizations, is he?

Anyway, to sum up the four scenarios, the below table analyzes the manager’s behavior and performance with respect to the four basic managerial functions. An upward arrow indicates a positive note while a cross indicates that the manager hasn’t performed the function in an apt manner.

Organization: A holistic view 

As the tower is built by the team of three, I realize the significance of looking at the bigger picture and aligning your personal goals with the organizational goals. Better the alignment and visualization of where a team member fits in the scheme of things better would be performance of the organization.  Quite often, addressing this fundamental issue could resolve a majority of conflicts. Yet, bigger the organization, greater the difficulty in realizing the root cause and consequently, the concept of a holistic view becomes even more subtle. “Easier said than done” is a clichéd phrase and often times, not valued appropriately. But, the one who utters it understands every bit of it and has seen it to believe it! Dots on a sheet of paper have no value unless they are connected appropriately. And once they are connected, they are invincible for the bigger picture to be viewed just like one of those blocks in the tower. Removing a single intermediate block can send the tower tumbling down and therein lies the essence of teamwork.