Tower building and Learning Goal setting and Performance

Objective: The Objective of this Blog is to analyse the Tower Building Exercise done earlier and Learning Goal setting and performance.

Prologue: In my last blog, we discussed in detail "The objectives of Management and The differences between Craftsmanship and Organisation". 
In this blog, we will be learning goal settings by analysing the tower building exercise.

Our Class began with Professor Mandi entering the class in his unique style, taking off his slippers and searching his bag. Yes, Whenever Professor Mandi enters the class, he always brings something to demonstrate. This time it was a plastic elephant model!

It was a 3D printing object which was built at NITIE workshop, our institute. He explained to us how some of his students have started business in 3D printing and have excelled in it. With this example, he urged us tap new areas for starting business. He urged us to think without any barriers, to think without any regulations, only then we can unleash OUT OF THE BOX thinking process of our minds.
For beginners like us, the students, he gave a mantra : "SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT and AIM".
But wait, that doesn't means you should shoot at anything which comes your way.
Then how should we plan?

To answer this, Professor Mandi gave us the Mantra of setting SMART goals.
But, how do we set SMART Goals?
Before answering this question lets get a brief idea about SMART goals.

SMART is a mnemonic to guide people when they set objectives, eg: for personal development, project management, performance management etc. This term was first used by George T. Doran in 1981. Since then it is providing a basis for goal settings and performance measures. The letters when expanded give us a clearer picture of SMART goals. The SMART goals are:

S:Specific
M:Measurable
A:Attainable
R:Relevant
T:Time-Bound

To understand it better, please watch this video:

Let take an example which illustrates how to set SMART goals:

I hope this gives you a clear picture as to what SMART goals are.

After explaining the SMART goals, Professor Mandi continued with the tower building exercise.
This time he called upon four volunteers and asked each one of them, "how tall can you build the tower this time, what's your SMART goal?".

We again had numbers:
First: 35
Second: 50!
Third: 40
Fourth: 30-35

However, all the volunteers were not clear about their Goal.Clearly, their goal was not SPECIFIC, for fourth volunteer it was not MEASURABLE(is it was in a range), all volunteers were in a dilemma whether their goal was ACHIEVABLE?, it was not REALISTIC and yes, they didn't mentioned the TIME FRAME. It was not only the volunteers, but the whole class was not clear about "how to SMARTLY define their goal" for this tower building.

Professor Mandi went to the black board and he wrote:

1.Goal Set:
2.Goal Achieved:
3.Goal(Historical):
4.Potential:

Goal set being the target height of the tower, Goal achieved being the actual height achieved  Historical goal being the previous record and potential being the assumed maximum potential.

After this, a volunteer was again asked to specify his goals. he gave the following data:

1.Goal Set:40
2.Goal Achieved:?(yet to achieve)
3.Goal(Historical):27
4.Potential:50

But was this Goal Realistic?
To this, Professor Mandi explained, "the Goal should always be strategically set. Goal Set should always be greater than the Historical Goal, Goal achieved should always be less than or equal to the Goal Set and the Potential should always be greater than the Goal Set". which means:

Goal Set > Historical Goal
Goal Achieved >= Goal Set
Potential >= Goal Set

If after the final result, any of the above equation goes wrong, it would mean that GOAL was not SMART.
He further explained, "Performance and Excellence are the product of Realistic Goals Set and Realistic Goals Achieved". Putting this in equation form:

Finally, the volunteers were asked to fill the data again. This time they came up with following figure, which was as per the definition of SMART goals :

1.Goal Set: 30
2.Goal Achieved:?
3.Goal(Historical):27
4.Potential:35

Now, it was their turn to experiment on their SMART goal. Professor Mandi assured them all that their GOAL was achievable, everyone cheered for them and they started building the tower, few more(including me) joined them.

Block by Block...
Steady....
Holding their nerves....
One, two, three, ........ ten.................twenty.......can they do it?
twenty five.......almost there.......twenty nine...thirty!......thirty one!!......and oh the tower collapsed.

But the final figures said it all, we were able to achieve our GOAL. Yes, our GOAL was SMART!!!
We all cheered for the volunteers, who succeeded with their experiment. The final figures:

1.Goal Set: 30
2.Goal Achieved:31
3.Goal(Historical):27
4.Potential:35

After this experiment, It was time for another learning. Professor Mandi then explained to us the concept PYGMALION, "THE PYGMALION EFFECT".

THE PYGMALION EFFECT:

The PYGMALION effect, is the phenomenon in which the greater the expectation placed upon people, the better they perform. The effect is named after Pygmalion, a play by George Bernard Shaw. Please watch the below video to understand it better:

The cyclic effect of the Self-full-filling prophesy of PYGMALION effect can be seen in this image:

To sum up, in corporate world:

• What managers expect of subordinates and the way they treat them largely determine their performance and career progress.
• A unique characteristic of superior managers is the ability to create high performance expectations that subordinates fulfill.
• Less effective managers fail to develop similar expectations, and as a consequence, the productivity of their subordinates suffers.
• Subordinates, more often than not, appear to do what they believe they are expected to do.

With this, I conclude this blog. I'll be writing more on the topics of Principles of Organisational Management in future. Please keep reading and share your valuable feedback.

Craftsmanship vs Organisation and The Objectives of Management.

Objective: The Objective of this Blog is to analyse the differences between an Organisation and Craftsmanship and study the Objectives of Management.

Prologue:

"Tower Kaun baneyaga, hath khada karo", these were the words of Professor Mandi after he took out two boxes of blocks out of his bag.

We were excited, a new game by our dear professor.
"He rocks man!", guy sitting next to me exclaimed.And i agree, our new task was to build a single base tower with wooden blocks, previous record being 26 block tower as told by Prof Mandi. Everyone raised his/her hand in excitement, at last one student was chosen for the task(How he was chosen is an interesting story ;) ).
"Kitna uuncha banaaega Tower", asked Professor Mandi. And the student thought for a while and said "10 stories.". This was his GOAL.
He Started, block by block, one over the another, and we all were guiding him: go slow, left, right, wait!!

And the tower collapsed, the highest story being 17! a good score for a start after setting 10 stories as goal.

This is when Professor Mandi explained to us the jargon of "Craftsmanship".
"A Craftsman is a person who makes articles using his manual skills. He sets his own goals, the whole process of product manufacturing is handled by him i.e. single person doing all tasks. A tailor, a cobbler are examples of a craftsman.". Many examples and situations were discussed.

Next, he called upon 8 volunteers to come up for the same job of tower making. The team decided its goal as 20 towers. "If a single person can build 17 stories, we can make more".
But the rule was, only a single person can touch the blocks and rest will guide him. They can only talk to person next to them, CEO->Manager->team Leader->next employee...and so on ->builder. A typical organisational hierarchy was formed.  In addition, the builder's eyes will be covered by a cloth.

And the game started again, managers were guiding and employee was building the tower, but wait, everyone was shouting and there was mis-communication. The tower collapsed after reaching a height of 7 stories!!
How can it happen, there were 7 others guiding the builder.
This is when professor Mandi explained to us the importance of middle management in an organisation.
The tower collapsed as there were many instructions being passed at the same time to the builder leading to confusion. Hence, the top management must clearly define the objectives of middle management which ultimately leads to less chaos and better productivity.

You can watch the complete video of the activity here:

Now, Lets compare the two entities 'Craftsmanship' and 'Organisation' to get a more clear picture of its objectives and processes:

I hope the difference between 'Craftsmanship' and 'Organisation' is clear to you.

Moving on to our next topic:

Objectives of Management

According to my understanding of the session, the primary objective of management is to bring out Excellence, be it in anything. But, how can we achieve excellence? It has to be dependent on something.
To achieve excellence, we require two parameters, namely:  Effectiveness and Efficiency.
Efficiency can be defined as the product of these two functions. Expressing in equation form:

Being effective means having the capability to achieve desired results. Effectiveness gives anything(a process, goal etc) proper direction. its a function which can be achieved by few number of people and requires very good management skills.

Being efficient means giving high output with respect to input. With Efficiency, comes speed, which can be achieved by many people. A person may be very skilled in his task and can give high efficiency.

Therefore, to achieve Excellence, a proper mix of Effectiveness and Efficiency is required by any organisation.
Finally, Professor Mandi explained that Excellence can also be defined as achieving "More out of less for More".

With this, i conclude this blog. I'll be writing more on the topics of Principles of Organisational Management in future. Keep reading.

An insight into Theory X and Theory Y for Organisational Management

In my previous Blog, I referred to some basic principles of Organisational Management which were covered in the first lecture of Principles of Organisational Management by Dr T.Prasad aka Dr.Mandi. Moving forward, let’s get some insights of what we learnt in the second lecture of the course which focussed on two theories of Organisational Management THEORY X and THEORY Y:

Objectives:

The objective of this Blog is to understand the underlying concepts of THEORY X and THEORY Y which are related to the theory of human motivation. I will be covering these concepts by first explaining these theories, comparing them and then defining what implication these theories have on organisations.

THEORY X and THEORY Y:

Theory X and Theory Y are theories of human motivation created and developed by Douglas McGregor at the MIT Sloan School of Management in the 1960s that have been used in human resource management, organizational behaviour, and organizational development. They describe two very different attitudes toward workforce motivation. McGregor felt that all companies followed either one or the other approach.

To understand these theories better, let’s make the following assumption:

Theory X:

In this theory, management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can and that they inherently dislike work. As a result of this, management believes that workers need to be closely supervised and various policies are developed to control them. Theory X managers think that employees main motivation is to work for money and hence incentives are included according to work done.

Theory Y:

In this theory, management assumes that employees are happy to work, are self-motivated and creative, and enjoy working with greater responsibility. In Y-Type organizations, people at lower levels of the organization are involved in decision making and have more responsibility. Managers provide a comfortable woking environment to the employees.

To understand this theory better please watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvrg5m-SfPs

By now, you would have got a fair idea about Theory X and Theory Y. Now, try to test your understanding by analysing the below mentioned statements. What can you deduce by reading each of these statements?

1- Theory X: Manager assumes LAZY workers as LAZY and makes them work .

2 - Theory X: Manager assumes NOT LAZY workers as LAZY and makes them work.

3 - Theory Y: Manager assumes LAZY workers as NOT LAZY and makes them work.
4 - Theory Y: Manager assumes NOT LAZY workers as NOT LAZY and makes them work.

Let’s discuss these statements and their implications on organisation one by one:

1- Theory X: Manager assumes LAZY workers as LAZY and makes them work .

In this case people are already lazy/not working, if they are not controlled, productivity will keep falling which is not good for an organisation. So, more control of management will lead to some increase in productivity which leads to better results. 

 2 - Theory X: Manager assumes NOT LAZY workers as LAZY and makes them work.

This is a case where hard working workers are treated as lazy workers, this leads to de-motivation of the hard working employee. It also leads to conflict between worker and manager which ultimately results in decrease in productivity of the organisation.

3 - Theory Y: Manager assumes LAZY workers as NOT LAZY and makes them work.

This is one of the most dangerous situations wherein the employees are Lazy but the management thinks they are hard working. There is not much control exercised over employees which results in much more decrease in productivity. Also, it leads to de-motivation of those employees who work hard as they are paid equal to those who are not working properly.

4 - Theory Y: Manager assumes NOT LAZY workers as NOT LAZY and makes them work.

This is the best situation which can exist in an organisation. In this case, employees seek and accept responsibility and do not need much direction. They are motivated to fulfil the goals that are given to them. This leads to better results and better productivity which leads to timely achievement of organisations Goals.

I hope this explains THEORY X and THEORY Y to an extent. Please understand that different members of a team may have different attitudes. Many may thrive on Theory Y management, while others may need Theory X management.

With this i conclude my blog on THEORY X and THEORY Y.

Please give your valuable feedback in comments section.

A new Beginning

This Blog is about my experiences in the first lecture of subject "Principles of organization and Management"(POM).

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Hey get up its 8 already!!

These were the words of my roomy which woke me up from a dream.

As I got ready, had breakfast, there was only one thing going through my mind: How will be my first day at one of the most prestigious institute of the country? Was I prepared for classroom learning after a limbo of three years?

As I contemplated, thoughts of a tough day haunted me. I wanted to go back to my bed, to my dream.

With this feeling, I entered Syndicate 1 classroom and waited curiously for the professor to come.

Soon entered a professor carrying a handbag. A typical teacher, i thought. But wait, I’ve seen him somewhere.

Oh yes, he’s professor Mandi!! I’ve seen his videos on YouTube. I remember his style, his dialogues, and his slogans(something like socho seekho becho).

Any-ways, professor Mandi soon took off his floaters and introduced himself to the class. I got to know his real name: Professor T.Prasad.

Talking about the teaching style of Professor Mandi, he believes in transferring knowledge by sharing as many experiences as possible rather than using textbook theory. His style differed from others as he explained many Management topics by discussing simple real life situations and experiences. 

In his bag he brought some toys: two cushion balls, two colourful butterflies and a wooden toy.

Are we in the right class, I thought? Soon professor Mandi threw those balls towards us and said ‘Start Playing’!

Within next few seconds, everyone was throwing cushion balls towards each other. And yes, this is when the real session started.

He asked ‘do you know what is the per day cost of your education at NITIE’?

Each student came up with different answers.

Any guesses? 500, 1000, 1500? 

NO.

Approx 2500!

He asked 'what you all are doing to earn this money back'? No one in the class could justify his answer. No one was earning!

He made us realise the importance of earning and gave us a slogan: ‘Aj ki roti aj hi kamana hai’!

This was the first management lesson of the class, the lesson of entrepreneurship.

He also stressed upon the lesson of improving ‘I’ before blaming ‘We’.

Professor Mandi called those who rely on others for money as ‘Beggars’.

I realised he is right. Even after working for three years, I was dependent on my family for funds.

Professor Mandi encouraged us to take our own responsibility and we again pledged:

“Aj Ki Roti Aj Hi Kamana Hai”!

And meanwhile, there were balls flying all over the class!

Next, two students were picked up and they were asked to sell the toy turn by turn to each other.

With this activity we learnt the art of negotiation, the art of Marketing!

Professor Mandi repeatedly stressed upon being self reliant, he stressed that one should not sit ideal. One should excel in what one does. He said "A circle can be defined simply as round shaped object or as the set of all points in a plane that are at a fixed distance from a given point, the centre. Both definitions are correct but former is in layman language while latter is clear and precise. This is how learning should be Clear and Precise."

And this learning should be used for a purpose.One should think, one should learn and one should sell whatever he is good at. He gave us a slogan:

Socho Becho! Becho Seekho! Seekho Socho!

Our first class with Professor Mandi was an unusual experience. He not only taught us Management topics but also inspired us with his wisdom. In short:

“He came; He Taught and He conquered us all”.