Three Monks

THE THREE MONKS : THE RELAVANCE OF A TEAM.

TEAM BUILDING is the most vital part in the formulation towards any goal. It is philosophy of job design in which employees are viewed as members of interdependent teams instead of as individual workers. Be it any pursuit , either in sport , or in defence or business, the importance of team cannot be overemphasized.

In order to better understand the importance of team building , let us refer to a wonderful cartoon film created in China in the year 1982, which became really popular.

This particular video highlights importance of "team building and team management" in the completion of any task. It also describes as to how the any task can be done more efficiently with the help of simple innovation and proper utilization of the available resources.

This video can  be subdivided into three main parts.

The Singleton : Here the monk is shown to get water for the temple alone, he does all aspects of a job himself , identifying the need to get water, taking the buckets, going to the river , fetching the water, etc. It has some similarities to craftsmanship , where the person does not specialise in any aspect and does the entire job himself.

Any job which is done on a single basis has only a limited potential particularly in business scenarios which are becoming increasingly integrated.

However for the singleton does really have an advantage, in areas of pursuit like arts, research, etc.

Leverage of the two monks: In this case the work load has been divided into two equal parts but one important factor to be considered here is the coordination between the two members in the team.

 The root cause for their difference of opinion is that there is no 'standards' or rules for completing the task in a coordinated manner. This is later sorted out when the first monk draws a scale and makes a fair ruling. This principal is also very important with regards to any organization as there is a need to a unity of direction and proper distribution of work for the organization to march towards its goals.

Another thing which needs to be highlighted is that the increase in manpower leads to increase in efficiency as the work-load on one person is reduced.

In any organization the division of labour is very important. Proper concise and well defined roles really help in streamlining the task at hand.Also as seen from the video, standardization of a task is also very critical, as objective measures , which are well defined help in making the job easier as well as avoiding conflict.

The three monks: The entry of the third monks really changes the equation, initially it results in a lot of discord as to who will bring the water, it even results in no one bringing the water, and one of them even taking water from the vase near the Buddha statue. In organization lack of clear and concise well defined roles , often results in conflicts with each one shirking from his responsibility. This is called Social loafing. Here the role of the management is critical in the sense that it has to be proactive in resolving those issues and clearly laying down the roles and responsibity of each person.

The Realization : In the cartoon it is shown that there is a major fire in the monastery, and during that instance , they find that working together as a team is the best way to quench the fire. So they work together , whole heartedly and ultimately manage to quench the fire . they finally realize that working together is the best way to realize any objective for that matter.

A real life example can be the Pakistan team in the 1992 , world cup, where initially they were struggling with a lot of infighting going on, but when they were on the brink of elimination , they realized the importance of goal alignment and worked together to achieve the impossible.

In any organization , not only the goals should be clear and precise, but also the roles must be

designed in such a manner that  those goals are aligned with the organizational goals.

valley crossing

VALLEY CROSSING                    

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM ?

This is a problem which we came across in our POM class. This is a problem wherein 3 people have to cross a valley and the only resource they have is a rod. The width of the valley is such that it is longer than a step a person can take but shorter than 2 steps a person can take.

So what is special in that?
It is the one of the classic examples in which the importance of organisational concepts like teamwork, coordination, planning, communication are so easily demonstrated. This example helps us internalise these vital issues in a better way.

So how did those three guys crossed the valley?

Steps:

1.      When the first person will take the first step, he will be half risky since one of his feet will be in air and other on the ground, at the same time other two people will be full safe.

2.      Everybody will take one more step at this moment, first person will be fully risky and other two will be full safe. But since other two people will be holding the rod, with proper communication and trust they can cross.

3.      This process will be repeated for other two persons. Every time they will be either half risky or full risky.

If we see the degree of risk for these 3 people we find that each  shares equal risk when we see the task in totality:

Step	State of 1st Person	State of 2nd person	State of 3rd person
1.	Safe	Safe	Safe
2.	Half-Risky	Safe	Safe
3.	Full-Risky	Safe	Safe
4.	Half-Risky	Half-Risky	Safe
5.	Safe	Full-Risky	Safe
6.	Safe	Half-Risky	Half-Risky
7.	Safe	Safe	Full-Risky
8.	Safe	Safe	Half-Risky
9.	Safe	Safe	Safe

Therefore all members are equal stake holders to this activity, both in terms of activity as well as risks.

Therefore all members are equal stake holders to this activity, both in terms of activity as well as risks.

Ok, so what were the learning points :


Teamwork :

Just as the valley could not have been crossed individually, but rather as a team, in the same way in any organization optimal efficiency cannot be achieved in isolation. Every member of the team has to work together. What better example to give than that of the Indian army , who have won many a battle as a team, in the army the importance of team work and team spirit is stressed upon right from the joining days.

Goal setting: 

Can you imagine that the valley could have been crossed if each person had a different goal. Had person A wanted lunch, person B sleep and only person see , to cross the valley , it would have been very difficult to cross the valley, therefore it is of utmost important in any organization to define clearly, as to what the goal is and ensure that each person works in concordance with the laid objectives. Management by objectives is precisely which  is of paramount importance.


Communication :

Communication is perhaps the most important aspect to achieve anything, in this example , all three have to communicate continuously to achieve this task. In an organization it is very important for every level of management , and within those levels to communicate with each other . concepts like JIT, kanban would not have achieved their full potential without solving the communication bottlenecks.

Trust:

Trust for three people crossing the valley is very important , as at different times, a particular person becomes very vulnerable and his safety lies in the hands of the other 2 people . so is the case for any small or large, significant or mundane activity in any organization. As the success in any endevour of the of the organization hugely depends on teamwork, trust among the members is important for coordinating effectively to achieve the objectives of the organization. An example where trust is paramount is medicine , the relation between the doctor and patient is fully based on trust.



Finally;

Valley crossing provides  us with a wonderfull opportunity to learn the nuances of the critical aspects of organizational management.

The Khan Academy

The concepts and the framework for the Principles of Organization Management are numerous and fascinating. Any concept of any subject can be thoroughly internalized only by coupling it to the real world scenarios and quoting examples from the torchbearers and the change agents of  the modern business world. In this pursuit, what better organization than The Khan Academy that has redefined education . This blog is a humble effort to couple the two, and gain a better insight into these concepts.

What Does it actually do?


  The Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization, created in 2006 by Bangladeshi American educator Salman Khan, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School. With the stated mission of "providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere", the website supplies a free online collection of more than 3,200 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube teaching mathematics, history, healthcare and medicine, finance,physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, economics, cosmology, organic chemistry, American civics, art history, macroeconomics and microeconomics, and computer science
Now let us try to relate the concepts learned so far in class with this organization.

Vision

 Vision is one of the most important part of the organization. A vision of an organization defines what an organization is and what does it want to achieve. Vision is a reflection of the future. According to Dr. Mandi, a vision should be almost impossible to realize. Khan academy has a noble vision of providing education to every person in the world. Even though it is close to impossible to achieve this , it does have the ability to inspire a spark in every person working for Khan Academy.

Mission

 Vision without a roadmap is like a dream without any goal, therefore it has to be broken down further to something more tangible. Khan Academy lays down a broad roadmap by  asserting to use technology to accelerate the learning of each individual of all ages. With a clear mission , each person working in this organization , knows on what core aspects , his entire effort needs to be focused on.

Conceptual skills

 In order to be successful in achieving its mission, the Khan academy and for that matter any organization is to have very good command over the macro aspects of business. For Salman Khan it was teaching the world through technology.

Human Skills

 For the success of any organization, it must have a dedicated and motivated team. Khan Academy has been able to effectively penetrate the market, only because it has a dedicated workforce, right from the teaching staff to the technical personnel who take care of the course uploads. A motivated organization which takes care of its people is very important in this regard.

Technical skills 

 Khan academy’s vision can only be realized if it is able to breakdown the vision into very many smaller, well defined achievable goals. With a library with over 3200  videos, peer to peer tutoring and automated assessment of the progress of each student  and the depiction of those results graphically, the academy has managed to attain mastery over the technical skills needed for the success of a business entity.

The Khan academy epitomizes the perfect gelling of all the three aspects or skills in management, which cohere together to form what is known as Scientific Management.

Innovative, new generation organization 

 The Khan academy with its new and innovative business idea has redefined classroom teaching. It has enabled each student to learn at his own pace and made classrooms more relevant than before, as teachers don a new role of mentoring each student rather than engaging in a one way communications with the possibility of many students being left behind. Due to the unique nature of business, each person in an organization has very different roles and responsibilities.

Revenue models

  The project is funded by donations. Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization, now with significant backing from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Google. Several people have made US$10,000 contributions total revenue is about $150,000 in donations. Additionally, it also earned $2,000 a month from ads on the Web site in 2010, until Khan Academy ceased to accept advertising. In 2010, Google announced it would give the Khan Academy $2 million for creating more courses and for translating the core library into the world’s most widely spoken languages, as part of their Project 10 .
By choosing such a revenue model , the organization has moved further towards achieving its mission and vision, ie make education available to all. Therefore, each organization needs to  align its revenue model with the vision it has set for itself.

Bounded Rationality

  When Salman Khan started this company , it was a relatively a new concept, therefore he did not have any information about aspects like market penetration, resource allocation, and using youtube as a teaching medium, so Khan , based on the limited information made a decision regarding the business model, this is a perfect example of the concept of bounded rationality.

Final word

 Today organizations need to become more and more flexible and agile to adjust to the ever changing market scenario. The Khan academy is a perfect example of an organization which has put to use an innovative idea for the greater good of the society.

pom session 1 and 2

THE INITIATION

Working for more than Four and a Half  years in the industry . The decision to do an MBA was a tough one . One major reason for this was an apprehension, no,  I would call it dread of enduring through boring lectures once again. However this apprehension was blown to dust the moment Dr. T Prasad aka Dr. Mandi entered our class.

Session 1

THE AHA EFFECT

Generally in conventional classes the level of  interaction is low . However  our class  was anything but that.  One  important learning that day I  got was that a manager needs to be a great and effective communicator,  not only to communicate his ideas but also to bring people out of their shells so they too contribute effectively.In my industry experience I found many an idea lost due to lack of or improper initiative and lack of communication on part of the manager.

Har ek idea zaroori hota hai

One very noteworthy learning point that I took home from this class was the strength of a simple idea. Dr. Mandi showed us simple toys like a cube made of plastic sticks and an osscillating pendulum set. Even though these things were quite simple , we learnt that these can have two revolutionary effects.

AND WHAT ARE THESE EFFECTS:

1.      It can tranform the way maths , or for that matter any subject that is tought in schools, making learning fun at very low cost.( The cube can be used to teach simple mathematical formulae).

2.      It proves how simple ideas can be effectively transformed into value for customers, and hence can be used to do business effectively and without  needing too many resources. What is required is a proper grasp of the target market and and a proper organization and utilisation of the resources at hand, precisely what the managers need to do.

SOCHO BECHO

Mandi, the most important feature of NITIE captured my imagination, instead of going into the nitty gritties let me tell some of the learning points:

1.      Understanding of the product is very important, in order to sell it. Relating that to my experience, in industry it was very difficult for me to sell any idea to my seniors( example, a maintenance activity that I plan to take up), unless I have a thorough knowledge about the idea, and its pros and cons.

2.      A proper understanding of the customer base is also crucial, and targeting the right customer is critical to the success of selling. Selling the toys is much easier in case the customers are children and their mothers. I can somehow relate this to my own experience as a shift in charge,  wherein I

a proper understanding of the machines and my resources was so so critical for designing a proper maintenance schedule.

Last but not the least the importance persistence pays, not only in Mandi but in anything in life, whether it is a business plan or any new venture a person whishes to start.

Session 2

THE  REAL INITIATION

In session 2 we got a real feel of  a bschool life. The fascinating opportunity to relate business concepts , my experience  and classroom teaching through a fascinating game was enriching. The game was essentially very simple involving 3 players required to stack cubes ( one of them was blindfolded), however  the learning we got from this game about organization management and its challenges in real life was  a good experience. The salient learning points and its relation to my experiences are briefly listed below.

1.      Team work pays : The cubes can never be placed  successfully if the members do not work as a team. The strength of an organization lies in team work. No person can achieve big results alone, so collaboration is important. In my job too we did many difficult jobs, and shutdowns only  through the use of effective teamwork.

2.      Communicate  Communicate Communicate : In this game a person can only put the  cubes if  proper communication took place between the blindfolded person( worker) and the second person (manager), similarly in my job it was vital for me to communicate clearly as to what was required to be done, and some basic guidelines were given. I have felt that communication does make a difference and this game proved it.

3.      The top management only interferes if he requires to give certain specific inputs. In an organization the top manager has the highest stakes yet he does not interfere in the day to day activities of the entity. He interferes only when there is a need refocus the attention of the middle management and workers to something they might be missing out. In my plant the top management regularly communicates to us about the organizational challenges and goals.

4.      The worker needs to be in good mental and physical state to work productively. In our game the blindfolded person was working the hardest and the second person was trying to calm him down and give him some rest as and when needed. Similarly in my plant the safety, health and well being of the worker is very important for better productivity. Any organization which wishes to survive needs to take care of its employees.

All in all the first two sessions provided us with enough opportunities to relate whatever we learnt in class to the real world.