AAG !! – My Burning Desire

Just sitting over the roof of my house in a sunny morning, where I was able to have a clear view of a bustling road laden with various vehicles driven by an interesting creature named as “Human”. This sight was not very near to me; rather my vision had to cross a large vacant field (only filled by some dispersed shrubs). But that was not all about my sight; it also included another interesting creature called birds. Quite interestingly, this sight drove my thoughts to the two types of traffics or motions I was observing simultaneously i.e. one of  birds flying in all directions and the other one of human made chattels. What difference was there between the two traffics? A question sparked in my mind and I was urged in the next moments of my life to start figuring out the answer and there I was immersed in that sight.

Birds must be flying to find some stuff for their own use and their dependants. Although, they were moving for others also but their moves were driven by themselves. Their actions depicted their own thoughts and desires. Is there anything that could take them carried away (other than any physical interaction)? I was astonished to discover the uncluttered originality and purity they had but before getting completely immersed in the thoughts of birds’ world, a noisy horn diverted my attention towards the other more bustling traffic. Now, was I still able to draw the same conclusions of purity and originality of thoughts and desires for the creature driving this traffic? It did not take me too long me to say a big “NO!” to myself. The moves by this creature (i.e. human) were not driven by themselves and for most of the actions I could not say that they depicted the originality and purity of own is thoughts and desires. Yes, that is how most of us live with this reality but never try to dig into the mud to discover ourselves and our freshness of thoughts clad only with originality of our beliefs.

Right from the first few moments of our life, we start learning to live a life in this world, crowded not only with over six billion people but also by thoughts and beliefs (which are even greater in numbers). As we grow up, we keep on learning and learning from various sources (environment, experiences, people etc.) and keep on developing the thoughts and beliefs in our minds. But that is not enough, the tyranny comes when we live a life not of our own but only driven by others and that is when it starts extinguishing the fire inside us till the last glowing flame. We get lost in a world of others and not of our own; our actions are no more of our own and so as our desires are no more of our own.

How should we get out of this crowded place and get to our own world? For this we need to discover ourselves and isolate our own thoughts and beliefs; without having any regard for other views, beliefs and opinions (as for us now, these are just to extinguish the fire inside us). We have been learning to learn but now we also have to learn to unlearn. As we have to clear the thick layer of dirt, which has cluttered our originality and purity. All this is possible, when we do something which energizes us and ultimately fuels the fire inside us. As we are ready to live a life for others but shall no more be leading a life of others. We now step into the crowded world again; but this time more prepared and equipped with our own beliefs, thoughts and burning desires. Now, our actions define us as we go forth in pursuit of our dreams. We start distinguishing ourselves amongst the six billion plus people. We are exclusive and no more a mere part of common subsets that exist all across the world. Only some of our desires, thoughts and beliefs can be a part of subsets but not the whole of our personality. We are determined to change things as we are firm to change ourselves. We are more audacious and prepared to even sail through uncharted waters; as now our imagination is more powerful than the beliefs of others around us, but at the same time we are also prepared to learn from others with an open mind which is not pre-occupied. Now, we no more exist to move through a way which is only lit by others, instead we adopt our own path lit only by the fire inside us and that is our own Burning Desire – The AAG …. The FIRE Within !!

The 3 Internal Forces

Every person has different reasons for working. The reasons for working are as individual as the person. But, we all work because we obtain something that we need from work. The something obtained from work impacts morale, employee motivation, and the quality of life. To create positive employee motivation, employees should be treated as if they matter – because employees matter. In an organization, Motivation Level of Employees is subject to many factors like Environment, Career Growth, and Benefits etc. Apart from any External uncontrollable reasons, there are mainly 3 Internal Forces that continuously impact the Motivation Level of Employees.

TOP LEADERSHIP

• It should be much more interactive and formulate a strong system which shouldn’t rely too much excessively on personal opinions.
• Bring more hope and more certainty by continuously interacting with employees, even working down the level; otherwise you will only be left with mediocre talent.
• They should also realize that things have changed (both internal and external environment) from the time they were in a low cadre position. They should no more be looking for their own reflections in their sub-ordinates.
• Bring Young Leadership up. Formulate interdepartmental teams of youngsters, to interact with Top Leadership directly; this will not only keep top management well informed of the ground realities but will also make youngsters feel more involved.
• Create a culture of respect.
• Build a mentoring a culture.

HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT:

• Identify and train well educated employees as leaders with a positive attitude having diversity.
• Interdepartmental transfers to be encouraged, as employees having alacrity for learning don’t like to get stuck with one dimensional routine job for years.
• Money / Benefits are not the only source of motivation.
• Salary Comparability / Benchmarking to be performed + Benefits like corporate memberships of Clubs etc. to bring more charm to the lives of employees and their families.
• HR should have direct personalized/confidential level of communication with employees. How would I see my future here? It seems that much of it isn’t in my control. Should I keep waiting for the upper hierarchy to have some movements or vacancies; should business figures be the only criteria for promotion (even if I don’t have any contribution in formulating a clear strategy) and keep waiting for the crop to grow even from a dead land; should I keep worrying about ways to please bosses, even if I know at times it isn’t in the interest of company.
• Formulate a talent Management program.
• Make interdepartmental teams of employees and assign in general tasks like canteen management or any event management etc. This will keep them more involved and will give them “Sense of Achievement” (as if they may not get it from their immediate leaders). Such activities will also help HR in identifying talent.
• System should be made stronger and too much reliance shouldn’t be placed on perceptions formed; as it happens that the preceptor has only “Hammer” in his/her tool box and every problem he/she perceives to be a “Nail”.
• HR should be well aware with the capabilities (in terms of Knowledge, skills and attitude) of employees. It’s difficult but not impossible especially when employees are to be considered as customer from HR’s point of view, to serve in the best possible way.
• Create a culture of respect.
• Give Sense of Recognition/Achievement to Employees.

IMMEDIATE LEADERS:

They have a vital role to play as far as motivation level of employees is concerned.

In this role priority should not be given to such people who have this organisation as their only source of learning in their lives – as such people cannot bring change and their capabilities remain a subset of their previous bosses. Such people don’t bring change and don’t encourage change. They want to make the ball role as it has been rolling since their time.

If a Diploma holder is fit for any job, don’t go for engineers, if a B.Com is fit for any job; don’t go for MBA’s; unless it is quite assured that the higher capabilities can also be utilized in other tasks as well. This will ensure to some extent their long term commitment.

Give Sense of Recognition/Achievement to Employees.

Create a culture of respect.

Build a mentoring Culture.

(Note: I roughly thought and wrote these points while going for my 1st Exit Interview …. )

How can I diffuse “thinking” into my “doing” organization?

Henry Ford once wondered querulously, “Why is it that whenever I ask for a pair of hands, a brain comes attached?”

Imagine if Wright brothers had to take approvals from their manager, General Managers etc. to build an airplane; or Thomas Edison had to first satisfy his bosses for his 1093 patents. They would have never been able to contribute to this world what they have given with their crazy unique ideas rather their jobs could be in threat on account of insanity and stupidity.

There exists a dilemma for many Business leaders to tackle. Whether they should proceed and organize their resources in a well disciplined (Army like) way or they should compromise all this on account of openness. There are pros and cons for both the approaches and none of them can be termed as perfect.

Discipline, Chain of command is good enough and in a way it is necessary; especially when you compare your organization with an armed force. But such an organization can not be a source of generating unique crazy ideas. In such organizations, targets/objectives (one form of it is MBO- Management By Objective) are highly regarded by management. As a result, you will find many of the employees running after a piece of paper (i.e. target form) for the whole year; irrespective of the fact they may miss many other breakthrough opportunities by just limiting all their attention to a piece of paper; which may lead to lack of self initiative by the employees and they may consider themselves only as a tool for management. This sort of feeling can especially be prevailing in first line employees. In such an organization, best business is usually handled by the best personnel and the business with less attractive figures is handed over to someone less talented.The leader of such an organization likes to remain at shore, so as the sub-ordinates. As Einstein once said, “A ship is safe at shore, but this is not what it is meant for”. Toyota (being considered as one of the best practicing management organization) did not consider only objectives to be the path to success and believed that first-line employees could be more than cogs in a soulless manufacturing machine. If given the right tools and training, they could be problem solvers, innovators, and change agents. For organizations, who consider innovation as their critical success factor, it is indispensable that they should bring openness in their culture. But on the other hand, there is too much of risk involved in allocating resources to any crazy unique idea.

Before we move on to find out any solution, lets first take a glance of how Breakthrough Ideas get obstructed (you can add some more bullets).

How do Ideas die out?
Lack of Openness
Lack of Culture of respect
Idea generators not properly managed.
Experience given much more preference over Imagination.
‘Doers’ are given preference over ‘Thinkers’.
Employees threatened of failures.
Figures/Numbers are given more preference over capabilities.
Performance considered only for short term results.

Now we move on and develop an organization where Ideas get promoted and at the same time there exists discipline and a chain of command. The foundation for such an organization is laid by segregating Primary Thinkers and Primary Doers in your organization.

Start changing the roles of people to get different ideas across the organization.

continues……..

Performance Vs Learning

Performance Vs Learning

One question has been embossed in my mind, since the day I have come to Business world as an employee. That question is regarding Performance and learning, as if what really matters to reach the peak of the Org Chart. I just kept on doing my job and observing the people and environment around, with this question continuously striking my mind. In search for an answer, the conclusion I reached till now is that one cannot ignore any of these two factors for reaching success (obviously), it is a matter of what weightage you carry for these two variables and how you put in the efforts to enhance the quality and quantity of these two variables.

(To be continued……)

MANAGEMENT NEEDS SMART WORK NOT HARD WORK

MANAGEMENT NEEDS SMART WORK NOT HARD WORK

Let’s put the above statement to test. But before going for any litmus test, first tackle “What does management needs from their sub-ordinates?”
Achieve their objectives while remaining within specified constraints (time, available resources) and without violating rules and regulations; or simply put it this way, they want to “Get the job done”. No matter how you do it whether it takes you to follow a series of defined procedures or you just innovate and do the same thing without giving much of your efforts.

Now it becomes easier to strike the target i.e. if we have to analyze the statement; we have to contemplate what do we mean by ‘Smart work’ and ‘Hard work’. Don’t start worrying we are not going to enter some para-scientific or weird looking definitions.
We are just considering what message these words implicitly convey? First considering ‘Hard work’; hard working is an essential and underlying aspect for getting success but unfortunately it doesn’t ensure the completion of task (as desired by management) whereas when one says “Smart work!” it implicitly means that the job is already done as no one is going to say it when a task still remains to be completed rather one can be blamed for not putting much of the efforts.

Moreover, working smart indispensably requires keeping the end result in mind, creativity, being task oriented and gutsy; which means smart working tests the abilities and strengths of a person. If one person goes to his boss and says,” I have been putting my efforts for the last seven days consecutively to get this job done but haven’t succeeded yet”; and another person goes and informs the completion of same job within 1 day (although he was off for the whole week). What should be the judging criterion for the boss?
Who put more number of hours or simply who gets the job done? (You must have the obvious answer).

Now back to our litmus test. If we are to defend this statement that “Management Needs Smart Work not Hard work”, in order to get arguments for this lets attack it i.e. we are going to have an anti-thesis method; what I mean to say lets defend “Management needs hard work not smart work” and check whether that sounds worthy or not? Without pondering over in-depth analysis of this anti-thesis; just intuitively, it gives a perception that management is more interested in only going for the task rather then completion of task. Does it sound great? No, absolutely not.

So by now, we should be able to consider “Management Needs Smart Work not Hard work” apposite and convincing.

In the end, let’s put a true case (I guess a Japanese one) in front:
“In a soap manufacturing factory, a conveyer belt takes a large number of soap packets through a process. After completion of process it was found that few of the packets were empty that completed the whole process. The task / objective is: How should these packets be separated during the process?”

To address the problem, there can be a number of ways ranging from using instrumentation to automation or deploying workforce. But a person (pertly) gave an idea of using a fan i.e. if a fan is placed and turned on it can throw away the empty packets by air pressure. We have to say (as his management said), “Smart Work!!”

 

INNOVATION…….THINK BIG…THINK NEW…..!!!

INNOVATION…BECOMING A NECESSARY SUCCESS FACTOR FOR BUSINESS…..

“Innovation is the process of taking a creative idea and turning it into a useful product, service or work method.” (That is what books say).

In this rapidly changing world, only those organizations are able to survive who are capable of being adaptive to novelty, change; they have a learning aptitude and are innovative. In today’s competitive business environment, organizations have started to realize the importance of innovation and now, for many of organizations, “Innovation” is considered as a critical success factor i.e. if it is ignored it may cause threat to the survival of the organization. Although innovation is important for all organizations, it’s absolutely critical for engineering and technology related businesses. This is the reason why most of such organizations spend so much of their resources in stimulating and nurturing innovation so that they can not only survive in the business world but can also gain competitive advantage. Innovation’s importance cannot be denied and if it is to be considered important then it requires proper management so that results can be achieved without wastage of resources and creative ideas. Innovation management deals with the facilitation of suitable environment and providing ways to channelize creativity into a useful outcome. The outcome can be a product, a service or a working method. With businesses striving to grow more and with organizations becoming more complex not only in terms of methods but also in terms of well dispersed locations, the problem arises that how can innovation management play its role in making creative ideas coherent enough to be turned into a profitable outcome.

Knowledge Skills Attitude (TRIANGLE)

THREE PILLARS TO BUILD FOR SUCCESS……!!!

What makes a person a champion…….whether he / she is a singer, an artist, a student, a teacher or a business man or any other professional you think of…………some say hardwork, some say talent, some give credit to luck bla bla……lots of things to say……..we can keep on talking on this and never come precisely on what exactly is required…………..

Whatever you do!!…….. To become a champion only three things are required (make your life easier)………Knowledge, Skills and Attitude……..Knowledge plays its role as of foundation, basic building block and also supports the other two pillars……skills help in doing things effectually and plays a very visible role in dominating over others and becoming competent (like communication and presentation skills help in convincing others and taking the edge)……..Attitude plays a front line role and is a major driver for converting potential energy into Kinetic energy…….if you have K and S but negative A then still a lot remains to be done for achieving success. Attitude is one thing that is very common in its application whatever form of field or application is whether it be sports, job, teaching………that’s why one must have something to do to get the attitude right…..that can be sports or religion………….whether one is a student, teacher, sportsman, doctor, engineer, scientist; good thing about attitude is, in every field almost the same sort of attitude (positive) required to achieve success…(as they rightly say “ATTITUDE DRIVES TO ALTITUDE”)…..so if you have been a good sportsman and right now doing a job that will certainly be a strong point for having success in your hands.

Knowledge and skills define the area of expertise, specialization and field in which you are playing. To be the champion in your field, you have to strengthen these pillars also not only by gaining knowledge and mastering skills but also being creative, which will help in exploring new areas, new knowledge. Creativity and innovation has played major contribution in the lifes of individuals and nations for taking edge; it has proved to be the only short cut available for success.

 

Knowledge helps not only supports vertically but also horizontally by supporting and strengthening the other two pillars also. Having knowledge of your field will help you strengthening your skills and developing a positive frame of mind with attitude.

One important thing that yet remains to be discussed is VISION which interconnects all the three pillars.

YOU HAVE ALL INSIDE YOU……IT IS JUST A MATTER OF TAKING IT OUT !!

WHAT IS ESSENTIAL ??

JUST UNLEASH YOUR POTENTIAL

DON’T REMAIN STATIC

BE MORE AND MORE KINETIC….!!