Novelty
The journey begins....
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Tuesday, 27 August 2013
Sunday, 18 August 2013
Creative Problem Solving
Creative Problem Solving....
Have you ever been creative? Thought of a solution that is different.? If the Answer is yes, you have already been part of the Process called ‘Creative Problem Solving’. If the Answer is no….No issues, this write up will guide you to be a Creative Problem Solver...
“Creative problem solving is - looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different.” - Albert Szent- Gyorgi, former Nobel prize winner
“Creative problem solving is - looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different.” - Albert Szent- Gyorgi, former Nobel prize winner
Creative Problem Solving is a proven method for approaching a problem or a challenge in an imaginative and innovative way. It’s a tool that helps people re-define the problems they face, come up with breakthrough ideas and then take action on these new ideas.
Sounds Exciting!
Step 1:State what appears to be the problem.
The real problem may not surface until facts have been gathered and analyzed. Therefore, start with what you assume to be the problem, that can later be confirmed or corrected.
STEP 2. Gather facts, feelings and opinions
Answer the 5 W (when, where, why, what, who) and the How questions..
z What happened?
z Where, when and how did it occur?
z What is it’s size, scope, and severity?
z Who and what is affected?
z Likely to happen again?
STEP 3: Restate the problem
Restating the problem helps in reassessing the problem.
Actual Problem , might not be what was stated before.
STEP 4 Identify alternative solutions
Think of the alternative solutions. At this step the ideas are generated, no idea should be ruled out until several have been discussed. There should not be a hesitancy to discuss an idea, as it may seem unfeasible, many times such unfeasible ideas become what we call as creative solutions.
STEP 5: Evaluate alternatives
Ask these 4 questions:
z Which will provide the optimum solution?
z What are the risks?
z Are costs in keeping with the benefits?
z Will the solution create new problems?
At this step you are moving very closer to your final solution.
Discuss all the alternatives, keeping in mind the different parameters. By the end of this step you would have arrived at your Optimum solution.
STEP 6. Implement the decision!
Time for asking some more questions…
z Who must be involved?
z To what extent?
z How, when and where?
z Who will the decision impact?
z What might go wrong?
z How will the results be reported and verified?
After finding answers to these questions, you are ready to implement your ‘Creative Solution’.
STEP 7. Evaluate the results.
z Test the solution against the desired results.
z Make revisions if necessary.
After the solution has been implemented, it needs to be verified if it serves its need.
If it needs any modifications, the same are to be re implemented.
BRAINSTORMING
To generate a large number of ideas in a short period of time.
- The more ideas the better!
- No discussion
- No idea is a bad idea
- Display all ideas
- Build on one another’s ideas
MIND MAPPING
: A visual picture of a group of ideas, concepts or issues.
Purpose:
y Unblock our thinking.
y See an entire idea or several ideas on one
sheet of paper.
sheet of paper.
y See how ideas relate to one another.
y Look at things in a new and different way.
y Look at an idea in depth.
Now, you are on your way to be a ‘Creative Problem Solver’….Enjoy the journey….
Organizational Structure
I have seen companies spending extravagant amount of time and money changing their organization structure. Just recently Infosys Ltd redesigned its organization structure realigning its services around four verticals - BFSI, ECS, Retail and Manufacturing. It makes complete sense since the company wants to present a uniform and consistent deal to its clients and avoid the problems of multiple deals across different offerings. But this was the same company which was split across Geographies in the late 90's. By 2003, the geographies were merged and company was realigned based on respective delivery units. Gradually the whole company was re jigged across six different verticals. Come 2007 and five horizontal units were embedded within these verticals. Finally just a year back, it was realigned on the lines of four verticals with most of the horizontal business units being merged to respective verticals. So coming back to the question. Why does companies spend so much of their money and time on re-jigging their organization structure?
One word
answer - because it is that important to the success of the firm. While the
strategic decisions are taken by the top line management, it is the
effectiveness of the organization structure which translates this strategy
into successful implementation.
Changing Times > Different Strategy
> Continuously changing Organization Structure.
In this
context we should look at the four main blocks of Organizational
Structure:
Let us
take the example of Infosys:
Division of work: Complex work can be better executed
by dividing it among different people. For example, every project has some
people working on different technologies. Some people working on high level
design, others doing project management etc.
Departmentalization: This involves grouping people
into departments based on some logic. In Infy they are categorized into
departments like Delivery, Marketing, HR etc. Also verticals like BFSI, ECS
etc.
Hierarchy: Chooses who reports to who. Engineers
reports to lead. Lead reports to PM. PM reports to GPM etc.
Coordination: This involves the integration of
departmental activities as a whole and monitoring the effectiveness of this
integration.
There are mainly 3 types of Organizational
Structures:
Functional
Organization:
Product/Market
Organization:
Matrix
Organization:
One example of Matrix Organization in real life
example is the Organization structure of Accenture.
This
organizational method is more common in the consulting world and has the
following characteristics:
- Each worker is assigned to two bosses in two different hierarchies. The first hierarchy is the executive aspect and is there to get projects completed using the resources that the company has.
- The second kind of hierarchy in the matrix structure is the functional aspect and its purpose is to train employees in industry specific knowledge.
At Accenture this functional aspect is also a matrix and is
made up of five industry-based operating groups and three capability groups as
shown in the figure:
These are some of my
observations and experience of the different organization structure in IT
Industry.
Theory X and Theory Y
Theory
of Motivation - War of X vs Y
What is
it?
Douglas
McGregor's 1960 publication which highlighted the concepts of Theory X and
Theory Y managers have forever been used to explain the art of motivation based
on human behaviour. It encapsulated a fundamental distinction between the
different management styles and is a valid basic principle from which to
develop positive management style and techniques to propel organisations
towards excellence.
Theory
X and Theory Y
Organisations
consist of employees and managers. The theory delves on the attitude and
outlook of managers - the direction and growth of the organisation is in the
hands of managers and it is solely their way of managing things which leads to
proper motivation of the employees and in the process, achieve growth in the
organisation.It is important to note here that Theory X and Theory Y looks into
managerial psychology and their way of planning and running the organisation.
Thus, it focuses on the class of managers and their behavioral attributes
and attitude.
Theory
X Managers
His
Theory of Motivation states that there is a certain class of mangers who fall
in the bracket of Theory X. In this theory
management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they
can. Because of this, workers need to be closely supervised and comprehensive
systems of control put in place. A hierarchical structure is needed, with
narrow span of control at each level, for effective management. According to this
theory employees will show little ambition without an enticing incentive
program and will avoid responsibility whenever they can.
The
managers influenced by Theory X believe that everything must end in blaming
someone. They think most employees are only out for themselves and their sole
interest in the job is to earn money. They tend to blame employees in most
situations, without questioning the systems, policy, or lack of training which
could be the real cause of failures.
Theory
Y Managers
Management influenced by this theory assumes that employees are ambitious, self-motivated, anxious to accept greater responsibility and exercise self-control, self-direction, autonomy and empowerment. Management believes that employees enjoy their work. They also believe that, given a chance, employees have the desire to be creative at their work place and become forward looking. There is a chance for greater productivity by giving employees the freedom to perform to the best of their abilities, without being bogged down by rules.
A Theory Y manager believes that, given the right conditions, most people will want to do well at work and that there is a pool of unused creativity in the workforce. They believe that the satisfaction of doing a good job is a strong motivation in itself. A Theory Y manager will try to remove the barriers that prevent workers from fully actualizing themselves.
The
following diagram gives a clear explanation about Theory X and Theory Y
managers:
Now
we further discuss the role of such managers and the effect on employees
through the following four cases. As and where possible, examples from my
experience of working under such managers has been highlighted.
Situation
I:
Employee dislikes his work and manager
assumes he is lazy
This
kind of a situation is seen in many organisations where lack of clear directive
principles and ineffective goal setting leads to disillusionment and
non-motivation among the employees to perform better. During my working days,
while working in various committees as junior members, I often found seniors at
the leadership didn't care much about us or the betterment of the club as a
whole. Gradually, we assumed a stance where we also didn't work or care much
and slowly started disliking working in it. They assumed we were lazy and went
about it in that manner. This is a classic case of Theory X Managers where both
the management and employees assume that the top rung will be giving orders to
the lower rungs and they will follow the same.
Situation
II:
Employee likes his work and manager assumes he is lazy
This
is probably the most dangerous out of all the four possible situations where
the employee likes his work and finds himself highly motivated from within to
work and contribute, however the manager still assumes he is lazy and thus is
greatly harmful to the motivational growth of the employee and the organisation
as a whole. I had the (mis)fortune of having such a manager during my
initial days at my workplace. The team members would work extra hard to achieve
already stringent deadlines and produce quality work, often doing value
addition on their own and inspiring each other to work harder and
stay focused. However, our manager still assumed we were a group of lazy
employees and would constantly point out minor issues, without focusing on the
larger picture of employee's performance. Even with whole-hearted
contributions, the team was deemed to be performing below par and not meeting
objectives. Such managers can be detrimental to the success of the organisation
as often, good employees might leave the organisation to other rival companies,
leading to further attrition.
Situation
III:
Employee dislikes his work and manager assumes he is not lazy
In
this case, even though employees dislike their work, there is a strong focus
from management to think they can do better and perform much more to aid
the organisation. Immense morale boosting attitude, a definite belief that
employees will perform better given more optimistic managers at the helm,
performance based incentives at all levels are some of the means of getting the
employees up to speed. This kind of a workplace is where the Theory Y managers
exhibit their true mettle and where the attitude they adopt crucially shapes
the future of the organisation.
Situation
IV:
Employee likes his work and manager assumes he is not lazy
This
is the most ideal case where the employee is focused and likes his work and
performs it to the fullest extent. This is achieved as a result of hardworking
employees working in an environment of synergy with the management
who leave no stones unturned to motivate them through their positive attitude.
I had the fortune of being under such a manager during my last days at the
workplace. He would focus greatly on the employee's performance on a weekly
basis. If there ever came any reasons which could demotivate the employees, he
would take it up on an immediate basis and have it solved as soon as possible.
An ever-supportive person for the employees, especially in front of the senior
management during appraisal times, he had succeeded in bringing harmony in a
team which had initially lost all faith in the management due to prior
incidents. He would take time out from his personal schedule to interact on a
person-to-person basis with us, understand each person's problems and offer
solutions and his own help to sort them out so that the employee didn't go home
disgruntled. It showed in our work as we too started to scale up and exceed the
goals set in front of us, thus leading to excellence of the organisation. Such
Theory Y managers make great organisations greater.
In
a diverse world of different organisations with different philosophies, I
believe that managers should try to become Theory Y managers in situation IV as
this leads to successful growth of all stakeholders involved. Even in the case
where such a situation becomes hypothetical, I feel that Theory X managers
shown in situation II above are the worst managers as the negative vibe they
give out harms all the parties.
Valley Crossing!!!!
So.... here I am... Sitting in my hostel room.. Thinking of a
yet another thought provoking class on Valley crossing!
A very simple idea of making 3 ppl cross a valley, which
individually, they couldn’t have crossed! what better example to understand the
criticality of team work, patience, coordination and communication in an
organization with big dreams!
Here is what we were shown......
And our task was to make them cross!! With 3 ppl and only 1
wooden log (understand limited resources in an organization), our minds set
off.... thinking!!!
And then i recalled my dance lessons in childhood about
coordination.... and basketball lessons about team work to win! And
martial arts lessons... where i got hit so many times right on the face when i
misread the expressions on my opponents’ faces!
Thinking of all these, I could actually think of a way of making
them cross the valley without exposing anyone to more risk than the other!
Isn’t it all there on the picture itself????
SET THE GOAL: Yes! That is the most important task! Be it the simple task of
doing my assignment on time or setting up my dream restaurant in Goa, you got
to SET the goal! As they say.. eyes on prize! Here, our goal was to cross
the valley... safely!
DEFINE THE STEPS: Now how do we go about it???
Proper prioritizing of subjects for me to meet the deadlines of
assignments....
savings for setting up my dream restaurant.... finalizing
the location... studying the trend of tourism... operational difficulties....
basically a road map to get a good night’s sleep every day, with no tension of
reporting to bosses... loving my job where I am the master!
Or in this case, making them cross the valley, which goes like
this:
COMMUNICATE: If you think as to what are the crucial drivers in this
exercise, the first one coming to my mind is TALKING!! Communicating to the
other 2 persons about implementing the above strategy, what will be the
hindrances, points of high risk, ways of tackling them and every other detail
required for perfect execution!
We were taught in our martial arts classes to “look into the
eyes of the opponent” to understand his next move. That was something I never
practiced in my early days of Karate... and that was when I got hit the most!
It took me a while to figure out the exact reason of broken bleeding noses and
paining backs! When I figured it out, I could really see that if done wisely, I
could expect a certain move from my opponent!
Thats what happens in this case of Valley crossing as well...
Communicating the right things at the right time is crucial and once done that,
crossing is a cake walk!
COORDINATION IN A TEAM: Second thing will definitely be COORDINATION!
One mistake on anybody’s part and its all lost!
Same is applicable to my dream business as well! One wrong step
in choice of location or maybe the selection of menu or just the rock band to
be performing, I am finished!!
Criticality of major decisions and necessity of a proper
execution plan couldn’t have been better stated as simply as this example!
While watching circus during childhood, we used to be in awe!
Great moves... excellent tricks.... all depending upon one tiny little thing:
COordinATION! U lose it and you are dead!
How does it relate here??? It does! Very much! An organization
is built by imbibing many departments/business units together. All work to
achieve their targets (bosses have to be reported to!!) but when it comes about
standing together as ONE to fight competition and all those forces that tend to
throw you out of your position, coordination is what is required to add to the
ultimate target of the organization
TRUST: When striving so hard to achieve our goals, trust on the support
functions is very essential. In our case of crossing the valley, this picture
depicts exactly the emotions in the person’s mind!
Conclusion: Be it about making your dream come true or
working your way up the ladder in a company:
Love what you do... Do what you love!!
Love what you do... Do what you love!!
A Short History of Dr. Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank
Muhammad Yunus
was born in 28th June, 1940 in the village of Bathua, in Hathazari, Chittagong,
the business centre of what was then Eastern Bengal. He was the third of 14
children of whom five died in infancy. His father was a successful goldsmith
who always encouraged his sons to seek higher education. But his biggest
influence was his mother, Sufia Khatun, who always helped any poor that knocked
on their door. This inspired him to commit himself to eradication of poverty.
His early childhood years were spent in the village. In 1947, his family moved
to the city of Chittagong, where his father had the jewelery business.
In 1974, Professor Muhammad Yunus led
his students on a field trip to a poor village. They interviewed a woman who
made bamboo stools, and learnt that she had to borrow the equivalent of 15p to
buy raw bamboo for each stool made. After repaying the middleman, sometimes at
rates as high as 10% a week, she was left with a penny profit margin. Had she
been able to borrow at more advantageous rates, she would have been able to
amass an economic cushion and raise herself above subsistence level.
Realizing that there must be something
terribly wrong with the economics he was teaching, Yunus took matters into his
own hands, and from his own pocket lent the equivalent of ? 17 to 42
basket-weavers. He found that it was possible with this tiny amount not only to
help them survive, but also to create the spark of personal initiative and
enterprise necessary to pull themselves out of poverty.
Against the
advice of banks and government, Yunus carried on giving out 'micro-loans', and
in 1983 formed the Grameen Bank, meaning 'village bank' founded on principles
of trust and solidarity.
The Grameen
Bank Project (Grameen means "rural" or "village" in Bangla
language) came into operation with the following objectives:
·
extend
banking facilities to poor men and women;
·
eliminate
the exploitation of the poor by money lenders;
·
create
opportunities for self-employment for the vast multitude of unemployed people
in rural Bangladesh;
·
bring
the disadvantaged, mostly the women from the poorest households, within the
fold of an organizational format which they can understand and manage by
themselves; and
·
reverse
the age-old vicious circle of "low income, low saving & low
investment", into virtuous circle of "low income, injection of
credit, investment, more income, more savings, more investment, more
income".
In Bangladesh
today, Grameen has 2,564 branches, with 19,800 staff serving 8.29 million
borrowers in 81,367 villages. On any working day Grameen collects an average of
$1.5 million in weekly installments. Of the borrowers, 97% are women and over
97% of the loans are paid back, a recovery rate higher than any other banking
system. Grameen methods are applied in projects in 58 countries, including the
US, Canada, France, The Netherlands and Norway.
Saturday, 6 July 2013
Learning Principles of Management through Animated Movie : Three Monks
The film ‘3 monks’
is a Chinese animated film, released in 1980 and directed by A Da. It is one of
the most famous and beloved Shanghai Animation Film Studio's productions,
and has won awards at film festivals throughout the world.
The film is based on the ancient Chinese proverb
"One monk will shoulder two buckets of water, two monks will share the
load, but add a third and no one will want to fetch water.”
Before I write any further, I request you all to watch
the video of the movie.
For those who do not have time to watch the movie, here
is the brief synopsis of the movie:
There is a monk who lives in a monastery on the top of a hill. He has to
come down to fetch water from the river and he was living happily. Then a
second monk comes and starts living with the first monk. The problem starts
when they together go to fetch water. They are unable to decide how to divide
the work amongst them as no one wanted to do any extra work. They decide to
calculate the length of the stick carrying the bucket and hung the bucket in
between. The coming of the third monk creates a conflict as to who two will
bring the water. Since they are not able to resolve this conflict no one goes
and the monastery is without water. Then one day fire broke in the monastery
and the three monks with their combined efforts put it out. Since
then they understand the old saying "unity is strength" and begin to
live a harmonious life. The temple never lacks water again.
Followings are the management lessons learnt:
1.
Teamwork does enhance the efficiency in the working of task.
2.
Disputes tend to arise when there is more than one person involved.
3. Scientific
and objectives measurements and instruments should be used to resolve the
conflict.
4. The
most efficient method to solve a problem evolves over a period of time.
5. Teamwork
and team interest should take precedence over the personal interest.
6.
Experiences in crisis management come handy to come up with new
innovative methods to solve a problem.
7 Attitude
of each team member determines the fate of the task and decides for the
success rate.
8. Synergistic
roles: Individual sums become bigger than what was there
individually.
Learning
The story of the three monks
tells us about the basic human nature and the requirement of having a proper
coordinating team. People mostly tries to off load their work to others instead
of making a collective effort and divide the work properly. Also for any
activity to be done successfully, the coordination between the team members is
very vital. And for proper coordination the team members must feel friendly
towards each other. As in the video when the three monks become friends towards
the end they were able to come up with the innovative idea of the pulley
system.
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