Problem solving & Decision making:

                 Problem solving & Decision making are two major things which influence an organizations growth.The job of manager lies in handling these situations with business acumen and bringing out fruitful outcomes from it.One more challenge yet to come is how to implement the decision??Is it by individual or group??Here are the four possible situations an organization can experience in decision making and its implementation.

 

• Individual Decision,Individual Implementation
• Individual Decision,Group Implementation
• Group Decision,Individual Implementation
• Group Decision,Group Implementation

         

               Out of four situations the last one is more complex as it involves many people in taking decision and implementing.It will be difficult to bring people on common consensus.

Steps in Decision Making:

• Estimation Analysis

              -Valuing                                                 

              -Priority Setting                                              

• Problem Analysis

              - Information Gathering

              - Problem definition 

• Solution Analysis

              - Idea getting

              - Decision making

• Implementation

              - Involving others

              - Planning

Comparing stages of Problem solving and Decision making:

Two major categories of problems can be:

• Rich and Poor differentiation
• Simple and Complex

Problems which seem to be "Tough" are not actually tough,it is the persons view on how he/she is analyzing it.What ever the problem is we should be ready to handle it. Taking the challenge is more important than coming up with solution.

          This is a critical phase where any organization experiances it often.The approaches and the implementations are the factors which distinuguish an organisation from each other. 

          Only Solutions can be classified as simple or complex but not the problems.

Valley Crossing & Management Principles in it

                  Making difficult task easier as a piece of cake is possible with excellent teamwork.3 persons crossing a valley is a good example of it.This scenario depicts how 3 people cross a valley,what difficulties they faced and how they have overcome it with their team work and co-ordination.

Stages they have undergone:

Safe - Both the legs of the person have full support

Half Risky – One leg in the air and the other leg has support

Full risky - Both the legs are in the air without any support

Half risky – One leg is in the air and the other leg has support

Safe - Both the legs have full support

9 different stages 3 people undergo while crossing the valley

Lessons Learnt :

 Significance of each member in a team:

           In this situation all three are equally responsible in their contributions for the overall task completion.Roles of all three members are similar but not same, and equivalent in terms of total effort & risk.All 3 member Roles have equal distribution of 

Risky situations (1)

Half risky situations (2)

No risk situations (2)

           Similarly in an organization,all roles are designed for equally strong persons and there is no weaker or stronger requirement in any specific role.The onus lies on the team members to communicate and feedback across the members instantaneously.Interdependence among the members can be exercised in crucial situations

Preparation and Execution:

         All the 3  members are systematically trained for all the steps and, while crossing, they communicate and coordinate with each other through a various kinds of sounds and other signals.

Team Excellence:

        Team excellence comes through proper designing of team tasks, correctly assigning team roles, and preparation and execution of the tasks. Thus, excellence is designed by the managers and executed by team players with trust among themselves.

     

Creating a World Without Poverty:Yunus Principles

          

      Grameen Bank founder and CEO, Muhammad Yunus has succeeded in his current fascination with individualistic myths of wealth and poverty. Many policy-makers believe that poverty is "simply" a problem of individual behavior. By rejecting the notion that poverty has structural causes, they deny the need for collective responses. Helping the poor is pernicious because such aid undermines the incentive for hard work. This ideology is part and parcel of neoliberalism.

           

              For neoliberals the solution to poverty is getting the poor to work harder, get educated, have fewer children, and act more responsibly. Markets reward those who help themselves, and women, who comprise the vast majority of micro-credit borrowers, are no exception. Neoliberals champion the Grameen Bank and similar efforts precisely because micro-credit programs do not change the structural conditions of globalization—such as loss of land rights, privatization of essential public services, or cutbacks in health and education spending—that reproduce poverty among women in developing nations.


Micro-credit:
               Yunus, a Bangladeshi banker and economist, pioneered the idea of setting up a bank to make loans to the "poorest of the poor." The term "micro-credit" reflects the very small size of the loans, often less than $100. Recognizing that the lack of collateral was often a barrier to borrowing by the poor, Yunus founded the Grameen Bank in the 1970s to make loans in areas of severe rural poverty where there were often no alternatives.

                 The concept of micro-credit started gaining popularity after Muhammad Yunus. The success of Grameen Bank’s micro-credit model, of which rural women and Self Help Groups (SHGs) formed more than 94% of clientele, incited an ontogeny that culminated in the arrival of many such institutions around the world in the last decade.

The Grameen Bank toasts its successes:
             Micro-credit advocates see these programs as a solution to poverty because poor women can generate income by using the borrowed funds to start small-scale enterprises, often home based handicraft production. But these enterprises are almost all in the informal sector, which is fiercely competitive and typically unregulated, in other words, outside the range of any laws that protect workers or ensure their rights. Not surprisingly, women comprise the majority of workers in the informal economy and are heavily represented at the bottom of its already-low income scale.

             Micro-credit programs do nothing to change the structural conditions that create poverty. But micro-credit has been a success for the many banks that have adopted it. Of course, lending to the poor has long been a lucrative enterprise.payday loan operations, and loan sharks charge high interest rates precisely because poor people are often desperate for cash and lack access to formal credit networks. According to Sheryl Nance-Nash, a correspondent for Women's e-News, "the interest rates on micro-finance vary between 25% to 50%." She notes that these rates "are much lower than informal money lenders, where rates may exceed 10% per month." It is important for the poor to have access to credit on relatively reasonable terms.

            However large or small their income gains, poor women are widely believed to find empowerment in access to micro-credit loans. According to the World Bank, for instance, micro-credit empowers women by giving them more control over household assets and resources, more autonomy and decision-making power, and greater access to participation in public life. This defense of micro-credit stands or falls with individual success stories featuring beggars using their loans to start some sort of mini small-scale enterprise, perhaps renting a stall in the local market or buying a set of cookies.
            Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus won his approach towards his principles of management to banking, reinforces the neoliberal view that individual behavior is the source of poverty and the neoliberal agenda of restricting state aid to the most vulnerable when and where the need for government assistance is most acute. Expanding the state sector to provide the rudiments of a working social infrastructure is, therefore, a far more effective way to help people escape or avoid poverty.

Learnings:
                    
         -  Yunus approached where there were opportunity(market segmentation),for example when conventional banks approached the rich but he went to the poor people and created an opportunity to generate business. in the same way when project is done one must know where the opportunities are and penetrate it and generate business.

       -    In a team when a risk has to be taken it must be calculative and within limits.Yunus did this by lending a loan in a particular limit.

       -     In a product marketing unique points are to be followed which stands unique from others so that business is done.For example: yunus used usp which differenciated them from competitors(conventional banks) as follows:

        a)many banks (99%) reached only men while yunus approached women

        b)many banks asked for collateral where yunus dint ask for collateral .

SMART goals.....

                 SMART goals first appeared in a November, 1981 issue of Management Review (vol. 70, issue 11), in an article titled “There’s a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management’s goals and objectives.” by George Doran, Arthur Miller, and James Cunningham.He suggested that corporate and functional objectives need to conform to a set of criteria referred to as an acronym SMART.

• The SMART criteria are summarized below:

                 Specific-The objective should state exactly what is to be achieved.
            Measurable-An objective should be capable of measurement ,so that it is possible to determine whether (or how far) it has been achieved.
            Achievable-The objective should be realistic given the circumstances in which it is set and the resources available to the business.
            Relevant-Objectives should be relevant to the people responsible for achieving them.
            Time Bound-Objectives should be set with a time-frame in mind. These deadlines also need to be realistic.
               
                Two important notes: 
                        First not all objectives must be measured across all levels of management, as in some instances the focus should rather be on the action plan for achieving the objective. 
                             Secondly, not every objective written will meet all five criteria. They should be rather seen as guidelines.

• SMART results expectations:

 S -The expectation is specific if it is clearly written so that it is easily understood by the employee. The employee can define what is to be done, the rational or benefit related to the meeting the outcome or goal, and what requirements are necessary. Since not all tasks are listed, the employee will also need to know other steps that may be necessary to meet the goal and how this expectation fits with the work of others. 

M -The expectation is measurable if it covers at least one measure of a quality metric, quantity, time and/or cost effectiveness. Measurable means not merely meeting a standard but evaluating how well the standard need to be reached. Without a specific measure, the employee is not able to self-monitor how they are doing related to their performance or achieving the work unit’s results. Measurement is also important to know how the work is tracked or monitored and whether the employee and supervisor need to discuss adjustments to the expectation or the work being done. 

A -The expectation is attainable by the employee if it is appropriate to the employee’s job level. It allows for some stretch so that the employee will neither exceed the expectation too easily nor not be able to reach the successful level. It encourages the employees to push themselves to meet the work unit’s goals.It is within the employee’s ability and resources to achieve. It is action oriented and shows how the expectation aligns with the work unit goals. 

R -The expectation is realistic if it is within reach of the employee to meet the expectation. 

T -The expectation is time bound if it can be accomplished within the work cycle.It can also be tracked and monitored with the employee during the  period of cycle.

TEAMWORK

Learning about TEAM work from THE CHINESE SHORT FILM THE THREE MONKS

                    Teamwork is what we hear quite often these days.why the managerial world is behind this??what exactly is this??What is a Team?

               A team is defined as a group of people working and influencing each other driving towards a common goal. The effort they put in to achieve the goal is known as Team effort or TEAM WORK.When we have survived so many years by individual performances,why is this TEAM such an important thing these days.Here comes a short Chinese animation movie "THE THREE MONKS" to explain more about what TEAM work is. 

• History of the film:

            The Three Monks  is a Chinese animated feature film produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. After the cultural revolution and the fall of the political Gang of Four in 1976, the film was one of the first animations created as part of the rebirth period. It is also referred to as The Three Buddhist Priests.

• About the film: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." The film does not contain any dialogues, allowing it to be watched by any culture, and a different music instrument was used to signify each monk.

                    A young monk lives a simple life in a temple on top of a hill. He has a daily task of hauling two buckets of water up the hill. He tries to share the job with another monk, but the carry pole is only long enough for one bucket. The arrival of a third monk prompts everyone to expect that someone else will take on the chore. Consequently, no one fetches water though everybody is thirsty. At night, a rat comes to scrounge and then knocks the candle-holder  leading to a devastating fire in the temple. The three monks finally unite together and make a concerted effort to put out the fire. Since then they understand the essence of teamwork remembering the old saying "unity is strength" and begin to live a harmonious life. The temple never lacks water again.

• Phases:

                 Phase 1 : A single monk carrying two buckets of water
                 Phase 2 : Two monks carrying a single bucket of water
                 Phase 3 : Three monks working as a team to make the temple free from fire. 


               Phase 1: In this phase the monk have not faced any issues.His daily routine was shouldering water, chanting sthothras, knocking the wooden fish, adding water to the holy water bottle on the table honoring the Goddess of Mercy, and watching over the mice from stealing food at night. His life was smooth and comfortable. This depicts about the individual effort and the outcomes,satisfaction out of it.When one is responsible and focused on what he have to do,he can see no issues ahead if his work results in  his satisfaction.

                 Phase 2: Monk 1 and 2 go to pond to get water to the temple.Each of the monks tries to pass on the weight to the other to relieve themselves from the burden,thereby making an easy task of carrying water a tough one. Monk 1 tries to point out the line of division using his hand. Monk 2 denies and uses his own hand to identify the line of division. Finally Monk 1 gets a ruler and identifies the line of division with mutual consent. Monk 2 lends support giving his hand as marker during measurements.

   Lessons to learn:

            - Always use the standardized tools of measurement, which is universally accepted.
       - The work has to be designed in such a way that it is divided equally among the members.
         - All the members of the team have to contribute and mutually decide the terms of work order.
            
         Phase 3: The temple catches fire. The three monks had to douse the fire off.They started working collectively to set the fire off and were successful in doing it thus elevating the teamwork.

   Lessons to learn:

            - Team work is important than individual performance. Though each of the priests had the ability to get the water from pond, they could not set the fire off individually without seeking help from others.
              - The monks have divided the entire line of action into 3 equal parts. Thus work has to be divided equally.
               - When you work collectively as a team, you can generate more practical ideas.

•      Management lessons learnt:

                      Efficiency and Effectiveness from teamwork:

                 Initially  Three Monks succumb to their personal pride which interferes with the performance of daily tasks, each of them believing that the other two should be the ones to go downhill to fetch water. When a fire breaks out,they understand how silly they have been and worked together to save the temple. From this, it is evident that in an organization and in a team, it is important to take personal ego out of the equation, to perform the duty at hand for the greater good.

        Unavoidable disputes when more than one person is on a particular job:

                      When the third monk goes downhill to fetch water for the first time, he comes back only to drink the water all by himself, exhibiting a selfish tendency. This does not help in the goal of having water stored at all times. This only leads to further animosity among the three and the task never gets completed. Similarly, in an organization, selfish motives must be detected and discouraged for the good of the many. All members of a  team working together towards a common goal is the best practice of work.

       Complex Problems, Simple Solutions:

                  This should be the motto of decision making for any manager in any organization.In an organisation, out of the box, yet rational thinking is required to resolve conflicts fairly and logically.

       Efficient method evolves over a period of time:

                           Productivity analysis according to which getting 1 bucket shared by the two monks is a much better proposition.  

Event                       Output                         Input                                Productivity=Output/Input

                              (No. of buckets)       (Worker Energy units)  

1Man – 1bucket            1                                  1                                                       1

1Man – 2buckets          2                                  2                                                       1

2Men – 1bucket           1                                   0.5                                                   2

   

         Synergy : whole is greater than the sum of it's parts

                          To put out the fire each monk panicked and tried to do his best and ran down the river to bring the bucket full of water. But this process was long, tiring and had too many inefficiencies inherent to it. So, it was ineffective as well.A coordinated effort by all three was very effective in dousing the fire.

   Productivity:

                    Productivity is Important. Productivity is about how well an organization converts resource inputs into goods or services. Workplace productivity is about how firms can utilize labor and skills, innovation, technology and organizational structure to improve the quantity and quality of their output.It is all about exploring all the ways that can make a working environment more effective & efficient.

Lessons in Excellence....

             

                  The second class of Mr.Mandi sir was about the confidence of reaching the target either individually or in a team.This was explained with help of cubes.He threw the cubes at us and gave us an open challenge of building the cubes in a single column,as many as possible.

     
           



            It was divided into 2 scenarios,one being the individual open eyed task and the other being blind folded taking help from a person.Everyone gave their own numbers and finally the challenge was fixed to 22 for open eyed task and 22+ for blind folded task.

                    

            Open eyed task is like managing one self carefully and completing the task successfully. The task shows how meticulous we need to be,how well we need to plan our strategies to foresee it as a success.Then the task has started with a guy who came up voluntarily to build 22 cubes.And he did it finally placing 2 cubes at a time one up on the other,in fact he could build up 22+ cubes.                                                                                                                                                            

                        Next comes the Real toughest challenge,building the cubes blind folded taking the help of 2 people for support.This task resembles the scenario of an organisation where an employee works under the guidance of his manager and head of the organization.And the no.of cubes build resembles the productivity of the company.This task was carried out by 3 people and they were successful in it.Great support and co-ordination was there with in the team and hence forth is the result.

                                                                                  

     

               Later the analysis was done on what factors effect the team work and individual effort towards a task.Factors like work,skill,satisfaction and time were discussed and their influence on the approaches followed.Hence in an organization productivity and efficiency depends on how the plans are formulated,channelizing the work appropriately and depends on co-ordination with in the team.

               The Most Awaited MBA journey of mine has started at NITIE,Mumbai.Lush Green Campus,the famous NITIE POND,the 96 steps,Awesome seniors, has ignited my journey and made it more enthusiastic.Lots of GYAN and lots of case studies,made me participative and interactive.Thanks to Team IMPACT.

               The classroom learning started with my 1st class of statistics.Then the flow of classes continued till 4 p.m.Here comes the most interesting part.The day started with Principles of organisation and management class by Mr.Prasad sir.It was totally unexpected and became one of my most memorable class room experiences.We came to know what the real learning is "LEARNING WITH EARNING" and how to progress further.People call him as Mr. MANDI as the event named MANDI was started by him and was a huge success till date.

               As sir walked into the class he put the chair and table aside and sat on the dias. We were welcomed to come and occupy the place in front on the floor.Its all different and I liked the idea and his simplicity.The class had a discussion about the event MANDI.Various questions on what? how? when? why? about the event was asked  and the GYAN was transferred to us with Mr. Mandi's responses to them.Sir showed us a model which was developed by a group of engineers.He distributed few mini globe balls and balancing toys.

               All the learning was practically showed by him.He shared few of his experiences with us and the essence of management too.We were asked to write blogs to share our experiences and learning, taking us through the way of practical learning.On the whole it was motivating,enthusiastic and interesting. Definitely more posts are yet to come as a part of this.Thanks to Mr. Mandi sir.We owe to you and looking forward to acquire more GYAN from you sir.