A Towering Goal.........

"There's nothing wrong with having your goals really high and trying to achieve them.That's the fun part you may come up short.I'ave come up short on a lot on my goals,but it's always a fun to try and achieve them"
                                                                                                            - Tiger Woods
What are goals ???
There are certain things in life that you want to accomplish or milestones that you may wish to achieve.Those are your dreams and the moment to put deadline on them and commit yourself towards them, those become your goals.

It is always better to set challenging goals even if that means occasionally falling short,rather than set simple goals which could lead to dissatisfaction and leave you wondering if they were to easy.Often people are inclined to set rather simple goals for themselves & in process they forget that kind of goals one sets tells the world what kid of person you are.This is best highlighted in Harry Potter & Chamber of Secrets when Dumbledore tells the young Harry "It is our choices,Harry,that show what we are truly,for more than our abilities".This applies to young students,production managers,sales executives etc.

As  Dr. Mandi rightly said when you set a goal it should be challenging. To achieve that goal you need to stretch every bit of  your abilities and once to achieve it next time you need to set even more challenging goal & work towards achieving it.We need to set and achieve goals in a upward spiral.

One  thing I firmly believe is  that one's goals must be out of reach but not out of sight.Goals must be realistic.A good example to support above statement would be the tower building (using small building blocks) exercise conducted in class.The previous record was 27 blocks tower and the team aimed for 30 block tower which was out of reach (taking a clue from previous attempts &given set of constraints ) but definitely not out of sight.

The team succeeded in breaking the previous record which was combination of higher expectations of them from others & themselves.Such a condition where greater the expectation placed upon the people,better they perform is called Pygmalion effect or Rosenthal effect.

The Pygmalion effect is an important instrument in management theory. It makes managers be aware, that the success of their employees depends not only on qualification, personal qualities or working environment. Manager always has to believe in his people and expect them to achieve the best results. In such case the subordinates will always feel this trust and demonstrate their best skills and abilities in their work.

Signing out on a note: What you achieve is a function of what you think you are.

Simple recipe of Management -3 Es & The Curious Case of Craftsman in new Business world

3 Es of management are Efficiency, Effectiveness and Excellence

Effectiveness can be explained in terms of what is achieved. It is about whether targets are met or not. Performing effectively means that the right work is being completed. Managers are responsible for making sure that this happens. If a team is working really hard but not delivering what is needed, then they are not effective. Effectiveness is measured by setting out clear objectives before work starts and then evaluating whether the objectives have been met or not.

Efficiency can be measured in terms of the inputs required to generate the outputs. It is about the way in which work is completed. It is part of a manager’s job to help improve efficiency. For example, if the same work can be completed using less inputs or resources then efficiency has improved.

Excellence is product of efficiency and effectiveness where efficiency serves as speed and effectiveness serves as direction.

Excellence= Effectiveness x Efficiency.

Every manager can be a better manager and understanding the 3Es Effectiveness, Efficiency and Execellence can help improve business performance.

Craftsmen like cobblers, carpenters etc. work alone to accomplice their task. Organisations mass produce working on a large scale than craftsman. Craftsman thrives & succeeds on his skills and simplicity. Contrary to that we have massive organisations thriving on efficiently executing complex processes. Organisations take the person based approach of craftsman to next level by adopting process based approach. Craftsmen seldom involve management in their work whereas organisations are built on rock bed of management, managing people and resources. A good craftsman knows his trade in and out for e.g. a cobbler knows the entire process of shoe making from design conception to giving finish touch to it on other hand in an organisation different people take care of different processes.

 Craftsmen are highly skilled on the other hand organisation deskills labour. A very good example given by Dr. Prasad about KPO and BPO business based on this deskilling and disintegration of work so that less skilled people can be absorbed & more control can be gained by organisation.

Craftsmanship	Modern Wage
Highly Satisfied and has personal pride associated with product or service	Alienation is very high
Work done is in sequential manner	Work done is in parallel manner
Highly skilled	Deskilled
Absence of Interdependency	High Interdepency

The methods of lean production aim to combine the flexibility and quality of craftsmanship with the low costs of mass production. In lean-production systems a manufacturer's employees are organised in teams. Within each team a worker is expected to be able to do all the tasks required of the team. These tasks are less narrowly specialised than those demanded of the worker in a mass-production system, and this variety enables the worker to escape from the soul-destroying repetition of the pure assembly line.

I shall be blessed to have your feedback.

Theories X and Y

The Theories X and Y were proposed by social psychologist Douglas McGregor  in his classic book "The Human Side of Enterprise." McGregor's model suggests that there are two fundamental approaches to managing people:

Many managers tend towards Theory X, and generally get poor results—especially over the longer term. Enlightened managers mostly use Theory Y, which produces better performance and results, and allows people to grow and develop.

Let’s understand this theories in detail……

Theory X

Theory X assumes that employees are naturally unmotivated and dislike working and this encourages an authoritarian style of management. According to this view, management must actively intervene to get things done.

Theory Y

Theory Y expatiates a participative style of management that is de-centralized. It assumes that employees are happy to work, are self-motivated and creative, and enjoy working with greater responsibility

Let us consider four different combination of employees and managers

Ca$e 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.

Ca$e 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.

Ca$e 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.

Ca$e 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.Personally I was blessed to be belonging to this ca$e.

And there's always a way to begin with………

Most people's first day at college is the most stressful day of their lives because they don't know what to expect but for me it was the one of the most exciting day of my life. First,I met new people, second it was a whole new experience for me in which my success depended on me, and third it was the first day that I started studying something that I really liked.

Guessed it right..... it was my first class in NITIE  conducted by Dr. Prasad and I will always cherish this moment as it was quite different from conventional lectures that I had gone through, it was very interactive, energetic, fun filled and finally had a message.Earth figured soft balls thrown from one corner to another corner of room and pink  butterfly flying in the class, it was very comforting classroom environment meant for students to relax and contribute in class with theirs ideas and views.

I learned an important thing in my life “aj ki roti aj hi kamaana” and came across very beautiful concept “Socho becho, becho seekho, seekho socho”.
With the song of Pink Floyd in my mind, I have promised myself not to be another brick in the wall.

My blog is also a result of this class after realizing how blogs could be used to change the face of education by reaching to masses in an accessible and affordable manner by sharing your ideas, experiences and learning with the world around you.