The one with the Pygmalion effect

The class started with passing on of a two-coloured straw cube and a small snail dummy. The first question sir asked was: “ Can anyone explain what (a+b)2 mean using this cube. Few of us tried and succeeded, he then asked for (a+b)3 only a few could explain. The idea behind this was to explain how to use a simple cube to explain so many things and thus could be sold easily provided we know how to use it. The next was the snail dummy, he told us the story of Economic Times and how they expanded spirally. He talked of exponential growth and Fibonacci Series. Then he jumped on to performance of employers, he quoted a famous theory called Pygmalion effect. Let us discuss Pygmalion effect in brief here:










Pygmalion Effect:

In relation to management, Pygmalion Effect states that if Higher expectations are placed on people they are bound to perform well. But this happens with only a set of people i.e. a specific relationship eg. Mother-child, Teacher-student, captain-players, performer-audience.

Another example of the Pygmalion effect is in groups. If there are two groups, one group thought that their teacher was "good", the other group thought he was "not good". The teacher treated both groups the same, but the group with a positive expectations had better outcomes than the others; Simply because those with positive expectations made them perform better than other students.

The Pygmalion effect is also 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.



Using Pygmalion Effect to achieve higher goals:

As discussed in last blog,

Goal Set X Goal Achieved = True Potential

Now we can use Goal Achieved to positively affect the Goal set and vice versa, taking a day-to-day example that whenever we win a competition our expectations for the next event also increases that is goal achieved enhances our goal set, in the similar way our goal set also enhances our goal achieved provided we take the appropriate steps:





· Our Goal Set should always be greater than our last goal achieved

· Our Goal Set should also be greater than our set potential i.e. how much capable we consider ourselves to be

·

· Our Goal Set should also be greater than the Historical Record of the goal, as it would motivate us to set a new record



Thus in this way if we raise our expectations our performance would definitely improve.

Here is a video demonstrating the same:



But we did not restricted ourselves to this existing acronym , in fact it can be extended as below :-

S ---> Simple , stunning , Stupendous , satisfactory
M---> miraculous , marvelous , mind boggling , motivating
A ---> amazing , affluent , attractive , admirable

R ---> refined , reliable , remarkable , respectable

T ---> terrific , thrilling , transforming , truthful



Pygmalion a play by George Bernard Shaw, and the musical My Fair Lady.

In the Greek myth Pygmalion a prince of Cyprus carved an ivory statue of his ideal woman. He fell in love with the statue and named his love Galatea. The prince's expectations were realized when Galatea was given life by Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love.

In My Fair Lady a character by the name of Eliza Doolittle is transformed from a flower girl into a sophisticated lady by professor Higgins who believed in her.

The common theme in both of these stories is that the expectations of one person can impact the actions of another.

The one with mastishk

I found Nikhil,presently working with KPMG in Banking and Financial Services domain, to be a very simple personality and a serious person initially by the looks. As he addressed us and the session went ahead, I witnessed that his ideas are so powerful that everybody in the room was left impressed and inspired to think out of the box.
He pointed out that  we hardly come to know about failed start-up stories because their stories go unsung, and the very few which succeed catch the limelight, and reading their stories we envisage ourselves as future billionaires without peeping into the ground realities.
“A start-up demands extreme patience and passion and if you are ready for both it is THE thing for you” said Nikhil, but if you are confused even to the extent of one percent  don’t go.
The feeling of a job creator comes with its own terms and conditions. Comparing doing a job and being an entrepreneur he identified that neither the efforts nor the responsibilities are less anywhere, in job you have an advantage of switching whenever you want, in startup you are your own boss doesn’t mean that you are not answerable to anyone, your stakeholders , your customers are all your liability.

He started the discussion asking us how many of us want to become entrepreneurs, many of us raised hands, then he tried drilling into their reasons for this choice and figured that except a few most of us had exactly zero idea what exactly it is to be an entrepreneur.
Most of the students look at entrepreneurship as an exit option from their mundane job lives. Most of us were confused between being independent with taking zero liability. He tried to give us a brief understanding of what exactly it is to be an entrepreneur, quoting some examples he inferred that we never noticed.

While he was just to start telling his experiences about Mastishk, Hemant entered the class, classmate of Nikhil and co-founder of Mastishk. A vibrant personality; who lightened the discussion with his smiling face, both shared their experiences about the genesis of Mastishk, the problems faced by them running it and what they learnt from it. The discussion was very involving.

I loved the part where Hemant told us how they used to look at themselves as C2C (CEO to Chapraasi) of the company and how they derived their satisfaction while fulfilling what they envisioned.After the arrival of our third Alum the discussion turned more engrossing and we enjoyed a mind boggling and eye opening session.

At the end of the session, they answered many of our doubts and guided us with some TO-Dos. They concluded the session with a promise to be back soon to help and guide us with our issues what so ever they may be.
While he was just to start telling his experiences about Mastishk, Hemant entered the class, classmate of Nikhil and co-founder of Mastishk. A vibrant personality; who lightened the discussion with his smiling face, both shared their experiences about the genesis of Mastishk, the problems faced by them running it and what they learnt from it. The discussion was very involving.

I loved the part where Hemant told us how they used to look at themselves as C2C (CEO to Chapraasi) of the company and how they derived their satisfaction while fulfilling what they envisioned.After the arrival of our third Alum the discussion turned more engrossing and we enjoyed a mind boggling and eye opening session.

At the end of the session, they answered many of our doubts and guided us with some To-Dos. They concluded the session with a promise to be back soon to help and guide us with our issues what so ever they may be.
Such talks in future would be very helpful for us to take the important career decisions ahead.

Looking forward to more such enlightening experiences.

Organizational Culture

                                         

Organizations grow with common values across verticals, these are intrinsic to them, these are called their cultures. Organizations, just like individuals, have their own personalities—more typically known as organizational cultures. Understanding how culture is created, communicated, and changed will help you to be a more effective manager.

"Culture is how organizations 'do things'." — Robbie Katanga

"In large part, culture is a product of compensation." — Alec Haverstick

If you want to provoke a vigorous debate, start a conversation on organizational culture. While there is universal agreement that (1) it exists, and (2) that it plays a crucial role in shaping behavior in organizations, there is little consensus on what organizational culture actually is, never mind how it influences behavior and whether it is something leaders can change.

"Organizational culture [is shaped by] the main culture of the society we live in, albeit with greater emphasis on particular parts of it." — Elizabeth Skringar

Finally, cultures are dynamic. They shift, incrementally and constantly, in response to external and internal changes. So, trying to assess organizational culture is complicated by the reality that you are trying to hit a moving target. But it also opens the possibility that culture change can be managed as a continuous process rather than through big shifts (often in response to crises). Likewise, it highlights the idea that a stable "destination" may never — indeed should never — be reached. The culture of the organization should always be learning and developing.

These perspectives provide the kind of holistic, nuanced view of organizational culture that is needed by leaders in order to truly understand their organizations — and to have any hope of changing them for the better.

Reliance has a culture of executing tasks ahead of time and in a controlled fashion. It thinks big and lets its employees do so too. Culture runs deep into the organization as it is the fuel fueling the energy crux of RIL, with all employees performing to their best. There is always this exigency of executing tasks in time and in an accurate manner. 

Safety is one thing that any manufacturing firm especially the world's largest refinery cannot take for granted. Hence before any decisions are taken, either at the CMD level or the field engineer level, safety is given the utmost regard, and respect and all other decisions are taken round its periphery. 

The one with XY theory

There are two types of managers:

 THEORY X: Managers who think their workers are LAZY.
 THEORY Y: Managers who think their workers are GOOD.

These two types relates the managers to colleagues working under them.There can be 4 scenarios:


Lazy Employees and Theory X Manager
In this kind of a scenario employees are lazy and the manager assumes them to be lazy . So this kind of scenario is not going to help in anyway in the growth of the organization . The manager will always treat his employees with a negative mind set. He will never encourage his lazy employees and will only be criticizing them. Criticism leads to discouragement and bad morale.It can also lead to stubborn defiance.

 Not Lazy Employees and Theory X Manager
In this kind of a scenario employees are not lazy but the manager assumes then to be lazy. This kind of a situation can be very harmful and can demotivate the employees.The employees may be highly skilled and efficient person but the management underestimates their true potential.This kind of negative attitude discourages the employees to work in an organization and will ultimately hamper the growth of the company.

Lazy Employees and Theory Y Manager
In this kind of a scenario employees are lazy and the manager assumes them to efficient and hard working. A lazy employee can be a problem for a manager in many ways. A good manager knows her options when it comes to a lazy employee and is prepared to exercise the option that is in the best interest of the company.
So managers motivate lazy employees with compliments followed by constructive criticism .When people receive recognition for the good things they do, they feel more motivated to be productive.Also, when people are empowered and given choices, they tend to work harder. Incentives work well, also.

Not Lazy Employees and Theory Y Manager
In this kind of a scenario employees are not lazy and the manager also assumes them to efficient and hard working. This the most sought after situation in any organization . Hard working , dedicated employees are constantly motivated by the managers and the growth of the company becomes many fold. Goals set by the managers are easily achieved with high level of accuracy within a short span of time. The organization starts growing rapidly in this kind of a scenario.

Studying all the scenarios lead to a conclusion that the managers should be a Theory Y manager which wilbe beneficial for organization and employee as well.It will create a positivity in the minds of employees towards growth and work.                    

                                             

The one with the 3 idiots

  

Dr .Mandi illustrated to us the importance and the dynamics involved in team work and management of tasks with the help of the given problem and as it was carried out in the class practically by students.

             1) Three people need to cross a deep "valley".

             2) The distance between edges is more than one step but less than two steps.

             3) The only item they have with them is a small thick pole/stick.

In the given exercise, each person faces 3 states of riskiness:

          (a) Safe

          (b) Half Safe/ Half Risky

          (c) Risky

Using these states of Risk we can define the various ROLES in this exercise:

Category of tasks	Role Definition
Safe	No Effort.
Half safe	Slight Effort.
Hanging & Unsafe	No Effort; Depends on other members.
Fulcrum & Half safe	Effort is needed to maintain fulcrum ; Depends on others.
Pull down	Most Effort; Others depend on you.

Above it is observed how the risk has been equally distributed amongst the 3 members of the team.

                                              

Commonalities:

1) Trust on the team and self: The entire task is dependent on trust. The ideal line of thought in this case should be “I am the part of the team, so trust amongst the members is MY RESPONSIBILITY"

2)  Discipline: It’s very important that the team walks on the same bit. Everyone should have a same rate of walking with each step taken at the same time. A quintessentially military practice of shouting LEFT-RIGHT might come to good use for this purpose.

The major learning that comes out of this experience is that it does not matter whether you are strong or week. In a team everyone has equal responsibility and no one can take the complete team along. 

At Reliance, the whole team takes decisions as it is by defaults made the joint owner of a production facility and it is in unison that all decisions are taken and are synchronized amongst the team members, who take upon each task to their best and execute it in tandem. Tasks are divided into the team and when one member is overburdened the other taken on, there is an overall synchronization.

The one with the three monks

This lecture was complementary to the initial lesson on Deskilling of manpower. The above video shares the same page with various business heads and CEOs of today's corporations.

"Three Monks" is a Chinese animated feature film produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. 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".

For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Monks 

Dr. Mandi asked us to watch the video and be prepared with various insights with POV of a manager. As diligent we students are, most of us had done the homework. He then went on to probe our brains, with a microscope, bringing to the front thoughts which are present in our subconscious. We each day manage things around us, activties around us, people around us, yet it never is obvious that there are managerial principles in work at all times.

Here is a movie, which is humorous, entertaining, simple and yet teaches us a lot, in terms of management.
It highlights the following points:

Organizational point of view:

1) Deskilling of the job always gives a better output, in terms of time taken and quality of work.
2) When an organization grows, internal conflicts are unavoidable.
3) Standardization is the order of the day, for better efficiency and accuracy.
4) Teamwork improves efficiency of the organization.
5) Technological solutions are an add-on to a more structured way of problem solving.
6) Small issues should be handled at first, before they enlarge into bigger problems.

Personnel point of view:

1) There are all type of employees in an organization, with whom one must interact and work in coordination.
2) Good mangers bring out their best in the face of adversity.
3) One must be ethical during all situations, it is of utmost importance.
4) A small token of appreciation goes a long way.
5) Learn from your mistakes.

Working in the world's largest refinery, at Jamnagar, I now visualize all the above points to be true at one or more points of time. At Reliance, people are given responsibilities for major tasks, where they are critical to the chain of work, and are entrusted to perform at their maximum level output. Deskilling is a phenomenon where experts of various fields are created and they perform exceptionally well in their jobs. Reliance also talks in terms of standardizing various aspects of each job role, to execute all tasks in a systematic and efficient manner. Working in a team, is most of the time, the better way to do tasks. A team infuses confidence, knowledge, skill, motivation into the team members and they perform efficiently.

Personally, I believe that when faced with adversity, it is best to look at it as a challenge and deal with it head-on in a structured manner. It is always better to be trained in real time environments, where you deal with challenges, as these are the times when you learn the most. A manager who stands out in the face of adversity is appreciated and always known for his approach, examples are set by them which inspire other personnel in the organization.

Lecture 2: Old school to New School

With another management game in the line-up, we realize we are in for a treat today at Dr. Mandi's lecture with a plethora of management mantras.

I admire the way he brings money into the picture and not feel shy about it, as it always is the main objective of any business.

A bidding is done to decide the person to carry out the task of assembling as many small cubes over one another. As is often the case, under-projecting the target, the person is able to assemble 22 cubes against 14 cubes committed. Here the lesson lies in not setting the target too low, and at the same time not under-delivering. 

As adversities increase, people lower their expectation when they should be backing themselves to perform better. This was proven by a second exercise, with the same bidding process, a blindfolded person had to assemble the cubes with the directions from a manager, who was not allowed to help physically. It was demonstrated that with increased managerial influence, an employee can deliver much better with added adversities. This strengthened the belief in the New school of thought, where it is always an improvement of the business process upon adding managerial influence and simplifying processes.

In modern times, businesses are transforming from Old school methods of management (conventional methods of production) involving decision making at the lower most level to a New School model (Modern methods of production, where standards and procedures are defined for each task/activity/troubleshooting) at the lower level with supervisory roles assigned to senior managers.

Organizations with the help of this model aim to streamline their business processes and achieve standardization in the dynamics of production. As sectors and businesses grow,as does the need to transform them into a manager friendly and controllable vector.

As we see the Multi-national Companies across the world have more and more systems in place to standardize their operations and reduce the lower rung employees to their specific domain, it becomes easier to bring about changes and rotations in policies in an effective manner.

As Indian economy grows and companies expand, it is becoming imperative for companies to adopt such policies of business transformation, to achieve the required control and regulated growth of their businesses.