Please refer to my previous posts on goal setting and sky walk:
Here are the links :
http://138prasanthmantriim20pomcourse.blogspot.in/
http://138prasanthmantriim20nitiepomcourse.blogspot.in/


Decision Making & Problem Solving
These principles were discussed by Prof.T.Prasad taking examples from previously discussed topics on three monks and tower building exercises. The changing dynamics of team decisions making and problem solving to the individual level application can be illustrated for both.
Let me first elaborate on the basic concepts of decision making and problem solving :

Decision Making
It is the process of analyzing various options available and weighing them to choose the best option that is most beneficial to a group or individual or situation.

Decision making can be of two types :
1)Individual decision making
2)Team decision making

Individual Decision Making :

The tower building exercise demonstrated individual decision making in the beginning when the traditional approach of management was being practiced. Similarly, in the case of 3 monks, the 1st monk was exercising individual decision making when working alone.

Team Decision Making :

Decision Making and its implementation is adopted differently in various organisations based on its structure.The matrix below shows how team vs individual decision making & implementation is carried out 

Problem Solving :

Where there is a problem, there is an opportunity. In simple terms there is a scope for improvement in that respective area. There are different philosophies adopted in problem solving that are ingrained in organisations principles. Some examples are TQM , TPM, Kaizen philosophies that revolve around abnormality identification and its elimination. 

The steps for problem identification are as follows :

1. Prioritizing a problem - A lot of problems persist in an organisations functioning and processes all of which cannot be tackled at the same time. Prioritizing them in order maximize the desired result is to be done.
2. Analysis - After the problem is selected, various methods are employed to find the reasons of problem persistence or occurrence.
3. Improve - Through brainstorming and suggestions, possible remedies are looked at to eliminate the problem
4. Implementation - The remedial actions are carried out and is seen to it that the problem does not occur once again.

Theory X & Theory Y

Theory X & Theory Y


Douglas McGregor one of the forefathers of management theory developed a philosophical view of humankind with his Theory X and Theory Y in 1960. His work is based upon Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs. Theory X & Theory Y have been widely used to understand employee behavior in an organisation.

The distinct aspects of the two theories have been explained below :

Theory X

• Employees are considered to be lazy by default and dislike work.
• Employees must be coerced, threatened to work.
• They seek security above all else.
• They must be directed or controlled in order to meet the objectives
• They dislike additional responsibility

Theory Y

• Employees are self-motivated and tend to seek responsibility
• Organisation is easy to steer towards strategic goals because of acceptance from employees
• People are creative and have the imagination to come up with breakthrough innovations
• Work is natural and is distributed easily
• Managers tend to have liberal control due to natural growth

Let me add some theories of my own based on experiences with my previous employer.

My job as manager operations was to delegate work to 36 skilled technicians and achieve targets set by my superiors. Managing 36 technicians was the most important part because they were the ones who worked on the shopfloor and any weak link led to major breakdowns.

I had come across shopfloor workers of both the theory X type and Theory Y type.

All organisations have a grey scale area where they will find employees of both the kind. While the employees of Theory Y kind help in driving the organisation achieve its goals, the Theory X kind tend to pull them back.

Often the reasons for the existence of Theory X kind of employees is 

1. No ambition
2. Resistance to change
3. No additional rewards for additional work
4. Lack of control over employees

Such traits had been witnessed while I was working with my previous employer. 

However there were some people of the Theory Y kind who always came up with new ideas. Who always looked at the next assignment as soon as one got over. Who did not find the need for self-motivation. Who always aligned themselves with the organisation's goals.

Such a commix of people will always be present in any organisation. A complete eradication of Theory X people is not possible but a right balance is required to steer the ship.

Navrang Puzzle

Navrang Puzzle – A cube to understanding organizational structure

Navrang as the name itself suggests, cubes made of 9 different colours. Like the rubic cube, it contains 27 cubes, however, each one of them detachable from the mainframe. Prof. Mandi puzzled us more than the cube itself when he asked us to assemble it with each face containing all 9 colours.

The placing of each smaller piece has in the navrang is to be noted. Each piece has a specific role to play.And all pieces are placed in such a manner that each layer is connected to the other. Organisations have a similar structure . Every person in the organisation has a role to play following the set of objectives an organisation has.Organisational structure refers to the levels of management and division of responsibilities within a business, which could be presented in an organisational chart.

A proper organisational structure has the following advantages :

• People who apply can see what they are expected to do
• People who are already employed will know exactly what to do

Shown above are two organisational charts. It also shows the chain of command and the span of control.

In Business A , the chain of command is longer but Business B has a flatter organisational structure. The advantages of such a flatter organisation are as follows :

• Communications are faster
• Span of control is wider
• Managers are closer to employees

The end - result of all these structures is Unity of Objective. The structures are created in such a manner that every person works to achieve the vision & mission of the organisation.

Here is a link to solving the Navrang Puzzle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KeTXnU404wo

Alignment : Management By Objectives

Alignment : 

Businesses and organizations have core values, mission & vision to achieve a particular goal. Often, businesses go lopsided and fall short of their goal. This is because of people in the organization trying to move in different directions.

Management thinks they are moving in the same direction as the employees to achieve a goal and in the action waste time, money & resources in yielding unfruitful results.

With time, employees begin to lose focus and the organization looks more like an amoeba and it is too late before the organization realizes it is too late to be realigned.

The video above is a graphical demonstration of how alignment in organisations is an important tool to help achieving goals.

Organisations try to have a structure that keeps the people , process, practices aligned to the goals, vision & mission. The stronger or more the alignment the better the functioning of the business or organisation. This alignment is created by Management of Objective(MBO).  The essence of MBO is participative goal setting, choosing course of actions and decision making. An important part of the MBO is the measurement and the comparison of the employee’s actual performance with the standards set. Ideally, when employees themselves have been involved with the goal setting and choosing the course of action to be followed by them, they are more likely to fulfill their responsibilities.

Organisational alignment is a process of achieving alignment in two domains : alignment of values & alignment of goals.

Goal Alignment

Goal alignment is clearly demarcating and defining the purpose i.e .mission and strategic goals of the organization. It is about framing the context, ensuring all employees clearly understand the strategic goals and initiatives within the organization.

Alignment of Values

Alignment of values is the process of understanding how we work together, and changing the way we understand and interpret the values of the organization.  As a right-brain activity, we need to explore the emotions and non-rational processes that have an impact on our behavior and actions.

Reversal_of_conventionalities

Muhammad Yunus: 

(Economist, Banker, Nobel Peace Prize recipient)

“I am riding the tiger. I cannot just get off the tiger without drawing the attention of that tiger. So I have to very quietly do it”

Born in the village of Bathua, (a seaport city) Chittagong in 1940, Muhammad Yunus was the third of the fourteen of whom 5 died infancy. Inspired by his mother to help the pooer, he committed himself to eradicating poverty.

Professor Yunus studied in Dhaka University and later received a Ph.D. economics from Vanderbilt in 1969 and became an assistant professor at Middle Tennessee University the following year.

From 1993 to 1995, Professor Yunus was a member of the International Advisory Group for the Fourth World Conference on Women, a post to which he was appointed by the UN secretary general. He has served on the Global Commission of Women's Health, the Advisory Council for Sustainable Economic Development and the UN Expert Group on Women and Finance.

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/yunus-bio.html

He developed concepts on micro-credit and  micro – finance.

 In 2006 Yunus and Grameen Bank received the

 Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts through microcredit

 to create economic and social development from below"

        

                 http://www.grameen-info.org 

Grameen Bank's Four principles :                     

At the heart of Grameen Bank's establishment,remained an ideal that was ingrained in its philosophy,that it always gave to the poor, uneducated, women of Bangladesh - OPPORTUNITY. The simple belief that anyone can do things when given an opportunity.

This belief paid off well when children who were once given small educational loans to finish primary education,began entering world-class universities. 

Bank’s Organisational Principles & Management

1.  Exclusive focus on the poorest of the poor
2.  Initial support and gradual decentralization of functions and power to zonal levels
3. Undertaking of social development agenda addressing basic needs of clientele
4. Organisation of borrowers into groups to bring solidarity and participatory interaction

Mode of Operation : Excerpt from official website

The mode of operation of Grameen Bank is as follows. A bank branch is set up with a branch manager and a number of center managers and covers an area of about 15 to 22 villages. The manager and the workers start by visiting villages to familiarise themeselves with the local milieu in which they will be operating and identify the prospective clientele, as well as explain the purpose, the functions, and the mode of operation of the bank to the local population. Groups of five prospective borrowers are formed; in the first stage, only two of them are eligible for, and receive, a loan. The group is observed for a month to see if the members are conforming to the rules of the bank. Only if the first two borrowers begin to repay the principal plus interest over a period of six weeks, do the other members of the group become eligible themselves for a loan. Because of these restrictions, there is substantial group pressure to keep individual records clear. In this sense, the collective responsibility of the group serves as the collateral on the loan.

Grameen Bank evaluates the poverty level of the borrowers from time –to-time using the following key indicators : I am sharing a link from their website that enlists 10 indicators . 

http://www.grameen-info.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=126

Operational Statistics:

Of the total equity of the bank, 94 % is owned by borrowers and 6 % by Government of Bangladesh. It has more than 8 million borrowers of which 97 % are women. The bank has a loan recovery rate of 96.67 %.

Consolidation of Blogs

Hello,
I had created two more blogs on changing organisational styles and goal setting.
Here are the links to the blogs :
Organisation styles : http://138prasanthmantriim20nitiepomcourse.blogspot.in/
Goal Setting : http://138prasanthmantriim20pomcourse.blogspot.in/
Thank You

Holy_Trinity_of_Monks

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.

A comparative study of monks vs buckets :

Table depicts a comparative study of number of monks and the buckets of water they carry.

The parameters on which combination is to be judged best are manpower (input), number of buckets carried (output), time .

A simple formulae has been devised to calculate the efficiency of each of the methods in terms of Number of buckets transported per person per unit time.

Efficiency = Output/(Manpower*Time required*Effort)

*Please note the efficiency here is not the actual efficiency formulae’s we use in general work-study methods. The efficiency used here is pertaining to this situation only.

From the 3 situations, it can be inferred that efficiency in the case of situation 3 is higher than the efficiencies in situation 1 & 2.

However, during times of crisis the following parameters can force a manager to choose from other options :

1.     Availability of manpower
2.    Time available for production
3.    Motivation levels of manpower

.

Standardization of Work

Standard working procedures are designed to reduce effort, time and manpower. An organization is supposed to design its procedures in such a way that people of all backgrounds find it easy to work in the designed environment using the designed procedure.

Some advantages of work-standardization have been shown above.  (taken from Toyota’s lean manufacturing concepts)

Similarily, in the movie a point comes where the monks were trying to mark a wooden stick using there hand-span. This led to a divergence of opinion since measurements were not the same everytime due to different hand-span lengths of the monks.

A scale as a standard was used to mark up the position from where the load would be hung.

Standardization will help in minimizing loss of any activity due to different skill set of persons.

A lesson from the movie can be taken as all people having different attributes, different skill-sets.

          

The above depiction is a fundamental expression of how all people are different. The different animals in the pictures showing the different personalities of the monks. Organisations face similar problems  in standardizing work due to different personalities of humans working in a particular field.

FLAT Organisations vs Single Head

If we compare the way organizational principles apply in the beginning and the end of the film, in the beginning only one monk was operating . Looking after all activities. He was the sole-decision maker.

The end of the film showed the working of the three monks portraying the facets of a flat organization. Where all hierarchical levels are similar and every person has an equal say in all decisions. Procedures are also defined in such a manner that any interchange of positions will not result in any loss of productivity.