Three Idiots crossing the valley

The following is the depiction of three people crossing a valley.

                                                     /\/\/\                                                                                   

                                                      /\/\/\                                                                                  

                                                       /\/\/\                                                                                 

                                                        /\/\/\                                                                                

                                                         /\/\/\                                                                               

                                                          /\/\/\                                                                              

                                                           /\/\/\                                                                             

                                                            /\/\/\                                                                            

                                                              /\/\/\                                                                          

Thus, we see that in the above case three situations arrive, 

                                         one where the person is fully safe denoted by --. 

                                          one where the person is half safe denoted by ---

         and one where the person is taking a dangerous step, denoted by      

Important takings from this exercise are:

Safe Steps	18
Half Safe Steps	6
Dangerous Steps	3
Total Number of steps	27

Observations:

                What seems at first glance as an engineering problem has some important management lessons embedded in it.

·         A careful analysis shows that the task of crossing the valley cannot be accomplished by either one or two people. The most efficient way of crossing the valley is with the help of three persons.

·         The three people chosen for the job are not relevant but how they act is important. For this purpose, proper instructions/ guidelines need to be laid. The importance of organization structure is clearly evident from this.

·         The instructions that need to be followed by the people when attempting to cross the valley are not important in terms of our understanding of the management aspect of the problem, however one can list them as:

o    The process needs to be coordinated and well-structured.

o   The movement need to be synchronous.

o   The persons should have faith in the solution.

o   Crossing the valley in a continuous and confident strides is vital.

·         The current scenario shows a clear-cut distinction between the various steps i.e. safe, half-safe and dangerous. However the role of the management is to make all steps as one and remove the distinction. This might seem as a stupid thing to say as there is a visible difference but for the sake of organization managers need to look at work in an objective manner and not stress on its ease or difficulty. This helps the people performing the job psychologically.

Three Monks – Detailed Analysis

This case has already been mentioned in my blog, however the management lessons learnt from the film are very rich and fundamental to management. This post will focus on an in-depth analysis of the lessons learnt and its application in real life. Since my work experience of almost 3 years has been in an IT industry in the EIS (Engineering and Industrial Services) domain, I feel that I’m at a position where I can provide a much better understanding of the applications of the lessons learnt.

                The key lessons learnt are:

v  Process Improvement

o   As an organization grows, it is all the more essential to keep improving its process so that it gets even more efficient and improves its business. Process improvement is not a easily stated concept as there are no set guidelines to do so and the way it can be done has no limit.

o   Process improvement also incorporates in itself the concept of process replacement. Process replacement is on a very basic level, throwing out the old and implementing the new and improved. There are many a times when it is not possible to address/rectify the flaws in the current system. So it is logical to setup a new process that addresses the fallacies of the old system and deliver more to the organization.

o   Example: - An Aerospace client of TCS wanted to improve upon its ordering process. Its current system was :

TCS came up with a solution that make the process as follows:

In this process the role of the sales rep is just to provide supervision to the ordering process by the airplane purchaser. The I-Pad application has a simple interface, is easy to use and reduces the complexity. Earlier the sales rep had to be knowledgeable about the airplane and had to have some engineering background. But now the application is built on all this information so that to ease the client’s burden.

v  Effort

o   The organization structure should be established in such a manner that adding in more people to the organization reduced the effective effort to do the earlier work.

o   Combined top-down interventions and bottom-up initiatives are effective ways to reduce the efforts required.

o   Example:- The TCS’s offshore development model as shown below:

Here assigning separate roles and responsibilities to each individual reduces the individual as well as total effort.

v  Participative Management

o   This concept is applied by the organization that understand the importance to human intellect and seek a strong relationship with their employees. They understand that the employees are the facilitators who deal directly with the customers and satisfy their needs. To beat the competition in market and to stay ahead of the competition, this form of management has been adopted by many organizations. They welcome the innovative ideas, concepts and thoughts from the employees and involve them in decision making process.

o   Example:- In the above mentioned TCS’s offshore development model , the individual stakeholders not only have the role of performing the task/work assigned to them but also come up with process improvement. This process improvement is not only limited to the scope of their assigned work but extends to the entire business process of the client.

Tower Building Activity – Detailed Analysis

The important lessons one derives from this activity are:

o   Division of Work

One important learning from this activity is the division of work. This doesn’t in anyway means that we are sacrificing on the work done, but in fact work is segmented and individuals are given specific roles. In this light the concept of S.M.A.R.T. goals is all the more valid as the division of work will be useful to the organization if all the players have a crystal clear idea of what their goals. They will focus all their energy on accomplishing that goal. The next step in this could be standardizing the segregated activities by the process of improving the step by learning after every iteration and incorporating those lessons learnt in the next iteration.

Example: - A standard model that is followed by many projects in TCS’s offshore development center is as follows:

Here the Administrator has the role of maintaining the system (development server) for the various stakeholder like developers, testers, users etc. His roles, responsibilities and areas of concern are all listed out clearly and onus lies entirely on him. The developers of various modules have a clear-cut task of working on their assigned module and cater to the demands of the client that involve his/her module. The testers have a specified role wherein they are required to thoroughly test the application after each development cycle to maintain integrity of the application.

o   Skill

When moving from the traditional model to the current management style there is “deskilling” labor. This “deskilling” is not in anyway compromising on the expertise of the workers, but in a way restricting the sight of the workers so that they can excel in their “domain”. This “domain” is a restricted space as the worker has access to a limited business process and its related information and work.

Example: - The current model followed in most big IT service companies have implemented this concept. The developer is concerned only with the technical aspect of the application i.e. the coding part of it, the technology to be used and other such areas. The management however focuses on the functional aspect of the application i.e. how the application needs to work, the client’s need that can be satisfied with this application and other related aspects.

o   Innovation

The division of labor allows the individuals to focus on their specified roles and responsibilities. This essentially helps one to break down the whole activity into various sub activities and these sub activities into tasks and so on. This provides an individual with a platform for innovation as his task now is simplified and narrow-scoped. The chances of these individuals coming up with innovation is increased many folds as compared to the traditional model.

Example:- The current model followed in most big IT service companies allows the developers to focus on technological innovations and the management with functional innovations. Furthermore the roles provided in development i.e. Administrator, traditional developer, tester provide even greater focus for innovation. Since individuals are assigned a slice of the work pie they can devote ever more time and effort for the process improvement in the form of innovations. The work that comes on to a developer is in the form of CR(Change Record) and WRs(Work Records). Many CRs make up a WR. Thus there is scope of improvement at two further levels.

o   Productivity

With the introduction of the concept of division of labor the work can be completed more easily. The effort needed from individual players is effectively reduced and the output increased, which leads to higher productivity.

Example:- The current model followed in most IT service companies is as follows:

With individuals dedicated to a particular role in the various steps mentioned, the application development cycle time has reduced from 1 year earlier to merely 3-4 months now. The same steps are followed even now ,but the improved productivity leads to shorter development cycles. 

Three Monks (Chinese animated short) – Management Lessons learnt

The following is the Three Monks, a Chinese animated feature film produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. It has won the outstanding film award at China's Ministry of Culture, the Best animated film prize at the first Golden Rooster Awards in 1981 and also four international awards including a Silver Bear for Short Film at the 32nd Berlin Film Festival in 1982.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rolBiHfWokY

There are a lot of management lessons that can be learnt from this film. However a distinction should made in terms of insight into human behavior and the technical lessons that can be learnt.

“Human” Lessons

§  Co-operation

Without co-operation, it was very difficult for the monks to achieve their goal.

§  Positive behavior followed by negative behavior

The monks were initially courteous to one another and even displayed humility and respect to one another but in some time difference started to come up.

§  Synergy and team work

Finally it was the synergy and team work that helped them achieve their goal.

The above list is in no means the exhaustive set of lessons that one can learn from this film, however our main motive is to gain an insight into the technical lessons related to management that we can learn from this film.

Technical Lessons

§  Process Improvement

o   For a system to improve and be more efficient there needs to be constant process improvement and in cases process replacement.

§  Effort

o   Adding more people to the organization should ensure that the effort to perform the job is lessened.

§  Productivity

o   The productivity of the individuals participating should gain benefit from the system in terms of increased productivity

§  Division Of Labor

o   SMART goals need to be put in place and people assigned a fixed task.

§  Participative Management

o   When two monks are carrying a bucket between them, on marking the center the measurement is done by one and marking is done by other demonstrates participative management

o   This is good in terms of lesser grievances, providing motivation and increased efficiency.

Attributes	One Person	Two Person	Three Person
Process in place
Work Tools	Stick and two bucket	Stick and one bucket	Pulley , rope and two bucket
Effort	Maximum	Lesser than one person	Least
Output	Two Buckets	One bucket	One bucket
Efficiency(Per bucket)	Least	More than one person	Maximum

One key learning from this analysis is that systems should be put in place taking the organization needs into account rather than based on individuals in the organization. 

Goals Setting

Goal setting is essential to help people work towards their common objective. Goals set need to be concrete in order to have a clear vision and subsequently strive to achieve them.

Thus our goals need to be S.M.A.R.T.

o   S – Specific

·         The goals need to have all the specification related to the task. This ensures that we have our destination in place i.e. we know where we have to be in the end.

o   M – Measurable

·         This is more or less like a ruler for measuring our performance.

o   A – Attainable

·         The attainable aspect deals with taking into consideration our own strengths and weaknesses when setting our goals.

o   R – Relevant

·         The relevant aspects focus on the now. The goals that are set now might not be relevant tomorrow as the business environment is continuously changing.

o   T – Time Bound

·         The time bound aspect deals with the deadline that needs to be set as that an optimal performance is guaranteed. This not only saves time and resources but also ensures that efforts are directed accordingly.

Apart from being an acronym for something this is actually a smart concept. This doesn’t leave the goals that are to be achieved up to interpretation.

Is goal setting enough?

                Goals setting however is not enough to ensure that they are actually met. Pygmalion effect come in picture at this juncture. It is not fair on the potential of the employee to be just handed a target to meet, rather it should be emphasized that he has that capability required to meet the said target. Thus in a line – “If manager’s expectation is high it leads to higher results”.  

Relation between Goals set, achieved and potential

                From the above curve, we can clearly observe that:

·         The history (past performances) should be the base to build upon.

·         Goals set need to be set as above as possible of the Potential.

·         Although not always true but an ideal goal can bring out only so much in us, thus we assume that goals achieved are lower than the set target.

Thus appreciating the importance of goals in Potential realization is essential in organizations. 

The Human Pillar

This is a simple experiment to understand the difference between the new management and the old style of management. The task is to make a pillar with cubes provided. The only rule is that the cubes have to be placed one on top of the other and also that cubes have to be placed one after another.

Scenario 1:

In this a person has to first make an estimate of how tall he can construct the pillar and then go on to build the same.

Scenario 2:

In this case two persons will do the same job but one person will be blindfolded and will do the job and the other person will assist him in the same.

To every ones amazement the single person was able to make a pillar of 22 blocks and the two people were able to make a pillar of 24 blocks.

The learning from this activity as illustrated below that provide a clear-cut distinction between the two schools of management.

Parameter	Old School Of Management	New School Of Management
Work	The entire work is done by just one individual.	Work is shared between two persons. The physical work is done still the one individual but the work/effort in terms of strategy to place the blocks, directions for placing the block etc is transferred to the other person.
Division of Work	One person is loaded with the entire work.	The technical and the functional work are separated.
Skill	If a single person is performing the activity, a high level of skill is required from him.	When two people are performing the job low skill if required effectively from each individual.
Innovation	Innovation can come from just one individual.	Innovation can come from the “performer” as well as the “supervisor”.
Productivity	Productivity is low.	Productivity is high.

Thus finally we can see that the new school of management, the segregation of the technical and the functional aspects make it easier for management to help the organization/business in the following manner:

1.       Productivity is improved.

2.       Innovation can be channeled and segmented.

3.       Crystal clear definition of roles and responsibilities of the employees.

4.       Top down approach followed.

5.       Standards process can be put in place.

6.       Since each step is divided into Activity à Task à Element , it is easy for analysis.

A delightful start (Learning starts at NITIE)

After some grueling two 2 hours long sessions on subjects like Business Statistics and Marketing Management , some refueling and I was all set for another such session by Prof Prasad. All formalities were chucked out of the class room from the second Prof Prasad entered the class. Making everyone sit on the floor and engaging the class in Hindi seemed like something to create an awe and shock effect and impress the class. I was a bit skeptical initially. However the thoughts that were being presented by him were totally relevant to me. What has the current educational system provided to me in the form of skillsets that I can use in the real world? Surely I’ve been worked on and had to challenge my brain to grasp and process more and more information which is more complex for the layman to understand.

                My taking from Prof Prasad’s class was very clear. As an engineer, it is very critical to market one’s talents for the benefit of the society. This doesn’t mean that we show people more than we are for our benefit rather we showcase our technical talents for the world to help in the progress of society. Also the process of marketing also caters to us asking some crucial questions like what does the market need?, where are we lacking right now? What needs to come out in us and so on. Not all of us can start a company or excel in investment banks, but it is vital for us to understand our strengths and weaknesses and visualize a career path for ourselves that is sustainable for both the self and the society. Another important takeaway from the class has been confirmation to my long held belief that one should never respect someone to such an extent so as not be able to question that person. So for all the engineers out there I just wish to emphasize that respect your teachers but also expect something from them other than just knowledge to pass the exam.

                Having spent 24 years of my life mostly learning and not having played with a simple physics toy as , I feel that somewhere something is wrong in the system. However not is not the time for repenting but for learning to be smart enough to make a decent buck not just for oneself but for the actual learning process. Right now as a future manager being in a prestigious place like NITIE, it is vital to gather the maximum knowledge from all the sources available but the next class by Prof Prasad is highly anticipated. Wish to update more on this blog soon.