The Navrang Puzzle

                NAVRANG PUZZLE Decrypted

  I had never seen the NAVRANG Puzzle before. So when Prof.Mandi bought one into class, I must frankly say that I was a little puzzled (pun intended). The basic objective of the Navrang Puzzle (as Sir told us) is to get all 9 colours on all 6 sides.

The Navrang Puzzle

Unlike a standard Rubik's Cube, the Navrang Puzzle can be dismanteled and reassembled. We were challenged to find an algorithm or method to reassemble the Puzzle in order to reach the intended objective. After a few desperately minutes of thinking a few fast thinking Samaritans devised a plan (I was completely lost!!). Unfortunately, the plan didn't work too well.

               But then Prof.Mandi solved the Puzzle in about 2 minutes using an well-defined method. Sir had used a 3-step algorithm. It is here we were introduced to two important concepts: (a) Organizational Structure and (b) Unity of Objective. Before going on further about what happened in class, I believe a short introduction to these ideas are needed.

           An Organizational Structure consists of activities such as task allocation, coordination and supervision, which are directed towards the achievement of organizational aims.An organization can be structured in many 

Unity of Objectives

different ways, depending on their objectives. The structure of an organization will determine the modes in which it operates and performs. This of course leads us to the next idea. Unity of Objectives stands for the philosophy according to which every individual and every process in an organization should aim to fulfil the organization's Objectives and Mission Statement.

                   Now, leaveing the jargon behind, let me continue with my experiences in the class. Prof. Mandi related the above two concepts with the structured solution he had shown for the Navrang Puzzle. Given below is a video of how to solve the Navrang Puzzle:

A video showing how to solve Navrang Puzzle

The Alibaba Group

Culture is the process by which a person becomes all that they were created capable of being.
Thomas Carlyle 


Alibaba Group- An Introduction

 AliBaba Group is a privately owned China-based family of Internet-based eCommerce businesses that cover business-to-business online marketplaces, retail and payment platforms, shopping search engine and data centered  cloud computing services. 

The company was started by Jack Ma based on the simple realizations that he had:

    1. I don't have the money.

    2. I don't have a plan. 

    3. If you can't use the internet in this age, you are useless.

What was Jack Ma's objectives with AliBaba?

    (a) Empower SMEs through the power of the internet.

    (b) At least 80% of these SMEs who are working with AliBaba MUST grow unimaginably.

    (c) 0.0001% of the shares of AliBaba must be enough to support generations together.

 What was the result?

              Today AliBaba's consumer-to-consumer portal Taobao (similar to eBay) features nearly a billion products and is one of the 20 most-visited websites globally. Alibaba Group's sites account for over 60% of the parcels delivered in China.  

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

  

                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. But first, let’s define organizational culture.           

               

Organizational Culture encompass the values and behaviors that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization.Organizational culture includes an organizational Culture encompass the values and behaviors that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization.Organizational culture includes an organization's expectations,experiences,philosophy, and values that hold it together. It is expressed in its self-image, inner workings, interactions with the outside world, and future expectations. It is based on shared attitudes, beliefs, customs, and written (sometimes) and unwritten rules that have been developed over time and are considered valid. 

here are various types of organizational cultures. We discussed a few of them in class. I am listing them below:

1. Open Culture - One where employees are motivated to voice their values-driven concerns regarding problematic business practices. An open culture helps to counteract any occasional lapse into passivity at the board level or on the part of institutional investors.

2. Safety Culture - One where safety is  ALWAYS first no matter what the cost. A safety culture is one were all employees are proactive in ensuring safety at work place. People immediately report any perceived short comings in the work place safety and in the safety of products given to customers or clients.

3. Quality Culture - A culture where utmost importance is given to the quality of the product or service being rendered. Volume takes a back seat. So does cost. Batch recalling of cars/computers when defects are found is a good example of the quality culture. Toyota is a notable example.

4. Performance Culture - We could also call this OUTCOME ORIENTED CULTURE.  This is one that emphasize achievement, results, and action as important values. A good example of an outcome-oriented culture may be the electronics retailer Best Buy. Having a culture emphasizing sales performance, Best Buy tallies revenues and other relevant figures daily by department. Employees are trained and mentored to sell company products effectively, and they learn how much money their department made every day.

5. Ethical Culture - A culture where great importance is given to ethical business practices and this importance is seen at all levels in the organization. We see that in such organizations, ethics are given precedence even if being so may lead to a loss of business and profit. The TATA Group is a good example to note.

Culture in Hofstede's words

Hall (1959) defines culture as the way of life of a people: the sum of their learned 

behavior patterns, attitudes and materials things. Culture is often subconscious; 

an invisible control mechanism operating in our thoughts (Hall, 1983). In his view, 

we become aware of it by exposure to a different culture. Members of a certain society internalize the cultural components of that society and act within the limits 

as set out by what is ‘culturally acceptable’(Hall, 1983, 230). 

Hofstede’s (1980, 1991) theory aims to explain cultural differences through 

certain dimensions, such as power distance, individualism vs. collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity vs. femininity.

The Presence of Culture

The air is invisible for a sniper but it strongly affects how the sniper aligns himself and targets his aim depending upon the wind speed , humidity and other factors. There he follows the culture of air without even knowing it. And that is imperative to his survival.

That is the beauty of culture. It subconsciously gets induced in an individual sinking within his/her psyche as something that is sacrosanct.

Aspects of Organisational Culture

There are three aspects to organization culture, namely :

         (a) It is something that is practised by MOST of the people in an
              organization.

         (b) It is something that is practised MOST of the time.

         (c) It is something that is DEEPLY believed by the employees.

Many thoughts about organizational culture came out in class. I am finding it a little hard to organize them into meaningful sentences and paragraphs. Therefore, I am giving these thoughts in point-wise form without any specific order or precedence. The various point we discussed where:

1. Organizational Culture leads to enhanced performance.

2. Organizational Culture is an important motivating factor.

3. Organizational Culture is depended on the type of structure which the
    organization follow. Flat Organizations have a different structure from more
    Hierarchical ones.

4. Organizational Culture is not STATIC. It changes from time to time.

5. Organizational Culture is invisible.

6. Organizational Culture is usually inferred. There is no book from where to read
    about it.

7. Organizational Culture - usually - is not documented. It is separate from the
    rule book. In fact, we could argue that if culture were to be written down then
    it would lose its impact.

8. Organizations can have multiple cultures of sub-cultures.

9. Organizational Culture can be WEAK or STRONG.

A call to the 'Bottom Of The Pyramid'

Muhammad Yunus: 

(Economist; Banker; Nobel Peace Prize recipient)

Sustainable societies are more important than sustainable construction.

Sustainable humans can provide for themselves, stand on their own two feet.

But there are many people today who live in extreme poverty, with no opportunity to lead sustainable lives. These people we must help first. At the start of the millennium a goal was set to halve the number of poverty-stricken people by 2015. A great effort is required if we want to achieve a sustainable world.                                             

Muhammad Yunus  is a great nonconformist personality who has been instrumental as a  banker, economist and has received a Nobel Peace Prize.

A Brief Introduction...

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 poorer, he committed himself to eradicating poverty.

Professor Yunus studied in Dhaka University and later received a PhD 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.

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

 In 2006 Yunus and Grameen Bank received the

 Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts through micro -credit to create economic and social development from below"

The Genesis Of Grameen Bank...

The origin of Grameen Bank can be traced back to 1976 when Professor Muhammad Yunus, Head of the Rural Economics Program at the University  of Chittagong, launched an action research project to examine the possibility of designing a credit delivery system to provide banking services targeted at the rural poor.

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. 

The Principles of Grameen Bank

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

Modus Operandi*...

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 familiarize themselves 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 %.

From the above graph , it is clearly visible the Grameen Bank has stood the test of the times and maintained its operational effectiveness , even in the worst of the scenarios.

~~the end..

OR is this the beginning ?

* : excerpt taken from grameen bank website

The Pygmalion Effect

Let me start explaining this magical Pygmalion Effect through my very own quirky yet easy to understand way.

The idea is :

                                                                

      MAY  

            

A PIG MAY become a LION if provided with continual  positive expectation reinforcement. The words 'pig' , 'may', and 'lion' are keywords which can be used to understand 'The Pygmalion Effect' effectively.

INTRODUCTION

The Pygmalion effect, or Rosenthal effect, is the phenomenon in which the greater the expectation placed upon people, the better they perform.The effect is named after Pygmalion, a play by George Bernard Shaw.

The corollary of the Pygmalion effect is the golem effect, in which low expectations lead to a decrease in performance. The Pygmalion effect and the golem effect are forms of self-fulfilling prophecy, and, in this respect, people will internalize their positive labels, and those with positive labels succeed accordingly. Within sociology, the effect is often cited with regard to education and social class.

BACKGROUND

Pygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw, which was staged in 1912 and it was named after a Greek mythological character.

In ancient Greek mythology, Pygmalion fell in love with one of his sculptures that came to life and was a popular subject for Victorian era English playwrights

Rosenthal–Jacobson study

Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson (1968) report and discuss the Pygmalion effect in the classroom at length. In their study, they showed that if teachers were led to expect enhanced performance from some children, then the children did indeed show that enhancement.

The purpose of the experiment was to support the hypothesis that reality can be influenced by the expectations of others. This influence can be beneficial as well as detrimental depending on which label an individual is assigned. The observer-expectancy effect, which involves an experimenter's unconsciously biased expectations, is tested in real life situations. Rosenthal posited that biased expectancy can essentially affect reality and create self-fulfilling prophecies as a result.

All students in a single California elementary school were given a disguised IQ test at the beginning of the study. These scores were not disclosed to teachers. Teachers were told that some of their students (about 20% of the school chosen at random) could be expected to be "spurters" that year, doing better than expected in comparison to their classmates. The spurters' names were made known to the teachers. At the end of the study all students were again tested with the same IQ-test used at the beginning of the study. All six grades in both experimental and control groups showed a mean gain in IQ from pretest to post test. However, First and Second Graders showed statistically significant gains favoring the experimental group of "spurters." This led to the conclusion that teacher expectations, particularly for the youngest children, can influence student achievement.

In this experiment, Rosenthal predicted that elementary school teachers may subconsciously behave in ways that facilitate and encourage the students' success. The prior research that motivated this study was done in 1911 by psychologists regarding the case of Clever Hans, a horse that gained notoriety because it was supposed to be able to read, spell, and solve math problems by using its hoof to answer. Many skeptics suggested that questioners and observers were unintentionally signaling Clever Hans. For instance, whenever Clever Hans was asked a question the observers' demeanor usually elicited a certain behavior from the subject that in turn confirmed their expectations. For example, Clever Hans would be given a math problem to solve, and the audience would get very tense the closer he tapped his foot to the right number, thus giving Hans the clue he needed to tap the correct number of times.

The Three Monks

Preface

One fine day we were asked by Dr. Mandi to see the Three Buddhist Monks animation clip. I was wondering what an animation film can teach us about management . Management is no child's play. But little did I know that an animation film of less than 20 minutes was not just capable of teaching us effective team work but also life skills.
 Human is a social animal. We can evade everything but interaction with people. Effective interaction is one which leads to the foundation of relationships and people involved in the relationship contribute to mutual growth and help each other in self actualization.

Introduction

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.

Background

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. The film tells the story from the aspect of the Buddhist Bhikkshu.

The Story...

A young monk lives a simple life in a temple on top of a hill. He has one 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 old saying "unity is strength" and begin to live a harmonious life. The temple never lacks water again




The Three Monks Animation Film(Video)



The Learning

1) As the saying goes, :Unity is strength" we should co operate with each other and work together in a harmonious manner.

2) Everyone is capable of being selfish, but doing so diminishes our ability to cooperate with one another.

3) This story teaches us that it is inappropriate to shirk responsibility and proper measures should be taken before a catastrophe occurs.

4) We should make the best use of each other's potential in our group by understanding strengths and weaknesses and work towards realization of  our potential.

Are your goals S.M.A.R.T enough ?

Goals

"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high

and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." - 

Michelangelo.

Goals are a form of motivation that sets the standard for self-satisfaction with performance. Achieving the goal one has set for oneself is a measure of success, and being able to meet job challenges is a way one measures success in the workplace. It has been said that "Goal setting capitalizes on the human brain's amazing powers: Our brains are problem-solving, goal-achieving machines."

Goal Setting Funda

Goals that are deemed difficult to achieve and specific tend to increase performance more than goals that are not. A goal can become more specific through quantification or enumeration (should be measurable), such as by demanding "...increase productivity by 50%," or by defining certain tasks that must be completed.

Setting goals affects outcomes in four ways:

1. Choice: goals narrow attention and direct efforts to goal-relevant activities, and away from perceived undesirable and goal-irrelevant actions.
2. Effort: goals can lead to more effort; for example, if one typically produces 4 widgets an hour, and has the goal of producing 6, one may work more intensely towards the goal than one would otherwise.
3. Persistence: someone becomes more prone to work through setbacks if pursuing a goal.
4. Cognition: goals can lead individuals to develop and change their behavior.

How To Set Goals ?

      

Goal setting involves establishing specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-targeted (S.M.A.R.T ) goals. Work on the theory of goal-setting suggests that an effective tool for making progress is to ensure that participants in a group with a common goal are clearly aware of what is expected from them.On a personal level, setting goals helps people work towards their own objectives—most commonly with financial or career-based goals.

Goal Setting is an iterative process .Once a S.M.A.R.T cycle is completed, again goals are set starting with 'S' taking into account the mistakes did in previous process of achieving the goal.

Goal Setting In Business

In business, goal setting encourages participants to put in substantial effort. Also, because every member has defined expectations for their role, little room is left for inadequate, marginal effort to go unnoticed.

Managers cannot constantly drive motivation, or keep track of an employee’s work on a continuous basis. Goals are therefore an important tool for managers, since goals have the ability to function as a self-regulatory mechanism that helps employees prioritize tasks.

The four mechanisms through which goal setting can affect individual performance are:

1. Goals focus attention toward goal-relevant activities and away from goal-irrelevant activities.
2. Goals serve as an energizer: Higher goals induce greater effort, while low goals induce lesser effort.
3. Goals affect persistence; constraints with regard to resources affect work pace.
4. Goals activate cognitive knowledge and strategies that help employees cope with the situation at hand.

A Video on Smart Goal Setting

Modern Management versus Craftsmanship

Learn, Unlearn and Relearn...

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. ” 
― Alvin Toffler

Indeed ! .I couldn't agree more to the above quote.  In the 3^rd  lecture , Prof. Prasad employed a unique way of teaching the difference between Craftsmanship and Modern Management. This lecture was a total eye opener for me and I realized that I need to unlearn a lot before actually learning something new and offload myself of the baggage I have been carrying on account of my experiences, prejudices, perceptions. 

We were provided with cubical blocks and our first task was to estimate how high the single block pillar can go in case of two different approaches:

 Person A :- OPEN EYED

   Person B :- BLIND FOLDED, with the help of a Person C(the Manager:) )

       For Person A highest bid went to 25 where as for Person B it went only up to 10-12.

On the expected lines, majority went with open eyed person, in anticipation of a higher pillar.

Next step was to perform these two operations and see the actual result . 

A volunteer started making the pillar using both his eyes open and hands but was only able to make the pillar 22 blocks high.

• A picture of building blocks. 

• Open Eyed person, who could make a pillar of 22 blocks

For the blind person , the task was seemingly more daunting. A team of 3 people was chosen, one was made CEO (Chief Executive Officer), one Manager to instruct the third blind folded worker.

The worker started building the tower while manager was instructing him where to place the block. Their start was slow but gradually and to our astonishment they started getting the hang of it and finally they went on to build a tower of 25 blocks.

• Blindfolded person making the pillar with the help of Manager on the right with the CEO looking over. 

Through this activity, we got to visualize a real life working condition and the impact of effective communication between a worker and manager,which can work wonders. We also noticed that an open eyed person was more cautious and predictable in his approach, whereas there were no presumptions and not too much expectations on the  part of blind folded person. He was just doing as instructed by his manager.

The key things that a worker wants while doing his task is motivation and appreciation, sometimes backed by incentives.

It was a great learning activity,where Person A represented the working style of a Craftsman, who might otherwise go haywire without the proper guidance of a more experienced and more educated person, the Manager.

Person B , The manager and the CEO demonstrated the technique of modern management

The comparison between Craftsmanship and Modern Management is as follows :

Parameter	Craftsmanship	Modern Management
Work	Complete work is done by a single person/entity at it's own will. Work will be very ambiguous.	Work is shared across a team, and thus taking the pressure off from one person. It will be distributed. The scope of the Work will be crystal clear.
Satisfaction	Higher	Lesser
Decision	The person who is working (open eyed) takes his own decision so he is under pressure, consequently his efficiency decreases. He probably might be having enough experience also	Manager takes all the decision the, employees (blind folded) will not be under excessive pressure thus increasing the efficiency. The presence of a much more experienced manager increases the productivity exponentially.
Skill	Since the person is doing all the work himself, his skill will be more.	Since the work is divided into many parts skills of the each employee is limited. Quality will be lower.
Productivity	Productivity is low.	Productivity is high.

That was quite a lesson. Adios for now.