Team Work in valley crossing

Sometimes a picture says more than words. When Dr. Prasad started discussing this picture in class, we had little idea that we can learn this much from this picture. We also simulated this activity in classroom. It was a funfilled exercise full of insights.

Organisations are made of Teams. Good Teamwork is essential for high performance in any business.

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” – Michael Jordan

Having a talented individual can produce results only partly. For a complete solution/success, we need strong teams. That is why Organisations prefer a Team worker to an individual contributor with no team spirit even if the latter one is much more talented. Even if one person is so capable that he can perform all the tasks individually, an Organisation should not let him, because it will reduce reliability, flexibility and sustainability. There may be cases when that particular person is unavailable, simulated by hanging man in valley crossing exercise. Suddenly there may be some huge workload (two person carrying weight of pole and 3^rd person) or a new work may come where the same person may not be competent enough.

Here, as we see in valley crossing exercise, 3 people have to cross a valley. It is wide enough that they can’t jump to other side. So, they form a Team. They get connected with the help of a pole (metaphor for an organisation). In the end, they are able to cross the valley. It looks simple, but it is not. When we started doing this activity in real, it needed a lot of iterations to complete it successfully. Let me list out the ingredients required for successful completion of this task. These are the same things required for a good team work.

Planning: - Suppose, we are 3 people. We are provided with a pole and we need to cross the valley. Our 1^st step will be to form a Team and formulate the plan. The plan should be focused on how we can leverage our strength as a team. Though, we have already seen the picture, plan was already  out.

Proper communication: - Communication is very important both in Planning and executing period. Everybody needs to understand their role clearly. There should be a smooth flow of communication even at the time of executing task. As, we saw during activity, assuming the solution to be simple, people didn’t allocate proper time to understand their role clearly. It resulted in bad co-ordination. One person moved one step ahead while other person stood at same place. People were hanging on pole in wrong sequence or at wrong time. Though, Task was finally completed with the help of proper communication at the execution time. There may be possibility that while formulating the plan people are not 100% clear about their role, though they think so. Effective initial communication can avoid this situation and proper communication during task performance will ensure a successful task even if there was some gap at 1^st stage.

Responsibility: - Everybody in Team needs to be accountable. Suppose, if one person either in front or back leaves the pole while 2^nd person is hanging in middle, both 2^nd and 3^rd person will not be able to cross the valley.

Trust: - As a Team member, we need to trust other team members. In the valley crossing exercise, if all three people do not trust each other, nobody will get ready to hang on pole in the valley with their life at stake. Trust is build over time and as a manager we must ensure to create an environment where one team member can trust other.

Coordination :- Coordination is the important factor in making the crossing successful. Every team member need to be equidistant. They must move step at same time. They also need to cover equal length in every step. They must be aware of timing when they need to put extra effort, also the amount of extra effort required. For good coordination,Team need to do proper planning, have good communication,take responsibility and trust each other.

Lecture 2

Theory X, Theory Y

In this lecture Prof. T Prasad discussed about 2 types of manger and employee, Type X and Type Y. The combination can be explained through below table.

Manager Type	Employee Type	Condition Description
X	X	Employee is lazy and manager thinks that employee is lazy.
X	Y	Employee is good but manager think employee is lazy.
Y	X	Employee is lazy but manager think employee is good.
Y	Y	Employee is good and manager think employee is good.

Condition 1:- Employee is lazy and Manager assumes that employee is lazy. This is a condition where both effectiveness and efficiency is compromised. Manager doesn’t motivate employee or try to find the ways to improve employee’s productivity. This condition is degenerative for Organization. We can see this scenario in lot of govt. organizations and this has been major reason for low productivity among them.

Condition 2:- Employee is good but manager think employee is lazy.This condition is also not good. Employee is trying to do his best but he is getting no incentive for that. Manager is not providing proper appreciation and motivation to employee. This results in deteriorating performance by employee, inclining the organization to move towards Condition 1.

Condition 3:- Employee is lazy but manager still treat him like a good employee. He provides proper motivation and feed back to employee, which results in better performance by employee, inclining the organization to move towards Condition 2.This is like Pygmalion phenomenon. ‘Things happen when they are expected’. I have seen similar cases in my company where my manager believed in every employee having some positive quality and that’s the reason they are working in the organization. He provided employee full flexibility to work in the part of the project they were interested in. he also encouraged employee to inculcate other leadership activities via courses facilitated by him and giving employee chance to work in manager’s shoe.

Condition 4:- This is condition for very effective and efficient organization. Employee is good and he is getting proper motivation to strive for better. I had similar experience in my previous organization, where I saw many employee including me transforming in a better person and employee with the help of guidance provided by my manager.

The major learning is that if Manager is of type Y, Organization is bound to move towards excellence irrespective of employee being X or Y type. Though, if employee is of type Y, transition is faster. 

Lecture 1

Dhandha

The very 1^st class on Principles of Management made me realize how prominent Dhandha(Business) is  in my day to day life. We deal in transactions all the time. Sometimes it is for a need, sometimes for money or sometimes just for interests. All these things involve investment, whether it is in terms of money, material or any intangible thing. Studying in NITIE is a great opportunity, but it comes with a great opportunity cost, both in terms of money and time. It’s upon us to prove it a good business. In our 1^st Lecture, Prof. T. Prasad introduced us with the concept of Hamara Dhandha (an entrepreneurship cell in NITIE), where we can register and run a company during our stay at NITIE. It will facilitate both learning and earning at same time, making study in NITIE a smarter business. It will help us moving in the direction of Job Seeker to Job Creator.

Mandi

The apt words of Dr. Mandi (Prof. T. Prasad) “Socho – Becho ! Becho – Seekho! Seekho – Becho!” summarizes the whole concept of Mandi.  Mandi is an annual full day event in NITIE, where students sell products made by an NGO. Using the concept of Thinking, Selling and Learning in recurring cycles, students get an opportunity to understand Marketing Concepts through Practice.

Excellence = Effectiveness* Efficiency

Any Organization seeking for excellence should have all its units both effective and efficient. Efficiency and Effectiveness though being inter-related are distinct things. What should be our goal, How should it be achieved is part of effectiveness. Now, when we start working towards our goal, Can we do it faster or with less cost is part of efficiency. In simple words, Effectiveness is Management and Efficiency is Technical.

We studied effective goal setting through Tower Building exercise.

Tower Building Exercise

Aditya(Student from IM 19A Batch) was provided with lot of cubes for building a tower by placing one  over the other. Before starting the task, we were asked to note down the number of cube blocks that he will be able to  built a Tower with before it collapses. Aditya set a target of 10 for himself, though almost everybody thought it can be greater. Eventually Aditya, taking great care and listening/ignoring all the advices pouring in, was able to build a tower of 18 blocks. Everybody was content, Aditya with his performance and we with our guidance.

Now, Prof. Prasad asked us to write our expectations if one of us has to build the tower blindfolded with guidance from others. I, convincingly, reduced the target to 12 considering 18 as possible target with open eyes. It was much to my surprise when Dr. Prasad revealed that a student in other class was able to make a tower of 17 blocks, blindfolded.

This workshop gave me a lot of insight into the problems we face during goal setting. We usually prefer setting a goal much lower than our potential while Management (other students in case of workshop) puts a goal much higher than that. This result in a strenuous relationship between management and employee and most of the time employee ends up performing quite below his/her potential. Goal setting is a combined process and both management and employee should work on setting a smarter goal. Effectiveness is also about performing equally good in adverse conditions. A good management doesn’t just reduces its target due to adverse conditions; it looks for solutions to be equally productive despite adversity, as was displayed by the blindfolded student being able to build 17 blocks tower with the help of other’s guidance.