A great number of employees seem to be perennially stressed out, loose interest in their work & slowly develop a general dislike towards the work they do. This dislike eventually spills on to their whole work environment including their colleagues, bosses & the organization as a whole.
Many a times this is due to our lack of interest in what they do. Most people love their jobs, but many do not like their work. ‘Work’ is different from a ‘Job’
A ‘job’ is a combined function of your company, designation, position in the organisational hierarchy, salary & last but not the least, future prospects. These are all, the external stimuli which attract you to your occupation. On the other hand the ‘work’ you do needs to come from an internal stimulus, which is different from all of the above. This stimulus can be your innate liking for this type of work, hobbies, passions, dreams & aspirations either partly or all of them. If the ‘works’ that you need to do in the ‘job’ you are in fall within the scope of any of the above, you will like your ‘job’ as well as your ‘work’, else you can only like your job.
In situations where employees like their jobs (basically for the status it gives them, one of the external stimuli), but do not like their work (because they are not able to connect it to an internal stimulus) frustration or despair is bound to develop sooner or later.
What then is the key to having the best of both worlds? Success lies in loving your work, not the job. If you like your work, have a passion for it, you will definitely succeed in your job irrespective of whether you like either of the external stimuli or not. Vice versa is however untrue.
For those who are stuck with this problem, there are only two ways out. First & the easiest is to develop a liking for the work that you are supposed to do. Start feeling for it, get inspired from the great achievers in the field, develop a passion for it and dramatic results will start showing up before you even know them. If somehow, you do not find yourself comfortable with the idea of continuing to do the ‘work’ you are presently required to do, then, better than languishing around & spoiling yourself along with others; it is time to change the ‘work’ itself. Recession is well past, opportunities are surging everywhere & it should not take somebody long to find the right fit, provided the fit really exists.
Professional success, in essence is mostly about nurturing your ideas & nourishing your dreams, being passionate about them & striving to achieve greater heights of success in what your relish rather than be bogged down in a monotony you do not connect with. Always do what you love to do, else you will not like what you do & can forget about succeeding in it, but for some stroke of brilliant luck, which seldom comes at the right time. It is never too late to become (or to do) what you might have been….but YES, to win; you have to play first, without any preset notions of definite immediate success. You will have to make the attempts & take the risks; rewards don’t come automatically. If you don’t like taking risks, start loving your work. NOW.
Friday, December 4, 2009
A few words about Time Management
Very often, we want to do a lot of things, but don’t seem to have the time for them. Routine office work, travelling & other chores take up the whole day & by the time we can think of starting some developmental work, its time to go to sleep. The next day follows the same routine & so on.
Everybody has almost the same time at his disposal, but some people seem to be doing so many things at once. How does that happen? Time Management is the key.
Time management skills are the ability of a person to understand and overcome the paucity of time. A practitioner of time management is always in control of his life & able to slow down the clock, is never under stress and has high energy levels. He makes dramatic progress in his professional life. The ability to balance work, personal, and family time is a direct offshoot of the ability to manage our time as it gives enough flexibility to respond to changing circumstances.
Time management is not a talent; it can be learned quite easily. Even if we just think about this all the time & try to introspect on the reason of being perennially busy, many benefits can be derived. No need to attack all the reasons at once, just start with the smallest obstacle that is wasting our time & many problems will disappear.
It may very well be that we might have already thought about this problem earlier & might even know the solutions, but if we still don't do it, it is time to work on developing our willpower to put us into action. Knowledge without action is useless, try to become mentally strong. If we forget to manage our time in the rush of things, its wise to keep multiple reminders, alarms, etc. or ask others to remind.
Don’t wait for something to happen, better to start immediately. No matter what our schedules are, all of us can improve upon them & increase our efficiency. If not sure of how to make a beginning, start by planning to keep yourself free for thinking about your/your team’s/you department’s future development for some fixed time in a week (don’t do routine work in this time), say the Fridays or Saturdays (depending on whatever is the end of your week) & we will begin to see results.
Everybody has almost the same time at his disposal, but some people seem to be doing so many things at once. How does that happen? Time Management is the key.
Time management skills are the ability of a person to understand and overcome the paucity of time. A practitioner of time management is always in control of his life & able to slow down the clock, is never under stress and has high energy levels. He makes dramatic progress in his professional life. The ability to balance work, personal, and family time is a direct offshoot of the ability to manage our time as it gives enough flexibility to respond to changing circumstances.
Time management is not a talent; it can be learned quite easily. Even if we just think about this all the time & try to introspect on the reason of being perennially busy, many benefits can be derived. No need to attack all the reasons at once, just start with the smallest obstacle that is wasting our time & many problems will disappear.
It may very well be that we might have already thought about this problem earlier & might even know the solutions, but if we still don't do it, it is time to work on developing our willpower to put us into action. Knowledge without action is useless, try to become mentally strong. If we forget to manage our time in the rush of things, its wise to keep multiple reminders, alarms, etc. or ask others to remind.
Don’t wait for something to happen, better to start immediately. No matter what our schedules are, all of us can improve upon them & increase our efficiency. If not sure of how to make a beginning, start by planning to keep yourself free for thinking about your/your team’s/you department’s future development for some fixed time in a week (don’t do routine work in this time), say the Fridays or Saturdays (depending on whatever is the end of your week) & we will begin to see results.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Laying the groundwork for change management
In the last few posts we have dwelt on the issue of Change Management. We over saw the importance of the process, various things that lead to it & its many benefits etc. However in the absence of a clear methodology ‘change’ proves difficult to handle. Outlined below are some steps that go a long way in integrating new initiatives into the old environment:
1. Building a sense of urgency: Employees need to be told about the paucity of time to launch themselves into the big league. They also need to be asked to inspire themselves & their colleagues to be continuously on the move, set higher objectives & achieve them in real time.
2. Appreciation of effort: All initiatives might not lead to success, they never do. But failed initiatives should not be scoffed at lest that would lead to employees becoming too afraid to initiate new developments. The organization should be made to understand that dramatic success comes only through trial & error. Hence all genuine efforts should be equally appreciated.
3. Creating change champions: Brownian motion only leads to disturbance, random ideas & activities need to be grouped together into right teams. Once the suitable people are in place with sincere emotional commitment, the right mix of skills and levels can be reached. And none should forget to a get a Captain for the team. Without a committed leader, the team is bound to loose direction.
4. Forming a vision: Leaders of the teams should establish a simple vision and strategy & focus on the tactical decision necessary to drive the change & assimilate it.
5. Selling the change: Everybody will appreciate the change if they realize its benefits to them. It’s very important for the initiators to sell their vision to the whole organization so as to create whole hearted acceptability.
6. Authorizing & motivating actions: The team spearheading the growth initiatives must have authority to take all steps it needs to remove obstacles, enable constructive feedback and ensure development. These actions can also be motivated by rewarding and recognizing valuable contributions, progress and achievements.
7. Let success come in stages: The whole objective should be broken up in steps such that achievements of each stage are easily identifiable. This way success seems to come faster thus motivating everybody further & justifying the change.
8. Persistence Pays: As discussed above all efforts may not be successful but it doesn’t mean that the process should be given up. Things take time to change. We should foster and encourage determination and persistence. Results will come sooner or later.
9. Preserving success: Whenever an initiative results in success (small or big doesn’t matter) the change initiative that led to the success must be immediately incorporated into the policy of the company so that it becomes a permanent fixture.
The measures listed above are a comprehensive lot which if followed by all will definitely lead to their collective prosperity & explosive growth.
1. Building a sense of urgency: Employees need to be told about the paucity of time to launch themselves into the big league. They also need to be asked to inspire themselves & their colleagues to be continuously on the move, set higher objectives & achieve them in real time.
2. Appreciation of effort: All initiatives might not lead to success, they never do. But failed initiatives should not be scoffed at lest that would lead to employees becoming too afraid to initiate new developments. The organization should be made to understand that dramatic success comes only through trial & error. Hence all genuine efforts should be equally appreciated.
3. Creating change champions: Brownian motion only leads to disturbance, random ideas & activities need to be grouped together into right teams. Once the suitable people are in place with sincere emotional commitment, the right mix of skills and levels can be reached. And none should forget to a get a Captain for the team. Without a committed leader, the team is bound to loose direction.
4. Forming a vision: Leaders of the teams should establish a simple vision and strategy & focus on the tactical decision necessary to drive the change & assimilate it.
5. Selling the change: Everybody will appreciate the change if they realize its benefits to them. It’s very important for the initiators to sell their vision to the whole organization so as to create whole hearted acceptability.
6. Authorizing & motivating actions: The team spearheading the growth initiatives must have authority to take all steps it needs to remove obstacles, enable constructive feedback and ensure development. These actions can also be motivated by rewarding and recognizing valuable contributions, progress and achievements.
7. Let success come in stages: The whole objective should be broken up in steps such that achievements of each stage are easily identifiable. This way success seems to come faster thus motivating everybody further & justifying the change.
8. Persistence Pays: As discussed above all efforts may not be successful but it doesn’t mean that the process should be given up. Things take time to change. We should foster and encourage determination and persistence. Results will come sooner or later.
9. Preserving success: Whenever an initiative results in success (small or big doesn’t matter) the change initiative that led to the success must be immediately incorporated into the policy of the company so that it becomes a permanent fixture.
The measures listed above are a comprehensive lot which if followed by all will definitely lead to their collective prosperity & explosive growth.
Pessimism never won any battle
Pessimism never won any battle, neither did optimism alone loose it. Yet when it comes to initiating out of the box thinking, the scales tilt in favor of pessimism, albeit in the guise of ‘Conservatism’. Few seem to realize that what got them here, may not get them there, into the big league. Established methods, processes & industry practices (having them is in itself a big achievement) will only help an organization to grow at the organic pace. It is the ability of an organization & its people, to surpass their industry’s best practices, that will catapult a budding ‘me too’ player to the top. Such differentiation can be achieved only through ‘out of the box’ thinking for which we need to be an optimist.
One might wonder at the link between pessimism, optimism & out of the box thinking! Change management is this common link. Let’s see how?
The practice of forever working with a model hugely tried & tasted in the past has its origin in a feeling of insecurity arising due to the desire of most individuals to maintain the ‘status quo’. In simple words nobody wants to upset the applecart as the changed circumstances might be too hot to handle. Innumerable ideas & concepts have fallen prey to this fear of uncertainty leading to huge losses for corporations that did not encourage professional adventure & benefits for those that motivated dynamism. Risk, no matter how calculated, is uncomfortable; but has the potential of bringing in huge profits. Inertia is comfortable, but comes at a huge cost.
The key to having the best of both worlds is to have an efficient & effective process of Change Management in place in the organization. When an organization is on the threshold of launching itself into the big league, it needs an environment where the more enterprising of its employees can bounce off ideas & put them on trial without the fear of being prosecuted for the uncertainty there ideas might land the organization in. This requires the creation of an environment that recognizes creativity & has its contingency plans ready to meet any unwarranted situations. All this can only be achieved with a positive frame of mind. Success may elude us at times leading to bouts of pessimism, but we have to make it a habit to treat pessimist tendencies as passing phases of our lives. Perseverance, continued persistence & an inherent belief in the optimism of out of the box thinking is the only way to win the battles against ordinary existence & strike gold.
One might wonder at the link between pessimism, optimism & out of the box thinking! Change management is this common link. Let’s see how?
The practice of forever working with a model hugely tried & tasted in the past has its origin in a feeling of insecurity arising due to the desire of most individuals to maintain the ‘status quo’. In simple words nobody wants to upset the applecart as the changed circumstances might be too hot to handle. Innumerable ideas & concepts have fallen prey to this fear of uncertainty leading to huge losses for corporations that did not encourage professional adventure & benefits for those that motivated dynamism. Risk, no matter how calculated, is uncomfortable; but has the potential of bringing in huge profits. Inertia is comfortable, but comes at a huge cost.
The key to having the best of both worlds is to have an efficient & effective process of Change Management in place in the organization. When an organization is on the threshold of launching itself into the big league, it needs an environment where the more enterprising of its employees can bounce off ideas & put them on trial without the fear of being prosecuted for the uncertainty there ideas might land the organization in. This requires the creation of an environment that recognizes creativity & has its contingency plans ready to meet any unwarranted situations. All this can only be achieved with a positive frame of mind. Success may elude us at times leading to bouts of pessimism, but we have to make it a habit to treat pessimist tendencies as passing phases of our lives. Perseverance, continued persistence & an inherent belief in the optimism of out of the box thinking is the only way to win the battles against ordinary existence & strike gold.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
My VISION
VISION, when it is of the people who manage HR has the potential of transgressing the known boundaries of Management objectivity & stepping into the realm of Rationale humanity towards members of the organization.
What makes the process of vision formation for HR more complicated is the fact that while managing people is definitely an art in itself, it is always guided by considerations of achieving a pre-set financial matrix, which is more often than not ‘cold blooded science’
Attempts made at achieving a ‘marriage of convenience’ where the above factors complement each other often fail when the marriage becomes uncomfortable due to the conveniences becoming a disturbance in the attainment of either of the objectives.
To be able to succeed in either of the above objectives, one has to have the conviction to really believe in either the science or the art & use the other to supplement it. For HR functionaries who would like to have along term view of the business, especially in organizations where the human intellect is the prime tangible asset, it is advisable to found the vision on the holistic principle of Human empowerment supplemented by the monitoring mechanisms of PMS, designed to act on behalf of the requirements of Management objectivity.
Rabindranath Tagore had this vision of our country…..
Where the mind is without fear
And the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls;
Where the words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action,
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
An innate metaphor it may be but if we just replace the word ‘country’ with the word ‘organization’ it becomes a manifestation of my vision for my department.
I would like to work towards this vision by undertaking following interventions:
• An environment should be created where the employees, in most cases are able to work without any fear. Achievement of targets should come from motivation & not from the fear of loosing one’s job or position, so far as possible. The reason being ‘fear’ can only be used as a short term tool at best, its use over a sustained period will lead to high attrition.
• Fearless minds breed creativity, fearful ones breed manipulation, the significance of the first over the second is to clear to emphasize.
• The working environment should be such that at all times the members of the organization must have a high sense of self respect as employees of the company in their respective positions.
• Employees must be able to respect the company & its management by choice, not compulsion. (I use the words ‘be able to’ because the management’s actions will predominantly dictate this).
• In times of volatility & recession, people prefer being stable & gaining knowledge rather than gaining a little more money by being unstable. Training & Retraining are vital means of increasing employee morale & curbing attrition.
• Extensive training creates a steady pool of transferable skills which can be used for multitasking, if needed. A culture of learning needs to be created in all organizations.
• Training does not always come with high economic costs & vague break evens. There are many training methodologies which give guaranteed results without additional costs.
• The organizational fabric starts to decay when individuals/groups of employees start seeing themselves as ‘us’ & the others as ‘them’
• Compartmentalization of the organization into different functional entities is not always conducive in the long term. An approach of creating teams based on ‘process life cycles’ is more apt for improved interpersonal coherence. This type of team work is what is necessary in most organizations, but missing.
• The systems & processes in an organization must be refined to permit a seamless flow of operations without considerable bottlenecks. Mere human effort & motivation is not enough to acieve high standards of efficiency. HR should take a proactive consultative approach in this regard.
• Every department & every employee must have its own vision (both short term & long term) & achievable objectives clearly earmarked. Setting the target is very essential for achieving it.
• Every employee has a family to look after. If they are not able to devote enough time to their families, the stress would eventually build up & show its effect in some form or the other. It needs to be remembered that a normal human being has limitations on his capacity to concentrate & work effectively. Mere physical presence for long hours may not lead to efficient work. HR must take steps to motivate employees to work smart, rather than plain hard work, maintaining there work-life balance as well.
• Very often dynamic managements lack in documentation, which leads to a problem in succession planning & handling emergencies without them. The credo of HR should be “In GOD we trust, for everything else we have documents”. Consequently there must be a ‘documented process’ for everything. The day this happens, the HR cost of the organization goes down drastically & so does the training cost.
• Every organization spends considerable money in coming up with its accounting balance sheet & does regular account audits. However hardly anybody subjects their process/operational departments to regular PROCESS audits. This is where the chances of making or breaking the organization exist in plenty. An accounts audit is merely a result of the actions in the processes. Management must make it mandatory for every department/function to get itself audited by an impartial entity.
• Employees must be encouraged to think ‘out of the box’ and their suggestions must be really looked into. 95 % of all new ideas seem ridiculous, but it’s the remaining 5 % which change the world. HR must create an atmosphere where they & the other decision makers are willing to be patient & wait for these 5 % while politely discarding the 95%.
• Employee engagement options need not be restricted to only the fashionable & costly ones. It’s the experience & the memory of these engagements which counts. HR must come up with more innovative interventions.
The above list, though not exhaustive, cavers a fairly broad spectrum of activities HR needs to undertake. HR being an art, perfection can never be said to be achieved. However meeting the above challenges in fairly respectable measure itself can make quite a huge difference to organizational fortunes.
What makes the process of vision formation for HR more complicated is the fact that while managing people is definitely an art in itself, it is always guided by considerations of achieving a pre-set financial matrix, which is more often than not ‘cold blooded science’
Attempts made at achieving a ‘marriage of convenience’ where the above factors complement each other often fail when the marriage becomes uncomfortable due to the conveniences becoming a disturbance in the attainment of either of the objectives.
To be able to succeed in either of the above objectives, one has to have the conviction to really believe in either the science or the art & use the other to supplement it. For HR functionaries who would like to have along term view of the business, especially in organizations where the human intellect is the prime tangible asset, it is advisable to found the vision on the holistic principle of Human empowerment supplemented by the monitoring mechanisms of PMS, designed to act on behalf of the requirements of Management objectivity.
Rabindranath Tagore had this vision of our country…..
Where the mind is without fear
And the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls;
Where the words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action,
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
An innate metaphor it may be but if we just replace the word ‘country’ with the word ‘organization’ it becomes a manifestation of my vision for my department.
I would like to work towards this vision by undertaking following interventions:
• An environment should be created where the employees, in most cases are able to work without any fear. Achievement of targets should come from motivation & not from the fear of loosing one’s job or position, so far as possible. The reason being ‘fear’ can only be used as a short term tool at best, its use over a sustained period will lead to high attrition.
• Fearless minds breed creativity, fearful ones breed manipulation, the significance of the first over the second is to clear to emphasize.
• The working environment should be such that at all times the members of the organization must have a high sense of self respect as employees of the company in their respective positions.
• Employees must be able to respect the company & its management by choice, not compulsion. (I use the words ‘be able to’ because the management’s actions will predominantly dictate this).
• In times of volatility & recession, people prefer being stable & gaining knowledge rather than gaining a little more money by being unstable. Training & Retraining are vital means of increasing employee morale & curbing attrition.
• Extensive training creates a steady pool of transferable skills which can be used for multitasking, if needed. A culture of learning needs to be created in all organizations.
• Training does not always come with high economic costs & vague break evens. There are many training methodologies which give guaranteed results without additional costs.
• The organizational fabric starts to decay when individuals/groups of employees start seeing themselves as ‘us’ & the others as ‘them’
• Compartmentalization of the organization into different functional entities is not always conducive in the long term. An approach of creating teams based on ‘process life cycles’ is more apt for improved interpersonal coherence. This type of team work is what is necessary in most organizations, but missing.
• The systems & processes in an organization must be refined to permit a seamless flow of operations without considerable bottlenecks. Mere human effort & motivation is not enough to acieve high standards of efficiency. HR should take a proactive consultative approach in this regard.
• Every department & every employee must have its own vision (both short term & long term) & achievable objectives clearly earmarked. Setting the target is very essential for achieving it.
• Every employee has a family to look after. If they are not able to devote enough time to their families, the stress would eventually build up & show its effect in some form or the other. It needs to be remembered that a normal human being has limitations on his capacity to concentrate & work effectively. Mere physical presence for long hours may not lead to efficient work. HR must take steps to motivate employees to work smart, rather than plain hard work, maintaining there work-life balance as well.
• Very often dynamic managements lack in documentation, which leads to a problem in succession planning & handling emergencies without them. The credo of HR should be “In GOD we trust, for everything else we have documents”. Consequently there must be a ‘documented process’ for everything. The day this happens, the HR cost of the organization goes down drastically & so does the training cost.
• Every organization spends considerable money in coming up with its accounting balance sheet & does regular account audits. However hardly anybody subjects their process/operational departments to regular PROCESS audits. This is where the chances of making or breaking the organization exist in plenty. An accounts audit is merely a result of the actions in the processes. Management must make it mandatory for every department/function to get itself audited by an impartial entity.
• Employees must be encouraged to think ‘out of the box’ and their suggestions must be really looked into. 95 % of all new ideas seem ridiculous, but it’s the remaining 5 % which change the world. HR must create an atmosphere where they & the other decision makers are willing to be patient & wait for these 5 % while politely discarding the 95%.
• Employee engagement options need not be restricted to only the fashionable & costly ones. It’s the experience & the memory of these engagements which counts. HR must come up with more innovative interventions.
The above list, though not exhaustive, cavers a fairly broad spectrum of activities HR needs to undertake. HR being an art, perfection can never be said to be achieved. However meeting the above challenges in fairly respectable measure itself can make quite a huge difference to organizational fortunes.
Monday, August 17, 2009
One man's food is another man's poison
Volatile markets & the mass hysteria created by the onset of Swine flu captured the headlines for most of the last month. No sooner than the process of economic recovery was seen gaining momentum, we were hit by a bolt from the blue, literally. The failure of monsoons has the potential of derailing the Indian economy as the rural sector continues to occupy a position of preeminent importance even in the current times. Earlier the agrarian output used to be the key contributor to the national GDP, now the rural & semi urban folks constitute a major chunk of our great ‘middle class’ whose consumption patterns decide the course of the many balance sheets. Keep alive the hope for a revival of the monsoon, in the absence of which the Broking industry may as well take a hit. Let us pray for our collective ‘Fortunes’.
The Swine Flu pandemic had been the other issue that ignited our worst fears causing panic amongst the masses & the classes alike. One man’s food is another man’s poison & vice versa too. So watch out for the Pharma stocks. While some players have already made a killing, many others are waiting to do so. In so far as we are concerned, better to get used to this new disease. Its going to be here for quite a while, so gear up all the preventive Do’s & Don’ts & most important stop panicking & think rationally.
Request more of you to voice your views, opinions & whatever on these themes. Don't worry about your views being good or bad or about the language not being good enough, the important thing is to have an opinion & the courage to express it, which we all need to develop.
The Swine Flu pandemic had been the other issue that ignited our worst fears causing panic amongst the masses & the classes alike. One man’s food is another man’s poison & vice versa too. So watch out for the Pharma stocks. While some players have already made a killing, many others are waiting to do so. In so far as we are concerned, better to get used to this new disease. Its going to be here for quite a while, so gear up all the preventive Do’s & Don’ts & most important stop panicking & think rationally.
Request more of you to voice your views, opinions & whatever on these themes. Don't worry about your views being good or bad or about the language not being good enough, the important thing is to have an opinion & the courage to express it, which we all need to develop.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude
How can it be so? Attitude is a reflection of the conscience on the state of mind, so intangible in nature! What on earth could make it supersede the host of material & social factors in driving human destiny? Answers may seem far fetched, but not remote.
While the socio-economic factors affect an individual's fortunes, 'attitude' affects the individual himself, imbibing the whole persona with the thought process that formed it. By nature attitude is meant to be momentary, but worn consistently over long periods of time becomes a Habit of the mind. This mental habit precedes all human action thus deciding its course. As is common knowledge, the 'course taken' in often the most important part of the 'journey of life'. Thus, more often than not, it will be 'attitude' which will seal the fate of our state of being.
If something so frail can be as important, it pays to keep it positive. Changing one's attitude towards life undisputedly gives the discontented, the best returns on investments that can possibly be made.
While the socio-economic factors affect an individual's fortunes, 'attitude' affects the individual himself, imbibing the whole persona with the thought process that formed it. By nature attitude is meant to be momentary, but worn consistently over long periods of time becomes a Habit of the mind. This mental habit precedes all human action thus deciding its course. As is common knowledge, the 'course taken' in often the most important part of the 'journey of life'. Thus, more often than not, it will be 'attitude' which will seal the fate of our state of being.
If something so frail can be as important, it pays to keep it positive. Changing one's attitude towards life undisputedly gives the discontented, the best returns on investments that can possibly be made.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The joys of a TEAM - II
In the last post we saw the importance of working as a TEAM. Let us dwell further on the concept of a TEAM & try to find the reasons behind dramatic successes of those
working in teams as against those who don’t.
Is it just a coincidence that T.E.A.M. spells as Together Everyone Achieves More? It may very well be, but that doesn’t underscore the fact that not only the abbreviation, but most facets of the word ‘team’ spell success. However even this strong reputation is not able to lead all teams to success. If ‘teams’ are supposed to be the great answer to collective well being, it is a real surprise to see them fail. Let us examine the reasons:
The word team has many definitions. Without getting into the details most of the definitions can be divided into two broad lines of thinking:
1. A team is a group of people with a common goal
2. A team is a group of people working together
It is observed that the group leader normally adheres to the first definition, while the
individuals in the group subscribe to the second definition. Herein lies the catch!
When a group of people have a ‘common goal’, they will work towards achieving the goal. In contrast if a group of people ‘work together’ but do not have a ‘common goal’, they work for the achievement of their own goals, often in conflict with the intended goals of the group.
In hindsight it is only too easy to realise that teams that succeed are made of groups of people who work with a ‘common goal’ as against the teams that fail, which are essentially built of people merely ‘working together’.
This small disconnect between the understanding of the team leader & the perception of his team members about something as simple as the meaning of a word is big enough to cause disaster. More on this later.
working in teams as against those who don’t.
Is it just a coincidence that T.E.A.M. spells as Together Everyone Achieves More? It may very well be, but that doesn’t underscore the fact that not only the abbreviation, but most facets of the word ‘team’ spell success. However even this strong reputation is not able to lead all teams to success. If ‘teams’ are supposed to be the great answer to collective well being, it is a real surprise to see them fail. Let us examine the reasons:
The word team has many definitions. Without getting into the details most of the definitions can be divided into two broad lines of thinking:
1. A team is a group of people with a common goal
2. A team is a group of people working together
It is observed that the group leader normally adheres to the first definition, while the
individuals in the group subscribe to the second definition. Herein lies the catch!
When a group of people have a ‘common goal’, they will work towards achieving the goal. In contrast if a group of people ‘work together’ but do not have a ‘common goal’, they work for the achievement of their own goals, often in conflict with the intended goals of the group.
In hindsight it is only too easy to realise that teams that succeed are made of groups of people who work with a ‘common goal’ as against the teams that fail, which are essentially built of people merely ‘working together’.
This small disconnect between the understanding of the team leader & the perception of his team members about something as simple as the meaning of a word is big enough to cause disaster. More on this later.
The joys of a TEAM
As each goose flaps its wings,
It creates uplift for the birds that follow.
By flying in a V-formation, the whole flock adds
71% greater flying range than if each flew alone.
Birds don’t need to be taught. Simple creatures with little brains & weak bodies understand that they have to stay together if they want to fight nature. God didn’t give them strength, neither did their fate give them brilliant minds, but they did have common sense. This common sense told them to flock together. It told them that if they form a team & synchronize their actions, they could compete with the mighty wind & WIN. Ever since then, birds have flown together for millions of years, contributing to each other’s strengths.
If an uneducated organism, dwarfed by several handicaps can achieve 71% greater results by simply acting as a cohesive team, will there be any limit to what we, educated & trained Professionals, fully empowered by the strengths of our FORTUNE achieve for us & our company?
Dear friends, we are, without any doubts, a very strong & talented team. Let us become more cohesive & supplement each other’s strengths. Together Everyone Achieves More.
It creates uplift for the birds that follow.
By flying in a V-formation, the whole flock adds
71% greater flying range than if each flew alone.
Birds don’t need to be taught. Simple creatures with little brains & weak bodies understand that they have to stay together if they want to fight nature. God didn’t give them strength, neither did their fate give them brilliant minds, but they did have common sense. This common sense told them to flock together. It told them that if they form a team & synchronize their actions, they could compete with the mighty wind & WIN. Ever since then, birds have flown together for millions of years, contributing to each other’s strengths.
If an uneducated organism, dwarfed by several handicaps can achieve 71% greater results by simply acting as a cohesive team, will there be any limit to what we, educated & trained Professionals, fully empowered by the strengths of our FORTUNE achieve for us & our company?
Dear friends, we are, without any doubts, a very strong & talented team. Let us become more cohesive & supplement each other’s strengths. Together Everyone Achieves More.
The case for Change
All of us might have heard the following story:
In the pious waters of Yamuna lived 'Kalia' the venomous snake, who had poisined the holy water so much as to render it unusable. The gwallas & gopis, sad at the suffering had none to plead to. By a stroke of luck a ball fell in the river, Lord Krishna went to fetch the ball & ended up subduing Kalia who was happy to get 'Mukti' from a curse.
Fantastic story, heard zillions of times, but needs to be understood again. Consider this:
Kalia was a pious being in his previous birth, who due to some of his bad actions got a curse & was entrapped as the bad soul (demonic snake) in a good world (the river, its banks & the villages). Kalia did not like being bad, but had to be so to maintain the status quo (his position of comfort). He knew he was in a mess & wanted to get out of it (change the status quo) but was prevented from the fear of being devoured by 'Garuda' if he came out of his safe environs (fear of competition). Hence he continued to rule the waters (resisted change) ruining his reputation as well as the well being of his environment (his organisation - the village)
This continued till the advent of Lord Krishna (the change) Garud did not eat up Kalia, who in turn got the much sought for 'Mukti', the river became free of poison, children could play, villagers were happy & a 'Good for all' ensued ever after.
Read through the lines then, 'CHANGE MANAGEMENT' needs to be a recurrent theme of every organisation.
In the pious waters of Yamuna lived 'Kalia' the venomous snake, who had poisined the holy water so much as to render it unusable. The gwallas & gopis, sad at the suffering had none to plead to. By a stroke of luck a ball fell in the river, Lord Krishna went to fetch the ball & ended up subduing Kalia who was happy to get 'Mukti' from a curse.
Fantastic story, heard zillions of times, but needs to be understood again. Consider this:
Kalia was a pious being in his previous birth, who due to some of his bad actions got a curse & was entrapped as the bad soul (demonic snake) in a good world (the river, its banks & the villages). Kalia did not like being bad, but had to be so to maintain the status quo (his position of comfort). He knew he was in a mess & wanted to get out of it (change the status quo) but was prevented from the fear of being devoured by 'Garuda' if he came out of his safe environs (fear of competition). Hence he continued to rule the waters (resisted change) ruining his reputation as well as the well being of his environment (his organisation - the village)
This continued till the advent of Lord Krishna (the change) Garud did not eat up Kalia, who in turn got the much sought for 'Mukti', the river became free of poison, children could play, villagers were happy & a 'Good for all' ensued ever after.
Read through the lines then, 'CHANGE MANAGEMENT' needs to be a recurrent theme of every organisation.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Just blame the politicians, it’s fashionable.
How many times have you heard the public cursing politicians for what they have not done for their country? Chances are you won’t be able to count.
How many times have you heard the public praising you for what you have done for your country? Chances are you won’t be able to count.
Abusing politicians has become our national pastime. Need we say more? ‘Abusing’ seems to be too strong a word, so is the reality. Most of us have grown up listening to epics of moral bankruptcy of our rulers & their opposition. Every Tom, Dick & Harry is too eager to badmouth the political class, little realizing that more often than not s/he too deserves the same, maybe more. What most of us fail to realize is that it is this political class which has kept the nation alive & kicking & if it was not for them the country & its people would have surely gone to dogs. Our politicians may be corrupt & hypocritical sycophants, but are still better than the most of us ordinary mortals.
We are the real culprits, I am afraid to say. The great Indian public wants politicians to be embodiment of all things fair & just, while it itself is the root cause of all evils. We chastise Netas for corruption, how many of us can truly claim not to have given or taken a bribe in our lives? We want the Netas to play by the rules, how many of us have not broken some rule or the other at different times of our lives. To put things in simple perspective, what do you do when you see an empty road with a red traffic light? Most of us will overlook the signal & cross the road and what happens when we get caught by the Traffic Police? We beg the policeman to drop charges, use all sorts of emotional black mail, threaten if we have contacts in high places & negotiate a 50 Rupee bribe & crawl our way out.
We are happy contributing thousands of Crores to the VDIS scheme floated by good hearted politicos & then abuse them all over. We are happy to let our kids jump merit by paying hefty capitation fees or using our caste. We are very innovative in stealing (aka saving in fashionable language) Income tax, Sales tax, VAT, Service Tax, Excise, Customs etc.. etc.. & call it financial ingenuity. We do not hesitate to change the classification of the same materials in different books & loot the country (commercial people will know this).
Why do builders always have different architectural plans for the municipality & for the customer. How do we dare to operate a medical shop without being a qualified pharmacist? How many of our factories meet the norms set by the factory Inspector (I challenge Indian factories to prove their adherence to fire safety norms). How do we dare to buy pirated music, films & DVDs, smoke in public places, give false affidavits, buy without bills to save sales tax, the list can go on & on...
Let us admit it. We are no better than the politicians. Some will argue that paying a 50 buck bribe to the traffic police is not corruption & go on to claim that the Netas do far bigger scams. But then our bribe is small because we are small fry, dealing with small, mundane matters. Netas deal with far bigger things, so engage in bigger corruption. The ratios & the proportions remain the same. “Jiski jitni aukat wo utna corruption karta hai” as a politician said. Let us not mistake our limitations for honesty.
The key to national progress lies not in blaming the political class, but ourselves. We are to blame for the mess because we have all created it. Eradication of corruption is the collective responsibility of all citizens. Merely chastising a particular class of people will not do. Its time we come out of our hypocritical consciousness & introspect ourselves. People living in glass houses should not throw stones.
How many times have you heard the public praising you for what you have done for your country? Chances are you won’t be able to count.
Abusing politicians has become our national pastime. Need we say more? ‘Abusing’ seems to be too strong a word, so is the reality. Most of us have grown up listening to epics of moral bankruptcy of our rulers & their opposition. Every Tom, Dick & Harry is too eager to badmouth the political class, little realizing that more often than not s/he too deserves the same, maybe more. What most of us fail to realize is that it is this political class which has kept the nation alive & kicking & if it was not for them the country & its people would have surely gone to dogs. Our politicians may be corrupt & hypocritical sycophants, but are still better than the most of us ordinary mortals.
We are the real culprits, I am afraid to say. The great Indian public wants politicians to be embodiment of all things fair & just, while it itself is the root cause of all evils. We chastise Netas for corruption, how many of us can truly claim not to have given or taken a bribe in our lives? We want the Netas to play by the rules, how many of us have not broken some rule or the other at different times of our lives. To put things in simple perspective, what do you do when you see an empty road with a red traffic light? Most of us will overlook the signal & cross the road and what happens when we get caught by the Traffic Police? We beg the policeman to drop charges, use all sorts of emotional black mail, threaten if we have contacts in high places & negotiate a 50 Rupee bribe & crawl our way out.
We are happy contributing thousands of Crores to the VDIS scheme floated by good hearted politicos & then abuse them all over. We are happy to let our kids jump merit by paying hefty capitation fees or using our caste. We are very innovative in stealing (aka saving in fashionable language) Income tax, Sales tax, VAT, Service Tax, Excise, Customs etc.. etc.. & call it financial ingenuity. We do not hesitate to change the classification of the same materials in different books & loot the country (commercial people will know this).
Why do builders always have different architectural plans for the municipality & for the customer. How do we dare to operate a medical shop without being a qualified pharmacist? How many of our factories meet the norms set by the factory Inspector (I challenge Indian factories to prove their adherence to fire safety norms). How do we dare to buy pirated music, films & DVDs, smoke in public places, give false affidavits, buy without bills to save sales tax, the list can go on & on...
Let us admit it. We are no better than the politicians. Some will argue that paying a 50 buck bribe to the traffic police is not corruption & go on to claim that the Netas do far bigger scams. But then our bribe is small because we are small fry, dealing with small, mundane matters. Netas deal with far bigger things, so engage in bigger corruption. The ratios & the proportions remain the same. “Jiski jitni aukat wo utna corruption karta hai” as a politician said. Let us not mistake our limitations for honesty.
The key to national progress lies not in blaming the political class, but ourselves. We are to blame for the mess because we have all created it. Eradication of corruption is the collective responsibility of all citizens. Merely chastising a particular class of people will not do. Its time we come out of our hypocritical consciousness & introspect ourselves. People living in glass houses should not throw stones.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Poor Indians, the Rich Swiss
A lot of cry is being raised for bringing back the Indian money deposited in
Swiss banks. It makes one feel better that somebody at least remembers the problem. More often than not corruption & black money is blamed for the burgeoning Indian deposits in Swiss banks. However there is another side to the story, which goes unnoticed.
Since the 90s, when the reforms began, the value of the dollar has progressed from about Rs.10 to Rs. 50. The value of the Rupee has been falling against the
Dollar (except a brief surge a year back) which makes it worthwhile for an Indian with excess money to store it in Dollars. Further the value of the Rupee will continue to depreciate, which means further erosion of the net value of the savings in rupees. This coupled with the rampant inflation in the Indian economy ensures a negative growth of the economic worth of Indian money in PPP terms. On the contrary, the same money, if kept overseas in dollars consistently increases its net value outperforming both the Indian Inflation & the international economic trends.
This is another major reason for the increase in Indian deposits in Swiss banks.
What is the remedy? Is ending corruption the only way out? The answer of any patriotic economist worth his salt should be a big NO.
We, Indians as a rule are very dishonest & unpatriotic people. But for a few demonstrations of valour by our soldiers, our innate character borders on being a borne traitor rather than a patriot. Due to the utter dishonesty of our character, (mostly promoted by the arm chair Ganidhians badmouthing politicians of all hues) Indians as an entity will never fight against corruption, which makes it, better for the establishment to concentrate on using economics to combat the problem.
The most disastrous tragedy of corruption on our economy (the symptom as well as the effect) has been its exodus abroad. We (and many others) have been financing the Swiss Economy & Euro-American Growth for decades. The Black Rupee (notice similarity to blood diamonds, another peculiar character of similar character) stored in the safety of Swiss vaults does not produce interest worth being interested about!
Thus the Swiss get virtually interest free funds in billions, which is used to finance their chocolate & watch makers (amongst numerous others), a great portion of which is purchased by our white Rupee completing the parody of economic life cycles. The Swiss are very innovative & ingenious people. They have mastered the art of subsidizing the positive growth of their economy by a reverse mechanism of cross subsidizing the negative growth of corrupt countries like ours. Morons like us finance the upsurge in their economy, currency & international rankings on diverse wellness parameters at the cost of degrading ours in inverse proportion.
To halt this trend, we must prevent the exodus of Indian money. Before trying to prevent the exodus of the Rupee, we will first have to make the Rupee stable & should we wish to generate a return of the money already stashed abroad, the Rupee will need to be made stronger. If the Rupee becomes stronger, the Dollar will be depreciate vis-à-vis the Rupee & it will become alluring to bring back the money & to prevent the devaluation of the net worth of this Black Rupee.
This is a worthwhile option because money laundering is indeed very easy locally. If even a fraction of the Indian deposits in Swiss banks, were to come to India (they definitely will, if the rupee strengthens consistently), this money could be easily hidden away by the novel Hawala operators in chains of Benami transactions. This will have a positive effect on most aspects of the Indian economy like Real Estate (most of large chunks of land are Benami properties or purchased through black money), increase in consumption (sectors like food, white goods, automobiles, electronics), industries of snobbery (expensive weddings, haute couture fashion, in general the blasphemous show of liquidity). All this will eventually have the tickle down effect & do wonders for the recession struck economy, if not the polity.
Another angle to our woe of backwardness is the fact that although poor, we are net exporters of Finance. One of the major reasons for the fall of the Rupee is the encouragement by the government of India to send the Indian money abroad. In fact most of the developing & the not so developing countries are heavy exporters of their currencies to the first world. Since the international currency has been the Dollar & other first world currencies, the third world countries have to maintain a reserve of foreign currency to finance their international purchases. This creates a demand for the first world currency, more specifically the Dollar. This sustained demand for the Dollar (& a few other such internationally used currencies) drives up heir price & makes their economies more valuable in an ever increasing manner.
Indian government (& most of the third world) is under a misguided assumption that its economy will be judged in direct proportion to the value of the foreign exchange reserves it holds (or hoards). Hence more often than not it goes overboard in hoarding more foreign currency than is required, again contributing to the appreciation of Dollar & company vis a vis the Rupee & encouraging further exodus of the Rupee. To buy these huge stocks of foreign currency, more & more of the local money needs to be sent out. The volume of this money is much more than that of the foreign investments coming into India. Thus we have a situation we fare unfavorably with the world on balance of trade, but favorably in the trade of money. The tragedy is that this favorable status is unfavorable to our economy!
If we wish to make our economy strong in real terms in the long run, we will have to curb this outward flow of the Rupee & stop strengthening the others at our cost. Further we can strive to become a mini dollar at least for the nearby region. A strong currency is one of the first steps to the recognition of a country’s economic might & the key to sustained long term growth.
And yes, it can also help us to bring our Swiss billions back!
Swiss banks. It makes one feel better that somebody at least remembers the problem. More often than not corruption & black money is blamed for the burgeoning Indian deposits in Swiss banks. However there is another side to the story, which goes unnoticed.
Since the 90s, when the reforms began, the value of the dollar has progressed from about Rs.10 to Rs. 50. The value of the Rupee has been falling against the
Dollar (except a brief surge a year back) which makes it worthwhile for an Indian with excess money to store it in Dollars. Further the value of the Rupee will continue to depreciate, which means further erosion of the net value of the savings in rupees. This coupled with the rampant inflation in the Indian economy ensures a negative growth of the economic worth of Indian money in PPP terms. On the contrary, the same money, if kept overseas in dollars consistently increases its net value outperforming both the Indian Inflation & the international economic trends.
This is another major reason for the increase in Indian deposits in Swiss banks.
What is the remedy? Is ending corruption the only way out? The answer of any patriotic economist worth his salt should be a big NO.
We, Indians as a rule are very dishonest & unpatriotic people. But for a few demonstrations of valour by our soldiers, our innate character borders on being a borne traitor rather than a patriot. Due to the utter dishonesty of our character, (mostly promoted by the arm chair Ganidhians badmouthing politicians of all hues) Indians as an entity will never fight against corruption, which makes it, better for the establishment to concentrate on using economics to combat the problem.
The most disastrous tragedy of corruption on our economy (the symptom as well as the effect) has been its exodus abroad. We (and many others) have been financing the Swiss Economy & Euro-American Growth for decades. The Black Rupee (notice similarity to blood diamonds, another peculiar character of similar character) stored in the safety of Swiss vaults does not produce interest worth being interested about!
Thus the Swiss get virtually interest free funds in billions, which is used to finance their chocolate & watch makers (amongst numerous others), a great portion of which is purchased by our white Rupee completing the parody of economic life cycles. The Swiss are very innovative & ingenious people. They have mastered the art of subsidizing the positive growth of their economy by a reverse mechanism of cross subsidizing the negative growth of corrupt countries like ours. Morons like us finance the upsurge in their economy, currency & international rankings on diverse wellness parameters at the cost of degrading ours in inverse proportion.
To halt this trend, we must prevent the exodus of Indian money. Before trying to prevent the exodus of the Rupee, we will first have to make the Rupee stable & should we wish to generate a return of the money already stashed abroad, the Rupee will need to be made stronger. If the Rupee becomes stronger, the Dollar will be depreciate vis-à-vis the Rupee & it will become alluring to bring back the money & to prevent the devaluation of the net worth of this Black Rupee.
This is a worthwhile option because money laundering is indeed very easy locally. If even a fraction of the Indian deposits in Swiss banks, were to come to India (they definitely will, if the rupee strengthens consistently), this money could be easily hidden away by the novel Hawala operators in chains of Benami transactions. This will have a positive effect on most aspects of the Indian economy like Real Estate (most of large chunks of land are Benami properties or purchased through black money), increase in consumption (sectors like food, white goods, automobiles, electronics), industries of snobbery (expensive weddings, haute couture fashion, in general the blasphemous show of liquidity). All this will eventually have the tickle down effect & do wonders for the recession struck economy, if not the polity.
Another angle to our woe of backwardness is the fact that although poor, we are net exporters of Finance. One of the major reasons for the fall of the Rupee is the encouragement by the government of India to send the Indian money abroad. In fact most of the developing & the not so developing countries are heavy exporters of their currencies to the first world. Since the international currency has been the Dollar & other first world currencies, the third world countries have to maintain a reserve of foreign currency to finance their international purchases. This creates a demand for the first world currency, more specifically the Dollar. This sustained demand for the Dollar (& a few other such internationally used currencies) drives up heir price & makes their economies more valuable in an ever increasing manner.
Indian government (& most of the third world) is under a misguided assumption that its economy will be judged in direct proportion to the value of the foreign exchange reserves it holds (or hoards). Hence more often than not it goes overboard in hoarding more foreign currency than is required, again contributing to the appreciation of Dollar & company vis a vis the Rupee & encouraging further exodus of the Rupee. To buy these huge stocks of foreign currency, more & more of the local money needs to be sent out. The volume of this money is much more than that of the foreign investments coming into India. Thus we have a situation we fare unfavorably with the world on balance of trade, but favorably in the trade of money. The tragedy is that this favorable status is unfavorable to our economy!
If we wish to make our economy strong in real terms in the long run, we will have to curb this outward flow of the Rupee & stop strengthening the others at our cost. Further we can strive to become a mini dollar at least for the nearby region. A strong currency is one of the first steps to the recognition of a country’s economic might & the key to sustained long term growth.
And yes, it can also help us to bring our Swiss billions back!
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