Problem Solving and Decision Making:

Decision making is the key to a manager's success. To be a good decision maker one needs to first understand the relationship between Problem Solving and Decision making. Decision making is just one step or part of problem solving.

Different steps in reaching a decision:

• Estimation Analysis
• Valuing
• Priority Setting
• Problem Analysis
• Information Gathering
• Problem Definition
• Situation Analysis
• Idea
• Decision Making
• Implementation

Decision making and Implementation can be done at either Individual level or team-wise. Thus if we draw a matrix we can get four combinations:

Of all the combinations one colored yellow is the most complex at it it involves complexities due to the involvement of the group in which different candidates may have different views regarding the problem. The one where both the decision and implementation is done by individual is an example of Craftsmanship. In Modern Management system all the decisions are made in groups.

Are problems tough?
Well i believe no problem is tough.Its the inability to find the root cause that makes the problem look tough.Once the root cause is realized or understood,the problem no longer remains tough.Hence emphasis should be made on finding the causes of the problem because once they are known, their solutions can be easily obtained.

Keep learning!! Keep thinking!!!

NAVRANG CUBE- An analogy to Modern Organisation!!

People say its important that  we exercise our body as well as brain. Most people even today donot take this seriously. Mental exercise not only gives relaxation but also makes mind sharp.We can exercise our brain by reading, solving puzzles,cubes,crosswords, Sudoku,playing chess etc.

                                                             

 NAVRANG CUBE is a simple playing cube composed of 27 identical small cubes of 9 different colours ( 3 cubes of same colour) . The cube has hole in 5 sides and a connector in one side so as to hold on the other cube. When seen , it resembles like the Rubic cube but is very different in nature and composition . All the 27 cubes in this can be disassembled .  The cube is said to be solved when each of the faces has 9 different colour cubes ie. there is no repetition of same colour cube at any face.

When Dr. Mandi brought NAVRANG cube to class i was clueless about its significance in management class. But Dr. Mandi used NAVRANG cube as an analogy for modern day organisation.The idea was innovative and mesmerising.

He explained solving of NAVRANG cube is somewhat like solving the problems of Organisation Management. He gave following line of thinking which mesmerised us all
1)As the cubes of same colour do not appear at the same face so should not be the people or resources of same skills and characters appear at the same strata - else there may be ego clash or skill deficiency.
2)It is important that we have diversity within the organisation so that different ideas and views come up and a broader vision and perspective gets established.The organisation than becomes holistic and multidimensional.
3)But while diversity brings broader perspective,it is very important that different views are channelised towards a common goal i.e. growth of organisation.
As always this lecture changed my way of thinking.Hope you guys feel the same.
Keep reading!! Keep learning!!

LEARNING MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS FROM THE VALLEY CROSSING EXERCISE :

The Activity

The task is to cross a deep valley. Well it may seem like a difficult and dangerous task to begin with. We have three main protagonists who have a bamboo strong enough to take the weight of each of them at a time. The three Protagonists devise a plan. They stand in a straight line, resting the bamboo on their shoulders. Step by step they negotiate the hurdles coming their way. helping each other out in the times of need and finally conquering the valley. The pictorial representation of the entire task can be shown a
follows:

 

 Detailed task process :

Persons	First Person	Second Person	Third person
Step
1	Safe	Safe	Safe
2	Half Risky,
3	Full Risky,
4	Half Risky,	Half Risky,
5		Full Risky,
6		Half Risky,	Half Risky,
7			Full Risky,
8			Half Risky,
9	Safe	Safe	Safe

Safe - Both the legs of the person have full support
Half Risky – One leg in the air and the other leg has support
Full risky - Both the legs are in the air without any support

Though it seems like a simple task there are a few things that are very essential to the successful completion of the task.

Gap:

·         The gap between the three members should be equal and uniform.  The gap between any two members should be half of the width of the valley. Also the gap should remain the same all the time.

Synchronization:

·         By far the most important aspect of this task is the synchronisation. The speed of all the three members should be the same. Their steps should be in sync with each other.

Real time Communication

·         There should be communication between the members during the task verbally or non-verbally.

Detailed Analysis of the Task:

1.Structuring the Task :

·         Role A = Role B = Role C: All roles are equal and there is no differeniation between the responsibilities of any two persons.

·         All three are equally responsible in their contributions for the overall task completion.

2. Structuring Team Roles :

·         All 3 member Roles have equal distribution of 

·         Risky situations (1); 

·         Half risky situations (2); 

·         No risk situations (6)

·         Interdependence among the 3 members was maximised and made crucial.

The roles are interlocking, with highest levels of interaction among the members, with instantaneous feedback being exchange and without any scope for social loafing.

3. Preparation and Execution :

All the 3 members are systematically trained for synchronisation of all the steps and, while crossing, they communicate and coordinate with each other through a various kinds of sounds and other signals.

4. Team Excellence :

Team excellence comes through proper designing of team tasks, correctly assigning team roles, and preparation and execution of the tasks. Thus, excellence is designed by the managers.

Learnings from this exercise:

1)      Concept of Super Teams & Self Manager Teams: 

Super Teams or High performance teams is a concept which has been successfully adopted by many big corporations like GE, Krafts food, Boeing etc. It can be defined as a group of 3 to 30 workers drawn from different areas of a corporation to solve problems faced daily. The valley crossing exercise had many characteristics of a super team like:

·         Participative leadership – different from the tradition approach of a authoritarian team leader.

·         Open and clear communication – Communication is the key to crossing valley effectively.

·         Mutual trust – Every person needed to trust each other completely especially when their feet was off the ground.

·         Managing conflict – dealing with conflict openly and transparently and not allowing grudges to build up and destroy team morale

·         Clear goals – The goals were clear, defined and each member in the team fully understood the gravity of the problem.

·         Defined roles and responsibilities – each team member understands what they must do (and what they must not do) to demonstrate their commitment to the team and to support team success. Furthermore the roles and  responsibilities keep on changing depending on the situation. 

·         Coordinative relationship – the bonds between the team members allow them to seamlessly coordinate their work to achieve both efficiency and effectiveness

·         Positive atmosphere – an overall team culture that is open, transparent, positive, future-focused and able to deliver success.

2)      Task Interdependence –

It is the extent to which a group's work requires its members to interact with one another. We see that in the valley crossing exercise it is of utmost importance to be interdependent on each other so as to mitigate the risk and achieve the task at hand. This also has brings lot of perspectives to the Team performance in reality. What I have observed is that the interdependence increases as we go higher up the corporate ladder. As a worker or low level employee, we can usually get away with completing the task without much interdependence (even though effectively using the team's collective strength may increase productivity). But as we go to strategic level, it is almost impossible to go about a task without the expertise/skill/opinion of your team mates.  Thus Interdependence and its effective usage is crucial for a manager.

3)      Innovation:

The solution to the problem is very unique and also effective. It simply makes use of a bamboo and viola the solution is as simple as it gets. It is very intriguing that a problem can have such a simple solution.

4)      Team work:

Team work is the main cornerstone on which this exercise stands. Each and every team member is in a position of danger when he/she is in the middle of the valley. That is when the other member shows confidence in you and takes you to safety.  This is how the organisation works in a nutshell. They cooperate with each other in order to achieve the desired goal.

5)      Simplicity:

·         The solution in itself is so wholesome and easy that any 3 people can carry out the task.  The solution tames the problem to such an extent that the problem seems like a cakewalk. 

·         It was a great experience watching and learning from this activity.

                                                                                                                                            

The real life examples of  :

·         Armed Forces

·         Army of Ants

·          Flight of geese.

In all the 3 examples the motion of army men,ants and geese are in sync with one another. They are known for their team work, hard work and efficiency

More blogs coming up! Till then keep reading!!!!

GRAMEEN BANK

Back with my new blog!!!
Food Security Bill is in news again. The supporters of the bill say that it will help the poor of the country while the critics of the bill say that it is not creating resources for the poor nor is it empowering them.

Well the classic solution to this issue is creating methods through which poor people can help themselves. One such solution was given by Muhammad Yunus-the Bangladeshi banker, economist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient. According to him if financial resources can be made available to the poor people on terms and conditions that are appropriate and reasonable, "these millions of small people with their millions of small pursuits can add up to create the biggest development wonder." With this intention in mind he started introducing collateral free loans for the poor in Bangladesh. Yunus developed his revolutionary micro-credit and micro finance system with the belief that it would be a cost effective and scalable weapon to fight poverty. Yunus told his story and that of the bank in the book "Banker to the Poor," co-authored by him and Alan Jolis.
                   
Based on this concept GRAMEEN BANK was set up in 1983 with the belief that credit should be accepted as a human right.

                             




•The Grameen Bank is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning microfinance organization and community development bank founded in Bangladesh
•Grameen Bank (GB) has reversed conventional banking practice by removing the need for collateral and created a banking system based on mutual trust, accountability, participation and creativity.
•GB provides credit to the poorest of the poor in rural Bangladesh, without any collateral.
•At GB, credit is a cost effective weapon to fight poverty and it serves as a catalyst in the overall development of socio-economic conditions of the poor who have been kept outside the banking orbit on the ground that they are poor and hence not bankable.
•GB has 8.349 million borrowers, 97 percent of whom are women. With 2,565 branches, GB provides services in 81,379 villages, covering more than 97 percent of the total villages in Bangladesh.

Objectives: 


•extend banking facilities to poor men and women;
•eliminate the exploitation of the poor by money lenders;
•create opportunities for self-employment for the vast multitude of unemployed people in rural          Bangladesh;
•bring the disadvantaged, mostly the women from the poorest households, within the fold of an organizational  format which they can understand and manage by themselves; and
•reverse the age-old vicious circle of "low income, low saving & low investment", into virtuous circle of "low  income, injection of credit, investment, more income, more savings, more investment, more income".

The four principles of Grameen Bank -
• Discipline
• Unity,
• Courage
• Hard work

Grameen Bank methodology is almost the reverse of the conventional banking methodology. Conventional banking is based on the principle that the more you have, the more you can get. In other words, if you have little or nothing, you get nothing. As a result, more than half the population of the world is deprived of the financial services of the conventional banks.

Comparison between Conventional Bank and Grameen Bank

CONVENTIONAL BANK	GRAMEEN BANK
Conventional banking is based on collateral	Grameen banking is collateral- free.
Conventional banks look at possession of person	Grameen banks look at the potential of the person
The major clients of Conventional banks are rich and men	The major clients of Grameen Bank are poor and women.
Objective- to maximize profit	Objective -financial services to the poor, particularly women and the poorest
Branches are mostly located in business districts and urban centres	Branches are mostly located in the rural areas
Legal instrument between the lender and the borrower	No legal instrument between the lender and the borrower
Interest on conventional bank loans are generally compounded quarterly	All interests are simple interests in Grameen Bank.

The success of the Grameen microfinance model inspired similar efforts in about 100 developing countries and even in developed countries including the United States. In India also government has taken many initiatives to make the growth inclusive. The SIDBI Foundation for microcredit (SFMC) is a department of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and a non-governmental organization that provides bulk loans to Microfinance institutions (MFIs) in India. Punjab National Bank is known for its initiatives in field of microfinance in India.The bank has transformed life of many farmers in and around Punjab and Harayan.

Mohammed Yonus with his innovative and revolutionary idea transformed life of millions of people.He is an inspiration for all of us

Keeping Reading !!!

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much!!!

Films have always been source of entertainment. But Dr. Mandi taught a very important aspect of managemant  TEAM DYNAMICS through it .
Sounds Impossible!! Well keep reading you will get it all.
First the Movie: Three Monks and no Water
Watch it on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rolBiHfWokY

It is a Chinese animated feature film produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio.It is also referred to as The Three Buddhist Priests.
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.
Plot:
The story teaches a gentle, humorous lesson about responsibility. It's a story about 3 monks who allow personal pride to interfere with the performance of daily task, each believing that the other two should be the ones to go downhill to fetch water.
The movies starts with a young is making a pilgrimage a journey which is so grueling that he decides to rest at a remote empty temple he has discovered on the side of a mountain.
He is soon joined by another monk, who is making the same journey. At first they are glad of each other’s company. But soon they begin to argue over how the daily chores should be divided. When a third monk arrives, the squabbling only becomes worse. 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. Each monk can see only the merit of his own argument, and all three are stubborn to the point of self-destruction.
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.

Analysis of the Movie :
Stage 1 : When only 1 monk lived

He was a happy soul carrying the two buckets on his shoulder with a stick daily, though the method meant alot of physical labor and fatigue to him. He could have went for the pulley arrangement initially itself, but since his needs were limited, he could easily satisfy them with
Stage 2 : When second Monk moved in

Initially both the monks fought over how they would carry the water. After a while, both of them tried to come up with something they saw as solution, but as none of the solution was a standard solution and was biased towards the person offering it, no consensus was reached. Finally, first monk came with scale and center of the bamboo was located. No further quarrels occurred but none of them seemed satisfied working together.
Stage 3 : When the third monk came
This was the point when all the dynamics changed. None of them agreed on bringing  water. Infact, 3rd monk once brought the water from the foothills but consumed it all by himself. This was a perfect example of a selfish employee who is least bothered about the well being of his colleagues.
Stage 4: Climax
At the time of fire, though all three came together to save the temple, there was lack of planning and leadership. All three ran for water together. Finally, they were able to extinguish the fire through cooperation, patience and planning.
Stage 5: New Beginning
After the disaster they worked the problem and came with drastic innovation where they used the pulley and rope arrangement for filling water.
 Lessons learnt:

• One monk carrying water everyday will become boring after a while but two monks carrying water will not be boring and productivity will not be hampered
• Disputes and conflicts are bound to arise when we work in a team but they need to be minimized so as to make the most out of the available resources
• Team work and coordination is the key to success
• No five fingers are alike. Every team comprises of people with different attributes and quality. This difference has to be channelized for the greater good.
• Standards have to be set and rules should be laid. Otherwise things head towards a haywire.
• Teams should have sustainable models. 

Management Lessons learnt:

EVENT	OUTPUT(No. of buckets carried)	INPUT(Worker energy unit)	Productivity=Output/Input
1 Men-2 Buckets	2	2	1
2 Men -1 Bucket	1	0.5	2

• The productivity increases with the increase in the number of persons 
• There is more than 100% increase in the production with 100% increase in resources with good co-ordination.
• When we plan, manage and divide work among people of the organisation,we achieve enhanced performance and increased productivity.

Keep reading :)