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Wednesday, August 21, 2013

POM Mid Term Test

Q.1 Discuss the concept of effectiveness and efficiency with 3 monks story.

Ans: 

Effectiveness: 

Effectiveness is what you do,How you do and Why you do.In case of 3 monks story, they wanted to take the water up the hill. Initially one monk was climbing up the hill. Later other monk joined and they shared the load of water together.They divided their work equally by using scale and marking the middle point of rod. They tied the rope at this middle point so as to ensure equal weight is being carried by each one of them.This showed their effectiveness as they divided their work intelligently with the use of measuring scale.

Efficiency:

Efficiency is how fast you do and how well you do it. In case of 3 monks story, when the third monk joins them, they use pulley and rope to fetch the water. Because of this, their efforts got reduced drastically. With the help of technology, in this case, a pulley and rope, their was a staggering decrease in total time required to fetch the water.They worked together as a team and their work became efficient.

This is how ultimately the 3 monks excelled in their job as -
Excellence = Effectiveness * Efficiency.

Q.2 Show and compare the 'Productivity measurement' for TWO different work methods adopted (a) Two monks carrying water (b) Three monks carrying the water. Explain relevant Organization and Management issues related to this.


1.Moderate Productivity with 2 monks :
After few days, second monk arrives. Both of them decide to share the work of fetching the water. But each one of them tries to reduce their share of load by changing the inclination of rod. This leads to their fighting. The normal human tendency to avoid the work is shown here.

To resolve the conflict, they decide to use measuring scale to mark the exact mid-point of the rod. This shows that technology can be used to resolve conflicts. One of them takes the measurement and other marks so that nobody can take doubt on each other.From this we can learn that participative management increases trust in the team which is very vital for the team to function properly.

3.High Productivity with 3 monks :
 The third monk arrives in the temple after some days. Each one of them thinks that somebody else will get the water and finally nobody fetches the water even though they were thirsty. At night, a rat comes to scrounge and then knocks the candleholder, leading to a devastating fire in the temple. 
The adversity unites them. They bring the water with redoubled vigour and finally succeeds in dousing the fire. After this incident they start co-operating each other and work as a team. They use a rope and pulley to fetch the water. As a result of this, they get more water with less efforts which ultimately increases their productivity. The following table clearly explains the increased productivity with increased manpower.

Variable
2  Monks
3 Monks
OUTPUT
1 BUCKET
1 BUCKET
HOW
1 pole,1 scale
Pulley,Rope
EFFORT
10 KJ
0.1 KJ
PRODUCTIVITY
1/10 = .1
1/0.1 = 10
MODERATE
VERY HIGH

There are several organization and management issues that come up when 2 or more persons are working together. 
1. Sharing of Load: As seen in this story, two monks had an argument over distribution of load of a bucket. It was solved by using the scale to determine the midpoint of stick, so that load will be shared equally. The method that was used was a Participative Management.

2. Sharing of Responsibility: When there were 3 monks, everyone thought that the other 2 should get the water and hence everyone was trying to avoid the work. But all of them worked together in case of emergency, when monastery was on fire. So, management of an organization should always look for keeping the employees on toes by providing them with challenges.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Problem Solving and Decision Making

                                                           


Problems are the part and parcel of every organisation. We need a completely different approach to solve a problem. Following are the types of problems :

  • Urgent Vs. Important                                             
  • Big Vs. Small                                                                
  • Rich people  Vs. Poor people
  • Structured Vs. Unstructured 

                                         

The problem solving process consists of following steps.

A. SITUATION ANALYSIS

- Valuing and Examining the solutions :

   First of all we need to analyse the system thoroughly. Valuing and examining of various solutions is also a prime step of problem solving.

- Priority setting - Agree on problem :

      Team needs to accept that a problem exists and this should be of highest priority. Unless a team agrees on a problem, they can’t think of solving the problem                     

B. PROBLEM ANALYSIS

- Information Getting 

   All the data and information regarding the problem must be gathered. This data can be analysed later to find the causes of error and to find solution.

- Problem definition.

                                              “a problem well put is half solved.”
                                                                            ― John Dewey

   Problem should be defined clearly so as have clear understanding among team members about the problem. The clear definition of problem decided the direction of problem solving

C. SOLUTION ANALYSIS 

- Getting Ideas - Generate ideas 

   Team should discuss different ideas of solving the problem. Their brainstorming on ideas is of paramount importance in solving the problem

- Decision Making - Select idea 

  After evaluating the pros and cons of each idea, team members should select the best suitable idea for solving their problem. Dialectic method is most preferred to select the best idea.

D.  IMPLEMENTATION ANALYSIS

 - Participation  - Involve Others

Involving every stakeholder in solving the problem can provide a different perspective to problem solving process. Acceptance of idea by every stakeholder is of prime significance to implement it.

- Planning - Construct Plan

 Proper planning of implementation of solution is needed to remove the problem. Without planning the problem may persist and would not be resolved.

Manager plays following roles in solving the problem :

                                   

 Leader :
    
 Leading the team and giving the right direction for problem solving. Empowering the team so as to make it able to solve the problem.

 Detective :

 To identify the causes of problem and to ensure the same causes do not occur in future.

 Innovator
  
  To design a completely new system which would be error proof. It is different from improvising the existing system. Manager has to think completely different and needs to come out with totally new solution

  Coordinator :

  Manager need to coordinate with the team to implement the solution. Without proper coordination between manager and team member, team is bound to fail.



Happy Reading!!!

The magic of Teamwork !!!

                                              “It takes two flints to make a fire.”
                                                                       -Louisa May Alcott

A single flint can not make a fire. It is useless until other flint is brought into contact with it. Together, they can produce unbelievable effect i.e.fire. Similarly, individuals can not do great work unless they work with others as a team. Every manager knows the power of Teamwork. In fact the very existence of a manager can be attributed to the phenomenon of 'Teams'. If human beings had long decided to do every task individually,the world would not have progressed as it has progressed now. The Valley Crossing exercise purely focused on learning this phenomenon called 'Teamwork'.

In this exercise, three people need to cross  a  "valley".The distance between edges is more than one step but less than two steps.The only item they have with them is a small thick pole/stick.
In the above exercise, each person faces 3 states of risks:
          (a) Safe
          (b) Half Safe/ Half Risky
          (c) Risky


The steps of 3 persons and their risk conditions are as shown in the figure below :
Persons
First Person
Second Person
Third person
Steps
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

The manager must also ensure that the work is properly and equally divided among team members. The following table clearly shows the work done by each person is equal. Each person is performing all the steps one by one in order to achieve common goal. We can also see that  66.6% of the time the worker is fully safe. Division of Labour also share the risk and mitigates it as the risky has been mitigated to half risky. One of the task  of a manger is to mitigate the risk on each individual worker.
     
Safe
Half Safe/ Half Risky
Risky
Total:
Person A
6
2
1
9
Person B
6
2
1
9
Person C
6
2
1
9
Total:
18
6
3
27

Open and clear communication  is the key to crossing valley effectively.  Every person needed to trust each other completely especially when their feet was off the ground. Dealing with conflict openly and transparently and not allowing grudges to build up and destroy team is also of paramount importance.The goals were clear, defined and each member in the team fully understood the gravity of the problem. 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. The bonds between the team members allow them to seamlessly coordinate their work to achieve both efficiency and effectiveness. An overall team culture that is open, transparent, positive, future-focused and able to deliver success is critical in any team.

I would like to end with following quote of Michael Jordan

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

Happy Reading!!!