Alum Talk with Nikhil and Hemant

My first ever close interaction with a NITIE alumnus happened near about a month after joining. The insights that I gained from the session are priceless to say the least.

The session started with the discussion about whether Entrepreneurship is advisable or not. There is no clear cut answer to such a question. But, Nikhil and Hemant helped us in making informed choices. Entrepreneurship is advisable if and only if you are highly motivated to take it up. It would require lots and lots of patience. Possibly, you may have to shut down the business in a year or two then again start something new then again fail... and the process continues until something substantial clicks.

On the other hand, a job is not a bad deal at all. Moreover, depending upon the designation that you hold you may indirectly end up on an entrepreneurial job. There will be a sense of security as well.

Apart from this, the discussion about the establishment of "Mastishk" gave us real insights about how to go about starting something from the scratch. The difficulties faced and the way they were tackled also showed us the way to handle tough situations.

Finally, a list comprising a plethora of movies to watch and books to read ended the session on a lighter note.

Thank you Nikhil & Hemant !!

Teamwork conceptualized from Valley Crossing Exercise

Crossing the valley:

The activity below shows a group of three individuals, connected only by a pole, attempting to cross a valley.

The activity has three participants who are given a long rod which is carried by them on their shoulders, and then they have to cross a small crater as a group. There each person gets to be in motion for a few seconds without using their legs. The burden of the person in air is borne by the other two participants.

Analysis:

L1     L2     L3_______                               Step 1: All safe

R1     R2    R3

         L1     L2     L3                                    Step 2: Person 3 half safe

R1    R2     R3

         L1     L2     L3                                    Step 3: Person 3 full unsafe

         R1     R2     R3

                   L1     L2    L3                           Step 4: Person 2 and 3 partially safe

         R1     R2     R3

                   L1     L2    L3                           Step 5: Person 2 fully unsafe

                   R1     R2    R3

                             L1    L2    L3                  Step 6: Person 1 and 2 partially safe

                   R1     R2    R3

                             L1    L2    L3                  Step 7: Person 1 fully unsafe

                             R1    R2   R3

                                      L1    L2    L3         Step 8: Person 1 partially safe

                             R1    R2    R3

                                      L1    L2    L3         Step 9: Everyone is safe

                                      R1    R2   R3
L- Left foot
R-Right foot
___- Valley 

Teamwork:

The process of working together with a group of people in order to achieve a goal.
The team work is often a crucial part of a business as it is often necessary for colleagues to work well together, trying for the best in any circumstances. Team work often means people will try to cooperate, using their individual skills and providing constructive feedbacks, despite any personal conflicts between the individual.

· Effective communication: The communication between the team members should be free flowing, well channelized and directed towards achievement of project success. Also, communication between team members and team leaders should be a two way process.

· Strong leadership: The speed of the boss is the speed of the team. It is vital to have an efficient leader who can exhibit exemplary behavior. A good team leader is one who gives importance to team goals over his individual goals and is capable of showing direction and ensuring that the team members remain focused.

· Efficient delegation: Assigning responsibilities is as important as ensuring it is fulfilled perfectly. Therefore, it is essential to assign work as per the capability of team members.

· Conflict management: It is mandatory to resolve conflicts within the team. Even critical issues, when dealt with maturity, can be resolved easily without leaving a scar. Differences in opinion should not come in the way of the team’s performance.

· Trust: A term vital for any relationship also applies to a team-oriented environment. It is important to generate trust within the team. Team secrets, details of new projects or any new development within the team shouldn’t be divulged unless it is in the interest of the organization.

· Common goals: A team obviously is made of individuals with diverse opinions, often conflicting. The focus clearly is attainment of common goals. Therefore, it is vital to set aside personal points of view, be aware of organizational goals and work towards achieving targets together.

· Respect: To work in coordination, it is essential to understand and respect others in the team. Respect for each other’s competencies, views and actions will minimize conflicts, ensure smooth functioning and enhance productivity.

· Togetherness: A team signifies togetherness. As a unified unit, it should work on a common platform. It is advisable for organizations to take initiatives and organize team building exercises, excursions and monthly team meetings to strengthen team bonding.

· Avoiding negativity: Shun feelings of negativity, jealousy or ill-will. Do not participate in unproductive or unhealthy discussions.

. Setting a good example: Each team member, through his work, should set an example for others to follow. It can be done by outperforming the target, suggesting new ideas for policies and procedures or by participating in activities at the organizational level.

Three Monks - A sea of Management Lessons

Three Monks is a Chinese animated feature film  produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. It is also referred to as The Three Buddhist Priests. When the movie starts a note appears in which first column states "one monk fetches water to drink", the second column reads "two monks carry water to drink" and the third one just states, "three monks". To get a better understanding first let us watch the movie.

The movie can be divided into 3 parts:

1. When only one monk is there - We can see that when the monk was alone he used to do the work alone i.e. bringing the water from the river to the monastery happily. He had no qualms with the way things were moving. In other words he was content with the life he was living or the work he was doing.

2. When another monk joins the first one - The attitude of the first monk changes drastically when the second monk joins him in the monastery. Initially he intimidated him into bringing water from the river but after some time the new monk demand equal distribution of work. This altercation resulted in loss of man hours as well as gloomy atmosphere in the monastery. After lot of deliberation, they decide to share the responsibility and once they started sharing the job, their productivity also increased. We can see that the method adopted in this case is much better then used in the previous one.

 

3. When the third monk joins the other two - Initially the same thing happened wherein the veterans forced the newcomer into work. After sometime it was total chaos in the monastery with none of the monks willing to go to the river to get the water. One fine day when fire breaks in the monastery then all the three monks work together in tandem thereby giving fruitful results. After this, all the 3 monks learned a lesson and then devised an efficient and productive method to get water using the pulley. The method in this case is superior to the methods used in case 1 and case 2 as it involves proper utilization of all the resources.

Learning

The movie teaches us a lot of managerial lessons. Here are a few of them that I could comprehend:

1. Team work - The work which could have been done very easily had they worked as team took a toll on them. As we have seen in case of emergency (monastery catching fire), they worked as a team and got the desired results very easily. The manager has to ensure that the employees are working in a team, individuality hinders the progress of a firm. Team work can do wonders.

2. Job distribution - The situation can be compared to an organisation which has all the resources in the world but is not able to utilise them properly. In the movie even with three monks (resources), water (end result)  was scarce in the monastery. It is responsibility of the manager to utilise the resources provided to him optimally. As we can see in the end the monks divide the job and get the desired result very effectively and easily. 
Like in a football team, to win a match, the job is divided and every player is assigned his specific role.

3. Innovation - There are two ways of completing a job, one is monotonous conventional method which every body follows and the other one being innovative method. In the movie the monks could have very well adopted conventional approach (three monks standing at regular intervals) to get the water, but it would have been very tiresome as well as time consuming. Thus they went for innovative idea of placing a pulley thereby reducing the mechanical effort one has to put which in turn increased their productivity. In a company the manager should be a Theory Y manager, always pushing the employees for new ideas, always having faith in the man power assigned to him. If the manager backs the employee then only employee can come out with a new and innovative idea. Innovation can be continuous (over a period of time), can be drastic (out of the exigency). The one which we had seen in the movie is drastic. But we should always aim for continuous innovation. If the innovation is continuous then it will be flawless because sufficient amount of time and thought process would have invested in that idea, whereas drastic innovations arises out of the emergency situation. 

4. Crisis management - In the movie when the temple catches fire all the three monks work together as a team and get out of the crisis situation. There are times when people lose their cool during emergencies. A manager must always keep a clam composure no matter what the situation is. In case of emergency, the manager should adopt a rationale thinking in getting the team of the emergency situation. He should be in a position to assign different employees in different roles so as to counter the exigencies.

An organisation can flourish only if it has cordial atmosphere as well as convivial employees. If the manager is able to bind the team together jovially, there is no stopping the company. In the movie the same set of people were fighting against each other but circumstances changed them and the same set of people started working together and with increased productivity. The manager in a company must ensure that the employees are not dependent on emergency situation to come together and work as a team, they should work in coordination from the moment they join the team.

5. Productivity - The film clearly depicts how productivity increases when the work load is shared effectively by more people. When the 2nd monk joins in, and the two monks together get 1 bucket of water, the productivity increases. Further, when the 3 monks together devise a method to get water using the pulley, the productivity increases manifolds.