Thursday, 12 July 2012

LE 03

TEAMWORK 


Team Work is probably the most important aspect of any organization. A person might be very effective when working individually but when he is working in an organization he should be able to work in a team, have mutual understanding with all the team members,work towards achieving the organizational goals rather than individual goals.

Now let us look at an example about teamwork and its importance.

VALLEY CROSSING 


Task: Three persons should cross the valley using a long stick.

Now we have two ways to do the task

1. Place the stick such that it acts like a bridge between the valleys and each member individually goes on it to reach the other side.

2. All the team members should hold and rest the stick on their shoulder and while one member is crossing the valley the other two should balance it.

If we properly analyze the two methods the first one seems to be very risky and the chance of completing the task is very less. Here we come across another important aspect of management called Planning. In any organization even if we have all the resources to complete a task but there is no proper planning we cannot do anything with our resources but drain them. So one point we should note is

               “The Beauty of Management lies in Planning”.            

  Now in the second method we can see that as a team the three members can perform the task effectively with proper understanding and effective communication among themselves.The picture below gives an idea about the process.

                      

There are totally 9 steps involved in completing the task and the step by step procedure can be seen in the picture below.

                         

Now from the steps we can see that 

All three member roles are similar but not same and are equivalent in terms of total effort and risk.
All three member roles have equal distribution of 
  •   Risky (1) situations  
  •   Half risky (2) situations
  •   No risk (2) situations

All three member roles are designed equally strong and responsible.
All three members were equal contributors for the overall task and the communication and feedback among the members was instantaneous.Interdependence among the three member roles was made crucial.So we can see that difficult tasks can be completed effectively when there is a proper planning and teamwork which is the main reason for this task to get completed, gives us the idea about how important it is in an organization to work in teams and achieve the organizational goals.

       Structuring the Team roles and Designing the solution for completing the task is the main criteria of the management and another point we can make a note of is that in organizations 

"Managers should be solution Designers". 

          To conclude we can say that Teamwork plays a very important role in any organization and people are always the assets of the organization.But one thing we should keep in mind while creating organizations is that "Organizations should be designed as per the customers and then people should be accordingly adjusted" but not the other way around.

Thursday, 5 July 2012

LE 02

Khan Academy & Management lessons to learn from it

INTRODUCTION
The Khan Academy is a not for profit educational organization started by educator Salman Khan in 2006.The website supplies a free online collection of more than 3200 lectures across 18 different subjects.



Vision & Mission 
  Khan has stated a vision of turning the academy into a charter school.
            This could be the DNA for a physical school for the students where they spend 20 percent of the day watching videos and doing self paced exercises and the rest of the day building robots or painting pictures or composing music or whatever.

  It is our mission to provide a world class education to anyone, anywhere.With this in mind, we want to share our content with whoever may find it useful.
The Khan Academy started with Khan remotely tutoring one of his cousins interactively using Yahoo Doodle images. Based on feedback from his cousin, additional cousins began to take advantage of the interactive, remote tutoring. In order to make better use of his and their time, Khan transitioned to making YouTube video tutorials.


What started as a tutoring lesson for his cousins has now evolved into a global and innovative new generation organization and anyone in the world with access to YouTube can learn from the videos.Now that's something incredible and also it is for free, when in today's world education and tuition's have become so expensive and everyone cannot afford it.

What's in it for us to learn?
Now what's there in it for us to learn as there are many people who deliver online lectures and upload videos on sites.Watch the video uploaded below and see for you.






This is where Khan has been innovative in his teaching techniques.How? Rather than going for the traditional blackboard approach he has used software's for free natural drawing,screen capture and microphones to record the videos which can effectively communicate the lectures so that anyone who watches the videos can understand them without any confusions.This simple but creative way of teaching reminds me of KISS - Keep it simple,silly!
     A good example of Theory Y manager I can say.The way he inspires the kids and motivates those minds to take the path of excellence and intelligence,which can have a greater impact on the society and the generations to come is of great significance.

Decision making : Being a graduate from MIT and HBS and working as an analyst in a Hedge fund in Boston, Khan was was in a well settled position.But after tutoring his cousins and the kind of response he was getting for his videos he was in a dilemma whether to continue in his job or take up the idea and do something for the society.This is where decision making skills matter a lot and after contemplating about his job or his idea for something better, He chose to follow his instincts and his entrepreneurial activity to start something unique, something simple but something that revolutionized teaching.


Team Work : It is one of the most important aspect of any organization and Khan Academy is a great example of it. The TEAM has people from different backgrounds and regions but all working with a single goal in mind to provide better teaching experiences to all.


So all in all I can say Khan Academy has been a global and innovative new generation organization with a mission and vision to provide quality teaching experiences to students all around the world.

Tuesday, 26 June 2012

LE01

POM-Principles of Organization and Management I thought was a book reading subject and classes would be boring but after attending the classes my perception changed totally and I really appreciate the way our sir Dr.Mandi has taken the classes.

Sir introduced to us something unique

SOCHO BEECHO...BEECHO SEEKO...SEEKO SOCHO

which translates to think properly about what you are selling then while selling it learn from it and then learn and think from what you have done and the importance of it can be learned through "MANDI"
the annual one day event in our college, where, we students sell different products made by an NGO on the streets of Mumbai and the real learning of a market situation can be learnt first hand through this unique program started by our own sir Dr.Mandi.

   Then sir showed us a video "Another Brick in the wall" by Pink Floyd which was a satire on the educational system and how children were coming out of school as the end products of a factory while their creativity, imagination and logical thinking was drained out during their school days.This showed us some flaws in our present educational system and how this rote learning process in schools should make way for more logical ,creatively thinking and practically approaching mindset of children in the schools.

      Then emphasis was laid on "HAMARA DHANDA" a.k.a Entrepreneurship and its importance, what can be done and what should be done to encourage it among students and how they should create opportunities rather waiting for them.

SETTING A GOAL

                    The class started off by sir mentioning how important it is to set a goal and how one should be sincere and effective in reaching the goal.In a managerial position many challenges will be there while working through the process of goal completion and how determinedly a manager utilizes his resources to the best of his use and reaches his goal within the stipulated time is of utmost importance.

          Then sir discussed about a goal setting process called S.M.A.R.T where

S  - SPECIFIC
M - MEASURABLE
A - ATTAINABLE
R - RELEVANT
T - TIMED

           And to illustrate it sir started a game wherein we have to place cubes one over the other and the person who would be doing the task would be blindfolded and using the opposite hand (like a right handed person would be using a left hand) and placing the cubes.Now the moment after sir explained us the rules of the game everyone thought that it was very difficult to achieve it and we wouldn't be able to place more cubes.Now sir asked a question to estimate how many cubes can be placed in that manner and around 45% of the class said <15 another 40% between 15-20.Now to accomplish this task three students were called in  and each student represented a different position in an organization like the top management, middle level manager and the working executive.

            The whole task was really an eye opener and the way the game started and proceeded till the task was completed gave some really good insights into how management of an organization works and how important it is to communicate properly regarding the goals and the process of accomplishing the goal.The mutual understanding of the three levels of management played the pivotal role in this task and this shows that  just by having resources and time one cannot reach his goals but how effectively we plan, how properly we organize the task and how efficiently we complete the task within the time is of important.Now within the stipulated time when the group completed the task everyone in the class was amazed as they were able to put up 18 cubes and i'm sure that if given sometime they would have put up some more.



So all in all i can say that just by looking at a daunting task one shouldn't be deterred but he should be able to properly organize his tasks break them into different smaller tasks make a goal plan use his resources and time properly and effectively such that the goal can be reached efficiently within the time.




To conclude I can say the sessions taken by our sir have been of great significance and have opened up my thinking process and they gave some really good insights about management,team work,setting up goals,making determined efforts towards achieving them and never back down from daunting tasks no matter  how impossible they look but make earnest efforts and work effectively and efficiently to make them look possible.