Case Study

Following is a Report prepared by me for one of my clients recently and I thought of publishing it here on my blog as a case-study because as I dig into the matter deeper and deeper it turned out to be pretty universal than personal. Also I have taken utmost care to remove all the personal info and references including my proposed solutions to the problem…! If you can empathize with any of it or find any insights (?) make sure to use the ‘Comment’ box below the post. Thank you.

 

To summarize the year that I spent with you, I would like to borrow words of Albert Einstein – Not everything that can be counted, counts and not everything that counts, can be counted...! The biggest impact I think I made was ‘making people think!’ After all, Socrates said... ‘I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think...!’ And I wholeheartedly believe that ‘Thinking’ is the first mandatory phase of any transformation. Now, how this intangible yet ‘invaluable’ thing can be evaluated in material terms is a question I would like to leave to the evaluators!

It is observed that the initiative lacks CLARITY! Clarity precedes mastery because clarity is power. You will never be able to hit a target that you don’t see! The organization needs to focus on organizing its daily activities to emerge as a dynamic, professional and more productive organization. Warren Buffet was right when he said "It takes 20 years to build reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently." 

Although I would like to reiterate the significance and imperativeness of person-independent (it doesn’t mean fully automated like ATM machines, it means not-person-specific) systems and processes to run a successful business venture and look forward to develop it in both vertical and horizontal directions, I don’t believe in Artificial Intelligence but rather have complete faith in communication. Lack of communication carries the seeds of lack of coordination which in turn has all the potential of occasional explosions which is a proper indicator of disorder sprouted from the gaps in the communication and lack of documentation and sharing, seldom it is the outcome of inefficient personnel as it is perceived. A standard, professional and state-of-the-art communication channel is required more than anything; systems, processes and personnel will follow the suit.

This will require a strong and genuine will to actually bring the desired change in one and all and absolute commitment to the objective irrespective of the mundane excuses that would be always there unless are forced to cease. Otherwise this would be like attempting the wheel-alignment of a car running at full speed. A car with misaligned wheels might seem to cover a great distance in a short time but at the cost of a threat that it might fall apart on even the smallest pothole.

Well, if you would like to read some more Gyan(?) like this, keep me stimulated and I will post more.

Stay tuned and Care to Share…!

Personnel...!

Project Manager is a Person who thinks nine women can deliver a baby in One month.

 

Consultant is a Person who thinks it will take 18 months to deliver a Baby.

 

Site Engineer is one who thinks single woman can deliver nine babies in one month.

 

Client is the one who doesn't know why he wants a baby.

 

Marketing Manager is a person who thinks he can deliver a baby even if no man and woman are available.

 

Resource Optimization Team thinks they don't need a man or woman; they'll produce a child with zero resources.

 

Documentation Team thinks they don't care whether the child is delivered, they'll just document 9 months.

 

Quality Auditor is the person who is never happy with a delivered baby.

 

Third party auditor is a person who always tells that this is not the Right baby.

 

HR Manager is a person who thinks that... a Donkey can deliver a Human Baby - if given 9 Months...

 

 

And you talk about Organization Development and Productivity...!?!

 

Stay tuned but refrain from title...!

EXTRA...!

Fear is one of the major blocking obstacles against our success. We tend to compromise with our circumstances and prefer to continue our status quo condition because we are afraid of committing to unknown. Since we lack in courage we cannot move forward in our life with liberty.

On the other hand successful people are those who take risks in life. Successful people understand that taking risks will lead them experience new horizons in their field, will give them more vision and more confidence, give them wisdom and success by exposing them to more and more challenges and consequently help them achieve their dreams. Such people keep taking new risks in order to achieve what they want to achieve. Whenever there is a doubtful situation they take the next baby step in order to determine whether it is fine to move ahead. In case they fail, they take one step back and re-determine their direction using their analytical skills.

So if we would like to live a successful life, we must defeat our fears. The reasons for being under the clouds of fear might be because of several doubts or unanswered questions in your mind.  Today let us try to find some possible answers to our impossible fears…
 

Question: Do I have enough info in making this decision?

Answer: I may or may not have the full information as of now. However I can gather all the facts by consulting the right professionals, by reading books, by discussing with my friends and well-wishers, by posting my questions to online forums, by studying the market and by taking advice from experienced people. Once I have collected all the information, I will write it on a piece of paper; positive points on one side and negative points on another side. Now I will read them slowly with full focus. Once done, I am all set for making the decision.

Question: What if I fail?

Answer: I consider the worst case scenario as this gives me inner strength and makes me prepared for it. However if the worst case as per my thinking is a serious disaster then I reduce my risk by reducing my goals, investments, energies, efforts and so on. I change some of the points from my original plan and re-asses the worst case.

Question: Do I have the capability to do it:

Answer: I check if I can learn it by reading, training, counselling or brainstorming. I believe in my inner powers. I list down the capabilities required for a specific task and start polishing myself in each domain one by one. This takes long time, I know; but once I learn and polish my skills I will be able to make wonders in my domain, I know for sure.
 

 

Question: What will people say?

Answer: People will comment any way. It’s my life and I have all the authority to do what I want to do in order to achieve what I want to achieve. I never worry about social factors; instead I focus on my plans and decisions. Evil social factors die their death one by one once I start producing the results. I strengthen my thoughts, avoid the unnecessary criticism and I am able to set new trends in my domain.

Everyone is afraid of failures but your failures do not define you, your effort does...! Ordinary people see things as they happen while EXTRA-ordinary people make things happen with that EXTRA effort.

 

Stay tuned and go for the EXTRA…!

 

 

 

EQ...!

When someone is doing something or is about to do something, in a way we don't want it to be done and when we are not able to accept it, we become angry.

 

However, When someone is doing something or is about to do something, in a way we don't want it to be done - and we are able to accept it- we remain tolerant.

 

When someone has something which we don't have, or someone is able to produce the results which we are not able to produce- and we are not able to accept it – we become jealous.

 

When someone has something which we don't have, or someone is able to produce the results which we are not able to produce and we are able to accept it we get inspired.

 

Then emotional equation is quite simple...

 

Something + Acceptance = Positive Emotion
Something + Non Acceptance = Negative Emotion

 

 

So, it is not 'something' or 'someone' who is making us feel positive or negative, but it is our 'acceptance' or 'non acceptance' of something or someone, which is making us feel positive or negative.

 

It isn't the world but the quality of our response to the world that determines the quality of our emotions. Next time we feel disturbed with a negative emotion, instead of asking who or what is disturbing us, we will examine who or what we are resisting (not accepting) that is causing this disturbance in us. We will replace resistance (non acceptance) with acceptance, and the negative emotion will turn into a positive one.

 

Emotional management begins by stopping to blame that 'something' or 'someone' and starting to take the responsibility to respond life with ACCEPTANCE...!

 

Stay tuned and work on the EQ...!

Initiative...!

Employee "A" in a company walked up to his manager and asked what my job is for the day? The manager took "A" to the bank of a river and asked him to cross the river and reach the other side of the bank. "A" completed this task successfully and reported back to the manager about the completion of the task assigned. The manager smiled and said... "GOOD JOB"

Next day Employee "B" reported to the same manager and asked him the job for the day. The manager assigned the same task as above to this person also. The Employee "B' before starting the task saw Employee "C" struggling in the river to reach the other side of the bank. He realized "C" has the same task. Now "B" not only crossed the river but also helped "C" to cross the river. "B" reported back to the manager and the manager smiled and said... "VERY GOOD JOB"

The following day Employee "Q" reported to the same manager and asked him the job for the day. The manager assigned the same task again. Employee "Q" before starting the work did some home work and realized "A", "B" & "C" all has done this task before. He met them and understood how they performed. He realized that there is a need for a guide and training for doing this task. He sat first and wrote down the procedure for crossing the river, he documented the common mistakes people made, and tricks to do the task efficiently and effortlessly. Using the methodology he had written down he crossed the river and reported back to the manager along with documented procedure and training material. The manger said "Q" you have done an... "EXCELLENT JOB".
 

The following day Employee "O' reported to the manager and asked him the job for the day. The manager assigned the same task again. "O" studied the procedure written down by "Q" and sat and thought about the whole task. He realized company is spending lot of money in getting this task completed. He decided not to cross the river, but sat and designed and implemented a bridge across the river and went back to his manager and said, "You no longer need to assign this task to any one". The manager smiled and said... "Outstanding job 'O', I am very proud of you...!"

What is the difference between A, B, Q & O? Many a times in life we get tasks to be done at home, at office, at play... most of us end up doing what is expected out of us. Do we feel happy? Most probably yes. We would be often disappointed when the recognition is not meeting our expectation. Let us compare ourselves with "B". Helping someone else the problem often improves our own skills. There is an old proverb (I do not know the author) "learn to teach and teach to learn". From a company point of view "B" has demonstrated much better skills than "A" since one more task for the company is completed.

"Q" created knowledge base for the team. More often than not, we do the task assigned to us without checking history. Learning from other's mistake is the best way to improve efficiency. This knowledge creation for the team is of immense help. Re-usability reduces cost there by increases productivity of the team. "Q" demonstrated good "team-player" skills,

Now to the outstanding person, "O" made the task irrelevant; he created a Permanent Asset to the team. If you notice B, Q and O all have demonstrated "team performance" over and above individual performance; they have also demonstrated a very invaluable characteristic known as "INITIATIVE".

Initiative pays of everywhere whether at work or at personal life. If you have initiative you will succeed. Initiative is a continual process and it never ends. This is because this year's achievement is next year's task. You cannot use the same success story every year. The story provides an instance of performance, where as measurement needs to be spread across at least 6-12 months. Consequently performance should be consistent and evenly spread. Out-of-Box thinkers are always premium and that is what everyone constantly looks out for. Initiative, Out-of-Box thinking and commitment are the stepping stone to success.

Initiative should be lifelong. Think of out of the box…..Happy Working!

 

Stay tuned, be aware and start an Initiative...!