12 Symptoms Of Organisational Sickness And Its Remedies.

12 Symptoms Of Organisational Sickness And Its Remedies.

Organizational Diagnosis deals with the health of the organization.  It looks for danger signs as below:

Danger Signals.

(1)  For an economist, the most crippling symptom for any company exists when the expense of running the company eats into the profit.

(2) When the Company or a Business Unit is losing money from an operating profit standpoint.

 (3) When the Company has a Profit  Sharing Incentive Scheme for Business Heads which does not account for Business Development is so concerned with maintaining the bottom line that it is thinking of nothing but short-term actual costs.

: (4)When quality level managers start leaving the Company with rapidity. It is well known that rats are the first to leave a sinking ship and when senior and top class managers start handing in their papers, trouble is surely afoot.

 (5)When the market share has steadily depleted over a period of anything between 12 months to 36 months.

(6) The above five symptoms will invariably lead to this sixth one. When the sense of belonging is depleted and individual, as well as organizational pride, is greatly diminished, idea generation ceases and information flow is impaired. Morale is a great achiever and for this participative management is called for.

(7) The standards of quality are run down and manufacturing equipment is repaired only after it has broken down. Periodic maintenance and planned shutdowns are not known to occur and equipment is purchased only after the project has been bagged.

(8)  This symptom is a spin-off from the former one. When systems and procedures do not exist so that quality is inbuilt into the process but rather inspected at the end of the value chain and the rejection levels are high. This will mean two things at once: (a) the absence of systems points to the lack of managerial capability and foresight. (b) The rise of rejection rates points to wasted resources and revenues.

(9)   When Business Heads are evaluated on contribution, gross profit delivery, revenue goals and not held accountable for cash flow delivery. Hence project reprioritizing, changing in stock and inventory levels, modification of processes and learning to practice value engineering are sidestepped.

(10)  When on-hand levels of inventory do not adequately reflect the mix of the product line at retail level.


(11)   When a product is no longer a brand of choice but may still be a part of the purchaser's basket of demand, its usage as well as its market appeal would have been sharply reduced.
(12)  When it is seen consistently that decisions are being made autocratically and the managers are asked to implement them democratically.

Remedies:

(A) Changing the corporate mindset through sensitivity training and culture building.

(B) Giving Business heads some hard lessons on developmental growth. making sure that long run aims are not jeopardized for short-run gains. Instilling Total Quality Management as a way of corporate behaviour.

(C) Building teams that consist of divergent skills but convergent aims. One very good way of using HR for bringing about each of these four strategic interventions is through one-day senior level executive development programs which can be run within the Company using available expert faculty with relative ease. For this one should look for senior academics with a proven track record in research as well as industry. Mere management trainers will just not do nor will those without adequate action research fit the bill. The first choice is the man from within.  Only if internal faculty is not available then professional help should be sought and preferably from specialists who have an academic and analytical bent of mind. Targets must be set and the impact of intervention monitored against them. And that is the task of the HRM expert within the company to ensure. An ideal situation, of course, would be if the internal expert would work with the external expert to jointly facilitate organizational change preceded by a proper diagnosis. That is the absolute bottom line of this argument.

(D) If you are thinking of employing external HR consultant make sure he is not working
as a placement agent in which case attrition levels of your organizations will rise or he may run independent programs which he will promote and develop at the organizations' cost, in which case internal programs will fail. In both cases, the HR facilitator will have to take the blame
.
There is no means to measure the success or failure of these HR interventions in which case critics will find it to be an easy target to shoot down. Therefore the benefits must be ascertained, calculated and the benefits communicated widely across the organization through formal information networks like the Newsletter or Special Circulars.

Today we are living in a boundary-less universe where markets have been internationalized and the corporation has to either thrive on the cutting edge of competition or go under. Hence it needs to develop on its core competencies and also keep abreast of the environmental changes both nationally and globally. HRM is no longer seen by progressive companies as window dressing or a fancy buzzword to be mouthed as convenience may demand. The CEO increasingly looks upon the HRM expert to provide that much-desired change to retain the competitive edge. He is then forced to deliver or perish.

 If the HR facilitator has to add value to the organization he serves, the client he services, his own profession and his self-respect, he has no option but to take Organizational Diagnosis very seriously. For this, he must develop skills and if need be go back to the basics. Therein alone lies his occupational salvation.


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Does Your Management Know You?

On walking into the factory, the MD of an XYZ company noticed a young guy leaning against the wall, doing nothing. He approached the young man and calmly said to him, How much do you earn?"
      

The young man was quite amazed that he was asked such a personal question, he replied, none the less, "I earn  10000/- a month, sir. Why?"
      

Without answering, the MD took out his wallet and removed 30000/- cash and gave it to the young man and said," Around here I pay people for working, not for standing around looking pretty! Here is 3 months 'salary, now GET OUT and don't come back".
      

The young man turned around and was quickly out of sight. Noticing a Few onlookers, the MD said in a very upset manner, "And that applies for everybody in this company".
      

He approached one of the onlookers and asked him, "Who's the young man that I just fired?”
To which an amazing reply came of, "He was the pizza delivery man, Sir...!!!"

Does your  Management know you ??

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A Lady In A Restaurent.

Recently while I was sitting in a posh restaurant sipping coffee, suddenly a cockroach flew from somewhere and sat on the dupatta of a lady standing a little away from me. She started screaming out of fear. With panic stricken face and trembling hand and voice, she jumped, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach. Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group got irritable to what was happening. The lady finally managed to shoo away the cockroach which flew away and sat on the sari of the  other lady in the group. The other lady screamed and breaks danced in such a way for few seconds that would make even Michael Jackson wonder. Immediately the waiter rushed forward to rescue the lady. In the relay of throwing the cockroach, it fell upon the shirt of the waiter.

The waiter stood firm, calm and composed, and observed the behavior of the cockroach. When he was confident enough that the cockroach would not make any move, he grabbed it and carried away to dispose it off in best possible manner.

Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, my mind picked up few thoughts and started wondering:

·         Was the cockroach responsible for the ladies hysterical behavior?

·         If so, then why was waiter not disturbed? He was calm and handled it to near perfection, without any chaos.

·         So it was not the cockroach but the inability of the ladies to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach.

In the process, I realized that it is not the scolding of my father or shouting of my boss that disturbs me but my own inability to handle the disturbance caused by their scolding and shouting. It is not the traffic jam on the road which irritates me but my inability to keep calm and composed, which aggravates the situation caused by traffic jam.

 More than the problem, it is my reaction to the problem which turns me into a cantankerous person.

The Take-Away: The women reacted but the waiter responded. We must not react in irritating situations, but should always respond . Reactions are instinctive, responses are intellectual.

Life Is Like A Hot Chocolate

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite -telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said:

'Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.
Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups'
So think before you choose…

The Turtle Family

A turtle family went on a picnic. The turtles, being naturally slow about things, took seven years to prepare for their outings. Finally the turtle family left home looking for a suitable place.
During the second year of their journey they found it. For about six months, they cleaned up the area, unpacked the picnic basket and completed the arrangements. Then they discovered they had forgotten the salt. A picnic without salt would be a disaster, they all agreed. After a lengthy discussion, the youngest turtle was chosen to retrieve the salt from home. Although he was the fastest of the slow-moving turtles, the little turtle whined, cried, and wobbled in his shell. He agreed to go on one condition: that no one would eat until he returned.
The family consented and the little turtle left.
Three years passed and the little turtle had not returned. Five years...six years...then in the seventh year of his absence, the oldest turtle could no longer contain his hunger. He announced that he was going to eat and began to unwrap a sandwich.
At that point the little turtle suddenly popped out from behind a tree shouting, SEE I knew you wouldn't wait. Now I am not going to go get the salt.

Some of us waste our time waiting for people to live up to our expectations. We are so concerned about what others are doing that we don't do anything ourselves. It is always better to delegate the work to right person.

Four Ways To Enhance Team Performance.

Four Ways To Enhance Team Performance.

Gallup, An American Research-Based company, has been studying engagement levels of employees for many years and latest 2017 figures confirm that on a team of 10 people, only three or four people are engaged and enthusiastic in their job. The other six or seven people are either not occupied or vastly disconnected. Managers account for 70 per cent of team engagement and play a critical part in the overall prosperity of the team. So managers need to be vigilant of the energy and credence system they are contributing to the team. All managers feel that their team is engaged in productive work and is enjoying and is enthusiastic about the work they are handling. Team members should feel that they are the part of the company’s vision and mission. The question arises as to how can managers achieve this objective? The snag is Management Development Programmes fairly neglect this aspect. Here are four kinds of stuff managers can do to employ and build up their team.

1. Make a SWOT analysis of members of your team to know the strengths of each one: For a manager, it is essential to know each person on his team and his strength and how he/she can uniquely contribute. As per Gallup, when people use their strengths they are six times more likely to be engaged in their work. When managers focus on employees’ strengths instead of weakness, the level of engagement of employees rises to 61 per cent according to statistics from Gallup. A strengths approach empowers and helps employees naturally focus on ways to manage conflict, they open up and communicate, build relationships in an easy way, they think strategically and build trust using their strengths.

 2. Discuss with them the key issues: The merit of discussion determines the quality of Manager’s relationships. Every manager needs to inquire more efficacious questions that fixate on the key issues and let their team know about his concern. Some questions like · are you clear on what prosperity looks consistent to in your role? · what are you exhilarated about in your role and what gives you the greatest gratification? · what would you relish to do more of this year and, · what one action step can I take to avail you to be more productive? This will make them understand issues from all perspectives and resolve conflicts in a timely manner to reduce any team conflict.

3. Give an ear: It signifies listening carefully to what someone is expressing and having them feels being heard. This includes not interrupting or culminating a sentence even if a manager knows the answer. While listening he must put his phone down and shut the computer and just zero in on the team member. Repeating the key points of what he says is the key takeaways so the person knows the manager understands and perceive their concerns. This simple practice helps manager connect with his team in an authentic way.

4. Give Recognition to team members: On a global scale, only 40 per cent of employees feel that they are recognised in their work according to Gallup research. Recognition is a right way for managers to show care about their team members. Everyone feels that they matter and recognition is the ideal response. Managers need to appreciate that people are exclusive and therefore may want to be recognised in different ways than the stereotyped way such as personal email of congratulations, an invitation to a lunch or a simple thank you. This definitely helps but having one to one chat in an informal way and patting the back of the team member goes long way in the exercise of recognition.

Thus Managers can contribute by developing each person on their team and being responsible to motivate the team to achieve performance goals. Engagement and success levels increase when managers consistently recognize people on their team, listen to the needs and concerns of each person, ask better questions to solve conflicts and help people understand and use their strengths to achieve their goals.

Wish to enrich yourself? Think MOOC.

Wish to enrich yourself? Think MOOC. 

The standards applied to providing education to the people in India are changing in a broader sense. The factors responsible for these are mainly ever-increasing numbers of the young populace, the astronomical expenditure incurred on the education and the necessity of providing quality education in the remotest part of the country.

Knowledge is of two types, deductive and experiential. The basic education and the knowledge one gets from his own environs is deductive knowledge whereas experiential knowledge is that which is learned in order to earn a livelihood. In both of these cases, one has to have a dedication towards his teacher, guru or mentor, by whatever name you address him or her.

The conventional Guru-Shishya method of teaching could be the best method, a gift from our sages, to inculcate the knowledge in their disciples. Lord Krishna even had to go through this system in the Ashrama of Rishi Sandipani.

But the modern methods have made a turnaround in this scheme and are offering knowledge in various ways, making the best use of the information technology and digital media. Having understood the immense reach of the webs, through Internet, Indian universities,  Statutory, Deemed to be and Private are offering online education in a variety of ways. Generally, a student registers him/herself in the study center or the franchise and then he can pursue the course of his choice, whenever and wherever he wishes to do so. IITs and IIMs have been offering online education at Postgraduate level, and that too in a qualitative way. Professional institutions such as AMIE and IETE are not far behind in offering the courses which help students become knowledgeable and at the same time, employable.

The ever-increasing use of computer and Internet has made Distance Education, a buzzword. There are virtual schools and universities offering the online syllabi of the bachelor level and are doing fabulous work. The leaders in this field are none other than Stanford and Harvard universities.

This online education system is student-centric and all the novel methods are utilized to make the learning very interesting.

As of today, the figure of students pursuing higher education is 3.5 crores, out of which 12% are into distance education. Presently 4% of GDP is spent on education. This expenditure can be brought down if a boost is given to distance education. We have only IGNOU offering distance education at a grand level and all others seem to be small players and bit unknown. 

Distance education is for them who cannot attend regular school/colleges and still,

there is a flame in them to pursue higher studies.  Of course, there is a downside in this type of education where dummy, copying, plagiarism, and the quality of study materials raise questions. But if there is a zeal to make people literate in the remotest corner of the country, then these minus happenings have to be curbed by being vigilant. 

To conclude in the words of James Bates, " If you cannot create interest in the minds of the learners, they will have lost an opportunity to learn some deep wisdom and few nice words which would be precious for them. So tell them, show, write, exhibit and make use of it on a day to day work is the right method of teaching".