The tower builders

In this lecture Dr. Mandi entered in the class with two boxes which were filled with some cubes. He distributed them in the class. Then he asked that who would build tower with those cubes but this time the person playing the game had to pay. Prof started the bidding with Rs 100 and which was done finally at Rs 500  and was won by one of our classmate (money will be used to distribute chocolates in class). I knew that I was about to learn a big lesson of principles of organization.

The student who had won the bid came on the stage and first was asked to estimate the number of cubes he would be able to use in his tower. He told 10. But playing it very carefully he could erect a tower of 16 cubes.

Craftsmanship

Now Dr. Mandi asked to form a team of some students and in this team the person who would play the role had to pay Rs 300 which was unfortunately less as compared to earlier bidding. Now the rules of the game was told to the team by Prof which was that one of them will be blindfolded and he/she will only be the person to touch the cubes, only one of the team can guide to the blindfolded person and others will decide the strategies. This time the target was set as 15 cubes but only 8 cubes tower could be build. There was complete chaos as many instruction was passed which led to confusion and finally target could not be achieved.

Modern Management

Here the two different situation were case of craftsmanship (single student ) and organization (team worked as tower building company). The learning from the above exercise was difference between the two:

	Craftsmanship	Modern management
Team Size	1	More than 1
Dependency	No dependency on anyone	Inter dependency
Skills	High	Low

This was about craftsmanship and modern management. Another important learning from the lecture was to thrive towards excellency which should be the main aim of any individual or an organization. This excellence can be achieved by effectiveness and efficiency. This is 3 E's of management which says that:

Excellence= Effectiveness X Efficiency

 Dr. Mandi told in the class that excellence can also be defined as "More out of less for more" and that is what one should always target for.

"Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better."

                                                                                                          Pat Riley

Now some management fundas...

I was very excited to attend Dr. Mandi's next class and eager to learn new things. This lecture was about different type of managers present in an organization and the effect of these managers on the employees and the growth of the organization. This theory was developed by Douglas Murray McGregor  and is known as Theory X and Theory Y. This theory for human force motivation is more to do with perception and and not the behavior of the managers towards their employees.

In simple language Theory X is a manager who is not at all liked by the employees. Some basic characteristics of these managers are that they are authoritative, they do not take any responsibility and initiative. They believe in blaming someone in most of the situation and assume that employees will try to avoid to work if they can and do not like the work.

Theory Y manager is liked by all the employees. They have optimistic thinking and create positive environment at workplace, where people and work and excel. They believe that continuous improvement can be achieved by enabling, empowering and giving responsibility.

This can be analysed as four different situations:

Employee is lazy and X think they are lazy

In this case as the management knows that the employee is lazy they try to closely supervise them. Managers do not encourage them to work and in turn employees are forced to work. This can lead to catastrophic effect to the management and stops the growth of the employee and the organization.  

Employee is not lazy but X think they are lazy

In this situation the employees want to work but are demotivated by the manager. Employees want to excel but they do not get positive environment for the same. Work of the employees is not justified and they do not get proper appraisal and. This creates lack of trust and hampers the growth of the employees.

Employee is lazy but Y believes they are not lazy

Here the managers create optimistic environment and motivate such lazy employees to work and excel. As lazy employees are not good for the growth of the organization. Such employees are given more responsibility and managers show faith on them which creates some significant changes.

Employee is not lazy and Y thinks they are not lazy.

This is the perfect situation which not only leads to the growth of the employees but also of the organization as a whole. Hard working employees get proper appreciation and appraisal  which encourage them to work more efficiently. In such case more innovation and fun can be sen at workplace.


Everyone would like to work in situation where we are rewarded with what we do, get positive environment and encouragement to work. So that we can excel and come up with innovative ideas, which will benefit the employees and take the organization to the zenith of success.

"If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings—and put compensation as a carrier behind it—you almost don't have to manage them."

— Jack Welch

Thanks,
Akash Kumar

A good start...

It gives me immense pleasure and a great sense of satisfaction to be a part of one of the best B-schools of India. After I reached NITIE everything was fine except for the rains, which depressed me a bit. I went for my first lecture expecting a lot of management gyan and loads of professional jargons. But I was soon proved wrong by Dr. Mandi (Prof. T.Prasad), who follows a totally different method to teach, and will leave an everlasting effect on anyone who attends his class. There can be no better introductory class than this for management studies. He, for starters, does not like the present education system and we sang one of his favorite songs in the class "Another Brick In the wall” by Pink Floyd, which was a very enriching experience for me.

Dr. Mandi

As soon as he entered the class he distributed some toys (balls with globe printed on them, butterfly which can be balanced on fingertip). He asked the class to keep playing with them, and we soon realized the agenda behind the exercise. It had a very important hidden meaning behind it. I learnt the first thing that it is always necessary to talk about self, as whatever a person does only benefits him or her in the long run. Another important learning was that money is very important factor in life.  It is said that "Money can buy bed but not sleep". But dear once you feel sleepy you will definitely need a bed so money has its own importance. "So before taking any decision calculate the total cost" – These were the words of wisdom given by Dr. Mandi. An example for the same was the present cost which Dr. Mandi told for us was Rs 2500 per day and gave the slogan "Aaj ki roti aj hi kamana". He made me feel how I have wasted lot of time which could have been used to do something innovative. 

It has proved to be a very good start for management studies - the lessons were filled not just with fun and humor, and of course management lessons, but also gave us an aim to live, to do something innovative and to excel in one’s field. After my first class I am now confident that I have taken the right decision to join NITIE.

This is my first blog, I request you all to provide your feedback so that I can improve on this.

Thanks,

Akash Kumar