Problem Solving and Decision Making Part-2

          So, continuing from where we left in the last class, we deliberated on the Problem Solving and Decision matrix. Here, we took a different outlook to Problem Solving. We were asked about the elements that the Management is composed of. The graph below will summarize this concept.

Styles of Management:

Thus we arrived at the following four different styles of Management:

1. Individual Decision Making and Individual Implementation - Occurs in businesses that are run by only one person
2. Individual Decision Making and Team Implementation - Occurs in Hierarchical Organizations i.e. most of the present day Organizations
3. Team Decision Making and Individual Implementation – Occurs rarely
4. Team Decision Making and Team Implementation - Occurs in Flat Organizations

          This matrix is very helpful as it doesn't tell us only about who makes the decision and who implements it. What it actually teaches us is to find the root of the problem i.e. the place/the reason from where the problem starts. This is because problems more often than not are linked to the Management style.

Following are the four steps that are involved in the Problem Solving - Decision Making process:

Step 1: Situation Analysis

          Here, we need to do some assessment. We need to decide what is urgent and what is important so that for the time being, we can park the tasks that don’t need our immediate attention. In short, we need to prioritize our tasks/problems.

Step 2: Problem Analysis

          Here, we need to gather information from various internal and external sources. Then, we need to properly define the problem at hand. This is a very important step, as knowing what the problem is, is a prerequisite to solving it. Trying to solve a problem without knowing what it actually is, is a futile exercise.

Step 3: Solution Analysis

          Then, we have to start generating ideas. Conducting Brain Storming sessions is one of the most effective ways of doing it as different people pitch in with different perspectives. Then, we need to make a decision. By nature, both these are contradictory. If Generating Ideas is a Selective/Expanding process then Decision Making is an Eliminating/Contracting process. Thus, what we do is use the Dialectical Method to reach a decision.

Step 4: Implementation

          This is the final and the most important step of the Problem Solving - Decision Making process. We need to make sure that we involve everybody i.e. all the stakeholders concerned, in the implementation process. We need ensure that all that was planned is implemented perfectly. Only then, will we get the desired results. If this isn't executed, then the entire Problem Solving - Decision Making process will turn out to be a waste of time and energy.

Problem Solving and Decision Making Part-1

          So a new lecture begins and we, all the more excited to learn a new concept. Dr. Mandi introduced the concept to us and suddenly everybody started concentrating with rapt attention, because the topic was: Problem Solving and Decision Making, something that each one of us fights against day in and day out, something that we all are in search of answers to. Dr. Mandi started out explaining us about the various aspects of Problem Solving and Decision Making.

a) Problem Solving:

          Now, unless we know that a problem exists we cannot convert it into an Opportunity. Hence, the first and the most important step in Problem Solving is Identifying the problem in the first place because if the problem is one and we are toiling hard to solve it assuming that it is something else wont bear any fruits. Accordingly, we use generic methods in an orderly manner, for finding solutions to problems. This forms the crux of the Problem Solving process.

          The next step of the Problem Solving process is to explore ideas and then select the most pertinent idea that will help us to solve the problem effectively. This leads us to another important aspect of management called Decision Making.

b) Decision Making:

          Decision Making is nothing but the process of the Selection of a course of action among several alternatives. And in the end, every Decision Making process produces a final choice.

The output can be an action or an opinion of choice. But Decisions can be made in two ways:

(a) Individually

(b) In a Group.

          Individual Decision making is extremely fast and simple. It depends on the structure of the organization. However, the basic problem with Individual Decision Making is that is tends to be partial. There can be severe bias in the process.

          Group Decision Making is a more organized and methodical process of solving problems than Individual Decision Making. This is because, in Group Decision Making, a problem is everyone's and not just of the one person who is making the decision. Hence, the group gets a variety of different perspectives on the problem and the probable solutions for the same. However, it is not without its share of flaws. Like, Group Decision Making is extremely Time- Consuming. There is also a very good chance of divergence in the group which can lead to too much time being wasted in arriving at the final course of action to be taken. Each individual thinks his suggestion is a better one and tries to defend it against other alternatives.

c) Job Design:

          Job Design is the process in which we decide the contents of a job. It helps in fixing the duties and responsibilities of the job, the methods of doing the job and the relationships between the job holder and his superiors, subordinates and colleagues.

          However, what we need to understand is that Job Design is different from Organizational Design. On one hand, Job Design is a Micro level process whereas on the other hand, Organizational Design is a Macro level process. How jobs are designed is very important and crucial to an organization. Jobs should lead to happiness and self-satisfaction which in turn must lead to high Productivity and better levels of Excellence. Significance can be improved by giving incentives and Incentives need not be money alone. It could be recognition from higher management (like a letter of Appreciation or a photo in the Annual Company magazine).

Primarily, Job design takes place by looking into the following five aspects:

1. Skill Variant – Is it Low, Medium or High?
2. Task Identity – Is there Low, No or High identity?
3. Task Significance –  Is the job least significant, most significant or of no significance at all?
4. Autonomy  –  Does the worker have autonomy?
5. Feedback – How quickly will feedback be given?

d) Group Cohesiveness:

          When talking about social groups, a group is said to be in a state of cohesion when its members possess bonds linking them to one another and to the group as a whole. Although cohesion is a multi-factored process, it can be broken down into the following 4 main components:

1. Social Relations
2. Task Relations 
3. Perceived Unity
4. Emotions

          Members of strong cohesive groups are more inclined to participate readily in the group’s activities and to stay with the group. The mental distances within the group shorten.

More about this in the second part of Problem Solving and Decision Making.

Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank and the Zeal to make a difference

          And so began another session that we all were eagerly waiting for. But this session was a bit different from the other sessions. Reason being, that it revolved around a personality, who went off the beaten track and changed the rules of Banking- Muhammad Yunus. A day before the session, we were asked to watch a video about Mr. Yunus and his Grameen Bank. Though I had watched it before, I was more than happy to watch it again. The video infuses us with an enthusiasm to do something for the society, to make a difference. But before telling you more about what happened in the session, let me tell you a little something about the Man himself and his brain-child.

          Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi banker, economist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient. As a professor of economics, he developed the concepts of micro-credit and micro-finance. These loans are given to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. In December 1976, Yunus secured a loan from the government 'Janata Bank' to lend to the poor in a village named Jobra, near Chittagong, Bangladesh. The institution continued to operate, securing loans from other banks to be given to the impoverished without requiring any collateral. The name Grameen is derived from the word gram which means "rural" or "village". By 1982, it had 28,000 members. On 1 October 1983, the pilot project began operation as a full-fledged bank for poor Bangladeshis and was renamed Grameen Bank ("Village Bank").

          Micro-credit loans are based on the concept that the poor have skills that are under-utilized, and with incentive, they can earn more money. A group-based credit approach is applied to use peer-pressure within a group to ensure the borrowers follow through and conduct their financial affairs with discipline, ensuring repayment and allowing the borrowers to develop good credit standing. The bank also accepts deposits, provides other services, and runs several development-oriented businesses including fabric, telephone and energy companies. The bank's credit policy to support under-served populations has led to the overwhelming majority (98%) of its borrowers being women. In 2006 Yunus and Grameen Bank received the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts through micro-credit to create economic and social development from below". Yunus has received several other national and international honors  He was awarded the U.S.Congressional Gold Medal in 2010, and presented with it at a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on 17 April 2013.

Following is the link of the video that we were told to watch and come to the session:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=O_6nHYSgHxs

Following are the things that differentiate Grameen Bank from the traditional banks:

1. Mainly located in villages/rural areas.
2. Solidarity Lending where small groups borrow collectively and group members encourage one another to repay. It is an important building block of micro-finance.
3. Women make up the majority of customers and account for around 98% of Grameen Bank customers.
4. Loan given in small amounts.
5. No collateral needed for loans.
6. Goal is to reduce poverty without an eye on maximizing profit.
7. The Poor, not the rich, own the Bank.

          It's difficult to think about the people, the society and the world at large, when businesses are struggling to hold onto their own, when maximizing profits is all that people think. But then, there are people like Mr. Yunus who make sure that the disadvantaged in the society are not left behind, that the society as a whole progresses and not just a tiny fraction of it. This is the culture that has made Grameen Bank what it is today.

Figuring out the Navrang Puzzle

          And in came our ever-energetic Prof. Prasad with a spring in his stride and with yet another goody for us. First look at that 9-sided block and I thought that it was a Rubik's Cube. Started to think about the number of times I had tried solving it but to no avail. Then we were introduced to this new simple yet thoughtful model- Navrang Puzzle. As the name suggests, the Navrang Puzzle is made up of small blocks of 9 different colors. In all, there are 27 pieces, of which every three pieces have the same color. Yes, unlike a standard Rubik's Cube, the Navrang Puzzle can be dismantled and reassembled. So fascinated were all of us, that everybody wanted to get their hands on the Navrang puzzle. The Professor happily obliged and started throwing the individual pieces of the puzzle at the students. Everybody began to relish the beauty of the puzzle.

          But the Game had just begun. We were given a challenge to find a way to reassemble the puzzle in such a way that each side of the puzzle would contain 9 pieces of different colors i.e. on any one side of the puzzle, no two pieces can have the same color. People started taking up the challenge one after the other, but none was able to put together the puzzle according to the directions specified. And then came in Prof. Prasad, who showed us how the task needed to be done by solving the Puzzle in about 2 minutes using a well-defined 3-step method as follows:

1. Pieces to Groups

2. Groups to Rods

3. Rods to Plates and finally a 3X3X3 puzzle

Let's understand how to assemble a Navrang puzzle using the above 3 steps through the following video:

          We were then introduced to two important concepts: (a) Organizational Structure and (b) Unity of Objective. An organizational structure consists of activities such as task allocation, coordination and supervision, which are directed towards the achievement of organizational aims. It can also be considered as the viewing glass or perspective through which individuals see their organization and its environment. Organizations are a variant of clustered entities. An organization can be structured in many different ways, depending on their objectives. The structure of an organization will determine the modes in which it operates and performs. Organizational structure allows the expressed allocation of responsibilities for different functions and processes to different entities such as the branch, department, work-group and individual. Organizational structure affects organizational action in two big ways. First, it provides the foundation on which standard operating procedures and routines rest. Second, it determines which individuals get to participate in which decision-making processes, and thus to what extent their views shape the organization’s actions. According to the Unity of Objectives, every individual and every process in an organization should aim to fulfill the a common objectives, which is nothing but the objective of the Organisation.

          What we understood from the session was that whenever we come across any problem, we should try to understand it, should use our creative potential and arrive at a solution. Problems are neither easy nor difficult. But, for sure, there are people who use their minds and the other who don’t. We can find solutions to all the present and future problems - If only we apply a small fraction of our creative potential.

Aligning the Personal and Corporate Goals

      And so started yet another intriguing lecture by Prof. Prasad. And this time, Professor had a small black block of something in his hand. Magnets!! Yes, Magnets they were. As always, we were wondering what Prof. Prasad wished to teach us with the help of a thing as simple and commonplace as a Magnet. Soon, the Professor started throwing a volley of questions at us like "What was he holding?", “What is special about a Magnet?”, "Why does it attract certain things and repels others?". Many a tries were made at answering the final question, but none could come up with an answer that Prof. Prasad was looking for. And then finally, one student could say that magical word- Alignment- that gives the Magnet the unique quality that it has.

       A Magnet has the power to align inherent magnetic forces in metallic atoms. Thus, magnets align natural forces. Likewise, a Manager aligns his employees (subordinates) to get the work done. And eventually what happens as a result of all this, is that an organization as a force gets aligned. The bigger or better an organization, the more perfectly it is aligned. In the context of an organisation, Alignment is nothing but linking of organizational goals with the employees' personal goals. It requires common understanding of purposes and goals of the organization, and consistency between every objective and plan right down to the incentive offers. Managers have the power to align people and resources. They align tasks and objectives. They synchronize both time and space. Management is like an assembly line where each and every part needs to synchronize with each other and function perfectly, otherwise the end product gets botched up. And this is where Professor introduced us to an important Management lesson– Management by Objective.

       Management by objectives (MBO) is a process of defining objectives within an organization so that management and employees agree to the objectives and understand what they need to do in the organization in order to achieve them. The term "Management by Objectives" was popularized by Peter Drucker in his 1954 book The Practice of Management. The essence of MBO is participative goal setting, choosing appropriate course of actions and decision making. An important part of the MBO is the measurement and the comparison of the employee’s actual performance with the standards set. Ideally, when employees themselves have been involved with the goal setting and choosing the course of action to be followed by them, they are more likely to fulfill their responsibilities.

       Then going ahead, we compared the practical examples of two different schools of Management that we had studied in the previous lectures- the blindfolded tower building exercise and the three monk water gathering exercise and thus, arrived at the following important features and advantages of MBO:

1. Motivation– Involving employees in the whole process of goal setting and increasing employee empowerment. This increases employee job satisfaction and commitment.
2. Better communication and coordination – Frequent reviews and interactions between superiors and subordinates helps to maintain harmonious relationships within the organization and also to solve many problems.
3. Clarity of goals
4. Subordinates tend to have a higher commitment to objectives they set for themselves than those imposed on them by another person.
5. Managers can ensure that objectives of the subordinates are linked to the organization's objectives.
6. Everybody will be having a common goal for whole organization. That means, it is a directive principle of management.

        Towards the end of the lecture, Professor compared two giants of Indian Sports and helped us understand why they were unable to work together. We concluded that the reason why they were not able to work together was a mismatch in the skill sets of the two bodies. Having multiple skills is not always advantageous. It could prove to be counter-productive as one might get confused as to which skill out of the multiple on offer, he should go for. This where the Manager comes into the picture. He should figure out which all skills need to be nourished and which all need to be prevented.

Crossing the Valley of Learning

         This blog will discuss about the importance of Teamwork in an organization using an example of three people trying to cross a valley. Teamwork is defined in the dictionary as "work done by several associates with each doing a part but all subordinating personal prominence to the efficiency of the whole." But there is no universally accepted definition of teamwork. While assembling a team, factors such as adaptability of individual members must be kept in mind. This will not only encourage the team members but also increase the team's performance.

          Team work is an indispensable part of any business as it is necessary for colleagues to work well together to bring out the best in them under any circumstances. The team members should be able to cooperate, using their individual skills and provide constructive feedback while handling personal conflicts, if any, between the individuals. A team should showcase a sense of unity, enthusiasm for common interests and responsibilities.

          To create a team is one thing but creating effective teamwork in the workplace is easier said than done. And similarly, it's one thing to join a team but quite another to perform as a team member. To put it in simple words, teams don't work without teamwork.

The Task:

          Valley crossing is a very interesting puzzle where three men holding a pole over their shoulders have to cross a valley. The valley is so wide that one cannot cross it in a single step but it requires less than 2 steps. The Valley Crossing can be explained by the following picture.

          

         The photo depicts the ideal realization of teamwork. In order to cross the valley of more than one step, there must be a team of three. If there are less than three members then the team cannot cross-over to the other side as the beam would not remain balanced and if there are any more number of members for the same gap, it would supersede the required resources. Similarly, in a team, if the number of people are less than the required number, the burden on each member would be more than what he/she can bear and the team would not succeed.

          In the photo, it is also evident that even if one of the members of the team is weak and is not able to support his share of the load, then the task to cross the valley will not be completed. Analogous to this, if in a team, any of the team members is weak and is not able to deliver his responsibilities, the team will not be able to complete the task.

The exercise consists of 9 steps, wherein each of the three people go through the three states namely: 

1. Fully Safe
2. Half Safe
3. Fully Unsafe

Moreover, each person goes through the Fully Safe state 6 times, Half Safe state twice and Fully Unsafe state once.

Learnings from this exercise:

Team work – It is necessary for the organisation that the teams work in harmony. Lack of team-spirit, not only hampers the performance of that particular team but also the entire organisation.

Participative leadership – Different from the tradition approach of a authoritarian team leader. 

Co-ordinative relationship – The bonds between the team members allow them to seamlessly coordinate their work to achieve both efficiency and effectiveness. In today’s fast moving world, even a delay of few seconds can cause major losses. Perfect co-ordination between the numerous chains involved ensures that we get the desired results.

Defined roles and responsibilities – each team member understands what they must do (and what they must not do) to demonstrate their commitment to the team and to support team success. Furthermore the roles and  responsibilities keep on changing depending on the situation.

Open and clear communication – Communication is the key to crossing the valley effectively. Just like in this puzzle, in real life organisations rapid and continuous flow of information in both directions is of utmost importance. Neither the employees nor the managers should be kept in the dark about new developments, however unsettling they may be.  The interdependence among team members increases as we go higher up the corporate ladder. As a worker or low level employee, we can usually get away with completing the task without much interdependence (even though effectively using the team's collective strength may increase productivity). But as we go to strategic level, it is almost impossible to go about a task without the expertise/skill/opinion of your team mates.  Thus Interdependence and its effective usage is crucial for a manager.

Managing conflict – Dealing with conflict openly and transparently and not allowing grudges to build up and destroy team morale.

Mutual trust – Every person needed to trust each other completely especially when their feet was off the ground. Trust is of utmost importance, be it in personal relationships or professional ones. Lack of trust creates doubts and becomes a major headwind for smooth flow of information.

Clear goals – The goals were clear, defined and each member in the team fully understood the gravity of the problem.

Positive atmosphere – an overall team culture that is open, transparent, positive, future-focused and able to deliver success.

Recognition for the job done – Quite often we come across people who get their tasks done by their team mates. One of the flip side of team work is that our efforts may go unrecognised or even worse credited to the wrong person. In a competitive and performance oriented environment like ours, it is important to see through these ploys.

Some of the good work practices that I have found in my team in my previous organization are as follows:

1. Properly communicating the work done to superiors.
2. Pro-actively using the teams strength for overcoming problems.
3. Pro-actively helping members who are in need.
4. Effective participation in meetings, team events.

The Three Monks

          Three Monks is a Chinese animated feature film produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio in the 80s. The film is directed by A. Da and written by Pao Lei. The film has received the following awards:

1. Outstanding film award at the China's Ministry of Culture

2. Best animated film award at the Golden Rooster Award

3. Silver Bear award for short film

          So, here goes the story. There is a temple at the top of the hill and there is only one source of water- a pond. It is located at the bottom of the hill. A pitcher is present inside the temple which can be filled by carrying water from the pond. To carry water, 2 buckets and a pole is available. The three monks come to the temple one after another to pray.

          The film comprises of four parts. Let’s have a look at all the four parts in terms of productivity. Let's consider the work done by one monk to fill two buckets and carry it to the top as 1 unit or 1 joule.

1) First monk:

With one Pole and two buckets, the first monk fetches water from the pond.

Total Buckets carried = 2, Total work done = 1 unit

2) Second Monk:

Both monks behave friendly at first but when they need water, no one volunteers to fetch it. So they decide to fetch the water together i.e. share the load. The two monks thus carry only one bucket which hangs by the middle of the pole.

So,

Total Buckets carried = 2, Total work done = 0.5 x 2 = 1 unit

3) Third Monk:

When the third monk join the other two monks in the temple, each one of them starts expecting from the other two to bring water. The result being that, no one fetches water. So in all, work done is zero.

Total Buckets carried = 0, Total work done = 0 unit

4) The Culmination:

Suddenly, when fire breaks out inside the temple, all three monks run helter-skelter. They decide to work together. They use a pulley, wherein every monk does a specific task efficiently. The first monk fills a bucket with water from the pond, then the second monk pulls the bucket up using the pulley and finally, the third monk takes the filled bucket and tries to extinguish the temple fire. In a crisis situation, all three make effort and with the sharing of load, all three were able to fix the problem.

So,

Total Buckets carried = 2, Total work done = 0.33 x 3 = 1 units

Here is the 19 minute animation film:

       

The Take-away:

          In the film, we can see how the three monks behave differently in different situations. We also do exactly the same. We take it for granted, when we see others doing the work for us. But, this is not how an organization functions. A successful organization is created when the employees hold themselves accountable for their work without the need for anybody to keep a watch on them. The employees should be self motivated to such an extent that producing results becomes a habit for them. We may tend to think that if the size of the team is increases, the productivity will improve. But this is wrong. What is required is proper harmony & coordination among the team members. A group can deliver results only if they synchronize with each other and act as a team.

Personal Experience:

          While working in Infosys, preparation of Course Material and Question papers was one of the jobs which I was supposed to do. Since, there was an urgent need for some Course ppts and Question papers, my manager assigned a fellow employee to assist me in the work. She came and everything seemed jovial. But then, when we started to work on the job at hand, we realized that our styles were very different and it was getting difficult to work as a team. None of us wanted to change our way of working. This started delaying the process, something that was the opposite of what we had intended to do. But then, our Manager was hot on our tail and wanted the job done as soon as possible. We had to do something. We sat down and analyzed what was going on. We tried to understand each other's approach and then made changes such that, finally what we got was sort of a hybrid of both our styles. Yes, we sorted everything out and were able to 'deliver the product on time'! ;)