There is something peculiar about Indian Homes. Most Indian like to keep their homes spic 'n' span but generally the streets leading upto those homes have accumulation of filth. The waste-dunes can be seen mostly at street corners. So what does one conclude – Do Indian love cleanliness or are they are they fond of griminess? The truth is once they clean their home, they do not know what to do with the waste, since the municipal waste-bins are mostly non-existent, so they dump it outside their house (or may be it is convenient to do it that way!). The competition seems to be only limited to keeping own house clean and not getting together to keep the surroundings better. The municipal sweeper in turn dumps it around the street corner, where it keeps stinking till some festival or local elections are round-the-corner. Then upon the instructions of the local political leader, aspiring to woo some votes, the ever-elusive municipal lorry turns-up and does a ‘solstice-routine’, to again vanish in perpetuity.
There is one company though who turned this reproachful situation in to an economic and social opportunity. ITC launched sometime back the ‘WOW’ initiative. Read as ‘Wealth-Out-of-Waste’, the WOW or 'Wealth Out of Waste' is a project that aims to inculcate the habit of recycling among school children, housewives, corporate employees and the general public as well as industries and business enterprises and reduce at least 15-25% of the garbage load through source segregation. ITC started this as a pilot project in some cities, sometime back, where they gave separate bags for solid waste, kitchen waste etc. to each household. The ITC trucks would visit all these homes once a week and collect all the garbage bags. In turn the citizens besides disposing their garbage for free even got paid for the garbage that they gave to ITC. The company gained by saving considerable money on raw material for their ‘Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division’. Recently the company celebrated saving 25000 trees through the ‘WOW’ initiative. The WOW programme is today operational in Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Cochin, Bhadrachalam, Coimbatore & Madurai. Over 3 million citizens, 500,000 school children, 350 corporates, 1000 commercial establishments and about 200 industries support WOW. And, of course, in these cities the streets look as tidy as the homes. ‘WOW’ brought wealth to everyone.
The point is pretty simple. Community initiatives never happen without innovation and engagement. Where rules do not work, engagement can do wonders, literally.
Organizations many times face uphill task in ensuring their employees or employee groups like project teams do not become so self-centric or silo-wised that they fail to share their learning and knowledge. In turn many a times it is the same ‘clean self and dirt others’ phenomena among teams or groups resulting in dys-functionality and disagreements. In the long-run the company suffers. Innovative engagement of people to initiatives can help them collaborate rather than only compete. There was a classical case that I had read many years back in ‘California Management Review’, where one of the project teams spends 6-months and considerable resource in searching for an outside vendor. When they finally found one, instead of being delighted at their feat they were rather dismayed since they found that the same vendor had already worked with one of their other teams before. All the money and time spent on searching the vendor could have been saved. Failure of knowledge reuse and sharing is one such symptom. Many such problems happen in the organization because of competition without cooperation.
Google has this thing called ‘MOMA’, the company’s intranet that has so much information shared across the company that employees have insight into what's happening with the business and what's important. It also has something called ‘Snippets’. Every Monday, all the employees write an email that has five to seven bullet points on what they did the previous week. Being a search company, Google takes all the emails and make a giant Web page and index them. It allows the Google nerds to share what they know across the whole company, and it reduces duplication. Like ‘WOW’ it brings wealth to everyone – to the employees (since they get instant recognition for what they do), to the employee community (since it helps them to collaborate and reduce redundancy) and of course to the company.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
Bewitched!
Yesterday I was browsing aimlessly through he television channels when something caught my attention. William Makepeace was cooking Macaroni on TLC. I am not a cookery-show buff or a cooking enthusiast myself. What made me stop on TLC for sometime was the pleasure of seeing a expert at work. The ease and speed with which he chopped onions, smashed garlic, fluffed the macaronis, tell about the recipe, the spices, all almost at the same time without missing a task was amazing. He seemed totally engaged in his job and his expert skills made it look damn easy.
Agreed cooking is no rocket science, but I have had the same feeling when I saw Harsha Bhogle commenting on cricket, or Messi dribbling the ball to glory or for that matter watching my son play Angry Birds. None of these may be rocket-science either but all of them have something in common and that is their high-degree of skilled-engagement with their respective jobs, no matter how important or how unimportant the jobs are to the world. What is equally interesting is that the ones who observe them are also hooked and engaged and want to do with their jobs with equal (perceptual) ease.
Skills creates engagement not only for the skilled but also for the ones who are aspiring. And skill comes through training and education. Companies trying to create engagement must invest in the same. "Lupin's new project – ‘‘Learn and Earn' programme’ is yet another case of marrying for mutual benefit the aspirations and needs of a set of youngsters with the company's manpower needs. People@Work has profiled companies such as Hardcastle Restaurants (McDonald's India – West and South) which has forged tie-ups with institutions such as Symbiosis and has made part-timing a way of work to encourage employees to study alongside." Lupin heavy and suatined investments in training have already paid them rich dividends.
Agreed cooking is no rocket science, but I have had the same feeling when I saw Harsha Bhogle commenting on cricket, or Messi dribbling the ball to glory or for that matter watching my son play Angry Birds. None of these may be rocket-science either but all of them have something in common and that is their high-degree of skilled-engagement with their respective jobs, no matter how important or how unimportant the jobs are to the world. What is equally interesting is that the ones who observe them are also hooked and engaged and want to do with their jobs with equal (perceptual) ease.
Skills creates engagement not only for the skilled but also for the ones who are aspiring. And skill comes through training and education. Companies trying to create engagement must invest in the same. "Lupin's new project – ‘‘Learn and Earn' programme’ is yet another case of marrying for mutual benefit the aspirations and needs of a set of youngsters with the company's manpower needs. People@Work has profiled companies such as Hardcastle Restaurants (McDonald's India – West and South) which has forged tie-ups with institutions such as Symbiosis and has made part-timing a way of work to encourage employees to study alongside." Lupin heavy and suatined investments in training have already paid them rich dividends.
Friday, November 25, 2011
Just like that...
This blog post is infact in response to a comment to my earlier post. I thank my readers for inducing such thoughts.
Here it goes…
I do not think employee engagement can be built when people are only expected to comply to systems and metrics blindly. The human ingenuity and judgement ability in such systems are curtailed so much that employees fear being flexible since they are unsure of the consequences that the same will have on them. Managers become controlling authorities rather than facilitating guides. It is the classical 'dam' and 'banks' story. A dam built on the river blocks the flow and release the same as per its will; whereas the banks only guide the flow in the right direction. The erosion of the banks happens when the roots holding the specs of soil together are cut or diminished. And erosion of banks is always fatal which no dam can contain. On the contrary if the banks are strong then the dams are of little significance, no matter how strong is the flow.
Systems and metrics are important but they must have enough flexibility built in them so as to allow to capacitate people and believe in their judgements. Just like clothes, are they important? Yes, of course, but should they be so tight as to suffocate a person making him incapable of breathing?
Here it goes…
I do not think employee engagement can be built when people are only expected to comply to systems and metrics blindly. The human ingenuity and judgement ability in such systems are curtailed so much that employees fear being flexible since they are unsure of the consequences that the same will have on them. Managers become controlling authorities rather than facilitating guides. It is the classical 'dam' and 'banks' story. A dam built on the river blocks the flow and release the same as per its will; whereas the banks only guide the flow in the right direction. The erosion of the banks happens when the roots holding the specs of soil together are cut or diminished. And erosion of banks is always fatal which no dam can contain. On the contrary if the banks are strong then the dams are of little significance, no matter how strong is the flow.
Systems and metrics are important but they must have enough flexibility built in them so as to allow to capacitate people and believe in their judgements. Just like clothes, are they important? Yes, of course, but should they be so tight as to suffocate a person making him incapable of breathing?
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
The Managerial Myopia
Staff Sgts. Fred Hilliker and Robert O’Hair were boarding Delta Flight 1625 in Baltimore for the final leg of their journey home from Afghanistan with 32 others in their U.S. Army unit when their homecoming came to an abrupt halt. Delta personnel told the soldiers they needed to pay $200 for each person that had a fourth bag with them, even though their military orders stated that these bags were covered. Unable to gain resolution with Delta, the two Staff Sgts filmed a YouTube video about the incident. The story generated considerable buzz for an obvious reason: What Delta did to these soldiers was wrong. I’m fairly sure that the Delta employees who were demanding payment knew it. So why didn’t they just waive the fees?
The Delta situation could be dismissed as an unfortunate case of miscommunication if it didn’t seem so familiar. It highlights a trend in management that favors the fulfillment of quantifiable, top-down metrics. I’d bet that you’ve had an experience dealing with customer service where you were told that there was no one else you could talk to and no one was authorized to take the necessary action to resolve your complaint. As psychologist Barry Schwartz has observed, many areas of life are increasingly bound up with rules that limit the ability of individuals to use judgment and make the best decision for the specific situation.
It would be wrong to place all the blame on workers for their failure to take discretionary steps. The blame lies with management that sets rigid rules and metrics that disable employee judgment and create so many approval hurdles for mundane decisions, that overworked employees say, “Why bother?” Employee disengagement has reached crisis proportions as evidenced by a recent Mercer study that found that 50% of employees are checked out on the job.
It’s not hard to see how we got here. Performance metrics are a critical tool for achieving excellence and motivating outcomes. But as important as performance metrics are, problems arise when performance metrics become overly dominant as a managerial principle, as they are in too many organizations.
Metrics earn an outsized role because managing by the numbers is easier than managing people. Employees make mistakes, their actions are difficult to predict, and the outcomes of their decisions are hard to measure. When employees make wrong judgments the resulting mess, in terms of customer satisfaction and legal liability, can often be difficult and expensive to clean up.
Rules are comfort food for management. When something goes terribly wrong, the first response is to add more rules and policy. Of course, managers have good intentions: protecting the company from bad choices and creating accountability. That’s what everyone learns in Management 101. Yet the net effect often shifts accountability to the wrong places. Unassailable rules and metrics shifts accountability away from management and down the chain to the front-line employee. Rules allow managers a surefire way to dodge their responsibility and protect their career.
The blame for poor employee action should be placed on the managers who set rigid metrics, and fail to invest in employees. Yet customers need more judgment, not less, from the employees they come in contact with. When customers contact a call center, it’s because there is an exception within the existing process and they need judgment that only employees can provide. Corporations need to build guidelines and values—not absolute rules and measures. “Doing what’s right for the customer” is a value that can drive appropriate action. Judgment requires coaching, practice and training.
Metrics, policies and scorecards are not bad per se. There are many benefits when used appropriately. The pendulum seems to have swung too far away from employee judgment, though. Let’s bring it back in balance. Invest in your front-line employees and then trust them to make the right decisions for the customer. Otherwise you’ll be managing a group of automatons who, when confronted with situations outside the rigid rules, will be virtually guaranteed to make the wrong judgment.
(Source: 'When Scorecards and Metrics Kill Employee Engagement', Business Week, First appeared in Harvard Business Review—Copyright © 2011 Harvard Business School Publishing)
The Delta situation could be dismissed as an unfortunate case of miscommunication if it didn’t seem so familiar. It highlights a trend in management that favors the fulfillment of quantifiable, top-down metrics. I’d bet that you’ve had an experience dealing with customer service where you were told that there was no one else you could talk to and no one was authorized to take the necessary action to resolve your complaint. As psychologist Barry Schwartz has observed, many areas of life are increasingly bound up with rules that limit the ability of individuals to use judgment and make the best decision for the specific situation.
It would be wrong to place all the blame on workers for their failure to take discretionary steps. The blame lies with management that sets rigid rules and metrics that disable employee judgment and create so many approval hurdles for mundane decisions, that overworked employees say, “Why bother?” Employee disengagement has reached crisis proportions as evidenced by a recent Mercer study that found that 50% of employees are checked out on the job.
It’s not hard to see how we got here. Performance metrics are a critical tool for achieving excellence and motivating outcomes. But as important as performance metrics are, problems arise when performance metrics become overly dominant as a managerial principle, as they are in too many organizations.
Metrics earn an outsized role because managing by the numbers is easier than managing people. Employees make mistakes, their actions are difficult to predict, and the outcomes of their decisions are hard to measure. When employees make wrong judgments the resulting mess, in terms of customer satisfaction and legal liability, can often be difficult and expensive to clean up.
Rules are comfort food for management. When something goes terribly wrong, the first response is to add more rules and policy. Of course, managers have good intentions: protecting the company from bad choices and creating accountability. That’s what everyone learns in Management 101. Yet the net effect often shifts accountability to the wrong places. Unassailable rules and metrics shifts accountability away from management and down the chain to the front-line employee. Rules allow managers a surefire way to dodge their responsibility and protect their career.
The blame for poor employee action should be placed on the managers who set rigid metrics, and fail to invest in employees. Yet customers need more judgment, not less, from the employees they come in contact with. When customers contact a call center, it’s because there is an exception within the existing process and they need judgment that only employees can provide. Corporations need to build guidelines and values—not absolute rules and measures. “Doing what’s right for the customer” is a value that can drive appropriate action. Judgment requires coaching, practice and training.
Metrics, policies and scorecards are not bad per se. There are many benefits when used appropriately. The pendulum seems to have swung too far away from employee judgment, though. Let’s bring it back in balance. Invest in your front-line employees and then trust them to make the right decisions for the customer. Otherwise you’ll be managing a group of automatons who, when confronted with situations outside the rigid rules, will be virtually guaranteed to make the wrong judgment.
(Source: 'When Scorecards and Metrics Kill Employee Engagement', Business Week, First appeared in Harvard Business Review—Copyright © 2011 Harvard Business School Publishing)
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Women Resource - Unequal Worlds
Women in our society have fought and come along way however they still do not find this world equal to what a man finds in this planet. I am starting a weeklong series on women workforce christened as Women Resource. The idea of dedicating my next few blog posts on Women and the much needed HR response to the same does not stem from the perception that women are in anyway lesser employees but from the fact that despite the all-round brilliance of women, it is still very much a man’s world and the odds are loaded in all possible ways against women.
In countries like India the general social conditions of women is a worry in itself. In some aspects like literacy, secondary school enrolment etc. it fairs lower than countries like Rwanda, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Have a look at some statistics:
The percentage of women married by the age of 18 in India is higher than Sub-Saharan Africa and Pakistan; the literacy rate of women in India is worse than Iran, Libya, Kenya; the secondary school enrolment of girls in India is worse than Sri Lanka, Bhutan (Table 1); more women are economically active in Sub-Saharan Africa than in India; and, Indian women have lesser presence in Parliament than those in Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan (table 2).
Even in the UN Human Development and gender Inequality study India fairs no better. In terms of Gender Inequality India ranks lower than countries like Rwanda, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, who rank much lower to India when it comes to overall Human Development Index(table 3).
Such statistics are worrying and go on to further point that women who make it to the corporate world have not got things on platter and had to really work against a lot of odds to reach where they have. This doesn’t take anything away from their male counterparts but for them the social conditions and settings are different, expectation are different and odds are much less. If this is not enough reason to write this piece, study after study has indicated that having more women as employees in organization has contributed to high gains for the organizations. Studies by the RAND Corporation and Catalyst, among others, show a clear and positive correlation between the percentage of women board directors in a company’s past and the percentage of women top executives in its future.
In countries like India the general social conditions of women is a worry in itself. In some aspects like literacy, secondary school enrolment etc. it fairs lower than countries like Rwanda, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Have a look at some statistics:
The percentage of women married by the age of 18 in India is higher than Sub-Saharan Africa and Pakistan; the literacy rate of women in India is worse than Iran, Libya, Kenya; the secondary school enrolment of girls in India is worse than Sri Lanka, Bhutan (Table 1); more women are economically active in Sub-Saharan Africa than in India; and, Indian women have lesser presence in Parliament than those in Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan (table 2).
Even in the UN Human Development and gender Inequality study India fairs no better. In terms of Gender Inequality India ranks lower than countries like Rwanda, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, who rank much lower to India when it comes to overall Human Development Index(table 3).
Such statistics are worrying and go on to further point that women who make it to the corporate world have not got things on platter and had to really work against a lot of odds to reach where they have. This doesn’t take anything away from their male counterparts but for them the social conditions and settings are different, expectation are different and odds are much less. If this is not enough reason to write this piece, study after study has indicated that having more women as employees in organization has contributed to high gains for the organizations. Studies by the RAND Corporation and Catalyst, among others, show a clear and positive correlation between the percentage of women board directors in a company’s past and the percentage of women top executives in its future.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Prime Focus
"No amount of technology,backend systems,processes,innovation or domain expertise will help if people do not support it and so it is critical for companies to invest in their people,said Sam Pitroda,advisor to the Prime Minister on infrastructure,information & innovations.
Addressing a large audience of HR professionals and domain experts at the National Human Resource Development (NHRD) Network Conference 2011 here on Thursday,Pitroda said,Despite the technology advancements and innovations,we still carry a 19th century mindset,20th century processes and 21st century needs.This is a huge mismatch.Our hierarchical and feudal mindsets have to change,create room for leadership that understands virtual space,a leadership that can capitalize on young talent.
Vinita Bali,MD of Britannia Industries,said changes are taking place faster than we can perceive and internalize.We are good at innovation and we create quality products.It is time we thought about people differently and invested in people to help them improve quality and make themselves stand apart as winners.
C Mahalingam,chief people officer at Symphony Services and president of NHRD Networks Bangalore chapter,said the best HR practices have come from the West,but India and other Asian countries are bringing the next set of best practices."
(Source: The Times of India, 18 Nov. 2011)
Addressing a large audience of HR professionals and domain experts at the National Human Resource Development (NHRD) Network Conference 2011 here on Thursday,Pitroda said,Despite the technology advancements and innovations,we still carry a 19th century mindset,20th century processes and 21st century needs.This is a huge mismatch.Our hierarchical and feudal mindsets have to change,create room for leadership that understands virtual space,a leadership that can capitalize on young talent.
Vinita Bali,MD of Britannia Industries,said changes are taking place faster than we can perceive and internalize.We are good at innovation and we create quality products.It is time we thought about people differently and invested in people to help them improve quality and make themselves stand apart as winners.
C Mahalingam,chief people officer at Symphony Services and president of NHRD Networks Bangalore chapter,said the best HR practices have come from the West,but India and other Asian countries are bringing the next set of best practices."
(Source: The Times of India, 18 Nov. 2011)
Friday, November 18, 2011
'The Italian Job'
The Italian firm, Benetton was forced to pull one of its images (the photograph featuring Pope kissing a senior Egyptian imam on the lips) from its new 'Unhate' campaign, after the Vatican denounced it as an unacceptable provocation. While, Benetton maintained that its 'Unhate' campaign was aimed at fostering tolerance and 'global love' however the Vatican seems to be miffed with the same and felt that the ad offended “not only the dignity of the Pope and the Catholic Church, but also the sensibilities of believers.” The campaign's adverts include digitally altered pictures half a dozen world leaders to show them kissing.
The protest and the resulting controversy have ensured that the ad is all over the media and social media. Those who did not see the ad or did not know about the campaign want to see and know about it. The ad could not have reached to so many people, in so very few days, across the world without the protest and the controversy. Benetton’s ROI on the ad would definitely be much more than estimated or perhaps they estimated this controversy.
The key is to understand who is the target of Benetton’s ad – it is the youth or more precisely today’s rebel youth who predominantly is a non-conformist. Does he/she care about the protest? No! Will this protest help Vatican or Benetton? The answer of course is Benetton.
As Benetton Executive Deputy Chairman Alessandro Benetton said in an interview published in The Economic Times today – “We are conscious of the fact that the images that we have used are strong. But anyone who wants to make a positive impact has to make it in a way that gets attention. We did not mean to be disrespectful or provocative in any way - all of them are performing a gesture. There can be differing points of view on this; some could call it homosexual too. There are worse things that show up on the internet nowadays. But the point is stimulating a discussion in the right direction. You as a viewer have to draw your own conclusion. Our campaign is about unhating, not lobbying. The true judge will be the reaction that we receive from the public.”
A leading Indian IT company made the same mistake last year, when after their introduction of a ‘role and career enhancement’ policy received flak from the employees & they went on to fill the social media with protest messages, the company decided to introduce a social media policy to gag the voices of the employees. This fuelled the controversy more and the news spilled all over the mainstream media. The company’s image as ‘employee-friendly company’ took a severe beating. Better sense prevailed upon the company later and much to the contrast of their earlier move, they actually started a company social networking-site, designed on the lines of Facebook.
Cutting the story short, organization must understand that the young population today rules over the world with new tools like social media. Any communication, whether a policy decision, campaign or a protest, must be made keeping in mind their reaction to the same; otherwise it shall always benefit the competitor or the rival, more.
Last I heard, was that Vatican is contemplating a legal action against Benetton. So Benetton can be assured of more headlines, free publicity in the days to come, to laugh all the way to the bank.
The protest and the resulting controversy have ensured that the ad is all over the media and social media. Those who did not see the ad or did not know about the campaign want to see and know about it. The ad could not have reached to so many people, in so very few days, across the world without the protest and the controversy. Benetton’s ROI on the ad would definitely be much more than estimated or perhaps they estimated this controversy.
The key is to understand who is the target of Benetton’s ad – it is the youth or more precisely today’s rebel youth who predominantly is a non-conformist. Does he/she care about the protest? No! Will this protest help Vatican or Benetton? The answer of course is Benetton.
As Benetton Executive Deputy Chairman Alessandro Benetton said in an interview published in The Economic Times today – “We are conscious of the fact that the images that we have used are strong. But anyone who wants to make a positive impact has to make it in a way that gets attention. We did not mean to be disrespectful or provocative in any way - all of them are performing a gesture. There can be differing points of view on this; some could call it homosexual too. There are worse things that show up on the internet nowadays. But the point is stimulating a discussion in the right direction. You as a viewer have to draw your own conclusion. Our campaign is about unhating, not lobbying. The true judge will be the reaction that we receive from the public.”
A leading Indian IT company made the same mistake last year, when after their introduction of a ‘role and career enhancement’ policy received flak from the employees & they went on to fill the social media with protest messages, the company decided to introduce a social media policy to gag the voices of the employees. This fuelled the controversy more and the news spilled all over the mainstream media. The company’s image as ‘employee-friendly company’ took a severe beating. Better sense prevailed upon the company later and much to the contrast of their earlier move, they actually started a company social networking-site, designed on the lines of Facebook.
Cutting the story short, organization must understand that the young population today rules over the world with new tools like social media. Any communication, whether a policy decision, campaign or a protest, must be made keeping in mind their reaction to the same; otherwise it shall always benefit the competitor or the rival, more.
Last I heard, was that Vatican is contemplating a legal action against Benetton. So Benetton can be assured of more headlines, free publicity in the days to come, to laugh all the way to the bank.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
The Art of Gifting
Bangalore is very pleasant around this time of the year. I always ensure a window seat on one of the left-row seats of the bus during the morning travel to the office. During that time of the day between 8 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. the nip in the air that is there during the wee hours of the morning is gone but the breeze is still pleasantly cool and the sun is still under a thermostat control The coolness of the breeze and the warm massage of the sun embraces the body and the soul caressing softly, for a heavenly experience. Gifts of nature are unique and always treasured.
Talking about gifts, one of the greatest story about the art of gifting is "The Gift of the Magi". It is a short story written by O. Henry, about a young married couple and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money. Young married couple Della and James "Jim" Dillingham Young are very much in love with each other but can barely afford their one-room apartment due to Jim's recent pay cut. For Christmas, Della decides to buy Jim a chain for his prized pocket watch given to him by his father's father. To raise the funds, she has her long, beautiful hair cut off and sold to make a wig. Meanwhile, Jim decides to sell his watch to buy Della a beautiful set of combs made out of tortoiseshell and jewels for her lovely, knee-length brown hair. Each is surprised to find the gift they chose rendered useless, yet each is pleased with the gift that they received, because it represents their love for one another.
My experiences with the gifts that I have received have been not always been good. As a child some of my birthday gifts from guests have turned-out to be stainless steel jugs/plates/spoons, antique candle-stands, saucers to eat porridge, bone-china mugs (that my mother never let me use them as a child since she thought I would break them)etc. Not that I expected them, but they failed to thrill me as well. In hindsight, perhaps my guests could have been a bit more imaginative about a child’s world, his likes and dislikes. I am sure that all of us keep receiving gifts that we do not know what to do with and hence either pass it to someone or redirect them to those whom we think might have better use.
The value of a gift is measured not always by the material cost, instead many times by the intention with which they are given. The gifts of nature as well ‘the gift of Magi’ were prized despite they having less material value or direct utility.
Organizations need to understand the art of gifting (rewards, awards & recognitions) is not always in heavy monetary off-loads, rather in giving something to the employees that they truly treasure, with the best intentions that hovers around benefiting or recognizing an employee for what he/she truly deserves. In the same breath, let me add that I am not at all suggesting that gifts should always have lesser monetary value. Gifts require good intention and a bit of imagination to make them valued and treasured by the recipient.
Meanwhile, I am once again looking forward to tomorrow morning’s sunshine and the breeze mocktail (not cocktail since I am teetotaler) treat…Hope it doen't rain!
Talking about gifts, one of the greatest story about the art of gifting is "The Gift of the Magi". It is a short story written by O. Henry, about a young married couple and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money. Young married couple Della and James "Jim" Dillingham Young are very much in love with each other but can barely afford their one-room apartment due to Jim's recent pay cut. For Christmas, Della decides to buy Jim a chain for his prized pocket watch given to him by his father's father. To raise the funds, she has her long, beautiful hair cut off and sold to make a wig. Meanwhile, Jim decides to sell his watch to buy Della a beautiful set of combs made out of tortoiseshell and jewels for her lovely, knee-length brown hair. Each is surprised to find the gift they chose rendered useless, yet each is pleased with the gift that they received, because it represents their love for one another.
My experiences with the gifts that I have received have been not always been good. As a child some of my birthday gifts from guests have turned-out to be stainless steel jugs/plates/spoons, antique candle-stands, saucers to eat porridge, bone-china mugs (that my mother never let me use them as a child since she thought I would break them)etc. Not that I expected them, but they failed to thrill me as well. In hindsight, perhaps my guests could have been a bit more imaginative about a child’s world, his likes and dislikes. I am sure that all of us keep receiving gifts that we do not know what to do with and hence either pass it to someone or redirect them to those whom we think might have better use.
The value of a gift is measured not always by the material cost, instead many times by the intention with which they are given. The gifts of nature as well ‘the gift of Magi’ were prized despite they having less material value or direct utility.
Organizations need to understand the art of gifting (rewards, awards & recognitions) is not always in heavy monetary off-loads, rather in giving something to the employees that they truly treasure, with the best intentions that hovers around benefiting or recognizing an employee for what he/she truly deserves. In the same breath, let me add that I am not at all suggesting that gifts should always have lesser monetary value. Gifts require good intention and a bit of imagination to make them valued and treasured by the recipient.
Meanwhile, I am once again looking forward to tomorrow morning’s sunshine and the breeze mocktail (not cocktail since I am teetotaler) treat…Hope it doen't rain!
Monday, November 14, 2011
Happy Children's Day
Steve Jobs was put-up for adoption by his unmarried parents as reportedly Steve’s maternal grandfather was opposed to the idea of his daughter marrying a Syrian muslim immigrant. Their loss was the gain of Paul and Clara Jobs who adopted him and gave Steve not only their name but more importantly a home. It was in this home that Steve Jobs learnt the first lessons of life that went on to define him as an individual and professional. “Growing up with Paul and Clara Jobs – a high school dropout with a passion for mechanics and his salt-of-the-earth wife who was working as a bookkeeper – the couple who had adopted him soon after birth, the child Steve learnt many profound lessons. Not only that he was ‘chosen' and ‘special,' rather than just ‘abandoned,' but also that craftsmanship is important. “Steve, this is your workbench now,” Paul had told him when marking off a section of the table in the garage. “I thought my dad's sense of design was pretty good, because he knew how to build anything. If we needed a cabinet, he would build it. When he built our fence, he gave me a hammer so I could work with him,” Jobs would reminisce. Fifty years later the fence still surrounds the back and side yards of the house in Mountain View, informs Isaacson. “As Jobs showed it off to me, he caressed the stockade panels and recalled a lesson that his father implanted deeply in him. It was important, his father said, to craft the backs of cabinets and fences properly, even though they were hidden. ‘He loved doing things right. He even cared about the look of the parts you couldn't see.'”
I am sure that down the years looking at how Steve was molded into an iconic entrepreneur, his biological parents would have repented even more that they could not retain him. Steve, even in his later years, continued to identify his foster parents Paul and Clara jobs as his real dad and mom. Parents play such a huge role in nurturing a child’s present and shaping her/his future. For Steve Jobs, if his biological parents could not give him anything except ‘birth’, his foster parents gave everything to him except ‘birth’. The latter was definitely more precious for the child in every possible way.
Can you take enough time-out from your work and give the same ‘attention’ to your kid today? We may not be giving our kids up for adoption but are we doing more than just giving them ‘birth’ and arranging provisions for them? Are we? (The ‘attention’ here should not be read as being he over-zealous parent but in taking her/him through a journey of self-discovery and lifelong learning).
“From the start of Nooyi’s tenure at the head of PepsiCo, she wrote personal notes every quarter to the spouses of her executives, but still felt she wasn’t doing enough to forge the bonds of a ‘PepsiCo family’. After a trip back to India, she was reminded that in the Indian family, you are always your parents’ children; she realised that her executives were all kids once, too, and decided to start writing to their parents every quarter as well – something an American CEO would never dream of. The response, in Nooyi’s words, was “huge”.
Can our organizations help their employees to be better parents by simply giving them the flexibility in balancing their work and life schedules? Being there for one’s child first performance, first day at school, the parents-teacher meet, annual day, taking kids and his friends out for an ice-cream and similar small but precious moments for the kid could give them their best childhood gifts and their parent unimaginable happiness. The same happiness they bring back to work and convert it into ‘value’ for the organization and the society. Believe me that in doing so organizations do not lose anything, if at all they stand to gain!
Today as 'Happy Children's Day' is being celebrated across India (coinciding with the birth of our first prime minister Jawarlal Nehru), I sincerely hope that all our kids are really 'happy'.
Happy Children’s Day!
I am sure that down the years looking at how Steve was molded into an iconic entrepreneur, his biological parents would have repented even more that they could not retain him. Steve, even in his later years, continued to identify his foster parents Paul and Clara jobs as his real dad and mom. Parents play such a huge role in nurturing a child’s present and shaping her/his future. For Steve Jobs, if his biological parents could not give him anything except ‘birth’, his foster parents gave everything to him except ‘birth’. The latter was definitely more precious for the child in every possible way.
Can you take enough time-out from your work and give the same ‘attention’ to your kid today? We may not be giving our kids up for adoption but are we doing more than just giving them ‘birth’ and arranging provisions for them? Are we? (The ‘attention’ here should not be read as being he over-zealous parent but in taking her/him through a journey of self-discovery and lifelong learning).
“From the start of Nooyi’s tenure at the head of PepsiCo, she wrote personal notes every quarter to the spouses of her executives, but still felt she wasn’t doing enough to forge the bonds of a ‘PepsiCo family’. After a trip back to India, she was reminded that in the Indian family, you are always your parents’ children; she realised that her executives were all kids once, too, and decided to start writing to their parents every quarter as well – something an American CEO would never dream of. The response, in Nooyi’s words, was “huge”.
Can our organizations help their employees to be better parents by simply giving them the flexibility in balancing their work and life schedules? Being there for one’s child first performance, first day at school, the parents-teacher meet, annual day, taking kids and his friends out for an ice-cream and similar small but precious moments for the kid could give them their best childhood gifts and their parent unimaginable happiness. The same happiness they bring back to work and convert it into ‘value’ for the organization and the society. Believe me that in doing so organizations do not lose anything, if at all they stand to gain!
Today as 'Happy Children's Day' is being celebrated across India (coinciding with the birth of our first prime minister Jawarlal Nehru), I sincerely hope that all our kids are really 'happy'.
Happy Children’s Day!
Thursday, November 10, 2011
The Gandhi-Hazare Dilemma
Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s speech read-out in absentia at a rally in Chamoli, Uttarakhand said that corruption cannot be fought only by speeches. The attempt is obviously to take-on social activist Anna Hazare. Well! Corruption cannot be fought only by speeches, agreed, but it also cannot be fought by ‘in-action’ which most of our political parties have done ‘actively’ over the years, as well. Being fair to Anna, atleast someone is raising the voice and loud enough to vibrate the ear-drums and the ground beneath of our political ‘Kumbhakarans’, having some chance of changing intent and shaping better action.
Goal achievement needs voice, intent and action and in the same order. Anyone one element plucked from the string shall stall or abort goal accomplishment. The intent or the mindset is mainly driven by culture and environment. If the culture and environment are not conducive then the intent can never be right. The voices then remain as plain hollow rhetoric and hardly translate into concrete action.
Wipro’s SVP India, Africa and Middle-east Anand S Ankaran expressed his ambition to beat IBM India and be the number one IT services company in India and be among the top three in the Middle East. Ankaran thinks IBM India has been lucky to get deals of Bharti, Idea and Vodafone in India and Wipro’s hasn’t been aggressive enough. Well I do not what stopped them from being aggressive in the first place. Additionally I do not agree with Sankaran’s comment that for IBM the Indian operations are only a ‘tactical substitute for the slowdown in western markets’.
Only time shall tell whether Wipro’s SVP claim has all three ingredients for success i.e. voice, intent (driven by culture) and action. To negate IBM’s 100 year-old legacy and the excellent engagement culture that prevails in the company shall not be easy to take-on for Wipro which is very differently focused. The culture of autonomy, real empowerment, work-life balance (read my earlier story ‘Space, not Place’) and resulting engagement shall be tough to beat. It shall take a bullet for a bullet to hit the ‘Big Blue’, a company that holds more patents than any other U.S.-based technology company and has nine research laboratories worldwide. Its employees have garnered five Nobel Prizes, four Turing Awards, nine National Medals of Technology, and five National Medals of Science. Famous inventions by IBM include the automated teller machine (ATM), the floppy disk, the hard disk drive, the magnetic stripe card, the relational database, the Universal Product Code (UPC), the financial swap, SABRE airline reservation system, DRAM, and Watson artificial intelligence.
Just one more time, the culture shapes the intent and drives the action. Else, words remain as plain rhetoric. Hopefully Wipro can match words with intent and action.
Goal achievement needs voice, intent and action and in the same order. Anyone one element plucked from the string shall stall or abort goal accomplishment. The intent or the mindset is mainly driven by culture and environment. If the culture and environment are not conducive then the intent can never be right. The voices then remain as plain hollow rhetoric and hardly translate into concrete action.
Wipro’s SVP India, Africa and Middle-east Anand S Ankaran expressed his ambition to beat IBM India and be the number one IT services company in India and be among the top three in the Middle East. Ankaran thinks IBM India has been lucky to get deals of Bharti, Idea and Vodafone in India and Wipro’s hasn’t been aggressive enough. Well I do not what stopped them from being aggressive in the first place. Additionally I do not agree with Sankaran’s comment that for IBM the Indian operations are only a ‘tactical substitute for the slowdown in western markets’.
Only time shall tell whether Wipro’s SVP claim has all three ingredients for success i.e. voice, intent (driven by culture) and action. To negate IBM’s 100 year-old legacy and the excellent engagement culture that prevails in the company shall not be easy to take-on for Wipro which is very differently focused. The culture of autonomy, real empowerment, work-life balance (read my earlier story ‘Space, not Place’) and resulting engagement shall be tough to beat. It shall take a bullet for a bullet to hit the ‘Big Blue’, a company that holds more patents than any other U.S.-based technology company and has nine research laboratories worldwide. Its employees have garnered five Nobel Prizes, four Turing Awards, nine National Medals of Technology, and five National Medals of Science. Famous inventions by IBM include the automated teller machine (ATM), the floppy disk, the hard disk drive, the magnetic stripe card, the relational database, the Universal Product Code (UPC), the financial swap, SABRE airline reservation system, DRAM, and Watson artificial intelligence.
Just one more time, the culture shapes the intent and drives the action. Else, words remain as plain rhetoric. Hopefully Wipro can match words with intent and action.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Home Cooked
Our cook always struggles to keep sync with the clock. On more days then not she turns-up well 30-60 minutes later then her appointed time, much to the annoyance of my better-half. Vandana has always been very empathetic to our cook but her repeated errors made it impossible for Vandana to keep quiet. Few days back Vandana issued her a mild warning and put her on a week’s probation. Last Sunday we were expecting a couple over lunch and Vandana has sensitized our cook well in time so that she is punctual on Sunday. Till Saturday our cook showed much improved date with the clock, much to the relief of Vandana for she expected the trend to follow on Sunday as well. But her worst fears seemed to be coming true when our cook did not turn-up even when the clock struck 12 noon. Vandana was furious and nervous. She kept marching inside our living room murmuring to herself that she should not have trusted our cook. I tried to assure her that in worst case scenario we shall order something from the nearby restaurant. This however annoyed her even more and for some strange reason, she held me responsible for all this mess. I, however, could not understand how I could have prompted our cook’s inordinate delay. May be I had become something like Ra-One who has some strange powers. Our guests were to arrive anytime and I could well understand Vandana’s frustration as the host & lady of the house to find herself short of extending a warm welcome to them.
Finally, she decided to take-charge of the situation and took-over the kitchen affairs. Vandana had made-up her time to show our cook the door, whenever she arrives. Hardly had Vandana stepped inside the kitchen that our cook arrived and rushed to the war-front. Vandana did not react and, kept a dignified silence. The cook started to chop the vegetables and other cooking chores. However she also read Vandana’s silence and knew that she was not the least pleased. The cook while doing her job explained the reason for the delay (which may or may not be convincing at that time) but in the course of the conversation Vandana could understand that our cook had not eaten anything since morning and had even refused snack in the other house she worked just to ensure that she is no more delayed for coming to our place. And the next moment while our cook was cooking for our guests, Vandana was preparing breakfast for our cook. Vandana’s anger has disappeared and she ensured that our cook first had something to eat before she did her cooking. Our cook on her part cooked with speed and made sure that tasty hot food was served to our guests in time.
This could pass-off as a mere incident but looking at this a bit deeper, there is an engagement lesson for the managers. Vandana’s decision to control her outburst even in the situation that threatened a crisis of sorts helped her to avoid an embarrassment & self-guilt (imagine had Vandana discovered about the state of hunger of cook later and had given her marching orders before that). Not only this but kind of engagement that Vandana could create in the cook for her job, would last longer than Sunday. The next day Vandana did not forget to appreciate the cook for the delicious food.
Flexibility in managing day to day affairs, deep empathy, controlled reaction to provocative situations and timely appreciation could go a long way in creating strong engagement.
Finally, she decided to take-charge of the situation and took-over the kitchen affairs. Vandana had made-up her time to show our cook the door, whenever she arrives. Hardly had Vandana stepped inside the kitchen that our cook arrived and rushed to the war-front. Vandana did not react and, kept a dignified silence. The cook started to chop the vegetables and other cooking chores. However she also read Vandana’s silence and knew that she was not the least pleased. The cook while doing her job explained the reason for the delay (which may or may not be convincing at that time) but in the course of the conversation Vandana could understand that our cook had not eaten anything since morning and had even refused snack in the other house she worked just to ensure that she is no more delayed for coming to our place. And the next moment while our cook was cooking for our guests, Vandana was preparing breakfast for our cook. Vandana’s anger has disappeared and she ensured that our cook first had something to eat before she did her cooking. Our cook on her part cooked with speed and made sure that tasty hot food was served to our guests in time.
This could pass-off as a mere incident but looking at this a bit deeper, there is an engagement lesson for the managers. Vandana’s decision to control her outburst even in the situation that threatened a crisis of sorts helped her to avoid an embarrassment & self-guilt (imagine had Vandana discovered about the state of hunger of cook later and had given her marching orders before that). Not only this but kind of engagement that Vandana could create in the cook for her job, would last longer than Sunday. The next day Vandana did not forget to appreciate the cook for the delicious food.
Flexibility in managing day to day affairs, deep empathy, controlled reaction to provocative situations and timely appreciation could go a long way in creating strong engagement.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Bad time to 'Claim' but excellent time to 'Tame'
Major IT firm in India are experiencing a sudden fall in the attrition levels. Available reports show that the rate of at India’s second largest IT firm in terms of software export, Infosys Technologies has declined from 17 per cent to 15.6 per cent during the last two fiscal quarters. At Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country’s largest IT firm, the attrition rate dropped from a high of 14.8 per cent in the fiscal quarter ended on June 30, to 13.7 per cent in the quarter that closed on September 30. Meanwhile, the attrition rate at mid-size IT firm MindTree dropped from 25.6 per cent in June last to 21.7 per cent in the quarter ended on September 30.
Now what should be attributed as a cause? There are companies like Wipro who believe that this drop is because of the efforts of their HR departments. In Wipro the attrition level is down by 4.7%. In a recent interview (link) the CEO attributed to their success to variable pay and other HR efforts.
Many industry experts however feel that trend is developing now since people are apprehensive that the economic problems in Europe could escalate into a global downturn. To lend support to this claim it has been observed that the dip in attrition levels is sharpest at middle and senior levels. Additionally, there is a slowdown in hiring, as reported by many employment firms.
It is irrelevant to argue who can be credited the plunge in attrition-levels – the HR or the economy. Instead this period should be looked upon as an excellent opportunity for the companies to engage their people especially their talent. In a recent speech at AdAsia at New Delhi, the PepsiCo Chairman and Global CEO Indira Nooyi said that corporation world over must look at the crisis as an opportunity and need adapt and recognize the fact that they live in a new world. She feels that it is an excellent opportunity for companies to groom talent and build leadership pipeline. (link to speech)
The best time to engage employees is now when most of them have decided to ‘stay’ so that this trend continues even when greener pastures return and beckon. And as of now, this is not the best time to test the power to keep people in one’s fold (the better times shall be) but definitely a very good time to see people remain in fold tomorrow as well. Lon and short of the story is - Bad time to claim (attrition-drop) but excellent opportunity to tame (engage the talent).
Now what should be attributed as a cause? There are companies like Wipro who believe that this drop is because of the efforts of their HR departments. In Wipro the attrition level is down by 4.7%. In a recent interview (link) the CEO attributed to their success to variable pay and other HR efforts.
Many industry experts however feel that trend is developing now since people are apprehensive that the economic problems in Europe could escalate into a global downturn. To lend support to this claim it has been observed that the dip in attrition levels is sharpest at middle and senior levels. Additionally, there is a slowdown in hiring, as reported by many employment firms.
It is irrelevant to argue who can be credited the plunge in attrition-levels – the HR or the economy. Instead this period should be looked upon as an excellent opportunity for the companies to engage their people especially their talent. In a recent speech at AdAsia at New Delhi, the PepsiCo Chairman and Global CEO Indira Nooyi said that corporation world over must look at the crisis as an opportunity and need adapt and recognize the fact that they live in a new world. She feels that it is an excellent opportunity for companies to groom talent and build leadership pipeline. (link to speech)
The best time to engage employees is now when most of them have decided to ‘stay’ so that this trend continues even when greener pastures return and beckon. And as of now, this is not the best time to test the power to keep people in one’s fold (the better times shall be) but definitely a very good time to see people remain in fold tomorrow as well. Lon and short of the story is - Bad time to claim (attrition-drop) but excellent opportunity to tame (engage the talent).
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
The Value of Reward
How long will it take for you to earn 100 bucks? Considering an average salary of Rs. 90000 per month it should be around 3000 rupees per day and assuming that person works for 10 hours a day it works out to be 300 rupees per hour or 5 rupees per minute. With that calculation it should take around 20 minutes to earn 100 rupees. Just 20 minutes! Easy? Yes? But Spar hyper store, part of the lifestyle group at Bangalore thinks it otherwise.
On my first visit to the Spar hyper store I was given a membership card and told that on every purchase points shall accumulate. I never cared to ask details about how these points accumulate and what do I do with the points, till yesterday when I went to the store again sans my membership card that I forgot back home. I had shopped for good 6000 rupees and when the billing clerk asked me whether I had a membership card or not, I told him that I did not, however asked whether my points can still be added if I tell my contact details that must be fed in their system. He directed me to their Customer Service desk. After asking whether my points can be added, out of curiosity I asked how do I accumulate these points and what do I get by accumulating them (just to check whether all the pain that I took to add yesterday’s points were worth or not). He told me that every 100 rupee purchase amounts to one point and if I accumulate 143 points then I get a 100 rupees voucher. More simply the equation means I have to shop for Rs. 14300/- to get a Rs. 100 voucher (yes 14300/- rupees!). Then once I accumulate those many points I have to bring my Driving license, my voter ID card and my pan card to claim my 100 rupees voucher ( wow! I did not need these many documents to file my tax returns even). At the end of the conversation, I was thinking who wants the voucher!
Today I overheard someone saying ‘Belated Happy Diwali Wishes’. I was thinking in my head that Diwali is over for more than a week. What is the use of this wish? How would the recipient feel? Mere hollow formality?
In short moral of the story is any reward or appreciation cannot be either a lip-service or delayed so much that that appreciation or reward loses its significance.
Organizations must remember that appreciation delayed and degraded is appreciation denied!
On my first visit to the Spar hyper store I was given a membership card and told that on every purchase points shall accumulate. I never cared to ask details about how these points accumulate and what do I do with the points, till yesterday when I went to the store again sans my membership card that I forgot back home. I had shopped for good 6000 rupees and when the billing clerk asked me whether I had a membership card or not, I told him that I did not, however asked whether my points can still be added if I tell my contact details that must be fed in their system. He directed me to their Customer Service desk. After asking whether my points can be added, out of curiosity I asked how do I accumulate these points and what do I get by accumulating them (just to check whether all the pain that I took to add yesterday’s points were worth or not). He told me that every 100 rupee purchase amounts to one point and if I accumulate 143 points then I get a 100 rupees voucher. More simply the equation means I have to shop for Rs. 14300/- to get a Rs. 100 voucher (yes 14300/- rupees!). Then once I accumulate those many points I have to bring my Driving license, my voter ID card and my pan card to claim my 100 rupees voucher ( wow! I did not need these many documents to file my tax returns even). At the end of the conversation, I was thinking who wants the voucher!
Today I overheard someone saying ‘Belated Happy Diwali Wishes’. I was thinking in my head that Diwali is over for more than a week. What is the use of this wish? How would the recipient feel? Mere hollow formality?
In short moral of the story is any reward or appreciation cannot be either a lip-service or delayed so much that that appreciation or reward loses its significance.
Organizations must remember that appreciation delayed and degraded is appreciation denied!
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
All in the Family
Yesterday we were out in the afternoon and had planned lunch outside. We wanted something vegetarian and had contemplated to go to 'Up South', a south indian delicacy store. We were on Bannerghatta road and we were discussing lunch when my 5 year old son popped-up an idea. 'Why don't we go to the mall nearby and have our lunch at Mc D instead?' Both me and my wife did not like the idea although we could get veg. meals at Mc D too. But my son persisted and being too hungry as well we gave-in and went to Mc Donald's for our lunch. At Mc D we all got our expected and unexpected delights - my son got a Ra.One toy, we tried the newish Mc Flurry, besides our chosen burgers.
In short kids these days are well-informed and most of the times influence purchase decisions. And for parents the world revolves around their kids and family. The combination effect is that organizations approach of 'engaging' only the individual customer or employee will not work anymore. 'Engaging' the family, especially the kids is very significant. Recently a company organized a painting contest for the kids of their employees, another organized a picnic and yet another a free family health check-up camp. Onsite creches, scholarships for the bright kids of employees, social-service clubs for employee's spouses, sports-day for employees and their kids, mother's day, father's day, wishing family members of employees on their birthdays, sponsoring lunch/dinner on wedding anniversary of an employee, family's day-out in the office...there could be tons of such ideas.
In short kids these days are well-informed and most of the times influence purchase decisions. And for parents the world revolves around their kids and family. The combination effect is that organizations approach of 'engaging' only the individual customer or employee will not work anymore. 'Engaging' the family, especially the kids is very significant. Recently a company organized a painting contest for the kids of their employees, another organized a picnic and yet another a free family health check-up camp. Onsite creches, scholarships for the bright kids of employees, social-service clubs for employee's spouses, sports-day for employees and their kids, mother's day, father's day, wishing family members of employees on their birthdays, sponsoring lunch/dinner on wedding anniversary of an employee, family's day-out in the office...there could be tons of such ideas.
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