HBO final Session

Emotional intelligence for me is an striking the right balance between the heart and the brain The first step towards an effective group starts with our ownself.Emotional intelligence at a personal level is understanding and recognizing your feelings but at the same time regulating the way one reacts. Once we are able to achieve that the next stpe is understanding the emotions of other people in the group and regulating them. If we are able to achieve both these things it'll pave way for an effective individual and an effective group.

              Personally i fell i am able to come to terms with my emtions and am able to regulate them effectively. But when it comes to understanding the emotions of other people in the group i have a distance to go as far as regulating the emotions of other people in the group is concerned. So the first step towards developing this capabitlity is to start with my own CAN group. During this break i am going to sit down and give a thought about the emotions of all the people in the group. I need to understand how i could have handled situations better had i understood the emotions of the people in the CAN group. I hope this would help me drive the group towards an effective group.

What do you think the professor should stop doing? 

In my opinion HBO is one of the most important subjects that iam learning in my MBA. After all soft skills are one of the most important skill set of a manager. However I feel that the course cramped in one week and back to back sessions kills the interest after the third day. We can do more justice to the learning and the course had it been spread out. More role plays than theory sessions would increase the learning curve.

What do you think I should keep doing? 

The courser content is very informative and the readings are very relevant so it should be continueed in its present format.

What do you think I should start doing

Encourage more class participation. Areas of improvement could be given to the people during the course rather than after the course so that the feedback can be implemented. The progress towards the area of improvement would be a very valuable feedback at the end of the course.

HBO session 8-9

Key Insights:

As a manager one key role for all of us is people management. To ensure maximum productivity from the people it is necessary to   undersatnd what motivates the each individual in the team. Some people are self motivated and derive motivation from themselves. But the majority of people get motivation from material reward, recogniation or challenge. As future manager I should have a clear understanding of the company's expectation from the individuals of my team. The challenge as a manager make the two ends "drivers of motivation for the

 individual" and "company's expectation" meet. Since motivated employee is most productive, motivation is a very critical factor when managing a team 

From the class discussion today i understand that Billy gets his motivation from being able to give time to his hobbies. Since he is working for the government firing him is not an option. Maximum work pressure for Billy occurs in the last ten days of the month, from 20-30th of the month. The company expects that there is no delay in addressing customer complaints, whereas billy feels motivated when he is giving time to his hobbies. One of the point highlighted in the class was really insightful. As a manager Hidayat should ensure that Billy is communicated that he has to focus on the job between 20th and 30th of the month and rest of the time he could use for his hobbies. I guess this soution reconciles both the ends.

HBO session 5-6

Key Insights:

I would like to give my thoughts on the traditional team and a virtuoso team.

Personally i feel that virtuoso teams are a must in the kind of competitive world that we are living in. All the ambitious projects would require an above average strategy and a virtuoso team is more likely to come out successfully. However it also a challenge strike the right balance between the egos and the task at hand. Hence it emphasis the role of the leader or the facilitator. Therefore the most important element of the virtuoso team is perhaps the leader or the facilitator of such a virtuoso group.

I would like to relate this to a old English movie " Twelve angry men". The movie is about a trial where twelve distinguished men assemble to decide on a murder mystery about a boy murdering his father. All of them have their personal clashes and egos. They are given a short deadline to discuss and come out with a consensus on the decision. If all the people were not focused probably in the haste to come out with a decision they have reached on consensus which may or mat not be just. However in the movie there is one person who acts as a leader and convinces and persuades all the people to think logically and stay focused. He facilitates the discussion in an amazing fashion and all the twelve men eventually keep their personal prejudice and egos apart and come out with a well thought decision. They declare the boy innocent.

So i understand that the success of the virtuoso team depends a lot on the leader rather than the individual personalities in the team. 

HBO Session 3-4

My contribution to the class discussion:

One of the key take away from today's class was the concept of Institutionalizing the culture of change.

Ricardo Semler (Semco), Jack Welch (GE), the CEO of Walmart all brought change to the culture of their organizations.

But does the culture of change exist as long as the person who brought about the change or even beyond that?

I feel that culture is not driven by the individuals. Ricardo Semler through the company policies has made sure that the culture of change is

institutionalized. The hiring policy ensured that the new employees who are recruited are a "cultural fit" to the culture of change. Hence the culture is carried forward

and is not dependent on a single individual.

Key Insights:

CAN group is one of the most fruitful experience at AIM. I realized that the concept of the CAN group is to develop the leader in every individual at AIM. Different people have different expertise in different subjects. Hence as subjects changes, the facilitator or the leader changes. 

Coming to the case, Eric's thought of formulating a strategy for the company through team work did not work.

This reminds us of the importance of challenging  ASSUMPTIONS when the STRATEGIES do not produce the desired results. Eric had a preconceived notion that team work is the key to success. But he has not really though whether a team will serve the purpose in this situation, or there is some other combination like informal group, task group etc which could work. 

Thus i understand now that every failure needs an detailed review of not just the strategy followed but the the assumptions behind the strategy. 

HBO session 1-2

Key Insights:

Hiring:

The recruitment and the evaluation policy of Samco really struck me. I could relate the policy of involving other people in the unit for hiring and evaluation to my previous company (National Instruments- A Fortune 100 best company to work for). We had a policy where not just the manager and the HR but also the junior team members were involved in the hiring of new candidates. This ensured that people who were recruited were not just capable but also a cultural fit to the hiring unit and the company as a whole. In effect the entire policy translated in an excellent work environment, good employee performance, lesser attrition and lesser lay offs.

Strikes:

The company policy of not having any restriction on strikes and encouraging unions helps the employees understand that the company is sensitive to their needs and issues.Thus promotes a sense of responsilbility among the employees. I remember a client of our which happened to be a Truck manufacturing company ( Ashok Leyland) which had clear written instructions against strikes and unions. Even standing in groups and talking during breaks was not acceptable. The company was facing issues in productivity and retaining employees. I wonder does it have something to do with a restrictive environment, as a result of which the issues of the people are not addressed. Thus the employees were not happy to stay and quit jobs more often. As we learnt from the previous sessions that productivity is directly related to the happiness of the employees hence the productivity in this company is also bound to go down.

HBO SESSION:5 "The Tipping Point"

"Tipping Point" is one of the very interesting concepts that i have come across. I am amazed how the concept of tipping point can be applied to marketing, how products can be engineered to be successful even before the launch.

The importance of connectors can also be related to marketing. Professor Cruz once mentioned the concept of early alpha users or early adopters. I think these alpha users are also the connectors of some form who have the power to influence the mass. No doubt that companies are using these "connectors" into research partnerships and panels, just as Procter and Gamble are doing with their ground-breaking Tremor panel.

Summarizing i feel that Tipping Points are a reaffirmation of the potential for change and the power of intelligent action.  

The case on NYPD asserted that management practices are not restricted to the corporate world alone. The turn around of NYPD and subsequent reduction in the crime rate stands testimony to the fact.

HBO session 4: Setting the satge for an organizational change

In order to bring an immediate change a top down approach would be probably more successful than a bottom up approach.

The stepping stone towards changing the organization culture is changing the behavior of the people of the organization.

To align people with the new vision/culture, companies should award the people who work towards achieving the common goal

and penalize the people who have a negative. I understand that people who would be rewarded, would start liking the job and would continue to put efforts in the right direction and the others would automatically be left out. 

Implementing any strategy calls for firm decisions. There would be some people who would be in favour of change, some reluctant and some dead opposite to change. Thus one vital strategy should be to come up with some quick victories. It would ensure greater acceptance to the cultural change. This part was most appealing to me and is a key learning for future.

HBO Session 3: People are greatest asset

The Key Insights:

So far we have discussed how important are people to the organization. One of the key to engaging people to an organization is "Empowering the employees". Empowerment is imbibed into the culture of the company. Times have changed, and the command and control policy of the past will not work today. Persuading  and empowering is critical component to make the employees more productive.

In the era of War of Talent, the competition for retaining and hiring people is intense. The various tangible incentives that the companies provide can easily by copied or a new incentive can be invented. But what cannot be easily copied is the intangibles like the culture of the company. So for companies creating more and more innovative culture will be key to the successful management of their biggest asset "THE PEOPLE".

HBO Session 2: Corporate Culture

Key Insights:

"Corporate culture stands for pattern of assumptions that have been developed over time by a corporation and have been proven successful."

 An interesting question raised was. When do companies decide to change the Corporate Culture?

The answer lies in the definition of corporate culture above. When companies feel that the financial performance in the past has been going down, there is perhaps a flaw in the corporate culture. A change in culture thus can turn around a below average or an average performing company to an exceptional performer. Jack Welch's change to the culture of GE reaped future benefits in the financial performance.

 Chris Aregyris has explained this in a wonderful way. ASSUMPTIONS made by the founders stand for the CULTURE of the organization. These assumptions decide the ACTION/values/beliefs adopted by the organization. These actions yield to RESULTS/behaviour/performance of the firm. So if the company suffers a serious setback in results/financial performance of the company it is just not the action/values that needs to be re visited but also perhaps the assumptions/culture of the company. The ENRON debacle is one of the examples where the culture of the company failed completely. 

 My contribution:

Having a healthy corporation culture does not ensure the retention of the employees. Mindtree's culture has been appreciated by most of it's ex-employees. But still it has higher attrition rate than most it's rival companies. I had read a survey on attrition rate in Indian IT companies. The factors like on-site opportunities, job security and brand name took precedence over the company culture.

HBO session 1

There is a very strong relationship between the performance of the company and emotional engagement. Emotional engagement as per Hewitt can be summed up by the concept of      "Say Stay Strive", which means that an emotionally engaged employee talks positively about the company, is willing to stay and is willing to put extra efforts for the company. There may a number of instances where it becomes difficult to create an emotional engagement eg: when teams works from home. The ultimate onus thus lies on the manager to establish an emotional engagement with the employees. A simple telephone call could do the job in this case. It was observed by the examples given in the class that a manager who empowers the employees is likely to create an emotional engagement rather than an authoritarian manager. 

       High growth rate in Asia has created a seller's labor market, thus forcing the companies to be engaged in a "War for Talent". So companies are trying to create a complete ecosystem for the employees. Emotional engagement and other benefits seem to be a ploy to keep employees engaged in this ecosystem. After all an emotionally engaged employee will have a higher productivity.

Emotional engagement is subjective with respect to each employee. What could be engaging to one might not appeal to another. So the key to effective management lies in choosing the right people at the first place who fit in the company culture. So that it becomes much more easier to align and engage them to the company. Ritz Carlton is a classic example of this practice. However at the end of the day the manager should judge what would engage an employee. If he is successful the employees move towards the concept of "Say Stay and Strive" and thus increase the overall productivity of the company.