doHow

I got a very interesting insight last week as I remembered my German stay for almost 8 years. The majority of the society there demonstrates a self-driven desire to perfect whatever they are doing. In Brazil, where I stayed for 5 years, on the other hand one finds a way out through the “Jeitinho Brasileiro”. In India we talk about the “Jugad”.

In the colloquial day to day English in India, whenever we want to delegate writing a letter, we first ask “Do you know how to write a letter?” and then at times “Can you please write a letter? In Brazil one asks “Vôce sabe como escrever uma carta?” and then ask “Pode escrever uma carta por favor? Whereas in Germany one asks directly „Können sie einen Brief schreiben?” – no one asks „Wissen Sie einen  Brief schreiben?“, which is gramatically inappropriate.

In German the usage of the verb “Know” is grammatically inappropriate when it involves “Doing”!!! Whereas in the colloquial day to day English in India and in Brazil usage of the verb “Know” when “Doing” is involved is quite natural. This is when I realised that in almost all the trainings that we attend in India mainly Knowhow is imparted, in some programs with some simulations and exercises for the “doHow” though. However there is hardly any program where only the “doHow” training is done on the job.

Supporting this grammatical phenomenon, the vocational training in Germany and many European countries is quite matured and the focus is just the “doHow” with Knowhow being an obvious part of the “doHow”. Unfortunately in India even the Diploma institutes and Industrial Training Institutes generate graduates who have good knowhow but lack “doHow” resulting in the competency gap that one keeps discussing and debating in all forums.

 
With this insight when I thought of the way skills were imparted in the good olden days all over the world, it was quite insightful that the main focus was on the “doHow”.

On the other hand, I realised that in today’s world of extreme competition, free access to knowhow through internet and the drive to get quick returns, using mobile technology posing challenging questions that one can answer during the normal working can result in a “doHow” revolution.

Now my challenge is to start the “doHow” revolution and achieve Sustainable Profitable Growth. I will surely share my experience with “doHow”. 

Manufacturing Competetiveness

Last week on Friday, 7th November 2013, during the national quality summit organized by the CII, lot of discussions were held about the manufacturing competitiveness in India.

I thought of writing this blog to record my thoughts of the enormous HIDDEN potential we have in our country that can be harnessed to reach great heights.

I would like to start by stating our JUGAD ability as a huge strength to improvise, that we learn from a very early age due to a huge uncertainty in the daily routine. This surely is not the case with the countries dominated by manufacturing industry. Are we using this huge JUGAD potential???

Let me share my views about the competence and qualification. We all know that we need to have exceptional merit or connections, good resources,.... to get qualified. On the other hand, ones landing in Industrial Training Institutes not necessarily are incapable. Thus it is really not uncommon, especially to have the fresh graduates as front line managers with significantly less competence that the workmen. Thus the FRONT LINE MANAGERS normally have a role of leading senior and more intelligent subordinates. Even with a good lot of leadership experience this kind of a team to lead is quite challenging. Just imagining their condition and their effectiveness. It is quite interestingly different in the advanced manufacturing economies, where education in based on merit and generally the less capable ones end up as workers, making the life of Front Line Managers easier. Do our workmen need FRONT LINE MANAGERS???

In all the advanced manufacturing countries the basic livelihood is not endangered, since arbitrary firing is not easy and even if a worker were to be fired, the social security system supports in some way. Whereas in India, unfortunately, many companies, the big ones, pride themselves in flexible manpower - outsourced CONTRACT workmen who can be "Hired and Fired" at will. Some companies come up with similar models but with different terminology of "On Job Trainees", Temporaries, etc. Just imagine what would be going through a worker who is either a temporary or a contract workmen for years - sometimes > 10 Y. Will these CONTRACT workmen be engaged with the company???

Imagine how it would be when we get the workmen fully engaged by first ensuring PEOPLE QUALITY and DIGNITY before product/service quality.
Imagine how it would be if we get our workmen to take on some coordinating roles on rotation to become a SELF MANAGING TEAM without the front line manager.
Imagine a system of remuneration based on CONTINUOUS LEARNING and TEACHING using the Jugad abilities.

The enormous hidden potential can in my opinion only be released provided we relook at some conventional wisdom, like our payment systems, hierarchical structure, accountability for down stream performance, etc. You may want to check out the functional value stream, BITS and Timeout in the following L2L system presentation.

 

Cascaded Reviews

Imagine how it would have been if our bodies needed our conscious attention for the basic delivery process and now think how much of your conscious attention is being given to the basic delivery process in your organisation. Cascaded reviews when implemented properly can lead to the same situation as in our bodies. However wrongly done leads to Micromanagement this is what that goes on with our bodies in the ICU’s!

In my earlier blog I had explained how the closed loop control can be introduced in the organisations. A key success factor is the intelligence that goes in through the review process. I very briefly want to reiterate what would be reviewed: Target, Accurate and traceable Actual Situation, Current Forecast, Measures for all KPIs/KRAs are what that needs to be reviewed at a frequency appropriate to the clock speed.

In life all of us want to succeed. Success not only meets the targets but also breeds further success. How can success be made systematic in nature? This is when the cascaded review comes into play. When I mean cascaded review, I mean that the lower hierarchy level must have reviewed at least twice before the respective hierarchy level reviews. Again the review is very simply done always for the Target, Accurate and traceable Actual Situation, Current Forecast, Measures for all KPIs/KRAs at an appropriate frequency with all the involved functions, so that upward value added reporting is done and not the upward delegation. Thus I believe this is the starting point to give the higher hierarchy level the confidence and thus refrain from Micromanagement. However I must caution that a certain amount of transformation, especially concerning the true capabilities in people, must take place in the entire organisation before such a cascaded review with reducing frequency can take place. Otherwise the cascaded reviews can become another wording for Micromanagement.

When correctly executed cascaded reviews frees enormous amount of management bandwidth to think and implement strategies for profitable growth, which is the most essential oxygen for any business. This can be achieved, since through the cascaded reviews the entire organisation performs delivery of products and services on its own – as if this were sub-consciously done. This is nothing different from nature where everything is cyclic and rhythmic. The other hidden benefit of cascaded review is the continuous learning in an organisation as well as empowerment with information.

I welcome you to reflect by comparing your organisation to the human body analogically and checking if all the routine tasks are being performed without conscious effort. Should this be the case the entire organisation is truly world class and would certainly boast of sustainable profitable growth over the last few years. Should this not be the case, then working on freeing the bandwidth of the top management for concentrating on strategies to achieve profitable inclusive growth can be the first step. I personally used to get very enthused whenever I reflected thus.

The last success factor is to communicate, communicate and communicate. Communicating the right ant the relevant topics is of course extremely important and should the cascaded reviews take place, the contents of the communication automatically become the most important and relevant. Apart from this just the review itself serves as a good communication medium, especially for the various functions to see the big picture and align their actions to what is important and relevant.

Happy Reflecting!!!

Sustainable Success

The saying success breeds success is very true even for organizations. Precisely this is why sustainable success with recognitions and awards is very much essential for the psychological health of the organization.

That is why I have this success factor up in my listing even before looking into how and organisation can achieve this. I would like to use the analogy of geeting good grades in school or college to put forth my point of view.

How frequently have you come across students who haven't been doing well through out the year, but get esceptionally high grades and end up with recognitions and awards. I am sure you have found some. Have these been able to repeat similar success on a sustainable basis, year after year? Now I am quite sure that you would not find anyone!

Getting recognitions and awards on a consistent basis not only gives us a pat on the back but also reinforces our approaches and gives our brain a sense of security which in results in the increase of dopamine, a simple organic chemical in our body. Increased dopamine provides a positive feeling that is conducive for further learning and discovery.

Imagine what positive energy will be flowing around in organisations with high dopamine employees!!!

How are we going to get to this stage can be answered easily if we check out the stretch we have in our targets. Are the targets stretched enough to encourage the additional learning and discovery but easy enough to sense success, get recognized for the success and get awards. Many a times it may also be necessary to choose to participate in such events where competition is not that severe, especially at the early stage of an organization wanting to become world-class.

I will explain my  though process on target setting in the Goal and Role clarity blog.

For now I want to conclude by suggesting to create an environment and set targets that are achieveable so that success can breed success.