Motivation

I think one of the essential things that that I see lacking in educational institutions (vis-à-vis industries), is a motivating environment.  There is a saying, ‘you cannot motivate anybody; all you can do is to create a motivating environment’. Very true. It’s left to an individual whether to get motivated or not in such environment. Nevertheless, what’s the harm in creating a better motivating environment if it helps most of them perform better and enthuses people do more?

What’s required then to create such envt.? Just a few simple steps:

• Appreciate people (either junior or senior) for doing good work, even small ones. It carries a long-way (People may be poor, but why should there be the poverty for good words?)
• Recognize or reward (again it can also be small) people for their accomplishments
• Mention about their good deed in meetings and other occasions
• After recognizing their feat, give them some more tasks, even tougher ones, I bet, they will be happy to take it up
• Don’t reprimand them for first few mistakes; nobody does mistakes deliberately. Instead encourage by asking them to learn from those mistakes and improve upon it. Most importantly, don’t carry it along by making that person the scapegoat for every blunder from there on
• Ask them to share their experience with others to spread the news. See if s/he can be made the ‘go to guy’ for such solutions
• and there may be many more ...

Well, I’m not generalizing my first statement; there are exceptions. But these points are based on my observations in many institutions. So I’m confident that there’s some truth in it then! :-)

Open up!

Why is it that people seem to stifle or hold back in expressing themselves in the office environment especially in colleges? Why is it that they look up to their higher ups for taking even smaller decisions? Why is it that they don’t want to take chances in doing new things? Why don’t they question the status quo? Why do they carry on with same old, routine, manual, ineffective procedures? Well, answer seems to be obvious– they don’t want to risk themselves by getting into any trouble!

Now look at the other side of it. Express yourself clearly to avoid any communication gaps and misunderstandings. I see people are not able to delineate between official / business relationships and personal relationships. If you are not satisfied with the work done by any of your colleague friends, is it possible to articulate it to him / her clearly and directly? I bet if it's possible in such environment for you think that s/he will feel bad if you say so. (It’s also difficult because you expect a favor from him / her in the future!). Moreover, the likelihood of that colleague taking it personally and carrying it along is also higher. That’s got to do with the Indian culture anyway! I’m still finding a way out of this. :-)

Is it that in a more hierarchical org. structure, making even trivial decisions becomes non-trivial? Does the manager need to decide which color & font to use for the presentation, whether to come by the college bus or not, whether to conduct the class in room no. 100 or 101!? Or is it the trend set by the superiors themselves by not empowering their subordinates enough – a chicken-egg problem?

The net result of it – people become ‘busy’ (?) in their mundane work without questioning the status quo, accepting whatever standards or procedures, not realizing inefficiency in the system, seemingly happy  in their own comfort zones. :-) Probably, that’s what may be expected of them too – any change to the system is a pain for everybody.  Why take that chance anyway? Little they realize that this questioning attitude itself is a great trait of a leader. Remember, there is no charm in life, if you don't take risks. I think we need open up more and see the outside world …!

Professionalism and College Day function

Couldn't resist writing this blog after attending a college day function few days back!  It was for 3 days with one objective each day. Conducting it for 3 days with different committees to look after various functions like stage preparation, decoration, prize distribution, cultural program, food, transport, discipline, etc. is certainly commendable. A strong and cohesive coordination among these committees was very much required for a smooth running of these events. Kudos to all those who were involved in those committees.

However, there are many things that could have been done better which would have brought in more professionalism into the whole exercise. Am mentioning a few of them (primarily focusing on the formal stage function) though to limit the length of this blog entry:

1.  No. of people on the dais or stage - Ideally, those people who are going to speak in the function (where the no. wouldn't exceed 5-6) will be sitting on the stage. Those who don’t speak, who do not have any reasons to sit there, shouldn’t be sitting there, whatever may be the relationships that they have with the organizers or sponsors; it certainly doesn’t set the right encomium for the stage. I thought it’s only on the first day. To my surprise, I could see it happening all 3 days.

To top it, they were being greeted with flower bouquets by dignitaries and their names were also mentioned during ‘vote of thanks’ for their support! That looked really funny :-) Remember sitting among the audience is not a disgrace; rather, sitting on a stage without any momentous reason, well ...!?

I have seen in a NDTV program, where our former President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam sitting among the audience when a debate over a hot topic was being discussed with many businessmen and other dignitaries on the stage. In fact, for some time he was sitting on floor of the stage whilst other dignitaries were sitting on their chairs, when he was putting across his side of the arguments. That was a quite amazing program!

2. Prize / certificate distribution – A simple one. If there are too many people who are eligible to receive the prizes, usually the top category ones are given the prizes on the final day, managing rest of them in an earlier function say, at each college level.  So that, the main prize distribution will complete in 10-15 min. Believe it or not, the no. of people who were called on the stage to receive their certificates was, hold your breath ... 450+!! I pity the chief guest who gave away these awards and appreciate his patience.

3. Reading the reports on the stage – another common sense. It’s a usual practice to read school / college reports during such functions mentioning the highlights of various activities done in the school / college for the previous year. Audience will start getting restless if it takes more than 5-6 min to read the report. Again, believe it or not, around 10 – 12 reports of various colleges were read on this day which were very ‘dry’ to listen to.  Apparently many reports started with the lines, ‘this college started on so-and-so day and year, by so-and-so, with ...’.  Just a few highlighting points with 1 min per college would have been more than sufficient. Rest of the points could have been displayed on the big screen that was used for the function. God saved the people (both on and off the stage) from boredom that day!

4.  During its ‘final review’ meeting (just before the event), I could see a convener still using PPT of the previous year’s function, editing it and fixing the mistakes in front of 40-50 people from various committees (as if it was being edited for the first time this year!)

The chief guest on the first day had advised students to have ‘common sense’ which is very important when they are coming out of the college. The whole function seemed to contradict his very words!

Yes, I know it’s easier to criticize about anything so long as you are not part of it. Well, I don’t intend to do it here and that’s not the objective of this blog too. Having firsthand experience in organizing functions at various levels and committees, having seen them being conducted professionally in other occasions, I think I can take that freedom to express myself to improve things in future - that's my humble submission.

Campus Interviews

Had an opportunity yesterday to accompany our engg. students to a campus selection process. Needless to say, it was a nice experience esp. to see the expressions and thoughts of students about the whole process. Another incident which demonstrated students' mindset!

This Indian-based IT company (name is immaterial here though) is a mid-sized, quite established one (about 350 people) and has a pretty good name in the area. They are doing a good techie projects in certain niche technology area. A very nice company for anybody to start with who likes to take challenging and interesting technical work. The company trains the students in the relevant technology before putting the freshers on board. Of course, it has to safe guard itself for the training cost by asking people to keep Rs, 150,000 safe deposit and sign a 3-year bond. If anybody breaks the bond within 3 years, the employee has to fore go this amount; they will pay this amount after 3 years with interest to the employees if they stick on, which perfectly makes sense.

Well, nothing new here. What's interesting is that the kind of reactions the students showed towards this bond (as if the company is asking for something really unusual and unexpected!)

• Somebody says, this amount is very high (even though the company facilitates to get a loan for this amount)
• Some said, 3 years is too much a period - what do I do if I get another company by then?
• Another says, my parents are not willing to pay this amount / they're not happy / you can try for another company
• One more - my friends said, the experience in this company is not considered that well outside; so I'll get stuck into this for 3 years
• One didn't even have the hard copy of his resume (even though it was informed to them earlier)

The scenario looked as if they are being asked to sign the bond then and there itself before even writing the written-test! :-) Many of them had a kind of over confidence that they will easily sail through the written-test, interview, etc. as if the company is welcoming them with the red carpet!

Most of them couldn't clear the written-test leave alone the interview. Those who go through the written-test, couldn't get through the interview. Only one got selected finally!

Well, my intention here is not to criticize the students who went through this process. All I'm saying is to have an "open and accepting mind" in such situations. Before taking any such decisions, weigh the pros and cons more objectively than looking through an emotional filter. Let me explain it through a simple scenario:

Fine, if one joins the company it's quite unlikely that s/he would quit within an year. If s/he serves for 1 year, the total annual salary already pays off the bond amount. (Salary was Rs. 75,000 higher than the bond amount in this case). To top it, if at all s/he decides to quit, it would be usually for a higher salary in another company (mind here that the chances of getting into another company with higher perks is better here as it adds to his/her experience which is the other side of it); in that case also, there won't be any loss if if s/he has to pay the bond amount. The kind of experience that one can get by working in such companies, no book or preaching can give it.

On the other hand, they can lose this golden opportunity by not joining it. Yes, there is a possibility of another better company coming for selection after this interview (As the colleges have a rule of 'one person one job'). Even in that case also, how sure are you to sail through its selection process. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Moreover, one can always join that other better company after a few years of experience in this. They don't close their gates. It's your skill and the learnability that companies look for in the new candidates not on what specific technology that s/he has worked on.

If you are a student, please consider this rationalized approach, analyze the situation more objectively and take the decisions accordingly. And for god's sake, don't just go by the words of people. Think, think and think a lot! :-) All the best!

Industry - Institute

One common tendency which a person couldn't resist is to compare things. Whether the comparison is between two different objects, persons, places, environments or whatever it may be, comparison just happens! I too am not an exception to it. (Kind of a justification to start this blog, yeah :-) )

They say 'You cannot compare apples to oranges'. But my take is that you still can compare them on certain parameters like the taste, the look, nutritional value, etc. at a time. Why am I saying so? After moving from an industry to institute, there are many things which I compare between these two even though these two big entities drastically differ in many parameters and perspectives.

One of the parameters I wish to compare is the 'work atmosphere'. It's the atmosphere w.r.t. the people so to say (barring the student community which needs a different view point to address. Am planning to write on this parameter too on another day).

I think due to the hierarchical structure (unlike the claimed flat structure in the industries) the kind of atmosphere in the institutes are a little restrictive and rigid to some extent. Boss-subordinate system is pretty much prevailing. People look for inputs and guidance to carry out even small things. Decision making people are not so open to new ideas, suggestions or changes. Lack of 'exposure' to external world is seen pretty conspicuously. This trend is percolating down to students level also. They hardly know about things happening outside the college. (Barring their interesting things like movies, gossips, mobile, etc. may be).

This trend should change and should start from the top-level. It should help the students also then.