Ways to minimize the BOSS Effect in Meetings

I saw this on LinkedIn posted by a friend of mine.

Quote

meetings are funny. productivity is determined by how focussed or awake the boss is. you can see group attention change as does boss'

Unquote

It is so true that most of would not even think of disagreeing with the situation. This is result of our approach of one or many of the following:

1. Rule number 9 & 10| Rule 9—BOSS is always right| Rule 10 – If BOSS is wrong refer rule 9
   
2. Several centuries of having ruled under slavery like environment, differing with BOSS is often considered to be courageous (read suicidal)
   
3. Path of easy approach
   
4. Avoiding confrontation
   
5. …
   

The meetings as I have experienced are of three types:

1. Exploratory
   
   1. These meetings are often to develop New Plan / New Approaches/ New strategies
      
   2. Most often the agenda is futuristic
      
   3. The current information is only used to look into future (forecast or predict)
      
   4. It is more like brainstorming
      
2. Review
   
   1. These meeting are for reviewing
      
      1. the status of a project
         
      2. performance as against the target
         
      3. operations
         
      4. …
         
   2. These involve
      
      1. the presentation of data on performance
         
      2. comparative statements on performance
         
3. Information Sharing
   
   1. These are of the type where the senior is expected to communicate on certain important issues like union meeting progress, special business situation etc.
      

The last type is not an area of concern. I would try to put my thoughts on how to minimize impact of BOSS in first two type of meeting

Exploratory Meetings:

1. While the meeting is expected to be exploratory, it is necessary to bringing objectivity in the meeting. For example, if we are doing a meeting in to build a strategic plan for the business the steps that could help are
   
   1. Making the topic specific for example in place of saying Business Strategy we can "Strategy to meeting the risk ABC"
      
   2. Insistence of Home work on the topic and circulation of the opinion/ views prior to meeting (This rarely happens)
      
2. Most important of all these that BOSS should speak in the last. Most meeting would begin with a "lecture" by the BOSS. Making this last thing in the agenda itself can help in making meeting more productive.
   

Review Meetings:

1. The problem begins with not having an objective response to following questions on review:
   
   1. What to review?
      
      1. Can I say "Sales Actual versus Budget for a period" instead of saying Sales Department Performance
         
   2. Data for review
      
      1. Often the review comments or the comments on the performance would be subjective. For example "the sales have improved". Instead we should seek to know improved from "where to where in what period".
         
2. The review presentation should be made with data and interpretation based on information presented in following order
   
   1. Current Level of Performance
      
   2. Trend in the performance (minimum of 3 data points)
      
   3. Comparison of performance with target, benchmark etc
      
3. Interpretation must include the linkage to the process that has resulted in the change in performance.
   

I have tried to list the above based on my experience. These cannot eliminate the impact of BOSS on behavior during meeting, but would reduce. The most important step toward this would be acceptance of the BOSS to reduce his/her role in the meeting.

Management Lessons from Srimad Bhagvat Geeta

The more I reflect the more I get absorbed at how certain basic tenets do not change over time. Anyone who has read the book by Partha Bose "Alexander the Great's Art of Strategy" would agree with me that corporate strategy and warfare have not changed since then. I would dwell on that some time later. Continuing from the earlier issue, I would like to explore the aspects around Performance and Performance Management. This time I am picking up shlokas from Chapter 2 of Srimad Bhagawat Geeta.

"And if you do not engage in this righteous war, you will lose the dharma of your Self and glory, and be guilty of sin.''

"And all will for ever speak of your disgrace and such disgrace is worse than death itself for a man of honour.''

 

All of us engaged with the organization to perform a particular task (dharma) in a righteous manner. What is righteous is driven by the Values and Beliefs of the organization. In absence of Values and Beliefs the "Right" becomes subjective and can get trapped into interpretation of convenience.

If we do not perform our duty (Dharma) we are losing our self and would be guilty of misdeed (sin). We can probably make ourselves believe that we only acted / behaved as instructed, but a simple soul search will tell us the truth. One can lie to all but not to oneself. Abraham Lincoln quoted most appropriately

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

"Unknown"

People will long speak ill of errors and omissions committed by one. We often forget the goods done by individuals, but remember the misdeeds in granular details. We all remember the misdeeds of Indira Gandhi during emergency much more than her contribution to the country.

One must act based on what people would like to write in their epitaph rather than what people would say behind their back. When your life has ended (maybe after you have lived a long, long time), how would you like your friends to remember you? Write a dialogue between two of your friends. What do they say about you?

"Those who say that life is worth living at any cost have already written an epitaph of infamy, for there is no cause and no person that they will not betray to stay alive"

--- Sidney Hook

We must perform at levels where we can make the wish expressed by Iqbal in his famous lyrics true in organization.

"Khudi ko kar buland itna ke har taqder se pehle

Khuda bande se ye poche bata teri raza kia hai"

(simple meaning of this lyric is one must make oneself such that god would ask one before deciding one's fate)

We must also be aware of the forces that would prevent us from achieving this kind of success. We would definitely remember the famous story of a frog that succeeded only because it was deaf enough not to hear the discouraging calls by his friends.

We try to identify these others. Who are these other great warriors? They have to be warriors as they would either fight for your growth or against your growth. They could be one among your seniors, peers and at time even subordinates at your work place.

"Even the great warriors who have a high regard for you will then scorn you for having turned your back upon the war out of fear.''

 

The other formidable warriors are those who desire for pleasure/ opportunity towards your visible acts that may not righteous, even if you did it out of ignorance (We do have people who have sadistic pleasure in your failure). These people would prevent you from taking the right path partly out of ignorance and partly intentionally. It is these who would be more critical of you when you fail. Beware of them. Let them not transgress you from your path of success. Identify them as quickly as possible.

We would continue later to discuss how to work around and succeed without wasting energy to identify these warriors.

Learning Management tips from Scriptures

I have been pondering over to find relevance of Srimad Bhagwad Geeta to the way we manage our work more specific to the IT Industry business processes. I must also confess that these are my views and is not intended to hurt any individual or group in specific. Resemblance to any specific individual or group is mere coincidence.

In the series of these articles, I am going to pick a few shlokas from Srimad Bhagwad Geeta and explain the shloka from the spiritual point of view as explained by yogis and renowned speakers. I would then submit my interpretation of the same with reference to business processes in IT Industry.

Let's begin with a shloka in Chapter One of the Srimad Bhagwad Geeta

11. "So, while keeping to your respective stations in the several divisions, all of you should doubtlessly protect Bheeshma alone on all sides."

Excerpts from Commentary on above (Courtesy www.yatharthgeeta.com):

Duryodhan (The eldest of Kauravas – 100 brothers) commands all his chiefs to keep to their posts and yet protect Bheeshma on all sides. The Kaurav cannot be defeated if Bheeshma is safe and alive. So it is obligatory for all the Kaurav chiefs to defend Bheeshma rather than fight with the Pandav. Bheeshma is a form of delusion. A delusion is commonly defined as a false belief, and is used in everyday language to describe a belief that is either false, fanciful or derived from deception. So long as delusion is alive, unrighteous impulses cannot be vanquished. If delusion ceases, ignorance too ceases to exist. That which is free from delusion is eternal and unmanifest. Today we admire a sage for his virtue, but the very next day we grumble because we have seen him relishing delicacies. Devotion is shaken by suspicion of even the slightest flaw in the loved one. The impulse of righteousness is undermined and the ties with the object of affectionate devotion are broken.

Interpretation of commentary to IT Business Context

Can we look at the delusions we live in the workspace? Remember this workspace constitutes at least 30% of average working-life, may be many of us this could be as high as 50 %.

Senior Management lives in delusion that is surrounded by being nice rather than being factual. I am reminded of the famous couplet that we read in Sanskrit in school days. "Satyam Vada Priyam Vada …." Which means you must speak truth while you speak it nicely. Speak untruth nicely or speaking truth rudely does not help. I believe this is the essence of PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. Let us search our soul and find how often we provide feedback that is fact and nicely presented.

Rest of the organization lives in the delusion that absence of feedback means the performance or result is good. In early days of Process of Making anything (say sculpting), the performance/ result was assessed by the maker himself. There were no lines quality professional or managerial teams to give feedback. Self Assessment is core to the PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM.

We often classify an individual as GREAT PERFORMER (like the praise to the sage) and next moment we would brand the GREAT PERFORMER as UNFIT For the job (just as we did to the sage because we saw him enjoying delicacies).

Delusions can go only when IGNORANCE disappears. Who can make the IGNORANCE Disappear? I believe there are only 2 sources that can make this happen:

1. Self Actualization
   

   Ignorance is bliss is not true in most real life scenario. Examples
   

• Customers are not going be satisfied because we were ignorant to their need. (Often we are)
  
• Statutory and Regulatory authorities are not going to spare us because we are ignorant
  
• Employees are not going to consider non-availability just because management is ignorant of what an employee needs
  
• Shareholders are not going to be satisfied because we are ignorant about how to provide returns to them
  

The list can go on.

Do not blame others for your ignorance. Use the Body of Knowledge available to remove the IGNORANCE. This would actually raise each one of us in the real world and success would be at our beck and call. Body of Knowledge exists in various forms and some of them are Library, Books, Internet, and Experienced Individuals etc.

1. Nurturance by seniors
   

   Somewhere down the line, we forget how we were taught to speak or for matter of fact anything. The elders in family invested their time with us. They did it with pleasure and the first one to enjoy the success of we writing or speaking was them. Why we cannot behave like those elders in family? Are we not giving the time at the workplace if not more on par with the time with family?
   

   Nurturing the people in one's team is responsibility of the leader of the team. We need to recollect the earliest and probably even today recognized method of learning as GURUKULAM Method. Here the student learns under the guidance and care of the GURU. For most of us the work place is akin to GURUKULAM and our leaders must behave like a GURU.
   

Post Event Photographs

The event was a success that was enjoyed by one and all. Speakers liked it because of attendance and attention by the delegates. Approx 225 delegates participated the conference.

The delegates liked it because of the speakers and the take aways from the speakers.

Look at the pictures of the conference. The entire proceedings would be uploaded shortly. The pictures are available at http://cid-ce7469a16caebf88.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Threads%20of%20Excellence?authkey=WtjBfM0kcM0%24

My Views on Culture of Excellence

My views on the Culture of Excellence can be heard at the links given below

1. Excellence in Downturn
   

   http://www.tweetube.com/videos/preview?vid=OUehH5hwpyI
   

   
    

2. Excellence as a journey
   

   http://www.tweetube.com/videos/preview?vid=WGTBpAugCp8
   

   
    

3. Nationwide Survey on Excellence
   

   http://www.tweetube.com/videos/preview?vid=wCoDAxC32W4
   

   
    

4. Learning Approach
   

   http://www.tweetube.com/videos/preview?vid=IWvZ8uddBF0
   

   
    

5. Boardrooms discussion on Quality
   

   http://www.tweetube.com/videos/preview?vid=2L2jG1QFnH4
   

   
    

6. Approach to Quality certification
   

   http://www.tweetube.com/videos/preview?vid=Bz0WI4oujTk
   

   
    

7. Short Term vs Long Term
   

   http://www.tweetube.com/videos/preview?vid=Gi8sJwyqnGU
   

   
    

8. Going Beyond Checklist Approach
   

   http://www.tweetube.com/videos/preview?vid=cJCpeF-ojDE
   

   
    

9. Inspiration vs Direction
   

   http://www.tweetube.com/videos/preview?vid=QGrBYhn4dvA
   

   
    

10. Metrics of Excellence
    

    http://www.tweetube.com/videos/preview?vid=ffwaNgPQCz8
    

    
     

11. Role Media in Building Culture of Excellence
    

    http://www.tweetube.com/videos/preview?vid=_if0wxv9UP4
    

    
     

12. Role of Acamedia
    

    http://www.tweetube.com/videos/preview?vid=F4gWZKDW014
    

    
     

13. Change to begin at School
    

    http://www.tweetube.com/videos/preview?vid=abzy9q42804
    

    
     

14. Factor to bring in cultural change
    

    http://www.tweetube.com/videos/preview?vid=t-c3F7ukizY
    

    
     

15. Aligning quality with business
    

    http://www.tweetube.com/videos/preview?vid=vKZYG_7vZw0
    

    
     

16. Can ROI stifle Quality
    

    http://www.tweetube.com/videos/preview?vid=aZXv0UOEelg
    

    
     

17. Who can be a change agent
    

    http://www.tweetube.com/videos/preview?vid=F8eZHmDdg_c
    

    
     

18. Threading Individual/ team and Organizational Excellence
    

    http://www.tweetube.com/videos/preview?vid=u1ECNFBZRD8
    

    
     

19. Performance vs excellence
    

    http://www.tweetube.com/videos/preview?vid=8H0trD9iQYo
    

    
     

20. Competency and performance
    

    http://www.tweetube.com/videos/preview?vid=UeEYqubkFoY
    

These are interviews as a precursor to the conference on 18^th September 2009 at Hotel Accord Metropolitan, Chennai. For details, write to pgs@amc.co.in

Interview on Excellence

My interview on the subject of Culture of Excellence and its link to host of organizational dimension is available at the following:

http://60secondschief.blogspot.com/2009/09/kumar-vembu-founder-ceo-gofrugal.html

http://www.youtube.com/user/pitstop4performers

http://www.experiencefestival.com/forum/vBTube.php?do=user&uname=pitstop4performers

http://www.tweetube.com/search?user=pitstop4performers

Culture of Excellence

Culture of Excellence is rooted in the Organizational Culture. Organizational cultural has been explained by Schien as “A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to these problems” (Schein, 1992).

Exploring the underlined words from a realistic perspective brings certain interesting and probably true scenario:

a. “pattern” implies a design, a way but it also means that it is evolves over a period of time. Hence, the culture would be dynamic. Hence an acceptable pattern today may not be so tomorrow.

b. “shared” thoughts are always been a dream in the management world. Where does one stop in sharing? Is good enough if one communicates to all? Often the sharing begins and ends with display of values or other artifacts of culture of an organization.

c. “learned” implies that the culture evolves as one learns from the experience. Learning from experience needs to move from Primary learning to Secondary learning. Primary learning can only provide us the immediate feel and are often reactive. Secondary Learning enables absorption of experience that has potential to change our way of life or subsequent response to the experience.

d. “external adaption and internal integration” of the learning would ensure conversion of what we learn into practice. Adaptation to the external stimulus has been essence of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. In organisational context the experiential learning needs to be adapted to match the changing business environment.

The same experience would require to be integrated with organizational practices. As a change in practice with integrating with larger system in organization can lead to suboptimal conditions and hence unstable culture. It necessary to distinguish between change and instability. Change is desirable but not instability.

The practice must lead to benefits to the internal stakeholder like employees and to the external stakeholders like customers, vendors.

e. The experience and learning must be “valid” enough to facilitate reinforcement of the communication of cultural aspects.

f. The culture symbols and practices that represents culture needs to be “taught” to the new employees. This is necessary as every individual comes with his /her own cultural “baggage”, which may not be in sync with organization culture. It is the responsibility of every individual to showcase the culture and enable absorption of the new culture (at times it could be a cultural shock) by the newcomer.

g. The newcomers would need to perceive, think, and feel the culture of excellence. This means the members in the organization would need to walk the talk.

Culture is understood by the Artifacts that represents it. Culture of excellence would possibly be indicated by various measures or system. For example, the quantum of innovation may indicate the excellence culture.

Values would relate to the attitudes and opinions regarding reality and how Innovation (in above example) should be handled. This has to be built into the strategies, goals and philosophies of the organization. In case of the example of Innovation, one would need to see if Innovation has become part of whatever the organization values. Innovation should be part of strategy, organizational goal and the organization must believe in it.

Basic Assumptions about organization, its people and business environment must be conducive to the building culture. There basic assumption relating to the innovation, for example Tolerance to failure would be key characteristics to fuel the innovative mindset. Reinforcing assumption becomes key to the value system and then becomes an integral part of the culture.

Threads of Excellence

“Excellence is not an act, but a habit.” -- Aristotle

Excellence is often seen as an ideal. In reality, it provides a competitive edge. It enables an organization to achieve and maintain industry leadership for generations. Market leaders have proven time and again that by creating an adaptive, innovation-friendly organization and establishing an inspirational growth culture – they can build sustainable leadership. The best companies have created systems to identify potential leaders and establishing winning teams.

Excellence would need to be seen from different dimensions namely, Individual, Team or Group, Organization or Corporate. The jargons may change but the three dimensions would exist. There are difference in the way it gets created and the way it manifest. This is reflected by the fact that “All excellent organization may not be filled with Excellent Employees, at the same time just because organization has Excellent Individuals do not become Excellent” This theme can be compared with “Unity in Diversity” of Nature and our country.

While Excellence Models like CII Exim Award, RBNQA , MBNQA, Deming etc creates the initial impetus, how to sustain / imbibe excellence beyond the limits of model. Most organizations are driven by the milestones associated with the model. In the process at time the spirit of excellence is lost. We believe that it is possible to create an “excellence” culture by threading the Excellence through all dimensions.

This has led to the conference “Threads of Excellence”. The sessions in this conference would refer to best practices and experience from cultural change aspect. The expected takeaways are
1. Looking at Excellence beyond models
2. Understanding the factors that are common at all dimensions of excellence
3. Generate thought in looking at how to use the excellence available in all dimensions.
4. Knowing what others have done

Visit www.amc.co.in to download details of the conference and brochures for participation.