Management and Life

‘Meetings’ are the most common and visible activity in any organization. Almost every task is identified, debated, planned, executed, tracked and improved through meetings. It doesn’t matter if the meeting is of two individuals or a large group. They are all pervasive. In my experience, there are only two kinds of meetings – productive and non-productive. The latter type has the maximum share!! Productive meetings are fewer and amongst these; ‘productive and efficient’ are an even rarer lot. This may sound an extreme or cynical view. However there is enough data and anecdotal evidence to prove that ‘most meetings are managed poorly and are often unproductive’. Again, there are enough guidelines and recommendation for managing meetings better, such as –circulating agenda in advance, controlling the participation to the most relevant/essential members, assigning roles, having a timer, focusing on action items, circulating the meeting notes soon after the meeting and many others. Seve...

Recently I came across an interesting term called 'Totipotence'. totipotence, noun: the ability of a cell to give rise to unlike cells and so to develop a new organism or part; [syn: totipotency ] (Refernece: www.dictionary.com) This is a term from the field of genetics and refers to cells which are capable of becoming any sort of cell. Totipotency is the basis for all multicellular organisms and lies at the heart of developmental genetics. In simpler terms, it means a cell whose function has not yet been established. If we were to look at it broadly, we find that apart from cells, this term can be applied to individuals and well as organizations !! Just like in genetics, at the beginning of the career, a person's specialization or function is not very well defined. The person is (or should be) allowed and encouraged to explore the different functions and discover his/her own strengths and interests. During this stage, the person can very well be called ...

The whole cricketing world and especially India is just recovering from "ICC Cricket World Cup" with several fervent and edge-of-seat matches. Although, I have been a very notorious 'Non-Enthusiast' of Cricket (I have little interest in watching any sport including cricket, though I have nothing against them perse), I did end up watching a few matches, especially when India was playing the quarter, semis and final. And whoa, I did get some good insights and lessons from Cricket !! 1. Patience - don't expect action in each and every ball. At times, just taking a run or two or even defending a tough bowler for a few overs is better than trying to hit on each ball and making mistakes or getting frustrated. 2. Perseverance - no room for frustration or boredom. Do you job - consistently and consciously. 3. Small events make a big difference - many a times it is the small events (a missed catch, ones and twos, easy overs, casual stroke etc) that end up making a big dif...

One of the principles in the Theory of Constraints (TOC) states that all the non critical resources should be made subordinate to the critical resource. Since it is the critical or the bottleneck resource which will determine the output of the system, there is little need to worry about the utilization of the non-critical resources. On the other hand, if the non-critical resources work faster than the critical resource, they will lead to creation of a lot of inventory deposits in the system. Often if it is found that despite the simple logic, having a resource (even if non-critical) sitting idle, is viewed as  inefficiency and is hence very discomforting to the observer or the management.  Mr. Goldratt has beautifully explained and illustrated the use and violation of his principles at the corporate/factory settings in his business-fiction books. I have observed similar violation in everyday life and some of it is rather absurd and funny. One such example is about the c...

Thou shalt not fear the 80% The 80-20 rule also known as the Pareto principle is sighted in many time management and general management books as an effective guide for choosing the focus areas. The principle states that 80% of results or effects are caused by 20% of the causes. For e.g. 80 % of sales come from 20% customers; 80% of problems are caused by 20% of causes, 80% of the costs can be attributed to 20% items, so on and so forth. The rule is very simple, straight forward and through basic anecdotal evidence and intuitive logic, it appears to be universally applicable. Once understood and applied effectively, the rule holds the promise to improve effectiveness and efficiency significantly. I believe that this rule should be vigorously applied to all domains of personal and public life. However, like all principles, there are a few words of caution or danger zones worth noting. The first one, as pointed by James P. Lewis in his book on Project Management, points at the bal...

Book Review The Decalogue – Deming and Goldratt - Domenico Lepore and Oded Cohen Dr. Deming and Dr. Goldratt are considered as the ‘gurus’ or geniuses in modern management literature. Their theories have had a profound impact on the understanding and improvement of management systems across a wide variety of organizations in the world. ‘The Decalogue’ – is the work of two disciples of Dr Deming and Dr. Goldratt who discovered the overlap and complementary aspects of their theories. Domenico Lepore, a Deming Scholar found that TOC offered a methodology and thinking tools to implement Dr. Deming’s theory. While Oded Cohen, a partner of Dr. Goldratt, realized that the core aspects of Deming’ theory such as appreciation of the system, understanding variation and process improvement provide the background for a better understanding and implementation of the TOC. By combining the theories and approach presented by Dr. Deming (The System of Profound Knowledge) and Dr. Goldratt (...

Management and Life !! Life has many a lessons to teach. How, when and what rate one learns, varies. Yet life is a committed and uncompromising teacher. It continues to teach until one learns. How we articulate and explain those learnings by building models, theories, logic and analogies is the genesis of all disciplines. Management - a discipline or a science or an art or simply a chance !! There are many views and yet none of it is complete. Just like 'Life' - it is difficult to define yet compulsory to experience. The subject is vast, its application all pervasive. It sounds like common sense and yet it is marvelous in its uniqueness. This blog titled, 'Management and Life' is an attempt to capture and share my thoughts and experience on various areas related with 'Management discipline' and its application and relationship with various facets of human life. This blog is about observing, articulating and sharing the learnings which my life, profession and i...