Myriad thoughts on a million things
Archive for November, 2008
Mumbai under attack!
7A bunch of crazy terrorists have taken our city to siege and we don’t even know why!! They’re holding hostages in Taj and Oberoi, going on shooting rampage, killing innocent people who’re going about their normal business and creating the biggest show down that Mumbai has ever seen.
Police, Army, NSG, Navy commandos have been battling them for over 20 hours and we still don’t know what the hell do these people want!! Over 101 people randomly killed! This is so freaking insane…!!! All this pointless killing and scaring people… Why?? What are they going to get out this all?
Sorry… this is hardly a blog… I just feel like venting. AAAAAAaarrrrrrgggghhhh!!! @$#%#^&#^#%^!!
Engagement studies: The challenge of keeping them alive & useful
1Almost all organizations do employee engagement/ satisfaction studies. Some design it internally and some outsource it to third party vendors. The objective is of course to know how engaged and satisfied your workforce is on a variety of parameters and take appropriate actions based on their feedback. I’ve been part of enough studies now to know that most employers love to do these studies but struggle with what to do with them.
The challenge then is not really doing these studies, but going beyond the results and actioning on them. Without the required action implementation the relevance of such studies die. Then they are only seen as numbers to be looked upon once a year and for the mgt and HR to include in their annual reports.
How does one then ensure these studies are effective in their action and kept alive during the year? Here are some ideas that I feel could help organizations.
1) Ensure action implementation is a top recall item for all teams. In most Organsiation, there is a general lull that settles in after the first flurry of activity when results are declared. The challenge is to ensure that action implementation and reviews happen in a cyclic manner throughout the year. Having a process that ensures managers need to look at Team scores and engagement issues once a quarter can help. We have designed a process wherein Managers/Team Leaders get rated on the Engagement Action plans and the status of their implementation atleast once a quarter. This kind of a focus will ensure action of scores is a top recall item for all employees.
2) Creating a live reference point for action as and when needed. A huge challenge that one usually faces is that scores for studies are generated usually once a year. When managers are asked to keep going back to that score and identify plans they usually come back with feedback that old scores are usually not a good reference point. To counter this, one can make a simple tool that will enable managers to do a dip stick check on engagement levels of their team as and when they want, as often as they want. We have made a local poll tool which enables managers to activate it, send it to his/her team members, get their feedback on key parameters of engagement and generate an anonymous report all on his own. This allows for a manager to have a live reference point for action as and when he needs. He can action plan based on the feedback, implement plans and then do a dip stick again to see how his efforts are translating into positive movement in engagement levels. It is a great way to keep the momentum up through the year. It keeps up their enthusiasm and Managers tend to keep doing something if they can see some tangible numbers showing the effect of their efforts. Our teams have found this to be an extremely useful tool.
3) Need to create activity and focus around Engagement throughout the year: It is very important for employees and Managers to see that the Organsiation is also making effort throughout the year to ensure improved engagement scores. Giving Organizational action updates, sharing best practices from teams who are doing well, sharing engagement related literature, having awards around team engagement and best managers are some ways we can keep the focus on this activity throughout the year
A new era of Indian Politics?
3As Indians, I am sure all of us are quite used to watching the babu type politicians that we have for leaders, shout, fight and generally create ruckus over everything. It’s quite a common sight watching them lift their dhoti in annoyance, bang tables, chairs and throw books at anything that appears like opposition. They give long fiery speeches in their regional languages, labour through their English and try their best from refraining from spitting their pans during a TV interview. They rave and rant and wave their arms as if the world will come down if the merest change is to affect their vote bank in any way. Their immediate concerns are usually how they can hold onto to their position, make the most for themselves from public money and appear like they are actually doing something good without really doing anything. Well that’s Indians politics and as an average Indian citizen I have gotten used to the way things are. We go about our usual business, make our money, pay our taxes and generally try and keep way from any activities that would involve us interacting with any government / political official.
There have been many times, when frustrated with the way things are in India, thoughts of actually doing something about it have entered my mind… but then I come back to reality and realize that there is really no point. Politics is a quagmire and anyways how can one person make a difference? Also how can one go to work, and yet be involved in something like politics? I recently got my answer…. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet Mr. R V Krishnan, the founder of the Professionals Party of India!
Krishnan, an engineer-entrepreneur, who runs a market research Bureau, was also disillusioned with Indian governance and he decided to actually do something about it. He had some unique thoughts on how educated professionals can contribute towards running the country which he put down in his manuscript, ‘Manifesto in Search of a Party’. He waited after his publication hoping someone would sit up and decide to do something about the solutions he had proposed for the country… but nothing really happened.
Saddened but not deterred, he then decided to implement some of his ideas. He called 15 of his friends (mostly professionals raging from 30 to 60 years of age) and mooted the idea of a political party. Thus started the journey of this Pune based Professional Party of India. After 11 months of working in local areas, this party finally got an official acknowledgement when the Election Commission of India registered it as a political party. That’s a step that has formally equipped them to start working towards their aim – of changing the way the country is governed through the active participation of educated professionals. Their belief is that they can bring honest, professional & progressive governance in our country.
The unique thing about this party many members are working professionals who contribute to the party and its goals while keeping their regular jobs! The party has grown quite rapidly and now has chapters and members in most big cities. As one would expect the party is quite tech savvy and uses technology to propagate its cause. Email campaigns, Blogs, seminars at corporate are some of these. Check out one such blog by them
http://professionalspartyofindia.blog.co.in/about/
In his talk to us, Mr. Krishnan made a moving speech to the young professionals of India. He highlighted how young talented Indian professionals are leading large conglomerates across the world successfully. Then why if we got together can we not lead our country to success?
Listening to and meeting him really made me re-think my inertia. We need to make an effort and do something other than complain. I think it is commendable that Krishnan and PPI have taken this positive step towards doing something. So what can we do? One doesn’t have to join politics to make a difference…. One can start with getting on a voters list and vote for the right people!
Letters from Iwo Jima
0I recently saw the movie ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’. It’s a movie about the US invasion of the Japanese Island Iwo Jima during the 2nd world war. The movie is in Japanese and shares the story from the Japanese view of events. The story of a small helpless section of the Japanese army fighting against all odds and keeping the enemy at bay is tragic, desolate, yet heartwarming.
The story shares how the Japanese fleet is destroyed and there are no back up ammo or resources that Japan can send to the troops on the island. Yet, the soldiers on the island, do all that they can to fight for their island, knowing fully well that they can do nothing much else except delay the inevitable invasion. It is interesting to see how soldiers sway between valour and self preservation at various points of time during the movie. Seeing a young baker, forcefully enlisted in the Imperial army, digging trenches and asking himself ‘are we digging our graves?’ makes one wonder about the futility of war. With a deep belief in honour, Japanese soldiers prefer to kill themselves than fall into enemy hands. The scenes of soldiers killing themselves with hand grenades and the reluctance of some overridden by collective pressure are quite the tear jerkers.
I think the movie is done brilliantly, in a simple, realistic manner while exhibiting a deep understanding of the Japanese psyche. Clint Eastwood has indeed done an outstanding job!