Three Idiots crossing the valley

Look at the picture above. What are these three thinking of you must be wondering ? Why are they walking towards imminent failure ? The question that Dr. Mandi asked us at this point was simple. Can these three people cross the valley ?

The Scenario:

If we consider each of the idiots crossing the valley as /\ , we can see that the following scenarios are obtained :-

                                                     /\/\/\                                                                                   

                                                      /\/\/\                                                                                  

                                                       /\/\/\                                                                                 

                                                        /\/\/\                                                                                

                                                         /\/\/\                                                                               

                                                          /\/\/\                                                                              

                                                           /\/\/\                                                                              

                                                            /\/\/\                                                                            

                                                              /\/\/\                                                                          

Thus, we see that in the above case three situations arrive, 

                                         one where the person is fully safe denoted by --. 

                                          one where the person is half safe denoted by ---

                                            and one where the person is exposed to full risk, denoted by      

Here, we see that all three members if the three people were to accomplish this so-called impossible task, they had to do so by proper designing of the team task, with everyone in the team having equal distribution of the risk involved in accomplishing the task.

The moment somebody assumes more responsibility, the entire team is bound to fail as the person not working as a team will bring down the entire team.

So, it is very important to divide labour in an equivalent proportion so that :-

                     1) We can accomplish the task at hand in a co-ordinated and well structured manner.

                     2) We do not deem anyone as weak or small. Everyone should be equally responsible and                                     strong.

                    3) We create interlocking roles to make sure everyone is equally involved in the task and nobody feels over dependent or under dependent, thus leading to loafing and increase in ideal time.

                    4) We can create only one form of authority so that the men are not confused as to who is the man in command.

The Final Accomplishment

The above cartoon shows how the entire work can be carried out using proper teamwork and coordination. I am also posting a video for all of you to see how this section is taught to us here at NITIE by Dr. Mandi.

Special Mention to Mullai Selevan KT for this video.

The Khan Academy & Its Learnings

                                         http://www.khanacademy.org

What is the Khan Academy ?

The Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization, created in 2006 by educator Salman Khan, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School. The objective of the acdemy is  "providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere".The website supplies a free online collection of more than 3,200 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube teaching mathematics, history, healthcare and medicine,and many other subjects.

Khan's Vision

Salman Khan has employed a very successful philanthropic business model, which caters education to anybody with an online access. While all videos continue to be hosted on Khan Academy's YouTube channel, they also are available through Khan Academy's own website, which also contains many other features such as progress tracking, practice exercises, and a variety of tools for teachers in public schools. Khan Academy now also conducts in-person sessions called 'Discovery Labs' where they teach students innovative ways to integrate technology into the hands-on learning experience. 

Donations and Funds Received

The main contributors to this organisation are the Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation and Google. A November 2011 grant from the O'Sullivan Foundation, founded by Avego MD and cloud computing pioneer Sean O'Sullivan, will be directed to three initiatives:

1.    Expanding the teaching faculty

2.    Extending content through crowd-sourced contributions following a Wikipedia-style model

3.    Developing curricula to help users blend the content with physical teaching through STEM learning

Revenue Generation with Differentiation

        Currently, the site operates without any advertising and yet it gets a monthly revenue of $3.5 million. This happens because of the sheer number of people who visit this site because of its uniqueness and envision.A believer in his team of workers, Khan  has also managed to rope in several part time enthusiasts, who want to be a part of this unique organization.

Takeaway from the Khan Academy

  The most important thing to know here is the uniqueness of Khan's idea, which set him apart from the rest of the online education systems. He envisioned something which was so unique and innovative that it has changed the way we perceive the education industry today.

Thus to open one's own business, 

1.one has to be innovative in his thought process,

2. he should be clear in his thoughts and ideas,

3. his idea should be effective so that it reaches out to as many people as possible,

4. and the entire organization must be created keeping the needs of the customer in your mind after which it is necessary to convert the entire population (in this case anybody from all over the world can be a part of the Khan Academy ) into the target customer.

Please have a look into this site , the link is posted above.... An innovative business solution awaits you !!!

Management Theories and SMART Goals

How to understand Goal Setting and Management ? Read a book. Search it on the net. No. You have to experience 'Goal Setting' and 'Effective Management' to truly appreciate its need. That's how we the students of NITIE experienced Dr. Mandi's session on Goal setting and Management. 

SMART Goals

SMART Goals. Goals that are Specific , Measurable, Achievable , Realistic And Time Bound. But how to truly understand it? We took part in a game to do just that. 

First, the entire class was asked to take part in this game . After an intense round of bidding, three lucky students got the chance to play this game. It was a simple game. There were several small blocks. And all that was needed was to stack up these blocks to create the largest tower. The larger the tower , the greater the satisfaction of the builder. 

Everyone was asked to quote a number to represent the number of blocks that would be required to build the tower. The numbers varied from 20 to as far as 40, as we all believed that this task was simple enough.

But then we had to play this game with certain constraints. The person building the tower was to be blindfolded and also he was supposed to use his wrong hand.We were asked to quote new numbers. The range of the number of blocks drastically fell owing to the new constraints that were brought into the picture. The numbers quoted were as follows :-

 Less than 15 blocks :- A handful

 15 – 20 blocks :- Majority of the class

 More than 20 blocks :- Again, very few.

Finally, the number of blocks was set as 18.

 Thus, we had set a goal , which seemed achievable and realistic. The task was supposed to be completed within that session itself making it time-bound.

Our objective was well defined and specific. Try to create a tower of blocks that would contain 18 blocks. This also meant that the goal set by us was also measurable.

Next, as the goals were set, the three lucky students were given different responsibilities to carry out the task at hand. One was to build the tower blindfolded and with his wrong hand. One of them was to communicate with him the necessary instructions as well as motivate him using his interpersonal skills.

The remaining person was to see to it that the entire process was carried out skilfully and effectively and he was supposed to give innovative ideas to carry out the entire task.

This represented the three essential skills that managers at various levels of an organization had to possess. The person building the tower required technical skills for building the block. The one who was communicating required people skills to get the job done. The third person was the one who had the most important task, which was to intervene with innovative suggestions to ensure that the goal which was set by the class had to be completed.

This was how the entire task was carried out :-

Theory X and Theory Y

While carrying out this task we also learnt about the two theories of  management, namely Theory X and Theory Y. Here, in this task the manager overseeing the entire task could have handled the situation in two ways:

1)     He could have told the person building the tower ,that he was not building it high enough and that he has given up too early. This is Theory X type of management.Here, the manager believes that the builder is lazy.

2)      Or else, he could have believed that the person building the tower was liking his work and needed no extra motivation. Here the manager believes that the builder is not lazy and therefore , his management type would follow the Theory Y.

In our scenario, the student believed that the person building the tower was not lazy and thereby displayed Theory Y form of management. Eventually, the task was completed. A job well done and a learning for a lifetime received !!