The PJ (poor joke) above might no longer remain a PJ if banana peel is replaced by a typical problematic situation one encounters in daily routine. The question remains unanswered then: Why do some people find it difficult to act beyond cure? They do think 'Prevention is The Best Cure' though! I was no different from them! But now my journey is gathering speed, hopefully in the direction that the blog is supposed to drive towards. Checkout my other blogs and work at http://www.worldOFkaizen.com/

Tuesday 29 October 2013

Take your career in fast lane!

You might have read news items such as "More than 5-lakh appear for entrance tests competing for 50-60 IAS-seats" or "competing for 500-600 IIM-seats" or "IIT-seats", etc. 

IAS is Indian Administrative Services, IIM is Indian Institute of Management, and IIT is Indian Institute of Technology. Their global counterparts could be premier institutes such as HBS (Harvard Business School), INSEAD, etc.

Looking at such kind of news items many join the bandwagon without even caring to check suitability of corresponding professions in longer run. Some with plush jobs in campus placement thereafter find themselves landed into terrible trouble. In the midst of their careers they begin finding their jobs boring and wish to switch careers.

Why do jobs get boring?

During bouts of self-talk over a period of time, the so-called 'successful' careerists find 'something missing' in their 'plush' jobs in spite of a lot of money in it. They begin feeling underemployed although not underpaid. 

This happens because many a time careers get chosen on face-value of their 'lucrativeness' perceived from media's noise. Very few careers get chosen for the 'profile' that revolves around passion. Most get chosen for the 'pay-packet' without bothering about whether the job might turn out to be an enjoyment or a pain later. 

^ How should one choose a career?
^ Should one choose to be a politician, for instance, just because it appears lucrative?
^ Aren't there dimensions other than lucrativeness and 'pay-packet' that should be considered before shortlisting a typical career?

What are the relevant dimensions?

Every individual has some subtle individuality. It may be in terms of a melodiously timbered vocal chord, or an aptitude to mathematics or to orator-ship or passion to some form of art or a combination thereof.

Lucky are those who explore, exploit and enjoy while building their careers revolving around such individualities rather around their passions. Lucky are those who understand that lack of admissions in engineering, management, medicine, and corresponding premier institutes are not an end of the story. There are endless choices that go beyond such conventional narrow career-lanes.

A simple way to find a balance between passions and careers is to first of all find out what one is passionate about. Liking music or taking to it's thrilling beats for instance is different than being passionate about it. 

Passion is likely to be "what you 'love' doing" rather than what you 'like' doing. Eventually if 'what you like' does turn out to be a passion one must possess or be ready to develop proficiencies in the complimentary faculties to make a related career out of it. A passionate fellow about music should critically examine whether s/he is 'already good at' or is ready to put in the necessary hard-work (with smart-work of course) on cultivating her listening faculty or a melodious voice, etc. whatever may be her god-given 'possessions', into a required proficiency (developing & nurturing abilities or skills) to be a music-critic or a singer as a career respectively.

Even if the choice based on faculties does go wrong if at all, being passion-based, the extra efforts needed to convert those into capabilities and capacities might not be much boring. Passion is more likely to make the choice appear as a 'play' rather than as a 'work' or a 'job' (drudgery). Does anyone hesitate putting in heart-felt efforts on 'play-ground', for instance!

However much euphoric beginning it may be, a lucrative-career might wane over a period of time if the job is not passion-based. It may appear lucrative because of market-demand "what the world wants". It gets boring because it's not in-demand rather "not-loved" by self. So after a certain spell in the career, extra efforts called for by the market-demand appear like slogging. 

That's also may be a reason why human resource development (HRD) professionals find it difficult to motivate and align employees, howsoever they may try with the best-of-best pay-packets ("what the world is willing to pay you for"), towards the organisation's own passionate mission.


A couple of poetic lines ('Sher') by me on this in my mother tongue Marathi:
(One from you in English, Hindi or in a language of your choice is welcome)

असे ध्यास तर नसे तासनतास कामाचाही त्रास 
नसे ध्यास तर विषापरि असे अमृताचाही घास

A simple way to find out one's own passion/s is to engage in self-talk in order to zero-in on the activities that one enjoys;

- enjoys doing the most in spite of adversities and lack of appreciation from others,
- enjoys doing even at the cost of forgetting friends, family and food at times,
- enjoys continuously learning therefrom rather than getting bogged down by interim failures, if any, 
- enjoys performing them in newer ways while raising bar for one's own self,
- enjoys while finding ways-&-means to support them even if short of the required resources.

Knowing these dimensions, what steps does one take in order to make her job worthy and thereby shape her own career?

Steps to make 'work' worthy of 'play'ing

Step-1, Make commitment to choose career closely revolving around passion: "what you 'love' doing". Sometimes it may not be late to even switch the past so-called "liked" careers to the ones "you always loved" (and the ones that "the world 'wanted' and is willing to pay you for") particularly after the financial needs at that particular stage of life have been reasonably fulfilled. Be prepared to do so, even if some compromises are called for, both on your ego as well as on your current pay-packet at times.

Step-2, Zero-in on a couple of passions by a conscious self-talk. Key is in zeroing-in on them early enough. Psychometric tests may be useful in analysing your interests. Passions might be so subtle at times that only your parents, close friends, teachers and relatives might be in a better position to discover those. Unfortunately sometimes they tend to 'kill' those by 'advising' through smoke-glasses of their own successful or failed pasts or through (at times the 'self-taught') parental-conventions.

Step-3, Find out whether a couple of faculties complimentary to the short-listed passions pre-exist within. Are those faculties convertible into proficiencies, skills or Goal-abilities (my term for goal-oriented abilities) and thereby the corresponding passions convertible into careers?

Step-4, Without commensurate preparation passion has no destination. 

Put in the required hard-work and smart-work on cultivating the inherent faculties ("what you need to be good at" to do "what you love doing" in order to satisfy the "needs & wants of the world") into the Goal-abilities. Acquire additionally needed-ones if feasible. You may have to work over-time to do so. It's actually a fun-play working-out to heighten your abilities to suit the higher-level of your passion-oriented goals. While at the same time it's frustrating although may be easy to 'work' for the non-passion oriented lower-level goals.

Do SWOT analysis while nurturing with joy the chosen ones as above.

- Identity and polish your own corresponding strengths (S) if already possessed.
- Identity and overcome corresponding weaknesses (W), if any. It's important to allocate more energy on utilizing strengths rather than on overcoming weaknesses. The former is easier than the latter.
- Anticipate and tackle corresponding threats (T), if any.
- Anticipate and make use of every available opportunity (O) complementing the above process and in fact by being conscious to create some opportunities

If you are already employed, it might help greatly if you tune up above steps staying there itself in the same job until "the day" to do "what you love" with full throttle. There, in the current workplace, it may be easier to find out possible intersecting points between your interests and that of the current employer's. In that case, perhaps it might be easy for both you and your HRD to convert your current job into the one that you passionately loved and hence badly wanted. Instead, doing this by leaving the 'bird-in-hand' job might put you in tension ultimately resulting in loss of self confidence. Moreover, in the new job not only you may have to invest a lot of time establishing yourself with new "faces" but also you might get taken for granted there.

Step-5, Take an on-going review. Undertake a self-audit in order to check whether the chosen career is getting shaped as desired. Accordingly take corrective actions by going back to step-4 or step-1 as appropriate. 

A caveat: Being objective in deliverables might be more useful rather than merely being passionate and losing sight of the goals. 

Now-a-days people have been talking about IKIGAI as well, the Japanese concept (that means "a reason for being" or the very purpose of life), while planning careers. It may be practised in a structured manner with the steps and tips as elaborated above so as to take your career in right lane as well as to take it forward at a faster speed. 

Hope the tips help to attain the 'need-based' holistic satisfaction rather than mere 'want-based' monitory satisfaction. Former is long-term. Latter is short-term.

Footnotes:
Goal-abilities: Term coined by me for goal-oriented abilities. 


Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post.

Tuesday 22 October 2013

कधीतरी सापडेल का शोधता-शोधता ?

This one is about evolution of life on the planet with greedy human being around !

Necessity is the mother of invention, they say.
But what happens if desires become necessities? 

Truly-desired-inventions will surely lag behind the inventions-for-desires. And then man will get what he deserves of his own making... The Global-Warming !

Within 35-years, even lowest monthly temperature will be hotter than we experienced so far !! And then it might be too late a realisation !!!

कधीतरी सापडेल का शोधता-शोधता ?

माकडांचाच सीनियर-वानर आदिमानव तो भिरभिरता
भूकेला कोंडा, निजेला धोंडा तर लाजेला होता झाडपत्ता
गाय, बैल, मांजर, पोपट; बायकोसह सारे आले पहाता-पहाता
सिक्युरीटीला त्यांच्या गॉडी-कुत्रीचा, डॉगी-कुत्रा पण भुंकता

सुखासाठी बायकोच्या, तंगडतोड भटकता-भटकता
दिसला कापूस एकदा त्याला जंगलतोड करता-सारवता
बनवली लगेच गादी त्याने, तिच्या ऐषो-आरामाकरता
नवनवीन स्वप्ने पडती स्वत:च त्यावर क्षणभर पडता
मग काय, लागती शोधावर-शोध तनिकसे त्यावर लेटता
कोंडा-गोंडा-धोंडा झाले, रोटी-कपडा-मकान बघता-बघता

नॅचरल कापसाचा बेड आता नरमा-गरम पॉलियुरेथीनचा
कपडा चिकचिकीत करणा-या चकचकीत सिंथेटीकचा
दाल-रोटी जागी हाती फास्ट-फूड-पिझ्झा कॉन्स्टिपेटींग मैद्याचा
गादी बैठकीजागी सोफा-कम-बेडवर हाती पेला मद्याचा

बार्लीची-बीअर, बाईचा-बार, शेत-जमिनीचा एफ्एस्आय्.. सारेच हु..र्रे
कोणी-अरे, कोणी-कारे, हाणती एकमेका आई-बा काढता कारे?
"आता पूरे..!" भेदून-ओझोन येता येता उपसले अंती सूर्यानेच सरसर सूरे
मग काय?.. "आटताच पाण्याचे झरे, चमकले कारे दिवसाढवळ्याच तारे?"
जीव कासावीस झालारे, गुदमरला भातारे, भिरभिरलं डोकंरे, अरेरे-अरेरे !
उपयोग काय वाटून आता, रोटी-कपडा-मकानच होते बरेरे !
कोंडा-गोंडा-धोंडाही मिळेना कायरे? लेट झालाय हेच खरेरे !

समस्यांचा मॉडर्न डायनॉसॉरच समोर, ठाकला उभा-आडवा होता
माकडांचाही माकड होउनी राहीला होता आता तो तर पूरता
वाढताच गुंत्याचाही गुंता, स्व:शी झालाच तो एकदाचा बोलता
" ... थकलोरे ! वाटच लागली नव्या शोधांची वाट पहाता-पहाता,
स्वप्नच काय, नाकी नऊ येती झोपही आता येता-येता
कळुन चुकले मला, गरज आहे स्व-शोधाचीच खरं तर पहाता आता ... "

Friday 18 October 2013

Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis


Would you like your purse to be transparent?

Answer from some people may be a Big-NO with exceptions of course. Reason is obvious if you look at the picture.

Anyway, transparent containers are usually preferred to opaque ones. Like for instance transparent glass bottles  usually used in a typical kitchen. They are also used in some industries like processed-foods, pharmaceuticals, etc.


Why do people prefer transparent containers?

Obviously because contents therein can  be easily seen even from a distance just by a single look. You may call this as a step towards look-free²-engineering in order to reduce number of glances or looks (as required in ergonomics) thereby reducing search-time.

In fact, making or rather more appropriately 'designing' a workplace¹ to be transparent (alongwith systematic arrangement of equipment therein) is a principle practised in Seiton-pillar of Five-S. It makes the workplace¹ search-free² as well. Five-S is a Kaizen-tool to make improvements proactively.


Is it so important?

Apart from making the workplace¹ look-free², search-free², etc. there is also a 'not-so-obvious' reason behind the practice of 'transparency' principle. 

Transparency makes abnormalities, if any, obvious and visible. Look at the purse again if you don't believe this. Had it been opaque, you couldn't have noticed 'defects' inside: Be it chaotic (lack of systematic) arrangement or a sharp object inside it causing injury to  finger or a leaky-pen messing up other items.

An opaque container on the other hand hides defects behind it. Imagine a stock-out situation resulting due to invisibility of say grain-stock attacked by pests inside it. Or imagine a situation when a  pendrive containing  important information couldn't be fetched just-in-time (JIT) when 'need'ed in spite of it being in the purse. 

Or imagine a loose connection inside an opaque computer-cabinet or in an opaque (closed) electrical control room the spark of which resulted in a devastating fire. Realizing this, leading businesses have already begun marketing transparent-cases of their offerings as a differentiating proposition.

So the later one i.e. to make 'defects visible' is more important subtle-reason of designing a workplace to be 'transparent' than the former one i.e. to improve 'visibility-of-contents' itself.


Ways-and-means to make a Gemba transparent

Ways-and-means could be many. Some are as follows.

1/ Use of a transparent glass or plastic (for a container or for a cabin partition or as an enclosure of a product).
2/ A simple daily-cleanup (of a desk or a house) like done in Seiri-pillar of Five-S by getting rid of items unused (lying idle) over a given time period.
3/ An advanced daily-cleanup like a mother bathing a child or a workplace practising Seiso-pillar of Five-S that exposes cracks, crevices, etc. as defects.
4/ Seiton-pillar of Five-S: A systematic arrangement of routinely used items, consumables, tools, tackles, etc. using space vertically (rather than spreading the items horizontally) so that more can be stored close to point-of-use in an arm's reach.
5/ A system-based method such as an RTI-Act to make governance visibly transparent and thereby to unearth corruption as 'defect' in governance



What is the learning?

Taking it a little ahead, making a Gemba transparent is the desired result. Choice of ways-and-means to do so lies with the user. However, there is 'no-choice' at all not-to-do-it.

Otherwise ensuing crises as a result of not doing it do force one to do it reactively though. History has enough proof of this and costly at that. Causes pushed under the carpet do boomerang (raise their heads) in the form of crises exactly when we don't want them! 

Look at the forced-cleanups as in (rape-fame Shakti-mills compound) picture that had to be undertaken reactively after experiencing costly-consequences.

"History never really says gogoodbye. History says, 'See you later'", as Eduard, Galeano, Uruguyan writer and historian, says unless of course you work on root causes. 

So better to 'Cleanup-Before-Crisis'! Better to be proactive!!


Footnote-1, Workplace is called as Gemba in Japanese language in the context of doing Gemba-Kaizen for workplace improvement-management.

Footnote-2, These are Free-Engineering concepts to make a workplace free of, say, a non-value-activity (waste) like searching or looking or unscrewing, walking, etc.


Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or sharing this post via social media.

That's How Morons Work 
Functional-Aesthetics 
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 
Take Habits For A Ride 
Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow 
How To Make A Difference 
A Ride To Hell 
Make checklists your friends  
Drove To Hell ... Almost ! 
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms ! 
Nauseous Communication Gaps 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam! 
Will It Work Here?  
Some Moron ! Some Great !!! 
That's How Morons Work 
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 
Technology in-place, security dis-placed 
Succession-Plans In Fast Lane!  
Prevention: The Best Cure! ... Is it really so? 
How Many Times Do You Wash Hands 
What You See Isn't What's Made 
Am I 'Short-sighted' or 'Long-sighted'?  
Beware Of Political-Presentations 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Hoarders Of Filthy Hoardings 
Are You Good If Others Are Bad?

Tuesday 15 October 2013

Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-2)

While I was forced to challenge aesthetic-design of the cup in Part-1 of this blogpost, incidentally I was heading to conduct a workshop on Value: Value-Engineering and Value-Analysis.

Value-Engineering And Value-Analysis

On one hand, increased cost to deliver same-or-reduced benefits-or-function in an offering implies that the value is reduced. On the other hand, offering the same-or-enhanced benefit/s-or-function/s at a reduced total cost to customer or end consumer means value is increased.

Making improvements with realisation of this re-actively (i.e. after the design is already in commercial use creating trouble for customer) though is about the concept of value-analysis. Realizing this proactively (i.e. making all-round improvements while testing the design itself keeping customer in the loop adequately) is about value-engineering.

Modifying the design of the cup after a customer faces difficulties (as in Part-1 of this blogpost) is about value-analysis. Launching an offering with well-tested trouble-free design by listening to unspoken voice-of-customer and the impact of the design on ecology is about the concept of value-engineering.

Both lead to enhanced value but the later generates more value by preempting the costs that otherwise tangibly incur in case of the former. The round shaped cup for instance preempts the COPQ (Cost-Of-Poor-Quality) incurred by the square-cup design (as in Part-1 of this blogpost).

Look at the shape of the ice-cream glass in the picture. It's an example of value-engineered judicious balance of the aesthetics-with-function. The value created in terms of the aesthetic shape of the glass without interfering with its function is designed-in into the offering.

Need Spills-Over Want

Function is a need: the primary requirement a customer expects an offering to serve.

Aesthetics is a want that is desire-based and is actually secondary requirement or in some situations even tertiary one as in case of coloring hair in VIBGYOR shades or colouring food-grains. I've seen color-coated groudnuts especially in some parts of Gujarat!

A judicious balance of 'needs' and 'wants' is the need-of-the-hour. Rather eco-friendly design of the offerings revolving purely around basic-or-primary 'needs' is actually the 'Survival-Need' of the warming-planet itself.

Most costs to the customer, society, and the planet get designed-in due to inadequate designs of products, services, processes, policies, etc.

So designers and leaders should value the value-engineering more. They should promote corresponding Kaizen improvements so that need for value-analysis at the cost of the COPQ incurred by the customer gets reduced if not eliminated.

In fact they should steer their organisations towards finding and marketing the 'needs' rather than 'pushing' consumerist attitude and habits towards desire-based 'wants'. Such leaders are the real friends of the planet. Those who nurture excessive wants are in a way a burden on the planet.

Greedy-wants push-up unnecessary human activities (non-value-activities). Unnecessary human activities be those at personal level or at corporate business level lead to over-consumption of resources. Over-consumption of resources is like raping the planet if I may say so!

An Exercise

Look at the picture for self-study at a little higher level of difficulty though.

It has five different designs (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) of a nose-mask. Different designs are expected to serve different functions in different situations. You may like to attempt answering following questions:

1/ Which product-design is designed to serve what function in what situation?
2/ Which product-design can serve what function in what situation as an alternative? Justify the "how?"!
3/ In that case, which product-design offers maximum Value? Justify the "how?" with its likely COPQ?
4/ Which product-design is a case of Value-Engineering and which one is of Value-Analysis? Justify the "how?"!
5/ What kind of greed-based 'wants' make the corresponding product a necessity?
6/ What are the 'needs' in the above context? And with what alternatives can we move towards satisfying the 'needs'?

What are the lessons¹?

1/ Let's change our mindsets to value 'needs' more than 'wants' while designing products, services, processes, and policies.

2/ Let's go beyond the myopic vision of running businesses for the sake of 'profit only' as its moto! Visualize the 'profit-for-planet' by viewing life-cycles of products, services, processes, and policies as subsets of the evolving need-cycles.

3/ Unnecessary aesthetic sheen while doing so is a want that does increase unnecessary cost. Enhanced cost does force a compromise on functional quality.

4/ Desire for Wants spills-over Needs and in turn spills-over the planet.


Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need !

Unwanted Aesthetic-Sheen
With a desire to be seen
Maketh a Person Mean 

Hi-Cost-Lo-Function: The affair routine 
Defies the very purpose of Lean
That of making the planet Green



Footnote-1: Reader may add tips and suggestions from own experience.
Footnote-2: The recommendation under Five-S's practice in Kaizen.


Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-1)
Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-2)
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully
What You See Isn't What's Made
You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable
Wish To Be Planet-Friendly?: Save! 
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling
Eternally Happy: परमानंद

Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-1)

Look at cup in the picture carefully!

Can you see tea marks all along the rim? Can you guess the reason of the tea spilling over all along the rim? 

It was due to square shape of the cup that it's content tried to find it's way across the rim while trying to take a sip. In fact it spilled over my shirt since side of the square is longer than opening of the mouth. In case of a round cup however, the flow narrows down over smaller width.

As you may see, the soccer too is so shallow that cup finds it difficult to hold on to it's feet over the soccer. Cup ends up shaking as a result. 

I got delayed for my appointment due to spillage over my shirt that made me rework my 'make-up': a mini crisis!

The idiosyncratic miser in me tends to tangiblize everything specially in case of waste.

Why not? Time as also other resources are money! So the resultant COPQ (Cost-Of-Poor-Quality) of Poor-Design that resulted in such rework, that you may also be able to estimate, bring forward a few lessons.

What are the lessons¹?

1/ Designers should take care not to let unnecessary aesthetics spill over functionality unlike an interior designer for instance. In order to make a guest-room 'look' well-appointed, a poor designer doesn't allow labeling² of utility switches even if it means a guest struggling for the one s/he needs: be it a light, a fan, or hot-or-cold water-tap in a wash room. In fact, some fittings have so fancy looking designs that the user looks like a farm-fresh villager who struggles to use them.

2/ Aesthetic design short of adequate functionality may be able to generate  initial affinity towards a brand but won't be able to create brand-loyalty that is long-term. Although aesthetics may appeal emotionally, without functionality it won't be able to appeal to rationality of the buyer. S/he looses interest in the offering because it fails to deliver value that s/he was looking for.

3/ It's always a good idea to test designs in order to make them simple and user-friendly by seeking customer feedback.

4/ Merely pushing sales numbers by taking disadvantage of emotional behavior of buyer's desire to grab 'wants' is an age old marketing tactic. Marketers should reset their mindsets and refrain from such overselling.

5/ Buyers should counter marketing tactics by basing their buying decisions on rationality rather than emotionalism.

6/ Buyers should buy because 'it's good in serving their purpose' rather than because 'it's good-looking!'

The example that I began with in this blogpost looks trivial. But the message it gives is not.

In order to know the larger purpose that it serves, you may read Part-2 of this blogpost.

Footnote-1, Reader may add tips and suggestions from her own experience.
Footnote-2, This is the recommendation under Five-S's practice of Kaizen Culture.

Monday 14 October 2013

The Business Of Businesses

It's a good idea to break from routine. 
Breaking from routine is an opportunity to learn new things.

This is particularly true when one goes on tour. 
One is forced to take various travel modes at odd times at times. That's the time secrets of various 'businesses' unfold provided the traveler looks around making powerful observations.

The other day early in the morning, commute from railway station to my destination was via a temple by the roadside. I saw a couple of people standing over a heap of flowers, garlands, etc. 

My God, they were literally brooming the God's idol!

Worth noting and mulling over is a secret that is actually no longer a secret to some: Flowers as well as God/Godesses to whom they are offered to, transmitting Devotional ‘Bhava‘ or Emotion of ‘Surrender’ and Faith, literally get mistreated. The former gets transhiped to (the planet as) garbage bin. Or it gets dumped as a waste into the sea while disposing it off along-with the latter. The pictures that one receives on whatsapp during the Ganapati or Durga festival are a testimony to this.

Here are a few more learning's that I have expressed in the form of a poetic rant.


The Business Of Businesses

धंद्या धंद्याची बात

हाती च्यायचा पेला
कामकरी निघाले धंद्याला

मस्त त्या (एका) पहाटेला
लागंताचं ट्रेन प्लॅटफॉर्मला
सोडून लगेच च्यायचा-पेला
आला हमाल  लगेज उचलायला
च्याय-गरमच्याय-गरम.. बोला
ए-~कोला भजी वडा पाव.. बोला
कोकल्ला तो मधेच, ए-~कोला
मासळी बाजारातून  त्या पाय मी काढला

बरें झालें बूवा ! 
हाती च्यायचा पेला
कामकरी निघाले धंद्याला

येणार का घोडबंदरला
गरजला रिक्शावाला
कुठे जाणार बोला
दूसरा महाशय पचकला
"जाणार मीटरने तर बोला"
ओ... मी नेतो चला 
तिसरा मधेच कण्हला
सोडताच गिरहाईकाने रिक्शाला

वाह क्या बात !! 
हाती च्यायचा पेला
कामकरी निघाले धंद्याला

ढूर्र .. र .. र .. रिक्शा निघाला
कट तेवढ्यात स्कुटरने मारला
धक्का लागे बसल्या बैलाला
गाढव अधेमधेच अडकला
ट्रॅफिक जॅमच की रे झाला
घाईत नेहमीच तो पेपरवाला अन् ऑफिसवाला
डबेवाला अन् पोलिसवाला
ऐक्सिडेंटची कोणा परवा कशाला

अरे, काय चाललेयरे !!! 
हात् तीच्या , यायचाय की अजून पेला 
कामकरी तर निघाले धंद्याला

रस्ता 'साफ करवूनी' आता
रिक्शाने मोसम (स्पीड )मारला
दिसे एक मंदिर हायवेच्या-कडेला
वाटे पाहून ढीगभर फुल-कच-याला
नवी मुर्ती तर नाही (लावली) पूजेला ?
थांबलो क्षणिक नमस्काराला
तर देवा-देवा अरे-देवा, शॉकच बसला
लागून नवीन गिरहाईकाच्या तयारीला
झाडूने साफ करीत होता रे देवा तोमूर्तिला
धंन्द्यालाच की लावला (त्याने) तूला

क्या बात क्या बात !!!! 
हाती च्यायचा पेला
कामकरी निघाले धंद्याला

The poem refers to various businesses such as tea stalls, taxi, rickshaw, temples, etc.

What was the learning in the morning?

The picture itself raised a few questions in my mind.

1/ Shouldn't we force ourselves to rethink and to relearn the differentiation among Blind-Faith, Emotions, the Emotional Ways-&-Means of Devotion and the Rationality of rituals particularly when they are performed for the sake of rituals?

2/ Aren't there better and environmentally-friendly ways to express Devotional ‘Bhava‘ or Emotion of ‘Surrender’ and Faith (Sharanagati and Shradda) towards the supreme power?

3/ When will rational thoughts prevail over emotional ones?

Hope someone has tips, suggestions or answers to the questions such as above. The answers are the learning: A new dawn in the 'The Business Of Businesses!'

Wednesday 9 October 2013

Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order (Part-2)


Do you want to know how to Tax-Tax-Tax?

How to: Tax-Citizens, Tax-Nation, Tax-The-Planet !

Have you read this joke about two guys working for the municipality? One would dig a hole. He would dig, dig, dig. The other behind him would fill the hole. 

'Dig-Dig-Dig' followed by 'Fill-Fill-Fill'! 

A man watching the furious activity from sidelines was confused. He finally asked them what they were doing. The hole-digger replied, "Oh yes it does look funny but the guy who plants trees is sick today."

So when the tree-guy resumes his duty, rework will resume dutifully is it?

This question kept bothering the confused man.  He kept  wondering about their unique Principles-n-Practices:

Dig-Dig-Dig ! 
Fill-Fill-Fill !!
Tax-Tax-Tax !!!

Break-Break-Break !
Make-Make-Make !!
Waste-Waste-Waste !!!

What is the relevance of the rework-joke here?

The question raised in my earlier blogpost titled Discrimination-is-cremation of law-&-order: Part-1 was "Why footpath on the other side was not made-up yet?". See red-circle in picture-4 from Part-1 above.

Eventually if & when they do it, I was hopeful that the past improvement (see green-circle in picture-4) that of a ¹mistake-proof divider for saplings would be replicated on the other side. I was happy, for it would make it difficult for parked vehicles to run over saplings on the other side as well, of course if planted. I was also hopeful that it will provide a tree-lined walking-avenue for pedestrians.

But alas, I was proven wrong!

With elections a couple of months away, the 5-year-pending work did get a push as a 'shining-opportunity'. However, picture-5 clearly shows that the improvement itself was undone while reworking the footpath after leaving it unused (without planting trees) for over 5 years.

Picture-6 also shows a rework of breaking the made-footpath in order to 'embed drain-pipes below it'. Perhaps a result of an inadequate design then or it was forgotten 5 years ago due to lack of inspection checks.

Do you know cost of rework?

Can you now calculate COPQ (Cost-Of-Poor-Quality) of Poor-Design that results in such rework?: Cost of extra labor & extra material (as can be seen in picture-7). Surprising that the old stones were not recycled forcing extra mining. Perhaps the regulatory authorities did not know that excessive mining is akin to raping the planet.

Other costs are cost of delays causing inconvenience, accidents², traffic jams, etc. It's typically a different Indian-story that the newly made-up 'foot-path' is creatively used as a 'scooter-path' (see picture-8). Now the traffic-police doesn't enter the 'path-zone' for penal action in 'municipal-jurisdiction'.

Apart from COPQ as above, issue of survival of saplings itself (if at all planted somewhere by the side) stays doubtful like in past. It goes without saying that cost to the planet and people as a result of inadequate tree-cover is intangible.

Now you may know relevance of the Dig-Dig-Dig Fill-Fill-Fill joke above!

The tangible and intangible impact of such 'rework-factories' that keep repeating rework due to sick-designs, sick-planning, sick-administration, sick-shoddy quality-of-work is insurmountable !!

It is like someone breaking your window-glass for fun. 
You change it for fun. 
Glass-factories profit on this break-make game and make fun. 

Or it's like making a shoddy road. 
You drive on it to rub tyres and enjoy the fun. 
Tyre-factories enjoy the fun as a bye-product of this rub-on-road game. 

Main fun-product is profiteering from road-construction contracts. The vicious cycle of costly 'Dig-Fill' and 'Break-Make' game goes on pushing public to experience death daily.

What is the solution?

Why should the 'sick' people responsible for this not be held accountable by slapping a Rework-Tax on them equivalent to at least the tangible part of COPQ

Research shows that such COPQ that gets embedded in a typical project cost work out to not less than 30%. In other words, there is a profit-potential of at least 30% if sick-work-rework chain is broken. An answer to this chaos until of course you add more tips and thoughts to this, is installing Kaizen-culture and penalizing indisciplined shoddy work with a sense-of-urgency.

Let us exercise our choice to engage in improvement culture. Let us not allow above kind of 'sickness' to be reflected in our own work and workplace !!!


Footnote-1, Mistake-proofing is called as Pokayoke in Kaizen parlance
Footnote-2, Accidents due to dirty-dagerous-difficult (3-D) situations