"How did I get the Desired Performance!"

"Mid-year 2020, I was doubtful of achieving planned turnover for the whole year particularly since most part of the year was already lost due to the pandemic situation. I wonder, how we got the  Performance though as desired!" exclaimed the CEO on April-1st, the first day the of the next financial year!

Not an April-Fool, but it was a genuine effort of the CEO to understand the "how-&-what" of the things gone right! That - 'to be a learner' - is surely the sign of a 'good' leader wanting to be a 'great' one!

In past I often found an answer to this question in the judicious mix of the application of reinforcement techniques (as the environmental nudges to perform), intrinsic motivation of a person and her capability to perform. So was my reply to the CEO!

Ability + Motivation + Environmental nudges = Performance! I tossed the equation at him.

(Extract from the book: Ego + Ego ... We Go! Behavior Modulation Techniques To Improve Kaizen Leadership, Performance & Negotiation Skills by Shyam Talawadekar)

"You get what you review" as someone has said (or rather ask for it assertively). I've had firsthand experience of this statement (during my leadership career if at all) that one must incorporate right "nudges" in a right manner as an integral part of the Performance-equation as above, I told the CEO. 

Consistency in you conducting weekly reviews as the nudges (subtle ones more frequently) - that consisted of clarity on the weekly goals in tune with the annual ones, enabling teams to work within the "forced"  constraints on resources towards ensuring sustainable growth (as a commitment to planet before profit), to comply with the corresponding standards, driving improvements on the root causes of the shortfalls, if any - followed by instantaneous non-monitory-recognitions as Positive Reinforcements, to those intrinsically motivated employees demonstrating values-based performance, played a major role in getting the desired &/or the raised level of sustainable performance. 

It may not be out of place here to remember that there is a Difference between Ability, Capacity, Capability and the Competence that differentiate between achieving a desired level of performance rather than merely the performance itself.

By the side of the Positive Reinforcements, Negative Reinforcements where needed, such as say the fear of losing compensation proportionate to the lower level of performance, if any, play their own role.

Of course, fear of rationalised punishment, like the one that some non performing managers got in the said company, play its role too.

The positive effect of the former - the Positive Reinforcements - however, gets more than nullified by upsetting the capable as also the intrinsically motivated employees, if the latter, the Negative Reinforcement & especially the punishment to the non performers, is not put in place adequately! However, such a punishment in particular, should not be awarded unless every other effort - Saamaa-Daamaa-Dandaa-Bhedaa - had already failed.

So, effective execution of environmental nudges is as important as building capable people while riding on their intrinsic motivation in order to get the desired level of performance! 

And to get the the desired performance through right means & measures without harming the planet! "We can count, but we are rapidly forgetting how to say what is worth counting and why" as the German-American computer scientist JOSEPH WEIZENBAUM says.

It's good to reflect and build upon the causes of what went right (or what went wrong) in the above process of performance development-cum-management in its intermittent stages rather than complacently rejoicing a good performance (or playing a blame-game regretting a bad performance) at the end of the pipeline. 

Such a 'process of reflection' is called as the Hansen-Kai way to learn wisdom! in Kaizen practising companies that make a difference!

Isn't this the job of a Great leader and that of her Good leadership team!

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Do You Force Customers To Quit
In-a-problem ? No-problem! Dwell-a-while!
Customer or Custo-Mer ?  
Experienced A Delightful Payment ! 
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul 
Do you keep curing your brand ?  
A customer gets what s/he deserves: Shoddy Quality!  
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers 
Less With More And More Gets Sore 
Should one care for value ?  
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?  
The Business Of Businesses 
That's how some business partnerships work 
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 
Does recognition really matter 
That's How Morons Work
Simplicity Of Theory Of Relativity

Difference between raam-&-krishna tactics

Passion or Fashion?

7 P.M. Cool and pleasant evening. I was on an evening walk.

I was almost pulled by the rhythmic beats of Mridangam (a type of percussion instrument) from behind the hedge.

Raja (name changed) was practising, looking at the notations by his side. He could hardly read the notebook. He was sitting in dark at the farthest corner by the side of the eastern express highway in Thane.

For over five minutes Raja didn't even realise that I was standing by his side watching him play the Mridangam. My wife was watching patiently from a distance. She is used to such foolish halts of mine.

With a little bit of inquiry (finally when he looked at me), I came to know that he stayed in a rented shanty. His workplace was a few kilometers away. And that he sometimes came to practise in this corner whenever he got time. Once in a month he would go to his native near Murbad about 100 kilometres and take lessons from his Guru there.

What a commitment towards one's passion!

Whereas it is very easy to get spoilt (with smoking, drinking and chewing tobacco) in a metro city like Thane or Mumbai, the boy chose a corner and Mridang. The young boy (at 20 age) was pursuing his passion by the noisy and polluted roadside after work hours.

The reason: 

His neighbors would complain to his landlord about the 'noise' of Mridang. 

No room inside his room that he shared with a couple of partners.

Many 'innovate' hurdles to complain of 'why and how a thing couldn't be done' even after the corresponding resources were available in abundance. The young boy instead found solutions over his hurdles while nurturing his passion, staying alone 100 kilometres away from his family.

What an empowerment and self-enablement!

Sure to grow into a real life RAJA (King) of his passion if he continues to nurture it with consistency (rather than Passion as a Fashion) and self-managed supervision like Ekalavya.

Actually while I was writing this blogpost, my wife showed me a WhatsApp ping. It wrote "Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, that was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

This experiment raised several questions:

In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

If so, do we stop to appreciate it? " particularly when it comes free!

May be the boy is still to go far as a percussionist.

But what I wanted to appreciate was that that's how big names get made. In fact most successful people in various fields have left similar trails in their individual lives. They had little more patience to turn tables over while their problems were hell bent on testing them.

Their passions won over their problems by miles!

Big names get made when people find opportunities in problems without complaining about lack of resources, if any.

Big names get made (with holistic satisfaction as the result) when people find and nurture their passions rather than running after the run-of-the-mill careers.

Who knows (like Joshua Bell) sometime in life the boy may become a great percussionist if not Padma Shri Zakir Hussain!

In his humble mind, perhaps he already is!!

Here's my Haiku poem over the learning of the day:

Passion isn't a Fashion

Success isn't a cushion
Life is being in Motion

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

Do you know a Best-Career-Plan

Take your career in fast lane!

Talent-Is-Latent: Enable It! 

Crying? It's time to kick-it-off! 

Is Your Job Boring!

Is the Free cheap?

Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up? 

Do you exercise your choice meaningfully 
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important? 
Eternally Happy! 
In-a-problem? No-problem! Dwell-a-while! 
I am afraid ! What do I do !! 
Fearful-Of-Death-of-Birth
Take Habits For A Ride 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
Are You Good If Others Are Bad?  
Want Need-Or-Want 
How To Make A Difference 
Success-or-failure! What-do-you-like?
Succession-Plans In Fast Lane! 
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully
Do You Ask Right Questions? 

Carrier for the Career 

Carrier for the Career

Will I succeed in the career I choose and chase thereafter?

This is usually a question that lingers on the mind of most prospects.

In a couple of blogposts¹ earlier, I offered some guidance. In this one I would like to value add by offering some visual explanation.

There always exists some demand D, correspondingly some careers C and some passions P. In some cases, they overlap as in sketch-1 and in other cases they exist mutually exclusively as in sketch-2. 

Some people nurture their passions after office hours or at weekends. Those who do not know their passions may like to keep a journal of the activities that they enjoyed during working hours as well as after working hours and during weekends. Those could be the pointers to their passions!

Various types of demands could be due to the basic human needs (like food, shelter, clothing, security and education as in Maslow's hierarchical model) or due to wants (or so called glorified higher needs) as well.

CD arrow indicates that you may fall (burn) out of the current career irrespective of the demand being in place. This is true particularly if the both do not overlap the circle of passion.

PC arrow indicates that demand can get created if passion is in place and corresponding careers are available.

PD arrow indicates that career can be easily made if passion and demand both are in place.

If all of the P, C, D, co-exist then what's the problem?
Why does the doubt of 'success and failure' and that of 'choose and chase' exist?

One reason could be that the three might be floating around in isolation in their own P, C and D zones independently (mutually exclusively in the mathematical lingua), something like as you see in the sketch-2.

If however all the three overlap as in sketch-1 then the shaded zone (the green dot area common to P, C and D) is the most easier one for the prospects to succeed. That's because demand and careers are already available as a carrier for their passion to ride upon. In fact there'll be a pull from it for one's passion even if one may not want it.

Career chosen in this zone is where you are likely to make a major difference and leave your impact.

C and D (the orange and red dot areas) are where you need to push yourself very hard to create the carriers for a career to join the demand. You also need to work exceptionally hard to create skills and capabilities in line with the market demand. The reason is you need to work away from what you already have. The degree of push may vary a little depending upon the saturation level of the careers and the satisfaction levels of the demands as well.

Instead working on what you already have (your passion, the blue dot area) in order to enhance skills and capabilities in line with the opportunities that the market provides, creating the corresponding demand and career is much easier even if they hardly exist. You may have to do a little spadework though.

You may need to push very little to create a carrier for your career. You'll succeed anyway it being your passion. The criteria of success will more be enjoyment derived out of the process or journey rather than merely the earnings out of it. You are surely going to enjoy it because it's your passion that you are furthering it.

Those who understand this P-C-D interrelationship, don't have to worry about the Carrier for their Career. This is particularly true for the passionate ones because they are already 'play'ing the game of it rather than 'work'ing it out.

They already have answer to the question of 'choice and the chase'!

They are likely to be the most successful ones!!

Also read a few relevant¹ blog-posts² hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or consider sharing this post.

Footnote-¹

Do you know a Best-Career-Plan

Take your career in fast lane!

Talent-Is-Latent: Enable It! 

Crying? It's time to kick-it-off! 

Is Your Job Boring!

Footnote-² ... Other relevant blogposts

Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up? 
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully 
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important? 
Eternally Happy! 
In-a-problem? No-problem! Dwell-a-while! 
I am afraid ! What do I do !! 
Fearful-Of-Death-of-Birth
Take Habits For A Ride 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
Are You Good If Others Are Bad?  
Want Need-Or-Want 
How To Make A Difference 
Success-or-failure! What-do-you-like?
Succession-Plans In Fast Lane! 
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully

Do You Ask Right Questions? 
Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up?

Conscious Of Self-Esteem

"Hey, you ciant piark yer kyar thiees waye, kay?" Owner of neighboring parking slot in my society had picked up American accent.

Perhaps he recently had a week's stint somewhere there. A week ago I'd heard him saying, "Why can't you park your car this way?"

Do you find some people picking up a local slang, be it from a developed destination like in above case or from a rural-interior one from an under-developed geography?

Good if the purpose of such a behavior is to improve grammatical delivery. Or good if a newly learnt short-form is by design to add to personal vocabulary in order to increase productivity.

In both such cases the change might be good if it offers some corresponding functional benefit.

In case of 'American-accent' the change occurred over the week appears more to impress the 'foreign-return' stamp than any value-addition to herself or to the listener. In fact to the listener it was a non-value because the accent was difficult to comprehend. The behavior appears to be purely aesthetic.

In the latter case, corresponding person doesn't seem to be conscious of her self-esteem. She is allowing (rather choosing) it to get deteriorated inadvertently though.

Agreed that under some circumstances one does need to behave "Like Romans in Rome". But carrying Rome lock-stock-and-barrel back to your native place may not be a good idea.

It's like sacrificing your own identity merely to conform to others' expectations or purely to impress others. It's like refusing to take stock of "who you really are and are capable of doing". It's like lack of self-confidence or lack of belief in the self.

Lesson

It's fine if a change in behavior and in turn in personality is for the good or for the better. Alternatively if the change in personality leads to deterioration of current level of performance of the self or that of the others then it's a No.. No!

On this first day of the year, let me thank the year gone by for having given me so many opportunities such as above to learn from. Thank you the year to help me to reinforce as well as to enhance my self-esteem and to help me get ready to embrace the New-Year with newer zeal.

IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important? 
Talent-Is-Latent: Enable It! 
Take your career in fast lane!
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully
Do You Ask Right Questions?  
Do You Force Customers To Quit
Less-With-More Because More-Is-Sore
Should one care for value? 
Talk In Order To Listen!  
Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need (Part-2)
Functional-Aesthetics 

Talent-Is-Latent: Enable It!

Business of the company that I went to assess was driven by research and development (R&D), high obsolescence of products and uniquely varying needs of customers.

High customisation was the order of the day. That in turn called for high level of customer contact and listening skills in order to capture voice of customer (VOC) precisely. This obviously calls for leadership skills to get it made in-house and get delivered before competition could do.

The need may appear unique to the company. But this in fact is the order of the day for most suppliers given the ever dynamic market place characterised by VUCA¹ and high level of competition.

While CEO of the company was keen to improve business processes to help retain their position externally, simultaneous concern was about 'attrition' he had been facing. Recently 'bought' talent also left, he complained.

Won't the training go waste under such circumstances, he feared.

Between the trained people leaving and untrained ones living (with you) for ever with their errors to annoy you, what is better?

Education, training and coaching builds people. Between 'Building' relevant skills captively versus installing 'Bought' skills as a foreign particle, what is preferable?

Companies need to understand that building pipelines of people is no less important alongside building the pipelines of products. In fact the former should be their prime agenda.

Why do people quit?
Especially those with high aspirations definitely do.

In fact, those without aspirations too move in absence of a conducive environment to hold them back. One of the major reasons of the other party leaving is indifferent treatment be it to people in general or to a customer in particular. 

So one of the most important portfolios of the CEO is not to leave HRD² to HR-D (HR-Department). Instead, creating culture that 'compels' people to stay back should be her hands-on agenda driven personally.

One can't ignore the fact that even seemingly dumb people have intelligence, so-called average though. It usually stays latent or dormant until challenged.

Leaving aside their own ego, superiors just need to facilitate unleashing it by making them feel confident and help them to realise their self-worth. They just need to be given an opportunity and a platform to shine. This can be done by encouraging them to express their thoughts, experiment corresponding changes in their work area without fear-of-failure.

It's a process of enabling³ people.

Once done, latent talent can be seen flowering and flowing-in smoothly. The pipeline of HRD can be seen getting 'built' that not only ensures employee retention but also creates a pull.

How to enable³ people?

First of all collect (Not Buy!) people who have fire-in-their-belly although with not-very-high aspirations and high-qualifications. Then enable³ them step-by-step. 

Step-1. Establish your credibility by demonstrating your actions on what you speak.

Step-2. Explain your expectations from them. Communicate your urgency and seriousness through complimentary evidences.

Step-3. Educate, train and coach them.

Education is to help them acquire goal specific knowledge.
Training is to help them acquire goal specific and industry-relevant, organisation-specific skills.
Coaching is to help them on 'Do-Why' and 'Do-How' in order to apply the knowledge and skills to enthusiastically achieve the goals of common good.

Step-4. Encourage, inspire & motivate to keep them engaged in the process. Give them a platform to showcase their talent and to shine.

Step-5. Empower them: Give them freedom-within-a-framework to experiment without fear of failures.

Step-6. Ennoble, means dignify them with high respect. Recognize & reward their achievements by actively listening to their efforts.

Step-7. Repeat the enablement cycle to take up higher challenges.

'Building' people rather than 'Buying' them is in a true sense creating a learning organisation as companies like Toyota do. It's their company level strategy driven by the top rather than merely a HRD² strategy left to the HR-D.

Footnotes:
1. VUCA: Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous. A term of military origin that represents warfare environment.
2. HRD: Human Resource Development.
3. Model 7-E© from Book "How To Enable A Change Process? Start-From-Self". Author: Shyam Talawadekar.

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

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !!
Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily
Does recognition really matter
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?
Do you know a Best-Career-Plan
Take your career in fast lane!
Succession-Plans In Fast Lane! 
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
You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable
Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass 
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?
Make checklists your friends 
Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow
How To Make A Difference
Big-Be Or Bug-Be !
A customer gets what s/he deserves: Shoddy Quality!
Listen to iceberg of VOC to acquire customers

Is Your Job Boring

Job gets boring if a job is a 'job'.
Job gets boring when a job gets chosen primarily for the money it pays.

When job gets boring, the output 'bores' customer. And then the employer gets axing on you. 

Very often, people don't love their job if chosen jobs are not their passions.
Mentally as well as physically they get tired faster than they think if they don't love their job... Usually so before even they begin it.

End of a typical tiring day however, most don't mind playing a game of their choice tirelessly.
While playing people don't get tired easily. Usually so because play is a generic passion.

In fact they get happy because people love whatever they do passionately.

Double whammy! 

Not-paid play... not boring!!
Well-paid 'good' job.... but boring!!! 

What do do?

Don't lose heart yet.
Don't allow emotions to overrule you.

Do continue the job as usual during week days.

Ask probing questions in order to unearth your passion.
Finance it by the earnings from the job.
Nurture the passion on week-ends.

Look for skills common to both the job as well as the passion.
Try to compliment job to passion and passion to job.
Probability of the passion becoming passionate-job one day enhances.
'Job' might become a play and career thereafter.

Play gets played passionately.
Passionate play brings in happiness holistically.
When happy, the resultant output gets more productive and value-adding.

Afterall play is a play.
Everyone loves it without bothering about Hours.
And job is a job.
Everyone hates job; watching Minutes-after-Minutes for Hours together and Hours-after-Hours for Years together.

Read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?
Do you know a Best-Career-Plan
Take your career in fast lane!
Succession-Plans In Fast Lane! 
In-a-problem? No-problem! Dwell-a-while!
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully
Do You Ask Right Questions? 
Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up?
No Time? Micro-Meditate! 
Talk In Order To Listen! 
Eternally Happy!

Are You Good If Others Are Bad?

Last week just before conducting an audit for Continual Improvement Culture (CIC) in one of the companies in Western India, I asked the audience to self-assess and give a score for CIC at their workplace.

Few participants gave a score of 10%. Few others rated themselves on higher side with a score of 40% although they had just begun attempting the CIC initiative.

I proposed claps for those who rated themselves on lower side. Why? Because their score wasn't to underestimate themselves but it intended to show further scope for improvement.

A headline in Loksatta newspaper reminded me of this incidence. The news reported a minister (in a conference on Change) challenging Gujarat state touted as being ahead of Maharashtra.

How do you think progress of an individual or an entity be measured? What should be the measures of performance to decide who's ahead of whom?

Is it the result or the means to it or a combination of both? The means inter alia may include attitude, continuity and consistency of approach to help achieve the desired results.

If it was results alone then it's the Hare that would always get declared as winner. If it was the latter then it's the Tortoise that would always get declared as winner.

Actually it should be a combination of both. In addition it should include the rate of efforts applied while trying for enhanced rate of improvement. Outcome sometimes may be failures (to learn from) rather than expected improvements per-se though.

If you think this approach to measurement is right then the challenge reported in above headline seems confusing.

If the claim therein were to be right then:
1/ The rate of improvement of infrastructure in Maharashtra should have outpaced the rate of urbanization that of 50% as quoted by one of the economists during the same conference.
2/ The industry scions wouldn't have 'complained' of poor infrastructure and poor assistance by government as reported in the same conference.

Anyway, the point of contention is: isn't it in your own interest to compete with your ownself than with others. Its not necessary to show others down to show ownself up.

If at all one wishes to compare with others it should be with an intention to stretch own benchmarks. It should be to find out how far and how fast one needs to go in comparison and by what approach.

In short, it's good to think and take positive steps rather than otherwise.

It's good to aim at 'sky' as your template of destination. It's better than looking down upon other's garden to show your's to be better and bigger.

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow
How To Make A Difference 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
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
You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable
Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass 
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?
That's how some business partnerships work
Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !!
Technology in-place, security dis-placed
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?
Do you know a Best-Career-Plan
Customer or Custo-Mer? 
Experienced A Delightful Payment !
An Experience of Heart-and-Soul
Less With More And More Gets Sore
Should one care for value? 
ABCD of India Shining
Beware Of Political-Presentations
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis
Hoarders Of Filthy Hoardings

Experienced A Delightful Payment !

I was working for this company for the first time.

As usual I sent my diagnostic questionnaire: The tool that helps me in weeding out conn-enquiries. Conn-enquiries are the ones that call for the sake of calling followed by a call to visit them only to have a cup of tea.

Such conn-companies don't realise that primary raw 'material' for offering services is time. Material for product offering can be kept in inventory. Time can't be inventoried: Once gone, is gone for ever. That's why even a TV mechanic or a water-filter mechanic charges visit fees.

So if a company doesn't help you in diagnostics you are likely to end up being a 'pig'. 'Three-Pigs' was the name of my first company where I was one of the three with a mission to scavenge in industries.

If the company answers diagnostic queries, it's likely to be serious and your time is likely to go to the needy. Moreover your time gets saved. Because many a time companies call you to ask the same questions they could have been answered on phone or by mail. Why waste fuel, time and energy kind of questions hardly bother them.

The company I am writing about responded the next day.

Asked for the path-ahead for lean journey alongwith my quotation.

My office sent proforma invoice the next day.

The company sent me their 'supplier registration form' by return with a request to "comply by return". It was followed by a reminder mail saying "Waiting for your immediate reply."

The form was one of the most complete ones that included all the information such as whether my office was a brick or a RCC structure. My office sent back the form promptly duly filled in.

Same evening I got a call saying "Your 'supplier registration' is complete. Please ensure to get bill alongwith you. End of your counseling you will get cheque in your hand."  Communication was crisp and clear.

Deliciously delightful experience! First of it's kind for me!

May be the company had timebound performance criteria for their delivery processes. But I had seen many companies in spite of having such criteria failing to pay even after a couple of years.

A typical Indian company paid me half the amount overdue to me after half century of telephone calls and five times more emails. It wrote-off half, paid me half after two years. That means the money was depreciated by half due to inflation. I have not considered cost of follow-ups though which is actually a part of any Indian's routine.

I used to call my customer-friend every time Sachin Tendulkar used to hit half-century expecting the Sachin-fan's mood to be good, but in vain.

Some such company's performance criteria is to keep more amount in credit than debit. Their unwritten rule is to delay payment multiple times the agreed payment time. Former should overrule the latter or vice versa whichever worked out favorable to them.

This 'taking others for granted' is a typical behavior in high mistrust societies. Hopefully my delightful experience is not a mystery. Actually much more than the performance criteria, it's the culture: the soft dimension that makes the difference.

The delight company happens to be an Indian subsidiary of a Japanese company perhaps richer in the soft dimension: The Kaizen Culture!

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 

Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow

How To Make A Difference 

An Experience of Heart-and-Soul

Take your career in fast lane!

Succession-Plans In Fast Lane!  

Nauseous Communication Gaps 

Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 

Will It Work Here?  

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable 

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 

Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice? 

That's how some business partnerships work 

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !! 

Customer or Custo-Mer?  

In a Problem?: No Problem ! Dwell A While !! 

Do You Ask Right Questions?  

Succession-Plans In Fast Lane!

How Much Can We Better Our Recruitment Processes?

In Order To Improve Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes, How Much To Add To Training Budgets That Are Already Heavy?

How Much To Better Our Succession-Plans?

These are some of the worries that keep haunting HR professionals. One reason is, increasing inventory of disgruntled employees. Employees disengaged due to job dis-satisfaction in particular in spite of having good systems in place. Other reason is attrition.

How to overcome this?
What is the solution to this dilemma?
How to reduce or prevent attrition?

Sometimes the causes might be aptitudinal. Sometimes it may be due to gaps in matchmaking at recruitment stage itself due to misleading presentations by either of the stakeholders.

It ultimately results into recruiting people and then figuring out how to fit square peg into round hole in order to accommodate them. Failure to do so results into branding them as defocused if they stay disengaged or as not-trust-worthy job-hopper if they quit jobs.

Hereunder might be a simple way to find out whether passions and aspirations of prospective recruits match that of a company's needs. HR professionals and companies might like to drive following steps to ease their worries.

Step-1: Prospects, both the recruiters and recruitees, need to look for matchmaking of mutual passions. Read blogpost that answers How To Take your career in fast lane!

Step-2: Prospective recruitees write their comprehension about thoughts expressed in the blogpost in maximum 50-words!

Step-3: Prospects write briefly about their own passions: Maximum 50-words!

Step-4: HR professional (assessor and selector) from recruiting company studies above 100-words in order to draw parallels. Based on the parallels s/he draws her conclusion on matchcmaking of passions and aspirations between the prospects and the company.

The findings might be given an appropriate weightage alongwith that of various other available criteria for recruitment.

In support of the above process, the recruiting company might like to design a few prompting questions that the recruitee answers.

Better the matchcmaking of passions and aspirations, better will be the mutual choices of recruits and companies, lesser will be the disengagement and better will be the Succession-Plans!

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Take your career in fast lane!

Do You Ask Right Questions? 

Do you exercise your choice meaningfully

Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up?

Prevention: The Best Cure! ... Is it really so?

Do you know a Best-Career-Plan 

Don't Forget: Stir-Coffee-Well !

Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily

Listen To The Iceberg, Not The Tip 

Nauseous Communication Gaps

An Experience of Heart-and-Soul

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !!

Be Bug-Be Or Big-Be ?

How To Make A Difference

Beware Of Political-Presentations

An Experience of Heart-and-Soul

Bapu's smile!

Courteously asking for 'tea or coffee'!

Issue of token for work within a minute of entry at security gate!

Prabhakar's speedy response to take car for quick touch-up!

Warm get-up of the cool waiting room!

Job done in a couple of hours although (the paint touch-up was) with a little less of finesse. Generally a dealer would take a work-shift including a bit of waiting due to Sunday rush. Of course it was a planned visit so scheduling the job was easy for them.

Being a Kaizen student, I expressed desire to take a study tour. It was quickly acceded to.

Customer does expect such activities to be performed of course with 'aesthetic-smile' that competition has 'forced' upon suppliers in auto sector in particular.

He 'pays' for the 'standards' alongwith for the Technology, Tools, Materials, etc. anyway that all paraphernalia  management does employ from 'outside' i. e. from the material world. They even don't forget to put a 'smiley' foot-mat that says 'thank you'.

But what one can't forcibly employ is the evidence of heart-and-soul, the 'inside',  while performing above kind of trivial looking but relevant activities as duty (that predominantly need human interventions).

If one passionately enjoys it as a play it gives pleasure to self and hence for others. Inevitably it adds value to self that no one can snatch away from. The 'player' looks beautiful then.

For that 'beauty' to happen the leaders at workplace must enjoy the work themselves. They must enjoy their own work of - leadership by demonstration, - pouring heart-and-soul in playing their own role, - recognizing those colleagues and subordinates who do so,  - employing 'telling' tactics if 'selling' fails to those who don't do so so that they don't spoil others who do.

Hope such Heart-and-Soulful experience doesn't fall back to Heat (the customer First) and then Cool her!

With that consistency then not only will the 'player' look beautiful but also s/he will make the workplace look beautiful!!

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

How To Make A Difference

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Experienced A Delightful Payment !

Take your career in fast lane!

Succession-Plans In Fast Lane!  

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture

Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?

Some Moron ! Some Great !!!

That's How Morons Work

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

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

A Ride To Hell

Will It Work Here?

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass 

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

Prevention: The Best Cure! ... Is it really so?

In-big-problem? Wear-hats-to-solve-it!

Elections on anvil for voters' will

Election on anvil
Drives political thrill
Snatches voters' will

With News-mill & Public-life-at-spill
Politicians relish a delicious kill
Without respite to electoral bill

Elections are on anvil.
Elections usually drive political mills that snatch voters' will.
Mushrooming News items drive people's businesses and boost marketing zeal.
It's an opportunity to spill public-life that provides politicians with a delicious kill.

One of the employees of a company I am associated with couldn't get renewal of license done. As a result the material that had governmental controls couldn't be available within desired time. It's operations got affected for over a month.

What is the loss and cost in the process?

Profitability of the suppliers affected.
Profitability of the supply-chain itself affected due to delayed supplies.
Inflation up due to enhanced demand-supply gap.
Reduced income to daily-waged labour.
Above all reduced income to national exchequer itself due to lost GDP numbers.

This is about corporate life that has impact on public-life as well in terms of inflation.

But what about direct hit to public-life due to absence of government staff in offices under the pretext of 'Election-Duty'.

Someone goes to rationing department and finds staff on 'Election-Duty'.
Someone goes to get domicile certificate and finds staff on 'Election-Duty'.
Someone goes to University department to find staff on 'Election-Duty'.
Someone goes to school to find even teaching staff on 'Election-Duty'.

Last year even exams got postponed around the vote-counting day. 

Under normal circumstances the machinery at least functions sometimes if you are ready to move your papers yourself from table to table for 'babu's signatures. Under circumstances such as 'Election-Duty', the machinery doesn't function even at snail's pace, that too officially. You may run from pillar to post. It'll all be in vain. 

All this at higher cost. Cost of wasted time. Cost of fuel and energy to run from pillar to post. Cost of overtime paid for Election-Duty. Cost of compensatory paid-holiday for Election-Duty. 

Not that staff loves Election-Duty for these benefits. In fact they don't. Because they have to report there in-time. Stay there full-time and do work: Search names, make slips, put stamps, take thumb impressions, tally the whole process, count votes, etc. etc. No 'escape' route. 

Anyway, why should public suffer at such extra cost? 

Isn't there a lot of scope for planning and organising? 

By the time we guess so, let's hope that the Voter-turnout improves and the voter votes for corruption-free governance, stability, growth and prosperity.

Here's a MaiKu© i. e. My-Haiku on elections.

Opposition in a nightmare
Over the glass that politicians share
Shaking hands on voter's care

In Marathi

घेउ तूला अन् मला
पण देउ नको त्याला
माथी राजकारणी खलबतं, हाती मद्दाचा प्याला

In Malvani (Konkani)

घेवया तूका आनि माका
पन घालू नको त्येका
दारूच्या गुत्तात राजकारणी सोडीना हेका

©MaiKu Is My-Haiku
Freely ideate it's poetic rhymes
Any objective topic it chimes

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

ABCD of India Shining

Do you know a Best-Career-Plan

Take your career in fast lane!

Succession-Plans In Fast Lane! 

Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow

How To Make A Difference

Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis

Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam!

Some Moron ! Some Great !!!

That's How Morons Work

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture

Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Customer or Custo-Mer? 

An Experience of Heart-and-Soul

Less With More And More Gets Sore