Teamwork

"एक और एक ग्यारेह" (One plus one equals to eleven)...I heard these words first from my parents, then teachers then seniors around me and I heard it in my life so much that somehow i started considering all my efforts with others as "little" because one plus one were never even being two... I thought as if i am wrong somewhere because i am not able to put efforts in a generally agreed upon fashion and the output i produce is much less than this general statement says...Now when i look back, i feel convinced that one and one are rarely even two and very very rarely eleven. That may be one of the reason for so much efforts on people management (i believe its more of people-together management because one person in himself is anyways finds him perfect; nothing much to be tailored). People management only comes when we have more than one person working together, and since these people may have different thoughts about same thing, the output will essentially be analogous to the level of common understanding between them over any topic.Hence a primary requirement for one plus one eleven would be for the team to have people who have similar thought process. They would first need to complement each other in their technical knowledge, then they would need to respect each other's thoughts and allow them to come in, then they would need capability to change themselves if required, then they have to be goal oriented more than self oriented (no "i am right" syndrome), then they would need to have good manager, a good manager whose management is not a product of accident, who is himself not insecure in his job and otherwise and who can provide a good listening for his team mate's thoughts. Furthermore, he should have a clearer vision on the goal and again should have all the qualities which i mentioned for the team members. Assuming that everyone's reality/truth/rightness comes out of his thoughts and its uncommon for people to have real open mind for other's thoughts, it will not be less than disaster if the team members are aligned but the manager is not. Authority decides lots of things.At least in India, the major reason for a person to work is his financial requirements more often than hobby. Most of the times one gets into a profession because of accidental choice which is itself based on some circumstances (notice how much doctors have children as doctors, same for advocates etc.). Hence most people's work is not aligned with his/her hobby. Most of the people even dont start thinking in this direction until they have spent (wasted?) too much time in their accidental job just because they are working for a different requirement - finance.Most of Indian families have small ratio of earning members to total members. The basic requirements are no more limited to one's food/clothes and shelter. People have added responsibilities of food/clothes/shelter for others, then pressure of being representable in society in best possible way which adds too much to insecurity, then looking good syndrome, then unconsciousness leading one's life, sister's marriage, brothers settlement, father's drinking, political situations, public issues blah blah...Such person, which makes majority of workforce in India, mostly dont oppose things which they dont agree with because of thier insecurities and keep tailoring themselves as per seniors, working environment, market conditions (bad condition means more insecurity and hence more tailoring) and in the process develop lots of negativity towards the team and the goal. This being true about most of the teammembers, makes it impossible to achieve even total of everyone's efforts.Working under a bad manager is most unfortunate for anybody. For anyone a bad manager would be one who has some other stream of thoughts than he has. How can one be happy in a situation where he has to continuosly work on something he doesn't agree with, whereas he has to portrait himself as someone who is completely aligned with the manager and the goal.. utter misalignment and utter unhappiness. Organizations now a days have become a place where one looses his basic right of being happy because of various situations, most important of which is one's insecurity.Looking at the organization from a distance, it seems as if everyone is trying to save himself from his insecurities while using others. People are taking advantage of thier position in hierarchy (some unconsciously) and thier unconsciousness is creating havoc in thier juniors life. Juniors who may be able to consciously note some of his senior's attributes, is on the receiving end of the bulshit created by senior's unconsciousness and are unable to speak because of their own insecurity. What a weird system !!!

Management

(Management graduates and gurus may find shortcomings in this post if they compare it with established management practices because its not a product of any management practice or study. These are my own personal observations and i always want to follow my own created rules till the time i dont update them with something which seems more meaningful. I however, appreciate comments/criticism from all.)Management is essentially getting a vision shaped by those who can shape it. The vision is of those who have the ability to see something clearer than others, as clear that following the vision seems profitable. They may not be interested or may not know how to actually shape the vision at a granular level. Similarly those who work on shaping the vision, the actual workers, may not understand the vision completely or have faded understanding of the vision.For anybody to work, apart from money, its important that the work fells under his area of importance. Money is a common area of interest for most people but not doing a best quality job does not always mean loosing money. In fact there are so many loopholes in an organization that an individual may keep getting paid for his lifetime with average quality of work. The organization may be interested in keeping an individual as long as his outputs are more than inputs. They may not be best possible but who cares. In the end its the employee who plays with his own life if he doesn't work for the best, but how is the organization concerned about it, its being benifited.But many people may not understand and may think as if they are fooling the organization by doing an inferior quality job. So people will only put thier best, and they will automatically do it without any training or guidance, in the areas which are of interest to them, which they feel at that time of interest to them.Now management has to bridge the gap between the higher authority's broadly defined vision and important requirements of actual workers. These two may not understand each others very well, hence steps inbetween are required.Now how can an organization's vision be made important to an individual worker? An individual worker, naturally would be interested in his own personal growth. The management must decompose the vision to an extent that it becomes understandable by the actual workers. Reciting the same vision in management language even thousands of times would seem foriegn to the actual workers. Hence it must be decomposed.The decomposed items may be understandable to the actual workers but is it necessary that it will call people too so that they put in their best efforts? To me it seems that people most of the time dont even know what they want. How to get what they want is next difficulty if they cross the first hardle. As a manager, he must be first able to understand where an an individual worker stand, what are his real known/unknown needs, what would be various possible genuine options for his growth keeping in mind his needs and capabilities, what all decomposed tasks fit his needs and capabilities and then he should be able to present this to the individual worker in a language which is easily understandable by the individual worker. Then the efforts from worker will be automatic and of best quality because there is 100 percent alignment between the activity and doer. The worker will work for himself and in effect, the organization will grow. We can not think of a worker doing for organization and we paying him money in return. Even after getting money, people work for themselves.Further to this the management need to keep informing actual workers about the vision, the context out of which they are working. People may not understand from the vision how to achieve it, but they will be able to understand whether or not they are going in right direction. This picture of great future will put more enthusiasm in them for doing their bit of work in best possible way. A sense of achivement and contribution in long term goals and alignment of personal requirements with actual work one performs are some of the best tools for getting automatic energy do the job. And anything done by automatic energy is highly creative, filled with quality and restlessness.The best thing for a manager would be to work for the vision providers and the people under him. If he genuinely works for them then he automatically grows in the process. And no matter how much one tries to hide it, people are smart enough to know the real intentions even when its unsaid/unshown. Hence when there is real willing to work for others, there would be a different energy in the environment and entire work will flow through that energy and become so simple and enjoyable.A manager if thinks genuinly about his subordinates, would easily be able to know the best career path for an individual which is in interest of the individual and be able to map the tasks on that path. Management seems to be very simple when seen from this context. Its well said that the context is decisive and difficult problems have simple answers...If one looks at management from this context, then he will be filled with great energy and great management will happen automatically like waves.

Why working with people is difficult than working with machines...

I find myself at great ease whenever i am working on my computer, whenever i am researching something new, alone in my room. My brain stays with me and is involved in thinking like wow this is a great tool, it seems to be new.. etc etc.. which are completely different from the thoughts which i get when i am with other people.. At those times, i get thoughts like.. what is this guy saying, i dont agree with him.. why is he so rude.. etc etc..Machines dont say anything, they dont interrupt you from thinking your own way. they are in your control... you are not afraid of getting in their control.. they are not trying to prove that they are better than you.. they dont attack you in any sense. they dont appear like someone coming from a completely different world, having weird perception like humans do. and afterall machines show you what you want to see.. so you can still stay 100% aligned with your own virtual world. Your perception is not challenged. And you are happy because you are being yourself.On the other hand as soon as we get in touch of humans, our brain starts behaving differently. We are no more ourselves. If they say something which we dont believe in, we feel a pinch. And when 4 people laugh near us and again say something which we dont believe in, we are even more annoyed. It feels like we are getting destroyed. As if our identity is with our beliefs only and when people are dont accepting our beliefs, they are not accepting us. As if they are against us. We get an urge of going away from that place..Managing people mandates us to stay with people. Everyday we need to meet different-2 people who are living in thier own virtual world of perceptions. The essense of perception is that it seems real to the person possessing it even if it may seem completely unreal to the other person. But its too difficult for a person to negate something which he sees from his eyes and perception is not any less. Now if we think about a situation where two people (with different perception of course) are standing close to each other and being fully themselves, here is what will come"no .. i dont believe it.. this is not true... i am 100% sure that its otherwise... i have myself experienced it the other way round how can it be true.. hey listen to me.. "and even if we be fully ourselves with someone, after such conversation we feel a pinch of unacceptance because our beliefs felt that pinch as if we identify ourselves with our beliefs.Moreover such behaviour is unaccepted in organizations... When managing people, apart from being with people, we have to listen to their perception and still say "yes i agree" even if we dont fully agree... we have to continue feeling the pinch of disagreement... getting in 100% agreement with someone is rare... thats why people just keep speaking without listening to others properly.. people even tend to speak loudly because the other person is also not listening.. by raising their voice loud might make the other person stop speaking and the speaker gets a illusionary feeling of getting accepted because no-one else is speaking.. hence he feels good. When we are in 100% agreement with someone, we make a bond like a bond of strong friendship and see how less number of such strong bonds exist in your life.. very few.. may be none. With most of the people we have a friction which is not the easiest path.. and like water we humans also tend to choose the easiest path...