The course was attended by 12 senior engineers and managers of the Corporation. And they all liked the course and gave excellent feedback stating that such a course with its new concepts ought to be held regularly for the Corporation and others should also benefit. That was fine, I thought. But this is not the end of the story. This is not what I was looking for.
So, I asked them as to how they can implement the concepts back in their own workplace. Then came the surprise. Each one said that it can't be implemented. Why was that? They had different reasons. While one said that the workers and supervisors would not listen to them another quipped in that their management processes and policies would not allow them to do anything new and would always expect them to follow the so called 'beaten path'. Most of them thought this way. The management rules were rigid and if anything has to be changed then it ought to be changed by the Central Govt. There was no escaping from this fact.
So, what I observed was a group of otherwise talented people who got stuck in a system which I now term as the 'Duck' system. What does the duck do? It 'quacks' all the time. Hence the management system was behaving like a duck.
Can we do this in a better way? Quack Quack.
Can this be done differently? Quack Quack.
Can we stop doing this boring meaningless routine? Quack Quack.
The answer is always the same, no matter what!
However, my experience with another private sector company, one of the largest cement companies in India was completely different. The top managers would take time and energy to sit through in the discussions and interactions urging people to make action plans and implement any good idea which they thought would make their lives better. They virtually insist and are ready to provide all necessary support and resources for implementation. What I saw was commendable and even apparently strange. Immediately after the interactions the participants would prepare the necessary indents whatever they thought would be needed to bring about the changes and the top manager would approve them in a matter of minutes. This was because they also sat through the concluding meetings and updated themselves with the analysis that went behind a proposed change.
In a way, they were ready to reward excellent failures too! What a great idea! This is what Henry Ford did when he managed his organisation. He sometimes knew that the manager was wrong. But he still approved the way they thought. When asked about this seemingly strange behaviour he replied that he was fully aware of the fact that 8 of the 10 ideas would go wrong. But as a business man he also knew that even if 2 ideas out of 10 came out correctly he still stands not only to gain immensely but also wipe out the losses incurred through implementation of the other eight 'not so good ideas'.
And I think that such a process encourages people to remain motivated and committed to the organization's cause. Moreover, there can't be a better way of learning than learning both from mistakes and successes.I personally as a young engineer learnt both from my mistakes and successes. Over a period of time the odds to create success far outweigh the odds to create failures without inducing mental atrophy (No new ideas, please! No changes, please! Don't rock the boat, I insist!). But it has a caveat! We must have a thinking process that allows us to think wide and deep and also take into account the play of opposites. I would explain this some other time.
But why was the mangement of the cement company doing this? Are they crazy? Certainly not. They have a strong business case in their minds. They are convinced, by reviewing previous successes, that once implemented the company stands to gain for years and the life of the people would be much easier through better and easier systems that evolve over time as opposed to systems that are imposed on people -- often terming them to be the best in the world (the truth is that it simply does not work).
This system that evolves over time, aggressively responding to the changes going on is a system is a system that I call 'The Eagle' -- a bird that has the agility and strength to respond creatively to its needs and changes taking place in its environment every minute. A bird that never hesitates to fly higher to surmount any obstacle and have a better view of things and reduce the energy needed for gliding for miles and also swoop down on a prey in a matter of seconds. I think you can well visualize the analogy I have just drawn between the Eagle and company that enjoys improvements.
No wonder that this company is doing extremely well for years and one of their plants consistently won the first prize in World Class Maintenance from the World Cement Association for the last 9 years from the time they implemented improvements as a cornerstone of their management activities, of course with a different thinking process, which might be loosely described as a process of debate and dialogue.
So, in brief, the difference between plant that succeed and the plants that don't do quite well is the difference in management attitude -- Duck or an Eagle mentality. Reliability Improvement can only be made if and only if the Management is willing to respond to the changes that continually takes place in the business scenario that takes place every minute.
A few months back during our annual conference on 'Equipment Reliability and Its Improvement', Mr. Harsh Jha, MD, Tata Metaliks, had something very significant to say. He said that permenent long standing changes can only be brought about by changing the process'.
I fully agree and nothing can be further than the truth of improvement and sustainability of any organisation. We can change the 'Thinking Process'. We can change our 'Work Process'. We can change our 'Operation Process'. We can change our 'Procurement Process'. We can change our 'Contract Management process'. And we can change our 'Management Process'. All for the better. However, this much is clear to my mind through my observations that organisations that stubbornly refuse to change would not only die an untimely death but also live a difficult life till the time they walk the face of this earth.Or as Shakespeare said: cowards die many times before their death.
But at the same time, I have also felt that change can't be brought about by so called 'change management programs'. Change can't be brought about by introducing 'systems' that operated successfully elsewhere in the same industry or for that matter in different class of industry. No human being wants to change unless forced by his own conciousness to change (sounds like Newton's first law of motion). A change can only happen through a person's awarenss and intelligent response to a concrete experience he/she faces. And a 'change' is nothing but a 'clever design' arising solely out of human thought. Management would do well to support and encourage people to come out openly with their 'concrete experiences' and then encourage them to come up with 'clever designs' as a response to those 'concrete experiences' and aggresively implement them and then urge them to go forward.
Once done, in the heart of hearts, the employee would be sold to the management for life since the management has restored the much needed faith in oneself and the pride of being alive and working. The employee would then think ten times before he decides to leave an organisation. (At last, there seems to be on the horizon a possible solution to counter the high attrition rate of employees in an organisation). On the whole, it then brings about a 'qualitative' change in the organisations, which I must admit is difficult if not impossible to measure.
And that brings me to the final point I want to make -- people matter in any change or improvement. And the desired change can only happen through people who enjoy the warmth of management support and encouragement. Inducements, great techniques, best systems and best processes don't matter at all. Human consciousness is uplifted step by step just the way we climb a ladder -- step by step. It depends on the degree of realization. Hence all improvements are only a matter of people's individual desire to improve and would only happen if people realize this fundamental point and management is willing to stroke the embers.
At this point, I hurriedly add, if I may, a Zen saying, "Talking does not cook rice".
It is Durga Puja time in Bengal -- generally a time for fun and frolic! I use this time to catch up on my readings and writing. And I have one big unfinished task lying in front of me -- to complete my book -- which is taking a lot of time to finish. I have been slowly building up my resolve to complete this unfinished work for the last two weeks. But my resolve seems to be wavering. I however, realize that even with the completion of the book my work would greatly remain unfinished and it would be up to others to finish it -- or rather take it further through evolution. May be a few of you would love doing that -- I wonder!
So good bye for now and wish you all a very Happy Puja!
signing off for now
dibyendu
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