Company Analysis.

The Three Monks

Learning in Class through Animated  Movie: The Three  Monks

A new chapter in the POM class. Learning through The   Animated movie

Sounds Interesting…..

Lets have the clip first:

The movie was good.  

Time for some analysis:

An old Chinese Proverb goes,” One Monk will shoulder two buckets of water, two  monks will share the load , but add a third and no one will want to fetch water”.The proverb is based on a story of three monks which can be easily seen. The story  highlights the different aspects of group dynamics and the different methods adopted to perform the same task.

Method 1: A single monk carrying two buckets of water.

Method 2: Two monks carryig a single bucket of water.

Method 3: Three monks working together as a team, to fetch buckets of  water .

Analysing the Clip:

The First Method:

A  single monk, fetching two buckets of water.

It is easier to bring  two  buckets of water carried on a bamboo stick than a single bucket by hand.  Innovation in the sense that, use of the bamboo stick.

Here,  the monk being single, is free to carry out the work as he intends. Though the task takes a toll on his body as is visible when he returns, he goes off to sleep.

The Second Method:

When the second monk arrives, the first one shrieks from his responsibilities, thinking that the second one would bring the water. But he is for forced to accompany the second monk. This is where the Group Dynamics come into picture.

The two monks use one bamboo stick to bring one bucket of water. Initially it may seem as low productivity as compared to the method 1 but the productivity per person is more in method 2.

Initially there are differences between the two monks regarding how to carry the  bucket, but at the end they reach on a consensus. The bamboo stick is measured, from the centre and then the bucket is carried.

A few concepts arising out of this :

1.Measurement should be scientific and objective.

2. Let one person measure and the other person mark .

Innovation again comes into picture. One more thing that needs  to be highlighted  is that  after the two monks return they have time for praying, as opposed  to the first case.

The Third Method

As the Third monk arrives, the two monks expect him to fetch the bucket of water. As the monk is very tired he finishes all the water available in the monastery. So, no water left in the monastery.

As fate would have it , a fire breaks out, and it is at this moment that the 3 monks work together as  a team with a same intention of dousing the fire .This is where  the Group dynamics, with a  lot of team work comes  into picture.

Another aspect that is highlighted is, innovation. The   3 monks innovate a new mechanism to bring water to the monastery. This is pure innovation.

We witness at each step, there is new innovation that leads a step further towards excellence.

On  Careful examination, we can see the expressions on the face of Lord Buddha changing. This reflects how at every step others view the situation.

The Biggest Learnings:

 1. Synergy: More individuals bring out a higher output than each individual working alone.

2. Scientific and objectives measurements and instruments should be used to resolve the conflict .

3. Necessaity  is the mother of innovation. At each step we see innovation and a drive towards excellence.

4. Crisis situation drive individuals towards a common goal , and the team goal takes precedence over individual goals.

5. Being prepared for a disaster, helps when the disaster actually occurs.

Crossing the Valley

Valley Crossing Exercise

                                                                           

So, another round of  the POM classes…..

In this class,   the class revolved  around the  Nature of functions and the  Decision Making of an Organisations

                                                      

THE VALLEY CROSSING:::::

One look at the picture , and one feels , hey what is going on….

Through this example we were given one of the  most important lessons of management….

Step wise Analysis of the Valley Crossing Example:

Person	First Person	Second Person	Third Person
Steps:
1	Safe	Safe	Safe
2	Half Risky	Safe	Safe
3	Fully Risky	Safe	Safe
4	Half Risky	Half Risky	Safe
5	Safe	Full Risky	Safe
6	Safe	Half Risky	Half Risky
7	Safe	Safe	Full Risky
8	Safe	Safe	Half Risky
9	Safe	Safe	Safe

Idea behind the whole exercise was to understand the intricacies involved  from designing the task to the execution of the task..

Designing the Task:

1. Safety of  each of the worker

2. Effective execution of the Task’

Safety of the People:

At any given point of time Two  people are fully involved in the task and the third person is in the safe state. If one goes through the entire cycle for this exercise one realises  , each person  was assigned the same amount of task without any difference…

For each Person the state analysis is as:

Safe:- 6

Half Risky -2

Full Risky-1

In that case, there would not be a question of unfair task allocation  , a very important requirement while designing the task.

Effective execution of the task

Role assignment

The beauty of this task lies in the Role assignment and the execution of that role.

Each member at one point of time,   enters   into a role and executes that. The very next moment, a new role is assigned to that member and the other member very easily fits into the role of the other member. This is the real beauty of this Role Switching.  

Irrelevance of Physical Power

Focus of the design Process  , has been the elimination   of the relevance of physical power.

Here, in this design process, the Physical Stamina is not important.

Highlights of This Task

Clear Goal Setting

In this case a clear goal is defined, that is crossing the valley.Any ambiguity in the goal can lead to confusion among the team members proving fatal for the task.

TeamWork

This activity requires all the 3 team members to be in sync with each other.All the 3 people involved have to work as a team to accomplish the end goal:

ie: Crossing the Valley

 

Communication

Good Communication  starts with a clear understanding of the goal. It allows the team members to work towards attaining that goal. The Delivery of the goal depends on the 

                                                                     

                                                                                        Miscommunication  

communication of the team.Any miscommunication from any member of the team can prove fatal for the entire team.

                                                                                      

Khan Academy...A noble Pursuit..

Education at every Doorstep!            

A global classroom

Ever heard of such a statement…Sounds Interesting.. One more look..Seems impossible…. This impossible has been made a reality by Khan Academy, an online Education Portal that  shares the Vision: 'Providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere’.

As Khan puts it  ‘highest possible social return on investment’.

   

                                                                                                                                                                                           

What is Khan Academy…?      

Khan Academy is an online educational portal that supplies a free online collection of more than 3,200 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube teaching mathematics, history etc.    

Salman Khan, Founder Khan Academy.

 It is  a non-profit educational organization, created in 2006 by Bangladeshi   American educator Salman Khan, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School. The Education Portal  supplies a free online collection of more than 3,200 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube  teaching mathematics, history, healthcare and medicine, finance, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, economics, cosmology, organic chemistry, American civics, art history, macroeconomics and microeconomics, and computer science.

Tutorial at Khan  Academy

Each small Step Matters, nothing better than  Khan Academy epitomises this.

Speciality:

KHAN ACADEMY has completely revolutionized the way education is delivered into a much effective and efficient way. It has challenged the  traditional academic model, where in students can work at their own pace and no distinction is made between the Learning skills of a student.  It Promotes the concept of Blended Learning where in Students learn from their peers.

There is no scope of missing any particular lecture as everything is stored in the digital archive. Also the student to teacher ratio is 100% and no student have their doubt suppressed.

86.6 million lessons and 100 million + exercises have been imparted through,Khan Academy.This number far exceeds the number of students educated by Harvard since its inception. 

 Business Revenue Models           

Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization now with significant contributions from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Google. In 2010, Google announced it would give the Khan Academy $2 million for creating more courses and for translating the core library into the world’s most widely spoken languages, as part of their Project .Khan Academy has eclipsed MIT's OpenCourseWare (OCW) in terms of videos viewed -Its YouTube channel has over 150 million total views, compared to MIT's 38 million.

Conceptual – Technical –Human skills

Khan Academy has conceptualised  the idea of free education for all, by creating an  Online Education Portal that is providing free education to millions on diverse subjects at different levels.

Technical Skills: Technology for education

It provides an opportunity to learn as many times as the recorded  video sessions are made available on the net.A great deal of Analytic is being used to arm teachers with data that helps them gauge the level of learning of each student. 

Human Skills: The portal connects directly with the students, thus making a personal contact with each individual. It feels as if learning through a personal tutor.

The theory X & Y Assumption Application

The idea here is that the students are given an opportunity to learn at their own pace.The teachers do not interfere with their learning, in fact they use this time to analyse the performance of every student across different topics and find if any help is needed or not. This practice has shown exceptional results.

This case can be taken as analogous to Theory Y Managers where no supervision is needed, on the other hand motivated employees lead to exceptional results.

Innovative new generation organizations        

 

Khan Academy epitomises the concept of Innovative and New generation Organisations. Use of technology , so creatively highlights the insight of this organisation, This marks a shift from the traditional forms of organisation, in fact poses a challenge to the current system of organisation.The growth rate of Khan academy over the few years since its establishment, is an outcome of Creative Problem Solving and a High level of Decision Making that has seen the organisation grow so fast in such a small time span.           

Authority, and power

With almost no levels of authority, the orgisation displays a change from the current Organisation system.Being a not for orofit organisation this model has greatly worked for Khan Academy,and it continues to be successful with individuals united by a common goal of social improvement, helping the organisation grow at each step.

Future Plans:

At present , the Khan Academy plans to confine itself to the  developed world,wherin the access to the intenet is very easy and the idea has been practically implemented. Being non profit organization, the Scalability of the organisation has been questioned , but it has proved its critics wrong at every step.In the near future, Khan academy aims at replicating the same model in Asia and Africa where the educational system has been nearly in the dol drums.It plans at attaing its vision:’ : ‘providing a high quality education to anyone,anywhere’

Khan Academy is probably the best thing to happen to Education System, in the last one decade.The rate at which it is growing, generates very high expectations in the near future……..

As they say,'Well Begun is half done, the Journey has just begun......'