Go miles….on the SMART way!!

Do you ever start your vehicle and take off into the miles without a single clue of where actually you are heading for? Most of the times, No. Until and otherwise you just want to wander about.

Our life is, in a way, like a driving a vehicle. We must know in order to set out for our journey. We must know where we want to land up eventually. We can see around us that many of those who use whimsical approach in their life often lead to nowhere and face the despair later in their life. They are like those fragile flowers attached to the branches which get thrown on the ground mercilessly by a blow of wind. We don’t want to be that poor flower and of course no one want to be.

Often we refuse to plan our life by giving the excuse that life is unpredictable, the fate is what which will plan our future course of action, not us. We sometimes tend to think setting Goals will hinder us to think big like ‘becoming a millionaire by the age of 35’. But we have to understand without planning, we are just heading for our fall on the ground just like that flower.

This analysis will drop us to a point where we wonder that then how to set our goals? How do we set Goals for individual as well as for Team?

The Solution is SMART approach.

SMART refers to Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time Bound.

Let’s further elaborate each of these.

Specific – This means the goal is clear and unambiguous. Expectations form a team must be clear and they should be aware of its importance and relevance. The answers to these five questions help one to address a specific goal:

To set a specific goal you must answer the five “W” questions:

*Who:      Who is involved?

*What:     What do I want to accomplish?

*Where:    Identify a location.

*When:     Establish a time frame.

*Which:    Identify requirements and constraints.

Measurable - Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set.

When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued effort required to reach your goal.

 Attainable – When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them come true. You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. You begin seeing previously overlooked opportunities to bring yourself closer to the achievement of your goals.

Realistic- To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. A goal can be both high and realistic; you are the only one who can decide just how high your goal should be. But be sure that every goal represents substantial progress.

Time Bound – A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no time frame tied to it there’s no sense of urgency. 

Final words:- SMART approach is really a smart way to set Goals, in turn a key to success.

Myopia sometimes brings Utopia!!

My Title can cause an outright rejection of itself from you. Give me sometimes, i might make you flip your thoughts on this.

The approach i'll use to support my claim would be : 'Doing and then learning'.

I'll elaborate an activity to you that was witnessed by us in Prof. Prasad class of POM(principles of Organization management)

The activity:- We were asked to build a single block tower using wooden blocks.

First, the students had to bid to get a chance to be a architect as well as maker of that tower. Bid included two things: Money and the no. of maximum blocks you can put together to raise a tower. If the person who wins the bid and is not able to make use of all the blocks, he claimed, will lose all the money.

A person won the bid by putting his Rs. 500 and claiming to use 22 blocks.

He made the tower with 22 blocks. He tried to put more but it fell down.

Second, the students were requested to bid again. The highest bidder got the opportunity to build the tower with some conditions and here comes the challenge:-

The tower had to be raised by a blind folded person. Although he/she might take the help of two persons. Two person will play a role of a manager and a CEO respectively.Their claim was to use 25 blocks to make the tower.

We were amazed to see that the tower was built by the blindfolded person who was getting instructions from his manager.

So what we learnt from the above activity:-

First and most important is,Decision making capabilities must be with the managers because decision is the weapon that must be used wisely and managers are adept in decision making process . 

The employees on the lower level are the best in their field of execution, they must follow the instructions from the upper management and trust them with their decisions. The employees on the lower level must participate in the decision making process but the authority to make a stamp on that decision must be with the management folks.

Second is that When the task was done by the group, the performance was enhanced because every individual's work is well defined . This is new style of management.

Third is, Appreciation is an important ingredient that makes a person feel good and motivated which leads to the success of overall organization because organization is made up of employees.

So we see that Myopia at the lower level (Blindfolding the tower maker) caused the team to achieve its target successfully.

As i have stated before : 'Myopia sometime brings Utopia'

Funalcohol - Get Drunk, Get High !!

Fun is something that a person strives for in every phase of his/her life. A child, adolescent, an adult wishes his/her life bucket to be filled, although partially, with the fun drops.

There has been a perception that a person who is going to pursue the education should discharge the fun drops from his/her bucket and make some space for the academic oil and that’s where our first lesson of management begins i.e. Space Management and here we start feeling lamentable.

We often do ask this question to ourselves- is it essential for us to be teetotaler and abstain from consuming the ‘funalocohol’? For an individual to get succeeded the plunge in the quotient of fun must be exponential?

Before coming to NITIE, I’ve been discussing to my seniors about the enormous workload I have to carry on the shoulders and I was pondering over, being in novice in shouldering that much of weight, whether I will be able to do it for 2 years.

I have been watching my father do the business since 23 years and it is time for me to understand this complex thing and make myself able to perform it later in my life.

And when I came to NITIE, I got the opportunity to understand management from Prof. Prasad aka Prof. Mandi. I would rather say to understand ‘How to Do ‘DHANDHA’(business)’. In his class, all my misconception pertaining to Fun Part, that Learning and Fun are two same poles of magnet which can’t be placed adjacent to each other, got uncluttered.

Professor Mandi is the personality who believes that learning can be imbibed in a more efficient way using a tool called fun and that tool comes free of cost. He introduced us to a toy called ‘Newton’s Cradle’ and asked some questions on Physics. He proved us that a toy is better way of teaching, not merely the theory. He made us focus on earning during learning. Learning must fetch some earning but the earning must ride on an ethical course of action.

Besides we were introduced to an initiative called ‘Mandi’ where our management skills will be tested in real life scenario. We have to go out on the streets of Mumbai and sell our product. That’s what a businessman do, isn’t it?

So finally, here i summarize my whole write up through the following diagram:-

Final words from me :- 

Consume Funalcohol -  Get drunk Get High!!