Who are you? where do you want to go?-

All companies have its DNA which can be traced back to the time of its birth, to the  decisions and actions taken over the years. It is natural to persist with things that have worked for you.It is natural to reward those who have contributed to the success.There is clarity and there is no conflict in such a scenario.

Somewhere along the way  however,you find some reputed companies are respected for things other than profit making.They profess to take care of the interests of all stake holders in a balanced manner including the local communities.Taking a cue, other companies then feel that it is necessary to declare that they believe in some values and that the company intends to function and live by those values,

This however can be a tall order since for many years you have actually lived by some other values.It is okay if you are merely required to pay lip sympathy.But if actal implimentation is desired it can be very difficult since the new values could be totally opposed to the values that  have become second nature on account of practce for  many years. It has also got you success and  enabled you to reach where you are.

It is similar to that of a man who from humble beginnings worked hard and  became rich. During the initial phases, his focus was only on making money. Not very educated himself , he got his three daughters to be reasonably educated. But suddenly he realises that  more respect seemed to be extended to  those educated as doctors or engineers(particularly in the 60s or 70s  in India) rather than businessmen who had more money. Hence going by what the the society of the day deemed honourable, when it was time to  choose grooms for his daughters, he prefers doctors or engineers.

 He was not particularly comfortable with the sons in law's aspirations or priorities of life but made peace with them as demanded by the situation. But on occasions his natural inclinations, priorites   and instincts would spring forth  and he knew that they  were not in tune with theirs. Is this facade which does not allow you to  be your natural self,  a big prize to pay merely for socieity's envy or appreciation? Would this person   have been happier with a business man son in law?

Coming back to the corporate situation,in this interesting scenario after company declares its values which have not necessarily evolved from within , two schools could emerge. some people could  believe that the newly declared corporate values are sacrosanct, very dear to the company and that its future depends on regular and  consistant practice of these values.Many others on the other hand could believe that all these are frills being given too much attention and that success is dependant on continuing the time  tested   practces  that got you success in the first place. The matter is complicated further if the top management do not think and speak in the same voice but are themselves confused and  torn between  these two positions.

The former school may feel impatient that  reforms and improvement are not happenining at the required pace . They feel that the successful implimentation  may even be delayed till the retirement of the old timers who hold on to status quo tightly and are  at the most, willing to allow only 'cosmetic changes'.

The other school on the other hand is frustrated that whatever they have built up painstakingly and achieved  will be thrown away by these 'arm chair strategists' who may end up as  the cause of downfall of the company  like how the mighty soviet union fell after implimenting 'perestroika'(restructuring) and 'glasnost' (transparency) concepts  of  Mikhail Gorbachev.At best they would like to give lip sympathy to changes demanded by these values and continue to do what has worked  best for the company so far.

I had opportunity to witness a brainstorming session of a company wrestling with similar challenges. predictably, we had representatives of both schools expessing themselves but neither was  able to break common ground. To my mind, patience is the key to success in such situations..Both the schools of thought need to empathise and appreciate the views of the other.

But first the company needs to have  have clarity with regard to its corporate values. Are they evolved from within? Do most  people believe in its relevance and significance for success in the coming years? If people don't believe , appreciate and imbibe the values, it is doomed to fail in the application arena. One might as well hold on to what is true and real for the organization. However once the company is agreed on the need for change and fresh air in order  to be relevant in the days to come,  like I mentioned earlier both the schools of thought need to empathise and appreciate the views of the other

Those tending to lean more towards status quo, need to appreciate that in the long run, it is companies that have a balanced growth and give due weightage to the interests of all stake holders that succeed. Focus on profits alone will not enable a company to move from being a good company to a great company.

Similarly the impatient reformers need to accept the fact that success will come in small  baby steps taken towards the goal and that it is okay. After all as they say, Rome was not built in a day. People, would find it difficult to let go of practices  that have become second nature to them and  also brought them success this far..

If you wish to change the set ways of their working, they need to be given sufficient and consistent reasons as to how such changes will benefit the company. A lot of education needs to be done which can be time consuming but worth the effort.At the end of the day, the fact remains that both schools wish the well being of the company . It is just that for now, they  are not convinced by the reasonong or positions taken by the other party.

Corporate values are signposts for where you are going. When in doubt, when taking decisions you just have to look at them and ask yourself "Am I being true to this corporate value?" and Go ahead if the answer is "yes" and drop it if it is "no". Senior leaders need to speak in one voice and at every opportunity, about the correct ways of practicing the corporate values of the company. Examples both 'good' and 'bad' related to the practice of these values need to be shared and discussed frequently throughout the company.

If all of the above is done with dedication,with time, it could be sooner than later, that every one spontaneously  practices in letter and spirit everything espoused in the corporate values. Success is then assured and the company earns the right to be desribed as 'Great' and not just 'Good'

Mind Reprogramming

Dear fellow HRDians

In this blog I would like to rewind to my first post and take off   from there..How do we HRdians make a mark? One  working  in sales, on selling  'X'  numbers of a product knows that he has done well.In case he is far off the target, he knows he hasn't made it. Similar is the case with those working in production. However dealing with people is a different ball game altogether. Opinions may differ as to how  effectively a situation was handled. If blue collared employees strike work or the  incidence of  the  white collared leaving is increasing, the HR person is in in trouble. Not only does his own behavior impact his success or failure but also the behavior of other people. It is for this reason that the HRDian is insecure and tends to control people and circumstances.As a result, he is less liked and more feared or avoided by the others.

Many years ago in the late 80s  one of the interviewers asked me in an internal promotion interview " How do we tell that you HR guys have done a good job." I was for a moment taken aback by this unexpected question.Gathering my wits, I said " if there is no IR issues and people are working normally and contributing normally to production, then we have done well." He laughed out aloud and said "oh so, if things are normal all credit goes to you!"

In other words, in view of disputes on the manner of assessing an HRDian's contribution, he/ she is always on the backfoot.Added to this, the requirement of  being able to influence another's behaviour in exactly the way that is held acceptable by the management is another tall order. It is very difficult to predict exactly how another human being will behave.

Yet an employee'sbehaviour is all the time influenced by what he is  constantly thinking.When he has just joined a company, the spirits are high and thoughts are mostly positive at that point of time. Subsequently he comes across  discouraging  comments from those who are already working  there and wonder whether  he has taken the right decision- " What prompted you leave  a big/ nice  company like ............. and join this company!"More & more of this coupled with abusive or unacceptable behaviour from superiors results in the employee dwelling on negativity most of the time resulting  in  his overall behaviour being away from what the HR or management may hold 'acceptable'.

The fact is that programmingof the mind is going on all the time whether we like it or not. Programming occurs from our experiences at work, experiences at home, messages from TV channels, comments of social acquaintences and so on.The only problem is that these days our exposure to the negative is much more than the positive and we end up with low self esteem and negativity in repect of work & life in general.As a result,  doubts enter into the minds of the average individual as to his ability and possibility of success. In fact it was a shock for me to learn that a beautiful inteligent actor whom we would today call successful, had self doubts and even believed at one point of time that she is not good looking.If this can happen to the successful, what is the position of the average person bombarded with messages of not being 'enough.' everday ?.
By mind reprogramming ie by changing the thoughts in our mind( consequently our beliefs), we can change our life.Having changed it to what we desire , we can sustain it by constantly giving positive messages to our subconscious mind . As this is done in an altered state of consciousness, it is powerful enough to offset the many number of negative messages received by us in the waking state.

Mind reprograming can be done by the method  of  self Hypnosis  wherein  we can alter our state of awareness and  focus upon issues or ideas of our choosing. We can use this tool to build self-esteem and confidence, add clarity and a sense of control to our lives. In the hypnotic state we can access the subconscious mind to implement, at the most effective level, the changes we desire.

As the HOD of learning & Development department in my present assignment, I experimented with mind reprogramming in the early stages of joining the company.At the outset, our team listed down the  realities of the present situation with which we were not satisfied and what it is that is that we really wanted. As for example one big challenge in a manufacturing plant is to get minimum number of paricipants to attend the training program.Getting an external trainer is not viable if we are stuggling to get  even 15 participants to attend.

The technique adopted was to sit with my team of six, initiate them to an altered state of consciousness or alpha state and in this meditative state recite positive affirmations of the things desired by our department followed by visualisation of these things actually happening. This is followed by repeating the positive affirmations before coming out of the alppha state. We did this continuously for about 30 days since studies have shown that practicing anything for 21 days becomes a part of our system.

The above exercise was  modelled on the learning acquired by me in a twoday workshop conducted by  Dr Pradeep Agarwal of the Institute of mind control & Development ,Hyderabad. and from the book "Richer life through hypnomeditation" by Dr Sanjoy Mukherjee.

The method of entering in to an alpha state is to  first relax individually different parts of the body from top of the head to tip of the toes and  then relax the mind also while taking 3 deep breaths.After the whole body & mind has relaxed , the participants imagine as if the body has become very light-"just drifting & floating, totally relaxed" When this condition has been achieved positive affirmations are spoken in the mind in respect of all those issues in respect of which improvement is desired.

Some of the positive affirmations that we made are the following:

1)  All our class rooms are filled with participants
2)  We are a harmonious team
3)  We help each other win & take pride in each other's success
4)  Every one appreciates our contribution and sees us as important to the the success of the organisation
5)  All our proposals are readily accepted by the management

In a week's time since we started the exercise a class which was to be handled by our L&D team member as faculty  was attended by 40 participants at a time when we were struggling to get 15 participants. The face of our faculty lighted up like that of a 1000 watt bulb. Such was the the enthusiasm & excitement generated. Today if we do have a synergy amongst our team members, I believe that a good part for the credit for it should go to the mind programming exercise we did then.

I am also using the mind programming techniques after handling a Law of Attraction (LOA) class. At the end we go into an alpha state and make positive affirmations in areas of prosperity, health, harmonious relationships and peace of mind. Having learnt the technique participants are encouraged  to use it for their individual requirements such as getting a BE degree/ promotion/ dream job or purchasing dream house or car.
I have made an offer to  team leaders of shop floor that I can go down to their departments and make a customised exercise  focusing on the challenges of individual departments- quality, safety, harmonious work relationships. These can be affirmed and followed by visualisations of each & every artcle going out of their department with zero defect or top quality. I am sure that they will accept my offer in the near future and that I will be able to share with you experiences of application on the shop floor.

Mind programming can be profitably used by us HR professionals to instill positive messages in an alpha state so that it is more likely to stay with the employee as against the messages given in a waking or beta stage which could get lost in the thousands of messages he is receiving from various quarters. I hope your interest is kindled dear HRDians and you will experiment in this regard.
Rest in my next
Warm Regards

Back to the Basics

Dear Fellow HRDians

I had originally planned to write more on the thread of my initial post. In the meanwhile I felt that it would be worthwhile  to share an article I had  written for the intranet  in  my company. It is relevant and connected to  what we have discussed so far- So here goes....

                                               Back to Basics

Today, we are living in a world of stiff competition. There is a mad rush to reach the finishing line any which way.In line with the western thought, the feeling in the industrial circles in our country also, is that "individual' is the savior and 'individualism' is the panacea for everything.The term 'team work' is merely good to parrot and pay lip sympathy to.As a result, although everyone claims to work as a team for beating the competition,they have no qualms about tripping a teammate or company mate  in order  to be that star performer who scored the goal.
In our haste we tend to look for short cuts and disrespect the basics. Quality for example can be a casualty in the number game. The basics which include respect for a fellow human being, may seem old fashioned.Yet there are some things like politeness, integrity and respect which can never go out of fashion. Extending these attributes to actual behavior on the ground could mean the following:-

1) Listening to a colleague patiently without interrupting him or her

Meetings are meant to know and let know- to understand and provide opportunity to others to understand the  subject discussed, so that collective inputs and various points of view are available before taking decisions. However when discussion is used for up man ship and not to appreciate different points of view, it gets disruptive.People become cautious in expressing opinions- "Why take the risk of being ridiculed?The one with a bigger lung power or dismissive nature gets his/her  way most of the time" Different ideas with various choices do not emerge in such situations.The real picture is rarely revealed, leading to wrong solutions to issues.

2) Criticizing in private and praising in public

When you criticize someone, the immediate tendency of that person would be to defend himself /herself rather than constructively apply his mind in resolving the problem.It happened to me.... Many years ago as a younger man, I was attending a training program.The facilitator was showing a video on the employees of Suzuki, Japan at work. The video showed them taking just ten minutes break during which time they quickly have a smoke,visit the rest room,chat with colleagues, complete other miscellaneous matters and stand in attention in front of their machine two minutes before the whistle for resumption of work.The company does not have a security department and does not believe in it as it completely  trusts its employees.

The video also showed employees and their families going on weekend holidays organized by their company.All employees from the chairman to the last person stand and do exercises together at the beginning of the shift.

As I watched the video I was totally impressed, bowled over and was in a state of wonder that there could be such wonderful alignment between employees and their company.As the lights came on  the words that spontaneously escaped my lips were " It sounds almost like a fairy tale." The facilitator was taken aback. She had taken me to be one of the positive enthusiastic participants.She viewed my remark as negative and questioning the very truthfulness of the video.

 Although my words had come from a place of appreciation and wonder the facilitator was upset and she labelled me a skeptic and negative person before the whole class.I was in a daze and felt publicly humiliated.

At that time one of the participants shared his  experience with a Japanese firm.He was working in the purchase department. While  making payment to the Japanese supplier for goods received, the department inadvertently overpaid by about two Lakhs of rupees.However while they were worrying about how to deal with the matter, they received a letter from the company within a week's time pointing out the overpayment and enclosing a cheque for the said sum.

Although a very good live example was being given  in support of the remarkable work ethics outlined in the video, I was hardly paying attention. When the facilitator asked "Now what do you have to say? ", I could hardly respond and the colleague had to repeat the story all over again.The point I am making is that if we focus more on the criticism rather than correcting and eliciting appropriate behavior from the other person, we are bound to encounter defensive employees.Constructive feedback in private can get you better results.

3)   Team Working
In the eastern way of life the focus has always been common good and collective welfare, whether it is in the context of a family, organization or community at large.Individual desires and aspirations are held to be subservient  to the overall good of the organization.The western philosophy, on the other hand has always upheld the supremacy of the individual. Susan.M.Heathfield,HR Guide  says "In America our institutions such as schools, our family structures and our pass times emphasize winning,being the best and coming out on top.Workers are rarely raised in environments that emphasize true team work and collaboration."

Thus ,unlike under the ancient Gurukul system in India, where the student waited in anticipation and learned as and when the teacher felt he was ready for it,today in line with western education our schools & colleges treat the students as customers who are to be satisfied.The onus is on the teacher to keep his customer happy- teach him when he is in the mood for it, make things entertaining & interesting while he takes a puff on his cigarette.

The products that come out of such a process are bound to be naturally inclined to selfishness & gratification of individual needs rather than team needs. You cannot plant apple seeds and expect to get oranges.The problem with too much individualism is that one tends to be intolerant of others' views and getting one's way takes priority over the the interests of the organization.In cricketing parlance, scoring your individual century is more important than the team winning.

Getting back to the basics would mean inculcating, reinforcing and rewarding team behaviour. People tend to take seriously only those activities that are recognized and rewarded.As for example, if we talk a lot about team working but when it comes to compensation & career growth, individual contribution is appreciated, less and less people would be interested in team working.The performance management system should emphasize and place value on team work and obtain a 360 degree feedback on team qualities exhibited. Important stories  and folklore involving team working needs to be told and passed on to future generations in the company.Frequent discussions on the  advantages of team working  are to be organized....  "Remember the time body shop department worked as a single unit and achieved scrap reduction by 20% ? "

Back to the basics also means respecting the individual.Roy.J.Blitzer and Jacquie Reynolds in their book "Find the Bathrooms First" says "No one can continue to function well for very long in an environment that erodes his or her self esteem." New management initiatives and process improvement techniques become relevant and ready for implementation only if the soil is fertile and healthy with the basics fully in place.

The said soil will have hues like politeness,respect,integrity, empathy and compassion which blend to give the heady mix like the beautiful multicolored soil of kanyakumari,India. Lao Tzu, the Chinese philosopher  has said " I have three precious things that I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness, the second frugality and the third is humility. Be gentle and you can be bold, be frugal and you can be liberal, avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader of men"

The 'Back to Basics' mantra can never go wrong because it is in line with the natural and eternal law of life.If basics are in place success cannot be far behind both in our professional and personal endeavors.

Happiness and peace. Rest in my next.

Power of Appreciation

Dear fellow HRDians

In my last post we discussed how HR needs to look at alternative approaches."Appreciative inquiry" was mentioned as one of the ways we can bring about change for the better. Appreciative inquiry(AI) , as developed by David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastava is a step by step methodology of using appreciation as the base for dreaming,developing action plan and implementing them  for a better reality.
AI can be described as an effective OD tool for bringing about positive  changes in social settings,schools/colleges or corporates. The five phases of AI are Definition, Discovery,Dream,Design and Destiny/ Delivery. I attended a three day workshop on AI to get an understanding of the concept. I have not yet  embarked on a full fledged AI exercise. However 'Appreciation ' and its power is something that intrigues me.

While putting into practice AI process in its totality could get us big results;to my mind,a mere attitude of appreciation can change your work situation and life in general. In the book"The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne, the author brings out the importance of 'Gratitude' in order to attract wonderful things into our lives. So powerful is this concept of gratitude that Byrne in her third  book"The Magic" deals almost entirely on this subject. The first step towards a grateful mind is appreciation of all that we already have in our lives.It is only when we are grateful for all those things we already have that the good God will give us much more.
If we want our employees to be more motivated and contribute more, we need to appreciate what they are already doing well instead of always trying to find fault or look out for the shortcomings.If our relationship with our spouse is not good at the moment, nothing much will change or improve if we continue to look at the things we don't like about that person.Instead , we need to celebrate all the good things about the spouse. When you start counting all the good things about her/ him, surprisingly you find your relationship improves.
Taking a cue  from this concept of appreciation, I experimented with an exercise while doing a training program for  employees who were promoted from the level of technician( blue collared) to supervisors. I split the the total number of 20 participants into two groups of 10 each. For the purpose of the exercise, one group was told to assume that they were technicians and the other group that they were supervisors.

One person from each group alternatively  was required to come before the entire group and speak a few words of appreciation about the other group.So, the supervisors spoke highly of the contribution of technicians and empathized with the difficulties faced by technicians & vice versa. This was not difficult for this group since they were now playing the role of a supervisor and had till recently played the role of technicians. what followed was half an hour of pure appreciation of both roles and feelings of goodwill in the air.The entire proceedings was video graphed. I ended the session by reminding the new supervisors that we need to appreciate the role of others, particularly those with whom we are regularly interacting. This will ensure that we have a smooth working relationship.

Normally the relationship between a technician and supervisor is strained. Each one is suspicious of the other and there is a lack of trust. Yet when the 'appreciation video' mentioned above  was  shown to technicians attending another program, they watched the same in pin drop silence and acknowledged the  value of appreciating the role of  others. This was possible because for the first time they heard lot of appreciation & praise from supervisors whom they always believed as not having any regard or respect for them.

The Power of Appreciation was experimented in another program designed for middle level executives.The executives were drawn from various disciplines such as Production, Maintenance, Quality control, Materials, Production Planning, Employee relations etc. The program titled "Synergy" aimed at improving the  harmony of executives working in  diverse areas who could encounter conflicts in the course of normal work. The program sought to imbibe in them a sense of the 'Big Picture' and not focus on their immediate departmental goals. While team working was the focus area, it was decided in consultation with the external faculty  to administer a doze of 'appreciation' in the initial part of the program itself  in order to build goodwill and trust amongst the participants.
The participants were encouraged to speak of the times when his counterpart from the other department(preferably one who is present as a participant) went beyond the normal call of duty to support and help  which left a pleasant feeling for a long time to come. After initial hesitation, more and more of the participants warmed up to the  idea of appreciating their colleagues.

Later towards the end of the program they were invited to now share their 'Wish Lists' in the sense they could now tell their counterparts what are the areas in which they expected more  support or improvements. Normally in a large group, people are reluctant to to speak about things that can be viewed as fault finding. But when  I pointed out to them that it was not actually  a case of fault finding  but equivalent  to  members of a family discussing  together for the benefit  of the whole organization, the participants had no hesitation to express their expectations from other departments.Normally conflicting departments would have engaged in a bitter debate on such issues.
Actually all this was possible in view of the fact that appreciation was already conveyed in the morning  and in its light and fragrance, it was possible  for all the participants to accept feedback for improvements. What I have discussed are baby steps. I know that the potential and the power of appreciation is much more and it is only with more and more practice that we would  be able to reap rich benefits.

I hope this post will encourage readers to  not only appreciate the 'Power of Appreciation' but also look at Appreciative inquiry as a serious tool to resolve some of our issues in the industry.
Happiness and peace. Rest in my next

HR at crossroads- A new path, a new way is the need of the hour

As a practicing HR  professional for over 30 years with exposure to both public and private sector industries in India, the single most factor that I have noticed and it has not changed much over the years, is that the  other disciplines do not see HR as  meaningfully contributing to the 'real needs' of the organization or the needs of   internal customers. The feeling is more about HR engaging in activities to justify its existence rather than on the real needs.
It is not so much about wanting to have a place at the table of the  board of directors but the fact that all exercises seem without meaning when your customers do not see it as of much value, How do we show that our learning & development initiatives can really make a difference ? How to demonstrate that  each aspect of HR whether it is recruitment,career planning, policies  or employee relation initiatives are crucial to the success of the organization? This is the challenge
When  I read the comments of HR professionals the world over on the internet, I find that the situation is not very different in other parts of the world..
Time has come for us to do a rethink on the approaches in HR which is generally modeled on the management education of the west. The approach has been deficit based- To keep looking for the areas that are falling short. Point out the wrong or find out who is responsible and punish them and reward others who seem to do better than the standard The carrot  and stick method  has served its time and it is no longer useful for retaining   interest and motivation of employees in their work in the long run.
I think that the responsibility for the positivity, motivation , interest and drive  in work and life in general has to be with the employee himself / herself. As HR professionals we can show new paths on which they can travel to achieve this. Instead of of claiming or believing that we have pressed this switch and the the light has come on, what we can actually claim is that we have shown new alternative ways and many of them chose to take them and benefited themselves and the organization.
What are these new ways  that can be attempted?Actually these are not strictly new and they have been around for some time.It is only that  we HRDians have tended to be generally conservative and not been open to its potential. One of the concepts that immediately come to mind is 'appreciative inquiry' first explained by David Cooper rider and his research guide Suresh Srivastava, which can be a powerful means to remove the weeds lying around in the industrial scenario by focusing totally on the good things and appreciating them. I will discuss in a future article my own experience of using to advantage 'appreciation' as an idea. We can also look at mind programming for long time benefits wherein positive ideas are embedded into the minds of employees in a an alpha state. NLP Co founded by Richard Bandler and John Grinder has been beckoning us to come and benefit from it since decades. We could also look at how we can use the guidelines in the 'Law of Attraction' to our advantage.
Time has come to enhance the prestige of our HR function . As the old ways have not worked in the long run, it is only natural that we look at new ways to contribute and make a mark.Let us willingly and happily embrace new paths that can move us from the cross road to the road of success.