Treasure hunt

The treasure hunt was the game we played today. Our team won, what helped us win? Well i think there were a couple of things. Firstly the commmon goal of all to win. Secondly we all were having fun. Third - not blaming any one for any mistake made. Fourth - having milestones and then celebrating the achievement of each milestone by congratulating each other and last and in no way any bit less important was the enthusiasm and energy of our Leader.

: 16 Feb 2012 19:03 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Lets do our bit

Corporate Social Responsibility was the topic for discussion today. This is a burning topic all over the world. A company has to be really devoted to the concept if it wants to make a real difference. But we have to be careful and be able to distinguish between the companies that are doing it from the core of their values and those that are doing it as a cosmetic thing just to look good. Strategic CSR or CSR from core values? But companies following CSR practices for strategic reasons are better off than those not doing any thing at all.

But the real difference can be made by each one of us. If we do our bit, we can certainly make this world a better place to live in. Switch off the lights when you leave the room, use recycable goods, switch off your car at trafic lights....etc. etc. what ever light bit we can do , we should do. Any body got suggestions that we all could do, please write.

GO GREEN !!

: 16 Feb 2012 18:39 |  Tags: Csr |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Do we carry dead wood or do we get rid of them?

A good leader will have a regular interaction with his team (at all levels). He will be well aware of the performance level of almost everyone in his team. He should not have to wait till the end of the year or till the situation becomes very bad, before he talks to the person whose performance is below par. A leader has to work on the principle of continuous performance Management.

The person with the low performance should always be given to improve. Give him the training he needs to improve. Try and understand the reasons behind his poor performance - does he have the skills for the work given to him, is he interested in the work given to him, is he having some personnel problems that are disturbing him..........etc. There could be various reasons - try to find them and remove them.

However there are certain people who will not improve how much every you try to help them improve. There is a limit to how much you can do. These people you have to remove or shift them over to the least important.

My personnel take on this is:I think firing any one is the worst thing i have to ever to do in my professional life. Because by firing a person it is not only that person who is effected, but also his family and all those who are dependent upon him (financially and emotional) are effected tremendously. Having said that being a leader I also have to keep the overall performance of the team in mind. I am going to try Continous Performance management more sincerely.

: 15 Feb 2012 15:20 |  Tags: Leadership |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Leaders – The strength within.

What is leadership?

Is it influencing people? Is it giving directions? Is it supporting people?

I think to be a true leader one has first to be strong inside, i.e., within himself. I came to the LE module knowing there are certain people who don't want me in the team. Initially I was thinking that I should get my team changed (it would have been very easy). But then when at the end of the day I sat down with myself and asked myself, would that really help me? Am I not strong enough within to be able to stand up to people who do not like me. Because not everyone in this world is going to be found of you and then you can not run away from everyone or every situation.

The values that a person caries are the foundation of a good leader. I think a good leader should never hold any malice or bad feeling regarding any one within himself as this would certainly influence his reasonable thinking. Is it the Urban terorrist within your team to be blamed or then have you really put in the effort to make him a star?

: 14 Feb 2012 23:43 |  Tags: Leaders |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Types of leaders

A leader displays different types of leaderships depending upon the type of members that comprise his team

1. He is Autocrative.........if the team consists of people who are looking for direction

2. He is Democratise.......if the team is looking to contributing

3. He follows the lassies fair style ........if the team is highly creative and not wanting interference.

4. He follows the Chirismatic (inspiring) style.......if the team is enthusiastic and looking for praise.

A leader will have to adopt to one of the styles and may have to change from one style to another depending upon the situation.It is so true that a leader is a function of : leader, group and situation

: 14 Feb 2012 23:03 |  Tags: Leaders |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Are leaders born or made

Leaders are they born or they made.....well lot of discussion has been done on this topic (Mr. Paul also put up a link on the same point of discussion).

Well I think there are certain qualities that a leader should have, which can not be taught but a person has to be born with. Few that come to my mind are - integrety, honesty, hard working, always striving for perfection, ability to motivate people (this can be obtained with practice), to serve without any or minimum self intrest...... Leaders like Abraham Lincon, Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mendella can only be made by God. I think no training can give such leaders.

Well there comes the anouncemnet for boarding the flight, shall continue latter

: 05 Feb 2012 10:36 |  Tags: Leaders Leaders Qualities Of |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Actual implimentation of the learnings

I have been sponsored by my company to do the MBEa programme from Warwick university and when you are sponsored the pressure to deliver after completion of the programme is tremendous - I am facing the same situation as my programme comes nearer to the end.

The management has asked me to implement Lean manufacturing in the unit I am working in, and after that the learning's are to be horizontally deployed in the other units of the group.

To be honest - I AM SCARED ! But as I started to write my PMA for the PIUSS module I have started gaining confidence and I think by the time I am over with my desertation, I will have something to show to my Chairman.

: 29 Jan 2012 15:40 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Why do we need systems like Lean / Six Sigma?

Why do we need Lean or Six Sigma? Is it not our job to have minimum wastage and produce the correct product all the time? Why do we need special systems to tell us what we have to do?

Why dont we leave the taps runinning at home or why do we not leave the lights all the time at home? What I am trying to bering forward is that why are we disciplined at our own houses and not be the same at the work place?

May be we humans are like this - we keep saying do not tell lies and keep doing it at the same time !

: 25 Jan 2012 11:31 |  Tags: Lean Six Sigma |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Six Sigma demistified

Last week has been very informating regarding the use of Six Sigma for Process improvement.

I was initially very confused with the control charts. But Greame explained to me the main mistake I was making. I was getting confussed between the control limits and the customer limits.

The control limits give us the limits within which a process should be running, where as the customer limits just tells us what the customer is looking for. The first one tells us about the Voice of the Process where as the second set of limits tells us about the Voice of customer.

Only if the chart limits fall within the customer limits, can you satisy your customers.

: 25 Nov 2011 11:36 |  Tags: Customer Limits Limits Chart |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

How many measures for each of the 9 criteria

While doing the mini project on linking two enablers with two results, I found that there are alot of measures that fall under each of the nine criteria.

It is also clear that the company should pick those that are relevant to it. But my question is should there be a limit to the number of measures selected under each criteria. Could we list down all the possible measures under each criteria and then choose the most important ones?

I think we should take a little numnber of measures initially and as the team gets used to the sytem, we can add more measures that go into deapth.

: 29 Oct 2011 06:04 |  Tags: Efqm Enabler Results Measures |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem