Happy Republic Day

Seven Tips For Better Decision Making

Gut Feel May Not Always Be The Right Decision

1. Validate Underlying Assumptions; Broadly classify the types of decisions made by you into critical,  important but not critical, tactical but not important and routine decisions, put the information required for decision making under each of these broad categories for re-validating the assumptions with the factual situation on the basis of the present ground realities attaching a review periodicity to each one of them. The theory of relativity propounded by Einstein , holds good for modern day management practices as well.The environment in which we operate keeps changing on a continuous basis, therefore it is important to understand that with each passing moment the reality around us is in a continuous state of change and the world as it stands now in this moment is unique and has never been like this before and will never be like this again. This continuous change adds a dynamic element of uncertainty to our lives and the decision making whether personal or professional is no exception.Make a note of all the assumptions underlying your decision making process. Note even the most insignificant assumption and revisit the facts to ascertain the validity of these assumptions, certain assumptions when challenged have the potential to bring about a paradigm shift in the approach towards the decision making process and its impact on the status quo.
2. Align Values & Goals; Is the decision in line with your deeply held values that are close to your heart? One of the simplest ways of answering this question is through visualization of the possible outcomes of the decision that you are about to take. In your visualization if this decision is helping you move towards your goals then it appears to be a desirable one. The litmus test of your decision lies in its congruity with your value system. Chose the most appropriate of the available options that would facilitate optimization on these twin parameters of goal accomplishment and value alignment. Visualize the possible consequences that may arise as an outcome of the decision that you want to take. Answer these two questions, 1. Are these consequences in line with MY deeply revered values? and 2.Would they be taking ME a step closer towards the accomplishment of MY goals?. If the answer to both these questions is yes, then go ahead with your decision or else think of some other better alternatives and repeat the process.
3. Review Motive & Trigger Events ;Take time to empathize with the people or external agencies around you to have a deeper look on the effect your decision will have on them. Review the underlying motivation to take the decision as well as the events which are acting as the trigger for your decision. Having a detached view of the scenario will lend an air of credibility to your decision making process as your decision would be well thought of and not taken at the drop of a hat. This approach will help you stick to your decision confidently in the face of difficulties or opposition.Your confidence would be even higher if your values are in sync with the universally applicable natural principles.
4. Evaluate Opportunity Cost ; When you take a decision it is eventually at the cost of some other decision that is foregone, therefore it is a great idea to evaluate the effectiveness of your chosen decision, before hand, in terms of the cost of the lost opportunity as you decide in favor of one decision over the other. 
5. Connect with Cosmos ; Practice daily meditation and develop your sixth sense to give you directions for drawing conclusions & inferences which are based on the holistic integration of the universal understanding that is far greater than the best possible information available on paper or your processing devices. That also explains the well known fact that why the sages have the power to know the truth in the present moment for its relation to the past and the future. This is generally termed as intuition which defies all the past experiences, logic & expert knowledge to arrive at a perfect decision that till date remains a mystery to the modern proponents of the super computers and the scientific decision making systems. Therefore it is important to take out time from your busy schedule and connect regularly with the cosmos through meditation.
6. Optimize Time Lag ; In view of  the above , it is absolutely critical to optimize the time lag between information gathering/ compilation , decision making, implementation and next re-validation.To what ever extent the human mind may try but it wouldn't ever be able to completely comprehend the present situation as in the present moment due to the time lag between the various stages of the decision making process, for example if there is barely a gap of just of a few seconds between the information gathered, decision taken and its dissemination to those concerned, lets say in case of the aviation traffic control, it may possibly lead to disastrous consequences.At the same time consider the instances where the mishaps are averted by the unusual offbeat decisions which otherwise could have been fatal, had these decisions been not taken in that split fraction of a second The business world and our personal lives are no exceptions as these gaps generally go up to a period of a few days before another validation is effected. Therefore decisions thus taken are illusive as there are many factors that may have changed and continue to change, rendering these decisions not only ineffective and out of place but may also prove to be counterproductive by working against the very system they are supposed to support. Reducing the time lag between information collection ,decision making and its implementation is the key for remaining relevant to the changing times.To put it more aptly this may mean development and implementation of real time decision making systems, as used by aviation traffic control and other sophisticated public transport systems used by the developed economies, where the day to day decisions and  reviews are made on real time basis based on precise just in time availability of factual information.
7. Delay Decision ;Last but not the least , at times delaying a decision may also be an effective decision as the timing or inadequacy of available information or over dependence on gut feel may not always be the right decision.

Sanjay Sharma

Importance of SOPs for Organizations

"SOPs Facilitate Better Planning".

There are many advantages of having SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) for various operational aspects of an organization. Lets look at the ground realities that make SOPs completely indispensable for any progressive organization aspiring to be a leader in its category. 

Advantages of SOPs for Organizations 

1. Standardized Processes Lead to Predictable Quality:  An organization may hire highly competent professionals.These professionals may be capable of working out a large number of ways for carrying out various operations of the organization. If individuals are allowed to conduct operations based on their comfort , intelligence and style then it can possibly lead to unwanted and often unexpected consequences.These outcomes might be in stark contrast to the desired ones. All organizations are responsible for maintaining a specific quality standard at every stage of the organizational functioning.This quality standard may be in the form of recording accurate information , maintaining hygiene , delivering time bound service , final appearance of the product or its packaging at the time of delivery,etc.What ever may be the need to have a quality framework there is only one answer and that is standardization.Any call for standardization is possible only if quality benchmarks are defined in specific terms.Having defined the product/service delivery standards is just the beginning.This spirals up into a chain reaction leading to a host of activities that need to be standardized for guaranteeing desired quality outcome meeting predefined standards. 
2. Meet Ongoing Need to Reflect Brand DNA ;  Any brand is recognized by its DNA. Brand DNA must be reflected in its products/ services.Then only it can fulfill its quality promise. The market has expectations of the brand.These expectations must be met if the organization wishes to continue enjoying good reputation and recall. Moreover these expectations are set by the organization in question and must better be met.
3. Transparency in Processes: Through SOPs the domain knowledge is made open to the authorized actors within the organization. This openness lends clarity to the process input output cycle, including process management and implementation. Transparency  eliminates ambiguity, fosters trust & facilitates teamwork to carry out the process with optimum efficiency and effectiveness. Widely known SOPs lead to  greater transparency and accountability in the conduct of day to day operations.
4. Effective Knowledge Management ; Standardized processes get documented, systematic record is maintained with each improvement in the process.This facilitates creation of knowledge repository in the organization. It becomes more logical and scientific to raise the quality bar for different processes being followed in the organization. Documented SOP manuals lead to effective knowledge management by facilitating in-depth study of the processes and initiating improvements on the go.
5. Organization Wide Training and Communication ; Orientation & Process training gets more organized, ensuring that participating employees gain clarity regarding the steps involved, their multi dimensional interface and dynamic relationships among various constituents.SOP manuals become handy tools for organization wide communication & training.Standardized training formats thus evolved, lead to adoption of sophisticated training management system in the organization. 
6. Objective Process Audits ; Process audits become objective and free from personal bias. Healthy environment paves the way for a professional work culture geared towards meritocracy. The criteria for identifying quality performers gets objectively defined and the evaluation standards get communicated in advance to the employees.Such professional approach generates enthusiasm, healthy teamwork and win win for all concerned. 
7. Improved Planning; Documented SOPs facilitate better planning by imparting clarity on the process flow, steps,  human resources involved, estimated time frame to complete different steps to decide on the optimized turnaround time  , capacity optimization during peak and lean hours,etc. All these factors put together throw light on process optimization through cost benefit analysis of maintaining or not maintaining predefined quality standards. These insights may lead to simplification of the complex management decisions. 
8. Process Automation; Study of documented SOPs provides, process automation team, indications regarding the level of automation that can be achieved and the steps which can be optimized to help improve the efficiency of the operations by enhancing the productivity of responsible employees. Management may use the series of written SOP manuals in conjunction with the process M.I.S for evaluating the pros and cons of the applicable options while contemplating process automation.

Sanjay V Sharma

Innovation & Survival: Two Sides of the Same Coin

                                                 CHALLENGE THE STATUS QUO FOR INNOVATION                      Photo CreditDabra Larson

Business is a Two Way Street, Either Innovate or Perish

Any business organization is a highly complex system that is comparable to advanced machinery. Like a machine it has multiple components, interacts with the environment in which it operates, needs to be operated by skilled people, exists for a specific purpose and consists of intertwined internal processes culminating into intricate input-output cycles. It must be observed here that any machine needs to be upgraded to an improved version over a period of time. This is necessitated by a variety of factors including but not limited to emergence of a better technology, enhanced ease of operation, wider service objectives, increased competition, changes in the user tastes & preferences, etc. This up-gradation is necessary for the machine to remain relevant to the users it is designed to serve or there is a clearly defined path to oblivion by being labelled as obsolete. And the business world is no different, as we have numerous examples of huge businesses with highly successful product categories which were doing very well at one point in time but they failed to adapt themselves to the dynamic environmental changes over a period of time. Today these businesses stand relegated to the annals of business history as their glory has diminished with time.

“One Best Way” Becomes Ineffective with Onslaught of Time

The businesses must take a cue from this point that if they have been successful during the past years or decades the credit goes to their struggle which led to the winning innovation responsible for their success during their start-up phase, where they could come out with an effective strategy which worked very well for them in addressing the specific set of environmental forces prevailing at that point in time. As the time passes by, changes happen in the market, competition, technology, customer preferences, etc, which render the erstwhile success strategy redundant, it ceases to add any value in the changed circumstances, on the contrary it gets in the way of the progress of the business, because the executive team is overtly obsessed by the "one best way" of doing the things as that had always worked in the past. The real problem is the obsession of the executive team with the "one best way" of doing things. But they miss out on re-validating their set of assumptions which were deeply embedded into the development of that "one best way". The “one best way” which earlier worked for the business loses its relevance in the context of the changing business realities where the earlier assumptions do not hold any ground, as these assumptions need to be questioned on a continuous basis to successfully address the challenges posed by the dynamic environmental uncertainties.

Businesses Must Innovate to Safeguard against Extinction

As there is a continuous need to carry out maintenance of a machine, similarly an organization must also be continuously monitored for any ailing divisions that may be requiring surgery or some other treatment. The emphasis must be laid on innovation, as the executive team needs to conduct in depth research to decipher the prevailing business trends and generate improved solutions to create value for their business organization. A very critical point to be noted here is the concept of preventive maintenance, where the catch is to proactively maintain the machine through continuous inspection and ensuring that the machine is kept in an efficient working state by carrying out proactive repairs before any actual work loss or breakdown occurs. Here if any complacency sets into the approach chosen by the executive team of the business organization, it necessarily overlooks the highly critical innovation through preventive maintenance resulting in guaranteed inefficiencies in conducting its business leading towards the impending organizational failure. As compared to the proactive preventive maintenance adopted for up-keeping the machines, the business organizations must also prevent the organizational break down by converting the challenges faced by them into opportunities through proactive preventive maintenance leading towards effective innovation. If the proactive preventive maintenance is not adopted by the business organizations then sooner or later an epidemic or a catastrophe hits them, putting them in a distressful situation, where getting into the fire-fighting mode is the only option left with them. In such a state of distress, it is quite natural for the business organization to shift its complete focus & energy from its core business objectives towards the fight against extinction, but with little chances of survival.

Innovative Mind Set: Key to Business Survival

Innovation is not necessarily a paradigm shift bringing about business disruption as it may come in multiple forms. For a marketing division it may be an act of identifying new uses its products can serve with an entirely untouched market segment, for the production team it may be an equivalent of a more efficient production process capable of delivering better quality in lesser time & cost, for a chip design organization it may be introduction of a more compact sophisticated design capable of delivering better value, reliability & speed as compared to the previous versions, etc. So a progressive organization needs to continuously challenge the status quo. Its executive team must be intelligently obsessed with the idea of innovation by identifying organizational challenges and converting them into opportunities. This innovative approach needs to be an organization wide culture for an exponential impact on the overall functioning and well being of the organization under consideration. It is a very widely known fact that the organizations which were considered very successful for a series of decades eventually became obsolete because they could not adapt themselves to their changing realities. The real challenge for the progressive businesses lies in continuously reinventing themselves through an innovative mindset to ensure that they remain relevant to the changing business landscape by re-validating their assumptions and redefining their new set of values, beliefs & assumptions on which their complete organizational competencies, strategies, effectiveness, success and long term survival are based.

Sanjay Sharma

EFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE MODEL FOR BUILDING ETHICAL ORGANIZATIONS

Many Large Organizations Suffer from Rampage Unethical Practices

The problem with our world starts when people with vested interests get into positions of authority. Many large organizations suffer from rampage unethical practices conspired by a very small number of people in influential & authoritative positions. There are obvious undesirable fall-outs, for the stake holders, of not being able to check this menace before it manifests into volcanic eruptions causing shock-waves leading to ripples of panic & devastation right through the organization and beyond

Symptoms Exhibited by Suffering Organizations

Organizations suffering from the impact of unethical practices may exhibit symptoms including but not limited to clandestine predetermined customary commissions, nepotism, favoritism and unhealthy politics aimed at promoting the vested interests of few favorites at the expense of the organization as well as the other interest groups including all ethical actors putting them in a strongly disadvantageous position. Work cultures marred by this evil strangle creativity, innovation, justice, growth, motivation and prosperity. In all likely-hood such a trend plummet the organization towards a downward spiral of hopelessness, destitution & complete loss of focus on the organizational values and objectives

Recipe for an Ethical Organizations?

Solution lies in whole hearted adoption of these rich practices within the governance framework of your organization

1.       Unwavering commitment of the stake holders towards building an ethical organization

2.       Keeping aside a budget towards accomplishing “Ethics and Compliance”

3.       Organization wide dissemination of the code of conduct manual, detailing the definition of integrity violation for identification & prevention of corrupt practices

4.       Building complete transparency around the processes and systems of your organization

5.       Carefully structuring the whistle blower policy

6.       Conducting surprise inspections of the individual work stations 

7.       Benchmarking organizational costs with contemporary market practices & scenario through real time studies and researches

8.       Ensuring optimum frequency of intra organizational employee transfers in case of a single business entity and inter organizational employee transfers in case of a multiple business entity. This also takes care of the critical business areas such as business continuity planning by lining up future business leaders capable of shouldering bigger responsibilities of your organization.

9.       Making contribution towards Knowledge Management system an integral component of the employee KPI (key Performance Indicators) matrix

10.   Developing significant overlaps in the employee KPI matrices as a proactive measure towards implementing a strong checks & balances mechanism.

11.   Carrying out unexpected audits of the organizational processes

12.   Zero tolerance policy for integrity violation
13.   Continuous reviewing and updating of the  governance framework to keep it effective and relevant to the changing times

Sanjay Sharma

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT - TIMELESS & ALL PERVASIVE PARADIGM

Assume Complete Responsibility for Your Present Situation

Whenever you happen to experience an urge for challenging the status quo for reasons ranging from modifications in the personal goals to the observed deviations in the execution of your business plan, it is only wise to assume complete responsibility for your present situation, without even the faintest impression of any lesion to the external environment, people or factors around you. It is a great idea to assume 100% responsibility for your present situation, to be able to effectively handle these challenges. Hiding behind any person, circumstances or justifications is no solution. Instead getting in the middle and handling the bull by its horns by taking complete responsibility for the debacle is the only way out. As most of the people, you may like to trust with the responsibility of solving your problems, may not match the quality of self service solution that you are capable of producing for your pressing priorities

Focus On Continuous Improvement in Your Action Zone

Total quality management teaches us the importance of exploring new horizons by focusing on continuous improvement in our action zone. Please note that the emphasis here is not on being perfect, but on the contrary this is a system which believes in the capability of humans to learn from their mistakes leading towards continuous improvement. The other important tenet is the belief that whatever may be the level of excellence accomplished by you , it can always be improved further by identifying some flaw somewhere which can be rectified  to move from good to better , where best is yet to come. The beauty of this paradigm is that it is timeless and all pervasive with no exceptions

Generate a Win-Win Situation for All Concerned

For you to know that whether you have worked out the right solution, the basic test lies in generating a win-win situation for all concerned. The simple format for achieving this is to list down the systems that your solution is going to affect, then empathize with each element to understand weather the solution provided by you would be acceptable to you if you were in their shoes. All affirmative answers are an indication of your awesome solution which has the capacity of propelling you, in the right direction, from good to better.

Sanjay Sharma

SPIRIT OF NATIONALISM - SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, 360 DEGREE LEADERSHIP & PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS

  

Show The Path and Lead The Way

As a business do you realize the importance of your day to day conduct, in motivating and inspiring people, who come in your direct or indirect contact. There is no better way than modelling when it comes to showing the path and leading the way. In a scenario where technology, GDP, economy, innovation, education standard, living standard, industrial growth rate and most of the tangible parameters seem to be doing well, still we know that there is some-thing more that is needed to move the nation to a point where it can keep its head high and be self reliant in taking its own decisions rather than depending on others to support its cause. This is the time to redefine the concept of social responsibility as linked to the spirit of nationalism and 360 degree leadership through accomplishment of personal effectiveness

Align Your Own Work With That Of The Nation

Whether you may be in a job or business, it always pays to be effective in your role by being helpful to those around you. You must constantly focus your energy on the effectiveness with which you are contributing towards the goals of your department, organization or business. Healthy competition or complementing, the strengths of your co-worker – countrymen, must be the key word to watch for.  Delving deeper into this concept will make you align your own work with that of the nation as a whole. You need to understand that for your country to be stronger, it needs to possess more wealth, for the country to possess more wealth the countrymen must be productively employed to generate that wealth for your nation

Strengthen  The Society & Culture by Contributing Towards The True Spirit of Nationalism

The social responsibility must not be looked upon as a mere tool , only for gaining appreciation and meeting mandatory compliance norms, but this must also be a measure of setting up of right example and promoting brotherhood, harmony and nationalism amongst the people as and when they come in contact of your business. This is the only way to bear the torch of nationalism to a level where each torch in-turn ignites a multiple number, this continued process has the potential to transform the business landscape and strengthen the society & culture by contributing towards the true spirit of nationalism through personal effectiveness

Sanjay Sharma