Ultimate Learning--To learn from people we dislike

29.05.2010

Prof V H Iyer renowned consultant from Mumbai was in Chennai today. He is a senior faculty of the Management Study Centre at Mumbai. We had invited him to our the Centre and he had consented to do so in spite of his busy schedule. We received him today at 11:30 AM.

Prof. V H Iyer is on the board of various companies and Government Depts like Indian Council for Agricultural Research, and is currently Dean of the Prince Welingkar Institute of Management Mumbai. Prof. Iyer is an internationally recognized authority on Materials Management and Lean Principles.

During the chat we had in my cabin, Prof. Iyer spoke about a book that he has conceived and is proposing to write. He is basically from a family of Tanjore Brahmins who moved to Palghat a long time ago. His family had moved again from Nurani, a famous village in Palghat to Burma where prof. Iyer was born and had spent his early childhood. During WW II when Burma was evacuated, Prof. Iyer had had to flee Burma and spent two years in a refugee camp. He is planning to write about his experiences from Refugee camp to where he is now.

The book would not be autobiographical. It would be a document of his experiential learning over a long period and his thoughts about people he had met and worked with.

Prof. Iyer remarked that we can learn from everyone, including people we dislike! He gave the example of an OR Professor in his B School who was so insulting that she was universally disliked. Prof. Iyer says he learnt many tips on ‘how not to teach’ from her!

Difficult Behavior

On 28^th May I attended a “Management Show” at British Council on Handling Difficult People. There were about thirty people. The facilitator divided us into six groups.

She began by asking us to list out as a group various categories of difficult people we meet in the work place. Some of the categories that emerged were Detractors, Deviators, Non-Communicators, Procrastinators and the Manipulative.

(One interesting comment was about a boss who was unfocused. The participant stated t that the boss was focused in many directions!)

We were then asked to answer the following questions:

1. How do you feel when you experience difficult behavior?

It stresses you. It affects your poise. It brings out the negative in you. Sometimes you become a difficult person yourself!

2. Whose problem is the difficult behavior?

It is essentially the other person’s problem but it is ours too if it will affect achievement of the long term goals of the organization or if we have to work with the difficult person to perform our organizational role.

3. Should difficult behavior be confronted?

Yes. But we redefined the word “to confront” and decided that difficult behavior should be addressed suitably through dialogue or counseling. But confrontation should be avoided when it would worsen the situation.

One of the issues we discussed was about the nature of the difficult behavior which could be Cultural, Personilty or Behavioral. The current session dealt only with bwehavioral. We accepted that personality should not be discussed while addressing difficult behavior. What need to be addressed are specific behavioral issues. I added that, ‘we should address what the person is doing, and not what he or she is.’

The trainer thereafter played a brief video prepared by Fenman Management Training. In this video Philip a Management Consultant handles a difficult person, the head of another team who is demanding and incapable of being satisfied.

The video also gave us a four step approach for handling difficult people, which involved assessing, analyzing, asserting and finally formalizing a Deal by assenting.

Due to insufficiency of time and the trainer’s own inability to relate to the essence of the issue, the practicing managers in the audience felt we had not truly got a handle on how to deal with difficult people.

In the Begining...

In the beginning there was an immense amount of energy; this energy was directionless, formless, devoid of content, and importantly purposeless. This huge energy force discovered a miniscule mass, an atom, of matter and entered it.

When an infinite force enters a microscopic space the result is a massive explosion. This explosion enabled the matter to expand, take forms and shapes having names, to evolve as such into what we now call the universe. The universe is made up matter pervaded by energy.

The energy is inert in some forms of matter whilst in others it is exuberant. These exuberant forms further evolved to become various life forms and sentient beings.

Gene Carriers

This is a photo of my son Srivatsan with my parents. As I took this photo, I could not help but feel that we are no more than Gene carriers passing on the gene from one generation to the next.

Children are our greatest chance to rectify the mistakes of our life and prevent them from being repeated again by another generation.

Edutainment at SAIPEM

On 26th May I conducted a programme on "High Performance Managerial Skills for Saipem India Private Limited a Project Construction Company. The programme was well received, especially the Edutainment in the form of use of Movie Clippings to communicate Management Messages.

Financial Well Being

On 17th and 21st May I conducted sessions on Financial Well Being for the Retirees of Ashok Leuyland Limited. This is regular feature where I brief them on the need for Financial Planning for Retirement and after. I also give them inputs on Portfolio structuring and wealth maximization with safety. I generally suggest a mix of Mutual Funds and Government Bonds/Post Office Savings.

One thing that constantly surprises me is the way those about to retire would willingly "invest" their funds with brokers who suggest intra-day trading while totally resist investment in Systematic Investment Plans in Diversified Mutual Funds as risky!

Another suggestion I give to them is to buy 24 carat Gold coins or invst in a Gold ETF rather than buy ornamental gold. This usually finds resistance among women. But during the session on 17th, my suggeation was supported and vindicated by one of the participants, Mr. V who stated that he had consistyently bought 24 carat Gold coins instead of ornamental gold. He sold the coins at the timew of his I daughter's marriage and made huge gains which he used not only to buy ornaments but also meet the marriage expenses. He has started doing the samre thing for his II daughter's marriage too. His only regret is that he had not bought more 24 Carat gold coins!

Training Activities-I

On 21st May I conducted an Executive DEvelopment Programme for the Institute of Company Secrataries of India. The participants were young and energetic Company Secretaries who were quite interactve and participated actively. You can see a participant presenting the viewsof her group on a case study here.