Have you ever asked yourself what for do you work? I asked myself so many times. For me to work is a habit and a compulsion. May be in the Maslow's theory at times I feel - I am still standing on the first rung of the ladder trying to meet the basic requirements or stretching the separation line a bit further to classify that they all are my basic needs. Parallely at times I feel that - I have climbed all the five steps including the self actualisation stage as well. Am confused - hye na?
However I was told in another context by Ms. Renuka Mahaveer- an Industrial psychologist, that Maslow's Theory was too linear. If she is correct may be I have to compare my analogy with some other yardstick. So where is the yardstick? To compare with whom and to compare with what? So I started probing people. I asked all of my pals to answer this question. What is so great to answer that? Meera is a writer and she asked me what work - my domestic or about writing? A different window opened for me with her question. I never probed about work in those areas.
But typically what for people work? Is it not difficult to answer? That is the reason I first inquired you also to ask that question yourself. If you are working only for money and this answer satisfies you - you are not the person am addressing for. (If at all if somebody is reading this blog - I wonder?) I do believe that majority of us all are not working either for bread alone or purely for money. So what for?
Almost from the stone age people are working. Working for bread, working for comforts and working for luxuries and working for fun as well. But in the good olden days through mother nature - all the basic requirements are met, and still a person kept on working to improve the quality of life. So we came out from caves and started to live with all these modern facilities. So what made them to work in the days where no 'ESOPS' are there. I was told by so many that MOTIVATION makes a person to work. A good answer. So here comes the next question.
What is this motivation? Am not asking for the dictionary meaning alone. Because for different people motivation is defined in different ways. For some motivation is reward, for some it is financial satisfaction for some it is social recognisation and for some it is a black hole - all actions or efforts drain out. May be for me motivation is a gray area. Why so? Because am not sure what I want and what motivates me from time to time. Am greedy and "Ye Dil mange more.." theory always surfaces in my work area and as well as with my attitude.
Right from the days of modern civilization, industrial revolution so many theories are proposed by many of industrial psychologists or human nature observers. The father of scientific Management FW Talyor to William Ouchi and carrot and stick principle to Theories X,Y - modern days ESOPs, sharing of profits and win - win situations etc. How affective they all are? So am asking all of you to respond. Another angle is that majority of all these theories are talking about work at industries and service sectors only . What about domestic work? Work of home makers, poets, self employed? Who is going to answer? Am looking forward…
May be this is a starting point ... With a lateral thinking and getting views from all of you let me start correct my views or consolidate.
Some of the theories and suggested literature to read on motivation, inspiration and human behavior:
1.The Hawthrone's series of experiments (Elton Mayo, F Roethlisberger and William J Dickson) and the paradox of results
2.Abraham Maslow's hierarchical theory of motivation.
3.Douglas Macgregor's Theory X and theory Y.
4. Dr. Rensis Likert's management systems and styles
5.David Mcclelland Motivation theory.
6.Frederick Herzberg's motivation and hygiene factors.
7."Games People Play" a book by Eric Berne.
8."I am OK - You're OK" a book by Thomas Adams
9."The Monk who sold his Ferrari" a book by Robin Sharma
Friday, December 07, 2007
Monday, April 09, 2007
People who influenced me
In my life I might have came across a few thousand human beings. So many people and so many relations. Some touch and go relations and some shred warmth and comfort and with some - angry and hatred as well. How many of these people made an impression in my life. Not in thousands not in hundreds but for me there are only a few may be less than two digit numbers. It is very difficult to tell them in any order. So let me try to put them in a random fashion as my thoughts wander.
In my school days Naga Sena was our captain. He has identified that I take catches almost 8 out of 10 and made me to hold the position in first base in the game of soft ball in group B. That was a privilege for me for the rest of three years in The Hindu College High School during 1975 to 78. Kolli Eswar was my play mate and we jumped the walls in the nights for lifting crotons from a few houses of our then lecturers and were cycling to the nearest Manginapudi beech in Machilipatnam to bath in the salty / muddy Bay of Bengal waters.
Jahnavi my neighbor (May her soul rest in peace) thoroughly grilled me for a croton (for its peculiar leaves and colour) where I got because she wanted to purchase one without accepting my offer of having the same. Sis - I did not tell you that Eswar has lifted it for me from Babu Rao Sir's house and now I want to confess to you. But where are you now and what made you to end your life yar? I still remember the discussions I had with you about the book "Picture of Dorian Gray" and Ian Flemings James Bond Movies for their technical values.
During engineering college days Satish and Srinivas are my classmates and companions with whom I hardly have any secrets left to share. I already mentioned about all these guys in my earlier posts. All of them made my early childhood days to late teenage days quite a bit memorable. Bava read my blog and praise me yar... Hey in orkut there is a community BEC ladies hostel bol ke. Hi all those oldies why can't you try and join. I thought of joining but hesitated because the moderator has not informed that visitors of the hostel can also join. Hey you gals you missed some info of the first batch students by not providing me that chance.
Prof Karumannchi Vijay Kumar was our professor during graduation and his thoughts on organisational psychology was a fascination for me those days. Because of him I gave a seminar on "Hawthorne’s Experiments and its aftermath.." in March 1985 and all the final year mechanical students of BEC are baffled and thoroughly confused. I was told that Sreeramurthy my class mate was fainted completely. Still this Industrial Psychology is a subject I am interested and joined a few communities on Orkut and trying to learn what is happening on this subject in India.
Mr. Srinivasan Kumar was my first boss in the organised sector and he is the man who taught me to have a contingency plan like the one in the book "The Prodigal Daughter". So now also in every project I used to follow this theory but you know how difficult it is to have a contingency for every person and action plan in every stage. By working under him for the projects of Marine Radars and SART got the chance of traveling on board of Vessels from Visakhapatnam to Chennai and Mumbai to Cochin for sea trials of our equipment. These chances made me to sit on the navigation bridge room round the clock and talking to captains and first officers and rest in the owners cabins of the ships. For how much price I can purchase that?
Dr. Ramana Rao under whom I worked for so many years as a consultant to manager has influenced me quite a bit. He has got a vision and also he is highly optimistic about projects and delivery schedules. That was a challenge for me those days to rise for his expectations. In my productive life of Electronics Packaging field the best products still I rate are done for / by him with the help of team members all are cream in their field - Mr. G V N Rao, Muni Kanya, Latha, Kolli Sree Ram Prasad, Satyanarayana, Sambhayya, Vikram and all the best people in the Telecommunication field. It is like playing with the dream team selecting all cream from their field of respective strength from the world cricket members. But things and actions are dynamic and you can't keep all those dynamic people togeather.
Our auditor Mr. Mohana Rao, FCA who is still my occasional walk mate has got tremendous knowledge in financial matters and excellent drafting power. If any query is to be answered or a decision is to be made in a tough situation he is the man I remember first. During our walks we used to discuss what for a human being work? His financial back ground coupled with the knowledge shared by me through him helped me in my project to understand the hidden requirements of so many people.
Meera is my guru and a deep critic of human life. Her blog talks about human misery to human enlightenment. She commented once we all are class mates in a college called LIFE. She taught me not to look into the good and bad of any human being but try to understand the human nature and try to see a big picture inside each person. What a noble thought dear teacher! I appreciate your qualities and bow to your knowledge. Accept me for my rudeness and our difference of opinions on life and about human beings.
Durga my classmate and an NRI friend has got so many bitter experiences in this world and her exposure to this global village helped her to come out of the blues. I strongly feel she is fighting with everyone to make her work a perfect deal and in the process makes her life a wee bit difficult. To talk about her I used to quote Arthur Hailey from his novel The Strong Medicine “.... this gal has got so many facets.." bol ke. Hey Durga - how foolish am in calling a 40+ years oldy as a gal.
As Meera once commented that human life is like a merry stream and keeps on flowing. Also I recollect Newton's saying that am a kid playing on the Beach of the Ocean called Technology. So many people and so many experiences. With my old analogy in this blog else where am a blind person and touched a tiny part of the elephant LIFE and now describing it with my perception. Keep on correcting me my dear Pals.
In my school days Naga Sena was our captain. He has identified that I take catches almost 8 out of 10 and made me to hold the position in first base in the game of soft ball in group B. That was a privilege for me for the rest of three years in The Hindu College High School during 1975 to 78. Kolli Eswar was my play mate and we jumped the walls in the nights for lifting crotons from a few houses of our then lecturers and were cycling to the nearest Manginapudi beech in Machilipatnam to bath in the salty / muddy Bay of Bengal waters.
Jahnavi my neighbor (May her soul rest in peace) thoroughly grilled me for a croton (for its peculiar leaves and colour) where I got because she wanted to purchase one without accepting my offer of having the same. Sis - I did not tell you that Eswar has lifted it for me from Babu Rao Sir's house and now I want to confess to you. But where are you now and what made you to end your life yar? I still remember the discussions I had with you about the book "Picture of Dorian Gray" and Ian Flemings James Bond Movies for their technical values.
During engineering college days Satish and Srinivas are my classmates and companions with whom I hardly have any secrets left to share. I already mentioned about all these guys in my earlier posts. All of them made my early childhood days to late teenage days quite a bit memorable. Bava read my blog and praise me yar... Hey in orkut there is a community BEC ladies hostel bol ke. Hi all those oldies why can't you try and join. I thought of joining but hesitated because the moderator has not informed that visitors of the hostel can also join. Hey you gals you missed some info of the first batch students by not providing me that chance.
Prof Karumannchi Vijay Kumar was our professor during graduation and his thoughts on organisational psychology was a fascination for me those days. Because of him I gave a seminar on "Hawthorne’s Experiments and its aftermath.." in March 1985 and all the final year mechanical students of BEC are baffled and thoroughly confused. I was told that Sreeramurthy my class mate was fainted completely. Still this Industrial Psychology is a subject I am interested and joined a few communities on Orkut and trying to learn what is happening on this subject in India.
Mr. Srinivasan Kumar was my first boss in the organised sector and he is the man who taught me to have a contingency plan like the one in the book "The Prodigal Daughter". So now also in every project I used to follow this theory but you know how difficult it is to have a contingency for every person and action plan in every stage. By working under him for the projects of Marine Radars and SART got the chance of traveling on board of Vessels from Visakhapatnam to Chennai and Mumbai to Cochin for sea trials of our equipment. These chances made me to sit on the navigation bridge room round the clock and talking to captains and first officers and rest in the owners cabins of the ships. For how much price I can purchase that?
Dr. Ramana Rao under whom I worked for so many years as a consultant to manager has influenced me quite a bit. He has got a vision and also he is highly optimistic about projects and delivery schedules. That was a challenge for me those days to rise for his expectations. In my productive life of Electronics Packaging field the best products still I rate are done for / by him with the help of team members all are cream in their field - Mr. G V N Rao, Muni Kanya, Latha, Kolli Sree Ram Prasad, Satyanarayana, Sambhayya, Vikram and all the best people in the Telecommunication field. It is like playing with the dream team selecting all cream from their field of respective strength from the world cricket members. But things and actions are dynamic and you can't keep all those dynamic people togeather.
Our auditor Mr. Mohana Rao, FCA who is still my occasional walk mate has got tremendous knowledge in financial matters and excellent drafting power. If any query is to be answered or a decision is to be made in a tough situation he is the man I remember first. During our walks we used to discuss what for a human being work? His financial back ground coupled with the knowledge shared by me through him helped me in my project to understand the hidden requirements of so many people.
Meera is my guru and a deep critic of human life. Her blog talks about human misery to human enlightenment. She commented once we all are class mates in a college called LIFE. She taught me not to look into the good and bad of any human being but try to understand the human nature and try to see a big picture inside each person. What a noble thought dear teacher! I appreciate your qualities and bow to your knowledge. Accept me for my rudeness and our difference of opinions on life and about human beings.
Durga my classmate and an NRI friend has got so many bitter experiences in this world and her exposure to this global village helped her to come out of the blues. I strongly feel she is fighting with everyone to make her work a perfect deal and in the process makes her life a wee bit difficult. To talk about her I used to quote Arthur Hailey from his novel The Strong Medicine “.... this gal has got so many facets.." bol ke. Hey Durga - how foolish am in calling a 40+ years oldy as a gal.
As Meera once commented that human life is like a merry stream and keeps on flowing. Also I recollect Newton's saying that am a kid playing on the Beach of the Ocean called Technology. So many people and so many experiences. With my old analogy in this blog else where am a blind person and touched a tiny part of the elephant LIFE and now describing it with my perception. Keep on correcting me my dear Pals.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Human Relations - Personal and Work Related
The toughest subject on this earth, I was told, is to understand any human being. I second this statement firmly. I tried to understand so many people in my life - my family members to friends in my personal life - my superiors, peers to subordinates at my work place - my suppliers, customers to my partners at my business etc. If I look back am I succeeded in understanding any one of them? Have I at least able to judge even a single person for his / her requirements and attitude? I do not think so - I do not know as on today what exactly so many of them or at least any one of them wants. I ask a question "Do I know what I want?”
To be frank with this question I have to answer in negative. So what is so difficult in understanding a person's attitude / requirements. If that is the question - to get the answer, I was told one has to read so many subjects like Psychology, Motivation, Economics and HR management etc. Based on my interest I studied some of the theories on this subject. Leaving behind these theories of Douglas Macgregor to Abraham Maslow I had lively discussions with my then guru Prof Vijay Kumar and my pals K V Mohana Rao, K Eswar Babu, Meera and Durga in USA. The more I studied and discussed the more I confused.
From my perspective, I divide human relations into two broad categories. One our intimate and personal relations with our family members / our loved ones and the other work related relationships. The major part of our life is sandwiched between these two. In addition to these we have casual relations like our walk mates in the morning and a street end supplier to our postman etc. But my feeling of late - our relationships are getting strained in understanding what the other people want.
To emphasize on this I used to explain in a design seminar that - before going to buy anything or asking a supplier to visit us we should be clear what exactly we want upto the last specification. But in most cases I also fail in identifying what I want. I go to a shop some of the times without knowing what type of shirt to buy. I ask to show the best shirts - then the sales guy asks "Checks or stripes or plain?" what one? What make? What color? What size at least? With me (so called Electronics Packaging Expert) I do not know and just buy a piece or two and my mom just comments saying it is similar to what I had three years back. (I really appreciate the female side of this great remembrance).
At our work, some of the times we were asked by a few of our customers to visit them urgently because their entire work is stopped and things are boiling up as we are not visiting them for one of their enclosure design. When we go there, to our dismay we find a few functional heads join for a meeting in front of us and start arguing upon what exactly they want. It seems that they have not done the ground work and they do not know what they want even when things are burning. I am not exaggerating the issue. It is the order of the day with some of the organisations in Indian conditions including ours.
Even in personal life also we do not know exactly what we want. We suffer with possessiveness as well as identity crisis and thrive for so many things. We want our spouse to enter into our inner heart and try to learn what exactly we want and act based on this. How fair? How many of you agree with me? So what all these things to relate with the human relations. There is a lot depends on this. If we are clear about so many things our life is also fair. But unfortunately this clarity in most of the cases is not there at all. Or otherwise even if we are clear our life partner or team member may not be clear. So there arise conflicts.
I was told in Indian conditions a person who is quite efficient at work is a poor relationship oriented at his/her personal life. Is it true? I don’t know but some of the times I do vote for the same feeling. I used to suggest my guys - do not work hard and show always very good results - because more is expected from you every time. This I coined as a "Yeah dil mange more theory". In that process everybody and every time expects high and your life will become miserable. Similarly the other way around if you do not produce results every time either you will be kicked out or out dated. So the best method in life is to follow the Parle advt - 50 : 50.
Working in the odd hours and late hours, more work related stress, approaching dead lines and boiling issues making us vulnerable and ulcers, IBS, migraine and work related health issues eating us away like cancer cells in a human body. Because of the work pressures the thin line between personal relations and official relations is getting erased and more and more people are getting involved into EMOTIONAL based relations. To ease out from these tensions or to vent our feelings we need at times a friend or a soul mate. The lending shoulders at times are causing more problems rather than solving the issues.
So one thing is sure - we have to help ourselves but nobody can bail us out from the tensions we are into. So am keep on telling myself - Boss help yourself and then help the society. JS - are you listening?
To be frank with this question I have to answer in negative. So what is so difficult in understanding a person's attitude / requirements. If that is the question - to get the answer, I was told one has to read so many subjects like Psychology, Motivation, Economics and HR management etc. Based on my interest I studied some of the theories on this subject. Leaving behind these theories of Douglas Macgregor to Abraham Maslow I had lively discussions with my then guru Prof Vijay Kumar and my pals K V Mohana Rao, K Eswar Babu, Meera and Durga in USA. The more I studied and discussed the more I confused.
From my perspective, I divide human relations into two broad categories. One our intimate and personal relations with our family members / our loved ones and the other work related relationships. The major part of our life is sandwiched between these two. In addition to these we have casual relations like our walk mates in the morning and a street end supplier to our postman etc. But my feeling of late - our relationships are getting strained in understanding what the other people want.
To emphasize on this I used to explain in a design seminar that - before going to buy anything or asking a supplier to visit us we should be clear what exactly we want upto the last specification. But in most cases I also fail in identifying what I want. I go to a shop some of the times without knowing what type of shirt to buy. I ask to show the best shirts - then the sales guy asks "Checks or stripes or plain?" what one? What make? What color? What size at least? With me (so called Electronics Packaging Expert) I do not know and just buy a piece or two and my mom just comments saying it is similar to what I had three years back. (I really appreciate the female side of this great remembrance).
At our work, some of the times we were asked by a few of our customers to visit them urgently because their entire work is stopped and things are boiling up as we are not visiting them for one of their enclosure design. When we go there, to our dismay we find a few functional heads join for a meeting in front of us and start arguing upon what exactly they want. It seems that they have not done the ground work and they do not know what they want even when things are burning. I am not exaggerating the issue. It is the order of the day with some of the organisations in Indian conditions including ours.
Even in personal life also we do not know exactly what we want. We suffer with possessiveness as well as identity crisis and thrive for so many things. We want our spouse to enter into our inner heart and try to learn what exactly we want and act based on this. How fair? How many of you agree with me? So what all these things to relate with the human relations. There is a lot depends on this. If we are clear about so many things our life is also fair. But unfortunately this clarity in most of the cases is not there at all. Or otherwise even if we are clear our life partner or team member may not be clear. So there arise conflicts.
I was told in Indian conditions a person who is quite efficient at work is a poor relationship oriented at his/her personal life. Is it true? I don’t know but some of the times I do vote for the same feeling. I used to suggest my guys - do not work hard and show always very good results - because more is expected from you every time. This I coined as a "Yeah dil mange more theory". In that process everybody and every time expects high and your life will become miserable. Similarly the other way around if you do not produce results every time either you will be kicked out or out dated. So the best method in life is to follow the Parle advt - 50 : 50.
Working in the odd hours and late hours, more work related stress, approaching dead lines and boiling issues making us vulnerable and ulcers, IBS, migraine and work related health issues eating us away like cancer cells in a human body. Because of the work pressures the thin line between personal relations and official relations is getting erased and more and more people are getting involved into EMOTIONAL based relations. To ease out from these tensions or to vent our feelings we need at times a friend or a soul mate. The lending shoulders at times are causing more problems rather than solving the issues.
So one thing is sure - we have to help ourselves but nobody can bail us out from the tensions we are into. So am keep on telling myself - Boss help yourself and then help the society. JS - are you listening?
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