Modern Management versus Craftsmanship

Learn, Unlearn and Relearn...

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. ” 
― Alvin Toffler

Indeed ! .I couldn't agree more to the above quote.  In the 3^rd  lecture , Prof. Prasad employed a unique way of teaching the difference between Craftsmanship and Modern Management. This lecture was a total eye opener for me and I realized that I need to unlearn a lot before actually learning something new and offload myself of the baggage I have been carrying on account of my experiences, prejudices, perceptions. 

We were provided with cubical blocks and our first task was to estimate how high the single block pillar can go in case of two different approaches:

 Person A :- OPEN EYED

   Person B :- BLIND FOLDED, with the help of a Person C(the Manager:) )

       For Person A highest bid went to 25 where as for Person B it went only up to 10-12.

On the expected lines, majority went with open eyed person, in anticipation of a higher pillar.

Next step was to perform these two operations and see the actual result . 

A volunteer started making the pillar using both his eyes open and hands but was only able to make the pillar 22 blocks high.

• A picture of building blocks. 

• Open Eyed person, who could make a pillar of 22 blocks

For the blind person , the task was seemingly more daunting. A team of 3 people was chosen, one was made CEO (Chief Executive Officer), one Manager to instruct the third blind folded worker.

The worker started building the tower while manager was instructing him where to place the block. Their start was slow but gradually and to our astonishment they started getting the hang of it and finally they went on to build a tower of 25 blocks.

• Blindfolded person making the pillar with the help of Manager on the right with the CEO looking over. 

Through this activity, we got to visualize a real life working condition and the impact of effective communication between a worker and manager,which can work wonders. We also noticed that an open eyed person was more cautious and predictable in his approach, whereas there were no presumptions and not too much expectations on the  part of blind folded person. He was just doing as instructed by his manager.

The key things that a worker wants while doing his task is motivation and appreciation, sometimes backed by incentives.

It was a great learning activity,where Person A represented the working style of a Craftsman, who might otherwise go haywire without the proper guidance of a more experienced and more educated person, the Manager.

Person B , The manager and the CEO demonstrated the technique of modern management

The comparison between Craftsmanship and Modern Management is as follows :

Parameter	Craftsmanship	Modern Management
Work	Complete work is done by a single person/entity at it's own will. Work will be very ambiguous.	Work is shared across a team, and thus taking the pressure off from one person. It will be distributed. The scope of the Work will be crystal clear.
Satisfaction	Higher	Lesser
Decision	The person who is working (open eyed) takes his own decision so he is under pressure, consequently his efficiency decreases. He probably might be having enough experience also	Manager takes all the decision the, employees (blind folded) will not be under excessive pressure thus increasing the efficiency. The presence of a much more experienced manager increases the productivity exponentially.
Skill	Since the person is doing all the work himself, his skill will be more.	Since the work is divided into many parts skills of the each employee is limited. Quality will be lower.
Productivity	Productivity is low.	Productivity is high.

That was quite a lesson. Adios for now.

This Is How It Begun...
I came to NITIE(National Institute of Industrial Engineering),arguably the best college in India for Operations Management with an apprehension in mind, thinking, if at all i'd be able to cope up with the rigorous curriculum and compete with some of brightest minds of the country.But gradually confidence has started growing over me  .

I had heard a lot about Prof. Prasad Teegalapally, who is quite famous for his unusual ,yet highly effective antics of teaching and is popularly known as Prof 'Mandi' and I was already excited to meet him for myself. And finally I got the opportunity to meet him. He came inside the class and  he took us by surprise when he asked us to come and sit on the floor next to him.A sine qua non for effective learning and to gain knowledge is to relinquish one's ego; and there couldn't have been a better beginning than sitting on the floor for the lecture.And my senses witnessed one of the most amazing lectures hitherto. Shedding our inhibitions, we all sat on the floor and were exposed to relevance of the Indian ways of doing dhandha by the prof .



Prof. Prasad pressed on the approach of earning while learning and vice-versa. In the class, he threw yet another surprise by showing us the 'Newton's Cradle',  which is a device that demonstrates conservation of momentum and energy via a series of swinging spheres. When one on the end is lifted and released, the resulting force travels through the line and pushes the last one upward.



This example of Newton's Cradle  can have multiple interpretations for us,viz.

• As we sow ,so we reap. Whatever good or bad we do to others or ,for that matter to ourselves, it comes back to us being the harbinger of mirth or sorrow, depending upon what we had put in.

• A learning makes sense only if it is put to some productive use .

• If life hits you at some of point time, then hit back equally hard. This is how a worthwhile life is lived.

Later Prof. Prasad told us about one of the biggest bschool events that he conducts at NITIE, known as MANDI.

MANDI

MANDI is  a unique on field marketing exercise in Mumbai  led by Prof. Prasad . Here , the students go out on the streets to sell educational toys. The idea is to practically implement sales strategies, interact and understand customer behavior better. All the proceedings of the event go to an NGO named Navnirmiti.
The toys sold at Mandi are deftly designed so as to grab attention with their aesthetics and at the same time they are intellectually stimulating.


The above picture is of one such educational toy, a ball with which a child can play and at the same time it acts as a globe.

A sneak peak into the Mandi event.