The Pygmalion Effect

Let me start explaining this magical Pygmalion Effect through my very own quirky yet easy to understand way.

The idea is :

                                                                

      MAY  

            

A PIG MAY become a LION if provided with continual  positive expectation reinforcement. The words 'pig' , 'may', and 'lion' are keywords which can be used to understand 'The Pygmalion Effect' effectively.

INTRODUCTION

The Pygmalion effect, or Rosenthal effect, is the phenomenon in which the greater the expectation placed upon people, the better they perform.The effect is named after Pygmalion, a play by George Bernard Shaw.

The corollary of the Pygmalion effect is the golem effect, in which low expectations lead to a decrease in performance. The Pygmalion effect and the golem effect are forms of self-fulfilling prophecy, and, in this respect, people will internalize their positive labels, and those with positive labels succeed accordingly. Within sociology, the effect is often cited with regard to education and social class.

BACKGROUND

Pygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw, which was staged in 1912 and it was named after a Greek mythological character.

In ancient Greek mythology, Pygmalion fell in love with one of his sculptures that came to life and was a popular subject for Victorian era English playwrights

Rosenthal–Jacobson study

Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson (1968) report and discuss the Pygmalion effect in the classroom at length. In their study, they showed that if teachers were led to expect enhanced performance from some children, then the children did indeed show that enhancement.

The purpose of the experiment was to support the hypothesis that reality can be influenced by the expectations of others. This influence can be beneficial as well as detrimental depending on which label an individual is assigned. The observer-expectancy effect, which involves an experimenter's unconsciously biased expectations, is tested in real life situations. Rosenthal posited that biased expectancy can essentially affect reality and create self-fulfilling prophecies as a result.

All students in a single California elementary school were given a disguised IQ test at the beginning of the study. These scores were not disclosed to teachers. Teachers were told that some of their students (about 20% of the school chosen at random) could be expected to be "spurters" that year, doing better than expected in comparison to their classmates. The spurters' names were made known to the teachers. At the end of the study all students were again tested with the same IQ-test used at the beginning of the study. All six grades in both experimental and control groups showed a mean gain in IQ from pretest to post test. However, First and Second Graders showed statistically significant gains favoring the experimental group of "spurters." This led to the conclusion that teacher expectations, particularly for the youngest children, can influence student achievement.

In this experiment, Rosenthal predicted that elementary school teachers may subconsciously behave in ways that facilitate and encourage the students' success. The prior research that motivated this study was done in 1911 by psychologists regarding the case of Clever Hans, a horse that gained notoriety because it was supposed to be able to read, spell, and solve math problems by using its hoof to answer. Many skeptics suggested that questioners and observers were unintentionally signaling Clever Hans. For instance, whenever Clever Hans was asked a question the observers' demeanor usually elicited a certain behavior from the subject that in turn confirmed their expectations. For example, Clever Hans would be given a math problem to solve, and the audience would get very tense the closer he tapped his foot to the right number, thus giving Hans the clue he needed to tap the correct number of times.

The Three Monks

Preface

One fine day we were asked by Dr. Mandi to see the Three Buddhist Monks animation clip. I was wondering what an animation film can teach us about management . Management is no child's play. But little did I know that an animation film of less than 20 minutes was not just capable of teaching us effective team work but also life skills.
 Human is a social animal. We can evade everything but interaction with people. Effective interaction is one which leads to the foundation of relationships and people involved in the relationship contribute to mutual growth and help each other in self actualization.

Introduction

Three Monks  is a Chinese animated feature film produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. After the cultural revolution and the fall of the political Gang of Four in 1976, the film was one of the first animations created as part of the rebirth period. It is also referred to as The Three Buddhist Priests.

Background

The film is based on the ancient Chinese proverb "One monk will shoulder two buckets of water, two monks will share the load, but add a third and no one will want to fetch water." The film does not contain any dialogues, allowing it to be watched by any culture, and a different music instrument was used to signify each monk. The film tells the story from the aspect of the Buddhist Bhikkshu.

The Story...

A young monk lives a simple life in a temple on top of a hill. He has one daily task of hauling two buckets of water up the hill. He tries to share the job with another monk, but the carry pole is only long enough for one bucket. The arrival of a third monk prompts everyone to expect that someone else will take on the chore. Consequently, no one fetches water though everybody is thirsty. At night, a rat comes to scrounge and then knocks the candle holder, leading to a devastating fire in the temple. The three monks finally unite together and make a concerted effort to put out the fire. Since then they understand the old saying "unity is strength" and begin to live a harmonious life. The temple never lacks water again




The Three Monks Animation Film(Video)



The Learning

1) As the saying goes, :Unity is strength" we should co operate with each other and work together in a harmonious manner.

2) Everyone is capable of being selfish, but doing so diminishes our ability to cooperate with one another.

3) This story teaches us that it is inappropriate to shirk responsibility and proper measures should be taken before a catastrophe occurs.

4) We should make the best use of each other's potential in our group by understanding strengths and weaknesses and work towards realization of  our potential.

Are your goals S.M.A.R.T enough ?

Goals

"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high

and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." - 

Michelangelo.

Goals are a form of motivation that sets the standard for self-satisfaction with performance. Achieving the goal one has set for oneself is a measure of success, and being able to meet job challenges is a way one measures success in the workplace. It has been said that "Goal setting capitalizes on the human brain's amazing powers: Our brains are problem-solving, goal-achieving machines."

Goal Setting Funda

Goals that are deemed difficult to achieve and specific tend to increase performance more than goals that are not. A goal can become more specific through quantification or enumeration (should be measurable), such as by demanding "...increase productivity by 50%," or by defining certain tasks that must be completed.

Setting goals affects outcomes in four ways:

1. Choice: goals narrow attention and direct efforts to goal-relevant activities, and away from perceived undesirable and goal-irrelevant actions.
2. Effort: goals can lead to more effort; for example, if one typically produces 4 widgets an hour, and has the goal of producing 6, one may work more intensely towards the goal than one would otherwise.
3. Persistence: someone becomes more prone to work through setbacks if pursuing a goal.
4. Cognition: goals can lead individuals to develop and change their behavior.

How To Set Goals ?

      

Goal setting involves establishing specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-targeted (S.M.A.R.T ) goals. Work on the theory of goal-setting suggests that an effective tool for making progress is to ensure that participants in a group with a common goal are clearly aware of what is expected from them.On a personal level, setting goals helps people work towards their own objectives—most commonly with financial or career-based goals.

Goal Setting is an iterative process .Once a S.M.A.R.T cycle is completed, again goals are set starting with 'S' taking into account the mistakes did in previous process of achieving the goal.

Goal Setting In Business

In business, goal setting encourages participants to put in substantial effort. Also, because every member has defined expectations for their role, little room is left for inadequate, marginal effort to go unnoticed.

Managers cannot constantly drive motivation, or keep track of an employee’s work on a continuous basis. Goals are therefore an important tool for managers, since goals have the ability to function as a self-regulatory mechanism that helps employees prioritize tasks.

The four mechanisms through which goal setting can affect individual performance are:

1. Goals focus attention toward goal-relevant activities and away from goal-irrelevant activities.
2. Goals serve as an energizer: Higher goals induce greater effort, while low goals induce lesser effort.
3. Goals affect persistence; constraints with regard to resources affect work pace.
4. Goals activate cognitive knowledge and strategies that help employees cope with the situation at hand.

A Video on Smart Goal Setting

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.