Lasting change through crisis

Prevention of crisis is much advised and of course we must do everything to prevent it. But if it occurs, we need preparation to gain from it. Many families, young couples, close friends, colleagues etc have reported  that their past crisis, very deep ones, have helped then to form deeper bonds with each other  Attempting to contain or overcome a crisis brings people together. That is one of the positive value of crisis.

This phenomenon is equally good for business teams too.  The teams that have found ways to overcome crisis and worked together to get over it have found to be having better working relationships and bonding. Crisis gives an opportunity to know each other at deeper levels and to lean to adjust with each other.

Crisis also gives us an opportunity to break from the outdated habits, renew our perspectives and learn new courses of actions.

We facilitate to create conflicts and crisis in our business facilitation services that the team of key players emerge strong and are clear about the strategy. Though we provoke to create conflicts , we are competent to avoid unhealthy interpersonal rub offs and lead to healthy and long lasting outputs.

Experiencing conflicts and resolving it is the stepping stones to growth.


contributed by Sasikanth Prabhu

Benefits and advantages of Chai Board

Chai Board is the tool we use in facilitating DNA crafting (strategy Development). Flip charts and the marker pens are the usual tools that we use in the facilitation process. We have observed that this simple process brings certain significant and important value to the key players who are participating in the Chai Boards (DNA sessions).  

Some of the conspicuous ones are….

It brings Focus: Because everyone is looking at one display: the flip charts, the key players do not have many different versions inside their own imaginations. Slowly shared awareness and understanding is built. This shared understanding forms the basis for future social capital needed for the business growth.

It promotes camaraderie: The participants begin to feel they are part of one team. The provocative, interactive, engaging qualities of working with flipcharts and dialoging are found to be more effective at supporting relationship building, trust, and participation than pushy PPT presentations and lectures.

It prevents fragmentation: Fragmentation suggests a condition in which the people involved see themselves as more separate than united, and in which direction and focus are scattered. It is a phenomenon that pulls apart business that is whole. We have found that fragmentation is hidden, intangible and people in the organization do not even realize that there are incompatible tacit assumptions about the business and each key person believes that his or her understanding is complete and is shared by all.  Our flip chart display is a direct support to common findings, and allows the key players to aggregate and analyze the issues on a common platform. Most of the outputs that the key players are making in understanding the dynamics of their business are from displaying on flipcharts and dialoguing on the issue. This process prevents fragmentation but enhances shared understanding. This is key to business growth, without this it is less probable.

It allows easy follow-through: Connecting everyone’s activity over time is essential to producing anything. The difference between relying on everyone’s individual perception and having a shared schedule and road map everyone buys-in is night and day. The output flipcharts allow the key players to brief themselves, remind, repeat the matters of business, support after-action reviews, and document key outputs for broadcasting to others in the organization.

Contributed by Sasikanth Prabhu

Disorder in the Questions: asking the ‘How?’ sooner

When we go for marketing calls to sell the service of DNA development for the businesses, I make a single statement to make our point i.e. ‘we help the companies to grow from one level to next level’.  As a response to this, often we get back a question ‘How do you do that? ‘.  Also we get other questions that are closely related to the disorderly question “how do you do that? “. Some of them are ‘How do you get from here to there?’, ‘Where has this worked?’, ‘What would this program cost and what is the return on investment?’. ’ How do we measure it?’ etc. We prefer to call this question disorderly, because it beats all the creative and productive purposes. The question creates a subtle aura of cynicism or contempt. It indicates something such as “ We have been doing it all these years, how can you be better than us” ,  “We know it all , let us see if you can tell us more than we know, which is impossible”,  etc.. It is also a defense against taking action, as it implies that let us know clearly that it will yield what we want then we shall act.

Thus the How? question is a defense for the stubbornness to act for change or even to think differently. It is an indirect expression of doubt, more on to them than on us.  The How? question also seem to be a habit.   Business owners who have strong habits of pursuing what is practical and doable, tend to ignore larger purpose and impacts. We are astonished to watch frequently that when some business owner’s initiatives do not work, they simply try harder. When they are trying to control a business and it is failing, then they doggedly do more of what is not working.

The How? question also promotes an illusion of speed such as the world is moving fast now a days  and there is no time for thinking and emotions; At any cost we must do all things fast. Of course, we need to do things fast what needs to be done. What need to be done: ‘the business’ is often forgotten.  Instead the organization mindlessly pursues to meet the mechanical objectives. This mindset, of going only behind what works, is the biggest hurdle to sustainable business growth. We attempt to break this mindset very early in our interactions and that puts us in the risk of being expelled from the premises. But that is the hazard of business facilitation job. We need to put up with it.

Each time business owners / managers try to get answers to the question How?, they get answers such as .. do Lean management, do six sigma, do 5S, do 360 degree feedback, do balance score card, do leadership training etc etc. All seem to have not yielded what was expected if not failed. Still organizations resort to such programs every now and then with a hope to solve their fundamental issues.  Often How?  question fails because it is not the right question and secondly the answer comes out of someone else’s experience. It is difficult for any business to live on the experiences of others regardless of the meticulousness with which the answer is accepted.

It is not that we propose a blanket ban on the How?, it is only that we persuade the business owners/ managers to save this question for a  latter period and that there are more important questions to be asked before the How?. Getting the questions right at first is the best step. We facilitate to make them ask right questions.

Contributed by Sasikanth Prabhu

True Dialogue (Part 1 : a proposal)

In 2011 February we did a public program named “Mind your Business – Mend your Business” in Indore with support of Shri Yogesh Jain of Niche Quality Solutions. Around 15 participants from various business concerns were there and Mr. Akshayakumar Mankad , former head of operations of TATA Motors was there as an observer. The idea behind the program was to highlight that the leaders in the organizations need to be Business focused than organization / product focused and to show that Business acumen is an elusive issue. Fairly the point has been driven into the minds of the participants.



As a sequel to the program we had to visit one of the participants’ Shri Sameer Golwalekar, a multidimensional personality having interests in multitude of subjects. Our discussions wandered into many topics such as world history, Indian culture, Current business scenario, European psychology, J Krishnamurthi etc. At the end of the discussion he presented us with a book titled “On Dialogue” written by David Bohm, Professor of Theoretical physics. The specific choice of the gift was not random, it was after understanding the methodology, intention and service that we provide to the Business fraternity, that he suggested that we must go through this tome.

The book had about forty pages but each sentence was rich with meanings and insights that are unusual to find. I finished reading the book on the flight back to Kochi. The amazement was a Phycisist writing a book on tackling the social issues and an instigation of pride that we hold similar lines of thought. The book definitely enriched our Business Strategy workshops and (We both Yogeshji and me ) thank profusely Shri Sameer for this invaluable gift.

The summary and highlights of the book as I understand is provided in this series of blog. His own words are provided in most of the occasions and I have tried my best not to give my own interpretations. Wish you all an enjoyable read.

David Bohm, while researching the lives of Einstein, Heisenberg, Pauli and Bohr, made a remarkable observation. He noticed that their incredible breakthroughs took place through simple, open and honest conversations. He observed, for instance, that Einstein and his colleagues spent years freely meeting and conversing with each other. During these interactions, they exchanged and dialogued about ideas which later became the foundations of modern physics. They exchanged ideas without trying to change the other's mind and without bitter argument. They felt free to propose whatever was on their mind. They always paid attention to each other's views and established an extraordinary professional fellowship. This freedom to discuss without risk of interpersonal damage led to the breakthroughs that leaders of all sort today take for granted.

Dialogue - A proposal

For David Bohm the word "dialogue” gives an image of a river of meaning flowing around and through the participants. Any number of people can engage in Dialogue - one can even have a Dialogue with oneself - but the sort of Dialogue that Bohm is suggesting involves a group between twenty and forty people seated in a circle talking together.

According to Bohm , Dialogue is a way of exploring the roots of the many crises that face humanity today. It enables inquiry into, and understanding of, the sorts of processes that fragment and interfere with real communication between individuals, nations and even different parts of the same organization. In our modern culture people are not able to talk together about subjects that matter deeply to them. Solution to the fragmented communication, Dialogue is what Bohm proposes.

In Dialogue, a group of people can explore the individual and collective presuppositions, ideas, beliefs, and feelings that subtly control their interactions. It provides an opportunity to participate in a process that displays communication successes and failures. It can reveal the often puzzling patterns of incoherence that lead the group to avoid certain issues or, on the other hand, to insist, against all reason, on standing and defending opinions about particular issues.

Dialogue is also a way of observing, collectively, how hidden values and intentions can control our behavior, and how unnoticed cultural differences can clash without our realizing what is occurring. It can therefore be seen as an arena in which collective learning takes place and out of which a sense of increased harmony, fellowship and creativity can arise.

Because the nature of Dialogue is exploratory, its meaning and its methods continue to unfold. No firm rules can be laid down for conducting a Dialogue because its essence is learning - not as the result of consuming a body of information or doctrine imparted by an authority, nor as a means of examining or criticizing a particular theory or program, but rather as part of an unfolding process of creative participation between peers.

A Dialogue is not concerned with deliberately trying neither to alter nor change behavior or to get the participants to move toward a predetermined goal. Any such attempt would distort and obscure the processes that the Dialogue has set out to explore. Nevertheless, changes do occur because observed thought behaves differently from unobserved thought. Dialogue can thus become an opportunity for thought and feeling to play freely in a continuously of deeper or more general meaning. Any subject can be included and no content is excluded. According to Bohm Such an activity is very rare in our society.

What is Chai Board?

Many people ask about Chai Board; how it came into existence, what is done in chai board, how it is conducted, how long it takes, what is its benefit etc. 

'Chai Board is a service developed by Marg Atreya Consulting, way back in 2007 to help the business organisations to make the 'business' meetings effective. It was designed after years of experience and research.

Before jotting the attributes of chai board, let us scan the  environment prevalent in many of the organisations. There is a subtle, intangible, but real pain in most of the organisations. One common overheard statement in most of the organisations is " how am I supposed to get my work done with all of these meetings?'  Meetins are hated and tolerated by many and most believe that it is a waste of time. Yes it is ... if not conducted , moderated or facilitated properly.

There is the frustration of calling a meeting to make a decision and watching the meeting spiral into a battle between rival departments, divisions, partners, product lines, business units etc or get lost in confusion over the meaning of a technical term, in proving ones point of view as more superior etc. These meetings first has the frustration of reaching a decision and then having to abandon the decision because there was'nt enough 'buy-in'. This is the pain of fragmented 'social capital'.

Part of the pain is a misunderstanding of the nature of the problems at hand.  The failed meetings are due to a special class of problems called 'wicked problems". Business organisations have them plenty, but they are niether recognised or are attempted to be solved in logical method , with tools / techniques meant to handle well defined problems. Wicked problems are ill-defined ones and a force of fragmentation. Most business organisations, small or big,  today have significant wicked elements. Most of the business owners and managers are not recognising the presence of such phenomenon instead they sub- consciously accept the situation and apply what they know best. In meetings they follow the traditional way of agenda making, following it with tick marks as the ponts are discussed and concluding the meeting as the agenda is completed.

Another source of pain is the social complexity, ie the number and diversity of players who are involved in the business. The more people involved in a business the more social complexity and the more diverse these people are , the more social complexity. Often people who come to the meetings see themmseves as more seperate than united. In many of the organisation the uniting force /system / theme is missing,

Thus presence of wicked problems and social complexity makes the meeting less effective. As a solution to overcome these problems Chai Boad was designed.

Chai Board is an opportunity to share business insights face-to-face


Chai Board is a small informal gathering (3 to 20 people) assembled to engage in 'fertile dialogues' to develop and share insights.

Time suited for Chai Board is mid morning or mid afternoon ar early evening when participants are relaxed and enjoying a cup of tea.

The duration of Chai board may be 90 minutes or more depending on the enthusiasm and energy of people. (usually it takes 120 minutes minimum)

The heart of Chai Board is dialogues.......

For want of honest, direct and open conversations, careers are derailed and

organizations lose money. For lack of truth telling, bad behavior is tolerated and,

 in fact, spreads, infecting others who become cynical or indifferent.

Fertile  dialogues are required to float the realities of business and to grow the business.

Indicators of fertile Dialogues are openness, informality and energy.

Chai Board facilitates fertile dialogues.

Dialogue is the core of business team work and the basic unit of work.

Conversations can be stilted, politicised, a personality biopsy, domineering, fragmented, clouting, masked, adversarial, vengeful etc

or

Conversations can be reality based, asking right questions, listening oriented, empathatic, solution oriented, authentic, debating the issue etc.

Chai board focusses on the latter kind of conversations.

The Chai Board value point : Spending time in dialogues in the prresence of a facilitator creates insights and enhances learning.

Chai Board captures moments of truth.
Chai Board engages people in spontaneous / fertile dialogues
Chai Board triggers alternate thinking routes
Chai Board facilitates insight learning
Chai Board creates genuine bonds

We are proud to overhear that our clients are using the term often ... such as .... 'Lets have a chai board tomorrow...." indicating this is distinct from their other routine meetings.

contributed by Sasikanth Prabhu

 

Characteristics of Strategy meetings with the key people of an organisation (Part 1)

By now I have facilitated more than 100 sessions on development of Business strategy and I see some common occurings / patterns in most of the sessions. The observations and experiences are given below.......

• The development of suitable / appropriate strategic options often require novel perspective. Catching the novel perspective sometimes is the most difficult and time consuming part in strategy devlopment


• Many in the organisation view strategy and execution are two different and sometimes even go to the extent that they cannot co-exist.


• Real strategy making requires inputs and contributions from various members of the team. But the top management has the tendency to act as an apex body and take a stand point 'do as I/we say ". This disconnects many employees from the business.


• Strategic information is often forgotten amidst new information pertaining to daily operations. This makes people to be fire fighting than doing the important.


• Many times it requires the key people to make difficult decisions, which they postpone thinking better decision can come as time passes by.


• Many important key points need to be taken into account from the business perspective. But many key people think only in specific functions such as finance, production, accounts, sales , HR etc. They think of doing the job well and not winning the business.


• There is gross disagreement exists among key players on basic assumptions regarding the future of their business.


• The strategy need to be communicated to the employees convincingly, but little time and effort is spent on making the strategy simple to communicate.


• Difference of opinion among the key players regarding the strategy escalates into personal conflicts at a later stage.


• The key players fail to help the employees feel that strategy is something worthwhile to pursue, to identify and to feel proud of.

contributed by : Sasikanth Prabhu

Significance of Informal learning

For most people, at least the formal learning path ends with a degree, a post graduate degree or a doctorate from a reputed institution. Only people in the academic or core research institutions pursue formal learning further to highest degree attained. There are millions and millions of job holders who often may not be able to pursue formal education once they enter the work world. They will have jobs lined one after the other and genuinely there is no scope for them to go back to school and learn further. But Alvin Toffler made a prophecy that the literate of the 21^st century is one who can learn, unlearn and relearn.

The modern day work environment demands learning on day today basis. The job holders need to develop the skill of informal learning.

More than 70% of the learning experiences in the workplace are informal or accidental in a work place. Most often these learnings are not sponsored by the HR Department or the employer. Informal learning is continuous, holistic, effective and transferable, arising from daily events at work place. Informal learning emerges from the spontaneity and serendipity of interactions with men or machines. It happens everywhere, in a shop floor, in a meeting, in a laboratory, in the field with the customers or even while working alone.

Research by a consulting company indicate that more than 60 percent of the total learning by a job holder come from on the job experience and the social interaction with the co-workers.

Then why are we not valuing it or even acknowledging it (informal learning)?

Perhaps there is paradox: informal learning cannot be scheduled or planned but it occurs. All we need to do is acknowledge its presence, value the learner, liberate the organizational processes from red tapism, promote and nurture a learning culture, encourage informal social dialogues (fertile dialogues among job holders etc.

The job holders will find it very interesting if informal learning is captured and rewarded. Informal learning will increase job holder confidence, enthusiasm, feeling of security, personal growth, a sense of community, and rewarding relationships. Are there any better reasons needed to initiate informal learning in all?

Contributed by Sasikanth R Prabhu

Training vs Facilitation

In our workshops, we are moving from training orientation to facilitation. There is lots of arguments about the superiority of training on facilitation and vice versa. There are merits and demerits of training - facilitation processes.

The biggest difference between training and facilitating is

the difference in the ratio of learner involvement vs. trainer

involvement. A facilitator's only job is to get the

participants to explore for answers to issues that matters them through fertile dialogues. The facilitator provokes the participants and lead them to find answers to their conflicts. While leading the facilitation process the facilitator stays outside the conflict and do not make any judgements on the opinions floated. The group come to a decision and the facilitator reinforces their learnings