The corporate alphabet

A - Really? We never start on time, so we will start with B, okay?

B - Replan in progress, We will start with C,if there are no surprises this point forward

C - Could you pass this much needed information, high dependency

D -

E - Does Enyone have info on this? We were blocked on D and now we have had to use

E in "anyone"

F - Finally!!

G - Good Job guys, we are almost 30% done

H - How are we doing today, are we on track to get this product out in the market on time?

I - In a party

J - Jhoom Barabar Jhoom

K - Kahlua

L - Leave

M - Maybe, not sure

N - No, I believe this is not the case here. There could be an alternate approach

O - Ohhh....really?

P - Poor results this quarter, is not an option

Q - Quarter

R - Reminder:

S - Second Reminder:

T - Third Reminder:

U - Unavailable for next 2 weeks

V - Very nice,good job

W - Where are we on the delivery? Its already W! We have 3 more consonants to go!

X - X-box (I couldnt think of anything better)

Y - YoY (year on year)

Z - Zzzzz, wha..??? What product? Zzzzz

Revenge

The court in Iran did pass an interesting judgment - an eye for an eye.

This raised eyebrows and caused a flutter among many. The crime was horrific too - acid was thrown on a girl's face by a spurned lover. So the girl demanded justice and demanded that it be delivered in the way she wanted. She wanted the man to feel the same pain as she did, for over 3 years.

She wanted to disfigure him by using the same acid as was used on her.

Some people cannot have their revenge. Some people are forgiving because they feel better when they do so. Some say, they feel liberated. A young boy murdered a classmate and went to jail in China. The mother of the murdered boy went mad in rage and for 3 whole years she thought of killing the boy and his entire family. It took her three years to accept the fact that her son is gone. She visited the boy in jail who broke down almost immediately. Today, she treats him as his own son and visits her in jail. "I feel liberated", she says.

Controlled Chaos - Leader shipped out

My best guess is that Management, Economics and Medicine are fields which use most of the mathematical theories. I think that due to some reason, out of the three, Management lags behind in applying these theories to the fullest. The one that I want to write about for a long time was the Chaos Theory.

Organizations like the idea of control and structure – accountability. Who, what, when, where and how. Maybe this is the reason why the idea of chaos creeps the hell out of organizations.

Am I correct when I say that orgs do not like chaos in functioning? Why is the Chaos Theory treated like a step-child in an otherwise Mathematical-Theory-friendly field of work?

You hear this everywhere. “Proactive”.

Be proactive and do your job? That’s not being proactive, that’s just doing your job!

Be proactive and do more than your job? Take up something that is beyond the usual? That’s not control and that’s definitely not what most Orgs want!

Consider a situation in ABC Company. Their employees are extremely proactive. Each one steps up and does something outside the scope of his or her job. Anyone can take up a leadership role such an action.

Miss A from the Finance Department could start off “Productivity Circle” and lead the initiative herself.

Mr. B from Operations wants to start an initiative which looks at bettering the “Quality and Inspection” process.

These systems are interlinked even though ABC Ltd. wants to have them as separate controlled business units. So as the process gets defined, it becomes tough for Mr. B and Miss A to start up their initiatives, even though ABC Ltd. wants such initiatives.

If, it becomes remotely possible for both these people to start these initiatives, we might have a state of Chaos. Then we might have to look at the initial condition and how much a variation in the initial condition of this linear/ non linear[1] deterministic system will impact the end result.

If a perfectly balanced and controlled organization like ABC Ltd is Chaotic, then the initial conditions will be varying and therefore creating imbalance (I’ll call this the Innovation Paradox)

1) ABC is stable and balanced and hence it can ‘afford’ to take risk and spend resources on innovation and initiatives

2) If ABC is now chaotic (refer Mr. A and Miss B’s actions), how can it be balanced?

Look at companies that have excelled in innovation. Are these balanced? I think organizations that give its employees the freedom to work in an environment of chaos might have an edge over organizations that work on a Punch-In Punch-Out (PIPO) principle. Degrees of freedom might vary but as long as it is not an absolute Zero, an employee will feel empowered.

Processes in the PIPO type of firms are near perfected over a period of time, so much so that each employee is dispensable. Since the processes are so well defined, probability of losing control is very little, hence the chance of having chaos is less and therefore you can never ship the leader out.

Chaos

Before I can move on to a little more detailed rambling of Chaos in Management, I’ll try to give you a crash course in the Chaos theory (from what I think, I know)

Consider a system whose end is defined by its initial condition which, if varied, might lead to large deviation in the end result (more that you would expect)

This system, if dislodged slightly from its stable state might swing between order and chaos for T → ∞ until some form of control is applied to re-stabilize it to its original or a new state with the same or different degree of stability.

Strange Attractors – Somehow, someday every balanced system will fall prey to these attractors, which are, well, strange.

I am not sure if someone has said this before but I strongly believe (without any form of empirical study) that each and every balanced complex system will be pulled into a state of chaos sometime or the other. Why and how remains a question, maybe some mathematics folks have figured that out as well, but trust me I do not have the intelligence to read and understand those formulae, if they exist.

I think what can cause this is competition, human behavior, yearning to grow or any other reason which has no reason at all.

So two things are for sure (as far as I think)

1) Chaos will reign in an organization at one point or the other

2) An organization will retain that state of chaos till it applies control

The question here is….. how to implement controlled chaos??

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[1] Even though it is believed that organizations are the best examples of non-linearity (biggest changes might fail, smallest of changes might turn the company around), I still have also used the word linear to describe it, for fear of skeptics :)

Father and I

“It is such a waste son! I don't get this attitude of your generation. You can't spend such a huge amount of money on a phone! It’s just a phone afterall! This is almost my one month’s pension!” My father was clearly not too happy. Mother, on the other hand was beaming, and took a short sarcastic snap at poor daddy, “People do like to pamper themselves once in a while Mr. Jasuja, unlike you, with your pre-historic phone”, ofcourse Mom was just happy because Dad didn’t approve of the 2 day long shopping spree she went on when….uhhh..long story.

“I agree it’s pre-historic, but it delivers value. It is meant to be a communication device. Infact, I don’t even like the concept of SMS. It’s a waste of time. In these times, when calls are so cheap, why do people want to SMS each other, causing more wear and tear to the buttons on the phone?”, 1970’s B-Schooler, can’t argue with him now can I?

“But Papa, the way we communicate has changed. It’s not just emails and phone calls but also V-Confs and the likes. We work in diverse environments and large teams with people scattered all across the globe. We have to connect while we’re on the move.”

“Doesn’t you laptop and that Neutron, Bluetron…whatever that thing is called, do the same thing? Mobile connectivity? Forever and Ever? Then why do you need this phone?”

“It’s a smartphone”, I murmured.

“That’s because only the name can convince users that they are being smart”, Dad was in full mood today to rip me and my lovely phone apart!

“Dad, can I ask you a question?”

“Don’t expect an honest answer!”, I so knew that smile!!

“Why don’t you sell off the Activa, we have the car right”, Mum had been asking Papa to sell off the Activa because she thought it was not too safe for him to be riding around at this age!

“I can’t take the car everywhere son. Besides it is more expensive to maintain and guzzles more fuel. The Activa is quick and convenient.”

“The Laptop and the Smartphone story Papa, I rest my case”.

Dad smiled and got up to pour another cup of tea for himself, “It still is one month pension”

Perfection

A tourist once visited a temple under construction where he saw a sculptor making an idol of God. Suddenly he noticed a similar idol lying nearby.
Surprised, he asked the sculptor, "Do you need two statues of the same idol?"
"No," said the sculptor without looking up,
"We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage."
The gentleman examined the idol and found no apparent damage. "Where is the damage?" he asked.
"There is a scratch on the nose of the idol." said the sculptor, still busy with his work.
"Where are you going to install the idol?", asked the tourist.
The sculptor replied that it would be installed on a pillar thirty feet high.
"If the idol is that far, who is going to know that there is a scratch on the nose?" the gentleman asked.
The sculptor stopped his work, looked up at the gentleman, smiled and said, "I will know it."