THE MAGNET

Just when you thought books, business, leaders, teachers, practice can teach you management; Eureka!!! à There comes THE MAGNET!!

Who would have thought a Magnet can teach you management?

Even I didn't, until one fine day Dr Mandi introduced us to the unseen force and the unseen management principles of MAGNET!!

          

It started with “Why does a magnet attract?”

After many attempts, one person in the class was finally able to say the right word – Alignment.

A Magnet has its power because it can align innate magnetic forces in metallic atoms. So, magnets align natural forces.

So where is the management in that?

Here is the management...

Just like a magnet, a Manager aligns human forces to get work done. In effect an organization is a force that is aligned. The bigger or better an organization, the more perfectly it is aligned. Managers align people and power. They align tasks and objective. They synchronize both time and space. Management is like Music, not noise. It is like the conductor of a grand orchestra, where each instrument contributes to the harmonious music, where all the notes of music are in rhythm and in harmony.

The Magnet also teaches us a very important management lesson – Management by Objective.

         Management by objectives (MBO) is a process of defining objectives within an organization so that management and employees agree to the objectives and understand what they need to do in the organization in order to achieve them. It simple terms there is a mission, vision, set of objectives; and the entire organization and its people work towards that common goal in their own way. The term "management by objectives" was popularized by Peter Drucker in his 1954 book The Practice of Management.

         MBO is all about participative goal setting, choosing course of actions, decision making and implementing. The beauty of MBO is that employees become self driven. When employees themselves have been involved with the goal setting and choosing the course of action to be followed by them, they are more likely to fulfill their responsibilities.

We compared two different styles of management we had previously studied in class – the blindfolded tower building and the three monk collaborative water collection to get a better understanding of MBO. The same is summarized in the table shown below.

Blind Tower Building Three Monk Collaboration 1. Hierarchical set-up No Hierarchy 2. Control with Top Management Consensus among all 3. Management Present Management absent and replaced by autonomous management/ maintenance 4. Control Mechanism Consensus Mechanism 5. Loading is High and Low Loading is more or less equal

          We also discussed by comparing two Indian Sporting giants (Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati) and understanding why they were unable to cooperate and work together. We realized that multiple skills could come as a disadvantage as the ability to exercise choice comes into the picture. Leander tried to balance his multiple skill sets – singles and doubles, and hence couldn’t be dedicatedly be available to Mahesh all the time for doubles. This lead to a mismatch of the expectations and ambitions and eventually falling apart. Had Leander chosen one skill over the other, things could have been much better for both of them.

Similarly, Management should figure out which all skills to hone & nurture and which all to get rid of or discourage, for the greater of that individual and the team.

On this note the discussion came to an end... Now next time onwards you will see a MAGNET much more differently.