Proceedings of Management Lecture- Ch# 7(Part 1), Dated 28-Oct-2008

Some Notes to Publish, Some Thoughts to resolve....

(The Then) Agenda.

- Presentation on the 3rd Habit from "7 Habits of...."
- Lecture on Chapter 7 (Part 1), till "Approaches to Establishing Goals"
- Announcement of Quiz on Tuesday, 4 Nov, Consisting of Chap. No. 1, 6, 7
- Formation of Class Representatives of each Group

Summaries.


-Habit # 3
-Need of Plan
-Type of goals
+Real and Stated
-Types of plans
+four ways.
-Approaches to establishing/implementing goals.
+Traditional level
+Decentrelization
+Cross functional teams (Information Not Disclosed)

-----------------------

- Habit # 3: Begin with the End in Mind. (Part 1)

In the beginning of this chapter Covey has summarised whole chapter by simply quoting following of poet Goethe's words: "Things which matter most, must never be at the mercy of things which matter least."

And, the vaccum is filled very well by Dr. Covey. In this chapter, Covey provides his diverse audience with many engaging, comprehenseve 'effective' tools for managing all of our duties, tasks and obligations as to produce outcome most beneficial to human nature.

His first step is to differentiate between what is: important-urgent, important-non-urgent, non-important-urgent and non-important-non-urgent. These he calls quadtrants. Suffice mentioning the fact that effective managers and people focus on Quadrant 1 and 2. and the results be in one's life: focus, harmony, control, few crisis, discipline.

- Lecture on Planning, Need of, Types of, Approaches to Establish,

* Need for Planning:

-Provides Direction,
-Reduces Uncertanity, as it claims clarity
-Increases Efficiency, by focus
-Establishes Goals, so that we know where to head
-Associated Positive Financial Results, this factor intoduces the concept of Planning-Performance, that means mere planning is not enough, implementation and results are interconnected to planning of an organization

Take the example of course outlines or college schedules, and the need for planning would be highlighted. imagine what happens when you start your semister or course and end it without knowing what were your goals, where you're supposed to reach and what you're deemed to achieve- at the end of the day all of your efforts, talents and hardwork is evaporated. So, do you feel need to start to plan out things?

*Types of Goals:

Goals in short are the foundations of management science/art.
In real and profession life there are two kinds of goals:
-stated goals
-real goals

Stated goals are those statements which show what we want to achieve, what we aspire to do. From organization's perspective, stated goals are "outlines of what an organiztion say, and what it wants its stakeholders/customers to believe, its goals are."
Real goals-the goals organization actually pursues. It is manifested only in the 'doings' of its members, not in it's sayings.
One thing must not go unwatched in the discussion of goals. There maybe a conflict/contradiction b/w what a company say and what it does. The gap b/w stated and real goals is- conflict in stated goals.

*Types of Plans:

There are four ways to describe a plan, we'll mention only there names:
1. Breadth: strategic plans (positioning of entire org. relative to enviornment); operational plans (to limit details as to how achieve overall goals)

2. Time Frame: Long-Term Plans (beyond 3 years); Short-Term Plans (1 year or less)

3. Specificity: Directional Plans (in which intent is revealed, its flexible, leaves room of interpretations); Specific Plans (Rigid, clearly defined, no place for interpretation)

4. Frequency of Use: Single use; Standing (ongoing plans)


- Approaches to establishing/implementing goals.

- Traditional Goal Setting:

In a traditional goal setting, there's always an elite which works at top management level, very few in numbers. They're the head, the boss. And they are followed by a number of officials, managers, employees, workers etc., but in "hierarchy", in descending order everyone gets samller in rank.

Our Instructor played a game with us. It was aimed at showing us how a "traditional goal setting" decision making and implementation process works.

He chose 4 students, made one of them boss and rest followed him in the order of hierarchy. Then he said told the boss that his company needs to cut off working costs. So the boss immediately ordered the guy 2nd in rank, to cut off their company's costs by 20%. Then he never pay heed what the hell other were going to make- his concerns snored with the outcomes.

Ordered issued, but the same order flowed down the management hierarchy. like mercury does on a sloping thing, to the person working a lowest level. In the process, notice, nobody shared any thought, nobody dared to define their cross-bounderies and not even their perspectives. Everyone worked from his own perspective, because he owned it and was jealous to share it as he thinks its a fault of his company culture. Even CEO didn't discuss his vision with line managers, line managers didn't discuss anything with those under them and so on. Therefore, the goal lost its clarity and unity- it blew up into fragments.

The final outcome, in our game, was that the employee at the bottom had to sacrifice from his usual service-time, causing organization long-term damages. Because the goals were not clear to the down-level employees, and because the organization had lost unity, the effect of one goal achieved has been cancelled by more severe loss of reputation.

What is needed in an organization is: a corporate culture in which the heirarchic levels break up, where it needs to. So that the bosses assure that plans are not being imposed from the top. And, that the different isolated levels of the order mix up with each other, so as to let everyone understand complexity of the problem and find integrated solutions..... I call it- decentralization.

"Decentralization, if implemented with sophistication and best monitring tools, could be great."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reader's comments, suggestions, rather lessons are much awaited and most welcome.