INTRODUCTION
An
organisation is set up to accomplish a common interest or goal. In
today's society achieving goals is becoming more and more complex because of
increased competition and various options available.
NEED
OF MANAGERS
In such
situations there is need of 'Managers'. They are not only leaders but also
problem solvers, goal setters and strategy planners. In today's lecture we
understood two major concepts:
1. The ability of an individual to
set goals depending on the situation and resources available.
2. The importance of communication
between different levels in an organisation.
THE
TASK
To begin
with, there were cubic blocks distributed amongst the students in the class and
they were asked to make an estimate of how many cubes can be placed one over
the other in just a single pile. Every student made an estimate and the major
assumption lied between 20-25. After they were made to write that on paper they
were asked to justify their count. Then there were limitation introduced in the
task that only 3 people will participate and the one building the
blocks will be blind folded and students were asked to bid for any of the 3
positions and also take an estimate of the number of blocks. The count dropped
down between 15-20. Many of them chose over 18 as a previous case was shared of
students already having built a tower of 17 blocks. From this exercise we
learnt to analyse situations with available resources i.e single pile, only
three participants, blind folded builder and past record.
Second
important concept understood was the different levels in management i.e
Top level, Middle level and First-line level. The first- line level or the low
level was the one actually building the blocks blinded folded just by
listening to the the instructions given by the middle manager. Here
the ability of the individual understand the need and requirement of the higher
level is tested. Also patience, persistence and concentration of the
individual was also seen as the person had to rely on just ears and not eyes to
complete the task. The middle level management was tested on his vocal ability.
Since the recipient to his instructions was blindfolded he has to
rely on on this speech to explain his requirements. Here qualities like
presence of mind and ability to establish
an accurate communication was tested. The top level management was
allowed to observe the whole scenario and was allowed to intervene only on 5
occasions. Here to fulfill his job he had to test his patience, observations
and understand his importance and role in an organisation.
SUMMARY
The exercise was successful in making people understand what was the
role of individual at different levels of management and the
students ultimately triumphed in building a 19 block tower with the help
of their acute skills, persistence and communication and achieved the
desired objective.
