IDIO Class 13 -Flow & Inner Work Life

 Flow and Inner work life : I am new to both the concepts. Actually it brings in lot of thoughts in me. I imagine my work life and try to match many things with the areas I am studying now. What inner work life is, what flow state is, etc., Inner work life, as discussed is a product of emotions, perceptions and motivations of an individual that is customized to the each individuals. Flow is a state of almost superior consciousness effect. Flow state can only be experienced and can’t be expressed. For instance frequent occurrence of flow state is an indicator of healthy inner work life. Maam has told that flow can be sustained, whereas certain students claimed that flow is temporary and cant be sustained. There was discussions happened in class in this regard. I am confused about this flow stage and I am unable to comment on the same.

Characteristics of Having Better Inner Work Life: Ones emotional state will be balanced, perceptions will be perfectly right and motivations are intrinsic. One not worry about the result of work & feels happy while doing the job. Creativity & Innovations forma a part of the work. Everyone in the office/Team will be comfortable talking him/her

If you in a flow state, some of the following things one can experience. One can perform his/her job almost perfectly, effortlessly & without confusion. No extrinsic motivation is required, purpose oriented and feels timelessness.

We have discussed about Job Crafting: too. It is “Turn the Job You have in to the Job you want”. We can turn the job which we have into a boon or curse or as normal as possible. Whatever we want to be. It always depends on us. By going through this class I really wonder whether such inner work life and flow state Do exist in real life?

IDIO Class 12- 09.11.2016 - Motivation Concepts

The Buzz word motivation that every organization search in its employee. It was an eye opener for many in the class atleast for me about motivational concepts. With proper motivation you get the maximum output from the employees. But its not easy to bring the motivational factor in one's employee until unless one is either intrinsically or extrinsically motivated.

In the class two type of motivations are discussed.

Intrinsic motivation refers to motivational behaviour that is driven by internal rewards which arises inside the individual whereas Extrinsic motivation refers to behaviour that is driven by external rewards such as money, fame, grades, and praise. This type of motivation arises from outside the individual.

As per Maslows theory, one will actually looks for self actualisation and start to seek for intrinsice motivation when a man or woman was fulfilled with their phyiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs. Then only the intrinsic motivation come into place. But Viji Maam didnt accept this theory. There are outliers in this also. APJ Abdul Kalam is a perfect example of a person who sacrificed many needs and just worked for his intrinsic motivation. So intrinsic motivation is the one which many times come as a born in quality.

Can somebody motivate anyone else? Can an organization brings in motivation among its employees? Yes, it can but depends on individual response by everyone. Some ideas for bringing in motivation for employees at work places are 

1.Give constructive feedback to your employees or sub ordinates.

2.Appreciation & recognition for their work & outcome.

3. Play with their strength, create work life balance, challenge their skills , trust & job security 

The point where their work meet their purpose that is the point the instrinsic motivation will take birth in them

IDIO Class 11 - 07.11.2016 - Emotional Social Competence

IDIO Class 10 - 02.11.2016- The Learning

The Class started with a scene from the movie Karate Kid, the coach come and says “Empty your mind and Focus”. So for to learn your Cup should be fully empty like the Zen Quote. So first unlearn what you have learnt. Then only you are ready for learning new things. You should learn, unlearn & relearn.

The class also answers some basic questions of learning like 1. What is learning & its purpose? etc.Also basic concepts like attitude towards learning & the right attitude for learning was discussed.  

Maam had conducted a small experiment in the class to teach about patience. We also had a learnt the Marshmallow experiment which explains why patience is the key in learning process.

And then comes the barriers that hinders the learning process such as I know everything, Expectations, Lack of Goal or driving factors and the Shyness, Fear and so on.

So what is the right attitude for learning? It s being curious, develop self supporting talks, be optimistic, be self motivated, be open minded, sail through shyness, be persistent, aim for ultimate long term benefits, Continuous Improvement and Feedback. If you wait more then obviously you will get more is a key take away from this class.

Bloom’s six levels of learning was one of the key take away. Each of the stair had its own values such as Recall which stated if you don’t remember then you haven’t learned for long time in your life. Also it explains Our ability to grasp things, application, analysing, synthesising and making Judgement.

IDIO Class 9- 31.10.2016 - The Decision Making( Should I take this path or not?)

Everyday in our life we are decide many things from drinking a coffee in the morning that makes us brisk  to what the A/C temperature should be in our bedroom that will be comfortable for me to sleep at night. Decisions!!!! Decisions!!!! & only Decisions!!!!…. Apart from these kind of decisions, also the managers has to take N number of new decisions everyday which is really tricky and tough to do. Even the smart and the most successful persons have also taken some wrong decisions in life which has backfired.

When I came on sabbatical from NTPC for 3 continuous years to do my MS in IITM, I have got a strong resistance from my family. I have to take the call and convince everyone in my family for my actions. So it may be a life turning moment for me in a positive direction towards a great journey (to join as a student by leaving a well settled job) or in the vice versa.

So Decision are usually of 2 types as discussed in class. One is rational one and the other is intuitive one. Great Leaders always go in hand with intuition rather than being more logical in life. Some are based on intuitive, some are emotional, and some are situation based.

A superb example of Bajaj CEO’s decision of introducing the 150 CC bikes after rejecting the report given by logical decision(supported with full of evidence) has turned to be a super doper hit. This tells how important it is to nurture the intuitive decision making capacity of one. At the same time one shouldn’t confuse between intuition & other fear or disturbances in our mind while deciding or making a decision. We should also be able to differentiate between intuitions and logical decisions.In the above example of my decision I followed my intuitions rather than logical being. If I strict to be a logical guy then I should have stick with NTPC than joining IIT. But my intuitions have something new for me. In Intuitive decision making picking contradictory evidences is very difficult as identification of these evidences require a rational approach. 

In the movie 12 Angry Men which was played in the class the 11 were against the boy and they want him to be punishes based on the evidences, whereas only one with his intuition was voting against the eleven and supporting the kid. This clearly explains the intuitive behaviour in decision making.

In addition we can use certain decision tools to mitigate the counter intuitive results.Cause and Effect Diagram, What If analysis, Delphi Technique, Pros and Cons Analysis & Quantitative decision making tools such as, ANP, ISM, AHP, Fuzzy Logic, etc.
One should be aware about some pitfalls while making decisions like Pitfalls Don't prejudice about something, Don't be too much emotional, Don't just go with group's opinions, Don't forget to analyse the complete scenario.

IDIO Class 8 - 27.10.2016 - Ethical Dilemma ( I am confused )

A test for Ethics: Today in the class a surprise quiz was called for and everyone was nervous and I am ready to write whatever I know. But suddenly maam went outside and I was trying to peep into my neighbour’s answer sheet to find some better answers. Its just another act of our female kamalhasaan(viji Maam) to make us feel nervous. Once maam came back she asked us how many got ready to copy by seeing her going out of the class. Many hands were raised and mine is one among them.

Then Maam explained about bounded ethicality and explained how people behaves unethical without knowing whether they do right or wrong? She also explained how we should be aware and cautious of what we do. Bounded rationality speaks about the cognitive limitation of peoples mind when dealing with constraints in line with ethics It’s tough to be ethical every time in life for humans. We think and believe that if our action doesn’t hurt others then we are doing an ethical act. But many time it affects someone at some microscopic level without our knowledge.

For ex: while evaluating papers of students many times this would have happened in a teachers life.  if a student fell short of one or two marks to get pass in a exam the teacher tries to add up that one mark by giving some extra marks for answers which he doesn’t deserve to get that one mark just for the sake to make him pass. Did the teacher lost his ethics and moral value in his/her life at this point? Just a simple thought strike my mind. May be the answer is certainly yes. But still they do that. That internal conflict everyone faces against their moral values is really tough to fight. In the above example its more about the life of some person looks so valuable for the teacher than his/her own moral values. So ethical decision making is something like we has to first fight with us against our feelings to achieve for the higher moral values. Its really very tough. But at the max one should be ethical in life.

IDIO Class -7 - 26.10.2016 - Creativity ( Surely I am not the one )

Creativity…. A nice word to hear, spell & to praise others. I think only a less percentage of this world population seems to be creative. Remaining population only recreates what they have already created. Viji Maam informed us that the next session will be on Creativity. I became thoughtful about it. I too found myself sometime to be creative in life when my friends or colleagues tell me that I did something new. But sometimes I ended up finding myself that I have recreated something which other already created.I have a thought that “It’s not easy to be creative in life unless we possess something really great which is born with us along with us”.

Shiva (it’s a part of my name) is really a great guy. So much outspoken and with his rich experience both in life and work he delivered a great session to be remembered. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was like a treat to all guys in the class. Creativity is something that lies within us which is sometime untapped. So we should simply know how to fall in love with creativity.

"Falling in Love with Creativity is the only way to be Creative"

He also gave a insight about the four pillars of System Thinking in class which will help people in getting better outputs.

1.Events

2. Patterns

3. Structures 

4. Mental Models 

Sir has taught about six thinking hats. White, Yellow, Red, Black, Green & Blue and its different uses. He also stressed that this is just a tool and not a master. He shared his vast experience in his life. He also shared his experience of working in Indian Cricket Team and how he implemented Six Thinking Hats there. Information leads to creativity. As much information you know about something, the better your decisions are.