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.

IDIO Class 6- 24.10.2016 - The Pygmalion Effect

Pygmalion Effect – Higher the expectation we set on anyone, better was their performance. 

How a sculptor’s most loved statue inspired God to give life for it? The way he believes brings the life for a statue. The same is true with organisations too.

When ones expects higher and reinforce us more than what we actually are, we deliver better results inline with their expectations and some times more than theirs expectations. Also in the class, discussion about negative/toxic people happened. How the opposite of Pygmalion has its ill effect. When someone with negativity talks to us, it actually drains us more and it really affects the performance.

Pygmalion’s side effect: Also if you expect lesser from your sub ordinate than actually what he is will also make him to deliver sub optimal results which is very low compared to his standards. So Pygmalion will work on both ways.

Our attitude in life matters a real lot to us. The term attitude is a buzzword. Toxic people appear during many time of life. Their important work is to make us loose our confidence and they will drain us easily. So its good to respond than to react to toxic people which can be achieved through our attitude.  An example of Amazon leadership exit from the company’s important role showcases the importance of attitude.

The Pygmalion-at-work model suggests that having high expectations of your employees makes you behave towards them in a way that enhances their self-efficacy, which will motivate them to expend more effort, resulting in increased performance. Upon motivation and clear communication of expectations we can get more things done in the best possible way. As discussed in class, self-motivated people doesn't require this so called Pygmalion effect and they themselves excel their expectations and standards.

My last boss has no idea about this effect. He thinks in the reverse. He is kind of toxic and he is confused between how to motivate and how to not. He always spreads negativity and thinks that he is making the maximum output from his subordinate through his approach. Not only mine, many bosses have no clue about this. But I am damn sure that when I become one such so called boss, I am going to follow this. Self-efficacy is a person's belief in his or her ability to perform the actions necessary for success. This can be easily achieved by setting high expectations and creating a positive vibrations for his/her subordinates and making them travel near the so called self efficacy of life which will fetch you the best in everyone.

IDIO Class 4 & 5- 19.10.2016 & 22.10.2016 - ( Perception Biases & Judging People )

It was a pleasant surprise to observe maam differently with flowers, different attire and sacred markings on forehead. But I felt that maam was wantedly making a point in the class to make student perceive that it was a special day for her. But really I judged that it may not be true and maam have purposefully come like that . But except me, almost everyone else perceived things the way she wanted.

The class revolved around how humans perceive others on their first meet and how that impression can play a role later. It was also communicated that the impression created on the first meet can be changed, but it takes tremendous efforts.Perceptions differ from person to person. Everyone try to look at things blending their own values to it. It was well explained by the Maya-Ezhumalai-Rocky-Susheel-Rahul story!

Judging People:

“Good judgement comes from experience. Sometimes, experience comes from bad judgement.” 

I feel this as one of the important topics in my life. Why means I have a habit of judging people but certainly not in the first instance maam. But surely after a couple of meetings. But the best thing is it happens always the same way I judge.

I really don’t know how to remain without judging people. It’s too hard for me. I have many instances in life where I have judged about people and almost 80%- 90% it happened in the way I Judge. But I feel really confused after attending this session of IDIO and also I feel how tough to remain judging and behave myself as a memoryless brain.

In the class a video was played and it was your husband who was speaking about astronomy and I promise you maam that I was unable to come to a conclusion about him with just a single video of him. But I am very much sure that when I self analyze myself I am very much sure that I wont judge people in the first instance. But I do judge them after couple of meetings. If u cant judge people we can be easily cheated at many instances. But also I feel that there is some negative effects of judging people too. Even a person who we know for quiet long time may also prove us our judgement on them is too wrong even we have complete information about them. I have certain bad experiences with them in my life.

From my opinions and the discussion made in the class, Its not good to prejudice someone based on their looks, their behaviours and their way of communication. But also in this world no one will be provide you complete information about themselves. The best example of this comes from the movie the pursuit of happiness.

How an interviewer gonna judge a guy who is attending the interview in the next 10 minutes time?. With the grades he got so far in his life? With the answers for the question asked in the interview which is purely academic? With the communication he possess? May be it depends on the position and the roles of the job he has been called for. Many guys could pretend to look intellectual for being get selected. So it’s impossible to recruit a guy within just 10 minutes. The answer is whether it may come from ones own experience.

IDIO Class 3 - 17.10.2016 - (Playing with My Strengths - Rich Becomes Richer)

Consider 2 cases:

What happens when Sachin was asked to concentrate on only his bowling skills only (since he was weak in bowling) rather than developing his batting skills? – India would have lost a world-class batsman.

What happens when Viji Maam was asked to develop his numerical and Operations research skills only (which she told that she is weak in that area) rather than developing her HR skills and people skills. DOMS would haven’t got a good HR professional.

The above two examples are the key take aways from this session.

I felt good about me when maam has asked me to write about my Strength and weakness, Since I have got more strengths than my weakness. It’s really good to have more strengths than my weakness.

It was an important take away for me to play my strengths in life than always trying to improve my weakness. There is always a myth that we should always concentrate on my weak areas. That myth was certainly broken as of now. Why should i stress on my weakness while I can play my strengths with enthusiasm. Literally I always feel stressed and tired out when I try to improve my weakness every time. Instead if I play my strengths which I do with intrinsic motivation I will possibly come out with flying colours.

With our strength comes the Excellence, Flow & Perfection. Maam has asked us to form a group of 6 who knew each other relatively well. She asked us to give constructive feedbacks to everyone in the group about his/her behaviour & character. Basically to fill the 1st quadrant (blind area) of the Johari Window.It was really fun to know things about me that I didn't really know. I will work on my negatives but definitely will focus more on my positives!

Maam has asked us to prepare the reflected best self by taking feedback from my friends, acquaintances & relatives.

IDIO Class 2 - 05.10.2016 ( MBTI - A Tool to learn What I am )

I am an ENFP personality as per Myers – Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).
Extraverts get more energy from others or by interacting with others than from being alone
N-iNtuitive

How one approaches the problem(s) or task(s)
Being iNtuitive means you don't really bother about specifics or you don't mind being unorganized

T-Thinking
How one takes a decision
Feeling over Thinking


P-Perceiving
Perceivers enjoy the last minute thrill and loves unpredictability

Extravert(47%)  iNtuitive(9%)  Feeling(19%)  Perceiving(50%)

·         You have moderate preference of Extraversion over Introversion (47%)

·         You have slight preference of Intuition over Sensing (9%)

·         You have slight preference of Feeling over Thinking (19%)

·         You have moderate preference of Perceiving over Judging (50%)

E-Extravert

Usually MBTI tool is usually employed to assess the personality of persons which is used in industries and educational institutions. This tools has its limitations too. It just brings out the preference of an individual rather than the strength of the individual.

When one understands his type and preferences which is a kind of introspection, one can approach their own work in a manner that best suits their style, like how one manages his/her time, best way to make decisions, etc Knowledge of others personality type can help you better understand the culture of the place you work, develop new skills, understand your participation in teams, and cope with change in the workplace

Many people find the MBTI test useful as a way of understanding themselves and their commonalities and differences with other people. In this sense, it can be a good framework for developing an intuition about one’s own uniqueness and how one cannot use oneself as a model to explain all other human beings.

Not all the five fingers in our hands are the same. When the five fingers that sticks to our hand is of different size and shape then how come people who born and brought up at different places and by different people will be? So nothing wrong in being an introvert or an extrovert. Every one has their own talents and their own strengths. So just know about others type in an organisation and work, teamplay & enjoy with everyone as it who they are.

IDIO Class 1 - 03.10.2016 ( The Opener )

The class started with a small activity of filling the coloured charts which were pasted on the wall with different questions like what’s my expectations from this class, what’s my perception about this class, what are my challenges in work place, etc. Then Viji maam told us that she will incorporate/include all the feasible and necessary inputs/comments/suggestions given by us through our writings on those charts in the course outline or in her classes.

Then came the ZEN story - How a student who wants to learn ZEN goes with full of expectations to his master and how the master explains that those expectations are not going to let him learn anything and asked him to come with a 'empty cup' kinda  mindset. This is what exactly maam wants from us too. First if you want to learn something new its really good to empty our thoughts without any pre occupied state and some perceptions.We discussed about skills, values & behaviour. How the individual’s behaviour contribute to an organization.

Maam asked us to take the online personality test and come with that four letter for next class.

Then the important thing that popped out in my mind is “what kind of course is this”. It’s a typical HR course? I never loved any HR guy in my organization. I always wanted that HR department to be  an Employee friendly department which is next to possible. Sometimes it won’t happen with my own department also. So how could I expect from some other department. An Organization is something that compiled of many department and 1. if each & every department synchronize properly and also 2. If the chemistry between the employees works out to be as good as possible then the overall development of the organization will be achieved. Most of the employees are unhappy with their bosses. I too have shifted departments due to bas bosses. I thought I may find some solutions to the answer from this course.