Whose Line is it Anyway – PM Vs HRM in organizational initiatives

Accountabilities and responsibilities go hand in hand. However, I think that there is a fine line of distinction between the two. Accountabilities are the tasks performed by a person out of his job profile, and responsibilities are obligations for which he is accountable. This distinct line of difference is experienced between Project Management and Human Resource Management roles too.

Project Management includes developing a vision, taking proactive decisions and understanding the diversity in training. Project management is a discipline of planning, organizing, securing and managing resources for a specific task and brings about its completion with Excellency, while human resources management concentrates on integrating decisions about people with decisions about the results an organization is trying to obtain. HR’s primary roles have been to ensure compliance with laws, rules, and regulations. Although this is still, and will always be, a necessary function, many recent developments have led to a strong emphasis on results. Even the organizational initiatives these days demonstrate the value of human resources management

With the trend of more and more HR executives beginning to earn a seat at the management table, HR is becoming more of counseling and involved in day-to-day management activities. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go if HR is to become a strategic partner at all levels.

Lack of strategic partnerships is one of the reasons why so many organizational development initiatives fail. Through organizational initiatives, HR tries building its own internal competencies to deal with organizational issues, educate itself on program missions, and find ways to offer creative and innovative solutions to organization wide issues, than going on a standard approach of executing their responsibilities.

In the rush for creativity and innovation, the most critical piece, to take into account how change affects the organization's people, is often forgotten. Studies show that nearly 75 percent of all organizational change programmes fail because they don't create the necessary grounds well of support among employees.

Most often, the change brought in by the initiatives, is not welcomed immediately. Processes, Technology and People are the 3 key elements which drive and are affected by the initiatives. People are the most important of these elements, as change distracts and disturbs the balance of human brains. From the outset of any initiative, people must recognise and buy into the need for change. This is where HRM should take help of the Project Management Leaders and recognize that an organization cannot successfully adopt change unless these leaders understand, support the reasons for creating the change, align their people to create a compelling vision of the future state and continually communicate it.

While implementing the changes, HRM can also borrow a leaf from Project management, to identify and engage the resources for executing the change. A strategy should be developed in conjunction with the people who are impacted and the ones who will be executing it. This will enable the work force to be well prepared to participate in the development and implementation of new processes and technology, and the implementation should essentially be a monitoring activity for leaders.

However, most organizations spend the majority of their time in mandating the implementation of the change and don't adequately address their people's role in change. In such instances, successful change adoption rarely occurs. Project managers, functional and non-functional should be held responsible for reiterating the change mission through ongoing communications. Management should also use E-mails, project milestone commemorations, conversations and other channels consistently to remind people why they are expending their hard work on implementing a change.

Idealness in IT: Perfection, the need of the hour

As everyone else, the Information Technology (IT) world too thinks of idealness, something that is perfect or closest to perfection, as something that exists only as a concept. Idealness in IT is highly desirable but isn't it possible for us to achieve? World, life, power, knowledge and everything in life are essential and are capable of perfection.

It does not matter what we do and how many things we are involved in, what matters is how PERFECT we are in even one of them. Perfection in any one of the skills or capacities we possess will help us cross the border. We can see ourselves in the next zone if we take one thing at a time and perfect it. It enables one to see the result, gives self-confidence, gives birth to optimism and eventually to a different individual.

Every time I performed an activity, I conceived that it requires energy, interest, skill, attention, concentration, experience and perfection. When all of these aggregate, the result is always good. Even small perfection can bring great results. Flawlessness in any work is a common expectation across any duty performed in this world. I believe that perfecting a work down to the minutest details attracts positive life response. When the goal is high accomplishment, the very best method is to make every small act as perfect as possible. It is a method that brings a much greater result, much sooner.

Perfection comes with practice. For example, punctuality is perfection in time, which is practiced and measured over a period. The majority of perfection is attained in the first 70-80% of completing the task. The remaining 20-30% percent is achieved through what one thinks as improvement. But certainly it is the latter that makes a great difference.

Perfection can be achieved in three steps. The first step is to start with the right plans. Just as we build a building or make a car, we need to have a good set of plans. They must be accurate, easy for the workforce to understand and easy to repeat. Repeatability and reproducibility is another aspect of perfection in IT. The third step in perfection is to correct the previous mistakes and prevent defects from occurring again. Mistakes are common but repeated mistakes are a sin. No present work will move even an inch if past lapses are left uncorrected. This is similar to Deming / Shewhart Cycle or PDCA (Plan, Do it, Check and Act) cycle.

It may sound fancy, but it is very true that Six Sigma is nothing more than a measure of quality that strives for near perfection. It is a disciplined, data-driven approach to eliminate defects and rework in any process. The aim is to reduce defects, or errors, to no more than six standard deviations from the mean. To put numbers to it, in order to achieve Six Sigma-level quality, a process will have no more than 3.4 defects per million. Like wise, other quality processes such as Quality Circles, TQM and Kaizen work towards perfection by concentrating on Team based process improvements. Process Capability and Design of Experiments (DOE) have come to the fore in Six Sigma. Combining Control charts, Value Analysis and ISO/QS9000 techniques with Six Sigma can be a more powerful process perfection methodology.

Idealness can be attained with well defined quality processes. To me, Quality, especially in reference to IT, is to express the real ideas of the business in the act or work. It is only when something is rubbish, of poor quality and not worth its value, stakeholders take notice, start to complain, and all attention is drawn towards the mediocrity of the service or product. Often my requirements for quality fall on deaf ears; projects get revised and rewritten many times before they meet my exacting standards. People have even blamed me for having high expectations and termed as not a team man. Such people never had the visibility of the burned hours of top management time in the review and revision process – time that could have been used to lead the company.

The biggest key to succeed upon idealness is having the support of upper management. If they don't think it is necessary to perfect processes to achieve idealness, the initiative will fail. Next is to engage the right people in the process. If we don't have buy-in from the people who actually touch the process, it will be harder to get them to accept the changes proposed. It is also important to practice with smaller achievable projects to build the momentum. It's much easier to perfect a small job and get some quick success than to try to fix a huge process all at once. Together, we got to keep up the enthusiasm and optimism for idealness to be successful in the long run.

Facing the client: Should we bend till we break

Often on projects, I find myself focusing on a very common subject - facing the client. Client interactions can be nerve-wrecking as had been the case for some of my colleagues, including a couple of seniors. But it doesn't have to be like this always. I experience enlightment with each and every customer, internal or external, that I communicate with. I always feel it is a chance to strengthen the relationship. Relationships are still the cornerstone of any service-based business. It’s much nicer to work with jovial clients as opposed to clients who feel they are unable to communicate their thoughts properly.

Clients are primary to the process in the service industries. As an IT service provider, I feel that, we just implement the vision and ideas of the client. When the client asks for opinions and direction we may give some input, but it is ultimately for the client to make decisions. We should not underestimate and tell the clients what they should do. This happens with most organizations dealing with the FTO (First Time Outsourcing) clients, thinking that the clients are not knowledgeable in the project management aspects. Some of the large clients allow us to educate them about the value we can provide. But it is not the case always. Most times, we end up dumping our processes on the clients, only to find later that the clients had better processes than ours. We also fall into an easy trap trying to impress clients with our promises of a super-fast turn around instead of our capability. Don't give the client the absolute best-case scenario when discussing a project. Most of the Clients would be fine if they were just told that it would take the necessary time. But by promising the project in lesser time and failing to deliver, the future trust is lost with the client. Words are cheap and clients who have been in business for any length of time know that.

We need to be humble with the clients and understand that humility will only set us apart from the rest. Being Indians, humility comes quite naturally to us. But how far we need to be humble is a question to be answered. Client interaction is important as it could make or break a business and the best way to ensure that is by communicating effectively. Clients appreciate honesty which is often forgotten when being humble. The hardest lesson to learn in client interaction is learning when to state our opinion. If the client is wrong about something, do not hesitate to say so, along with a solution to go with it spontaneously. There’s no sense in pointing out an error only to not have an effective plan of action. Develop plans that are best suited for the clients. When identifying an issue, we should keep its criticality in context. Managers and business leaders do not appreciate drama, and overreacting can hurt our credibility and rapport with critical business contacts. Sticking to the facts can help keep situations from spinning out of control. Do a thorough client diagnostic evaluation and understand what we are doing well and how we might be falling short for them. This will increase the client experience with us. Do not shoot down any idea from the client, only to have nothing to patch it up with. Be ready to admit too when we are wrong should the client call us on something. Put your self in the client’s shoes to be able to identify and understand their problems.

Clients deserve respect for their expertise. Working collaboratively with clients typically achieves the best results. When interacting with a client, we should inject our personality into the conversation and project. If we are acting contrived, the client will come to know about it. Be genuine, by displaying the passion for work, the client will share their enthusiasm as well. In most cases, clients are proud of what they do, and they are excited to share the details of their work. Expressing interest can elicit valuable information and enhance client relationships. Having informal meetings outside of formal meetings with the client can really help our status as their trusted advisor. With informal meetings, be careful not to become too casual with the client; remember they are still the client. Client interaction should be characterized by quality and transparency, with defined and adhered accountability and responsibility.

The most important problem that clients face with the IT services is not talent or skill but communication, and that too written. Clear and concise writing is the foundation to effective communications. Be willing to email clients even when it seems a bit redundant or unnecessary. Always be reachable since if the Clients can’t get in touch with us, their helplessness increases exponentially. Answer emails to the client quickly. Assumptions can cause major problems, especially in a world where so many decisions are made by email. Make liberal use of lists, inline email responses, and reiterations of instructions. But all business can’t be conducted by email. This is where phone calls will help. Misunderstandings are always easier and faster to resolve via phone. Verbal communication creates a better "human relationship" than email does. And that is why I always prefer and suggest using both the channels – email followed by a phone call or phone call followed by an email.

Other basic things that can improve the client relationship include:
o Be honest and sincere to establish visibility and creditability so that there is enough trust for the purchase to happen.
o Be punctual, this signals that we value Client’s time the same way they do.
o Engage with the Client more often and make them feel that you really care.
o Dress formally. Dress to either the client’s standards, or your company's standards. With an increase in the number of businesses who operate in a casual work environment, standing out as well dressed can be a big bonus for you.
o Enhance listening skills to make sense of and understand what the client is saying.
o Always treat clients with courtesy.
o Reply speedily. Keep your clients abreast of important, complicated changes in strategy or timetables with regularly scheduled conference calls.
o Keep a watch on the body language

Also be aware of the Don’t’s
o Talking only about one self
o Revealing too much
o Not being one self

With so many factors to consider, how does one move forward without being overwhelmed with the complexity of client interaction? The starting point for such an approach is by giving careful consideration to the assumptions and beliefs that are embedded in our understandings and goals of our encounter with the client. Developing cultural knowledge, skills in understanding client communication methods, and an awareness and acceptance of the dynamic variety of people and populations we work with are all crucial components of facing the client. The right balance between humility and honesty, transparency and sincerity will give us the flexibility in any relationship without reaching the threshold of breaking.

Practice Management: Do we really practice?

More than often, I have wondered, how the IT Corporate management can ensure nurturing talents instead of emphasizing on individual initiative, individual performance metrics and individual performance-based rewards. And the answer to this is through a strong Practice Management. The concept of Practice Management is floundering in many IT Corporates and the challenges faced are it’s thoughtful, consistent, patient and practical application. Executive leadership use this concept to create distinct units called Practices that have their own unique processes, structures and cultures that are specifically intended to explore and develop breakthrough innovations.

We all understand the importance of having a strong practice group in the organization. An effective practice management allows the organization to develop a brand name identity that would resonate with prospective clients. It allows enhanced opportunity for intellectual exchange and a means for attracting and retaining good talent. It provides an easier way to train the juniors. Practice groups can help create the organizational assets such as common methodologies, check lists, templates, and documents that could do away with redundancy and iterated efforts.

Well! I agree that the benefits of practice management are longer than the above list. But the question is do we really practice to achieve these benefits? Seldom is it focused on risk management, ethics and strategic planning. Often, the aim of practice management - to help members evaluate themselves and their roles and responsibilities in the enhancement of both the quality and efficiency of services they provide - is forgotten. Why is it so? What do we need for this?

The first and foremost is to create a strategic plan by evaluating the current practice methods. Most of the time, practices exist just for the sake of it with no effective planning and just working as resource pools. Strategic Planning is the essence of success and it should be concentrated on building and growing a practice, a long-term imperative. The growth requirements needs to be assessed and a growth strategy should be developed along with technology, services and marketing strategies for the practice.

At the same time, People strategy also needs to be developed which will address the composition (staff mix), the practice culture, communication, hiring, inducting, retaining and developing the existing staff, risk management, quality control issues, self-regulating discipline, ethical issues, quality processes and professional standards for specific areas. People strategy should focus on developing a critical mass for better perceived quality and shared expertise through designer training programs for the group.

A set of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) or Key Result Areas (KRA) should be defined and monitored. Most of the time, the practice managers are unclear what KPI / KRA needs to be set for the individuals and for the group. This only worsens the practice management.

Once the strategic plan is in place, a business plan needs to created, fitting the strategies and structuring the practice by building a risk management approach into it. Business plan should identify the target client, which will help build the brand image.

Do not forget to have a finance plan with respect to the strategic plan. The buy-in of the management is most important with respect to the financial feasibility after considering the financial issues, general considerations, benchmarks and the risks. Once done, put the plans into operation.

Communication too plays a pivotal role in the operational success of the practice groups. To and fro communication between the management and the members is very important. Practices should have regular follow-up meetings to review the progress. We, as individuals, a disciplined member of the Practice Group, have to devote our attention and time to make practice management work as well.

If we focus, commit, and practice properly, Practice Management is an effective means for high profitable growth.

Interviewer’s Guide - A must for the corporates

Recently, I was involved in a recruitment drive for one of the Offshore Delivery Centres (ODC) in the organisation. Here, I realized that not much preparation is done for finding the right interviewer. There is no training. The way it works in most of the corporates is to find a person who is technically good and ask him to interview for the vacant position. Sometimes it even goes to an extent that a junior interviews candidates who are going to fill a senior position. This is even weirder in certain cases that the junior is the interviewer and would be reporting to the person who he interviews when selected. To my surprise, not many think that this is against the corporate ethics

One of the primary reasons why Organizations end up with bad resources is because of the lack of good interviewers, who are capable enough to sieve such candidates. Studies have shown that interviewers will form an opinion of the candidate within the first 10 minutes of the interview. It is possibly due to their inexperience in conducting interviews or probably because the interviewee is gauged based on the interviewer knowledge and not on the interviewees experience and expertise. The lack of interviewer’s maturity comes in the way of selecting the right candidate for the organization. Most times it is preset expectations of the interviewer and not the requirements of the position that forms the basis of the interview result.

When I searched the internet, I could find lots about the dos and don’ts for an interviewee but very few for the interviewer. Through this post, I wanted to collate my interviewing experience, which could guide all the interviewers in the future. So, here it goes:

Basic guidelines:
· Understand the job description
· Awareness of laws which affect hiring in different countries
· Keep the interview under your control. More often, interviewers fall into the trap of interviewees taking control of interview.
· Ask as many questions related to skill, experience, education, certifications needed for the Job. Objective is to assess if the candidate fits the job.
· Select the candidate based on ability, skill, willingness, qualifications, training needed for the job.
· Candidates own view on the job, company and terms and conditions of the company and his personal aspirations can be assessed.
· Keep the candidate apprised of the next step after the interview.
· Salary expectation can be checked

Don'ts:
· Do not ask questions which are irrelevant to the job
· Do not use any threat or ridicule a candidate even if you find him the worst.
· Do not express any frustration to the candidate for example: I wasted my time interviewing you!
· Do not say anything which becomes a verbal or implied contract, ( the project is for 1 year and you are confirmed for a year)
· Never say, that this permanent position (becomes an implied contract and goes against ‘employment at will doctrine’), but can say it is a full-time job.
· Do not give promise to get a candidate (example you will become Project Manager after 6 months) which you are not sure to keep the promise. Promissory Estoppels are illegal. If an hired guy can prove that he gave up another potential job because of the promise, the company will be in trouble
· Do not provide a fraudulent representation to get a candidate (example your project is at least for one year, knowing it is 6 months) this is Illegal.

Questions to be passed to HR
· Questions related to Overtime for any candidate or Associate or Contractor
· Any commitment on employment terms to be given to a candidate
· Any candidate to be interviewed and presented must go through Resourcing and HR
· Any question, other than Skill, Knowledge and Ability for the job should be through HR

Interviewers should also note that it should not always be based on just what the interviewee actually says; it's also on something termed as "body language." For instance, 85% of what one communicates is not with words. It's through the tone of the voice, the way one sits, and a wealth of other messages that the body involuntarily sends. With this in mind, here are some tips on the art of nonverbal communication during the interview.

Allow the Candidate Be Real From the Start
When you are greeted by the interviewee, give a real smile that engages your eyes, and offer a firm handshake. Maintaining good eye contact shows respect and interest. Allow the candidate to relax and be real.

Watch the Excess Energy
Excess energy often results in mannerisms. What this means is that excess energy gets dissipated into fidgeting, a definite sign that the person is nervous or ill at ease. This is applicable to both interviewee and the interviewer

Watch hand and Arm Movements
Clasped hands are a signal that the person is closed-off. A palm-to-palm gesture with one thumb over the other thumb sends the signal that the interviewee needs the interviewer's reassurance. To come across as confident, receptive and unguarded, interviewee should have hands open and relaxed on the table. Interviewer should also have his body open to project trustworthiness.

Finger Gestures
Bet you never thought you had to worry about your fingers during an interview. Never point your index fingers like gun barrels. These are the types of aggressive messages you want to avoid sending.

Crossing the Legs
Don't cross your legs. This posture creates a wall between the interviewer and interviewee. It can also become a distraction when you keep crossing your legs back and forth. Crossed ankles are a no-no because you are signaling that you want to be elsewhere.

Posture
A straight posture with shoulders should be pulled back is imperative during an interview.

I wont say this post is a complete guide for the interviewer, however, I will consider this effort to be a success if an awareness is created among the interviewers for their preparedness and show their smartness in selecting the right candidate.

Have a nice interview and make sure that it is a learning experience for the interviewee's too!

Babu Culture - do we need it in the Indian Corporate world?

I came to India with much hope of working for my country. Wanted to give it back the professional ethics I learnt abroad based on the knowledge imparted in me by my country. There are lot of people abroad who want to do what I have done. The 5 and 10 year plans do not work for them. I‘m among the fortunate few who have made the dream, of coming back to India after a 10 year stint abroad, come true.

India an emerging nation is well on its way to be the leader of the world. At least this was the thought I had in my mind before deciding to come back and work in the country I belong, I love the most. But when I eventually did, a cultural shock awaited me. I could not believe that we are what we were 10 years back. The only change was that this time the Desi Babus were trying to sound western. Yes! These are the babus who do not let the country progress. It was a shocking surprise that even private institutions were also not ready to do away with the “Babu Culture”.

"Babu Culture" --- incidentally a cross -fertilization of English Liberalism, European fin de siecle decadence, Mughal conservatism and indigenous revivalism inculcating aspects of socio-moral and political change. This culture was fostered in its wake by the Zamindari System, the Daebhaga System the Hindu Joint Family System, the Mitakshara System, the Muslim Zenana System , the Protestant spirit of free capitalist enterprise, the Mughal inspired feudal system and the Nautch. I remember reading an article on the web in which somebody questioned ‘Instead of IAS Officers why can’t we have professionals of different fields heading the departments. To give an example why should a defense secretary be an IAS & not one from the defense services? These bureaucrats without having an insight in the professions give guidelines & take the decisions. In the same manner the cabinet ministers should also be a professional from the field. Then only we will have a Prime Minister who works like a CEO.’

But it is very shameful that now private institutions have got themselves used to the babu culture. It is known that managing people in India requires a level of micro-management, which many western business people feel extremely uncomfortable with but, which is likely to bring the best results. India is an enormously hierarchical society (arguably the most hierarchical in the world) and this, obviously, has an impact on our management style with the managers acting like boss or the babus.

The babus exist in all the levels, top level, middle level and the last tier of the managers formed by project managers, of the hierarchy. Babus are the bottle necks of innovation. They merely concentrate on the financial side of costs and benefits and require that all projects have a positive immediate ROI to be pursued. Think about it. How innovative would you want to be if every suggestion you make is immediately evaluated in respect to financial benefit? In the name of low-cost low –value initiatives, if we have to get a nod from the CFO and/or CTO for each and every thing, how can the company grow? It only makes all levels of management unable to think in terms of growth because the ability to innovate dies.

Prudent financial management is a must at all times, good and bad. But it’s impossible to become successful by pinching pennies. It just doesn’t happen.The babus hire executives in error. With too many shortcomings, these executives are then considered “too expensive to be fired” and hence, continue to influence the course of the department for years past their “due date,” initiating misguided projects, letting some good people go, and missing great business opportunities. The cost of such a miscreant to the organization far outweighs the separation costs. Not everyone in your project or department is great or even good enough.

The main asset of every organization is its BEST people, not every warm body on the payroll. But too often, we IT leaders aren’t even sure what our people do and whether they are good at it. Many managers believe that the power to direct others is conferred by a person's official position in an organization. Such managers eventually become “follow-up” managers and block the way for other youngsters coming up the ladder. Unlike the babu culture, in a superior-subordinate relationship, the person with the most authority is not necessarily the person in command. I believe that personality factors often carry more weight than official positions. But here, if the personality traits are presented before these babus, that person is stamped with having attitude problem. The babus don’t know what they really mean by this. For example, if a guy finishes his task allocated for the day and leaves office on time, the follow-up managers question their commitment towards the company’s growth. They are then compared with the slow coaches in the team and will be looked down during the appraisal. Do we need such babus? Similarly, if one questions the non quality of deliverables, you are marked as a man against the team’s interest.

Now tell me, is it a sin to expect quality of our products before delivering it to the clients. Some people think so and even go to an extent to say that the expectations are higher. The denial is often related to ‘arrogance’ by these babus.The babu culture has much effect on the manager- subordinate dyad. Organization give much emphasis on developing the management trust and manager trust. Despite the importance of manager trust in subordinates, little has been done to examine the role of managers’ trust in subordinates, although a great deal of research has been done concerning ways to induce employees’ trust in their managers and organizations. It is evident that trust between organizational members allows coordination and completion of work. Not only do employees need to have trust in the organization, the manager, and their peers, but the manager must trust the subordinates for whom he or she is responsible. I ‘m sure the appraisal processes in the corporate world will support the need for the above.

Many babus prefer not to take decisive measures and leave employee performance problems unresolved or simply mothball them until the “performance review time,” when, frankly, it is too late. This is simply abdication of managerial responsibilities which cannot be condoned. The bias shown during the appraisal is a direct result of the “Babu Culture”. I feel that it is because of the "Babu Culture" that we are unable to install the reverse appraisal process i.e. to get feedbacks about the managers from the subordinates? Reverse appraisal is the best way to gauge how much the manager is biased towards his subordinates. Reverse appraisal will bring to light the norms of reciprocity in managerial work relationships by assessing three components of reciprocal behavior: immediacy, equivalence, and interest motive. I’m sure that most of us will agree that reverse appraisal will certainly help in eliminating the babu culture in the corporate world but do we have the courage to implement this corporate wide?

It is high time we get rid of the Babus. They are actually the ones for the ills of the corporate world. Let us correct ourselves so that we do not instill the babu culture in our younger breeds.