Assignment groups

Group Assignments share a Bigger pie in final grades of subjects in most management schools. The profs think that by giving the marks to groups rather than individuals fosters the team work and blah blah.... Quite an ambitious goals i should say :)

But let me share you how the groups are formed and what all goes into the process . The alliances formed will even put the seasoned politicians to shame .Here comes the gyaan from what i had observed ,undergone in the last six months and not to be a hypocrite , let me clarify that i am quite part of the entire process

Groups of Lovers
.................
This is the type of group where in u get one plus one offer . In the sense that if u want to have one member of the pair in the group , u should be willing to have 2 slots in the group. one big advantage with this arrangement is that when there is a group meeting and u desperately are calling for group members (scenario is quite a regular occurence and happens few hours before the dead lines ), u can make one phone call less :P

Group of roomies
..................
this is one other variety where the location advantage(same room) is used to the max. May be in other MBA colleges this may not be possible but in TISS this section forms the major chunk as most of the people stay outside the campus in groups of 5-6 atleast for the first year
one advantage is that group mates can simultaneously work on various assignments by sharing which are not limited to academics but extended to more useful tasks like cleaning the rooms,cooking etc  while the other part of group working on less imp tasks like making a strategy for doing the assignment :p

Group of committees
....................
This is generally formed by the members working in various committees like placecom,alcom ,.com,.....
This group also generally consists of BEST friends of these committee members and they juggle b/w committee work and assignment work during which the friends come to rescue

this group defining exercise is becoming quite montonous , hmm..wait we have more interesting group formations

Drink buddy groups
...................
u can find members of this group letting the knowledge and beer flow at the same time
quite a fun groups to be in :)

Strategic groups
...................
now comes the nerdy ,studious ,stud groups . the member selection is quite stringent and each member is evaluated in what strength one brings to the group. Not surprisingly,this is the group which generally ends up getting more marks in assignments

last but not the least ,

Group of death
..................
this is the group formed by people who are not taken in any other groups, basically the left ones .this group consists of members of all kinds like free riders,mavericks,loners etc etc....

Group of lucky chap
................................
This is the group populated by all the pretty girls of the girls with only exception , the lucky chap. Generally the cynosure for other guys in the class but he alone knows the ordeals by being the minority in the group :p

Group by compulsion
...................................
there are some profs who selects the groups by some random methods like taking slips,calling random nos etc etc. The fun part is to find that in  most cases the groups contain extreme opposite personalities and rebels . some how by magic  this group also more or less confirms to the above classification of groups (now dont ask me how it is possible :P)


All the groups also contains free riders(whom most of the group members cannot even recall to be part of the group),attention grabbers (who despite doing some thing or not speaks desperately during group presentations more so if there is individual component in group work)

friendships are tested to the limits during group formations,egos hurt,pitching in for the star performers and what not

After all, May be this is what the profs want us to learn . The group dynamics


PS: I wrote this entry just after a group meeting :P :P

PPS: on popular demand and inputs from my dear friends a few more groups are added... 

Last Minute prep tips to TISS

Disclaimer: All the below suggestions are applicable majorly to HR as that is the only course i attempted and hence i do not have much idea on how to tackle papers for other courses

With just less than a week to go for TISS exam , its high time one should concentrate on important areas rather than trying to achieve every thing

To be very honest , those who had written any other entrance exam this year can sleep in peace. One might then wonder what to do with the last section where in you come across questions from wide variety of areas like sociology,human resource management etc (seriously neither did i have much clue at this point last year, even though i concentrated my full efforts in the last 10 days for this section ,which didnt help me much in exam :( )

so i would like to summarise on the points which helped me last year, the mistakes i did while attempting the written exam etc . Read it and do attempt the paper intelligently . I would stick to the written part for now .

NOTE: This is not the only way to attempt the paper . Play according to ur strengths . Verbal is my strength

(1)Practice good number of papers in TISS format in the last week . Apart from this year Model paper  u should defineteley practice last year model paper (which incidentally is the original paper of 2010) and possible one or two other model papers u can get ur hand on

This would get u in tune for the format of TISS

(2) Paper I should be easy (personal opinion) as it is common across all the courses . Mind it that apart from students appearing for courses in School of management & labour stuides , the other students might not be appearing for management entrance tests. Also time would be more than sufficient for every one . Only caution here is that dont do silly mistakes and also do mark the answers on OMR sheet from time to time

(3)Part 2

This is the area where u have to take a call based on ur strength area . For me its verbal . so i started the paper by attacking the RCs

But i suggest that dont go with a rigid strategy . Be felexible because the standard of TISS (generally based on previous years) is low and hence ur weakness (quant is my weakness but i solved each and every question in that section) may not effect u much

so start with a section which seemed to be easy and try to maximise the score (remember that there is no sectional cut off )

QA:

Even though it is data sufficiency , having a good knowledge of basic formulae helps 

last year the questions are quite basic and even if one do not have much grip on formulae can solve the paper 

Verbal:

Last year i felt the RCs are a bit lengthy but i persisted in completing all the questions there . This i feel is a mistake because later i realised that Return on investment(ROI ) on DI and QA section is better than Verbal

DI:

The sets are very basic and they did not contain much data either .But since i attempted this section last , i am under some pressure and made 1 DI set wrong . Some how managed to correct at last moment

Sociology,HRM etc:

If u have prepared for this section , its good . Else leave it . its not the time to be nervous thinking of the weaknesses. Concentrate on strengths and maximise the score . Even those who prepared for this section , do not spend much time thinking of the answer . As soon as u see the question , if u remember the answer good else move on (Dont mark guesses, this year there is negative marking for second paper)

Caution:Even those who did not prepare for this section , do have a look at it for a few mins . U may find some qn which u touched upon some where and some times it do happens (last year it happened) there might be a critical reasoning qn in last section which case u can answer it

The toughest part of getting into TISS is the interview regarding which i would discuss later .Just go with a calm mind and exam can be cracked

one final word of caution: Paper2 is more about race against the Time . so dont get bogged down by a qn . if u dont get the answer leave it and go ahead . there are immense no of sitters in the paper and also dont be astonished if u find any qns too simple to be asked (last year it happened to with one DI set where in i spent time thinking examiner cannot ask such a simple qn :P )

Also there is change in marking scheme (negative marking for paper 2 ) . So dont go with stereotypes .Paper might be difficult for a change .but do remember it would be surprise for every one

My score last year in written : 51.8/70

All the best for the exam :D :D

Inspiring words

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, Whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly,
who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement
and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat

From a speech given in paris at the sorbonne in 1910

Life at TISS Part1

Starting this post , I would be giving regular updates on "Life at TISS"

Second semester started for us on November 8th and we had done so much in terms of classes and activities in the past 2 weeks  which even wonders me
Starting the sem with  day long Assessment Centres which would help us in knowing our strengths and areas in HR we can excel, 3 day leadership program which included participants from all the courses , too many assignments , midnight meetings for committees of  Srijan (Mini version of Manthan) and Resonance (TISS platinum jubilee celebrations ,life is never this busy and exciting

Another Important activity happening right now is the M-ward project .TISS as is always known for social sensitivity had taken up a humongous task of reforming the M-ward (one of the biggest slum in Mumbai) and every one in the campus right from faculty,students to the director is participating in the week long process starting this saturday.
The fact that the professors attending National & International conferences and the Phd students located all across India were called back to the campus shows the seriousness taken in this initiative

This would be my first chance to look at the other side of our nation for the first time and would have never got this chance had i studied at any other B school campus

If not for self boasting one compliment we HR folks at TISS get from the Industry  is that Tissians are very much grounded and humble  :D

I use to wonder when many of the TISS pass out use to  mention that 2 years experience here is a life changing experience and now i am experiencing it first hand :)

Platinum Jubilee Celebrations and More

Nov 14th Marked the day for the begining of celebrations. we had a musical night for all the students, staff and their families (around 2000) . More events to continue till Dec 21st .
Its been an honour to be part of an historical moment in TISS. We are having Alumni meet . The sleepy TISS campus is roaring with life nowadays

The Intra school Sports celebrations started today and School of Management & Labour Studies (To which HR belongs) Lost games in both Men & Women's cricket. The surprise element is women's team gave a tough chase where as men's team rather had a humiliating defeat (49 while chasing 115 in 6 overs :P ). But its been quite fun cheering for both teams .

Better results are expected in other games (volley ball,Football, Basket ball) as the inspired folks are meeting tomorow morning at 6 Am for practice :O

On HR front, unlike the first semester (which is pretty much chilled out in first 2 months) the rigour had already reached its peak with two mulla sessions to take care of every week (Seniors literally use to work every single day on Comp & Ben so as to finish up his work while he handled single session per week to them  :(
Also the inundo of the articles to be read from Organisational behaviour & Marketing is not helping our cause either..

One good thing in all this chaos is that I got the famed Field work organisation over the generations of TISS "Bharath Petroleum Corporation Limited (Famed not just for the work experience but more so for the Awsome food available :P ) and also the fact that office is pretty close to Marine drive would give me enough places to visit every wednesday and thursday

Life's happening at TISS  :D :D

Harsha Bogle at IIM A

Just watched the video on "Talent vs Attitude" given by Harsha Bogle at IIMA

There are some points which he mentioned which had a deep impact and which we pass through in daily life but dont recognise

Coming to the point:

"When there is an option of redoing some thing and when u have feeling that u can correct ur self even if u do some thing wrong, there is very good probability that u would do some thing wrong

Treat every occassion as unique and give 100% attention and dedication to the task at hand and u would do ur best

Thats what all it takes to be successfull. Giving 100% of the efforts every single time

Team Building exercise-Innovative solution

We had Assessment Centre conducted for our batch today in which 16 people(divided into 4 teams of 4 each) participated . As part of one of the exercise we are supposed to come up with a plan to conduct team building exercises.

Scenario:

A Manufacturing firm contains 20 design engineers who are highly talented but have issues working together as a team. All Traditional HR team building workshops, outdoor team building activities failed . It is of utmost importance to the organization to imbibe team spirit in these individuals and hence the responsibility is given to us. The following is what was the result of our imaginative prowess and more so of one of our team mate(of 4 team members)

As the discussion progressed , this friend of ours , lets call him X(he would kill me , if I write his name ;) ) came out with a wonderful idea of creating a crisis as done in the film Chakde(where all the girls fight together in ice cream parlour and thus forms team bonding) and use the same funda here ..Now we started mulling over how to create a crisis

Now we have one other very very smart banda in our team , whom we will call “MCP”(as he prefers calling, and you would agree a few moments later) gave a wonderful idea of locking all the designers in the warehouse of the factory and creating a fire with cardboards and stuff ..(Yup..his ideas are a bit on the extreme side, and employees of his future organization..BEWARE)…Finally after some more thought process we decided using just smoke bombs and explosions outside the warehouse (locking the designers still remain the same) . One addition we have done is to introduce 2-3 firefighters and also 3 of us ( the only girl of our group opted out to take part in action, Girls are much smarter than guys :P)would be made part of designer group as new joinees and the entire drama in warehouse starts out with our supposed induction program

Well..seems my narration is very confusing even to me L..so before breaking down it into sequence of steps lets go back and justify why one of our team mate is MCP..when it is announced the designers are 20, he started discussion by saying “lets assume all 20 are men (ofcourse on the protest of girl he gave way for diversity by mentioning 10 guys and 10 ladies [the biggest mistake , which u would realize laterJ])

Now the sequence of steps are as follows:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->(1) <!--[endif]-->Get the designers to warehouse on the pretext of induction of 6 people into designing team( they do not have any hint of training program , as they had attended many similar programs earlier with no result)

<!--[if !supportLists]-->(2) <!--[endif]-->Once every one is in ,a crisis would be created with doors getting locked, power off, smoke bombs at areas of warehouse and explosion outside warehouse (don’t blame that Budding HR managers are getting spoiled by movies :P )

<!--[if !supportLists]-->(3) <!--[endif]-->Now our firefighters get into action and creates panic around and at the same time ordering groups of people to perform tasks like breaking ventilators,helping one another to escape through ventilators

Our objective is that “Life changing moments change people” and they would more appreciate the team work and jell well as a team with those who saved their lives

We made a presentation to the external observers and to the participants and every thing going so well, when all of a sudden our “X” gave wings to his creative talents (By the way , he is much better than RGV J )

So the Following presentation is given full credit to “X”:

Now 10 are women and 10 are men , and as women cant climb the ventilators on their won , they take the help of men and in the process we have teams of 2 developed :P :P

We had a lot of fun as we started with forming teams and finally ended up presenting an idea of forming Cupids in the team ;) J

Overall its fun filled session which culminated with group dinner at “AISWARYA” which was 50% sponsored by Satish Shukla :D :D

Would remain as one of the cherishable days of semester 2

Employee Engagement-Perspectives of Silly HR

Disclaimer:

The below viewpoints need to be taken as the viewpoints of Silly HR and no way connected to what I had been through in the last 3 months at TISS (they taught me more than enough HR jargons to pass off as a HR professional ;) ). Not a single penny/paisa would be given to anyone who would like to sue me for my views :P

Well to start with, let’s see how a typical employee engagement program is done in companies

Say if the employee strength in our silly HR’s Company is 1000 and HR strength be 50 among them. Now the HRs as usual as elsewhere in the world introduced a survey to get to know the whether the employees like to go for Mid-day marathon run during summers in Chennai or go for a trek to Tora-Bora caves in Afghanistan. Now 25 people responded in the survey out of which 20 (Incidentally these 20 belong to the HR department) are interested in going for Summer Marathon Run in Chennai( God save them) ..when the results are presented to Business leaders for implementation they typically look like this

Now for the Top management, when they look at the results it appears that 80% of employees are interested in going for a summer Marathon to Chennai ( Are all the employee gone crazy or planning for a mass suicides ????) and even when the company spends considerable amount of time and money on the event , the end results would be counterproductive (with the employees end up wondering whether the top management had gone crazy or what )

So what can be the solution for this ,

First and foremost the HR department should get the trust of the employees , in the sense employees should perceive HR as someone who not only make big talk but also do

And how can this be achieved???

Starting with something small : Instead of going for a full-fledged employee engagement activities involving huge amounts and time in terms of banners, planning etc.. Start with something small which would not take much time from employees and which can get a maximum participation and fun at the same time like impromptu JAM sessions at coffee machine meetings, giving a wacky title to the manager etc. We should first understand clearly what is the objective behind conducting the employee engagement activities? Is it make the employees more connected to the organization or is it just as a stress buster. So the activities which ever are conducted should be clear of the reason behind them..

For now I am feeling hungry and cannot think of more except for the food in our Dining Hall (why don’t they try to surprise and prepare good food for a change L ), so guys (also Girls ) feel free to give wings to your thoughts and write your suggestions in the comments

learnings at TISS-Part1

Life is all about chasing dreams .
when  i am preparing for MBA entrance exams i use to wonder that once i get into a dream college life is all good and colourfull.
Yes , indeed it is ..But i have learned some lessons over my 4 months stint in TISS.
Mediocrity got no place at the highest levels. when u aspire to be at highest level and when u are at a platform from where u can reach places , its time shed the old habits and embrace CHANGE.

Change for betterment as a person , as a professional

Irony of Indian politics

I some times wonder looking at the so called politicians
they give a image as if they had dedicated their entire for the service of people
i would never say that one should give away his riches or hardwork for the sake of common man..but the best one can do is not to take from them

never we get to see the people who work at the grass root level nor at remote level..

well the below incident is just one example of how politics happen in India...

there is a parlimentary constituency called "ANAKAPALLI"(near to visakhapatnam, AP)

now 3 political parties contested for this seat (Ruling congress,main opponent --TDP, newly formed party of chiranjeevi...praja rajyam)

now in the elections the congress won the seat.....so far good

After the demise of CM. YSR, his son (who wants to become CM on hierarchy couldn't manage to do so) launced a new party (YSR Congress) and the sitting MP (from congress ) shifted to YSR congress

after the election debacle, praja rajyam party folded its party and merged into congress ..so effectively the guy contested from praja rajyam is now a congress man

so which party won the seat now????