Top
Browse > Home / Archive: November 2007

Work at Fun to Have Fun @ Work

November 21, 2007

Fresh out of Business School, MBA in hand, the taste of toast and mixed fruit jam still fresh in the mouth, when we joined the work place, life was very simple. You came in to work and bust your guts trying to work. We all hoped that the big boss would get impressed with our dedication. That had the potential of a generous appraisal rating for that year. Even when that did not happen, all of us gnashed our teeth, wrote his name on paper and shred that up to express our point of view (to ourselves). There was no such thing as fun at work.

Then the dot com boom happened. Young kids showed us that it was OK to be a dreamer. They quit jobs at blue chip companies and abandoned potentially hefty 12% pay hikes (that was the maximum you could get those days in my firm) in favor of an unknown world. A world where they would have the corner office by the time they were hitting twenty five. The “corner office” meant the CEO’s Office and not the cubicle in the corner where the photocopier was kept. One of them had told me casually while quitting, “I want to have fun.” That was blasphemy. I was no idea that we were supposed to have fun in the office. I asked the lad very apprehensively, “We are not supposed to do those fun things on the office desk? You could get sacked if you get caught.” That reckless lad gave me a look that was hard to define. My logic was clear - work was meant to be making you miserable. To get away from the agony called work, we hung around with friends and had fun.

Six months down the line the young lad came back to visit us. He came in a car that I had only seen my CEO drive. Over dinner, he told us that they had a lot of fun in the office. The dress code was non existent. He could practically come to work in diapers if he chose to. Every Friday they drank beer and danced in the office which would be converted to a make shift dance floor. The Directors who were in their twenties, danced with other twenty somethings who were employees. This was truly democratisation of the workplace. Everyone traveled First Class if Business Class seats were not available. Everyone claimed they were having fun, until one day many of those places went belly up and closed shop.

Then for the next few years, everyone went back to accepting the notion that work and fun were not designed to happen at the same time and at the same place. Can you really have fun with colleagues? After all the English language has two different words to describe a colleague and friend. To complicate matters people have different definitions of fun. Sticking a “kick me” behind your classmate in school may not be appreciated by a colleague at the receiving end.

Then Outsourcing happened and a different profile of employees barely out of school and college joined the BPOs and KPOs. The workplace had to change to reflect their presence. The older employees got replaced by The Millenials. The workplace again had to have prominent elements of fun because that became a retention tool. Elements of fun were designed around making the office culture as close to a college campus as possible. You don’t need to leave college when you come to work became the format of fun at work.
The more homogeneous the employee profile is, the easier it is to have one activity that fits in to a common definition of fun at work. If the primary task is not enjoyable, the importance of providing fun as an additional component at the workplace becomes important. Can the task have an inherent piece of fun built in? The more mundane and repetitive the task is, the greater is the importance of having the fun element during the workday. It has to be an activity that rejuvenates and refreshes the employee.
Fun has a connotation of informality and playfulness. So any activity that lowers the hierarchy - especially in a society that is deeply hierarchical, provides an element of fun. Hence watching the senior manager’s clumsiness at a sports event during the Annual Day celebration provides much mirth. The Annual Day is by definition annual. With shorter attention spans, having fun more frequently becomes a great driver of satisfaction. So wearing business casual clothes on Fridays cannot be defined as your original contribution to livening up the world of work. Think harder. I have always been amazed how big a deal wearing casual clothes to work is made out to be. It is supposed to enhance productivity I am told. Then hippies should have been the most productive generation, Rascal Rusty would say.
Recent research shows that the Millenials like activities that let them learn new skills. Pure buffoonery is not what they define as Fun at Work. So let them learn a new language, learn salsa dancing, learn magic tricks… just let your imagination flow. Ask them about hobbies that they wished they could pursue and skills they could and should learn but do not have the time to pursue. They might come back with weird suggestions - be prepared. Having fun at work is not easy after all.

Written by Abhijit Bhaduri · Filed Under Management 

AR Rahman - Yeh Dil Maange More

November 18, 2007

What would you need to do if you wanted to listen to AR Rahman, Hariharan, Chitra, Kailash Kher and Rapper Blaze in Delhi. You had to go to the mega concert that was held last evening in Delhi. I was there rubbing shoulders withthe 25,000 fans who ranged from six year olds to their grandparents - children below five years old were not allowed in. I don’t know why since the adults around were making enough racket anyway.

The show raises the basic question as to why one should go to see a live concert when you could listen to the same tracks in the quiet confines of your home on the stereo. Why jostle through crowds and listen to the same stuff. Just so that you see the show live. So the shows need to be lively to make it worth the fans time and money. It is rather difficult to have quality acoustics in an open air stadium to match what you can hear in your own living room’s music system.

I used to always have this question when I used to see Lata Mangeshkar perform on stage. She is a great singer but a terrible entertainer. AR Rahman came across as an immensely talented composer who has yet to make the transition to being a huge entertainer. He is an artiste who just focuses on creating great music and leaves the flash and glitz to others. I love the way he has transformed the face of Bollywood music by bringing in new sounds and singers with each venture.When the concert started with Rahman singing the operatic overture from the film Guru
“Jage hain der tak hamein kuchh der soney do
Thodi si raat aur hai subah to hone do.
Adhe adhure khwab jo pure na ho sake

Ek bar phir se neend mein woh khwab boney do”.Translated that would mean
“I have been up till late, let me sleep till the morning
Let me start dream again and complete those incomplete plans”

As Rahman’s voice joined Chitra’s in singing this overture, I got goosebumps at the thought of hearing the maestro sing. Rahman’s music draws inspiration from world music. While this song draws on Italian Opera, when you hear another composition Maiyya Maiyya from the same film, the influence of Turkish music seep through like the unmistakable notes of rich Turkish Coffee.

For me the highlight was to see the legendary Sivamani perform. Anandan Sivamani (born 1959) - the percussionist was wearing his trademark bandana. He created magic with the solo performance where he drummed without missing a beat even as he twirled his drumsticks and threw them in the air as the double bass drum thumped away. He has in the past, used even the humble wok used to make biriyani, to create music!! He has a musical group called Shraddha where he makes music with Hariharan, Shankar Mahadevan, and Mandolin Srinivas. According his official website<!–[if !vml]–>

“Siva was adept with his drumsticks even at the tender age of 7 and went on to give his first stage performance at the age of 12. “He led a troupe of twenty dhols to give us a glimpse of a track from the yet unreleased Bollywood film Jodha Akbar.

Allah Rakha Rahman was born AS Dilip Kumar on 6th January 1967 and has played keyboards for Ilaiyaraja. He has a degree in Western Classical Music from the Trinity College of Music at Oxford University. Last evening he played his hits from Hindi, Tamil and even English compositions. We got glimpses of Rahman playing the synthesizer and even a grand piano. The only thing that jarred was the sound system that was truly awful. The system did not do justice to the master of music. We go to see a concert to be entertained and not to hear what we already have heard through a CD. Stage performances are about entertainment. That’s an opportunity for the fans to see the artiste as a larger than life figure. It is all about playing to the gallery. Rahman lets his music do the talking and the only time he stepped up to admonish someone trying to surreptitiously record the show, he showed his human face. The entertainer to watch out for is Naresh Iyer who sang “I am a Rebel” and showed that he will leave a mark even while sharing the stage with Rahman.

Written by Abhijit Bhaduri · Filed Under Music 

Promo No Mo

November 10, 2007

For the last couple of years (well, it almost seems like forever) I have been subjected to this endless stream of promos of two films - Om Shanti Om and Saawariya. The beautiful people were all over the television channels. Heck… who paid for the promo budgets of these films? Bill Gates and Mukesh Ambani ? Two rich dudes promoting two film promos. Me thinks that is very likely.

It all began few years back by a grand announcement. We were told that this year on Friday 9th November 2007, two new stars are going to be born. It is not as if we are running two humans short on this planet. Yet we have to all make place for Sonam and Ranbir Kapoor. After all they are both pedigreed stars the media told us. He is Rishi Kapoor’s son - no mention of Neetu Singh. Ranbir Kapoor looks to be more of the Neetu Singh clan than Raj Kapoor. Cut to the music. We have all been hearing the title song a million times a day so much that even I can sing the first fifteen seconds of that song “Saawariyah ah ah ahh… Saawariya ah aa a Saawariya”. My neighbor’s precocious twelve year old showed me how I had to do some shadow boxing while I sang this song. “Ranbir is cute… I think… my sister likes him, but Shah Rukh has more fans. All my sisters friends and their moms loves Shah Rukh. So more people will see OSO.” Here is a budding critic’s summary of market research.

I admit I am not much into creepy crawlies. Every now and then while I surf the channels I will come across a promo of Saawariya that ends with creepy crawlies emerging out of the artwork. Some channels have these creepy crawlies hanging discreetly behind the channel logo. IS OSO better than S’a? Is Deepika cuter than Sonam?? Is SRK’s six pack for real or is it courtesy Photoshop? The nation is truly grappling with serious issues like these.

OK these promos have been successful in building awareness but guys gimme a break. I can’t watch the news channel without running into some blatant infomercial. All news bulletins end with the two film’s revenues being discussed in the same breath as the nation’s GDP. Promo - no mo.

Written by Abhijit Bhaduri · Filed Under Movies 

Should We Make or Buy Leaders?

November 10, 2007

When are you hitting the office again? I have some work for you to do. Go to the corner office and without spilling coffee on the carpet out of sheer nervousness, ask the occupant what he or she does for a living. The trick is to tell them upfront that “playing golf” is not one of the options they can choose. That sobers them into really thinking hard. Chances are that most of them will tell you that they are trying to make more moolah for the shareholder. Now you should step up, look at the dude straight in the eye and ask, “What are you doing to ensure that happens continuously long after you are gone?” At which point, you will probably get thrown out by the office security anyway and will never know what the correct answer should be.
The CEO’s job is to ensure that there is a steady stream of ready talent at all levels of the enterprise. It is especially important for the Chief Executive to ensure that someone is ready to take over the top job should a truck cut short his own trip across the road. Whenever someone asks me whether or not to join a particular organization, I ask that person to research and look for data on how many of that company’s top ten executives have been grown from within. If more than half of the top directors or functional leaders are have been nurtured through the joint efforts of the company’s CEO and HR then it is a good place to go to. That is a good measure of how the company has instituted processes to grow and nurture top talent. Having said that, it makes great sense to have a healthy mix of external hires at all levels since they may bring in skills that may be needed for the future. A sixty forty ratio of in favor of internal hires helps to reassure employees that the talent pipeline has a track record of producing leaders that pass the acid test.

Like all other decisions of a firm, there is a make versus buy decision to be made not just for products and services but also for leadership talent. Growing as opposed to buying your own leadership pipeline requires deep commitment of time on part of the organization to ensure talent is identified early and then nurtured through a combination of challenging assignments, executive coaching and learning from attending the odd training program. Research done by Center for Creative Leadership tells us that approximately 70% of leadership development occurs on the job and in the context of challenging tasks, while 20% occurs interpersonally, particularly with coaches and mentors and only a measly 10% occurs in formal training classes. I believe classroom training can supplement Make sure that a person attends the training program only after they have been doing a job, that you are training them for, with reasonable rates of success.

Developing the leadership pipeline is a vital ask from the existing leaders of the organizations. Leading edge organizations have been using the Leaders Nurture Leaders approach to have leaders handpick the top managerial talent and then design programs where they devote anything from five to fifteen days in a year nurturing talent not only by giving them exposure to latest research in management or strategy, but to help them understand what it will take to be leading the organization. I have known of organizations where the CEO spends five days at an off-site with the future leaders of an organization sharing concepts, case studies and even ethical dilemmas with them.

While the lateral hires into the leadership ranks of an organization bring in a view from the outside, which is just as necessary, it is the home grown talent who serve to inspire the existing employees because that action speaks louder than words. There is a certain reassurance that comes from seeing your own colleagues take their place at the head of the table. At each level of the organization, the chosen leaders need to demonstrate that they are successful because they truly live by the values that the organization claims to have. Growing your own leaders is the same as growing your own garden. It requires the right soil, weeding and nurturing before you get to see the flowers bloom. Creating a bouquet from such flowers makes it a rewarding task even though it is infinitely faster to buy them from the local florist.

Written by Abhijit Bhaduri · Filed Under Management 

Bottom