Key learnings from 1 year at K ( Part 3)

After a post which had a negative overtone to it n one which painted a grim picture of the first year, I feel it imperative to let the readers know that the positives gained out of the experience far outweigh the negatives.

I m not going to write much abt the clichéd ones like “Confidence factor”, “Communication n presentation skills” etc…., rather would concentrate more on the art of perfection of the JIT technology, the realisation that “Smart work” is the way to go rather than hard work n the most importantly, the G brothers (Actually, there’s not much difference btw them) - Mr Gas n Gyaan .

Just In Time – or JIT as it’s popularly known – was one of the breakthrough concepts in operations management. The core of the concept is “less inventory” n “less wastage” n the streamlining of the entire operations to ensure that products are rolled out just in time when it’s required. Due to a variety of constraints, JIT couldn’t achieve the magnitude of success it was envisaged to. But somewhere in a remote town located in the southern part of India, a bunch of 20 somethings have been fine tuning and perfecting the art of JIT for about one whole year.
The PGDM course structure which lays emphasis on lots of project work, assignments, presentations, quizzes etc, brings along “deadlines” with it…( The most familiar numbers in the campus are 2,3,5 n 9 or rather 23:59). As I mentioned in some previous post, “work expands to fill the time”. Over the course of time, the bunch of 20 somethings have realised this and hence have coined the new maxim “Work still fits in even if the time contracts”. They don’t carry any excess inventory in their mind n brain, till the need arises to roll out the final output. Usually this need arises during the last 5% of the time allocated, when the guys get their arses moving n hold the customary team meeting. Hence arises the 95-5 rule – “5% of the work gets done in the initial 95% of the time allotted, while 95% of the work gets done in the last 5% of the time allotted”. How does this help? U minimize the time spent on rework, u minimize the time spent on non value added work, u can use the initial 95% of the time allotted to perform other productive, constructive n creative activities.

We ve been taught from the childhood that hard work is a pre-requisite for achieving success. But what K has made me n many others aware is “Smart work” is a better n more productive substitute to “Hard work”. It’s not practically possible to keep on putting in more than 100% effort throughout a long time period. One tends to plateau or hit a trough occasionally. Smart work involves timing these ‘peaking, plateauing n troughing’ perfectly by ourselves, rather than those being driven by the course of events. It also involves customizing the work; customizing according to the nature of the work, payoffs involved, proximity of the deadline etc.

In addition to the various hypothetical characters mentioned in the previous post, some of the other interesting characters who visit the campus n become a part of everyone’s life are Mr Gyaan n Mr Gas. U never know what form Mr Gyaan will take – Gyaan can pour out during an informal chit-chat session at NC, can pour out from an intoxicated student, can pour out even from an otherwise inconspicuous student… Mr Gas makes his presence felt during the examinations, presentations, reports etc… Mr Gyaan n Mr Gas, along with the acquired academic knowledge creates this supremely confident student who is a master of the “Impression management”.