Solving NAVRANG Cube

How to Solve N.A.V.R.A.N.G  CUBE:

N.A.V.R.A.N.G  Cube is a six- faced cube made up of 27 smaller cubes - there are 9 different colour cubes and for each colour set there are 3 identical cubes.The cube looks similar to RUBIC Cube. The cube is said to be solved when each of the faces has 9 different colour cubes ie. there is no repetition of same colour cube at any face.

I tried to demonstrate the method of solving the cube through a method which is fast and fool proof and uploaded the same in Youtube so that interested people can have a look and give suggestions if any. As per the suggestion of Dr, Mandi I have only prepared the same in my Mother tongue ie. Bengali. Hope you enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWez2McBj1U&feature=youtu.be

Bringing N.A.V.R.A.N.G Cube Simile in Organization Management:

The solving of N.A.V.R.A.N.G cube is somewhat like solving the problems of Organisation Management. As the cubes of same traits do not appear at the same face so should not be the people or resources of same skills and characters appear at the same strata - else there may be ego clash or skill deficiency. As the colours of the rainbow or here the N.A.V.R.A.N.G Cube each strata or division of an Organisation should be made up of different types of people so that the organisation structure is holistic and multidimensional.

But while doing that the management also needs to channelize these whole diverse set of resources towards the common organisation goal else it may lead to complete organizational failure.

3 Monks Story

     The Learning from 3 Monks Animated Story

When we are talking about Organizational management, Team work and its importance takes a vital role. The very simple animated video that Dr. Mandi referred us to watch is filled with learnings. Once you watch the video you will not directly come to any specific conclusion but a thinking process will start in your mind and with eventual analysis lot of learning can be derived from the same.

The below is the link of the video in YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rolBiHfWokY&feature=player_embedded


The whole story can be segmented into the following major stages:

• Stage 1, with a single monk:

Each monk has a capability of carrying 2 buckets at a time and performed his work very efficiently and his needs where also fulfilled when he carried 2 buckets of water.

• Stage 2, second monk arrival:

The requirement of water is increased since the number of people are increased. So they planned to get the water by collaborating with each other. So they carried 1 bucket of water and placed the bucket exactly at the center so that the work load is decreased.
Some of you might be in an assumption that this is inefficient since 2 people are carrying only 1 bucket (Initially I felt the same :) )

But, By Calculating the energy used in each case, the 2nd case was more efficient than the 1st.

• Stage 3, third monk arrived:

Since everyone consumes equal amount of water no one is willing to get the water. Suddenly an emergency situation(the monastery started burning) occurred when they realised the value of team work. They collaborated effectively and make the problem resolved.

• Stage 4, Introspection of the Ideas:

The three monks now started thinking to increase the efficiency which lead to new method of using wheel and axle to lift water.The idea which they generated reduced their effort drastically. They increased it to a vast extent and lived happily.

• Understanding from the story:

1.  There is always a scope for improvement in the organisational systems.
2.  Team work will always lead to efficiency in the organisation.
3.  Team work helps in generation of new ideas which may lead to innovation.
4. Technology should be used to reduce the work load.
5.  Experiences in crisis management comes handy to come up with new innovative methods to solve the problems.
6. Improvement is a continuous process but innovation is sudden.
7. Like the size, figure and nature of 3 different monks, an organization also consists of different types of people. The nature, personality differences as well as the ego can create disparity in the system which may lead to complete organization failure. So its the task of the manager to channelize the resources in one direction so that maximum efficiency can be derived out of them.

Goal Setting

Goal setting plays a very important for attaining success not only in an organization but also in personal development. Goals should be such that it is neither too low so that it can be achieved by anybody and also not too high also so that it becomes practically unattainable leading to demoralization and multiple failure.

There comes the concept of SMART Goal setting.

SMART is a mnemonic to guide people when they set objectives, for example for project management, employee performance management and personal development. The letters broadly conform to the words specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound with the addition of the words evaluate and reevaluate used in more recent literature.The first known uses of the term occur in the November 1981 issue of Management Review by George T. Doran

The different mnemonics of SMART goals are as below:

Dr. Mandi then discussed how the goals should be set for the Tower Building activity- So that the target is not that low and also not impractical. We also discussed about the Pygmalion concept which is the phenomenon which states greater the expectation placed upon people, the better they perform.

It  suggests that our potential to do something must always be expected to be greater and accordingly we should set our goals high.We discussed that the goals set, achieved, history and potential (over a period of time) should be as below: 

He also inspired to keep goal setting always high- he gave example of Fibonacci graph which increases and spreads at a very high rate- So should also be our goals

So what are we waiting for Lets set a goal and achieve it

Migration from Craft Management system to Modern Management System::                                       

I am writing this blog in reference to the discussion and the learning that we had in our Class 2 with Dr. Mandi . As we already got a flavour of his practical oriented teaching style, this day was not any different. 

He threw small cubes with letters written on them. Asked us what can be the maximum number of cubes one can use to make a tower. And the next challenge was same task, but the person making the tower should be blind folded with another guy guiding him. All tried to make some guesses and the highest bidder went on to take the challenge. He even risked a few bucks out of his pocket !! He kept on building the tower by placing blocks in criss-cross position while we looked at him in excitement. Here he goes.... when he just piled up 22 blocks the tower came down. :)

After that, people interested to take up the second challenge were called on stage. Three came. One of them was made blind folded other took the position as CEO and third the manager. The manager instructed the blind folded guy- here projected as the employee at lowest level of the organisational hierarchy. The tower shoot up and with some dwindling ultimately reached 23rd floor. There was cheer from all around because all expected the reverse will happen.Then we got our much awaited lessons on how productivity can be increased by moving from old craft management system- where an individual person with his skills try to manage the whole activity - to our modern management system with hierarchy where the bottom of the pyramid ie. the workers (here represented by the blind fellow) is only expected to carry on order of his manager without any personal thinking or contribution.

Blind Folded	Person with eyes open
	Decoding
Doing	Doing

He stressed that the decoding activity that goes on in the mind of a craft-man is prevented in modern management system where the employee only follows the instruction of the managed ie. only "Doing" and no "Decoding".

	1 Person	> 1 Person
Scope of Work	Ambiguous	Crystal clear
Skill		Decreases
Satisfaction		Decreases
Amount of work		Broken into smaller parts
Time		Time to perform reduces

The result that we got in our class experiment was tallying with what we learnt. Thus division of labour and hierarchy system of management does increases the productivity.

One can also go through the below link which is very elaborate in approach:

http://pomcourse2012.blogspot.in/2012/09/concepts-division-of-labor.html

Doing धन्दा  is not गन्दा !!         

                                                                        

17th June was the day when I left my job life and joined NITIE. It was a mixed emotion for me - on one side I shall not be getting my regular salary on 25th of every month on the other hand I was delighted that after fierce competition in CAT I am ultimately able to join an institute of my choice which may lead and guide me to achieve my dream.

Class for Dr. T.Prasad, more popularly known as Dr Mandi was quite unusual for me... I think the same must be for others also. Once he entered the room we stood up but what he did perplexed us all. He directly sat on the floor and asked us to do the same. For about a minute we could not realise what was actually going on, we looked at each other's face and all followed our Guru.

Believe me at first I thought that it might be a punishment but after sitting comfortably the session proceeded in a different way; I may say a very down to earth approach. He stressed more on the application part of our management education. Enough of studies till class 10,12 or Engineering...... if we cannot convert our knowledge to money then there is no point of carrying a MBA degree. He  told us that money mindedness is not a crime and it is actually desired only. He brought forward the practicality that those who left jobs to join the program are effectively paying a large money and if within these 2 years they are not earning a penny then they are actually committing 'paap'.

On that day discussion mostly revolved around the famous activity "Mandi" which was initiated by him since PGDIM 10 batch. During this activity students come out of their comfort zones to sell products in the streets of Mumbai. For me the concept was new but drew me to watch the video whose link I have provided below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFPHoj16XBE

The idea behind this can be summarised simply in his words :

"Soacho.. Becho; Becho.. Seekho; Seekho .. Soacho

                    Earning by Learning & Earning for Learning"

 ie. its the best way to learn selling on the raw streets where the management gyans can be applied and this learning while interacting with different people from different strata of societies only will make our management education more holistic. That's the basic motive. By selling the products in one way we are reaching society with goods and in return we are getting the knowledge of how to interact with customers and deal with them.

He pulled out some amazing stuffs out of his bag- a globe ball, Newton ball and a balancing bird - a few of the items sold in Mandi.

He told us the story of a few guys who used these simple objects to make their fortune as entrepreneur when they were only in their engineering college. Then he stressed on the most evident point that we need to unleash our inner potential and find every way to convert opportunity into money(Staying in financial capital of India gives us an extra advantage).... No need to wait to get an MBA degree. We can go for hunt today itself.

"Aaj ka roti -- Aaj hi khamayenge

The whole session was very knowledgeable and interactive and inspirational and i realised that such interactions can never be done sitting in mundane chairs of NITIE. Better be down to earth.

I want to reach more people with my experience and I am following his suggestion to blog. As I never did blogging earlier, I feel it very difficult to summarise all those that happened in that  eventful class.

 

But sharing knowledge is what can help us all because knowledge accumulation is cumulative only. I remembered the lines of Rabindranath Tagore " In the heaven of freedom where knowledge is free". So I am enjoying sharing this with all and will carry on the same. For all those who are also new to this activity I want to say ..........