Aesop's Fables And Training Lessons

The crow and the pitcher (necessity is the mother of invention)
A thirsty crow found a pitcher containing some water, albeit too little and low to reach. As it seemed she would die within sight of the remedy, the crow struck upon an idea to drop pebbles into the pitcher. The water level rose and the crow was able to drink.

The slave and the lion (good deeds are rewarded)
A slave escaped and sought refuge in the wilderness, where he hid in a cave, which happened to be a lion's lair. When the lion returned the shocked slave expected the worst, but the lion meekly offered him an injured paw. The slave removed a thorn, and the lion and he became great friends, sharing the cave for some while. After a time the slave longed to return to society and bade the lion farewell. When he entered the town he was recognised and thrown in jail, and his master decided to make a public example of him by throwing him to the wild animals in the arena. On the fateful day the slave was cast among the beasts, including one enormous fierce lion. The lion approached the petrified slave, and the spectators gasped - but the lion quietly lay down at the slave's feet. It was his lion friend from the cave. The audience demanded clemency for such a show of loyalty and the governor duly gave them both their freedom.

The farmer and the stork (you'll be treated according to the company you keep)A farmer set traps to catch cranes, which were pests and were eating his crops. Inspecting the traps he found a number of cranes, and also a stork, which pleaded to be let go, because storks are not pests and do not take the crops. But the farmer refused, saying, "I don't care who you are - you're with the cranes who ruin my crops and so you'll suffer just the same as them."

The miller, his son and the ass (if you try to please everyone you will achieve nothing)A miller and his son were taking their ass to sell at market, when they passed a group of girls, who laughed at how foolish the miller was to have an ass and yet be walking. So the miller put his son on the ass. Further down the road they passed some old people who scolded the miller for allowing his young son to ride, when he should be riding himself. So the miller removed his son and mounted the ass himself. Further along the road, they passed some travellers who said that if he wanted to sell the ass the two of them should carry him or he'd be exhausted and worthless. So the miller and his son bound the ass's legs to a pole and carried him. When they approached the town the people laughed at the sight of them, so loud that the noise frightened the ass, who kicked out and fell off a bridge into the river and drowned. The embarrassed miller and son went home with nothing, save the lesson that you will achieve nothing by trying to please everyone.

The oxen and the butchers (accept what is inevitable)A group of oxen were set on avenging their treatment by the butchers and plotted to kill them with their horns, until an old wise ox spoke out: "We may hate and fear the butchers, but they do what they must do expertly, and if we kill them, man will still eat beef, so then other less skilled men will cause us far greater suffering."

THIRD EYE METHOD OF RECRUITMENT

Dear readers. I found an excellent article about recruitment and selection in the internet.I would like to reproduce that article.I think each and every HRManager must read this article. As I do not know the person who has written it, I am unable to give credit to him/her. HAPPY READING.

Two persons were traveling in a car in Rajasthan, they found one boy shooting a bird with his arrow, and these two persons knew that the bird was Asia’s fastest bird and immediately the boy and his parents were contacted and he was admitted into a sports school, those two people were officers of Sports Authority of India (SAI) and that boy was Limba Ram, who brought several medals to India in Asian games and common wealth games.

A boy used to borrow money from his widow mother to buy candies and toffees every evening, this was observed by some toughies round the corner and one day they beat him up and took his pocket money, he came home sobbing and mother gave him more money to get his candies, the boy came weeping the next day also, now the mother took it serious and asked him not to keep quiet and take revenge the boy went back and kicked the tough guy and he fell unconscious, this was observed by a boxing coach and the boy is none other than Mike Tyson.

In my several interactions with recruiters and HR managers, I found most of the times the HR managers and recruiters behave very mechanically without trying to identify the skills and strengths of the candidates, I think that if we try to see the strengths of individuals then we can really find many employable candidates

I go to vegetable market with a list of vegetables and quantities to be purchased , in the market I do not look for better price or variety, and I buy things that are in the list only and most of the recruiters are functioning in this same manner (pardon me for being harsh) Let us behave like selection boards and not like rejection boards.

To assess the progressive performance of students we have a progress report, and this progress report is used as a bench mark to take a decision either to promote to next class or to detain in the same class. We HR Managers seem not to have any such tool, and there by we are not able to assess candidates potential. Let us observe a common interview question and answer pattern for experienced people, and then come back to the topic.

Q)What is your present role? R) I am in recruiting / sales / taxation/ Q C/ Production etc. Q) What is your present designation? R) ManagerQ) Will you join as a Sr. Manager? (Obviously in the same line of activity candidate is presently engaged in)R) Yes / No. – (Candidate may seek another designation)Q) What is your CTC?R) Rs. XYZ.Q) How much hike are you looking at?The outcome will be either candidate is selected or rejected – if he is selected I am sure is not going to stay for long, and after his honey-moon period will again keep himself busy with one of the job portals.

All of us need change, this man who has been doing recruiting / sales / taxation/ Q C/ Production etc, for quiet some period now has graduated to move to different verticals in the same functional area such as (core HR/ Marketing/ advertising/ accounts/Q A / ISO certification/ lean manufacturing/ TQM/ Six-sigma etc. respectively, but this was not identified by the HR Manager, Imagine a seventh standard student getting a decent 75% is put again in seventh class - but this time as a class leader. This is what happening in most of the companies / selection process. Common practice in schools is if a student gets less than 40%, is asked to repeat his present class and if he gets more than 40%, is promoted , are we doing this fundamental check of assessing his present level of capability?

Given a set of coloured stones a common man cannot identify which is a precious one and which is not – we need a gemologist for that, - gemologist has a third eye to see the potential, inner strength and quality of the particular stone. Given a few pieces of wood a common man cannot identify which is a teak wood piece - again we need a man with third eye – a carpenter – to identify the teak wood piece by its quality, strength etc. To say that some thing is bad we do not need managers, (to say a patient is ill – we do not need doctors, we need them to diagnose the cause) similarly we need managers especially HR managers to identify the latent talent not visible by two eyes – we need to open our “third eye” – to identify the strengths of the job seekers.

LOCUS OF CONTROL QUESTIONNAIRE

Circle the number to show how strongly you agree/disagree with each statement. Numbers on the left always mean disagree and those on the right always mean agree.
1. Getting ahead is about what you can do, not who you know.
Disagree Agree
1 2 3 4 5
2. I am too old to change.
Disagree Agree
1 2 3 4 5
3. If someone hates me, there is not a lot I can do about it.
Disagree Agree
1 2 3 4 5
4. Most people can learn to be leaders- it’s not a matter of birth.
Disagree Agree
1 2 3 4 5
5. A good way to handle a problem is not to think about it.
Disagree Agree
1 2 3 4 5
6. Promotions are earned through hard work and persistence.
Disagree Agree
1 2 3 4 5
7. I am very persevering – and I usually accomplish what I set out to do.
Disagree Agree
1 2 3 4 5
8. Because no one can predict the future there is little point in making plans.
Disagree Agree
1 2 3 4 5
9. I won’t make resolutions because I don’t usually keep them.
Disagree Agree
1 2 3 4 5
10. I believe we are masters of our own fates.
Disagree Agree
1 2 3 4 5
If your total score is 40 or higher you probably feel in control of your life and what happens to you, the good and the bad. You are likely to take initiative in relationships, work and career.
A score of 30 to 39 also suggests an internal locus of control, though less definitely.
If you scored 10 or lower the opposite is probably true – you feel you don’t have much control over what happens.
A score of 11 to 19 carries a similar, though less pronounced meaning.
A score of 20-29 falls in between. There is real scope for you to develop your internal locus of control further.

The old spring clener

The old gentleman had been hired many years earlier by a young towncouncilman to clear away the debris from the pools of water up in themountain crevices that fed the lovely spring flowing through their town.With faithful, silent regularity, he patrolled the hills, removed the leavesand branches, and wiped away the silt that would otherwise have choked andcontaminated the fresh flow of water. The village soon became a popularattraction for vacationers. Graceful swans floated along the crystal clearspring, the mill wheels of various businesses located near the water turnedday and night, farmlands were naturally irrigated, and the view fromrestaurants was picturesque beyond description.Years passed.
One evening the town council met for its semiannual meeting.As they reviewed the budget, one man's eye caught the salary figure beingpaid the obscure keeper of the spring. Said the keeper of the purse, "Who isthe old man? Why do we keep him on year after year? No one ever sees him.For all we know, the strange ranger of the hills is doing us no good. Heisn't necessary any longer." By a unanimous vote, they dispensed with theold man's services.
For several weeks, nothing changed.By early autumn, the trees began to shed their leaves. Small branchessnapped of and fell into the pools, hindering the rushing flow of sparklingwater. One afternoon someone noticed a slight yellowish-brown tint in thespring. A few days later, the water was much darker. Within another week, aslimy film covered sections of the water along the banks, and a foul odorwas soon detected. The mill wheels moved more slowly, some finally ground toa halt. Swans left, as did the tourists. Clammy fingers of disease andsickness reached deeply into the village.
Quickly, the embarrassed council called a special meeting. Realizing theirgross error in judgment, they rehired the old keeper of the spring, andwithin a few weeks, the veritable river of life began to clear up. Thewheels started to turn, and new life returned to the hamlet in the Alps .
Never become discouraged with the seeming smallness of your task, job, orlife. Cling fast to the words of Edward Everett Hale: "I am only one, butstill I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; andbecause I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something I can do." The key to accomplishment is believing that what you can do will make adifference.

CONFIDENCE

When Henry Ward Beecher was a young boy in school, he learned a lesson in self confidence which he never forgot.
He was called upon to recite in front of the class. He had hardly begun when the teacher interrupted with an emphatic, "No!" He started over and again the teacher thundered, "No!" Humiliated, Henry sat down. The next boy rose to recite and had just begun when the teacher shouted, "No!" This student, however, kept on with the recitation until he completed it. As he sat down, the teacher replied, "Very good!"
Henry was irritated. "I recited just as he did," he complained to the teacher. But the instructor replied, "It is not enough to know your lesson; you must be sure. When you allowed me to stop you, it meant that you were uncertain. If all the world says, 'No!' it is your business to say, 'Yes!' and prove it."
The world will say, "No!" in a thousand ways.
"No! You can't do that." "No! You are wrong." "No! You are too old." "No! You are too young." "No! You are too weak." "No! It will never work." "No! You don't have the education." "No! You don't have the background." "No! You don't have the money." "No! It can't be done."
And each "No!" you hear has the potential to erode your confidence bit by bit until you quit all together.
Though the world says, "No!" to you today, will you determine to say, "Yes!" and prove it?
Have a positive day!

SINGLE LOOP AND DOUBLE LOOP LEARNING

Chris Argyris is the person who first presented this concept of single and double loop learning. According to him organizations learn in two ways : in a single loop or in double loop.When the errors detected and corrected permits the organization to carry on its present policies, then the error and correction process is single loop. In other words, single loop learning occurs when problems are solved by changing action or strategies for achieving a desired result without changing the underlying theory or assumptions about those actions.Questioning the governing variables and subjecting them to critical scrutiny is called double loop learning. In other words, double loop learning occurs when problems are solved by changing the fundamental values and assumptions of the theory as well as strategy and actionsNOW THING ABOUT YOUR ORGANIZATION. WHAT TYPE OF ORGANIZATION IT IS? WHETHER IT FOLLOWS SINGLE LOOP OR DOUBLE LOOP LEARNING? Our organizations are mainly built on single loop learning principle.But the need of the hour is to become innovative and question the basic premises. When single loop learning fails to deliver results, managers will become defensive and put the blame on others. Hence top management and hr managers must make efforts to encourage and nurture the culture of double loop learning in organizations in order to innovate and succeed in competitive environment.

AMAZING STORY OF MAFOI

(This article was published in rediff.com. Below is the reproduction of that article for the benefit of the readers of my blog)

Today Ma Foi Management Consultants is the largest HR services provider and staffing company in India, with a turnover of Rs 435 crore (Rs 4.35 billion).
Ma Foi has so far helped generate career opportunities for more than 169,000 people in 35 countries.
K Pandia Rajan started it in 1992 with a capital of just Rs 60,000. Ably assisting him in his long journey has been his wife, Hemalatha Rajan, who is also the director of the company.
Childhood in Sivakasi
Pandia Rajan was born in Vilampatti village in Sivakasi district. His father who was a worker at a match factory died when Pandia Rajan was just three months old. He was brought up by his grandparents in a joint family of about 40 to 50 people.
Later his grandparents started their own match factory.
After studying in the village school, the hard-working boy went to Coimbatore to study engineering at the PSG College of Technology.
Having stood first in the university, he joined XLRI, Jamshedpur for his MBA. That, he says, was where the seeds of entrepreneurship in the HR arena were sown in his mind.
"At that time, HR guys never became entrepreneurs, but I wanted to study HR and then be an entrepreneur. In my village too almost everybody is an entrepreneur. Unless you are on your own, you are a nobody there. So, you can say the entrepreneurial spirit is deeply ingrained in all of us."
But he had to wait for some time. After working for six years, and getting married to a chartered accountant (Hemalatha) in 1989, he and his wife decided to put all their dreams together in their own enterprise."
Starting Ma Foi
On August 15, 1992, the couple decided to launch Ma Foi Management Consultants ?to market expertise as a product.'
But why a French name? "We were targetting the international market. So, Ma Foi -- or My Word -- is a name that meant something to all European countries. It gave us an occasion to speak about our value to the clients. ?Ma Foi' symbolized what we wanted to say and do."
With an investment of Rs 60,000, they started Ma Foi in "a small shack of a place." But by the end of the year, four of their friends put in Rs 10,000 each and upped the investment to Rs 1 lakh (Rs 100,000).
They started primarily by placing engineers overseas. The Chennai office, which opened at 6 a.m., remained open till midnight so that candidates could walk in and register any time. "Although it was a struggle initially, we wanted to position ourselves as a candidate-centric organisation. About 30 to 40 people visited us every day. It was 1992-93 and the Gulf region was booming. We sent dozens of middle-level and managerial people at that time to countries like Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Brunei, etc. . ."
Even as visa processing began, the Babri Masjid was felled. All Gulf nations put a ban on issuing visas to Indians. And Ma Foi's losses ran into lakh (hundreds of thousands). "It was a tough phase and we had to pledge even our jewellery. But when we came out of the struggle, we expanded into all kinds of things."
By 1994, a lot of multinational companies made their entry into India. By the end of 1994, Ma Foi got a huge offer from Apple Computers to recruit all their heads of departments. "That was also the time the salaries in the Gulf region started falling. Till then we had not done any such huge recruitment in India. Whatever we had done was only on the secretarial side. With that one assignment from Apple Computers, we moved ahead in India."
Ma Foi also set up offices in all the big cities in India and seriously started looking at domestic recruitment and sectors like IT, finance and banking.
By then, Ma Foi became a closely held public limited company. "We gave equities to our friends, relatives with the promise that we would return at least 20% dividend every year."
During the dot-com boom in 2000, Ma Foi also had a dot-com plan and got a lot of venture capitalists investing in it. But then came the dot-com bust. "Thankfully we were affected only slightly by the dot-com bust. We pulled back the dot-com model very soon and convinced our VCs to use what we got -- around Rs 8.5 crore (Rs 85 million) -- in the brick-and-mortar model. With that money, we could spruce up our offices and add more people."
Part of the Vedior Group
In 2002, Ma Foi set up their first overseas office in Dubai. "In terms of turnover, we were number one in India then, with 600 people working for us. Whenever we travelled abroad we noticed that the staffing industry over there was quite evolved. It also made business sense to have offices abroad. Deputing 10 people in the United Kingdom is equivalent to deputing 100 people in India!"
After understanding how the overseas market worked, they had two choices: either to go for an initial public offering, or to look for a global, strategic partnership. "The IPO market was down and volatile then. So, we decided to go for a strategic partnership with global majors. Giants like Manpower, Adecor and Vedior were also looking at the Indian market."
"Vedior (the world's leading specialist staffing company from the Netherlands) was much below the two in terms of turnover, but it allowed us much more flexibility. It was a multi-brand company and called itself a federation and corporation. Because it is a federation, a lot of entrepreneurs become a part of it. We run the show and they support us. We had 270 shareholders, plus the VCs, then. It was a majority partnership with 76 per cent held by Vedior and 24 per cent by us. Today, we hold 18 per cent.
With Vedior's support, Ma Foi set up offices in the United Arab Emirates, the UK, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Oman, the United States, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, and Malaysia.
The Indian market and the world market
"India is still an evolving market; it is still not a mature market though a lot more clarity has emerged in the last five years. In terms of legality, it is clearer too. On the other hand, the European and the US markets are quite mature. It will take another decade or so for the Indian market to evolve fully."
"People are slowly getting comfortable with temporary staffing in India too. In a country like France, almost 80 per cent of the staffing is on temporary basis. People mostly work on contract. But in India, there is a stigma attached to temporary jobs."
Impact of the US recession
"Definitely the slowing down of the US economy will have an impact on the Indian economy too, but not too much. It may take another six months for the IT and BPO sector to feel the pinch. Sometimes, the impact could be positive; there may be more outsourcing too as they have a problem there."
Making profits
Ma Foi broke even in their first year itself. From placing 30 to 35 people in the first year, now they find jobs for around 5,500 people every month.
If the turnover of the first year was Rs 520,000, today, it is Rs 435 crore. In the initial years, Ma Foi grew at more than 100 per cent. The company's compounded annual growth rate has been 70 per cent.
Social responsibility
"Though both of us were fairly well employed, our dream was to build an institution, do something meaningful and give something back to society in whatever way we could," the Rajans say.
The company made a profit of Rs 5,000 in the first year. Vandana Gopikumar and Vaishnavi Jayakumar, two college students had just started Banyan, a Trust that helps rehabilitate mentally challenged destitute women at that time. "We sent the entire money to help them set up Banyan. From that year onwards, we keep aside a part of our profits for charity."
As they doubled their profits every year, their contribution to charity too increased. In 1997, they started a Trust called Sornammal Educational Trust (SET) in the name of Pandia Rajan's grandmother. The first effort was to help the students of his village.
In 2000, when a school with 100 very poor children run by Hemalatha's grandmother was to be closed down after she passed away, the educational trust decided to run it. "When we saw the poor children, we felt like helping them. We bought a piece of land and built a school. We called it Sornammal Matriculation School. Now we have 650 children, of whom 350 study free of charge."
It was when Hemalatha met the mothers of the poor children that the idea to start self-help groups (SHGs) originated. These women are clustered into groups and are given vocational training so that they could start their own ventures. Training is provided to women to become nurses, DTP operators, housekeepers and even auto drivers. They are also taught tailoring, bag making, handicrafts, embroidery, et cetera.
"Till today, we have given Rs 3 crore (Rs 30 million) as loans to these women to start their own businesses. I must say the repayment of loans has been 100 per cent," a satisfied Hemalatha said.
The trust has 816 SHGs for 13,128 women in Chennai.
CIOSA
In 2004, after working with many NGOs, Hemalatha felt the need to bring all the NGOs under one umbrella, and that was how the Confederation of Indian Organisations for Service and Advocacy (CIOSA) was born. It acts as a good platform for corporates and NGOs to work together.
In 2007, the Ma Foi Foundation was formed so that all the corporate social responsibility activities are taken care of by one body. Under the Disha Scholarship Scheme, 1,300 children from corporation school -- 150 are from the Rajans' native town Sivakasi -- get scholarship to study. The foundation also runs career guidance programmes for the 8th, 9th and 10th standard students.
"Ma Foi Foundation promises a better society as we believe in giving back what we take out and changing the world for the better," the Rajans said.