Articles tagged with ambadi
Some experiences happen that leave you dumbfounded. I have had many such. This is one of them. They are markers for me that Allahﷻ is there and watching and protects us with His Mercy.
My planting story ends on a very happy note which always brings great happiness to my heart. After spending three years in Ambadi, I decided to quit planting and seek my fortune elsewhere. One year later in 1994, I launched by consulting company, Yawar Baig & Associates, in Bangalore and have never looked back. Planting was a very beautiful part of my life which I thoroughly enjoyed. I made great friends who I have remained in close contact with ever since.
I set some ground rules. I told them that if they identified a problem, I also wanted them to think it through and suggest a solution that we could apply. I didn’t want them to become ‘professional protestors’. I wanted them to become problem solvers. Whatever problem they mentioned would be their problem and who better than they to suggest the solution? The second rule was that the syllabus was a non-negotiable. That had to be completed. So, if they wanted to take time off one day, they would have to work extra time on another day to complete the syllabus. Finally, I reiterated that they would be treated with respect, but that they would have to treat teachers with respect. That meant that what they wanted to do, they would have to discuss with their teachers and get their agreement. I would be happy to facilitate that if they wanted me to, but it was their responsibility. We would not impose anything on them without their agreement. And the same courtesy would apply to the teachers. Everyone agreed. They didn’t know how it would work in practice, but it sounded nice. Teachers also looked happier after hearing this.
My greatest gains in Ambadi were to do with conceptualizing learnings, about the importance of mentoring to empower frontline staff to take decisions and ownership. The results that we achieved had directly to do with our success in both areas. We took a group of discordant individuals and built them into a highly synchronized team that functioned as one person. We enabled people to see their strengths, to believe in themselves, to own responsibility, and to actively seek accountability. We took people who always played doubly safe and converted them into risk takers who were not afraid to take initiative. And we did all this in a period of less than one year.
That is where the beauty of the Hindustan Ambassador internal cabin design was such a help. The Ambassador has no frills. Unlike modern cars which have a whole console between the driver’s and passenger’s seat over which it is simply impossible to climb, in the Ambassador there is a straight-backed, non-reclining bench seat in the front and another behind. Each is supposed to seat three people. But in a pinch, you can easily fit in a few more. Climbing over the back of the front seat onto the driver’s side was a simple maneuver. Then I put the car in reverse gear and turned the ignition key. That way every time the starter took a turn, the car moved back a foot or two. This doesn’t do any favors for the starter which may get totally burned out, but in our case, it got the car out of the main flow of the river.
In my entire career as a general manager, it is a matter of pride for me that I did not give a single paisa as a bribe to any union leader to get what I wanted. I always stood on principle and was able to win every single matter that went for arbitration simply based on good argument and principle in law. I must give a large part of the credit to the people I dealt with in the unions who were honest, upright politicians, ideologically committed to their party line and genuinely interested in doing good for their members. When they saw that I was also of the same bent of mind and did not want to exploit their members but wanted to run a profitable business, they eventually supported me and accepted my solutions. The path was rough, and the ride was bumpy, but we always arrived at our destination safely. The key is to show them how what you are proposing is good for everyone, all around. You cannot fool people. If you do, then your credibility will be permanently destroyed when they find out, which always happens. You must be honest and firm and have all your facts and be prepared to stand by your word.
When you are working in a high conflict environment a particularly important strategy is to proactively reduce the issues on which conflict may happen. The fewer the conflicting issues, the easier your role in resolving them. Remember, the key is to do this proactively without being asked. The more issues you resolve unilaterally, the more brownie points you earn in the public eye and the more emotional support you will have when you actually deal with the ones in which you have to necessarily come into conflict with others. Another powerful strategy is to create as many interaction opportunities that are on issues other than the conflict issues as possible. That gives opportunity for both parties to meet and interact in tension free spaces and gives them freedom to exchange views, ideas and to see other facets of each other’s personalities than what they can see across the negotiating table.
I stressed in my Staff meeting that if my Staff did what I asked them to do wholeheartedly, I would take responsibility for any failures. I learnt from experience that when you have a team that is skilled, but not motivated and afraid, then you as the leader need to be able to take the responsibility for failure off their shoulders provided they follow orders. This creates a cushion of confidence which then gets reinforced when they see success and they start to own responsibility in due course. But in the beginning if they are too scared of trying the new methods that you are advocating and you make no effort to deal with these fears, then they freeze and will either not act at all or if you are forceful they will work without enthusiasm and commitment only because they are being pushed. This sabotages the entire initiative from the beginning and the effort fails. That sets up a negative vicious circle that reinforces the fears and then re-starting becomes even more difficult. It is essential in all change initiatives, especially big dramatic ones to ensure that you start with some success, however small. Without that the change will almost certainly fail.