Author: siteadmin

Habits die hard , the adage not only goes with stubborn or the superstitious . It is equally true for the rational and the reasoned mind also. The example are in galore why every new initiative  however scientific or effective it may be first  poses the immediate threat to anybody however unreal or imaginative they might be. By instinct we see anything which does not conform to our age old practice although tried and tested (and yes successfully also) with critical and many a times cynical views . And here comes the necessity of narratives , the right narratives with its distinct and defined target groups which may be process owners , users or even the project champions.  So while creating narratives the focus areas may be as following :

(1)It must pinpoint the benefits, the advantages in an unequivocal language. There must not be any hushed tone or hidden agenda  and whatever is expected or already experimented by so many  past implementors must be made loud and clear . If needed their evidence passive or active ,  immediate or future must be fed in information throughput of the organization to reach different layers and levels.

In the corporate snobbery against the IT to look at it as less strategic and more supportive , it is always  the case of everybody to ask for moon from any software or service which must be rightly tackled right at its beginning. While the general perception about IT to be a wonder tool or magic wand , it is very crucial for the ERP project team to tame this unbridled imagination and aptly manage  the unrealistic expectation . Otherwise the whole project will backfire or boomerang with deep frustration (mostly not getting inferred and that also immediate result) fast setting in the organizational psyche drawing flaks from the general users with the looming radar of vigilance and surveillance agencies to transform the whole project a very live source of scam. So buy-in at every level with rational expectation from the software suite is very much needed. The best proposition is always to bifurcate between the low hanging fruits ie immediate  and visible benefits and some long term or protracted change with a transformative continuum not immediately observed but immensely felt or convincing  for every stakeholder in the industry.

(2)After ‘know- why’  permeates across the veins and arteries of the organization  the next explanation  is about the knowhow ,  a full scape description of the this integrated solution on how it works  articulated in a convincing and crystal clear way with simplest language sans any jargons or business terminology too hard to be understood by the user , module owners , process owners etc. It is all about how the system works , specially process modeling or mapping or its reengineering  and its automation with decision making capacity demystified  and deciphered in the simplest way. The conflict will be obvious as  here the process owners’ possessiveness about their age old tested and tried working style will not easily go way. While they had been used to their practice or the job profile  so long , sudden radicalization  of it , or impounding knowledge in it from outside  however better they may be ,will not settle comfortably with these veteran employees. A strategic fit along with organization fit of the incumbent system and their  legacy process or their reengineered version  has to be  not only created for their conviction but also well choreographed to get them rolled in seamlessly without any major glitches. While for the top management cultivation of effective business proposal for the system implementation is important , for the lower level employees the conforming  to ease of using system, its quality, impact on individual and organization and ultimately quality of information is of utmost importance.

(3)The next factor followed after right appraisal  of know- why and knowhow is  who will be your change agents to orchestrate this transformation. Here need to locate the influential group or the effective power nodes in the organization which not necessarily follow the formal hierarchy. Depending on the defined scope and workflow design  or process mapping the whole exercise may be radical with wholesome change in every job or work profile spreading across the full span of enterprise with a big  bang approach or it may be incremental , restricted to some pockets or units with phased progress. Normally any organization goes for the middle approach ie hybrid one which means first implementing in some lead units or areas with limited modules and then scale up to the bigger areas and more modules leveraging the experiences it gains specially managing the ensuing conflict the new work environment will inevitably brings with it. The influencer group , opinion makers or the effective power fulcrums(which may not necessarily follow the formal power structure) in the industry come here very handy to push the project forward and smoothen  the rough edges of the technology which normally creates those friction points. Normally in any industry this group does not have the colors of post , position , cadre of the employees  neither they need to be restricted to the boundary of the organization(in fact opinion leaders may be outside the company also) . They may be any stakeholder who not only supports but also  are passionately ready to promote the application packages across the department, desks or divisions. Because of their strong clout inside  the industry , they may create a compulsive as well as impulsive urge amongst user levels which can easily negotiate with any upcoming conflict or challenges.

(4) Any organization along with its concerned industry while passing through different phases of its journey or evolution creates lots of histories , collects lots of allegories which must be saved and stashed in its knowledge bank as its learning bites  or legacies. These all lessons from the past experimentations whether they triumphed or tanked or simply keep treading for long without any meaningful yield must be treated as treasure trove which can be redeemed  in the later years  of taking any new initiative in the organization. Leveraging the learning from both past successes or failures are always best knowledge resources for the next big ticket reforms in the company irrespective the  domain of experimentation (IT, Operation, Marketing or HR etc ). The scale and scope of implementation is much more important than the specific genre or field of project. Specially in the company like ours  with so much diversity and difference in style of functioning spread and scattered across huge geographical as well as demographical dispersion we must not put our experiences to be quarantined inside its parent department rather reuse and retrofit whenever necessary in the other field of application also. Whether it is of PAN organization implementation of personnel management system (like PRIDE)or risk assessment plans in hundreds of units or establishment we are working with (as in SIMTARS), the basic tasks and  its associated tenets of tackling the initial resistance or managing the expectation and so the aspiration (or in some cases frustration)are all the same. Documenting the  today’s experience to decipher and decode tomorrow’s experimental glitches needs cultural  attestation by the top management . It always helps to smoothen the change management process .

(5) The change management is not any informal or casual manifestation of any project. Specially implementing a transformative project like ERP , change management is itself a big  project in its own which must be conceived , executed , monitored thus controlled and coordinated in continuous basis. The best integration of the milestones or the deliverable of this project “ change management”  with the organization milestones will be only passible if the whole exercise is drilled down to its different doable at different levels and layers in the organization then incorporated in the executive evaluation report of performance score card with the moving targets (as changed with phase of implementation of ERP)assigned to the individuals involved in it.

(6) The last but not least as we must appreciate change management in not any mere managerial job of coordination and much more than that , it must be treated as precursor or precondition of ERP implementation. Once the proper perspective could be established about the implementation then only we must promulgate the technical or managerial roll out of application-packaged-software in that particular process , people or place. Any effort in reverse (ie first roll out and then impose it ) may boomerang and backfire which is not warranted at all. So know-when or timing  ie trigger point is very much important and that also in the precision of surgical operation to get one of the most expensive roll out of  project like ERP .

On the whole we must treat the change management of any big ticket reform(and so the ERP) with its complete embodiment of another management project a visible , tangible full scale implementation which is not any second fiddle but dwell at the core of ERP roll out. And for this  adaptation best knowhow must be preceded by convincing  know-why and precise know- when with its detailed and distinct narratives put in with proper  context befitting with every stage of implementation..

(How important the Chairman’s speech is in any company? New Chairman’s Speech and how it matters for the company like CIL)

Every company is basically an identity workspace  , a space where the employee feels recognized with, an identity she or he heavily borrows from , again an identity which itself gets assimilated , consolidated over the time with the collective identities of these employees where organization always looking towards the excellence of the individual and to be known by the same. Now while reinforcing the extant or established identity or reengineering the newer experimentation, it is very much important to understand the psyche of the company we are constructing(or reconstructing) this identity. Normally when leadership grows from inside, his version or view of identity will be always different from somebody who enters from outside (industry or company). Even if the industry is generically characterized by any special trait or type of service /product it caters to or creates  , the identity and its interpretation will again vary. The insider who goes through the gruelling and grinding  of any company which may be entrenched with some specific process like mining , steel , FMCG  or entangled with specific  purpose  to be served like welfare , non profit , NGOs . The insider views are dotted with so many storylines , allegories of chivalry , valor  and achievement but equally punctuated with experience traps of hindrance, blockades , resistance , red tapes and such others. So scripts of speech of any insider must reflect these experience, exposure and decision making capacity of the incumbent whereas the outsider never has that past baggage to show case all these blues or bugs while speaking. The outsider always comes with some different perspective may be new and fresh to the company  but very much in vogue in the outside world where the incumbent worked.

So any speech from any body specially taking the reign of it or working at it’s helm must not miss or mesh with all the above narratives which has been duly processed over the past tenures of decades and so is very much expected to be put forward whenever given the chance to deliver. Industry like ours which always reels under the hardship of rough and rustic adversaries of all most all kinds like   natural hazards , oddity in working , confronting unions (although militancy was very past these days) etc always discounts any rhetoric or  dialogue from dais or playing to gallery  with sheer cynicism , apathy and anger. An industry grown on its own with scanty regard to any modern management theory (although being incubator of almost all of  them but in very crude way too silent and too shy to be advertised!! ) , CIL just gives a damn to any so called corporate culture and expects the people on the top must be plain speaking rather than weaving the cob web of words. There are industries where the more informed and erudite participants expects their head must be so called sauvé , savvy and sophisticated as well as erudite ,educated and enlightened enough while delivering their speech to connect with them. But not in our organization which by default overindulges in overtly more hazardous rather than just harsh environment  and believes in facts to be presented in its utmost lucid form. And people in command must speak their mind rather than spin the cobweb of jargons, gimmicks being obsessed with style of communication  bereft of substance of communiqué .

In the above pretext we must appreciate the first lecture of Mr. AK Jha the new chairman -elect  who while being contestant was always considered the underdog in the high profile grand prix(long protracted selection process culd not have any better name) for the post lying vacant for almost three quarter of the year. More aptly be described being a dark horse  in the chairman race as there a few other heavyweights’ names were round the corner , the man on dais simply has spoken his mind , confessed his passionate and protective personality as he described himself an ordinary but honorable man and narrated his realization in simplest term which suits best with the character of field we work.Never boasting of huge baggage of qualification, pedigree , charisma normally any chairman brings with his appointment ,he clearly felt enough humbled to be described a man with difference by some of his colleagues , he was more appreciative about the coal people at large rather than himself  and thanked the audience in the sprawling, soothing corporate auditorium  and the employees in the  scorching, rugged field all of whom have inspired him enough for their genuine worth and cause to be approved for their last pay hike. He very much rightly proposed himself to be a facilitator, a man in such post as always is desired to be rather than just the chieftain of the company. He was honest enough , he was frank enough and he was fair enough while admitting his indebtedness to almighty God and Goddess (Lord Jagannath and Ma Kali) with whose blessing he could have reached such height, he was grateful enough to the people of CIL who gave him chance to serve them. The man on the dais never spoken what he never practiced. The simplicity was blatantly unarming. No playing with words, no spinning the cobweb of inflated claim (about one self) and ingenuine promise (for others), Mr. Jha spoke long as much his inner self wanted. Yes sometimes he appeared to go overboard when he showed his concern for the employee and loved to address it one to one basis. Yes, it always needs much more panache to place employee first rather than just power, position or predilection to promote their cause. However emotionally charged these words may be, there was truth in his admission, there his heart and soul poured fully on what he uttered in those few moments of his love and respect for the people. A rarest cult in this industry who never forgets every bit of comfort anybody enjoys in elsewhere(HQ or office premises) apart from the hazard and hardship of the field  is always sweated out by our coal miner pitted against all possible odds in working zone (best be called war zone or winning zone of of king coal) , the man on the dais kept on reminding otherwise forgetful audience , about the sacrifice , sweat and suffering  our colleagues , or coworkers are exposed in real time in our workfields.And it was not  then at all surprising that the last claps  he desired after his emotional pitch from the audience is for those brave hearts , the strong warriors ,the resilient fighters in the frontiers called coalfields fighting against all odds in real time to fuel almost every turbine of our nation to kindle the light in every house hold and every shop floor.