Confronting the Brutal Reality: foundation for a sustained success

The famous book by Jim Collins- Good to Great was a synopsis of research on the traits of successful leaders and flourishing companies. The book turned out to be the #1 best seller, Since the findings were simple yet powerful in driving success. One of the traits was “Confront Brutal reality”. I consider this as a very powerful milestone for a journey towards success. Very often in our life, we tend to evade the truth. We rarely report the fact to seniors in the “as is” form. I believe there are many reasons that compel us to adopt such behavior.

A few of these reasons are:

1. Managers do not want to hear unpleasant truth. They like good news. As a result, the organization develops a tradition of sugar coating the “brutal reality“ before reporting it to the higher authorities. I wish this would make it really sweet.

2. The reporting manager hopes that he would be able to correct the “brutal reality” in a short time, and the lapse will be short lived. Seniors may not be aware of the fact. Unfortunately, very rarely it remains that way. Those of us coming from industrial unit background or sales background (FMCG, Telecom Service Providers, etc.) know very well that in order to show the numbers against monthly target, particularly when there is a shortfall, month closing is often dragged to 1st or 2nd of the following month. The cycle continues, and 2nd becomes 3rd, 3rd becomes 4th and so on so forth. But to no avail.

3. People have reluctance to confront the reality and resolve the issue. They keep procrastinating solving the issue. They forget that delaying a problem is not same as resolving an issue. Sometimes, capability to resolve a problem is also a concern.

Many a times, there could be other reasons too. I think the causes listed above are the most common ones in many companies.

I would like to emphasize that most of the companies are in the “Trap of not confronting the brutal reality”. If you look at the study by Jim Collins, only 11 companies out of 1435 good companies were classified as great companies in the study. This means, just less than one percent of the companies are great. Few of the companies from 11 slipped downwards subsequently. Nothing is perpetual. Change is inevitable. The Great companies will slide to good or bad depending on the prevailing leadership. If less than 1 % companies are really great, not all of us may get a chance to work in such an environment in our life time. My recommendation is to believe in this universal principle. If the environment does not allow it, try doing it in different form. Do not circumvent. It does not help.

I recommend internalizing the Principle of “Confront Brutal Reality”. You are fortunate if your leadership also believes in the principle, if not, try out different manifestations. Do not leave the concept.

Always remember, delaying a problem is not solving the problem. Confronting, leads you to look for solutions. It creates a better culture. It creates simple working environment which is based on truth. There are many more advantages.

The learning is: Confront the brutal Reality. Even though you have to pay the price in the short run, you will reap long term benefits. I believe “Confronting the Brutal Reality is like putting a strong foundation for a soaring structure. It is a must for sustained success.

Align, Simplify, Contain and Push – You will always win.

Frequently, I have come across several success stories, and the way the success was achieved by different companies. We come across failure stories more often than the success stories.It is interesting to note that numerous companies which followed similar techniques have different experiences with the success rates. A few companies got success and others failed despite using the same techniques. Let us take for example, the success of GE under the leadership of Jack Welch- Of course his charismatic leadership was the most important factor for success. They made use of six-sigma as one of the tool for driving change in the organization. I have been associated with another company (name not important) where six-sigma was used as a tool to drive improvement. The result was not even closer to what GE accomplished. The question arises; what are the factors, which create such an amazing difference?

I would like to share my experiences on this subject. Following are my observations:

1. Leadership: Our famous Election commissioner, T N Seshan mentioned that the bottleneck is always at the top of the bottle. Leadership is the most important factor. You need Passion, focus and drive to make things happen.

2. Alignment: The second important factor is aligning the initiatives. A clear goal, properly cascaded down the line with ample clarity (purpose) of the initiative is an absolute necessity. In the absence of alignment, there is hardly any progress. Employees put a lot of efforts and there are burnouts. Eventually, Results evade you.


3. Simplicity: Keeping the initiatives simple is a great power. Ram Charit manas (written in simple Hindi) became a huge success compared to Valmiki Ramayana (written in Sanskrit). The single important reason was simplicity. It is very clear from the acceptance and popularity of this literature in masses.

4. Containment: Containing the number of initiatives is of paramount importance. The number should be ideally three, certainly not more than five in any organization. Whenever, you come across increasing number of initiatives; use align and simplify to contain the numbers.


5. Push: A push from leadership, seriousness in implementation is the Execution Mantra of the initiative. One needs to talk about the initiative each time you see your reports. You need to take appropriate feedback and be willing to tweak the initiative.

Whenever I have looked at these factors, the winners and losers have stood out clearly. Therefore, before getting and implementing any big idea think of “Align, Simplify, Contain and Push”- you will win.

Achievement is Contagious

Some time back I had talked about “Innovation at work place”. There could be various techniques to bring about Innovation. Over a period of time, we have seen that excellence is achieved in certain pockets. It is a challenge to internalize the process and keep on getting continuous improvement through best practices across the company.

It goes without saying that the focus of the CEO or the Operating Manager and his push behind the program is the key to success. Jack Welch talked about giving focus on key programs at each and every touch point with the stake holders. He used to pick up few initiatives – may be two or three. He would work around those; create a reward system, align Performance Management and measurement systems to the initiatives. He would talk about them in each and every meeting. It takes time before it is accepted across. It takes time to change a habit or to develop a new one.

I would like to talk about another simple step which might help bringing internalization quickly and create wonders. I ran a scheme where each individual had to give one suggestion per week to change the customer’s life. The implementation faced a lot of resistance. Some teams got excited and did very well. Others thought it was not possible to give one suggestion per person per week; this was too demanding for them. Naturally, these teams lagged behind. Pushing did not yield much result. Changing the mindset was necessary.

We came with a simple idea of getting all project managers together and discuss their performance on the program. We identified some metrics like (percentage) % compliance, number of suggestions accepted by customers and the value created through these suggestions. We also put a scheme “REWARD for the BEST” wherein we rewarded the best contributor of the month and also the best team. . Criteria’s were defined. All managers voted for the best individual suggestion and team after the brief presentation. This scheme was participative and it empowered every one. They felt a sense of involvement. The situation started changing fast and in a very short time compliance started improving.

The initiative is resulting in more and more suggestions to improve customer business and to create more value. We are on a journey to change the game. Although, the initiative is simple in nature; it brings about Communication, participation, empowerment, transparency and recognition. It goes without saying that a team’s achievement is contagious: It creates positive vibe in the organization. It is a game changing event.

It will not be out of place to mention “Achievement is contagious”. Create an environment which brings various elements like communication, participation, empowerment, transparency and recognition together. Success will follow.

Creating Meaning in Project Work

Associating Meaning with what you do is critical to your achievements on the project. Let us read a famous story about cleaning work in a Pharmaceutical Company.
This is a story about attitude towards work in a Public Sector and a Private Sector company. Large Public sectors are known for its bureaucracy whereas Private sector are known for its agility. A sweeper joins a Public sector. On his joining day, he goes to see the departmental head to understand the job responsibilities. When the new employee introduces himself, the boss says, “I know, you are XYZ joining this company as a grade IV employee”. Without offering him a chair, the boss continues: “Your duty is to sweep the floor and keep the toilets clean”.
Now imagine yourself in sweeper’s shoes. What could have happened to your pride? In Public sectors sweepers are known for absenteeism from their work. They are also looked upon as habitual drunkards.

Now, Lets take the case of a well managed Private sector. The same sweeper joins and reports to his department. As soon as he enters the cabin, the boss smilingly asks him to take a chair. He welcomes him with a cup of tea. He explains to him “We are in health care business. Even a small particle of dust might kill a patient. Your job is very important and you have to ensure that the drugs being manufactured here should not carry even a single dust particle. Your efficient work will save many lives. The ability to create meaning in the job makes a great impact that you get a sincere, devoted employee who takes extra precaution to maintain cleanliness around without being absent for a single day. If you go to a public sector the situation is totally different you need not ask where is the toilet?.

On a personal note, I do not believe in Public sector Vs Private Sector. Instead you have difference in attitude in a well managed company Vs a bureaucratic company. Let us look at the meaning behind the job. In the second case the manager was very successful in creating a meaning in the job of the sweeper. He could provide the purpose of his existence. The meaning in the job is the ultimate thing; it applies equally to all walks of life. Be it a software project, a construction project or a routine work of sweeping the floor.

Let’s take an example from the Software industry. The company got a project from the Head Quarter (i.e. an Internal work). The work was to build a Saas based system for core business of the company. The technology to be used was .NET and the database to be used was SQL. If you happen to ask a team member about his/her job profile, you will get a typical answer like “I am developing a software using .NET & SQL as database”. Don’t you think this member is doing same thing what the sweeper was doing in the first case? The answer is “Yes”. I think we rarely look at the project and work for creating a meaning in it. If you are able to create a meaning and the resources are able to correlate with that meaning, it gives a huge boost to the morale of the team. The motivation level of the resources working on the project also goes up, which contributes to project success.

Normally in Software Company people do not like working for an internal project. This product was being built first time in the world for Localization market. It is a Saas based product. The product is very core to Chairman’s vision. Let me attempt giving a meaning to the work the team was doing here. I am summarizing the same in two bullets:
• The team is creating history in the world in Localization space and empowering the users to have the best of the breed solutions for their problems.
• The team is working for Chairman of the company

I believe this meaning creation has tremendous impact on the team morale. When I discussed this with the team, I noticed the glow on the faces of the people. I saw a sense of importance among the team members. I would like to state that one of the KRA’s of a Project manager has to create meaning in the work the team does. This gives birth to a sense of Pride in all people. It brings empowerment and finally makes a project successful. It is simple and does not costs a thing but “It works”.

Managing Requirements Risk is key to Project Success

In recent days the IT industry has seen strong companies becoming stronger and the tier II or tier III companies struggling for keeping its identity intact. For managing reasonable growth, particularly for listed companies it is important to show growth quarter on quarter to please the Shareholders, analysts and other stake holders. Such reporting brings accountability on Management. Accountability is highly correlated to ability to deliver results. Needless to say 10-15% companies have established ability to deliver, others struggle to define themselves, find unique place and establish differentiators. In absence of clear differentiators it is hard to manage growth. The market pressure puts a strain on sales engine and sales tend to get into a Pseudo Differentiator Syndrome. The company starts differentiating itself on Lower Fixed Price even for a relatively undefined set of requirements. Unfortunately customers tend to fall in the trap of lower price and committed delivery. At the end of the day as the requirement is relatively undefined, it leads to a series of commitment failures which leads to unsatisfied customers and loss of business. It does not help anyone; neither the vendor nor the customer.

Let us spend some time in understanding the Fixed Price work. Fixed price work brings accountability on part of the vendor and it gives a delivery commitment to the customer. Obviously, the requirement needs to be well defined and understood before such a deal is struck between the client and the vendor. Invariably, both the client and the vendor gets into a trap. Vendor gets a tendency to differentiate itself on Fixed lower price even though the requirement is not clearly outlined. The client gets into a trap of going with the vendor who gives a go-ahead all the time. This is dangerous as it leads to Project failure, unsatisfied customer and loss of business for the Vendor.

Risk is a part of any business. There is no reward without risk. Therefore, while accepting a job a reasonable level of risk is necessary. Any business cannot prosper without taking a risk. I suggest the following three factors framework which will arrest the situations described in foregoing para.

1. Requirements Uncertainty: Variations expected in requirements.

2. Skill unavailability: Measures if the vendor has right skill sets to deliver. High unavailability means lower delivery possibilities.

3. Time unavailability: This dimension measures the expected time duration by the client vis-à-vis available time to deliver the requirements. High time unavailability means high stretch being committed.

A project scenario should be evaluated either on High or Low parameters. Low on all three parameters is the best situation for a vendor and also for the project success. A High on all three is a “Death Trap”. Vendor should avoid such traps. Invariably vendors get into such traps following “Pseudo Differentiation Syndrome”. High on all three is not taking risk rather it is committing suicide. Other combinations of High and Low can be examined by decision taken based on the risk appetite of the vendor.

Similarly, the client should evaluate project scenario’s on above parameters and match its assessment with vendor’s offerings. A close match will lead to a healthy relationship and project success.
Requirement Risk Management is the key to project success. The three factors described above are three critical dimensions for evaluating risks associated with a requirement.

Needless to say understanding Requirement risk and managing them appropriately is the key to Project success.

Five Steps To avoid Project failure

In a competitive business world today, Project failure happens more frequently than we normally think. Some failure leads to analysis and learning, others initiate a blame wave in the organization. The failure is expensive; it costs time, energy, money and customer confidence. Too many failures can derail the growth engine from the track for ever.

One can avoid failure by following five simple steps:

1. Understand the customer:
It is said Customer is the king. Whenever we go to a king, we have to look at his long term success. King may be in hurry some times. Consultative selling demands to understand what the king is looking for, looking at his explicit and implicit requirements; provides a suitable solution. One should look at long term proposition and customer success. It is important to understand the Critical success Factors (CSF) of the engagement. Once you understand the CSF’s, work out your strategy to address all CSF’s. Sometimes, people get tempted to see money on the table and try to take what customer has budgeted even though the solution may be much lower than what is available on the table. This does not help in long run. If you want customer confidence, better be truthful to his purpose and long term goal, and help him realize his long term goals. You will emerge victorious and forge an everlasting relationship.

2. Manage Requirement effectively:
A solid Requirement elicitation is like constructing a solid foundation for a building. A tall building cannot stand unless the foundation is very strong. Many times we compromise on requirement capturing phase. Domain knowledge, skills in unearthing requirements and differentiating explicit and implicit requirements are important skills to be invested in requirement capturing phase. One may follow any suitable practice. It is important to capture, understand, communicate and validate requirements with customer. Any compromise at this stage costs heavily and contributes towards project failure.

3. Communicate Clearly:
Marriages break due to lack of communication. So is the project. It is important to identify stakeholders in any project and work out communication plan. The progress, challenges and successes should be communicated transparently. Communication helps in building confidence in project team, helps in identifying potential problem at an early stage and come up with appropriate solution. Communicate, communicate and communicate…

4. Manage by doing basics right:
I have done many project reviews. Whenever I get complicated answers for my questions, I assume that the guy has not understood the issues. He is shooting in dark. If you do the basics right, you will succeed. The basics have to be very simple and to be understood by each stake holders. Jargon complicates and basic solves. Just to give an example if you could set up simple processes for unit testing, code review, design and requirement review you are bound to succeed. Do not look for compliance, look for basic steps, are they being followed? Ask how reviews are done? If you get simple steps, you are done. Success will greet you.

5. Manage Team Skills:
Software Projects are resource intensive. They need skilled resources. In an ever growing market, getting resources with particular skill set is a herculean task. I have rarely seen a perfect fit for all required skills and team skills in any project. Therefore, it is important to follow a simple step of doing a skill gap and plan for bridging the gap. This helps immensely. You can’t have perfect situation. Work with what you have and deliver the best.

If these five simple steps are followed, the project failure can be avoided. It is simple, it works.