“Discourse on the Method”

I pinged someone on gtalk just like that and came to know of a case study competition at DMS, IITD Discourse on the method. In fact it was the only competition whose end date has not expired. I decided to go ahead with it. My only team member was busy with some larger issues of life. I had only 32 hours to respond, but it was determined to send atleast something. So there I was flipping the pages of the case study, in the background enlightening lecture was going on and someone was least bothered about it.

Night passed away and now only 20 hours were left. Till now I just knew vaguely about the case, and nothing about ERP and change management, the theme of the case. I sat down and started with something. That something was almost nothing. But they say nothing is impossible. Hence I decided to hang on, Googling in a hope to come out with something meaningful.

One fine moment, destiny took its turn, and one found someone who was compassionate enough to share my passion. He was nothing less than “manna from heaven” for me. Leveraging the synergy we two started to come out with something meaningful. Another 6 hours of effort and we were half way through. But now only 2 hours were left and our hopes to produce a winning doc were fading away. In no way we could have done justice to the case study in 2 hours.

I had a hope that deadline for the submission will be extended, so I kept checking the website. Finally I was proved vindictive. Now we had 17 more hours.

By 2 AM we were able to produce first draft of the doc. We needed more time. But our eyes and mind were not with us anymore, we had to go for a sleep.

Next day my team mate (manna from heaven) took the pain to review and format the document. It took him 3 hours to give shape to the same but I must admit that he did a fantastic job. I pressed the send button exactly at 5.01 PM, just 1 minute late.

I had a strong intuition that we will make it and again I was proved vindictive. But the real story begins now. We had 120 hours to draft our response to the second set of question. But the catch was that we had HRM exam in 48 hours and with meager prior preparation, I needed those 48 hours for the preparation. Out of 72 hours 32 hours were reserved for travel by train. So we effectively had 2 day to prepare our response.

This prompted me to take help of some eminent personalities. Luckily I got help from one of the research scholar and our MIS Professor. They both gave us some real thought provoking ideas and practical insights on change management. As a result our response was very much practical and did not include any theoretical model on change management, which infact proved to be a blessing in disguise.

Before leaving for Delhi we had a rough idea of the presentation. At the same time, the 32 hour journey in sleeper class only added to our woes. But determined we were to utilize that time. During the course of the journey my partner (larger issue) came up with the winning idea. The idea was to put a 1 minute video showing history and culture. We were pleased with the idea but had little idea of how to go about it.

We reached Delhi at 8 AM and were suppose to meet at my partners place after 12 hours. During these 12 hours we were suppose to meet our near and dear one to recharge our batteries.

I took me 2 hours to reach to my partners place. After sumptuous dinner we sat to work on the presentation. By 3.30 AM we were able to make a nice PPT and good video, which was infact the hallmark of our presentation. I woke up at 9.30 AM and by 9.35 AM, was again on the PPT. My partner joined me at 10.30 AM and we had our first rehearsal, which made us realize that we still are half way through and lots of effort is still required.

At 12.30 AM we started for IITD. During the entire 90 minutes journey we rehearsed and discussed about the presentation. I must admit there were some butterflies in my stomach. At 3 PM the event started. As always, our presentation was the second last one. Judges were top echelons of TCS. They played heavy with the psychology of the contestants. I was more like a stress view, where the interview is ruthless. Every team received a cool thrashing from the Judges.

We started our presentation on a good note but soon received the same ruthless (purposeful) treatment. But something had already happened in the train that had already sealed our fate. THE VIDEO. We got it for our video and for the concept we used for the video. It happened all of a sudden when one the Judge announced that we are winners. Joy of winning was clearing trickling down from our faces. Next 15 minutes were even more exiting when one of the Judges shared some of his experiences of change management. His two stories turned everybody speechless and numb.

We came out of DMS, had a cup of tea (my partner will die without it) and went back to our places. But the music of victory was still playing in our minds, our hearts.

32 hours journey back and an exam was awaiting us…

JUICE WAS WORTH THE SQUEEZE

Two weeks in 318: Defining moments

Last two weeks were among my most memorable days of DoMS. They were a perfect combination of Grill and Thrill. But I must say that the Juice was worth the squeeze. The time from 4.30 PM to 2 PM in the legendary room no 318 was the hallmark of this time, which was nothing less than a highly exaggerated epoch.
The daunting task of sailing smoothly through 7 exams was staring us on our faces. We were already in ICU, one more blow and we could have departed from all of you. Something needed to be done. So we all came together and strategized for our better tomorrow. It was a perfect example of Stockdale paradox. Present was worst but the hope of better future kept us alive.
Group was an amalgamation of few passive aggressors, few true aggressors, few “Don’t care a damn” attitudes, and few innocuous creatures. Everyone has something or other to contribute to the group.
After taking our customary tea (one of our group’s member is paranoiac about tea at 4.15 PM) at 4.15 PM we used to flock at 318 to prepare ourselves for the better tomorrow. In the coming 4 hours the only tangible thing we used to achieve used to be Ambiguity, THE AMBIGUITY. We created and thoroughly enjoy this ambiguity.
But what was this ambiguity???
Present value of cash flow, the one which is free, Quality statistics, gensi genbutsu, muri, mura, OM (+ it’s PJs), 4/30 in PDW (our worst ever performance, I mean among the worst), 16 innocuous HBRs; everything lead to only one thing, THE AMBIGUITY. This ambiguity created lots of creative abrasion amongst our team members. Tempers used to run high as no one wanted to cede the ground in those high engrossing and intense discussions. For few people those discussions were muda and highly E-. For few they were something which gave them the “The Kick” . But much could be said on either side.
As I have said umpteen times that life is not about options, it’s about compulsions. But at about 8.30 PM (time for E+ dinner) one can’t afford to go for compulsions. It boils down to choose between two options: CRAM or Perish. Now all the ambiguity used to disappear. Sometimes it helps to take the things as they are, without questioning. It helped us too. Without showing any disrespect to anything we learnt to take the Ambiguity as it was. Sometimes some angels would fly to our nest, enlighten us and would fly back. But enlightened Ambiguity (now respected) would persist in our enlightened grey matter.
The most awaited day came. Everything ended. We were overjoyed. But somewhere someone was conspiring against us. He was not happy to see us happy. He wanted us to be jubilant. After 6 hours of intense battle we won the Tambi cricket tournament. We arrived in the most emphatic way. As they say everything else is history now…

These moments reminded us of something which we have forgotten for long, I am studying in IIT and these are the last 2 years of our student life. This is the last chance to learn,celebrate, enjoy, make strong bonds of friendship, commit mistakes, fight, play and be mad......Defining moments of life...

Vikas

Reporting for 318