_| 29 | Unified seeds G. Rajkumar “Please come, Mr. Suresh will meet you now,” the Secretary to MD escorted Raviraj, the ‘Management Consultant and executive coach, It was a scheduled meeting organized by the ‘Head—HR of Unified Seeds Ltd (USL), one of the group companies of Unified Global. Suresh and Raviraj exchanged pleasantries and settled in for a conversation as the coffee also arrived. “I am sure our HR Head, Vanitha, has given you a picture of what is happening, in our organization. Intervention with external facilitator is her idea and that is why Tam meeting you,” Suresh started getting into the discussion and added, “I will be keen to understand how you can help us.” Raviraj nodded: “I will be happy to do whatever I can. First, T wish to confirm my under- standing of the issue.” He shared with Suresh what he had understood from the HR Head. “J understand that there isa lack of collaboration among the senior team members. There is a general feeling that they don’t trust each other. As I understand, it is now a growing concern in the organization as the lack of collaboration at the top is cascading down the hierarchy,” said Raviraj. Suresh responded: ‘That's right. You have understood it correctly. I will only add that the team members are highly capable in their own respective areas. In fact, I have no problems of working with them. But Twant them to demonstrate better collaboration and good leadership. You must also remember that some of them have been with the company for a long time while a few of them have joined recently. (See Annexure 29.1 for the organization chart) As Raviraj jotted down his notes, Suresh continued: Youre the expert, and so.welll leave you to design the intervention. I understand that you wanted to start with a two day workshop. I will leave you with complete freedom, You can discuss with ‘our HR anything that you need from us. Depending upon how the senior team receives it, Tam keen to have the middle level managers also take part in a similar workshop. Raviraj shook hands with Suresh and left the room. wae wne 366On his way out of the office, Raviraj had a short meeting with Vanitha, Head—HR. He briefed her about his conversation with Suresh Vanitha said, “I am glad that you have directly heard it from him. As a person, Suresh is a very nice gentleman and always open to suggestions. His leadership is the only problem.” “What about his leadership?” Raviraj asked, Vanitha shared: As I said, he is a thorough gentleman. Sometimes he is perceived to be too soft and too toler- ant. Some members of his senior leadership team get away because he does not take any tough measures. For example, one of the leaders Sukhwinder, sacked three of his field people without discussing with anyone. When another Business Head, Shanmugam raised this issue in our last ‘meeting, Sukhwinder almost told him to mind his business. Suresh was pretty much there chairing the meeting, I tried to counsel Sukhwinder privately later. I told him that people management practices should be uniform across USL. I don’t think he understood what I was trying to tell him, Hle feels that he should be able to manage his people and no one should interfere. In fact, he asked me why others are bothered when his own boss, Suresh was not worried. “Did you discuss this issue with Suresh?” Raviraj asked. Vanitha. She replied: Yes, I did. He agreed with me and later had a session with Sukhwinder also, But by then, the damage has been done. Some of the senior team members tend to think that Suresh is soft towards Sukhwinder because they both worked in the same company before joining USL. But only know that they didn’t know each other before joining USL. But I can’t change the perception of others, “Is Sukhwinder the only problem?” questioned Raviraj. Vanitha noted: Not really, I have problems with some of the seniors. My finance colleague Balakrishna was at the receiving end of ugly insinuations from one of the business heads. Somehow, we don’t seem to be respecting each other’s roles. Business heads drive things as they please. They don’t want anyone to know ot be involved in what they do. Each one of them tries to keep Suresh informed and carry out their work. Raviraj said, “So, you feel Suresh’s leadership is causing the problem!” “I won't say that itis the only problem. But I just wanted to share my perspective. You can assess on your own. I won't be surprised if they finally say that HR didn’t do its job during the merger a few years back,” Vanitha reamarked. Prime Seeds Pvt Ltd, a small regional player for many years, was taken over by USL and merged four years earlier. Ttwas the least painful merger from human resources dimension since ‘most of the employees were retained, The bigger challenge has been to introduce processes of a global conglomerate like Unified Global in a smaller company like Prime Seeds Pvt Ltd. Some of the senior employees of Prime Seeds resisted following the systems and processes laid down by the Unified Global, The residual feelings arising from the unresolved problems kept cropping up even four years after the merger. G. RAJKUMAR 367“Let me not color your views too much, You are the expert. I look forward to your sug- gestions,” Vanitha told Raviraj Raviraj left Vanitha’s office after confirming a set of dates for the workshop. The proposed workshop was about three weeks away and Raviraj’s mind was fully occupied with a series of questions. What is the central problem at USL? Do they all acknowledge that they have a problem? Who should provide the solution to the entire team? What should be achieved at the end of the two-day workshop? Should Suresh be a part of the workshop? How will his presence influence the deliberations? He scribbled on his note pad what he thought should be achieved by the end of the work- shop. He coined a title for the intervention—MANTHAN (Chum)! (see Annexure 29.2) ‘There was a call from Vanitha regarding announcement of the workshop and sending invitations to all. Raviraj wanted the pre-communication to the workshop to be carefully worded and therefore sent across a one-page note by the end of the day which was used without any edits by Vanitha for internal communication (see Annexure 29.3) Suresh, all his direct reports (other than his secretary) and managers at the next level were invited for the workshop. There were a total of 16 participants. The workshop was planned at a posh resort with an overnight stay. A curtain raiser session of about two hours was planned on the first day evening followed by team dinner. Workshop continued for the next day. As the facilitator, Raviraj didn’t publish the session-wise schedule; instead, he told the team to participate in the journey to carry out the Manthan! The gist of the Manthan workshop is presented in Table 29.1. Raviraj involved Suresh in the lighter energizers and kept him as an observer during other exercises. During the individual assessments, his profile was also taken up for discussion. The team was encouraged to share and understand each other’s personal profiles. Clustered seat- ing, team working, and rotation of members among various teams during the day were done ina planned manner so as to bring different team members in contact. ‘The high point of the workshop was the team assessment, When Raviraj flashed the results on the five dimensions, it was something that the team did not expect. Without pointing a finger at anyone, the scores seemed to reflect what team members felt about themselves. Suresh too was one of the respondents and was curious to witness how the team reacted. He, in fact, encouraged the team in a positive way by stating that the first step of improvement is acknowledgment that we are not at our best. He went on to add that the senior team was well positioned for self-reflection and mid-course correction, 368 UNIFIED SEEDSTable 29.1. Gist of Manthan Workshop (Senior Team) ¥ Vanitha welcome all the participants and shaved scrangements to make them comfortable Suresh set the contexe broadly; he was a little cautious in is words; he sad that ‘Manthan is not because we are not doing well in fact, aa busines lst year, we did very well, Manthan isto explore what else can be done to make USL even better. He asked everyone to participate enthusiastically and be open and receptive to any feedback. An ice-breaking game was facilitated by Raviraj which created great deal of participation and laughter among team members. He then got a questionnaie filed by the participants and collected it back for overnight analysis. He distributed a couple of articles on the theme of “Team atthe Top” along with a case study. Day 19.30 a.m. t0 6 pam.) 7 The senior team analyzed the case study very well It was about an organization ‘where the leadership team mishandles some events that lad to misunderstanding, an loss of some good people; the case discussion elevated the awareness about the impact of senior team on the organization. Facilitator then presented the survey results based on the questionnaire that they had all filled in the previous evening (see Annexure 29.4). There was a heavy silence for a ‘hile followed by an almost consensus agreement withthe scores. The entire team then geared up to find remedies to correc the situation. “A series of structured exercises by the facilitator resulted in idea generation for a 3-5 year vision; cultural dimensions required to execute the vision; and how leadership ‘would help build such a culture; facilitator encouraged all the ideas and did not force concreteness of actions ¥ An interpersonal profiling tool was used to help each leader sce his/her orientation and how this would facilitate or hinder the action plans. A collective team profile was also mapped by the facilitator for thei reflection. Day? ¥ Each participant spent about 20-30 minutes with Raviraj. During the one-on-one session, Raviraj played the coach role helping participants understand the impact of ‘their leadership behavior on the overall leadership team and on the team members He also helped each participant understand the interpersonal profile and helped in identifying the action areas. The primary objective of the coaching sessions was to help inculcate sensitivity oward the peers and team members. Source: Based on the consultant’ notes and internal documents of the organization, Ar the end of the workshop, the participants thanked the facilitator, and Raviraj reminded the group about the one-to-one sessions the following Monday. After completing the one-to-one session with the rest of the participants, Raviraj scheduled a coaching session with Suresh over lunch. Suresh expressed satisfaction about the way the senior team opened up and he felt confident of positive change. Raviraj shared some specific observations and feedback with Suresh on his style, interpersonal profile, and how others per- ceive him, He also used his understanding of each of the team members during his coaching. session with Suresh, Suresh was highly receptive to the feedback and agreed to initiate personal action to be more assertive, and to work through the team rather than one-to-one style of working, He also agreed to create more forums for the employees of USL to come together more informally. G. RAJKUMAR 369