23Oct2016

The Whistle- Blower – analysis.1

Dear All,

After the last blog.post ‘..whistle blower..’ I received many and highly valuable comments ! thanks for reading & sharing indeed !!

To address all the good suggestions I have thought of listing those points  (..including those from my son Eshan who is doing PhD in international relations in Melbourne and  wife Uttara..) in a sequential way and then from the next post to start analysing / commenting on each of them … this way we can expand the topic into a discussion of new kind ….

Here are the points for analysis – I will start writing from next chance I get during my travels ..in the mean time why not you all also start thinking them over to have a deeper look at the causal factors in them or the causes behind these causal factors themselves  … Thank you all !

(below listed points are with reference to the last blog post..)

1. Struggle faced by the bridging officers in the huge corporate structures

2. What if the business was in a place where such possible accidents and corruption were within acceptable norms?

3. What if the top management didn’t act?

4. What if the whistle blowing was by nuisance causing or corrupt minded people?

5. What if the cost changing procedures and making new safe guards was costlier than handling possible accidents?

6. Can it be likened to dilemma faced by an insignificant member in a joint family?

7. Can it be likened to the dilemma faced by common janta as against their complacent government?

8. Can it be likened to a dilemma faced by one about the strucggle to overcome negative qualities in oneself?

9. What’s wrong with the ‘MBA Boardroom Culture?’

10. businesses

11. environmentally sensitive

12. the processes

13. depend upon automation

14. Automation &  human factors

15. the key decision makers

16. experienced professionals

17. start to be become disconnected from the ‘real feel’ of the process-sites.

18. strong sense of loyalty and fearlessness

19. non professionals do not foresee or grasp

20. monetary losses

21. legal issues

22. business reputation.

23. office politics 

24. insecure employees’ 

25. meeting the targets’ statistically

26. They started gathering data with ‘closed queries’

27. so that any other gaps and lapses never get identified or reported

28. but they project the KPI-achievements

29. This in turn punched the board room presentations

30. today’s MBA oriented business culture

31. the investors and

32. CFO’s  were kept happy

33. albeit the data being ‘rigged’

34. bridging-staff who also started to see worrying-trends

35. a new technology was introduced

36. implementation of the new Technology and its fool-proof usage were not matching the ‘on-paper’ milestones 
    
    
37. On many occasions the main office is forcing the process site-managers to declare that they have fully accomplished the workflow .. though in fact the processes were being handled in a haphazard way. 

38. The bridging-staff then started to see error-developments and the strong possibilities of accidents of catastrophic nature sooner or later.

39. Now, the main office middle-management staff who were in a tight alliance with each other started keeping the process-weaknesses hidden from the bridging-staff by reporting it as ‘normal’ .

40. They did not allow the reports to reach the senior executive officers.

41. They felt that such reports could only increase the work-loads.

42. The bridging-staff reported the error developments on-sites to the middle management in the main office.

43. The main-office middle-management saw these reports as damaging to their departmental key processes. 

44. The bridging-staff in turn started to see this as a drop of guard against the possible mishap at the process sites.

45. company’s process management-procedures

46. report near-misses

47. verify the process by the senior supervisors, they tried to scale down the tones of the Bridging-officer’s reports on process sites lapses and near misses.

48. On one hand the number of process-lapses started increasing and they did not get reported because any query about the weaker areas of the process site operations had been omitted from the revised procedures made by the main office;

49. secondly the middle management kept giving a rosy picture about the process-site conditions and new technology implementation. The reality being the bomb of mishaps at the process-site started to tick and nothing was being done to defuse this bomb !

50. what are your options? Report it? ……Stories of making such reports got being ridiculed.

51. The only option the bridging-office now had was to report this matter to the highest authority in the company

52. risking a huge wrath by the middle-management for increasing their workload due to the whistle-blowing !

53. many additional steps that needed to be addressed have not been commissioned …

54. …either report, whistle-blow or see the accident happening followed by ruining the entire company and its closure.

55. What to do then? Blow the whistle or not? 

56. The bridging-officer in our sampled case decided to whistle-blow by by-passing all the middle managers ….

57. The CEO paid attention to such a degree that the bridging-officer wondered why he delayed the whistle-blowing so long anyway ….

58. ... the middle management cornered the whistle-blowing bridging-officer who had made the choices and saved the company – 

59. -he was unafraid – he had seen through the entire business –

60. His fearless yet profoundly thoughtful decision to whislte-blow helped save the business.

61. The highest management appreciated and encouraged the bridging officers to c

62. ..the secrets of this business-survival was thus in their having capabilities and also the whistle-blowers who are never confused or afraid

 - E N D -      

13Oct2016

The Whistle- Blower – To rock the boat or not?….

There are businesses in which the main business is happening at multiple far off sites, the processes that go on are of extremely high stakes and environmentally sensitive & the processes depend upon automation as well as human factors.

The key decision makers and the main office teams have a few professionals who have experiences from the processes the company undertakes at the far off sites. But at one point the office-based staff increasingly start to be become disconnected from the ‘real feel’ of the process-sites.

One can name mining, transportation, offshore oil production businesses to name a few to be somewhat like these.

And then to bridge this gap some smart businesses appoint experienced personnel with strong sense of loyalty and fearlessness. These bridging-officers hold no-bars when it is necessary & put their foot down if required to save company from losses due to something related to the processes that the non professionals in the main office do not foresee or grasp. The stakes of letting the wrong or undesired process-detours being extremely high in terms of monetary losses, legal issues as well as the business reputation.

In all the round-up above one big factor that has been omitted is that of the ‘office politics’ …. and to make the matters worse. the _{‘office politics by the insecure employees’} !

 It so happened in one case, that the office-staff remained focussed on ‘meeting the targets’ statistically. They started gathering data with ‘closed queries’ from the processes so that any other gaps and lapses never get identified or reported but they project the KPI-achievements smoothly.This in turn punched the board room presentations that were in today’s MBA oriented business culture a key factor! The presentations thus looked good and the investors and CFO’s  were kept happy albeit the data being ‘rigged’.

Consequently, the bridging-staff who also spend time on the process-sites as well as in the main-office started to see worrying-trends on the process-sites when a new technology was introduced. They realised that the actual implementation of the new Technology and its fool-proof usage were not matching the ‘on-paper’ milestones. 

On many occasions the main office is forcing the process site-managers to declare that they have fully accomplished the workflow .. though in fact the processes are being handled in a haphazard way. The bridging-staff then start to see error-developments and the strong possibilities of accidents of catastrophic nature sooner or later.

Now, the main office middle-management staff who were in a tight alliance with each other started keeping the process-weaknesses hidden from the bridging-staff by reporting it as ‘normal’ . They did not allow the reports to reach the senior executive officers. They felt that such reports could only increase the work-loads.

The bridging-staff reported the error developments on-sites to the middle management in the main office. The main-office middle-management saw these reports as damaging to their departmental key processes. The bridging-staff in turn started to see this as a drop of guard against the possible mishap at the process sites.

Days and weeks passed and the bridging-officers started to see the site processes becoming complacent and supervisors at sites missing out on the error-chains being developed. The company’s process management-procedures detailed the need to report near-misses and also the need to verify the process by the senior supervisors, they tried to scale down the tones of the Bridging-officer’s reports on process sites lapses and near misses.

On one hand the number of process-lapses started increasing and they did not get reported because any query about the weaker areas of the process site operations had been omitted from the revised procedures made by the main office; secondly the middle management kept giving a rosy picture about the process-site conditions and new technology implementation. The reality being the bomb of mishaps at the process-site started to tick and nothing was being done to defuse this bomb !

If you are the bridging-officer between the main office and the process-site – what are your options? Report it? Stories of making such reports got being ridiculed.

The only option the bridging-office now had was to report this matter to the highest authority in the company risking a huge wrath by the middle-management for increasing their workload ….. in short, whistle-blowing ! quickly the bridging-officer in this case realised that there were many additional steps that needed to be addressed have not been commissioned … the risk is high to very high. Either report, whistle-blow or see the accident happening followed by ruining the entire company and its closure.

What to do then? Blow the whistle or not? ….. The bridging-officer in our sampled case decided to whistle-blow by by-passing all the middle managers …. The CEO paid attention to such a degree that the bridging-officer wondered why he delayed the whistle-blowing so long anyway ….. the middle management cornered the whistle-blowing bridging-officer who had made the choices and saved the company -   he was unafraid – he had seen through the entire business of the properly aligned, otherwise being risked to shut down.

His fearless yet profoundly thoughtful decision to whislte-blow helped save the business. The highest management appreciated and encouraged the bridging officers to continue to whistle-blow anytime if they felt it necessary … in the meantime this business survived while a few of their competitors do not.

The secrets of this business-survival was thus in their having capabilities and also the whistle-blowers who are never confused or afraid about ‘to whistle-blow or not’ !!

 - E N D -      

What to do & How to do …..?

21 September 2016

When I am on ships …. it’s  alife of constantly being in the state of full operational readiness and operating and emergency preparedness – whether awake or in sleep literally …. having people around who are all professionally trained in skills and disciplines …. a life of such professionally competent readiness day and night for 39.5 years of witnessing operating ships as well maintaining ship security; surviving storms and winters ….  and then when I come home, I am in the house of a Mariner’s wife who has run it with the same – rather even better professionalism of ‘operating skills and readiness for almost all kinds of emergencies..’ knowing very well that they come without ringing any bells …. be it flooding-rains or earthquakes or someone’s terminal health in the neighbourhood or any other house hold situation or even a pet in distress … she is prepared …almost as a a pro ….. and then there is the human civil society at large in this city at least …. so different ! … so different in lives of earning-sake skills and longings for consumptions !! almost with full dependecies on the emergency response services provided by the local bodies and states for their safety and security …. On one hand there are examples like ‘Sully’ so well portrayed by Tom Hanks in the movie  - who handles his powerless plane as well as the civilian passengers extra-ordinarily without a loss by water-landing on the Hudson, then also faces the skeptic NTSB investigators …. but with one awesome clarity and ability …. that of knowing ‘..what to do and how to do ..?’ …. that awareness and ability both leading to a cruicial Decision Making in a mere 203 seconds !!

…. and today in Mumbai when the first news came … that of the terrorsists on the loose reported by school kids to their teachers and then to the authorities … everyone had the news coming either by their social media, or by the noise of the howering helicopters or by watching the TVs or upon seeing the road blocks …. clearly confused individuals everywhere …. night falls without tracing the fugitives …. People seem to retire in a relieved mood though the authorities keep reminding that ‘the fugitive terrorists are still on the loose’ and that the highest alert still remains in force…

What did most people do? Did they grasp the implications ..? Did they remember how it looked on the TV when the Belgian forces were combing districts of Brussles to nab the fugitives? …? As against here in Mumbai …?? What was it that the public at large could have done..? how was the Boston bombers’ chase end .. do you remember? How were few more chases otherwise … all telecast … what was done then ..was any thought given how to act if that happens in Mumbai..?

Had the people practiced to grasp what the situations meant..? while the people remain busy listening and forwading and sharing heated debates about how the state should react to the latest act of terror … while here they are right in the face of the fugitives … a clear dangerous situation when the fugitives seen and may be more could surface anytime anywhere and this changed situation needing well practiced minds that can understand …

….. what it meant & what to expect …

how to help the authorities in their search ..

What has changed in the circumstances ..?

what it means for household level security..?

what does it mean about children going to schools & colleges…?

What emergencies to expect … how best to react if there is sighting..? own security and that of those around …

& above all how to do..?

NOPE !! the people are NOT THAT READY as seen today !!

No wonder ….just 2-3 days ago in broad day lightin Delhi a stalker aquaintance of a straight forward girl knocks her down and stabs over and over again till she dies while crying out for help ….. neither she knows what to do and how to do in case of such an assault on the busy road (in spite of several months of earlier troubles and complaints … the passer by public don’t know what & how either …… or is it that they Don’t Want to Know and Don’t Want to do anything but only sit and expect all to happen on a readymade platter by authorities while they remain busy giving endless opinions on the social media and in chats about what others should do …. only to the advantage of the unlawful perpetrators !! that in turn  bringing the biggest weakness which can not be made up by loud slogans or good intensions but only by constantly knowing - individually as well as groups - What to do and How to do in any anticipated or unforeseen situations … so that the terrorists, who seek to build on the weaknesses of the society & the state, run out of options and back off …

Can We ..? Can We as the law abiding straight forward civilian lot despite of being from any state keep this as an expectation thereby subtly counter the terrorism; imbibe this part as a responsibility to know and constantly update the knowledge in theory and practice of ..What to do ? and How to do? In situations created by the terrorists and never get caught as the unprepared ….

- E N D -