resistance to learning

Recently I conducted a training in a 30 year old plant.
the employees were all hardened.
They had an answer for everything and also they had many ways to misinterpret whatever I told them.
I then realized once again that an open mind is a prerequisite for learning.
Also I started wondering why they were so antagonistic to me.
Their past experience has made them cynical and cold in their world views.
I felt sorry about the circumstances which may have led them to such conclusions.
In the end the management is to be blamed
they have done nothing to change this .
In summation,One day was lost in my life and also in theirs(without much effect)

Excellence self assessment check list from ISO 10014

Quality Management Principle	Maturity Level	Average
1. Customer Focus
a. Has the organization identified the appropriate customer groups or markets for best financial and economic benefit to the organization?
b. Has the organization fully understood customer and related supply chain needs and expectations, and identified the necessary resources to fulfill these requirements?
c. Has the organization established measurements for customer satisfaction, and if complaints arise, are they settled fairly and in a timely manner?
2. Leadership
a. Does top management establish and communicate the direction, policy, plans and any important information relevant to the sustainability of the organization?
b. Does top management establish and communicate effective financial and economic objectives, providing necessary resources and feedback performance information?
c. Does top management create and maintain the necessary environment in which people can become fully involved in achieving the organization’s objectives?
3. Involvement Of People
a. Are people at all levels recognized as an important resource of the organization that can strongly impact the achievement of financial and economic benefits?
b. Is full involvement encouraged to create opportunities to improve their competence, knowledge and experience for the overall benefit of the organization?
c. Are people willing to work collaboratively with other employees, customer’s suppliers and other relevant parties?
4. Process Approach
a. Are activities, controls, resources and outputs managed in an interrelated manner?
b. Are capabilities of key activities and /or processes understood through measurements and analysis to achieve better financial and economic results?
c. Does top management enable evaluation and/or prioritization of risks and address potential impact on customers, suppliers and other interested parties?
5. System Approach To Management
a. Are interrelated processes identified, understood and managed effectively to provide a system that will enable the realization of financial and economic benefits?
b. Are resource and process capabilities and constraints understood, taking account of process interdependence?
c. Is a systems approach employed to enable the holistic use of specific processes for the benefit of the system?
6. Continual Improvement
a. Does top management encourage and support continual improvement in order to achieve objectives for financial and economic benefit?
b. Does the organization have effective measurement and monitoring in place to track and evaluate financial and economic benefits?
c. Does top management recognize and acknowledge the achievement of financial and economic benefits?
7. Factual Approach To Decision Making
a. Are decisions effective, based on accurate factual analysis and balanced with intuitive experience where appropriate?
b. Does top management ensure appropriate access to data, information and tools that enable effective analysis to be performed?
c. Does top management ensure decisions are based on achieving optimum value-added benefit, avoiding improvements in one area that produce deterioration in another?
8. Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships
a. Do effective processes exist for evaluation, selection and monitoring of suppliers and supply chain partners to ensure overall financial and economic benefits?
b. Does top management ensure development of effective relationships with key suppliers and partners that balance short-term gains with long term considerations?
c. Is sharing of future plans and feedback encouraged between the organization and its suppliers/supply chain partners to promote and enable mutual benefit?

Ø Description of Maturity Levels

Maturity Level	Description
1	No or not true, 0% occurrence, the practice is not found or not yet started, not much happening at all.
2	Marginally true, approximately 25% occurrence, practice is only seen in some areas.
3	Partially true, approximately 50% occurrence, the practice is commonly found, but not in the majority of areas
4	Mostly true, approximately 75 % occurrence, the practice is very typical with only some exceptions.
5	Yes, true every where. Near or at 100% occurrence. The practice is deployed throughout the organisation with virtually no exceptions.

meetings

Recently I attended an annual general body meeting of an association as an ordinary member.
I started noticing the following gaps in the way the meeting was conducted and thought i would share it .

1. the meeting started nearly 25 minutes late from the declared time
2. The quorum was not full( only at the end it got full) even though everybody was informed in advance
   
3. When a discussion related to the parenthood a good action taken by the committee was claimed by another member of the previous year's committee, nobody was ready to accept the feelings of the member.
4. He said, "when I introduced this subject, you people made fun of me at that time".
   
5. They started reacting saying that" if you could not take it forward last time, it was your shortcoming".
6. nobody was ready to join the next year's office bearer team.
7. the last year's committee was elected to continue for the next year
8. there were only three agenda points and it took two hours to complete
9. matters not in agenda were discussed without any productive result.
   

My conclusion from this is that , when you are in a leadership position you have to be a little broad minded to accept criticism or adverse feedback and take everyone with you.
You cannot afford to neglect the feelings of the members.
I feel we should teach children from schools/colleges in the discipline of how to conduct meetings and also how to participate productively in meetings .
Also the concept of "Community work" should be ingrained in the minds of children otherwise we will get a society where every body is a passenger and there is no driver .Society cannot afford this kind of apathy