Good HR Management Lesson

When Alpesh took over as the manager of a huge multiplex in a Tier 2 Indian town, he suddenly found himself heading a team of forty people.Some he liked instantly. Some he did not. Some he found positivelyrepulsive. But he did not have the luxury of firing anyone. He had towork with all of them. And he wondered how? And strangely he found hisanswer in astrology. Not in the content, but in the structure.As a child he was taught that in Hindu mythology, Devas are good andAsuras are bad. But whenever his mother made him visit the shrinededicated to the Nava-Grahas , the nine gods of Indian astrology , hefound there not only Devas and their guru, Brihaspati, but also twoAsuras, namely Rahu and Ketu, and their guru, Shukra. In all prayersand rituals, the two 'demons' are acknowledged and included as equals.He was told that all Grahas matter. Good or bad, they formed a teamand none could be excluded. It dawned on Alpesh that before him werehis Nava-Grahas (not nine but forty) and he had to find a way to workwith all of them. Exclusion was not an option.Alpesh knew that each Graha had a particular characteristic and thiscould not be changed. Like the Grahas, every member of his team had apeculiar characteristic that did not change no matter how many timesthey were counselled or trained. Some were like Surya, the Sun,radiant, glorious, and attention grabbing. Some were like the Moon orChandra, highly emotional, with moods constantly waxing and waning.Some were aggressive like Mars or Mangal. Some were sharp,intelligent, good in communication, but slippery like Mercury or Budh.The Jupiters or Brihaspatis were rational, scientific , evidencedriven and boring. The Venus or Shukras were sensual , creative,intuitive, creative and crazy. The Saturns or Shanis were brilliantbut cynical, hence lacking a sense of urgency, testing Alpesh's patience.Alpesh did not like the Rahus of his team, who hid things, blockedideas, created darkness and spread confusion. He did not like therestless and nervous Ketus either because they had no sense ofdirection. Like the Grahas, Alpesh has to either enhance or neutralisethe traits of his people as the situation demanded.Alpesh began to see his organisation as the sky, divided into lunarhouses (nakshatras) and solar houses (rashis or the zodiac). Thefinance , HR, marketing, sales, research , service and housekeepingdepartments were starry constellations inhabited by his Grahas. Justas a Graha exerts its influence on the house it occupies, and by doingso influences a person's fate, Alpesh's team members exerted theirinfluence on their respective departments and thereby affected theoverall working of the organisation.If his cashier was a Brihaspati then everything was donesystematically and rationally, if he was a Shurka then the work wasassociated with great ingenuity. A Shani cashier never did things ontime while a Ketu cashier was always nervous and restless.The question that naturally emerged in his mind was — which Graha wasgood for a job? The answer depended on the outcome he desired and therole a department had to play. There were times he needed a Rahuheading the HR department to hide the actual goings on and there weretimes he needed a very transparent Surya.Initially he wanted his promotions to be managed by an aggressiveMangal who could get things done. Later he needed a more sensitiveChandra, who understood the needs of the consumer. Situations , Alpesh realised, madea Graha good or bad. He stopped judging people. He focused onanalysing situations and fitting people to the problem at hand.In astrology, great value is given to the relative position of Grahasto each other. Sometimes a Graha can enhance the power of another Graha and sometimes they can negate each other and sometimes theentire combination has an overall positive or negative effect. This iscalled yog, an understanding of which helped Alpesh in designingteams. Homogeneity was out of the question.A team full of creative Shukras or full of detached Shanis led todisaster. Heterogeneity was critical but careful attention had to paidto inter-team dynamics. Keeping an aggressive Mangal with a restlessKetu was nothing short of a prescription for disaster. For ideas,Alpesh needed creative Shukras but for implementation he neededorganised Brihaspatis. For vendor negotiations, the intelligent andsweet talking Budh helped and for crowd management teams he reliedonly on powerful Mangals.Success then was a combination of several factors. First, the natureof the Graha. Secondly, the house that was occupied by the Graha.Thirdly, the relative position of the Grahas. Finally, and mostimportantly , the problem at hand and the outcome desired. No teamcould solve all problems. The team that could handle the weekend rushwas unable to cope with the weekday monotony. The team that came upwith innovative ways to solve the water crisis in the multiplex wasunable to solve the problem of irate customers.Alpesh noticed that much of his success depended on his power ofobservation — of people, relationships and situations. He was becomingIndra, the god of the sky, the one with a hundred eyes. Hisobservations helped him determine the role and responsibility of eachperson. It helped him determine team composition.It helped him take calls and know who had to be a leader and when. Herealised there was no perfect horoscope with the perfect placement ofGrahas. It was all contextual and it was all ever changing. Sometimes,despite all cautious moves, things went wrong. At those times, he found someone always came up with an upaay, that trick astrologersalways have up their sleeve to counter the malevolent influence of anyGraha to resolve any crisis.Thanks to this visualisation of his organisation as the sky with fixedstars and floating Grahas, Alpesh stopped getting annoyed with theShanis and Mangals in his team. He found value in each one. Demons inone situation were gods in another . It made sense to worship thecollective and celebrate diversity.