“ I ” … in the union ... (Part 1)

7:00 PM … I walk out of the meeting with the trade union leader to the parking lot. No… I don’t want to drive … I walked down to the nearby bench to sit … painted brown now over years of dent its turned pale with some names scratched on the wood. The laptop bag slides from my shoulder, a cigarette butt lies next to my foot, still emitting a trace of smoke… the walk way perpendicular to my eyes never becomes salient coupled with the buzz of voices … people.. cars… nothing stops, everything around me is as usual but for few laborers fighting for their right. There is a hurricane of emotions I’m going thru as I watch a 52 year old right in front of me with eyelids dropping on his creased red face as he stirs his cup of coffee… all my excitement this morning to crack a union issue is drained into a war within unable to decide to take up this role further or go back to my manager and inform her what we are doing is wrong… and I don’t know if we really are wrong… the Union has its demands and the company has the policies… alas… the tragedy when two companies merge and the shareholders party in the night there is a home somewhere where a laborer loses his sleep to come in terms with the reality and start a job hunt watching his family sleeping as the candle light waddles the cold nights breeze…


This morning was a different Rajesh Mohandas… the man who is selected to be a part of the negotiation team to crack one of the major Industrial Relationship issues faced by the company. I was so excited. I could hardly breathe through the hour-long drive to be there… dreams filled my eyes and virtually coming close to the reality … cracking this issue will take me higher up in my career, very few at this juncture would have got a chance to be nominated by the management for such pressing issues. At one end is the media and press which closely monitors and interested in all the gossip the other end are the legal pundits advising at every step, the local politicians eye their own share in the pie, my very own collogues who were unable to get thru for this role… I am all geared up with bouts of extra energy adding momentum to reach my career aspirations in the leadership cedar.

I hurriedly parked my car and rushed in with all adrenaline and was greeted by the meeting coordinator at the door Good Morning… word barely audible. A fitted service shirt outlined his broad build. His facial features were of the average sort, but he had an allure about him, an unnamable quality one couldn’t dismiss. “Rajesh”… come here… this room… oh... I heard my name and it was Kavitha… the legal advisor… she stood at the end of his walkway, that one hand on a hip that was cocked a little to the side, giving her a jaunty air. Coupled with the knee-length flouncy skirt she wore and the low-heels that gave her legs a sweet curve, it made a pretty picture, I’ve to admit…

It was quite a house and the union leader right in front of us… Vishwanath … “Vishwa” so was he called. His face was ageless, neither old nor young, though in it was written the memory of many things both glad and sorrowful. His hair was dark as the shadows of twilight, and upon it was set a circlet of silver; his eyes were grey as a clear evening, and in them was a light like the light of stars… he stood and walked towards me … we shook hands and awaited the Industrial Relationship Leader Dr. Subramanian… often called “Subbu” the key person… was running late by a 100 meters away at the busy intersection almost visible to the naked eye and the traffic holding his automobile.

 

To Be Contd...

Dilemma of a decision maker

There are no cookie-cutter answers when posed to top leaders who have accomplished the position they today are, most of the success stories are told after they have reached the peak … there is no one leader I have met so far in the last four decades right from my early days of infancy who can predict the outcome of an action to the path of success…

Nonetheless… one thing common I have noticed reading the autobiography of most admired leaders across the world is they knew when to move out … they knew where to stop… they knew when to say no… similar to a good leader is a gambler who knows when to get out of the table when he is on a winning streak…

This is an anecdote I remember right from my early college days… which our professor echoed time and again and emphasised on when exactly one should get out of a situation good or bad…

Human Beings and frogs are the two creatures in nature carrying tremendous power to adapt… Put a frog in a vessel of water and start heating the water...as the temperature of the water rises, the frog is able to adjust its body temperature accordingly...

The frog keeps on adjusting with increase in temperature... Just when the water is about to reach boiling point, the frog is not able to adjust anymore and at that point the frog decides to jump out...

The frog tries to jump but is unable to do so, because it lost all its strength in adjusting with the water temperature... Very soon the frog dies.

What killed the frog ?

Many of us would say the boiling water... and the truth is what killed the frog was its own inability to decide when it had to jump out... we all need to adjust with people and situations, but we need to be sure when we need to adjust and when we need to decide it’s time to when to jump...

The decision making process tends to generate dogmatism … Leaders with superiority often overpower their peer group and the very charisma they carry coupled with biases in making decision and overlooking the facts either delays the decisions or end up making wrong decisions and pay the price for it… fall back and read the history they are filled with consequences bared  and suffered because of delayed decisions… the history of mankind is filled with many examples where monarchs and top leaders have delayed decisions which are catastrophic.

Just like the most fertile soil does not necessarily produce the most abundant harvest the most experienced need not be the best decision makers … the problem is they often delay the decisions especially in the corporate world that I am exposed to have seen the best of the leaders in the top management sitting on matters long enough that the time flies and the opportunity lost… and then the blame game and downstream corrective actions start… the question is why did you sleep over the matter so long without making any decision…

If I fall back and look at the leaders I have worked with in the corporate world between 1999 and 2014… one very common observation is the leadership values seemed to apply in good times when the economy was blooming and the world was optimistic on India reporting a double digit GDP, but all these values seem to dwindle or even disappear during stress post Lehman issue…

I have seen the best of the leaders under stress loosing long term focus and the temporary problem overpowers the senses and the very human nature filled with interference and insecurities takes over… no matter how resilient one is the environment acts such that the leader is unable to give up or move on and goes on taking decisions thru his gut and not the facts supporting which often blow the problem out of proportion.

Another very common issues one ends up adding cycle time to the decision making process is lack of communication, what I have seen in a decade long experience is people tend to communicate less during bad times, when in actuality, they need to communicate even more…, this fallacy leads to grapevine and gossips tend to picture themselves as facts making the employees take decisions which otherwise with sound communication and clarity wouldn’t have…. I have seen fear and greed dominating the human behavior forcing one in a see-saw journey of decision making…

Wait for something good to happen, a very funny things but yes, that’s true… many organizations wait for an economic and business turnaround and wait for quite long a time to make decisions which should be actually other way round… as a leader one should be making sound decisions during bad times so that the opportunity can be grabbed by both hands during good times…

Decision making is one of the remarkable qualities what leaders are identified possessing that sets them apart from others, the decision made may be bad or good… what is more important is to make one…. delaying making decision will attract an end to the person similar to the frog in the boiling vessel

Beyond the bottom line …

I am hired as an expert in a consulting assignment to work with the business manager and help him improve his EBITDA and impact the bottom line.

While I start my data analysis and quickly identify key improvement themes that will help improve the operational efficiency, build strategies where the value enabling tasks can be digitized and move some of the processes  to low cost channels and effectively use the power of outsourcing and impact the margins there is much more one should do.

My conversation with a Sr. Vice President brought in a 360 degree transformation to the whole art and science of operational excellence. No doubt that the cost optimization drives, business efficiency projects and process excellence are the keys which all business houses have successfully deployed and tasted the results there are a hand full of organization which go beyond these initiatives and move towards employee ENGAGEMENT…. EMPOWERMENT … and EXECTUION …

During my HP days I had a chance to work with the best of the CXO’s and Directors, each one is a gem in the crown of the Sr. Management who was on a path less travelled to meet the goals set and demonstrated unclenching behavioural anchors and maintained composure during the most stressful days and the only and only point each one of them articulated clearly and echoed in every talk is a threefold model of Engagement… Empowerment… and Execution.

One of the directors of HP who did play a role of my mentor and coach for my tenure in HP made a point very clear… Execution is not a leadership trait, it’s a basic essential that is required in each and every employee hired in the organization, every employee should exactly know what the output he/she generates is. … WOW… a good learning… all the books I had read on execution talked more from a leadership end … here is something new I discovered … He went on adding and giving example on how execution can be seen in every walk of our life and every member of the society, the world is a well-oiled engine and everyone is able to deliver … your spouse prepares a bed tea and wakes you up is only because the milkman delivers the milk on time… that’s execution… she prepares the kids to school and drops them to the school bus… that’s execution… the school van picks up kids on time and drops them to school and brings them back home on time… that’s execution… open your eyes and see … you will see execution in every walk of life … this is a basic essential …

Why do we fail to execute if this is so basic trait…?

When I popped up this question to him he said… my friend.., you can successfully execute if you are empowered to… what your spouse can do… your maid cannot unless she is empowered… WOW.. now see the connection… execution is linked to empowerment…

Nonetheless, he went on to add… it’s not only empowerment … you may empower your maid to dress up your kids and ensure they reach the school bus at the gate and this may slip … it may not happen daily… or your will face issues here… now this is linked to Engagement…

How are you engaging with your maid and make her feel responsible and take the ownership…

My conversation went on and on with a lot of examples and real life situations that can be easily understood … I am convinced… and I still face a challenge keeping my team motivated enough and engaged …

Now there are a lot of factors that impact this concept in the corporate world… as we grow the leadership sessions, trainings and talks revolve more on understanding the finances and the financial ratios… the additions and subtractions… gains … profits and losses… etc… and in a five day leadership training there will be a couple of workshops for half a day on employee engagement … personal branding etc… I am not complaining … there are trainers who do stress at every point that you should keep people engaged and empowered but I have not seen it really happening at all levels…  

Real, tangible, quantitative data confirms that happy and engaged employees lead to greater profits and higher stock prices, a friend of mine used to work for NETAPP and this company has a very simple practice of engaging employee and empowering them with a reward program called as “CIO FOR A DAY” where the CIO goes to each and every employee after the annual results are posted and thanks them for the good work they have done. He carries real examples and appreciation emails and tells them how much it matters for him and the team.

People quit managers and not companies is a quote everyone is aware about and very less effort is put in to really build the human capital. It’s not only the leadership talks or shows that matter what really matters is have you touched everyone in the organization.  A CEO of a large company makes a very impressive speech … but this does not reach as a benefit the end employee who is just a few years of experience in the company and doing the real execution … may be testing, coding, building, designing etc… as you grow up the management ladder you are but nothing building strategies and seeing the plans come thru.

While you can be successful in engaging the employee… but I have not seen any behaviour demonstrating empowerment. Decision making can happen only if you are empowered, your spouse can take a decision to perform a task later or forgo to cut down the time to prepare the kids to reach the school van is your maid performing the same set of activities empowered to do so…

Empowerment can come only and only if you can willing to take the responsibility and are accountable for the actions, I have seen only in few occasions the Sr. Manager and AVPs although entitled hold back to sign off for various reasons and pass the buck on … is this a trait you have anchored into your behaviour right from your child days… I believe so… fall back on the families of people who you have seen making decisions… forget good or bad … but they make decisions and you can relate them roots into their childhood … culture they are brought up in or education…

Well… there is a long long way for the Indian corporate to go and understand how to really engage and empower which in turn improves execution that leads to customer satisfaction and repeat business or more business.

In principle and theory everyone agrees to but the very human nature that is filled with insecurities and commitments will fancy on titles like VP, AVP, Sr. Manager, GM, MD etc… and lacks the ability to engage and empower fails to execute and one fine day will stand at the bottom … and will continue to see the bottom-line number diminish ….

 

Five Men Army of a Successful Leader

When I fall back and look at my thirteen year old career it’s filled with learning experiences, I have failed more than succeeded, took big risks and made enough blunders and learnt a lot from them. Looking back, I realize that I could have changed my approach and pressed on in my efforts to take one more step forward and made it happen… many instances and assignments it’s the last last last minute that I backed out and there was always someone who picked up this as an opportunity and finished it coming out in bright colours…

I could have done the tasks and projects far better had I got the five men army way early in my career… nonetheless better late than never.  My mentor always insisted on a quote that says “Leadership is not a designation…it’s a position earned” unless you see a rough sea you will not be a good sailor. Success is short lived and forgotten but the failures remain long enough with you and these learning experiences is what the industry is looking to hire you for so that you will not make the same mistake again …

Almost 8 years down the line of my career I had a breakthrough after earning the trust of my five men army and believe everyone plays a very vital role in any assignment I am leading …

My five men army consist of …

a.      Coach…

b.      Mentor…

c.       Black Shadow …

d.      White Angle …

e.      and above all Myself….

Each of them has a designated role to play and they help me as a captain to walk up to my stakeholders and give them the taste of success they have hired me for…

Coach: A coach for me is one who will bring in the discipline in me, will always guide me and bring me back on track. He will make the necessary project plans, track the progress, question me if things are not falling in place, help me see the risks early and also help me come up with a risk mitigation plan. He is the most practical personality who is experienced and knows things inside out

Mentor: While there is a coach doing all things in practice, I have a Mentor who will help me understand the choices to make. She motivates me, inspires me with examples and case studies. She is always there when I need her, she is not a subject matter expert but she is the one who listens to me patiently and helps me discover what I already know. She never suggests me unlike a coach but helps me with all the necessary tools and tips to overcome the hurdles I am facing and prepares me for the success.

Black Shadow: While the coach and mentor play their roles in making things happen and support me physically and emotionally, my best friend is the Black Shadow. I learnt it the Hardaway, not everyone is comfortable listening to a feedback, but she is the one who tell me at every step why I will not succeed, why the things I am putting across will not work, her role is to crib, sulk and give me all the negatives and put across many reasons why things will fail.

White Angel: My most dearest is white angle, he is one who is the exact opposite to the Black shadow, he comes up and tells me every reason why I should try out and experiment with the idea I have. He is the one who looks at the inputs of the Black shadow and works with the coach and strengthens the plans to overcome the risks. A white angle should be innovative, think out of box and be a continuous energy of ideas bubbling to counter the black shadow

Myself: While I have four pillars the army is completed only by me, I am the one who is the final decision maker, I am accountable for my actions, I am responsible for the things I do, I am the cornerstone of success of failure, I may ignore to all the above and follow my gut, I may take suggestion from all and do exactly what is required… I am the master of my destiny. I write the success story or I choose to be in the books of history… and with me come the five men army.

I recently completed a project adding approx. USD 13 million to the bottom line and now switching to pick up a next big task to improve the revenue by at least 15 % for the year FY 14-15. This model has worked for me and now is a part of my team…

The first time I proposed this to my SVP, he laughed at me and told I have hired you and believe all these four should be a part of your quality / personality. Over a period of time after a few sessions he now strongly believes that the very human nature will get into conflict if the expectation is to have a personality dwell all the above four pillars.

I believe it’s worth investing in the above four for a successful business unit looking for a long term sustaining result and grow at the rate of at least 15% – 20% CAGR … thus make an impact … J

Challenge yourself as a leader

Thirteen years in the corporate world and finally a day came where I understand what it means to reach the pinnacle of achievement … you succeed so far beyond anyone’s wildest dreams that makes you THE man and because of you the entire team is appreciated…

 My GE days were filled with leadership experiences that helped me build resilience and maintain composure during tough times… and as I moved on there was an opportunity came knocking to my door … two Mid Cap giant companies merging together to be among the top 5 in the India IT play and I am responsible to spin success at the process side driving operational excellence and building growth strategies, using principles of lean and six sigma to eliminate waste and make the integration smooth.

As I moved out form the comfort zone of the GE Leadership and the GE Culture into a company that is acquired a bigger organization than itself and going thru a churn and restructuring at the top there was reluctance in employees and seemed though they have immediately got defensive and resist the idea of change.

What was so easy for me in the GE Days looked like a herculean task to carry the wave along to accomplish the set goal and help people overcome the perceived threats and get them away from the assumptions and gossips into reality. Loss of status, delays in pay hikes coupled with surprise factors of the policy changes added fuel to fire for the role I was playing.

This situation was testing my resilience and tenacity, which is obviously essential in a change management role and experienced the first time in reality compared to the GE days where such circumstances were only discussed in the training sessions.

This was the best experience of my career where in practice I have situation at hand where an adversity is presenting me an opportunity and instead of pressing a panic button hold on to the composure not letting the emotions get in the way and keeping a positive attitude handle the situation. One of the biggest learning out of this entire episode strengthened my belief … to be a good leader you need no rocket science … Communication and Faith are the only two qualities that are quite sufficient to emerge out of any situation…

Its few months now… my project was signed off yesterday with an annualized benefit of $ 3.46 Million to the organization …

Moving out of GE was a tough decision and I wanted to test my waters out there in the market and see what I am capable of.  Many a times working in a big organization and big MNC brand helps one maneuver thru the hurdles very easily… try it else were and challenge yourself as a leader  …!

I'm only drilling on my side

I was running a program that span across various verticals; we had closely studied the business process and transitioned to India under one Umbrella, this was a big simplification exercise where different functions had to be integrated and a handshake was required to ensure there is a smooth flow.

Not all business transformations and transitions go noise free, there will definitely be some ups and down, few things will run smooth and few may not. What is important is to follow the plan while sailing on the ship. The end goal is not to roll back a process for one sub business when rest is going fine… I’m sure you too would have come across situations like this.

Some times in the top management and senior leadership there is a bureaucracy that prevails in organizations where the leaders are either afraid of change or delay decision making which impact business operations. Many a times when an agreed process exists that is planned and execution occurs you will find someone unhappy with if and starts deviating from the set process instead of working together to enable the same in his/her sub business too... It’s something similar to an example as stated in this story below.

Two men were out on the ocean in a boat.

One of them began drilling in the bottom of the boat, and the other, aghast said "What are you doing? Stop drilling!”

And the first man replied: "It's all right. I'm only drilling on my side."

Monkey see, monkey do

Monkey see, monkey do a saying that originated in Jamaica in the early 18th century. The saying refers to the learning of a process without an understanding of why it works, it’s been a while I am working in a consulting role and find it so difficult for people to try something different. There is a lot of reluctance in leaders today to take a decision, I’m surprised that people want to make popular decisions no matter they are right or wrong the focus is more to keep everyone  in a comfort zone.

Last few years there has been a lot of unrest and in the name of economy and caution people have stopped thinking; the learning process is simply stopped at every node. Unless we do things differently during a turbulent period we will not be able to raise the bar. It’s easy to talk big… the question is are you really thinking big… and if you are thinking big do you have the real capable people who can execute. I have seen in in the past in an organization two senior leaders moved in and moved out, as they got in there was a lot of optimism and upbeat enthusiasm and soon things went down the drain, we all start well but soon succumb to the situation at hand and with people around things don’t move.

I’m surprised that people quit a company and join another, while this is called as growth in career the question that haunts me is cant a person grow in the same organization, why can’t the current organization retain him/her and there is someone else who is picking him/her at a price higher than his current organization pays.

Well… what happens after that… let me illustrate this with the below story…

A group of scientists placed five monkeys in a cage, a ladder and few bananas on the top of it.  Every time the monkey went up the ladder scientists socked the other monkeys in the room with a cold shower. After sometime no monkey dared to go up the ladder regardless of the temptation.

The scientists then decided to replace one of the monkeys with a new one, the first thing the new monkey did was go up the ladder and immediately the other monkeys beat him up, after several beatings the new member learnt no to climb the ladder even though he never knew why.

The scientists then replaced one more monkey and the same thing occurred, surprisingly the first monkey was replaced too participated in beating the second monkey with the rest in the room.

The third monkey was changed and the same thing happened; now both the new monkeys in the room with rest of the two old one participated in beating the new monkey. The fourth monkey was replaced and same thing occurred again and finally the fifth monkey was replaced the same thing happened it was beaten down with the other four.

What was left was a group of five monkeys that even though never received a cold shower continued to beat up any monkey who attempted to climb the ladder.

If it was possible to ask the monkeys why they would beat up all those who attempted to climb the ladder the answer for sure will be “I DON’T KNOW … THAT’S HOW THINGS ARE DONE AROUND HERE”

Have you ever in your tenure working with your organization or business heard a similar statement, and then it’s more important to first change the thought process of the people even before attempting to climb the ladder, if not go ahead and change the entire set of pople and bring new ones in who have not gone thru the similar shower treatment. This will bring in a new paradigm. Change management is not about managing the status quo and replacing manual process with digitization or bringing in new tools, over a period of time the one who brought the tool will move on and the tool will remain, times change, process changes but the tool sticks around ….

Not sure… but I guess you too would have come across a similar situation in your career… will be happy to listen your comments and perhaps changes you brought in standing up against the tide as a leader..

Decision… what's right isn't always popular... and what's popular isn't always right.

Chocolate or Ice cream…? McDonalds or Pizza…? Coke or Fresh Fruit Juice …? Life or Death…? Shortcut or Main road…? Drive down or take a walk…? Yes or No…? Hire or No Hire…? Good or Bad...? Buy or Sell...? Invest or Spend...?

We make tons of quick decisions and 90% of them unconsciously and very quickly…often we call them choices; most of them may be correct and most of them may go against us and hem-haw over in agony.

Our choices and decisions predominantly are based on our personality and the way we think, most of them have roots to our decision making skills we picked up subconsciously while we were kids. We choose many actions from our own experience, biases, opinions, memories…

I was talking to a very old friend of mine, and he asked me a funny question… “A company where an employee is currently working does not recognize his/her potential and the same person in another company when hired … is hired for a higher position and gets a pretty good hike… what the current company did not understand about him in past few years… the new company assessed in a 30min interview round and made a decision”….

Few days back I visited my stock broker and he quoted “Listening to others opinions and not trusting yourself - Most traders have failed numerous times. Put your boat in the water - The song goes, "Ships are safest in the harbor but that is not what ships are for…” now everything again boils down the decision, here it is to Buy or Sell a stock that is again an emotion that holds you back, fear and greed…

Here is an anecdote; you would have heard this story in your leadership trainings or in some seminars etc… pretty popular one on Which one will you choose?

A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the rest on the operational track. The train came, and you were just beside the track interchange. You could make the train change its course to the disused track and saved most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way?

Let's take a pause to think what kind of decision we could make................

The first thought that comes to the mind and we might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child. You might think the same way, I guess. Exactly, I thought the same way initially because to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally. But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place?

Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was.

This kind of dilemma happens around us every day… especially the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority are.

The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in the case he was sacrificed.

I was conducting an workshop at Delhi, the audience were members from DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation), AAI (Airport Authority or India) and ATC (Air Traffic Control). We had a very long conversation around this story and every one had his or her own opinion, to add more flavor to the discussion we introduced an additional emotional element …

Option 1: Now imagine the one who is going to change the train has his kid playing on the disused track

Option 2: Now imagine the one who is going to change the train has his kid playing on the active track

Few replied to sacrifice the kid and put the train on the disused track

Few were of the opinion that the choice that kid made to play on the disused track was right, why should he be killed for the ignorance of others

Few blamed that authorities / parents / teachers etc… for allowing the kids to play on the railway track

Few were worried on what would happen to the life of people in the train if we put the train on the disused track

When the above variables were introduced in the story,

Few were of the opinion and said I am not worried of anyone else but my kid…. (Emotion)

One of them said… it’s ok to sacrifice my kid for the sake of others again an Emotional decision.

One of them shared a technology tip that trains should have auto sensors installed

Someone told can we inform the train engine driver to stop the train

One of them told can we rush towards the kids and ask them to get out of the track

We never reached a conclusion; every decision has its own advantage and disadvantage…

While we work with people around us, we will far sure end up with conflicting situations and delay the decision making, sometimes we will get into a deadlock situation, every party involved in the decision making will be equally influential and will have his or her own opinion.

I faced a tough situation too, at some juncture did feel that enough is enough, let me go with the flow and continue with what is happening, any way it’s just my job and after few days I will move on. But my inner conscious did not permit me do this… again a decision dilemma, here is what I love the most, talk to someone when you are in such a situation, I fell back on my Mentor and talked to her and suddenly a spark aroused with two options… I have always noticed this, and you too would have come across, you know the solutions and sometimes due to stress or various other factors the mind simply stops working ... talking to someone helps brush the dust thats settled in....

1.       Continue the way we are doing now … find a quick fix so that the operations don’t get stalled

2.       Benchmark and understand the best practices across the globe and align the process accordingly per industry best practices…,

While option 2 is the best one to do for all the business process, often we don’t do a benchmarking excercise... for various reasons (time, cost, schedule slip etc...) and the learning from this incidence reinforced to stick to the fundamentals principles of quality… go by the rule book and follow the framework.

Quite often we get into this kind of situations where you don’t know the right process or the wrong process… end of the day we need to deliver the results to our customer… that’s what the customer is looking for… if a quick fix works … go ahead and put the fix in place and then on a long run mature the process and make it more capable.

All that I learnt is …   “That what's right isn't always popular... and what's popular isn't always right."