NAVRANG: SMART understanding of                                                       ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE




 Navrang consists of 27 small cubes of 9 different colors. Contrary to a Rubik’s cube which has 6 colours, Navrang has 9 colours. The cube is made of 27 coloured detachable cubes in sets of 3.

So what did our Prof Mandi had to offer with Navrang. Well, a very peculiar kind of a toy. I am getting used to this way of teaching with toys- to see something so innocent as a bunch of blocks turn into something that can easily pass as a management jargon.
I mean have a look at it..

The first challenge was for 3 of us to volunteer and solve the cube - put it back into place with the given set of constraints - 

1. Each face of the cube must have all the 9 colors. Which also means obviously that none of the colors can be repeated on any face - since there are only 9 slots in each.

2. We only had 5 minutes in which to solve the cube.

3. The 27 smaller cubes were clustered randomly on the table.

Learnings from this activity are:

• The Navrang cube represented an organization and the 27 different coloured cubes were the elements in the organization
• We as managers need to combine each element in the best combination possible to realize the organization's goals.
• Logical thinking is the best solution to any problem
• Previously when we started doing the job without any thinking whatsoever, we were not successful
• Logical thinking enables us to achieve SMART goals.

Organizational structure affects organizational action in two big ways. First, it provides the foundation on which standard operating procedures and routines rest. Second, it determines which individuals get to participate in which decision-making processes, and thus to what extent their views shape the organization’s actions.