Out of all Pandavas and Kauravas, Arjuna had immense liking for the sport of bow and arrow. He practiced this art with great concentration and perseverance. Acharya Drona was very much pleased with Arjuna and showed preferential love and favour towards him. This caused a natural adolescence jealousy in the heart of Duryodhana and his brother Dushasana.
One day they openly criticized their Guru for favour shown towards Arjuna, telling him they also were not less skillful in archery. As a reply to their criticism, Acharya Drona arranged a test to decide the best archer amongst all.
He hung a wooden bird from the branch of a tree and then summoned his students. One by one, he asked his students to aim for the eye of the wooden bird and be ready to shoot; then, when they were ready, he would ask the student to describe all that he was able to see. The students generally described the garden, the tree, flowers, the branch from which the bird was suspended and the bird itself. Guru Dronacharya then allowed them to shoot; all of them missed the target, which was the eye of the wooden bird.
It was now Arjuna’s turn. He readied himself, his bow and arrow in perfect graceful harmony! Guru Dronacharya asked him the same question:’What do you see, Arjuna?’ He replied ’I see the eye of the wooden bird’.’What else do you see, Arjuna?’.’Nothing’.’Come now, Arjuna, describe all that you see’.’I see the black eye, and only the eye of a wooden bird, sir’. Such was his concentration! Dronacharya bade him shoot; needless to say, he hit the target exactly.
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Deep analysis of this episode from Mahabharata can lead you to some crucial management lessons. You would think it is simply a story, which teaches us importance of concentration. But don’t you think it is rather simplistic way of looking at it? Or may be the engineer in me, who ventures to analyze everything occurs around me, is trying to read too much into it.
I have been a project manager for last four years. I have come across various types of projects, some were relatively easy and some were extremely difficult. If you think about it, what makes project difficult or easy? Somewhere in there you will find that it is us, one or more of the project team members, make certain moves and compound effect of such moves leads to a project being a success or disaster. Lets try to analyze the above episode from Project Management perspective.
Define Objectives and Goals:
When a project is conceived, there is obviously an expectation about the end product. It is important to note that an object has to be feasible and within reach of achievability. The goal may fluctuate at various stages of consideration and feasibility study. But ultimately, at some point, a definite goal must be decided. Without a definite objective at hand, the doer would find it difficult chart out path to success. Acharya Drona very well knew the best way to test the archery. He set eye of a wooden word as an object. Not the whole bird, specifically the black eye.
Planning and Design:
An improperly planned project will more often that not lead to failure. With budget and definite objective in hand, a team of professional sets out to plan and design the project. In majority of cases, investors with tight budget or of course out of typical miser nature assigns relatively lower budget for planning and design.
The apparent theory behind such a decision is that spending money on consultants is not gaining any physical value of the project. Rather if the saved money is spent on additional physical features or amenities, it may yield better market value. Hence, short-term monetary considerations take over the practical contemplations.
With a limited budget, a designer will end up finding shortcuts to design. They would go for minimum requirements, not considering what a particular type of project may require for successful execution.
Better-defined parameters with detailed outline helps in positioning yourself for proper execution. And here the detailed, properly thought out design and planning is imperative for expected end result.
Arjuna knows that for expected end result, that is to hit the eye, he needs to take a better position. Without accurate analysis of the bird’s position and the factors involved in shooting the eye, execution of the task would not succeed.
Management by Objective:
The most important aspect of project management - stay focused and management by objective. You know your goal. You are progressing on the path you charted out. There is hardly any project where you do not hit roadblocks. Sometimes, the roadblocks are quite tough and may impede the pace of progress. At this down moment where it seems that you have lost your way and light doesn’t appear at the end of the tunnel, it is important to stay course.
It becomes tempting to reevaluate goal, as the target appears more and more difficult. Here is where most projects fail. Rather than reevaluating goals, an astute project manager would reevaluate means and methods being utilized. When project gets in trouble, more often than not, one of the two will be the reason. Poor planning or poor execution. In either case, reevaluating goal would be a false approach to rectify the problem.
On the other hand, it is also tempting to elevate the goal, when you seem to be doing well during execution. This temptation arises from a sense of over confidence. That this task is far too easier and that feeling of being able to achieve a better end result to impress executives is too tempting to avoid.
In both cases above, the goal is being revised. This has to be the last resort in any situation and circumstances. When you redefine the target, you end up redoing the planning and affected parts of the project have to be redesigned. This process of redesigning takes time and may impede schedule targets. So, in order to rectify one problem, we end up creating another. In any case, a person focused on a well-defined goal will mostly succeed.
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Only Arjuna was focused on this goal. He knew exactly what he wanted to achieve. He knew exactly what Acharya Drona’s expectations were. And he had readied himself, with his bow and arrow in perfect graceful harmony. He focused on the eye, only the eye. Only then he could hit the target. A definite goal, proper planning, focused execution – the mantra of successful project management.
References(for the Episode from Mahabharata):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arjuna
https://geocities.com/neovedanta/mahabharata5.html