The Delhi Metro-Symphony Orchestra

“The typical symphony orchestra consists of four proportionate groups of similar musical instruments called the woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings. The orchestra, depending on the size, contains almost all of the standard instruments in each group. Apart from the core orchestral complement, various other instruments also may be called for...."

So what is common between Delhi Metro and Symphony Orchestra?

When Delhi Metro was inaugurated in 2002, I was impressed that our country also has infrastructure that represents modernity and we seem to have realized the importance of mass transport systems to support our urban development. (This realization seems to be far and wide. In the last few decades only two such systems have come up; one in Kolkata and one in Delhi though there are many more cities that desperately need something like this.)

Why this island of excellence and what ensures its continuity?

Is it just because of the visionary leadership of Sreedharan that gave the organization courage to dream big, the patience to translate the dream to actionable tasks with clear specifications, ensured that proposals were evaluated on merit and not on the “educational efforts of the suppliers”, established clear service level expectations and mercilessly insisted on commitment to delivery, the Metro still stand tall in its quality of service?

I had serious doubts on whether the above qualities in project execution would ensure that this quality will be sustained in its operations day after day. My scepticism was rooted on what I have observed in most of the public structures and institutions in our country.  The trend of poor upkeep and maintenance exacerbated by the pathetic civic sense of our society starts showing soon. The civic sense that instills no shame in throwing things out of the windows of the muti-storied apartments and air conditioned cars, that considers it natural to relieve oneself on public roads, that doesn’t evoke compunction when littering public places and spit at every corner of staircase unless (or in spite of) photograph of a god is stuck there.

Further, I also was very sceptical about quality of customer service and I have seldom seen a government agency that understood the meaning of customer service.

Since the inauguration of Metro a number of years have gone by. The metro has expanded considerably and is in the process of expanding more. The stations are still spotlessly clean, the coaches look brand new and I can see practically no graffiti. The experience of a customer is still a matter of delight.

The visionary leadership is still there and it has managed to inculcate certain practices that has now been ingrained in its people and processes and is more infectious than common cold. The organization still passionately focuses on a lot of small things. Like ensuring that the cleaning staff leaves no dust unturned and the surveillance system does not let go of irresponsible behavior in its premises. Such an all pervading commitment to quality suddenly appears to instill a sense of shame and responsibility to the denizens who use the metro. The service he gets is so good that he has no reason to spit in disgust:-)

It looks like a symphony orchestra with hundreds of people each contributing in big and small way. In a symphony there are so many instruments that make almost indistinguishable sounds a layman would wonder what difference they make. But all of them together bring about a heavenly halo.

This attention to small details is what we often lack in many organizations (particularly government organisations) and that leads to gradual degeneration. When I see a station with not even one cigarette butt or a candy cover I almost feel ashamed to throw one myself; but even if I see a few litter scattered around then it becomes less of a worry for me.

This logic gets extended to in all fields. When we have hardly any customer complaints pending and suddenly one complaints pop up we care. But if we have 10,000 pending grievances, 100 more makes no difference.

When the policy maker tries to set up solutions with without thinking through, then we only try to show that there is something working and just don’t care how the customer feels.

Public services cannot be set up like the “Tabala Solo” a maestro like ustad Zakkir Hussain. It is like a symphony orchestra with lots of small bells and whistles all integrated together.

This is what Singapore did in getting the city to be clean and this is what Metro has done and has the persistence to continue with.

When we learn to worship this “god of small things” more and more, we will see islands of excellence growing and joining together to cover the sub-continent - India.

Amateur’s tips on e-Governance

Use of computing technology in public service, what is called e-Governance, is catching up in India. Some of these projects are means to improve the efficiency of internal processes of the department and some of them try to improve service delivery to the public at large.

Many fail and some are astounding successes. The challenge gets compounded in projects that involve integration of multiple agencies and or service delivery to the public. NSDL got opportunity to be a part of three such projects. Dematerialization of securities by SEBI looks obvious now, the Tax Information Network by Income Tax Department is at the halfway mark and the third and latest, the New Pension Scheme by PFRDA is still in the early stages. Let me share some learning that we picked up along the way while playing meaningful roles in these projects. (All these are my personal views and not official views of NSDL)

1. IT is only part of the story

Information technology (IT) is the key engine in e-governance; but keep in mind that it is just a means and not an end in itself.

For example the internet based railway reservation is a brilliant option for passengers. Imagine that the railways make it the only way to sell tickets. It can save enormous cost of the administrative infrastructure required for citizen interface. But with the usage profile we have in our country for this service, we cannot even think about it for the time being. At the same time the automation for the guy behind the counter still provides enormous efficiency gains in the reservation process and helps to reduce corruption.

If the solutions are architectured with a technology focus and not service focus, it gets to be the killer and is one of the main reasons for failure of many e-governance projects.

If I give a thumb rule, IT is only a 40% contributor in e-Governance.

2. BPR is not a Magic Wand

Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) is a critical ingredient to ensure best results. But when a large number of organizations and disparate user segments are involved, it is important to phase the re-engineering. Identify the most important changes (as few as possible) that are critical to efficiency gain or that will be act as a foundation to the transformational process and implement them first.

This is especially critical, as educating and enabling a large user community is a challenge that can be managed better by keeping the changes as limited as possible.

For example in implementation of Tax Information Network (TIN) one of the major changes was the requirement of filing TDS returns electronically. To begin with, the department kept the process of depositing tax and preparation of TDS return almost the same. In fact the free utility for preparation of electronic return has a frontend which looked like a physical form in which the tax deductors were typing in the data as always and at the end of it they had to just save the return to a CD and hand over to a front office. (For the more IT savvy there were other options too).

Change management is best managed if you can help take few decisive steps and not a leap of faith into the darkness.

An implosion to break the rotten structure, and not an explosion that destroys the whole neighborhood.

3. Be Patient

Once you have set the ball in motion, let the process settle down. Give it time for the message to percolate down. Give it time for the first movers to experiment, the followers to observe and the cynics to run out of steam.

Remember, unless it is a matter of life and death (or a celebrity citing) you won’t see a crowd thronging to the embrace the change on the first day or even the first year.

We saw this when we set up the depository. The day after the inauguration we saw supplements in all major newspapers hailing the birth of a new institution. Within days and weeks we started to get telephone calls asking the number of accounts opened. We had no ‘thousands of accounts’ to show off. From the same tongues that praised, we heard obituaries. We were flooded with advice on why we should change the model completely. Three years on and lots of education and persuasion and cooperation from many, it took root and today it looks so obvious.

Depository was big thing for Indian capital market. But for most investors who traded occasionally there was no need to queue up to open an account. They were not even sure how it will affect the market. Similarly New Pension Scheme is a great idea. But there is no need to run to the distributor to open an account. It may be important but not urgent.

Often patience is not the virtue of many policy makers who want to show magic before their next transfer and holding their urges in check is a challenge in itself.

4. But you have to tweak

When I say be patient, it doesn’t mean do nothing. Look for irritants to be removed, look for tweaks that will improve user convenience; but, don’t keep on changing the whole model.

What you need are tweaks that enable and not splashes that confuses; the spirit of continuous improvement.

5. Be ready to hold hands

In many initiatives although the expected changes are dramatic, historic and touches large number of citizens, the impact of this for the individual may not be so large or not so clear.

Therefore there is need to have concerted effort to interpret and explain how the new system affects various segments to help them in the process of transition.

6. Sometimes you need to push

In some projects there will be need for a regulatory nudge to break the impasse or to act as a catalyst. But you should not get carried away by this tool and move in with a bulldozer. Remember what the ‘family planning initiatives’ of Sanjay Gandhi achieved.

That is what SEBI did when it used a bit of compulsion to move the market from physical to electronic. At first it got the infrastructure in place, got some minimum action by pushing the institutional segment in a small way and then pushed the active players and then the whole market. It still provided for an exception for the so called ‘small investors’ to take the steam out of those who use the ‘small investor’ as front to push their private agendas

7. Cookie-cutter is for cookies

When we design the solution, we need to keep in mind the nuances of the various segments of users. Don’t just come out with standard cookie cutter solutions

8. Learn to judge cribs

Let assume that the new system affects 100 people; 80 positively and 20 negatively. From the 80 who benefitted hardly few will come to say thanks. But of the 20 majority will shout.

So on the first look, majority of the feedback will be cribs. You need to look deeper at the agend behind the screams and judge whether it is the wail of the majority or the tricks of few.

You also need lots of self confidence to act on this.

9. Government users are special species

Among the users the most difficult will be the government users. They are more used to status quo than change, more used to getting their way than giving way.

So you need active support and intervention from within. You need the snake to pull out its own venom!

10. Benchmark and measure

One of the essentials of success is to have a process for measurement of the key drivers of performance.

You need to get these parameters accepted and established as the true measures of success and put a in a mechanism for continuous tracking and publishing. Or else there will be enough detractors who will play with anecdotal evidences to belittle the progress.

11. Persistence is the Key

The ultimate tool for success is persistence; keeping track of the irritants, looking out for opportunities for marginal improvements. It may not be exhilarating, it may not be brave, it may even be dull, and it may make you look like a hero; but unless you are willing to take this path, especially in the early days, transformational projects don’t take root.

Like the little stream of water that happily moves out of the way of the rock in front, but has the persistence to eat away the rock speck by speck.

12. Tell me who owns the project

Although I placed this as the last item in the list, this is the most important pre-requisite for any project to be a success. Unfortunately it is very often absent in public projects. Most of the team members join as actors playing their part for their own agendas and not committed to the project. Almost like the like junior artists who move from one movie to another. Such projects definitely will fail.

The role played by Sreedharan in the Delhi Metro Project, Bhave in case of NSDL, Narayana Moorthi in case of Infosys are examples for how ownership and commitment can make all the difference.

Should we call this list the "Dirty Dozen" (as very often these get neglected) or "Mighty Dozen" (as these make all the difference) of eGovernance?

Grounds for optimism

On Election Day I had written in my blog how I am feeling optimistic about the increased participation of the common man in political process; particularly the educated middle class who had gradually moved away from taking any interest in this. Later when we saw the polling percentage even this year to be not any better, many of my friends came back and questioned me on the grounds of my optimism.

So what did I see?

Did I believe that seeing the King Khans and the Queens, the third page celebrities, showing their black dotted (middle) finger the common man has decided to emulate them in mass?
Did I believe that suddenly the political parties have decided to change the profile of its candidates to have less of goons and more of leaders?

Did I believe that the educated middle class suddenly decided to be less selfish and make a difference in exercising their electoral choice?

I am too old to believe in fairy tales.

Then what do I believe? What is the ground for my optimism?

I notice that the there appears to be little more active interest among the alienated segment of the society in politics and governance.

There are a few more people, who otherwise kept away, willing to jump into the fray.

The better communication tools of emails, sms and blogs are making the process of dialogue a little more easy and a lot less time consuming.

This is enabling some more of public participation.

As Amartya Sen noted “Balloting can be seen only one of the ways- albeit a very important way – to make public discussions effective, when the opportunity to vote is combined with the opportunity to speak and listen, without fear. The reach – and effectiveness – of voting depend critically on the opportunity for open public discussion.”

My grounds for optimism is based on the increasing level of meaningful public debate and participation and how the technology plays a role in improving this process and in bringing in more transparency and more efficiency.

I am hopeful this will answer the prayer of Tagore “ Into that heaven of freedom , my father, let me country awake”

This is also an appeal to my fellows who are still remaining to be just onlookers to join and strengthen the voice of reason. Unless we are willing to participate in giving our views more voice, unless we demand and not resign to fate, unless we build up systems that bring better transparency we have no right to complain.

As Mahatma Gandhi said “We must become the change we want to seen in this world”