I decided to call a Monthly Review meeting to get acquainted with all different center heads to whom discussion was held individually, and many times I felt that messages were not understood well when they talked to each other. It was obviously due to gaps in dealings by head office people, and to my mind it was a serious reason for failure of the company. Some of them felt total freedom to decide and use this for self gain and enhanced corrupt behavior. Complaints about this started flowing in through my office which was required to be set right with general and standard practices, exception being only allowed in specific cases with my personal discussion and permission, others liable for harsh action in case of irregularity. My intention was not to allow any exception and find a solution within the set procedure, which normally people avoid due to rigorous thinking and some more responsibility. My TA made an agenda and informed all for a two day meeting. Our office was not having a suitable venue for the meeting and I ordered the administration to find a suitable economic place in a hotel where some of them may prefer to stay. No lunch break was needed as the package included all till second day evening tea after closure of the meeting. My intention was to find how many in charge think in terms of saving funds as their travel, stay etc was to be paid by their office, and also how much they wanted to get involved and share. Some center heads were apprehensive and asked for many clarifications from my office which was conveyed to me by TA regularly. In fact my two technical officers were also not very sure about the outcome. Director was informed about the meeting and he asked, "Is it important for me to attend this meeting as he was not well?" When asked by me I said, "Let him decide as it is a matter of his health, otherwise he may complain in ministry about being tortured." This was conveyed to him when he enquired my office. I knew he would definitely attend the meeting belying his spoken lie as his existence could be in danger, while reputation was already shattered for non-cooperation and creating unwanted resistance.
The meeting started as scheduled and I was excited to meet and share my thoughts with all responsible people at different Profit Centers in the process of taking the company on the path of Turn Around and improvement. I addressed the meeting and gave my brief introduction and welcomed them spelling out the purpose of the meeting and asked them to give their brief introduction right from their education to detail of experiences and also their strengths and weaknesses which could set their style of working in practice. This was unexpected and my TAs also got astonished by my utterance which was unusual and unexpected. Director joined the meeting about half an hour late giving the excuse of flight delay normally occurring those days in Indian Airlines and aviation sector, which didn't mind taking passengers for a ride on any and every possible excuse as they were not working under competition. He was given a seat and when he heard about the discussion on different lines, the color of his face started changing. At the end when his turn came he hesitated and smiled sheepishly showing his mindset of hiding fact and no courage to speak about self, perhaps under heavy coating of self ego or that he should have been known already and it was not necessary for me to know his detail We moved ahead and to my pleasant surprise almost all made a good presentation about their working in the past and they also gave very conservative future plans. We discussed each and every unit separately and set slightly more challenging targets, which I explained that challenging tasks force one to look for many opportunities and one can put pressure on assistants for improved performance. I also explained to them that non-fulfillment of targets is not going to be punishable seriously; only some explanations would be called for to find reasons through self analysis followed by my observations. Director tried to apply his rude behavior at many points and places which were checked by me so that the meeting didn't get disrupted. Some of the charges came to a limit of clashing with the Director when unnecessarily criticized which again was stopped immediately, as I felt the person knowingly tried to spoil a good, positive and constructive environment. This is how even senior persons in hierarchy damage organization.
Many participants came forward to express their satisfaction on the method of involving all together and open channel of direct communication with each other, and they felt they could achieve the set goal by applying methods discussed in two days. Director didn't join for tea in the end and went away making excuses for an important meeting with one in charge and took a tour to his place mainly to take his wife to Varanasi and other religious places as revealed the next day in the office. Thus I knew his wife was in Calcutta for exclusive purpose of going on pilgrimage where all expenses was arranged through a contractor, which became a dispute and the in charge was hauled up by him for revealing the secret of the program to me and office, and the person could be so mean to get someone act wrong and later take disciplinary action when expense reimbursement was demanded. It was shocking to me and I was once again in double mind how to correct this fellow called Director.