Roger Greenaway is an outdoor facilitator and the person behind the immensely useful site on the subject – reviewing.co.uk – a man whose writings I have read on and off for the last three years, and emailed a few times with appreciation and link exchange requests, etc.
Imagine my surprise this morning to receive an email from him saying that he was planning to come to India for the first time in October to conduct an outdoor management training program at Empower Camps. Sushil Bhasin, one of the owners is someone I have known for years and we are in fact currently in a dialogue about doing some training programs together.
I promptly called up Sushil to gossip about this new coincidence. As we caught up with current stuff, I discovered that Sushil had set a goal for himself – that of being the first outdoor training organization in India to do work with international facilitators!!! How absolutely amazing.
In our busy lives, we are so fixated with creating our own images, and glorifying ourselves, it is rare to look for resources and opportunities to widen our experience, quality of work and talent sets. Not only did Sushil have this in mind, he actually pulled it through. This programme is tentatively scheduled for October.
As we talked, we spoke of another thing we can collaborate on. Training the trainers. The scene in India is largely that of silos. Outdoor adventure training with corporates is mostly discounted as a “perk” for the employees and rarely appreciated for its learning and training potential. Some of the responsibility is ours, as trainers when we choose to compromise training to retain clients, the rest is that of people who prefer to opt for keeping employees happy under training budgets.
In a scenario like this, it is a difficult decision to make to announce such programmes and profit from them. The opportunity part of this is that each programme is going to have limited seats – I hope the ones truly committed to learning register quickly before the opportunity is gone (no the programme hasn’t been announced yet. You’ll come to know when it is)
But its done, and its an absolutely awesome step to take. My cheers to Roger and Sushil!!! May you reach higher and higher heights.
Dear friends,
Its amazing to see how this great girl (who knows she’s great, and says modesty and Vidyut are like parallel lines that can never meet) called Vidyut passes on credit to others with ease and grace. Well, it was a heartening one hour chat on the phone, in which she made me realize that I was slipping from my goal.
I served the Indian Army for 34 years and had a vast and varied training experience. Starting at a grass root level of training recruits to being an instructor on four tenures, to being an examiner and setting papers for promotion and competitive times, I went through the complete grind of training. I also commanded a training establishment at Bangalore and thereafter served at the Army Training Command where we formulated training doctrine for the Indian Army. I trained indoors, outdoors in jungles, mountains, deserts and in riverine terrain. The culture in the Army was very different. We shared knowledge and experience, openly. Training was (and IS) my passion.
When I was voluntarily hung my uniform to start an Outbound adventure on my own (in partnership with my cousins), and stepped into the field of corporate culture, the scene was so different. I found trainers happy to be aloof. They generally maintained SECRETS very efficiently. And I liked the way Vidyut says, “..and facilitators are “super stars” of the scene in islands of their own.” Yes they are!
I had decided to conduct an train the trainers programme (suggested by a good friend, Dipali Sengupta, an excellent trainer in hospitality). Somehow it was not happening. And when Roger suggested that we do a train the trainers programme, I was a little reluctant for many reasons. I thought it wont work. As Vidyut also said, They are already enlightened! Their cups are full. How will Roger be able to pour anything in them. But she was a solid pillar of strength to say, lets take a plunge and do it. And I readily I jumped at it, as I realized that I was deviating from my inner vision and goal.
So, YES. We are doing a Train the Trainers Programme in mid Oct. The detaisl will be up soon.
Thanks Vidyut, for your support! You woke me up.
Sushil
During the Vietnam era, Roger served as a Counterintelligence Special Agent. Outdoor Adventure
Hey Sushil,
Awesome to have you visit here!!! Thank you so much for your comment. Your generous appreciation made my day. Really.
And thank you even more for committing to this effort. We need this, regardless of who thinks they don’t, and I’m willing to bet that there will be more people interested.
We have a desire to learn. Let’s go for it.
Vidyut.
Hi Vidyut,
Nice to hear this announcement from you. I am definitely interested, but I don’t know if I will be able to get leave. When you announce dates, will you email me?
I agree with you Sushil, our group had so many problems and even people fighting, and she was so patient. She did not criticize anyone, she patiently suggested what we were doing, and everybody just listened to her. She was able to find good in us even when we weren’t acting good. Never scolded anyone or lost her temper. I think she was the only one who didn’t.
She really tamed the beast for us. Even now in office we try to stop and think what is good when everyone starts fighting.
Hi Subhash,
Nice to see your post.
It sounds so nice when a trainer has the type of impact Vidyut has.
We will soon freeze the dates (in a day or two) and Vidyut will surely inform you.
Looking forward to meeting you
Sushil
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