Footprints on the Mountainside

This is an interesting life I have. Just as I begin to believe things are sorted and settled, a new twist comes up. Just as I begin thinking of myself as average, I see how I am exceptional. This time is no different.

I had gone to attend the Phase B of my professional development programme as a T-Group facilitator with the Indian Society for Applied Behavioural Science, and expected to have a steep learning curve full of struggle and difficulties and discovering things that are not nice about myself to have to deal with and work through to emerge victorious and was prepared for all the melodrama. I was surprised to find myself flowing with the learning, discovering new horizons of learning and awareness.

I am now in the internship that precedes the acceptance by the board members into the professional membership and faculty at ISABS.

Just back from a training programme for Prolite Autoglow. This company manufactures emergency signs. A family run concern, it is now expanding into a limited company and the family wishes to include their original staff on this journey. Needless to say, its a big shift. The organization has a strong hierarchy, even though there is great warmth.

As a facilitator, it was a challenge for me to get people to see beyond their roles. Yet, the flexibility with which the participants adapted to the training programme, and their willingness to experiment, once they realized its value had me humbled.

As a professional, this was the greatest change I had witnessed from the start of a programme to the end. It served to reinforce my belief that as long as there is a will, change will happen and it will be for the better.

The group began with a very strong sense of roles and definite boundaries between the “labour” and the “elite”. The people lower down the ladder were not used to providing inputs and contributing to the progress of a task, while they excelled at following directions exactly as told. The ones higher up the ladder were not very experimental in their approach and very often the first option to occur to a “leader” was the one the team followed without exploring possibilities.

It was difficult to get people to explore their potential beyond what they were used to doing. Yet, with the coming change in the organization, their roles were headed toward a change.

We experimented with discussions in small groups, examining contributions and their relation with the satisfaction derived from success and a variety of approaches. By the end of the next day, the group was functioning far smoother, and had got used to being aware of how they functioned, resulting in escalating change and eagerness to take their new learnings even further.

In India, the corporate scenario rarely uses outbound training as a genuine organizational intervention and objectives are mostly “fun and excitement” with little, if any focus on objectives beyond that. This programme was a low budget programme conducted with an objective to help employees function more “professionally” than their usual family run scenario. It was a low budget programme and a leap of faith. This difference is what contributes to results.

It is the intention that leads to results, and I am very happy for this group, for they have gained something of far greater value than many of the 5 star programmes with jaded participants eager only for their dose of adrenaline and organizers who would like to justify training budgets while keeping employees relaxed and unchallenged.

Just returning from another programme for Patni Computers. It went well. Far better than we expected actually, considering the size and difficulty in managing the group we had experienced the last time.

It was a two day thing. We had gone in expecting a recreation programme, but when we spoke with their representative, we discovered that there were specific expectations from the programme and it would be need to give it a training slant to the proceedings.

It was a difficult call for me to make, as it being a fun programme, participant expectations would not be toward learning. Particularly considering that some of the senior members seemed determined to take the whole thing as a joke. Honestly, I have no clue how we managed it, but somewhere down the line, we figured that fun and learning are not mutually exclusive, and then we took off into true experiential mode. I had a blast, and from the feedback we received, so did the participants.

And it was productive. For a quick two day thing with limited time, we managed to go through quite a bit in terms of behavioural learnings.

And I learnt a new lesson. An unruly but enthusiastic group may be difficult to handle, but once channelized, the potential for learning, even amidst chaos is huge as compared with a obedient but cold group in terms of energy.

Just coming back from a successful training programme. This one was for a bunch of new recruits in an upcoming software company. This was one of the most bizarre programmes I ever conducted, yet, it was satisfying in a very meaningful way.

The participants were fresh from college, and had a lot of ideals, but very little idea of what working is all about. Chaos ruled, and initially, it took some time to get them to believe that outbound training programmes are not office picnics or perks, but the company actually expected them to be learning something out here.

There was a time when I was willing to write the programme off as a disaster.

We took off in fits and starts. Somewhere down the line, the whole thing clicked in place, when we were discussing happenings in an activity that required a lot of perseverance and their
performance was a dismal failure. Something happened in that group. All of a sudden, there was an awareness that here was something important going on.

The tempo picked, and at the end of the three days, I can say that this was one of the programmes where we were able to acheive a lot of constructive change among the participants. It is probably not even close to some of the outstanding programmes if discipline and performance in activities is to be considered, but if we see the magnitude of change we went through, this one has me thoroughly humbled.

Shows that even trainers have a lot to learn from their own experiences.

Just as I was sad about how I missed the regional event and how it would be expensive to now go for a National event, I got the newsletter from ISABS that announces a new regional event that is IN Mumbai, very low budget and coming up soon.

I guess my ISABS journey is destined to go on without delays.

For folks in Mumbai, this is an unparalleled opportunity. The Umang 2007 event is from the 10th Oct to the 14th Oct 2007 and takes place in Malad - Aksa beach and overcomes one of the major hurdles for the common man to participate - money. Accommodation is dormitory type, but that is what brings it within reach.

So, where I was planning to go, my husband is also planning to join me this time with his BLHP.

Seriously folks, don’t miss this one. For more information, go the the ISABS website.