Category: Softskills

Tips For An Awesome Co-Facilitation (Last post of the series)

In my last post on ‘The Art of Co-Facilitation’ I talked about Co-Facilitation, its types, advantages and potential disadvantages. A co-facilitation program is very different than conducting a solo program as a lot of planning and co-ordination needs to be done with the partner facilitator. Following are some quick tips for an awesome Co-Facilitation: Before the Program Plan and Document: This is the first step before every program. Write down the plan on a piece of paper or a word document. Make sure your plan includes the agenda, session plan, time allocation and key deliverables by each of the facilitators. With this the co-facilitators can further plan their individual sessions, who’ll take lead on which part of the program, and who will be responsible for logistics. Share Expectations: Before you go for the program you need to share your expectations with your co-facilitator as he may have a different understanding of the co-facilitation and any disconnect between co-facilitators lead to conflict and ruining the program. Leveraging Strengths: Co-facilitators may have different styles and capabilities. You must discuss your strengths and weaknesses and plan how you can leverage on each other’s strengths to run the program successfully. Practice: Practice gives real time feedback on the flow and various other aspects of running a co-facilitated program. It helps in testing assumptions and fixing the time for various interventions. Doing this actually helps you to intervene if your co-facilitator deviates from the plan. Inspect the venue: Have a look at the venue and check the sitting arrangement, various logistics, sitting arrangement for the co-facilitator. During the Program Support your co-facilitator: While your co-facilitator is conducting an activity you need to pay attention as he may need some props or your help to keep scores etc. or you may write on the white board while your partner is having some discussion with the participants or you may help your co-facilitator in distributing handouts/books etc. Neither interfere nor contradict: Very basic but very important. Neither interfere while your co-facilitator is conducting some activity nor contradict him (unless it’s critical for learning). I strongly recommend when one facilitator is conducting his part of the program the co-facilitator should be out of the sight of the participants as if both of the facilitators will be there the participants may find it difficult to focus on the one who’ll be running the program. The other co-facilitator should be on the stage only if there’s some activity or he’s assisting the lead facilitator of that part of the program. Stay on time: Remember you can finish the program in designated time only if both the facilitators stay on time. If one facilitator takes more time than what is allocated, it may impact the other facilitator activity and overall program. Team Work: Co-facilitation is all about team work and you can’t be successful if your co-facilitator fails. Support each other and help each other to play your roles well. The best learning and memory you can give is of a great team work. After the Program Share feedback: It’s very important to ask and share feedback. You may ask your co-facilitator what went well? What didn’t work as planned? What is the biggest learning? How differently would you run the program during next co-facilitation? Note down the responses and refer to these when you co-facilitate another training program. Take care of the logistics: Check out the status of the logistics. There may be times when you have a lot of unused training material and you may have to courier it back. Also the attendance and other training records needs to be e-mailed and there could be follow-ups with the clients. Co-facilitators can divide and finish the tasks. Hope these two posts will help you conduct an awesome co-facilitation program. Feel free to share your experience/feedback.

The Art of Co-Facilitation

I have been a trainer and facilitator for last 11+ years and have conducted a number of training programs successfully. Recently I got an opportunity to co-facilitate a Leadership training program with my colleague Mr. Kunal Chakrabarti wherein he was the lead trainer and I was second in command. This was my first ever co-facilitation program and I was little worried so I requested Mr. Chakrabarti to help and guide me as how can we make it a success. He helped me with various tips which actually helped me to run the program successfully. In this two series blog I’ll share my views on the art of Co-Facilitation, Advantages and Potential Disadvantages and how to master the art of Co-Facilitation. What is Co-Facilitation? Co-Facilitation is defined as, “Meeting or other group process by two or more persons in a cooperative, collegial manner to achieve a given outcome. Each facilitator is capable of assuming the lead role. Those not taking the lead role can support the lead facilitator in various ways.“ In their book, ‘Co-Facilitation’, Joana Knight and Warren Scott has write, “The distinguishing feature of co-facilitation is that it is intended to be a partnership, where two or more facilitators take joint responsibility for filling the facilitator role. The purpose of this partnership is either to enable and maximize group and individual learning, or to help the group to achieve other ends such a making a business decision.” Three models of Co-Facilitation Alternate Leading: In this model each facilitator leads the part of the session. The alternating roles are decided at the time of the planning process. Shared leading: In this model the facilitators are not responsible for a specific session but they can chip in and flow out as per the need of the session. There are times when one facilitator might be in lead role and the other facilitator may chip in to explain a point or clarify any doubt. The key challenge in this model is sometimes the session is hijacked by the other facilitator giving no time to the facilitator to make his point. The Apprentice Model: In this one facilitator is more experienced than the other. The experienced facilitator takes the majority of the session allowing the apprentice (less experienced facilitator) to learn and practice safer activities. It builds the confidence of the less experienced facilitator as he knows there’s someone who can step in if things doesn’t go the way as planned. Co-Facilitation enhances the possibility and outcome of group programs, ensuring the facilitation experience comes from a place where the sum totals more than the parts. While there are a no. of advantages of co-facilitation, there are some potential disadvantages also and if you are going to co-facilitate a session you need to consider both to avoid any dangers of ruining the session. Advantages of Co-Facilitation Synergy: When people work together collaboratively and share their skills, resources and energy a synergetic effect often develops and usually the outcome of the deliberation exceeds the sum of individual contribution. Capitalizing on Strengths: Facilitators may have different styles and strengths and they can divide the session in a way that lets them to capitalize on their individual strengths. Lightens the Load: Co-facilitation eases the pressure of full responsibility. There’s a huge list of things which needs to be done before and during the session such as preparation, design, holding the space for the group, observing what is going on from a process standpoint and dealing with logistical issues. Robust Approach: It brings different approaches, attributes, energies, experiences, skills, styles and perspectives to the program and allow for a more robust approach. Enhanced Creativity: In co-facilitation different skill sets of the facilitators can be used to make the session more interesting by enhancing the creativity. Skill Development: Facilitating is a lonely activity and the opportunities for personal and professional development are less as usually the participants don’t give meaningful feedback on the facilitator competence. In Co-facilitation both the partners get feedback from each other for their work which in turn can help them to sort out the issues and become more proficient. Conserving Energy: It is very difficult to conserve your energy for a daylong session for a lonely facilitator. I remember falling ill during a training program and how hard it was to continue the session. Co-facilitator provides that breather to his peer facilitator where he can recharge himself and shine. Potential Disadvantages of Co-Facilitation Egos: Sometimes the co-facilitators do not lean into the relationship equally and they try to dominate each other and their egos may get in the way of effective co-facilitation. Competition: Sometimes the co-facilitators may become competitive with each other and adopt competitive rather than collaborative approaches. May be stressful: Co-facilitation may be stressful as there may be mismatch of the styles of the co-facilitators. Co-facilitation may be stressful for the participants as they may have to adjust as per the styles of the facilitators. Time consuming: Co-facilitation can be time consuming as it does not only need only joint planning but also evaluation and feedback. Different Styles and Orientations: Co-facilitators may have different styles and different orientations- theoretical, technical and personal- potentially spoiling the effectiveness of each other. Overtraining: With highly energetic two or more facilitators sometimes overtraining is very likely due to too many interventions which stifle both participants and learning. Blind Spots: If Co-facilitators are same in their theory/ technique and approach they are very likely to have mutual blind spots in recognizing different dynamics. There’s a possibility that both the facilitators missing out significant learning opportunities. This is first part of two part series on ‘The Art of Co-Facilitation’. In my next blog I’ll write about the ‘Tips for an awesome Co-Facilitation’. Happy Reading 🙂

A Thought Well Provoked!

Have you ever thought why it is important for us to continuously improve ourselves? Here’s a Thought Well Provoked and my take on what it takes to be someone’s role model. Last week I facilitated a training program for the employees of IDBI Bank at their New Delhi regional office. It was a three days training program and everything went as per the plan and all my trainees were happy. Post session a couple of trainees wanted to talk to me regarding their future plans and seek some help on how can they do better in their lives. I spoke to them one by one and helped them with my suggestions. I was happy to see enthusiasm and the way they wanted to learn new things and explore new opportunities. By the time I finished it was quite late, I left the premises in a hurry as I was to go out with my wife. On the way to metro station I called my wife to inform that I am on the way and I shall be home in about 30 minutes. It was when I noticed some of my trainees, who were having coffee at Cafe Coffee Day, waving and inviting me to join them. As I was busy over the phone call and also was in hurry hence I just waved back and kept walking towards the metro station. While I took escalators for the metro station I realized I have committed a mistake as I should have finished my phone call, gone inside the CCD, thanked them for the invitation, shared my plan for the evening and then should have excused myself. Realizing my mistake I went back, apologized for my behavior and shared the reason for my odd behavior. They seemed happy as we spoke for some time, laughed remembering some light moments of the training program. Before departing they asked me for a group photograph and we requested a CCD team member to click`. After we got the picture clicked, I thanked the CCD member and I requested one of my trainees to share the picture with me on Whatsapp and I departed for the metro station. I was in metro when I received a friend request on my Facebook account from one of them which I accepted. In next couple of minutes I saw a picture which was tagged to me with a caption, ‘with Rohit Sir..What a Gem!!!!!!’ It was a proud moment for me as one of my trainees had written such high for me. It’s been 5 days today that I got such high regards from someone and I am really happy and overwhelmed with honor, love and respect my trainees showered upon me. But there is something which is bothering me for last 5 days and I could not sleep properly. There are some questions which are continuously haunting my mind.  ‘Am I really a Gem? Am I really worth this honor, love and respect?’ I don’t have an answer to the questions and I am not sure whether there is any answer to my questions. The only thing I know is, I am not perfect and I have many limitations and I need to a long way to be able to accept such honor. A quote from great Sufi Saint Baba Sheikh Farid perfectly explains state of my mind, “Kaale Mainde Kapde Kaala Mainda Ves, Gunhee Bhareya Main Fira Lok Kahe Darvesh” (My Clothes are Black My persona is Black, I Roam Around Full of Sins Yet People Call Me a Holy Man). I want to thank all my trainees for provoking these thoughts in my mind. I promise I’ll try and transform myself into a better human being and a better professional and live as a role model and up to your expectations. God Bless!

Getting Out of Fire Fighting- From Reactive to Proactive Management

In my previous post I shared 7 Strategies to Revive a dying company. In this post I will share the strategies of getting out of fire fighting mode by switching from reactive to proactive management. For a project management company it’s very important to meet the timelines and complete the project in the stipulated time. If the timelines are not met the company may face severe consequences and to avoid any financial loss many projects managers start work in fire fighting mode and often compromise the quality of the work. So what could be the best management style for a project manager? In today’s post I’ll discuss how to get out of fire fighting by being proactive from being reactive manager. Managing a project is very challenging as there are many internal as well external factors involved and it’s always difficult to control both the factors. Suppose you are doing a project, say Project A, which is nowhere near completion and your client is not giving you any extension to complete the project and pressurizes you to allocate more resources to complete the project on time. Now the management is forced to bow to your clients’ demands and call people from Project B. You also have timelines to meet for Project B and you are in fix where to focus more as new team will need some time to understand the Project A . In the process the timelines to complete Project B will be compromised. Now to meet timelines of Project B more people has to be called from Project C. A number of companies fall in this vicious cycle which forces the management to always be in fire fighting mode.Now question arises what is fire fighting? Is it something related to extinguishing fire? Fire fighting is an emergency allocation of resources required to deal with unforeseen problems. In management terms, Fire Fighting is another name of Reactive Management and is defined as reacting to unforeseen problems with a focus to somehow control the situation for the time being. If management has not foreseen or planned to handle the problem these often become hectic, stressful and a routine with no end in sight. Reactive Management happens due to poor planning, bad processes/policies or not fixing the accountability and a Project Manager will never be in able to control a situation. How can one move to Proactive Management from Reactive Management? Before I explain how to be proactive manager, we need to understand the meaning of Proactive Management. Proactive Management is basically to think ahead, foresee and plan for strategies to address expected as well as unexpected problems. Following are some simple but Powerful Strategies on How to manage Proactively and come out of Fire fighting mode: Process Management Do not take decision on the basis of your experience or intelligence. You may be a blessed manager but everyone is not. Make processes for all the business needs and follow the processes religiously and keep changing dysfunctional processes. A dysfunctional process may trigger a reactive management situation. Do thorough reviews of all the processes and make checklists for each situation. Make your team understand the importance of checklists and how these can help you keep a tap on the proceedings and take corrective measures if something goes wrong Time Management (Work Prioritization): Prioritize tasks or activities into urgent or important. Finish the critical tasks first and delegate the important activities. Important activities should be finished before they become urgent and pull you in fire fighting mode again. KAIZEN: Kaizen or continuous improvement is a long term approach to work that systematically seeks to achieve incremental changes in the processes in order to improve efficiency and quality. It is responsibility of everyone and not just selected few. Management should be open to new ideas with a focus on the solution. Ask your team members about their opinion on different issues.  

Snoozing your Success

I had an early morning flight to catch and the airport was on the other side of the city. And I needed to get up very early in the morning. I was alone at home as my family was away. Though I had set an alarm but still to be double sure I called my 10 friends, who work in US, to wake me up at 3 am (IST). It was 4am when someone knocked my door bell and I woke up and saw the cab has arrived. I was in shock as neither had I listened the alarm nor any of my friends called to wake me up. Now the situation was critical as I was to leave in next 15 minutes else I could have missed the flight. Cab driver assured me that I can take another 15 minutes and get ready. I took 25 minutes and left for the airport and I was the last passenger to enter the plane. Though I caught the flight I was in shock that how could I miss the alarm? What would have happened had I missed the flight? May be just a flight or some money or an opportunity? That was the day I realized that I didn’t snooze the alarm but I snoozed my success and whenever I snooze for 10 minutes I snooze my success for 10 minutes. I realized that snoozing is nothing but another name of procrastination and in order to be successful one need to learn how not to procrastinate and how can we manage our time effectively. What is Procrastination? Procrastination is habit of putting off or delaying things that one should be focusing on, in favor of doing something which is more enjoyable or that one which is more comfortable. Reasons for Procrastination Weak Focus Focus is the most significant aspect for any achiever. You need to lay your focus right and need to understand & prioritize. You cannot allow things/problems and people to affect your focus. Make them a part of your goal and ask things to wait, problems to get solved and people to support you in your motive. You need to work, take break, rejuvenate and get back to work. Complacent attitude towards Comfort Zone It is human nature to become complacent in an affable surrounding. But you need to check the difference between being comfortable and being complacent. It is good to take a break in comfortable surroundings but we need to watch out when we are turning complacent about it and need to get back to the work. Lazy Optimism A no. of times, people seems too optimist to see the future. Mostly, it is the lazy attitude to act which brings such damage to the ongoing pace. Better to keep going positively rather than thinking positive. An untimely break usually leads to a huge wastage of time. Bad Time-management Manage time smartly. One should keep the ‘to do list’ handy. Be it the leaders, philanthropists, successful people or even those who haven’t made it large to any lists but are happier than most follow the rules of time management. A simple example, we know that we have to rush & switching on TV at the breakfast table will cause delay, still we want to get hooked for that last piece of news. How well you manage your time is directly proportional to how far you go & achieve. Know yourself If you are able to avoid the above points and feel that you have already overcome those shortcomings that it is better to know yourself and do a quick self-assessment and find out the reasons which affect your routines and lead you to procrastination. Short-sightedness & Over-excitement are some other personality reasons which lead to a break in the pace of a task at hand. Sometimes, we get over excite about a certain new project, a personal incident that we shift our entire focus towards that particular stance and leading to procrastination of the goal. Overcoming Procrastination The point here is – How to Overcome Procrastination! Self-analysis The first & foremost requirement is to do self-analysis and find out what disturbs your concentration and what leads to distractions. The best way is to take a pen & paper and make notes of what takes away your focus and then make a list on – How to stop this from happening? Manage your Time Well If you have realized that some habits and practices are leading to procrastination, immediately you need to manage your time in a way that you do not end up in such situations again. Start making Task lists and assign them time-lines and if it still doesn’t help – break the tasks into smaller chunks and set shorter goals which combined lead to a larger perspective. Change the Order of Deliverable If you think that there are certain tasks you aren’t able to accomplish on timelines. Keep it aside and take the projects which excite you more at that particular time and get to work. Doing this will bring back your confidence and it will help you get back to normal routine where you want to excel & finish up the tasks. The feeling of that small accomplishment will give you the required push for bigger assignments. Change the Work-station Very often it is seen & observed that a change in place works as magic to many. People call it funny, some say these are misbeliefs, but a simple logic of this is it breaks monotony. We humans become slow when we work in a monotonous environment. A good change is well advised for. If you are really cringed to same work for longer hours or week and you feel – you are not able to really add value, it is time to change your workstation. Before it starts leading to procrastination, it is time to change the work-station and bring a fresh spark to the perspective. Unschedule/ Unwind & Plan Sometimes, doing… Continue reading Snoozing your Success

Guru Dakshina- Proudest Moment of a Trainer

Today was the last day of my training program for Kolkata Shoppers Stop. Though I was not well for last couple of days I worked hard to make it a success. Post my session while I was packing my laptop, I saw my students discussing something and they asked me to wait for some time. I was to meet a friend on the way back to airport and it was not possible for me to wait for long. I told them about my plan and left the training room. When I was about to enter the lift a couple of students asked me to come to the training room. I walked back to the training room and to my surprise there was a big cake which they arranged as Guru Dakshina for successfully completing the training program. I invited everyone to hold hands and cut the cake together. Post the cake cutting ceremony they gifted me a big greeting card and a couple of gifts. I was in dilemma as I can’t accept gifts from my trainees. Shoppers Stop Unit Head and Unit HR asked me to accept the gifts as Guru Dakshina. Usually I don’t accept gifts from my trainees but on my colleagues from Shoppers Stop’s insistence I accepted the gifts. While I was about to leave the training room a couple of students tried to touch my feet. I stopped them from doing so, hugged them instead and thanked everyone for their kind gestures and left the training room. Guru Dakshina for me I started my journey for the hotel and all my way I kept thinking about my students, the respect they showered and the ‘Guru Dakshina’. As a professional I get my professional fees for the training programs. Do I have any moral right to accept such gifts as ‘Guru Dakshina’? I don’t have the answer and I doubt there can be any answer for this question. The only thing I want from my students as Guru Dakshina is wherever they go and whatever they do, they must do it with Belief, with Passion, with Enthusiasm and with keen Desire to excel in their lives. My proudest moment would be to see all of my students having accomplished their life goals and helping others accomplish their goals as well.

Delegation in Ramayana (Mythology & Management)

Stories are the best ways to overcome obstacles of learning. While I was working on a leadership program I came across two stories from our mythology which helped me to explain the concept of delegation to my trainees. In this blog, ‘Delegation in Ramayana (Mythology & Management) I’ll share both the stories and how these stories explain the delegation. First Story Lord Ram helped Sugriva to regain his honor and made him king of Kishindha. Sugriva and vanars decided to help Lord Ram unite with his wife Mata Sita who was abducted by demon Ravan. The entire Vanar army was divided into four groups and sent in four directions to find Mata Sita. Hanuman, Angad and Jambavantha with their group reached the southern seashore. They met Sampati, a vulture, who tells them Mata Sita was abducted by Ravan and is sitting under a tree in Lanka, which is on the other side of the ocean. Upon encountering the vast ocean, every vanara begins to lament his inability to jump across the water. Hanuman too is saddened at the possible failure of his mission, until the other vanaras and the wise bear Jambavantha begin to extol his virtues. Hanuman then recollects his own powers, enlarges his body, and flies across the ocean. After he finds Sita in captivity, Hanuman reveals his identity to her by giving her ring of Lord Ram. He reassures her that Lord Ram has been looking for her. He offers to carry her back to Lord Ram, but she refuses his offer, saying it would be an insult to Lord Ram as his honor is at stake. She gives her jewelry to Hanuman Ji and asks him to give it to Lord Ram. Second Story To seek a peaceful solution, Lord Ram sent Angad as messengers to convince Ravana to return Mata Sita peacefully. As this was the only way to avert the war. Angada tried every means to convince Ravana, but he was firm to face battle instead of returning Mata Sita peacefully. Angada planted his foot firmly on the ground and challenged anybody in the courtroom to uproot his foot. If anybody were to accept the challenge and was successful, Lord Ram would concede defeat and return without Mata Sita. All the commanders of Ravana’s army and even his son ‘Indrajit’ tried to lift Angada’s leg but none succeeded. Feeling humiliated by this failure, an infuriated Ravana slowly walked towards Angada’s planted foot and just as he was about to hold Angada’s leg to attempt the challenge, Angada moved away and Ravana fell down. Angada explained that the challenge was for Ravana’s commanders and not for Ravana. He told that Ravana was prepared to fall on his feet but instead he should choose to fall on the Lord Ram’s feet, for those are the ones that remove fear of cycle of life & death. He then picked up Ravana’s crown which fell down on the ground and threw it out of the palace. Ravana ordered his men to kill Angada. But he took a jump and flew back to the place where the Vanara army was gathered. Lessons: Mythology & Management These two stories give us very important lessons of management in purview of Delegation. See Lord Ram as CEO of company and observe the power of delegation being expelled and carried off by him. When the thought struck my mind, I got another reason to reassure myself that management certainly is a derivative of mythology. Lord Ram, put across the problem and took up a discussion to suggest solutions. He was aware of his team strengths and weaknesses.  Lord Ram also knew about the importance of each task to their organization and the task @ hand. Accordingly as per the skill set and the importance of task – he further went on to strategic delegation among the team. That is the reason why Hanuman in story 1 was assigned the task to find Sita and to reconfirm her presence at the Ashok Vatika. He was assigned the task based on this physical skill set and presence of mind. And Sita like an ardent associate understood the importance of task delegated and din’t asked for any further help or assistance. In management context, an extension further to delegation leads to imbalance and hence grievance. And that is why the delegation holds lot of importance. Coming to the second story, Angada was delegated a task of authority. He was a messenger deployed to discuss the suggested way out, to avoid war. His skill set included assertiveness, authority, communication skills and he knew temper control which wasn’t a case with Hanuman as he was an emotional devotee of Lord Ram and would never listen to any ill words for Lord Ram. Lord Ram knew of his skill set and his power. And hence the delegation was done accordingly. These two stories embark all the 5 Stages of Delegation. Where Lord Ram, observed and realized the strengths of his team members including Hanuman, Jamavanth and Angad. He evaluated the situations and the employee skill set, he made sure of the circumstances and allowed his team to collaborate and that’s how he delegated.

Journey to Excellence

Have you ever wondered what is the definition of Best? What is definition of Excellence? What is the definition of Perfection? Here is a small story which not only helped me to understand the meaning of The Best, Excellence and Perfection but also guided me towards journey to excellence. In ancient Rome, Romans had a very large number of Slaves. The behavior of Romans with their slaves was very cruel. Even for slightest mistakes the slaves were punished very harshly. Killing slave was not an offense in Roman law and Romans used to explore new ways to torture their slaves. If any of the slaves tried to escape from his master, there was only one punishment, slow but very painful death. This was also used to refrain other slaves from running. All the roads were well protected by the Roman army and a big jungle was the only place where slaves could hide themselves. But the jungle was full of wild animals and it was considered impossible to cross jungle without any protection. Romans calculated if someone was to cross the jungle successfully he will have to run like a leopard else he will be chased and killed by wild animals. It needed a superhuman to run at such speed hence Romans never tried to protect the road leading to jungle. Still in ancient Roman texts there are tales of many slaves who were able to cross the forest successfully and live a free life. When modern medical science came to know such stories they started testing human body if it was capable of running long distances at fast speeds. After so much of research medical science concluded that human body is incapable of taking this much of stress and if someone tries to run faster than the maximum speed described in the study his blood pressure will rise to such a level that he will die of a heart attack. They gave a bench mark that a human can’t run a distance of 400m in less than 50 seconds. On 29th Sept. 1900 Maxie Long of USA covered 400m in 47.8 seconds breaking the bench mark set by scientists. Time taken by Maxie was a world record in athletics and he was considered the best. Scientists said Maxie Long has something special that made him capable of covering 400m in less than 50 seconds. On May 27, 1916 Ted Meredith of USA broke this record by 4 seconds. Now 47.4 seconds was the new bench mark. On 18th Oct.1968 Lee Evans of USA covered the 400m in 43.29 seconds to reset the new bench mark. On 17th Aug. 1988 Reynolds set a new world record to cover 400m in 43.29 seconds. A new bench mark. And on 26th Aug 1999 Michael Johnson of USA made a new world record and covered 400m in 43.18 seconds. Michael Johnson’s world record still standing tall and has not been broken. Today how many of us know Maxie Long of 1900, let alone remembering him. People talk about Michael Johnson of 1999 and they will talk till a new athlete comes and reset the bar higher. In last 100 years the bench mark in athletics has been reset at least 25 times by different athletes. No one talks about athletes who were the best of their times and raised the standard to new levels. We remember people who keep raising the bar continuously and keep improving their own bench marks. Yesterday’s best can’t always be the best. It may not even considered to be good tomorrow. So what is the Best, Excellent and Perfection? There is nothing called Best, Excellent or Perfection. It is all about improving, getting better and better and raising the bar to next level. Hope you too are on your Journey to Excellence. Happy Journey!

Training Effectiveness

When I started my career into sales my first training was like some crash course of IIT JEE. Trainer will come he will try and make you understand all the medical and marketing aspects of the product; he will ensure that you are able to spell out every complex molecule name with ease. You will undergo a series of test papers coming day after day and the final test which will decide your fate. So for me it was how effective I was as a learner and not a trainer, because it was me who will be thrown out of the group for non-performance. When I made a shift from Sales to Training again I was like a fresh graduate as, all my sales experience only supported me in understanding the real situation and ways how it can be worked, I was able to simulate the real world experience but as a trainer – I still had to hone the required skill-set. Though delivery was never a problem and I mastered it. Now I was working in an environment where, questions were being asked about training effectiveness, but it was simpler as it was linked to my first-hand experience, remember my crash course experience. Now I had transition from a domain based trainer to behavioral trainer. AND THE NEXT BIG QUESTION WAS – MEASURING TRAINING EFFECTIVENESS I guess it was 1 year of my struggle with the big question and now I am able to satiate both ends of the string – My Customer and Myself. Basically, for me it was as difficult to tie a horse with imaginary rope. Things you need to learn before you measure or execute the training effectiveness: 1) What exactly is in their mind: Expectations can be endless”. Your internal/client has the right to set any expectation regarding your training before you met him and set the expectation right. On one good day my boss asked me to prepare training on effective communication and I did the same mistake, I never asked. ‘What change he would like to see after the training?’ Steps you should follow before delivering any presentation in your new organization: a- Explore their job: We as a trainer generally exhibit empathy, but do we really mean it. Come on remove your shoes and prepare yourself to put some muddy, uncomfortable shoes for a while. Remember you will feel more pain than they have it in real. This will help you to understand the key area of priority. REMEMBER, don’t assume their need, just try it first-hand and find out. b- Remember they have a Boss: As a trainer we try to full fill the expectation of our participants inside room. What about the set of people outside, who are waiting eagerly for the results to come. 2) How you can help: Remember learning is like taking bath, you need to take it every day, or soon you will be stinking. a- Know your limits: Every expectation cannot be met as stated earlier, Discover the most painful area you felt after thorough research and discussion over the expectation, where you can have a valid intervention. b- Sell your Training: Before you do any Training program for any group, sell it to their bosses. Here we are not telling to mail the teasers and stuff. It’s about selling the outcomes so that none of your customer can come up and say: “Hey you never delivered what we expected out the training” “Training was really good we can observe the change in ‘xyz’ behaviors, but would be great if peoples demonstrated ‘abc’ also” c- This is what you need to do: You are not a superhero, make them part in making and measuring the effectiveness. Clarify their role that how they can reinforce the learning. Ask for feedback in a formal patron to avoid complicated situations. (as discussed in Point B) 3) A Cook never tastes his own Dish: As old saying In India “Halwai apni Mittai Kudh nahi kahhta” A desert maker never tastes his own desert/dish. With the change in time, they do and you are a trainer. The saying never set’s right into your context. Try it once so that you have your own case study. Remember people get motivated when they listen inspirational stories. It happens because they relate or put themselves in the place of character. Guest Blogger: Rahul Molasi, is working as a Training Manager in Cipla Pharmaceuticals. A family person, Rahul loves to travel in his pastime.