Perhaps one of the greatest challenges of the present-day, fast-paced lives is mastering the art of being diplomatic, despite the all-pervasive paucity of time. Each of us tend to get so caught up with getting our ‘agenda’ accomplished in the shortest duration of time, that there’s a huge tendency to be too curt, sans any attempt to be courteous and mindful of the other person’s sensibilities.

It would not be wrong to say: Soft Skills = Foundation Skills. Simply think of how susceptible a structure is, if not for a strong foundation!

While it’s easy to blame the lack of communications skills on the ‘digital era’ and being ‘busy’, those who do recognize and emphasize on the need for soft skills training for employees, the results are for all to see: a much sharper upward trend on the growth curve and contented team members being notable outcomes.

What are Soft Skills?
Unlike technical or ‘hard’ skills, which can be measured, soft skills are generally considered intangible and difficult to quantify. Examples of soft skills include effective communication, analytical thinking, team work, problem-solving, time management, conflict resolution, leadership, etc.

Most soft skills are acquired with steadfast focus and customized interventions including simulations, bite-sized videos, role-playing games, etc., aimed at discernibly achieving positive outcomes. The good news is, several virtual platforms are now available for this purpose, if an in-person intervention is not feasible owing to logistical, financial, or any other reasons.

What is ROI?
One term that is uttered in the same breath as business soft skills training is ROI (Return on Investment). This refers to the various control and measurement systems are employed so as to track the impact of the amount spent on each corporate soft skills training intervention. As organizations grow and evolve, keeping a close watch on the ROI is the new norm, down to the department level. The ever-growing shortage of skills and talent, soft skills training tends to account for a major portion of the training budget and hence, the need to measure the ROI of soft skills is now more necessary than ever.

So, why is there such a lot of focus on the ROI of soft skills training? The answer is an entire array of benefits!

These include:

• Improved teamwork and customer service

• Improved productivity

• Lower absenteeism

• Improved retention rates

• Better workplace communication and a higher level of employee engagement

In a nut shell, there are clear correlations that have been drawn between investment in soft skill training programs having a positive impact on the bottom line. Taking time to analyse how different training methods impact a business’ bottom line can give trainers better insight into their own effectiveness as well as provide useful signposts to develop learning techniques and to work more efficiently. As for ways to measure ROI, measuring Customer Satisfaction scores at regular intervals of time as well as before and after an intervention is a fail-safe method.

It’s always a great idea to invest in improving soft skills of the workforce – start now if you haven’t already!

In our first part in this series of case studies, we took a sneak peak into Accenture’s Diversity and Inclusion strategy and how it is becoming an integral part of Accenture’s business as well as its organizational culture. Another significant game changer in the D & I space is Cisco, with its unique and hard hitting approach.

Unlike most companies that are diverse at the lower ranks, CISCO stands out in its D and I efforts because it is diverse at the top. Cisco believes that change must begin from the top and has worked towards creating strong yet diverse leadership at the top. However it also recognizes the need to create similar role models at all levels in order to percolate the right efforts and mind-set downward across all functions and ranks of the organization.

All this began with a breakthrough understanding that when diversity and inclusion is made everyone’s responsibility, no one is entirely responsible and no one is assuring results or changes. Hence, Cisco appointed the first ever Chief inclusion officer and instating the office of inclusion and collaboration, and office with the authority and focus to bring change in a tangible and meaningful fashion.

Pay Parity: Shari Slate, VP, Chief inclusion officer at Cisco believes pay parity is nothing but a simple issue of fairness. Cisco knows that its edge in the industry comes from its people and not merely its technology. So it focuses on ensuring that everyone who works for Cisco is paid fairly for the work they do, regardless of gender or ethnicity. When it comes to pay parity Cisco has lead the way by singing the White House Equal Pay Pledge.

To further their cause of pay parity, Cisco no longer asks US job candidates for their last pay slip and how much they made on their last job. Cisco is now basing their salaries on market data, candidate experience and expectations, and the level and location of the role.

Cisco Life Changer Program for inclusion of the differently-abled: Cisco LifeChanger is a ground breaking, award-winning program that was developed by Cisco employees with a passion for inclusion and innovation, and a strong desire to address a critical challenge. To break down barriers to employment and limited access to employers, the passionate volunteers behind Cisco LifeChanger developed novel applications for Cisco’s voice, video, and collaboration technology, and combined them with process improvements, to transcend location, accommodation, and mobility issues.

The result: people with disabilities can seamlessly join teams and contribute value. By overcoming barriers to employment, Cisco is creating new possibilities for how we can change the way the world works, tap into the tremendous untapped potential of people with disabilities, and change lives.

Multiplier Effect: With the boldest idea to date in Diversity and Inclusion yet, Cisco initiated the Multiplier effect pledge, to leverage the power of sponsorship to accelerate the pipeline of diverse talent. The pledge brings in thought leaders and executives within the tech industry to pledge their support and sponsor one diverse candidate and thus multiply the growth. The belief that a candidate can grow immensely and contribute their full potential if they receive dedicated support, sponsorship and guidance form a leader, makes this pledge one that creates a ripple effect and helps the entire industry and landscape reaps the benefits from a diversity and inclusion strategy.

Equally accepting and including everyone with a sense of fairness and respect is simply what should have been a part of everyone’s every day life. Yet, we have come to live in a world where we need to remind ourselves of our uniqueness and that of others and acceptance has sadly become a gift and not a right. However, with concrete efforts such as these from tech behemoths, there is hope that equal opportunity is slowly but steadily becoming a reality.

Corporates are beginning to understand the societal and business benefits of creating organizations that have diversity and inclusion at the very heart of their business. While being a proponent of diversity and inclusion in the workplace can be a great talking point and be pivotal in creating a aspirational image of an organization, making D & I an actionable and a working reality is not a simple task. It requires mindsets, policies, awareness and expectations to align not just across leadership but one that also percolates across all levels of the organization.

Let us look at a few organizations that are making diversity and inclusion part of their DNA and creating some best practises along the way –

Accenture: Being ranked number 1 in the Thomson Reuter’s Diversity and inclusion index, Accenture takes it diversity and inclusion seriously. As a business imperative, every person at Accenture has the responsibility to create and sustain an inclusive environment. Their website quotes that Accenture believes “no one should be discriminated against because of their differences, such as age, ability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, religion or sexual orientation. Our rich diversity makes us more innovative and more creative, which helps us better serve our clients and our communities.”

Accenture also believes that by making every one of their 4,00,000 plus workforce feel valuable and included they are able empower employees to bring in their “Best Self” to the workplace.

Some concrete steps embraced by Accenture include striving towards having a gender neutral workforce by 2025, hiring and working extensively with people with disabilities and supporting the LGBTQ community.

Gender Neutrality: With their “50 by 25” goal which announces their effort to be gender neutral by 2025 and employ 50% women in their workforce, Accenture has taken a number of steps to attract, retain, advance and sponsor women on its path to achieving a gender balanced workforce, including:

• Launching initiatives that provide women employees with skills and puts       high performing women on fast track programs
• Collaborating across business and government to promote gender equality in the workplace, with commitments and pledge programs that include the White House Equal Pay Pledge, Paradigm for Parity, and Catalyst CEO Champions for Change – each of these promoting collaborative efforts towards a gender balanced workforce.

Enabling persons with Disability: Accenture actively hires and works towards retention and inclusion of people with disabilities across their several offices around the world. They are working towards enabling every employee to fully interact with technology regardless of functional disabilities. They also are empowering persons with disabilities every day through their Global Persons with Disabilities Champions Network which organizes local networking, collaboration, mentoring and awareness-building activities for persons with disabilities—as well as caregivers and colleagues—throughout the year.

Supporting the LGBTQ Community: With the innate belief that diversity makes them more innovative, Accenture provides an inclusive environment for all employees without discriminating on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. Some concrete steps taken in this direction include clear cut guidelines for recruitment, and retention and promotion, professional development programs, Equal pay and benefits, including insurance for gender affirmation surgery in certain countries. Accenture also fosters several resource groups across 45 countries and has over 100,000 members in their global ally programs.

Accenture in its efforts and ambitions of being a front-runner in the diversity and inclusion space, is proving that although diversity can add complexity to the workplace, it needs to be nurtured through cultural competence to create an environment of inclusion. Doing this will give an organization a competitive advantage and diversity will become a bottom line contributor.

Look out for our next post for anther D & I Case study.

India is a sum total of several diverse cultures, languages, ethnicity and castes. Differences and similarities coexist and are complexly intertwined into the very grain of India. This makes India a highly complex yet compelling landscape to better understand the role of Diversity and Inclusion in Corporate India.

Over the last few years, there has been a lot of government and well as private corporation led policies and initiatives to bring diversity and inclusion into the main stream lexicon. Some of the noteworthy developments are India’s market regulator mandating listed companies to have at least one woman director on their boards, amendment of the Section 377 extending rights to the LGBTQ communities and Extension of maternity leave to six months. Studies and research has shown that such initiatives that help companies develop a more broader and global mindset, and more importantly help them reap immense benefits including better market positions, greater customer satisfaction and more robust bottom lines.

Yet there lies a vast difference between diversity and inclusion, terms that are used interchangeably quite often. As diversity advocate Verna Mayers quoted, “Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance” while focus on diversity will ensure your organization has a ‘Mix’, policies and focus on inclusion will ensure that this ‘mix’ works in a way that is meaningful to both the employees as well as the company.

While various hiring and retention manifestoes can help companies achieve diversity, focused policy and mindset changes are required for the purpose of inclusion.

Let us look at the Godrej India Culture Lab who has been working on a project that specifically makes the case for corporate India to embrace the 4.9 lakh documented transgender people in India, 92% of whom are still unable to participate in the formal economy, according to the National Human Rights Commission.

At the culmination of the project, a paper titled, ‘A Manifesto for Trans Inclusion in the Indian Workplace’ was presented by Shahani, head of Godrej India Culture Lab, with support from the Keshav Suri Foundation, Humsafar Trust, Periferry, TWEET Foundation, and Community Business.

This manifesto, apart from highlighting the history of transgender people in India and various other data, also make a case on why hiring and inclusion of LGTBA community into mainstream corporate world can have many financial and other benefits for an organization. While supporting data and research finds can make a compelling case for the hiring of the LGBTQ community, The process of including and integrating them into the workforce is one that can pose many challenges and obstacles. The transgender community of India has been one that has been historically highly marginalized and have borne many social stigmas and discrimination for several hundred years. The latter half of the Manifesto also acted as a ‘How to’ guide for companies to adopt inclusive hiring practices sensitizing current employees, widening the scope of health insurance and medical benefits, rethinking restroom infrastructures, and implementing policies like gender neutral adoption leave and equal opportunity benefits.

It cannot be overlooked that there are some real cost implications in the short term, however in the long term companies which demonstrated a whole-hearted and deep reaching focus on inclusion have reaped many benefits such as coveted employer credibility, more wide spread revenue streams and greater employee engagement and retention.

“You’ve always had the power to go back to Kansas”, says Glinda in the last few scenes of the “Wizard of Oz”. The Wizard of Oz, is a 1939, Technicolor movie based on the 1900 novel by Frank L Baum. A beautiful but lengthy tale of a young girl and her dog, Toto who have a gruelling yet enlightening journey in a strange land full of witches, flying monkeys and magical shoes.

Dorothy, the protagonist, had been whisked far away from her home. Her home had been blown away in a prairie storm, and landed in a strange land. While landing her house, had killed the wicked witch of the East. The Munchkins who had thus been freed from the reign of the witch were grateful to Dorothy and gifted her the witch’s magical ruby shoes. Dorothy wanted to find her way back home to Kansas and was told to follow the yellow brick road to find the Great Wizard of Oz who would help her go back home.

As Dorothy and her dog Toto followed the yellow brick road, she meets and became friends with the couple of very interesting and loyal characters. First, a scarecrow who she helped free from the field. The scarecrow said he had no brains and wanted to meet with the great Wizard to ask for some and hence walked with Dorothy. Then Dororthy met the Tin Woodman who was rusting in the forest and desperately wanted to meet the wizard to ask him to grant him a heart since he did not have one. Finally they met with a lion, who although roared at them loudly, confessed that he had no courage and wanted to meet the wizard to ask her to grant him courage.

The unlikely companions had to face the wrath of witches, obstacles and many hurdles on their way. Finally when they reach the Wizard they learn that he was just a Ventriloquist who had lost his way in this hot air balloon but had gained powers over the people of the land and become the great “Wizard of Oz’ by hearsay. After realizing that The great Wizard would not really be able o help them, they seek out Glinda, the good witch of the south, who tells Dorothy that all she needs to do is click her hells in her magical silver shoes and she would be able to go home. As for the Tim Woodman, the lion and the scarecrow, in their arduous journey, they had successfully used and proven that they actually possessed a heart, a brain and plenty of courage.

Such beautiful lessons for the young and old, to be learnt from this magical tale!

Follow your Yellow brick road: No matter what the obstacle were, Dorothy never gave up. Never resigned to “not trying” .The yellow brick road led Dorothy to the Wizard who couldn’t really get her home. Yet she persisted. We must follow our yellow brick road that we believe will lead us to your goals. While the outcome of the journey is unclear and out of our sphere of control, the journey will enrich us. It will bring us if not directly to our goals, definitely closer to achieving our goals.

The qualities you seek to succeed are within you: If you look within yourself you may be able to pull out the strength, courage and intelligence you never knew you had. The Scarecrow wishes for a brain, the Tin Man wants a heart and the Cowardly Lion wants to be brave, but these characters possess these very qualities from the start.

Friends and people you meet on your journey can go a long way: Unexpected connections can enrich your life in ways you don’t anticipate. Although Dorothy is at first taken aback by the scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly lion, she learns in time that they are loyal, loving and caring. Be accepting of new people, even those who seem different from you.

Opportunities to learn are everywhere. If only one opens their mind to it. Just how open are our minds to learn Most of us live a lifetime on pre conceived notions, unreviewed and unrevised thought processes and we fall back on canned approaches to all aspects of life. This is because our brain after all is a muscle. And a lazy one. Unless you push it to do things differently it is happy to perform along the set path.

According to a survey done by Gallup, 87% of millenials think learning and self development is important in a job. According to the report ‘How Millenials Want to Work and Live, “59% of millennials say opportunities to learn and grow are extremely important to them when applying for a job.” Therefore motivating employees to learn new skills in the workplace should be an important goal for many organizations.

Managers and leaders must create work places that nudge people out of their comfort zones and exercise their minds to learn continuously. In order to foster continuous learning at the work place, one must make learning a part of the everyday and make learning fun.

1. Be accepting of failure and reward learning

A fun evening at the bowling arena with kids threw up some interesting observations on the correlation between learning and failure. When we are in the process of learning something new we are bound to fail at it at first and maybe many times over until we reach some level of mastery over it. Like in the bowling alley, unless you have thrown the ball a few times it is likely that the ball finds itself mostly in the gutter. But I am yet to see someone who does not finish his 20 turns even if every ball traverses only the gutter. This is because, we think its just a fun evening of bowling. While we try our best to get the pins, it is okay to fail.

When there is acceptance and room to fail, people don’t mind taking the chances. The pressure of being ridiculed for failure is a very strong deterrent for many people and this stops them from trying new things and hence learning new skills becomes few a far apart.

It is thus imperative that workplaces foster a positive learning culture where it is okay to try something new and fail at it.

Managers can do this by valuing and rewarding efforts; rewarding learning rather than just rewarding accomplishments.

2. Make learning fun and interesting

As with the bowling arena, one is willing to try their hand at learning something new as long as it is fun. Build fun learning into your everyday processes.

In the past, IBM has used Credly, a digital credentialing platform which acquired Pearson’s Acclaim badging business, to engage employees with its educational offerings. Through this program, employees can earn digital badges based on completion of their courses and demonstrate acquired skills. This kind of digital badging approach not only employs gamification principles but also encourages social currency since employees can post their badges on LinkedIn profiles.

By building learning into the process and making it engaging, managers can motivate employees to embrace learning with out it becoming a chore.

It’s the start of New Year and we are all victims of the “resolutions” and “Fresh Start” bug. A viral that is in the air and somehow everyone seems to catch it. And yes, like most viral infections it runs its course and eventual we are cured of it! I am yet to meet an individual who has been able to keep a New Year resolution beyond the 30 day mark.

It is the one time of the year we resolutely attach actions to our intentions. Intentions that may have been around a long time. Intentions that we have had trouble auctioning. Towards the end of Jan or early February, we find it difficult again to keep up and they end up in the graveyard of resolutions.

In the field of psychology this is called the action intention gap. This weakness of will is caused when the conscious aspect of our intentions get disrupted by unconscious, automatic ones, leaving us to respond to the environment around us.

Like when we hear dieters say “I never intended to eat it, it’s almost like my hand moved by itself and reached for it and before I knew it I had eaten it” This is not far from the truth. Research has shown that we do things that are the opposite of our intentions almost unconsciously and we are unable to stop ourselves. This is because our unconscious mind seems to take over unless we are able to program it to not respond and allow the conscious mind to act.

Whatever be the reasons for not being able to keep our resolves, we are, at the end of the day defined by our actions. A lovely quote I came across read “we judge ourselves by our intentions and other by their actions” this could not be truer.

It brings to mind several instances – A manager who thought about a particular team member who he knew could do with a little extra support. He often internally debated on what he could do to support his team member but in the rigour of everyday work pressures and deadline never did action it. While he judged himself on his intention to help, the only thing the employee experienced was a manager who never reached out.

To overcome such pitfalls, It is important to view ourselves from an external stand point. See what others see of us to understand what perceptions we are feeding to.

The third prong I found in this action intention trinity is that of communication. Many times the gap between action and intention can be bridged by communication and greatly widened by non-communication. If we communicate intention to do something we also tend to be more committed to doing it. Similar to how so many people take to social media to keep their resolutions – 100 day run challenge – where someone swears to run a mile or 2 every day and post it – it is hard to get lazy and not do it when you have a thousand virtual eyes watching you!

Communicating our intentions and our subsequent actions also helps us create a value for what we bring to the table and why we bring it at all. It helps our co-workers family and friends understand us better and clearly assign intentions to our actions and actions to our intentions.

It is this Holy trinity of action, intention and communication that will help us manage our selves and manage perceptions effectively.

Hence, as we grow older and more self-aware, this holy trinity of action intention and communication could act us a beacon, leading us to better manage ourselves and how people perceive us.

“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same…” is a line inscribed above the entrance to Wimbledon’s Centre Court, for players see before they battle of the most coveted and prestigious tennis cup.

Indian Born Author and poet Rudyard Kipling, best known for his Novel “ The Jungle Book” is a part of every literature enthusiasts book self. I first came across his poem “ IF” in my first year of college. Like every young person who is on his first sojourns of philosophy and path of understanding the world and the people in it, I was much inspirited. I walked around with in my wallet and wrote a few lines from it on every gift gifted at the time.
It was only much later that I learnt the Interesting story and Inspiration behind the poem.

Kipling had been friends with Dr Leander Starr Jameson who led five-hundred of his countrymen in an unsuccessful raid against the Boers, in southern Africa. The failed ‘Jameson Raid’ was later considered a major factor in starting the Boer War (1899-1902).

Dr Jameson was a brave leader who had to withstand several challenges including betrayal from his peers and biting failure. He had been commissioned by Cecil Rhodes, then Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, to run the raid. This plan to start an uprising as a consequence of the raid, had been encouraged by British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain, father of future Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.

However when Chamberlain heard the raid was to be launched, he was unsure of its merits, panicked and changed his mind. He rallied up the high powers in London against the Raid. Chamberlain ordered the Governor General of the Cape Colony to condemn the ‘Jameson Raid’ and Rhodes for planning it. As a direct consequence of this, Jameson and his troops were attacked and captured even before they could enter Johannesburg. He lost several men of his men in this brutal attack and surrendered.

Jameson, although he had the blessings of the British Government to begin the raid, became the fall guy in the power play between Cape Town and British Government. He faced a brutal trial, yet kept his integrity and silence and never squealed on the extent of support he had from the British Government for the Raid. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison. Typical of his spirit, Jameson was not broken by his imprisonment. He decided to return to South Africa after his release and rose to become Prime Minister of the Cape Colony in 1904.

He was an inspirational leader with many qualities of integrity, fortitude and focus and determination Rudyard Kipling wrote the Poem as a tribute to the leader and from its 8 verses we can learn several qualities of a good leader.

“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same…” is inscribed above the entrance to Wimbledon’s Centre Court, which players see before the battle of the most prestigious tennis accolade. There is no such thing as “too many times” to read this poem. I suggest you read it and see how many of these attributes you possess and how many we can work on developing. For then one day you’ll be a man – my son!

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too.
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster,
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make a heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling

Some of the biggest block busters churned from the film industries across the world are centered on superheroes with fantastic powers. Is it possible that there are some leadership lessons we can derive from these popular superhero movies? Since in our work spaces, strive as much as we want, we cannot always be the smartest, wisest or the best.

Watching the movie ‘Doctor Strange’ from the Marvel house of superheroes was a recent addition to my list of ‘things to do’. This list was started to draw up 10 things that I normally don’t do and see if I could push myself to do it. I am not a superhero movie fan to say the least and have often wondered what draws people to them with such fervour. I was soon to find out with this one.

Dr. Stephen Stranger’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a practising Neurosurgeon. His life changes after a car accident leaving his surgery performing hands useless. He is grappling with ways to heal himself. With western medicine offering him no cure to his condition, he reluctantly threads down the path of mysterious enclave and finds himself in Kathmandu seeking his Karma-Taj. He soon learns that the enclave is at the front line of a battle against unseen dark forces bent on destroying reality. Before long, Strange is forced to choose between his life of fortune and status or leave it all behind to defend the world as the most powerful sorcerer in existence. As someone who is not obsessed with superheroes and Marvel Comics (unlike so many people I know) it is easy to brush it off as violent, unrealistic and clichéd. Over the years I have learnt that a movie holds only as much meaning as we make out of it. What we can imbibe from it can make all the difference between good and bad.

In my view that there are there are some great leadership lessons we can learn from it.

1. Our pride limits our possibilities.
Dr Strange is an accomplished doctor and is “full of himself”. With no means to a living, he is forced to give up his pride and look for new ways to find a cure, a new identity and to really find himself again. He must give up his pride and ego and surrender to the ways of his new mystic world to learn about it and become a sorcerer. Although confidence is a necessary thing for most of us to succeed, an excess of it makes us believe that we are invincible. As we see with the outcome of this car accident, Life has its ways of forcing us to step down from the mantels we place our selves upon. The swift and tactful blows it offers, force us to reinvent ourselves. This is inevitable and clearly out of our control. Yet, keeping our pride at bay and etching clearly the line between confidence and vanity will define how quickly you can realign and adapt to new circumstances.

2. Learn from others who threaded the path before.
The good doctor needed to learn at every step of the way. He was not born gifted with his skills to save the multiverse from the dark forces. He had to ask and receive. He had to admit that he did not know it all. And he had to understand that there were others who have faced the strife that he has. We often tend to believe that the whole world revolves around us, our experiences and our feelings and thoughts about it. We forget that this universe if a few million years old. There is more than a good chance that some one has had to go through the same thing before. Others have suffered before what we suffer now. Others may strive to overcome and surely a few would have.

This awareness will also help us realize that we may not always have to create solutions; we merely have to discover them or learn them from someone else. Seeking guidance from those with similar experiences saves us precious time and will offer insights which may elude us while we are in the midst of our journey. As they say “Seek not just the answer but its keeper as well”.

3. Determination Determines your destination:
As is quintessential to most superheroes, Doctor Strange is set apart from his peers by his resilience and unvarying determination. I believe that the factors that determine our failures are the ones that can define your success as well. Like how entrepreneurs fail because their passion blinds them to reason. They also succeed because of their unfazed passion and “Never Say Die” attitude . Our failures and our success are two sides of the same coin.

Doctor Strange is determined and never loses sight of his goals. While he may not be the most knowledgeable sorcerer or the wisest of them he clearly hits a home run with determination.

What we can be is the most determined and the one that puts in the most effort with the goal in mind. We must keep pushing to overcome barriers and find solutions and tackle the challenges on hand to take us a step or two closer to the goal. Solutions tend to present themselves by the very virtue of having relentlessly tried.

I sit on the shores of the beautiful Arabian Sea, in a remote south end of Goa. Coconut palms, a humble shack with f & b choices and a sprawling expanse of nothingness, dotted here and there with some humans, animals and some picturesque boats and nets. A quintessential escape for the overworked and stressed urbanite.

Paradoxical that the relentless noise and energy calms us. It is a time to pause and reflect. A time to leave the city and its perils behind and look inwards.

However, given that your work persona closely trails you no matter how far behind you may want to leave it, I look for leadership lessons and learning possibilities from the sea.

I watch the waves ebb and tide, some big, some small. Some come in it with some much gusto (only to break like all others ) and some quietly flow by. Some strong and determined, some weak. One came in right out of nowhere, broke long after the others and took back with a large chunk of shore-lined assignee’s.

So much like the sea of employees within each organization. Some shake things up with their presence, some quietly come in and slink into work, some last longer, some crash before their time. They come in all shapes and sizes, flowing in tandem yet each one uniquely different.

As someone who has been in the learning and training industry for over a decade, I can’t help but think, how, if at all, could we tame such a diverse sea?

Is there a typical wave that can be used as a bench mark? Must we benchmark at all and strive for semblance? Does the greatness of the sea not come from its diversity? Is it the ease of administration that makes most leaders treat all employees the same, apply the same tools and techniques and administer the same processes to all? A one size fits all approach to managing, training and talent development?

Perhaps we must take time to notice the differences. Respect the uniqueness in each individual. In quite the same way as the very exercise of mapping a typical wave seems like an unreasonable one, striving to mould each employee into an ideal one, will be a waste of time.

Organizations will benefit from leveraging the differences and uniqueness that each employee brings to the table. Individual coaching and mentoring can help identify individual strengths and enhance performance.

Like being by the sea side, coaching and mentoring can bring about self- awareness and deep listening. For each individual, the way forward is inevitably the one that can be achieved by looking inwards. To reach for purpose and align our individual goals with that of the organization and find the inner reason for competence. The drive from within to reach our full potential and to create impact.

Much like the old adage, “ You can’t stop the waves but you can learn to surf” leaders must learn to surf and understand each wave to be able to ride them with ease.

What are the responsibilities that lie on the shoulders of men? How should they show their support (apart from words)? How and where can they start advocating for women? How can they bridge the gaps that lie between the sexes at the work place?

With the #MeToo# campaign coming to a head in the last few months, over Sunday lunch, I recently heard a female friend (and a mother of 2 boys) say how times have become tough for the good and decent boys and men nowadays. It was not surprising that most people in the group pounced upon her misplaced sympathy for men and felt a strong urge to be supportive of Women. Yes, there is no doubt women must be supported especially the brave ones who have had the gumption to name and shame their offenders.

But that cannot take away from the fact that there most definitely are the few good and decent men out there who are respectful and supportive of women. We all know a few of these creatures, in our homes and work places. The #MeToo# movement has created some unforeseen gender dynamics in the workplace, including some anxiety on men’s parts to mentor or work alone with women. Also many men who may actually want to show their support are unaware as to how to do so.

These are perhaps conversations that are yet to take centre stage at most organizations. There is a pressing need for organizations to put together information and open dialogues on how men can, on a daily basis, advocate for women and work towards a gender neutral work environment that provide safe, equal and unbiased opportunities for both the sexes.

Here is a pre-emptive list of things men can do.

• Create a culture of respect. Demonstrate respect towards all employees especially women. Culture begins at the top and often trickles downwards. Be mindful of personal spaces, use politically correct language and choose your words carefully when speaking and working with female colleagues

• Men cannot aspire to make a positive contribution without first fully understanding the issue. Find a female colleague with whom you can have a conversation, and seek to understand her experiences as a women working in your organization and on your team

• Communicate to your teams that all concerns and issues will be received equally. This will allow everyone on the team (including the Women) to find their voices and be okay to discuss problems and issues without being judged

• Conversation and getting a women’s perspective will allow one to understand the many under lying biases that prevail at the workspace. Seek to understand mindsets that may be consciously or subconsciously marginalizing women and robbing hem of growth opportunities

• Encourage women to push the envelope and take more risks and ensure they receive the needed support to succeed.

•  Advocate and support equal opportunities and pay

•  Encourage other men to understand the need for elimination of biases and the need to create a culture and environment of growth and respect for both the sexes.

By engaging both genders in women’s leadership development initiatives, we can create more inclusive cultures, yielding better results for individual leaders and for the organizations they lead.

Why Second guessing themselves becomes second nature to women executives – and what can be done about it. Research has found that women executives spend over 25% of their time trying to “stay on track” and use a checking mechanism to ensure that they stay in the safe zone and leave no room of wrong assumptions and interpretations. This is valuable time lost that could have been used more productively.

Ever worn a great new outfit to work and had someone ask “so who is the guy you are trying to impress” or had to deal with snide remarks/ stares for friendly banter exchanged with a male colleague? Ever wondered and worried if something you said or did would be misconstrued too quickly as being “ flirty” or “too forward” ? Or worried about gossip that can be fuelled from working long hours on a new project with a male colleague?

While office gossip is inevitable, do women spend more time than warranted on second guessing themselves and managing perceptions? Short Answer : Yes.

Should women executives really have to think twice before shutting the door when they need to have a conversation with a male colleague on a sensitive issue? Should they dress down to seem less “in your face”? Should they carefully choose their words, outfits and demeanour so that basic interactions are not misconstructed? Short answer: No

Research has found that women executives spend over 25% of their time trying to “stay on track” and use a checking mechanism to ensure that they stay in the safe zone and leave no room of wrong assumptions and interpretations. This is valuable time lost that could have been used more productively.

More importantly, this checking mechanism grows into a habit for most women and impedes self expression and consequently individual growth. This also creeps into other realms of the work life and lowers productivity and work quality. In short: second guessing equals short changing ourselves!

While we may have no control over the mindsets of most individuals (male and female ) and their perceptions, women executives can control their own reactions and how they approach such unstated and underlying sexualisation of women. The best reaction would be to not react: to remain unaffected and focus on results and work quality. Not reacting saves you time, teaches you resilience. Most of all, not reacting and being unaffected also takes the fun away of targeting you. Given that humans are wired to not do the things that are no fun, this could be an effective strategy.

We must also ensure that we do not fall prey to judging other women and propagating mindsets that we would not like to be at the receiving end of. Given that the ratio of women in the work force is surging and trends northwards, women executives would do well utilize this 25% of their time to hone their leadership skills and advance their careers.

Why is that perfectly rational and logical men and women, when part of a group, question their own thoughts and believe that if everyone thinks in a certain way that MUST be the way to do it. Read on to understand the unconscious bias that Group Think creates in minds of many…

Great sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup, Grand Slam and the Olympics, capture the World’s attention and offer us many insights into the human spirit and mindset. The recent US Open that concluded with 20 year of Naomi Osaka beating Serena Williams, who holds 23 Grand Slam titles, in an unprecedented win, has opened doors to much speculation and controversy. While Serena’s behaviour on court and the repercussions it led to, is a whole new plane of discussion, what was disturbing, was the crowd’s behaviour. The pro-Serena crowd seemed to have grown a new-found fondness for booing. While booing every time she was given a penalty can be understood, they continued their booing well into the award ceremony. The booing was so persistent, that the young Osaka who deserved every bit of her win, actually apologised to the crowd for winning. She said she knew they expected a different outcome and was sorry for how it turned out!!! Unbelievable and just plain Sad!!

But this really can’t be the first time sport fans have behaved in less than desirable ways. Every country has its share of embarrassments for fans going berserk: torching items, destroying public property, becoming unruly and violent and much worse behaviour! The interesting part being that many individuals who are part of these mobs are likely to be very reasonable, law abiding and sensible individuals who use logic and reasoning as a precedent to most of their actions. Yet, we will find them booing when a part of them knows it is wrong, going berserk and violent, when they actually do know that it is not something they normally do and most likely don’t subscribe to such behaviour in general.

What then are the triggers?
Psychologists have studied this behaviour termed such phenomenon as mob mentality
Mob mentality is the mentality by which people adopt the behaviours and opinions of their peers. They are unable to take a stand that contests that of their peers and go with the flow
We see a more refined version of this mentality at the work place as well, commonly known as “group think” & “Confirmation Bias”.

Take for example, the American Auto Industry in general. American Auto Manufacturing Industries as a whole, for decades viewed their enormous growth, productivity and profit, as an unbeatable economic force. Over a few decades they cultivated a culture and leadership that believed that they were the undisputed leaders and that they knew exactly what car loving Americans wanted.

Despite the rising influence, innovation and appeal of the energy-saving small cars being marketed by foreign automakers like Toyota, Honda and Hyundai, American manufacturers continued producing the vehicles they thought would perform best-huge fuel-inefficient SUV’s and Minivans.

As the markets shifted, the auto industry slumped. Same with Swiss Air. The money spinning airline made a series of wrong organizations changes only to wreck it’s future and empty it coffers, with the full support of all its top leaders and key stake holders.

Then one stops to wonder why no one saw it coming? Why were brightest minds in the Auto Industry and a leading airline, blind to the perils of their decisions?

Psychology Professor Irving Janis studied many such fiascos. He concluded that members of a close knit group cultivate team spirit that often supersedes the niggling voice in their head that could be telling them that they should inspect and analyse before agreement. Instead they question their own thoughts and believe that if everyone thinks in a certain way that MUST be the way to do it.

Janis documents some symptoms of group think, as quoted by Psychologists for Social Responsibility:

1. Illusion of invulnerability – Creates excessive optimism that encourages taking extreme risks.

2. Collective rationalization – Members discount warnings and do not reconsider their assumptions.

3. Belief in inherent morality – Members believe in the rightness of their cause and therefore ignore the ethical / moral consequences of their decisions.

4. Stereotyped view – Negative views of “enemy” make effective responses to conflict seem unnecessary.

5. Direct pressure on dissenters – Members are under pressure not to express arguments against any of the group’s views.

6. Self-censorship – Doubts and deviations from the perceived group consensus are not expressed.

7. Illusion of unanimity – The majority view and judgments are assumed to be unanimous.

Is there something about sports that sets Women up for Leadership roles? An Ernst & Young survey of 821 high-level executives and found that 90% of women sampled played sports. Among women currently holding a C-level position, this number rose to 96%. Leaders who stand up and hold their heads high every time they fall, leaders who push, cheer and string their teams to success, unbroken spirits that have clear goals and victories in sight. Girls who knew they could win. Girls who would not give up.

I recently was at my son’s state level basket ball tournaments and had the pleasure of seeing some determined young boys and girls playing ball like their life depended on it. The tournament comprised of teams from various towns and districts of Karnataka, spanning the length and breadth of the state.

The most intriguing of the lot was a girl’s team, from an interior town of Karnataka. Every single girl on the team had short cropped hair and an iron will to make every move count and every ball through the hoop. Their resilience and grit showed on their faces and passions ran high. One girl suddenly had an Asthma attack and had to be carried off the field. Despite her condition, she tried her best to stay on the field insisting that she will be okay very soon. And rightly so, within 7 precious minutes of the ticking field clock, she was back to her ball handling position and ran the court like she had the wind beneath her feet, adding more fuel to the passions of her team mate. I could see in their young 13 year old faces, capable and strong leaders of tomorrow.

Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett-Packard, was the captain of the swim team and also played university lacrosse, tennis and basketball. She is quoted as saying that she often uses her on field game strategies to run her company.

PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi played cricket in college. Sunoco CEO Lynn Elsenhans played on Rice University’s first women’s basketball team.

Many women leaders who have played competitive sport agree that sports has been fundamental to their success as business leaders. Research has found many reasons why playing sports can boost the odds of success in either business or in the corporate world.

Sports builds character and fitness:
Playing competitive sports keeps one mentally and physically fit. Players get used to strenuous and regimental schedules, exercise and play sessions which create positive associations with hard work and results. Sports promotes integrity and teaches one early on that hard work , sincerity and steadfastness form the basic tenets of a winner.

Sports promotes resilience:
Everyday day on the sports ground is a lesson in failures. Children in sports learn from a young age that when you fall the ONLY thing to do is get up, brush yourself off and play again. Failure and success is part of an everyday routine. This lesson takes them a long way in life. They learn resilience and that no failure is big enough to give up.

Its okay to want to win:
This by far is the biggest reason why girls need to be exposed to competitive sports early in life – because playing sports makes it okay to Want to win, okay to be competitive, okay to not compromise, okay to beat the odds, okay to defy the naysayers and plough on to success. Women leaders of today acknowledge that without this basic mindset, women succumb to societal expectations of compromising and feel uncomfortable being competitive.

Leaders of tomorrow are born on today’s play grounds and sports must be encouraged and boosted at the school level to empower our women to be significant and prominent contributors to tomorrows workforce.

Women in leadership positions face several types of stereotyping. As a 21st century workforce striving for equality between the sexes, we must begin with awareness and sensitization to workplace mindsets, biases and dynamics that affect women in ways that are unseen and often unnoticed.

In an article, Jill Abramson, the first woman executive editor of the New York Times, was described by her staffers as “impossible to work with,” and “not approachable” This was just a few days after the paper won four Pulitzer prizes, the third highest number of Pulitzers ever received by the newspaper.

No eyebrows were raised. This is a commonplace stereotyping of women leaders. High achieving women are easily branded as “too aggressive”, just one of the many different types of stereotyping women are faced with… Although over the recent years women have scaled many rungs of the corporate and political ladder and continue to hold key leadership positions as heads of state and billion dollar companies, they are never too far away from careless and hackneyed stereo typing based on their gender that subverts their status and abilities. Most women leader have risen to their positions of power despite the stereotyping.

Gender and career experts have examined the dangerous notions about female success and how they seep into the collective subconscious.

Too Aggressive or Too Weak : While women often do well in collaborative leadership, when it comes to taking an authoritative position, women leaders are quickly labelled as too tough, too aggressive and Egoistic. Just being assertive or knowing her mind and speaking it has women leaders being perceived as to aggressive.

As a flip side to this same coin, since women leaders tend to be more compassionate and understand that getting results are a collaborative effort, they tend to strive at inclusion, and research has shown that they get easily branded as “Too Weak”. A label that affects their opportunities at moving upwards towards higher positions with the organization that may require tougher decisions.

Heartless Power Mongers: In the movie “The Devil Wear Prada”the protagonist is painted as an unsympathetic and ruthless slave driver. This character was loosely based on Vogue Magazines Editor in Chief Anna Wintrow, who is one on the most powerful personalities of the fashion world and whose personality has been exaggerated by the media (and the above film) as ruthless and power hungry. She however, does not consider herself as intimidating or powerful. In an interview, she says that she “Just keeps her head down and does her work to the best of her ability”.

Masculine: It is now well known that Margaret Thatcher made a transformation of her image, particularly in the way she dressed and her voice, in order to be heard and perceived as a distinct voice of power in a “man’s world of politics” she was groomed to make appearances only in sober monotone suits and abandon all “frills, dresses and jewelry”She only got to keep the string of pearls because she absolutely insisted on it. She was made to drink warm water with lemon so that her voice would be less strained and acquire a lower pitch when she makes her speeches so that she does not sound like a “shrill, high pitched and excited woman”.

In more recent times we can see this form of “masculine” dressing in Indira Nooyi, Head of Pepsi, where the only hint of femininity comes from single pearl drop earrings. Even powerful and smart women leaders are often forced to conform to male biases that being too feminine is a deterrent to be being perceived as strong leader.

Most women, as they rise to positions of power, face a bastion of stereotyping, focusing only on their gender and belittling their achievements. Read on how even stalwarts like Sheryl Sandberg also faced the same.

In 2012, at the time that SAP bought out Ariba, a much read technology investor and writer on Forbes Magazine, Eric Jackson, wrote an article captioned ”Sheryl Sandberg is the Valley’s IT Girl – much like Kim Polese”. A highly opinionated article which compared Sandberg’s social prominence and “not Camera Shy” persona that leads from the frontlines, as COO of Facebook, to that of Kim Polese.

Nearly a decade before Sandberg’s book “Lean In” made waves, Polese was known as the “superstar of the internet” and the “Madonna of the tech world”. Polese, at age 35 had successfully founded an internet company called Marimba that sold for $239 million, 15 times the venture capital raised for it and had become the golden girl of the silicon valley.

Jackson, in his scathing article went on to highlight the similarities between the two women (and there were quite a few) but the main premise of the article was that Sheryl was falling into the same trap as Polese, who, he claims, neglected internal operations of the company in favour of focusing excessively on “external Stuff” such as media and outreach. Jackson somehow thought it in his place to warn Sandberg of becoming a forgotten “has-been” just like Polese (factually incorrect because Polese continues to be on several technology boards and continues to do outstanding work in the technology space).

He advised Sandberg – “If I was a friend of Sheryl Sandberg and she asked me for my advice, I’d say: you don’t want to be the next Kim Polese. Maybe you should tone down the public appearances for a while and just keep your head down at Face book. There will always be some new Fortune Magazine cover to do, or award for being the most powerful woman executive in the world to accept. Yet, you’re ultimately going to be judged for your – and yours alone – business accomplishments. So, don’t take your eye off the ball.”

This is just one of the examples of stereotyping that women face. Since this involved high profile people it became more noteworthy, but is very much on the lines of what women face at the work place all too often. Pretty face, not much more: Jackson, in the very title of the article, calls Sheryl Sandberg an “IT girl” of the Silicon valley. According to the Collins Dictionary an “IT girl” is a loose term used to to describe a young woman who is well-known because she goes to the most fashionable places and events and knows famous people. In this context, it trivializes Sandberg’s achievements as a top executive who has earned her place in the spotlight. It objectifies her and brings focus merely to her femininity, which should rightfully be irrelevant in the face of her achievements.

Being at the right place at the right time: In the same article Jackson, has a whole paragraph dedicated to why he thinks Polese did not deserve her place on the Times magazine list of 25 most influential people. He attributes it to luck. If we look at most success stories be it Bill Gates, Warren Buffet or Steve jobs, we will have to attribute much of their success to being at the right place at the right time. But the point is that they were the right people as well, who had earned their spot. Yet, this tag is most vocally and casually attached to women leaders, taking away all the credit they deserve for their hard work and attributing their success to luck and at being at the right place at the right time.

Good catch: In the original article, Jackson had a line saying Sheryl Sandberg’s husband was ‘super smart to boot’. A line he soon removed due to the heightened back lash it received, as did the rest of the article. In this case, Sandberg was a Harvard graduate, worked at the World Bank and US treasury and was Google’s Vice President before Face book – a pedigree that is hard to match- and none of which had anything to do with her husband. Yet women, like Sandberg get stereotyped- making it seem like they got to their positions of success and power because of their association with powerful, smart men – again taking away from their efforts, brains and leadership attributes.

Eric Jackson has since issued an apology to both women and his readers for a sloppy inaccurate article. We hope that all the feedback he has received has given him the opportunity to reflect on his thought process.

If work place genders ratios are to changed one must change their mind set. Rethink their assumptions, notions , conscious and subconscious biases and let women do their jobs, with the spotlight on their Jobs and not on their gender.

If you have ever had the good fortune of visiting the ancient city of Athens, Capital of Greece, you will be immediately struck by its ancient and dominating history. Athens dates back to 7000 BC it is, one those places whose present is much entwined in it glorious past, a past that follows you around no matter where you go. According to legend, the Athenian King Cecrops named the city after himself but the Greek Gods, seeing how beautiful it was, felt it deserved an immortal name. Read on to discover who the city was eventually named after…

King Cecrops decided to have a contest amongst the Gods of the Acropolis, the winner of which will lend their name to the glorious city. The two most promising and prominent Gods of that time, Poseidon and Athena, naturally were the fiercest contenders.

The contest between them was so intense that they nearly went to war with each other. However, just when they were about to attack each other, Athena had an idea for a different approach. She proposed that she and Poseidon enter into another contest, where whoever presented the city with the best gift would become the patron. King Cecrops and the people of the city would decide the winner.

Poseidon struck the Earth with his massive trident and presented the city with the gift of water. He was the God of the Sea and the gift of water, in the form of a massive foamy stream, excited the people. But they found out, a little after, that the water was sea water and quite unfit for human consumption.

After much thought and wisdom, Athena, in turn presented the city with an olive tree. Her gift was presented as a seed sown in the earth, and people had to wait to see what comes of it. The olive seed bore fruit and proved to be a wonderful and practical gift. It provided the people with sustenance, fuel, wood and a crop that was tradeable. Athena’s gift was much loved and she was proclaimed the winner.

Thus Athens got its name and Athena’s wisdom was immortalised, in the city of Athens, which to date bears the olive fruit which is much loved world over.

Athena is considered to be the Goddess of Wisdom as well as war. She was a prudent and wise battle strategist. She had creatively turned what could have been a destructive war into a gift for the people. She had ensured that the outcome of their rivalry and irrespective of who won the contest, the city and people won and benefited by default.

Athena is also considered the Goddess of strength, leadership, crafts (specially spinning and weaving) and was known for her generosity and kindness.

As women, in leadership roles much can be imbibed from these myths and legends of Athena. She embodied courage, wisdom as well as kindness and domesticity. For us women striving to balance the home and workplace, we could, like Athena, embrace our femininity and yet, fiercely lead from the front line.

In 1982, much inspired by Goddess Athena, speaker, author, and successful entrepreneur, Martha Mayhood Mertz spearheaded a leadership award program: The ATHENA Award, named for the strong, enlightened goddess. An award for individuals who excelled in their professions, gave back to their communities, and helped rise up other leaders, especially women. Mertz’s book traces the ATHENA history and illuminates 8 ATHENA principles: Live authentically, Learn constantly, Advocate fiercely, Act courageously, Foster collaboration, Build relationships, and Give back, Celebrate.

These eight distinct attributes reflect women’s contributions to leadership. While these can be applied by both genders, women demonstrate these personal traits more intuitively. These intuitive traits, when combined with the strongest aspects of traditional leadership – taking risks, assertiveness, hard work – could prepare women to be successful leaders in the 21st century.

I recently attended a Women Entrepreneur conference. There was a lady, a successful venture capitalist that was delivering the keynote address. While talking about biases at the workplace, she related a story that stayed with me for many days.

In a previous job with a Fortune 500 company, the HR team conducted an experiment. They sent 2 CV’s for the same job description for a fitment check. The interesting part of the experiment was that the CV actually belonged to the same person…the name on one CV was male and on the other was female. The fitment results for the CV which had the male name was much higher than the CV that had the female name.

The audience that these CV’s had been floated to did not think they had a gender bias. It was an eye opener for them too. This set me thinking and I thought we should dedicate our next series on LinkedIn to gender empowerment and gender biases.

Trust you will enjoy this series….it was fascinating for us to put it together.

In the first part of this series we tried to make sense of push learning and ways in which it impacts learning. In this second part let us hash out Pull learning.

In this learning approach, companies provide a host of online learning, MOOC’s and LMS based trainings where the onus lies with the employee to up skill himself. It is a more decentralized bottom- up approach, where access to information is easy and almost instant.

Several organizations profess that this is the new age and cost efficient methodology of learning. Here, organizations strive to provide content to employees in the most easy to use and learner centric ways and employees can, at will, opt-in for such programs. Diverse yet relevant information is available as are the tools to assimilate them. It also goes a step further and allows employees to test themselves and evaluate learning. Organizations drive learning through these digital platforms and strive to create traction towards these learning methodologies.

In today’s age, knowledge is no longer at a premium. Unlike the pre-internet era, one no longer needs a trainer/teacher/guru or mentor to learn first hand from. All you need is a device. But the question remains, despite all the knowledge available why is there a deep lacuna in both skills and behaviours that are required of each contributing individual?

Investments in digital learning platforms and e-learning do not ensure that learning happens within the organization.

Much like the new age schooling system which is child centric and one where the child learns at his/ her own pace, the question to be asked is, how prepared and equipped are they to face the harsh realities of the competitive world? Similarly, in the corporate world, how well can they surf the fast paced technology tide? Is every employee attuned to the changing landscape and aware of specifically what skills he needs not just to surf the tide but to stand out amidst the several thousand surfers?

While his organization may be agile enough to embrace new business models and technologies, how deep are the ravines separating his current knowledge( and skills) and the desired knowledge( and skills) ? How long is the bridge over these ravines and how long would it take him to cross it?

Push Vs Pull – Who calls the shots?

Given that neither of the two approaches to learning are bereft of pitfalls, we have come to believe that organizations must have a multi-pronged and layered approach to learning. Learning and development teams shoulder the responsibility of creating a learning strategy which is in line with their organizational goals. They bring to this task a deep understanding of the capabilities and skills that an organization needs to successfully execute their business plans and achieve their performance goals. They must put their employees in the forefront and make them active drivers of the learning experience. They need to become facilitators of learning and curators of content, deciding which skill and behaviours must be pushed onto the employees but strive to establish processes to get employee buy in’s to learning, thus moving it into the realm of pull learning. This is further fortified by embracing leader-led training and subject-matter authored content and creating a culture of social and collaborative learning into every program.

L & D Teams are required to captain the ship of learning – Keep an eye on the compass and make sure that the organization and its workforce are headed in the right direction. They also ensure that the rudder are constantly churning the minds of it employees, fuelling their career goals, leaving no room for complacency and steering them towards their own growth and development and, in turn, that of the organization.

Organizations mostly embrace learning in either a push or a pull style of learning. In this first part in the 2 part series on learning, let us look at the up side and the flip side of Push learning.

As an organization providing customized learning solutions, we have, for nearly two decades now been closely involved with the learning and development lifecycles of several organizations. Our diverse and custom offerings have enabled us to work across various industries ranging from manufacturing, finance, IT/ITES, retail and many more. This allows us to sit at a vantage point and observe the learning culture, methodologies and gain deep insights into how learning works or does not work within organizations.

Some insights on the Push Learning methodology: Here companies have long and detailed annual training calendars and employees must attend trainings – mandatorily if nominated or a more subtle version where attendance is strung to appraisals and overall performance.

Much like our schooling system there is a precedent on what aspects we are required to learn and how these learning goals may be achieved. Organizations, we find are willing to spend several dollars and man days to fulfil these training needs which, most probably, have been defined by their internal learning and development teams and have chalked out training calendars. Based on these TNA’s and calendars they are keen on pushing employees to up skill themselves.

Much like in our traditional schooling systems, learning is most definitely achieved, albeit in varying degrees and not without chagrin, but many things will be learnt.

This push system has other benefits as well, there is, often times, a clear direction in which organizations are looking to steer their employees in and this can be driven by tailoring learning initiatives to meet larger organizational development goals.

This system also ensures that those lacking the motivation to self regulate and upskill themselves receive the boost to move in the direction of learning. Wisest of organizations have learnt that no matter how much you tweak your hiring process and no matter how enterprising your workforce may be it is prudent to assume that not all employees are motivated to constantly learn and often require an external boost to do so.

The obvious down side to this system lies in the basic wiring of our brain, which pushes back anything that is forced upon us. A natural inclination towards self directed movement and resistance towards mandates. People are more motivated to learn if they feel the need to do so, if they have internalized the need for certain learning and if they have actively initiated a learning process. Retention is, as we know, is often directly proportionate to our intention to learn.

So while organizations may be spending the time, effort, money and other resources on employee development, not every employee is receptive to the desired outcomes or the efforts.