Serendipity and Learning

Creating a course is not easy. Especially a kind of course a senior leader wants for his team.With tight deadlines. There are two ways out there. One is tried and tested. The other, to try out something different - something you think is worth a try based on the talking to experts. The first one is a possibility sometimes, when the leader wants something, very fast, instant. The second one is worth a try when the leader gives you the freedom to try. And some time. And a little patience. Once that is done, the work begins. To begin with it means understanding your audience, what they want, what they like, what makes them tick, what is their level of knowledge. It means, preparing.  It means, keeping your ears close to the ground. As it progresses, it means, working with various stakeholders and making them part of the creation process as well. It means, asking questions. It means, iteration. While delivering, it means, making the audience think. It means, respecting their i...

A few weeks ago, I walked into a cup cake shop and since the little one was with me, we decided to take a look at the kitchen. And I was a little surprised. There was hardly anything hi-tech in there. I mean, the equipment was what one would find in a standard urban kitchen of today. And the shop boy assured me all the baking was done there itself. Perhaps I am missing something. But while on the one hand, there is a lot of discussion on how the internet has democratized information - to some extent microwave ovens have done the same in India. Baking is one of those home-industries that has taken off after the introduction of microwave ovens and the easy availability of recipes and ingredients on the internet. Today one can find baking stuff like silicone moulds and other assorted items at almost any shop. There are practically no entry barriers. And by the way, cake making is now so easy that every neighbourhood has a cake shop that bakes its cakes right there - it has still not got...

I recently had the privilege of reading Business Sutra. The book is a thought provoking read to say the least. As any creative mind would say, in order for the mind to be creative, it is important for the mind to open, expand, gather in a greater range - this book does that by using Indic (mostly Hindu, but smattering of Jain and Buddhist) line of thought to explain some of the 'sutras' of business and management. It comes across a little different - because mostly we would not have encountered anything along these lines of thought.  Throughout business school, business is from seen from a mostly western perspectives (and the only Indian companies that we referred to are used to mostly as Lalaji businesses - with barely any good thing heard about them except perhaps the 'parta' system of accounting). Through many pages as I read it, I realize that Human Resources in India has much to harness from Indian Itihasa and Purana which it has not – with the r...

The little one has been at it for the last few weeks. Off and on, she wants to learn to cycle. As a learner, there was a clear motivation to learn. There have been moments of frustration, of despair, of wanting to give up and of the feeling that this is not going to work. Aside: The 8 psychosocial stages : At this age, between 5 and 12, they want reassurance that they can 'make it in the world of people and things'. So, the frustrations can have deeper ramifications - and there, there were small successes that she was able to notch up, but it was not adding up (in her mind). But the motivation kept her going, trying time and again - over a few weeks a few minutes and there, but not sustained effort. As a teacher/parent, what can one do - provide the scaffolding, words of encouragement, show them the path and put in corrective techniques, among other things. Today, it all fell in place. First getting the starting power right (one needs a push to get started - and sometim...