Serendipity and Learning

I read this piece with some amusement. That Infosys is de-layering itself . The interesting part for me in that article was this: As India's largest software firms have added tens of thousands of employees over the past decade, many layers of middle management have in the process also been under-utilised since they are not billable employees anymore as they are not directly involved in day-to-day software coding.  "We've seen that people who are not getting billed, they also tend to get a ittle bit away from technology and so on. The best way to address that is o make them more active in project execution - that's  ..  In a way this is the hands-on crisis in the Indian IT industry. Few years on, people lose their ability to work hands on - and that usually translates into lesser billing for the company. Unless of course, they have taken their abilities and become consultants - which can then be billed by the company.  The fact is that unless you keep at ...

Does creativity need to be taught? And if so, what are we teaching? How does one teach creativity? My own belief is that creativity does not need to be taught. Neither can it be taught. Because it is not like physics or music that it can be taught in the manner of a process. But creativity is all about opening minds - and if that is the definition, one can take people/students through the process of openings one minds so that one is more open to ideas, receptive and so on. The second part is that creativity is often an attitude. A person who is creative is just as creative in life as well. Creativity requires one to be open minded, open to new learnings, experiences and therefore, it is but natural that it will flow into ones lives as well. ( Note: Logical, but does not always work - so that is a caveat .) So, what can we teach? We can teach people possibility. We can teach people to observe. We can teach people to pause. We can teach people to question. We can teach people...

A lot of times when we discuss about inculcating creativity into peoples lives, one of the most obvious ways people come up with is 'art'. So, in general, a typical session on 'creativity' is about painting (mostly), theatre (sometimes) or some other art (rarely). There are two issues with this approach. One is that someone who is a theatre artist or a painter or a follower of some art  - also knows this craft very well - that means that she pursues this art over many years and masters it. This does not imply that they are 'creative' though this is the cliched approach to creativity. Second, just because a nuclear scientist paints one (or ten) picture (s), will not lead her to discover a new atomic particle. So, if someone attends a session on creativity - and paints a bit and dances a bit, it will do zilch to their creative life at work or otherwise. Sure, it will open their minds - but like in any learning experience, unless it is followed up with, ma...

Recently, I got a chance to see a fusion band - Kalarava . These guys mixed Carnatic music with non-traditional instruments - and interpreted the music in a more eclectic fashion. The songs were fast paced, the instruments non-traditional - yet with a traditional undercurrent - and the kept the audience wanting for more at the end of it. And just a few weeks before that I got a chance to see a Carnatic maestro perform. The concert was fairly traditional - but the maestro gave a virtuoso performance. Now which of these is creative? The fusion band is a young set of people - trying out various combinations. The maestro is also fairly young - but at the same time - pushing the limits of his art by virtue of talent and experimentation. Obviously both are creative - in their own ways. There is no good creativity and bad creativity (there is, but not in this context). So what is the creative element here? One is where the fusion band pushes the envelope by bringing in different inst...

It is impressive to see some innovations in the learning space. Over the past few months I have had the opportunity to see many different companies founded along these tenets. There are companies looking at assessments in a different way. There are companies revolutionizing anytime live training. There are companies looking at using videos to accelerate learning. Of course, simulations and gamification companies are been around for a few years now. And these are just some of the companies I have encountered. But what is even more impressive is the way that 'anytime' training has taken off. People and companies no longer expect to be trained tethered to a room or a desktop. It has to be whenever the person has time and wherever the person is, regardless of whether one is at office or not. And of course, learning is everywhere. I learn more from my twitter feed than perhaps any other place at a given time... Evolving thought...

Learning something, especially that is kinesthetic, can be a very tricky exercise. One has to be prepared to go through my 'failure' cycles to get it right. Passing through the four stages of competence is a learning experience in itself. This was repeated when I recently tried my hand at surfing. Much of my time of the 90 minutes course was spent lugging the board the wave, being pushed around the water - over and under, drinking copious amounts of sea water and finally bobbing up to see which direction I was facing and to have yet another wave hit me. The good news was that everybody goes through this cycle. Nobody learnt to surf in 90 minutes - it takes time as one passes through the stages of competence. And as I saw someone much higher up on the learning curve - I smiled. Each attempt the surfer made to stand up, she fell into the water again. That was inspiring and humbling at the same time - that I do have a long way to go before I become anything of an avid surf...