Gurukool - The beginning

Gurukool: A system of education in ancient India where in students lived with their teacher during the period of education. The bond thus created between the students and their teacher wend beyond the conventional relationship.

 By now readers of this blog will have concluded that though being part of the function, I have always viewed training with a (un) healthy amount of cynicism and scepticism. And rightly so. However there is one instance which forced me to abandon my cynical approach and actually see the power that a properly designed and executed development initiative can unleash. A development initiative called Gurukool.

 As I sit down to write about Gurukool, I am experiencing a block. Writing about the events that led to creation and execution of this initiative is fairly simple. But how does one write about the emotional upheavals that we as the training team went through? How does one describe the personal growth that the facilitators experienced when delivering the workshop?  It was indeed a rollercoaster for we practically participated in lives of more than a thousand people in the three years we ran the program.

 It is also difficult to write about Gurukool in one single blog. The events, experiences, realizations and associated learning are too many to fit in a single article. I have therefore divided the entire experience in three parts. How it all began, how the design was created and lastly about conducting the workshops. While writing I also realize that it will be impossible for me to convey all my thoughts and feelings related to Gurukool. I accept this limitation and ask you, the reader to please bear with me.

 It all began with annual business review in the company I was working for. Ours was a retail organization with a large number of frontline sales personnel. In fact these sales people constituted nearly 70% of the total workforce in the company. Typically they were high school pass outs in the age group of 18-24 years. Unable to continue further education due to family reasons, economic and otherwise, they found this as an opportunity for gainful employment as the job required no particular prior skills or experience. We provided them with on-the-job training for about a month before putting them on the shop floor.

 One of the issues that was discussed in that review was to do with high turnover and poor service delivery among the frontline staff. All kinds of retention and performance bonuses had been announced, but they didn’t seem to work. Very often the sales employees just didn’t turn up for work leaving the poor manager completely clueless about manpower deployment and work planning.

Discussion on the issue was like a hockey game. “This is serious. You need to find a solution to this problem.” said the managing director, as he passed it to the business head. The business head did not keep it with himself for long, as he deftly deflected it to the HR Head. “You need to come up with some plan to solve this problem”. The HR Head was equally adept at the game. She passed it on to the recruitment head, “Is proper staffing an issue?” The recruitment head expertly deflected it back. “No, there is no problem with recruitment and staffing. The issue seems to be of retention.” Back to HR head, who now passed it to where there would be no comeback. “I think we need to find a solution to this problem through training.” “I agree”, concurred the managing director looking at me. “Nitin, please come up with a development plan to address this issue.” Every one nodded. The issue had been discussed to every ones satisfaction.

Every one’s except mine. I was upset and angry. How come such issues always seem to land at my doorstep? If it works, it’s someone else’s great idea. If it doesn’t, well, training didn’t do a good job. And it was with this frame of mind I met my team of eight trainers (T1, T2, T3……….. T8) the next day. After I had explained the situation, the conversation went something like this:

T1: I don’t understand… what are WE supposed to do?

Me: Find a solution to the employee turnover and service quality issues
T3: We could do service training, but what can we do about employee turnover?
T4: Yes that’s an HR problem. Why has it come to us?
Me: Doesn’t matter whose problem it should be. It’s our problem now. So let’s have some suggestions
T3: We first need to find out why the problem exists
Me: Great! So how do we do that?
T6: We should conduct an employee engagement survey
T2: That will only tell us what is the level of engagement, but it will not answer the why.
T5: We will have to do some kind of research to find the root cause of the problem
T6: What kind of research?
T5: I don’t know… there must be something
T4: Why us? It’s not our issue!
T1: Because someone out there hates us…

 We weren’t making any headway. And then T8, the newest member of the team came up with an idea

 T8: Why don’t we go out and find out?

 Everyone looked at her incredulously.

T2: And how are we going to do that?

T8: We are eight of us. So we can cover eight cities. Let’s spend time with the frontline staff and find out from them
T3: And what makes you think they will answer our questions?
T8: I wasn’t thinking of asking them… more in terms of working with them.

 Total silence. Work with them? No one had done that before. But it made a whole lot of sense. So at the end of some resistance and further discussions it was decided that they would spend a week on the shop floor in different cities. I was to hold fort at office. At that time I was not sure what would come out of it. But I was certainly sure of one thing. At that moment, T8 was definitely the most unpopular member of the team.

 One week later

 We met in office on Monday morning. Something was different. Everyone was subdued. No bantering or jokes, as was usual in our meetings. I waited for them to open up, but there was silence. I had to prod them.

Me: So how was it?

T2: (After a long pause) It was different.
Me: How so?
T2: I don’t know how to explain… but it was different
Me: And how has it been for the rest?
(All together): Different!
Me: Have you people discussed this before coming in?
T3: No, we just met in office
Me: But you all will have to tell me more about this ‘different’. Just saying it was different doesn’t help!

Another long pause

 T4: Let me try and explain what I felt. I felt that all things that I worry about, everything that I get stressed about are so meaningless.

Me: Please elaborate…
T4: These youngsters are fighters. They have such a tough life, and yet they manage to laugh and smile…
Me: Anything else?
T1: The  most amazing thing for me was that in spite of their origins, they have dreams to better their lot. And in spite of hardships they are not willing to give up their dreams.
T2: But it’s sad to see them get bogged down with their day-to-day struggles. Some of them are intelligent enough to be in the top colleges.
Me: Anything else?

I knew I was provoking them While they were sharing their feelings and emotions, I was sounding like an emotionless b*****d. But I was doing it on purpose. I somehow knew that the answer was in the feelings that they were sharing, and not the experiences themselves.

 T4: One customer came in with his wife and son. They wanted to shop for their son’s birthday. After they left, this sales guy cane to me and said, ”you know they spent more in 15 minutes than what I earn by slogging for a month.” It was heart-breaking.

 Aha! The first clue was here.

 T7: I went with one sales girl to her home. The entire family of five people live in just one room. They don’t have much, but they made me feel so welcome. I doubt if I can ever match their hospitality.

Here was the second clue..

It went on for some time. Finally I had to conclude.

 Me: I hear three things. One, dreams, and a desire to rise above origins. Second reconciliation with the fact that they work in an environment where people are spending more money in minutes than they earn in a month and third, adjustment to the reality of working in an environment which is more luxurious than where they live. Have I missed something?

T4: No that about sums it up.
Me: So now can we work on an initiative that can address all these three issues?

Normally when we designed any development initiative, there always was a certain amount of excitement. But this time it was different. It was almost like a missionary zeal. It was like suddenly they had an opportunity to do something about a situation which till then they had just helplessly observed. This time the excitement and energy was unbelievable. I guess each one of them had also grown through the experience.

Our Gurukool journey had thus begun.

 To be continued

 

 

The training that did not happen

“I don’t want managers in my organization, I want leaders”! I had heard this many times. In fact this was a kind of joke we had laughed about. Only this time I was not laughing. When the managing director of your company says it, looking pointedly at you, it is no longer a laughing matter.

 I had joined this company about a year back as head of HR and Training. The occasion was the six-monthly business review. All the business and functional heads were attending. In spite of difficult economic and business conditions, we had managed to achieve 87% of our targets. So the mood was quite upbeat, although there would be some recriminations from the managing director (Why only 87%... why not 100%). But that was ok. After all that was his job.

 Normally the HR function had almost no role to play in the review meetings. Unless some business head wanted to use the function as a scapegoat for non-performance (They did not give us the right manpower at the right time) or for moral support (Our competitors are paying better incentives… ask HR, they have collected the relevant data), my contribution was negligent. But since the convention was that all business and functional heads should attend, it also fell on me to be an almost silent spectator in the day-long sessions twice a year.

 The meeting began in the usual fashion. The Finance Head presented his array of spread sheets giving data about the (non) performance in the last six months, the business heads started readying their PPTs and arguments and I settled down to a long and slightly boring day.

 But this time it was not to be the usual manner. After the Finance Head finished his presentation, the bombshell dropped. The managing director, who, normally would remain silent throughout the meeting except when asking those uncomfortable questions suddenly butted in. “I am aware of the economic conditions and difficulties that we are going through. And I know that all of you will give this as the main reason for not achieving targets. So let’s not waste time. What I want to talk about is what can we do different to make sure we achieve targets in spite of the conditions. I don’t want to go through your presentations. I want us to discuss this one issue.”

 You could hear a pin drop in the silence that followed. No one was prepared for this. One of the business managers tried to get the meeting back on track. “Sir, if we analyse businesswise monthly regional performance, we may be able to understand what we can do better”. But the managing director cut him short. “Don’t waste our time. I will tell you where the problem is. Our team heads behave like managers and not like leaders. We have too many managers in the company and not enough leaders”. Then looking pointedly at me, “I don’t want managers in my organization, I want leaders. And Nitin, being the head of training, it is your responsibility to create leaders in this company. Please interact with all business heads and come up with a plan. I am also available for any discussion, if you feel the need.”

 With that he stood up and walked out. The meeting had ended. The rest of us just sat as if paralysed. After some time, one of the business heads looked at me and smiled, “Good luck to you”, and walked out. Another one tried to be helpful. “Perhaps this is a passing fad. Give it some time. Something else will come up and this will be forgotten”. One by one they all walked out leaving me with my own confusion.

 Managers to leaders? What did that mean? And what’s wrong with being a manager? Even if we are, by some miracle, able to convert all managers into leaders, what would happen then? How would it impact business? And what would they do differently if we began calling them leaders instead of managers? And just because I happened to be the training head, how was it my responsibility to convert managers into leaders? Well actually the answer to this last question was easy – because the managing director thought so!

 I sat there alone for quite some time. All I was getting was more questions and confusion. I had to do something. Perhaps the best way was to talk to the business heads. That might give me some clue.

 I met the first business head. “What do you think is the difference between a manager and a leader”? I began. “I don’t know. Isn’t it your job to find out”?

 I tried another opening. “What if instead of managers in your team, you had leaders”? “Why do I want leaders in my team”? He replied. “I am the leader of my team. The rest have just to do what I tell them to do.”

 Another business head revealed his thoughts. “A leader has to do all the thinking. If we have too many leaders in a team, it will lead to disaster. Everyone will be thinking and no one will be doing.”

 Yet another had this nugget, “A leader leads and a manager manages. There can be only one leader, which in our case is the managing director. The rest of us are managers”.

 It wasn’t helping. Perhaps the managing director would be able to help. After all this was his great idea. So I took an appointment and finally met him. I have tried to pen down the ensuing conversation verbatim:

 Me: Sir, I need to get your perspective about the difference between manager and leader.

Managing Director (MD): There are no different perspectives. Everyone knows the difference between the two

Dangerous grounds. I could not show my ignorance, and at the same time I needed answers.

Me: Yes Sir, but your verbalizing will help me understand it better in our organizational context.

 Lame, but that’s the best I could do at that moment

MD: Well leadership is about leading. It is about giving direction, about motivating people to give their best, about achieving results.

Me: And a manager is not capable of doing that?
MD: If a manager is able to do that, then he becomes a leader.
Me: And what is being a manager all about?
MD: It’s about managing. It’s about making sure that things happen as they should and nothing is out of place. It’s about planning and organizing and executing.
Me: Isn’t a leader supposed to do all these things also?
MD: Of course he does, but he also needs to lead his team members
Me: And isn’t a manger, in order to make sure that things happen as they should, supposed to give direction and push his people to do their best?
MD: To an extent, yes…
Me: Sir, then, I still don’t get the difference between the two.
MD (Now a bit exasperated): Well the main difference is that a leader will always achieve his targets while a manager will not!
Me: Aah, I understand now. Then sir, you will be glad to know that nine out of our twenty six managers are already leaders, because they have achieved their targets.

 A long pause, where both of us were just looking at each other.

MD: I have another meeting coming. So we will carry on with our discussion at another time.
Me: Sure sir. Do let me know when you are free so we can conclude our discussion.

 I walked out of the managing director’s office. Something caught my eye on his secretary’s table. I paused to take a look. It was a brochure for a talk by a motivational speaker entitled ‘Leaders deliver results, Managers don’t’.

The meeting to conclude our discussion never happened.

The 'Hanging' Organizations

About four years ago, I quit my corporate job to begin as an independent HR consultant. In the course of this period I have interacted with the CEOs, Business  and HR heads of a number of companies for exploring business opportunities. Some of them have worked out, while some have not. I have categorized them as ‘Go’ and ‘No Go’ organizations. There is however a third category, that I call  ‘Hanging’ Organizations. One is never sure if you are in or out with them. And they never tell. It is almost as if informing you whether you will be working with them or not is violating some provision of the Official Secrets Act.

Each one of these organizations has a unique way of keeping you hanging. Ultimately there is closure. Either one just gives up and stops following up, or they will come around reluctantly to tell you, “Sorry we don’t have the budgets”, or “we have postponed the project to next year”…

However there is one experience which has become a case study in perseverance to see who will give up first. This organization is in a highly competitive industry in the IT sector. I am giving below a chronological sequence of events:

 Day 1

I get a call from the Training Manager of the company. He has got my reference from someone and wants to meet me in connection with a training project. We set up a meeting three days hence.

 Day 4

I meet the Training Manager. He tells me that the employee satisfaction survey has thrown up an issue regarding internal customer service. So they would like to initiate development program for support functions for improving internal customer service. We discuss the issues involved. I need to get back to them with a proposal and program design. They need it fast as they would like to launch the project by the next month.

 Week 2

I send the workshop design and proposal to the training manager.

 Week 3 & 4

No response

 Week 5

I call the training manager to check. I am told that he is trying to organize a meeting with the business HR Head, who is also the process owner for this project. He will call me as soon as the meeting is fixed.

 Week 6

No response

 Week 7

I get a call from the training manager. The meeting with the HR Head has been fixed for next week.

 Week 8

I meet the training manager and discuss the program design. We discuss the need to meet with some of the internal customers and service providers to get a deeper understanding of the issues involved. The training manager has to organize the meeting

 Week 9

No response

 Week 10

I get a call from the training manager. The meeting will now take place only with the service providers in the HR department.

 Week 11

I meet the service providers in the HR department. Based on the interactions, I send a revised program design. I am informed that someone from the purchase department will contact me for the price finalisation.

 Week 12

No response

 Week 13

I call the training manager to check about progress. I am told that the purchase department will get in touch shortly

 Week 14

I get a call from a person from the purchase department. The gist of the conversation between me and the purchase department representative (PDR) is given below:

 PDR: I understand that you are being considered as a vendor for a training program by us

Me: That’s right

PDR: I am looking at the rate that you have quoted. It’s too high.

Me: How do you decide if the rate is too high or not?

PDR: We have got quotes for training from other vendors and your quote is much higher.

Me: Have you got quotes for the same program for which I have given?

PDR: No but that should not matter. A training program is a training program.

Me; So you thing there is no difference between one program and another?

PDR: What difference? It’s like buying a printer. You have so many brands, but they do the same thing.

 I give up. What can I explain to the PDR? Explaining the difference between training programs would entail conducting a full fledged training workshop for him.

 Me: This is my final quote, and I cannot reduce it.

PDR: Then it will be difficult for me to give approval. But let me discuss this internally and we will get back to you.

 Week 15 & 16

No response. I conclude this is one of the ‘No Go’ interactions. How wrong I was.

Week 17

I get a call from the training manager. The quote has been approved. He will now finalise the dates and get back to me

 Week 18 & 19

No response

 Week 20

I call the training manager and am told I need to meet the Training Head. When I ask the reason for the meeting, I am told that this is a very important initiative and cannot happen unless approved by the training head.

 Week 21, 22 & 23

No response

 Week 25

I get to meet the training head. A brief meeting where I am told that I need to do a mock run of the program in front of a few people including the training head. It is only after this they will decide whether to work with me or not.

 Week 28

I do the mock run of the program. Attendees are the training head, the business HR head and one business head. At the end of it I am told that we are going ahead. The training manager will now finalise the dates.

 Week 29, 30, 31

No response

 Week 32

The training manager informs me that someone from purchase department will get in touch regarding issuance of a formal purchase order.

 Week 33 & 34

No response

 Week 35

I get a call from the Purchase Department Representative (PDR). The conversation goes like this:

 PDR: I understand that you are being considered as a vendor for a training program by us

Me: That’s right

PDR: I am looking at the rate that you have quoted. It’s too high.

 I am speechless for a moment.

 Me: But we had agreed upon the rates long time ago.

PDR: Yes more than six months ago

Me: So why are we re-opening the topic now?

PDR: Exactly for that reason. Six months is a long time. We have to renegotiate.

Me: I repeat what I said then. I will not change the quote.

PDR: Then I will have to speak internally and get back to you.

 Week 37

I call the training manager to ask about renegotiation of rates. “What can I say”, he says. “We have a new training head. This is a very important initiative and she wants to be involved in it.”

This probably means that we will go through the whole cycle all over. Who knows, by that time the training manager may quit.

 I should have given up on this project a long time ago. But I was curious. I want to see where it heads towards its logical ending.

I am sure more than 7 months ago someone had decided that this project was important for the business.  And I am equally sure that the same person must have forgotten all about it by now.

And then my fellow trainers wonder why their function does not get the respect it deserves in organizations.