Trainingpoint

Innovation:Why?

2010-04-30T06:17:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

Why should a person aspire to be an innovator? Why should an organization innovate?

Types of innovation

2010-04-30T05:44:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

Removes misunderstandings related to the types of innovation.We usually think that product innovation is the only type of innovation.Innovation,however,is of 4 types namely product innovation,process innovation,strategic innovation and domain innovation.

Innovation:When?

2010-04-25T06:53:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

What is the major blindspot that organizations have regarding innovation?

We Indians-Our core problem

2010-03-29T20:37:00.000-07:00

What lies at the core,
That we do not score,
& achievement so does abjure,
That we to ourselves don't adore.

Inability to think beyond ourselves,
My family,my child and myselves,
Our thinking in this narrow lane so delves,
That our creativities hang themselves.

Sanjiv Narang
29/03/2010

The final frontier of management

2009-11-25T00:24:00.000-08:00

The final frontier of management is politics.It is very sad that managers have limited the utilization of their competency and talent to business organizations. Thus,the influence of management professionals in the social and political sphere is minimal.

All those workshops on Leadership and managerial competency development. What a waste,if they do not get utilized on a broader platform other than a business organization.

In fact,a huge amount of new knowledge remains untapped because of the lack of application of managerial competency in the political arena.

Training Trainers

2009-08-24T22:31:00.000-07:00

Kolb's learning cycle for adult learning is interesting.

The four experiential learning processes are:

Concrete Experience - (CE)

Reflective Observation - (RO)

Abstract Conceptualization - (AC)

Active Experimentation - (AE)

Its integration into the instruction design of a training program would definitely enhance the learning and competency takeaways.

Stay Interviews as an OD intervention

2009-07-26T06:22:00.000-07:00

I have started analyzing the stay interviews conducted at 6 sites in NTPC.The power of this OD intervention is palpable.

Strengths and their enhancement is the only sure shot way to develop and sutain an edge whether in organizations or at a professional level.

Intellectual Assets of a firm

2009-06-17T07:04:00.000-07:00

The intellectual assets of a firm consist of R&D, patents and trademarks, human resources and capabilities,organisational competencies and “relational capital"

Innovation: Why

2009-06-17T06:41:00.000-07:00

•1 percentage point increase in aggregate innovation spending was associated with an increase of 0.85 percentage points in the probability of being a successful innovator and an increase of 0.7 percentage points in the share of new products in turnover.

Strategic HR and stay interviews

2009-06-14T01:06:00.000-07:00

An indepth examination of stay nterviews has thrown up the revelation that stay interviews are a strategic HR tool.Strategic HR is basically transformational HR.It consists of the ways and means through which HR can enable the organization to create a competitive advantage.

One of the tools of strategic HR is appreciative inquiry.

Appreciative inquiry is embedded into multiple Strategic HR interventions.

One of these nterventions is ,"Stay interviews".

Stay interviews can be a principal source for organization design and the redesigning of organizational policies.

Stay interviews

2009-05-23T03:21:00.000-07:00

HR Technology is evolving and innovations in HR are beginning to gather pace.

On examining Stay Interviews,i have realized that they have appreciative inquiry embedded in them.Stay interviews are a powerful system for creating a performance orieneted culture and for organization design.

Their proactive nature put them into the category of,"Tools for Strategic HR".

The tools for Strategic HR is an interesting new classification of Strategic HR processes which can enable the HR department to drectly impact organizational performance.

It is about time that the HR department stopped only looking at people systems and started affecting organizational competitiveness and performance.

A lament and a hope:Poem by Sanjiv Narang

2009-01-03T23:44:00.000-08:00

A lament and a hope

Gone are the days of strength and valor,

Behold the days of tyranny and squalor,

For the time are a -changing,

Everyday truth is found hanging.

Inspite of your great feminine prowess,

the world shall remain leaderless,

for you lack idealism,

for freeing the world from this devilish prism.

Let the naysayers step aside,

and to the people's dictate abide,

for the leader to ascend,

for making our destiny mend.

one must look for the answer in one's soul,

for getting out of the debilitating hole,

before we regret the goal,

that time stole.

by:

Sanjiv Narang

Appreciative inquiry

2008-12-09T13:40:00.001-08:00

Click to Play

Explores appreciative inquiry as an OD intervention which builds a performance culture in the organization.

Overview of Strategic HR

2008-12-04T04:22:00.001-08:00

Click to Play

Provides an overview of the biggest development in the HR profession after its birth.

Organization Development Domain

2008-10-27T15:36:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

This video-clip describes the OD interventions deployed by innovation Systems Consulting for client organizations.

Communication skills

2008-10-20T21:28:00.000-07:00

As my experience as a trainer has increased,i have realized that every competence is a cosmos in itself.

Whatever seems to be mundane,as we dig deeper into it,it reveals dimensions heretofore unexplored.

The same is true of communicaion skills.On the face of it,it seems to be a rather mundane subject.However,the more mundane the subject greater is the opportunity to innovate.

As soon as we expand the scope of communication skills beyond the communication process,the complexity increases manifold.Examining all the interactions that we do in a day ,classifying them and then enhancing them is a rather Herulean task.However,it does reveal new communication dimensions.

The new dimensions of communication are:

Relationships oriented communication.
Performance communication.
Organizational communication.

These dimensions have tranformed communication skills from a rather mundane area of instruction to a critical competency which has a direct bearing on professional and personal effectiveness.

Strategic HR

2008-10-12T00:57:00.000-07:00

Strategic HR is a phenomenal innovation in the field of Human Resources.This competency has changed the impact dimensions of a HR professional.

In most organizations operational HR is practiced.This does not have any visible impact on the competitive advantage of the firm.

However,Strategic HR is focussed on enhancing the competitive advantage of the firm through its human resources.This is the biggest leap taken by the HR profession in the last 2 decades.This may transform the HR department into the most important department in an organization.

e-learning

2008-04-27T23:32:00.000-07:00

I am conducting a program on,"Business Communication and presentation skills" for personnel who have risen through the ranks. One of the key learning points of this process has been that optimal learning is achieved when we combine class room learning with e-learning.

Work process innovation

2007-10-13T10:06:00.000-07:00

the opportunity to generate work process innovations through the application of IT and basic industrial engineering seems to be infinite.Work processes in alot of traditional organizations have gone on unexamined for a long period of time.
This creates wastage and of course missed opportunities.
Application of process mapping tools and the fusion of work processes with IT tools and capabilities yields a treasure of work process innovation opportunities.
Y this is not a focus of organizations is a mystery to me?

Intranet base innovation development system

2007-10-13T09:49:00.000-07:00

i have recently facilitated a session on the development of an intranet based innovation development system.It came as a cool surprise to me that the sparks of innovation are visible in organizations but it does take some time to sift through the night to find them. Organizational personnel have tried to develop these systems voluntarily and they run it after they have finished their daily work chores.
Innovation is so critical to the success and growth of an organization so y don't organizations build intranet based innovation development systems which can guide the innovator on the tricky path of innovation and also act as a backbone for the innovation effort in it.
I CAN'T COCEIVE OF AN ORGANIZATION SYSTEM THAT WOULD TAKE UP SO FEW RESOURCES AND YIELD SO MUCH.

Managing the Training Function

2007-08-10T00:37:00.000-07:00

I thoroughly enjoyed conducting a workshop on,"Managing the training function" for a major power generation co.

It gave me the opportunty to address the deep weaknesses in the way the employee development centres are managed.Since,the process of managing the training function is never really addressed,the inadequacies have a long life-line and tend to continue year on year.

It was joyful to see new hope and light in the eyes of the learners.The empowerment of training managers with new competencies is going to result in their emerging as more powerful professionals in the work environment.

The identification and assimilation of competencies of managing the training function was an eye opener.Comment of one of the participants was,"In our Employee Development Centres we need to distinguish between organizational value-add training and perepheral training.The EDCs should not slowly deteriorate into facilitators of perepheral training only".

Each competency enriches the role and empowers the functioning of the training manager.Facilitation of training by training managers without practicing the competencies of managing the training funtion results in bad decision making and costly wastage of all connected resources.

A competency such as ,"Writing Deliverables" has the capability of having a fundamental impact on the focus,design and the execution of training programs.

Rhetoric for Leadership effectiveness

2007-06-14T01:21:00.000-07:00

Positive rhetoric has not been recognized as a key competecy of leadership effectiveness.
Without rhetoric the competency map of leadership effectiveness remains incomplete and the capability of the leader to create a vision and energize a large group towards its attainment remains elusive.
Organizational leaders need to enahance this competency in order to acquire charisma in the organization.
This competency needs to be cosciously nurtured and developed.Since leadership has been recognized as a critical ingredient in the success of an organization,an organizational invesment in the process of developing his competency would yield visible benefits.

Learning underlying competency

2007-06-13T23:48:00.000-07:00

In the process of preparing for a worksop on Competency mapping,i came across the types of learning that underlie a competency.

It was interesting to note that there are 3 types of learning that underlie the formation of a competency:
1.Conceptual learning.

2.Behavioral learning.

3.Affective learning.

Out of these,Affective learning triggers a new thought process regarding the competency building process.Affectve learning refers tothe emotions of the learner regarding the learning object.The applications of this learning are multi-fold.The instruction design for training programs must also include elements(cases,stories)that create the requisite emotions among the learners regarding the learning object.
Affective learning remains an unexplored and unutilized aspect in the process of competency development.When we analyze personnel who are experts in the process of execution of vital competencies,it becomes obvious that affective learning is an integal part of their competency development and execution.

Cutting edge innovation

2007-06-04T04:10:00.000-07:00

I recently facilitated a workshop on Innovation and creativity for the top Management of a leading telecom solutions provider.

As a part of the workshop we generated potent innovation ideas in key growth areas for the organization.The participants were unsually sharp.The kind of potent innovation ideas generated is going to put the corporate landscape on fire esp. in the telecom space.

The frequency of innovation is expected to go up multi-fold in the coming couple of years.WIMAX is going to be a hot bed of innovation.The redesigning of our entire living and working space is on the anvil.

A lot of people with secure businesses and titles are going to feel quite insecure in the near future.

Level 4 assessment of Leadership coaching

2007-04-23T07:15:00.000-07:00

It is always a great feeling to assess any workshop or intervention at level 4,i.e.level of impact at the workplace.

I had been doing leadership coaching for six director level personnel in a leading finance focussed MNC.Much to my surprise and delight, one of them has been awarded as ,"Manager of the year,2006".

Emotional competence workshop

2007-04-02T04:58:00.000-07:00

i recently conducted a workshop on emotional competence in an outdoor setting for the senior level personnel of a power generating co.

It was an ambitious workshop since most out-bound programs focus on team building or leadership development.

The experiential learning regarding emotional competence which emerged from the live dynamics of an outdoor setting of group activities was refreshingly new.The flow of emotion during the activities and its surges and ebbs yielded refreshing insights into the emotional dynamics inherent in team tasks and their achievement.

The conversion of these insights into emotional competencies and their subsequent extension through additional data made the learning environment open and interesting.

Though most of the time emotional competencies related to relationships tend to rule the roost in such workshops,this workshop saw the rise of the emotional competencies related to the self.
Some of these competencies were Rhetoric,assertiveness and self-healing.

work life balance

2007-02-03T09:10:00.000-08:00

i was writing a paper on,"Work -life balance" for an international conference. I am always startled at the analysis and learning points that i derrive from the pattern of my own experiences.
It is quite evident that work life balance and productivity are positively correlated.
On the other hand work-life imbalance and stagnation as wellas low levels of innovation are also positively correlated.
Organizations that tend to emphasize late working continuously reap negative outcomes such as low productivity,low motivation levels and a lackadaisical attitude towards improvement and work.

Creative decision making

2007-01-22T08:41:00.000-08:00

I recently did a workshop on Creative decision making. Since i train in the area of,"Innovation and creativity",this workshop was an eye opener from the point of view of application of creativity in the decision making process.
Creative decision making is a powerful competency for everyone who wants to grasp opportunities and continuously grow.
What is a creative decision?
A creative decision is a decision which has not been taken earlier,which overcomes a critical limiting factor.
Thus,Rana Pratap can be considered to be a creative decision maker because he had to overcome the limitation of a small army while facing a considerably larger army.

Development of Managerial Competencies

2006-12-30T04:25:00.000-08:00

The no. of competencies competing to be in the framework of managerial effectiveness are so many that it becomes difficult to choose as t which competencies should be the focus of development.
I recently conducted a workshop on,"Managerial Effectiveness" for a client of mine.The process of interacting with professionals with considerable experience is very rewarding in the sense that new insights keep on hitting you.
One of my takeaways as a trainer was that the key managerial competencies that impact managerial effectiveness are motivation,organizing,self-analysis and performance management.
These competency clusters have a stamp of validity because they passed the acid judgemental test of experienced professional managers and technologists.
Motivation has become a cliched term.Hence,it is interpreted in so many different ways and may result in yawns.However,as soon as we integrate the emotional competence with it,it develops new potential.
Organizing is a barely understood competency,though without managerial effectiveness is impossible.The two competencies tha i found mot potent in this competency cluster are activity-responsibility-time maps and 5S.
Under self-analysis the potent sub-competencies are that of appreciative inquiry,self-healing and managing insecurity.When professional do not get the promotion that they so badly wanted emotional scars come into existence.If the professional does not heal these emotional scars,impact on performance is bound to happen.
Performance as a competency cluster consists of the competencies of,"Tapping Talent" and ,"Vision".Vision is an energy hook but vision without the skills of tapping team talent results in frustration and failure.

Creating and Sustaining competitive advantage

2006-12-16T04:10:00.000-08:00

Creating and sustaining a competitive advantage is one of the primary requirements for the survival and the growth of an organization.
Organizations are able to create and sustain a competitive advantage if they able to continuously enhance the value that they give to their customers.Value refers to benefits divided by costs.
This learning yields a few insights.
In order to enhance benefits or to reduce costs innovation is an essential requirement.Thus innovation and competitive advantage are inextricably linked.Organizations that fail to innovate lose their competitive advantage over a period of time.
Without a strategy for creating a competitive advantage organizations are bound to go down.Thus ,it would be entirely correct to conclude that without an innovation strategy ,organizations are bound to decline.
How many organizations consciously strive for innovation in order to continuously create new competitive advantages?

Appreciative inquiry

2006-12-13T08:55:00.000-08:00

Appreciative inquiry is a highly underutilized OD intervention.It is extremely powerful in the process of triggering postive change in an organization.
The sheer engagement in the process of appreciative inquiry has a tendency to unleash positive change. The first stage of Appreciative inquiry i.e.,"Discover phase" has a powerful motivating impact on anybody who undertakes it.The process of sharing and consolidating organizational high point stories and extracting the positive core of the organization through them creates an organizational culture of achievement.
Moreover,the involvement of multiple personnel in the ,"Dream Phase"of appreciative inquiry has a tendency to develop a develop a shared direction and a future for the organization.It tends to resolve a lot of decision making dilemmas.
On implementing,"Appreciaitive nquiry" for a software organization,i found that the sharing of high point stories and their publication became a highly motivating factor for all organizational personnel.

Leveraging technology in IR

2006-12-09T02:21:00.000-08:00

During my discussion with participants of a training program ,i came to know about a case of,"Leveraging technology in "IR".
One particular unit was having a major strike.Hence there was complete breakdown of communication between management and the workers.The management started communicating with the workers through cable TV.Continuous communication was flashed into the hoes of the workers.
This communication was read by the families and children of the workers.This created an opinion at the worker family level which influenced the workers to call off the strike.
This case brings forth the learning that the general disassociation of technology with IR is misplaced.Technology can be leeraged for generating innovations in IR too.
Another cascading learning of this case is that the we have just about scratched the surface in the area of ,"Leveraging technology"for generating innovations in different functional areas.

Leveraging technology in HR

2006-12-04T08:32:00.000-08:00

In a recently concluded workshop on,"Generating innovations in HR",I have experienced new insights into the dynamics of innovation and its potential in different functions.

Though i had experienced the power of leveraging technological shifts,but its utility in the HR function had not been experienced.When we applied this approach to generating innovations in the sub-functions of HR,to my surprise,potent innovation ideas began to flow.It seems that systematic scanning of the technology shifts and their application to the HR function just does not happen.Hence,enormous potential and possibility does not get tapped.

Moreover,the HR innovations generated have a greater probability of success in comparison to innovations generated from scratch,because the new technology has already been tried and tested for new value.

Even technology shifts such as blogs and bluetooth have the capacity to add significant new value to the HR function.Blogs make the dream of a learing organization,possible and bluetooth enables the delivery of instruction design without the trainer being glued to the laptop.

Generating innovations in HR

2006-11-30T21:44:00.000-08:00

I conducted a program for Power HR Forum on,"Innovations in HR".There were participants from different power companies.
Somehow there is an element of skepticism about the application of the term innovation to HR. In the general perception,Innovation is linked to product or process innovations.
However,as the workshop progressed and we applied innovation tools to different HR sub-functions as well as the HR function itself,the doubts disappeared.The doubts were replaced by a new found confidence in themselves ,their function and its capability to stand out in the organizational setting.
One of the dominant themes that emerged was ,"The contribution of HR is invisible in most organizations.If we want to be visible there is no option but to innovate."

It is only through innovation that the profession will grow.If we continue to do the same things as we have done in the past,we are bound to decline and go into oblivion.
The application of innovation tools to the different HR sub-functions was an eye opener for most participants.Where earlier they saw road blocks ,now they could see possibilities and potent innovation ideas.
In all, 25 potent innovation ideas in different HR functions were generated
It was personally fulfilling experience for me.

Leadership coaching

2006-11-12T08:18:00.000-08:00

Appreciative inquiry is a powerful process of helping a leader evolve a personal vision and direction in life.
i have utilized appreciative inquiry for 4 coachees.Each stage of appreciative inquiry is very powerful in its ability to identify the positive core of the coachee and extend it to map out the prferred future of the coachee.

The self discovery that the coachee goes through is phenomenal.Additionally the confidence that the mapping of a preferred future generates is far more in comparison to the results of a psychometric test.

Application of 5 S

2006-07-27T08:02:00.000-07:00

I conducted multiple workshops on ,"Organizing and prioritizing" for a client of mine in the telecom sector.
As a part of the workshop,we applied 5S to the workplace. It was interesting to note that the implementation of 5S transformed the organization of the desk space.From a desk space where things were in dis array and shortage of space,things became organized and space was reclaimed from material which was out dated and just in the way of day to day work operations.

Thus 5S is a simple and yet enormously powerful system of organizing the workplace as well as the hoe.The resultant work efficiency and reduced frustration because one can find the things and information that one is looking foris worth the effort.

As we grow through school and college,we must in enormous amount of effort in building or capability ad potantial,let us not wase that potential because of poor organizing skills.