All Entries Tagged With: "Learning"

Myths have a way of perpetuating themselves. There are quite a few related to training and learning too. Everyone seems to believe in them. So much so that they have become sacrosanct and no one even bothers to question them.

One of the key differences between managers who manage up close and those that let go is how they react when their staff run into difficulties, whether over a piece of work that they can’t get right, a relationship in the team that isn’t quite working, or indeed something outside work that is affecting them.

Most employees view training as medicine or worse, as punishment. As an outside trainer, I work with hundreds of groups in a wide variety of industries and most people enter the training room as if they are going to the gas chamber.

Experiential learning is a process of transformation when, as a result of experience, one is inspired to apply in life, what emerges as a revelation or self-discovery.

I recently was speaking to a middle management professional about work-life balance and was telling him about a simple tool to evaluate if there is a balance between our work and personal lives. This is called a ‘wagon wheel’ and looks like a wheel with spokes on it. The spokes are representative of the various [...]

1. Work with people who are smarter or more accomplished than you. In the last month or so I’ve advised a mega-website/magazine that has the #1 community forum on the world wide web, a super savvy duo who are #1 in their industry and have one of the finest business plans I’ve seen; and a [...]

An internationally acclaimed management guru writes that Harvard Business school is like a doorway through which if a bright youngster passes he or she will emerge a bright person anyway! The point he was making was that there is no great value addition at Harvard! I recall writing a letter to a newspaper in response [...]

If knowledge is power, than curiosity is the muscle. Focus is a fabulous force. Tho’ sometimes, it’s good to blur the lines and depart from your expertise, your skill set and what you think you know so well. Many a great discovery has come from accidental encounters and seemingly unrelated interests. Choose three subjects that [...]

This is a question that keeps coming to my mind. Our current education system is designed to churn out more and more employees or professionals who will fit in to the larger aspect of how our economies function – mass production, specialization. So we have engineers, doctors, accountants, software professionals and many more, each designed [...]

There are many of us who have been blessed with a single child. As parents we are happy with our one blessing and may have opted out of an addition to our family. There are of course advantages and disadvantages to such a situation. The advantages — we can focus on our one child and [...]

Geeks are wise. I’ve been at the mercy of many of them. I’ve pleaded for and demanded more white space, redundancy, and speed. I am a better woman because of the push back and expertise of the web designers and code writers who have served me so well. The finest geeks give you the straight [...]

Should your employer pay for your training?

Dreams are precursors to the realities that we are about to experience – Author Unknown We were all day dreamers once. Who can forget sitting in class in the middle of a hot summer afternoon, daydreaming about the previous year’s cool mountain vacation, or which games we would play when we got back home. We [...]

Embarrassment is the proudest virtue of a loser! – Sundararaman Viswanathan “At least to my knowledge.” “In my humble opinion.” “If I am not wrong.” “Hope you don’t mind.” Every day, we are faced with a typical situation where in we hide behind these phrases. Why is that so? Are we trying to be polite? [...]

A few months ago, a series of questions were posted on Tickled By Life which was given the title ‘The God Interview’. I found both the questions and the various sets of answers very illuminating as well as the comments that were posted on the individual articles. In my case I received a series of [...]

Ask yourself these two questions every day. 1. Do I Ask? 2. Did I Ask? Ask for what? It could be anything, that you may be contemplating/struggling/yearning to find/learn about: Help Answers, Advice, Counselling, Mentoring, Coaching or Teaching Ask How? Ask What? Ask Whom? Life is all about learning, unlearning and relearning. Learning happens through [...]

While chatting with a friend about keeping one’s self alive and well, he mentioned the term “Wallenda Factor”. I had to look it up in Google as it was a new term to me and what I found triggered some interesting thoughts in my mind. Just in case there are others like me out there [...]

I was in awe when my friend Rebeka showed me her work. Abstract shapes were exquisitely worked in untamed patterns and fused with breathtaking hues. Her painting was amazingly beautiful, but absolutely surprising to me. Why, you might ask. Well, it was her first attempt at painting. She started barely three months ago – Rebeka [...]

The arbiter of knowledge and skills, the teacher, is a revered figure around the world. In India, the teacher is known as the guru, the wise one who can be trusted to lead the knowledge-blind and shine the light of competence and skills in the darkness of ignorance and incompetence. Over time it has been [...]