VIRTUES TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT SHED
CORE DELIVERABLES
- Leadership Mindset
- Thought leadership – Is leadership about a position, about a skill or about the way I look at my responsibility towards organisational growth, employee welfare and the interest of shareholders and stakeholders? We collectively try to discover an answer to this area through our learning intervention.
- Spiritual leadership – Sound leadership is essential for the success of any team and therefore the organisation. The missing piece in the puzzle of corporate leadership is perfect balance between empathy and discipline. Spiritual leadership, an emerging philosophy globally, is a the piece that fills this gap.
- Strategic Thinking – details are mentioned further
- Change Management – details are mentioned further
- Team Building – A leader shall be known by the quality of match winners in the team. How much camraderie the team members have, how progressive is the team culture, how fulfilled the team members are and whether they believe in personal growth or not as they strive for organisational growth are a few parameters to judge a great team build up.
- Decision Making – One good or bad decision can make or mar an organisation. Sound decision making ability is a necessary virtue in an individual at a personal and leadership level. One needs to be clear about the purpose of the work at hand so as to be able to correct in taking decisions most of the times. Critical & Creative Thinking are necessary pieces of decision making skill set and hence must be developed if not discovered yet.
The success of any organisation wholly depends on the quality of the strategy formulation as well as execution. As part of the corporate strategy, it is essential in the beginning to have clear vision, mission and uncompromising value systems driving every process and employee in the organisation. The design of clearly articulated SOP’s implementable to the last section with uncompromising focus on discipline is what differentiates a great organisation from an ordinary.
Creating organisational growth strategy through the flow chart of –
- identifying the need for strategising
- goal setting with SMART aspects being taken care of
- planning, including design and implementation of tools like 5S and Kaizen if necessary and use of other tools in planning
- forecasting – clear and upto the last minute of the project in hand or for atleast five years in case of organisational strategy in a specified format
- decision making, need for putting your foot down in implementation and reporting if necessary while also being flexible as per the need is a skill of a strategist leader
- implementing including last minute reporting procedures in place
- R&R within the zone of discipline
- and finally creating a report of learning through the project.
The challenge in the workshop is to move ahead from theory and take it to the practical level of thought process.
Change is the most difficult to implement in great organisations particularly. The reason is obvious – set patterns of doing things. But the disturbing factor is the lack of creativity and excellence, in short Kaizen in the organisational culture. Any process of change management (or Organisational Development as it is called) is the but-in for doing still better than what was done.
To achieve this is not easy with thinking minds. Paradoxical as it may seem, managements need to do soul searching within themselves on the need for change and their inherent attitude towards growth. Once that is done, the organisation is ready for a change management intervention !!
- Buy-in from the management sets forth the process of change mananagement:
- Creating minsters of change in the top
- Create a goal, plan and forecast
- Create a robust reporting system
- Evaluating at pre-defined milestones and part of SOP…
- … linked with R&R and disciplining measures
- Post implementation reporting structure
- Conflict Management – Conflicts at the workplace is a testimony to the fact that there is a democratic culture for the employees where ideas and thoughts float around in the path towards progress and growth. It is essential though how conflict is managed or resolved in the given situation.
- Negotiation Skills – Negotiation forms a very important part of the entire official communication. Not only do we need to negotiate with clients and vendors, negotiation with internal stakeholders is equally relevant and is rather more frequent. There is an urgent need for creating a win-win in all negotiations considering the work stress and conflict scenario we see around us at workplaces.
- Emotional Intelligence – Emotions are what define an individual’s personality. The way we handle situations emotionally (respond or react) create or perceptions in the mind of our stakeholders which range from family to clients. This programme will focus on the areas of emotional intelligence which we need to master so as to create great, long lasting relationships with our clients
- Communication Skills – Communication is a vital organ of the human society and has been instrumental in the growth and sustenance of our species. While language has been given maximum importance, the subtle aspects of communication have been ignored most of the times, sometimes creating misunderstanding and conflict amongst people. In this programme, we will focus on – one how to make better the usual communication skills and two, to master the subtle skills of communication and complete the pie of communication.
In addition to the training/ coaching delivered on the said topics, managements need help in implementing these processes of strategy and change management for organisational growth.
Consulting services for such implementation are also delivered for organisational growth and development to senior leaders including CEO’s and top leaders in management.
Managements strive for growth but many times do not focus on sustainability aspect of growth in their endeavour to achieve short term milestones. VIRTUES has conducted Bhagwad Gita sessions at Zydus Life Sciences (one week programme), ICICI Group level and other SME’s, MSME’s and start-ups in Ahmedabad region which have been hailed by the stakeholders.
Bhagwad Gita is an eternal philosophy for sustainable growth. The last verse of Bhagwad Gita – 18.78 mentions prosperity as a byproduct of skill, ethics and clarity of though metaphorically mentioning Arjun and Krishna.
There are four aspects in Bhagwad Gita which help in excellence achieved in work and personal life:
- Karma yog talks about the right way of working as a Workplace Monk (karmyogi) who realises his/ her true identity through work. Karma yog talks about working with the mind focussed on excellence and not results. When one works in the domain of self-actualisation with a Kaizen mindset, excellence is a natural by product.
To achieve a better understanding of karma yog especially when results don’t come as expected in spite of best efforts, the next three domains of Bhagwad Gita come handy.
- Gyan (Sankhya) yog – Gyan yog talks about realising your true identity which helps in creating a fearless worker fostering creativity and growth mindset in the professional at work.
- Bhakti yog – There are times when one gets stressed due to failure or because of fear of failure. In addition sometimes one needs the quintessential patience to achieve the desired success. Surrender (samarpan) becomes an essential component of character in such times which is a by product of understanding Bhakti yog
- Dhyan yog – Meditation, mindfulness at work helps achieve all the above three characteristics required in a winner. Enough research has happened to talk about the benefits of meditation at the workplace as well as in personal life.
Leadership Skills
Strategic Thinking
Change Management
VIRTUES TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT SHED is a platform where training interventions are provided on various topics like –
LEADERSHIP:
- Business Strategy Thinking
- Leadership Mindset
- Thought leadership
- Spiritual leadership
- Change Management
- Team Building
- Decision Making – (Critical & Creative Thinking)
BEHAVIOURAL AREAS
- Conflict Management
- Negotiation Skills
- Emotional Intelligence
- Communication Skills
THE MISSING CLARITY
- ‘Bhagwad Gita in Management’
- Meditation for Individual and Organisational Growth
Lord Krishna through Bhagwad Gita says to the distracted Arjun that your entire mental agony is because of your identifying yourself as this body which you are not. This body is just a tool to take you through this life which is one of the many in the past and future.
In shlok 2.23, Bhagwad Gita says that the atma cannot be harmed through a weapon or fire or water or wind or anything else. The atma is avadhya, meaning that it cannot be killed.
The attachment to this wrong identity, thinking of you as this character you are playing leads to all kind of unhappiness. This is because any happiness or unhappiness or events related to these are a product of the survival needs of this body. If we operate from the vantage point of the truth, that is when we understand that I cannot be this body, then I am free from the burden of happiness and unhappiness
While karmaṇy-evādhikāras te is the most common subject of karma yog in Bhagwad Gita, the foundationwas made earlier for this shlok in 2.32 and 2.33. What these tow mean in simple words is explained as under. There are three aspects relating to work and career. Krishna says you are very lucky if a combination of all three works for you simultaneously ! The three aspects are:
- You have a skill which makes you very relevant at the workplace. Like Arjun, Sachin, Virat, Messi, Steve Jobs you are hailed and wanted for your special skills.
- Because you are really good in the given work, you love to do that work and a thought never crosses your mind that you shouldn’t do the given work.
- Given that fact that you are excellent at a work and want to do it, stop here and imagine…what if there was no work for you, for whatever reason! So the message here is be happy if you have work which you can do and you love to do.
Covid-19 or market recession of 2008-09 have been recent examples with millions of such cases across the globe where qualified people were sitting without work. Bhagwad Gita says, if all three conditions meet in your case, just focus on the quality of work and nothing else.
Did you notice that in all of this discussion so far, we have not touched upon the domain of results yet? In 2.33 Krishna says that you will insult yourself and also account for sin if you say no to such a work and ditch your luck because such a combination where all three conditions meet is rare and you have it all served on the plate !
So do not worry on what you get out from work. You have your right on work only. This does not mean that you will not get any results or fruits of sincere work. Krishna says that your focus has to be the quality of work, the results will take care of themselves automatically.
For example, a farmer doesn’t get anxious about the crop in a couple of days of sowing seeds. He has to do his best in sowing seeds in the right depth, nurture the soil and relax. He has to trust that by just doing this much and supervising the field to save the seeds from birds, hi job is done. The fruits will surely come with time. There is no point in inviting workplace stress and related anxiety in life.
Also, it can be that sometimes the crop may not grow, due to drought for example. This is the time surrender to the choices of life has to be complete. Life will not be a red carpet all the time.
Wanting control on everything kills the beauty called life.
Remember, the only reason for unhappiness in life is the desire that there should not be unhappiness in my life !!
We need to keep working to the best of our ability always because that is what we can do. Attachment to results disturbs the effortless flow of life and that needs to be avoided is what Bhagwad Gita is saying through Karma Yog !
Continuing from Karma yog, the essence of Bhakti yog is unconditional surrender ! It is when we believe in the statement inspite of whetever difficult times we went through that ‘the only reason for unhappiness in life is the desire that there should not be unhappiness in life’.
An individual immersed in Bhakti Yog is emotionally intelligent. Bhagwad Gita calls this as sthitpragya (2.54).
Sthitpragya believes in the concept – life is for ‘office use only’. It is a state of unconditional surrender. A surrendered person knows that ‘true luxury is when you do not need anything to be happy’ Sustainable happiness comes from non-attachment in life, to whatever is there that life offers in the story of this temporary character that we play during our stay on this karmabhoomi.
Bhakti bhav is when you go the temple as a daily routine and thank god unconditionally. You do not want to go to the temple to ask anything. You are surrendered, complete as you are ! Even if something unpleasant happens in your life you are not having complaints and you don’t get stressed or depressed. You don’t think of harming yourself, you do not complain for the quality of a seemingly miserable life that you might think you might have, you do not burn in the fire of revenge for example or think of doing something unethical. You are emotionally balanced and hence remember the balance sheet of karma that will be auditing you always and you will be wise enough to not justify your thoughts and actions in the wake of misery.
Similarly, in times of material of other worldly happiness, you do not get carried away. You do not show off, embarass or belittle anyone, remain grounded and do not try to hoard or overtly safegaurd your possessions and getting stressed over losing them and spending a lot of mental energy in trying to safegaurd things that you have. You do not become selfish and live only for yourself.
Bhakti bhav reminds you of complete surrender. It wants you to remember that easy of difficult times don’t last forever and hence do not get attached tp them unnecessarily and carry virtaul burdens foolishly.
Be free is what bhakti bhav says. An emotionally intelligent, detached person never wants to become small by asking anything from life or god ! If at all, he will say – oh god – God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference – Reinhold Niebuhr.
As the popular doha from Kabir says – kabira khada baazaar mein mange sabki khair, na kahu se dosti, na kahu se bair !