What is ailing Indian education system?

The majority of students that come out of schools and colleges lack both in employable and social skills. The unemployed care a damn about social skills and they fall apart in a set-up that is responsible, compassionate and yielding. To destroy a country, it is enough to lower the quality of education by preparing the students only to write exams or allowing cheating in exams.

We have been discussing for a decade about how Indian educational system is short of practical aspects of learning and innovating and not broad based. The stake holders of education – students, teachers, parents, academia, industry bodies and Governments- have consistently failed to revamp the system to be in tune with technological and social necessities. The National Education Policy is attempting to bring in a semblance of equitable, inclusive and a holistic approach to primary and school education and the fruits of this initiative will take time to see the results.

How do we rectify the system so that it imparts skills that are relevant today and tomorrow? Many educationalists have elaborated on it but fundamentally what is preventing it to be accepted is those politicians with parochial interest and an hidden agenda. They don’t let the experts to do their job and attempt to dilute the curriculum with their own ideology. Secondly the teachers have to be brought upto speed to new methods of teaching rather than coaching students to ace the exams. They don’t get themselves updated with newer teaching methods and tools besides not knowing how to deal psychologically with students.

The education in future will be teacher centric and technology is going to play a huge role in shaping both teachers and students. The students need to have a growth mind set, curiosity, experimenting capability and risk taking attitude besides a making them to learn to accept failures.

Many agencies have to be drawn into the discussion / action with no interference from politicians manning the government. PTA, academic experts, technology experts, psychologists, industrial bodies, corporates have to come together in this mammoth effort. The future belongs to students of today and let us all participate to make them technocrats, scientists, professionals and social leaders with moral ethics and good work culture.

#educationfortomorrow

#qualityofeducation

Transformational Leadership

It is not about making wholesale changes in business or in a social venture or in a government. It is a step by step process that is well thought out for its impact and the changes it would bring in people and their actions. Any changes that would not contribute to positive change in status quo should be avoided as they would only create chaos and confusion.

The changes that are being planned are encapsulated in a larger program called Transformation and they could be in adapting best business practices, innovative culture, process automation, increasing people potential, inclusive, becoming more socially relevant and above all feeling pride in what people, organisation or country do.

The leaders driving these changes need to de aware of the change in the behavioural pattern of the people that are part of the exercise. The leaders have to push people towards peak performance without them knowing it or exerting pressure on them. The team needs to be always aligned with the goals and that leads them to give their best without expecting any huge rewards. The impact it has created is itself a reward as they find new motivation, enthusiasm and energy to deliver the results.

History has taught us such transformations have done wonders to great organisations and countries and the leaders that drove these transformations are still revered for their foresight, perseverance, objective and compassionate leadership.

Transformation has to be for the greater good of the society or organisation and not for petty, narrow minded attitude and actions that are disgrace to people leading it and are part of it.

Let us support all such efforts of leaders who thrive for uplifting the society and bring out the pride in what we do.

#transformationalleadership

ETHOS

A nation, an organisation and a community prosper to reach newer heights because of its people, leaders and the eco-system they create around them. The more they care for their people the better is the capability they are able to build in them. They cannot sustain their existence and growth through unethical means and by suppressing its people, their potential and dividing them by caste, religion or economic condition.

Let us support leaders who have this ethos!

#ethos

VUCA world today

The guest speaker in a business convention today -b4biz ( WBWA) spoke about the VUCA world and how the business today is going through turbulent times.

Business today is undergoing uncertain times. The complexity of starting and surviving in a business is increasing everyday. Social, economic and political reasons over and above the government regulations try to strangle us. How do we handle these challenges?

‘Many people predict that volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity are going to become more and more prevalent in the business world. To manage teams in the VUCA world, we should be aware of the changes that this kind of environment can cause’

Go on and read an engaging insight into the VUCA world and how do we thrive in this environment as an individual, an organisation and a society.

Content courtesy: Mind Tools

https://www.mindtools.com/asnydwg/managing-in-a-vuca-world

#vucaworld

#businesschallengestoday

#msme

Why do we make average quality products in our MSME sector?

There is an interesting comparison that I received in my FB today about how we fare poorly compared to emerging economies in manufacturing quality products. This has been the bane of this sector and it may be one of the reasons that stifles the growth of this segment.

Let us see how do we compare with other nations:

Micro-, small, and medium-size enterprises (MSMEs) on average have only half the productivity of large companies, and less than that in emerging economies.

MSMEs’ economic and employment contributions in 16 countries account for more than half of global GDP. Their contributions relative to large businesses vary widely from country to country, but boosting the productivity of these categories of enterprises could substantially increase GDP, especially in emerging economies.

India has a long way to go in improving productivity. Stop chasing quantity but run after quality.

The picture attached here ( Courtesy: McKinsey&Company) is an excellence depiction of how we lack in producing quality products! MSMEs are born with sparks in the founders’ minds to create differentiated products or services for the consumers. The start seems to be always with good intention but down the line the pressure of growth, lack of funds and RoI assumes priorities and the quality suffers. ‘Chalta hi’ attitude at every stage of production or workmanship results in average quality.

Do you agree?

#excellenceinmanufacturing

#msme

#qualitynotquantity

What type of person are you ?

Do we ask this question to ourselves? Or did someone ask us this question?

As managers, knowing ourselves is a challenge because we behave differently at different times both in the work place and at home. We are good at thinking and solving problems but not so good in handling people. Some of us handle people nicely, neither bossy nor appeasing. They act with tact and sensitivity to get things done.

Carl Jung, a management expert of the past century pioneered the study of personality types. He thought that people oriented themselves towards the world in two basic ways. “ Introverts” are most happy when they are by themselves, doing their own things; they do not pursue social activity and often feel uncomfortable in it. “Extroverts” give their lives meaning from interaction with people. They are depressed when left alone.

Human beings are complex and don’t fit into boxes. Jung advocated some theories, as a starting point to self – analysis. He defined four functions – Thinker, Intuitor, Sensor and Feeler . The four quadrants of the above picture explains the traits of these types of persons and where they could fit in the work place or society.

A leader could use these inputs to delegate the right type of work to people who fall into those categories and try to get the best out of them.

Strategy is not an one stop activity

Strategy is about business growth and how do we achieve it;

Strategy is about achieving Corporate leadership and how do we work towards it;

Strategy is about right market positioning of product or service and how do we reach there;

Strategy is about achieving excellence in operational parameters and how do we make them happen;

Strategy is about the functional excellence and how each of the functions works at its best.

#businessstrategy

#corporatestrategy

#operationalstrategy

#functionalstrategy

How to become a better manager and a boss?

A few decades ago, I read these 100 tips but not sure if I had practiced all of them. They apply at all the time and for all the managers. Surely many of them got into my head and stayed there without me taking any extra effort to remember when you had already imbibed them into your daily routine.

That’s how a manager or a boss stays on top of what is happening with his/ her business and people.

The author had indeed distilled the wisdom with his interactions with many professionals and given it here for our benefits.

#thehighperformancemanager

#highperformanceboss

#managerialtips

#howtoexcelasaboss

Evolution of writing ✍️

Palm leaf writing
Peacock feather writing

Dip pen writing
Fountain pen writing
Mechanical Typewriter
Ball point Pen
Electric/ Electronic Typewriter
Electronic Printer
Inkjet Printer
Laser Printer
Voice Printer
Digital Printing
3D Printing
.
.
.

Over the last few centuries, the art and the method of writing have taken many forms. Have the human thoughts also evolved and progressed during these times ?

They have evolved surely yes, due to humans conquering technology , but are they felt more beneficial to the society today? – from love, affection, devotion, valour and unity to hatred, jealous,demeaning, derogatory and destructive?

When those olden days’ scholars wrote on palm leaves, they had time to think and write scriptures or hymns or virtues that had preserved the human minds from evil thoughts and actions. Today, majority of the minds have been largely conditioned to think and act in a harmful way to fellow humans in the name of free speech and writing.

Progressive in technology, Yes.
Progressive in thoughts & actions, Not yet.

We have to blame ourselves because we have allowed us to be at this sorry state of co-existence of less love and more hatred in society that is constantly fuelled by the divisive forces and shamelessly propagated by irresponsible, guiltless media. What are we leaving behind for our future generations? Do you hope they will be less materialistic and more compassionate?

#evolutionofwriting

#hatredwriting

Capacity Planning for individuals

This is not something that we do ONLY in a factory or in an activity that consumes many hours of men and machines.

Have we anytime spent time to know our capacity and done a planning to get the best out of us? This capacity is about knowing our physical energy, mental energy and knowledge to complete a work on hand in a given time duration. By stretching our capacity, can we take up more work that is being pushed to us in the work place? No, an individual’s capacity has limitations and overloading it with more and more work breaks down people. The work on hand also suffers perfection and we don’t achieve the end goals.

Our individual capacity planning dictates us what work do we have on our plate, how much time we need more to complete that work and can we take more work. Our ability to think on these lines helps us to judge if we have reached our capacity or not. Multi-tasking is a nice trait but again if we don’t prioritise our thoughts and actions we don’t get to experience the intended outcomes.

Some individuals are bestowed with enormous amount of physical and mental energies but they also need help to prioritise what they need to do by their assistants. We wonder how a leader of an organisation or a country is able to attend to so many events / meetings and it is their assistants who help them to achieve their daily routine.

As a leader we need to assess the resources on hand to take up a job and are they enough to complete it. Demanding more work from our team without understanding the constraints doesn’t help anyone.

#capacityplanning

#mentalenergy