An experience of a lifetime!!!

The dust finally settles down. 3 months of work and the last three days which formed the grand finale of former comes to an end. Moments of action, excitement, anxiety; it’s all over. Key note speakers, session topics, quizmaster, banners, posters, delegate kits, mementos, sound systems etc wouldn’t give a nightmare anymore. It’s all over.

All this wouldn’t have been possible had it not been for my entry into the core committee of Manthan 2007 which happened to be a serendipitous one. The biggest learning of my life has happened in the last 2 months, I must say and that is something which didn’t happen in the last one year. HR, I believe as a subject is more of action and less of learning. It’s all about implementation. The subject per se perhaps happens to be a mere fad with a lot of jargons and I really hate giving the exams. But HR, the function is perhaps the most difficult to implement and practice. Manthan 2007 has essentially given an opportunity to try and practice HR. OB was a subject which I could vaguely understand when taught in class but reinforcement happened time and again when Manthan preparations were going on. It was not a pleasurable learning experience. Its true when people say that success is a bad teacher for whatever I have learnt have been through my own mistakes or through the mistakes of my colleagues in corecomm which I keep track of.

Here are a few learnings from the last 3 months…

a. Don’t give advice where it is not sought. You might have benign intentions but people will tag you as a preacher.

b. Use words carefully especially when speaking with big people no matter how much so ever you get pissed off with the way conversation keeps heading. If you want to put across a message, put it in the form of a suggestion/question rather than making a statement. In that way you wouldn’t hurt the ego of the other person.

c. There are always better ways of conveying the same message and that is not diplomacy. Communication is an art which is very difficult to learn.

d. When people leave institutes they suddenly might become professional. Whenever you address any alumnus always maintain a certain degree of professionalism except with people with whom you have a personal contact, else your request wouldn’t be appreciated.

e. Teamwork - greatest challenge. Its not a cliché, its not a banal competency. It’s perhaps the most difficult thing to do - to work in a team with an intention to contribute. There have been teams where the individuals within it have been stars but the group as a whole has been disappointing. The team members cannot stand each other. Ego hits a high and not the overall goal/objective of the team.

f. There might be moments when you will be down - things won’t happen as you want them to. You need to be patient and not act in a fit of rage. You will only end up losing more. (But I was rebuked by my colleagues for not getting angry.J )

g. Perseverance holds the key. You cannot be a happy go lucky person always. To make things fall in place, you need to slog, stalk people and make it happen. You just cannot sit back and wait for opportunities to come your way. Need to go and seize it.

h. A value is not a value unless a trade-off is attached to it - Quite true. You will be tested to the core. If you strongly believe in you and your values, the entire universe will conspire and help you in getting things you want. (Courtesy: Anirudha and Alchemist)

i. Be genuine - People will appreciate it. A mask at the end of the day is not the real you. It can be removed and people will come to know. Better to be always genuine.

Manthan 2007 might have been a success. But a lot of introspection needs to go into it. Especially from a leader’s point of view or as an HR professional, we always say that we need to create stakes/process ownership. That has been one of the greatest challenges during this event. There have been people who didn’t contribute anything during the last 3 months. Going to classes and giving motivation speeches seems sometimes to me as a big joke. At the same time, there are people who take a lot of initiatives, who slog their asses in making the event a grand success. What is the difference between them is something I fail to understand. Hope to get that answer some day and that would be the biggest learning of all…