Every Child is Unique - Taare Zamin Par

Taare Zamin Par- Bringing out the genius in every child
A master piece by Aamir khan lots of lesson to be learnt from the movie Taare zamin Par focussing on child learning and enabling a child to come out with the hidden tallent inside him. The story revolves around a boy called Ishan Awasthi who is dyslexic and suffers from a learning disorder. The boy's inability to understand the concepts makes him think that he is a loser and potentially leads to the loss of his inherent talent of art in which he is good at. Until one day an art teacher who comes as a saviour and helps the child to revive his lost tallent and enables him to learn better. there is a hard hitting message that the movie comes out with for each and every element affecting the learning ability of a child.

Rote learning is not everything
Parents, community, teachers should understand that rote learning is not the solution to student learning and it may out of the capability and capacity of every child to by heart multiplication tables, memorise the asinine grammatical definitions or explain and interpret complex poems in any language. For the child those mathematical tables are a complex set of symbols forcing him to pressurise his cerebrum to come to think of a solution by recall rather than understanding the underlying concept behind the multiplication. Unfortunately the this leukemia called rote learning has penetrated so deeply in the system that it has blind folded the teachers, parents and community to such an extent that, "learning by understanding" seems to be existing no where in the picture.

Teacher is the biggest benefactor
A recent Mckinsey report states that the quality of the teachers cannot exceed the quality of teaching in the system. Very true Taare Zamin Par concretizes the fact that a teacher can turn around the tables and has the ability to bring out the potential in each and every child. The teacher "Aamir Khan" here recognises that the child Ishan suffers from a syndrome called dyslexia wherein the child's recall ability is quite poor and due to this he is being suppressed by everyone ranging from teachers, friends and parents. The child eventually goes in a state of depression and seemingly tends to loose his passion for art which is his core area of interest. The teacher comes in as a saviour and enables the child to purse his real core talent.

Diagnose the problem by understanding the symptoms
None of the elements were able to understand what is the problem exactly with the child, except the teacher. One has to diagnose the problem by reading the symptoms. The teacher in the story identifies the patterns in the student works. The child for instance could not make out between similar alphabets like’d’ & 'b', simultaneously was not able to distinguish between identical spellings like 'cat' and 'cot', even in numerical he wrote the characters exactly the opposite way that they were supposed to be written and thereby he comes to a conclusion that the child needs special care improve upon his learning skills.

Damn with rat race
Finally the movie is an eye-opener for all of those students, teachers and parents who believe that "rat race is everything" blindly running to get the top slot without understanding that the inner talent is the most important asset that a person possesses and should focus on developing the inner traits and skills. Eventually its the system that encourages this rat race syndrome its a vicious cycle - pushing students to excel in academics, academics again directly linked to employment & career and killing the inherent creativity of the child. The movie's theme every child is unique supporting Howard Garndners Theory of mulitple intelligences.

A must see for every die hard Educationist

Leadership Series 5-The New Age Mentor and the rise of a New "ism"_

As i garner some time today to put my thoughts across I wonder how I am to go about it as a lot of thoughts have cropped up in a very short period of time but I am going to pen down some thoughts on a new “ism” called Stupism. In fact I have stumbled upon this ism in the long conversations with a very special character called Anustup Naik and that leads to discuss something more about the origins of this “ism” that is going to be the next ism to reckon with, forget Socialism communism ....and all other isms "Stupism" is the next juggernaut "ism" to survive in this ruthless world.

No please dont go back to the BC era the new age guru and the founder of this ism is technology geek with a lot of babes around him to flaunt fondly called "Stupie". As i mentioned earlier this technology geek armed with a public policy in his belt from one of the premier universities in the world and an educationist by choice and a man with sharp acumens whose theories of Gyan keep revolving around your cerebrum forcing you to ponder that - how does this guy come up with his complicated yet understandable models in casual conversations. Sharing some of his “Gyanvardhak” stuff on my blog today.

Business is all about mating with several clients at a time (The Ande Ka Funda)

In one of our casual conversations Stupie came up with this funda called Ande Ka Funda He says that as a client is like a "Murgi"(hen) and we need to identify several murgis at a time and mate with them and in the due course of time the several murgis with whom we have mate probably one of them will lay the egg.

What this means is that a sharp enterpreneur would not depend on one source to derive his business from, he would at least try to find out alternative sources from where his business would come and for this he needs to meet several clients at a given period of time and than zero down to a few clients from where the mullah is going to come.

Spontaneity is the name of the game

“Stupism” is all about spontaneity and a sense of urgency to get the task completed on time, get ready to face the wrath if you do not have your figures correct, one fine day you are given a Mckinsey report and you are expected to read the same and come up with your thoughts and write synopsis as to what have you understood from the report, create a model/framework with lot of thoughts imbedded from your side ...phew makes me remember my good olden days at my B-school where I am given a case study and expected to go through the volumes to survive in a group of intelligent Homo-sapiens who further go on to sell soaps and tractors in the remotest part of the country. Thankfully Stupism always makes me feel that i have taken the road less travelled.

Get ready to think out of the box

Stupism is all about thinking of out of the box and out of the world sitting around you the new age mentor (Stupie) would suddenly spring up a thought - the other day he came up with the theory that how at work as people we talk about all the good things in the world before coming to the point and he brought his point through a short skit called "what do you do Mr Iyer" A satire directed towards people who at work places talk about the all the crap in the world before coming to the point. A fearless critic who plays a devils advocate and would come upon you ruthlessly if you are caught on a wrong foot.

Keep it straight avoid analysis of paralysis

Last but not the least Stupism is opening your minds and ponder upon the dimensions of thinking solution for a problem by understanding the core root of the problem before carrying out the analysis which often leads towards paralysis of the problem. Let me illustrate the case the other day Stupie introduced to me a theory called "Core instructional Framework", A framework that helps the child to learn and understand better and he says that there are three core dimensions to it and they are Teaching, Curriculum and Assesments. Each of the dimension has a subdimension which actually strengthens the core dimension eventually leading to improve child learning. A simple framework for which one has to go through the epitomes of literature before making such a powerful statement. Thanks to the new age mentor the most complex of the theories are injected in the mind without any pain and makes a last impact for the times to come.

More on this space to watch as i get gyan and inspiration from my Guru to carry on the good work that we are seeking to do as an organisation.

Common Man's Leadership Fundas - Series 4

It’s has been a long time since I posted my last blog and I have now been seriously thinking of maintaining and updating the same regularly. A lot of my friends have gone through my blog and have eulogised my efforts for writing a blog which has again motivated me to come with my leadership fundas combined with an element of humor in each and every blog that I post across.

In this blog I shall be writing about Discipline. Of late I came across a good term called the "Disciplined Recruit" (invariably a colleague of mine used this term to describe a fool like me) and it stuck to my mind and I thought of combining the leadership traits with the term that I came across. In any organisation as everyone knows, discipline is very essential nothing works if there is absence of discipline across the organisation. Discipline is the torpedo of any organisation. Now who are these bunch of jokers called “Disciplined Recruits” and what do these species do and how is it that they carry the legacy of the leadership values and virtues in them sharing some of the traits, insights and the thoughts that go on the minds of such recruits.

Punctuality: The disciplined recruits are finicky guys they are they guys who believe that there is zero tolerance when it comes to punctuality. Dot on time on meetings, functions, gatherings and even they some time seem appear to be a dumb ass as they are the first one to be at such places. In India we have something called the IST and very true it’s not the ‘Indian Standard Time’ but it’s the ‘Indian Stretchable Time’. Disciplined recruits are they guys who value time and they are well aware that time is money; everything else can come back but not the lost time. A leader has to set an example of punctuality before his subordinate’s co-workers so as to make them realise the importance of time. Imagine a small kirana shopkeeper who is the sole owner of his business he has to come early to open his shop he cannot be late, thinking that his workers would come and open his shop. Leaders have to value time only than can they prosper and deliver the value that they intend to provide their customers.

Sense of Urgency: One of the most commonly missed traits in any organisation especially in Government Departments and public organizations. Disciplined recruits emphasize on a great sense of urgency to complete any task. Leaders who seek on sense of urgency pass on this trait to their subordinates and colleagues and they ignite a fire in the belly of the co-workers and thereby promoting a sense of urgency culture in the organisation. Readers should not confuse ‘sense of urgency’ with hastily carrying out a job sense of urgency here points out of updating systems and mechanisms from time to time without any de-compliance.

Self Imposed: Discipline comes naturally to these guys nobody superimposes the discipline on them. Disciplined recruits try to achieve results, goals and objectives by binding them to certain self imposed set of rules. In any organisation as discussed earlier discipline is critical but simultaneously leaders should recognize that discipline should be fostered among the employees and not imposed. The true test of a leader starts when he can really achieve discipline among his team members without coercing the employees of the organisation to follow the set rules and regulations.

Urge to learn: Another critical characteristic of these guys there is a strong urge in these species to learn diverse set of skills. Alvin tofler one of the greatest educationists has pointed out that – “The illiterate of the coming century would not be those who cannot read and write but they would be those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn”. What a powerful statement man has to keep learning throughout his life otherwise he becomes archaic. A leader can only nurture his employees when he keeps himself updated about the alterations taking place in the business domain and he adapts himself and the Organisations to the changes taking place around him.

Plunge to help: Disciplined recruits always seek an opportunity to learn in anything and everything and thus the phrase. They derive a great sense of happiness by helping others they plunge in each and every case in an expectation that they will learn by teaching others. Leaders in organisations always come as the rescue angels and plunge into the problems of the employees, customers and take proactive measures to solve the problems and in this whole process the learn a lot about problem solving and they pass on the legacy to their successors.

The common man Leadership fundas shall continue to enrich and there is more gyan in the future in the domains of leadership with such exiting jargons and terminologies so keep watching this space.

Common Man's Leadership Fundas - Series 3

The common man in the due course has learnt some leadership traits and these leadership traits can be useful to anyone. Though they can be considered as the fundamental basic traits but when implemented can be really powerful to lead teams and can help in achieving the goals to a great extent.

Much of what is taught is, in fact, not leadership at all but management. It is entirely possible to learn and even to put into practice what is taught and still fail at being a good leader. The essential components of leadership have remained more or less constant: intelligence, insight, instinct, vision, communication, discipline, courage, constancy.

The common man just discovered some tips for leadership traits from (Mark Sarner, president of Manifest Communications, Canada's leading social-marketing agency) which he thinks would be useful for the leaders while leading their teams.

1. Thinking: Leaders must know how to gather, sort, and structure information, and then connect it in new ways to create intelligence. Today, being informed is confused with being smart.

2. Seeing: Leadership requires vision. And developing a vision requires the ability to see. To look backward and see clearly what has happened and avoid the mistakes happened in the past. To see what's in front of your nose, the present tense. To see ahead to the next day when the challenges will be greater. To see the future that will become reality

3. Feeling: Yes, empathy for the led is vital. As Michael Hammer, coauthor of Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution, says, "All change is loss. Even when change is for the better, there is still loss." Leadership is not simply a form of therapy, however. The essential feeling is the one in your gut where morality and certainty live. The right way ahead is not in the data. It is an informed intuitiveness. This is where charisma comes from.

4. Listening: All can hear. But only a few really listen. And too most of the people only listen to themselves. A leader has to listen to colleagues and collaborators, listen to markets and constituencies, and listen to himself -- all through the endless din of the present, the ominous voices of the past, and the deafening silence portending the future -- is vital.

5. Speaking: The watershed capacity in leadership is unquestionably communication. Through it, people are informed, convinced, united, motivated, and directed -- things that are critical to group enterprise from the inside and to buy-in on the outside. The powers to inform and persuade win the battles for hearts and minds.

6. Walking: The art and science of putting one foot in front of the other, sometimes referred to as "waking the talk," is the "doing" part of leading. Credibility comes from being first through the door to the unknown. Standing in one place, or stepping back while others take risks to make the frontier safe for others, simply doesn't cut it. Moving forward is not a leap or a sprint but a plodding process.

7. Fitness: Leadership requires strength and endurance in all areas -- physical, mental, and moral. Because leadership is a heavy load and it’s a long journey that drains resources.

The Leadership traits seem to be very basic in nature but are powerful tools contributing to the vision and the mission of the organisation.