A School - Community’s jewel in the crown !
One of the medium term goals for a school could be to become a ‘Jewel in the crown’ for the community where she is located. The endeavour must be to make the members of our neighbourhood community proud of her presence there.
NEN and the IWSB Peers
This is just another reminder of the Golden Rule #1 of Stephen Covey – Begin with the end in mind.
Please see the mail trail below with regard to our own IWSB. We set out to build an institution that focused on entrepreneurship from Day One. We also said that we will make an effort to create a separate category of Business schools that are rated for their focus and follow-through in real-world entrepreneurship. Read more
IWSBians at the Himalayas
I am just back from another round of Himalayan Outbound. I do wonder sometimes if it makes sense for CL to have a permanent camp near Padampuri or Shivpuri as we make quite a few trips every year.
Read more
Preaching and the Practice - Jan 20, 2009
Preaching and Practicing
‘One who teaches another learns twice’ – I had heard that Proverb long ago. I used to deliver the leadership program sessions in Delhi and Mumbai for the senior business leaders under the umbrella of Crestcom International, USA. They have a program called the Bullet Proof Manager which CL delivered for a few years (1999-2001). I had to do hajaar prep-work as I was more enthusiastic than competent.
One of the practices at BPM was to make the learner go back and deliver the same training program to his junior in his work place. We used to cajole and motivate them by quoting this Chinese proverb, ad nauseam – ‘One who teaches another learns twice’.
When I look back at my own journey as a professional or even an entrepreneur, I see myself agreeing, endorsing and to some extent, practicing it.
Way back, CL started with a program called the PDP. Most people thought that I was doing a program to enhance their personality. The fact of the matter was that I was doing it for my own PDP. My first batch of students know that I had no personality to present, no communication skill to flaunt, no experience to rely on.
One more occasion where the enthusiasm was a step ahead of competence.
However, what I can recall with a lot of joy is that I did the right thing. My understanding of personality got better because as a teacher or mentor, I had to work hard at it. I had forced myself to deal with young, irreverent and bright students. The only way to gain their confidence is your performance, your work ethic, your value-add to them. I learnt a lot of things from my co-faculty who were hajaar more competent – Naren, Alok, Binu etc,….
I did learn more than twice. I taught a thousand or more times. So, I learnt twice that many times! In fact, each session of 3 hours with issues or topics such as Loco Inventory, Johari window, Who am I ?, were of deep impact on myself. Somewhere, I realized that these concepts are engaging me in deeper conversation with myself. The answers kept oozing ever so gradually from various pasts of the system – ME.
Cut to 2009. Entrepreneurship and IWSB.
The Course of entrepreneurship with another bunch of young students seems to be another nice milestone in many ways. Now, I am engaged with the field of entrepreneurship for about 4 days as a practitioner. For two days in a week, the teacher of entrepreneurship is in action.
I am beginning to experience a very sweet blend of preaching and practicing inside of me. The preacher is preaching to the practitioner in me. The practicing entrepreneur is keeping the preacher well reigned lest he goes ballistic with his ‘gyaan-dhaara’.After all, there isn’t a way of engaging in entrepreneurship. So, No preaching please !
Of course, we started the course of IEL with a strong dose of the ‘Buddha – Socratic Oath’ that I learnt from Prof Mohanan from NUS, Singapore recently. The job of the teacher is to warn the students from getting influenced by the teacher or his preachings (It is me, here).
I have always had a deep belief in that oath without knowing that it is, indeed, a profound preaching from Buddha. Of course, I had to believe in that for I was always a most reckless and irreverent student that you can imagine who did not let any teacher influence me…..! Save, one or two.
Even there, enthusiasm (of the wrong kind) was a step ahead of competence (academic)
Satya