The Queen Island was in constant turmoil due to the animosity between the two superpowers, Queen Zyballa and Queen Duxsi. The misery of the population increased multifold due to threat from Dregs, leaving the four regions at the island with no choice but to join hands to fight the common enemy. Thereafter a large population lost their lives under mysterious circumstances, virtually eliminating many regions and leaving just one queen as the Supreme Mother Queen. Was this tragedy a coincidence or a well-orchestrated conspiracy?
You will enjoy reading this fast paced gripping story with many twists and turns as you unravel the mystery of the Qeen Island. Kindle edition available globally and printed books in USA, Europe, Canada through Amazon.
×
Azaad's First Book - ‘I Come In My Way,’ (Year 2004) has received excellent reviews with the second edition published. The book brings forth random insights and dialogues on leadership, management, performance, productivity, empowerment, relationship, transformation and life.
‘I Come In My Way’ is book of thoughts and notes with a simple reflection of the realities of life which we fail to see every day. The book is the beautiful articulation of how we come in our way of success, in our way of productivity, in our way of having a satisfying relationships and everything that we choose as our way to lead a great life. The insights and dialogues in the book are an inquiry and distinction to contemplate and experience.
This book does not have any philosophy, morals, anecdotes or stories to make it more interesting. Yet, it can be more gripping than the best of bestsellers, for those few who value life and want to take themselves further and higher in their personal and professional life.
×
OPM is an effective, live tool, to simplify and manage daily tasks efficiently. As the name suggests, it's about managing 'One Day - Today' with the aid of one page. In doing so, OPM builds up one's pro-active habit to improve productivity and managerial skills, thus creating a powerful and effective tool for self management. The experience will be 'Self Management = Key to Peak Performance‘.
OPM is not a time management scheduler or an annual New Year dairy. You can have one for every quarter, with choice in different colours.
Azaad’s years of experience in various roles created the idea and concept of One Page Management. The concept has been used and experimented with his program participants, coachees and various OD clients and their executives. The outcome pointed towards simplicity and high performance.
×
The Vision, the Mission and the Value Statement in the organization are like window shopping or a flowerpot. Down the line people have no ideas what and why it is there. It just lands up on walls, dairies, calendars and desks. People can see the words but cannot experience the essence. There is a huge gap between the written statement and the expression of the statement therefore it never becomes the driving force for the organization's culture and core competency.
A Mission Statement Expression
Try a simple test. Ask a number of colleagues at your place of work "What is the single most important thing our company is trying to accomplish?" Chances are you will receive many different answers. This exercise can be extremely enlightening and an eye opener. While decision-making processes are important, clearly identified corporate goals are more important. The best-run companies have basic principles and operative practices that people in the company know and understand.
Curious, the observer asked the first worker, "what are you doing?"
"Laying brick," the laborer grumbled "It's a paycheck even if it is hard work."
"What are you doing?" the observer asked the next man.
"Well," he replied, "I'm one of the construction people, and we are putting together the east wall of a structure."
"What are you doing?" the observer queried the third worker.
"I'm helping to build a cathedral," he wiped his brow and spoke excitedly. "And someday right where we are standing the spirits will raise high above us, and people will be meeting to worship and be educated."
By getting in touch with the personal value and the organization's values, people see how their individual goals fit in to the organization's goals. In doing so, the individual and organizational goals become aligned. People are empowered when they are clear about how their personal goals are supported by the organizational objectives; when they are in touch with "what's in it for them" for doing what needs to be done.
An example of the best mission statement is from the movie 'Star Trek'
These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise.
Her five-year mission. To explore strange new worlds.
To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before.
Crew members of the Starship Enterprise know exactly what they are supposed to do.
Suppose you are the average person on the ship, you can still clearly answer important questions.
How long do you think the mission will last? - Five years.
If you encountered a strange new world, what should you do? - Explore it.
How should you go about exploring it? - Boldly.
Now ask yourself and your leaders
If your organization encounters a strange new obstacle, what will your average employee do?
If your company encounters a strange new opportunity, what will he do?
Without basic principles and operative practices of vision, mission and values, even the smartest employee is unclear when meeting a new or challenging situation. Vision, mission and values are the simple statement; one that spells out who we are, what we are doing, and how we would like to go about doing it. It may even deal with the question of why we are doing it. Make the language exact; the goal specific, the leaders, managers and even the most average employee will be proud.
Think of these three leaders. The first opens the doors and walks through, allowing the team to follow. He is leading from the front. The second stands behind the team and pushes or guides them through. He is a supportive leader. The third moves from front to back or to the middle of the group. He is an agile and interactive leader. Leadership styles are linked to personality and certain styles are more suited to particular situations. A structured leader is likely to succeed in a situation where process is important. The interactive leader may be one who manages a professional group of people. Dominant leaders may be needed in businesses where there is a real drive for change. In an organization all types of leadership styles are needed.
Case 1 : Atul Mehta headed the strategic purchase in a MNC. He was one of the high performers and the blue eyed man with complete backing of his COO. Atul was a dominant leader, focused on the target with many managers and executives working under him. He demanded excellence from his people and was ruthless about it. He had worked very hard to reach at this level; everyone in the organization knew he was being groomed for a higher role.
One day the cookie crumbled. His boss was transferred to another vertical and a new boss came in. Clear tasks, KRA and active involvement of everyone were defined. The change broke the power structure created by Atul. People who were reporting to him, who never dared to question him, started voicing their opinion behind his back to the new boss. The new COO soon realized that no one had made progress under Atul in their careers. They had performed well but they were never given their credit. Since he never stood for the people reporting to him, Atul lost his influence over people and the power silo broke. His career started going downhill. Now he was just hoping to work with his old boss again or find a new job.
Case 2 : Danish had joined two years ago as General Manager and received satisfactory ratings during his last review. Danish lost his mother and was on leave for fourteen days for the rituals. Four days prior to his leave ending, Rohan the operational head instructed him to join since an important customer was visiting the plant. Danish had never dealt with this customer before and was clueless about the profile, over that he was not in a mindset to handle as he was in the middle of his mother's ritual. The morning zoom meeting was a horror experience for him as he was treated dis-respectfully by yelling, taunting and passing comments in front of all team members for incidents that went wrong at the plant. Rohan never acknowledged Danish efforts nor did he care to inquire about his mother or his well-being. The sudden changes in behavior of Rohan, made Danish worried about his future. Rohan was aggressive and rough with Danish and after some days a person who was close to Rohan was promoted and given Danish's portfolio. Danish got stressed, demoralized and had a mental breakdown. He resigned.
Case 3 : Deepa was proud about Ramesh, her husband's position and accomplishments. She had been at his office functions and events and was impressed the way his colleagues and his team respected and listened to him. Ramesh held a senior leadership position, he was focused, workaholic and committed to his work. He liked leading from the front, demanding high performance from his team and suppliers. Ramesh took two days a week work from home option and Deepa saw him busy with zoom meetings and engaging his team. To her astonishment, she observed that he was a big bully. His projected leadership style, management methods and perceived people's person way was just a façade. She found him to be mean, dominative and totally lacked empathy for his people. He was just driven by results with no concern for the feelings and situations of his people. A year after he was moved to a new role with minimum people reporting to him and he was replaced by another HOD. Ramesh continued his old ways, the lesson was not learnt.
Case 4 : Michael D'Souza, was getting married in a month. His whole family was busy with marriage preparations, but the sudden unexpected death of his father crashed his world. Being the eldest in the family, all responsibilities related to funerals come on his shoulders. He was at a total loss and didn't know what to do and how to go about everything. He felt a gentle tap on his shoulder and heard the voice, "Michael, don't worry, you only take care of your mom and we will do the rest". He saw two unknown gentlemen standing in front of him. He assumed they had come to console him like others, but to his surprise, a beautiful coffin came into his house behind them with bouquets along with volunteers who were helping in laying his father in the coffin. The church activities, such as arranging for a priest, digging of the grave and also the final burial rites were all managed by these men. Michael assumed that all this was organized by some of his relatives but to his great astonishment it was actually his COO Ravi Mehta who shouldered this responsibility for him in his toughest moment. The strangers were the professionals hired by his boss to do the needful. That day he understood the real meaning of empathy, leadership and a new value of 'making a difference' from his chief Ravi Mehta.
Empathic Leadership - The paradigm shifter: What worked yesterday for the leaders in their glass cabins and office fortress of power are not working anymore. The leadership styles based on linear thinking and bred by past experiences are proving inadequate to deal effectively with the newer challenges that are surfacing every day.
The need of the day is empathetic leaders and managers. A nonlinear leadership style is required since leaders who were confined to offices have reached homes and are exposed even to families by zoom and video calls. They are leaving a deep impact on families of their teams since the employee's now lead one life. The office and home boundaries have faded and no one can "fake it to make it". Apathy will never work and sympathies will only balm the pain, but not deliver results. The need of the hour is compassion, care, understanding and above all empathy. Empathy leadership is empowering the flock and distinguishing the leader from their work. Leadership was never so holistic in its true sense like now.
Smart brands, smart companies are realizing that the service hand, graduate trainees, or workers on the shop floor have the same intelligence as their best customer and have started to tap the knowledge and wisdom of each, by treating them respectfully as equals, as co-creators of value.
Introducing Think Tank Hub
Think Tank Hub is an informal unit that co-exists alongside the formal structure of management in an organization. Thinking Hub operates as an independent unit, which specializes in carrying out significant projects and activities, to evolve and upgrade the organization.
In co-working with various departments in an organisation, Think Tank co-creates innovative projects, processes, functions, activities with managers and key people to enhance 'Quantified Value', to the organization by complementing, collaborating and co-existing with various departments in the organization.
The function of Think Tank within an organization includes exploring new horizons, focusing collective attention, aligning and mobilizing resources, and inspiring others to participate. Through Think Tank the Department Heads will enhance their ability to plan, organize, evaluate, and implement projects to maximize results, the inputs provided will offer a fresh perspective to the work and task in hand.
Thinking Hub will play a significant role in shaping the work culture of the department and organisation. It will hand hold the managers and their teams to align department core activities with the organisational goals. It will 'Zap the Gap' in day-to-day communication, to create a 'new productive' language in the organisation. At a macro level, Think Tank will re orient departments, to function as a 'business unit' with the HOD functioning as an Intrapreneur.
Significance of Think Tank
The Head of department and key potential employees will be part of the Think Tank Hub. In addition to their defined roles and responsibilities as HOD or manager, these managers will be active participants of strategic level discussions, deliberations and play a significant role in collective decision making and organization growth.
Apart from providing strategic guidance to key Managers, Think Tank will build a high level of operational and strategic leadership for the organization. The Think Tank will continue to provide formal and informal support to peer department heads and act as a communications link between the HOD and the workforce, till the organisation reaches the maturity level.
Purpose of Think Tank
Open Conversations in the Think Tank (For example)
Intangible assets tend to create synergy within an organization. A progressive organisation recognizes these as the 'lifeline' of an enterprise and constantly endeavours to enrich this capital by co-creating, integrating strategy, structure and system to take the organisation to a phase of multi fold growth.
These five capitals are intangible assets of any organization.
People Capital: This capital is of people, who are instrumental in maintaining and forwarding the system. People Capital is basically a skill capital, and it includes most of the people of an organization. People's capital directly influences productivity and thereby growth of an organization. Activities for this capital include skill-based training, integrating system and process.
Financial Capital: The people in this capital include people who are directly related to finance of the organization. This capital is seen and transferable. The activities of all four capital will directly and indirectly affect this capital which must follow the exponential curve.
Intellectual Capital: This capital encompasses people with a wealth of domain knowledge and expertise. People who hold related information and haveaccess to vital information. They are the experts, specialists, strategists, and masters in their respective field. Exclusive people, who give ideas a shape and create 'value' and 'future' regarding the products, services, markets etc. Activities for this capital include creating 'smart' systems & processes, fostering to propel business, building of critical skill sets, adopting newer technology to augment businesses growth and developing tools to bring the idea to concept stage and take it to the drawing board.
Leadership Capital: These people are the face of the organization. Charismatic, suave, ace communicators, strong implementers, strategists. These are the people who represent the ideas, concepts and portray character of the organization; the organisation is duly recognised and acknowledged in the market by the job carried out by these people. The activities for this capital include vision quest and mission forward. Leadership Capital is the one who create 'the future', while being in the present
Goodwill Capital: This capital includes reliability, count-on-able, trustable. Goodwill capital includes people who are mainly customers, clients (both internal and external). This is basically how you portray yourself, your company product and service to the world and how the world perceives you. This stands out as the most important capital for prompt response and image building of the organization to the outside world. The activities of this capital include, branding and positioning, corporate social responsibility endeavours.
Coaching the CEO, Director and Business Owner. It's worth the investment.
They are the decision makers and they have more to gain from coaching than any other person in the organization. Given the nature of the position, extraordinary results can be achieved by utilizing a Coach. As successful CEO / Owner, one has already made heavy investments in building skill sets, knowledge base and subject matter expertise early in the career. Executives who rise to the CEO level are largely based upon their ability to consistently make sound decisions. However, while it may take years of solid decision-making to reach the boardroom it takes one bad decision to fall from the ivory tower. The reality is that in today's competitive business world an executive is only as good as his/her last decision, or their ability to stay ahead of contemporaries and competitors.
Alone at the top: As the CEO/Owner where do they turn for advice and support? No one tells the CEO/Owner how he is doing. His subordinates will not give him unbiased information, will not tell the hard truths or provide open candid criticism of his actions. They are certainly not in a position to hold him accountable or most times even provide with intellectually challenging input. The managers don't let him know that the CEO is undermining their authority, making poor decisions or communicating poorly. Even when a CEO/Owner asks for honest feedback, the fear is there: non-flattering feedback may stall a promising career. Even when a company uses 360-degree feedback, no one penalizes the CEO/Owner if he doesn't act on the feedback.
Why every CEO/Owner must have a Coach: Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google says the best advice he ever received was from John Doerr, who in 2001 said, "My advice to you is to have a coach." Schmidt was taken aback, surprised and initially resented the advice, because after all, he was a CEO. He was pretty experienced. Why would he need a coach? CEO Schmidt asked himself, "Am I doing something wrong?" Anyway, he went ahead and reluctantly hired a coach. But in the back of his mind he had an argument with himself "How could a coach advise me if I'm the best person in the world at this?
In the process he realized that it is not what a coach does. The coach doesn't have to play the sport as well as he does. The coach has to watch him and get him to be his best. In the business context a coach is somebody who looks at something with another set of eyes, describes it to you in his words, and discusses how to approach the problem.
Schmidt said, "Once I realized I could trust him and that he could help me with perspective, I decided this was a great idea. When there is a business conflict you tend to get rat-holed into it. The coach's general advice has been to raise one step higher, above the person on the other side of the table, and to take the long view. He'll say, 'You're letting it bother you. Don't.'
Engaging with a Professional Coach is a refreshing opportunity where the CEO/Owner can be completely open and creative in a confidential and safe place. Wouldn't it be nice to seek support from an objective third party who can walk in your shoes and is not caught-up in office politics therefore having no axe to grind or turf to protect. Someone who has an extensive network outside your business and is a true intellectual and experiential peer of yours? The right Coach can afford all these benefits and more...
What is Coaching? Coaching is an individual or group interaction that creates a space for a new opening, for a new direction, for teamwork and extraordinary leadership. Coaching is a universal technique, a method of guiding and relating to people that enhances their talents, taps their brilliance and encourages them to achieve results beyond their own expectations. Coaching is not about "changing" anyone; it's about expanding and upgrading oneself.
Who needs a coach? No-one "needs" a coach, no one is "broken" so no one needs to be "fixed." Coaching is not counseling or therapy. The coaching relationship begins with the recognition that one is naturally creative, resourceful and whole. Top athletes choose a coach to improve their performance. Coaching is an opportunity to have the best of life through a personal experience of one's true self and its possibilities. It is an opportunity to put together all that you have learnt and experienced in your life.
Unlearn and relearn: In Coaching you are not taught, but you learn a lot. You are not given advice, but techniques that are meaningful. There is no rigorous inquiry into life, but graceful uncovering of your own self. There are no lectures on making things work, but an experience of how things work. There are no quick fix solutions, but a discovery of stability in one self.
Questions to ask when evaluating a potential coach:
Q1. Is your coach qualified? Listening, questioning, communication, empathy, understanding etc. all these qualities are not enough as all good managers, mentors, leaders, counselors, trainers and consultants have these. The best qualification a coach must have is 'ruthless compassion'. He needs to be like a skilled Surgeon and an effective General Physician. He needs to ruthlessly intervene so that you get disengaged from unwanted conversation and compassionately support you to see the vicious circle and virtues circle.
Q2. What are the other things and projects He/She is involved in?
Q3. What is his/her passion?
Q4. Does he/she live a great life or only talk about a great life?
Q5. Does he/she have a larger purpose in life?
Q6. Does he/she understand the larger perspective of an organization and the role of a CEO / Owner?
Q7. Does he/she have a reliable reference? The best indicator of a coach's ability will be based on how he has coached others. Trust on who referred him to you but find out, has the person taken the coaching for himself, got benefits and he wants to make a difference in your life? Does the person close to you see the possibility and potential you have, which will get explored and expressed by having a coach?
Q8. Is there any hidden agenda? Make sure the referal or the Coach is not a part of a Multi Level Scheme, Recruitment Agency, Network Marketing, Insurance Selling, fund or financial scheme.
Coaching is about the power of conversation, and how they translate directly into deeds, how it is linked directly to specific promises of increased performance and productivity. Many times, our life calls for simple, swift and powerful interventions. We cannot always do it alone! A Coach can be an effective catalyst in finding personal and professional solutions to creating a powerful future! A "coach" constantly pushes you forward to bring the best from yourself, doesn't allow you to fall down, remains firm and supports you - no matter what!
Life of Pi - I saw the movie twice, then got the book and read it. This movie is about anyone who intends to outgrow oneself, who wants to grow in leaps and bounds without compromising. Building 10X capability and expressing it all time is Tiger on the boat.
The movie is all about the third choice. In a terrible storm, the boat sinks and Pi is the only human survivor. He is joined in a small lifeboat by a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and the Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The teenage boy who has compassion for all creatures watches in horror as the war for supremacy between the animals begins. In the end, Pi and the tiger are left. He lives in fear of being eaten by the Tiger. When the Tiger jumps overboard to snaffle up a shark, you expect Pi to be super relieved. Instead he helps the Tiger back into the boat. His reason, it's the fear of the tiger that is keeping him alert; giving him a purpose and literally keeping him alive.
Pi claims his power, even his fear becomes an opportunity. He felt incredible gratitude to the Tiger, Richard Parker. The Tiger kept him alert and in some way kept him alive. He transforms himself from a boy who plays music, to a person who tames the ferocious tiger. The circumstances don't change, the cruel and endless sea, the problem remains the same. The events are not positive but he becomes bigger than himself, the events and circumstances.That is leadership, that is transformation.
The point that I took from the movie is that everything depends on the way you choose to see it. Even in the most frightening circumstances, you still have the power to choose your response. As Pi says, 'You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.' That's quite a statement from a guy trapped on a raft with a tiger and little prospect of survival. (This is anyone who intend to be in a leadership role and take up big challenges)
This is 10X growth - stretching limits, expanding horizons. Bringing the Tiger on the boat.
In a town not too far away, lived Lala Deendayal, the proud owner of Maharaja Sweets. Lalaji had a personality to behold. He was like a king sitting on the throne, on his seat behind the cash counter. With his powerful voice he ordered his workers around from the kitchen to the store to outside, instructing them and reprimanding them. Nothing missed his eyes - the small piece of paper lying on the floor, the lower thickness of sugar syrup, the higher amount of dry fruits wrongly put in the sweet, the correct color of the sweets, the worker eyeing a customer. He knew everything and he got everything done. It's his kingdom. He has put faith in his gods, all of whom adorn a wall behind his counter. A photograph of his guru adds glory too, he believes that in the end, they alone will show the way. Strike a conversation and he would weave a tale of his woes, how the store is surviving, how people have stopped appreciating genuine sweets, how cheap packaged sweets are taking away his business, how workers need to be managed, and how his sons are not interested in running the store.
Welcome to Lala Management. Lala Deendayal can be a proud owner of any company (IT, Manufacturing, Retail, Hotel, Trading, Realtor or any service industry). If you see yourself in this picture, don't worry, you are one among the million Business people found across India, from small towns to large metros. And if you want to know what happened to the Lalaji, well, he died one day and his stores were sold off by his son and many were closed as the large organizations and many clients refused to deal anymore.
An Entrepreneur is very passionate about his work and his company. There will be a full fledged history and story with lots of twists and turns about his journey till now. He has been there, seen there, which makes everything "personal". Entrepreneurs, whether they are worth 10, 100 or above XK crore, the basic similarity is the same; the Owner knows it all, It is an Individual driven Organization. He is the MD, CEO, Owner, all-in-one of the company. He also plays various supporting roles throughout the day and week. He is the purchase manager, finance manager handling the accountant, talking to his CA, meeting the bank manager. He is the production manager and technical expert, marketing manager and HR. He is the planner, execution expert, customer relationship manager and the General Manager. He is the front of the organization. He is the micro and macro manager; everything has to pass through his eyes. There is no place for anybody else other than himself. In his small or medium size arena he is the king, it is his kingdom and the people working for him are his Praja (subjects). He will have first-hand knowledge of every single person. When you meet the owner, you will immediately understand that you are in front of the wise and smart one, the all-knowing and the all-powerful.
His cabin will be special and there will be a small temple on the wall where his favorite god will be displayed to whom he will pray every day. There will be an AC running but also the scent of the agarbatti or flowers which are changed every day in the morning. There will be lots of certificates hanging and photographs with important people where he is smiling. There will be his products on display and lots of books behind which says that he is in sync with current affairs. He will be an avid follower of some guru, making him extremely spiritual or religious. He will be part of some social cause project and definitely a current or former President of some association or club.
His close circle is his partner or brother, who knows that he is in control of everything. His Manager is extremely loyal and hardworking, he is there from ages, who knows 'in-out' about the company and will give all the information about the people working. His confidential partner is his CA, who knows his numbers and the context of his numbers, always guiding him, making him take calculated risks and decisions. For an Entrepreneur "play safe" means "don't grow fast", "be cautious" means "don't divert".
He has a set of loyal customers and he keeps on catering to them. The company keeps on growing and this makes the owner righteous and rigid. There is no place for a business leap or new professionals to join and display their talents and skills. The path is set, the road is laid, and everyone has to walk on it, no matter what. If something goes wrong it's because you did not walk properly or you tried to change something. There is no organization; it's only an individual's thoughts and beliefs glorified. He has these Ten Commandments which he follows and everybody in the organization has to follow. There will be a CEO or GM but they are a front, a puppet, with the strings pulled and managed by the owner. Everything is managed on a personal one-to-one basis. He knows his customers and they can directly approach him. They bypass everybody in between, be it the GM, CEO or his Successor. The whole business revolves around him. The question is "Where is the organization?" 'Where are the leaders in the organization"?
Being an Entrepreneur is not easy; taking the first step, taking initiative, building the company brick by brick, being self-motivated, bringing lots of passion to the work, getting people, building their skills and making them a part of the family is not easy. Slowly and patiently building the client base is not easy. Even if it is handed over, even then, rebuilding it, maintaining it is not easy. Making one's personal reputation and goodwill is a hard task.
The passion that worked for him, don't allow him to see from different perspectives. His way has become the right way which blinds him to see anything other than his way. People don't share and never will share the same passion about his organization as there is no place for anybody else. What has worked yesterday will not work today; the same loyal and trusted people who were a stepping stone have become the bottleneck. The same one-to-one personal relationship that worked, doesn't allow professionals to work with him or give him a fair and unbiased opinion or feedback.
There is very little invested in the development of people; for the Entrepreneur it is a complete waste of time and money. Not many systems and processes are in place. It is all paper and pen management and everything is in the head. There is no successor planning, the Owner thinks he is immortal; he may be 55 or 65 years old but still everything goes through his hawk eyes. His son has joined him, but he has to be the extension of his father. He cannot add or subtract anything of his own. Majority of the Entrepreneur's children are not interested in taking forward the work of their father as there is nothing interesting or challenging for them. Even if the father moves out, the system and the people left behind don't allow any change.
Behind this entire facade, one thing gets missed out that he is sitting on a gold mine. If he can actually play one role powerfully then the organization can accelerate and be in 10x mode. From the role of the Maintenance guy, if he switches to the role of an Accelerator and Driver of his organization, then there is a whole new future available. He can get disengaged from all the unwanted activity and conversations. From a personal organization, it will shift to become a professional organization; there will be a place for many professionals to contribute. Large and multinational companies are looking at Entrepreneur as an Organization and not as an individual. An Organization run by the owner has no choice but to make his company as a corporate organization...sooner he does, the better it will be.
I am reminded of an incident. I was talking about 'taking a stand' with my client. Having second thoughts and doubting that he could sustain the enormity of what he said he stood for. He asked me if it was authentic for him to take his word back. I responded to him, "Yes, you can take your word back, then what you get is your old life back." I don't know what your old life was like before transformation, but I can tell you one thing: I don't want mine back. An untransformed life is not worth having.
Let me tell you a story.
Danny lived in a Flat Land. Everything in Flat Land had just two dimensions, height and breadth. Nothing had depth. If a person turned sideways, you couldn't see him. People lived in flat houses, ate flat meals, drank flat coke, had flat thinking and flat thoughts. People in flat land had flat relationships, enjoyed flat celebrations and lived flat lives. Everything in the flat land was flat. Danny taught higher mathematics and logic at the university. One night, he threw a party for some of his friends, colleagues and neighbours. They were having a flat celebration.
Same time upstairs his precocious friend, Ronny, tried to sleep. As Ronny tossed on his bed, he began to have a vision. He saw a vision no one had seen before. Suddenly, Ronny visualized that everything had not only height and breadth, but also depth! Houses, trees and especially people looked so different. He felt different. Life took on a whole new scope. The new dimension affected the way people thought and acted. The whole thing left a major impression on Ronny. Ronny realizes that his life is never going to be the same again and neither is the life of the people whom he will talk about.
Ronny couldn't keep a vision like that locked up inside him. His bare feet hit the floor and carried him downstairs right into the middle of his friend Danny's party. There he stood in his rumpled pajamas pouring out a conversation, unheard of, conversation about a new dimension of life. Ronny tried to explain what depth looked like and felt like. People did not have to go on living flat little lives and thinking flat little thoughts. They could sink their roots down into a whole new dimension of depth.
Danny couldn't hide his embarrassment. Nor could he shut Ronny up. The party ended in a shambles. Far into the night Danny tried to reason with his friend, but Ronny kept saying that another dimension of life existed. People didn't have to go on living flat little lives and thinking flat little thoughts of just height and breadth but there is one more dimension of living called depth
The next morning, Ronny talked to anybody who would listen. People thought the poor man had lost touch with reality. But Ronny kept on saying there is one more dimension of living called depth. And one day a small group of people started understanding and seeing life beyond two dimensions of height and breadth. And this group started saying - People don't have to live in flat houses, eat flat meals, drink flat coke, think flat thoughts, have flat relationships, enjoy flat celebrations and live flat lives. There is one more dimension to life called depth.
Going beyond the known, experiencing and expressing depth in life is Making a Difference to oneself and others is adding depth to your personal and professional relationship. Adding depth to your team and leadership, adding depth to your performance and productivity. Adding depth to your life and living.
Vision and passion are born in the heart and mind, and till the time you are alive, your dream can never be destroyed by any circumstances. Let the time take its course but don't give up. These obstacles cannot crush you.
Let the obstacles become big and large, ultimately you will overcome all the obstacles "No matter what". Let this be your commitment. Let this be your word to yourself.
You are much more than you are demonstrating in your life. You will change this circumstance. You are committed that you will live your life at your highest potential. No matter what happens in your life, even if no one gives you the support that you need; You are still committed to living life at its fullest.
You have a mission.
Trust deep down in your soul that you have a special gift,
You can touch others in a special way.
You can make a difference
An experience of the parent who took bold decision to remove their son and daughter from school education to home school them.
It's secondary 'what' one is learning. It's primary and important 'who' and 'how' one is learning. When 'who' and 'how' is taken care first then 'whatever' one learns is effective. My concern is not to improve 'education in school' but to do away with it. I am not against school education; I simply don't want to be a part of it. I am only leaving the highway, no more in the rat race with my kids to reach somewhere or to get something. I want to slow down, learn with them and enjoy the journey. - Azaad Saini
Today our social environment is mostly polluted by education. Education is forced, seduced or coerced learning. Schools and education assume that children need to be taught what is good, what is important to understand. Teachers are given strict guidelines about discipline, achievement, pedagogy and time. They are reduced to information conveyers, passing on a prescribed set of knowledge to a prescribed population in a strictly regulated environment. The real losers, of course, are the kids and their families. The nightmare of schooling is costing our kids, our families and communities in every way.
Children should be supported to become who they are, to develop and grow into the unique, enigmatic, contradictory individuals that we all are, away from the manipulative and debilitating effects of education.
Year 2010 - Free from School, Freedom to Be: 'Till today I was Kabir Saini but from now onwards I am Kabir Azaad.' This was the statement, my eleven year old son made, when he returned home from school; for it was both his final day at school and the first day of his 'freedom' from school. He was aware that he no longer would be attending school. A week before when Bobby (Kabir's mother) was completing his leaving formalities; Kabir was sharing the news with his classmates. Obviously each one of them wanted to know, what Kabir would be doing now, which school he would be going to, even his class teacher wanted to know, in which new school he had taken admission.
In January 2010, after my wife, Bobby, and I took this decision, we regretted having not thought of it earlier and allowed my son to go through the rigorous and subtle torture of 'glorified' school education. Before taking the decision, we had worked hard, carrying out extensive research and exploring new areas, new methods of schooling, but during the entire period, we could not muster the courage to take the plunge.
Incidents that prompted, supported and guided us to take the call.
Incident 1: Realizing that the school schedule is of a prisoner. - Kabir gets up at 6 a.m., brushes his teeth, goes to loo and takes bath (this in itself takes about half an hour). If he has not kept his books as per the timetable then he does that; otherwise, he keeps the books as per the timetable on the previous day itself. He eats his breakfast, get dressed, wear his shoes and carries along two Tiffin box as they have couple of breaks. His school bus, generally comes between 7 a.m. and 7:15 a.m. His school starts at 8 a.m. sharp. Once he boards the bus in the morning, for his mother it is a major task completed. His school shuts for the day at 2:15 p.m. and he returns home at 2:45 p.m.
Once he is at home, he freshens up, changes his clothes and has his lunch. By this time, it will be around 3:30 p.m. After lunch, he is scheduled to attend tuitions for Sanskrit and Hindi language as we both do not understand Sanskrit and are not proficient in Hindi. He returns from his tuitions around 6.30 p.m. and then goes down to play with his friends. Between 7.30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. he comes back, after this, he has to complete his school assignments. His mother assists him in his study and they try to complete it by 9:30 p.m. He takes his dinner and then briefly catches some program on television. By this time, he is tired and retires to bed around 10.30 p.m. for he has to rise at 6.00 a.m. Day after day, from more than 5 years, this has been his routine and would have been for another 5 years more till he complete his school education.
Incident 2: Results of Sanskrit and Math's - In his first exam, Kabir got 9 out of 50 in Sanskrit, so Bobby started sending him for tuitions. In the subsequent exam, he scored 49 out of 50 and in Math he scored 95 out of 100. Now this was a red flag for both of us. Bobby went to school and spoke to his class teacher about the anomaly. The teacher remarked 'you should be happy that your son is doing well.'
Bobby tried to reason with the class teacher, strongly putting across to her that 'we don't want full marks, even half of it is okay, if he gets by attending the school and not going with added tuition classes. There is no doubt that the boy is intelligent so why don't you improve the quality of your teaching.' The teacher said 'if you have a problem then go and talk to the principal instead.'
Incident 3: Learning Rubik's Cube. - It took me almost two months to master the Rubik's Cube and it took just three days for Bobby to learn from me. Bobby taught Kabir in just two days, and it took him only five days to break my and Bobby's record of 2 minutes. Now this really jolted us to think, with many more such incidents, we started to think seriously and started looking at various possibilities and alternatives. One alternative was to change the school, though his was considered to be one of the top CBSE school in the area.
We did some research but got disappointed as other schools were no better and were following the same regimented pattern. One other alternative was to get him admitted in Maharashtra Board, but the findings were same. Study, hurry and worry. One bright possibility emerged of exploring the JK School at Sahyadri, Pune. I visited the school as one of my close friends' daughter was in this school. To my disappointment, the school was a carcass of the past. I found that the essence was completely missing. We also explored International Schools, but the experiences were more or less the same.
The opening and the confidence to take the decision.
The Internet: Upon surfing on the net, we realized that we are not alone in this quest; many parents have already taken this major step. Three significant methods, adopted by some parents caught our attention: Home Schooling, Open Schooling and De-Schooling.
My friend, Sachin: I got introduced to him through one of our common friends and from Sachin I heard for the first time the complete concept of "Schooling without School." The most inspirational aspect of the introduction that hooked me towards him was that both the parents have left everything, their promising careers, comfort city life and have started this NGO. Their 5-year-old daughter was home learning. They have not sent her to school at all and nor they have any plan to do it in the future. Spending time with Sachin and carrying out extensive discussions opened up the door of possibilities; here was a person who was not only talking but actually walking the talk.
Talking to my son Kabir: Before we took the decision to take Kabir out of the school, Bobby and I spoke to our son as we wanted to know his reaction and his input too. We knew that at the end of the day it is Kabir who is going to 'live' our decision, more than us. Kabir was calm and at ease after we informed him about our decision and what next, we were planning to do.
Talking to Kabir gave us a great insight to the overall perception of this concept. We thought that the one biggest hassle for him would be parting with his school friends. He made us realize that it is not at all an issue for him as in his school they had a policy that every year the students are shuffled between the divisions wherein every academic year he not only gets into a new class but also come across and create new set of friends. We came to know that his friends are actually not from his schools but more from his activity centers, where he plays cricket, football, friends from his swimming pool, badminton and video game pals.
We realized how times have changed with respect to making and having friends. During our time, school used to have students from nearby locality and have the same set of classmate year over year. It means having the same set of friends and students in our class throughout our school life. Now it is no more the case; the school bus ferries around all the 360-degree area, surrounding the far away localities from the school.
Questions people asked: When our Neighbours, friends and relatives came to know about Kabir's home schooling, they naturally became curious. The first question that were fired to us, what about his exams, how is he going to learn science, math etc., about his career and so on. Any answer given by Bobby and me lead to another question and went on without fruitful contribution.
Our realization: Don't waste energy on unwanted conversations, it's the nearest people who will suck your energy, and committed one will join you and support you. The purpose is not to satisfy people or get approval from anyone. It's our call. Our focus is on our children. Learning is not a peoples or school issue, it's a decision and agreement between both the parent, child and from whom he is going to learn.
Journey Ahead: I am not advocating to remove kids from school. At least don't glorify and justify that the child is getting the best 'education'. One thing parent can do is to work towards 'easing the pressure' on the child and self. 'Take it easy', school is not 'the' way of learning but 'a' way.
'Sitaro ke aage jahaan aur bhi hai.' There's a world beyond stars.
