Enhancing our Spiritual Quotient

This year’s women’s day would be an unforgettable day for many of us, as we were exposed to a new kind of engineering- inner engineering by Mr. Vinod Hari of Isha yoga.

Belonging to no particular belief system, Isha yoga offers what is needed for the modern world. We were shown videos by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, the founder of Isha yoga about what is inner engineering and what could it do for us. The questions posed by Sadguru in the video were so powerful and so piercing.

Why inner engineering?

All human experiences are internal- be it happiness, joy or blissfulness, but the problem is that we have given the starter button for this in someone else’s hand.

If the world is not happening the way you want it to, it’s absolutely ok. But if the main person i.e. you, are not working the way you want it to, there comes the real tragedy. Inner engineering is an enabler to make at least this one person (yourself) to work your way.

Inner engineering combines the powerful yoga technique called “shambavi mahamudra” and “pranayama” (breathing technique). People like Mr. Ravi Venkatesh (MD, Microsoft India) stand testimony to its prowess.

Samples of Sadguru’s wisdom

He narrated the interesting story of a bull and pheasant where a weak pheasant eating bull’s dung reaches the top of a tree and gets shot, inferring that, “At times even bull shit can take you to the top but never lets you to stay there”. This is what would happen if we don’t know how to handle ourselves.

As Sadguru says “we did a lot of engineering to our external world so that it functions better for us, now it’s time we do a bit of engineering for ourselves.”

Sadguru was right in stating that “The best moments of our lives are when we express our love- not when we search for it”. But unfortunately for most of us, much of our lives is wasted in pursuing happiness.

He was scientific in his approach when he said that peace is just a kind of chemistry and said that what a pill could do for you for a brief moment by bringing calmness, yoga could do eternally. The entire chemistry of our system could be changed by yoga, bringing us back to our natural self of joy and happiness.

All his words are of utmost clarity. He was right in saying “be human first”- forgetting humanity, divinity is just farce. No two humans have the same capability, if you function to your full potential you are a fortunate being and would always be blissful, and inner engineering is a starting point to realise your full potential. Mr. Ravi Venkatesh asks in the video, “If you are unable to manage yourself, how could you be a manager managing others?” This made all us future managers to think.

Answering to a question on how to be stress free Sadguru was right in saying that “whenever people are in a state where they have no control over their inner situation they would be stressful, not because of any external situation.”

Most of us act compulsively not consciously and to be aware of knowing oneself is the first step and inner engineering initiates this process.

The presenter was excellent in the way he communicated and the way he answered our questions. As Sadguru pointed that, “unless you do the right things, right things will not happen to you." I think we have done the right thing on having a speaker from Isha and enrolling ourselves for this life changing inner engineering program.

Special thanks to Vidhya ma’m from Orchid for making this happen.

Contributed by Manoj A, IT Varsity, CBS Batch 4 (2009-10)

“Karthi-keen” on new HR ecosystem

Today I attended a rather intriguing lecture, by none other than the well known Dr. R. Karthikeyan, a qualified psychologist from National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), as well as a consultant and now the management educator and pioneer of the Gemba School of HR, Chennai.

He first started with how he got into the field of HR or should I rephrase as how Dr. Karthikeyen believes- "how HR chose him." To explain this he began with a small flashback, when he was in his first job at Salem Steel, where he was asked to conduct a four-day training session for the employees. He admitted openly that he was totally baffled as to how to go on about it. Yet with proper groundwork, he said with a slight glint, that he 'somehow managed to pull it off.' Hence, his first bump with HR.

It was only after this training session that he started looking at HR in a new light. HR management is basically discovering, recognizing, strengthening, refining and finally acquiring human talent, skills and power. He also stated the importance and value of the HR domain in every enterprise. Though the main HR techniques and practices depend upon the traditional management theories; however in the present era the current issues and dilemmas have proved to be much more complex and dynamic than before. Hence, there requires a cry for change in basic HR methods, both theoretically and practically.

Dr. Karthikeyan also spoke about Psychometric testing, a useful recruitment tool that is used to assess a person's knowledge, abilities, priorities, attitudes and personality traits. But the sad fact is that many HR professionals themselves aren't aware of the basic skills to handle crisis situations. At this point he threw light on the 5 W and 1 H, that is who, why, what, where, when and how.

Some of the other interesting anecdotes he shared with us were the various challenges he encountered during his career growth. One of them that he talked about was the one where he had to eliminate 1500 employees from work. The amount of thought process he had to go through and the homework he had done was tremendous. He used the help of role plays and mock exit interviews. The second challenge he faced, was when he had to recruit 1200 in 9 months. For that, he had organized a walk-in for the ITI's at the Montford Grounds. But unfortunately things fouled up when there was an unexpected turnout of people overcrowding the grounds that even traffic came to a standstill. And in this turbulence of things, there was a lot of loss and damage caused to the institute's property. He concluded by accepting that he hadn't foreseen the change of events and he should have planned the event in a much more efficient way.

The lecture ended with him inculcating in us a different outlook about HR altogether. HR today has transformed from being only performance oriented to people oriented. And after this lecture, I feel that the changes brought within the HR wing would bring about changes to the entire organization.

Contributed by Vikram Mohan, HR Varsity, CBS Batch 4 (2009-10)

Experience speaks!

When one speaks with heart there tends to be a lot of acceptance and appreciation. It’s more to do with the words untold and also those “read in between lines”. For someone who is as seasoned as Mr. Karthikeyan, it was more of spontaneity and instincts taking the lead. A Trained Psychologist and consultant, he spoke the’ HR language’ with a lot of depth and conviction. Stories of his own failures and hard lessons broke the shackles one could have on learning by failing in life.

“Is it feasible for assessment centers in the private sectors?” I asked. Karthikeyan had actually done it in his previous assignments as consultant. He went over the process in his earlier stints with fine tooth comb. Neatly presenting the story, he posed questions on HR concepts that had the students gripped completely, not to forget those moments shared to mull over certain serious lapses that occur in recruitment.

Couple of anecdotes on strategies is worth mentioning. Karthikeyan had emphasized on absorbing ITI students outside Chennai to fill in for as large as 1500 technicians for a top automotive player. The underlying motive was to retain people for a considerable time. Additionally, the pay offered was too less for a worker from within the city. This turned out to be a huge trump card in success of the recruitment process with the automotive giant.

Life comes 360 degrees. Yes, he had his failures too, when a mass recruitment drive went berserk. This was one such incident where Karthikeyan had to recruit for front office executives. There was huge turn around with police getting involved to control the ‘mob’. Eventually, people were asked to drop in their resumes. And guess what, there were torn resumes deposited all over, an indication of torn hearts due to improper communication. It was a clear illustration of a poorly written “Job Description”.

Importance of observation was stressed on as a HR professional. Empathy to sit through the allotted time with an interviewee was discussed further. Never ‘Test’ an individual and ‘Dump’. It’s extremely important to provide a candid feedback to ensure he/she works on the shortcomings. Karthikeyan was particular on such ‘humane’ dimensions that complete a HR as a person and also the role per se.

No presentation in power point, nothing ‘flash’y, yet clear and profound way of reaching out to the student community with relevance to one’s hardships in life. The session would stay in our mind, as a definite reminiscence of the gentleman and his methodology of teaching.

Contributed by Balaji MS, HR Varsity, CBS Batch-4 (2009-10)

Innovative HR Practices

I missed the window pane by inches. It would have been yet another hit on my forehead, which had already been sculpted with historic marks besides my either eyebrows. We ran, huffed & puffed, shouted and gasped for breath. Eventually we managed to be back alive, with limbs in appropriate places. Well, it was one such exercise as a part of team building to foster trust and test leadership in an individual.

Johari window made me peep into my own territories of strength and weakness. It also presented an opportunity for others to have a ‘go’ at my shortcomings, of course in a positive and constructive manner. “Who is the Murderer”, a situation maze, brought-out the “Sherlock Holmes” in each of us, and at the same time taught us wonderfully on team spirit and working together for a common cause.

Managing Competencies and Performance requires clear demarcation. Aren’t organizations muddling things up? To an extent true, but I learnt how to deal with this important ‘Duality’ of HR, keeping them separate and gauging individually. The Left brain was challenged with logic, predominantly testing the analytical knowhow. We also strategized, instructed and created structures in similar lines to collage. Communication was questioned, coordination was pushed to limits, and yes- leaders emerged too, some ripe and others slightly infant.

It is a great learning thus far. Innovative HR practices have not only been food for thought academically, but also a real time application in understanding oneself and also fellow HR brains at CBS.

Many thanks to Prof Kashinath and his inspiring pedagogy.

Contributed by Balaji MS, HR Varsity, CBS Batch-4 (2009-10)

‘Live wire’ in campus

Being a generalist HR at TAFE, with end to end responsibilities, Kamala Manohari brimmed with knowledge and energy. She deals with as wide a bandwidth as Recruitment, Learning & Development, Employee relations and MIS. Life is so easy when we have a single shop housing all that we need. Likewise, she was one such ‘go-to’ personality to address the HR varsity students. The interaction kicked-off focusing on training that included technical and behavioral parameters.

Unlike the general notion that the gap between academics and industry is quite large, Kamala urged us in getting the basics right- from books. For instance, “Iceberg” model emphasizes on understanding the behavior that are explicitly not visible. This will need to be imbibed well within to appreciate and implement any form of Performance Management. It thus becomes imperative to learn all that comes in through the academic route, which can ultimately be customized per rigors of life and business.

Ratios and SLAs are so integral to organizations. “Job Change Index” was one such ratio we came across, providing an absolute check on the stability in one’s career. To be precise:

Job Change Index (JCI) = No of Job Changes/No of Professional years of experience

It goes without saying that this needs to be minimal while gauging an individual’s resume for recruitment. ‘Cycle Time’ was yet another SLA Kamala dwelt on. Negative Cycle time was one surprising element highlighted, bringing out the intuition element of HR, the Predictive Recruitment.

And the critical paradigm in HR is to handle misfits and related disorders. She brought out the implications and ways of handling such situations with her own experiences.

Sourcing, Competency mapping, Reports on recruitment and manpower, open house/get together and fun at work…the list seemed to be mindboggling, yet what a challenge for a young professional to take on! Kamala’s session reaffirmed the pride of being a HR and handling the intangible elements in a workplace.

Contributed by Balaji MS, HR Varsity, CBS Batch-4 (2009-10)

She came like thunder, went like lightning. And yes, we did get drenched with all those vital industrial awareness.