Ajit Kamath Wizzes

It's hilarious: One Trainer claims that he is India's No. 1 Train the Trainer. I really don't know who is the Certifying body and what's the basis of this claim but nevertheless the claim is part of the signature line. Another claims to be Mumbai 1st Trainer in a particular Technique. Till recently he claimed to the only one certified in that technique. A Intl. Training Co. Franchisee claims to be the Global Top Training Co. They are a listed Co. in US and their financial statement showed that they were a loss making company until a few years back (whereas the claim started about 7 to 8 years ago). Is this required? And why do we need this? Can't our work speak for ourselves through our clients? Do we think that Client HR is soooo damn stupid that they aren't going to ask us for the rationale on our claim. BTW, are they asking?

Last week I was in a meeting. The HR Manager announced that we would be meeting the CEO of this company for a discussion on the training intervention. I was surprised because normally this doesn't happen in the first meeting itself. The CEO was young and dynamic. He was briefed about me well by the HR Manager and we immediately got into the training objectives, the program and the effectiveness (In most cases, whenever I meet senior Management, I have to first give an introduction of myself (either the HR hasn't briefed them about me or the senior hasn't read the brief that was sent). The meeting was focused and ended well. The CEO also gave me required inputs about the targeted group too. I was highly impressed! Meeting over, I had a thought: Why can't more CEO's get involved in the training of the organisation? Why is it difficult to have their perspective of the Training need? Does it mean, I don't trust HR? Absolutely not!!! But my experience is that many HR...

It's really really funny. I know of Training Companies whose Trainers are made to claim (who dares ask for proof from the Trainers?) on the floor that their training interventions reduced attrition in client companies, but when it comes to their own Trainers they haven't been able to reduce attrition at all. Many Trainers are leaving sooo soon and that too "hurt" . One of the reason is that most Training Companies (my previous experience and of my network of trainers experiences tell me) don't have any HR processes at all. The Owners / Franchisees run Training Companies like "lalas" with autocratic form of leadership. They don't even let their teams know how much business they do. These are the same guys who 'teach' client participants that other styles of leadership should be used. Another reason is payments of dues... I remember a hilarious incident.... I and the Training Co's BD Manager, were observers to a training program being deli...

In L&T, for a particular division in Mumbai, I coach small teams in delivering an effective presentation internally to their organisation's seniors. At times the coaching is to Supervisors who have to deliver a session to their newly promoted Supervisors. Recently it was for a competition. The fun of coaching such teams is that I'm working with practical application of the learning. In training workshops, the skills are surely enhanced but chances are many of these participants may not get an opportunity to present for the next many months. Presentation Skills / Public Speaking isn't like cycling or swimming.... once learnt, learnt for life. With these skills if you loose out on applying it regularly (at least once a week) the 'enhancement' starts coming back to the original position. If organisations, do not provide opportunities to practice the skill on a regular basis, then the training effectivness (and thus the ROI) may suffer. Can the trainer really be ...

I was in Chail, Himachal Pradesh, near Shimla for a NGO Training workshop. This is a hill station in HP but probably not as crowded as Shimla. Nice quiet place. Temperature about 23 deg. For 3 days that I was there, I went for an early morning walk on 2 of those days. The 2nd day, I started walking uphill, past a gurudwara and further on. This was about 6.30 am. There were houses on the way but "sleepy". I went further on. After about 30 minutes, I paused as I was panting. Suddenly it struck me that it was eerily quiet... few birds, funny croaking by hill crows.... and nothing else. The breeze was playing truant with the cedar trees... and no human sound at all. I was frightened., frightened of the silence and that I was alone. I didn't have the guts to go further on. I started back.... to the noises. I wonder why? Is it that for a hard-core Mumbaite like me, who is so used to sounds (high decibles), so used to voices and noise... this "silence" was terrifying.