Ajit Kamath Wizzes

One of my friends & a Faculty in a well-known B-school called me asking for advice: [He works as a Senior HR in a well-known organisation who also moonlights as a Visiting Faculty in a B-school. He is good in his subject, runs the class with a book and sharing his personal experiences. However energy wise he is low in energy in class (his age being on the higher side of 50)]. He is within a few years approaching retirement. He has an option of accepting VRS too with a good package. Now his question was whether he should take VRS and enter the field of Training as a Freelancer? For him Training would a good source additional income and would give him an opportunity to relax too. Now,my thought is "Why are we Trainers here?" For some of us it is "passion " - we have chosen to let go of our other careers and tansition to this field. And this is where we are going to be till a long time. However for some - it's a Pension Plan And for some others - its a Stop-G...

A year ago, my very dear Trainer friend Bhupesh Dave (a Magician too!) sponsored my ticket to a very vibrant session of Deepak Chopra at Shanmukhanand Hall, Mumbai. After the session, 4 of us Trainers (myself, Bhupesh, Sachin Kamath & Rajesh Tagore had an interesting conversation. Our observation was that Deepak Chopra in his 3 hour session, in his examples / andedotes / explanations dropped names of some important people like Dalai Lama etc.and surprisingly also of Trainers/Speakers. He also referenced books & articles of fellow trainers/speakers (who probably could be considered his competitors). Now cut to sessions by an Indian Trainer / Speaker. It's always about ourselves and when we do talk about other Trainers / Speakers, it would be more of Western Trainers/ Speakers/Authors whom either we have/haven't met or the audience may never have met. Rarely have I seen any Trainer mentioning about him/her having learnt from a colleague Trainer/Speaker from India itself. ...

I was recently invited by an Association to do a session for them. When I explored about fees, they told me that theirs was a charitable organisation. What does this mean? Don't these organisations pay for any services? What about their Auditors, Accountants and Staff. Y0u could be part of an organisation that does social service for the community. That's great!!! I am also a part of such organisations but that's my choice. How can your charity be my charity???? And when will you start valuing "Speakers" and the time they invest? Doctors charge, Lawyers & Accountants too, cos that's their profession. But Speakers aren't supposed to ... doesn't it sound strange. Even the Toast Master's expects a Speaker/Trainer to do a session for them gratis. Toast Masters being the flag bearers should understand that they can bring "value" to the profession. We had started a Speakers Club in Mumbai, India about 4 years back and every "Speaker...

Is mentioning as Ex employee or associate of an organisation, violates the copyright or patent rights ? .... Question asked in Trainers Forum by Manish Agarwal My thoughts: As per my knowledge, there is no law in India that prohibits you to use ex-Company as part of your profile. There could be some Companies who may have signed an agreement before you joined saying that you can't use their name in future and there could be non-competing clause too. We may have to check the legal validity of such clauses. I'm unsure but the Constitution of India (especially the Article that gives one a Right to practice a profession or vocation may support one here) Another thought is - if one can't use it then how come the Past Presidents, Past PM's etc. proudly mention it. Even MP's flaunt it.... and professionally retired Judges use it too. Further let's not forget ex-Army/Navy/Airforce who promptly put up Retd. Colonel / Captain / Cmde etc. in their business cards, letterhea...

Most trainers are merely PPT readers - a comment I read on linkedin to which I have put forth my observations below: I have an objection to the loose use of "most" by the originator of the comment here. It assumes that the person has observed all of us Trainers and then made a comment w.r.t. "most". If you had said "Most presenters are PPT readers" I would have agreed. I have had the privilege of conducting TTT's, observing many Trainers / Presenters / Speakers in Mumbai and have a fairly decent network of training friends from whom I have realised that the following: 1. Freelancers and people who get training assignments from Companies generally tend to use PPT more as an Aid and a Cue Card for remembering the flow. They don't end up being PPT readers. 2. There are many Trainers who absolutely don't use PPT at all / or to the basic minimum. They use powerful methodologies like Story Telling, Role Plays, Acitivites, Games, Role Modeling, Grou...

Question by Nisha Dhanuka on http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=48422&discussionID=7595367&sik=&trk=mywl_artile&goback=.mwg_48422_1 My Answer: Whilst designing the training program, I would find out the following: - Why is this training required (Needs) - What is expected to change after this training - Participant profile - Age, Experience, Level, Qualifications, Culture etc. (this would make me decide how the training moves; an e.g. a program for a logical oriented audience would be different from a creative audience - How many days do we have for this intervention. Delivery Styles would be individual but I believe can be trained and enhanced. If the above has been mapped, a passionate Trainer can easily adapt to their audience. 4 Basic Styles are: Lecturer Speaker / Presenter Trainer Facilitator A Trainer has to know how to Train & Facilitate, both. Methodologies and techniques need to be used for being effective in transfer of l...

Anne Thornley-Brown, President, Executive Oasis International answered my Question in Linkedin (here details are at the end of this post) Training and team building that isn't closely linked to the strategic direction of your organization and the real world issues and challenges of your business is a waste of time. It is really important for CEOs and other executives to be involved in training and team building to maintain this focus. Why? It is really important for CEOs and other executives to support team building and training to ensure that: - The company vision gets communicated clearly - You leverage each and every opportunity to reinforce the corporate culture you are trying to shape - Team building and training exercies get infused with real world issues, not theoretical cases - You have a feedback mechanism to help you keep your finger on the pulse so that you get unfiltered access to what is going on in your management team and on the frontline with clients Another importa...

How much of ‘entertaining’ is advisable in Training? What is the role of humor and fun in a learning environment? The question also how and how much? (The above were questions asked in linkedin) My thoughts: Games, Activities, Humor etc. surely make learning "Fun". I'm unsure whether we can call this 'entertainment' because this can take the Trainer away from the objectives of the learning session. I use instant humour more in the post-lunch space or if I feel that the energy levels of the participants has dipped. I would also decide the "how much" part of it, by mapping my audience well. For e.g. if it's a young crowd (college-going) then the session would be laced with humour and fun, but if it's a senior profile that I am handling, then I would 'tone-down' the humour and fun bit. In certain training programs such as Communication Skills, Presentation Skills, Negotiation Skills etc. the 'fun' element can be integrated as part o...

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...

Today was a wet rainy day. It had rained all night. Morning came, and wow!!! I was in Vienna. There is water all around our building. I stay on the ground floor but our architect /builder (more than 70 years ago) had foreseen water logging on our road. The ground floor is at a height of about 6 feet from the road level. Think of planning and proactivity. It was wonderful!!! The road was less noisy with only a few BEST buses passing by (all other traffic having stopped). When the bus came the waves also come in. The pleasant breeze was enjoyable too. Suddenly I remembered that I had a training program to go for. Now I wanted the water to go away. Unfortunately it didn't. I called up the client and spoke to them. They were accomodating. Raghunath (HR) told me it was fine and to take a call. At about 10 am, water disappeared, called up the client and they said we could still start the session at about 11.30 a.m. So off I was. Again at about 4 p.m. there was a scare and we had to clo...

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.

Yes, surely but depends on levels. Senior level training budgets are reduced but not training per se i.e. the venue and facilities aren't 5-star hotels anymore (nor residential resorts) but in the office conference room itself (has it's disadvantages but ;-) trainings are happening and no cuts). Similar is the situation for the mid-levels... the only hit is that people have been removed and therefore the no. of days engagement has been drastically reduced. The entry-levels and the junior level freelance trainers have been hit the most. No more bulk trainings... in many companies either being done by internal trainers or by functional heads.... outsourced trainers have been hit. Some companies have smartly started hiring full-time trainers so that a fixed salary could be paid and not per-day rates. This is the India perspective.

Last week was quite frightful. Monday onwards, I caught a viral and by God!!!, it just put me down. Fever on & off (as if someone was operating the switch here) and absolute tiredness. Just didn't want to wake up.... thankfully, not for ever! I was to travel out of country but had to postpone the trip. Client partners were wonderful in support (thankfully, didn't have many assignments going on). The good side... My voice has become husky I can sleep now at any time of the day without disturbance I connected to the net minimum (wow!!!) I woke up feeling "having slept".

March.... Possibly a month, where companies are concentrating on increasing their figures before the close of the financial year (in India). Planned Training would be at the minimum in March. Therefore in March, personally, I have a lot of time to reflect, meet clients, develop new business etc. Till last year, March was the time the smaller companies / unplanned HR / NGO's would rush to complete their (budgeted for) training. At times it was merely to complete an ISO requirement. But this year, due to market conditions these companies have no interest nor inclination. The heat of March!!!!

Genuine appreciation is what one looks out for and one starts valuing the appreciation and the appreciator. Let's explore our Indian culture .... The Appreciator (the one giving the appreciation) How many of us genuinely know how to appreciate? The appreciator is clumsy giving it and if the receiver is of the opposite gender, the appreciator is worried about what the receiver would think! Nowadays appreciating someone from the same gender isn't easy too. Even a Leader doesn't know how to give it. When appreciation is given in a 'open' environment, onlookers make faces that range from "Why" to "Flirt!!!". Sometimes even the receiver tries to find out the 'underlying intention' behind the appreciation. The Receiver (the one being appreciated) Secondly how many of us know how to "accept" appreciation? When appreciated, we are 'embarrassed' , we don't know how to react or respond, so we start a 'defensive' proce...