...
+91-80-42023484 contact@sincera.in
Business Operations Performance Challenges – Five Barriers to Operational Excellence

Business Operations Performance Challenges – Five Barriers to Operational Excellence

~A company can seize extra-ordinary opportunities only if it is very good at the ordinary operations. – Marcel Telles~

Top-line (Revenue) and bottom-line (Profit) growth are the two priorities that consistently show up in all reports on 2012 business trends. So, how do you ensure that your profits are growing while staying focused on achieving revenue growth? This is where excellence in Business Operations  becomes critical. Operational Excellence is a philosophy of leadership, teamwork and problem solving resulting in continuous improvement throughout the organization by focusing on the needs of the customer, empowering employees, and optimizing existing activities in the process (From Wiki). When people, processes and systems in a business are operating at 100% efficiency and productivity, excellence becomes a given and business goals and priorities no longer remain a wish-list.

In an ideal world, this should be an easy to achieve state – after all why would anyone not want their organization to succeed or why would systems and process not work at 100% efficiency?   I have written about how Business Operations can drive strategy to implementation in earlier posts. Today’s post is focused on the barriers within the organization that limit companies from achieving operational excellence:

Barrier # 1 – Organizational Silos (or Lack of Collaboration): Continuous improvement can only occur and be sustainable if there is a well-coordinated exercise that combines discrete steps into a combined effort. This is very difficult to do if each function in an organization acts independently and does not take into account how and where other functions can contribute to their improvement plans. Duplicate efforts, battles for credit and “left hand does not know what right hand is doing” scenarios become common-place leading to confusion and counterproductive results. If only everyone could sit together and collaborate to build and act on one plan that has a common goal and clear accountability for the steps necessary to achieve that, operational strategies would be so much easier to execute.

Barrier # 2 – Lack of Granular Information: As Sir Arthur C, Clarke said, it is vital to remember that information — in the sense of raw data — is not knowledge, that knowledge is not wisdom, and that wisdom is not foresight. But information is the first essential step to all of these. Financial systems crunch revenues and costs into categories that work well for financial reporting but are not granular enough for effective operations management. Not knowing what you don’t know is a big barrier to do any kind of realistic performance management. Multiple data sources and non-transparency in the sharing of information lead to conflicting information and thus to incorrect planning.  A year-long data and knowledge management strategy is a must for the successful creation of any plan that depends on trends and analysis.

“Few, if any, forces in human affairs are as powerful as shared vision. – Peter Senge”

Barrier #3 – Not enough Senior Management Commitment and Buy –In: This is one area that needs the full support of senior management in terms of consistency in direction setting and the will to enforce the much needed discipline. The functions are usually not well-aligned to the overall business goals – for example, sales runs after revenue growth and does not care about profitable growth, finance pushes for bottom-line  at the cost of top line improvement, delivery gives meeting milestones priority over costs. The message from the powers above on the business priorities needs to be loud and clear and consistent throughout the organization to create a culture where responsibility for performance is pervasive, accountable, and aligned.

Barrier #4 – Poor Planning for Success: Flawed processes for the basic building blocks of planning, budgeting and forecasting throws the entire year out of balance. Too often, these processes are executed in a top-down manner with no tying-in of the strategic goals to the execution steps. People lose focus and direction when they can’t envisage exactly how they are contributing to the high level goals. Whether it be an annual or a quarterly exercise, clear guidelines for planning and execution of the plans goes a long way to ensure that you retain sufficient control over where and how operations needs to focus on during the period to meet the business goals.

Barrier #5 – Outdated Systems and Technology: Legacy performance management systems and spreadsheet-based processes bog down managers in endless detail and eat up large amounts of their time trying to shuffle between systems and sheets and integrate the output of multiple systems. They spend 80% of time getting the systems to work for them and 20% of time on actually executing on the information (Pareto at work again). This is a huge pain point, and one that champions of business performance management (BPM) initiatives often target first. Getting your technology updated to best support your business objectives is a good investment and worth every penny in the long run – as it frees up your resources to spend more time on analysis and execution.

That said, these barriers are not ones that cannot be overcome with a little bit of focus and a lot of effort. With the right tools in place supported by smart people, realistic planning, and the desire to catalyze positive change across the organization, it is indeed possible to make significant improvements to accelerate the journey towards operational excellence.

I would love to hear back from you on your experiences with performance initiatives? What worked and what did not? What were the barriers that you faced in implementing operational strategies?

Top Recruitment Quotes on How Recruiting Drives Business Success

Top Recruitment Quotes on How Recruiting Drives Business Success

The foundation of every organization is based on the nature of people that are hired to run it. We believe that most people don’t realise how important the job of a recruiter is and the value that a good recruiter brings to the table. Most recruiters themselves, lost in the busyness of day to day battles for finding the best talent on time for their companies, do tend to forget how much business depends on their success and how important what they do is to the business strategy. For all those who think being a candidate is tough, spend a day in the shoes of a recruiter and you’ll know how much pressure the person interviewing you might be in, and what it is like under the supposedly calm exterior of a recruiter.

We thought it would be a great idea to reinforce the importance of recruiting and recruiters in your minds by taking the help of some very smart and wise people over time whose words still ring true in the World of Work. Here are the top recruitment quotes that we believe best reflect the strategic importance of recruiting and why it is a business-critical function:

  1. “If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind it, you almost don’t have to manage them.” Jack Welch

  1. “Some people can do one thing magnificently, like Michelangelo, and others make things like semiconductors or build 747 airplanes — that type of work requires legions of people. In order to do things well, that can’t be done by one person, you must find extraordinary people.” Steve Jobs

  1. “Since we do not take a man on his past history, we do not refuse him because of his past history. I never met a man who was thoroughly bad. There is always some good in him if he gets a chance.” Henry Ford

  1. “For no matter what we achieve, if we don’t spend the vast majority of our time with people we love and respect, we cannot possibly have a great life. But if we spend the vast majority of our time with people we love and respect – people we really enjoy being on the bus with and who will never disappoint us – then we will almost certainly have a great life, no matter where the bus goes. The people we interviewed from the good-to-great companies clearly loved what they did, largely because they loved who they did it with.” Jim Collins

  1. If you think hiring professionals is expensive, try hiring amateurs.” Anonymous

  1. “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.” Chinese Proverb

  1. “If you can hire people whose passion intersects with the job, they won’t require any supervision at all. They will manage themselves better than anyone could ever manage them. Their fire comes from within, not from without. Their motivation is internal, not external.” Stephen Covey

  1. “Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if you don’t have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it; it’s true. If you hire somebody without [integrity], you really want them to be dumb and lazy.” Warren Buffet

  1. “Never hire someone who knows less than you do about what he’s hired to do.” Malcolm Forbes

  1. “When hiring key employees, there are only two qualities to look for: judgement and taste. Almost everything else can be bought by the yard.” John W Gardner

  1. “You can have the best strategy and the best building in the world, but if you don’t have the hearts and minds of the people who work with you, none of it comes to life.” Renee West

  1. “I hire people brighter than me and then I get out of their way.” Lee Iacocca

  1. “You can’t teach employees to smile. They have to smile before you hire them.” Arte Nathan

  1. “If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.” David Ogilvy

  1. “If you hire only those people you understand, the company will never get people better than you are. Always remember that you often find outstanding people among those you don’t particularly like.” Soichiro Honda

Recruitment is both an art and a science. And for all those who are in the recruitment profession, be very proud of what you do – you change people’s lives, you help build companies, and you keep the country’s economy running.  What can be a higher calling than this ? And for all those who are not into recruitment, we hope that this post will help increase your respect for recruiters and appreciate their work more. We encourage you to go thank a recruiter today 🙂

Which is your favorite among the top recruitment quotes of all time? We would love to hear from you! Write to us or comment below.

Five Pointers to Make Your Business Proposal Stand Out as the Best

Five Pointers to Make Your Business Proposal Stand Out as the Best

A Business Proposal or Sales Proposal is often the first strong knock on the doors of a prospective client. Whether it is in the form of a word document or presentation, it has to be impressive and paint such a compelling picture that the customer just can’t wait to pick up the phone and schedule a face to face meeting with you. You get the entry that you need to pitch your product/service and abilities. Writing and reviewing hundreds of business proposals has made me realize one thing – there is a method to this madness and no proposal is too big or too complex – if you follow certain basic guidelines in the creation process:

Pointer #1: It is not about You – the goal of any proposal is to address the specific customer requirements and pain points. Put yourself in the shoes of the customer and structure the proposal in the best way that answers the customer’s stated or implicit questions. Persuade them that you know the questions and have the answers through your proposal. To do this, ensure that your proposal and every section in the proposal addresses five questions Who, What, How, When and So What:

  • Who – will do this?
  • What – needs to be done?
  • How – will you do it?
  • When – will all the milestones occur?
  • So What – will the customer benefit by having you do it?

Pointer #2: Format and Template – Usually the customer specifies the format and structure of the business proposal. Comply with this religiously. Any additional information that you think would be useful in nudging the customer decision in your favour should go into the appendix. If the customer hasn’t specified the response structure, then create the template keeping in mind the questions in Pointer #1. Your proposal should be easily readable and information easy to find. Use indexing and linking within the proposal. Use headings for your sections and labels for your diagrams to draw attention. For some large RFPs (Request For Proposal), especially in government and public sectors, different departments could be given different sections of the proposal to evaluate. So it is important that every section by itself has the context and the references to other sections that might be relevant. Don’t make your customer work too hard or spend a lot of time puzzling his way through your proposal.

Pointer #3 – Optimize against Evaluation Criteria – Most business proposal requests lay out how they will score the vendor for the response. If not, ask the customer about their key evaluation criteria. Compliance to all aspects of the bid is very critical to pass the first stage. So read the fine print carefully before you start putting your efforts to it. Check the submission date and create a timeline to ensure that you meet the deadline. Focus and give more time on those aspects that are most important to the customer and will give you the scoring edge.

Pointer #4 – You do need a Super Executive Summary – Your introduction in the form of the executive summary should actually be the “conclusion” of your proposal. The rest of the business proposal serves to provide the supporting points to add credibility to your introduction. Brainstorm on what the customer needs (as opposed to wants), how you are going to satisfy those needs and why they should do business with you and none else. Summarize the salient points of this into your executive summary first and then start with the rest of your proposal; again it should be more about the customer than about you.

Pointer #5 – Keep it Simple – Minimize buzz words, don’t overwhelm with information just because you have some great content ready, make it visually attractive – sometimes a picture does speak a thousand words. Give a day or two to proofread and review the proposal. Spelling and grammar are yes, important – you don’t want to project yourself as someone who does not care about the details enough.

First impression is everything in hunting and winning business. Use your business proposal to stand out in the crowd and make a lasting impact. I would love to hear your views on what challenges you face in responding to proposals and how you tackle them….

How to Succeed at Freelancing in India – Your Essential Guide

The concept of Freelancing has been fast to catch on in India, and can be just the thing for people aspiring for more freedom and flexibility in their work. At Oorja Biz Ops, some of us have been there and done that, and thought it would be useful to compile some market data and our experiences into a quick and essential guide on how to succeed at Freelancing in India. This is for those of you who are considering or are walking on this road of freelancing. If you are looking to quit your full-time job to work as a freelancer and perhaps set out to achieve your entrepreneurial ambitions, here are some things you need to know.

How to Succeed at Freelancing in India – What is Freelancing?

Simply put, freelancing is working for yourself. You are a “free agent” and choose your own clients. You are self-employed and hired to work for different companies on particular assignments. There are multiple interpretations now of the freelancing term.  You could be one of the following types of freelancers:

Independent contractors: Their work is project based, however they do not have an employer.

Moonlighters: They do freelance work in addition to their day job – after work and/or weekends

Diversified workers: They have various sources of employment, mixing traditional jobs with freelance.

Temporary workers: Their work is project based, but they have a single temporary employer.

Freelance business owners: They could be sole proprietors or have hired a small team, but are essentially freelancers .

Note: When we say, freelancing is working for yourself – the key word here is WORKING. Many people enter into freelancing thinking it is an easy way to be your own boss, or perhaps sit at home earning money doing nothing. Nothing could be farther from the reality. It is very hard being a freelancer, perhaps harder than being in a regular job. According to a study cited in The Economist, freelancers work an average of 6% more hours per week compared to those in employment. If you want a fulfilling freelancing career, YOU HAVE TO WORK very very hard for it. But then nothing good ever came easy, right? Our Essential Guide on How to Succeed at Freelancing in India  is intended to make you aware of some of these challenges and help you get prepared so that you can enter into the “Fun” stage of freelancing.

How to Succeed at Freelancing in India – What Can You Do?

The right question to ask here is – what are the in-demand skills in the freelancing market that match my skills and area of expertise? If you want to have a long term and successful freelance career, offer a service that you know people want. Choosing something you love doing without checking whether there is a market for that is a folly. As Kelly James-Enger, author of Six Figure Freelancing says:

“‘Follow your heart and do what you love’ is just a slogan. You need to get real. If you’re not offering a service people are willing to spend money on, you’re not going to be in business [for long].”

Here are some of the skill categories that are popular in India and an approximate wage range for each of them (Source – Economic Times):

How to Succeed at Freelancing in India – How to Price Yourself?

Setting and negotiating rates often feels like one of the most complicated and intimidating parts of freelancing. In order to set a rate that is appropriate for your skills, education and experience a freelancer must first understand the freelance market. Payoneer surveyed over 23,000 freelancers worldwide in order to determine the average hourly rates charged by freelancers. Here are some key findings:

  • The worldwide average hourly rate charged by freelancers is $21
  • Over three quarters of respondents are male (78%)
  • Freelance professionals work an average of 36 hours per week (7 hours per day for a 5-day work week)
  • The worldwide income satisfaction level of freelancers is 46%
  • Over 80% of the professionals surveyed work on 1 to 3 jobs at a time
  • Almost half of freelancers find projects via online marketplaces
  • The preferred social media channel to promote freelancing skills is Facebook

Now the India specific data (Read the full report here) :

  • The average hourly rate charged by freelancers in India is $19
  • Almost half of the clients that Indian freelancers work with are based in Asia, The Americas are also an important region, with over a quarter of the professionals’ clients residing there.
  • On average, freelancers with a higher level of education are charging more. This suggests that hiring companies and professionals do take education into account when selecting their freelancers, in addition to their experience, portfolio, and skills.
  • Professionals in Sales & Marketing are not only the most hard working, but also hold the highest level of income satisfaction in India (followed closely by freelancers in Finance & Management, and IT & Programming), while those in Writing & Translation are at the lowest level of satisfaction as well as working the fewest hours per week. It appears that there is a direct correlation between hours of work and income satisfaction, suggesting that many freelancers would ideally like to find more work.
  • The worldwide satisfaction level of Indian freelancers is at 36%.

The table below from Upwork (Previously Elance-Odesk) will give an indicative idea on the average rate per hour that you could earn on the skills that are in demand internationally. These wage numbers come from the combined databases of Elance and Upwork, and are based on the average hourly rate for each skill between January 1 and May 31, 2015.

How to Succeed at Freelancing in India – Where Do I Find Work?

Want to break a leg in the world of freelancing? Start networking! The first and the best gigs that you get will most likely be through your own network. Meet up regularly with people who you think would be open to outsourcing or can recommend you to someone who would.  Shamelessly tap your friends/relatives and into their networks. Use social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to spread the word. The biggest challenge in Freelancing is finding enough clients on a regular basis to give you the income you need sustainably. And for that, branding yourself and marketing your skills and expertise effectively becomes critical. You have to keep putting yourself out there till you build a reputation – then people start coming to you !

Sign up/register with Freelance communities and marketplaces to get a steady flow of work and more choice.  The most popular international freelance sites are Upwork.com and Freelancer.com. Fiverr.com too is popular Indian websites, too, are gaining popularity with some niche sites as well. However, do conduct a background check before you engage with these websites.
(Source – Economic Times – note that Elance is now Upwork)

How to Succeed at Freelancing in India – Mind-Shifts that You Need to Make:

Freelancing definitely isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Things change. And things change rapidly. Your success or failure completely depends on You.  Most of the changes would have to be in your mindset – your thoughts and approach to situations and your ability to plan and decide. Here are five things you need to know before making the big shift from quitting your full time job to becoming a freelancer:

  1. Finance: The comfort and assurance of a pay check at the end of the month will no longer exist. Along with all the joys of being a freelancer also comes the risk of financial insecurity. Start with calculating the minimum income you need (be realistic!) to sustain your lifestyle, then work out the income you need to cover the “bare essentials”. Before you ditch your full-time job to commit to full-time freelancing, be certain that you can earn atleast enough to meet the minimum initially. We recommend having a nest egg to cover your expenses for the first three months atleast (more if you are the sole income earner in the household). Incomes from freelancing go from feast to famine and back again pretty much as a norm. Be prepared. There is a lot of cost cutting and budget planning you will have to meticulously do to be able to spend and save responsibly. And for sure, it has to be more saving (including investments for the future like insurance, etc.) than spending.
  2. Time: How you use your time is paramount and the sole condition to your success. You will realize that “time is money”, and the method in which you time and plan your work will be directly proportional to how much you are able to earn. It is easy to get into the schedule of a workaholic, which is something you should ideally be careful of. Remember, it is only when you enjoy your work that you will be able to sustain yourself and your business.
  3. Abilities and Skills: Once a freelancer, you are solely responsible for your growth. Your learning and skill development could either come to a grinding halt, because you would have no direct motivation to invest time in it anymore, or you could, once in every few months, look back, re-assess and re-plan. Stay abreast to stay competitive.
  4. Resources aka Technology and Tools: It will be solely your responsibility to set up your own support framework in terms of technology and tools, and ensure that it does not let you down. You know, as well as we do, that when this one thing goes wrong, you will lose out on money, time and since time is money, both. Capitalize on your strengths, and do not be afraid to delegate what you are not good at, because trying to micromanage everything never quite works.
  5. Staying Afloat: When you took, or take, the decision to become a freelancer, it was solely yours. It is essential that you do so, keeping all the pros and cons in mind. It is quite a daunting task to be able to go out there all on your own and pursue your aspirations. Every time you feel the pressure getting to you, keep reminding yourself why you ended up there in the first place, so that you stay afloat.

To work for yourself, be your own boss AND have a steadily increasing income is a dream for most. Only very few have the courage and the attitude to transform this into reality. There is no better time than today to be a freelancer in this new open-work, skill driven economy. And as our mentor, Seth Godin says (Check out his course for freelancers) – Each of us gets to choose the sort of freelance work we will do. This is a profound freedom, and one that we often ignore, wasting the opportunity…….When you move up the ladder, step by step, the work gets more rewarding. We each start as a replaceable cog, open to taking whatever is offered. With focus and effort, though, you can go all the way to becoming a remarkable creator with few substitutes. Along the way, you will gain respect, income and freedom.

What did you think of our Essential Guide for Freelancing in India – we would love to hear back from you. If you are a freelancer, we welcome you to share your feedback on this post and/or your experiences as a freelancer for our readers. If you want to become a freelancer and have a question that we have not answered, ask away here or email us at contact@oorjabizops.com if you want to keep your aspirations confidential.

Happy Freelancing Journey!

Header Pic courtesy : http://khalidfarhan.com/

Five Obvious (but Uncommon) Methods to Build Great Teams

Five Obvious (but Uncommon) Methods to Build Great Teams

Whether it is a strategic goal or an operational mandate, the success of every business objective ultimately depends on one and only one factor – How good is your team? The best visionaries and managers can achieve very little if they don’t have a motivated, energized and effective team under them. Great Teams just don’t fall in place automatically, they are built. It takes considerable effort and strategy to build great teams that thrive on challenges and makes work look like fun and a great adventure.

Management is nothing more than motivating other people ~ Lee Iacocca

In my years of being managed in and managing tiny, large, diverse, global and multi-functional teams, I have learnt along the way that there are some pretty obvious methods to build and sustain a high value team of best performers:

Build Great Teams Method #1: Hire for Attitude

We hear this quite a lot but what does it really mean? To me, it means looking for enthusiasm more than expertise, integrity more than degree and thirst for knowledge more than experience. Skills can be taught but it is quite difficult to change behaviors and attitude. Destructive behaviors are very contagious and a few people with a bad attitude can ruin the performance of an entire team no matter how good the rest are. It is important to filter for the best from the start or prune the bad apples the first chance you get.

Build Great Teams Method #2: Give Autonomy (with Accountability)

People are in their best performance “zones” when they find meaning in the work they do. Work is no longer just a job with a salary in today’s global 24/7 environment, it is significantly integrated into our lives. People need to be deeply engaged and feel that they are making progress every day in their lives through their work. One way to do this is to cultivate the concept of entrepreneurship within teams. Assign goals (and not tasks) to your team and give them sufficient autonomy and authority to work towards these goals. “I don’t know” is sometimes the best answer that a leader can give to promote initiative and dynamism within the teams.

Build Great Teams Method #3: Respect (Lots of it)

Cultivate a culture of respect and be a model for it. Promote mentoring within teams and break silos. The best teams discuss, debate and challenge each other on the way to achieving the remarkable while being respectful of each other’s uniqueness. Celebrate this uniqueness and the value that every member of the team brings to the table. When people respect each other, trust in each other’s abilities soon follows and it becomes much easier to make the right decisions to achieve common goals.

Build Great Teams Method #4: Practice Transparency (Enable Communication and Collaboration)

You cannot expect people to operate blind and still give their best output.  Technology has made the sharing of information and the levels of interaction much easier – use this to your and the team’s advantage to ensure that the right hand knows what the left hand is doing. Free flow of information empowers team to collaborate and enables rapid progress.

Build Great Teams Method #5: Appreciate, Appreciate and Appreciate

Yes, I can’t say this often enough and I am not talking about the carrot and stick approach. Genuinely and sincerely demonstrate that you value your team by thanking them every opportunity that you get. Make it a priority to notice when people are doing things right or are going out of their way to ensure the success of the team. Celebrate this publicly and privately. This lifts people up, it makes people feel safe and that they matter. This in turn frees them up to perform and contribute at their highest levels.

As I mentioned earlier, the methods are pretty obvious but the simplest methods are always the most effective. It surprises and saddens me to see how often managers don’t practice this. Can’t sum this post up better than Tom Peters:

A soaring vision is desirable.

An effective strategy is important.

Super-processes are a necessity.

But in the end, it’s all about … THE PEOPLE!*

*It’s ALWAYS all about

… THE PEOPLE!

What have your experiences been in building and in being part of successful teams? What would you have done better? I would love to know.

Five Practices to be a Rockstar Trainer – Towards Creating Successful Learning Experiences

Five Practices to be a Rockstar Trainer – Towards Creating Successful Learning Experiences

The problem that many organizations face today is not a shortage of people in the market, it is a shortage of skills.  Research in Corporate Learning tells us that organizations suffer from a “skills supply chain” challenge. Not only do more than 70% of organizations cite “capability gaps” as one of their top five challenges, but many companies also tell us that it takes 3-5 years to take a seasoned professional and make them fully productive (Bersin Feb’14).

Shift Happens

So if you are a trainer, you are in quite an empowered position. A position of responsibility. And one of creating change – in peoples’ skill sets, their world views, the trajectories of their work and lives. Good managers and mentors need to be good trainers as well. But for the sake of this post, let’s stick to trainers and the practices that can make trainers empowered to deliver successful trainings – trainings that can expand the learning minds.  By the end of this post, I believe that you will agree with me that these practices can be applied to other positions of responsibility as well. For this post, I invited Nilisha Mohapatra to share her learnings from her experience as a trainer and as a trainer of trainers.

Each one of us at some point has interacted with a trainer and learned with them, mostly in a professional setting.  Trainers can be for a wide range of skills – from technical skills like agile methodologies, six sigma, process improvement, to soft skills such as communication, leadership and confidence. Trainers abide by content and experience, and whatever be the training, the objective is ultimately the same – to add value to an individual’s experience and expand her horizon.  Being a trainer myself, there are a few important things I have learnt over time that have helped me become more effective as a trainer, creating sharp impact. No matter what the training session is about, it is the uniqueness of the trainer’s methodology and approach that makes the difference between a Boring Brain-numbing session and a Useful Brain-expanding session. And to allow that edge to come into play, there are five things that I keep in mind always. Here they are:

You are a Facilitator. The trainer approach is somewhat passé now. A facilitator by definition is someone who creates a space for the group to come alive in, for collective learning to happen through group processes. A facilitator may or may not be subject matter experts. Even if they are, the practice is never inclined towards lecture-driven learning. It is more about creating an experience. Facilitators trust the group’s collective wisdom and take part in shaping skills through sharing of power and balancing group dynamics. I quite enjoy this approach as this allows me to blend with the group, breaking hierarchies. I view trainings/workshops as a developmental processes where my objective is to enable the participants with a new lens/skill. This process of enabling I believe is one of mutual participation, as opposed to a traditional directive. Hence, I am at a workshop to facilitate learning. Not give it.

If you feel you are listening enough, know that there is more to listen to. Listening happens at multiple levels. More so at the non-verbal levels. Many a times I’ve found a huge difference between what participants share vs what they really think. Try finding signals that can bridge the gap to create genuine and unique learning experiences. Resistant body language, sheer silence, questions, argumentative or defensive tones, extremely high or low energies are some indicators I always look out for.

The more you accept, the more change you can create. It is tough to take a neutral stand always as facilitators.  Being non-judgmental is a challenging skill to nurture, and requires a lot of unlearning. The key to being non-judgmental lies in acceptance.  Validating each person and just accepting their points of view, doubts, resistances, success, makes them feel heard. And then they move towards change of behaviour and skills by acknowledging the new direction suggested in the training. It is a buy-in process. I have had struggles with this. Each time I have not practiced acceptance, the learning has been incomplete or ineffective. Asking curious questions to understand, allowing a variety of opinions into the space, and solid breathing are ways to practice this. As I have accepted, I have changed. And as I have changed, so has the group. Visualize your mind as an open bowl, which keeps filling with what you experience, and never over flows. Be the light and not the critic to let the learning happen.

Change is a tumultuous process. Even in the easiest or safest of environments. Haven’t we all experienced change and been overwhelmed by it? So how can we expect a group of people to just take on something new in a jiffy, without any resistance? Shunning old ways is a mammoth task. A new skill needs practice, on top of all the other skills. A new programme needs testing. A new behaviour needs strengthening. All this needs time and is met with road blocks. Reminding myself of this process of learning has helped me be a more supportive facilitator instead of a demanding tyrant!

Everything that happens in the workshop is a process of feedback. The old saying of what goes around comes around plays out beautifully in a workshop. Always. Whenever I have given in more energy and life to the training, the participants have come alive, sharing more of their energy. When I have shared stories of my own learning and skill building process, that has helped me establish credibility and helped the participants understand the process of learning. If my tone, ideation, validation has been flat, I have only been met with blank faces. This is the potent feedback process that plays out in training, and it helps to be aware of it.


As I understand today, these practices are primarily about training myself first, before I try to engage someone else in a learning process. Isn’t that where the magic starts? In my experience, as and when I have put these practices to use, the more I have been able to unravel about human potential development. This has become my Pandora’s Box for workshops.  And people in leadership positions who have chosen these practices are some of the most charismatic and influential leaders I have known.

We would love to know what your thoughts and experiences are on enabling learning in workshops and in your teams. We look forward to hearing and learning from you.

Nilisha is trained as a Mentor Trainer, delivering complex training to Indian volunteers learning to become mentors to disadvantaged children. She has a Masters in Applied Psychology and has transformed herself into a creative and inspiring trainer who both taught acceptance and behaviour change as well as living the principles in her training. This is Nilisha (@NilishaM)’s sixth guest post for Happy In The Now and you can read all her blogs at fantasycluster.wordpress.com