Learning From Each Other

When a teacher teaches a student, how many are learning?

Not one but two! Because the teacher also learns.

You may have heard or read it before. But Ghumakkad has been a firm believer in above dictum. It came alive earlier this week when I was invited to launch the opening day of a 14-day residential workshop on Project Management for senior officers from Nagaland Civil Service (NCS). It was organised by MCR HRD Institute, Hyderabad under the Capacity Building Program. The participants had travelled all the way from Nagaland to attend the Workshop. It was a privilege to be the opening resource person for the Workshop. Although I had taught at the Institute on many occasions earlier, it was after many years that I was back at the sprawling Jubilee Hills campus.

Project Management

All the five stages of Project Management as listed below are well known:

1. Initiation
2. Planning
3. Execution
4. Monitoring and Control
5. Closure and Evaluation

Experiential Learning

All the above topics were to be convered in detail in the remaining 13-days of the workshop. Therefore, what I decided was to launch the topic with real-life examples and lessons. These examples were shared not only by me but also by the participants themselves. It made the whole learning process more experiential. The real-life examples from their own State added value to our discussions. Experience sharing by the participants consolidated the underlying concepts and helped in internalisation of learning. It made the whole process interactive and worthwhile more so when I had to engage them for six hours on Day-1!

Issues Discussed

Some of the live issues concerning large government projects that were discussed are listed below:

1. Is the project really needed? Who gets benfitted and how?
2. Community buy-in of the project
3. Scope creep- how to deal with changes in project Scope
4. Measuring the Impact
5. Ensuing the quality of project execution
6. Replicability of the Project across other districts and States

Learnings for the Teacher

As I said a teacher also learns in the classroom. I had many takeaways from the interaction with the experienced officers of NCS. Some of the learnings are:

1. Development challenges in Nagaland
2. Cultural diversity across hill tribes
3. Fragile ecological system
4. Rich bio-diversity of the region
5. Excellent communication skills specially in English
6. Regional and national aspirations

Gratitude

I wish to thank all the participants from NCS for their patient listening and active participation. On completion, they surprised me by honouring me with their traditional hand-made stole brought from Nagaland. I felt deeply humbled to receive this honour.  

About the Stole

Called Konyak (or Kongnai in local Ao dialect), these stoles and shawls are iconic traditional handwoven textiles from Nagaland, characterized by their specific tribal motifs and cultural significance.These stoles are more than clothing; they represent tribal identity and ancestral roots. Historically, certain patterns were reserved for warriors or clan leaders. They typically feature bold colors like red (bravery), black (strength), and white (purity). Naga traditional shawls and stoles have received a Geographical Indication (GI) tag, recognizing their unique origin and traditional production methods.

Am reminded of a quote by Calvin Coolidge who said, "No person was ever honoured for what he received. Honour has been the reward for what he gave." Once again thank you all the NCS officers for your gesture.

Other Workshops

Workshops are a great way to learn especially for working professionals. Am sharing below the links to some of the workshops conducted by me on various topics. Just click the link to browse the corresponding story.

Teaching Design Thinking Differently - When your MBA students don't want to recommend the college to others, what do you do? Think differently. Click the link.

How to Empower the Volunteers? - 3Es of volunteering by Ghumakkad

More Than A Prison - A workshop for the officers from the prison department on personality development.

Make In India and Military Systems - A workshop at IIM Indore. Have we gone beyond the rhetoric? 

Workshops if conceived well and designed for 'doing' rather than 'slide-shows', are a great way of learning. The above examples would have given you a taste and flavour. Should you need any help, do reach out to me on email hbindia@gmail.com .

Thanks for browsing. Stay connected and do leave a comment. It encourages us.

   - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad/ Secunderabad/ 14th Feb 2026

#workshops #learningbydoing #educatingtheprofessionals #teaching #learning #interactivity #participants #diversity #internalisation #reallife #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #scopecreep

'Make in India' and Military Systems

'Make in India' -- have we gone beyond the slogan coined by none other than the PM of India?
Were we not 'making in India' before the slogan came?
Can Indian defence forces claim 'make in India'?

Ghumakkad attempted to answer these and similar questions pertaining to Military Systems in a customised workshop for serving Army officers at Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore. These officers belonged to the combat arms of Indian Army. The workshop was based on real-life experience of Ghumakkad while he served the Navy for 30 years. Eight different caselets spanning the spectrum of challenges faced during design, development, integration, financial approvals, life-cycle support and denial of technology by countries like USA were discussed. Case discussions generated lively debate and insightful analysis. However, the insights are not meant for open domain. Interested reader may contact Ghumakkad.

One aspect which came out loud and clear is the need for greater synergy between the defence services, research organisations and production agencies both in public and private sector.

Few pictures are here but not of the participants. It shows the campus both during the day and night.

Readers may browse an earlier story on 'Military Systems Management' here.

Ghumakkad also met few MBA students at IIM Indore who were alumni of BITS Pilani. It was such a pleasure meeting them. Though separated by 43 years, yet the bonding was instantaneous. Special thanks are due to GP- Gnanapriya Gnaprakasam of  IIM graduating class of 2017- and an alumnus of BITS Goa campus. These alumni graduated from Pilani and Goa campuses. 
A snapshot of the post on FB group 'BITSians for Each Other' follows:

Thanks are due to IIM Indore for such a wonderful opportunity and to all the participants from Indian Army for their active participation in case-based workshop.

Coming back to the question Is 'Make in India' a reality for defence forces? For the Indian Navy- certainly yes! And the credit for this achievement goes to the men in uniform of 1960s who had the vision and foresight to embark on the challenging path of 'Make in India'.

Thanks for browsing. Your comments and insights are most welcome.

    - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad/ 3rd November 2017

Teacher 10 on 10

Teachers expect their students to score 10/10. But are the teachers themselves 10/10? If they are not 'perfect', how can they become 10/10? This was the theme of Ghumakkad's workshop for 200+ teachers of St Mary's Educational Society in Hyderabad on 1st June 2017. Part of an annual two-day orientation program for all teachers, it was a great learning experience. Held at the compact campus of Sancta Maria International School, it caught the eye of Ghumakkad's lens as well.

 The open-air theatre does not guzzle power for ACs.

Ghumakkad as 'teacher's teacher' had many such opportunities in recent past. One criticism against college education is that it is distanced from reality. You can browse a one day workshop titled 'Bringing Realism into Classroom'-- conducted separately for Management and Engineering faculty members. Similarly, how to make 'Classroom a Fun Place' --you can get few practical ideas from Ghumakkad.

Teacher 10/10? 

We all remember our teachers. Or, at least one such teacher who made an impact on our life and how we learnt things. What was one distinguishing quality of such teachers? An on-line query on social media led to 200+ responses in 24 hours. Summary of desired quality/attribute in a teacher who could be called 10/10 follows. We validated these qualities with 200+ teachers present in the workshop. It was a perfect correlation. We thus felt satisfied with our methodology.

We categorised the desired qualities into six groups. Next challenge for us the teachers-- is how to develop each of these qualities? We shared some personal experiences on each of the six attributes/qualities. Am sure teachers will find it useful- both at college as well as senior school levels. More suggestions are welcome.

Summary of points discussed in the workshop are given below.

 Ghumakkad first thanked all his teachers as well as students for all the learnings in his life. Some of the organisations/institutions where Ghumakkad has taught are represented below.

 A live query was made to all the teachers present in the workshop. Their responses are summarised in the slide below.

 Summary of teachers' responses matched perfectly with on-line crowd sourcing done a day earlier! Whether you are a teacher or not, does your response match with the six groups of attributes which every teacher should have?

 Having identified the attribute how to develop it in a teacher? Few practical suggestions from Ghumakkad follow.

Universities and colleges have lofty visions and catchy tag lines. But as a teacher are you able to walk the talk?

To conclude, the diagram below says it all. Teachers must know the difference between teaching and learning. When the two merge magic happens!

As someone said..

We hope it has helped fellow teachers in soul searching. Please do not hesitate in reaching Ghumakkad for further help, if any.

Ghumakkad's session was followed by a very interesting session titled 'What Leaders should NOT do?' Taken by renowned management professional Prof Abhiram Krishna, it charged up the audience. Pictures.

Mr Reddy Chairman of the Society presented a memento to me. It was a framed painting done by a school child. Very thoughtful indeed.

As we say it's a small world. After the session, one of the faculty members came forward to introduce herself. She comes from a Naval family. Delightful meeting Miss Jyotsna.

While I was taking few pictures after my session, Prof Mathew caught me in the act. Picture below courtsey him.

Ghumakkad wishes to thank the organisers for a wonderful workshop and for the opportunity.

Thanks for browsing

   -   Harsh-the-Ghumakkad/ 1st June 2017  
       hbindia@gmail.com 

Finding Solutions Together

Ghumakkad takes you on a cerebral plane this time. Unlike most of the previous journeys which were on a physical plane, here we share a learning experience with officers from Indian Police Service (IPS), Forest Service, Postal Service, Revenue Service and other allied civil services.

A workshop titled 'HRM Functions in the Government' was conducted where more than 100 civil service officers having two to four years experience, participated. We had shared the contents of workshop briefing in a previous post. You may click here to browse it.

To make the learning experiential, we conducted a team workout. Each team had to discuss one assigned function of HRM as relevant to government set up, in detail. They had to then assess the pros and cons of existing HRM processes and mechanisms and suggest one improvement/change to make it more effective. Here are few action shots of the workshop.

In the end each team shared the issue as identified and the suggested solution. Two speakers in the picture below.



The workshop proved the point that 'learning by doing' is the best way to learn. Be it children in a school, students in a college or working professionals as in this workshop, learning by doing brings out the best in each participant. As can be seen from the summary of recommendations in the table below, the participants made a brilliant effort in the hour long workshop.

No.	HRM Function	Issue as Identified	Suggested Solution
1.	HR Planning	1.      Lack of National Integration	Promote National Integration through changes in cadre allocation policy
		2.      Lack of parity among All India Services	Pay and promotion parity among All India Services to be implemented
2.	Recruitment and Selection	Selection process skewed in favour of candidates from metropolitan cities and private english medium schools/ colleges	1.      Selection process be made more ‘situation-oriented’ rather than theoretical questions and assessment 2.      UPSC Members to include civil society leaders in place of pure academicians
3.	Training and Development (Officer cadre)	Induction Training (like the Foundation Course) based on archaic methods and not connected with ground realities	1.      Induction training at officer level should use more real life Case Studies, field visits, video clips to generate interest. Otherwise, most participants show disinterest and divert their time on next IAS exam/ chance! 2.      Training to be more ‘modular’ rather than ‘monolithic’ as at present. Focus to be on ‘learning by doing’ rather than lectures and PPTs.
4.	Training and Development (Staff level)	Wide gap between officers and staff and their training.	1.      Staff be given training to deal with public like for constables/others. 2.      Greater involvement of Officers in conduct of staff training. 3.      Language training for staff as applicable.
5.	Personnel Administration	Extraneous considerations in postings and transfers.	1.      Use a software based system for greater transparency and fairness. 2.      Software to use data like special skills (say anti-terrorist operations),  need for longer tenures in core assignments, past postings, individual preferences etc.
6.	Performance Appraisal	Present system very ‘sluggish’ and does not cater for performance linked appraisal	Revise the appraisal system to include target based reviews (as in the ‘Scrum’ system widely used in the industry), greater accountability and linking the incentives in an objective manner.
7.	Rewards and Recognition	Lesser focus on ‘Community Awards’ as compared with individual awards	Schemes like ‘Nirmal’ awards for village sanitation, be extended to other fields like education, healthcare, water, livelihoods generation, rural entrepreneurship etc which can improve the quality of life in rural India. Kerala government’s Best Panchayat award is a case in point.
8.	Succession Planning	Lack of succession planning in the government context	1.      For Group ‘A’ officers, ‘potential leaders’ to be identified early and assigned an in-service mentor for grooming. List of such potential leaders to be reviewed periodically and weeded out. Incentives for high performers. 2.      For ‘Promotee’ cadre: Similar grooming as per age and capability.
9.	Employee Relations	Organisational climate and culture dictated by the whims and fancies of top leadership	1.      Greater sense of belonging to be inculcated in all employees through departmental ‘Family Day’, Children’s competitions (for all children irrespective of rank or position of the parent)          ‘Innovative thinking’ by employees to be encouraged through ACR.
10.	Retirement and Exit	Limited choice of Pension Fund Managers	1.      Employees to be given wider choice of Pension Fund Managers 2.      Greater flexibility on choice of Annuity schemes
		Impact of OROP for the defence services	To be studied for applicability to the civil services.

Special thanks go to MCR HRD Institute Hyderabad for providing the platform for such an stimulating exercise and all the participants for making it an enriching experience.

So, remember 'learning by doing' is more effective as compared with lectures, presentations, films etc. In real life, we can find better solutions by working together.

Thanks for browsing,

    Harsh-the-Ghumakkad/ 15th Nov 2015