Future Manager Program "Day 1" -- Introduction, Oral Communication and Assertive Communication
Today was my first day in Future Managers Program. As usual I got up in the morning at 6.30am and did my exercise using my Bull Worker. At 7.15 I realised I need to go to E-city and I rushed to take my bath and got ready by 7.45. I started driving fast from my house near Malleshwaram, But to my usual luck all the company buses had started passing via my traversing path and the traffic was pretty slow moving.
Somehow I reached E-city at 8.30am by going on the service road and going in between company buses and cars. When I reached their I came to know that it is in EC-1 which I had never new where it was. I started walking by asking the training to all the people whomever I could find on the way. Anyway I reached there by 8.40. I saw that Kailash (only guy whom I new in the training program)and other participants were coming out of the training and Kailash asked why was I late. Anyway I could not explain to him as he along with others were going to the next training room. I was not realising what was happening in the training. So I went and sat inside Venus training room, expecting them to return.
Aravindan from TISP sat beside me. Though I had interacted very less with him, I found him very interesting person. By then all the other participants started entering. They started discussing with Usha (Mentor) what they had observed in the next training room. In the beginning I was not able to relate what they were discussing in the beginning, later I found that they were suppose to find the differences between the two training rooms.
Later Usha started telling the importance of starting on time, just as any other . Later I also found that Kailash was the only person who had come exactly on time (8.30am) and rest including me had started pouring in just like drizzle. She had got really wild with our behaviour. She gave her normal introduction which was quite extraordinary. She had got many degrees and I dont remember them now. She started telling about Talent Transform and introducing the different faculty. As I had never seen any faculty or heard about them I started getting bored about the introduction. So as usual I just raised the interrupt int 3 and asked why we are being introduced to them if we are not going to meet them. But as usual I got an answer that it was a part of her introduction to FMP.
She started with Oral communication and team building activity for the same. The activity was to talk to a person whom they wanted to talk and get connected. At the end of the activity we analysed how many could we connect to and how many were we able to remember and connect with. Aravindan put some point which I dont remember but the discussion lead to whom he really wanted to meet. He wanted to meet Varun and Varun not knowingly moved away to meet somebody else. So Usha asked to shake hands but Varun while shaking his hand didnt make eye contact. Usha asked him to always make eye contact else the he will not be able to make real impact. Usha wanted to show us a video about public speaking. Unfortunately, as usual video player or some connection was not proper. So to fill in the time Usha formed two teams in which each team was suppose to move in the corridor in opposite direction. When they meet each other they are suppose to introduce themselves and I tried my best to remember everybodies names. Well my effort was useless and not many could I remember.
Somehow the video setup was ready and in the video some great public speaker "Patricia Fripp" whom I never new, spoke. But I found her pretty interesting. She put lot of things about public speaking like how we need to start our speech, when humour should be used, how you need to you need to put the facts and story to make your speech more powerful. I started relating all these to my technical communication in MS and Professional communication and report writing in BE. These were really helpful to me in many cases and I have tried it a lot. But Patricia Put it across in a much better way. She brought humour, the end audience, a story and various instances of real life in a better way. But I didnt like the way in which she told her real life story. I felt it was rather pale. In this discussion we came across my first question of why were we introduced to the FMP staff. It was a direct question but many in the room found it very harsh. Sooraj also added that he really wanted to know about them and had really interrupted his thoughts.
From here Usha gave a precis of what Particia talked and how we could use in real life. Later she went into different principles of oral communication. I really dont remember any of them. May be in future programs I would make notes of the slides, as things which are priciples or postulate or what so ever, If i dont relate I wouldnt be able to remember. If somebody could help I will be more than happy. Please help me in relating those things. We again watched a different video. In the video a bald man, pretty jovial who told how well we could be jubiliant etc. But the music and his talks were making me lost and getting deviated from the discussion. I felt that, had he put his ideas without music I would have understood things much better. I was getting carried away by the music(the beethohoven) one of my favourites. Later we discussed about the video. But this video and presentation ate away our introduction to the entire team. This was the opportunity where we had to make the maximum impact on the team.
After the lunch we had the assertive communication program. Revati was our mentor and she had 16yrs or 16months of experience. She was pretty jovial and she always had a smile on her face. Only thing which I didnt like was her voice, she didnt have the effective timber or the power which would make people listen. In spite of this she was able to put lot of ideas about assertive communication. One more thing which I observed was, she was trying to fit in lot of concepts in the short duration and was rushing through in the end. She was suppose to finish her program within 3hrs as Azim Premji was suppose to meet them.
We then started with the discussion on assertive communication. She appropriately got an analogy by drawing a swinging pendulum. First she asked us what is it and as usual I misinterpreted as 'T'. It was a swinging pendulum and the edges of the T were middle, left and right extremes of a pendulum. How could we need to be assertive by not swinging to the extremes of our feelings. The left extreme was being extremely aggressive and right extreme was to be completely submissive. If we are submissive we would be bullied by others. If we are too aggressive we either loose a team with which we are working with or friends with whom we are with. But being assertive is being more positive and have balance between the two extremes.
Also during the program we discussed about the creating a win-win situation if there is a cut throat competition. For this Revati gave really a good instance. She called prity and asked to arm wrestle with her. She also added that if prity pushes her hand to left, Ravi would pay Rs 5 to prity and if Revati pushes the hand to right she will get Rs 5. from Ravi. But in this case prity was trying to win not realizing that she could win more money if they swing her hands both sides. Thus it is always good to have a win - win situation. But Kalyani also raised a valid point, what would revati should have done, had Ravi had not offered the money; then it would have become a competition. Revati answered it really well. In this particular scenario it is always required to win the competition but by playing it fair and even. Revati also gave a good example of a person being possessive of his new car. How we need to be assertive and create a win - win situation if a friend who is accident prone asks you to give the keys his car.
We watched a video which talked about the assertive communication. It brought pretty good scenarios which also gave instances to understand the concepts. Later we went out for coffee break. In coffee break Sooraj brought really a good fact about Indians. A third factor, that is ego. When there is a discussion/debate between two persons ego is one thing which comes in between a lot. Which most of the foreign videos dont cover at all. I did feel his point right.
Post tea break we were divided into three teams which were named as April Assertive, Donald Doormat and I dont remember the third guy. We were suppose to group together and jot down some points why does a person act or behave to be a doormat or aggressive or assertive. We all came with our won ideas but Revati summarised all our points into one single one. It was the fear which causes them to behave that way. She also gave how the FEAR acronym was formed F-Fall E-evidence A-appearing R-Real or Feel Everthing And Run. This I really felt very good. But I feel we could have discused more on being assertive, as she was busy she had rushed through the slides.
At the end of the day I got the concept, but had we discussed some more real life scenarios like in Client locations, Manager and team member etc could have helped me a lot. It should have been more on real life scenarios. Because I felt even I could have given those fundas, but had the mentors given more instances we could have grasped it much better and inculcated it in our real life. I would expect at least future classes would go better.
Somehow I reached E-city at 8.30am by going on the service road and going in between company buses and cars. When I reached their I came to know that it is in EC-1 which I had never new where it was. I started walking by asking the training to all the people whomever I could find on the way. Anyway I reached there by 8.40. I saw that Kailash (only guy whom I new in the training program)and other participants were coming out of the training and Kailash asked why was I late. Anyway I could not explain to him as he along with others were going to the next training room. I was not realising what was happening in the training. So I went and sat inside Venus training room, expecting them to return.
Aravindan from TISP sat beside me. Though I had interacted very less with him, I found him very interesting person. By then all the other participants started entering. They started discussing with Usha (Mentor) what they had observed in the next training room. In the beginning I was not able to relate what they were discussing in the beginning, later I found that they were suppose to find the differences between the two training rooms.
Later Usha started telling the importance of starting on time, just as any other . Later I also found that Kailash was the only person who had come exactly on time (8.30am) and rest including me had started pouring in just like drizzle. She had got really wild with our behaviour. She gave her normal introduction which was quite extraordinary. She had got many degrees and I dont remember them now. She started telling about Talent Transform and introducing the different faculty. As I had never seen any faculty or heard about them I started getting bored about the introduction. So as usual I just raised the interrupt int 3 and asked why we are being introduced to them if we are not going to meet them. But as usual I got an answer that it was a part of her introduction to FMP.
She started with Oral communication and team building activity for the same. The activity was to talk to a person whom they wanted to talk and get connected. At the end of the activity we analysed how many could we connect to and how many were we able to remember and connect with. Aravindan put some point which I dont remember but the discussion lead to whom he really wanted to meet. He wanted to meet Varun and Varun not knowingly moved away to meet somebody else. So Usha asked to shake hands but Varun while shaking his hand didnt make eye contact. Usha asked him to always make eye contact else the he will not be able to make real impact. Usha wanted to show us a video about public speaking. Unfortunately, as usual video player or some connection was not proper. So to fill in the time Usha formed two teams in which each team was suppose to move in the corridor in opposite direction. When they meet each other they are suppose to introduce themselves and I tried my best to remember everybodies names. Well my effort was useless and not many could I remember.
Somehow the video setup was ready and in the video some great public speaker "Patricia Fripp" whom I never new, spoke. But I found her pretty interesting. She put lot of things about public speaking like how we need to start our speech, when humour should be used, how you need to you need to put the facts and story to make your speech more powerful. I started relating all these to my technical communication in MS and Professional communication and report writing in BE. These were really helpful to me in many cases and I have tried it a lot. But Patricia Put it across in a much better way. She brought humour, the end audience, a story and various instances of real life in a better way. But I didnt like the way in which she told her real life story. I felt it was rather pale. In this discussion we came across my first question of why were we introduced to the FMP staff. It was a direct question but many in the room found it very harsh. Sooraj also added that he really wanted to know about them and had really interrupted his thoughts.
From here Usha gave a precis of what Particia talked and how we could use in real life. Later she went into different principles of oral communication. I really dont remember any of them. May be in future programs I would make notes of the slides, as things which are priciples or postulate or what so ever, If i dont relate I wouldnt be able to remember. If somebody could help I will be more than happy. Please help me in relating those things. We again watched a different video. In the video a bald man, pretty jovial who told how well we could be jubiliant etc. But the music and his talks were making me lost and getting deviated from the discussion. I felt that, had he put his ideas without music I would have understood things much better. I was getting carried away by the music(the beethohoven) one of my favourites. Later we discussed about the video. But this video and presentation ate away our introduction to the entire team. This was the opportunity where we had to make the maximum impact on the team.
After the lunch we had the assertive communication program. Revati was our mentor and she had 16yrs or 16months of experience. She was pretty jovial and she always had a smile on her face. Only thing which I didnt like was her voice, she didnt have the effective timber or the power which would make people listen. In spite of this she was able to put lot of ideas about assertive communication. One more thing which I observed was, she was trying to fit in lot of concepts in the short duration and was rushing through in the end. She was suppose to finish her program within 3hrs as Azim Premji was suppose to meet them.
We then started with the discussion on assertive communication. She appropriately got an analogy by drawing a swinging pendulum. First she asked us what is it and as usual I misinterpreted as 'T'. It was a swinging pendulum and the edges of the T were middle, left and right extremes of a pendulum. How could we need to be assertive by not swinging to the extremes of our feelings. The left extreme was being extremely aggressive and right extreme was to be completely submissive. If we are submissive we would be bullied by others. If we are too aggressive we either loose a team with which we are working with or friends with whom we are with. But being assertive is being more positive and have balance between the two extremes.
Also during the program we discussed about the creating a win-win situation if there is a cut throat competition. For this Revati gave really a good instance. She called prity and asked to arm wrestle with her. She also added that if prity pushes her hand to left, Ravi would pay Rs 5 to prity and if Revati pushes the hand to right she will get Rs 5. from Ravi. But in this case prity was trying to win not realizing that she could win more money if they swing her hands both sides. Thus it is always good to have a win - win situation. But Kalyani also raised a valid point, what would revati should have done, had Ravi had not offered the money; then it would have become a competition. Revati answered it really well. In this particular scenario it is always required to win the competition but by playing it fair and even. Revati also gave a good example of a person being possessive of his new car. How we need to be assertive and create a win - win situation if a friend who is accident prone asks you to give the keys his car.
We watched a video which talked about the assertive communication. It brought pretty good scenarios which also gave instances to understand the concepts. Later we went out for coffee break. In coffee break Sooraj brought really a good fact about Indians. A third factor, that is ego. When there is a discussion/debate between two persons ego is one thing which comes in between a lot. Which most of the foreign videos dont cover at all. I did feel his point right.
Post tea break we were divided into three teams which were named as April Assertive, Donald Doormat and I dont remember the third guy. We were suppose to group together and jot down some points why does a person act or behave to be a doormat or aggressive or assertive. We all came with our won ideas but Revati summarised all our points into one single one. It was the fear which causes them to behave that way. She also gave how the FEAR acronym was formed F-Fall E-evidence A-appearing R-Real or Feel Everthing And Run. This I really felt very good. But I feel we could have discused more on being assertive, as she was busy she had rushed through the slides.
At the end of the day I got the concept, but had we discussed some more real life scenarios like in Client locations, Manager and team member etc could have helped me a lot. It should have been more on real life scenarios. Because I felt even I could have given those fundas, but had the mentors given more instances we could have grasped it much better and inculcated it in our real life. I would expect at least future classes would go better.
posted by Chaitanya Prabhu @ 7:15 PM
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