Teacher's day

Teacher's day is just passed (Sep 5th) yesterday. Being a teacher myself and taught & being taught by many teachers then and now, I thought of putting across some of my thoughts in this context. What I would expect from a typical teacher are:

• Don't teach, inspire people instead! Make them think. Ask a practical question before introducing a new theory. E.g. If you are teaching chemistry, ask what happens to the water temperature if some salt is dissolved in it - does it remain the same, increases or decreases and why? Where do you find practical application of it? That will make the students think and inspire them to learn more and ask more questions.
• Reduce your ego! The amount of ego we have is inversely proportional to the amount of knowledge we possess and directly proportional to the no. of weaknesses we have. If we make a mistake, I don't think there is anything wrong in admitting it in front of the students (irrespective of their ages) for there is no "know-all" person in the whole world.
• Never underestimate students' capability; they are smarter than you think they are (again, irrespective of their ages). They also do have their senses and thinking capabilities. Let's respect it.
• Everybody does mistakes. I don't believe in punishing students for their wrongdoings unless they are repeating it many times. E.g. If some students arrive late to the class everyday, you can try to pleasantly embarrass them by asking rest of them to clap or stand-up when they come in late. Chances are that they come late to the class from next day is very less. Try it! (I had a headmaster in my elementary school, who used to whip with a rope for even very small mistakes of students. I still remember him not with respect, but still with that fear! I don't think anybody would like to be remembered that way. :-)
• Give lot of practical examples and real-life stories. There's nobody who is not interested in listening to stories. If it's a science subject, show practicals in the class. We had a science teacher in 9th std, who used to bring lot of apparatus from the lab to the class to show practicals. He was a real inspiration to many of us.
• Walk the talk (which many of us fail to do) before 'preaching' anything to students. If you expect them to be in the class on time, you better be in the class on time always. All other reasons are just excuses. If you want them to be clean, make sure that you erase the board every time before you leave the class. If you commit something to them on a particular day, stick to it.
• Do socialize with students - talk about their life, games, movies, outings, etc. It will help them open-up. They will be more interactive in the class and there will be less trouble makers
• Never gossip! Even though this looks silly, I've seen people gossiping (about students, other faculty, their relationships and many others which I can't mention here) in schools & colleges. In certain cases, I've seen higher authorities taking decisions in professional colleges based on gossips without even bothering to verify the facts, which is really unprofessional.
• Read, read and read a lot. Read subject related stuff; read outside the subject area (e.g. technical / related magazines, websites, management related contents, etc. which indirectly help in getting to know more about the subject and the profession) and 'read' about current affairs. Take it from me, this will help us while teaching our subjects.

I think if we treat students as one among us, everything will fall into place. 

Disclaimer: These are just my thoughts. Any resemblance or similarity with any situation or person is purely unintentional.

Got the following story as a forward recently. Read it completely till end!

___________________________________________________________

God bless the self less teachers.

A Teacher Answers……lThe dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued, "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"

To stress his point he said to another guest; "You're a teacher, Bonnie.  Be honest. What do you make?"

Bonnie, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness replied,
"You want to know what I make?
(She paused for a second, then began...)

"Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.

I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor winner.

I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can't make them sit for 5 without an I Pod, Game Cube or movie rental.

You want to know what I make? (She paused again and looked at each and every person at the table)

I make kids wonder.

I make them question.

I make them apologize and mean it.

I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions.

I teach them how to write and then I make them write. Keyboarding isn't everything.

I make them read, read, read.

I make them show all their work in math. They use their God given brain, not the man-made calculator.

I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to know about English while preserving their unique cultural identity.

I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe.

I make my students stand, placing their hand over their heart to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, One Nation Under God, because we live in the United States of America.

Finally, I make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life.

(Bonnie paused one last time and then continued.)

Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, with me knowing money isn't everything, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because they are ignorant. You want to know what I make?

I MAKE A DIFFERENCE. What do you make Mr. CEO?

His jaw dropped; he went silent.

THIS IS WORTH SENDING TO EVERY TEACHER, EVERY CEO, EVERY PERSON YOU KNOW.

Even all your personal teachers like mother, father, brothers, sisters, coaches and your spiritual leaders/teachers.

A profound answer!!!
_______________________________________________________________________________________
That's the end of that story. To apply it to Indian context, one has to make a small change to it. Just add "am supposed to" between the "I" and "make" above! :-)


It's not a rhetoric though. It's applicable to many of the teachers in India I think!

Me and my Kindle

The first time when I heard about Kindle, an e-book reader from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/kindle), a couple of years back, I had fallen flat for it looking at its features. I had put it in my Wish List at that time itself. However, I had to hold back myself for three reasons: first, it's better wait for a couple of release of any newly innovated product of any kind or brand for it to get improvised in its subsequent versions after the customer feedbacks; second, the price - usually it will be higher when it newly comes to the market as there will not be any competitors for it; third, it wasn't available in India and nor Amazon was shipping it internationally;.

At last, I bought it during this March, not using 'international shipping' option though (it was costing $100 more due to customs duty, S&H, etc.); but shipping to my one of my friends' US address (Thanks to Arjun) and later getting it to India (thanks to my neighbour Srikanth).

I think it's one of its kind of an innovative product. Whilst I don't want to write about its various features per se (which can be seen from the link above), it's a wonderful product that any person who has a good reading habit should own. You can store 1500-2000 books in it! It directly connects to Amazon.com (using whispernet) to enable you to buy books from its online store. The experience and the feeling (esp. when you read it in the bus and people look at it curiously as it's still a new product around) is amazing! :-) It's certainly handy especially when you are traveling where you don't have to carry bulky books. You can upload PDF files and play musics too. If you are planning to buy one, pls don't hesitate, just buy one, it's really worth it and pays your buck off!

Professionalism and College Management

Continuing with my views on how management can run the colleges more professionally:

It’s no doubt that allowing private players in the education sector has added a lot of quality and value to education. Needless to say, it has also increased the competition among the players there. Contrarily, this competition has led to ‘education business’ whose primary objective seems to be only making money. Yes, objective of any business is ‘to make money’; but unfortunately people seem to miss its additional clause, ‘legally and ethically’. If this clause is forgotten while running the business especially in the education sector, I think that’s where the system starts failing.

What I expect managements to ensure professionalism in their running of education system:

• Have a long term vision – though it may look like rhetoric, I think that’s where problem lies if you are not sure about where you want your institutes to be in a long term. The sight of the brighter, long-term vision and its benefits could be easily lost in the course of making few quick bucks in the short-term (without bothering if it’s legal or not). Such (unfair) practices if any, even small, certainly don’t carry the institutes for long (E.g.  Going for pirated software, showing wrong accounts, too much of penalties to students, decision making based on gossips / here says, etc.)
• My views on achieving immense benefits in the long-term (which I would like to address from 3 different perspectives)

• Infrastructure / systems in the institutes – don’t compromise on its quality. Go for branded, good quality products (e.g. computers, UPS, machinery, etc.). Though it may seem expensive initially, they certainly last longer without causing any maintenance hassles or annoyance to its users. Automate routine work using software systems. There’s absolutely no doubt that it’ll bring in huge, huge amount of benefits (which can’t always be measured in terms of money of course!) Gone are the days of manual, routine task based systems. It definitely proves to be a profitable proposition in the long-term.

• TRUST your people – from whatever I see, here and experience, this aspect majorly seems to be lacking in institutes. If the management doesn’t trust its people, how can it expect its staff to trust the management? The ‘handshake’ seems to be missing or very loose!

Managements also seem to be indifferent with its staff. It looks as if they take it for granted that if they pay the money (salary) regularly, the people will just come and do their work. There is somewhat like master-slave relationship. It appears as if sycophancy (chamcha giri) is prevailing in there. This is leading to a major chasm between these two parties. All such things should go.

Mind that there are very learned, highly qualified and experienced people in there. I think they command a respect even more than a company would give to its employees. Regularly meeting them to listen to their woes and suggestions would certainly take the institute to newer heights. It also makes the staff get ‘more involved’ in the overall system. Any disgruntled staff can spread his / her unhappiness within no time.

• Whether or not the institute goes for any kind of accreditation (like NBA) or certification, I think there should be proper procedures to every process and it should be meticulously documented and followed very strictly (e.g. examination process, attendance process, administration process, etc.) and it should be continuously improved based on feedbacks and suggestions. Though exceptions may be derived from such things the exception itself shouldn’t become the main process! Now there seems to ‘reinventing the wheel’ approach every time when new tasks are taken up. People don’t seem to learn from the past (lack of proper knowledge management). Setting up a proper process framework is the need of the hour.

These are some of the points that if implemented will certainly take the institutes to newer heights. I have not written these blindly by referring here and there to sound like rhetoric; I’ve experienced it personally and have seen the benefits which such long-term plans can bring in.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are certain reflections of my mind while I blogged them. Any resemblance or similarity with any person, institute or event is purely coincidental and unintentional.

Continuing my take on professionalism in colleges

Well, it needs to be addressed at various levels starting from management till junior faculty and then to the students. It looks somewhat like oxymoronic where faculty is expecting students to become professionals whilst they themselves lack professionalism! I’m making this comment after seeing many faculties in various colleges and at various levels – senior most to junior. :-)

Let me make myself clear by what I mean by professionalism – well, tons of pages have been written on this subject; my take on this is very simple: Walk the talk, be true to yourself and others, respect to others (senior or junior most), fulfill the commitments, follow a value system, value for  time and no gossips.

Let me take an example for each of these (in order). Do you believe a person who preaches honesty being a hypocrite himself? Do you say a person is true to himself if he himself is involved in bluffing things? What’s your take on a person who doesn’t bother to wish back when wished? What do you say about a management who doesn’t bother to meet its subordinates even once in a year even after promising they’ll do so regularly? What do you say about a person who doesn’t value honesty, integrity, etc.? Value for time – I think being late to any function is in the blood of we Indians. It’s taken for granted everywhere. Being punctual at times is treated as the person doesn’t have any work to do. Gossiping – I think it’s the highest in colleges!? Unfortunately, people (including seniors) take decisions based on such gossips without even bothering to confirm it with facts and figures!

Whilst it may seem that I’m using generalized statements here, I do agree there are exceptions to it.

I will blog about such professionalism at each level – management, faculty (both senior and junior) and students’ levels. Is it helpful? I don’t know – at least for me yes, I get a kind of satisfaction.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are certain reflections of my mind while I blogged them. Any similarity with any person, institute or event is purely coincidental and unintentional.

Motivation

I think one of the essential things that that I see lacking in educational institutions (vis-à-vis industries), is a motivating environment.  There is a saying, ‘you cannot motivate anybody; all you can do is to create a motivating environment’. Very true. It’s left to an individual whether to get motivated or not in such environment. Nevertheless, what’s the harm in creating a better motivating environment if it helps most of them perform better and enthuses people do more?

What’s required then to create such envt.? Just a few simple steps:

• Appreciate people (either junior or senior) for doing good work, even small ones. It carries a long-way (People may be poor, but why should there be the poverty for good words?)
• Recognize or reward (again it can also be small) people for their accomplishments
• Mention about their good deed in meetings and other occasions
• After recognizing their feat, give them some more tasks, even tougher ones, I bet, they will be happy to take it up
• Don’t reprimand them for first few mistakes; nobody does mistakes deliberately. Instead encourage by asking them to learn from those mistakes and improve upon it. Most importantly, don’t carry it along by making that person the scapegoat for every blunder from there on
• Ask them to share their experience with others to spread the news. See if s/he can be made the ‘go to guy’ for such solutions
• and there may be many more ...

Well, I’m not generalizing my first statement; there are exceptions. But these points are based on my observations in many institutions. So I’m confident that there’s some truth in it then! :-)

Open up!

Why is it that people seem to stifle or hold back in expressing themselves in the office environment especially in colleges? Why is it that they look up to their higher ups for taking even smaller decisions? Why is it that they don’t want to take chances in doing new things? Why don’t they question the status quo? Why do they carry on with same old, routine, manual, ineffective procedures? Well, answer seems to be obvious– they don’t want to risk themselves by getting into any trouble!

Now look at the other side of it. Express yourself clearly to avoid any communication gaps and misunderstandings. I see people are not able to delineate between official / business relationships and personal relationships. If you are not satisfied with the work done by any of your colleague friends, is it possible to articulate it to him / her clearly and directly? I bet if it's possible in such environment for you think that s/he will feel bad if you say so. (It’s also difficult because you expect a favor from him / her in the future!). Moreover, the likelihood of that colleague taking it personally and carrying it along is also higher. That’s got to do with the Indian culture anyway! I’m still finding a way out of this. :-)

Is it that in a more hierarchical org. structure, making even trivial decisions becomes non-trivial? Does the manager need to decide which color & font to use for the presentation, whether to come by the college bus or not, whether to conduct the class in room no. 100 or 101!? Or is it the trend set by the superiors themselves by not empowering their subordinates enough – a chicken-egg problem?

The net result of it – people become ‘busy’ (?) in their mundane work without questioning the status quo, accepting whatever standards or procedures, not realizing inefficiency in the system, seemingly happy  in their own comfort zones. :-) Probably, that’s what may be expected of them too – any change to the system is a pain for everybody.  Why take that chance anyway? Little they realize that this questioning attitude itself is a great trait of a leader. Remember, there is no charm in life, if you don't take risks. I think we need open up more and see the outside world …!

Professionalism and College Day function

Couldn't resist writing this blog after attending a college day function few days back!  It was for 3 days with one objective each day. Conducting it for 3 days with different committees to look after various functions like stage preparation, decoration, prize distribution, cultural program, food, transport, discipline, etc. is certainly commendable. A strong and cohesive coordination among these committees was very much required for a smooth running of these events. Kudos to all those who were involved in those committees.

However, there are many things that could have been done better which would have brought in more professionalism into the whole exercise. Am mentioning a few of them (primarily focusing on the formal stage function) though to limit the length of this blog entry:

1.  No. of people on the dais or stage - Ideally, those people who are going to speak in the function (where the no. wouldn't exceed 5-6) will be sitting on the stage. Those who don’t speak, who do not have any reasons to sit there, shouldn’t be sitting there, whatever may be the relationships that they have with the organizers or sponsors; it certainly doesn’t set the right encomium for the stage. I thought it’s only on the first day. To my surprise, I could see it happening all 3 days.

To top it, they were being greeted with flower bouquets by dignitaries and their names were also mentioned during ‘vote of thanks’ for their support! That looked really funny :-) Remember sitting among the audience is not a disgrace; rather, sitting on a stage without any momentous reason, well ...!?

I have seen in a NDTV program, where our former President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam sitting among the audience when a debate over a hot topic was being discussed with many businessmen and other dignitaries on the stage. In fact, for some time he was sitting on floor of the stage whilst other dignitaries were sitting on their chairs, when he was putting across his side of the arguments. That was a quite amazing program!

2. Prize / certificate distribution – A simple one. If there are too many people who are eligible to receive the prizes, usually the top category ones are given the prizes on the final day, managing rest of them in an earlier function say, at each college level.  So that, the main prize distribution will complete in 10-15 min. Believe it or not, the no. of people who were called on the stage to receive their certificates was, hold your breath ... 450+!! I pity the chief guest who gave away these awards and appreciate his patience.

3. Reading the reports on the stage – another common sense. It’s a usual practice to read school / college reports during such functions mentioning the highlights of various activities done in the school / college for the previous year. Audience will start getting restless if it takes more than 5-6 min to read the report. Again, believe it or not, around 10 – 12 reports of various colleges were read on this day which were very ‘dry’ to listen to.  Apparently many reports started with the lines, ‘this college started on so-and-so day and year, by so-and-so, with ...’.  Just a few highlighting points with 1 min per college would have been more than sufficient. Rest of the points could have been displayed on the big screen that was used for the function. God saved the people (both on and off the stage) from boredom that day!

4.  During its ‘final review’ meeting (just before the event), I could see a convener still using PPT of the previous year’s function, editing it and fixing the mistakes in front of 40-50 people from various committees (as if it was being edited for the first time this year!)

The chief guest on the first day had advised students to have ‘common sense’ which is very important when they are coming out of the college. The whole function seemed to contradict his very words!

Yes, I know it’s easier to criticize about anything so long as you are not part of it. Well, I don’t intend to do it here and that’s not the objective of this blog too. Having firsthand experience in organizing functions at various levels and committees, having seen them being conducted professionally in other occasions, I think I can take that freedom to express myself to improve things in future - that's my humble submission.

Campus Interviews

Had an opportunity yesterday to accompany our engg. students to a campus selection process. Needless to say, it was a nice experience esp. to see the expressions and thoughts of students about the whole process. Another incident which demonstrated students' mindset!

This Indian-based IT company (name is immaterial here though) is a mid-sized, quite established one (about 350 people) and has a pretty good name in the area. They are doing a good techie projects in certain niche technology area. A very nice company for anybody to start with who likes to take challenging and interesting technical work. The company trains the students in the relevant technology before putting the freshers on board. Of course, it has to safe guard itself for the training cost by asking people to keep Rs, 150,000 safe deposit and sign a 3-year bond. If anybody breaks the bond within 3 years, the employee has to fore go this amount; they will pay this amount after 3 years with interest to the employees if they stick on, which perfectly makes sense.

Well, nothing new here. What's interesting is that the kind of reactions the students showed towards this bond (as if the company is asking for something really unusual and unexpected!)

• Somebody says, this amount is very high (even though the company facilitates to get a loan for this amount)
• Some said, 3 years is too much a period - what do I do if I get another company by then?
• Another says, my parents are not willing to pay this amount / they're not happy / you can try for another company
• One more - my friends said, the experience in this company is not considered that well outside; so I'll get stuck into this for 3 years
• One didn't even have the hard copy of his resume (even though it was informed to them earlier)

The scenario looked as if they are being asked to sign the bond then and there itself before even writing the written-test! :-) Many of them had a kind of over confidence that they will easily sail through the written-test, interview, etc. as if the company is welcoming them with the red carpet!

Most of them couldn't clear the written-test leave alone the interview. Those who go through the written-test, couldn't get through the interview. Only one got selected finally!

Well, my intention here is not to criticize the students who went through this process. All I'm saying is to have an "open and accepting mind" in such situations. Before taking any such decisions, weigh the pros and cons more objectively than looking through an emotional filter. Let me explain it through a simple scenario:

Fine, if one joins the company it's quite unlikely that s/he would quit within an year. If s/he serves for 1 year, the total annual salary already pays off the bond amount. (Salary was Rs. 75,000 higher than the bond amount in this case). To top it, if at all s/he decides to quit, it would be usually for a higher salary in another company (mind here that the chances of getting into another company with higher perks is better here as it adds to his/her experience which is the other side of it); in that case also, there won't be any loss if if s/he has to pay the bond amount. The kind of experience that one can get by working in such companies, no book or preaching can give it.

On the other hand, they can lose this golden opportunity by not joining it. Yes, there is a possibility of another better company coming for selection after this interview (As the colleges have a rule of 'one person one job'). Even in that case also, how sure are you to sail through its selection process. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Moreover, one can always join that other better company after a few years of experience in this. They don't close their gates. It's your skill and the learnability that companies look for in the new candidates not on what specific technology that s/he has worked on.

If you are a student, please consider this rationalized approach, analyze the situation more objectively and take the decisions accordingly. And for god's sake, don't just go by the words of people. Think, think and think a lot! :-) All the best!

Industry - Institute

One common tendency which a person couldn't resist is to compare things. Whether the comparison is between two different objects, persons, places, environments or whatever it may be, comparison just happens! I too am not an exception to it. (Kind of a justification to start this blog, yeah :-) )

They say 'You cannot compare apples to oranges'. But my take is that you still can compare them on certain parameters like the taste, the look, nutritional value, etc. at a time. Why am I saying so? After moving from an industry to institute, there are many things which I compare between these two even though these two big entities drastically differ in many parameters and perspectives.

One of the parameters I wish to compare is the 'work atmosphere'. It's the atmosphere w.r.t. the people so to say (barring the student community which needs a different view point to address. Am planning to write on this parameter too on another day).

I think due to the hierarchical structure (unlike the claimed flat structure in the industries) the kind of atmosphere in the institutes are a little restrictive and rigid to some extent. Boss-subordinate system is pretty much prevailing. People look for inputs and guidance to carry out even small things. Decision making people are not so open to new ideas, suggestions or changes. Lack of 'exposure' to external world is seen pretty conspicuously. This trend is percolating down to students level also. They hardly know about things happening outside the college. (Barring their interesting things like movies, gossips, mobile, etc. may be).

This trend should change and should start from the top-level. It should help the students also then.
 

Copy-paste!

What would you do if you are in the middle of an exam and people around you are whispering the answers around for most of the questions (say, objective type of questions)? Well, you can't ignore it though however prompt and honest you are, I think! I guess this is where people get trapped into corruption loopholes in their work (esp. govt. offices)

My take for this is - whatever may be the surroundings, you stick onto your conscience and go with it. Your answers might be wrong, people might get more scores than you; these are all secondary. Ultimately, it's the inner true sense that you should listen to. The satisfaction it gives at the end and the feeling that you'll have after everything is over, is just amazing. Thanks to the famous adage of Infosys: The softest pillow is the clear conscience. 

Of course, your background, surroundings that you've brought up with, your friends circle, the culture, your inner strength and many other factors to have an influence on it. Whatever it may be, being honest, you'll never loose anything in the long term. Just try it!