Get up and RISE

The next Navhind Times workshop, RISE, slated for July 21, will help youngsters reinvent themselves, influence others, stabilise, and excel in different fields. NT Kuriocity chats with organisational development consultant and certified talent analyst Kishore Shah to find out more

Maria Fernandes | NT Kuriocity

An electrical engineer with a post graduate diploma in human resource management and organisational studies, Kishore Shah is a multi-faceted personality. A certified talent analyst from Chally, Ohio, Shah, who is the recipient of Business Goa Awards for Corporate Excellence – 2017, among other achievements will be conducting the next Navhind Times workshop RISE, focusing on youngsters. He gives us a peek into what it is about.

 

From school to high school, and then higher secondary and college, students have to deal with various changes. In addition, being plugged into a global consumerist culture supported by technology, they have various predicaments. How will this workshop help them?

Change is not a new term for us because we evolve, but when change happens at hyper speed it no longer is a change; it’s an upheaval which is disruptive and hardly gives us time to respond. Today we are witnessing change in almost all spheres of life be it personal, social, technical, political, etc, and that is a bit overwhelming. It is an age-old adage that, ‘Opportunity favours the prepared mind’ but at times we really don’t know what exactly is the preparation and to add to this we have to transit from school to college, then to jobs, personal transition, geographic transition, psychological transitions, etc. It’s a never ending transition drive. It’s a VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) environment which on one hand gives us trending opportunities in abundance but also gives us tons of uncertainty, insane competition, wafer-thin margins of success, nuclear families, shorter career spans, and more. These then eclipse the joy, peace, and happiness of life. The workshop has been organised to help youngsters, ‘to be a part yet be apart’, of this fast-moving and fast-changing world and not get carried away. The workshop aims at making youth “RISE” and has four major facets – reinvent, influence, stabilise, and excel.

 

What areas will you be covering in the workshop?

Before we look at the areas, it’s important to first know the problems the youth face. As someone who interacts with youngsters frequently, I have noticed some interesting facts. Youngsters in today’s context have stress attributed to lack of quality employment opportunities. There is lack of fitness and health with a skewed focus on cosmetic appearance. Global peer pressure and instant gratification have led to depression in many. Their aspirations too are hyped due to hyper-competition and there is moral degradation influenced by social media and changes in the family structure. The workshop will have several experiments based on the tenet ‘Learning by doing and learning by sharing’. Experiments are critical because if you are successful you can take it in your world and if you are not so successful you can improvise, hence we will focus on the following essentials – challenges with transition, issues with building capacity and increasing capability, pressures of performance, interpersonal relationships, ability to influence, and adaptability to new and changing environments.

 

The targeted age group is 13 to 25 years. How did you settle on the lower cut off age group?

The lower cut off age group is 13 years as this is the first crossroad in the life of an Indian teenager where they move from a very regimental, structured, monitored and conditioned zone to a different environment (normally a time when they begin high school); an environment where they have to be self-driven. It is a trying time as there is a sudden pressure of performance, hyped and large scale competition, multiple attractions and distractions, peer pressures, changes in the body physiology, identity issues, and much more. Having said that, this is also a beautiful gateway for self-expression, growth, and development. This is a stage where unobtrusive facilitation is most required and more often than not, it is not given in the right manner mostly due to over dependency of equating success with marks and percentage. Coaching classes have almost psyched students to the extreme.

 

What is the significance of RISE?

RISE is based on a concept called ‘competency-based’ growth and development which has its roots in Kautilya’s Arth Shastra. This concept was so successful that it found its manifestations in Germany and later in Britain where it was extensively used in WOSBs (War Officers Selection Board) and after a roundabout journey again came back to India through SSB (Service Selection Board) and finally to corporates. RISE has both psychological and scientific roots which focuses on four main competency buckets -Response and coping mechanism, capacity and capability development, management (of self and others), and lastly being customer/citizen-centric.

 

What are some of the basic tools that students require to handle the many changes?

My perspective is that youngsters need awareness, understanding, and gradual application of life skills, and not tools. To do that they need to start with a reliable and valid self-assessment report. For example, the top four assessment instruments used globally are Chally, DISC, ELEMENT-B, and MBTI. Chally is a predictive assessment and the other three are descriptive assessments, but since these are self-assessments, it needs a validation and report debrief from a certified expert. These instruments give reasonable good insights to the three important facets of your persona namely the why? (your motivators), the how ? (your behaviour with reference to the problem, challenges, people, change and compliance to rules, regulation), and the what? (your competencies).

Once this is in place, it is important to have a mapping with various career options for a fitment analysis followed by a healthy discussion within the family. Friends and professionals are always great enablers in this matter. Self-management, then managing others, and lastly managing your career are important areas that youngsters need to work on.

 

The workshop itinerary mentions STAR power. Could you simplify the concept of STAR?

The opening balance in terms of financial strength, emotions, support system, environment, varies from person to person but there is one thing God has given all of us in abundance and that is STAR power! We all have it but either we are unaware of it or we do not apply it consistently. STAR power is like our ‘Panchmahabhuta’ – the five elements which if activated act like a dynamo which keeps the battery charging. It has five zones or sources of energy (personal, knowledge, reward, position, and networking) and the workshop will not only make you aware but also guide you on how to apply it.

 

Which of these zones is the most important to an individual’s success?

Star power is a continuous process and it works on the principle of ‘simultaneous’ and not one at the cost of the other, also there is a certain sequence. Interestingly once you get the rhythm, each of the five zones of STAR power energises or augments the other, what I call as the ‘rebound effect’.

 

Influencing others is a critical ability in all areas of life. How does this work?

It’s a universal law that life keeps moving from dependence to independence and finally on to interdependence. The only thread which unites us is the ability to influence; it is pure, natural, and non violent. In its essence it accepts that we are unique, different but together we can blend, in short it enhances the ability to make 1 + 1 = 11

 

There are many skills that youngsters require today. Which important skill, according to you, is lacking in them?

Perhaps one area they need to work on is ‘aggregation’; that is, the analytical ability and practical intelligence. These are fundamentals to effective and efficient decision-making, which in turn enables or disables your probability of consistent, sustainable success with minimum side effects.

 

How can one’s performance be improved?

It is not an error or deficiency, it is simply converting the latent potential into performance and there are interesting tools like 6 Thinking hats, Force Field Analysis or, Ishikawa diagrams which are very simple to use, once you get a feel of it. There are many other advanced tools and techniques as well.

 

If you are between 13 and 25 years of age and would like to be a part of the workshop, then log on to navhindtimes.in/events and fill in the registration form or call on 6651104. Last date for application is July 14.