Change...perspectives

A conclave on change management, “Parivartan Ek Nayi Disha” by Leaders4Excellence. A confluence of ideas, perspectives and experiences and many luminaries & the unenviable role of giving a vote of thanks. My first thought was, “OMG! I will have to really listen.” The fact is that many conclaves have nothing really exciting to listen to. But then this was the Leaders4Excellence conclave and so listen I did.

The best compliment is listening & learning & so as a token of my gratitude to all those who shared their experience, I want to share some thoughts that resonated with me.

At the conclave we looked at change from many perspectives.

The first was from the lens of entrepreneurship. Mr. Sunando Bhattacharya shared his struggle with change: first from a corporate honcho to an entrepreneur and then the many changes along the journey. Some of the insights I gained were:

1.    Entrepreneurship is not for everyone & that is OK.

2.    The loss of a pay check is an emotional event & derails many.

3.    You need to have an 18-month runway i.e. enough money to sustain for a minimum of 18 months before you consider becoming an entrepreneur.

4.    Don’t depend on your friends to give you business.

5.    Entrepreneurship is a 24x7 job.

6.    It is a lonely space.

7.    You need to lead from the front.

As an entrepreneur I had learnt all of these the very hard way and so this REALLY resonated.

Next came the high voltage Mr. D.K Bakshi who shared his perspective as an HR professional who had moved to running an HR consultancy. He explained that VUCA is the new norm of life.

He was followed by our panelists who shared so many nuggets of wisdom.

Mr. Shailesh Tewary shared that you need to stand for what is right. This despite the fact that even people who were victims may not want to change the status quo. He also shared that even after getting buy-in from the leaders, execution is a herculean task.

Mr. Subhash Jagota in his inimitable style shared that HR needs to be less insular and more customer centric E.g. why can’t the joining formalities for a new employee be like the check-in at a 5 star. He emphasised that the end result you want to achieve needs to be tattooed on your eyelids. He stressed the need for each one of us to take stock and answer, “What is great about us?” With his personal example he underscored that age is just a NUMBER and success is choice.

Mr. Deepak Bharara shared that 70% of change management initiatives have failed and 75% of those that fail are due to human issues. I also loved the concept he used at GMR “100 wins in 100 days”. In his experience open & honest communication were critical and to manage any change you need to focus on the 5A’s – Align, Assess, Architecture, Act & Advance.

According to Mr. Alok Nigam the 3 biggest changes that he could foresee in HR were the need for extreme agility, competing successfully in the war for talent & responding to very quick change in goal posts.

Mr.Vijay Kumar shared his journey and his key insight was that you need to put your skin aka money in the game. He also underscored that for any change to occur top management needs to become like a fist.

Ms.Gitanjali Saksena a very experienced HR professional & moderator of the panel , underlined the 3 key messages that emerged from the panel: Vision, Speed & Agility & Communication.

Lastly and very ably, Dr. Varun Pratap Singh got us to align our body and not just our business strategies.

Post my vote of thanks, on a high note and chai & pakora’s the evening ended.

Thank you Mr. Ravinder Singh, Ms. Vineeta Pandey and team for putting together such an interesting conclave.

My blog can in no way do justice to the learning and energy at the conclave. However, as a trainer & facilitator I have learnt the best way to learn is to share. And I hope this gives you a flavour of the conclave.

Next time we hope to see you there!

Keep Learning…Keep Applying!

Lovely Kumar is a facilitator, trainer, psychometric assessor and is Director at Larks Learning Pvt. Ltd. She has a unique background which combines economics, management, advertising, sales, teaching and training. She has worked with a range of corporates and academic institutions. Additionally she has obtained international certifications in training and psychometric assessments.

Learn more and reach Lovely Kumar for training workshops or DISC assessments at www.larkslearning.com, [email protected] or 91-9899108659.