My Journey Of Organizational Development.. ODA&TISS

Sleepless In Seattle... aptly sums up my journey.

It has been rewarding in more ways than one. Most importantly, I have been able to learn/unlearn and importantly enjoy, every minute of the journey and make memories and learning to last a lifetime.

Developing a deeper understanding & unraveling Organisational Development has been a long-desired milestone both professionally and personally for me. The seeds of which were planted during my Social Work days at DG Vaishnav by Dr. Vidhya Srinivasan & Udayakumar Gopalakrishnan MCC [ICF], MP [EMCC], OD [NTL], PGHR [XLRI] , and got fortified during my stint with Tata Consultancy Services when I anchored Propel.

As I reminisce the sixty hours of the planned & scheduled journey of learning required to achieve the Organisation Development Certification Program from OD Alternatives (ODA) & Tata Institute of Social Sciences , I cannot really sum up the countless hours of book reading, researching and eureka moments, I have had discovering new theories, models, and practices, relate it to my previous academic & professional learning journey. The most important revelation is that the fact, that one can impact as a practitioner of OD on both the individual and organization.

My professional achievement has been a dream-come-true experience and I would liken it to the movie Inception, where dreams and reality collide resulting in one experiencing, the power of the subconscious mind to achieve what one sets his/her mind to. ?

This would not have been possible, but for Santhosh Babu and I am thankful, for creating such a beautiful learning platform, which is very powerful, but one has to harness its power because it helps you find answers to questions and ensures you question anything and everything in your journey, by making you inquisitive, and hungry for knowledge, thus awakening the Curiosity Quotient in us. Quite similar to the Phenomenological & Ontological approach, where one needs to be part of the journey completely to experience and learn through self-discovery and enjoy and absorb the moments as we do with our breath.

The journey not have been possible & complete without the grace and guidance of brilliant facilitators ... Heartfelt gratitude and a Big Thank you to each one of you Professor Ravindran Kesavan , Professor Vidyanand Jha , Professor Noel G Machado , Professor Lawerence, Biju Dominic , Linda Baptista (She/Her) , Aman Zaidi , Aditya Jain , ShijinSreeraman Karuwath(SSK) , Ashok Kumar , Amitesh Gir , and Swati Chawla . The list would be incomplete without mentioning Poonam PratapDev .

The Important aspect of this journey has been Teach-Backs, which were to me My Experiments with the Truth. As someone rightly and briefly explained Inception movie is "One person's problems can be solved together, and any serious case can only be accomplished by working as a team"

I am deeply thankful to all my cohorts, who were kind enough to accommodate me, support, encourage, prod, challenge, and question. This helped me learn each of the concepts well and build perspectives, models, and new theories too… also keep me grounded and focused on learning.

The first teach-back on Organizational Diagnostics was a great start, thanks to ?Shraddha Mudaliar , Swetha More , Agnelo Carneiro , Rahul Bolar & Radhika. I was able to formulate a framework on the theories of Systems Thinking and Bruke Litwin and present it through a case study. This gave me the momentum to push myself and get out of my comfort and experiment. It would not have been possible without each one your support and nudge.

One good thing leads to another… Revisiting – Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge, to understand Systems Thinking, after more than a decade of having read the book during my post-graduation at Great Lakes Institute of Management, this re-ignited and reaffirmed the wholistic approach to anything in our life and the importance of mental modes, personal mastery. In short – the story of the Chinese farmer and the events in his life and his attitude to not react very beautifully summarizes the learning. The session was enriched by partnering with, Deepali Chowdhury , Manish Rastogi , Spandana Khanna , my Sanju Baba Rajat Sanan , Deepika Khandelwal , and Anjali Yadav . Thanks to each one of you, I picked up some great skills like storytelling, active note-taking, and the importance of mental mode/state during unexpected/unplanned events.

The Cult, was a ride of a lifetime, when we virtually took everyone back in time, using the evolution of education through, its different stages to explain the concept of Culture, this was done through role-play with each one of the participants taking on a role. This would not have been possible, but for our own Nana Patekar a.k.a Pande Ji of batch 15 Satchit Arvind Jamgaonkar , who not only scripted, directed, and acted but also ensured our learning as a team and experience for other friends was one of the best and they were able to imagine and relive the experience. Most importantly, we were one cohesive unit and put on a great show Marilyn Misquitta , Anindita Chaudhury Namita Wasan , Lucky Sharma , and Piyush Ghosal , we performed to the gallery, rocked, winning both the hearts and minds of the batchmates. One of the best teach-backs ever. Much gratitude guys, what a ride it was, would not have been possible without you all.

Facilitating Change was a breeze working with Mahasweta Behera , Deepali Chowdhury , and Deepika Khandelwal the sleepless nights and research were great, given the new perspectives I was able to learn and how, no one model of change can facilitate change in any organization, the learning was fabulous.

We rocked as a Team for our ability to share different dimensions, theories, and perspectives of Leadership, I found some amazing hidden talents in so many of my teammates, who literally rocked the performance, and getting adjudged as one of the best teach-backs was icing on the cake, would not have been possible with you guys Meruna Das , Marilyn Misquitta , Silpa Gorantla Elton Nathan , Jainy Joseph , and Prachi.

The last one and also, one of my personal favorites LGI, largely due to its connection with Systems Thinking & Appreciative Enquiry, had me all anxious and worked up due to it being scheduled within the same week, but the backing of my cohorts & friends eased my burden, we experimented and implemented an intervention, which was met with not so encouraging response largely due to Thank God for Its Friday syndrome, albeit it was fun and motivating working with Ravishankar Duvvuri , Manawwar Kalim , Rajat Sanan , Meruna Das , Piyush Ghosal , and Jagadeesh Palaparti . This was actually fun, as we attempted to put into practice, what we learned as theory.

Every Beginning has an End and Every End has a Beginning...

Thanks to the support, encouragement, commitment, and participation of so many like-minded friends, we pulled off a coup by celebrating a hybrid graduation day with a majority of us joining virtually and a few of us traveling to Coorg and having a memorable evening, with maximum entertainment, fun, and joy throughout the evening. It was made even more memorable for a few of us, as we were treated to homemade food and a walk around the nature of the wanderlust coffee farm, and a yummy breakfast the next day.

This was and is the most memorable learning journey, made memorable by the sheer energy and enthusiasm of the group. Some of my cohorts who left a lasting impression on me Sakthian Murali , Manisha Issar , Rajpreet Kaur , @Rajneesh Vandana Kaushik , Gopa Ghosh , Jainy Joseph ACC , Shalini Sashidharan , @Ekta Shrivatsava. Thanks for inspiring.

I believe, this journey would not have been possible without each one of you.

Wishing all my co-passengers & dear friends of ODCP Batch 15, many more successful milestones and opportunities to rise and shine forever.

Thank You

Sharat