The pandemic has had a huge impact on many industries and has caused them to shift gears. Take for instance, the corporate training industry. It has been through an upheaval and has had to change its face to quite an extent! Now which face am I talking about? Classroom training of course. Yes, classroom training is a complete ‘no no’ right now, for reasons we all understand too well! And which is the new kid on the block? Virtual training of course. Now many of you will say, “but virtual training is not new! It’s been there since a long time.” Well yes, I agree. Some forms of it like E-Learning have been around since quite a while. But I’m not talking about E-Learning. I’m talking about instructor led trainings held online. Again, many of you may say, “but there are some amazing instructor led virtual trainings already available on the internet.” Yes, I agree again. But those are the recorded one’s. Sessions where the instructor is on the screen and is talking to us, but it’s unfortunately a one-way communication. We can’t talk back to them nor ask them questions as soon as they pop up in our minds! So, what am I then referring to then? Virtual Instructor Led Training Sessions. And what are those? Well, let me explain… What is a Virtual Instructor Led Training Session? Replace the instructor in a recorded instructor led online session and there you have it, a virtual instructor led training. In short, it’s like a classroom training. The only difference being that its not held in a physical classroom. Its in a virtual classroom. Benefits of Virtual Instructor Led Training That would be all the benefits of a classroom training along with those of the virtual world. So, you can interact with the instructor live. You can ask questions and clear your doubts there and then. The presence of fellow participants also provides you an opportunity for peer learning. And one of the best things is the activities. Just like a classroom training, you can take part in various activities too. So, its fun along with learning! And what are the virtual benefits? Its cost effective as there is no venue cost. We all know how many free videoconferencing applications are there that can be used! Also, neither the trainer nor the participants need to travel to the venue. This saves travel, lodging and boarding costs. And of course, you save on meals and refreshment costs too! Another great benefit is that these sessions are held in short modules of 2 to 4 hour durations. This leaves the rest of the day available for participants to work and keep their productivity going. Not to mention how happy their superiors and customers are! So, what are you waiting for? Arrange virtual instructor led training sessions for your employees and reap the benefits. And if you need some help, The Yellow Spot team is always there!
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None of us like the word ‘rejection’, do we? It just gives us a dirty feeling inside. Feels like something is pulling your body down. As if the whole world is going to finish.
But my question to you is, does is really finish? Do you really spend the rest of your life moping helplessly on the ground? Of course not! You pick yourself up and move forward. You try to figure out where you went wrong so that you don’t make the same mistake again. And guess what. You turn out much stronger at the end of the day. Just imagine how little you would learn if life was just smooth with no downs at all! So is rejection good or bad then??? Puzzling isn’t it. It feels horrible when it happens but it actually seems to be a good thing in the long run. So if it’s actually good, then why does it make us feel so bad? To tell you the truth, you can go blame it on your ancestors! Huh! Now you’re really puzzled aren’t you!!! Let me tell you something about our ancestors, the cavemen.… During the prehistoric times, you all know how there were deadly animals roaming the earth. So humans had to be really careful and protect themselves. Now just imagine, if you were a lone caveman roaming around, how long do you think you would survive? Not very long frankly. So how could you increase your chances of survival? By roaming around in groups. And who got to be a part of these groups? The strongest guys… and girls of course! Remember the adage ‘Survival of the Fittest.’ It actually comes from those times. So the strong ones survived being a part of the group while the ‘rejected’ weak ones were left to their own fate! It was thus a matter of life and death during those times. I know that sounds rather mean, but that’s the way it was. In fact, isn’t that the way it still is? People flock around strong and successful people and want to belong to their group, while nobody cares for the weak ones. In fact we are often advised to only associate with successful people as it will motivate us! So you get where I’m coming from, or rather where the fear of rejection comes from? It’s imprinted deep in our DNA. I guess God forgot that the world is not inhabited by such creatures any more and he can remove the fear from our systems! But until he does that, at least you now know the reason why we are so scared of being rejected and as a matter of fact even alone. It’s really an automatic reaction for us and there’s not much we can do about it. Or is there? For more such article visit The Yellow Spot “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new” - Socrates Do you agree with Socrates? We do! Just a small addition from our end – It’s not about fighting the old, ‘but partnering with it’, for building the new. For its only after befriending the old, can you let go of it and make way for the new. So what’s the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ we are talking about? The old is the strong conditioned beliefs, values, notions, assumptions and habits that we have, hidden deep in our subconscious that pulls us back and prevent us from having our wishes fulfilled. So sometimes no matter how hard we try to create a change and move forward in life they impede our growth and all our efforts are left in vain. It’s pretty much why it’s so difficult living up to New Year Resolutions or acting on feedback given by others! So what do we do? Weed them out and march forward towards embracing new opportunities. There are many waiting for you… Who can attend??? Individuals, Executives, Managers, HR/L&D Heads, Change Agents, etc… Session Details: Venue: Andheri, Mumbai Dates: 29th & 30th June, 2018 Investment: Rs. 12,500/- + GST (Incl. of tea, snacks, lunch, facilitation & handouts) ***Early bird offer: Rs. 10,000/- + GST on booking before 30th April, 2018*** Contact: Nandini Tandon E: [email protected] Sayali Sawant E: [email protected] Visit us at www.theyellowspot.com Greetings from The Yellow Spot! Yesterday I went to a nearby restaurant with my friend. While the waiter was guiding us to our table, I noticed that they were putting up these screens at various places in the restaurant. I was wondering what it was all about, when suddenly it clicked to me. Oh! It’s time for the Indian Premier League again. The IPL has become like some kind of a festival in India now! Everybody is so excited and busy with preparations year on year. Crazy isn’t it? How a simple game can become so important to so many people. As a matter of fact, we Indians love cricket. It’s like a religion for us. A religion that only seems to be getting stronger in the hearts of its followers! IPL is definitely one of the most interesting concepts that has come up in any game so far. So much so; that even with all the controversies and issues it keeps getting into, its popularity doesn’t go down no matter what! I too love cricket. And yes, I love IPL too. I have had the opportunity to watch a couple of IPL matches live in the stadium. Trust me guys, it’s an amazing experience. It’s not just the game; it’s the vibe you get. It’s superb. If you have been to one you will know what I am talking about and if you haven’t, you should go for one. Well I don’t promise you will be able to watch the whole game as every ball hit looks like a 4 or 6 and every ball feels like a wicket. So eventually you do land up looking at the screen in the stadium to know what is actually happening. But it’s a crazy experience especially with the unanimous “ooooohhhhh” or “yeeeeeeeyyyy” or when MS Dhoni walks in “Dhoni Dhoni Dhoni” coming from the crowd. It’s amazing! You must be wondering why I’m asking you to go watch an IPL match in the stadium, right? No, I don’t get any commission coming in from the IPL organisers as may have crossed your mind! Then why am I telling you all this? In fact, IPL isn’t the central topic to my writing at all. It’s the spirit I want to talk to you about. Yes, the same spirit and passion you see in an IPL match. A spirit that is so powerful that it can keep an entire nation together, or should I say state in this case! One that makes people excited even before it comes and gives them an immense amount of happiness once it has arrived. Hasn’t positivity become a rare commodity in today’s world? All around; whether you see the idiot box, read the newspaper or overhear people talking on the road; there’s negativity everywhere. Even behind the fake happiness you see on social media sites and apps there’s actually a lot of sadness. It’s just that people have learned how to cover it up well and only disclose it to a handful, l those they consider very close. So when you see something shining that bright, with all its positivity and might; generating so much enthusiasm, it feels good. In fact I was having a bad day yesterday. Just seeing those preparations in the restaurant reminded me of some of the matches I had been for and made me feel so happy. So here’s to IPL, its spirit and the happiness it generates in so many hearts! You know, I am realizing how easy it to find happiness and positivity in small things like these. The problem with most of us is that we keep waiting for bigger ones. A car, house, vacation, mobile phone, children, marriage, etc. Happiness is in fact just around the corner in the things you never imagined! How do you find it? Just change your lens and it will be right in front of you. So I’ve decided I’m going to focus on things that make me happy. IPL does. Not just watching matches in the stadium but watching it on the TV with my family. It really does. Are you an IPL fan too? Or let me change the question for you. Are you a fan of happiness too? For Reading more such articles log on to www.theyellowspot.com and go through our Good Reads section. We are sure you'll enjoy it! ‘Game of Thrones’ is my most favourite series ever! Yeah right, it’s everybody’s favourite series. What makes ‘Game of Thrones’ the best show is that it’s incredibly unpredictable. We all know how we should never start liking a character on GoT. Why? It might end up dying sooner or later! We don’t really like it when that happens but we still enjoy it none the less. Well, apart from the unpredictable storyline what really impresses me are the GoT quotes. They’re inspiring in their own way. What do you think? Makes you think doesn’t it! Today I am going to list out some of my most favourite ‘Game of Thrones’ quotes so far. Ready? 1. “Once you’ve accepted your flaws. No one can use them against you.” Coming from a superbly confident and kickass dwarf, it makes complete sense. Tyrion Lannister is my favourite GoT character. Almost anything he says is kickass to me. Also most of the best GoT quotes come from him. Don’t they? Each one of us have some or the other flaws. It depends on us whether we want to crib about them all our life or embrace them. In fact it’s when you accept and allow yourself to pass through your flaws that you unleash immense strength! That one was from me, inspired by Tyrion! 2.“A very small man can cast a very large shadow” Looking at his character we know how true that is! With all his size issues and daddy issues, he has survived till the end only to be one of the strongest characters so far. Most of us tend to believe that our physical appearance determines our value or ability. It’s really just a self-limiting ‘belief’ that prevents us from being who we want to be and who we can be. We all somewhere know that, but do we take the efforts to do anything about it? 3. “Syrio says every hurt is a lesson and every lesson makes you better” This is a thought that Arya Stark keeps reiterating to herself. She thinks that everything that happens to us serves us in a way. Every hurt is like a lesson, teaching us something valuable and making us stronger and better. This is not something that is new or we don’t know, but we still tend to forget. We often get caught up with pain that the hurt causes and miss out on what it’s trying to show us. 4.“It doesn’t matter what we want, once we get it, then we want something else.” Petyr Bealish aka Lord Bealish was one of the most hated characters in the series, but also one of the smartest. That we can definitely make out from this saying of his! He inevitably points out one of bitter facts of human life. No matter how much you have and how much you get, you will always look for more. Material goods never satisfy a human permanently. It may make the person feel good for some time but will leave him looking for better stuff the next moment. 5.“A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone if it is to keep its edge.” This is the last one on my list and my personal favourite. It comes again from the guy himself - ‘Tyrion Lannister’. Whatever he says just has to be amazing! Tyrion is smart and what makes him so smart is ‘reading’. If you love reading you will most definitely relate to this quote. And even if you don’t, you know it – reading keeps your mind sharp. So start reading now!!! Do write to me if you love these quotes too. In fact I would love to hear the ones that you love too. Also for some really interesting articles you can visit www.theyellowspot.com They have some really interesting articles on their 'Good Reads' page. Honestly speaking, a Learning Organisation as a concept is very complex. However, if I were to put it simply, a learning organisation is one which continuously transforms itself through learning. So it is one where people in the organisation look forward to increasing their capability to gain better outcomes in order to achieve what they truly desire. It is therefore the process of overall development of the people, culture, processes and technology of an organisation and also it's ability to deal with the external environment. For an organisation to be a learning organisation, it has to work as a team on a whole. It has to be one solid unit. Why as a team, because when you truly work as a team, you learn a lot from each other and develop at a much faster rate. We all know the three pillars of a team right? Openness, inclusiveness and control. Since a learning organisation is made up of one big team, these pillars are also essential to a learning organisation. A learning organization has to have an open environment where people are open with and to each other, open to suggestions, open to discussions and most importantly open to learning. It has to look at inclusiveness, which is about people feeling included, the feeling of belongingness. Lastly, it also needs to consider the control factor, which talks about trusting people to do what they have to without too much control, yet keeping enough to maintain the required order. It therefore believes in letting people work on their own by giving them the power to make decisions as and when required. Typically which kind of organisations is this seen in more? Flat organisations where each person is responsible, teams are very well connected and everyone knows what’s happening, not just internally but also externally i.e. technologically, politically, socially, with competitors, etc. That is when an organisation truly learns and eventually develops itself. Transforming from a Traditional to a Learning Organisation Well, if you ask me, the best example of a learning organisation for me is ‘The Yellow Spot’ itself. At The Yellow Spot, we truly believe in practising what we preach. So when we go around telling our clients to build a learning organisation, we ensure ours is one too! So we have a flat structure with an open culture where employees are more like partners. We don't believe in hierarchies and work as a team; deal with & solve problems, discuss, suggest and learn together. All these are of prime importance to us and are the main reason for making us reach where we have. So every new programme we deliver, we learn something new from it and ensure we use the learning to take future programmes to the next level. Apart from this, we also spend time in reading, reflecting, experimenting, attending other sessions, etc. to ensure that we are updated and well versed to deal with the current needs of our client organisations and their people. That is how we are a learning organisation ourselves. Now coming back, why do learning organisations play such an important role? Primarily because they focus on both individual and organisational development, which are highly interrelated and cannot be treated separately. They focus on the total quality of the organisation by developing the individuals, teams, leaders and the company on the whole; to be able to sustain themselves in the ever changing environment and move ahead to create a difference. They foster an environment of team learning which helps in thinking together to manage the complexities to take the business to the next level. They offer an open culture and emphasize on a readiness to unlearn things in order to learn new things and develop oneself. The people oriented approach they follow always pays off, as the human resource is the only resource that actually appreciates with time! Learning in an organisation is a continuous process and when implemented appropriately, it positively reflects across levels and helps in managing change, creating a competitive advantage and developing and engaging all the stakeholders taking into consideration their collective aspirations. It thus brings in the feeling of togetherness in the organisation and builds a cohesive team which helps take it through to the next level. Having realised the importance of a learning organisation, organisations today are investing heavily on their developmental activities. They are empowering their employees and giving them opportunities to develop and go to the next level. This in turn is increasing employee motivation, engagement and the feeling of ownership and loyalty that they have towards their company. As one of the top corporate training companies in India, we help organisations step into such a learning environment and help them grow. Our developmental programs help organisations adapt to change and deal with challenges in the rapidly changing environment. We help them become self sufficient and capable of sustaining growth. Learning is an on-going process for transformation and learning encourages innovation, which further encourages sustainability in this highly competitive world. Hence learning and developing with time is important and essential. So when are you planning to become a learning organisation? If you need help in your learning journey, you can always let us know. Visit our website http://www.theyellowspot.com/ and let us know how we can assist you. Transactional Analysis Training comes from a wonderful school of psychotherapy which deals with self development, communication with the self and interpersonal skills. It was created by Eric Berne and gained momentum across the globe in the later years of his life as well as after his death. Many of his students like Father George Kandathil (ICTA Kochi), Thomas Harris, Albert Mehrabian, Ian Stewart and Vann Joines (their book 'TA Today' is widely regarded as a definitive modern interpretation), John Dusay, Aaron and Jacqui Schiff, Robert and Mary Goulding, Pat Crossman, Taibi Kahler, Abe Wagner, Ken Mellor and Eric Sigmund, Richard Erskine and Marityn Zalcman, Muriel James, Pam Levin, Anita Mountain and Julie Hay (specialists in organizational applications), Susannah Temple, Claude Steiner, Franklin Ernst, S Woollams and M Brown, Fanita English, P Clarkson, M M Holloway, Stephen Karpman and others have been instrumental in popularising this school of thought and spreading it across the globe. As some of you may be aware, TA theories focus on Life Positions, Ego States, Drivers, Scripts, Transactions etc. We will be discussing the first one in this article and some of the remaining ones in articles to come. Life Positions Life positions are one's basic beliefs about one's self and others, based on which we behave. The four life positions that we tend to operate from are:
The Four Life Positions (I+U+) depicts equality, balance, positive self esteem, consideration for others, win-win, world is a great place to live, we all are equal and life is progressive, I am willing to consider myself as well as listen to the other. (I+U-) depicts resistance to others ideas, aggressive, win-loose, get rid of other's ideas, one up and homicide. (I-U+) depicts inferiority complex, others are better than me, passivity, feel victimized, poor fellow, get away from it. (I-U-) depicts despair, suicidal, frustration with everyone and everything around, nothing is worth it and all is vain. Pretty self explanatory isn't it! The beauty of these life positions is that they form in early childhood and most of us practically spend the rest of our lives operating through them unconsciously! As per the Transactional Analysis philosophy, the best position to operate from is the I am OK you are OK position and this thought process actually has a profound impact on one's inner landscape. It gives a deep sense of accepting oneself and others and the universe the way they are, with love and awareness. In fact it really helped me as a Consultant too. I can now see that an Individual, Team or Organization for whom an intervention is being held is typically operating from a position other than the I am OK you are OK position. This creates disharmony, both for themselves internally as well as for those around them. As a Consultant, it is up to me to bring them to an I am OK you are OK position so that they, their teams and in turn their Organisations can benefit. The first shift that is to happen is to move to an I am OK position. This comes from accepting ones self just the way we are. With this deep acceptance, the you are OK follows automatically. Most of us operate strongly from an I am not OK space or you are not OK space and to look at oneself as OK and others as also OK the way they are itself is a huge shift in one's consciousness. We also need to realize that we all have a preferred life position. There may be momentary variations in this position depending upon the situations we face, however we tend to steer back to our preferred life position. So is there some way to change these life positions or are we stuck with our preferred life position for the rest of our lives? The good news is that we can change them. How? With awareness , the most powerful tool. When we get aware of the life position we are playing out of at that moment of time, we get the power to change it and can with practice gradually move towards the I am OK you are OK position. To know more about our Transactional Analysis Training, visit us at http://www.theyellowspot.com/ Communication means expressing your thoughts, feelings and emotions in a way that you get your desired result. Communication Skills Training is therefore the key to everything you want in today’s world. Personally and professionally it is an extremely important tool if used with the right skills sets. Communication Skills training has hence gained a lot of popularity and is at the top of every corporate training calendar. Lets understand how communication skills can bridge the gaps and achieve common goals by some common examples. Example 1: Sudhir is a Manager in an MNC and has been working with them in the capacity of a manager since a long time. He is extremely good at his work and has been given targets by his boss, which he wants to achieve to ensure that his promotion comes through this time, as he now really wants to go to the next level. He however is a very closed person and has never shared the targets openly with his team. He is an extremely pushy and demanding boss and keeps telling his team members what to do. They in turn just follow his instructions blindly without ever raising their voice. They are in fact afraid to talk to him and don’t enjoy working with him.This has led to high attrition in his team. It is due to his closed and aggressive communication style that he has not able to achieve his team goals and has been stuck in his position as a manager for years. Example 2: Young and dynamic, Roy is a manager at the same level as Sudhir in another team. He has similar targets and a similar team size and has been working with this MNC since the past 1 year. Unlike Sudhir, he is not very hard working and even has less experience as compared to Sudhir. He on the other hand has a very different approach towards his team members. He shares the targets with his team openly and brings them togetherto discuss how they plan to achieve the targets. Every morning he invites team members to discuss the challenges they are facing and takes team huddles. They then work together towards solving the problems being faced. He knows each member personally and professionally and supports him or her wherever they require help. He questions team members in a way that helps them find their own answers rather than him telling them. The team discusses their conflicts openly and is very well bonded. This open communication has helped the team achieve their targets before time and Roy is due for a promotion any time. So what’s the difference in the two examples? While Sudhir had better skills, abilities and experience over Roy; his communication style was very closed and attitude quite negative. Hence he always faced difficulties with his team and was not able to grow. Roy on the other hand was open and approachable. He realised that the only way for him to grow was through the growth of his team. This was possible only by having a cohesive team, which had good communication amongst its members, the example being set by him, their leader. This was the power of exercising and learning effective communication skills. Today we work in an environment where we deal with all kinds of people right from an office boy to the CEO of the company. The question we have to ask ourselves is whether we want to have results like Sudhir or like Roy. We can’t change people however we can change their response to us by changing our own skills. We have to understand that each person is different and has a different personality type. If we are able to identify the persons personality type and adapt our communication as per their style, our association with them improves and we can get better results. Effective communication begins with assessing our self first. We need to find out how our communication is with ourselves as well as some of our behaviors, which we display very often. We need to inquire and find out what kind of thoughts we keep getting, are these positive or negative, supportive or destructive. These will give us clues on our typical patterns. The best time to identify how we think is to observe ourselves during difficult situations, how we behave and think during present difficult situations as well as how we dealt with one in the past. We can also ask others around us for feedback as that may open up a perspective we were unaware of. We can also spend time ‘doing nothing’ as that gives us the space to understand what we do when we are doing something! These open our ‘blind areas’ to and this awareness gives us the power to change. By observing ourselves our thoughts start changing and eventually our entire outlook towards life starts changing. Our beliefs, motivation, attitude change and in turn change our behavior. As our behavior changes, the response of those around us automatically starts changing. Our Communication Skills Training focuses on changing your Inner LandscapeIt is however important to remember that along with awareness, self-acceptance also plays a vital role. While it is easy to accept our good side with pride we also have to learn to accept our dark side with love. If we keep beating ourselves for the not so good, we get stuck in a negative loop and keep running the same old patterns. Acceptance is essential, as what we reject comes back again and again till we accept it. So also, our dark side keeps coming back until we accept it and let go of it. Which all goes to say that all results finally depends upon us. We are the originator and hence what has to change to create the difference. When we change our communication the world around us changes. If you want to be a part of this change, visit us at http://www.theyellowspot.com/ Management Development Programs primarily focus on skills development training. However Most of the Management Development programs fail to bring out desired results as the concerned stakeholders have not been involved in the change process and thorough diagnosis is usually missing. Every program needs a thorough understanding about the current situation in the organization which is called as the organizational climate. Detailed analysis of the current culture can happen through sensing, systemic understanding of the organizations functioning, interviews, surveys, group discussions, detailed analysis and observation of the business and various departments. This preparatory work helps in determining if the gaps can be plugged by training alone or other interventions have to be looked upon. Diagnosing the Organisational Climate Together Usually training as standalone solution is never effective however many a times training programs and interventions are used as scape goats with a thought that training is the final ultimate solution and that becomes the biggest reason why training interventions fail miserably. What also typically happens with internal and external consultants is that they decide the pill before doing the diagnostic as they feel that the tools they know and have learnt are the best approaches for the given problem. This usually leads to disaster. What may be required is a thorough fact finding and brainstorming post the diagnosis about more long term sustainable changes using the right leverage points along with training interventions. Once it gets established that training is the solution via detailed diagnostics, the next required step is to look at a strong supportive environment also called as transfer climate which will help the participants practice the learning’s. This has to be provided by the HR, top management and the bosses without which the training program can become ineffective. In fact most successful interventions carried out so far have a strong buy in and involvement of the HR and the business. Another aspect required is action planning with regular follow up and refreshers courses apart from individual and group coaching. Follow up on the action planning by the HR and the Business Heads/Managers is important to ensure that there is seriousness in applying the learning once the training program is complete. It also helps participants in keeping and remembering to keep the learning ready with them so that they may action it as and when required. Learning also looses its essence if not repeated as participants forget in some time what they learnt and the role of refreshers becomes important here. This is the reason why one-off managerial skills development programs never bring desired results. It is only a measured systemic development which helps in bringing the desired change over a period of time and when an organization focuses on quick fixes and overnight change, the results are usually poor and fruitless. At The Yellow Spot, we strongly feel that it is not only the participants but their seniors, customers, peers and support functions who should also be considered as a part of interventions as they are the ones who also facilitate change by providing a transfer climate. Hence the focus of any management development program or managerial skills training should not be limited to only participants and respective stakeholders should also be included. To get the most out of your Management Development Programs, come visit us at http://www.theyellowspot.com/ I read two very interesting theories yesterday which I could connect to our Team Building Workshops. The first one was on the learning cycle and the learning styles that we all have. As per the theory, commonly known as the Kolb’s Learning Cycle and Kolb’s Learning Styles respectively, we all have a typical learning cycle that we tend to follow and should follow for maximum learning. We go through a particular experience, we then like to observe what happened in the experience, reflect on it, draw our conclusions from it and then go ahead and test our conclusions. So if I was to try to learn a skill at work, say how to handle irate customers how I would do it is:
David Kolb goes on to say that although we all follow the same learning cycle, yet we all have different learning styles. So while somebody might prefer the observation and reflection part, others might learn more by testing and actually doing things. The other theory I read was on how all of us use different areas of our brains for performing different functions. So although we all have similar faculties in the brain which can perform similar functions, the use of some come naturally to us whereas others just don’t. So while some of us may use our analytical areas more, others may use their intuitive faculties more. Now those using the analytical areas can also use the intuitive areas with practice, but it may be a strain as it’s not something that come naturally to them. Another interesting thing that I found in this theory is that we like being around people who use similar brain parts to ourselves and normally become friends with such people. On the other hand, we are naturally attracted to those who use complementary brain parts to ours and choose such people as a mate as they tend to complete us as cover up our so called weaknesses. So if you look at both theories, they give us great insights into teams. They both tell us that teams being made up of humans always have a common factor in them. They have similar ways of learning as well as similar brain functions. In that sense every team has a common thread running through it. However, if you go a little deeper you will realise that teams also have diversity. They are made up of different people who differ in the way they like to learn and differ in the way that they make use of their brain functionalities. So then is the commonality good or is the diversity good for a team? Am sure you all have the answer to this one and you will tell me that it’s really a no brainer! Both are good, the common pieces keep us bonded together as a single unit and the diversity helps us in performing a variety of functions which each team member excels in. Right? My question to you is that although we all know this and say it, is it really something that we believe and practice? Is it something that really comes from our core? Do we really appreciate diversity? The fact is that most of us are unfortunately unable to appreciate it although we may try very hard too! Why, because of an innate need to be accepted. Have you ever thought of why we like people who are similar to us? It’s because when someone is similar, it somewhere confirms to us that we are also alright which in turn makes us feel more accepted. If you look at it the other way also, you will realise that we don’t like things which are different from us. Most of the conflicts in the world occur because of this. So we don’t like people who are of a different religion or from a different country or city. The conflicts that we have in office are also mostly because of different opinions and different personalities. So is there some way to appreciate these differences then? Join our team building workshops and we will happily show you the way to have a bonded yet diversity appreciating team. Visit our website http://theyellowspot.com to learn what skills your team members have and how you can leverage them. |
The Yellow Spot
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