Feature

Experience, the best teacher

Experiential learning can help employees think out-of-the-box and bond better with the team, says Sudipta Dev

“Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand.”

This oft-repeated quote of Confucius is perhaps the best analogy of experiential learning, which has become an indispensable part of the training calendars in many IT and ITeS organisations. Most HR experts acknowledge the effectiveness of these interactive, engaging, and focused training sessions outside the typical environs of a classroom. This has also led to the mushrooming of a new breed of corporate trainers—experiential training providers. Combining management strategies of team building, leadership skills and conflict management with activities such as role plays and adventure sports, experiential learning is all about reliving experiences in a simulated atmosphere that teach many lessons for personal and professional development.

The significance of experiential learning in the corporate training scenario is now an acknowledged fact. Atul Kunwar, managing director, global outsourcing operations, eFunds International India, says, “Experiential learning is also equivalent to personal change and growth—and we at eFunds have, since our inception, endeavoured to base our training models keeping our associates and their movement up the spiral of growth in mind. We follow a proprietary three-fold model in the area of training and development, which focuses on the three E’s—education, experience and exposure. In terms of composition, it would be about 70%-75% experience augmented by about 10% education and 15%-20% exposure. The largest E is experience!” He adds that in the ITeS industry, classroom and strictly theoretical training can at best be a starting point. Beyond this, theory needs to be supplemented with applied knowledge. So, associates seeking to learn must get involved in the process, understand their job function or experience and evaluate their learning. Only then can learning have a pervasive effect on them.

A mix of classroom training and experiential learning should go hand in hand. “Benefits from this methodology include the release of stress and the encouragement of creative thought. For example, for IT professionals, who tend to be logical, analytical “left-side-of-the-brain” users, experiential training challenges the use of the alternate side of the brain, thus relieving stress on the left side. It provides a useful balance to the thinking style of the individual,” says Anubha Parekh, HR head of ABN AMRO Central Enterprise Services (ACES), adding that other methodologies are also useful in promoting learning. However, learning and recall may have a short-term impact if the emphasis switches to experiences being communicated and not felt.

“Good learning programmes must have a component where participants discover the insights themselves. The programmes should be about raising the right questions and allowing participants to explore “answers” through research (internal and external), analysis, hypothesis, validation and implementation,” states Cyprian D’Souza, managing director of Kanbay India and the chief people officer, Kanbay worldwide. At Kanbay, the 13-week Global Leadership Development Programme (GLDP) is a major experiential learning programme for managers across the organisation.

D’Souza informs that it is a 13-week action-reflection programme designed to impart essential leadership concepts, skills and discipline. The centre piece of the programme are four live projects dealing with four specific strategic organisational issues or concerns requiring breakthrough solutions. The programme has been a great success as all the solutions “discovered” by the last two programmes have been implemented.

Target audience

Experiential learning is targeted at different sections in the organisations that have employed it. While at Kanbay, GLDP is a specialised programme for managers across geographies, in ACES, value education and bonding sessions are for junior and middle management levels; and team building for managers of

medium-to-large projects. At eFunds, these programmes cover a wide spectrum across the board, and Prudential Process Management Services (PPMS) organises experiential learning classes for process leaders, team managers, assistant managers and operations managers.

“The themes of these programmes are—team work, decision-making skills, successful communication at work, managing conflict, time management, leadership, personal effectiveness, and change management. All of these are essential and can be applied to the workplace and personal lives,” states Atul Sharma, director HR, PPMS. He points out that all activities and experiences are followed by reflection and introspection which raises the effectiveness of the programme. What is learned evidently lasts longer in people who have undergone an experiential learning programme.

At ACES, the training approach varies and it depends upon functional responsibilities. Parekh elaborates, “On-the-job training for finance executives is particularly appropriate. We have examples of our employees learning in different teams, business streams and even countries in order to develop their skills. We have used outdoor adventure training which we find is successful for promoting team bonding and people management skills. For instance, the white water rafting experience for the leadership team down the Ganges was conducted to promote synergy, bonding, communication and oneness of purpose.”

eFunds has a CoE-Training (Centre of Excellence) which has evolved a ‘success road map’ for associates based on their training needs at various stages in their tenure and mapped it to a ‘associate’s learning curve’. “For example, we found that for the first three months, the associate would ‘want to learn’; or at nine months, the same person would ‘want to enhance performance’—and these findings helped tailor our learning and development programme, and it has yielded encouraging results,” elaborates Kunwar. He points out that the majority of the training programmes are based on the experiential philosophy—involving, seeing, learning and doing. “When our associates join, they start with the basic initiation and classroom training programmes for basic skills and then continue on to the process training modules, but even within these modules, wherever opportune, the accent is on simulation, and on learning by experiencing. In these proprietary training modules, we use our own resources from the CoE-Training,” adds Kunwar.

Judging effectiveness

Experiential learning is equivalent to personal change and growth. We base our training models keeping our associates and their movement up the spiral of growth in mind. Atul Kunwar Managing Director, Global Outsourcing Operations eFunds International India	Experiential learning is all about simulating an environment to help participants overcome the mindset that their area of activity is limited to a particular field and experimentation is not possible. Anand Upadhyay Vision Guardian Xperentia Training Systems	Experiential training sessions have been appreciated for improvements participants have been able to bring into their personal and professional lives Atul Sharma Director HR, PPMS

Most organisations feel positively about the outcomes of these programmes. Feedback from the participants is taken post-session. “This feedback has been very positive and encouraging as almost everyone who has undergone these sessions has not only appreciated them a lot but also narrated how they have benefited from the various sessions and how they have been able to bring about improvements in their personal or professional lives as a result,” says Sharma. At PPMS, two months after the programme, the facilitator who has conducted the programme meets the participants to assess how far they have progressed on each of their individual action plans that were drawn up immediately after the programme.

The true effectiveness of these programmes can only be ascertained after they are applied at the workplace, in day-to-day work and interaction.

The trainers

Experiential learning programmes are either conducted by in-house teams or external trainers. Parekh of ACES believes that for adventure sports or outdoor activities, organisations need support from external experts. “It also requires the expertise to handle debriefing sessions and ability to relate outdoors or nature with the lessons desired. Thus professionals with expertise in this area are recommended for good results,” observes Parekh.

Xperential Training Systems is one of the better known experiential training providers, it has been in business for more than six years, and is a member of the International Association for Experiential Education. “We design the programmes according to the briefs given by our clients after a detailed interview with the HR head. The aim (why a company wants to organise it) of the programme is paramount, the medium is secondary,” says Anand Upadhyay, vision guardian, Xperentia Training Systems.

Methodologies vary

Apart from outdoor programmes (which most other training providers organise), the company also conducts reality theatres as well as music and art workshops. For instance, the art sessions might include different members drawing small pieces of a mural that when put together depict the vision of a company and form a symbol of team endeavour. The mural can in fact occupy a place of pride on the office wall.

Music sessions include programmes like the ‘drum circle’ where people are encouraged to play different percussion instruments as part of an orchestra. “They communicate through music. The kind of bonding that happens cannot be done by any other media,” says Upadhyay, pointing out that experiential learning is all about simulating an environment for synergising a rhythm, to help people overcome the mindset that their area of activity is limited to a particular field and experimentation is not possible.

The pertinent question is: how difficult is it to convince senior professionals to take part in these activities, which might often appear juvenile to them? “When we start a workshop, the premise is that we tell them to think of the time when they were children, to leave their baggage outside and become a child again. The programme is a ‘micro-world’, an environment created for learning,” answers Upadhyay. For IT professionals, most programmes focus upon communication, interpersonal relations and man management skills (which are often a problem area for hardcore techies).

The success of these programmes is ascertained by taking an immediate feedback from the participants followed by a 30-day tracking programme.

While client organisations are gung-ho about experiential programmes, the flip side reveals that the training market in India is yet to mature. Most training providers are former mountaineers who do not have the requisite skills or knowledge to conduct such programmes. The fact that experiential learning is not just about outdoors, the medium is just a means of achieving the client’s aim, gets lost in the bargain. Many companies have in fact engaged fly-by-night operators with little expertise. Having burnt their fingers, organisations are now becoming discerning about the choice of experiential training providers, an initiative that will lead to the maturity of the market in the near future.

sudipta@expresscomputeronline.com