Citizen SBI

Laugh For No Reason

2011-11-29T15:57:00.001+05:30

Waterdemands no reason to flow;

Achild demands no reason to smile;

Whydo we need a reason to laugh?

LaughterYoga is a Life Changing Experience. According to Dr Madan Kataria, Founder ofLaughter Clubs Movement, “When you laugh, you change and when you change, thewhole world changes.”

LaughterYoga combines unconditional laughter with yogic breathing (Pranayama). Anyonecan laugh for no reason, without relying upon humour, jokes or comedy. In asession, laughter is simulated as a body exercise in a group. The groupmaintains eye contact and childlike playfulness, and laughter soon turns realand contagious. The concept of Laughter Yoga is based on the scientific factthat the body cannot differentiate between fake and real laughter.

Accordingto a study by Dr Michael Titze, a German Psychologist, people used to laugh 18minutes a day in the 1950s, but today we laugh not more than 6 minutes per day,despite the huge increase in the standard of living. Children can laugh up to300-400 times in a day, but as adults this frequency drops to barely 10-15times a day.

Adultsuse their cognitive ability to first comprehend humour and then laugh. This iscalled the Mind-To-Body Model or the Humour Model. The other model is theChildlike Model or the Body-To-Mind Model. Children laugh the most whileplaying. Their laughter comes straight from the body and does not make use ofany intellectual capacity of the brain.

LaughterYoga makes a clear distinction between happiness and joyfulness. Happiness is aconditional response. It is dependent on the fulfillment of certain desires ofthe mind and is related to happenings in the past and the future and hardlyever deals with the present. Do you remember how long you stayed happy aftergetting that diploma, car, job, or new house that you had worked for so long?

Incontrast, joyfulness is unconditional commitment to be happy for the moment andto have fun despite life’s problems. Joyfulness is easily triggered by joyful activitieslike laughing, dancing, singing and playing. It is purely a physical phenomenonwhile happiness is a concept of the mind.

Inorder to get scientifically proven benefits of laughter, we need to laughcontinuously for at least 10 to 15 minutes. To reap the health benefits oflaughter, laughter has to be loud and deep, coming from the diaphragm. Naturallaughter that courses through our life depends on many reasons and conditions,but there are not many reasons which make us laugh.

DrMadan Kataria, a medical doctor from Mumbai, is the founder of Laughter YogaClubs movement. Started with just five people in a public park in Mumbai in1995, it has grown into a worldwide movement of thousands of laughter clubs inmore than 65 countries.

Themost frequently asked question is, “How do you laugh when you are in no mood tolaugh or you don’t have any reason to laugh?” The answer is quite simple.Motion creates emotion, and vice versa.

Didyou know that we can actually learn to laugh? Our body and mind can be trainedto laugh at will. It’s like learning to ride a bicycle. It’s like musclememory; once you learn it, you never forget it.

Themost important factor in Laughter Clubs is the willingness of the participantsto laugh. The members laugh voluntarily, with full commitment. All you need todo is to give yourself permission to laugh – and nobody can stop you.

LaughterYoga goes beyond just laughing. It not only fosters a feeling of physical wellbeing, it enhances the spirit and touches the emotional core. It cultivatespositive thinking and promotes understanding. Laughter Yoga gives participantsthe opportunity to actively enhance the lives of others.

Evenwhen one exhales completely, there is some amount of air left in the lungs,called residual air. During inhalation we breathe in 500 to 700 ml of air andalmost the same amount is exhaled. This 500-700ml constitutes only 25% of ourlung capacity. But there is a huge volume of residual stale air in our lungsthat has more carbon dioxide.

Bothlaughter and yogic breathing exercises are intended to stimulate the movementof the diaphragm and the abdominal muscles which helps to activate theparasympathetic system – the calming branch of the autonomic nervous system.This is opposite to the sympathetic system – the stress arousal system. One canturn off the stress arousal system by simply learning to move the diaphragm.

DrOtto Warburg, Nobel Laureate said,”Deep breathing techniques increase oxygen tothe cells and are the most important factors in living a disease-free andenergetic life. When cells get enough oxygen, cancer will not and cannotoccur.”

LaughterYoga goes beyond laughter and physical wellbeing. It enhances the inner spiritand makes people change for the better. Unconditional laughter connects peoplefrom different cultures, countries, no matter what language they speak or howthey live.

InLaughter Clubs, we have different styles of belly laughter that exercise theabdominal muscles and the diaphragm simultaneously. Scientists have referred tolaughter as internal jogging. Regular laughter exercise strengthens theabdominal muscles and gives a constant massage.

Laughingpromotes a healthy heart. In a good bout of laughter, there is a dilation ofblood vessels all over the body. We’ve all seen or experienced this as aflushed appearance and feeling of warmth. Pulse rate and blood pressure rise asthe circulatory system is stimulated before settling down, below the originallevels. In a nutshell, laughter helps tone the circulatory system of the body.

Laughterand breathing exercises help to increase the breathing capacity of the lungsand increase the net supply of oxygen to the body. Laughter sessions, alongwith deep breathing, are like chest physiotherapy – especially for those whosmoke and suffer from bronchitis and respiratory airway obstruction.

Theforemost benefit of laughing is that one remains cheerful throughout the day.This sense of wellbeing comes from the release of feel good hormones calledendorphins. One also develops the ability to laugh at small things. LaughterYoga helps to develop sense of humour and bring more childlike playfulness.

Accordingto Dr William Fry, 10 minutes of hearty laughter is equal to 30 minutes on therowing machine. This is in respect of cardiopulmonary endurance. Laughter Yogais ideally suited for busy professionals who have very little time to exercise.20 minutes of Laughter Yoga can give you similar results as those of going togym for one hour.

Stressis the number one killer today, and most illnesses are stress related. LaughterYoga is an instant stress buster which takes care of physical, mental andemotional stress simultaneously. It has been scientifically proven thatlaughter reduces the level of stress hormones like cortisol and epinephrine andenhances positive emotions.

Thepractice of using unconditional laughter to prepare for stressful events isknown as Laughter Boosting and is gaining popularity with speakers, actors andother performers to prepare themselves for presentations to audiences of allsizes.

LaughterYoga has proved to be very effective as a personal development tool. Itenhances mental skills and abilities that help a person to improve theirperformance in every sphere of life. It is a powerful means for self confidenceas it helps to overcome inhibition and shyness and eases out awkwardness.

Laughterhas an infinite potential to enhance right brain functionality, which is theseat of creativity, intuition, imagination, inventions, music, art, meditationand healing. Laughter is an excellent exercise for toning facial muscles andimproving expressions. Laughter enhances communication skills and cultivatespositive emotions.

Aweak immune system is a major cause for almost all sickness and ill health. Laughterboosts immune system. Oxygen is one of the primary catalysts for all metabolicreactions in the human body. Ongoing scientific studies show that lack ofoxygen is the major cause of most diseases. Laughter Yoga flushes the lungs andfully oxygenates the blood and major organs leaving one bursting with energyand vitality and free from disease.

Scientificstudies have proved that a few days of laughter exercises and deep breathinglowers blood pressure thus reducing the risk of a heart attack. Having too muchcholesterol in the blood can lead to the hardening and narrowing of thearteries in the major vascular systems. A daily dose of laughter opens thearteries and allows the blood to flow freely to all parts of the body thuspreventing a cardiac failure.

Diabetesis emerging as a major health hazard worldwide. Japanese scientist Murakami’sexperiment to ascertain the effect of laughter on the blood sugar levels hasaffirmed that laughter has a lowering impact on blood sugar. Murakamiindentified 23 genes that can be activated with laughter. In addition, it alsoreduces the stress hormone cortisol responsible for increase in sugar levelsand stabilizes the immune system, which if weakened, can affect the productionof insulin in the pancreas.

Laughterhas a profound positive impact on allergies, with many practitioners reportingcomplete disappearance of all symptoms of asthma, skin and other allergies.Though not an intervention for countering physical causes of allergies;Laughter Yoga is a definite tool to remedy stress. It helps to reduce the riskfactors by boosting the immune system, encouraging deep breathing and flushingthe lungs of stale air and generating a feeling of wellness.

Thosesuffering from life threatening diseases not only go through physical pain;they also face immense psychological trauma. Not just the patient, but family,friends and care givers all need positive reinforcement. Having a positivemental attitude greatly influences the course of the disease. We have had manymembers suffering from cancer, immune disorders, multiple sclerosis and otherchronic diseases who have reported relief from their symptoms, thereby reducingtheir medications.

Depressionis often associated with physical pain, feelings of despair, loss of appetite,immobility, insomnia and other cardiovascular problems. Practicing LaughterYoga regularly helps to resolve most of these ailments as it is one of thefastest ways of boosting heart rate, reducing blood pressure, providing anexcellent cardio workout and alleviating pain. Extended hearty laughter is abody exercise with powerful body-mind healing effects.

Thecombination of natural pain killers with movements in laughter exercises makesLaughter Yoga a powerful tool for physiotherapy. Many practitioners havereported reversal of frozen shoulder and other movement limitations due tostroke, arthritis, and injury. Endorphins released as a result of laughter helpin reducing the intensity of pain in those suffering from arthritis,spondylitis and muscular spasms of the body.

Membersof Laughter Clubs are engaged as active and interactive participants, and notas passive audience being entertained. It has been proved that people whoactively participate in any humour and laughter activity get more benefits,than those who inertly receive humour and laughter. The source of laughter iswithin the body, and one can generate laughter with conscious effort andcommitment, anytime he or she wants to.

Laughterexercises are short and easy and can be added to your existing fitnessprogramme. It can be a value addition to Yoga groups, Tai-Chi groups, aerobiccentres, meditation centres, health clubs, sports and fun activities.

Thewhole world is an extended family. Let us join through Love and Laughter.

(Excerpts from 'LAUGH For No Reason' by Dr MadanKataria.)

Compiled by Jagat Singh Bisht

coolbisht@hotmail.com

Laughter Yoga in the State Bank of India

2011-11-06T19:58:00.000+05:30

I have had the privilege of introducing Laughter Yoga in the State Bank of

India

and laughing with thousands of my colleagues during the last year.

I have recently completed thirty-two years of my service in the State Bank of India. It has given me bread, butter and a respectable place in the society. Now, it is time that I give back something to this great institution. I am sure my humble contribution will bring cheer to some of the souls here. I would like to be remembered as a messenger of love and laughter when I retire from the Bank.

We started the journey of laughter on the 13^th of September, 2010 when we inaugurated the Laughter Club of State Bank Learning Centre, Indore with a bunch of newly promoted officers. Whoever came to the learning centre after that has had a brush with laughter yoga. We laughed every morning with a small group of willing laughers from all the groups who poured in week after week. A shining feather in our cap was training thirteen young trainee officers as laughter yoga leaders who eventually earned internationally recognized certification while they were at the campus. How can one ever forget the fun evening filled with gibberish nonsense, laughter exercises, singing-dancing-play-laughter and games arranged by newly recruited assistants!

I got opportunity twice to make presentations at the grand auditorium of the State Bank Academy, Gurgaon before officers from all over the country. I am really grateful to the General Manager and Principal who participated in the laughter sessions with total childlike playfulness on both the occasions which has engraved a deep respect for him deep in my heart.

It seems that the Almighty has been showering copious blessings from the top. I also showcased laughter yoga at the State Bank Staff College and State Bank Institute of Information and Communication Management located in Hyderabad. I conducted a laughter yoga session for bank guards, assistants, probationary officers and faculty at the State Bank Learning Centre, Goa. It was a unique experience as all of them laughed from their being level making it absolutely difficult to distinguish differences in their grades as they laughed like kids.

Last week, we have started Chetana Laughter Club at our new State Bank Foundation Institute (Chetana), Indore set up to groom fresh officers of the Bank. Henceforth every new officer of the Bank will have a tryst with laughter yoga at the beginning of her career and ‘Very Good Very Good Yay’ as her mantra.

The laughter virus has meanwhile spread to other centres – Kanpur, Lucknow, Goa, Nagda, Nagapattinam etc. – through some well meaning trainers and officers. It is indeed good to hear that those who laughed with us for a while, have gone back and started propagating laughter it in their own way. What more can one desire!

I have put up the concept of laughter yoga briefly before the Chief General Manager and Head of the Strategic Training Unit and he seemed to like it. The former CGM and Head was all for it and mentioned it to the Deputy Managing Director and Corporate Development Officer when she visited Indore to inaugurate State Bank Foundation Institute. She already knew a lot about the benefits of laughter yoga and appreciated the endeavour of using it in human resources trainings.

I am also grateful to the Director of my Institute for permitting me to use laughter yoga as ice-breaker, energizer and wellness routine during the training programmes.

My mission is to touch the lives of all the two hundred and twenty-two thousand employees of the State Bank of India with Laughter Yoga for their health, happiness and well-being.

(Before I close, I would like to share that my wife Radhika has been with me all along in this mission.)

- Jagat Singh Bisht

coolbisht@hotmail.com

Chetana Laughter Club Launched In State Bank Foundation Institute (Chetana), Indore, India

2011-11-05T10:21:00.003+05:30

Chetana Laughter Club has been launched in the State Bank Foundation Institute (Chetana), Indore, India.

The Institute has been recently set up by the State Bank of India to groom it’s freshly appointed officers viz. Probationary Officers, Trainee Officers, Management Trainees, Management Executives etc.

Laughter Yoga is being used at the Institute on an ongoing basis as an Ice-Breaker at the beginning of the training programmes, Energizer during the session breaks and Wellness Routine in the evenings for the participants.

As new recruits continuously pour into the Institute, it is estimated that 5000 officials (approximately) will have a tryst with Laughter Yoga annually in the new club.

The inaugural session began with a brief introduction about Laughter Yoga followed by clapping, chanting, deep breathing, childlike playfulness and laughter exercises.

The four elements of Joy – singing, dancing, playing and laughing – were beautifully brought out through Bollywood songs “Mera joota hai Japani”, “Sajan re jhoot math bolo” and “Bambai se aaya mera dost”. The session ended with vibrant displays in “Follow The Leader” game.

Mr Mahesh Verma and Mr Ajai Iyer – Faculty at the Institute – thoroughly enjoyed the session with the Probationary Officers of 2010 Batch from all over India.

Mr Jagat Singh Bisht, Assistant General Manager (Faculty) and Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher urged the young participants to adopt “Very Good Very Good Yay” as the ‘mantra’ of their life.

coolbisht@hotmail.com

Iain McGilchrist: The divided brain | Video on TED.com

2011-10-28T09:41:00.000+05:30

Iain McGilchrist: The divided brain | Video on TED.com

State Bank Foundation Institute (Chetana), Indore

2011-07-24T09:58:00.000+05:30

State Bank Foundation Institute (Chetana) - the fifth apex training institute of State Bank of India - will be inaugurated tomorrow at Indore.. It has been set up to groom new officers as future leaders..

Greetings on State Bank Day

2011-07-01T20:15:00.000+05:30

CitizenSBI Blog

Wishes

All Citizens SBI

A Very Happy Bank Day 2011

The Fundamental Principles

2011-05-16T16:39:00.000+05:30

By Shri Shri Anandamurti

In each sphere of life we should follow a code of discipline. Knowing or adhering to the code of discipline would ensure 60 per cent success. For proper movement, an aspirant should follow certain rules and know certain important factors.

In this connection, Gautama Buddha said that there are eight codes. The first is samyak or proper darshana. Darshana means to see, and in philosophical language, it means seeing with the spirit of a scholar, an aspirant. Darshana means guiding philosophy. So, every one of us ought to have a philosophy of life that will help us to progress.

The second important factor is samyak samkalpa. Samyak means proper. Samkalpa means determination. "I will do it. I must do it." The third is samyak vak. In ordinary terms vak is expression of vocal chords, but in philosophical language, vak means all the expressions of efferent nerves. Whatever we see, touch and speak, all these expressions are found within the scope of vak. Therefore, a man while expressing himself in any stratum of life, must have proper control over himself; he must have proper control over his sensory and motor nerves. This is samyak vak.

The fourth instruction is Samyak Ajiva. One can earn money by many unfair means such as stealing, selling intoxicants and money-lending. There are so many bad things one can do. A good man should have a clean occupation; he must not be engaged in unclean means of livelihood. Not only his physical occupation, but also his mental occupation should be neat, clean and pure. His objects of thought should be in good taste, and he should not try to do anything bad to another good man.

The fifth is samyak vyayama. Many of us perform regular physical exercises to keep the body strong and supple. A human entity, however, is not only physical but also mental and spiritual. The sixth one is samyak karmanta. When you start a task, you should finish the work properly, and in a nice way. Don't leave the work in a half-finished condition. The finish should always be good.

The seventh advice is samyak smrti. In Sanskrit, smrti means memory. What is memory? Whenever you see, or you hear, or you smell something with the help of your efferent or afferent organs, what happens? Your mind gets compartmentalised. One portion of the mind takes the subjective form, and another portion takes the objective form. You are seeing a tiger. One portion of your mind becomes the seer and another portion of your mind takes the form of the tiger; then you think that you are seeing a tiger. This recreation of a tiger in your mind is called smrti or memory.

The last is samyak samadhi - proper suspension of mind. When you are hearing an excellent expression of music, your mental object is that music, and while hearing, your subjective mind gets suspended in that objective portion. It is suspension of mind in hearing. Similarly, while meditating on the Supreme Entity, the Parama Purusha, your mind gets suspended in Him. It is proper samadhi; it is proper suspension of mind.

These are the eightfold codes of discipline, an indispensable part of an aspirant's life. You should always remember that for proper success, to attain the Supreme Bliss, adherence to these eightfold codes of discipline is a must.

www.speakingtree.in

Laughter Yoga @ State Bank Academy, Gurgaon

2011-05-09T11:51:00.000+05:30

A brief presentation on Laughter Yoga was followed by a live demo and a thunderous laughter session at the state-of-art auditorium of the State Bank Academy at Gurgaon, India.

It was attended by 170 officers of the State Bank of India and its five associate banks which included the General Manager and Principal, Deputy General Managers and Senior Faculty, Regional Managers, Assistant General Managers and Managers from across the country, HR Trainers from 27 Learning Centres of the Bank and young Probationary Officers.

State Bank Academy is the highest learning seat of the Bank and this was the second occasion when its auditorium witnessed warm echoes of laughter. Earlier in January I had made a similar demo-cum-presentation on Laughter Yoga which was well received. This time my wife Radhika also accompanied me and conducted laughter exercises on the stage.

The audience felt overwhelmed by the intrinsic strength of the concept and the instant experience of joy. Many of the officers were so thrilled at the end of the session that they came forward to share that this was one of their best experience of life. One of the officers, an asthmatic patient, told us that he found it difficult to laugh in the beginning of the session due to asthma but with group synergy started laughing and feeling very healthy after the session as his respiratory track smoothened. Some of the HR Trainers promised that they would use Laughter Yoga back home in their training sessions.

Jagat Singh Bisht

SBLC, Indore

coolbisht@hotmail.com

World Laughter Day

2011-04-27T10:51:00.000+05:30

Laughter is the best tonic for body, mind and soul.

World Laughter Day is customarily celebrated on the first Sunday of May every year. This year on the 1^st of May, the world will once again come together to laugh and spread the word of happiness and joy.

Nowadays people face enormous stress and are at war with themselves. Laughter is a positive and powerful emotion which helps people to change themselves and to change the world in a peaceful and positive way. Laughter is a universal language which has the potential to unite humanity.

This day is a celebration of the power of laughter to change the world. According to Dr Madan Kataria, the founder of Laughter Clubs Movement, “When we laugh, we change and when we change the whole world around us changes.”

On this auspicious occasion, may we appeal to the whole of humanity to use Laughter Yoga as a means to generate goodwill and also to lessen the pain caused by human insensitivity as well as natural calamities both of which have catastrophic consequences. While Laughter Yoga exercises will bring good health and well being, the inner spirit of laughter will help us to realize the deeper meaning of life.

By understanding the ways and means of sensible living through Laughter Clubs we can bring peace within us, which in turn will bring peace in the outer world. The Laughter Clubs movement is a global initiative to unite entire mankind through unconditional love and laughter.

It is a non-religious, non-racial, non-political and non-profit organization committed to generate good health, joy and world peace through laughter. This revolutionary idea has changed the lives of hundreds and thousands of people around the world and has helped them to attain a state of complete wellness.

Please spare a few moments to laugh heartily on World Laughter Day and pray silently for world peace.

Jagat Singh Bisht, Indore

coolbisht@hotmail.com

Laughter Yoga in Gandhi Ashram for School Girls

2011-04-25T12:14:00.000+05:30

I feel proud to share with you this out-of-the-world experience we had with school girls and their mentors in Gandhi Ashram. We (Radhika and me) have been blessed with several fulfilling experiences in the journey of Laughter Yoga but this one simply astounded us. We could never have even dreamed of such ecstasy and inner fruits. Our sincere gratitude to the God Almighty for blessing us with this Heavenly experience and hats off to Giggle Guru, Dr Madan Kataria, who propounded such a profound concept which has enabled us to serve humanity in such a wonderful manner.

We recently visited Kausani at the foothills of Himalayas in north India. It is one of the most picturesque and tranquil places we have ever been to. Mahatma Gandhi called it the Switzerland of India. He complied the Gujarati translation ‘Anasakti Yoga’ of the Bhagavad Geeta while staying at an ashram, now named as Anasakti Ashram, here.

Sarla Ben, fondly remembered as Gandhi’s British daughter, established Lakshmi Ashram here in 1946. It was set up as a basic education program where girls would receive academic education along Gandhian lines and get trained to become social activists. So that they would in turn, work to become self reliant to uplift their village sisters of remote Uttarakhand.

Most of the students at the ashram today are from poor, rural families. Others are from particularly remote villages where access to post primary school is still s problem, especially for girls. Most of them come from small, off-road villages and relatively uneducated families. The school considers it very important that everone at the ashram lives and works together irrespective of caste and other social differences.

We reached the ashram, after a steep climb, in the afternoon. Two little girls guided us to Kanti Didi, affectionately called Odee by all in the ashram, a devoted Gandhian and in-charge of the school activities. She was very warm and loving and bonded with us in no time. We told her about Laughter Yoga and she could see the deep value hidden it for her school girls.

Odee summoned a girl and asked her to ring the ashram bell. All the girls assembled in a jiffy and were told to proceed to the Shanti Bhavan, their community hall for prayers and cultural activities. In her simple, yet sincere and effective way, Odee announced that we had something valuable to share with them and everyone should pay apt attention.

There were about 60-70 lovely, little girls there. We told them how much we loved children and how sweet each one of them was. Then, we explained the concept of Laughter Yoga in a simple manner very briefly. A laughter session followed after that. Oh, what an amazing session it was! We had never experienced anything like that before. It was joy, cheers and energy all around. Odee, probably in her seventies, was as ecstatic as the kids. The session lasted for one and a half hours! Pure joy, nothing else. Towards the end, everyone was lying down, facing upwards, meditating laughingly as if in a trance.

They offered us Kaadha, a drink prepared from a concoction of Himalayan herbs, and requested us to stay back for the evening play time with the girls. We felt happy and privileged and obliged readily.

In the evening, we went to a lush green play field, surrounded by beautiful trees, and all the girls, clutching our hands tightly with heartfelt affection, took us many years back, right into our own childhood days. We ran and played with them like mad kids. First, we formed a laughter train and ran around the entire field and then marched like soldiers with loud shouts of hoho haha. Towards the end, we performed a laughter orchestra. We had slipped into super consciousness!

All the girls are richly talented in their own way – some are super atheletes, some good at games and almost everyone can sing and dance well. We are sure that many of them can compete at the national level with a bit of coaching and opportunity. Everyone of them is wonderful soul.

There were some volunteers with us there: Michelle (from Denmark), Alexandra (U.K.), Leo (Germany), David (U.K.), Pramila(Italy) and Uma (Hyderabad). It was an awesome evening.

By now, we were like a family and the girls wouldn’t let us go back. We promised that we would come back the next day, stay and laugh whole day and have lunch with them. And, we did.

We were there with them on the next evening also and joined them for their evening prayers in Gandhian manner. Thereafter, they arranged an impromptu cultural evening and farewell for us. It was singing+dancing+playing+laughter=joy all the way.What terrific talent those girls possess! Unbelievable. It was a marvelous night brimming with emotions. By now, we were all theirs and they were all ours. We would be going there again and again. It is a home for us now.

Next time, when we go there, we are going to stay at the ashram itself. Odee has been benevolent to accept us as their family members. The girls surrounded us and held our hands with so much warmth that Radhika had tears in her eyes. It was really difficult to depart. Two girls, with torches, came down the hills to escort us back to our hotel in the pitch darkness of the mountain slopes.

As we were preparing to leave Kausani with a heavy heart early in the morning, we saw Odee knocking at our hotel room door to bid adieu. How thoughtful of her! She assured us that they will do Laughter Yoga regularly in their ashram and they find immense value in it and appreciate the philosophy underlying it. Had it not been for Laughter Yoga, we would never have had such a soul stirring experience ever!

- Jagat Singh Bisht

SBLC, Indore

Laughter Yoga: A Return Gift of Everlasting Cheer to the Society

2011-04-06T17:55:00.001+05:30

By JAGAT SINGH BISHT

My journey of Laughter Yoga (LY) has been a very fulfilling and satisfying one. I feel blessed to practice LY almost daily with a large number of people and bring joy to their lives. I express my sincere gratitude to Dr Madan Kataria and Madhuri Kataria who have imparted this divine life skill by which I can touch human lives instantly, anywhere and at any time.

I have been closely studying Positive Psychology and Authentic Happiness for a long time and believe that doing something worthwhile and meaningful for your fellow beings and intimate social interactions with those around you alone brings true happiness. LY is the best tool to achieve this. We can have warm relationships with people and also bring unlimited joy in their lives.

I always wanted to give back something to the great institution where I have been working for more than thirty-one years. I also wished I could inculcate positive values in school children and bring smiles on the faces of the sick and old people. The society has given me so much and I wanted to give a return gift of everlasting cheer to its people. LY has equipped and enabled me to do that on a continuous basis, each and every day of my life.

I was a shy kid and a studious student. I always wanted to sing, dance, play and laugh freely in groups. Now, I can do that and also make others experience joy by doing that.

We have formed a social group Laughter Yoga @ Indore comprising of LY lovers and professionals in Indore, India. Our mission is to propagate LY in and around our town for health, wellness, joy and peace. We wish to take it to the schools, colleges, workplaces, communities, hospitals, clubs, gyms, slums, old age homes, orphanages and even prisons.

We run two regular laughter clubs here. Suniket Laughter Club meets every Sunday morning for LY exercises at the Shrinagar Extension Public Park, Indore. In addition, my wife, Radhika, who is also a Certified LY Teacher, holds Ladies' Laughter Kitty every Saturday evening at the Community Hall of Suniket Apartments, Shrinagar Extension, Khajarana Road, Indore.

Laughter Club of State Bank Learning Centre, Indore was formally launched on the 13th September 2010 at the State Bank Learning Centre, Manik Bagh Road, Indore. It is a unique laughter club. Every week, new trainees come to the centre for learning. They join the club, leave by the week-end and spread laughter back at their homes. Next week, another set of new participants join, and so on..

I first saw Dr K and Madhuri conducting a laughter session at the Lokhandwala Park, Mumbai, India more than a decade ago and feel overwhelmed to conduct laughter sessions with my wife Radhika at Indore. It has transformed our lives totally. Our joy knew no bounds when Dr K remarked recently, “You are doing a wonderful job. I am proud of Radhika and you!”

coolbisht@hotmail.com

Intervention-IV: The Senior Management Citizenship Visioning Programme

2011-04-05T16:17:00.000+05:30

The Senior Management Citizenship Visioning Programme

Intervention-IV, the Senior Management Citizenship Visioning Programme aims to bring about recognition of the critical changes required in SBI by way of policies/processes/practices in order to create a fertile and friendly environment for the citizenship ideals to flourish.

The Intervention is in design stage.

Intervention – III: Market Engagement Programme

2011-04-05T16:14:00.000+05:30

Intervention-III is about Market Engagement.

The Market is a network of ecosystems and each ecosystem in turn consists of several communities. At one level Intervention-III is about spotting opportunities and leveraging them in a systematic manner. It operates in an invest-harvest cycle, where invest is done at present and the harvest in the form of business follows as a matter of course in the short, medium and long term.

At another deeper level, the Market Engagement Programme is about identifying opportunities for contribution, partnering for development of the ecosystem which in turn will help in building "trust surplus" and "sustainable insidership" for the Bank in that ecosystem. Intervention-III programmes have been conducted in all the circles and the workshop to impart skills comprises of two phases. Phase-I introduces the concepts of Ecosystems and Insidership. Phase-II provides a four step toolkit for attaining insidership in various ecosystems. The participants in these workshops are CMC, CCFO, CDO, BU Heads, RMs and other LHO functionaries.

World Laughter Day 2011

2011-04-01T13:06:00.003+05:30

Laughter may be the best medicine but how can we laugh at a time like this? Some people think that the tensions and conflicts in the world make it no laughing matter but those in the new laughter movement disagree and believe that together we can lead the world to health, happiness, and peace through laughter.

The Laughter Clubs movement is a global initiative to unite entire mankind through unconditional love and laughter. It is a non-religious, non-racial and non-profit organization committed to generate good health, joy and world peace through laughter. This revolutionary idea has changed the lives of hundreds and thousands of people around the world and has helped them to attain a state of complete wellness.

Nowadays, people face enormous stress and are at war with themselves. Laughter is a positive and powerful emotion which helps people to change themselves and to change the world in a peaceful and positive way. Laughter is a universal language which has the potential to unite humanity.

World Laughter Day was first observed on 11^th January, 1998 in Mumbai, India. Twelve thousand members from local and international laughter clubs joined together in a mega laughter session led by Dr Madan Kataria, the founder of laughter clubs movement.

‘Happy-demic’ was the first World Laughter Day gathering outside India. It took place in the year 2000 in Copenhagen, Denmark where more than 10,000 people gathered at Town Hall Square. It was the largest ever gathering that laughed and bonded together and the event went into the Guinness Book of World Records.

The usual format of world laughter day celebration is the congregation of laughter club members, their families and friends at some important landmark in their city like big squares, public parks or auditoriums and laugh collectively.

www.worldlaughterday.org

CoolBisht / Indore

Laughter Yoga with Aussies

2011-03-16T15:23:00.000+05:30

Carolyn Laughalot and Desmond Nicholson, Laughter Yoga Leaders from Eltham Laughter Club, Melbourne, Australia visited Suniket Laughter Club and Laughter Club of State Bank Learning Centre, Indore, India under the exchange programme of Laughter Yoga International Clubs. They also giggled with the school girls of Sarada Ramakrishna School, Indore and laughed with their teachers.

It was an enriching experience for the members of these clubs in Indore as Carolyn and Desmond enthralled them with the Victorian flavour of Laughter Yoga, especially Kangaroo Laughter, Giggle and Wriggle, New Zealand Rugby Hakka Laughter and Donkey Laughter.

Carolyn and Desmond were guests of Dr Madan Kataria, the founder of Laughter Yoga, at Bangalore. They stayed with us at Indore and we had deep discussions till late in the night on the inner spirit of laughter, new laughter exercises and the manner in which we conduct laughter sessions.

While we appreciated their fusion of energy healing and dance with Laughter Yoga, they loved Follow-the-Leader and Singing+Dancing+Playing+Laughing=Joy incorporated in our laughter sessions. While switching between laughter, they used Hoho Hahaha and deep breathing; whereas in our clubs we use Very Good Very Good Yay more often. They loved Cricket Laughter exercise created in our club and Desmond added a piece to it.

I prepared Indian Chai (Tea) for them every morning while my wife Radhika, who is also a Laughter Teacher, cooked Poha (Rice flakes) for them in the Indorean style which they relished. My mother, who is almost 80 years old, usually doesn’t prefer to move out of house, accompanied us for an excursion to nearby Maheshwar and Mandu, which are places of great historical value, as she felt that it would be too long a day without her new found daughter Carolyn. I had long, leisurely strolls with Desmond, who has a great sense of humour, in the evenings and talked about everything from Cricket to Kashmir and Australian grapes to Indian wine.

We would like to express our gratitude to Dr Madan Kataria who arranged this exchange and would like to share that it has been a really great motivating experience for the laughter lovers in this part of the country.

- CoolBisht / Indore

FIRST, BREAK ALL THE RULES

2011-03-05T12:02:00.001+05:30

BY MARCUS BUCKINGHAM and CURT COFFMAN

If you create a work environment where people feel valued, encourage them to do what they are good at all the time then you have the makings of a successful business.

The greatest managers in the world seem to have little in common. They differ in sex, age, and race. They employ vastly different styles and focus on different goals. Yet despite their differences, great managers share one common trait: They do not hesitate to break virtually every rule held sacred by conventional wisdom. They do not believe that, with enough training, a person can achieve anything he sets his mind to. They do not try to help people overcome their weaknesses. They consistently disregard the golden rule. And, yes, they even play favourites.

This book is the product of two mammoth research studies undertaken by the Gallup Organization over the last twenty-five years. The first concentrated on employees, asking, “What do the most talented employees need from their workplace?” Gallup surveyed over a million employees from a broad range of companies, industries, and countries.

The research yielded many discoveries, but the most powerful was this: Talented employees need great managers. The talented employee may join a company because of its charismatic leaders, its generous benefits, and its world-class training programs, but how long that employee stays and how productive he is while he is there is determined by his relationship with his immediate supervisor.

This simple discovery led Gallup to the second research effort: “How do the world’s greatest managers find, focus, and keep talented employees?” During the last twenty-five years the Gallup Organization has conducted interviews with over eighty thousand managers. They focused their analysis on those managers who excelled at turning the talent of their employees into performance.

In this book, great managers present no sweeping new theories, no prefabricated formulae. All they can offer you are insights into the nature of talent and into their secrets for turning talent into lasting performance. The real challenge lies in how you incorporate these insights into your style, one employee at a time, every day.

The Measuring Stick

What does a strong, vibrant workplace look like? Measuring the strength of a workplace can be simplified to twelve questions. These twelve questions don’t capture everything you may want to know about your workplace, but they do capture the most information and the most important information. They measure the core elements needed to attract, focus, and keep the most talented employees.

Here they are:

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?

2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?

3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?

4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for good work?

5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?

6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?

7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?

8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel like my work is important?

9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?

10. Do I have a best friend at work?

11. In the last six months, have I talked with someone about my progress?

12. At work, have I had opportunities to learn and grow?

These twelve questions are the simplest and most accurate way to measure the strength of a workplace. If you create the kind of environment where employees answer positively to all twelve questions, then you will have built a great place to work.

The Wisdom of Great Managers

How do the best managers in the world lay foundations of a strong workplace? It turns out that great managers share less than you might think. If you were to line them all up against a wall, you would see different sexes, races, ages, and physiques. If you were to work for them, you would feel different styles of motivation, of direction, and of relationship building. The truth is they don’t have much in common at all. However, deep within all these variations, there was one insight, one shared wisdom, to which all these great managers kept returning.

Great managers believe that each individual is true to his unique nature. They recognize that each person is motivated differently, that each person has his own way of thinking and his own style of relating to others. They know that there is a limit to how much remoulding they can do to someone. But they don’t bemoan these differences and try to grind them down. Instead they capitalize on them. They try to help each person become more and more of who he already is. Simply put, this is the one insight we heard echoed by tens of thousands of great managers:

People don’t change that much.

Don’t waste time trying to put in what was left out.

Try to draw out what was left in.

That is hard enough.

This insight is the source of their wisdom. It explains everything they do with and for their people. It is the foundation of their success as managers.

This insight is revolutionary. It explains why great managers do not believe that everyone has unlimited potential; why they do not help people fix their weaknesses; why they insist in breaking the “Golden Rule” with every single employee; and why they play favourites. It explains why great managers break all the rules of conventional wisdom.

Managers play a vital and distinct role, a role that charismatic leaders and self-directed teams are incapable of playing. The manager role is to reach inside each employee and release his unique talents into performance. In this sense, the manager role is the “catalyst” role. The manager creates performance in each employee by speeding up the reaction between the employee’s talents and the customers’ needs. When hundreds of managers play this role well, the company becomes strong, one employee at a time.

Select a person, set expectations, motivate the person, and develop the person: these are the four core activities of the “catalyst” role. If a company’s managers are unable to play this role well, then no matter how sophisticated its systems or how inspirational it leaders, the company will slowly start to disintegrate.

“The Four Keys” of great managers reveal how these managers unlock the potential of each and every employee:

· When selecting someone, they select for talent … not simply experience, intelligence, or determination.

· When setting expectations, they define the right outcomes … not the right steps.

· When motivating someone, they focus on strengths … not on weaknesses.

· When developing, they help him find the right fit … not simply the next rung on ladder.

Select for Talent

Normally we associate talent only with celebrated excellence. For most of us talent seems a rare and precious thing, bestowed on special, faraway people.

Great managers disagree with this definition of talent. Instead they define a talent as “ a recurring pattern of thought, feeling, or behaviour that can be productively applied.” Your talents, they say are the behaviours you find yourself doing often. Any recurring patterns of behaviour that can be productively applied are talents. The key to excellent performance, of course, is finding the match between your talents and your role. Every role, performed at excellence, requires certain recurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behaviour.

For most roles, conventional wisdom advises managers to select for experience, for intelligence, or for determination. Talent, if mentioned at all, is an afterthought. Conventional wisdom fails to take into account that there are so many other kinds of talents and that the right talents, more than experience, more than brainpower, and more than willpower alone, are the prerequisites for excellence in all roles – talents such as a waiter’s ability to form opinions, empathy in nurses, assertiveness in salespeople, or, in managers, the ability to individualize.

Conventional wisdom assumes either that these behaviours can be trained after the person has been hired or that these characteristics are relatively unimportant to performance on the job.

Both assumptions are false. First, you cannot teach talent. You cannot teach someone to form strong opinions, to feel the emotion of others, to revel in confrontation, or to pick up on the subtle differences in how best to manage each person. You have to select for talents like these.

Second, talents like these prove to be the driving force behind an individual’s job performance. It’s not that experience, brainpower, and willpower are unimportant. It’s just that an employee’s full complement of talents – what drives her, how she thinks, how she builds relationships – is more important.

Skills, knowledge, and talents are distinct elements of a person’s performance. The distinction among the three is that skills and knowledge can easily be taught, whereas talents cannot.

A multitude of diverse talents like vision, competition, competence, ethics, focus, discipline, work orientation, responsibility, strategic thinking, performance orientation, creativity, empathy, individualized perception, positivity, courage, persuasion and command can be classified into three basic categories:

Striving talents explain the why of a person. They explain why he gets out of bed everyday, why he is motivated to push and push just that little bit harder. Is he driven by his desire to stand out, or is good enough good enough for him? Is he intensely competitive or intensely altruistic or both? Does he define himself by his technical competence, or does he just want to be liked?

Thinking talents explain the how of a person. They explain how he thinks, how he weighs up alternatives, how he comes to his decisions. Is he focused, or does he like to leave all his options open? Is he disciplined and structured, or does he love surprises? Is he linear, practical thinker, or is he strategic, always playing mental “what if?” games with himself?

Relating talents explain the who of a person. They explain whom he trusts, whom he builds relationships with, whom he confronts, and whom he ignores. Is he drawn to win over strangers, or is he at ease only with his close friends? Does he think that trust must be earned, or does he extend trust to everyone in the belief that most will prove worthy of it? Does he confront people dispassionately, or does he avoid confrontation until finally exploding in an emotional tirade?

As a manager you need to know exactly which talents you want. To identify these talents, look beyond the job title and description. Think about the culture of the company.

Selecting for talent is the manager’s first and most important responsibility. If he fails to find people with the talents he needs, then everything else he does to help them grow will be as wasted as sunshine on barren ground.

Define the Right Outcomes

Great managers believe that people don’t change that much. They know that they cannot force everyone in a particular role to do the job in exactly the same way. They know that there is a limit to how much each employee’s different style, needs, and motivation can be ground down.

Second, they believe that an organization exists for a purpose and that that purpose is performance – with “performance” defined as any outcome that is deemed valuable by either an external or internal customer. In their view, the manager’s basic responsibility is not to help each person grow. It is not to provide an environment in which each person feels significant and special. These are worthy methods, but they are not to the point. The point is to focus people toward performance. The manager is, and should be totally responsible for this. This explains why great managers are skeptical about handing all authority down to their people. Allowing each person to make all of his own decisions may well result in a team of fully self-actualized employees, but it may not be a very productive team.

So this is their dilemma: The manager must retain control and focus people on performance. But she is bound by her belief that she cannot force everyone to perform in the same way.

The solution is as elegant as it is efficient: Define the right outcome and then let each person find his own route toward those outcomes.

This solution encourages employees to take responsibility. Great managers want each employee to feel a certain tension, a tension to achieve. Defining the right outcomes creates that tension. By defining, and more often than not measuring, the required outcomes, great managers create an environment where each employee feels that little thrill of pressure, that sense of being out there by oneself with a very definite target.

Defining the right outcomes does expect a lot of employees, but there is probably no better way to nurture self-awareness and self-reliance in your people.

Focus on Strengths

How do great managers release each person’s potential? Great managers would offer you this advice: Focus on each person’s strengths and manage around his weaknesses. Don’t try to fix the weaknesses. Don’t try to perfect each person. Instead do everything you can to help each person cultivate his talents. Help each person become more of who he already is.

This radical approach is fueled by one simple insight: Each person is different. Each person has a unique set of talents, a unique pattern of behaviours, of passions, of yearnings. Each person’s pattern of talents is enduring, resistant to change. Each person, therefore, has a unique destiny.

One of the signs of a great manager is the ability to describe, in detail, the unique talents of each of his or her people – what drives each one, how each one thinks, how each builds relationships. In a sense, great managers are akin to great novelists. Each of the “characters” they manage is vivid and distinct. Each has his own features and foibles. And their goal, with every employee, is to help each individual “character” play out his unique role to the fullest.

If you want to turn talent into performance, you have to position each person so that you are paying her to do what she is naturally wired to do. You have to cast her in the right role.

Investing in your strugglers appears shrewd, yet the most effective managers do the opposite. They spend the most time with their most productive employees. They invest in their best. Why?

Because at heart they see their role very differently from the way most managers do. Most managers assume that the point of their role is either to control or instruct. And, yes, if you see “control” as the core of the manager role, then it would certainly be productive to spend more time with your strugglers because they still need to be controlled. Likewise if you think “instructing” is the essence of management, investing most in your strugglers makes similarly good sense because they still have so much to learn.

But great managers do not place a premium on either control or instruction. Both have their place, particularly with novice employees, but they are not the core: they are too elementary, too static.

For great managers, the core of their role is the catalyst role: turning talent into performance. So when they spend time with an employee, they are not fixing or correcting or instructing. Instead they are racking their brains, trying to figure out better and better ways to unleash that employee’s distinct talents:

· They strive to carve out a unique set of expectations that will stretch and focus each particular individual.

· They try to highlight and perfect each person’s unique style. They draw his attention to it. They help him understand why it works for him and how to perfect it.

· And they plot how they, the manager, can run interference for each employee, so that each can exercise his or her talents more freely.

Talent is the multiplier. The more energy and attention you invest in it, the greater the yield. The more time you spend with your best is, quite simply, your most productive time. Conversely, time away from your best is alarmingly destructive.

Although great managers are committed to the concept of “fairness,” they define it rather differently from most people. In their mind “fairness” does not mean treating everyone the same. They would say that the only way to treat someone fairly is to treat them as they deserve to be treated, bearing in mind what they have accomplished.

None of this means that great managers ignore nonperformance. They don’t. Poor performance must be confronted head-on, if it is not to degenerate into a dangerously unproductive situation. If the employee is struggling because he doesn’t have the necessary skills or knowledge, then it almost certainly is trainable.

Each employee is motivated differently. If the manager forgets this, if he is trying to motivate a noncompetitive person with contests, or a shy person with public praise, then the solution to the nonperformance might well lie in his hands. If he can find the right trigger and trip it, perhaps the employee’s true talent will burst out.

In cases where a weakness is causing poor performance, there are only three possible routes to helping the person succeed. Devise a support system. Find a complementary partner. Or find an alternative role.

There are some people for whom nothing works. Faced with this situation, you have little choice. You have to find this employee an alternative role. You have to move him out.

Find the Right Fit

Sooner or later every manager is asked the question “Where do I go from here?” The employee wants to grow. He wants to earn more money, to gain more prestige. He is bored, underutilized, deserves more responsibility.

What should you tell him? Should you help him get promoted? Should you tell him to talk to Human Resources? Should you say that all you can do is put in a good word for him? What is the right answer?

There is a right way to approach this question – namely, help each person find the right fit. Help each person find roles that ask him to do more and more of what he is naturally wired to do. Help each person find roles where her unique combination of strengths – her skills, knowledge and talents – match the distinct demands of the role.

For one employee, this might mean promotion to a supervisor role. For another employee, this might mean termination. For another, it might mean encouraging him to grow within his current role. For yet another, it might mean moving her back into her previous role. These are very different answers, some of which might be decidedly unpopular with the employee. Nonetheless, no matter how bitter the pill, great managers stick to their goal: Regardless of what the employee wants, the manager’s responsibility is to steer the employee toward roles where the employee has the greatest chance of success.

Whether the employee is at the end of a trial period, or whether he is just struggling along in his current role, it is difficult to bring him bad news. The best managers do not resort to any evasive manoeuvres. They employ “tough love,” which is not a technique, or sequence of action steps, but a mind-set, one that reconciles an uncompromising focus on excellence with a genuine need to care. It is a mind-set that forces great managers to confront poor performance early and directly. Yet it allows them to keep their relationship with the employee intact.

The tough love mind-set enables a great manager to keep two contradictory thoughts in mind at the same time – the need to maintain high performance standards and the need to care – and still function effectively. In the minds of great managers, consistent poor performance is not primarily a matter of weakness, stupidity, disobedience, or disrespect. It is a matter of miscasting. They understand that a person’s talent and nontalent constitute an enduring pattern.

Performance Management

Each manager’s “performance management” routine is different, reflecting his or her unique style. Nonetheless, hidden within this diversity we find four characteristics common to the “performance management” routines of great managers.

First, the routine is simple. Great managers dislike the complexity of most company-sponsored performance appraisal systems. Instead they prefer a simple format that allows them to concentrate on the truly difficult work: what to say to each employee and how to say it.

Second, the routine forces frequent interaction between the manager and the employee. It is no good meeting once a year, or even twice a year, to discuss an employee’s performance, style, and goals. The secret to helping an employee excel lies in the details: the details of his particular recognition needs, of his relationship needs, of his goals, and of his talents/nontalents.

Third the routine is focused on the future. Great managers do use a review of past performance to highlight discoveries about the person’s style or needs. However, their natural inclination is to focus on the future.

Last, the routine asks the employee to keep track of his own performance and learnings. This record is not designed to be evaluated or critiqued by her manager. Rather, its purpose is to help each employee take responsibility for her performance. It serves as her mirror.

Master Keys

Conventional wisdom is barricaded behind a wall of selection, training, compensation, and performance management systems. The only way to dislodge it completely is to replace these systems. And only the company can replace these systems.

Using the Four Keys as our guide, here are some of the master keys that the senior management of a company can use to break through conventional wisdom’s barricades:

A. Keep the focus on outcomes: The role of the company is to identify the desired end. The role of the individual is to find the best means possible to achieve that end. Therefore strong companies become experts in the destination and give the individual the thrill of the journey.

· As much as is possible, define every role using outcome terms.

· Find a way to rate, rank, or count as many of those outcomes as possible. Measurement always improves performance.

· The four most important emotional outcomes for a customer are accuracy, availability, partnership, and advice. Examine each role within the company and identify what actually needs to happen to create these outcomes. In training classes, explain how the standardized steps of the role lead to one or more of these outcomes. Also explain where, how, and why employees are expected to use their discretion to create these outcomes.

· Hold managers accountable for their employees’ responses to the twelve questions presented earlier under the sub-heading “The Measuring Stick.” These twelve questions are a very important outcome measure. Managers should use the twelve questions as part of their overall performance card.

B. Value world-class performance in every role: At strong companies every role, performed at excellence, is respected. If you want to understand the culture of a company, look first to its heroes.

· Within as many roles as possible, set up different levels of achievement. Identify specific criteria for moving up from one level to the next. Reward progress with plaques, certificates, and diplomas. Take every level seriously.

· Within as many levels as possible, set up broadbanded compensation plans. Identify specific criteria for moving up within each band. Explain clearly the reason for the pay cut when shifting from one band to another.

· Celebrate “personal bests.” Many people like to compete with themselves. Design a system so that each person can keep track of his or her performance monthly or quarterly. Use this system to celebrate monthly or quarterly “personal bests,” as and when they occur. A growing number of “personal bests” means a growing company.

C. Study your best: Strong companies learn from their very best. Internal best practice discovery is one of their most important rituals.

· Start with your most significant roles and study your best practitioners. Build a talent profile of each role. This will help you select more people like your best.

· Revise all training to incorporate what you have learned about excellence in each role.

· Set up an internal “university.” The main function of this “university” should be to provide a forum for showcasing how your best, in every role, do what they do. As far as possible, every employee should be exposed to the thinking, the actions, and the satisfactions of your best, in every role. Your employees can learn many other things at this “university” – policies, rules, techniques – but the main focus should be a presentation of internal best practices. Remember, this “university” can be as flexible, informal, and brief as the size and complexity of your organization requires – the important thing is to learn from your best in a disciplined way.

D. Teach the language of great managers: Language affects thinking. Thinking affects behaviour. Companies must change how people speak if they are to change how people behave. Strong companies turn the language of great managers into the common language.

· Teach the Four Keys of great managers. In particular emphasize the difference among skills, knowledge, and talents. Make sure people know that all roles, performed at excellence, require talent, that a talent is any recurring pattern of thought, feeling, or behaviour, and that talents are extraordinarily difficult to teach..

· Change recruiting practices, job descriptions, and resume qualifications to reflect the critical importance and the broader definition of talent.

· Revise all training content to reflect the differences among skills, knowledge, and talents. A great company is clear about what can be trained and what cannot.

· Remove the remedial element from training. Send your most talented people to learn knew skills and knowledge that can complement their talents. Stop sending less talented people to training classes to be “fixed.”

· Give every employee the benefit of feedback. Know that 360-degree surveys, personality profiles, and performance appraisal systems are all useful as long as they are focused on helping the person understand himself better and build upon his strengths. Stop using them if they are focused on identifying what needs to be fixed.

· Start the great managers’ “performance management” routine.

These master keys, although not a substitute for great managers, are a valuable companion. Left unturned, they allow conventional wisdom to create a climate hostile to great managers. With every policy, system, and language built around its core assumptions, conventional wisdom drowns out the small voices of dissent and forces each great manager to question even her most fervently held beliefs. In a climate like this, great managers cannot grow. They are busy trying to stay clearheaded and to survive.

However, when turned successfully, these master keys alter the whole company climate. The climate becomes supportive to great managers, reinforcing their insights and pushing them to practice and to experiment and to refine. In this climate great managers will thrive. Employees will excel. The company will sustain its growth. And conventional wisdom will be uprooted once and for all.

Book condensation by Jagat Singh Bisht, SBLC, Indore

Say go to ego and let the creativity breath

2011-02-28T13:22:00.000+05:30

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

REASON WE HAVE EGO IS BECAUSE IT'S NECESSARY FOR OUR GROWTH. EGO SHOULD BE THERE WHEN THERE IS CHALLENGE

Ego is simply being unnatural, pretension, showing something that you are not.

It always needs someone else to appreciate and recognise you. Ego is something like: “I am intelligent, I like this, I don't like that, I am ugly, I am beautiful etc.“

The reason we have ego is because it is necessary for our growth in life. Ego should be there when there is challenge and creativity. In success, drop your ego but in failure, hold on to it. When you think you are failing, the ego says, come on what is this, nothing can touch me.

The “I“ or ego is a tiny atom. It causes heaviness and discomfort. When this atom, the ego, identifies with the body, it becomes miserable. But when it is associated with the spirit, the Self, it becomes Divine. It becomes shakti (energy).

In a huge atomic reactor, it is just one atom that has exploded. In the same way, in our whole body, there is just one atom of “I.“ And when this “I“ explodes, it becomes the light of the Self. In `Giridhari' (Krishna's name), Giri means mountain, which is ego. Ego is like a stone. It is not hollow and empty; it is solid.

And Giridhari lifted the whole mountain with his little finger. This means that even though the ego is like a mountain but with a little bit of love, you can lift it.

Everyone is made up of love.

Knowledge is an aid to develop this innermost state in you. A seed has a shell over it and when you soak it in water, it sprouts and the covering drops. In a similar manner, ego is a necessary unnaturalness that develops in you.

Knowledge uncovers the shell over you and makes you like a child again --natural, simple and innocent. If you find you have a big ego, don't try to destroy it because that effort will only increase it.

The antidote for ego is just being natural like a child. So, be in unconditional love and then ego automatically disappears.

Courtesy: Inner Voice / HT

The Life Within

2011-02-25T15:41:00.000+05:30

Mukul Sharma

A lot of us react with wideeyed wonder at those rare and apparently other-worldly phenomenon like out-of-body and near-death-experiences that some people have when they’re very ill, seriously injured or close to dying. We then talk in awed tones about the possibility of our cosmic origins and endings.

However, in doing so, we tend to overlook two equally uncommon and mysterious — though vastly underrated — phenomena: in-the-body and full-life-experiences. Psychologist Abraham Maslow called such sudden transient states of intense existence “peak experiences” — high points when the individual is in harmony with himself and his surroundings.

Significantly, while studying such states, Maslow concentrated only on people who were supremely healthy in mind, something that others hadn’t till then. In people with no serious psychological issues, an inthe-body or full-life-experience can be triggered by something as simple as a sunset or complicated as a quadratic solution. They are profound moments of understanding, happiness or rapture, during which a person feels more whole, alive, self-sufficient and yet a part of the world and aware of truth, justice and goodness.

The point is, what’s more important — waiting for some possible liberation event to happen after dying or living an illuminated life now? Going by historical precedent, it seems that none of humanity’s wisest men and women ever waited for death to see the light. When they did get enlightened it was while they were living.

Courtesy: Cosmic Uplink / ET

Anger Management Tips

2011-02-24T18:57:00.002+05:30

• Find a safe spot. Yelling at friends or family members, slamming doors, and breaking crockery doesn’t solve any problem and frequently escalates angry situations between people. Yet, sometimes you just need to vent. Finding a safe spot to act our your anger can relieve the majority of your stress, calming you enough to solve the real problem at hand. Go to a basement room and scream your head off! Take an empty jar to your basement and break it, (remember to sweep up when you’re done). Stomp on a few aluminum cans. Throw a tennis ball at the garage wall. Buy a punching bag.

• Breath Deep. Anger often begins when we feel weaker than we really are. Molehills loom like mountains. Taking a few deep breaths calms you, makes you feel stronger both mentally and physically, and can cut those mountains down to size!

• Count to ten. Sounds simple, but counting to ten is an anger management tip that has worked for centuries! The Roman poet Horace (65 – 8 BCE) said, “When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, one hundred.” Counting to ten (or one hundred) helps you to step back from the situation, buys time for you to examine the problem and decide on an effective, rational way to express your anger.

• Give yourself a break. It’s easier to think when you’re calm than when you’re agitated. Leave the room, take a walk, ‘whistle a happy tune’. Then come back to the problem, examine it, and solve it.

• Look for the sweet spot. Learn to act and not react. Although every cloud doesn’t have a silver lining, when life hands you a lemon, you can make lemonade and when you get angry, you can find a positive way to express it!

-Jai Prakash Pandey

Citizen SBI: Intervention III

2011-02-21T15:08:00.004+05:30

Market Engagement

It takes place when we act in a spirit of enlightened self-interest - a win win for all stake holders in our dealing with the market. We reach out to the community by coming out of our branches.

The emphasis is not on product selling but market engagement. To bring this about we need to know the economic environment in which we function and what are our various sub parameters that make up this eco system.

There is then a need to zero in on the eco-system we need to engage with. Having identified the eco-system, we next need to evaluate where we stand and where we need to go. Our intervention is to be based on the pragmatic assessment of our abilities, and the likely results post our intervention.

The intervention has to be collaborative. A bringing together of direct and indirect stake holders for a solution which may be transcendental. We work towards making a selective contribution that results in

Fulfilment for self
Business and trust building for SBI
Definable improvement in society/community
Leading to sustainable long term relationship with market players and customer

(CitizenSBI Blog thanks Mr Shuvinder Hemraj, Facilitator, Citizen SBI Intervention-III, Bhopal Circle for providing us these inputs. We invite contributions from facilitators in various Circles regarding the intervention.)

Mission Accomplished

2011-02-17T14:52:00.003+05:30

By Abhijit Lele

Despite his run-ins with RBI, the State Bank of India chairman has managed to keep the public sector behemoth ahead of peers

'WHAT POWER DOES AN SBI CHAIRMAN ENJOY? IN ANY CASE, I AM A SIMPLE GADHWALI. NO ONE KNEW ME AND I DIDN'T HAVE ANY POLITICAL PATRONAGE, EITHER. SO, I COULD EASILY BE REMOVED IF I HAD DONE ANYTHING WRONG'

OM PRAKASH BHATT

Chairman, State Bank of India (At the World Economic Forum in Davos recently)

Despite his run-ins with RBI, the State Bank of India chairman has managed to keep the public sector behemoth ahead of peers.

The chairman’s angst sums up the public display of the uneasy relationship between the country’s largest bank — State Bank of India — and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in the last couple of years over several issues, including the so-called teaser home loan rates (Bhatt, of course, has serious reservations over the term. He says he is not teasing anybody), higher provisioning coverage, guarantee to bonds issued by Tata Motors, etc. But more of that, later.

Even his worst detractors can’t deny that Bhatt, who is due to retire in March after a five-year term, has been able to turn SBI from a lethargic elephant to one that can dance.

When he took over the reins in June 2006, the usual lament about SBI was: “It is too slow and past its prime. Soon, the nimble-footed private banks will go ahead.”

The numbers supported this argument. ICICI Bank was a serious threat.

In June 2006, SBI’s total business stood at Rs 639,817 crore. ICICI, though behind, was closing in with a much faster growth rate. Its total business stood at Rs 330,490 crore. Analysts assumed it was only a matter of time – may be, another five years – before the private sector bank became the number-one bank in the country.

Bhatt’s appointment wasn’t a smooth affair, either. Yogesh Agarwal, then managing director of State Bank of Patialia, was considered a strong contender for the top position. But Bhatt pipped him to the post. Though Agarwal became the managing director of SBI in October, he moved to head IDBI Bank in July 2007.

Internally, the bank was grappling with many issues. For one, it had serious software problems that were not allowing it to roll out core banking solutions. This had to be addressed on a war footing, since core banking solutions were the backbone required for any scaling up and offering value-added services to corporate clients. Bhatt evaluated the situation for the first three months. Then, he asked the software vendor, Tata Consultancy Services, to rectify the glitches.

Then, the business process re-engineering process plan was started at branches. This involved training every staff and redesigning the layout of branches to make work a little better, faster and cheaper.

He put in place capital-raising plans to support growth for the next four-five years. SBI raised Rs 16,000 crore in March 2008 through rights issue. At present, the bank has been working on another rights issue to raise about Rs 20,000 crore by March. Banking analysts say this capital should support its growth plans for another five years. “SBI has recorded a consistent growth in business in the last four years. The credit to deposit ratio of 77 per cent indicates efficient deployment of resources,” said D R Dogra, managing director of ratings agency CARE.

Other important measures include an aggressive focus on the retail customer (the introduction of teaser loans being one such example); Parivartan I and II — programmes for employee motivation and skill set improvement; Udan — preparing a pipeline of future leaders at both senior and middle levels. These have improved the perception of SBI among both peers and analysts.

He resumed clerical recruitment, which had been frozen for over a decade, in view of growing business. Importantly, the process of consolidation within the SBI associates was started. He merged State Bank of Saurashtra and State Bank of Indore with SBI. “This will improve the bank’s operating efficiencies,” added CARE’s Dogra.

Many, however, say the SBI chairman could have handled his relationship with the regulator with a little more finesse. “He could have easily avoided the in-your-face and aggressive approach with the regulator. That had to deal with the banking industry as a whole,” said an observer.

But Bhatt remains adamant and says he has done nothing wrong. “Many Indians own homes because of SBI. I am not fighting with RBI, but only clarifying... we only gave discount on the rate for the first two-three years and at higher than the cost of my funds. So what is wrong in what SBI does?” Bhatt said, while admitting that there were quite a few other issues on which he “differed” with the regulator.

Besides the teaser loan, the bank faced regulatory ire for guaranteeing Tata Motors’ debenture issue of Rs 10,000 crore and overall provisioning of 70 per cent for bad loan portfolio.

The empire struck back. RBI was highly critical of the bank’s performance, including its financial health. Consequently, it downgraded the bank’s CAMEL (capital, asset quality, management, earnings, liquidity and systems and control) ratings from B to B- in an internal report for the year ended March 2009.

There were internal rumblings too. When Bhatt restructured operations at state-level units, popularly known as circles, by dismantling a decision-making layer (zone) headed by deputy general managers, there was again a lot of criticism. While work would be sped up by cutting on red tape, it put immense pressure on general managers. The jury is out on whether or not this has made the bank more efficient.

A top official of the bank, under condition of anonymity, says: “Bhatt has improved the bank’s image and introduced aggressiveness. The performance, in terms of market share, speaks for itself.”

In the same breath, however, the official admits that the down side of his leadership style has, perhaps, weakened the collective decision-making culture at SBI.

The good news: SBI continues to be at the top of the table. In December 2010, SBI’s total business stood at Rs16,19,950 crore, compared to ICICI Bank’s Rs 424, 439 crore. Of course, ICICI Bank took a conscious decision to shrink its balance sheet size to manage the adverse effects of exponential growth and global financial crisis.

Jamal Mecklai, chief executive of Mecklai Financials, says: “During Bhatt’s regime, SBI has become more competitive in a market (like money and foreign exchange markets, and advisory services) where foreign banks and Indian private banks were very active. This helps expand the revenue base.”

The fear: His aggressive style may have compromised the bank’s standing with RBI. In addition, some of the asset quality, especially the restructured portfolio (part non-performing assets and part standard assets) may be concerns in the future and hurt profitability – a big challenge for the next chairman.

But on March 31, when Bhatt retires as chairman, he will have one satisfaction – no one calls SBI laid back anymore.

Courtesy: Business Standard

THE MAGIC OF SOLITUDE

2011-02-10T21:26:00.002+05:30

The greatest men and women of all ages have practiced solitude regularly. They learned how to use silence to still their minds and tap into their super-conscious powers for answers to their questions. In this newsletter, you learn how you can apply this wonderful technique immediately to improve the quality of your inner and outer life.

The Magic of Solitude

Your feelings, your emotions, are the access point to your inner powers of mind. The most important part in the process of getting in touch with your feelings is to begin to practice solitude on a regular basis. Solitude is the most powerful activity in which you can engage. Men and women who practice it correctly and on a regular basis never fail to be amazed at the difference it makes in their lives.

Most people have never practiced solitude. Most people have never sat down quietly by themselves for any period of time in their entire lives. Most people are so busy being busy, doing something-even watching television-that it's highly unusual for them to simply sit, deliberately, and do nothing. But as Catherine Ponder points out, "Men and women begin to become great when they begin to take time quietly by themselves, when they begin to practice solitude." And here's the method you can use.

To get the full benefit of your periods of solitude, you must sit quietly for at least 30 to 60 minutes at a time. If you haven't done it before, it will take the first 25 minutes or so for you to stop fidgeting and moving around. You'll almost have to hold yourself physically in your seat. You'll have an almost irresistible desire to get up and do something. But you must persist.

Solitude requires that you sit quietly, perfectly still, back and head erect, eyes open, without cigarettes, candy, writing materials, music or any interruptions whatsoever for at least 30 minutes. An hour is better.

Become completely relaxed, and breathe deeply. Just let your mind flow. Don't deliberately try to think about anything. The harder you "don't try," the more powerfully it works. After 20 or 25 minutes, you'll begin to feel deeply relaxed. You'll begin to experience a flow of energy coming into your mind and body.

You'll have a tremendous sense of well-being. At this point, you'll be ready to get the full benefit of these moments of contemplation.

The River of Ideas

The incredible thing about solitude is that if it is done correctly, it works just about 100 percent of the time. While you're sitting there, a stream, a river, of ideas will flow through your mind. You'll think about countless subjects in an uncontrolled stream of consciousness. Your job is just to relax and listen to your inner voice.

At a certain stage during your period of solitude, the answers to the most pressing difficulties facing you will emerge quietly and clearly, like a boat putting gently to the side of a lake. The answer that you seek will come to you so clearly and it will feel so perfect that you'll experience a deep sense of gratitude and contentment.

Trusting Yourself

When you emerge from this period of quiet, you must do exactly what has come to you. It may involve dealing with a human situation. It may involve starting something or quitting something. Whatever it is, when you follow the guidance that you received in solitude, it will turn out to be exactly the right thing to do. Everything will be OK. And it will usually work out far better than you could have imagined. Just try it and see.

You must learn to trust yourself. You must develop the habit of listening to yourself and then acting on the guidance you receive.

Action Exercises

Here are three steps you can take immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, select a specific time and place to sit quietly and practice one full hour of solitude. Don't put it off.

Second, take small periods of silence and solitude during the day, especially when you feel overwhelmed with problems or responsibilities.

Third, take action immediately on the ideas and insights you receive while in solitude. One good idea can save you months and years of hard work. The key is trust.

Brian Tracy

(Courtesy Anup Sen's mail)

Journey Of Self-discovery

2011-02-09T20:59:00.000+05:30

Even as children, we dream. We try to realise our dreams all throughout our lives. However, when our dreams remain unfulfilled, we tend to sink into dejection and get disillusioned.
Of the several attributes that define humankind, there is, i dare say, just one which meets with more general approbation. That is, we’re born with an innate feeling which tells us that we are a shade better than that intolerant neighbour and that incompetent colleague. This uncanny awareness constitutes one of the first characteristics of our being. Indeed, the most ordinary thing about each individual is the fact that he thinks himself a little bit out of the ordinary. In thinking so, we acknowledge only a portion of the truth, the other half of which we unwittingly choose to dismiss – the fact that every individual, without exception, is born different and is, therefore, unique.
It is true that the first step in the direction of unravelling our potential is to understand, in view of our circumstances, the role that we can best play. Discovering our uniqueness must be the starting point. Explaining the situation of one who is bereft of this knowledge, Prophet Muhammad said: “The condition of an unwise man is that of an animal who is not aware of why his master has tied it or untied it.”
To me, the urgent, unaddressed question is: Why do most people, if they are born unique and consequently talented in some sense of the word, not achieve the success to which they are entitled?
The answer to the question as to why many fail to actualise God-given gifts might, if looked at from different perspectives, have varying answers. To me, it is simply this: We have to pay a price to acquire anything at all in life. Nothing comes for free. Similarly, the unique individual can be brought out into the light only after paying the due price.
“Ek kaam ko karne ke liye dusre kaam chhodne padte hain” – to do one task, you might have to abandon some others – said a wise Sufi. Therefore, to bring to the surface that extraordinariness, to reveal the measure of your mind, you must work towards achieving it with complete dedication and undivided attention, consigning all else to the back burner. It must be conceded, moreover, that this is not an easy path to tread. Embarking on such a journey calls for practising an iron restraint over our whims and fancies, recognising the need to control unruly emotions and avoiding every distraction. Problems that multiply our fears and shake our resolve will show up at every corner. It is in such situations that we must hold on. To overcome such unpleasant occurrences one ought to rise above life’s frivolities. The seeker will falter, commit mistakes, and sometimes even get derailed; it will require colossal courage to get up again and march ahead with renewed zeal and determination.
Life is an opportunity. It gives us the freedom to act as we would want to. If we fail to avail of this because of our own neglect, we shall have no justification for complaining later. The journey of Self-discovery can be rewarding and exciting if only we focus more on positive as well as extraordinary aspects.

Sadia Khan
The writer is a student of Islamic Studies and a member of the Centre for Peace and Spirituality International .

(Courtesy TOI dated 09.02.2011)

The man behind the job

2011-01-31T16:33:00.002+05:30

RANJINI MANIAN
We tend to refer to people by the jobs they do rather than their names. This can be disrespectful, especially lower down the professional order.

Over the last few months, I have been working with a young German intern, here to learn from India's rich experience of inter-cultural adaptations at work. The learning has been mutual. I find that life's lessons can come from anyone irrespective of their gender, generation or cultural origin. Learning is no more a one-way street. Was it ever?

My intern, let's call him Max, has offered us many insights and different takes on our views. Some of what I learnt is not strictly business, but I felt it was very valuable in the larger context of human relations.

For instance, one morning, he came to speak to me about running an errand — delivering a letter to an important leader. “Shall I drop off the letter today?” he asked.

“Yes, please, Max, do that.”

“My driver will take you there, and you can try to speak to the Executive Assistant,” I added helpfully.

“Your driver?” said Max, stopping in his tracks. “You mean Rajan?... He is a person.”

“Yes, of course, you're right, Rajan will take you,” I said hastily. And it made me think of the disconnect between what we profess and what we do in India.

We profess to have unity in diversity.

We profess to see oneness in all.

We profess to speak with respect.

Yet, every now and then, we are apt to forget the person and simply look at the job he or she is doing.

For the longest time I had been battling to establish the identity of the garbage collector who comes to my home on his rounds in the neighbourhood. People would say to each other at home, “ Kupai-karanis here” which translates as “garbage man” or “ kachada-wallah”. I would think, this man has a name given to him by his parents which defines him and is something he is proud of. Calling him by his name rather than referring to the “duty” he does would be respectful of his sensitivities. We found out he was called Ravi, and referred to him by name in due course.

But while talking to Max, I realised to my discomfiture that I had fallen into the trap of referring to a person by his “job description” rather than his actual name.

I've discussed in earlier articles the discomfort Westerners, particularly the Americans, have with being addressed as ‘Sir' or ‘Ma'am'. “Why don't our teammates just call us by our names?” they wonder. Well, it's one thing to follow our tradition of showing respect to our superiors by addressing them as “Sir” or “Doctor” or even “Boss” and another matter when we reduce a person to a role that is perceived as being of a ‘lower order'.

“Guard, I am expecting a visitor, please let the car in”; “Watchman, where can I park?” — such references are common in, say, a big apartment complex where such jobs are usually manned by a shifting population of employees and we don't take the time to find out their names.

There will be some who put up a reverse explanation about how the working class in India does not expect to be addressed by their names; they will tell you that the job description confers on them a degree of respect that being addressed by name does not provide. Yes, we Indians are comfortable using the word ‘ wallah', as in the rickshaw- wallah and the chai-wallah. We gave importance to the role, not to the individual, and the West adopted it to an extent. But times have changed. We need to learn some good points from the West. An expat client once told me in disgust about an Indian who escorted him to a meeting. The man had apparently been giving terse directions to the driver. “Left ... Second right,” and so on. His tone of voice and the fact that he was not polite while talking to the driver had irked the expat, who asked me to make sure that everyone we selected to work with him was sensitive to the dignity of others.

Let's remember this as we go around in our hi-tech cities, software parks, amazing airports and malls, and come face-to-face with the people who clean the restrooms, the people who serve the coffee, the personnel directing traffic in the car parks, and the many ‘nameless' others who keep the system running on well-oiled wheels.

When we address a person by his or her given name, we're affirming her identity. And when we take the trouble to get the pronunciation and spelling correct, as well as any honorific that may go with the name, we're offering due respect to the individual. Not to do so is unforgivable, because we're showing we don't value the person's individuality and identity.

So, whether we're referring to the famous few or the many men-in-the street, let's remember that no one is faceless or nameless. Each of us is an individual, unique and special, irrespective of our status in the social pecking order. We each come with a bit of the divine in us!

Max gave me a timely reminder, and hey, I recommit to living in awareness of this good habit. What about you, new managers?

The writer is CEO of www.globaladjustments.com. She can be reached at info@globaladjustments.co

Courtesy: Business Line

Terror at the Taj: Customer-Centric Leadership

2011-01-28T11:04:00.001+05:30

Harvard students say Wah Taj!

NEW YORK — Staff at Mumbai's Taj Mahal Palace gave a new meaning to customer service when they saved hotel guests during a 2008 gun battle -- and now Harvard Business School wants to know whether other companies could learn.

The luxury hotel was the scene of a pitched fight between Islamist gunmen and Indian soldiers on November 26, 2008, trapping guests and staff.

Yet staff stayed in the burning building and did everything to shepherd out guests. A total of 31 people died there, including 12 employees.

"Underlying the case is a central conundrum: Why did the Taj employees stay at their posts, jeopardizing their safety in order to save hotel guests?" asks a new study, "Terror at the Taj: Customer-Centric Leadership," released this week.

"And is this level of loyalty and dedication something that can be replicated and scaled elsewhere?"

The study by Harvard Business School professor Rohit Deshpande explores workplace culture in India.

Compared to the West, employers have a much more "paternalistic" relationship with their employees, while length of service is recognized and honored by top management, the study says.

However, "not even the senior managers could explain the behavior of these employees," Deshpande told the business school's website Working Knowledge.

"In the interview, the vice chairman of the company says that they knew all the back exits: the natural human instinct would be to flee. These are people who instinctively did the right thing. And in the process, some of them, unfortunately, gave their lives to save guests."

The study -- which has not yet been made public in full -- found a "unique" employee culture at Tata Sons, the Taj's parent company, including an "exacting process for selecting, training, and rewarding Taj employees for their work."

"Every time they interact with a guest they should look for an opportunity to delight him," said H.N. Srinivas, senior vice president of human resources. During a 24-hour stay, a guest will have an average of 40 to 42 contacts with employees. "We've mapped it," he said.

Hotel general manager Karambir Singh Kang, whose wife and two young sons died that day, said he felt like the captain of a ship. "I think that's the way everyone else felt, too," Kang said. "A sense of loyalty to the hotel, a sense of responsibility to the guests."

Deshpande has taught the case in Harvard Business School's Owner/President Management Executive Education program. The website said the plan is to use the case more widely as an example of managing "post-crisis recovery of a flagship corporate brand."

Courtesy: AFP

THE LAW OF COMPENSATION

2011-01-22T21:58:00.003+05:30

You Get what You Give

Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essay, "Compensation," wrote that each person is compensated in like manner for that which he or she has contributed. The Law of Compensation is another restatement of the Law of Sowing and Reaping. It says that you will always be compensated for your efforts and for your contribution, whatever it is, however much or however little.

Increase Your Value

This Law of Compensation also says that you can never be compensated in the long term for more than you put in. The income you earn today is your compensation for what you have done in the past. If you want to increase your compensation, you must increase the value of your contribution.

Fill Your Mind with Success

Your mental attitude, your feelings of happiness and satisfaction, are also the result of the things that you have put into your own mind. If you fill your own mind with thoughts, visions and ideas of success, happiness and optimism, you will be compensated by those positive experiences in your daily activities

Do More than You're Paid for

Another corollary of the Law of Sowing and Reaping is what is sometimes called the, "Law of Overcompensation." This law says that great success comes from those who always make it a habit to put in more than they take out. They do more than they are paid for. They are always looking for opportunities to exceed expectations. And because they are always overcompensating, they are always being over rewarded with the esteem of their employers and customers and with the financial rewards that go along with their personal success.

Provide the Causes, Enjoy the Effects

One of your main responsibilities in life is to align yourself and your activities with Law of Cause and Effect (and its corollaries), accepting that it is an inexorable law that always works, whether anyone is looking or not. Your job is to institute the causes that are consistent with the effects that you want to enjoy in your life. When you do, you will realize and enjoy the rewards you desire.

Action Exercises

Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, remind yourself regularly that your rewards will always be in direct proportion to your service to others. How could you increase the value of your services to your customers today?

Second, look for ways to go the extra mile, to use the Law of Overcompensation in everything you do. This is the great secret of success.

-Brian Tracy

Courtesy: Anup Sen email

A collective fulfillment story from Sambalpur

2011-01-19T16:24:00.000+05:30

A STORY OF TEAM FULFILLMENT

TURN AROUND STORY OF SAMBALPUR BRANCH

PERIOD: August 2008 to March 2010

BACKGROUND:

SAMBALPUR BRANCH IS A DISTRICT HEADQUARTERS BRANCH WITH A STAFF COMPLEMENT OF 57.

It was beset with many problems including strained Industrial relations, customer apathy etc., crowded with hundreds of customers in the branch. This was the state when I assumed charge. Paper work had already been initiated for improving branch ambience, customer facilities etc. Over the period of 2 years my efforts have fructified under my own eyes. Today the branch is a place where customers feel welcome and are able to transact their business in a stress free atmosphere. I enclose photographs showing the branch then and now.

HOW IT WAS IMPLEMENTED AND VISIBLE RESULTS:

1. Did it involve many people from the unit ? What kind of teaming effort took place ?

Involvement of staff commenced with monthly staff meetings. The single window operators were encouraged to meet monthly on their own informally.In the course of these meetings the staff came up with a number of valuable suggestions which were implemented earnestly. Some of these are:

i. Staff formed groups of 2-3 people each. These groups focused on educating customers in various functional aspects like usage of ATM cards, INB,MBS, filling up forms, withdrawal slips etc.

ii. The Grahak Mitra became the 1^st point of interaction and started to guide people to go for alternate channels usage & cross selling.

iii. The customer relations officers focused on ensuring that account opening of SB/CA/ STDR/ TDR was prompt .

iv. The manager (BO) was the hub around which the entire team revolved. He took decisions promptly whenever exigencies arose.

v. The CRE (PB) maintained liason with a DDO’s of various government departments. He also made it a point to visit all HNI customers.

vi. A core team was formed to give important suggestions in implementing the ambience change at the branch. This team also functioned as the premises committee and took charge of minor matters like customer amenities, staff amenities, providing Mobile charging point, newspapers, Internet Kiosk and drinking water etc.

2. How did it energise people in the unit ?

Staff felt a sense of togetherness amongst themselves. It resulted in new friendships. Everyday brought with it new challenges. They did not think of these as problems. The work atmosphere in the branch changed dramatically. Every month, sincere staff wo have performed well have been awarded with best employee of the month(photos attached) which energiged all atafff to get the award. There was cheerfulness everywhere. Even the silent ones and the skeptics were enthused by the atmosphere.The mood in the branch changed from pessimism to optimism.

3. What kind of fulfillment did it result in for the collective involved (staff and customers) ?

Fulfilment came from recognition of staff members. There was a sense of pride amongst staff that they were doing something which was adding to their job satisfaction. Customers felt good that their jobs were being completed without undue delays. Complaints became very few. Many people felt that they could rely upon the staff and the commitments made by them. Many customers were satisfied that there were able to realize their aspirations whether it was a car or a house or funding their child’s education.

4. How did it enhance your interactions with the customer community ?

The people were pleasantly surprised that staff of SBI would come out of their workplace and make customer calls. Many felt that their Bank had come to their homes. There was no instance where any staff member was made to feel unwelcome during any customer visit. The response to visits mad eby our staff was excellent. We were able to make our presence felt in the market.

5. What are the sustainable results of these contributions in your unit ?

Improved visibility in the Market, amongst customers, Government Officials and our competitors.

Staff members got motivated and fel l that there was a larger purpose in their daily work.

The work atmosphere was very positive and staff enjoy their work. Any new development in bank is discussed enthusiastically in staff meetings.

Last but not the least business grew from Rs.182 Cr to 302 Cr from March 2008 to March 2010(65% growth)

Branch got recognition due to the sincere efforts made by entire team ie. staff members who have been energised for branch’s growth and due to inter personal relationship and bonding was high among the staff members. Due to our sincerre efforts, we got applodes from higher authorities. Performance of the branch is given below:-

1. Highest personnel segment growth in network-II i.e. from 110 crores to 153 crores during 2009-2010.

2. Best Branch in NW-II in mobilising Corparate Salary Package A/c’s during 2009-2010

3. Best branch in mobilising under Demat / E-Z trade during 2009-2010.

4. Per employee business growth from 2.33 crore in 2008 to 4.57 crores in 2010.(nearly 100% Groth)

5. Other Income growth was from Rs.1.72 Cr to Rs.2.43 Cr ( a growth of 41% in 2 Years.)

6. Best branch in cros selling i.e. 3 MDRT’s and income for the branch is Rs.15.64 laks from Rs.4.57 in 2008.

7. Net profit rose from Rs 6.82 Cr to Rs.10.46 crores(53% growth)

8. In SBI Life , two CIF’s became MDRT and branch earned more than 15 lacs commission

Contributed by W.V.Lakshman Rao

Chief Manager

Sambalpur

CitizenSBI Blog thanks Mr B.V.RANGADHAM, Citizen Facilitator, Bhubaneswar Circle for providing us this story.

READING – THE BEST 15 MINUTES YOU’LL EVEN INVEST

2011-01-08T23:41:00.001+05:30

On the basis of two comparative statistics the following valuable information was made available.

The average human reads less than two books per year – one and a half to be exact – with almost two-thirds of those going unfinished. On the whole, at present humans have lost the habit of reading good books

There is a notable exception, however. Chief Executives of Fortune 500 companies read on an average, roughly four books per week. This is equivalent to about 200 times the average for the rest of the world, and it is guaranteed that vast majority of the books read by the so called Chief Executives are good, meaty stuff that causes them to think about their business and/or their life in a very healthy way.

Needless to say, you should start reading four books a week and there is a direct and positive correlation between the amount of good reading an individual does and their influence and income. Unquestioningly, the most life-changing habit you can develop is to systematically read good books.

Charlie “Tremendous” Jones coined the phrase that “Leaders are always Readers”. Brian Tracy has seen it happen many times where an individual went from zero to 30 minutes a day of good reading and saw their income double. If you do not currently make positive reading a regular part of your life, DO SO IMMEDIATELY. Along with changing who you spend your time with, it is absolutely the most powerful way to change your life for the better.

You have to work, spend time with your family and engage in all great activities that you engage in, and you should. You don’t need to become a full time student or some kind of hermit bookworm crazy person. All you need is 15 minutes a day, preferably right in the beginning or right at the end of that day. Watching TV, surfing the internet, eating lunch, just zoning out, the list goes on and on. Just take just 15 minutes out of those kinds of activities each day and invest it in a good book.

- Jai Prakash Pandey

SBI-RSETI, Umaria (M.P.)

2011-01-06T00:48:00.000+05:30

HOW ARE YOU

Soul Call

2011-01-03T11:02:00.001+05:30

Instrument of the Gods: Chandrika Tandon’s Soul Call
By Chidanand Rajghatta

"The story here is NOT about me or the Grammy...it is about the music and the impact it is having on thousands of people, all over the world," Chandrika Tandon says in mild reproach to interviewers.

"People who know Indian music, and people who have never heard it in their lives; people from over 20 countries and from all demographics — they talk of singing, weeping, meditating, and reaching the grace inside themselves...that's what it is all about...I was simply an instrument..."

On the Facebook fan page of Soul Call, more than 15,000 fans are raving about the magical, mystical trip they are experiencing after hearing the album, lately nominated for 2011 Grammy for Best Contemporary World Music Album. John Wilson calls it "medicine for the soul." Bill Herman, who heard Chandrika sing in Hartford, saying he is moved by the "depth of your voice and what it evoked inside of me." A woman from a Police Department writes to Chandrika to say she was hearing the CD non-stop at her desk — and how other people in her department kept stopping by to ask where they could get the album. Another person talks of how "my father spent the last ten days of his life listening to your CD," and yet another thanks her for "making my mom, who has stage 4 cancer, so happy."

"Ma'am, you made me cry," writes a Facebooker calling himself Indian Monk. "Grammy or no Grammy, your voice is like soothing balm on the soul."

Chandrika replies to each message, thanking them for the warm words and wishes, offering little insights into the making of the music, and signing off with "love, light and laughter." And in the same rich, resonant voice that is driving fans to raptures, wonders about how music can cross all boundaries, and "pierce into the deepest part of ourselves and reach into our grace."

Indian spiritual and religious music has been undergoing both renaissance and resurgence in recent times, thanks in no small measure to technological advances that has made it accessible worldwide through avenues like iPod and You Tube. Chart-busting albums such as Chants of India and Sacred Chants of Shiva are the spiritual flock's morning call in an age of stress and strife, as more and more research points to the calming and healing properties of such music. Soul Call is the newest offering in this genre, but the bhakti and resonance Chandrika Tandon brings to it elevates it beyond the seasonal. Like the Ravi Shankar-George Harrison's Chants of India, this is an album for all times, work that could drive even atheists to a spiritual experience.

In the clammy environs of Chennai where she grew up with her sister Indra, thoughts of a Grammy must have been farthest from Chandrika's mind. Although she says, "I was singing before I was speaking," and performed in school music choirs winning awards as a child, it was not "proper" in her family to pursue a career in music. Besides, the musical proclivities of the Sisters Krishnamurthy (she got 'Tandonized' after her marriage; Indra became a Nooyi), were eclectic, but distinctly western those days.

Their mother surrounded their home with music from the time All India Radio would open, filling their lives with traditional Carnatic devotionals and MS Subbalakshmi's bhajans and "tukdas." But "I sang French songs and of course classic pop and rock songs growing up, in addition to Carnatic devotionals and Tamil film songs...I loved all kinds of music and sang all the time," Chandrika recalls.

In business school in India, she would finish her coursework and go into a music room stocked with just a few albums. Her yearbook says 'She killed us softly with her song,' because she "would listen to Roberta Flack's Quiet Fire, Neil Young's Harvest, or Sergio Mendes's Brazil 66 ten times in a night, until three or four in the morning." Her early years were consumed by French musicians like Enrico Macias and Francoise Hardy; then all the Euro and American pop artists — from Dean Martin, Seekers, Cliff Richard, The Beatles, and hundreds of others. The working years in the 80s, it was the Brazilian greats – Joao Gilberto and Gal Costa; then Middle Eastern music and Western Jazz.

How do you define eclectic?

But as with so many peripatetic NRIs — present company included — the time and passage away from home is what stirs the deepest recognition and longing for India's rich and fabled culture and heritage. An 11-year stint with McKinsey burnished her professional career and also polished her ardor for Indian classical music. Living in New York with her husband, finance maven Ranjan Tandon, she began seeking out extraordinary music teachers and performers; anyone that resonated, that could give her a rigorous grounding in classical Indian music. One year, she'd wake up at 4 am every weekend to drive from New York to Wesleyan University in Connecticut for master classes with Carnatic music professor the late T Vishwanathan, and be back by 10 am when her young daughter awoke. "I was a music seeker. I found ways to learn from the greats, whenever and wherever they would teach me," she recalls.

The journeys got longer as the quest got deeper. The muse called all the time, but allowed only intensive bursts of learning and composing. She traveled to India once or twice a year just to learn from her Guru Shri Girish Wazalwarji, who lives in Allahabad, working with him for seven /eight hours a day for a week, and losing herself "in the beauty and power of our incredibly uplifting, soulful Hindustani classical traditions." Other teachers and influences range from the fine thumri singer Shubra Guha to Veena Sahasrabuddhe ("simply one of the most beautiful voices I have heard,") to Pandit Vijay Kichlu — the sagely 80-year old founder of SRA (Sangeet Research Academy) and a fount of knowledge about the subtleties of Hindustani music. With each of them, she grabs precious moments, either when they visit the US or when she travels to India.

But it's hard to sustain such intensity and put in consistent riyaaz, given her business commitments – she is the chairman of the financial advisory firm Tandon Capital and serves on several non profit boards including New York University and the American-Indian Foundation — and she recognizes it. "I wish I had two of me to do both well!" she says ruefully.

Despite her deepening interests, she had never performed publicly, much less thought of recording. Her guru in this matter is Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravishankar who she recalls would "unexpectedly call on me to sing in front of hundreds of people; and people would so enjoy singing together; little by little I developed confidence in myself and sharing my music with big crowds." Citing him as a major inspiration, Chandrika says she also reviews her compositions with him in the early stages and gets his feedback and blessings. Sri Sri, she reveals, is a "brilliant musician" in addition to being the spiritual leader of millions around the world. Before long she would cut her Soul Mantra, Om Namah Shivaya.

So how did Soul Call happen? Chandrika says she has spent a lot of time over the last few years memorizing major Sanskrit stotras, slokas, and prayers like the Vishnu Sahasranamam, works of Adi Sankara and other great verses from Vedic history, working on their meaning and translation, to bring it into her music. Although she has a rigorous grounding in Hindustani classical music and Carnatic music, she says her heart was always drawn to simple songs based on classical Indian scales; "songs that made the joy of music reachable to more people." She started composing; hundreds of joyous compositions in classical scales, but suffused with "all the global music that is part of my spirit." Her soul, she says, is uplifted when she can sing with others. For her first compositions, she chose the Sanskrit chants by using verses of invocation drawn from several Vedic texts like the Vishnu Sahasranama and the Ranganatha Ashtakam. Five years ago, she cut her first album, Om Namoh Shivaya, as a gift on her father-in-law's 90th birthday.

The chant for Soul Call is the simple eight-syllable ashtakshara mantra...Om Na Mo Na Ra Ya Na, better known as the Narayana Kavacham. The eight syllables are said to correspond to the eight vital centers of the body...and the Narayana armor is said to form a protection for the body as the cell regeneration occurs. "I wanted to share the mantra Om Na Mo Na Ra Ya Na Ya in a way that all can sing it...and sing it joyfully; whether they know music or not...that is why I composed it in eight ragas...( eight syllables, eight ragas)," she explains.

Soul Call was recorded both in India and the US, and it incorporates world-class musicianship and production. The album combines traditional Indian sounds such as sarod, sitar, and esraj with Western instruments such as piano, electric bass, and classical guitar. The music was been arranged by the sarod master Tejendra Narayan Majumdar with assistance from Snehasish Mojumder, the gifted mandolin player – both with many albums to their credit. Rakesh Chaurasia, the fabled flutist, has provided accompaniment on multiple tracks. Ablu Chakraborty and Soumen Sarkar provided the keyboard accompaniment.

Soul Call has been a silent hit among the spiritual fraternity for some months now, but its nomination for Grammy is what has set the aficionados aflutter. But Chandrika is unfazed by the attention, marveling only at what the album is doing to ordinary people. The only Grammy-related excitement for her is that she is in the mix with several artists whose works she has admired for years. She is pitted against 13-time Grammy-winning composer and banjo player Bela Fleck, Brazilian singer Bebel Gilberto, iconic singer-songwriter Angelique Kidjo from Africa and classical pianist Sergio Mendes in her category.

In fact, she is not even the only India-origin musician in the race for a Grammy this year, nor will she be the first if she wins. Music composer A R Rahman, sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar and tabla genius Zakir Hussain are among the Indians who have won a Grammy. In February last year, Rahman won two Grammys — for 'Best Film Song' and 'Best Soundtrack' — for composing the soundtrack of multiple Oscar-winning movie, 'Slumdog Millionaire'. Among others, India-origin composer Vijay Iyer has also been nominated for a Grammy this year under the 'Best Jazz Instrumental Album' category for his album "Historicity" and Delhi-based tabla player Sandeep Das is in the mix in the classical crossover category. She has never met fellow New Yorker Iyer, but heard his album after the Grammy nomination and sent him a note of congratulation. For Chandrika Krishnamurthy Tandon, pride and honor is just being part of the Indian spiritual heritage.

Courtesy: TimesLife

Here are Our Wishes for You...

2011-01-01T20:44:00.004+05:30

H ours of happy times with friends and family

A bundant time for relaxation
P rosperity
P lenty of love when you need it the most
Y outhful excitement at lifes simple pleasures

N ights of restful slumber (you know - dont' worry be happy)
E verything you need
W ishing you love and light

Y ears and years of good health
E njoyment and mirth
A angels to watch over you
R embrances of a happy years!

May this year fulfill all your dreams and wishes.

-- Jai Prakash Pandey

Director,

--sbi-rseti ,Umaria

नव वर्ष की शुभकामनायें 2011

2011-01-01T12:22:00.003+05:30

वर्ष २०११ सभी के लिए आनंदपूर्ण, स्वास्थयपूर्ण, प्रफ्फुल्लित, और परिपूर्ण हो, यही आप सभी के लिए हमारी शुभकामनाएं है।

A Happy New Year and a Happy New You..

2010-12-31T18:03:00.001+05:30

CitizenSBI Blog Wishes You

A Very Happy, Joyous

and Fulfilling New Year!

Touching human lives with laughter

2010-12-26T19:58:00.004+05:30

By Jagat Singh Bisht

Jagat and Radhika Bisht

During the last hundred days, we (Radhika, my wife, and me) have laughed with more than a thousand people. It has really been a life changing experience! We are now proud to have a life skill with us with which we can connect to any group of people anywhere, anytime and make them laugh unconditionally. We feel cheerful throughout the day. The life is full of joy. We have converted our bodies into factories that utilize oxygen from the atmosphere, rejuvenate each and every cell of our system and manufacture feel good endorphins. We are as healthy and energetic as one can be, touch wood, and have not taken any medication since we turned Laughter Yogis. We feel deeply fulfilled as we are instruments of happiness and health for others and are able to touch their lives with a new joyous way of life. Our lives now have a meaning and a mission – to make others happy and healthy!

I had my tryst with Laughter Yoga one fine morning in Mumbai, more than a decade ago. Dr Madan Kataria and Madhuri Kataria, the founders of laughter yoga, were leading a laughter session in Lokhandwala park. The experience was simply out of the world! I had to wait for more than a decade after that. In the month of October this year, Radhika and myself, along with more than 20 laughter professors from all over the globe, were baptised by Dr Kataria himself at Bengaluru.We have never looked back after that..

We run two laughter clubs – the Suniket Laughter Club and Laughter Club of State Bank Learning Centre, Indore - regularly. Here are some experiences shared by the members..

Let us begin with ourselves. The pain in my knee joints is a thing of the past. I get up early in the morning every day and work till late in the night without any feeling of fatigue. Radhika doesn’t need her blood pressure pills any more and her frequents bouts of sinusitis have simply disappeared.

Many among a group of newly promoted bank officers felt nervous to face the audience in their public speaking sessions. They were asked to join laughter yoga sessions, after which they shed all their inhibitions, and gathered the courage to speak freely.

Another group was required to appear for a tough test for promotion to the next cadre. They felt tired at the day end and had no energy left to study. Those who attended laughter exercises in the morning not only improved their attention span in classes but could also study for a couple of hours more in the evenings.

An elderly businessman felt severe pain in his neck which travelled across his shoulders and back. The pain was acute and disabling. After he joined our laughter club, the pain is gone. He has developed a regular habit of getting up and going for morning walk. His wife tells us that he seldom laughed earlier and never mixed socially with people. She is pleasantly surprised at the transformation.

An income tax officer, who has retired recently, has shared that his lungs are fully cleared after the laughter session and the feeling of freshness lingers throughout the day. We get feedback of feelings of well being, energy and health on a continual basis from our member friends.

We were also invited to conduct a laughter therapy session for about 80 persons in a camp organized recently by the National Institute of Naturopathy, Pune at the Naturopathy and Yoga Research Centre, Indore. The response was overwhelming. They found such great value in this alternate therapy that they decided to honour us on the spot after going through our session. The standing ovation, with chants of Very Good Very Good Yay, lasted for more than ten minutes..

We look forward to touch many lives with joy and bliss.

Wish you a very happy and joyous new year!

Jagat Singh Bisht

Laughter Professor

coolbisht@hotmail.com

Big birds of the storm

2010-12-22T15:21:00.000+05:30

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan

When there is a severe storm, birds with small wings are caught up in it, but large birds with strong wings fly upwards and save themselves from becoming victims of the storm.

On the basis of this phenomenon, there is a saying in the English language: " Big birds of the storm." This applies to people of high thinking, to those who can save themselves from the environmental storm. That is, they can live on their own without becoming affected by the external world.

Who are the 'big birds' of the storm? They are the 'big bird thinkers', who can live independently, drawing on their own mental resources. Big bird thinkers are those who do not become angry even when provoked. They are those who maintain their positivity even in negative situations, who can control their thoughts in such a way that they can see all men and women as human beings, whether friends or foes, and who can keep the peace even if others turn violent.

'Big bird thinkers' are those who are so mature that nothing can distract them from their objectives, who give well-considered responses when in adverse situations, rather than simply indulging in an emotional backlash.

There is a saying in Hindi "Kutte bhonkte rehte hain aur hathi chalta rehta hai " - the elephant walks on without being disturbed by barking dogs. This is the best illustration of one who has the capacity for 'big bird thinking'. Life is full of storms, full of barking, full of untoward situations - these things are due to the laws of nature and no one is in a position to abolish the laws of nature. So, you have only two options: either to waste your time and energy by constantly stooping to reactionary behaviour or to ignore all undesirable situations and try to live like the elephant in the adage. Elephant-style living is the only successful way to live in this world.

'Big bird thinking' is only another name for spiritual thinking. Spirituality is not something mysterious: it is positive thinking. All spiritual people are positive thinkers and all positive thinkers are spiritual in nature. Spirituality and positive thinking are almost synonymous with each other.

There is a beautiful story in Hindu mythology: Once a man became furious and he kicked Ram in the chest. Ram's response was quite unique. He said: "Mere lokhan seene se tumhare komal paunwen ko chot to nahi lagi?" - I hope your soft leg was not hurt by my iron chest.

Spiritual behaviour is friendly behaviour towards every human being -- to both friends and foes alike. Spiritual behaviour is like the behaviour of flowers that can live with all their fragrance in the neighbourhood of thorns.

An Urdu poet has beautifully expressed this: "Gulshan parast houn mughe gul hi nahi azeez, katoon se bhi nibha kiye ja raha houn mein." - I am a lover of nature, i don't only love flowers, but i can live normally with thorns as well.

Spirituality is good for the all-round development of the individual's personality, for it makes you free of tension and friendly towards all. Spirituality is the way to all kind of success.

Positive thinking makes you a 'big bird thinker' and 'big bird thinking' imbues the human character with spirituality. Although this is an inner quality, it is this inner quality that has the power to better all your external affairs.

www.cpsglobal.org

Sachin’s 50th ton raises hopes for cancer kids

2010-12-22T15:09:00.000+05:30

Malathy Iyer TNN

Mumbai: Housemaid Suman Wadtele’s world came crashing down when her 10-year-old son, Durgesh, was diagnosed with blood cancer six months ago in Pune’s KEM Hospital. The medical bill was one of the many worries that the widowed mother was grappling with when a cheque for Rs 15,000 towards Durgesh’s chemotherapy arrived from an unexpected quarter: a fund started by none other than willow wizard Sachin Tendulkar aka Batman Forever.
“When I applied to various charity organizations for financial support, I didn’t know that one of them had a Sachin Tendulkar connection. My happiness at the thought that my son would get treatment after all was doubled due to the cricket connection,’’ says Wadtele.
Durgesh is one of the 20 cancer-affected children whose treatment is in part being financed by a fund set up from the sale of Tendulkar memorabilia in May.

   When the master blaster scored his record 50th century, it was an extra-special occasion for these 20 families spread across Maharashtra and its neighbouring states. “Like most Indians, I too was ecstatic to hear about Sachin’s 50th century. It was my misfortune that I couldn’t catch it on TV,’’ said Mr M Ghazni, father of a Hyderabad-based patient.
    With the record, the fund’s goals too have moved. “To commemorate Sachin’s 50th century, we want to help 50 children undergo complete treatment for cancer. We want to spend at least Rs 1 lakh for each child before June 2011,’’ said Dr P Jagannath, cancer surgeon whose NGO, indiacancer.org, organized a fundraiser to combat cancer.
    Following a tweet by the cricketer in the last week of May, his fans within a couple of days helped generate Rs 1.3 crore. Many bought souvenirs signed by the master blaster while a handful chose a sit-down dinner to help children across the country. The sum is being managed to sponsor children as and when required. Every time the child undergoes a therapy session or a surgical procedure, a cheque from the Tendulkar fund is sent to the hospital concerned. “Usually, families travel all the way to Mumbai to get cancer treatment. But we want to ensure that they get treatment close to their home,’’ said Jagannath, adding that the fund was specifically looking for children from across the country.
    Anushka Patil, a two-year-old from Nashik district, had to undergo a 10-hour liver surgery to get rid of her cancer. At Tendulkar’s fund-raising dinner in May, her mother recalled how the operation would not have been possible without donations made by the cricketer. In fact, Tendulkar later said that he had been deeply moved to hear that, post surgery, Anushka’s mother had not eaten for 48 hours as she carried her child in her arms. “Thanks to the availability of funds from Tendulkar’s fund, Anushka could be operated in Nashik close to her home,’’ said Jagannath. Both Anushka and Durgesh are today better than they were in May, say their doctors.

Courtesy: Times of India

What all this IIMA grad learnt after his degree

2010-12-21T11:55:00.004+05:30

The last thing you know Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad for, is its love stories. But there was this love story that made news in 2004-2005, about Siddharth Choudhary, from IIMA (then an undergrad) and Nidhi from a college near-by. Then, people said their love story was sweet and that it would weather all storms.

Months later, the couple did weather a huge storm when Nidhi was diagnosed with cancer. The duo came out strong and unscathed from it and this journey is now encompassed in a book titled 'Eagle Spotted, Message Decoded.' The book is written by Siddharth and has just about hit the stands.

Siddharth says much of his learning in life happened after his graduation from IIMA. "There are lots of things you don't learn at a management school. Life tests you and you have to learn quickly without any prior training. But yes, my MBA degree gave me the confidence to bounce back in life," he says.

Girl meets boy

Siddharth first spotted Nidhi at a small time tea stall just along side the IIM-A campus boundary wall. Ram-bhai's ketli, (Gujarati name for a tea-stall) has always been a lifeline for students of the institute anytime of the day or night. Nidhi was visiting the ketli with some of here college friends. There started the little college romance between the two, Nidhi being a localite and studying in a city college.

After graduation in 2005, Siddharth and Nidhi got married and started living in Mumbai. As part of final placements, Siddharth got placed with Monsanto India Limited in Mumbai in a marketing role. Later he moved to Johnson and Johnson, Mumbai, also in the marketing line.

Life takes a u-turn

Life seemed perfect. An IIMA degree to boast about - a plush job, a home and a loving wife. But about a year or so after marriage, Nidhi was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour called Medulloblastoma.

"We were also told it was an aggressive tumour for which there was no cure in allopathy," said Siddharth.

Nidhi's case got further complicated because the tumour had spread to rhe spine, making her case even more rare. This was the beginning of a rather tumultuous journey for the couple, where they realised that no degree prepares you for these situations.

Nidhi went through agonising pain and constant black-outs. She was finally operated on in Mumbai. Post the operation, however, Nidhi was moved to Ahmedabad for chemotherapy and post-operative treatment as her parents were there.

"I travelled every weekend to see her and made it for every doctor's appointment. But I realised, she needed me more than just these visits. The doctors were giving up on her and I decided to take that one big step," recalls Siddharth.

Goodbye job

The IIMA grad just chucked away his well-paying job and went to Ahmedabad to be with his wife. "Everyone told me I was doing the wrong thing. My parents, colleagues and all our friends. But I was adamant. My wife needed me more. When and if things turn out well, my degree will get me another job, I justified to myself," Siddharth told Pagalguy.

In Ahmedabad, Siddharth spent many sleepless nights with Nidhi since the chemotherapy sessions were painful. That was when Siddharth told her stories about IIMA days and the days before IIMA when he was a marine engineer. "After a few such sessions Nidhi told me to pen down my little stories in a book. Since I used to wait for Nidhi to sleep first and then sleep myself, I used that time to jot down my stories in my diary. I thought then that my stories were too simple and only meant for Nidhi to cheer-up," said Siddharth.

The coming days turned out to be worse. "One after another, the doctors began giving up on Nidhi and at that time I wanted to throw the diary out," recalls Siddharth.

Hope returned

But hope came again. A doctor in Kolkata took up Nidhi's case and slowly and surely life came back into her body. Regular doctor visits, a strict control on diet and proper medicine intake made Nidhi come back on track. Today after many months, Nidhi is off medicines too. "Somewhere during Nidhi's recovery, I came back to Mumbai and almost immediately got a job again. I guess I owe that to my management degree. Today Nidhi is also in Mumbai and our life has started again," said Siddharth.

MBA degree

"There were many lessons from IIM-A that might have helped me during my crisis. It teaches you to deal and live in pressure, race against time and win most times. But one thing that comes to my mind when I look back at my years at IIM-A, I feel my course would have been complete if I was also taught life skills. How to deal with people and their inflated egos, how to lead and make people see the bigger picture as you see it. Education needs to go beyond careers, placements and packages".

(Siddharth's book, 'Eagle Spotted, Message Decoded', is the story of a marine engineer who on his first job on the ship lacks confidence to face life at sea. The book is on how he learns to gather his strengths and overpower his fears - exactly what he did when he learnt of his wife's cancer. Siddharth himself is a trained marine engineer who sailed for over three years before joining IIM-A. The book is dedicated to his wife.)

Source:www.pagalguy.com - India's biggest and most trusted portal and community for cracking MBA entrance exams.

TOUCHING LIVES

2010-12-19T21:22:00.002+05:30

Prithviraj Kapoor hosting a guest who never left, Dharmendra encouraging sleepovers for fans and Sachin Tendulkar helping out a friend in need... Celebs show us how small gestures towards commoners help them connect with the larger meaning of life, says Seema Sinha.
DECADES ago Prithviraj Kapoor had a guest from Peshawar who was supposed to stay with the actor for about two weeks in his modest apartment in Matunga, Mumbai. But the guest never went back and stayed with the cinematic patriarch forever! “Perhaps the latest Bollywood flick Athithi Tum Kab Jaaoge was inspired from that incident,” says the actor’s grandson Rajeev Kapoor in lighter vein. “We Kapoors were always taught to reach out to the masses. We are people’s persons; we never behaved like celebrities and opened our arms to embrace people from all walks of life. We had an o p e n h o u s e, t h e r e were fest iva l s , parties… p e o p l e, families coming in for various o c c a - s i o n s , ” adds Rajeev.
Veteran actor D h a r m e n d ra would often have his fans come down from Punjab and the actor would let some of them stay in his bungalow. “I never felt like a star and I always wanted to reach out to the masses. I yearned for their love and admiration all the time, and I feel this relationship of love between my fans and me is thicker than b l o o d . . b a h u t anokha hai yeh rishta,” says Dharmendra.
One has heard of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar involved in various charities, including anti-cancer, children’s education, improving children’s health and hygiene, but one doesn’t know about the cricketer giving away Rs 17 lakh to a former Indian cricketer, whose mother was ill. According to sources, Mahendra Singh Dhoni recently bought three ambulances for a local hospital in Ranchi and his wife Sakshi was once seen rushing to Uttaranchal to distribute 1,000 blankets to the poor and needy.
Time and again, celebrities have reached out to people either through donations, charities, foundation or simple little gestures. Socially-driven Neerja Birla, vice chairperson, education project and wife of Kumaramangalam Birla, reaches out to several organisations like Muktangan, Akanksha and Make-a-Wish Foundation, with the former two supporting the education of under-privileged children and the latter fulfilling the wishes of terminally-ill children.
An active supporter of the charity organisation set up by her mother for female infanticide called Relief Projects India, Katrina Kaif has given many of her personal belongings for auction in Chennai to help set up a pre-natal centre. “I support my mother’s charity, which primarily cares for the abandoned girl child. Beyond this, when I do something, it is not really with any preset notion that I will get something in return except for a little joy that somehow, somewhere I am getting a chance to give something back to people who give me so much all the time,” says Katrina.
“When I feel low, I look at the beautiful cards these children have sent me, it brings a smile on my face. I feel I haven’t let my life go wa s t e, ” says act r e s s Rave e n a Ta n d o n , w h o helped rehabilitate about 30 girls, who had no roof on their head, about three years ago. Before they were shifted to a proper home in Vasai, these destitute kids found shelter in Raveena’s home for two years until the actress could collect funds and make arrangements for their permanent stay.
And today, she has only wish — “That I could enter these children’s minds and make them understand that they must use the golden opportunities that come their way.” Recently, she tried helping out a destitute 11-year-old boy, who had followed her home for alms. “I heard him out and told him to stay with me and wanted to enrol him in a school nearby, but he refused and continues to stay at Bandra station,” laments Raveena.
Always at the forefront of charitable causes, Salman Khan once rolled down his car window and started having a conversation with a beggar child when he was stuck in a traffic jam. Salman realised the child was unaware of his star status. Touched by his innocence, Salman got him inside his car, gave him a few packets of chocolates and some money before leaving.
Back home, actress Priyanka Chopra, who is the national brand ambassador of UNICEF, is involved majorly in educating the girl child, creating awareness and has also taken up the cause of female infanticide for many years through her charity foundation.
Small gestures go a big way. Actor Hrithik Roshan recently gifted a school bus worth Rs 10 lakh to the Dilkhush Special School set up for mentally challenged children in Mumbai. The school had just two buses with one needing repairs. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and her own charity the Aishwarya Rai Foundation have pledged to aid the Smile Train, a worldwide movement that helps children with cleft lips. Last year, Vivek Oberoi, back after a holiday in Europe decided to celebrate his birthday with children at an orphanage. And actress Sameera Reddy represents an NGO that provides homes for homeless children in Mumbai.
What can be more humbling than giving back to the society?

Courtesy TOI dated 19.12.2010

Let us salute these Citizens who are leading by example to show us the path in giving back to soceity!

Kiran Bedi: A police chief with a difference | Video on TED.com

2010-12-16T16:07:00.000+05:30

Kiran Bedi: A police chief with a difference | Video on TED.com

Laughter Yoga for Citizens SBI

2010-12-14T13:04:00.001+05:30

Rooftop Laughter at State Bank Learning Centre, Indore

37 Branch Managers of Regional Business Office, Ratlam are presently attending Contribution Lab at State Bank Learning Centre, Indore. They begin their day early in the morning with Laughter Yoga at the roof top of the learning centre. This gives them a lot of oxygen and a great feeling of wellness which lasts through out the day during the CitizenSBI programme.

Laughter Yoga has taken them to their 'being' level instantly and they feel more attentive in their classroom sessions after breathing and laughter exercises in the morning. They feel relaxed and stress free. Laughter Yoga is seen as a great tool for team building by them.

The laughter sessions are being regularly conducted by Radhika Bisht and Jagat Singh Bisht, AGM(Training) at the Centre.

Some photographs of the laughter session this morning:

Please visit "Laughter Club Of State Bank Learning Centre, Indore" page on Facebook for more photographs.

CoolBisht / Indore

Jason Fried: Why work doesn't happen at work

2010-12-04T13:07:00.000+05:30

Jason Fried has a radical theory of working: that the office isn't a good place to do it. At TEDxMidwest, he lays out the main problems (call them the M&Ms) and offers three suggestions to make work work.

Jason Fried is the co-founder and president of 37signals , a Chicago-based company that builds web-based productivity tools that, in their words, "do less than the competition -- intentionally." 37signals' simple but powerful collaboration tools include Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack, Campfire, Ta-da List, and Writeboard. 37signals also developed and open-sourced the Ruby on Rails programming framework.

Fried is the co-author, with David Heinemeier Hansson, of the book Rework, about new ways to conceptualize working and creating. Salon's Scott Rosenberg called it "a minimalist manifesto that's profoundly practical. In a world where we all keep getting asked to do more with less, the authors show us how to do less and create more."

Agent Salt

2010-12-03T17:20:00.001+05:30

By CHITRA NARAYANAN

A pinch of salt is Venkatesh Mannar's chosen weapon to end anaemia and nutritional deficiency..

Venkatesh Mannar, President of the Ottawa headquartered Micronutrient Initiative

It was a proud moment for Indians when last month, at the 10th Annual gala black-tie Tech awards in Santa Clara, US, watched by Silicon Valley industry giants, “salt man” Venkatesh Mannar walked away with the $50,000 Nokia Health Award.

The erstwhile salt producer from Tamil Nadu, who today is the President of the Ottawa-headquartered Micronutrient Initiative, got the award for creating double fortified salt (DFS), which packs both iron and iodine. It's a seemingly simple idea, but a chemically challenging one as the two elements just don't get along. With DFS, at one stroke, you can protect people against anaemia as well as iodine deficiency disorders.

It's amazing how much power this powdery white substance has in the hands of innovative men. Just as Gandhiji effectively used the “condiment of the poor” to launch a movement against the colonial powers, Mannar's life has revolved around finding interesting uses for the sodium compound. First as a producer, then as a researcher, and later as an activist for whom salt emerged as a powerful weapon to protect the world from hidden hunger.

Mannar's idea of double fortifying salt has already moved from lab to fields and on to markets. In Tamil Nadu, Micronutrient Initiative's DFS produced by the Tamil Nadu Salt Corporation and sprinkled into the State's school meal programme protects three million schoolchildren from anaemia as well as iodine deficiency disorders. Now his vision is to spread the protection wider by getting salt producing companies to adopt the technology and governments to follow the Tamil Nadu model.

Although attempts have been made to fortify wheat, rice and other staples, Mannar feels salt is the best suited medium to piggyback on to provide basic nutrients. “Salt is quite simply the best vehicle for fortification — world over practically everyone, rich or poor, uses it,” he says. “Also, there is a very narrow band of consumption — not more than 10 to 15 gm per day, so there is little danger of overconsumption,” he says.

Spreading the good work

The slightly built Mannar has been a key man in the universal salt iodisation programme, tirelessly travelling across the world, directly assisting nearly 40 countries in designing, developing and implementing their programmes. “Indirectly, I think I would have been involved in 60 to 70 countries,” he says.

One of his most satisfying moments came in China, where he was part of the team that convinced Zhu Rhongji (then vice premier and later premier of China) to adopt the universal salt iodisation programme. “When we made our presentation, Mr Rhongji looked very impassive, but when I told him about the effect iodine deficiency has on mental development, you could see the instant change in him — I think that point convinced him,” he recalls.

Today, China, which implemented USI only in 1993, has already achieved 97 per cent salt iodisation, and is one of the biggest success stories of the programme. By contrast India, an early adopter, is lagging at 70 per cent rates. “In India there are just too many detractors — medical doctors, lobbies and so on,” says Mannar. But he says the opposition is slowly petering away. “As long as you don't make it a big issue, it inevitably has to die down as it's not backed by scientific logic,” he says.

Adding iron to salt

But it's not his activism in the field that has fetched him this latest honour — it's the chemical experiments in the labs and the strategising thereafter to create a viable model that could be replicated. The Tech Awards recognise “technical solutions that benefit humanity and address the most critical issues facing our planet and its people”. Together with Prof Levente Diosady, a Food Engineer at the University of Toronto, Mannar, who has a chemical engineering background, brainstormed on developing a way in which iron could be added to iodised salt without the two elements interfering with each other. “Although the idea was simple, the work was difficult,” he says. The challenge was to not let the two react with each other as well as prevent the red of the iron compound from staining the salt into an unacceptable brown shade.

The Eureka moment came when they borrowed a technique from the food industry called microencapsulation. Basically, the iron particles were coated with a vegetable fat and white glaze, forming a barrier.

The salt march

For Mannar, his use of salt as a vehicle is hardly surprising considering that it literally flows in his veins. “I come from a family of salt producers. For five generations, my family were producing salt in Tuticorin. From my grandfather's uncle, the business got passed on to my father,” he describes.

After his chemical engineering from IIT Madras, followed by a Masters in the US, he worked with a couple of salt companies in Salt Lake, San Francisco. On his return, together with his father, he started the Marthi Crystal Salt Company, of which he was managing director from 1973-90.

“As we were producing salt we were also interested in salt technology. In the 1970s, in our salt works on the road to Mahabalipuram, we did some early work in fortified salt,” he says.

Noticing his work, UNICEF approached him for consultancy in helping set up salt iodisation plants for small salt farmers. “In the early 1980s, my father passed away and I got the responsibility of running the salt field. But even as I continued to run the business, I did short duration assignments for UNICEF,” he says.

This was a time of intense travel around the world — Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, countries in Africa and so on — on the salt iodisation mission.

But the turning point for Mannar came in 1990, when he and his wife decided to emigrate to Canada. He sold his share in the salt company and moved shores, picking up a consultancy job from UNICEF. The move could not have been timelier.

At that time, the Canadian government was just setting up the Micronutrient Initiative, and asked him to join as executive director. Since joining, the organisation has grown from being a small division of the International Development and Research Council with four employees, into a global leader in nutrition development programmes with more than 100 full-time staff, 120 full-time consultants, two regional offices, 11 country offices and a budget of $38 million per year.

The DFS story: Worth its salt

JOURNEY DOWN TO MELAKIDARAM, a backward village in drought-prone Ramnad district in coastal Tamil Nadu, and you can see the impact of double fortified salt.

Here, at the Government Higher Secondary School, you will find surprisingly high attendance. The school has a creditable pass percentage of 84 per cent in 10th standard. More important, very few students drop out and most continue up to Class 12.
Since 2005, the school's children have been getting double fortified salt in their school-meal menu of sambhar, rice and boiled eggs.
Micronutrient Initiative likes to think DFS has made a difference in attentiveness levels. To prove that mass fortification using DFS to reach out to the bottom of the pyramid beneficiary was a viable strategy, the organisation partnered with the Tamil Nadu Salt Corporation, which was anyway supplying iodised salt to the midday meal programme in the State. Within four years, 3.6 million children in the State were getting DFS.
Today, others have developed their own double fortified salt - the National Institute of Nutrition too, for instance, has come up with a technology to combine iron and iodine in salt.
Some salt companies have launched DFS commercially as well. Mannar can be happy that he has played a catalysing role.
Courtesy: L i f e / The Hindu Business Line

Premji pledges $2 billion for education

2010-12-03T16:52:00.000+05:30

Bangalore: In the largest act of philanthropy by an Indian, Wipro chairman Azim Premji will give about Rs 8,846 crore ($2 billion) to improve school education in India. Other donations to charitable institutions by any person or corporation in India pale in comparison to this massive endowment which also effectively silences critics who say Indian billionaires are measly donors.
    Premji, India’s third richest man with a net worth of $18 billion, will transfer 213 million equity shares of Wipro Ltd, held by a few entities controlled by him, to the Azim Premji Trust. It will fund educational activities of the Azim Premji Foundation (APF), which works mainly with schools in rural India. He had previously transferred over Rs 700 crore to the APF.
    Premji said more may come in future. “I’m completely committed to supporting the larger ambition of creating the required social change.”
    The money will be transferred to the trust by next Tuesday and Wipro’s former strategy chief K R Lakshminarayana will be its chief endowment officer. A $2-billion endowment even at a conservative return of 8%- 12% should generate annually returns of $160-250 million (Rs 750-1,150 crore), which will be used to run APF initiatives, including the Bangalore-based Azim Premji University.
    “We believe that good education is crucial to building a just, equitable, humane and sustainable society. We want to contribute significantly towards improvement of education in India, and through that towards building a better society,” he said.
Courtesy: TNN

Contribution Project: SSI Finance Branch, Suklia Indore

2010-11-30T11:49:00.001+05:30

CITIZEN SBI INTERVENTION-2

CONTRIBUTION LAB
22ND TO 27TH NOVEMBER 2010

CONTRIBUTION PROJECT

Name of participant and present branch / office:

DINESH AYACHIT, RM, RBO, Khandwa

Name of the branch where project was undertaken:

SSI Finance Branch Suklia Indore

Brief description of the project:

To turnover the state of affairs of the branch.

Why the need for the project arose:

i) Business of the branch was declining year to year and came down to almost 50% within 4 years.

ii) Poor customer service resulted bad image of the branch/bank.

iii) Staff was adequate but under-utilized / undisciplined / no work culture.

iv) No focus on SSI/SME customers / borrowers inspite of having huge potential as branch is situated in industrial area.

How it was implemented and results:

1. Did it involve many people from the unit? What kind of teaming/team work took place?

Reasons / causes for dismal performance were analysed and staff meeting was conducted. Customer feed back from various segments including representatives of an big corporate account having good deposits with the branch was taken. Equitable distribution among the staff was ensured. Each member was given importance to cater different tasks.

2. How did it energize the people in the unit?

Entire staff was taken into confidence. Members started involving into the work and responds to the customer needs. Cash Department took initiatives to take receipts etc. lots loans also. F.O. marketed some SME proposals initially.

3. What kind of fulfillment did it result in for the collective involved (team members and customers)?

When the things started improving, every member experienced self satisfaction and encouraged when improving the image of the branch with better improved customer service. Resulted collective results.

4. How did it enhance the interaction with the customer community?

Since each member of the staff was assigned to focus on different segment customers, daily interaction resulted customer satisfaction and reinforced relationship.

5. What were the sustainable results of this Contribution Project in the unit?

Team work and improved customer service at the branch and outside of the branch resulted achievement of all the budgeted parameters of the branch within 6 months. Every member of the staff was elevated and good growth in SME segment was registered.

CONGRATULATIONS!

2010-11-28T21:07:00.006+05:30

Citizen SBI Blog, its readers
and contributors congratulate

its founder Shri Jagat Singh Bisht

on his much deserved elevation

as Assistant General Manager in the Bank!!!

Contribution Lab at SBLC, Indore

2010-11-25T16:39:00.003+05:30

(22-27 November 2010)

Mr Dinesh Ayachit, Regional Manager, RBO Khandwa and his team of Branch Managers, along with Mr Jagat Singh Bisht, Nodal Officer; Mrs Nirupa Joshi, Master Facilitator and Mr Arun Kalway, Citizen Facilitator

A meal for the soul

2010-11-15T15:45:00.000+05:30

Top chef Narayanan Krishnan who quit his cushy job to serve the needy, is the only Indian to be nominated for a major award

By Jayanthi Madhukar

On a blistering afternoon in Madurai in 2002, Narayanan Krishnan had his life-defining moment. As he was taking a stroll, he saw an old man eating his own faeces. Shaken, Krishnan quickly went and bought idlis for the feeble man. In return, he just looked back with teary eyes. There was none of the expected ‘thank you’ or nandri.

At that time, Krishnan was a top award-winning chef, drawing at least Rs 1.5 lakh a month. Another drooling offer was on its way from Switzerland. But life was no longer the same for the 22-year-old.

TURNING POINT

Had he thanked me for my gesture, Krishnan says, I would have been still in the catering industry.

“I could not concentrate at work after that. I thought how people waste so much money on buffets and on one side, there are destitutes without any food. I got the clarity on what I should be doing and I quit my job,” said Krishnan, who took his hotel management degree from Madurai Kamaraj University.

Ever since, he has been silently feeding the impoverished on Madurai’s streets. Now, television channel CNN has nominated Krishnan for the Top 10 CNN Heroes from across the world.

Effusive in praise, the channel said, “Narayanan Krishnan brings hot meals and dignity to India’s homeless and destitute – 365 days per year – through his non-profit Akshaya Trust. Since 2002, he has served more than 1.2 million meals.”

Krishnan, now 29, is proud to represent India and hopeful that with his nomination “others will get hope and confidence. I do not know who nominated me. I just want to give a humane touch through Akshaya.”

A DIFFICULT TASK

Laurels and such modesty aside, it is no easy task. Krishnan’s day begins at 4 am when he starts cooking breakfast.

Assisting him is a team of six — three staff and three volunteers.

By 8 am, the breakfast is over. Then he purchases vegetables and other ingredients and by 9.30 am, it is time to cook lunch. By 12 pm, he goes for the lunch distribution round that gets over only by 3 pm. By 5.30 pm, it is time to get back to the stove for dinner. The dinner distribution finishes by 9.30 pm and only then he eats with his team. After that, Krishnan takes care of admin work, using the time to answer any pending mails or letters as well. And yes, he sleeps in the kitchen to be closer to his place of work.

Krishnan’s distribution rounds vary according to the whereabouts of the needy. “Beggars are not entertained as we do not promote laziness. The feeding is for those abandoned or left uncared-for, especially the mentally ill,” said Krishnan, who has also picked up haircutting skills. “I am a Brahmin but I learnt to cut hair, as a barber would frighten and disturb the mentally-ill.”

SUPPORT FROM PARENTS

For Krishnan’s family it was a tough decision to comprehend. “They were thinking of taking me to a psychiatrist,” he joked. Krishnan’s request to them was simple, he asked his parents to “come to Madurai and see what I am doing. If you both still don’t want it, then I will leave.” His parents came and Krishnan took them along for the distribution round.

“Whomever I introduced them to, told them I am getting to eat only because of your son. When we got back, my mother told me ‘Till I am alive I will support you.’ Their support meant a lot to me,” said Krishnan.

Akshaya Trust is in need of donations. Says Krishnan, “We have survived because of our donors and credit that our suppliers give us. I am now building a rehabilitation centre. Five out of the eight blocks are underway. Lack of funds has stalled the work. This is why I hope my countrymen will vote for me.”

When CNN took note of Krishnan, a blogger commented, “If we (Indians) haven’t yet heard of Krishnan then it is a collective failure.” As Indians, we may have failed Krishnan, but he has not failed the destitutes.

BangaloreMirror.com

MINING LESSONS IN LEADERSHIP

2010-11-13T21:53:00.003+05:30

Able leadership and team spirit kept the 33 trapped miners focussed on the goal of escaping from their underground prison…..

On August 5, 2010, a portion of the San Jose copper mine in Chile collapsed leaving 33 miners trapped at a depth of half a mile from the surface. With no communication links with the external world, the miners' whereabouts could not be ascertained, leading to doubts about whether they were alive. It was a traumatic wait for the helpless families of the miners even as the world watched anxiously.

The first sign of hope emerged on the 17th day when a communication link showed that all the 33 miners were alive. Thereafter, a meticulous rescue plan was initiated with international help, culminating in the rescue of the entire team, ending a 69-day underground ordeal.

How the 33-member team fared during the 69 days is of immense interest to the world. Information on the miners' story may trickle in, in bits and pieces over a period of time, or till a consolidated version comes out as a book or a movie.

Surviving the first 17 days

Social science research indicates that in any crisis situation threatening survival, animal instincts such as individual survival, dominate empathy and collective spirit leading to inter-personal conflict and intra-group dynamics, especially in sharing resources for survival.

A five-member sub-group employed by a different contractor was initially on its own exploring escape routes, but ended the division on advice from the sub-contractor boss. There were also unconfirmed reports of a few incidents of fist-fights.

Planning and preparation for rescue

Shift leader Luis Urzua seems to have played a critical role during the 69 days. He built the team, nurtured it, optimised all the available resources, and engaged all the members fruitfully towards the common goal of survival and escape.

He helped maintain their morale against all odds, acting in a single voice with the rescue team and in reassuring the anxious families.

Leading by taking charge and by involving all members

If every member had wanted to be in control of the situation instead of listening to one leader, the miners would never have survived. As Jena McGregor explains in her column in the Washington Post: “Everything was voted on ... We were 33 men, so 16 plus one was a majority, said Leader Urzua.”

Leadership by credibility

According to a former employee, Robinson Marquez, Urzua had credibility as a protective and caring leader for his team. The miners, at Urzua's urging, reportedly ate one teaspoon of tuna and a half-glass of milk each 48 hours, proving that followers would make any sacrifice if their leader had credibility.

Leadership by sharing leadership

Urzua organised work assignments for the crew, assisting with the plan to get out of the mine and ensuring that no one ate a meal until everyone received their share. The oldest miner, Mario Gomez (63 years), attended to the spiritual and mental health of the men in constant consultation with psychologists on the surface. Yonny Barrios, based on the nursing training he had received 15 years ago, administered tests and health screenings for his friends on behalf of the doctors monitoring the situation above the ground.

Leadership through a common mission

Urzua constantly emphasised that all of them had a common goal — that of getting out together and surviving till then. He made everyone eat their paltry rations at the same spot at the same time.

By the end, none of them cheated and the miners had bonded so well that they asked their rescuers if they could all remain on the site until the last man was brought to the surface.

Leadership by belief in self and in his team

Urzua had a strong belief in self and in his team's ability to attain the goal. In addition to rationing food, he had the men use the heavy equipment in the mine for fresh water. This equipment was used sparingly because it could foul their air. He also had men map their tunnel and build a toilet.

Leadership through hope

‘Let us be patient and wait with hope and trust in God.' — That seemed to be the mantra. The miners' strong faith-based values guided them through the ordeal. Urzua, who never used to pray earlier, started praying. “There are actually 34 of us (and not 33), because God has never left us down here,” as Jimmy Sánchez, a miner, said.

When a shaft to provide them relief materials was completed, the men asked for religious items, including Bibles, crucifixes, rosaries, statues of the Virgin Mary and other saints. Pope Benedict XVI sent each man a rosary.

Leadership by sharing credit

After their rescue, rather than hogging the limelight, Urzua made another miner narrate the experience. While miners in and out of the shaft talked about Urzua's leadership, Urzua himself spoke about the skills and welfare of his men.

Leadership by honest communication

The miners were told that their rescue would need time and the miners accepted it. Honest communication regarding the progress of the rescue effort and the possible dates helped in boosting and nurturing the morale of the miners.

Leadership by example

Urzua led by example at every stage, culminating with being the last miner to be rescued, after his entire team was moved from its underground prison.

Global leadership

The Chilean rescue was truly a multinational and multidisciplinary affair with contributions from a variety of companies and institutions around the world. The rescue capsule was designed by an Austrian firm. The cranes used in the rescue were from China and experts from NASA and other American agencies helped sustain the 33 miners while they were underground and an American company from Pennsylvania supplied the drills that bored through half-a-mile of rock. Geologists, psychologists and other experts from several different countries offered advice.

The rescue phase

Urzua came up out of the mine last, not only because he insisted on it but also as the miners decided on a system where the strong and more experienced would go first to help pave the way for the others and tackle any unforeseen problems. The weakest would go next so that they could be helped and rescued by those behind them and those ahead. This was to ensure that there would be a human safety net for those who were the weakest. Unity helped the miners survive for 69 days underground, including more than two weeks when no one knew whether they were alive.

Post-rescue phase

The media interest and attention the miners have received so far is likely to die down with time. The spectre of unemployment may gradually stare them in the face due to the closure of the mines.

P V R Murthy

(Courtesy Anup Sen)

FIND YOUR OWN PATH TO FULFILMENT

2010-11-12T20:59:00.001+05:30

From composer, musician, and philanthropist Peter Buffett comes a warm, wise, and inspirational book that asks, Which will you choose: the path of least resistance or the path of potentially greatest satisfaction?

You may think that with a last name like his, Buffett has enjoyed a life of endless privilege. But the son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett says that the only real inheritance handed down from his parents was a philosophy: Forge your own path in life. It is a creed that has allowed him to follow his own passions, establish his own identity, and reap his own successes.

In Life Is What You Make It, Buffett expounds on the strong set of values given to him by his trusting and broadminded mother, his industrious and talented father, and the many life teachers he has met along the way.

Today's society, Buffett posits, has begun to replace a work ethic, relishing what you do, with a wealth ethic, honouring the payoff instead of the process. We confuse privilege with material accumulation, character with external validation. Yet, by focusing more on substance and less on reward, we can open doors of opportunity and strive toward a greater sense of fulfilment. In clear and concise terms, Buffett reveals a great truth: Life is random, neither fair nor unfair.

From there it becomes easy to recognize the equal dignity and value of every human life--our circumstances may vary but our essences do not. We see that our journey in life rarely follows a straight line but is often met with false starts, crises, and blunders. How we push through and persevere in these challenging moments is where we begin to create the life of our dreams--from discovering our vocations to living out our bliss to giving back to others.

Personal and revealing, instructive and intuitive, Life Is What You Make It is about transcending your circumstances, taking up the reins of your destiny, and living your life to the fullest.

Peter Buffett
(Courtesy Anup Sen)

PULLING TOGETHER : RULES FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAM WORK

2010-11-12T20:56:00.002+05:30

Lessons from the Geese

Consistent application of rules of high performance teamwork ultimately generates trust, respect, unity and power within any team. Conversely, consistent violation of any one rule destroys this bond. While the author of the following is unknown, "Lessons From the Geese" is a powerful illustration from nature of the rules of high performance teamwork. As you read about the natural unity that exists among this species remember — this same unity can exist in your organization!

As geese flap their wings, they create an uplift for the bird following. By flying in a V formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if any bird were to fly alone. If we share a common direction and a sense of community, we can get where we are going more quickly and easily because we are travelling on the thrust of one another!

Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone, and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front. If we have as much sense as geese, we will stay in formation with those who are headed where we want to go, and we will be willing to accept their help as well as give ours to others.

When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into formation and another goose flies at the point position. If we take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership as with the geese, we become interdependent with one another. The geese in formation honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed. If we "honk," we need to make sure it is positive and encouraging.

When a goose gets sick or wounded or is shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay with it until it is able to fly again or dies. They then launch out on their own, with another formation or catch up with the flock. If we have as much sense as geese, we too will stand by each other in difficult times, as well as when we are strong. Let us all try to fly in formation and remember to drop back to help those who might need it!

Behold the Power of Teamwork

The greatest accomplishments in life are not achieved by individuals alone, but by proactive people pulling together for a common good.

John J. Murphy

(Courtesy Anup Sen)

Hearty Congratulations

2010-11-10T15:47:00.003+05:30

HEARTY CONGRATULATIONS ON THE OCCASION SIRJI!!!

Ramesh Ramnani

CitizenSBI Blog completes one year..

2010-11-10T11:29:00.001+05:30

CitizenSBI Blog completed one year on the 7th November 2010.

It has been quite a fulfilling journey. The blog has been able to touch many a lives across the globe. It is fascinating how people find great value in simple concepts and small stories.

We thank all our readers and contributors on this occasion.

Once again, we invite all Citizens to share their experiences in the citizenship journey.

Wish you a belated happy birthday, CitizenSBI Blog!

CoolBisht / Indore

Work is the way we add value to the world..

2010-11-05T12:02:00.003+05:30

Work is the way we add value to the world, and it is immaterial whether we are economically compensated for it or not. When we create value for the world around us, we discover a unique value within ourselves.

Our workplace can become an altar, and our work a meditation that connects us to that which is beyond boundaries and limits.

- Dr Shantanu Nagarkatti

Happy Diwali..

2010-11-03T11:58:00.002+05:30

CitizenSBI Blog
Wishes All Its Readers
A Very Joyous And Sparkling Diwali..

जंगल में मंगल

2010-11-01T17:54:00.007+05:30

सफलता की यह कहानी की शुरुआत उस बियाबान जंगल से शुरू होती है जहाँ ७० से अधिक शेर खुले आम घूमते -फिरते है ,हजारों की तादात में हिरणों के झुण्ड अठखेलियाँ लेकर हवा में ग़ुम होते है , मेघों की गरज के साथ हजारों मोर-मोरनी के जोड़े नाचते नजर आते है , ११२० वेर्ग किलोमीटर में फेले इस बियाबान जंगल में दुनिया के पहले सफ़ेद शेर ने डरती पैर यहीं पहला कदम रखा था , ........ हाँ , यही है दुनिया का प्यारा -निराला नेशनल पार्क बांधवगढ़ जहाँ टाइगर रिजर्व के कोर इलाके में बैगा -गोंड जाति के लोगों के घास-फूस के टोले बसे होते है एवं हमेशा ही इन घरों में घुस कर शेर अपना शिकार करता है इनके गाय- बकरी ग्घर से उठा लेना उसकी आदतों में शुमार होता है ।

ऐसे बियाबान जंगल में पी -सेगमेंट में रुपया १४२० लाख का जमा संग्रहण की सफलता की कहानी कुछ इस तरह से शुरू होती है........ बैंकिग में जब गला-काट प्रतिस्पर्धा का दोर चल रहा हो और पी-सेगमेंट जमा के टार्गेट हासिल करने में एडी-चोटी करने के बाद पसीना आ रहा हो तब सच्ची लगन ,सोच में परिवर्तन एवं आत्म-विस्वास के साथ सुन्दर ग्राहक सेवा से सभी कुछ हासिल किया जा सकता है , इसका आभास स्टेट बैंक उमरिया का देखिये ----

प्रदेश के सबसे पिछड़े आदिवाशी इलाके उमरिया जिले में बियाबान जंगल से २-४ माह में रुपया १४२० लाख जमा एकत्र कर लेना इस बात को साबित करता है कि,

"सोच बदलो सितारे बदल जायेगें ,

नजर कोबद्लो नज़ारे बदल जायेगें ,

कश्तियाँ बदलने की जरूरत नहीं ,

दिशाओं को बदलो किनारे बदल जायेगें ,"

टार्गेट हासिल करके कुछ नया कमल कर दिखाना , निरंतर समर्पण भाव से ग्राहकों की सेवा करने में निहित है ,पी-सेगमेंट में दुसरे प्रतिद्वंदी बैंक से रुपया १४२० लाख छुड़ाकर अपने बैंक में लेन की सफलता की कहानी हमारे बैंक की ताकत और हमारी तरक्की की तस्वीर है । अवसर बार-बार नहीं मिलते , जब अवसर मिले तो सच्ची लगन एवं समर्पण भाव से मिले अवसर को हथिया लेना ,सफल होने की निशानी है । नए साल में अपने महत्वपूर्ण ग्राहकों को बहुत अपनेपन के भाव से उनके ओफ्फिस या घर में शुभकामनायें देने से शाखा के तरक्की के दरवाजे कुछ इस तरह से खुले , बांधवगढ़ नेशनल पार्क के प्रोजेक्ट ऑफिसर श्रीपाटिल ने नए साल की शुभकामनाओं के साथ रूपये १४२० लाख का तोहफा दे दिया ।

श्री पाटिल ने बताया कि टाइगर रिज़र्व में मानव जाती का दिअरेक्ट जीविक हस्तछेप न रहे एवं वन्य प्राणियों के अस्तित्व के संकट से उन्हें उबरने के लिए सर्कार ने यह कदम उठाया है कि वन्य प्राणियों के बचाव एवं संम्वर्धन के लिए यह आवशक है कि कोर एरिया में बसी मानव जाति का पुनर्वास कर कोर एरिया को जीविक दबाब से मुक्त किया जावे ,इसलिए कोर एरिया में बसे हर गाँव के हर परिवार को एक मुस्त रूपये १० लाख कि रहत राशी दी जाये ,मानपुर ब्लाक के कल्ल्वाहः

एवं कुम्र्वाहः गाँव के करीब १४२ परिवारों को उनके गाँव में ही बैंकिंग सुविधाएँ दे जाकर रुपया १४२० लाख एकत्र किये गए , प्रोजेक्ट के प्रथम चरण में बियाबान जंगल में बसे कल्ल्वाहः गाँव एवं कुमार्वाहः गाँव में उमरिया शाखा की टीम के श्री मल देवांगन , श्री शांतनु दो और लवकेश सिंह ने डेरा डाला ,प्रोजेक्ट ऑफिसर श्री पाटिल और एनी अधिकारी भी साथ हो लिए ,बैगा और गोंड जाति के परिवारों से गहरी आत्मीयता एवं विश्वास के साथ बैंक वालों की बैठकें हुई गांववालों को जमा योजनाओं के फायदे बतेये गए ,शाखा कि टीम ने उनकी भाष्हा और उनकी सभ्यता को सम्मान देते हुए बहुतही अपनेपन के भाव से उनके दिलों में स्थान बनाया ।

प्रोजेक्ट के दुसरे चरण में शाखा की टीम ने प्रोजेक्ट ऑफिसर कि अनुमति लेकर कल्ल्वाहः और कुमार्वाहः गाँव के परिवारों के खाते खोले और पास बुकों का वितरण किया जिसमे जिला प्रशन के आधिकारियों ने भाग लिया और ट्रेजरी से चेक जरी होने के साथ रूपये १० लाख के सावधि जमा के रसीदें जरी कि गईं , उनके सभी कार्यों के निबटान तुरंत किये गए , इन सभी कार्यों में रिजनल ऑफिस के श्री जे दी मजुमदार समप्र , श्री आर रघुरमण ,श्री वसंत खादायत और अस्बीई ग्रामिन्स्वा-रोजगार इंस्टिट्यूट उमरिया के निदेशक श्री जय प्रकाश पाण्डेय का विशेष योगदान रहा ।

पुरे प्रोजेक्ट को सफल बनाने में अनेक दिक्कतों का सामना करने का होसला बुलंदी पर था और मनोबल बढ़ाते हुए इस काम से सभी को अहसास हुआ कि .......

" आखों में मंजिलें थीं ,

गिरे और सभालते रहे ,

आधियों में क्या दम था ,

चिराग हवा में भी जलते रहे , "

जय प्रकाश पाण्डेय
निदेशक ,
ग्रामीण स्व-रोजगार ट्रेनिंग इंस्टिट्यूट
उमरिया
मो- 9425852221