Roopali Agarwal_HRLP040_Self Leadership_Oct2012

The third session was about the Power of Mind. Our left brain grasps the complex calculations & the right brain helps us in being creative. In our childhood it is the right brain that functions more than the left brain & so we are highly creative during those years. But as we grow old, we start using the left brain more therefore the passion & enthusiasm that a child has diminishes. Further, we learnt about the six steps in decision making, which are as follows:

1.    Realize the most critical question

2.    Want of meaningful & reliable information

3.    Develop several creative & doable options

4.    Define risks & returns associated

5.    What are the trade-offs

6.    Prepare for implementation

Thereafter, we did an exercise that made me realise that I can be whatever I want to be. It is just that we get so busy in the daily chores of life that we stop thinking creatively & our potential. Different uses of a pen! How many can you think of? Try this exercise & you will be amazed with the answers.

The fears that prevent us from being creative are:

1.    Fear of failure

2.    Fear of criticism

3.    Fear of ambiguity

4.    Fear of lack of time

5.    Fear of loss of self-image

Then we discussed about our high & low experiences in life with a partner. This made me built up a mission statement for my life. Another powerful session by Anil Sir, helped me look deeper into myself & count my blessings.

Kanika Jindal_HRLP028_Self Leadership_25 Oct 2012

This was another great session by Anil Sir.  In this session I understood the correlation between age and creativity. Creativity is extremely high in a child and gets blurr as we grow up. This decrease is mainly attributed to our upbringing and schooling, which only encourages behavior that is accepted by the society. But it is still very important to be creative as it helps us to come out with new ideas and solutions.

We discussed the key elements of a decision making process

• Define the frame: This is the most important question as it helps you in defining your vision
• Collect meaningful and reliable information
• Define creative and doable options
• Use logic to evaluate the alternatives (risk-return analysis)
• Tradeoffs and values
• Prepare for implementation

We did an exercise where we had to get in the groups and become different things. This was mainly to bring out the creative side in us. It was an amazing exercise. My biggest learning from that exercise was that, I can change my being at any particular point of time. I can be a child, I can be Buddha, I can be happy or I can be sad depending upon my wish and will. Basically I can be anyone at anytime.

I also learnt the 5 significant fears that a human being has – fear of failure, criticism, ambiguity, lack of time and resource, loss of self image, starved sensibility. And how these fears prevent us from being creative.

We did an exercise where I could identify my personal mission statement. This gives a direction to my life and gives me the strength to deal with all the negativity around me and focus only on my mission.

In the end we discussed the Ladder of Inference which describes our reflexive use of inference and judgment as if they were statements of fact. We often take our beliefs and inferences as statements of fact and often because of that we find it difficult to change certain things in us.

What is the ladder of inference? It is -

• Our beliefs are the truth
• The truth is obvious
• Our beliefs are based on real data
• The data we select are real data
• We have all the data we need

Sonakshi_Grover_SelfLeadership25Oct2012

A human is the most intelligent creation by the Almighty because he has been given the cognitive skills to make a choice or a decision as per his own convenience. However, often he gets confused and falls in the trap of indecisiveness. So, to unleash those answers to the questions that keep nagging an individual, one must have faith in his beliefs. Besides, a heart’s opinion should never be overlooked. The wonderful insights by Anil Sir and how to deal with the complex situation when the heart and mind are not in sync, we should question our inner self, where we are more inclined to opened the doors of hope and respite for each one of us sitting in the class. The process begins with the right intentions. If the intentions have a fraction of a doubt in them, the task would never be accomplished or somehow would be abandoned.

The exercises and activities somehow helped me draw my attention towards my creative perspective and I discovered that spontaneity is creativity amalgamated with consciousness. When an individual learns to focus and direct his energies on a particular endeavor or any other activity, the task is bound to happen.

The greatest way to overcome fear is to face it and kill it. No fear of failure, criticism or any kind of ambiguity is the ultimate mantra. If anyone knowingly or unknowingly, criticizes you or calls you bad names, then thank him, send him the gratitude feeling.

 The ultimate destination is not far from you because you have now learnt to carve you own ways and when you have reached the half way, so every decision is your decision and every consequence is your own. So, just believe in your actions and be your own management guru, but before that, apart from everything, learn the lesson of becoming a good human being.

GiftyJoshi_HRLP017_SelfLeadership_25thOct2012

As an individual, the biggest difficulty that I have faced with myself is that I just can’t take decisions. Making a decision is like a biggest turmoil for me and it is something I almost loath and end up making . I have had times in my life where I have had to miss out on some of the fantastic opportunities just because of my inability to take right decisions at the right time. I have always wanted to improve my decision making skills but never knew how and where I can find an answer to my clear yet ambiguous problem. The latest session by Anil Sir was a blessing in disguise for me. As soon as he announced in the class that this session is going to be on effective decision making, I knew that something great is in store for me.

                              Decision making was made easier by defining a model, which when followed leaves no scope for any doubt, confusion or uncertainty. The first step of the model starts by defining the frame. This phase begins by asking the most critical questions, by understanding the underlying issues we want to address through our decisions. It becomes imperative to ask the right questions, as it is through the questions that one asks, the relevant choices to be made are discovered. The second phase begins by collecting the meaningful and reliable information which will help us in making our decision effectively. The third phase is characterized by defining several creative and doable options and alternatives. The fourth phase involves logically analyzing the pros and cons of each alternative, understanding the risks and returns involved against each option and develop a better perceptive on each criterion.  After the analysis has lead to a clearer view on the option to be incorporated, tradeoffs are defined by aligning our visions and values to the choices we wish to make. As every plan is incomplete without implementation, so is the decision incomplete until it’s actually taken. So the last step is set out to go ahead and take the plunge.

Apart from decision making skills, the session also focused on enhancing an individual’s creativity. I have heard about  numerous activities on enhancing one’s creativity but there was something that I learnt in this session that I had never heard before, and that is about the five F’s that prevents an individual from being creative. They are Fear of Failure, Criticism, Ambiguity, Lack of time and resources and finally the fear of loss of image.

There were other exercises focusing on introspecting the high points and low points of one’s life, defining one’s mission statement, all of which were highly engaging and thought provoking. But what stood out for me in this session is the big leap that I have taken personally towards becoming a better decision maker and hence forth a better manager and definitely a much better human being.

Gifty_Joshi_Self_Leadership_25Oct_2012

Nikhil_Arora_Self_Leadership_25Oct_2012

Yet another inspiring lessons by Sir Anil Sachdev as I took one more towards becoming an inspired leader and making difference to the society. It focussed on a variety of elements that leadership of brain encompasses. I learnt about how we loose our creativity as we grow up and we start thinking more logically rather than creatively. As we grow old we start thinking about what will others think of ur actions and become more circumspect in whatever we do. I learnt that left side of the human being is responsible for grasping complexity while the right side of the human brain determines the creative ability.Every laeder has the potential to be the most creative leader and if one wishes and has the zeal then no one can stop him from being creative.
The class also had its moments of great fun when we had to form groups of three, four and sometimes even seven and make different shapes raning from waterfall to tree etc. It was mainly to bring out the creative side of each of us, and thats when I realised that as we grow older we start to get hesitant of doing such activities which require more of rifht side than the left side of the brain.
I also learned about the five F's that prevents an individual from being creative, namely Fear of Failure, Criticism, Ambiguity, Lack of time and resources and finally fear of loss of image.
There was also an exercise which was to introspect about the high points and low points in life for the purpose to bring out the moments that have had a great impact on our lives and discover oneself in that process. I realised that my moments when I was at the top were those when I was appeciated for someting and I did well in studies or sports etc. however the low points were when my parents sufferred from illness and I was too young to take responsibility of their health.
Finally we all were asked to come up with a mission statement about a cause that we care about or about the expectations that we feel our family members or our scoiety have from us so that we can live upto their expectations and make a difference in their lives.

I would just like to end with a small quote by :-W.E.B. Du Bois
“Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime.” 

Shruti Mishra_HRLP013_Self Leadership_25th October 2012

It gives me immense pleasure to share some great lessons by Anil Sir on 25^th October.  Anil Sir talked about Self Leadership on Intellectual Mind which means understanding power of brain and how to make right decisions. Analytical ability is inherited but one can enhance his idea orientation by practice. I learned about six steps for decision making-

1. Defining the frame 

2. Meaningful and reliable information

3. Define several creative and doable options

4. Define the criteriaà Return à Logic

5. Do evaluation- Trade Offs and values

6. Preparing for implementation

Henceforth, Sir spoke about the ‘Snake Diagram’ that illustrated the relationship between the Decision Board and the Decision Team and develop alternatives, allocating resources, decision on alternatives and trade off are various activities involved for optimal decision making.

I also learned about four dimensions of creative thinking-

1. Ideational Fluency

2. Originality of thinking

3. 3D of creativity- associational fluency

4. Familiar Strange àAnalogies àMake Strange familiar

As the class proceeded we all expressed what prevents us from being into the flow and from here I learned about the five principle fears-

1. Fear of failure

2. Fear of criticism

3. Fear of ambiguity

4. Fear of loss of self

5. Lack of time and resources

I learned how to overcome fears. I also learned that circumstances can cause best decision to deliver worst outcome and the worst decision can deliver the best outcome. Therefore, it is important to analyze and look at the big picture. I recalled the Sidhbari trip where everyone was asked to write the most important people in life and what are their needs. I learned that in order to make decisions of life, it is important to focus on your priorities.

Then I learned about the challenges that held us to do what we want. This was explained by the ladder of Inference. The Ladder of Inference describes one of our basic habit of mind: Our reflexive use of inference and judgement as if they were statements of fact-

1. Our beliefs are the truth

2. The truth is obvious

3. Our belief is based on real data

4. The data we collect is real data

5. We all have the data we need.

I select data from what I observe à I add meaning (cultural and personal)   Perception à I make assumptions based on meaning I added à I draw conclusions  Cognitionà I adapt beliefs about the world (go back to first step to form reflexive loop)

 

Finally I learned that we all are trapped in our thinking (ladder of inference) and that prevents us from meeting our goals. 

Dilshad_MLP024_Self Leadership

Power of Brain !!!

I have read somewhere that a human utilizes only 10 percent of his or her brain to the maximum. So what about rest of 90%? One can imagine about so many inventions, discoveries and innovation which has taken place on this planet earth is just the result of 10% brain utilization.

Most of us don't use our brain more than 2% and we keep ourselves away from doing so many wonders. Session of Anil Sir started with the explanation of power of brain in a very analytic way. Left side of brain is designed to handle complexity and the right side is designed for creativity. The we had gone through step by step process of dealing with any problem.

1) Defining the frame
2)Meaningful and reliable information
3)Defining creative & double options
4)Defining criteria- Risk & return -logic
5)Evaluation - Trade offs & Values
6)Preparing for the implementation

The we were asked to write as much as we can think of use of a sketch pen. then the combined use of pen and cellphone. We were also got to know about synectics. We did some exercises in different groups to showcase creativity.

Then we discussed the reasons which stop us from doing or trying something new in life and one of the most popular reasons is "fear of failure".

Finally we were asked to recall our mission statement and we were asked to record our videos of speaking our mission statement before camera which would be publish soon after completion.

Mind over the creative matter?

Leading into another layer, this time, it was the learning about our Brain.

The session beginning with how creativity deteriorates over time which is key factor to drive innovation for problem solving. Creativity is stimulated and heightened by ones upbringing and education. With being awarded the freedom to pursue what pleases me most, during the session, I felt I have enjoyed tapping and invigorating my creativity at all phases of my life, the latest in my work environment being when I had to employ creative methods to ensure high level of employee engagement. 

Reflecting on the different kinds of creativity, the one that enchanted me the most was the "Familiar Strange" creativity which helps make strange familiar through an analogy. The activity where we had to think of how we would treat an obstinate cat and use the same technique in attracting companies as potential recruiters turned out to be extremely insightful, specially because when dealt with difficult problems we either choose to fight it or run away from it, however by making ourselves familiar with it, we are equipped to deal with it logically.

The next activity which involved in our becoming different objects in various groups helped me learn that I can take any form I like, becoming anything I desire by being creative and removing any inhibitions that tie me down.

While discussing the 6 fears, I could identify with each! My biggest fears being fear of failure and fear of self image loss, which often holds me back from trying too many things! I have identified certain "unacceptable" conditions in my life, and if I will ever be met with a situation which will throw me in that arena, I may come to face my biggest fears.

When we did map our highs and lows of our life, I realised my unacceptable conditions fell in the low period of my life, which, through deliberate thought have now been identified as those periods I would never want to see myself in. Candidly stating that my lowest low of life was when I was an extremely selfish and self centred person who couldn't care less for the people around her. I am sincerely hoping I am lesser of that person now and will never transform into that "self" again!

Self Leadership_Anvesh Apale

The Power of Human Brain

The last self-leadership session by Anil Sir last week covered a variety of elements that leadership of the human brain comprises of. We are responsible for being creative. Every human being has capability to be a most creative leader but the point is that we can only be creative if we choose to be creative. In our childhood we are extremely creative but as we grow up we lose our creativity. The left side of human brain is responsible for grasping complexity and the right side of human brain determines the creative ability.

Decision making is an important aspect of our life which was covered in this session. “Defining the frame” has the greatest impact. What really matters is the “most critical question” we are trying to address in our lives or what is the most important question I am trying to get an answer to.

We learned that the five principles which often prevent us from being creative are:-

Fear of Failure, Fear of Criticism, Fear of Ambiguity, Fear of lack of time and resources and above all Fear of loss of self image. Meditation is a way which can quite our mind help us in overcoming g our fears.

There was an activity which made me come up with my pt my personal mission personal mission. I realized that my personal mission in life is serving my parents by working towards exceeding all the expectations they may have from their son by leveraging my values like gratefulness, empathy and patience. Knowing my mission has given me a sense of direction to lead my life. Mission certainly takes us away from everything that is negative. We find a purpose in life once you have a mission.

It was fascinating to know about the ladder of Influence which determined how our beliefs tend to influence our decisions. We often take our inferences and judgment as if they were statements of fact. The ladder is as follows:-

·                      Our beliefs are the truth

·                     The truth is obvious       

·                     Our beliefs are based on real data

·                     The data we select are real data

·                     We have all the data we need

Hence, this exercise was useful in more than one ways. It has not only helped me in discovering the realities within myself but it has also helped me understand the way I want to lead my live.

Anvesh Apale

HRLP014

Self Leadership_Version 3.0_Sukriti Sinha

The session on Self Leadership on 26th October was about the Brain, how we take decisions, Creativity and ended with our personal Mission Statement. 

The left side of our brain is responsible for grasping complexity and the right part for our creative ability. Together the Brain takes certain decisions. The session gave us an important framework for taking decisions:

• Defining the frame - Most critical question
• Collect  meaningful and reliable information
• Define several creative and doable objectives
• Logic for evaluation (Risk and return )
• Values  & trade off’s
• Looking at implementation

The next topic of discussion was the creativity of the brain. Before this session, I believed that everyone has a certain level of creativity that is inherited. But this session gave me a new insight. One's Creativity depends on how liberal or conservative was one's upbringing and education. This creativity is not static, it can be built and I am sure that my creativity is definitely going to increase a lot by the time I graduate from SOIL. :)

      

     The next part of the session was the most fun-filled and made us explore our creativity to the maximum. We formed groups of three, four  and even seven and formed ourselves in different shapes like fountain, bow and arrow, nursery rhyme, waterfall and even booming sunflowers. We thought of multiple uses of things like A Pen. We also found similarities between a roaring fire and a cat and found solutions to end the fire.

    These types of creativity can be categorized as:

•       Ideational fluency
•       Originality Of Thinking
•       Associational Fluency
•       Learning from Analogy

    There are certain fears that restrict us from getting creative:

•       Fear of Failure
•       Fear of Criticism
•       Fear of Ambiguity
•       Lack of Time & Resources
•       Loss of Self Image

    From the above discussions on Creativity, I learnt the following:

1.            Creativity of many can be combined to create things that we would never have    imagined.

2.       You have to be a little crazy to show your creativity at its best
3.       To be creative, you have to let go of yourself and your inhibitions
4.       Creativity can be created and learnt
5.       You should not think about what would be the reaction of people around you before trying to be creative

   The last talk was on forming our personal mission statement. It was a very powerful activity and the video attached will be a reminder for us to take every step keeping our personal mission statement as our final goal in life.

Regards,

Sukriti Sinha
HRLP 023

The Power of Brain:

The session on 25^th October by Anil Sir was insightful for me and brought closer to myself. After each & every session by him we are going deeper in understanding ourselves. The session started by examining the external factors that impact our creativity but as I dwelled deeper into it I came across that everything relies on us.

The understanding of the power of brain and the ability of taking decisions makes a person true leader as it guides them to introspect themselves.

Decision making comprises of 6 steps:

• Defining the frame

• Collating meaningful and reliable information

• Defining several creative and doable options

• Criteria for defining risk and return

• Trade-offs and value

•  Preparing for implementation

I came across the fact that our right side of the brain is more creative and innovative whereas the left part deals with the complex situations. Our creativity is inborn but in due course of time it fades away with age and experience due to the quality of education imparted and the upbringing in the family.

During the session I came across the 5 step process how creativity can be increased by undergoing the simulations.

The 5 step processes are:

•  Ideation 

• Originality of thinking

• Associational Fluency

• Making familiar- strange by using analogies 

• After analysis make strange- familiar

The creativity is highly impacted and hampered in a human being by the 5F’s: Fear of failure, Fear of criticism, Fear of ambiguity, Fear of lack of time & resources and Fear of loss of self-Image but if we want to overcome these fears we can easily do it over the period of time as these are just the illusions of our mind created by self.

We also came across that no matter how good decisions one take they can be worst outcomes and vice a versa the main concern is to have an intellect of understanding the drastically changing circumstances and bridging the gap by utilizing all the viable options.

We also pondered over the high and low points in our life and how they have impacted us which anyone hardly does in this fast pacing world.

I also came across the ladder of Influence which broadly stated how beliefs influence our decisions. It describes one of our basic habits of mind to take our inferences and judgment as if they were statements of fact. The ladder transfers

•  Our beliefs are the truth

• The truth is obvious       

• Our beliefs are based on real data

• The data we select are real data

• We have all the data we need

In this manner we create our own realities and tend to overlook a lot of information.Towards the end of session I learnt to honor others opinions & views and to have a wider perspective which imparts deeper understanding of the situation.

By: 

Sugandha Singh

HRLP-019

Ritika Malik_HRLP 037_Self Leadership_25th Oct 2012

Today's session was all about the power of mind. Our left part of the brain grasps complex situations. And the right side of the brain is the creative part of the brain. It is creative at the early years of our lives. But as we grow older, the innovative and the child like attitude becomes to reduce.

I also learnt about the six steps in taking decisions. The first being the realization of what is the most critical question. The second is the want of meaningful and reliable information. Third step is to develop several creative and duable options. The fourth step is criteria-risk-return-logic. Then is the trade offs and values. And finally preparing for implementation. Moreover, in any decision, resources play and important role. A decision becomes a decision when we allocate resources.

Thereafter, we did an exercise in which we formed groups of different sizes. We were told to take the shapes of different forms. This activity made me realize the fact that every being is capable of innovative ideas in their respective ways. We just don't use it as we feel that we are not creative enough. We also did an exercise of thinking about various examples of different uses of a pen. This exercise was yet another example of creativity.

We also learnt about the five fears that prevent us from being creative and the ways to overcome them. The first fear is the fear of failure. The way to overcome this fear is to do controlled experimentation in safe time. The second fear is the fear of criticism. The one way to overcome this fear is to have a mentor who would guide us and make us learn to take criticism in a positive way. Then is the fear of ambiguity. One must learn to experiment based on getting into unstructured situation, to overcome this fear. The fourth fear is the fear of resources/lack of time. The way to overcome this fear is learn to prioritize (urgency to importance). The fifth fear is the loss of self image. This fear is, what I feel the most difficult one to overcome. As this fear requires one to laugh at yourself. And not everyone can do this. I also learnt about a fear of starved sensibility. This fear is the fear of physical damage due to nature. For example, one may have a fear of height. To regular spend time with nature will help us overcome this fear.
When we lead our fears, we become a leader.

We also did an exercise which made us partner with a person we are comfortable sharing our thoughts with, and discuss with the partner, our high and low points of our lives. This was an exercise that made me realize important things about myself.

We were also told to write a mission statement. This made me think of what I really want in life. The session ended by writing our personal transformation question.

After every session of Anil sir, I realize and know more about myself.  This was yet another such session that had a powerful impact on me.

ShubhraAgarwal_HRLP020_Selfleadership_OCT2012

As we proceed in our journey of Self discovery with Anil Sir’s class, today I get a chance to understand how creativity and innovation helps in solving the toughest problems of life. Though the irony is, it is very difficult to be creative and innovative after an age of 15. As creativity and innovation are highly influenced by the education and upbringing we had, the nature and nurture both decides the mental  capabilities and  learning ability. In today’s class we learn various ways to increase our creativity.  A simple five step process is includes

1.       Ideation fluency

2.       Originality of thinking

3.       Association fluency

4.       making the familiar strange by using Analysis

5.       After you analyze make the strange familiar.

We also learn the art of Synectics where we try to resolve problems by associating them with completely irrelevant elements and then find out similarities in solutions.

Today’s class also taught me how beliefs  influence our judgments. The Ladder of Influence is the best example to understand this. It says that, It is our basic habit to take our inferences and judgment as if they were statements of truth. The ladder moves as

                “Our beliefs are the truth”

                “The truth is obvious”

                “Our truth is based on real data”

 “The data we select are real data”

“We have all the data we need”

And this way we start ignoring a lot of information and start living in our world of views and beliefs. Today I learn how keeping an open view to others opinion and views provides a deeper understanding of the situation.

Sameeksha Khanna_HRLP038

Today’s session with Anil sir gave me an insight of what are some relevant questions that I should ask myself, what is the most critical question I am trying to answer while address a problem?

He taught us the relationship and bonding that should be present between decision band and the decision team.

Decision making comprises of 6 steps:

1.   Defining the frame

2.   Collating meaningful and reliable information

3.   Defining several creative plus doable options

4.   Criteria for defining risk and return

5.   Tradeoffs and values

6.   Preparing for implementation

Thinking creatively is very difficult, but once you release that child in you, you’ll be astonished to see your own creativity. There are 4 dimensions of creative thinking:

1.    Ideational Frequency:  ability to come up with a large number of ideas.

2.    Originality of thinking: looking at things in a completely different direction

3.    Associational Frequency: combining ideas and creating new things

4.    Making the familiar strange, by using analogies

The major hindrance in taking decision is our fears. We have 5 fears to overcome:

1.    Fear of failure

2.    Fear of criticism

3.    Fear of ambiguity

4.    Fear of lack of time and resources

5.    Fear of loss of self-image

If we overcome these fears then it will be very easy for us to take decisions.

My key takeaways from this session were:

I can be whatever I want, I just need to free myself from self-constraints.

Preeti Taunk_HRLP026_Self Leadership_Oct 2012

The first question which Anil Sir asked us today was, what makes a leader an extraordinary leader.

Deep love for a cause makes extraordinary leaders. It’s their understanding of the power of brain and the ability of making decisions makes them different.

Decision making comprises of 6 steps:

1.   Defining the frame

2.   Collating meaningful and reliable information

3.   Defining several creative plus doable options

4.   Criteria for defining risk and return

5.   Tradeoffs and values

6.   Preparing for implementation

      One needs to have the ability to understand that a good decision may have an unexpected outcome because the circumstances have changed

From the session with Anil Sir today we learnt that the creativity of us humans is high in children but it gets blurred with age and experience.

Creativity involves:

·        Ideational Fluency- The ability to come up with a large number of ideas

·        Associational Fluency- The ability to combine ideas to create a new one

·        Synetics- This helps us to think in a creative way

From the first exercise I learnt that there are no boundaries to being creative and there is a little child hidden inside each one of us.

The session made me think what is it that doesn't allow us to be creative?

Fear of failure, Fear of Criticism, Ambiguity, Time and Resources, Fear of Loss of Self Image and Fear of Mother Nature

I also learnt about the Ladder of Inference. It is the reflective use of statements and judgments as if they were statements of facts. The process that we go through to come to a decision.

We often misuse the language due to our thinking. We need to learn to use our brain to get the best out of life.