Corporate Classroom, Innovative Students

Just came across these two interesting videos. One is about promoting innovation in studies; other is about the role of culture and emotions in corporate management.  The two videos underlined the difference between academic and corporate world.

Teachers expect us to mug, bosses expect us to innovate.

The teachers in the first video about flipped classrooms talk about changing the “sage on a stage” approach to teaching. The phrase “sage on a stage” just brought to me a crazy idea.  

We need to change that sage on a stage way of teaching.  Classrooms can be platforms of educating informal discussions.  Assessment can be more practical based rather than theory based on mugging.

Corporate world is more free and rewarding than the academic world, which stresses on restrain, and discipline. Instead, why not structure the academic environment can be made to resemble that of the corporate environment so students will easily adjust themselves in corporations. The second video is about the role of culture and emotions in management .

Classrooms can be structured like a boardroom where students who have already read the lessons discuss the lessons and bring out new ideas and experiments on how he knowledge can be applied. Technology will of course play an important role in these smart corporate classrooms but that is not my point.  My point is, we need to break that invisible wall between the teachers and students and promote freer interaction rather than the teacher spoon-feeding the students.

When I was in schools, students were often discouraged from talking so that the teacher could teach in peace. But I suggest we have small 20 student classrooms where the aim is to learn by exchanging and applying ideas. The way to control noise in class room is to reduce the number of students, not stop the flow of ideas.

I suggest we hire teachers the way corporations hire public relations officers- the criteria are that hey should be knowledgeable, patient and able to talk sweetly because students are customers for a school and customer care and service is what keeps company alive and well.

Secondly, corporate world works on strong incentives of money and marks are not as much a temping incentive to average students. Marks underline the NEED to study. We need to identify some incentives, which will make students WANT to study. The question is, What are those incentives?

Activism: here to empower, not to serve

I believe that three sensational events that recently occurred in Goa merit our immediate attention as budding  activists.

1. The death of Goa’s tourism, environment and forest  minister and activist Matanhy Saldana

2 The demise of renowned environmental activist Dr. Kasturi Dessai

3. The passing of no confidence motions in Goa’s major municipal bodies to shift the control of municipal councils from Congress to BJP.

Matanhy Saldana

From what I hear, the  two activists departed the mortal world due to over work.  The society looks at an activist as a leader who will solve its problems, but far from considering him/her as a resource to be used carefully, people  push for self interests often compelling the social workers and leaders to neglect their own health.  The results, Matahny Saldana who strived to better the plight of Goan fishermen died at 64, Kasturi Dessai who worked to preserve environment , died at 55.

A news paper report in Marathi daily Lok Mat dated 23 March 2012 observing that  activists neglect their health burdened by people's expectations

A news paper report in Marathi daily Lok Mat dated 23 March 2012 observing that  activists neglect their health and sleep which experts warn can have deadly consequences

Before we move on, consider the third case.

All municipal councils were under the control of the congress party during Congress government but as soon as the BJP took over the state government, municipal councils of Mapusa, Ponda, and the Panaji city corporation brought down the congress Presidents /mayors and appointed BJP Presidents /mayors to realign themselves with the ruling party.  

Here too, the people are trying to take advantage of prevailing circumstances by changing the power balance. Conclusion, all people are interested only in guarding their self interests.

In case of activists, serving the community is a never ending job.  Let me illustrate this point by taking an example of the Roman Empire and the Empire of ancient times and the empire of Japan today.

Dr. Kasturi Dessai

From what I understand, both Dr. Kasturi Dessai and Matanhy Saldana tried to build a Roman empire- serving as many people as you can- an empire that is widely spread across huge lands, stretching the troops thin and creating long defense lines to be guarded. The reach of the empire is wide but not deep.

What I seek to do is to build an empire of Japan. Serve very few people but make them tremendously powerful so that they themselves become able activists.  Small empire but empowered subject. The activist is like small but highly mechanized Japanese self defense forces that are built only to protect the land and Sea of Japan. The empire is not wide but deep. It does not reach many peopple, but the once that it does reach, are tremendously empowered.

To sum up, just like in the case of municipalities, Matanhy Saldana’s Goincha Ramponkarancho Ekvott will realign itself to find a new leader and continue pushing their own interest.  But if Matanhhy had from the beginning tried to strengthen the organization to look after itself, he’d have done some quality work, faced lesser stress and would have had a long life.

We need to educate the society that activist is a human resource it has at its disposal. Use him/her with care.

We need to educate the activists that they are ment to empower the society, not serve it.  If you try to serve the society, it just consumes you like it consumed Matanhy at 64 and Dr Kasturi at 55.

May these able leaders rest in peace and continue to inspire us. 

Mass media: The need for reserves

 

We had a dizaster unfold at our great news channel on 6th March. Our reporters could not get the details about poll counting to the office in time. A simple assessment of where our great news channel failed is because they could not ensure secure communications.  Everyone on the desk appeared to have forgotten that there’d be mobile jammers in the vicinity of counting centers. Thus the desk could not get timely inputs from its reporters. 

Our communication channels and mechanism for delivery of the material gathered by the reporters are primitive.  I have stated before that our great news channel is thinly staffed and stretched thin. Co-ordination was also affected because of lack of staffing ad the company had to depute one of its field reporters as liaison between the office and the field reporters.

The debacle just gave me an idea.

The idea is derived from the ancient Persian military units ‘the immortals.  The reason they were called immortals was because their strength was fixed at 10,000. The dead were immediately replaced by reserves.

We must appoint extra staff, which will allow us, rotate the staff time to time like rotations in guard duties in peaceful times.  The reporters, sub editors, graphics designers, video-editors, everyone has a double-a replacement.  The staff rotates day and night duties. I believe it happens in all the major channels. What I am talking entails a double for night shift staff too so that the workers will face less stress. look at ‘reserves’ like the military  special forces or light infantry. Use them for special operations like elections or major disasters. It is the backup army, which will keep the peace in captured territories and keep communication channels and supply lines open while the main strike force is busy elsewhere. 

 Remember,keep the communication channels and supply lines open. 

(Immortal guards during the Pahlavi era in 1970s Iran) 

In Defense Of Social Media

For the past several days, I have been coming across several articles criticizing social media especially Facebook on local dailies. Majority of these articles cite how the youth is addicted to facebook, how oline friends and their comments on your status are an illusion of popularity and wont help you in real world.

I believe that this scenario has arising due to the marketing of SNS sites as toys rather than tools. People see them as playgrounds of youth. my own parents have told me tales of FB addicts often arguing that we can live without SNS sites or blogs and youtube. The management of our office also tried blocking SNS sites thinking that employees waste time

Yes, I agree that we can live without it, but in thinking so, we are neglecting the fact that these tools have augmented our communication capabilities. There was a time people lived without phones.

Social media has given us a forum of expression like never before. Blogs help you by-pass the mainstream press and publish your ideas globally. Facebook and Twitter help you connect with friends. IMHO, addiction to SNS sites might be arising as we see them to be anew or special experience. If we remove the notion that they are something special and treat them as a part of our daily life, it might help us control addictions to and hostility towards Social media.

My thoughts on this topic are still unorganized. My aim is to demonstrate the utility of Social Media and annul the fear that it is a useless addictive and illusionary world.

I will find more convincing arguments to support my idea. 

NGOs: the need for brandbuilding

Just look at this advertisement (this is a 7 minute video)

Ain’t it awesome?  face it. Ads have tremendous power to affect our thinking.  they make us brand conscious, some brands like Google and Microsoft become powerful enough to nearly enslave us so much that we cant even think much about other search engines or operating systems.

That is the power of advertising and brand building.

Now, my question is, how many NGOs use ads on tv to promote themselves and their cause?  Did you come across an advertisement of the United Nations or Greenpeace or World Wildlife Fund on major Indian channels? I have not.

I even had trouble finding a good UN advertisement to embed with this blog.

Most of the educative ads are put out by the government. Its time the NGOs advertise themselves.

When I say NGOs I talk about local NGOs in Goa that really need coverage and power.  The Goa RTI forum- an umbrella organization of RTI activists, Bailancho Saad NGO working for emancipation of women, Goa Bachao Abhiyan , an environmentalist NGO.  People have heard about these bodies but never seen their work. I didn’t even know about them till I started working with our great news channel.

Of course some organizations have things like posters but that’s too small. I am a couch potato and internet junkie. I have a sensitive mind but I don’t read papers, I travel a little but my head is buried in my smart phone. I didn’t see your poster.

Get NGOs advertisements on TV and radio! Attractively present before me the opportunities that are out there to make a difference!

Don’t neglect advertising as something worthless. It gets you visibility and helps you grow. If you don’t have enough funds to employ pros in advertising, employ students of advertising, but for heavens sake NGOs,  get more visibility! its time you become a recognized brand in public welfare.

Attrition Activism

It’s a bright leisurely Sunday and awesome winters weather the perfect combination for an evil idea. :D  

Coming to the point, we’ve seen how panic of a shutdown in mining industry has scared mining and related businesses.  The panic has stopped expansion of mining business, forcing the mining lobby to focus its attention on maintaining the status quo instead. Moral of the story, the problem may not have ended but it has stopped spreading.

This is my core argument in this post. If you can’t end the problem, at least don’t let it spread.

The lessons for this trick hide in the military strategy of attrition warfare.

Attrition warfare emphasizes avoiding your own human and material losses by avoiding direct conflict and wearing down the enemy by slowly draining him of supplies, manpower and morale.  You may think about siege warfare but attrition is different in that it relies on having superior numbers.  In attrition warfare, you don’t necessarily siege the enemy and wear him down. Attrition tactics require you to have more manpower so you can bleed your enemy to the point of collapse. The soviet invasion of Afghanistan is a good example of this case.

The generals will of course have different goals and businessmen will have different goals.

A businessman will be interested in preserving and expanding his resources-his profits. But if he fears the end of his business, he will spend the resources to save the business delaying its expansion. I m speculating that the businessman will spend huge amounts of money in bribes to save his threatened business  while he continues spending money  on salaries of workers and truckers on the mines.

The activist slowly builds pressure by using prevailing social sentiments and circumstances that convinces the mining boss that his business is in trouble.  Look at the panic and agitation (and losses) among the miners upon reports of a recommended nationwide ban on ore export. The government has stopped permitting new mines, the Goa Barge Owners Association has stopped permitting registration of new barges, exports of low grade Goan iron ore to china have plummeted.

Getting back to the point, the activist builds pressure using conventional media like news papers and tv channels and new media like the internet. Use integrated marketing strategies to create havoc against mining.

Take the question to international NGOs like Greenpeace or the United Nations where the mining lobby cannot bribe people or at least has to spend considerable money to ‘manage’the opposition.  It is speculated that mining companies are silencing the opposition from the people in the mining areas by distributing cash. We can prompt those people to keep asking for more cash and facilities and while you are at it, look ot it that the expanses of the mining boss to maintain the status quo keep mounting (the soaring fuel prices are helping us there!)

Just try and get as much attention to irregularities in the mining business as you can so that governments and international NGOs are forced to act. I would like to cite a quote by an American online marketing manager before I conclude “good business starts and grows with a good idea and a good team”

I believe I have a good idea. Now I need a good team of lawyers, journalists and social media and marketing experts.

Activism is a good business, get it? ‘Good’ :)

Miners on strike! fuel and environment saved for a day :)

All Goa mining dependant people including truckers and barge owners went on a 24 hour strike yesterday!

Think of the fuel save! Think of the pollution reduced!

Everyone will think about how to save jobs of those parasitic people living off the minerals but no one so far has tried to encourage green energy sector to provide an alternative to jobs that might be lost. But why isn’t the government thinking in that direction?

That’s for the policymakers to ponder. You and me can only start a nascent research.

Ciao!