15 June 2010; PN, CEO of a large IT company, was looking at the three envelopes spread on his table, with a sense of satisfaction.
He felt he had more than repaid his debt to his teachers from his village school.
The three envelopes carried letters of a very unusual nature. No IT CEO would have received such letters in the past.
These letters were from the Governors of three different states; inviting him to receive the Best Teacher Award, on behalf of his company, on the Teachers’ day on 5 September.
It was really a record of sorts; a company, rather than an individual, was nominated as the best teacher; unheard of; three different states inviting one single person to receive the awards on the same day! Very unusual.
PN’s mind went back three years. That was when this new revolution had started in his organization.
It was on 2 June 2007 when he invited all his team members for an offsite meeting with a single point agenda – “Unusual CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)”.
When the team met, each of the members was excited; they knew PN would come up with something very unusual; they also knew there was going to be an additional workload onto them; but they were more than willing; they knew the organization was respected as ‘thought leaders’ and they all felt proud about it.
PN started with the customary words around where their organization was and where they were heading.
When the curiosity about the day’s agenda came to a peak, PN paused for a pregnant silence and then flashed “the statement” on the screen – Docendo Discimus.
The people in the room had huge question marks over their heads. They waited for PN’s explanation.
PN turned to them and started explaining.
“Friends, we are known for quality of our delivery; we have been maintaining our ‘employer of the year’ status for the past three years, our names appear in the agenda of our competitors as a threat, our spreading global presence is being recognised all over, others in the industry respect us for the investment we make in the CSR, we are on the top-5 employer list of most colleges.”
People waited, still wondering, what this ‘docendo discimus’ was all about.
PN continued.
“Times are changing; we are finding it difficult, by the day, to have better quality people on our rolls. If we do not act NOW, it will be difficult for us to meet our target of becoming a 120,000 people company by 2010.”
“Our campus recruitment team is doing a great job. A fifth of our new entrants are freshers. But there are murmurs about the quality of these people, quality of tuition in their colleges, outdated curriculum …… ………”
“Our board is not too happy about the huge cost and efforts we have been investing in the supplementary additional training to the freshers who are industry ready only after six months. We need to reduce these timelines; we need to have better people on board faster/ on projects faster.”
Mohan, the HR Head, perked his ears; - but these costs are well justified because the training is proving good to our people; every large company has the same problem and everyone is ready to wait for the freshers to be ready. He was well aware of the quality of education and was already in discussion with colleges all over on how to improve the curriculum.
Suresh, the Finance guy, was aware of the talks in the last board meeting about the rising cost of recruitment and the impact it had on the already thinning margins. He also knew that at the end of this meeting, he was going to have to scoop out additional funds for whatever PN would propose. And to build a solid justification for the board.
PN continued, waving his hand towards the screen.
“Docendo Discimus; a Latin term; it means - we learn when we teach.
A person adds to his/ her maturity when he/ she teaches someone/ grows someone.”
“This means that we should go to the colleges and teach the students ourselves for them to be ready for us. And in turn we grow our people into better people.”
People gaped at PN. It made no sense to them. Anand, the Delivery Strategist, said, “PN, we are in the business of delivering software solutions and not in teaching. The world around us is sourcing its non-core business out and you are asking us to take on some business which has nothing to do with our core business.”
PN smiled and said, “Yes, I am asking the organization to do this; when I explain the full scenario, you will agree with me.”
“The solution I am proposing will have far reaching benefits, manifold benefits. It will have a better hit rate in our campus recruitment; it will reduce our fresher training duration.”
PN continued.
“Not only that, it will improve our brand recall, it will improve our staff satisfaction and staff retention and it will improve our margins.”
People in the room became a little restless. They were clueless as to how on earth could all this improve the brand equity, the CSR and above all the margins.
PN went to the next slide on the screen which flashed – Prepare our key staff from all levels to go out and ask them to teach in colleges.
There were questions in some people’s mind – how will the education department allow this, key staff are already burdened, how will they find time to prepare and teach?
But a few saw some meaning in what PN was saying. Suchitra, Head of Resourcing, said, “PN, you know something what some of our old timers keep saying? They tell me, when they retire, they would like to go back to the universities and teach. Then, they feel, they would have served the community.”
“Spot on, Suchitra; And look at what will happen when we give this opportunity to them NOW, much before their retirement. They will be tremendously happy about this.”
“Folks, people won’t mind doing all this even giving their personal time. Especially, if we recognize their efforts and reward them.”
“What I propose is:
We get our stars and future leaders together
We give them world class training from a world class institute on how to train and how to teach
And then we ask them to choose the colleges and the topics and take a week’s teaching session once a year.
I am sure many will come forward to take this up, would actually choose their hometowns to go and teach and feel happy about what they did.”
“I am aware there are doubts in our minds on how to sell this to our people, to the educational institutions, to our shareholders and to the board. But I also know that you, collectively, will come up with solutions to address all this.”
“You have, at your disposal, the entire day ahead; you know your offsite buddy team members; your teams have always come up with something really smart every time. This time will be no exception.”
“So, we shall close the day today with your directions on:
1. How to sell this to our staff, meet their aspirations, reward and recognize them
2. How to sell this to our shareholders and to the media, improve brand recall, sell CSR and improve margins
3. How to sell this to the educational institutions”
The teams put their heads together for the whole of the afternoon and came back with something stunning, as usual.
The idea, which looked far fetched in the morning, looked most convincing when they all debated and discussed and distilled their thoughts into actions.
Their key ideas were:
Enhance staff satisfaction by offering them opportunity to grow outside of their work/ to meet their social aspirations and to receive world class training to equip them to teach effectively
Assign weightage during salary review for the contribution in this area
Recognize efforts by including this contribution in the staff database and by embossing one star for every year of teaching on their photo id card
Take inputs from students/ from joiners who to benefited from the teaching, from staff members who went out and taught; create stories for all the PR campaigns, including a mention in the annual reports.
Cover those topics which are not part of the curriculum alone but are important to the business.
The best idea came from the business group; they called it ‘Cub-sourcing’. What they meant by this was that the organization should not stop after teaching the students. It should create a mechanism where various pieces of work can be outsourced to students (cubs). Maybe a secured web site.
This idea of cub-sourcing was picked by everyone for debate and improvement. Everyone felt that this idea had a fantastic potential.
It had an opportunity for students to do ‘real work’;
It had an opportunity for the organization to assess people’s caliber and identify future joiners;
It had an opportunity for the businesses to actually get work done at lower cost. The work could be as complex as writing software components or writing test cases or simple documentation.
At the end of all the deliberations, everyone looked very excited about what they created; they had lived up to their expectations of being ‘thought leaders’; they could actually sense the excitement ‘docendo discimus’ was going to create in the market, a new topic being debated among the management gurus.
PN looked at his team with pride and concluded, “Great work, as usual, guys.”
“I can clearly see the result of what you defined today –
Around 5000 people, trained by our people, coming on board in the next three years, productive almost on day one
Around 2% of our people, our future leaders, showing off their ‘docendo discimus’ stars on their badges
Around 100 colleges spread across the country covered under this program
Around 0.5% of revenue starts coming from ‘cub-sourcing’ with direct positive impact on the margins.
Congratulations; You have done a great service to the organization, to our people, to the student community and to our customers.”
The dream he sold to his lieutenants three years ago, actually became a reality.
His staff members loved being part of the revolution, the students loved it, the media splashed rave stories about PN’s organization’s contribution to the society, colleges were proud to display – “our students are taught by the stars from the best employer of the year”, the management gurus loved the word ‘cub-sourcing’ and started building case studies around this.
PN came back to the present. His eyes rested on the three invitation letters on the table. The result of the hard work of all his people was in front of him; a public recognition of his organization – the Best Teacher Award for 2010 from three states.
He felt he had more than repaid his debt to his teachers from his village school.
The three envelopes carried letters of a very unusual nature. No IT CEO would have received such letters in the past.
These letters were from the Governors of three different states; inviting him to receive the Best Teacher Award, on behalf of his company, on the Teachers’ day on 5 September.
It was really a record of sorts; a company, rather than an individual, was nominated as the best teacher; unheard of; three different states inviting one single person to receive the awards on the same day! Very unusual.
PN’s mind went back three years. That was when this new revolution had started in his organization.
It was on 2 June 2007 when he invited all his team members for an offsite meeting with a single point agenda – “Unusual CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)”.
When the team met, each of the members was excited; they knew PN would come up with something very unusual; they also knew there was going to be an additional workload onto them; but they were more than willing; they knew the organization was respected as ‘thought leaders’ and they all felt proud about it.
PN started with the customary words around where their organization was and where they were heading.
When the curiosity about the day’s agenda came to a peak, PN paused for a pregnant silence and then flashed “the statement” on the screen – Docendo Discimus.
The people in the room had huge question marks over their heads. They waited for PN’s explanation.
PN turned to them and started explaining.
“Friends, we are known for quality of our delivery; we have been maintaining our ‘employer of the year’ status for the past three years, our names appear in the agenda of our competitors as a threat, our spreading global presence is being recognised all over, others in the industry respect us for the investment we make in the CSR, we are on the top-5 employer list of most colleges.”
People waited, still wondering, what this ‘docendo discimus’ was all about.
PN continued.
“Times are changing; we are finding it difficult, by the day, to have better quality people on our rolls. If we do not act NOW, it will be difficult for us to meet our target of becoming a 120,000 people company by 2010.”
“Our campus recruitment team is doing a great job. A fifth of our new entrants are freshers. But there are murmurs about the quality of these people, quality of tuition in their colleges, outdated curriculum …… ………”
“Our board is not too happy about the huge cost and efforts we have been investing in the supplementary additional training to the freshers who are industry ready only after six months. We need to reduce these timelines; we need to have better people on board faster/ on projects faster.”
Mohan, the HR Head, perked his ears; - but these costs are well justified because the training is proving good to our people; every large company has the same problem and everyone is ready to wait for the freshers to be ready. He was well aware of the quality of education and was already in discussion with colleges all over on how to improve the curriculum.
Suresh, the Finance guy, was aware of the talks in the last board meeting about the rising cost of recruitment and the impact it had on the already thinning margins. He also knew that at the end of this meeting, he was going to have to scoop out additional funds for whatever PN would propose. And to build a solid justification for the board.
PN continued, waving his hand towards the screen.
“Docendo Discimus; a Latin term; it means - we learn when we teach.
A person adds to his/ her maturity when he/ she teaches someone/ grows someone.”
“This means that we should go to the colleges and teach the students ourselves for them to be ready for us. And in turn we grow our people into better people.”
People gaped at PN. It made no sense to them. Anand, the Delivery Strategist, said, “PN, we are in the business of delivering software solutions and not in teaching. The world around us is sourcing its non-core business out and you are asking us to take on some business which has nothing to do with our core business.”
PN smiled and said, “Yes, I am asking the organization to do this; when I explain the full scenario, you will agree with me.”
“The solution I am proposing will have far reaching benefits, manifold benefits. It will have a better hit rate in our campus recruitment; it will reduce our fresher training duration.”
PN continued.
“Not only that, it will improve our brand recall, it will improve our staff satisfaction and staff retention and it will improve our margins.”
People in the room became a little restless. They were clueless as to how on earth could all this improve the brand equity, the CSR and above all the margins.
PN went to the next slide on the screen which flashed – Prepare our key staff from all levels to go out and ask them to teach in colleges.
There were questions in some people’s mind – how will the education department allow this, key staff are already burdened, how will they find time to prepare and teach?
But a few saw some meaning in what PN was saying. Suchitra, Head of Resourcing, said, “PN, you know something what some of our old timers keep saying? They tell me, when they retire, they would like to go back to the universities and teach. Then, they feel, they would have served the community.”
“Spot on, Suchitra; And look at what will happen when we give this opportunity to them NOW, much before their retirement. They will be tremendously happy about this.”
“Folks, people won’t mind doing all this even giving their personal time. Especially, if we recognize their efforts and reward them.”
“What I propose is:
We get our stars and future leaders together
We give them world class training from a world class institute on how to train and how to teach
And then we ask them to choose the colleges and the topics and take a week’s teaching session once a year.
I am sure many will come forward to take this up, would actually choose their hometowns to go and teach and feel happy about what they did.”
“I am aware there are doubts in our minds on how to sell this to our people, to the educational institutions, to our shareholders and to the board. But I also know that you, collectively, will come up with solutions to address all this.”
“You have, at your disposal, the entire day ahead; you know your offsite buddy team members; your teams have always come up with something really smart every time. This time will be no exception.”
“So, we shall close the day today with your directions on:
1. How to sell this to our staff, meet their aspirations, reward and recognize them
2. How to sell this to our shareholders and to the media, improve brand recall, sell CSR and improve margins
3. How to sell this to the educational institutions”
The teams put their heads together for the whole of the afternoon and came back with something stunning, as usual.
The idea, which looked far fetched in the morning, looked most convincing when they all debated and discussed and distilled their thoughts into actions.
Their key ideas were:
Enhance staff satisfaction by offering them opportunity to grow outside of their work/ to meet their social aspirations and to receive world class training to equip them to teach effectively
Assign weightage during salary review for the contribution in this area
Recognize efforts by including this contribution in the staff database and by embossing one star for every year of teaching on their photo id card
Take inputs from students/ from joiners who to benefited from the teaching, from staff members who went out and taught; create stories for all the PR campaigns, including a mention in the annual reports.
Cover those topics which are not part of the curriculum alone but are important to the business.
The best idea came from the business group; they called it ‘Cub-sourcing’. What they meant by this was that the organization should not stop after teaching the students. It should create a mechanism where various pieces of work can be outsourced to students (cubs). Maybe a secured web site.
This idea of cub-sourcing was picked by everyone for debate and improvement. Everyone felt that this idea had a fantastic potential.
It had an opportunity for students to do ‘real work’;
It had an opportunity for the organization to assess people’s caliber and identify future joiners;
It had an opportunity for the businesses to actually get work done at lower cost. The work could be as complex as writing software components or writing test cases or simple documentation.
At the end of all the deliberations, everyone looked very excited about what they created; they had lived up to their expectations of being ‘thought leaders’; they could actually sense the excitement ‘docendo discimus’ was going to create in the market, a new topic being debated among the management gurus.
PN looked at his team with pride and concluded, “Great work, as usual, guys.”
“I can clearly see the result of what you defined today –
Around 5000 people, trained by our people, coming on board in the next three years, productive almost on day one
Around 2% of our people, our future leaders, showing off their ‘docendo discimus’ stars on their badges
Around 100 colleges spread across the country covered under this program
Around 0.5% of revenue starts coming from ‘cub-sourcing’ with direct positive impact on the margins.
Congratulations; You have done a great service to the organization, to our people, to the student community and to our customers.”
The dream he sold to his lieutenants three years ago, actually became a reality.
His staff members loved being part of the revolution, the students loved it, the media splashed rave stories about PN’s organization’s contribution to the society, colleges were proud to display – “our students are taught by the stars from the best employer of the year”, the management gurus loved the word ‘cub-sourcing’ and started building case studies around this.
PN came back to the present. His eyes rested on the three invitation letters on the table. The result of the hard work of all his people was in front of him; a public recognition of his organization – the Best Teacher Award for 2010 from three states.
