Teaming and Power Play

The 15 July meeting was a meeting with a difference. We had Dr Amandeep hold an activity based session on Teaming and Power play. The ball was set rolling with the “Marshmallow Tower Challenge”, a simple team-building exercise that forces the individuals to team-up quickly and collaborate and innovate to build the tallest free-standing structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, 36 inches each of tape and string, and one marshmallow. The marshmallow needs to be on top.

Members were divided in to eight teams of 7-8 members each. The task was to be accomplished in 15 minutes. There were no prizes for the winners. The idea was to show the importance of team work in achieving success, be it in a corporate world or in an organisation like our Rotary Club.

Walking around the tables, one could see the Rotarians challenged by the task. Many participants were found to be upset with tape not opening or the sticks getting broken or lack of coordination among the team members. Some just sat back and gave up, while others plodded on. “No project is blessed with perfect conditions, problems can arise unexpectedly. Such situations arise in all organisations and good team-work helps in dealing with them successfully,” said Dr Amandeep.

Building on the experiences from the activity, Dr Amandeep shared that organisational success comes from aligning individuals to perform well in teams, collaborate and contribute to the overall goals.
Talking on “power”, she said that it impacts organisations negatively, harms teams and can cause distress to individuals. Most individuals exercise position based power or formal power and their team members display compliance solely based on their leader’s role, position or title rather than the person specifically as a leader. Coercion and selective distribution of rewards are  ways in which position based power can get abused. Real power is the expert power that comes from your knowledge and expertise. This power helps you become a real leader, irrespective of the fact that you hold a position or not. Then, there is the referent power, gained by a leader who has strong interpersonal relationship skills. It is of particular interest as leadership today is more about collaboration and influence rather than command and control.

Taking the talk further, Dr Amandeep discussed the various ways in which individuals translate power bases into specific actions. The best teams are those where the leaders use rational persuasion, inspirational appeals and consultation. Jostling for power leads to organisational politics, and should be avoided.

The game also taught us the importance of systems thinking.  “Systems work the best when perfected at the design stage,” said Dr Amandeep.

All in all, it was an interesting and a very useful exercise that was thoroughly enjoyed by the participants. “It was a refreshing change,” said Rtn Dr Pushpinder Chahal.

Rtn Varun Rao welcomed Dr Amandeep with a bouquet. She was introduced by Rtn Vipin Dewan. PP Arvind Mehan presented her a memento. Rtn Jaiparkash Hasrajani proposed the vote of thanks.

Club News - July 8, 2013

Hunnar Se Rozgar Tak
Pres. Hassan Mejie and PP Man Mohan Singh Kohli visited Dr. Ambedkar Hotel Management Institute and met  with a batch of students sponsored jointly by our Club and Mehar Baba Charitable Trust. The students prepared and served a continental lunch. Mrs. Bharti Tyagi, Principal of the Institute and PP Man Mohan Singh gave the students a motivational talk. A majority of these students are from EWS families from rural areas.

 
Thank You
PRIP Raja Saboo has contributed `65,000 towards Heartline Project on the 50th Birthday of his younger son Jaivardhan.

Rtn Vinod Talwar sponsored the 22 cart Gold Coin for the Lucky Draw. There will be one gold coin prize to grab every month.

Prayer Meeting
A prayer meeting in memory of Munish, son of PDG Dhyan Chand, was held in Shimla on 10 July. From our Club, it was attended by Pres. Hassan S. Mejie & R’Anne Harkiran, PDG Kawal Bedi, PP Baldev Aggarwal, PP Praveen C. Goyal, PP Vijay Wadhawan, PP Atma Ram Singh & R’Anne Arti.

UT government taking steps to improve Education in Chandigarh

Mr V.K. Singh, IAS, Finance Secretary UT Chandigarh was to be the guest speaker on July 8 but he could not return from Delhi due to flight cancellation. Instead, Mr Ajoy Sharma, IAS, very kindly consented to be the speaker and present steps being taken by the UT administration to improve schooling in government schools in Chandigarh.

According to Mr Ajoy Sharma, in last one year the Chandigarh Administration had taken a series of very innovative steps that have laid the foundation to providing good education. Ten new senior secondary schools are being added this year and another 10 will be added in two years time, he said. Besides, huge effort has gone into plugging the human resource shortage. In 2012, the Chandigarh Administration has added 800 new teachers and in the next six months another 1500 will be recruited. Efforts have been made that the newly recruited teachers come with the required training to make a qualitative change in education being provided in the city.

Mr Sharma also added that more and more school classrooms are being converted to Smart classrooms. The teachers are being encouraged to have a sense of ownership and do their work with renewed passion. The focus is not on making the class “smart”, he added, but to also transform the thought process of the teachers.

While sharing his own experience of studying in poorly equipped and staffed schools, followed by exposure to institutions like IIT and some leading foreign universities, he said that he was well aware of the gap the existed and he, along with his colleagues in the Administration, are working to bridge the gap.

Mr Sharma added that a dedicated team of 18-20 teachers has been constituted to hand-hold and transform the school and teaching environment. Overall personality development and extra-curricular skills are being given a lot of weightage. More sports facilities are being created and existing infrastructure is being revamped and upgraded. “In coming years, you will see a lot of improvement in government schools due to the steps being taken currently,” he said.

In the interactive session Rtn Krishan Kumar suggested to open the school grounds to children in evening. Mr Sharma assured him that steps are already being taken in this regard.

Rtn Ashok Khanna suggested that yoga be made part of the curriculum.  In reply, Mr Sharma said while yoga is not yet part of curriculum, yoga teachers are being deployed and children are being encouraged to learn yoga.

Rtn Geetika Rao suggested that more efforts should be put in to imbibe social responsibility among school kids, to which Mr Sharma said that steps are already being taken in this regard.
President Hassan Mejie appraised the guest speaker about the projects being undertaken by our Club to help children from poor families get better education and training.

Mr Sharma was introduced by PP Man Mohan Singh Kohli. Rtn Reema Dewan  proposed the vote of thanks.   Rtn Surinder Paul Kaur presented a memento  to the Chief Guest.

The second Lucky Draw (a gold coin courtesy Rtn Vinod Talwar) was won by Rtn Jaspal Sidhu.