In
one of the recent endeavours of the Team Transformers, a series of residential
workshops were conducted on personality development for the final year post
graduate and post doctorate students at the Dr. Y S Parmar University of
Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan.
From the very start of these
workshops, there was always a strong query or doubt prevailing, for what can actually be done to
enhance, improve or develop the personalities of such hard core technical
people, who's thoughts, ideas, perceptions, understanding was now more governed
and was shaped up according to their area of specialization.
Under
such doubtful circumstances where more of reluctance or casual approach could
be felt or realized by the participants, it was very essential to immediately
develop a strong rapport with them. To initiate this process of rapport
building, the start of the 2 days workshop for each group of participants was
an energizer or an ice breaking activity, which helped to promote maximum alertness,
presence of mind, provoke ideas and induce lots of brainstorming.
Immediately
after the same, the participants were inspired to self introspect and
understand their real strengths and areas of improvement so as to induce maximum
self awareness. This further helped participants to have a deeper understanding
of self which further induced self esteem and stronger self motivation.
Thereafter
the participants were assigned some tasks which helped them unleash their
individual talents, promote self expression and provide them with opportunities
to brand themselves and prove their real worth or capability in action.
In
the next session to develop positive thinking and make way for building of
positive attitude, the participants were made to introspect and understand
one's personal beliefs and value system,
which further induced clarity about:
Ø Self Perception and Self Reliance
Ø
Understanding
of one's own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in life
Ø Introspection and understanding of
why someone has a specific personality and behaves differently
Ø Freedom from lack of interest or
unwillingness towards work and collaboration of one's personal values and
ethics
Ø Realization of need to enjoy what
you do
To
define our purpose of life and gain experience from mistakes
The
participants also had a full fledge session on Emotional Intelligence, wherein
with the help of special audio visuals and some other simulative exercises, the
participants were helped in understanding and expression of self emotions.
Further progressing in the same direction the participants were guided with the
ways to manage emotions and develops the most essential skills of empathy,
compassion, adaptability, flexibility and creativity to be emotionally smart or
emotionally intelligent.
The
participants were further put into various simulative situations of problem
solving and decision making so as to further enhance their ability of goal
setting, prioritizing and managing time. The participants were also emphasized
upon the need to share, express and brainstorm matters of conflict and chaos.
In
another very important session on effective communication skills the
participants were involved in special exercises to promote attentive listening,
maximum alertness,
deeper understanding and stronger receptivity. The participants were instilled
with deeper realization and stronger understanding of different styles of
communication as per the role and situation. As the learning outcome of various
energizers the participants were elaborated the essentials of non verbal cues, gestures,
facial expressions and body language along with the para verbal aspects of
tone, pitch, volume, voice quality, articulation, etc.
In the concluding sessions of this
program, the participants were sensitized with the most crucial aspects of overcoming
gender disparity and stereotypes and balancing the variations existing due to
generational gaps. The participants were also made to realize their
responsibility, beyond self, towards their near and dear ones, the less
privileged ones, the ignorant ones, the ones in pain and suffering, towards
mother nature and most importantly towards it nation.
At the end the participants were
even provided with this opportunity to present the learnings of this
personality development program in their own unique styles with the aid of
music, dance, poetry, story narration, pictorial presentation, graphical
presentation, mime or role play.
At the valedictory of the
personality development program of each respective batch, the participants
themselves elaborated some of the most crucial learnings of "Being Action
Oriented and Unleash your hidden traits or real personality by putting yourself
in different challenging situations" and yes we the Team Transformers
strongly believe that this was surely the initiation of a very strong change or
personal transformation to be induced into one's personality on a permanent
basis.
