Management Development

Recently I visited the management development center of an IT major. Every door was locked and needed an authorized electronic ID card to open. It was a delight to see the high tech class rooms with the audio & video equipment. There were class rooms with comfortable, lean back, rotating chairs. The rooms were spacious and designed in the typical rectangular shape with the faculty stage in the front.
What was surprising was there were no spaces where the participants of the MDP programs can work in small groups. It was as if they were expected to come and sit in the class room listen to the faculty and go home! In these modern days when learning, especially collaborative & experiential learning is the talk of the town, running a management development centre with classrooms designed only for lectures don't seem appropriate.

Mintzberg, a prominent management researcher and thinker has long been arguing for enabling managers to become leaders. He has been arguing against the case method and the MBA (the American model). He would be aghast if he finds that there are companies which still prefer the lecture and may be a discussion in a traditional class room to train their managers.

It made me wonder what is happening to management development in India.

Tarot - Continuing surprises

Guess what happened today? I drew 9 of fire as the card for the day. Since the image was disturbing and I couldn't make much out of it, I shuffled and took out a card! unbelievable, its the same card again.
Now consider this when I was trying the pack yesterday, I drew the same card and indicating the present. Coincidence ? Synchronicity?

Excited about the exploring the cards further....

Tarot - Surprises

I have been experimenting with tarot for some time now. Was always been fascinated, but never got down to buying one till recently. Then I bought three in quick succession and gifted one to a friend who was interested. I have two decks now, one the original Rider-Waite and another Osho Zen tarot pack.

Came across a website giving free on line lessons on learning tarot by Joan Bunning, author of "Learning the Tarot: A Tarot Book for Beginners". Check out the online course, its simple, easy to practice and with wonderful insights ... http://www.learntarot.com

One of the lessons is to take out a card everyday to get a feeling of the day ahead. The cards were so true! Most of the times the card drawn clearly indicated what was going to happen....And added to that there were a few cards that were repeating, indicating a pattern in what was happening in my life...

Have you tried it?

Got so excited that I bought another deck and presented to a friend. Since she has also become a fan. Last week bought the Osho Zen deck at landmark, Nungambakkam, Chennai. They had only three decks. One Indian deck which seemed like a clone of the Rider Waite. Didnt like the feel of these except the Osho Zen deck, so bought it immediately.

The Osho Zen pack is beautifully painted. Each card has a key word, which should make the reading easy. I subtle flowing images trigger intuition easily.

Planning to work on it regularly now..Wait for the updates...