Circa 2011:
I was just promoted to be an Assistant Manager with many others that year after a year and half training after college and which meant, I had to go through process training of the department I had worked for. While I accept that my college days were not hippie and cool like most of others (Yes, I was a boring person then too- who preferred books over partying!) , I and none of my batch mates were prepared for what was about to happen.
The training session. A freaking five hours long training session to make us understand 'Processes' as per defined by the company.
A formally dressed person entered the training hall, started with a presentation with boring small fonts on the big presentation screen. Every fresh mind sitting in the hall, I remember struggled for half and hour to understand the text and his explanation on whatever processes he was trying to explain.
In one hour, we all were tired and sleepy. Bored.
We could just gulped nth number coffee 'peg' as we called it, after 2.5 hours. (It was a survival technique every batch eventually found out organically.)
I precisely remember, the training session ended (to our relief) after 4 and a half hours with whispers like,
"Kitna Gyan Denge Yar Yeh Company Mein!"
Today:
(I Promise I have not made this up)
My director asked me to explain to our new hires, the Process Document which was put together by a junior of mine, under yours-truly's mentor-ship, approved by the same director. I had dreaded the making time of this document- I personally had tried to put all the knowledge in the document but the director comes from a consultancy background which typically focuses on a presentation more than the mind being put behind it. Hence, we had spent double the time in formatting the same.
However, because we all had made these processes for our tiny startup and kept on iterating it over a period of four years- I guess, I suddenly realized this is 'My work'! I am quite proud of this piece of my work, even when our operations team adheres to it only up to 65% when it comes to implementation. I would also take some credits that important strategies are being built around some sections of this document even today. Oh, well I digressed.
Coming back to the documents I had opened on the presentation screen, on the request of the director.
I looked at the new hires who would be collectively doing my work from the next month. I felt like wire transferring my experience to them. Intentions were set.
I started with explaining every tiny step in the start up we had taken and how we had defined processes based on it.
I kept on going on and on, ripping apart every line. I was in a state of flow.
I had tried to kept it fun. Presentation was simple. There were stories related to every decision we had made..... And it came to the last line. My director looked happy and so was I. We ended the meeting.
And I over heard, "Bapre kitna Gyan ho gaya aaj!" What did you think I felt? Well, I smirked and the director smirked too.
This is called climbing the corporate ladder, may be!
I was just promoted to be an Assistant Manager with many others that year after a year and half training after college and which meant, I had to go through process training of the department I had worked for. While I accept that my college days were not hippie and cool like most of others (Yes, I was a boring person then too- who preferred books over partying!) , I and none of my batch mates were prepared for what was about to happen.
The training session. A freaking five hours long training session to make us understand 'Processes' as per defined by the company.
A formally dressed person entered the training hall, started with a presentation with boring small fonts on the big presentation screen. Every fresh mind sitting in the hall, I remember struggled for half and hour to understand the text and his explanation on whatever processes he was trying to explain.
In one hour, we all were tired and sleepy. Bored.
We could just gulped nth number coffee 'peg' as we called it, after 2.5 hours. (It was a survival technique every batch eventually found out organically.)
I precisely remember, the training session ended (to our relief) after 4 and a half hours with whispers like,
"Kitna Gyan Denge Yar Yeh Company Mein!"
Today:
(I Promise I have not made this up)
My director asked me to explain to our new hires, the Process Document which was put together by a junior of mine, under yours-truly's mentor-ship, approved by the same director. I had dreaded the making time of this document- I personally had tried to put all the knowledge in the document but the director comes from a consultancy background which typically focuses on a presentation more than the mind being put behind it. Hence, we had spent double the time in formatting the same.
However, because we all had made these processes for our tiny startup and kept on iterating it over a period of four years- I guess, I suddenly realized this is 'My work'! I am quite proud of this piece of my work, even when our operations team adheres to it only up to 65% when it comes to implementation. I would also take some credits that important strategies are being built around some sections of this document even today. Oh, well I digressed.
Coming back to the documents I had opened on the presentation screen, on the request of the director.
I looked at the new hires who would be collectively doing my work from the next month. I felt like wire transferring my experience to them. Intentions were set.
I started with explaining every tiny step in the start up we had taken and how we had defined processes based on it.
I kept on going on and on, ripping apart every line. I was in a state of flow.
I had tried to kept it fun. Presentation was simple. There were stories related to every decision we had made..... And it came to the last line. My director looked happy and so was I. We ended the meeting.
And I over heard, "Bapre kitna Gyan ho gaya aaj!" What did you think I felt? Well, I smirked and the director smirked too.
This is called climbing the corporate ladder, may be!
