How I became a better person through Workshops?

Workplace training has made a name for itself. But often, when we attend such training, it isn’t easy to realize how these workshops are helping us. It is very difficult to see an immediate change in us, especially if these sessions are on changing mindset or how to observe things around us.

Does that mean that the workshops aren’t helpful? 

To find more about this, in one of altMBA sessions, Deepak asked my mates from the training session to write down what they think they learned through these workshops.

Initially, we were not sure what to write. Have we learned anything from these training sessions? I know theories about a lot of things. I can explain to others how to manage risk, how to operate under pressure, and how to not have a fear of rejection etc., but have I started applying these things in my day-to-day work? I never thought about it. 

So when the question was asked, I was blank.

We were given 7 min to think. We all started to recall what we learned in the last few things and if we would have applied it.

The results made us realize that the lessons were rather stored in our subconscious minds. When paying attention to the day-to-day work after these workshops, we all could jot down how and where the sessions helped us.

The little things often go unnoticed but make a big difference.

I thought I would share all the things we wrote down with all of you. As they say, you learn more by sharing. 

Read on and see how many of these can you relate to?

Earlier, I used to immediately share feedback or point out the mistakes that my mentee made, without any prior planning or thought. At times, it was continuous back and forth between Souvik and me, with me feeling that whatever I said was being ignored. All in all these feedback sessions were becoming more like “blame-game” situations. 

During the session, I realized that I was getting emotional and defensive while giving feedback and ultimately the points of improvement/feedback were getting lost. After the workshop I started implementing my learning from the session – asking questions, finding reasons, etc. to improve my feedback giving capabilities. 

I started writing down my feedback related to the report/email on a piece of paper and discuss them with Souvik at the end of the day. I made sure to cool myself down – going in with an investigative approach, asking questions, gauging the answers, and then coming up with possible solutions together Over time, my feedback which I felt was earlier not being taken into consideration, started to show results without any other change in the process.

Currently, I am working on a project related to the scale-up of high shear mixers. Now, the scale-up of high shear mixer is a very complex process as it depends on different operational and design parameters. Many researchers have provided different principles for the scale-up of high shear mixers. 

In this case, the first principle thinking that we learned during the workshop helped me in developing a better understanding of the principles that were documented in the literature for scale-up of high shear mixers. Whenever I would read any principle, I would list down a few questions based on first principle thinking and when I would find answers to those questions, I had a better understanding of the principle for scale-up of high shear mixers.

I feared communicating. To get this out of me, I had started taking weekly sessions in my team on Wednesdays. Now, what used to happen was while speaking I used to stop suddenly in between and either restart or would start fumbling. This ruins the rest of the ongoing session.

Now, I added one thing to it. Pauses. When my mind skips what I have to say I’ll start taking a pause. This took away the sudden ruining moments of the sessions. Slowly, I added those pauses into the whole 45 min period, which got me to the level of maintaining consistency of my thoughts and what I speak.

A mentee and mentor relationship is a 2-way handshake, where this was my first time to become one. At first, things were going great according to me, but they weren’t. Reason? I missed a lot of things. The things that were too ideal.

After these workshops. I made a little change, added 1 more connect with my mentee in a day. Increased the amount of time for him, where the conversation wasn’t only work-related but casual too. This connect proved to be useful not in way of increasing efficiency only, but also in picking initiatives, asking questions, and opening up.

Earlier during the allocation of tasks to RGT team members, I used to start talking directly related to projects. Like, Hey Suraj, when will I get the file?  

But after a session with Deepak, I changed my way of conversation. First, we discussed our personal life. Like how is your life going on? Do you enjoy working from home or do you prefer working from the office? 

Then we shifted our conversation regarding our task. This way we felt more connected than before.

When I have to work on a proposal/prelim, I require sufficient time to understand the intricacies of the tech, the client request and then distill that information to provide a ‘proper’ prelim. In the past, if prelims were requested on a short TAT, they were denied due to the risk of impeding progress in other active tasks.

Last week, we had to deliver a prelim in a matter of a few hours. The client was interested in an FTO analysis and had shared the invention disclosure.

To complete this task, proper time was ideally needed. Instead of shrugging off the request as implausible, I worked with 3 other members of the team to speed up the process. Tasks were divided, work was refined and we were able to deliver the prelim on time. This real-time collaboration also resulted in real-time feedback from other members, which ensured the prelim didn’t lack anything.

Earlier When I was given a problem, I just went into the command mode and did what I was asked to. I just focused on the deliverable and deadline. Only the requirements bothered me and I restricted myself to it. 

In one such scenario, I recall, I coded a feature that I was asked to without thinking much about what was required. After the workshop when I thought about it, I had more questions on why that feature was needed. Why did we need to code it? How are other companies/products doing this? Why does the client need it? All these questions lead to the core problem and a better solution than I gave then. It allowed me to make that feature better by adding some small changes that made the utility more useful.    

I have started to think about the clock & cloud theory while writing emails. Trying to include the cloud part in my email. 

Earlier, when I used to write an email – My goal was only to convey the information to the receiver. Whether it was a client email or an internal chat with the solutions team, I’d just try to convey the information.

Now, while I write the email – I try to convey my feelings along with the message to the other person.

Here’s a before and after-

Before:

After:

Through these workshops, I realized that the first step is the most difficult, and things get easier when you keep trying

I remember taking my first session. I was nervous about making a mistake and could not keep the flow even in the practice run. That time Aadesh gave me some pointers which helped. After conducting the workshop, I received positive feedback and some pointers from my mentor. I also got some questions regarding the topic – which made me realize that getting out of my comfort zone also helped other people. Now I don’t hesitate as much as I used to in starting something new.

After doing almost 2 weeks of LinkedIn posts, I found some surprising results. 

First, I found that once I started writing, more ideas started coming to my mind, which I was skeptical of initially.

Second, and rather unexpected result was that during meetings, I found that my hesitation had started to fade. This realization struck me when I was on a call with my make-a-thon team members. When Samart suggested an idea that I was dubious about, I put my point forth about how it may not turn out as we are hoping for it too. Previously I wouldn’t have contradicted anyone, let alone someone from a different team who I don’t know well enough, but I was surprised by this change.

Earlier if my mentee used to say “I am stuck in searching, I can’t find anything”, I quickly jumped into giving solutions.

But now, if I hear something like this, I try to ask questions like “Why do you think you are stuck”?, “What have we done till now?”, “Do you think there cannot be any other way?”, “So you think we will not get any result in this?” etc. This helps me understand the exact situation that made him feel he is stuck.

This can be implemented in every conversation, listening properly and asking the right questions.

Previously, I was not able to prioritize my work if I had multiple kinds of stuff on my plate. I felt resistant to setting my priorities and got stuck. Currently, I’m able to prioritize such things.

Let me elaborate on the situation here, at the starting of any day I planned to analyze 200 patents and prepare an interim update. Also, I kept 2 hours that will be consumed by my mentee. Suddenly, while analyzing patents a client query and some other unplanned discussions from managers came up. These couple of unplanned stuff made my planned day go down the bin. I was not able to figure out what to do. Confused I used to call my mentor and ask for a solution.

But currently, understanding the urgency of tasks (that I have on my plate) I pick one after another. If I see an interim update is the most important and urgent I’ll do it first. Then if I see that the discussions are important but not urgent I can pick that one. Later on, I can pick the client query and manage the time of my mentee. This way I was able to complete all my tasks planned or otherwise in a structured manner.

I used to write abstract comments while initiating proposals to OPs. Now, I generally practice using very targeted and straightforward instructions and it helps both parties. 🙂

Let’s take the example of my first infringement proposal-

In one of my cases, John (the client) shared a comparison of a prior-art shared by us, against the subject patent, in the form of a hand-drawn flowchart. She also asked us our thoughts on the analysis of the same. 

In one of our workshops, we discussed providing a 7-star experience to the client. 

Before the workshop, I would’ve generally shared response in the form of a paragraph (in a summary form), giving my thoughts on the result and it would’ve looked like any other interim update we share. 

But looking at the flowchart, I figured that this is how Jin is consuming the references we share with her. And I saw an opportunity to capitalize on this and provide the client with a better experience. So, I decided to use a similar chart to share my thoughts on the reference.

Jin appreciated all this effort and it was easier to discuss the results.

They say no learning is ever wasted. Put it in a drawer or your subconscious and it will come back to you in ways you never anticipated.

Were you able to figure out a few things that you learned during such workshops and use in your day-to-day life subconsciously? Were you able to relate to any of these points above but weren’t aware you picked it up during a workshop?

Surprising right? Hit the comment section and tell us how workplace training has subconsciously helped you.

Next Read: What does having skills mean at GreyB.