DO YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A COLLEGE AND A UNIVERSITY

The Difference between a COLLEGE and a UNIVERSITY

Do you know what is the difference between a college and a university?

Well here is a quote from John Ciardi which says it all:

“A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students”

John Ciardi

Do you agree? 

Were your teachers in your college more interested in you than your professors in the university are?

And now there is another terminology for educational institutions called INSTITUTE.

Colleges are being renamed “Institutes”

For example, Regional Engineering Colleges (REC) have been renamed as National Institutes of Technology (NIT).

Please tell us what is the difference between a “College” and an “Institute”.

HAPPY TEACHERS DAY - Part 6 - HOW TO CONDUCT INDUCTION TRAINING

HAPPY TEACHERS DAY Part 6
HOW TO CONDUCT INDUCTION TRAINING 

Tips for the Induction Trainer

By

VIKRAM KARVE

Induction Training

I have participated in, designed and conducted all types of training programmes - formal, informal, programmed instruction, cognitive, affective, simulation, tailor-made, on-the-job (OJT), even peripatetic training, but the one type of training that I found most rewarding and satisfying was Induction Training. 

My induction trainees too feel the same way. 

So here are some of my thoughts on the Art of Induction Training.

EMPTY YOUR “CUP”

The first thing I tell a fresh batch of induction trainess is this famous Zen Story – EMPTY YOUR CUP

The Japanese Zen Master Nan-in once gave audience to a professor of philosophy who wanted to know about Zen. 

Serving tea, Nan-in filled the Professor's cup, and kept on pouring the tea into the cup even when it was full.

The professor watched the overflow until he could restrain himself no longer: “Stop! The cup is over full, no more will go in.” 

Nan-in said to the Professor: “Like this cup, you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”

The aim of induction training is to facilitate:

Seamless Integration of newly inducted employees into an organization by achieving harmony and a sense of alignment between individual personal values and organizational values. 

Good induction training will make it easy for the new employee to easily and seamlessly blend into the corporate culture of the organization, and also for the organization to smoothly absorb the new employee within its fold.
 

FUNDAMENTAL ASPECTS OF INDUCTION TRAINING

Are you a dog lover? 

Do you have a pet dog? 

Have you ever trained dogs? 

If your answer is YES, then I am sure you know key to Induction Training…!

Just as you welcome a new dog into your home, help him adapt, acclimatize, socialize, feel comfortable, settle in and integrate into your family, in the same way, induction training comprises acclimatizing new employees into the organization with the objective of integrating individuals into an effective whole.

While a puppy dog usually settles in very quickly and adapts to the new environment quite easily, an adult dog often takes longer to acclimatize and may experience adjustment problems.

Similarly there is a difference between the attitudes of “freshers” recruited directly from college campuses and lateral inductees at senior levels who already have work experience in other organizations and may have to “unlearn” some of their earlier ways before learning the new. 

Both categories, the freshers and the experienced, must “empty their cups”. 

The freshers must realize that they are no longer students and those with work experience must try and unfreeze some of their attitudes formed in earlier organizations.

There are two facets to training dogs:

1. Obedience training

2. Behavioural training

Obedience Training pertains to logical “left half” of the brain and Behavioral Training relates to the intuitive “right half” of the brain.

Similarly induction training too has two aspects:

1. The “hard” left-brain domain specific training with the objective of identifying and eliminating knowledge and skill gaps by inculcating in the trainee the required domain specific knowledge and specialized skill sets and proficiencies to make good gaps in domain knowledge and cover up specialized skill deficiencies in order to bridge the knowledge, skill and performance gaps to enable the inductee to fit into his role and efficiently perform his designated tasks in the organization,  and
2. The “soft” right-brain value based training to facilitate seamless integration of newly inducted employees into an organization by achieving harmony and a sense of alignment between individual values and organizational values by reducing value mismatches and encouraging value congruencies.

To put it succinctly, the aim of induction training is to add value to the trainee in order to enable the trainee to add value to the organization. 

As regards the “hard” part of induction training is concerned, it can be designed using structured training design methodology incorporating need analysis, requirements formulation approach and implemented and evaluated systematically.

Like I drew the analogy with dog training, this “hard” aspect of induction training is akin to formal obedience training for dogs. 

Now you will train the dog depending on the role you intend for the dog – guard dog, watch dog, guide dog, sniffer dog, detection dog, police dog, search and rescue dog, working dog, shepherd (livestock guardian) dog, family dog, companion, therapy dog, lap dog etc – and you can clearly assess the trainee and evaluate the efficacy of the training.

 

This “hard” aspect of induction training may entail quantitative training evaluation metrics to assess and qualify the trainees and also get an idea of the efficacy of training and the trainers.

Of course, you must remember that no two dogs are the same and there are breed-specific traits too in dogs of different breeds and lineage, mixed breeds and mongrels. It is here that the “soft” behavioural training comes into play.

The objective of the “soft” aspect of induction training is to facilitate seamless integration of newly inducted employees into an organization by achieving harmony and a sense of alignment between individual values and organizational values.

INDUCTION TRAINING PEDAGOGY

Learning comprises two pedagogic processes: 

1. Getting knowledge that is inside to move out,   

and 

2. Getting knowledge that is outside to move in.

Thus the approach to induction training must be two pronged:

1. Encourage and mentor the trainees to look inwards, introspect, ruminate and discover their own personal values [inside --> out]

and 

2. Clearly acquaint, apprise, educate, edify and enlighten the trainees aboutorganizational values [outside --> in] and try to inculcate organizational values in the new inductees.

This will enable the trainer and trainees to identify the degree of value congruence (harmony) and value dissonance (mismatches) between individual and organizational values and then by suitably employing techniques like Force Field Analysis or Soft Systems Methodology we can mutually achieve strengthening of value congruencies whilst mitigating value dissonancethereby enabling harmonious induction of the new employee into the organization.

Thus, induction training will make it easy for the new employee to seamlessly blend into the corporate culture of the organization.

ORGANIZATIONAL VALUES and CORPORATE CULTURE

Organizational Values may be categorized into: 

1. Stated Values

2. Visible Values

3. Invisible Values

Stated Organizational Values can be ascertained by studying various documents, HR, Quality and Operating Procedures, service rules and regulations, vision and mission statements pertaining to the organization. 

For example, Organizational Ethical Values will be enshrined in the Code of Conduct.

If the organization values punctuality there will exist laid down penalties for late-coming and absenteeism and, maybe, certain positive incentives for regularity in attendance and timely completion of work. What constitutes misconduct and proper workplace demeanour will be clearly stated where discipline is valued.

Visible Organizational Values are evident from visible manifestations like Dress Code (Formal, Informal, Functional, Uniform), Titles and Job Descriptions, Organizational Structure (Flat versus Hierarchical), Work Culture (traditional, line-staff, bureaucratic, functional, process, time-based, network, matrix, scientific temper, family), Salary, Perks and Compensation Structure, Workplace Environment (interpersonal relationships, feedback, grievance redressal mechanism and its implementation, gender sensitivity, encouraging environment for innovation, creativity and feedback, and a positive happy friendly workplace atmosphere).

Invisible Organizational Values can be sensed as “vibes” and can be derived from intangibles like morale, undercurrents, office politics, private conversations, an atmosphere of intrigue, secrecy and rumours, an air of complacency, attitudinal issues, or even positive manifestations like “feel good factor”.

It is important for the induction trainee to explore all three manifestations of organizational values – Stated, Visible and Invisible Values – and discover congruencies and mismatches.

For example, a Stated Organizational Value may be:

“People are our most important asset” 

But Visible and Invisible indicators may reveal a different inference. Stated Organizational Values may not always match Visible and Invisible Organizational Values at the ground reality level.

INDIVIDUAL or PERSONAL VALUES

Personal Values comprise:

1. Instrumental Values, and

2. Terminal Values

Instrumental Values are core values, permanent in nature, comprise personal characteristics and character traits. 

Instrumental Values refer to preferable modes of behaviour and include values like honesty, sincerity, ambition, independence, obedience, imaginativeness, courageousness, competitiveness, and also somenegative traits too. 

Instrumental Values are difficult to change.

Terminal Values are those things that we tend to work towards or we think are most important and we feel are most desirable – terminal values are desirable states of existence.  

Terminal Values include things like happiness, self respect, family security, recognition, freedom, inner harmony, comfortable life, professional excellence, etc. 

Unlike Instrumental Values, which a permanent in nature, Terminal Values are amenable to change and it is here that both the induction trainer and trainee must focus in order to derive optimal benefit for both the employee and the organization.

In a nutshell:

Terminal Values signify the objectives of the life of a person – they indicate his life goals and the ultimate things the person wants to achieve through his or her behavior (the destination he wants to reach in life).

On the other hand, Instrumental Values indicate the methods an individual would like to adopt for achieving his life’s aim (the path he would like to take to reach his destination).

VALUE BASED INDUCTION TRAINING

The aim of induction training is to create an alignment between personal values and organizational values.

As an induction trainer you cannot “set” organizational values, you can only help the trainees discover them.

Also you cannot “install” new core instrumental values into people – but you can surely through proper induction training instill desirable terminal values in the trainees.

Creating alignment is a two-part process: 

The first part is identifying and correcting misalignments,

and

The second aspect is creating new alignments.

The aim of value based induction training is to reinforce mutually desirable instrumental values and instil appropriate terminal values to strengthen the harmony between individual and organizational values in order to facilitate seamless integration of the new employee into the organization. 

Induction training will also help the trainee and the trainer identify rare cases where there exists an irreconcilable disconnect between organizational values and personal instrumental values, which cannot be resolved, and in such cases help facilitate amicable exit of the trainee from the organization at the earliest stage, well before the trainee begins his career in the new organization as this will be mutually beneficial and in the interest of both the organization and the trainee.

To sum up, induction training makes it easy for new employees to seamlessly blend into the corporate culture of an organization, and good induction training also facilitates the organization to smoothly and harmoniously absorb new employees within its fold.

VIKRAM KARVE 

Copyright © Vikram Karve 2012
Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
© vikram karve., all rights reserved.

Did you like this article?
I am sure you will like the 27 fiction short stories from my recently published anthology of Short Fiction COCKTAIL 
To order your COCKTAIL please click any of the links below:
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http://www.apkpublishers.com/books/short-stories/cocktail-by-vikram-karve.html

COCKTAIL ebook
If you prefer reading ebooks on Kindle or your ebook reader, please order Cocktail E-book by clicking the links below:
AMAZON
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005MGERZ6
SMASHWORDS
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/87925

Foodie Book:  Appetite for a Stroll
If your are a Foodie you will like my book of Food Adventures APPETITE FOR A STROLL. Do order a copy from FLIPKART:
http://www.flipkart.com/appetite-stroll-vikram-karve/8190690094-gw23f9mr2o

About Vikram Karve

A creative person with a zest for life, Vikram Karve is a retired Naval Officer turned full time writer. Educated at IIT Delhi, IIT (BHU) Varanasi, The Lawrence School Lovedale and Bishops School Pune, Vikram has published two books: COCKTAIL a collection of fiction short stories about relationships (2011) and APPETITE FOR A STROLL a book of Foodie Adventures (2008) and is currently working on his novel and a book of vignettes and short fiction. An avid blogger, he has written a number of fiction short stories, creative non-fiction articles on a variety of topics including food, travel, philosophy, academics, technology, management, health, pet parenting, teaching stories and self help in magazines and published a large number of professional research papers in journals and edited in-house journals for many years, before the advent of blogging. Vikram has taught at a University as a Professor for 15 years and now teaches as a visiting faculty and devotes most of his time to creative writing. Vikram lives in Pune India with his family and muse - his pet dog Sherry with whom he takes long walks thinking creative thoughts.

Vikram Karve Academic and Creative Writing Journal: http://karvediat.blogspot.com
Professional Profile Vikram Karve: http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve
Vikram Karve Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/vikramkarve
Vikram Karve Creative Writing Blog: http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com/blog/posts.htm
Email: vikramkarve@sify.com
vikramkarve@gmail.com

© vikram karve., all rights reserved.

  

HAPPY TEACHERS DAY - Part 5 - WHY I STOPPED TEACHING

HAPPY TEACHERS DAY  -  Part 5

WHY I STOPPED TEACHING

By

VIKRAM KARVE

The Navy is a wonderful place. You are tasked to do all sorts of jobs - on board ships and ashore. After a few eventful years at sea, one fine day in the latter half of the year 1980, suddenly, out of the blue, I was appointed as an instructor to teach and train officers. At first, I was disappointed, for this would mean leaving Mumbai, which I loved (in fact, I was expecting an appointment ashore in Mumbai). But then, since I had no choice, I took it in my stride and decided to do my best. To my surprise, I realized that I enjoyed teaching, and my students too thought that I was a good teacher.

I am sure you have heard about the work continuum:

JOB – CAREER – CALLING. 

I believe that a person’s work life is defined by three stages:

1. Job

2. Career

3. Calling 

A job is something you do for which you get paid. I got paid for being an Electrical Engineer (or more precisely an Electronics and Communications Engineer). That was my basic job. 

Your job provides you the instrumental means of fulfilling  your financial needs.

During my career in the Navy I did a number of jobs, afloat and ashore (pertaining to Electrical, Electronics, Radar and Communications Engineering). 

Your career fulfils your needs for achievement and accomplishment.

I was in operations, maintenance, production, industrial engineering, projects, design, quality assurance, engineering management, training, teaching assignments, and later, after I obtained management qualifications, I worked as a Human Resource Leader, an HR Manager, a Training Designer and Director, a Trainer, a Teacher and a Professor.

I enjoyed most of the varied jobs I did during the course of my career, but the job I enjoyed most was Teaching and Training – yes, I had discovered my “calling” or vocation, so I spent many years working as a teacher and an trainer.

To summarize:

A JOB is something you are paid for doing.

A CAREER is a line of work.

You discover your CALLING when you find your work intrinsically fulfilling and you are not doing it to achieve something else.

After I discovered that Teaching and Training was my Calling, I always took up opportunities to Teach and Train. I enjoyed teaching and was very good at it. 

One day I decided to give up teaching and then I found my metier in Creative Writing and Blogging.

Many people, especially my ex-students and colleagues, ask me why did I decide to quit teaching.

In answer, I tell them this apocryphal story - The Story of the Sundial

THE STORY OF THE SUNDIAL

Long ago, there was once a King who cared for his populace.

His kingdom was in an undeveloped part of the world and the people were quite backward. The king wanted his people to progress. So he decided to visit the developed part of the world and see for himself how he could harness the fruits of development for his people.

During his visit he saw a sundial. Curious he asked what this strange contraption was.

“A sundial is a device that determines the time of day by the position of the Sun,” they told him, “you can tell the time by looking at the shadow cast by the Sun as it shines on the pointer of a sundial. As the sun moves across the sky, the shadow-edge aligns with different hour-lines. Thus, you can tell the time of the day.”

The King was so fascinated as he witnessed the working of sundial next day that he bought the sundial, took it back to his Kingdom and had the sundial installed in the centre square of the city as a gift for his people.

The sundial changed the life of the people in the kingdom. They began to differentiate parts of the day and to divide up their time – in short, they became adept at time management.

Yes, the sundial made the people of that kingdom conscious about the concept of time since before the advent of the sundial they knew only about night and day. they became more punctual, prompt, orderly, reliable and industrious; thereby producing great wealth and achieving a high standard of living.

The sundial had enabled them to realize the importance of the adroit use of time which resulted in great prosperity for the people of the kingdom.

One day the king died. His devoted subjects gathered together after his grand yet tearful funeral to decide how they could pay a fitting tribute to their beloved king.

When they enumerated the king’s achievements, they all thought of the Sundial, which their benevolent king had gifted them long back.

Because the Sundial symbolized the king’s generosity and because it was the Sundial which was the main reason for their prosperity and success, the citizen’s decided to build around the sundial a grand temple with a golden cupola – yes, they decided that it would be a fitting honour to the departed king and the best gift he had given them – a fabulous temple with a beautiful golden dome to adorn the sundial.

But, when the magnificent temple was built and the imposing golden cupola soared above the sundial, the rays of the sun no longer reached the gnomon of the sundial.

Yes, as the sundial was now completely covered by the magnificent temple with its impressive golden dome the sun’s rays could not reach the sundial and the shadow disappeared.

The covered sundial no longer worked, and its shadow, which had told the time to the citizens of the kingdom, had vanished.

Now, since the sundial did not work, the citizens could not discern the time of the day and they started losing their sense of punctuality and promptness.

Deprived of their standard of time, they soon reverted back to their old ways, their pre-sundial laid-back lifestyle, and it was just a matter of time before their prosperity dissipated away and the kingdom collapsed.

MORAL OF THE STORY

Imagine that the Sun is a Teacher and the Sundial is the Student.

If you allow the Sun (Teacher) to seamlessly illuminate the Sundial (Student) then the best learning will take place. But if you put a barrier or obstruction between the teacher and student (like covering the sundial with a structure of temple and dome) the this can impede the learning process. 

This “obstacle” can be the “education system”, the “administrative hierarchy”, the “rules, regulations and red tape”, the “academic environment” in the particular place, anything which is detrimental to seamless teaching and effective learning.

Let me give you my personal experience.

A few years ago I used to teach Electronics and Communications Engineering at the Post Graduate Level (for the M. Tech. students). 

I found that that the syllabus was archaic, outdated and irrelevant as technology had progressed at a fast pace. 

Therefore, I recommended a revision and updating of syllabus but this got stuck in red tape since the procedure for curriculum revision was a cumbersome time-consuming bureaucratic process. 

Meanwhile, I started teaching my students the state-of-the-art technologies and cutting-edge developments. 

My students were very happy and appreciative of my initiative and were delighted that they were being given the latest knowledge.

However, the status-quoist “academic babus” who ruled the roost were not at all happy. They thought I was being over-smart and that I was exceeding my brief.

Meanwhile, some progressive students cited my example and asked some teachers why they were teaching obsolete things which had no practical utility in the modern industry. 

When the teachers gave the excuse that they had to teach as per the syllabus, the students retorted that if I could go beyond the syllabus and teach the state-of-the-art, then why couldn’t they too follow my example. 

Now, most of the faculty was quite happy with the old outdated syllabus since they had stopped updating themselves with the state-of-the-art and given up learning new things long ago.

I looked around and observed that full-time Professors had a very cosy and comfortable life with excellent salaries and perks and permanent non-transferable jobs with total job security. Moreover, they enjoyed assured career progression ensuring time bound seniority based promotions and a late retirement age. These complacent teachers had become so secure in their “academic cocoons” that they had developed a total disconnect with the outside world, and were content with maintaining status-quo.

The upshot was that I was criticised for teaching “out of the syllabus” and I was pulled up for not confining myself to the approved textbook. 

Some disgruntled colleagues passed snide remarks that I was “inciting” the students and putting “wrong ideas” into their heads thanks to my over-smart initiative and over-enthusiastic efforts and that I was trying to “rock the boat”. 

My faculty colleagues had an inferiority complex because I had extensive professional and industrial experience prior to my joining academics, unlike most of them who had spent their entire life in academia. They bore a grudge against me because I did not belong to the “academic mafia”.

Next semester, my subject was allotted to a conservative status-quoist “over-the-hill” professor, who was clearly past his prime, and who believed in strictly following the obsolete syllabus and dictating notes verbatim from the prescribed text-book.

Thus, I, the Teacher (Sun) was not allowed to illuminate the Students (Sundial) because of the Education System (Obstruction).

This is one of the reasons I quit teaching Engineering and Management, and I shifted to Induction Training, where I had a free hand. 

A teacher must be given a free hand - yes, recruit the best teacher, trust him totally, and give him a free hand, and you will be amazed by the results.

I strongly feel, that for effective learning, the teacher and student must be allowed to have a seamless relationship and there must be no hindrances, restrictions or irritations put in by the education system and academic administration.

At least in India, the education system at all levels has become an huge academic bureaucracy rather than a learning organization. If you look around you will observe that many Professors and Teachers seem to be more of “academic babus” rather than genuine passionate teachers - they prefer to administrate rather than teach. That is why more and more “obstructions” of red tape, rules and regulations are being placed between the Sun (Teacher) and the Sundial (Students) and all this is proving to be a barrier to enjoyable and effective teaching and learning.

It is for the powers-that-be to ensure that they do not “build temples” around “sundials” which act as a barrier to effective learning – we must let the “sun” shine brightly and unhindered on the “sundial”.

HAPPY TEACHERS DAY

I look forward to your comments, views and feedback.

VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright © Vikram Karve 2012

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. 

© vikram karve., all rights reserved.

Did you like reading this blog post?

Did you like the Teaching Story?
I am sure you will like all the 27 stories in my recently published book of short stories COCKTAIL
To order your COCKTAIL please click any of the links below:
http://www.flipkart.com/cocktail-vikram-karve-short-stories-book-8191091844?affid=nme
http://www.indiaplaza.in/cocktail-vikram-karve/books/9788191091847.htm
http://www.apkpublishers.com/books/short-stories/cocktail-by-vikram-karve.html
COCKTAIL ebook
If you prefer reading ebooks on Kindle or your ebook reader, please order Cocktail E-book by clicking the links below:
AMAZON
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005MGERZ6
SMASHWORDS
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/87925

Foodie Book:  Appetite for a Stroll
http://www.flipkart.com/appetite-stroll-vikram-karve/8190690094-gw23f9mr2o

About Vikram Karve

A creative person with a zest for life, Vikram Karve is a retired Naval Officer turned full time writer. Educated at IIT Delhi, ITBHU Varanasi, The Lawrence School Lovedale and Bishops School Pune, Vikram has published two books: COCKTAIL a collection of fiction short stories about relationships (2011) and APPETITE FOR A STROLL a book of Foodie Adventures (2008) and is currently working on his novel and a book of vignettes and short fiction. An avid blogger, he has written a number of fiction short stories, creative non-fiction articles on a variety of topics including food, travel, philosophy, academics, technology, management, health, pet parenting, teaching stories and self help in magazines and published a large number of professional research papers in journals and edited in-house journals for many years, before the advent of blogging. Vikram has taught at a University as a Professor for 15 years and now teaches as a visiting faculty and devotes most of his time to creative writing. Vikram lives in Pune India with his family and muse - his pet dog Sherry with whom he takes long walks thinking creative thoughts.

Vikram Karve Academic and Creative Writing Journal: http://karvediat.blogspot.com
Professional Profile Vikram Karve: http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve
Vikram Karve Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/vikramkarve
Vikram Karve Creative Writing Blog: http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com/blog/posts.htm
Email: vikramkarve@sify.com

© vikram karve., all rights reserved.