The challenge of Team Building capabilities among students

The importance of team building activities has been increasingly felt in organizations and educational institutions alike.  This aspect was strongly felt in the eight meeting of Global Network for Advanced Management (GNAM – A network of 28 management schools) held at IIM- B on Nov 17, 2015.

The event brought about a realization of the diverse work environment that exists in the market at the moment.  Sushil Vachani, Director, IIM Bangalore said “although “a global perspective” may sound cliché, it can only truly be achieved when students get hands-on experience on working with diverse teams and individuals”.

Speaking on this matter, Edward A Snyder, Dean, Yale School of Management, said, “The biggest challenge now, is the gap in team building capabilities among students.” 

In this area of Team Building, Breakthrough has been working with students from management, engineering, arts and science, nursing and polytechnic colleges. Our programmes like Leadership Enhancement, Alignment and Paradigm Shift enable students to acknowledge, accept and appreciate their classmates and in the future their colleagues. This aspect is focused extensively in the Leadership Enhancement program which is a nine day program for MBA students.

This course is designed for MBA students to transfer Leadership competencies like valuing diversity, managing conflicts, understanding group behaviour, having goals, establishing leadership ethics. The course is in three modules of three days each spaced out evenly over the academic schedule of the students.

Fig. Learning Impact assessment of the Leadership Enhancement program

Learning Impact assessment done as part of the program helps teachers to understand what the students have learnt from the program. The Learning impact assessment of the students who underwent the program in the current academic year showed significant learnings after the program. In the aspect of “Valuing Diversity”, during the pre-test 51.90% of the students said that they moderately accepted differences and 48.10 % mentioned that they highly accepted differences. When the post-test was held 88.50% of the students mentioned that they will value differences highly. This demonstrates a shift in their mindset after the program.

The impactful program along with workbooks which is designed to enable teachers to mentor the students helps them in the process of being prepared for the diverse workforce. The program has created a powerful impact on the lives of the students. One of the students Indhu Prabha from Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College, a management student who underwent the program said “I have ideas in my mind but I don’t share and communicate it to people and even to my friends. After coming to Breakthrough, i started to talk openly and share my views in front of others and even in front of a number of people. So simple saying Breakthrough made me extroverted”.

A number of management schools in Coimbatore have gone through similar programmes, equipping students to the face the diverse work environment that lies ahead. 

            

Free Health Screening Camp at Breakthrough

On October 25, 2015, a free health screening camp was organized at Breakthrough, Bangalore. This was organized by the Bannerghatta Neighbourhood Association (BANA) in collabouration with Apollo Hospitals. The health screening included Pulmonary function test, Bone Mineral Densitometry and ECG with Cardiology consultation.

The camp was held from 10 AM to 5 PM ably supported by the Breakthrough team. Moatasim Sheikh, Executive- Healthcare services, Apollo Hospitals appreciated the team saying “We have never had such backing before…. You guys were amazing. Thank you”.

Robin Paul, CEO, Breakthrough said “We are happy to have conducted the free health screening camp at Breakthrough”.  It was a wonderful opportunity for Breakthrough to connect and impact the local community.

A snap shot from the life of Robin Paul, CEO and Founder of Breakthrough

At a young age growing up in Bangalore, Karnataka, Robin, had the opportunity to enter the world of sports and began to find success. He represented India at the 100, 200 metres and relay. At that time, he was coached by the famous coach Lingappa who still coaches today at the age of 90.

After years of peak performance, he went through a rough patch which brought a lot of disappointments. The down-side to being embedded in sports is losing. This made him search for purpose. He became a follower of Jesus during that phase of his life and began to find meaning.

As a runner, he was able to stand against the challenge to get short term results by unethical means because of his faith in Christ. He was training for the 1978 Asian games in Bangalore. In those days Kanturva stadium had a cinder track. In the national camp the team will be selected to participate in 4 X 100 relay for the national team if the qualifying time of 40.5 seconds was achieved. The rain disrupted practice before the race. At that time, the team discussed, what they had done the previous year. In the 4 X 100 metres relay, you have to stay in your tracks. If the third runner cuts into the first lane he cuts the distance and time. Being the third runner they wanted Robin to cut tracks, to which he refused. The two judges who were also from Karnataka, came to him saying “Robin, you are from Karnataka, do what you want and we will not disqualify you”. But, Robin refused to cut tracks and the team did not qualify. He was disappointed but was glad that he was able to stand for the right thing.

He became a Chaplain at several sporting events like the Asian Games in Seoul, the Seoul Olympics, World Athletics Championships in 1993, 1995 and 1997 and finally the Sydney Olympics 2000. He had the opportunity to travel around the world rubbing shoulders with sports stars like Carl Lewis, Madeline Mims and Jonathan Edwards.

During one of his visits to the US, he had the opportunity to attend a conference by the Association of Experiential Education, which opened his eyes to the world of experiential education. This led to the formation of Breakthrough, a project of the trust, Sports Outreach India in 2000.

Today, as the CEO and Founder of Breakthrough, Robin impacts organizations in India and different parts of the globe through experiential learning. He has facilitated Outbound training programs for CEOs and top management in a number of multi-national companies. Under his leadership and guidance Breakthrough has grown to have three campus in South India, two of which are partnered centres. We hope to grow across India and Srilanka in the coming years impacting lives through experiential learning. Srilanka is the next focus for Breakthrough with the ground work that has already begun for the upcoming centre.