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.
