Not Just Presentations -Pedagogy

 Learning Methods are many, and a professor can invent or modify some existing ones too. Assignments that include a presentation are a good tool to build communication skills, but other objectives can be served by using other methods. A few I have used-

Blogging

Role Plays based on short cases

Just role plays to learn about Qualitative Research Techniques such as Focus Groups or Depth Interviews. Each of these requires a different skill-set. 

Questionnaire-building or modification to suit changing times. Can be a group exercise done in class.

Bidding to simulate auctions of different kinds, in Negotiations, or in Digital (Paid) Marketing 

Shooting a small video/reel to advertise a product/service

Captioning a post with attractive copy.

In addition, you can use exams as a learning tool by being creative in designing questions that test thinking ability or application orientation.

Physical Meets Again

 There is this bubbly student from IIM Indore, who had a brilliant idea, of connecting alums of different IIMs in Bangalore, for fun and networking. She also runs a Youtube channel called IIM Community. I am not boasting, but I shot a video for the channel on Personal Branding too. If you want to watch, here's the link- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdBOh4JntM4

But this is about a meet she organised at 2 days' notice. I went, and had fun meeting some new young friends, and discussing life, hobbies, IIM campuses, faculty, and more. Glimpses.

Shailaja, the organiser (left), and Niharika.

Ashish, right.

The group.. Pritam, varun, ..Anjani Kumar and the rest. (above)

Sharu Rangnekar-A Tribute

 One of India's early management conultants, Sharu passed away recently (late 2020/Jan. 2021). I first saw him and heard him in 1982 when he came down for a session during orientation for us doing MBA, at IIM Bangalore. Many years later, we invited him to speak at IMT Nagpur where I was Director at the time.

He was older, but had not lost his sense of humour and emphasis on the essentials. What he reiterated, and has said in his books (In the Wonderland of Indian Managers and others), is two things-

In teaching/learning, video or visuals work better than text or PPTs. Second, humour always works. He was the epitome of both. His lectures included screening some excerpts from his videos, which he had made many moons ago (ahead of his time there), and his humour was classy.

He also came to Pune in 2012, to release my autobiography at Crossword, courtesy Smita Dabholkar Singh, my colleague who organised the event. He was his usual self, and did not pull any punches. The event was a success, mainly due to him.

One of a kind! 

Personal Branding- Now on Video

 I had earlier written about Personal Branding and how one might go about achieving success in it. My views, strictly, based on experience. 

Now, as a result of Shailaja Gupta Kapoor's efforts (She is a former student, from IIM Indore) combined with those of Priyadarshini from IIM Jammu, I have a video version, for those who like the visual medium better.

Take a look, and let me know what you think.. Here's the link. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR0BvP2jCHoyuAW-BVbYjgv6Tt0Wq-S4Svdcjo0CYedoQp2Z7E6OmWmyguU&v=FdBOh4JntM4&feature=youtu.be

An earlier writeup about the same topic can be found here- http://rnargundkar.blogspot.com/2020/12/my-two-cents-on-personal-branding.html

My Two Cents on Personal Branding

 For what it's worth, I will share my thoughts on the subject. 

1. Being an expert counts, so be good, very good, at at least one thing. Could be photography. I know lots of brilliant photographers, and I remember them because of it, whoever they may be otherwise.
2. Develop a human quality that's memorable-courteous behaviour in these rude times can be one. Kindness towards animals (all, not some) could be another. Maneka Gandhi first became a brand through animal activism.
3. Be active on whichever forum you choose to be on. Could be a real or social medium. A blog, Twitter, facebook, instagram, LinkedIn,..choose any one, but be regular on the chosen one. 
4. Multiple dimensions of a personality will help, not hinder. Be an expert at one, but also have multiple interests-that will develop you as a person, and a brand. (Brand Reinforcement). Some people write well ( I have a ghost-writer friend), some sing, and some dance (I have a student who teaches modern dance now). I listen to music-golden oldies in Hindi. Some have an interest in art-drawing, painting etc. and others in cooking! A prof. friend is into Chess-playing.
5. Meet people when possible. I have benefited from every person I have met, almost. They always have a fresh perspective that you never thought about. Which brings me to the next point. Brand Rejuvenation.
6. Keep evolving, and learning. Some people change wardrobes. Learning goes deeper, and you can do it through reading, watching good films, TV or OTT shows too.
7. Keep away from trash, time-wasters (fixed Sports, hateful or propagandist media) and instead DO things-relax, even, or meet a new person. If nothing, go for a walk, or travel solo.
8. Get a good photographer as a friend, to help you create memories to stand by (I have appointed Kanika Mhendiratta, my former student-she's on her way to click some pics!). Take a lot of pics yourself, and share them.
9. Last tip. Keep records, or archives of your journey. (Brands with a long memory of their history are valued more). A diary, if possible. 

A shorter video version of this is available at the link- https://www.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR03jSS4JVs78nDFqLEtUb5Vs9P1WHxmzRBHH-FyhbPoP-PPN-Z00rwQv-o&v=FdBOh4JntM4&feature=youtu.be

Teaching Digital Marketing

I always have a lot of fun teaching, mainly because I try and get students to do small activities in class, and enjoy what they come up with in response. This time, thanks to Anjali who assisted me in teaching, we had a new exercise. They had to come up with an endorsement on video for a matrimonial site (of their choice). It had to be only 30 seconds long.

Another activity was to do a podcast, for a brand in a given category. Some came up with very creative ideas for one, using only audio. Of course, I continued with a blogging exercise that student groups have to do through the length of the course, on things to do with Digital Marketing. There were a few interesting ones there too. Viewership stats also had to be shown, and ways in which the blogs were promoted.

There were a few other activities too,  which I will describe some other time.

The Mumbai MBA class also had subscribed to this course, and due to the smaller class size, it was a pleasure to teach it there. I really think our class sizes are too big for anyone's good.

Why Teaching Videos Don't Work

Well, theoretically, they could. Even before AI came along, teachers should have been replaced by videos shot with similar content. So why has that not happened?

For one, they are (usually) boring. The are like canned food. Cooking live is so much more than the content, right? It's the process..or freshness, if you like.

The video remains the same, whenever you play it. But no two classes on the same subject by the same teacher are the same. There is spontaneity, new things happen either because of the teacher, or because of the students.

Peer learning is missing, and so is the social nature of a real classroom. These are not trivial, they add value to learning. We are not computers, who can be fed "learning". We also have to enjoy what happens while we learn.

Fake News Generator

I propose to automate fake news generation. The FNG, or Fake News Generator, is an invention whose time has come. You simply decide on a few parameters, and the AI-based generator goes to work, generating fake news about the people, in tons of videos, Memes, print, or any other form.

For example, say I don't like a certain character in my office. I can generate fake news about his childhood, his dangerous liaisons, his secret trysts with non-veg. food while he proclaims himself a vegan, how he was involved with the Italian/Sicilian mafia, how he smoked pot when 18, and (if he was a U.S. citizen) dodged being drafted into the Army, and his being politically close to a secret group that is planning to overthrow the current government. This would ensure his downfall in no time.

The language to be used in the fake news (how unparliamentary) has to be specified by the user of this FNG. This can be sold by e-commerce companies as the best Diwali gift that one can buy for yourself..in this selfie-crazy generation, you usually buy gifts for yourself anyway. Methinks it will rock the festive season.

Atlas ti Software for Qualitative Data Analysis

At the National University of Singapore (where I am attending a course on Quantitative Text Analysis), we had a session on Atlas.ti, a software package that does some qualitative analysis. It is quite neat! Hope to use it in future (sometime soon).

The most interesting thing is, you can use multimedia documents- text, including PDF files, audio, video or photographs and analyse them after coding them into known or experimental categories- deductively or inductively. There is also an Auto-code feature that lets you do coding from the data by scanning the documents, without your specifying the code. You can use the software for focus group data (video), or transcribed data from depth interviews.

That makes it versatile and useful for any kind of input, and outputs can be counts of words or how often each occurs in each document (in the form of an EXCEL file), or plots, etc.. not fully explored all the options yet.

But a good thing to have, for mixed methods or purely qualitative research.