Who has to learn from who?

It was a Sunday evening; the outside temperature was just over 15 degrees. I was coming out of my chamber after musing over my research paper on knowledge transfer. What captivated my sight was a group of students together as a team trying to complete a huge wallpaper painting. I was told by the team leader (apparently) that it was for a cultural event that was to take place in the next month. I stood to understand the way she was giving instructions to the fellow members, for it directly related to my area of research that is how a tacit knowledge is articulated. To my surprise, she explained me that none or any of them were professional painters, but the piece they had made didn’t really support it, it looked professional. More than finding the answer for my question in knowledge transfer, I started looking for answers to the following questions

What extent a technical expertise contributes to a professional job vis-a- vis teamwork?

What motivates them to spend a Sunday evening in an activity like this which otherwise would be blissfully passed with a cup of hot coffee in front of ones favorite TV program?

In an industrial situation, we face more non-technical problems than the technical. And even for technical challenges we don’t look for perfect answers but only practical solutions. Such being the case, going by the example above, the solution to the problems remain in teamwork rather than technical expertise. This also supports the belief that all of us have untapped potential within us and all that is required to bring it out is the right environment and stimulation. Can we not create a college environment in an Industry? This question reminds me the weeklong OBL (Out Bound Learning) program I underwent in my previous company. Our team comprising of all functional heads were taken to a remote village in Bangalore, which contained all but training halls. All we had to do was to play games. There were rafts, rappelling, ropewalk and everything that an army man would do in his practicals. Every game had a set of rules and a set of lessons to learn of course. The lessons were not about rappelling or ropewalking, but were about teamwork. While such opportunities exist even in an industrial or office environment, we hardly recognize them, which makes the OBL trainers to recreate them in a playground. Having learnt all those lessons we returned home wiser only to be lost in the next day chaos. If an organization only succeeds in creating the OBL or college environment in its shop or office, I think most of the problems including the technical ones are solved. In fact there are no problems but only happy challenges to head as a team.

The second question I raised reminded me one more incident that happened during the Ayudha Puja day. This time we wanted to celebrate it in its truest sense that is by really cleaning the machines in and out. Teams were formed, assistants were attached to each team and all cleaning gadgets were given. I as the head of the plant went for a round to see if things were all right. To my surprise, none of the operators were cleaning their machines. Their demand was that a minimum incentive should be paid to them although they were not producing anything that day. This was not withstanding the regular salary they would be earning. Their argument was that they were present to produce but it was the Puja that prevented them from proceeding. It was sickening to listen to such arguments and we had to use our ultimate weapon of charge sheet to bring peace. It again and again rings in my mind as what was so different between the college environment we saw and the one in the industry I mentioned? Can we not replicate the former in the latter?

How do we create an environment that makes the industry look like a college? It looks we need to learn that from the colleges. The irony was that the students I was mentioning were planning to go to industries for an orientation during their forthcoming semester holidays to learn how to adapt to the industrial environment