What really went wrong (Post Mortem)

When the leadership initiative started with much fanfare there was hope that it will really
help people. But when it went all wrong. I decided to get in to see if I can help. My interest rooted from a desire to understand what really makes some initiatives work while many others crash and fade out.
What really went wrong:
Here are some things that we concluded were the issues with this initiative:
1. Credibility : It is an inititive started by young engineers who themselves have no prior
credible experience of handling people and proving their leadership abilities. This point in itself
makes it difficult for others to believe that they can derive great benefits from this initiative.

2. Location: The engineers for whom this initiative was being held were distributed across 2 buildings. The initiative was being held in a common large conference room in a third building. This meant for a 1 hour session they had to walk to another building and walk back once the session is done. These sessions are held at 5 PM. For many its tea time and one wouldnt mind skipping a boring session for tea, samosa and latest breaking news in the grapevine.

3. Content: Third and probably the most important is the content. I agree if we had Sharukh Khan hosting it maybe the content wouldn't be so important. After all how many of his movies have real content. But since its a new initiative and not something that is mandatory it is difficult to draw a crowd. It should be short and spicy, just like the small Ruffles Lays packets we get. Even before you know it, its over and leaves you begging for more.

4. Mailer: The mails sent out were generally bland and needed to be more colorfull and promising.

With these pointers we decided that we will make Session Part-4 exciting, fun and accessible.
In my nest post I intend to give you details of the games that were developed for Session Part - 4.

The initiative that went all wrong

Hi,
I am Bijoy Alokkan. I work for a large software firm and have been in this field for over 4 years now. In this blog and hopefully many to come I will be documenting my groups effort in unravelleing the possibility of building a strong leadership initiative. I will write about all the pitfalls we overcame and all the tricks and trades we learnt. Most importantly I will be documenting in details all the games that were developed. These games need to be once that actually brings out those traits in you that will help you not just survive but also thrive in this corporate jungle.

And the story begins...
Recently a friend of mine started a leadership initiative. The first inaugral day was opened with much fanfare and had good attendance. This was organised across multiple locations in India. In our place alone we had around 30 people. But from the next session onwards the crowd dwindled. 2nd session saw 10 people attending and the 3rd session was attended by only 4 guys.
There was something wrong about the whole thing but there was none to pinpoint the actual problem. The format was simple. 3 events are organised every session.
1. Tell a Tale: A picture is flashed on the screen and participants have to come up and make up a story based on the picture.
2. A-Z funda: There will be 2 contestants and they have to build up a converstation such that their sentences or phrases start with the next alphabet in the series. For example
Guy1 : A beutiful day. Isn't it?
Guy2: Bit chilly though...
Guy3: Come on, its not that bad.
3. Extempore: The participants can come up on stage and speak on any topic of their choice.
All these were developed with the intention of encouraging more people to stand up and speak out. But sadly the interest dwindled after the initial euphoria.

It was time to try out something new and radically different. It was time we added more fun to it :)
In my next blog I will spell out on what I believe went wrong with the initiative.