Rise of Applied Behavioral Science (ABS) in India: As experienced by T V Rao

 

 

Rise of Applied Behavioral Science (ABS) in India: As experienced by T V Rao

Applied Behavioural Science is many times equated with Laboratory Education and T-Group Training. While this misconception comes from programs offered by ISABS and their certification to be professional members of ISABS, in recent times they have done a lot of work in OD, Social Development, Coaching and amny other areas. Many may not be aware that ISABS had from time to time trained trainers from various agencies on instrumented feedback, simulations, role plays, creativity, role stress, extension motivation, power labs, 360 Degree feedback, social development etc.  T-group or L-Group methodology was used as a part of many OD or change management programs from early years. The books by Dharni Sinha on T-Group Training, Somnath and Udai Pareek on OD in Hospitals, Pulin on Profiles in Identity, Francis on Dreams, Manohar on happiness etc. indicate the same. They come from Psychology, Education, Anthropology and such other disciplines and applied themselves to many different sectors. My own work is indicative of the broad spectrum of ABS and its application cross sectors. This essay is an attempt to paint the canvass of ABS taking my own case as an illustration.

My Initiation into ABS:  Observer and Student:  During my MA in Psychology at Osmania University, in 1966, we (my classmate Harigopal and me) were given a research project to work with Dr Somnath Chattopadhyay, Director Behavioural Science at SIET institute Hyderabad. The topic was on studying organizational climate and correlating it with productivity in small industries. In our first meeting Somnath offered us black coffee. As it was the first time I heard “Black Coffee” I wondered if Somnath was testing us by making us drink black coffee!!! That was my first impression of Behavioural Scientists as a beginner of psychology. At SIET I came to know about the work of Lynton, Pareek, and McClelland 1966-67. Also interacted with K J Christopher and Sujit Bhattacharya and many others.  SIET work put me in touch with organizational climate, measurement of productivity, study of hopes and fears using a technique designed by Cantril and Free on hopes and fears for self and country. It was Somnath who inducted me to read a lot and discover for myself ways of measuring organizational climate and productivity in small factories doing different things. That was the time I became familiar with Likert and his work on "New Patterns of Management". Little did I realise at that time I will be specialising in measurement of individuals and organizations. Udai Pareek was in USA at that time and took one of my seniors Mr. Kothandapani as a Ph. D. student. My efforts to work with Udai for my Ph.D. in the USA did not materialise as he was returning to India. Though he put me in touch with Rensis Likert to explore my Ph.D. it did not work out (due to my ignorance I applied to Michigan State University instead of the University Michigan). At Andhra University where I joined to start Psychology and Parapsychology department, I registered for Ph. D. with Dr. K. Ramakrishna Rao on the effect of exposure to subliminal stimuli on dreams. I met Udai and Suresh Srivatsava in ASCI in December 1968 and both of them offered me to join IIMC or NIHAE as a Research Associate. I preferred to join Udai.

By the time I joined Udai Pareek in NIHAE in early 1969, I read enough on T-groups and fascinated by it. The ICMR project on which I was recruited dealt with developing tools to measure children’s mental health and study the impact of teachers' classroom behaviour. This project exposed me to measurement, psychometric tools, observation of classroom behaviour, studying the impact of feedback on behaviour change. We used to write a number of articles in NCERT’s Indian Educational Review (IER). It is during this period while I was going through a certificate program on programmed Learning organised by NCERT, I met Zahid Gangzee and S. Purushotam from Calcutta and and Coimbatore and got them to survey mental health of children in Calcutta and Coimbatore. These articles were also published in IER. 

In 1970, Suresh Srivastava from IIMC, Sujit and Somnath from SIET and Udai conducted a T-group lab for NIHAE faculty. A few months later we persuaded Udai and Somnath to do a lab for research staff and new faculty. After going through it, some of us planned to start an Applied Behavioural Science Society for young professionals. K G Agrawal was leader. Mohan Advani, BR Sharma and Mrs. Ramalingaswamy decided to do join and formulated a note but it never took off. A few days later Udai started Indian Behavioural Science Abstracts published by Manasayan (J M Ojha) and brought out the first issue with me as Associate Editor, something which I never expected at a young age. We also started some OD work with Dr Abad Ahmad, Udai and Somnath at Holy Family Hospital Delhi. To he best of my recollection Anthony D'Souza was the administrator at the hospital. Pandit Pathankar one of the promoters of BSC published out r papers. My first publication was Sales Style Diagnosis Exercises in which I extended Blake and Mouton’s grip to four dimensions and experimented with it at DCM. This lead to my teaching a course on consumer behaviour at IIMA which I did not pursue beyond a year. It was at Delhi I attended programs by Manohar Nadkarni, K. M. Thiagarjan (MITRA Exercises) who introduced us to Simulation exercises and Sharu Rangnekar and N S Ramaswamy who introduced us to management games while starting the ISTD chapter of Delhi. Udai used to take me with him to all these meetings or programs. It is during this period I was also introduced to K K Anand from L&T.

A year later Both Udai and I left for Udaipur due to high impact youth lab done by Udai and Prayag Mehta at Mount Abu and student leaders persuading Udai to start an Applied Psychology Departmentt at Udaipur. These student leaders kept in touch with us for many long yeas and one of them became a Union Cabinet Minsiter for Rural Development and Railways. Others also had a distinguished career. While Udai was at Udaipur Manohar Nadkarni used to visit and conduct labs at various places. This is 1971-72 when ISABS was conceptualised during various meets at Pune and Udaipur and perhaps other places. During this period and prior to my joining IIMA, I had the opportunity to observe and evaluate AMT lab by Anil Trivedi trained by Udai, Manohar and Prayag by Behavioural Science Center (BSC) started after Manohar returned from USA.

ABS at IIMA: As soon as I joined IIMA in 1973 I was involved in a research project to measure the impact of Achievement Motivation Training (AMT) and Behavioural Sciences Interventions in Gujarat initiated by Manohar Nadkarni, Prayag Mehta, Udai Pareek and J M Ojha for Gujarat based Industrial corporations (GIIC, GIDC, GSIC, GSFC). The project was coordinated by Pro. B G Shah a Professor of Finance and had V R Gaikwad, V K Gupta, and some others from ICICI Bank. Our  study indicated that BS training (specifically use of BS tests and AMT) resulted in increased entrepreneurial movements. It is on the basis of this study presented in a seminar at India International Centre Delhi, McClelland was present, he invited me to work with him a for three months to adapt Stewart Maturity Scale to India.  I think the first program of ISABS was started in 1972 or 73 with Dharni as Executive Director and Pulin as Dean. In 1973 December I attended Pulin’s sensitivity campy at Ubrhat, in Gujarat. It was different than the T-Group training I heard of and experienced. I was admitted to the first phase of ISABS and we had a great time at Hotel Harsha for two weeks. Indira and I were in the same group with Oriol Pujol and Ivan Mathaias. Aroon Joshi was from the first batch. At Harsha I witnessed a lot of heated exchange between some of the ISABS faculty including Francis, Dharni and Pulin. I could not follow most of it. One of the issues was whether we should allow Transactional Analysis as a part of ISABS labs and interventions. The fights did not fit into my image of Behavioural Scientists whom I held in high esteem. This followed by many noises about OB area faculty in IIMA corridors always left a bitter taste in my mind about Behavioural scientists in ISABS. Self-expression and open display of feelings, and anger, mutual accusations etc.to me appeared to be anti-thesis of case method where we used to maintain that  there is not one way of looking at any issue and there are multiple ways and one should understand examine them all. I was attending Pulin’s sensitivity camp and was also a co-facilitator of IPR labs for students. Given my nature I ended up more as a passive observer. In contrast I was conducting a Laboratory in Entrepreneurial Motivation which was big hit and some of the students who go themselves tested and came close to me have either become entrepreneurs for academic leaders. Raj Sah, J. V. Singh are two names from these labs.

In 1975 Pulin became ED and Somnath Dean. Somnath joined IIMA and the amount of work put in by Pulin, Somnath and Udai from IIMA, Francis from TMTC joined by Aroon Joshi from Cadburys, Dharni from IIMC were solid pillars on which ISABS was built. This account is from my memory and is subject to my missing out many actors like Nitesh De and many others from IIMC and other institutions. Independent of ISABS, Udai and I were actively using case studies and instrumented feedback using Locus of Control, FIRO-B, TAT, Achievement Motivation Tests, Interpersonal Trust and such other tools. In fact Udai and I compiled a Handbook of Psychological Social Instruments. My Achievement Motivation Laboratory was filled with games, exercises, tests, feedback and goal setting. I always enjoyed structured experiences. This was further reinforced by my collaborative work with Pradip Khandwalla from whom I learnt a lot Creativity. It is at this point of time Udai and I wrote on designing and conducting micro labs and published in University Associates. Our two-day labs became very popular and we jointly conduced many Motivation development Labs at IIMA. These were also done in two phases where six months after the first phase the participants returned for a short lab of two to three days to review their motivational experiences and reformulate goals. Using what I learnt with McClelland and Abigail Stewart, I formulated a leadership styles inventory based on Stewart Maturity Scale (published by Manasayan with a foreword by McClelland) and started using it for understanding the leadership and supervisory styles of Indian Managers. This was based on the scores of TAT stories I carried to Harvard in 1975 to study psycho-social maturity reflected in these stories. The framework is popular even today we extensively use it in our 360 Degree feedback...

Backdrop for growth of ABS: In 1955 India’s population was around 400 million and grew to 430 million by 1960 and around 650 million by 1975 and today we are nearly 1400 million. In the fist decade after independence India had about 5000 Blocks and Block Development Officers assisted by various types of extension workers who were facilitating development. Each BDO had about around 10 field staff to disseminate information to people on agriculture, animal husbandry, cooperatives, panchayats and other matters. They all needed to have communication and leadership capabilities oriented to action and community building. India needed expertise from various sources. Understanding the need for young people to be developed as leaders and experiment was started by Rolf Lynton and Ronnie Lynton as a part of the assignment by World Assembly of Youth to start a residential training center for Youth in India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). The experiment lasted for about three years and large number of youth were trained using experiential learning methodology that focused on action and personal, interpersonal and group dynamics and community building. This methodology when discussed by Rolf Lynton, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai offered to the Lynton to start program for youth in Urban India at ATIRA, Ahmedabad. The process of this work in my view started the foundation for use of Applied Behavioral Science (ABS) based on self-discovery, laboratory method, interpersonal dynamics and group processes and community building. (Lynton, Kiel and Lynton 2022). I assume that it is in this backdrop Udai Formulated the concept of Extension Motivation and its role in Development (Pareek, 1968).

Rolf Lynton and his Work: Besides the Aloka methodology that started what may be called as a laboratory in human relations and community building, it is a methodology brought in by the Harvard trained Rolf and Ronnie Lyntons. As observed by Udai Pareek in his essay on Rolf:

“Imagine a professional who records all work-related interactions regularly, religiously, and meticulously for half a century and uses those notes for learning, action, and developing new models. This is Rolf Lynton, a recorder of all such interactions. I have not known nor do I know of any social scientist so meticulous in keeping records; during one 5-year period, Rolf produced 4,300 typed pages of records of interactions and events! And he has used this record-keeping very well in the study of the dynamics of institution building (Lynton, 1970) and in taking a big insightful sweep of his professional journey of studying and building individuals, groups, institutions, and large social systems (Lynton, 1998). In fact, the discipline and art of recording is itself an important contribution to social science methodology (so well discussed in Lynton, 1998, chap. 3, pp. 85-111), which many have followed and benefited from”. The focus of his work in Aloka was the development of community leaders who were sensitive to social reality and human dignity. As the CEO of this innovative institution, Rolf obtained insight into process at all levels—individual growth, group development, and institution building; the hub remained the learning processes reflected in the title of his book The Tide of Learning: The Aloka Experience (Lynton, 1960).

Foundation for Formation of ISABS by Somnath: Somnath Chattopadhyay in his essay on “An Ideology Based Institution: Some Values and Dilemmas – An ISABS experience” (pages 231-256) in HRD, OD and Institution building edited by T V Rao and Anil Khandelwal (2016, Sage India) outlines a good part of the events that lead to starting of ISABS finally in 1971 (registered in 1972). Presents various events that lead to the formation of ISABs as follows:

1.      Stephen Max Corey at National Institute of Basic Education (NIBE) in Delhi in early sixties emphasized Action Research, psycho-dynamic teaching, workshops for teachers, and the formation of facilitators’ groups. The development of laboratory education saw, briefly, Stephen Corey conduct L-Group sessions in the evenings at his home at NIBE, New Delhi, with Udai Pareek, Prayag Mehta, and four others.

2.      Foundations of training laboratory and L-Group in India: SIET Institute (now National Institute of Small Industries Extension Training [NISIET]) provided a venue for one of the seeds of change. SIET Institute, with its cluster of cottages, at the outskirts of the city of Hyderabad was an idyllic setting for the labs, surrounded as it was by rocky hills, a large tank, vineyards, and distant palm trees. SIET could be credited with at least two major initiatives in training; one of them was Training Laboratories and the other the T-Groups in India. These were the creations of three colleagues and intimate friends—Rolf, Udai, and Somnath. The principal director, R.N Jai, of SIET institute provided the patronage and administrative support for this work. This was the initiation of the lab movement (L-Group and Laboratories education) in India.

3.      Rolf Lynton founded Aloka for youth from Asian countries for training future leaders of developing countries. One of the foci was to stimulate awareness about the problems of individual behavior in a group (Lynton, 1960). Rolf, Udai, and Somnath worked together almost serendipitously, and evolved and founded the Training Laboratory and Learning Group (L-Group synonymous with T-Group) in India. As there was a need to increase the resource base—the original three were joined by Manohar S. Nadkarni, K. J. Christopher, and, subsequently, Sujit Bhattacharjee and SG Raghu from SIET institute. Occasionally, Abad Ahmad and Prayag Mehta from Delhi came to SIET for taking some part in this new venture.

4.      Spread of L-Groups in India: The first lab was organized in SIET in 1962. A series of labs followed that year. In 1965, to create a nucleus of 10 to 12 faculty members, who may develop into laboratory trainers, an inter-institutional Faculty Development Program was organized by Rolf and Udai in Dalhousie. In this program (April 14–May 2, 1965), the first part was a lab facilitated by Warren Bennis and Rolf. Some of the participants were from IIM Calcutta (Nitish De, Gouranga Chattopadhyay), University of Delhi (Abad Ahmad), SIET Institute (R. P. Lynton, Adhikari, A. V. Nagaraj, Ghiara, and myself), and Vohra Foundation Bombay (Shipchandler). Most of these people carried forward laboratory education in India. A few members from different institutes such as IIM (Ahmedabad and Calcutta), IRHFP (Gandhigram), and others got their selected training at NTL. In 1966, Abad Ahmad, Ishwar Dayal, Raja Deolalikar, Francis Menezes, Suresh Srivastava, and Somnath met at the conference center at NTL, Bethel to consider whether we could build an institution like NTL in India. At the end of the meeting, Somnath told Abad Ahmad, “Abad, we will build our institute in India. With Udai and Rolf, we will be able to make it. Let us resolve it here and now. Our people do not have to come this far to get trained.” We grasped each other’s hands and Abad agreed. I. On our return from NTL, Somnath maintained contact with Abad in Delhi and Francis Menezes (at Tata Management Training Center [TMTC], Mumbai) and spoke about the intent to Sujit Bhattacharjee, K. J. Christopher (SIET Institute), and Nitish De (Kolkata). Fred Massarik and Howard Baumgartel showed keen interest in this development.

According to Abad, “ Fred Massarik had played an important role in the establishment of ISABS. In fact it was he whom we had met at the conference of Western Academy  of Management in 1965, when three of them (Francis, Somnath and Abad) were attending a one year program of the International Centre of Advancement in  Management Education (ICAME) at the Stanford University. Knowing the development of Sensitivity Training at UCLA, they met him and shared interest in the ABS.  He invited all three of us to the NTL to attend different labs. It was this chance meeting of many colleagues from India, and the meeting about which Somnath has described that led to our joining hands to start NTL like institution in India. I had the privilege of doing Post-doctoral work with Prof Craig Lundberg in Experiential Learning and getting training in T-groups. On my return to India and joining the Management Department of the Delhi School of Economics in 1962, I started a T-group based course called Interpersonal Dynamics. I got in touch with Rolf and he kindly invited me to the SIET institute about which Somnath has mentioned. I was closely in touch with Fred and invited him to Delhi University several times, where we also organized a conference on Experiential Learning in which many colleagues including Francis Menezes participated. Fred proposed that we should establish a Society for development of ABS and conduct T-groups in India, and took an active role in the program organized by Francis in Pune, which led to formation of the ISABS.” (” (personal communication from Abad to T V Rao, April 16, 2024) 

I was fortunate to meet Fred Massarick in his house in California while I was working with David McClelland. We had a long chat about applied behavioural science. Udai introduced me to him and I stopped over a Los Angeles specially to meet him I my first visit to USA in 1975.  I also had the opportunity to meet Rensis Likert. Ron Lippit, Mathew Miles at Teachers college. Udai introduced me to Chrys Argyris he was not available at that time.

 

Registration of ISABS: The Indian Society for Applied Behavioural Science was formally registered in 1972 in Pune by Francis Meninzes of TMTC with the document for registration signed by Francis (TMTC), Fr. Don Beilby, (Mumbai); Dharni Sinha (IIMC); Pulin Garg (IIMA), K K Anand (L&T), K. J. Christopher (SIET) Fr. Jim Filela (Xavier Institute, Mumbai). The team according to my perception and experience included many others as indicated in Somanth’s description above though may not have signed the document as the registration required six people (those closer to Pune). These in my view include:  (Dharni Sinha (IIMC) Pulin Garg (IIMA), Udai Pareek IIMA), Abad Ahmad ( Delhi University) Somnath Chattopadhyay (IIMA), Ishwar Dayal (IIMA); Paul Siromani; Ed McGrath (XLRI), Jim Filella (Mumbai), Sujit Bhattacharya (SIET) Manohar Nadkarni (BSC), Prayag Mehta (NCERT), Ishwar Dayal (IIMA), Nitish De (IIMC), Gouranga Chattopashyay (IIMC)   etc.) It was being conceptualised in 1971 or even earlier as many of those who got trained at NTL were planning to form this body. Rolf Lynton played a significant role in introducing T-group training (sensitivity training) and getting faculty from SIET and IIMA and IIMC to NTL.

ISABS Today: ISABS recently celebrated its Golden jubilee. As a Society it continues to impact the spread of laboratory education and OD and Change Management in India. A visit to its website (www.isabs.org) gives an update about its members, programs and so on. Several Individuals and professionals have contributed to its growth including various Presidents, Deans, and professional members besides Industry, government and NGOs.

 

 

 

 

 

References

Chattopadhyay, Somnath; (2016) “Än Ideology Based Institution: Some Values and Dilemmas – An ISABS experience” in “HRD, OD and Institution Building: Essays in Memory of Udai Pareek; edited by T V Rao and Anil Khandelwal, 2016, Sage India; pages 231-256)

Lynton Rolf, David Kiel and Nandani Lynton (2022); Building Inclusive Collaborative Organizations: A Career on Four Continents, 2022, NTL Institute & Libri Publishing, U.K.

Lynton, R. P. (1960). The tide of learning: The Aloka experience. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Lynton, R. P. (1998). Social science in actual practice: Themes on my blue guitar. New Delhi, India: Sage.

Pareek, Udai (1968) A Motivational Paradigm for Development, Journal of Social Issues, 1968, 24(2),

Pareek, Udai (1999); a Biography of Rolf Lynton, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, December 1999, 398-400

Sinha, Dharni, (1976) T Group and Team Building and Organization Development, New Delhi: Indian Society for Applied Behavioral Science (originally published in 1976 but republished by ISABS in 1986)

 

Appendix:

My Professional Journey as an Applied Behavioral Scientist

T V Rao

1.       The Foundations: Science, Education and Psychology (1961-68)

2.       Studying organizational climate and measuring productivity of employees is 8 small factories: SIET Institute (1967-)

3.       Abandoned Dreams in Experimental Parapsychology at Andhra University (1968)

4.       Learning to Observe, develop tests and Feedback based training with teachers and children(1969)

5.       Developing Auto-instructional materials at an early age: NCERT (1970)

6.       Assistant Professor at Young Age: Training Senior Faculty registered for their M.D. Community Health (1969-71)

7.       First exposure to T-Groups (1969)

8.       Editing Indian Behavioral Science Abstracts (1970-71)

9.       Starting Applied Psychology Department (1971-73)

10.   Collecting Psychological Social Instruments; Students are co-learners (1972)

11.   My work on  Doctors in The Making (1973)

12.   Status Study of Behavioral Science research in Population: Exposure to IIMA (1973)

13.   Digging deeper into Entrepreneurship: Evaluating Gujarat Experiment, LEM and Visit to East west center Honolulu (1973-74)

14.   Learning from David McClelland and Abigail Stewart (1975)

15.   Teaching Consumer Behavior: Sale Style Diagnosis exercises and Communication strategies for Population programs- ISRO paper (1974-75)

16.   Starting of HRD and Work with L&T in Implementing it (1974-78)

17.   Laboratory in Motivation Management Programs at IIMA (1974-76)

18.   Engagement with selecting Project Leaders using Assessment center approach for Parishram (1974)

19.   Conducting OB Labs in IIMA using Feedback on instruments (1973-82 )

20.   Experimenting with Worker-Client transactions in Amethi and Kurebhar Blocks of Sultanpur District: IIMA Population Project (1975)

21.   Linking education with Rural Development: Jawaja Project (1975-78)

22.   Extending studies of Institutional environment and professional socialization to other professions: ICSSR study (1974-76)

23.   Implementing HRD in BEML while on leave from IIMA (1978)

24.   Observing and experiencing sensitivity camp with Pulin at IIMA and co-training experience with Pulin, Indira, Somnath and Udai (1973-77)

25.   Self-renewal and Process consultation with Lawrence School, ICM Sisters (1974-76)

Dimensions and Styles of Coaching

 

Styles of Coaching
T V Rao

Based on personal reflections of working with performance coaching and counselling

Coaching is a form of interpersonal conversation where one person (Coach) tries to influence the second person (Coachee or Coached). There is group coaching and team coaching possible, but I will restrict myself to two person coaching - formal or informal. Formal coaching can be paid, system driven (example performance coaching, career coaching) and more organised, while informal coaching is unplanned and can even happen between two people  without time lines and even acknowledging. Many conversations in our families, schools, colleges, organisations and communities are informal and all the time happening and some of these could be coaching conversations.

The essential component of coaching is “communicating to influence”. One person tries to influence the other consciously or less consciously. I will restrict myself to formal coaching in this note. The  purpose of coaching is to help the “Coached” or the “Coachee” to make choices and solve his/her own problems, issues, dilemmas, conflicts, stress situations etc. and  get the best out of self or emerge as better than before (more effective, happy, integrated, contented, powerful, empowered, peaceful, balanced, motivated, energised etc.). 

The following ten categories of behaviours are exhibited by a Coach in coaching the coached. They are not always mutually exclusive and may occur in combinations. These are:

1.      Listening: Actively listening to understand the issue or perspective. For this the Coach has to pay undivided attention to hear and also interpret the situation or experience the way the coachee experienced or experiencing or perceiving the situation or events. Listening involves listening to what is said and the feelings behind what is said (stated and unstated). Passive listening while may have a cathartic value does not help this. Listening with empathy and listening to feelings is a critical skill. For this other behaviours like probing may need to be used. 

2.      Probing (asking questions, seeking information or explanations etc.): In this the Coach attempts to understand by asking questions and details the way the Coachee perceives and interprets his/her work, life, events, situation, people etc. that are of significance to the Coached. This essentially depends on the agenda set for the session or the series mutually by both or singularly by the Coached.

 

3.      Reflecting or mirroring: This is a great tool in helping the Coach as well as the Coached understand the situation as he/she experienced. Mirroring is a mere paraphrasing of what has been said or feelings with which it has been said. It clarifies and helps the coach and coached to levelling or attaining a shared understanding.

 

4.      Exploring (generating or help generate alternatives): This goes beyond probing and asking questions. This can occur at three stages- in the beginning of conversation for understanding of the situation. In mid-course for generating alternate interpretations and exploring possibilities that enhance understanding of the situation and events. It could be at the end of the conversation for generating or an exploring alternative solutions, actions, behaviours etc. to be adopted by the Coached. In probing normally the coach plays a lead role while in exploring c the coach plays a suggestive role. Exploration can also be joint and sometimes facilitated by the coach and coachee driven.

5.      Appreciating and Empathising: Empathising is putting one-self into the shoes of the other and communicating how the Coach is in tune with the coached.  It involves accepting and sharing the feelings and interpretations of the coachee and (not necessarily approving or disapproving). This is essentially used to create a feeling of acceptance and unburdens the coached. This can be done at any point of coaching conversation. It helps build rapport. Sometimes the coach may share his/her own experiences or stories to support, mirror or reflect the actions and feelings of the coached. Appreciating and empathising helps making the coachee “feel, seen and heard” and experience unconditional positive regard in the conversation. 

 

6.      Generating alternatives or help generate alternatives: This is normally during action planning stage. This could be done by the Coached or Coach or both. It creates a sense of ownership if the Coached plays an active part in generating alternatives and the Coach merely helps generate alternatives.

 

7.      Hypothesising: This again may take place at different stages: interpretation of the past events to help coached appreciate others’ and gain clarity of the situation. It may also be used for anticipating the likely consequences of future actions or behaviours by the Coached. 

8.      Guiding (suggesting): In this the Coach suggests preferred solutions and likely consequences and helps the coached to make choices.

9.      Directing (indicating the desirable actions): In this the Coach gives based on experience or the coaching conversation, clear cut actions to be undertaken by the Coached. Leaves little freedom for the Coached to choose. 

10.   Reprimanding or Threatening:  This is expressing by the coach anger, disappointment and disapproval of actions, behaviours, proposals, plans etc. of the coachee. This includes pointing out the undesirable consequences of actions or events and reprimanding. In this the Coach points out to the negative consequences of not doing or doing or showing a particular action or behaviour. For example a friend of mine who was coaching a difficult client (coachee), after a series of coaching sessions observed that his coachee had no respect for his time and was always late or skipped his appointments. To teach him a lesson my friend shifted the venue from the client’s office to his own office and made him wait for a long time. When the coachee felt angry, my friend indicated to him that this was done deliberately to make him experience the reaction he has been generating in the coach and recounted the number of people the coachee has offended with his behaviour.  Later my coach friend also threatened to end the coaching contract. .

Coaches use a mix of all these. However some coaches may get stuck in one or more forms unconsciously and may over a period of time develop their own unique style.
Directive Coaches use categories 9 and 10 more.  Non-Directive coaches use categories 1 to 8 more. 

It is possible to observe or record a coaching session and analyse which category a Coach has used and how frequently. It is possible to come up with Directive and Non-Directive influence ratios by counting the number of times or amount of time used in Directive or non-directive coaching style. It is also possible to assess “Coaching Dominance” ratios by calculating the time spent by the coach versus the coached. I expect in future technological developments and AI applications will make it possible to have assessments of “terms used” (I suggest, let us explore, I think you.., why did you?  Do you understand... etc.?)   and classify them into Directive and Non-Directive coaching styles. It is also useful to analyse the self-directed talk and Coach-initiated talk in each conversation. This gives insights into the openness and efforts to be put in to draw the coaches out into conversations. Personally I am not a believer in machines substituting humans for coaching. However the way the world is changing to digitisation, anything may be a possible and we could soon have coaching machines.  

Listening coaches use this style of listening patiently to their coachees as they believe the purpose of coaching is to let the coachee freely express themselves. For them coaching is catharsis. Such coaches learn a lot about their coachees and the coached may get a feeling of being accepted, listened to and even understood. Such coaching helps build self-acceptance of the Coachee. Such style may not lead to action plans and in the event of action plans the coach chees feels more responsible as no ideas of the Coach were generated. This is an effective style of coaching. It has the risk of the Coach losing interest if there is only passive listening.

Probing coaches use categories 2 and 3 more liberally and frequently. They spend excessive time and effort in understanding and exploring. They are good at asking questions. Probing is a good way to go deeper into the psyche of the coachee and could result in a good diagnosis of the problems, issues and interpretations. Sometimes it has the risk of putting the coachee into a defensive mode. It could also divert attention from real issues and ends up as a game of questioning and responding. F Good q Coaches need to periodically review their style of probing and questions. Reflective questions are good and information seeking questions are useful only when the coachee is reluctant to get into details.

Empathetic coaches use categories 4 and 5 more frequently. They tend to share their experiences more frequently and keep confronting the coached with their own examples and illustrations to agree and empathise with the coached. Empathetic coaches also build higher levels of self-acceptance and create open climate for coaching.

Action driven coaches use categories 6, 7 and 8 more frequently and would like action plans to be formulated soon. In commercial coaching this may become a preoccupation of the Coaches in their eagerness to show change.

Directive coaches use categories more of 9 and 10 categories. This may be needed when the coachee is highly dependent and seeks solutions from the Coach. Normally most coaching theories discourage this as it does not build the independent decision making and sense of responsibility on the part of the coachee. However if the Coach has a mentoring role to play and the coachee is very new in early stages it may be useful to use this. Category 10 is not a desirable style as it could lead to many relationship issues. If the Coach has a mentoring and supervisory relationship with the Coachee it could be selectively sued but it may cease to be called c coaching and might end up as “Executive Action”. In good coaching situations it is better to avoid this.

This note is meant to create awareness in coaches of their own styles and make them more sensitive to unconscious sue of patterns in coaching which may become eventually styles.  

Suggested readings:

https://www.academia.edu/5712360/Performance_coaching

Pareek, U., & Rao, T. V. (1995). Counselling and Helping Entrepreneurs. The Journal of Entrepreneurship, 4(1), 19–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/097135579500400102

PILLARS OF SUCCESS

 

TV Rao’s 15 Pillars for Success.

(Based on my books Effective People and Managers who Make a Difference Published by Penguin Random House)

Success is defined as establishing your identity and significance and impacting other around you (customers, wage providers, people your profession or department, organisation, nation and the society). Those who make a difference for others are the most successful people. There is not one way but many ways of impacting others. It is not what money or other material possessions indicate your success. It is the goodness you generate in others mind when they think of you. That is the invisible capital you acquire that indicates your success. To be successful this way, you need the following: (there is no sequence implied and all are important and all the time). 

 

1. Be Purposive - You should be clear about your goals and purpose in life. This may keep changing from time to time as you discover more about yourself and the needs of the society and people around you. The drive for discovering purpose- and acting with purpose are starting points. Clarify and keep clarifying your purpose. 
2. Be Proactive – You should be action driven and initiative taking. You don’t wait for others to tell you to do anything. Take initiative and make things happen. Action orientation helps you discover more of yourself and also help others.
3. Be Self-discovering and exploring – There is a lot of undiscovered talent in every one of us. Circumstances help or hinder us from exploring some parts. Develop an awareness of your talent- knowledge, skills, attitudes, motives, traits etc. and how you may be coming across to others. Your self-identity is the platform you operate on. Make it stronger every day. Explore new dimensions of yourself wherever possible.
4. Communicate and Communicate - Continuous communications help us to share, let others know our view points, establish our visibility and credibility by self-disclosure. Without communicating your impact will be on limited circles. Also your unique identify may not get fully established for yourself and for others.
5. Learn Continuously – Seek feedback regularly from all possible sources. Your reflection also is your feedback. Constantly. Learn from various sources: books, people you meet, ceremonies you listen to, videos and films you see etc. Treat everyone as a source of learning, every day is different and brings with it new experiences and lessons. Feel the sense of growing as you experience learning. 
6. Be Open to ideas and views of others – Besides sharing your views freely, be open to views, viewpoints and suggestions from others. Listening to others, understanding and appreciating different and differing points of view enlarges your worldview and equips you with capabilities of dealing with different realities. Share your own views, viewpoints, values, philosophy, reasoning behind your actions and activities. It is what you say and do that establishes your identity. Keep establishing your identity. Change is constant.
7. Collaborate and work like a team member – The world and all great organizations are built by team work. Great people made teams to work and achieve their goals. We can accomplish a lot by working together. Develop team spirit. Understand the limits of working alone. 
8. Be Trustworthy and trusting - Being trustworthy by honouring your commitments and carrying out honestly your promises you bring respect for yourself and the humanity at large. Nations with trust and trustworthiness have grown economically and otherwise. Speaking the truth is the best weapon we have. if your honesty and integrity are gone, your character is gone and everything is gone
9. Be Authentic and speak your heart - be truthful in what you say. Don’t say things that you don’t mean. You may prefer not to speak than to speak untruths and lose your character. 
10. Create Autonomy for yourself- Autonomy is creating space for yourself. Sometimes you may have to negotiate for it. Everyone needs space for independent action. Create this space for yourself. Time is also space and create the same for yourself. If organizations impose constraints work outside them. For example if you work in office from 9 to 5 you have all the time available between 5 and 9 next day. Exercise your autonomy to create your own roles and space for action. You have to find your own battlefield first to act and win. 
11. Confront issues and difficulties - Don’t hide them to please others and suffer internally. Take help if required. Keeping issues under the carpet and with your self will not help anyone in the long run. Don’t insist your way if looking as the only way. Confrontation always means open for correction and boldly stating issues. Bringing out issues in open sometimes solves half the problems.
12. Experiment and Innovate- Keep trying new ways of doing things. Be creative and innovative. There is no one way of doing things. Only when you experiment and try out you will know.
13. Be Positive and respect others- Be grateful to everyone around. When we have something remember those who don’t have the same, and they are perhaps responsible for you to have it. Hope and optimism gives every one new energies to act and make things happen. Pessimism and loss of hope makes you stressed and depressed. Seek the company of those who energise you.
14. Be Empathetic - See others from their point of view. Empathy makes you grateful and more positive. Experience poverty by living like a poor man once in a while. There are many ways of experiencing the poor by living with them, skipping meals (upvaas), sharing, forgiving, linking, visiting orphanages, homes for the poor, helping etc.
15. Be Disciplined- Follow the rules of your organisation, place, and city, country where you live and be a good citizen besides a universal citizen. Discipline helps everyone to live peacefully by following rules of citizenship.

Success is being able to live a meaningful life with meaning to yourself and others and being known with an identity. Make a difference to others. 

 

 

Assessing HR Competencies in “HRD Score Card 2500: Tools for Renewal through HRD Audit” by T V Rao (KBS Publications, Mumbai)

T. V. Rao

To  be released on August 28, 2023: https://www.amazon.in/HRD-Score-Card-2500-Renewal/dp/8196329695/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2WAMS7S3LISAV&keywords=HRD+Score+card+2500&qid=1691558473&sprefix=hrd+score+card+2500%2Caps%2C372&sr=8-1)

This article is prepared to supplement the 10 HR competencies assessed in the book assigning 200 out of the 2500 points of HRD Score card. The competency review included here is expected to serve as an additional knowledge to Herd Auditors using the score a card book.

This book treats Competencies as a comprehensive concept and presents as competencies required for good HRD as:

• 1.      Competencies of HR staff or professionals employed by the organization = 200 points
• 2.      Continues development of Competencies through learning from various sources = 100 points
• 3.      Leadership  styles of top management = 100 points
• 4.      Learning from various sources by unionized categories and non- managerial staff = 60 points, and
• 5.      Credibility and competence of the HR department = 40 points

The total points assigned are 500 points. The users of this scheme can use this with some flexibility but amounting to 500 points for consistency. Nearly 50% of weightage is given to HR employees and department and the remaining to top management, line managers and other employees. The assumption here is that HR D (learning and capacity building to meet the business goals of the firm consists of both HR partners and also other employees (top management, managers and non-managerial staff). The weightage given can be adjusted depending on the firm’s priorities. For example in a workmen heavy firm one can assign equal weightage to competency building or learning of managers and employees.

However a critical part of the firm’s competence comes from HR staff and department.

HR staff are assigned 200 points on the following competencies:

1. Business Knowledge and Business Leadership: Knowledge of business (products, services, customers, technology, competitors, developments, research and development) and all functions (sales and marketing, production and operations, finance, systems, MIS, logistics, services, etc.); knowledge of business capital (intellectual) and its constituents and methods of building business capital (competencies 1 and 2 of Agrawal and Rao, 2022: A & R))

2. Strategic Thinking: Analytical ability, cost and quality sensitivity, ability to spot opportunities, anticipate and find alternate ways of solving problems. (8 of Agrawal and Rao)

3. Functional Excellence: HR knowledge and HR delivery including culture sensitivity, empathy, coaching, and facilitation (Competence 3 of Agrawal and Rao- A & R)

4. Vision of the Function, Professional Leadership and Entrepreneurship (Competency 3 of A&R)

5. Leadership and Change Management: Communication, initiative, creativity and change management (Competencies 4, 5, 6 and 7 of A&R)

6.    Technology-savvy: including HR technology and research methods and systems driven (Competence 9 of A&R)

7.      Personnel Management IR, and Administrative Skill (Competency 3 of A&R). 

8. Execution Skills: Planning and monitoring skills, decision making, cultural sensitivity, persuasive skills, behavior modification techniques and group dynamics, ability to craft interventions for implementation, cost and quality sensitivity (Competencies 10& 11 of A & R).

9. Learning Attitude and Self- management: Self-awareness and desire to learn, time management, networking, research, and analytical skills (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 of A&R. 

10. Personal Credibility (Competence 12 12 of A&R)

 A competence that is not included in our list is the Social leadership.

 On the basis of their study of 30 HR leaders Agrawal and Rao identified a list of 20 competencies, in five categories.

 A.    Business Leadership: contributions to business which deals with Business acumen, business information, business decision making, entrepreneurship, knowledge of all functions like fiancé and accounts, marketing, production, logistics, Information technology.

 B.     Functional Leadership: Dealing with HR function and includes expertise in the HR function, its strategy, systems, processes, technology, talent management and execution etc. A good part of people management skills get classified here as it is a part of the HR profession.

 C.     Professional Leadership: largely dealing with contributions to the profession in the country and across the globe, adding to professional knowledge, dissemination, membership and leadership in professional forums and bodies and professional innovations that go beyond the organization and benefit to the profession and Professional bodies, writing, influencing Govt. etc.

 D.    Personal Leadership: Which largely tarts with self and self-management, self-renewal, initiative, drive, creativity and such other personal qualities that put the person in the leader’s seat. These are also required for functional leadership but these are more of Individual competencies going beyond the function.

 E.      Social Leadership:  Which largely deals with contributions to the society and humanity at large and is also contributions to society and larger causes.

These five categories competencies are explained below as given by Agrawal and Rao (2022)

1.      Business sense and Business Partnership: (Driving Business). HR function must be sensitive to the business goals and business realities. People are recruited to accomplish organizational goals and achieve the vision and mission of organizations and even keep creating one or take it to newer levels. While it is often attributed to the founders and CEOs and top management and Boards, in recent times HR has also played a great role in making employees feel that they work for larger goals than annul targets and KRAs. This enhances commitment and makes work enjoyable. A HR leader must learn about business, customers, marketplace, suppliers, and all other stakeholders besides the employees themselves. This requires the CHRO to acquire knowledge about the business he/she is working with and create a sense of purpose and partnership in all employees.

 Integrating ability: ability to connect discipline -- eclectic mind; appreciation for interdisciplinary solutions to problems Includes: Integrating Cross functional work and navigating proposals in the Board and global academic institutions, Integrating multiple cultures and Aligning HR agenda with business needs etc.

Functional Skills: Industrial relations as mentioned in the earlier chapter, being good at handling irate union, ability to deal with workers and workers categories, knowledge of law and laboratory education, Manageing compensation and benefits including Ability to creating the compensation structure, and manage wage negotiations; HR interventions for business results, OD and Talent Management etc.

4.      Driving Change  

5.      Communication skills

6.      Courage of Conviction

7.      People Leadership: These skills included: Interpersonal competence and encouraging and empowering juniors as well as other employees and setting a climate and culture of empowerment, investing on developing others, conflict management, managing differences and setting a climate of mutual respect and collaboration.

        Strategic Thinking This competence deals with both HR strategies and business strategies based on HR or the quality of talent the firm has.

9.    Systems thinking and Technology Savvy: Creating and establishing processes for defining and practices for engendering competitive corporate cultures, undertaken information dissemination and responsiveness to turbulence in the business environment. Systems like climate survey, fast track career progression, creation of non-technical officers’ career cadre, assessment center, and policies for master craftsmen were all indigenously developed.  They used systems and processes for business goals, and showed an ability to use technology,

10.  Decision making.

11.  Execution capability and skills  

12.  Credibility: Credibility comes from being fair, consistent, honest, upright, transparent, and consistent.  All competency models including CIPD, HR Scape, SHRM, and Dave Ulrich point to the importance of this competence. SHRM competence list for people profession calls it ethical practice (ability to integrate core values, integrity and accountability into all business decisions), and leadership and navigation (the ability to contribute to initiatives and processes withing the organization). Our HRLs depict these competencies w very aptly.

13.  Hard work and High Energy; an interesting competency observed in most of them is their high energy and hard work.

14.  Innovation:

15.  Learning Agility:

16.  Problem solving and Process Orientation skills:

17.  Adaptability and Resilience:

18.  Self-Management and Rejuvenation: Self-management as a critical competence of leaders is indicated by a large number of researchers and scholars. For example Peter Drucker, Daniel Goleman’s emotional intelligence and leadership concepts are based on this.

19.  Networking Skills and Networking with others: Networking and networking skills has been observed to be a critical competence in recent times. It helps the leader to discover new areas of work by being in touch with customers, employees, professional bodies, experts, and various other knowledge givers and sources of wisdom.

20.  Social Sensitivity, Sharing, service and sense of responsibility: Peter Drucker maintained that all good leaders have a high sense of social responsibility.

Human Service Managers: Spencer and Spencer (2008) identified 14 generic competencies for Helping and Human service Professionals. These include:

1.      Impact and Influence

2.      Developing others

3.      Interpersonal understanding

4.      Self confidence

5.      Self-control

6.      Personal effectiveness

7.      Professional expertise

8.      Customer service orientation

9.      Teamwork and cooperation

10.  Analytical thinking

11.  Conceptual thinking

12.  Initiative

13.  Flexibility, and

14.  Defectiveness or assertiveness

 

The 2021 Model of HR competencies of Dave Ulrich: The HRCS 8 study—hosted by The RBL Group, Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, and 19 regional partners across the globe— surveyed over 27,000 participants rating the competencies and performance of more than 3,500 HR professionals and more than 1,500 organizations. Below is the new HR competency model.

Accelerates Business and results. This includes: generate competitive market insights, have personal capital, have the skills to influence the business, and get the most important things done and build agility throughout the. Additionally, they must help drive agility throughout the organization. 

Advances Human Capability : This includes: the extent to which HR professionals can successfully advance human capability in the organization, deliver solutions, that improve both individual talent (human) and organization performance (capability) with specific focus on championing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace to improve overall organizational performance. 

Simplifies Complexity : This includes the extent to which HR professionals can think critically and objectively about the challenges their organization think independently, and discover opportunity even during times of uncertainty or crisis. 

Mobilizes Information: This includes the extent to which HR professionals are able to access, analyse, and act on information by using technology to solve problems and influence decisions, and understanding of social issues that will impact the organization. 

Fosters Collaboration: Includes successfully fostering collaboration of working together, being open and self-aware, inspire trust and respect, and how effectively they build relationships that bring people together. 

The SHRM Competency Model provides the foundation for talent management throughout the HR lifecycle and helps organizations ensure that HR professionals are proficient in the critical behaviours and knowledge necessary to solve today's most pressing people issues. The model is based on input from 1200 professionals from 29 cities and 111 focussed groups from different cities. It is validated by 32000 subject matter specialists. The model consists of the following nine competencies: Human Resource Expertise (HR Knowledge); Ethical Practice; Leadership and Navigation; Business acumen; Consultation; Critical evaluation; Communication; Global and Cultural effectiveness; and Relationship Management. SHRM research indicates that LBIT model explains largely success of HR Professionals. T stands for technical knowledge, and three clusters including L for leadership, B for Business and I for Interpersonal relations. HR Leaders in our study undoubtedly LBIT competencies to a large extent. There could be minor individual variations in each of the components but in general there is a good fir.

CIPD’s Professional Map:  Designed to respond to the changing role of people professionals, the map aims to help people professionals face the future with confidence, by setting out the knowledge, values and behaviors they’ll need to thrive in a changing world. CIPD claims  for those working in HR or L&D, it will help them to make good decisions, perform at their best, further career and drive change in their workplace.

There are four key elements at the heart of the Profession Map. 1. Purpose-Having a shared purpose; 2. Core knowledge- (six core areas of knowledge create value, drive change and positively impact workplace: 1.Culture and behaviour, 2. Business acumen, 3. Analytics and creating value, 4. Digital working, and 6. Change) and 3. Core behaviours- (eight ways of thinking and acting that enable one to become an effective professional: Working inclusively, Commercial drive, Valuing people, passion for learning, Change, focus on insights, Ethical practice, Professional courage and influence and Situational decision-making. 4. Specialist knowledge- (9 areas of specialist knowledge within the people profession include: Organizational development and design, People analytics, Resourcing, Rewards, Talent management, Employee experience, Employee relations, Diversity and inclusion, and Learning and development)

National HRD Network: HRScape includes four Behavioral Competencies and eight Functional Competencies: 1. Credible Champion denotes the ability to demonstrate high integrity in personal and professional transactions: Integrity and Fairness; Building Trust; Emotional Maturity and Ethics; 2. Diversity and Inclusion: Diversity & Inclusion refers to the comprehensive set of organizational policies, processes & practices that respect, value and support differences, diverse perspectives at workplace for leveraging & maximizing the potential of all employees context of diversity, cross-cultural sensitivity and inclusive practices; 3. Service Orientation: Service Orientation refers to the ability to imbibe and demonstrate readiness to respond to the needs and concerns of internal and external customers; Customer Orientation, Problem solving and Process Orientation and Improvement and service delivery; 4. Managing Change: Managing Change refer to the ability to diagnose, design and deliver change processes for individual and organizational transformation; Designing Change Interventions, Managing Resistance and Communicating change

Functional Competencies Include: Employee Relations; Strategic HRM; Organizational Design; Workforce Planning and staffing; Talent management; Total Rewards; Learning and development and Performance Management.

As indicated in the beginning the competency framework used for HRD staff in the first volume of HRD Score card has only been slightly modified and largely retained as in the original. The main reason being the context of HRD Audit. Various parts of HRD are being audited under systems, culture and values and Impact. As an author I feel that we are not assessing CHROs or HR Leaders in the HRD Audit. We are assessing all HR staff and hence we don’t require to sue standards that are sued for CHROs and HR Leaders as in Agrawal and Rao’s book or Dave Ulrich’s and SHRM or CIPD model. These models however are relevant and if we examine the 2500 points they are reflected in some part or the other.

 

References:

 

Agrawal, Arvind and Rao, T. V. (2022) Leaders in the Making: The Crucibles of Change makers in HR; New Delhi: Penguin Randomhouse India

L. M. Spencer and P. S. M. Spencer, Competence at Work Models for Superior Performance, John Wiley & Sons, 2008.

The CIPD Professional Map Downloaded on 7-9-2021): https://www.coursesonline.co.uk/everything-you-need-to-know-about-cipds-new-2021-qualifications/

 

SHRM Competency model: https://www.shrm.org/learningandcareer/career/pages/shrm-competency-model.aspx Downloaded on 7-9-2021

Dave Ulrich Competency model: https://www.hrdconnect.com/2022/02/28/dave-ulrich-5-hr-competencies-and-actions-to-enable-renewal-through-human-capability/

Rao, T. V. (2023) HRD Score card 2500: Tools for Renewal through HRD Audit, Mumbai: KBI Publishers