A few months ago, I decided to teach a course in Netcore. It was for upcoming managers, a class of 25. It was on Zoom since the attendees were from all over the world. It was the first time I was teaching a multi-class course. I had given talks earlier, but this one was going to be different. I had to plan a dozen or so classes of 1.5 hours each. I called the course, L.I.F.E – leadership, innovation, foresight (strategy), and execution. The group came to be called “Ascenders” – managers who could climb the ladder in the organisation.
Teaching a course is something I had always aspired to do. Teaching is a great way to learn – and part of the RLTW flywheel I talk about. Read-Learn-Think/Teach-Write. Teachers have a unique responsibility – to shape minds and mould futures. I have been fortunate to experience great teachers in my life from school through college, IIT, and then Columbia. It was time to give back in a safe environment. Who better than my fellow Netcorians?!
As I prepared for the classes, I realised I had to learn a lot also. While some of the entrepreneurial talks could be based on my book, other classes were also new to me. And so, I began the process of reading and educating myself. As always, the best way for me to learn has been to read and then write. And so it was that I wrote out multiple essays: Storytelling, Strategy, Decisions, Managing Others, Managing Self, Execution. As I presented the ideas aggregated from others, I combined them with stories from my life. [Other classes were on: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Netcore Future Story, and some miscellaneous topics based on requests from the team.]
Each class was on Thursdays at 7:30 am India time. We began on time and ended on time at 9 am sharp. (Punctuality was one of the tenets I wanted everyone to absorb.) I began every class with about 30-40 minutes of presentation. Where possible, I brought in stories from my past – decisions I had to make, experiences I had lived through. I would then open it up for discussion – with a question or two to trigger conversation. In some of the classes, I invited Bhavana to join in – she had more experience in managing people and getting things done than me! Overall, it was a very good experience for me – and hopefully the attendees.
As part of the course, we also had the group work in small teams on projects where they could apply the learnings. I called these “NX” – Netcore neXt. While the final presentations were a bit uneven, there are some excellent ideas to build on for different teams.
For me, I liked it a lot. Teaching is not easy – and my respect for all educators has increased! I started a second class in February. If this goes well, perhaps I could someday even teach at a university!
