PGDM 19-21

INTERPERSONAL SKILLS LAB

MY LEARNING JOURNAL

COURSE FACILITATOR
Dr. S Senthil Kumar

Submitted By:
Ajinkya Bhonsle
Roll no: 201831003
Section: F

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Session 1&2………………………………………….………………
The course began with the topic of "trust and self-awareness". We practised,
through an activity, to know ourselves better. We began with introducing
ourselves in any and every way possible. It was really wonderful to see how all
my colleagues participated and described themselves in different and creative
ways.

Further in the lecture, we saw how risk-taking is an essential part of even living
day to day mundane life. Even in day to day activities, there is risk-taking
involved. Same goes for Persuasiveness. We must persuade to live. When we
look closure, we find that students have to persuade the teacher in class
discussions, they have to persuade with the canteen workers to cook for them
in minutes as they are getting late for class, A girl has to persuade to her friend
to not to miss classes in the morning etc.

We also had an activity wherein we had to find someone who has similar interest
as ours. For this we had to go around the class finding out people who have
ticked the same hobbies/food/movies/Tv shows as ours. This helped us in
breaking the ice and establishing a better emotional connect with our friends
and peers. Some of the friends discovered that their best friends have the same
interests as their own, which was a nice learning as well.

Session 3&4…………………………………………………………
In the course, we further witnessed the importance of listening and nonverbal
communication. Theoretically there are 3 types of listening: #active #passive and
#attentive. I remember that we did an activity in class where the chits with
various topics written on them, were given by the course facilitator, and the
student managers went one at a to give an extempore on the topic but the twist
was that the extempore had to be related with the speakers' life. While one
student delivered speech, others have to be "active listeners" and then
summarize the speech after the speaker is done.
I was fascinated to see how calm and attentive all the active listeners in the
audience were. Every time there were 3-4 listeners (randomly) chosen by the
course facilitator and they summarized the delivered content and also gave the
feedback. These sessions had a lot of learning for us. We learned why listening

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is more important so that we can empathize with others. Mere speaking
wouldn’t do you any good in long term.

Session 5&6…………………………………………………………
In this session we learnt about we learnt that we should try to become assertive
not aggressive. There are three types of communication: Passive, Aggressive and
Assertive. We also learnt the various components of assertive communication
i.e. fairness, directness, tact and honesty. We also performed a test where I
scored a 23. According to the interpretations of the test it shows that I defend
my positions firmly. It was a self-awareness activity for me. I got to learn a new
trait of my own self.

In the course, we further dealt with the topic Negotiation. For this topic, our
course facilitator had a very interesting activity. There are two sides in our
lecture room. The sides were divided into two groups where one group was
"seller", who dealt in an oligopoly market and the "buyer" were in monopsony
market. The activity helped us understand BATNA (Best Alternative To Negotiate
In Agreement) better.

So, the buyer and seller had to negotiate with each other and crack a deal. I was
surprised to see that the student managers negotiated using very practical using
market examples and built up scenarios. There was no point of time where the
negotiation turned into any sort of parliamentary debates. The environment was
super professional with a pinch of humour.

I was sitting in the "buyer" side and noticed that negotiation is just another step
to persuasiveness. One cannot negotiate if one can't persuade. It was really
fascinating to see how interestingly the course is designed for students, to learn
one skill just after learning its complementary skill as if one skill is a prefix for
another.

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Session 7&8…………………………………………………………
I was absent in these lectures as I was not in campus and visited city due to some
medical issue.
When I had a talk with my colleagues, I got to know that following topics were
covered in these lectures:
❖ Character strengths Intervention in Negotiation.
❖ Framing, Position and Interest.
❖ Gratitude.
❖ Spirituality.
❖ EQ test.
When learnt about framing I found that it is a way of selling a product and
framing arguments accordingly. I was also amazed to learn the difference
between Position and Interest. Interest is what you want to show whereas
Position is where or how you want to show.

Students also calculated their EQ (Emotional Quotient) Score by identifying the

Session 9&10………………………………………………………

I consider these two sessions as one of the most important sessions of the entire
course. I would like to use complementary comparison for describing the
learnings of these two sessions:

❖ Wherein the 9th session dealt with the theory of persuasion and 10th, on
the other hand, dealt with an extraordinary activity based on the role of
a facilitator.

❖ Wherein the 9th session we studied two theories of persuasion,

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 ❖ Wherein 9th session we filled a questionnaire based on both the theories
and were also required to use the ACE(Appropriateness, Consistency and
Effectiveness ) model to identify given statements and circumstances or
events, and, in 10th session through the activity, we set a firm argument
over the importance of the role of a Facilitator and the Manipulator and
experienced that if the facilitator does the job most effectively and
efficiently then there are negligible chances of manipulator to manipulate
the conversation.

I loved how the entire course is designed keeping in mind the complimentary
learnings a student should take home. Its like you learn a theory and apply it in
the next session. The concepts are clear to me now as I have learned to apply
them in a real-life situation. The sessions were the most significant sessions for
me as the next day I had my SIP interview and in group discussion, I played some
takeaway tricks from the previous session. I gave a chance to two other people
to speak thereby playing the role of a facilitator (somewhat) which I lacked
somewhere in the activity.

Session 11&12………………………………………………………
In these two sessions we were taught how to make effective business
presentations. For that we were shown a speech of Steve Jobs and were said to
observe his presentation style. It was an enlightening experience to watch such
an astute speaker and observe his on-point presentation style.
Some of the key takeaways from his speech were:
❖ Interactional tone
❖ Know your Audience
❖ Use Simple Sentences
❖ Maintain Good Eye Contact
❖ Speak clearly and at appropriate volume and speed
❖ Incredible images
❖ Smile throughout
❖ Use Example or Personal Experience
❖ Use silence, suspense elements
❖ Hide the theme and hit them with a headline
❖ Use storytelling method

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We were also introduced to a wonderful book called ‘Presentationzen’. It helped
me learn the Zen aesthetic principles of making and impactful presentation. It
was an elaborate book, but sir helped us by highlighting the key points that are
essential for a presenter to keep in his mind. I went through all of them and
inculcated the same in my slides. Later I was also praised for my slides. I am
happy I did the readings and listened carefully.

Session 13&14………………………………………………………

Before the mock presentations, Sir equipped us with what things to keep in mind
while making a power-point presentation like font size, and how many words to
keep in a sentence, how many bullet points to keep in a slide, how to make use
of audio-visuals etc. Sir also guided us through an entire checklist that you must
follow before giving a presentation. This came in handy for the final presentation
as well.

Next, Mock presentations have started, and it is really amazing to see how
eagerly my colleagues were volunteering for giving mock presentations. As
audience, we had to give feedback for their improvement. I feel that should
have also given a mock presentation even if for a tiny bit of time as what I
noticed was that the students who gave the mock presentations got the
feedback then and there itself and the got an upper hand to improve for their
final presentations with the help of the feedback. I noticed this difference
‘Mohammed Azhar’ (one of my classmate). A very good and noticeable change.

Session 15 onwards……………….………………………………

The final presentation season began. The final activity around which the whole
course revolved. What I witnessed here was a different taste in choosing topics
by the student managers. The range of topics of presentation choose was as
wide a student presenting and discussing "Da Vinci's" paintings to discussing the
political topic of "demonization". I was amused by the diversity.

I tried to inculcate various elements of delivering an effective presentation that

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 The topic I chose was ‘Being Independent’. I actually wanted to tell my
colleagues about how to be financially independent as this is what they'll seek
once they get jobs but when I started making the presentation I felt that I should
make their thoughts clear about what actually "Being Independent" means.
Many of us confuse it with freedom and always connect to 1947 which I just 1%
of it. Being Independent has 3 aspects to it:

❖ Basic Independence
❖ Financial Independence
❖ Emotional Independence

The feedback I got from the audience was that though the slides of the ppt were
very creative and good-looking and the content was precise, I ran through the
presentation. Which means I rushed through it which led to less of audience
interaction. I duly noted these feedbacks and focused further on improving upon
them. The next time I present, I am sure to make a better presentation from the
learnings obtained in this course. Thankyou sir for your feedbacks. I am also
thankful to you for letting the students give in their valuable feedback as well.
Their feedbacks were straight-forward and motivating. This has helped me gain
a lot of insights about my area of improvement.

Final Thoughts……………………………………………………

I would like to take the opportunity to thank the course facilitator, Dr. Senthil
Kumar, for introducing this course to us. This has been by far the most
interactive courses offered in an MBA classroom. Lively presentations, fun
activities, immense learning through audio/visual aids do entire justice to the
name Interpersonal skills LAB. The course has everything that makes all of us
corporate ready. I have gained enough confidence to tackle real-life business
problems ranging from negotiation, handling cognitive dissonance to facilitating
team success. My experience of the entire journey has been enriching and shall
stay with me for the rest of my life.

Thankyou