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| TOUGH ASK: Executives do a spot of fire walking (top) and (above) try to bend a steel bar at a Priya Kumar workshop |
The young executives could not believe their ears. Their next task at the corporate training session was to walk barefoot on a bed of burning coals. The red-hot burning remains of a board of firewood were spread out into an eight-foot grass bed in front of them. Even as they thought of excuses to escape this seemingly impossible task, they were awestruck to see the trainer, a chirpy young woman, walk confidently across the fire without any burns.
The employees of travel company SOTC were understandably nervous. This was not quite what they had imagined a day’s training at The Retreat Hotel in Malad, Mumbai, was going to be like. Finally, a brave soul volunteered to step on the fire. At the end of the nail-biting two minutes amidst loud gasps and silent prayers, the young employee took four large steps and confidently reached the end of the fire bed. Soon there was another volunteer and within minutes the reluctant crowd was queuing up for a taste of this unique experience. “One moment they knew nothing about fire walking. Then they were ready to repeat the walk,” says Khushnum Bagwadia, assistant human relations (HR) manager, SOTC.
Gone are the days when corporate training sessions meant boring PowerPoint presentations and unending talk about sales figures in dark conference rooms. Thanks to some interesting interventions by corporate trainers, these sessions are turning into fun-based — or even hair-raising — experiential learning for many employees. Jungle safaris, week-long vipasana sessions and mountain treks organised by companies for their staff are passé. These days, employees are being urged to walk barefoot on broken glass, eat burning cottonwool, undergo hypnosis, tear currency notes and make flutes. It just keeps getting more and more bizarre.
Take Mumbai-based trainer Priya Kumar. Her sessions typically start with steel bar bending — an eye-popping activity where two participants place one end of a one-metre-long steel rod on their necks and with equal force move forward and bend the rod. Gurgaon-based training company iDiscoveri has a few surprises in store for executives. In addition to the usual river rafting, rappelling and trekking, participants at its outdoor sessions jump off tree branches that are 20 to 25 feet high.
Besides the fun factor there is, of course, a deeper meaning to this daredevilry. Mumbai-based trainer Dhaval Bathia calls the exercises phobia busters. These activities, he argues, help participants to conquer their fears and motivate them to go that extra mile. “They give you a feeling of ‘I can do it’. The participants understand that many things that seem dangerous and complex from afar are not really all that difficult to achieve when actually confronted with them,” agrees Amit Desai, partner, iDiscoveri. For instance, the trainers point out, while fire walking may be a scary thought, the volunteers soon realise that they don’t get burnt because their feet touch the coal in such quick succession that they end up walking unhurt.
Also woven into these acts are some corporate lessons on team work and risk taking. So when two people stand with a steel bar placed on their necks they need to move in tandem in order to bend it. If one volunteer fails to apply force, it can hurt the other person. “In the corporate world it is important to have a good understanding with your colleagues. The bar bending taught us that mistakes can be expensive and to value team mates,” says Nikhil Banerjee, who attended the session a few months ago while working in the treasury sales department of Standard Chartered Bank.
Needless to say, such activities make annual sales meets and induction programmes much more participatory and are a break from the routine. The truth is that it is not uncommon to see participants doodling and yawning at the back at most corporate sessions. “Companies take employees to exotic locations such as Goa and Bali only to make them sit inside conference rooms to view slide shows,” points out Priya Kumar, who runs the International Centre for Training Systems in Mumbai.
Companies too seem to be fed up of these routine, and often boring, PowerPoint presentations. “We have been conducting several workshops for our employees and wanted to give them a unique and unforgettable experience,” says SOTC’s Bagwadia, who roped in Kumar to conduct the fire walking session for its employees.
As companies opt for these innovative techniques, trainers who offer them are busier than ever before. Kumar, who is an internationally certified fire walk expert and also conducts steel bar bending and walking on broken glass exercises, says she is booked 30 days a month. Her clients include Birla Sunlife, GE Money, Godfrey Philips India and Kotak Securities. “In 2002 if we did 25 programmes, in 2006 we have been conducting workshops every single week,” says Alibagh (Maharashtra)-based trainer Sajidarjuna Peerbhoy Karmajyoti, who has introduced clay play therapy and flute making in corporate training — exercises that work as stress busters and in honing creativity. He has trained employees from Hewlett Packard, DHL, Shoppers Stop, Hypercity, Deloitte, HSBC and Titan, among others.
But a love for the bizarre does not mean compromising on safety. At iDiscoveri’s outdoor sessions all safety norms prescribed by the US-based National Outdoor Leadership School are followed. Kumar trained under several international experts before conducting fire walking professionally.
Doodling, clearly, is on its way out. And no one gives a yawn.