Leadership Democracy at leadership village

Wayanad is a beautiful district in Kerala amidst western ghats with dense coffee, tea plantations, spices and enchanting celebrations during festival season. A team of 11 Development Managers from SAP labs headed to Wayanad to interact with some students at Leadership Village co-founded by Anil Emage in Kalpetta, the district headquarters of Wayanad. The managers were given a brief about Leadership Village and the efforts put in by Anil and his team. We realized that we have not arrived for a joy trip after understanding their hardships and tough life.

Wayanad - Greens or Blues

Wayanad is one of the 12 districts of Kerala and unfortunately is also one of the backward districts. Majority of the population depends on agriculture. During 1995 to 2004, 90% of farmer suicides in Kerala were from Wayanad. While tourism is one of the sources of revenue, when compared to other commercially developed places, Wayanad stands low. Most of the families are conservative and they do not appreciate their children to go an extra mile after school to get exposure in the outside world. Most of the parents do not want their children to use internet connection at home. The best students get pushed by natural selection while the back benchers remain without much encouragement.

Leadership Village

Anil Emage did his schooling in Kalpetta and he was afraid of public speaking when he was a student. He said he never had an encouragement or opportunity to work on the much needed skills as he was one of the backbenchers. The children in Kalpetta and surrounding areas have limited opportunities to hone their skills and pursue their choice of career. Many times they are not even aware of many potential possibilities they can take up. They are usually forced to settle with limited resources and unlimited aspirations. After working as a journalist and moved by the situation in Wayanad people, he decided it’s time to show courage and leadership. He teamed up with Laila to create the first 'Leadership Village' ever in the world in Wayanad. Their philosophy is simple - create a leadership democracy where every individual has equal opportunities to discover their true potential irrespective of birth or living conditions. That is very simple but hard thing to implement in the context in which Anil and Laila are in.

When we visited Kalpetta, the students of Leadership Village, typically in the age group of 12 to 20 welcomed us and engaged us the entire day where we could learn from each other. Most the children there are highly committed and motivated. One of the students of Leadership Village participated in a global conference recently and presented her insights quite confidently. The results take time however they are quite effective. Their language, communication and confidence levels are on par with any student living in a metro city.

Living Library

One of the pillars for the success of Leadership Village is the concept of "Living Library". In Anil's words, "When you read a book it is not so personal, but when you talk to a person, you make a mental connect and create a relationship between the two resulting in effective way to communicate". People who visit LV periodically share their success stories with the children and the children ask questions, clarify their doubts and seek some guidance. It has been a wonderful experience for me personally, trying to understand their mindset and aspirations.

Learning for Managers

On the second half of the day, SAP managers gathered around Anil and Laila to understand the process behind and how SAP can help reach their goals faster and better. We discussed Anil and his team's aspirations and probed further on areas of improvement. Their priorities are to conduct such events once in a month where the children have opportunity to interact with people from various streams to explore the options they can have, create a methodology for leadership learning for these children and possibly create a model to replicate this setup in other parts of the country.

The SAP Managers summarized the discussion and came back to Bangalore to check where we could help in various capacities. The trip was fun and at the same time we had invaluable learning from the experience. The entire program is organized by the students including setting the stage, inviting guests, getting sound system to work, making flower bouquets for the  guests, arranging for lunch, preparing the agenda and ensuring all they can to make us feel comfortable. One student mentioned Anil and Laila are like second parents to her. We started to wonder, how could Anil get their commitments, make them so motivated? His selfless service is quite apparent, leading the children, their parents and other influencers in the society to give them support. Can we at SAP emulate some of these philosophies to create more engaging work atmosphere? We said "Yes" and we rearranged ourselves into teams to support Leadership Village in whatever way we can.