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.
1 comment:
Dear Vijay,
We are so moved by your kind words. In fact we have been much motivated by the simplicity and compassion of all the SAP managers who visited Leadership Village. Thanks for the lovely write up.
Laila, Anil and the Children of LV
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