As dramatic events unfold globally, life moves on at a rapid pace yet the past has a habit of catching up with us. Call it ‘deja-vu’ and the today’s youth might term it as – ‘a blast from the past’ ! With TV’s big fights, fiery debates, analytical discussions & prescriptive discourses of varying intellectual capacities and ideologies are engulfing most netizens & our friends (few have turned fr-enemies!), I’m reminded of an interesting real-life event that I was privy to witnessing some two decades back as a fledgling trainer in the Bank.
In a forum for test launch of a new scheme of the Bank, two experienced trainers were on the floor deftly articulating highlights (hardly anything on any de-merits, for obvious marketing reasons ) of the good things to come, for the benefit of an august audience of senior bank officers and executives. Post-session analysis was done by the senior-most executive trainer and our ‘Training Boss’. While evaluating the training performance, he asked the trainee interns like us – were the two trainers in sync and moving in tandem ?
Not getting fearlessly frank responses he was looking for, he gave his considered views. The two trainers were not quite on same page – while trainer 1 was talking about ground level, operational issues and the nitty-gritty of execution, trainer 2 was expounding on the great mission, a utopia that was in the making ! Since both were talking on the same issue, they appeared to operating in different spheres and the gap was not really bridged till the end of the session. The lesson learnt- think big but with your feet on the ground !
This program happened many years ago, but the events look astonishingly similar to the present scenario where debates (heated political ones) are the flavor for all seasons and find favour with TV anchors and media for the TRPs they generate. Notice that while the issues for discussion mostly relate to people’s problems (inflation, jobs, civic amenities , education, health), inevitably the blame-game and fault finding of their predecessors starts and spokespersons defending the shortcomings, astutely resort to ‘Whataboutery’ by listing out achievements in unrelated fields and quote data that’s global and holistic.
Keys to improving debating skills and quality are facing up to hard facts with objectivity, and being realistic on both strengths and weaknesses pointed out. Accepting and acting on unbiased feedback, that’s not favourable and laudatory, but honest and factual is vital for all parties concerned. To be ‘shown the mirror’ is democracy’s gift to all the leaders !
Working on Living 