Soft skills workshop by Infosys : Day 2, 3 & 4.

I wanted to summarize my sessions, as I did on my previous one, was a bit busy, so just couldn't jot down! Anywayz here is what we learnt from our sessions on day2, 3 & 4.

High lights of Day 2:

• Feed backs: An effective feedback always involves the following steps.

1. Behavior description.
2. Feeling.
3. Impact.
4. Request (or a compliment).

• Hidden data in communication

1. Feelings.
2. Dealing with feelings.
3. Assertiveness.
4. Self-confidence.

Mr. Ashok kumar, one of our soft skills workshop co-ordinator.

Highlights of Day 3:

Day three focused on imparting the essential qualities one need to posses while in a team. The following traits, found in people are:

Illustrating the essential traits of a team member.

• Assertive: Win-Win, the better of the relationships one can have with somebody, coz both the parties are benefited by this.
• Aggressive: Win-Lose, an unfavorable to the latter, as he is found to be the loser.

• Non assertive: Lose-win, still unfavorable, coz the former loses.
  

• Traits of assertiveness

1. Be honest.
2. Make reasonable request.
3. Don't apologize, when you are assertive.
4. Become responsible for your actions.
5. Use ”WE", instead of "I".
6. Avoid exaggeration.

• People may deny your rights

1. By changing your rights.
2. Responding with a strong display of emotions.
3. Joking or making fun of your request.
4. Trying to make you feel guilty about request.
5. Criticizing or questioning the legitimacy of your request.
6. Asking you, "why you want?” about what you requested for.

• Techniques to be assertive

1. Broken record technique.
2. Fogging.
3. Diffusing.

• TEAM

T- Trust
E- Empathy
A- Authenticity
M- Maturity

• A task was assigned, where in you need to try drawing 2,4,6,8,9 (or even more) triangles with the help of 6 straight lines, of equal length.

Highlights of Day 4:

• Extension on the concepts of what makes a good team:

1. Leader
2. Common understanding
3. Common goals, defined by a technique called
SMART: S- specific, M-Manageable, A-achieving, and R- realistic, T- time bound.
4. Communication.
5. Belief in themselves.
6. Trust.

Mr. Krishna mutrhy, soft skills workshop co-ordinator.

• Presentation skills: Any presentation is always designed in the format as below.

• Introduction

1. Global sentence.
2. Build relevancy.
3. Objectives.
4. Directionalizing the things.

• Body

1. Position.
2. Problem.
3. Possibilities.
4. Proposal.

• Conclusion

1. Summary.
2. Call for action.
3. Rhetorical statement.
4. Closed like beginning.

Discussion on what would be the best topic for presentation?

Vinay's team building strategies for the presentation.

Each team, with 6 members on an average, was asked to deliver a presentation on any choice of their topic. I delivered, a presentation on behalf of my team, on "Awareness program for rural community on internet".

• Ethical dilemma: We were given real life situations, seen in corporate world, where one is found to be in a fix, popularly called, "Ethical dilemma". It helped us to get insights on how to over come dilemma when we find ourselves in the same position.

• Dressing sense: A brief overview was given on the importance of dressing sense in the corporate world.

• Dining etiquettes: We were given a brief intro about the basics of dining etiquettes, something, we really were literally are not often exposed to, when we speak in the context of the corporate world.

• Last but not the least, each session had at least 3 to 4 exercises, few of which were carried out in groups, while others individually. Some of them included exercises on find some one who..., active listening quiz, assertiveness, giving feedbacks, flight to moon (something that involved selecting a team of 6, out of 8 in the grp, each being a character like scientist, a mech engineer etc), test on self-confidence, giving angry and assertive responses, pre and post test quiz, etc.

It's time for some feed back!

The workshop, ended with a feedback session, where the attendees, were given opportunities to share their experiences during the sessions and also give their feedbacks.

What next?

The same training would be imparted, as a year long program to 3rd SEM students of BIET, to teach them all the nuances of a true professional, in the corporate world. We would be assisting the faculty members suitably in these training sessions.

PS: It was really a very informative and effective workshop, I got to attend. Thnx a lot to our workshop coordinators, Mr. Ashok Kumar, CSE dept, and Mr. Krishnamurthy, ISE dept. They have literally shared with us whatever they learnt @ Infosys. Thnx to the college authorities as well for organizing such very interactive session, it has really helped us know our lectures so closely.