M.D.

Vignesh raja
H2018OD014
Art & OD
Tata Institute of Social Sciences
SELF – REFLECTIVE ASSIGNMENT
Session II & I: Intro to Art and O.D
In the first session, we all were instructed to relate to some incident on which the
impact of music was made aware to me, this process allowed me to delve into my
childhood life experiences and I was able to identify one. When I was studying class
IInd standard, the school in which I studied conducted a fancy dress competition and I
was given an soldier role to play and I agreed after holding my excitement and I was
trained for a week and on the day of the event I stood behind the stage dressed up like
an true soldier with my face having an artificial moustache and a duplicate gun feeling
like with one shot I shall save our country India. The time came in and I’m supposed
to walk (brave walk, like an soldier) all over the stage followed in a sequence. I
walked followed with the back ground music ‘Made in India’, the music, the crowd
appreciation and claps, the sound, and having the feeling that I’m been watched by
everyone, OHHH… it really made me to taste the real joy and happiness. The music
had a tremendous impact over me. So, that was the one time ever forgettable event
happened in my life and it was shared and I heard my colleagues experience and
followed by which I was given an opportunity to share the most innovative work I
performed and I did. A set of questions (my creative moment) was distributed to me
to reflect upon my work since from my childhood days and so on.
Some of my key learning’s are:
Music being one of the forms of art based intervention, it made me so receptive to
blend with the environment and somewhere it provoked me to deliver the feel of a
real soldier. By doing so, we were able to break the boundary or certain limitations
immune ourselves.
The art-based intervention produces a transformational effect on individuals,
organization if it is implemented in a thoughtful and purposeful manner.
An Art is considered to be a channel of expression & more of a creative impulse
generated deep within and creative impulse gets expressed through physical
manifestations. The impulse generated is deeply influenced by culture. And the entire
class was grouped based on the different art forms:
Music
Dance
Literature/poetry
SESSION – III 29/1/2020
Story Telling
Why stories
Stories are told, heard, evaluated through values, emotions, feelings which are
connected with others
Story is been expressed through narratives
Inertia – Urgency
Apathy – Anger
Fear – Hope
Isolation – Solidarity
Self-Doubt – You can make a difference

NOW

SELF COMMUNITY
COMMUNITY
US

 Story of Self: Everyone have their own individual stories to tell and have all
had differing life experiences, which have shaped everyone’s core values and
beliefs. The power in a Story of Self is so powerful as it makes an individual to
reveal something of themselves and their values – not their deepest darkest secrets,
 but the key shaping moments in their life. Consider when an individual first started
to care about the issue that he has chosen. Why is it important to him? Why did he
felt that he have to do something about it?
 Story of Us: Signifies and Communicates why the community in particular is
called to act, and why individuals as a group have the capacity to lead. Just as in
the story of Self, the key is to focus on telling a story about specific people and
specific moments that have shaped their organizing community and then invite
others to join this community.
 Story of Now: Communicates the urgent challenge we are called upon to face
right now. The story includes a description of the path to take to achieve goals
relative to the mission, which is the unique strategy or set of ideas that will help
you to overcome any challenges and succeed. The story also invites your listeners
to make a specific actionable commitment now to help build your campaign.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter is the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business

Administration at Harvard Business School encourages organization leaders to think
much more broadly at what restricts creativity and how to overcome it.
The essential skill required to master for creating an edge in innovative economy is
the ability to tell stories, to motivate others. The key ideas behind learning to be a
storyteller
Kanter:
Effective leaders are storytellers. While certainly conversant in data and PowerPoint
slides, they inspire others to join them on a quest for change by weaving compelling
narratives that connect past, present, and future. Sometimes that involves showing that
history can be interpreted in a different way, so that people don’t see the status quo as
an inevitable result of past actions. Change is possible! A new view of the past helps
pave the way toward a belief in a different version of the future.
Telling a great story builds hope. It should also show other people what’s in it for
them. So a great leadership story is about how the venture that the leader is proposing
will help people achieve their own goals. It can’t be about the leader alone. And the
more there are some specific demonstrations to point to, the more a leader awakens
hope and ensures belief. Change requires a belief in possibility. Innovation is always
inherently uncertain, and without the right story, people would rather stick with the
known, which seems safe even if it is inadequate. The ultimate art of leadership is
 encouraging people to let go of their fear of the unknown and plunge into the work of
innovation.
Projects can fail before they even get off the ground unless leaders tell a story that
convinces others to support change.

Sharing my Gaining the Adding value

people's
story into my life
perview

I intend to refer to an old saying that defines, “Those who tell the stories rule the
world”.

Why do all stories begin with the phrase “Once upon a time…”?

The answer is relevant for anyone who gives presentations. If we weave hard facts
into narrative patterns, a well-known stories are evoked in our memories, which
remind us of the pleasure of listening to them with the consequence that our attention
spans increases.

Classic stories follow a particular sequence:

 Abstract: how does it begin? (Once upon a time…)

 Orientation: who/where/when? (A king and queen had a daughter…?)
 Communicating action: the problem to be solved. (But all around the castle, a
hedge of thorns started to grow…)
 Resolution: solution (‘Then he stopped and kissed Sleeping Beauty. And she
opened her eyes for the first time in many years…’)
 Evaluation: what results from it? (And they lived happily ever after?)
 Coda: what remains (‘And the moral of the story…)
A presentation or a talk should be structured along the same lines. People do not want
logical arguments: they want good stories. Our life is not an Excel spreadsheet – it is a
story with ups and downs.

The narrative paradigm theory says: We do not evaluate a story on the basis of
arguments, but on the basis of how much we trust or believe in the story. Can I
identify with the subject or people, and does the story make sense?
Good stories surprise us. They make us to think and feel. The stories stick in our
minds and help us remember ideas and concepts in a way that a PowerPoint crammed
with bar graphs never can.

The next time I intend to start my talk with this sentence: ‘let me tell you a short
story...’ or ‘ On the way here something strange happened to me…’
And see the magic of Storytelling making the audience leans forward in their seats
and exited to hear more.
1
Research suggests that sharing experiences though narrative builds trust, cultivates
norms, transfers tacit knowledge, facilitates unlearning, and generates emotional
connections

Even during the interview process, I started to answer back by framing the story,
For example: I conveyed my state of being through a story to the professor over a
mail: -
Most Respected Mam,
In continuation to my e-mail dated on 8 th March 2019, I wish to notify you that, for
the past three to four days I’m living with the context “Resilient”.
Yes, the pain in my left hip joint has increased. Besides my dependency in medicine,
for the past 3 days I’ve understood that strengthening my mind to deal with the pain in
a way that it should not post myself more sickness is more important. So, I started to
live with tagging the concept of “Being Resilient”.
The time when I’m unable to get up or I have a painful walk, I used to train my
incapability saying “ Vignesh, you can deal with your pain and you know how”, so
this had made me to deal the pain in a way that I understood it and started walking
accordingly and become more conscious to do my exercise according to my level and
this is changing my behavior entirely to be very positive.
Today morning after knowing the shortlisted candidate name for Ashok Leyland, I
went bit down, but quickly I was so Resilient to think that “Alright, If not this
company, something bigger company might be awaiting for me” – oh! I understood
that being Resilient sculpts my inner self (thought) into an effective moral supporter
that taps my shoulder when I’m alone and strengthens me.

1
(PDF) Storytelling in Organizations: The power and traps of using stories to share
knowledge in organizations. (2002, January 1). Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242189756_Storytelling_in_Organizations_
The_power_and_traps_of_using_stories_to_share_knowledge_in_organizations
To conclude, I would like to share you an incident, which had happened today
evening. I went to one shop to buy an Maaza, and the lady who sits in that shop
started asking me about where do I come from, what do I do, after placing my polite
reply, to my surprise she asked me “why are you weak”. On that strand I realized I
need to further strengthen my inner self and upon which I’ve started working.
Once again, I thank you so much to introduce a concept of “Resilience” to me, which
is adapting myself to various circumstances and trains my psychological growth.
By doing so, I was able to connect my need; my learning How to be resilient to her
and the reply from her motivated me and added value to me
REPLY

SESSION - 4

COMMUNITY AND APPLIED THEATRE

Introduced to the concept of applied theatre and wellness of an indigenous community

is been achieved through performance.
I remember of my childhood days, in those days often I used to act, mimicking super
heroes, dressing up like them and so on, but now performing such performance in the
organization context makes me curious and interesting as well. A new set of
understanding, space is existed within the teammates with whom I’ve been working
together with regards to assignments, presentation etc.
The Activity of enacting the teammates stories/parts by following all means of
acting, an new method of learning is observed. Playback Theater (PT) is an
improvisational type of theatre, where the audience members relate real life stories to
a group of actors ' ' play back.'' The stories openly exchanged between the students by
participating audience members represented, we believe, a welcome enhancement of
both reflection and personal contact. Given the high-stress world in which medical
students are involved, PT is promising to relieve some of the burden and give the lives
of students a sense of order. By sharing their experiences, Students may feel less
alone by expressing their experiences and may be better able to perceive their
reactions and feelings in others. Perhaps more importantly, PT offers a place for
feeding a student group and, in particular, a group of students focused on mutual
respect.
SESSION 5
Art-based Methods- Concepts and Theories - 2 hours
Music possess the potential to design a congenial culture, filled with creativity and
imagination in modern organizations of the 21st century
Listening to the music with intention increases the capacity of emotional intelligence.
Music engages both the intellectual and the emotional components of a person and
integrates the heart, head, and soul of leadership
Recognize and acknowledge the talents of others. Many leaders fail to engage the
talents of others because they neglect the critical first step of recognizing and
acknowledging their colleagues’ performance and their competency level. Just as
successful artists maximize their own gifts by playing in concert with other artists,
artful leaders tap into and leverage all of the talent in the workplace.
A leader who does not practice is like a performing artist who doesn’t rehearse—they
both lose their audience.
Leadership is not a right or an entitlement; it must be consistently demonstrated,
refined, and earned. Creating and sustaining meaningful connections reinforces a
leader’s credibility and integrity with employees, customers, stockholders, board
members, and strategic partners.
Focus on practice rather than entitlement as a leadership concept. If you don’t listen
and practice new skills, you’ll lose your audience. Musicians who don’t practice lose
their facility and grow stale. The same is true of business leaders.
The essence of practice for leaders and performing artists is the same: to
constructively provoke thought and evoke emotion in their audiences. Audiences
consistently provide cues and feedback on the impact of practice, and it’s important to
pay attention to these messages.
As a manager/leader of a team you have a responsibility to ensure the individuals
work together in an effective and efficient manner.
Likewise being an musician performing an instrument or an concert, u have an
responsibility to ensure the individual musicians performance in an effective way,
individual members need to have a clear understanding about their notes, timing,
colleagues instrument and their music, the whole song or music (vision/mission of an
organization).
SESSION – 6
During the design of the workshop, we had to source and browse from numerous
Research papers to understand how to correlate music to the stated developmental
needs. In the initial discussions, we were more focused on the content but gradually
we realized the success of our intervention lies in the process and not so much on the
content. The challenge was balancing the fun element with the learnability of the
participants. Browsing through such research papers also made us understand the
importance of music in developing cognitive skills of participants and how it helps in
building team dynamics. We could actually experience the research papers coming
into action when participants geared up themselves as we began to play the music.
Few
Snippets from the research are mentioned below.

SO, our group decided on one content, where the students were asked to select the
musical instruments and they will be allowed to hear four songs out of which they can
select one song. The whole agenda is, they must play back the selected song using the
instruments they have.
Outcome:
The outcome was phenomenal; it was way beyond our expectations. Though many of
the students don’t know to play those music instruments, the involvement, the urge to
learn, team work, ability to produce something new, innovative ideas were observed.
Indeed it was a collective work.
Effective Learning process was so prevalent.
The other team Literature & poetry, their interpretation gave me an self-learning
experience by drawing myself and emphasizing on the characters that are to be
dropped by and foreseeing myself in future and the best part was the Lego toys which
was provided to us and instructed me to design how will I be after some years and
asked us to own it and that provokes us to stick on to the desire and commitment.
The dance group made us to forget our own self, a complete commitment were
delivered. Surprisingly, my friends who denied dancing in pubs and other place
danced without any hesitation. That was amazing; learning took place by breaking the
boundary or restriction that each and everyone had within them.