Making the Leap from Human Resource to Boundless Possibility – Isha HR Conclave

“Human is NOT a resource” conclave envisaged by Sadhguru, brings together prominent thought leaders and leading HR practitioners, CEOs and Chief HR Officers, in an endeavour to shift present mindsets of HR managers from that of "human resource" to "human is a possibility".

The three-day Isha HR Conclave “Human is NOT a Resource” (HNR) organized by the Isha Leadership Academy, commenced on June 8, 2018 at the Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore.

Participants from all over India and some from different parts of the world, 77 in all, came for the conclave with a vision to re-think and re-imagine HR. Below are a few insights, sharings and how the program impacted the managers. 

Day 1

The first day’s sessions were on a range of areas like how to manage the new-age workforce, change management and why it is important for the people-function to be part of company strategy. The sessions were led by illustrious speakers with vast industry expertise such as Saumen Chakraborty, Raj Raghavan, D.N. Prasad, Mohinish Sinha, Suryanarayana Kodukulla and Sanjay Behl.

Sunil Buch, Director of Live Nation India, who was the moderator of the program, said, "Focus on new PAT (Passion, Attitude, Talent) to deliver that old traditional PAT (Profit After Tax),” while introducing the program and the sessions for the first day.

Mohinish Sinha, Partner at Deloitte who gave a presentation on a pre-program HR survey of 44 companies that was conducted by Deloitte for Isha Leadership Academy, said “HR was not a critical stakeholder in strategy execution, shared 43% of the respondents” while delivering a key insight into HR effectiveness.

Rajagopalan Raghavan, Senior Vice President, HR, IndiGo said "We want to hire people who are right most of the time, not all the time" while sharing nuggets of his deep expertise in the HR industry. 

A believer of lifelong learning, People/Culture Strategist and Leadership Coach, also an ex-Googler, D.N. Prasad said, “If you give people freedom, they will amaze you,” while delivering a session on how to manage the millennial workforce. 

Mohinish Sinha, Partner at Deloitte who gave a presentation on a pre-program HR survey of 44 companies that was conducted by Deloitte for Isha Leadership Academy, said “HR was not a critical stakeholder in strategy execution, shared 43% of the respondents” while delivering a key insight into HR effectiveness.

Rajagopalan Raghavan, Senior Vice President, HR, IndiGo said "We want to hire people who are right most of the time, not all the time" while sharing nuggets of his deep expertise in the HR industry. 

The last session of the day was a power-packed presentation by the highly inspired CEO of Raymonds, Sanjay Behl who expounded on “Transforming Organisations for Exponential Growth”. He elaborated on a 6D paradigm of Digitalization, Deceptive, Disruptive, Dematerialization, Demonetization, Democratization that had the participants paying rapt attention.

Day 2

A key highlight of the second day was a session by officer Prabhat Shukla from the National Defense Academy (NDA) on building commitment. 

Other sessions focused on engineering inner transformation to move towards excellence and moving an organization to act like a dynamic and responsive organism. Isha Foundation volunteers presented a case study on Isha Mahashivratri 2018 to demonstrate this.

After the presentation, one of the participants, Jai Maroo, remarked, “I am in awe of how Isha Foundation uses scalable learning - I don't know how it happens, but I will figure it out and I'll do it when I am back."

While presenting a session on nurturing talent, Gajendra Chandel, President and CHRO of Tata Motors said, “Managers worked on-field hands-on with the suppliers and dealers to understand the entire value chain."

Day 3

The tone of day three of the program was set by these words from Sadhguru: "As a leader, your every thought, emotion, and action impacts many lives. It’s extremely important to work on how you are within yourself."

A Rally for Rivers case study was presented by Isha volunteers, which focused on highlighting the importance of inclusiveness and treating people as possibilities while dreaming big, planning and executing any project.

"Whatever you can imagine that you have learnt in management books, everything is there in how things happen in Isha Foundation," expressed Gajendra Chandel, President and CHRO, Tata Motors.

A workshop was conducted in the end, that focused on reviewing and bringing together the learnings of the three days and assimilating key takeaways.

Editor's Note: Check out the HR Conclave website for upcoming programs. Isha Leadership Academy also offers the "INSIGHT, the DNA of Success" a four-day leadership intensive program aimed at CEOs, SMEs, entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. Check out the Isha INSIGHT page for details.