During a visit by the IT minister of Government of Telangana,
Mr KT Rama Rao, to the Shanti Sarovar
Retreat Center, he was very impressed by the meditation programs conducted
there for IT professionals. He invited the Brahma Kumaris (BK) in partnership with
Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association
(HYSEA) to organize a national conference at the intersections of technology-consciousness-leadership.
The Brahma Kumaris asked me if I would like to help organize it and it felt
right. We came up with the title SPIR-IT
Summit and 1st annual event was held in Hyderabad on 6th
December, 2014, a first of its kind in India, with the intention of shifting
the focus from the Human Doing to the Human Being.
About 1,100 IT professionals came to listen to thought
leaders, both from the consciousness world and the industry, share their
experience and insights on keeping a balance between their inner and outer
worlds. The sessions were based on four themes: Physical Health, Emotional Health,
Social Health and Compassionate Leadership.
The conference began with a video message from Dr Devi Shetty, the
world-renowned cardiologist and founder of Narayana Hriduyalaya. The keynote on phsycial health was by Padmashri awardee Dr G Bhakthavatsalam (GB) who
entertained the audience with his message of the importance of listening to
your body. He said give your body an
hour of your time, sitting in meditation, and your body will work 23 hours for
you. The ensuing panel discussion with Sleep
specialist Dr Nalini Nagalla, Deena Harapanahalli, founder of the largest
corporate bicycling event in the country and Dr GB was moderated by Murali Bollu,
CEO of ZenQ. Murali pointed out that this is the first time in his 20+ years of
experience that he’s seen a forum with IT and health listed together in the
title. The panel highlighted chronic issues in the IT industry, for instance a
survey showed that 80% of IT professionals suffer from eye problems,
hypertension and diabetes.
On sleep deprivation, and Dr Nalini stated that lack of sleep
results in reduced ability to focus on important things and improper
functioning of all internal organs. Our brain
remains active during sleep to repair the body and consolidate all the
learnings into memory. Stress in your
life is inversely proportional to the amount and quality of sleep you get.
Deena suggested some simple steps to keep active like taking
stairs wherever possible, taking the farthest parking spot and eating healthy. He
noted that 10 minutes invested in a day (in
activities for our body like yoga, meditation, etc.) is
10 vacations days saved (in a year due to illnesses).
Dinesh Kashikar, senior disciple of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of
Art of Living, led a demonstration of hathayoga asanas. He pointed out that yoga can make you more efficient and help
you save time. If you feel you don’t
have enough time, meditate to make time in your life.
Welcoming the guests in the plenary session, sister
Jayanti, BK representative at the United Nations, explained the purpose of BKs,
which is to create instruments to make this world a better place by shifting the
consciousness from doing to being. She suggested that the 2.5-inch tongue shouldn’t
dictate a 6-foot person in terms of taste and what we talk. The way to achieve mastery on self, inner
peace and freedom is through meditation. Too many choices and less wisdom lead
to stress. And the best way to sustain a relationship is through love and
respect.
GV Prasad, CEO of Dr Reddy’s Labs, suggested that at parties instead of telling people what you do in
terms of your position, tell what you’ve done that touched lives.Harpreet Singh, IT Secretary of Govt of Telangana, indicated
that this event was part of series of events called “Happening Hyderabad”, in
an effort to create a culture of its own for the city, the capital of the newly
formed state of Telangana.
In the Emotional Health
session, sister Jayanti suggested, it is knowing what is it that pushes my negative buttons and then controlling
that. People with high IQ are not as successful as people with high EQ
(emotional quotient). The more we know
ourselves, the more we’ll be able to understand how to deal with others. When emotional well-being is not dependent
on physical experience, it lasts for a long time. Meditation leads to that
positive psychology. She noted that scientific evidence has shown that immunity
is directly proportion to positive emotions.
David John Kilowsky led a music and meditation exercise called ‘Stillness through Sounds’ using about a
dozen musical instruments, which took the audience into deep silence, much
appreciated by all.
In the panel discussion
on Emotional Health, Dr Kiranmai, Senior VP of HR at AMD, mentioned that
it is not only the technical skill set
but the emotional connection with others, self awareness and teamwork that
matters a lot in IT industry. On Team Psychology, she said it’s important
to cultivate people’s sense of security. This is enhanced when everyone is able
to express their opinion openly and not be afraid of failures. “We as leaders
give employees that confidence when we spend more time listening to them”.
Moderator Bala Kishore, SVP at United Online, asked about the
importance of teamwork, to which Sister Jayanti quoted Mahatma Gandhi - “Speed doesn’t matter if everyone is walking
in different directions”. To be able to work in a team controlling egos and
ones attitude are very important.
On how to give
negative feedback to an employee, sister Jayanti suggested that it should
be communicated with compassion and not blaming the person. It should be task
specific and not personal. Feedback sessions should start from the time the
people begin working together as team. It should be regular and not on a
specific day of the year. Build relationships of trust within the team. Give more importance to the relationships
than the task at hand. Everyone has
a need to be loved.
In the panel discussion on Social Health, Narasimha
Rao (Narry), head of Infosys in Hyderabad was joined by Sister Shivani, famous
TV personality and moderated by Flt Lt Bipin Pendyala, MD of iKeva. Bipin expressed his concern of how today’s
children are running away from direct interactions and are getting into a
digital world and asked questions on how to create a healthy social life and
how important are interpersonal relationships. In response, Narry suggested it’s
important to prioritize different relationships and make sure that each one of
the relationships becomes a priority at least once at some point and time must
be invested into growing it. Sister Shivani suggested to check one’s
interpersonal health. Check how you get along with others and what energy
people receive around you. To be able to
radiate positive energy, you should have a positive relationship with your
inner self. She also mentioned that what
we think and feel will become our energy which will be transmitted to people
around us. If we avoid people, our energy will be stagnant; it won’t flow
to others and other’s energies wont flow to us.
Answering a question from audience on how to react to people
behaving differently in different situations, sister Shivani said “Let’s not focus on what others are doing
and how they are behaving, focus on your response which should be constant
for all. It shouldn’t be customized based on what the other person will think
or say. We expect to control people but people don’t behave according to our
script. So, let’s start working on our own
script and become the creator of our own thoughts.” She also stressed upon
the importance of joint families and
that the more people we have in our family, the more energy exchange will
happen leading to healthier selves. Sister Shivani led the audience
into a meditation that created space for the ideas to settle.
In the last session of the day, on Compassionate Leadership, Mr
Varaprasada Reddy, Chairman of Shanta Biotechnics, set the context by saying how you treat your rival is a way to gauge
your character. The qualities of a
great leader are clarity of mind, purity of thoughts and focus on the goal.
Sister Jayanti mentioned the traits of a good leader and that
if you share what you have, people gravitate towards you on their own. Prof Raj
described self-compassion and demonstrated through an exercise that generally people are more compassionate to others
but lack self-compassion. Self-compassion can be cultivated by spending
time with yourself, just being.
Delegates shared very positive feedback before the closure. Some appreciated the meditations woven
into the discussions. One commented, “These kinds of events really make us to
think where are we heading? What are we achieving? Is it really worth it?” Others
requested frequent meetings. And, one felt “It has changed my understanding of
life”.
No comments:
Post a Comment