Why Corporate Sector prefers inhouse trainers

Corporate sector has always been keen in developing its employees. It works on their professional skills so that the employees could be more productive than their existing level. Corporate sector has a structured system of evaluating employees’ performance, appraise them according to their overall productivity and provide them with the training on the areas they struggle. In recent past, organizations have been focusing on edutainment which was more of an entertainment than the education. Purpose of the training was more on entertaining employees than developing them as productive resources. And there are organizations that use entertainment budget for trainings and training budgets for employees’ entertainment. And there is a long list of operational managers who strongly believe that sparing employees for a one day training workshop is a wastage of time and that they should use their employees to perform day-to-day tasks to achieve their objectives instead of wasting a day that neither adds value to the employees’ career nor helps achieve their departmental objectives.

Corporate trainers must take the responsibility of operational managers’ approach towards trainings. Edutainment has to be edutainment. It should be education that uses entertainment as a method of training people instead of entertainment that somehow connects with the education. Line management needs results. Although, soft skills training does not bring change overnight however it should relate to the existing needs and should complement desired results, if not overnight then at least over a period of a quarter.

Generic programs that contain ‘fits-to-all’ material has pushed the employees and the management out of the training room. Management looks for training programs that are customized, structured and aligned with their departmental and organizational objectives.

This mindfulness and demand of the management has turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the corporate trainers and it helped them in revisiting their philosophy of conducting edutainment. However, inhouse trainers are in a better position to respond to these needs as they are the part of the very system and they understand business dynamics and internal culture of the organization.

Why organizations prefer inhouse trainers over external trainers, the reason is simple, they know day-to-day operations and almost every detail of the organizational changes. They are skilled employees with hands-on experience of working in a few domains of the organization. They are the employees who have been either been performing exceptionally well in their departments and have privilege to work closely with the teams they are to train as trustworthy colleagues. They can empathize with the colleagues as they are equal ‘beneficiaries and victims’ of the very system. They understand internal politics, loopholes, favoritism, culture, line managers’ attitudes, organizational needs and changes, opportunities that each of the changes carries, reasons of employees’ dissatisfaction and what exactly motivates them. Their thorough internal exposure and experience gives them an edge over external trainers.

Most of the inhouse trainers are elevated from their domains on their best performance, positive attitude and their convincing skills so they become an inspiration within no time for rest of the employees and become ideals of their colleagues, especially juniors who see the trainers as their own future.

What makes inhouse trainers more responsible is their availability in the office premises. Employees can approach them when they want. They can take advice as they need it. They can have one-on-one sessions with them. They can hold them answerable for the suggestions they gave during or after the training session.

Inhouse corporate trainers are always under observation. They have to be very careful and choosy in their selection of words, attitude and the content they deliver. They get direct and spontaneous feedback from the participants who are their colleagues as well. Their impression is long lasting as trainees experience them on a daily basis and they earn respect every day. Moreover, they remain extremely conscious and careful too as their years-long impression can be ruined with one wrong move.

To connect with the employees, they have to learn different models of the business, a holistic picture of their organization’s business and where exactly the business and their organization stands amongst its competitors and other industries. They always have to learn basics of almost every domain, remain interested and interesting all the time. They have to have good relations with the professionals from same and other industries at the same time so that they could provide comparative analysis of the industry to provide satisfactory answers to their participants.

Inhouse trainers have to walk the talk and if they don’t, the participant would either refuse to be part of their trainings or they will drag their sessions. They can be held answerable if they don’t deliver what they commit before the training. They cannot afford to have a lot of complaints as their performance is based on their content, the satisfaction and the performance of their trainees as well. And even if their performance is not part of their KPIs, they have a psychological pressure for being mindful about the productivity of their sessions.

Above all, trainees are comfortable in sharing their problems with them because they know that the trainers understand the situation and has exposure to other departments as well. Employees believe that the trainers can give them insight of the business, different departments and as to where the organization is heading towards. They know that raising their concerns to the trainers will not only be easy for them to discuss but will also be heard by the management as well because management keeps taking advice from the trainers on employees’ behaviors and attitudes. Inhouse trainers keep talking to the people and the management to ensure that people exercise things at their workplace what they learnt in training room. Their loyal and angry, both the customers are extremely vocal about which can boost or break their careers.

Inhouse trainers are not only cost effective for the organizations but they are also the right people to conduct training need analysis, design largely accepted training modules, deliver engaging and productive sessions and be accountable for the post-training performance of the employees.

It is not that external trainers are no more required. It is that they will have to come up with the unique and truly productive content for the organizations. Training with the external trainers really work when it is a complete package of consultancy, offers more than what inhouse trainers deliver and ensures better return on investment.

The article was published on 28th December 2015 in Daily The Nation

Corporate trainers’ logical fallacies

Corporate sector has always been keen in developing its employees through regular trainings. With the expansion of corporate sector, need of training professionals has also increased. The ratio of per trainer trainees is more than the available professional trainers in the market. This gap between the need and availability has attracted a lot of unskilled trainers, especially those who cannot relate their academic studies with the business world because of less exposure to the industry. Moreover, they have not developed skill of observing routine events keenly and strong thinking habit so they cannot connect real time issues with the bookish knowledge. As most of the young trainers have not developed the habit of reading great writers and have not exposed themselves to different departments, they are tend to extract wrong results from the content they read to deliver trainings which eventually pass on irrelevant or false  knowledge to the employees. Few are being discussed here;

Leaders vs Managers – Fallacy

Leaders are better than managers. And managers should try to be effective leaders of their subordinates instead of becoming managers.

Leaders vs Managers – Fact

Organizations don’t always need leaders at all levels. They need managers too and if a leader is not a good manager then he cannot lead a certain group of people either. Business leaders are different from the political leaders. Political leaders are expected to fight with the system and business leaders are to fight for the system. Do not over use the term of manager negatively and leader positively. It would rather be a mess if someone exercises traits of a leader where management is required and traits of a manager where leadership is expected.

Emotional Intelligence – Fallacy

Employees should never show their emotions whatever happens to them. They should remain cool and calm in every situation and should not react to people and circumstances. Moreover, emotionally intelligent people hide their emotions and others cannot really figure out as to what makes them happy and what makes them cry.

Emotional Intelligence – Fact

Emotional Intelligence does not suggest you to be fankaar (over-smart) by not showing emotions in any situation. It actually asks you to show all of your innate emotions intelligently to improve relationship and grow in professional life. Even showing nerves is okay as it is quite humane but the frequency of it should decrease with every passing day and control on nerves should improve. It’s perfectly okay if people figure out what makes you happy or cry. EI means being aware of your emotions and as to where they should be exhibited.
People with high IQ are not the worst ones, neither they are opposite of it and so is about the people with high EQ. All of them are important but they have to be managed intelligently.

Anger Management – Fallacy

Employees should never be angry at any one as anger is one word short of danger and it always creates problems for the ones who show it to others. Showing anger is weakness and refrain you from achieving your desired place.

Anger Management – Fact

Anger Management does not mean one should never get angry. Absolutely wrong things and events against values must make you angry and it should be visible to others as well however one must use anger wisely so that it improves the situation and not worsens it. It actually means that you should use anger as energy at a right place, on right time and in a right way to get the issues addressed. It can help you achieve your goals, defuse a tense situation and avoid emotional leakage.

Change Management – Fallacy

Everyone must embrace change as it is always good and those who embrace change in early stages are the great change agents and are best people of the organizations. People who are resistant to change are negative and are not good for the organizations.

Change Management – Fact

Change Management does not expect everyone to be change agent and does not really ridicule those who are resistant to change. Change management is actually creating buy-in amongst late adopters and the resistants. It is about removing their logical concerns that ultimately benefit the organization. Late adopters are usually very good change agents as they understand the reasons of change and learn the techniques of change and then goes to implement it. Above all, there are very few truly resistant to every change. A change agent in one particular change can be resistant to another. That needs to be understood by the training professionals.

Stress Management – Fallacy

Stress is something absolutely bad that hurts your life and career. Moreover, employees should not exhibit it at workplace. And after taking session on stress management, employees should stop getting stressed at different occasions.

Stress Management – Fact

Stress Management is not about not to be stressed. It means, one should understand his state of mind so that he could make attempts to get rid of it positively. But even if he stays stressed, that’s perfectly okay and is quite humane. Stress management takes repeated conscious attempts and is a process, not a one-time activity.

Relationship Management – Fallacy

We should maintain good relationship at any cost with everyone in the organization as it always pays back and bad relationship with anyone hurt our repute.

Relationship Management – Fact

Relationship Management does not always mean to keep every relationship going by all means. It is about maintaining those relationships which are important to keep professional life smooth through effective communication and without compromising on values.

Teachers vs Trainers – Fallacy

Trainers are better than teachers. Trainers should never behave like teachers in their professional lives as teachers are usually not informed about the modern-day needs and they do not know much about effective learning techniques. Trainers transform the life in a session but teacher cannot do it.

Teachers vs Trainers – Fact

Principally, there is no specific difference in these two. Do not confuse local incompetent teachers with the global definition. Trainer needs to do a lot of homework about the content, participants, delivery method, retention and expected and measurable output of the training before conducting a session. So is expected by the teacher. Trainers should not disgrace teachers with their lack of knowledge. Moreover, there is no magic stick in the hands of trainers that they transform people’s lives in one hour session. Transformation of life or career is a long process that needs commitment from both ends, trainer/teacher and trainees.

Activity Based Trainings – Fallacy

Trainings must involve participants in physical activities. Everyone loves fun and learns a lot from activity based training method. Moreover, it any kind of content can be communicated through fun activities.

Activity Based Trainings – Fact

Activity based trainings are not always the best ones. There are people who are uncomfortable with activities and there are types of contents which cannot be delivered through activities. Trainers need to choose the method of delivery wisely. Training can be extremely ineffective otherwise.

Same training material for different relevant topics – Fallacy

If there are similar kinds of trainings like Stress Management and Emotional Intelligence or other combinations then same content can work and you can always combine two to three portions different training programs and make a new one with new name. Moreover, a trainer should be good at all of the soft skills equally.

Same training material for different relevant topics – Fact

If a training professional feels that he can train people on same kind of different topic as he has read a lot of material on it or if it is need of his job to conduct trainings then he is already making unconscious attempts to be ‘Jack of all trades’ and will be ridiculed for the very reason. He must not forget that every topic has different dimensions and have to be explored thoroughly. He should not try to mix content of old trainings to make a new one. If he cannot master IT knowledge, Technology, Systems and Products at a time then he cannot master different soft skill at the same time too. He has to be selective about the topics he wants to train people on.

Walk the Talk – Fallacy

It is okay, if a professional trainer trains participants on few soft skills but doesn’t exhibit it such as Anger Management, Time Management, Change Management, Relationship Building and many others as he is supposed to deliver knowledge and he does not really need to exercise it much. Above all, external trainers can afford to be different from the delivered content and it is more of a responsibility of in-house trainers as they have to face direct heat from their respective colleagues and management.

Walk the Talk – Fact

Indeed, in-house trainers have to be more careful as participants observe them keenly and ask them bluntly if they do not exercise what they preach in trainings. However external trainers have to be extra careful as saying something and not doing it keeps you away from the learnings of those suggestion that you give in your trainings. If you do what you preach, you will face the response from the people in your personal and professional life and you will be in a position to relate participants’ questions with your experiences. It would have exactly opposite learnings if you do not walk the talk. Above all, there is a life after the training day too. And there is a relationship after training room too. If trainees are unable to relate the content to their day-to-day life or unable to approach you for mentor-ship then the program is already failed.

The article was published in Daily Nation on 26th October 2015

eNPS – A Corporate Lifeline

It gives employee feedback on acceptability of work environment. 

One simple question can give companies an insight into their organisational culture, employees’ perception and acceptability of the company and managers amongst the employees.

The question is very simple and direct: On a scale of zero to ten, how likely is it that you would recommend this company as a place to work?

NPS (Net Promoter System) gives the company a picture of how customers show their loyalty to the company and its products. However, employee-NPS provides feedback of the employees as to how they feel about the company and if they will recommend it to their friends or not.

Employees’ answers are parked into three categories: Promoters, Passives and Detractors. Those who give 9 or 10 scores are taken as promoters of the company.

Less than 6 means the employee is a detractor. Both the types (promoters and detractors) are vocal about the company and create good or bad word of mouth for it. Passives are not vocal but they can be easily influenced by any of the two sides.

In eNPS, the role of promoters and detractors is far more significant than the passives as eNPS is not about employee satisfaction only. It is more about recommendation.

The question wants to know if the employee is enthusiastically promoting the company or he is just okay with the days he is spending at his workplace. There is a grey area between satisfaction and recommendation. When someone talks about his satisfaction, he tends to compromise on many grounds to ensure his job security.

A satisfied employee may like the salary but dislike the environment or vice versa. However, when someone talks about recommendation, he actually keeps his company’s culture, brand name, environment, perks and benefits, and many other intangible things in mind while introducing it to others.

He would never like a potential candidate or his friend to feel disappointed about the company he specifically recommended. Above all, the subsequent question, “Why would you recommend/not recommend your company as a place of work?” can highlight the real issues that employees consider the most.

If a company’s internal stakeholder is not recommending it to the external customers as a workplace, then the management must know that the damage has already been done and they need to work on findings of the eNPS survey right away.

Products and services

Through eNPS, companies can also get their employees’ input on the products and services they offer to their customers. Customer care and sales departments have direct interaction with the customers. They usually use the product first and then recommend it to their customers, friends and colleagues. There are a lot of products which are not liked by the frontend staff as they feel that the products are not user-friendly.

Their customers will come back with complaints and these would eventually harm their own repute so they remain hesitant in recommending it to others.

Companies must get the eNPS done periodically, especially about the most critical products. To evaluate products or services, eNPS suggests one question: “How likely would you recommend this company’s products or services to a friend or colleague?”

Above all, what fears the companies most is another million-dollar question, which is, “How likely would you recommend your line manager to a friend or colleague?” This question helps the management reach a productive decision by asking another subsequent question as to why the employee would or would not recommend the line manager to their friends or colleagues.

This can actually highlight the manager’s acceptability amongst his subordinates. Moreover, it helps the managers find areas to improve. On the results of eNPS, they can revisit their policies, relationship and attitude with their peers.

To get best results of the eNPS survey, companies must ensure that most of the employees attempt the survey with the trust that their responses will be kept confidential so that they do not face any undue pressure from the line management and above all, their actual issues get addressed.

If there are more silent (not passive) employees than those who attempted the survey, then the company must revisit its policies as lack of interest in attempting the survey shows that employees are either hopeless and believe that the company does not value their input or they feel threatened and prefer to avoid it instead of attempting it.

A satisfied and happy employee is more likely willing to create promoters for the company. He influences his colleagues, friends and above all customers who will eventually generate more revenue and more promoters.

The article was published in Daily Tribune on 6th April 2015.

Subliminal Marketing is “Conditioning” Business

Every business has its values and so does the society. When a society starts observing hidden messages of the organizations doing business around it and finds those organizations “conditioning” it to purchase more by compromising its values, it reacts. Customers are part of the society and their reaction hits revenue targets in a negative way. Above all, bad word of mouth turns promoters and passives into detractors. This is exactly what is happening with most of the organizations.

Before applying subliminal marketing and Ivan Pavlov’s (stimulus-response) conditioning theory in their commercials, organizations must know that these are neither new to the industry nor to the modern-day customers.

"On September 12, 1957, a market researcher named James M. Vicary called a press conference to announce the formation of a new corporation, the Subliminal Projection Company, formed to exploit what Vicary called a major breakthrough in advertising: subliminal stimuli. Vicary described the results of a six-week test conducted in a New Jersey movie theatre, in which a high speed projector was used to flash the slogans “drink coke” and “eat popcorn” over the film for 1/3,000 of a second at five-second intervals. According to Vicary’s storehouse, popcorn sales went up 57.5 per cent over the six weeks; cokes sales were up 18.1 per cent."

This was the first time when use of subliminal marketing was reported. In later years, it became part of the strategy. Like many other marketing strategies, organizations are not mindful about the negative impact of subliminal marketing on the society. They are not trying understand that combination of subliminal marketing and usage of conditioning theory adds fuel to the fire. It earns them bad profits only and then turns the customers into detractors. Customer experience is on stake even if customer does not use any product or service. Customer’s experience is bad because of the subliminal marketing and conditioning techniques the organizations use. Interestingly, none of the reports give real picture of people’s perception especially those who are not even customers but have strong influence on the society.

In Pakistani market, Organizations somehow underestimated the power of Intelligentsia. The intelligentsia has highlighted that subliminal marketing and conditioning theories have not only been used to convert wants into needs but also to introduce western culture by compromising local values through commercials, documentaries, films and cartoon movies by the entire industry. From banking sector, textile industry, food chains, media, beverages to sports industry, everyone has contributed to it, they say.

It is also said that post (year) 2000 era has exactly the opposite impact on the society than that of 90s.

From a superstar’s mesmerizing early morning “Ji, main cigarette nahi peeta”, “Ye mardana darhi hay, baaton say nahi banti, “Daant sufaid aur chamakdaar”, “Aye Khuda mere Abbu salamat rahain”, “Kaam, Kaam, Kaam, din raat krain ham kaam. Jab kaam say thak jaen tu khoob krain aaraam” and “Laado k lashkaray, Jugmug kapray saaray” to “Sexy Mobile”, “Taras na kha, Ruggar Day”, “Food ka Love”, “Teri Mehrbani”, “Aap ko paisay time pay miltay rahain gey”, the organizations have not only conditioned the customers to increase their sales but also has negatively impacted the society through subliminal marketing. Pre 2000 era would ensure that girls and guys should have a culturally accepted and ‘legal’ relationship with each other in their commercials. However subliminal effects of post 2000 era quite unacceptable to the society.

Organizations focus on what customer ‘wants’ but not on what the society would not like. They prefer fulfil customers’ needs before their competition. However they usually compromise on few things that society may question about. In recent years, organizations have propagated the culture that suits them even if it looks nearer to cultural jamming than truly advertising the products. They are conditioning the society to watch an ‘illegal’, socially unacceptable relationship (especially in remote areas) between the opposite genders, ridiculing the competitors, promoting pursuing careers in abroad, using slangs of western or Indian culture and making efforts to the addiction of food and subliminally the products attached to food, textile, sports and banks.

Organizations forgot that most of the people follow their elders and follow them religiously. “Folk wisdom” is more in practice than technology. They forgot as to how people, in other words their loyal customers would respond to the usage of “conditioning theory”. Elders would not get conditioned. They would rather analyze the product and its impact on society and would guide the young lot i.e. their potential and existing customers as to why they should not use it. Industry and elders of the family, both focus on youth. What the organizations must not forget is that the impact of the social norms and elders’ suggestions is by all means more than the commercials. The subliminal marketing can hurt the organizations too. Looking at the bigger picture, customers may decide to quit and stop using the services. Poor advertisement, subliminal marketing, using conditioning theories and making attempts of cultural jamming can badly hit back to the organizations.

Above all, organizations must remember that business and customers are part of the society and so are the employees.  While designing commercials, organizations should not forget that the marketing techniques they are using should not have a clash to the values the organizations want their employees to exhibit. Employees are internal customers and are directly connected with the external customers and with the society. They have to answer questions of the customers and keep the brand name alive. They must feel a connection between customers, products, employees and the society.

Moreover, the organizations should try to connect sales with marketing as they face market more than marketing department. They should avoid launching any such products that may hurt society’s values and security. Subliminal marketing is not always unethical but at times it is, especially when it tries to generate revenue by compromising on cultural values. Industry may forgive the organizations but people won’t who are the actual customers.

PTI – A Corporation, A Pressure Group or A Political Party

Speculations on the motives of PTI’s sit-in, marches, rallies and above all, its decision to evacuate D chowk are still in the air however make, mindset and ideology of the PTI is something that remained untouched from the modest beginning.

Their back-to-streets-threat is still on the cards however to reach the answer as to how this tug of war between PML-N and PTI would end we need to identify PTI’s method of getting things done as the war was initiated by the PTI which is a new ‘opposition’ on the floor. We should rather try to understand if the PTI is a political party, a pressure group or a corporation.

Let’s see how books define these three types of a group of the people;

Pressure Group
An interested group that endeavors to influence public policy and especially governmental legislation, regarding its particular concerns and priorities. (Oxford Dictionary)

Political Party
A political party is a group of people who share the same ideas about the way the country should be governed. (technologystuden.com)

Corporation/Business Organization
A form of business operation that declares the business as a separate, legal entity guided by a group of officers known as the board of directors. (entrepreneurship.com)

Following the given definitions, it will be difficult to park PTI into any particular slot. PTI is somehow a combination of all three but indeed a master of none.

 Kaptan’s Youth that makes PTI a party

PTI is a party that enjoys a reasonable representation of educated people. There is a long list of corporate employees that supports her at all levels and by all means. They are vocal about Kaptan’s moves. The PTI has a strong backing of an emotional young generation who knows almost nothing about the constitution, the political history of Pakistan and the background of any political leaders. Their firsthand knowledge comes through facebook and twitter. Their entire conversation is usually an extension to (any of) Kaptan’s ‘yesternight’s speech. They listen to Kaptan only and share with others without verifying any of the information. A common quality of these two genres (the corporate employees & PTI youth) is, they tell, they speak, they shout but they do not listen to the argument. They are strong believers of, “I am wise & others are otherwise”. Patience part is missing altogether which is an integral part of any political mindset. The PTI has a strong representation of women as well however it contains same details.

About the mature leadership or the followership of PTI, it is evident that excluding Kaptan and Asad Umar, all of the container-fellows were old and rejected leaders who have supported Bhuttos, Sharifs & dictators when they were at boom. Interestingly, PTI voters are not looking up to them even. They believe that Kaptan is the only hope and he will do the magic ‘somehow’ as soon as he gets into the power. But Kaptan is not the whole party.

On the other hand, a long list of first-time voters is supporting Kaptan which is all okay however they are not ready to believe that the candidate they vote for can even lose. Interestingly, they do not know much about the electoral process (of Pakistan and any other country), geography of their own constituency, limitations and strengths of political leaders, democracy as a system and dictatorship as a power. They believe Sharif is the only reason of everything that does not go their way and whoever supports him is Pakistan’s enemy.

It is a generic analysis of PTI supporters. Why it turns out to be universal, the answer is simple. Their leadership believes the same.

The PTI is a Corporation or a Political Party

Except an-always-pro-establishment-politician Shah Mehmood Qureshi, none of the PTI’s top ranked leadership has been exposed to the real politics. Most of them have never fought for any district council election. They do not have exposure to the electoral gimmicks. And when we say electoral gimmicks, they ridicule politics although including representative of corporate class in PTI, the ex-CEO of Engro group Mr. Asad Umar, head of board of directors has also been part of the team that used marketing gimmicks for better sales in his previous organization.

Not analyzing a market and going out for sale has never been a good idea for corporations however that is what exactly PTI leadership is doing right now. They have not tried to understand ‘Changed Pakistan’s’ political maturity. With recent march/sit-in, they could not satisfy their supporters especially from the people of urban and rural areas of D.G Khan, Vehari, Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Multan, Sialkot, Narowal, Gujrat, Wazirabad, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Faisalabad, and many other cities. The areas I have recently been to (as a part of a corporation).

PTI leadership could not understand that people of Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi can enjoy a live concert and call it an innovative idea but people of above mentioned areas never appreciate it as it is against their values. Interestingly, they were not really much into local leadership of PML-N but they were all up for Nawaz Sharif. They not only ridiculed Kaptan but believed that he would harm Pakistan with his abusive language and aggressive behavior. They were not political workers, they were voters.

These voters are potential marchers on one call of their leader and unlike IK’s burger class followers, they can face any shelling or tough days for their leader’s cause.

Kaptan’s corporate and burger class would be with him as long as things remain normal. They would not come out to resist as they already believe that system is corrupted and they have an-always open offer to fly abroad. Facing the gas shelling would always remain an unwanted luxury for them. Above all, expecting them to be a resistant to status-quo is not more than living in a fool’s paradise. Visit any corporation, they work in and ask how many times they spoke against status-quo and if they want to enjoy the same what their seniors have already done or not. Most of the corporations operating in Pakistan have “Whistle Blowing Policy”. Just ask them how many of the sit-in participants blow whistle at their offices and put their lavish jobs on stake. And how many of them send ‘anonymous’ emails to the HR which does not really make any difference but work as a catharsis only. Those who could not blow whistle at any point of time to save their jobs would really be blowing whistle in the real world?

Moreover, corporate sector has a strong “appraisal system” which gives unmatched power to the people managers who have mastered the art of office politics. They know how exactly they need to manipulate the facts and bring their ‘favorites’ on driving seat. They face it everyday or at least once in an year and put their subordinates into this very trouble. Would those ‘retired CEOs’ and corporate people managers really be able to change their habit especially those who ‘enjoy’ the status of being center of attraction and chose ‘not’ to laugh at particular jokes of subordinates.

They somehow are unable to understand the difference between leading a corporation and leading a political party. You’ll find most of them giving casual statements about their counterparts and fellow leaders of other political parties. There is a difference between giving casual statements in the presence of subordinates at smoking zone and giving political statements in the presence of national media. These corporate masterminds are still struggling. They are unable to understand that a political worker/voter’s psyche is quite different from the subordinates’. A people manager enjoys authority but a political leader enjoys influence and there is a difference between these two. PTI leadership need to understand this reality.

"CAP Model of Change" and PTI

The PTI has successfully implemented “CAP Model of Change” before, during and after elections through their media campaigns and Tabdili Razakar. PTI’s management has followed the checklist of “Change Acceleration Process”. They led the change, created a shared need, shaped a vision and mobilized commitment however they forgot to implement few extremely important steps of real change which include, “Monitoring Progress and Making Change Last. PTI corporates dealt their political party as a corporation. They did not evaluate and understand ground realities of regional politics of all four provinces. They focused on Punjab but forgot to focus on rural areas and especially those urban areas where first generation of rural areas has started living just 20 years ago and they still carry same old values of being polite to the elders and respecting the opponent. PTI has lost its respect in those areas too. PTI’s corporates must try to visit those areas and meet them personally. A market survey with a smart set of questions, third party cost-effective ‘system’ and a pulse report by immediate reportees with a bossy attitude will not really work. Cost benefit analysis and hourly reports would not work at grass root level. They need to understand the system they are following and the real time problems of their people which is something beyond cost-effectiveness and revenue generation.

In a corporation, HODs take people as employees/subordinates and the upper layer maintains a professional distance with them to get things done effectively as strategy is ‘their’ piece of cake and implementation is of working class’. They plan and execute plans well as they have bell-curve system, appraisal system and a strong competitive environment where everyone is pushed to work according to organizations’ needs otherwise they will be cornered or fired whereas in a political party, there are workers, not subordinates. They have no fear of the “strategic decision makers’ appraisal system”. They would rather “fire” the upper layer if it does not work. They won’t idealize “the attitude” but the friendliness.

To improve further and understand local politics, PTI must scientifically work on the methods of PPP and PML-N. These two parties have a strong standing at grass root level as well as in establishment. They know as to how they should talk to the public and to negotiate with the establishment. It does not essentially mean that the PTI should give up their ideology and should start following their ‘enemies’ footprints but if they can shake hand with ‘once’ enemy MQM then they can at least make an effort to understand Pakistan’s strongest parties’ political method, even to counter it. Hating would not serve the purpose, it would rather harm them. Even their corrupt politicians know how and where to say and what. They know what may hurt their voters and what would give them a lifeline. To change a system, you must understand it. And that is what is missing with the PTI and hindering it from becoming a true political party of Pakistan. Kaptan left his people at Gujranwala in Azadi march and left for Islamabad and then left them at ‘D chowk’ for a better night at Bani-Gala. Both the actions are against the psyche of the voters however it worked for some time because the sit-in was done at Islamabad and not in Sialkot or Gujranwala. Even if PTI is closer to the establishment, it is far and away from their voters. They must not forget that the Baaghi has done the damage already and others have always been dependent on their parties even in their good old days. They can do no well to the PTI. The PTI needs to understand if not follow PPP & PML-N model to be a true political party.

The PTI is a Pressure Group

From day one, Imran has been interested in developing a pressure group which would always remain in the opposition and would do issue-based politics. He invited Abdus Sattar Eidhi, Anwar Kazmi (right hand of Edhi) and Ansar Burni for the same purpose in 1995-96 (but they refused). Imran idealized pressure groups. He was of the opinion that he and his party should always pressurize the government to resolve specific issues to take the country to the next level and once the issue is resolved, they should take up with another. And the chain continues until major issues of the country are resolved.

From rigging case, electricity rates, power plants, dams, health, education, Thar, IDPs, Peshawar, Karachi & Lahore killings to civil disobedience the PTI has always been an issues-oriented party. Although all of the issues have been dealt in much a biased way but they kept on highlighting issues from the modest beginning. When they call it a ‘real opposition’, they mean it a ‘real pressure group’ who could never let the government keep its attention from the issue they highlighted and it would not be the way Anna Hazaray has been doing it. Problem with the current scenarios is; they have picked so many issues and made some unrealistic targets which made things worse for them however with their philosophy they will remain a ‘real pressure group’ and would hardly be able to become a ‘real government’.

The article has been published in "Daily Pakistan Times"