When I first started taking the Organisational Behaviour classes, I expected the study to be limited to

interaction of individuals within a group setting in an organisation, but to my amusement the scope
of the course was far wider than that. The course compelled me to think about various topics that
sometimes meant to challenge the value systems and conditioning I have grown up with, but the
statement -perspective being more important than reality; meant one had the flexibility to form
one’s own interpretation and conclusion of the concept.

he discussion about topics such as “Women Are Emotionally Stronger Than Men” led to heated
arguments, anger and frustration due to conflicting views and opinions but eventually we all learnt to
agree to disagree. The short clips of movies shown related to concepts were highly interesting and
entertaining. The Eye of The Beholder showed how different perspectives change appearances. The
whole discussion led to arousal of empathy of how misunderstood the protagonist Michael Gerrard
was. This led to a deep inner conversation of how many people I might have misunderstood in my life
due to listening them through someone else’s stories and their perspectives and how the real person
may be way different from the image in my head. The Big Five Locator Test results were very
interesting. I came to know that there may not be a clear distinction between some personality traits
such as Introversion and Extroversion. I got to know I am an ambivert which helped me to know
about myself and why my energy levels and interactions are different with different set of people. All
the exercises of sending in questions after every 2 sessions helped to critically evaluate and apply all
the concepts in our daily life and come up with thought provoking questions.

Another interesting exercise we did was the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator test. My personality type
came out to be that of a Mediator. It all made sense to me. I have always been the mediator between
any arguments of us siblings vs parents. I am able to make both the sides understand the view point
of the other side very calmy. I even settled all the fights between my two brothers and always acted
as a mediator. The personality type of INFP and all the traits within highly resonated with me. But the
personality type also made me realise that I am the total opposite of ESTJ which is the ideal Manager
Type. Further research helped me realise that every personality type can be a good leader, just the
leadership style of each type is different. Moreover, I have always felt like I get tired of things way too
quickly. The class of Nishkama Karma and Sakama Karma was very enlightening and made me realise
that my habit of constantly worrying about outcomes drained my energy throughout and since I was
constantly worried about the same things, it made me become tired and eventually lose interest. It
also led me to push back the tasks and delay them since I was always worried about the results. The
concept of attaining perfection and not worrying about the results was what I really needed in my
life. The Chinese Bamboo story of how, at times, growth is happening but may not be visible to us all
the time taught me to patiently put efforts and believe that the growth is indeed happening was
something that struck a chord with me. Also, a very important topic for me was that both attitude as
well as aptitude are important. Someone might have great aptitude but without the right attitude,
their growth will become stagnant. A company will always prefer a person with right attitude as the
skills and knowledge can always be taught but attitude is not easy to mould.

The ice breaking session after the outbound about Finite and Infinite Games was very interesting. I
came to understand that I have finite approach towards life since all my actions are generally focused
to accomplish a certain goal. When we had to come up with an example of finite and infinite games,
my favorite example was that of Rancho and Chatur from 3 Idiots and how their personality and
perspective shaped their life. I am very much like Chatur who is concerned about exams and results.
Someone like Rancho would run after learning, having an infinite approach and thus would win the
ultimate game of life.
All the discussions had led me to have a much broader perspective of life as compared to the
beginning of the session. A major contributor for the same was the 6 Blind men and Elephant story.
The six men were very wrong with their description but it was their reality due to the resources they
were limited to. It was an eye-opening session for me. In daily life, we are too quick to dismiss
others’ opinions as wrong without understanding that though not true, it may be their reality due to
the constraints they have and thus we should not be judgemental towards anyone. All the learnings
from the experiences, the insights from the deliberations have given me various ideas to implement
in my future life in order to be a successful manager. The different behaviour of different employees,
how their past experiences influence their attitude and how motivation would work for them would
be useful to inspire and keep them motivated. I hope towards the end of the course I can attain the
right behavioural skills along with the technical skills required to function in a corporate setting. The
UPS Manager Empathy case taught me how to view employees as more than just a resource in the
organisation and to connect and empathise with them as humans. This is crucial to understand since
people’s personal lives are not completely detached from their work lives. So, leaders/ managers
need to understand their behaviour and treat them as humans. This makes this course indispensable
in whatever field one may opt to strive towards.