Towards Enlightening the Mind of the Leader: Explorations in Alternative LearningBy Prof. Sanjoy Mukherjee

Session Overview

“Where is wisdom we have lost in knowledge?” lamented the great poet T.S. Eliot in his famous poem ‘The Rock’. These sessions attempt to outline a learning path for MBAs and leaders of tomorrow by offering them some pertinent insights on re-shaping the managerial mind beyond the techno-economic imperatives and generate sensitivity to issues of sustenance of the human species and our organizations, business or otherwise. The basic starting premise is that human mind or consciousness needs to evolve in a holistic manner prior to re-designing of our structures and systems, strategies and processes. Relevant concepts and practices on the nature of mind and its balanced development will be shared from the classical Indian wisdom along with guidelines from the lives and works of thought leaders of modern India (like Gandhi, and Tagore). This will introduce the flavor of the Orient in this journey towards global sustenance through innovative experiments in learning.

The sessions will begin by raising a few critical questions that challenge some of the fundamental assumptions of our dominant mainstream management education with its bias towards development of skills and sharpening of intellect or rational faculties. These questions will address such vital issues such as the meaning of work, purpose of life, connotations of progress and development, distinction between success and perfection, transition from bestial competition towards humane collaboration among others. Lessons from wisdom literature and role models of inspirational leadership from the East and the West, ancient as well as modern will be crystallized and contextualized to help re-shape the managerial mind for the future. The sessions will also question the very notion of ‘mindset change’ as it limits the infinite possibility of the ever evolving human mind. Beyond the often simplified notion of paradigm shift the session inputs will highlight the need for a radical and quantum breakthrough in our academic and leadership consciousness (‘mind-space expansion’) for effective and enduring re-designing of ourselves, our organizations and the planet at large with its myriad diversity.

The sessions will then proceed to outline a four-tier pathway to graduate from information through knowledge to the dawning of leadership wisdom. The four stages comprise – creating a platform for awareness creation, opening up the mind to broader issues beyond the limited notion of the self and the organization, rediscovering the fire or spirit within the deeper Self or core of the Being of the leader, and finally an adventurous flight to enlightened management by assimilating inputs from sources of learning beyond formal management education for evolution of our consciousness towards inclusive leadership that spans across the cosmos. Experiments with innovative methods like learning from Nature, tryst with silence, engagement in illuminating conversations, insights from folklore and fables, arts and literature, music and films will be shared in this regard. This will mark a welcome beginning to liberate the managerial mind from the traps of binary logic and linear thinking and achieve a dynamic balance in work and life that helps transcend stress, uncertainty and turbulence.