Sarang Yandes Thoughts on The Profession of Training

What Works in Training!

M yths & Ideas Discussed by

Sarang Yande
Founder & Lead Trainer
W ill n Skill
M umbai, India
M arch 13, 2013

I started training by accident when I had to return from Bengaluru to Mumbai upon learning
that my father had suffered an attack of epilepsy and my friends informed me about it. Hurt
that I was, I was even more amazed at the steel hearted approach of my parents not to inform
me as they did not intend to upset my rising career graph in Bengaluru where I worked as
Quality Control Team Leader at an international contact center.
The contact center business had begun at the turn of the millennium in India and by 2005 it
had peaked with dozens of American , British and Australasian brands setting foot on Indian
soil investing in voice and accent, process training and transitioning business over.
I quit my Quality Control profile and moved home to Mumbai. Doors were closed for the
same profile and every H.R round I was asked for a minimum of a year of experience in a
leadership role. I had to place a heavy rock on my heart and hesitantly joined Convergys, a
pioneer in the contact center business. Headquartered at Cincinnati, Ohio and employing
almost 70,000 heads in 2005, Convergys hired me as a contact center staff for servicing an
Australian internet and telephony client by taking calls. Fortunately my quality control and
leadership experience proved vital and I was offered a role of an in-team trainer! Salil Samant
was our process trainer and I owe a lot in my career to this gentleman. After a series of tough
auditions and scrutiny I attended the Facilitation Skills Workshop conducted by our Senior
Training Expert Pankaj Bharadwaj who was flown in from Delhi. Learning was immense,
boundless and exciting! Every concept was brand new, transparent and non-exhaustive. I was
put through rigorous facilitation demonstrations with a pre and post video recording. The jury
was the on board trainers and experts in the company whose elite presence I would enjoy in
some days after clearing the hurdles in certification.
I got certified as facilitation expert and moved on to the nitty-gritties of training. Conducted by
none other than the clients the Australian training team! I went through a brain numbing 30
days of Train The Trainer Workshop. To date that month has been the best and the most
invaluable in my work life. Explaining concepts, sticking to the Leaders Guide, familiarizing
with the Participants Guide, conducting activities successfully, showing videos, pictures and
audio files, delivering using Power Point, playing with different options on a projector,
conducting systems based training (live and training server), training with live customer calls,
offering objective feedback, evaluation methods, dealing with difficult participants and

Sarang Yandes Thoughts on The Profession of Training

conducting role plays and scenarios were among the chief components of this workshop. I
cannot thank enough trainers Stuart Deer and Tom W (cant recollect his last name), training
manager Laura Kenny and National Training Head Annette Finck. Trainer Annie Appleton is
equally responsible for my success today!
The Australians bowled me over literally with their profound knowledge of the subject, the
knick knacks and in-depth understanding of the concept of training delivery. I would rate their
training method as supreme and at the top of the list among a plethora of options available
today in the world of train the trainer workshops.
The next entire month was going to be a gruesome challenge, a test of my knowledgeapplication transition and my potential was going to be discovered. By my evaluator. By me.
I trained my first batch starting a week before New Years eve 2005 and the batch was taking
calls by the end of the first month in 2006. This was the perfect examination for me after years
and I realized my press-me-to-the-wall-and-I-fight-back attitude! Stuart Deer and I spent hours
on feedback sessions after 9 hours of training delivery. I used to hardly find time to eat and lost
almost 15 kilos during this month. Coffee, eggs and juice at the cafeteria became my staple diet.
The feedback brought me tears sometimes when Stuart stung me on schedule adherence,
content adherence and participant discipline. I realized training was an entirely different
business concept and it molded me into a professional. Discipline, timeliness, handling difficult
participants, breaking groups, focusing on poor performers, offering constructive feedback,
handling criticism, maintaining credibility, delivering technical training to engineers while being
from a hotel management educational background were important take aways of this period in
my life. It was the period of enlightenment Convergys was my Bodhisattva! And I soaked in
the glory, the intrigue, the passion and the commitment of being a trainer. Hard core, to-thepoint and smooth. Laura Kenny, client training manager had coined the nick name Mr.
Smooth for me! I remember the accolades showered on me when she had walked into one of
my sessions during situation handling and was delighted to see me focusing a lot on
communication skills and cultural sensitivity despite being a process trainer. This was a rarity
and most process trainers were in the old league of traditional technical concept delivery
without throwing any light on communication skills.
I had a different approach. Participants coming to my class would attend pre-process training
which would gear them up for communication skills, language and cultural awareness of the
client and end users calling them. Post that they would attend a 30 day process training batch
which ended in evaluation, fish bowling and finally call taking. I always apprehended the gap
between pre-process training and call taking and thought of including communication skills and
cultural awareness in situation handling, role plays and scenarios during process training.
It works!

Sarang Yandes Thoughts on The Profession of Training

In a team of a dozen trainers I found myself on the ascending path of glory, earning respect,
fondness and fame among participants who passed my batch and also team leaders and
operation heads. They started trusting my work and my personal commitment. I became a
name to reckon with. People recommended my expertise in handling challenging participants
or poor performers. Team leaders ganged up for having Sarangs batch as their team members.
The feeling was superb, satisfying and spell bounding! It prodded me to diversify my training
style by including elements like live call barging inside the training room (for better
understanding of customer accent and issues faced), scenarios involving difficult customers by
using actual call simulations (by exposing trainees to their would-be colleagues on the floor and
the issues faced, hold and transfer procedures and escalations involved), participants using live
servers for call logging (with due leeway from the technical team!) and trainees using the
technical help desk application extensively in the classroom environment. These were the key
success elements that made me a class apart from other technical trainers. That gave me the
edge. Einsteins thought of imagination being unlimited while knowledge limited rocked!
It Works!

Mid-2006 I found myself at the gate of IHM Mumbai also fondly referred to as Dadar Catering
College or Catcol by the old timers! This premier institute is a Government of India facility
started in the 60s as the first hotel management and catering technology college in the country.
I passed my 3 year diploma from this Mecca of Hotel Management in 2000. I was nervous as I
was meeting my favorite professor Asit Mishra for his advice on my career move. Prof Mishra
is an eternal source of inspiration and learning for his oceanic wisdom and never-ending ability
to mix teaching with humor and at times satire, black comedy, imitation and tremendous sense
of generosity in knowledge sharing. This meeting with Prof Mishra was a turning point in my
career and he suggested I move to hotels as a training manager. I had the professional
qualification, international exposure in Hong Kong onboard Star Cruises as a Barperson for a
year working with 30 nationalities among 1000 staff catering to around 1500 passengers every
evening. I had acquired the business acumen and the grit required to train adults and handle
most situations and the ever-motivating professor goaded me on to change industries and move
on to a bigger playground. Discussing your dreams and clarifying vision statements with people
who you trust would offer an unbiased feedback works! Especially if you are experiencing a
plateau in your career graph.
It Works!

Sarang Yandes Thoughts on The Profession of Training

My first job as a training manager at the Sun n Sand Hotel Juhu Beach Mumbai was my first
job as a manager. The best part of this role was to set up a training department. To start from
writing the job description, job specification, key result areas and devise a performance
appraisal matrix of a training manager. Soon I found myself writing standard operating
procedures, audit procedures, key result areas and performance appraisal matrices of all
department heads! I found a new sense of recognition, the ability to connect with senior
management and prove to be a vital go-to point in the whole management system. My boss
the General Manager Mr. Gulshan Arora, now VP, was a beacon in the path of new found
progress, unlearning and relearning. Getting the department heads buy-in, putting across
learning needs of staff before immediate supervisors and scheduling training slots in the midst
of peak and slack hotel operations were all new concepts to me and I was quickly mastering
those along with balancing the top managements vision and matching the training departments
vision with it. The constant endeavor to unlearn-learn-relearn worked!
It Works!
Four Seasons Hotel Mumbai was in pre-opening when Leonora DSouza called me if I wished
to try for the Learning & Development Manager position there. Leonora was a professional
hotel recruiter operating from her home office and renowned for helping hotel owners and
managers find the right fitment for mid-management and top management vacancies. She
shared Ranjith Premrajs email address and I sent my resume for their perusal! Four Seasons
Hotel is a part of the super luxury hotel chain started in 1961 by a Canadian visionary, Isadore
Sharp that competes with the Ritz-Carlton globally. The Mumbai hotel was built at a whopping
cost of 100 Million U.S Dollars that boasted of 202 pompous rooms with imported beds, twin
vanity counters, LOccitane toiletries, BMW 7 series limousines for airport pick and drop, an
opening price of Rs. 20,500/- for a standard room and Rs. 2,71,000 for our Presidential Suite
and a 30 U.S Dollar breakfast menu that sent eye brows up all over Mumbai! The interview
rounds gave me another deep revelation that common-place techniques were pass and the
recruitment team at Four Seasons had Behavior-based Interviews. Situation based, making one
think logically and it challenged my imagination that never-failing quality in me! I got selected
in the final round as I conducted a 30 minute training session before Armando Kraenzlin - the
Swiss General Manager, Uday Rao the Indo American Hotel Manager, Grace Moore the
Irish H.R Director and my would-be boss and Laura Laugiere, the Carribean dynamite a
task force training manager flown in from the Maldives to assist me in setting up systems,
processes and launching new programs in learning & development. I was feeling like being
thrown in a hot saucepan with live crabs for company and the temperature rising every minute!
What helped me survive is adjusting myself constantly to the new environment, my keenness to
soak in the new learning and the ability to CHANGEsometimes every day! It worked!
It Works!
Learning & Development is a world in itself. Working as a trainer and heading the department
are like heaven and earth! Completely different yet offering the opportunity to bridge the gap

Sarang Yandes Thoughts on The Profession of Training

between the two by constantly balancing priorities. Changing perspective also helps. A training
manager is successful as a trainer when he loses himself completely during delivery. He does
not assume the role of a manager and a department head and has little authority in the
management chain while training junior, mid-level, managerial and senior managerial
employees. When he delivers unabashedly. Without inhibitions. With conviction. Infusing
pride and the sense of achievement during induction for new joiners. Matching talent and
company vision during supervisory training. Gaining experience and putting down training
needs during managerial training. And seeking knowledge and matching planning committee
broad vision and the annual training plan during senior managerial sessions.
A trainer is successful as a training manager when he assumes the role of a department head
and delegates tasks effectively to training coordinators, monitors and reviews performance
regularly, briefs-guides-mentors interns and apprentices and effectively relays training needs
from Planning Committee to HR Director to Department Heads and prepares training content
and plans delivery in accordance to peak and slack periods in hotel operations. Most of
Stephen Coveys Quadrant II stuff works! Planning, Preparation, Prevention, Recreation
doing that what is not urgentbut important works!
It Works!
The training function is not a real department if you ask me! Purists would argue here and Im
certain they would at most nuances of my story, but then again this is a journey experienced
from my eyes and is not a claimed benchmark at all. I profusely faced the fact that each time I
had to go through the labyrinth of Human Resources to voice my departments concerns to
Planning Committee. Getting sanctions for spending on training room equipment, training
props and staff recreation was proving to be too time consuming and my morale was dipping
down. I wanted a department. I wanted total control. I wanted to perform as a department
head and make things happen. For the organizations benefit. To my own as well. I wanted to
be a Human Resources head.
Four Points by Sheraton Navi Mumbai was in pre-opening phase when I learned how big a
hotel chain was Starwood. At the time when Four Seasons was 83 hotels strong, Starwood was
servicing its diverse and dignified market by dishing out 9 hotel brands and a spa brand. This
giant had 1000 hotels globally when I gave my interview for training manager for a higher salary
and hoping for a better profile. Opportunity soon knocked my door when the spot for Human
Resources Manager was vacant and I proposed my idea of handling a dual role of Training and
HR Manager to my boss Sumit Kant, now VP and GM, in the elevator as we descended from
Level One to Lobby! We exchanged surprised glanceshe, perhaps at my daring and Icoyly
thinking of not broaching the topic in another six months or so! But the idea stuck. He
expressed apprehension at the fact that I was not a management graduate in HR the erstwhile
standard of becoming a HR Manager and that I didnt possess any informal know-how in the
technical aspect of the department with respect to administration, provident fund, employees
state insurance, medical insurance, policy making, grievance handling, unionization and other
industrial relations functions. I wasnt a straight jacket HR Manager. But I was convinced that I
had connected with my 320 staff so well in my stint as Training Manager that I would be able to

Sarang Yandes Thoughts on The Profession of Training

lead them, retain them, motivate them and help achieve their potential. Isnt that what HR
Managers are ultimately paid fortaking off the straight jacket and peeking into the very
existence of a HR professional? My conviction worked. My risk-taking paid off. My shameless
proposal delivered results. My self-belief rewarded me. I got what I wanted. I was heading HR
and Training functions of a five star deluxe hotel in the Mumbai area. 150 luxury business
hotel rooms. International spa. Largest gym in hotels in the region. Club Lounge. Open Air
Grill. International branding on my resume. My pursuit of excellence worked!
It Works!
Retirement at 30! Not wanting a boss after 30 years on this planet. Crazy dream. Over
ambitious move. I stuck to it. I had gathered a fine exposureI repeat exposurenot donkeys
years of experience. Star Cruises, Hong Kong; Convergys; Four Seasons Hotel Mumbai; Four
Points by Sheraton Navi Mumbai. All international brands. All leaders in their segment of
business. Unique in their vision. Challenging in my career. An exposure that only I could have
lived to tell. At 30 I felt complete. I drove an automatic Honda Accord then. I managed two
loans that ripped me off each month of 30,000 rupees. I smiled at my situation. I could do it. I
could jump on. July 3, 2010 was my last day of work under a boss. Four days before my 31
birthday. Who was I kidding! The same month I got my first assignment as an independent
training professional. Whoa! I was a young entrepreneur. Many scorned. Most laughed. While
others were jealous they couldnt jump while they were my age. There was no comparison. No
competition. And I let the world be. I moved on.
st

Two years and eight months later today I find myself on a new level. 27 clients. Half of
them repeat clients. 2 international training trips. One client offering to join them as CEO. One
client offering to join them as National Training Head. All loans paid off early! The market was
speaking for me. I was living my Convergys days again. People were recommending me in their
network. I felt like coming full circle. From the start of my training career in December 2005 to
March 2013 I had managed the journey purely on intrinsic motivation. Talking to my parents
helped immensely. They gave me the power beneath my wings. Freedom to play with my ideas.
And the maturity of not diluting my passionate advancement with their personal issues health
wise or financially. Im blessed to be born to angels. Connecting with no one but parents
worked! Many of us dont. Believe me it works!
It Works!