24/05/2021
Real-Life Experience – The Most Powerful Tool for Learning
From the dawn of civilization when there was no script to record the knowledge gathered by the experiences of the then human beings, they use to pass on the experiences generation by generation by sharing it by way of field work and explaining them. The same is being repeated till today.
If we see today many great theories, concepts and principals have been evolved in branches of since & technology, medical science, space science, metrology science, environmental science and most importantly the Human Science.
In many cases it has taken ages to evolve and uncounted hours of efforts to evolve and established a principal or concept.
Let us examine few important factors which forces human being towards this
1. The ever-curious human brain
2. Necessity is the mother of invention
3. Accident
4. Natural Calamity / Eco system
5. Social and religious orders
6. Human Psychology
7. Desire and wants
8. Ambition & Ego
Some of the factors are most complicated factor in the list mentioned above.
No. 1, No. 6 and No. 8. Though the human is involved in all these factors but the numbers mentioned in the beginning of this paragraph are very critical.
Human Recourse Management - Why life experience is important
As I have mentioned in the beginning of this article that the knowledge gathered by early human was transferred generation by generation so was the Human Recourse Management. Human Resource management also started with the dawn of Civilization. However, given a situation where all the parameters are constant outcome is always the same says physical or Chemical science but this does not stand true for human science. This is because human is not a substance , it is a living body which has gathered experience or knowledge of logical or illogical, emotions like love and hate, loose and win, etc.. etc.. and reacts or responds accordingly.
Students of Human Resource Management study different subjects, different concepts, modules, analytical tools, research methodology, organisational behaviour etc. in the business schools and all the above concepts and tools are feezed in their brain however when they face the real-life situation they get confused as what they had been taught in the B School does not work in the given real-life situation.
We need to understand that all Concepts and Modules given by researchers are based on certain research tools, be it sampling, interview, observations, psychological tests etc they are conducted on individuals having different life experiences, emotions, socio-economic background, demography, religion, customs etc.
Individuality of every human being is the essence for failure of most of the concepts and modules accept a few like Maslow’s need hierarchy theory.
Human brain specially the sub-conscious brain is the bundle of experience. An adult man does not hold the fire with bare hand because he had burnt his hand with the lighted candle in the child hood.
As an HR professional with almost 32 years of work experience in largest business house in various capacity I have encountered this. The one best thing happened that the concept and modules thought in my B school gave me opportunity to think “Out of Box” and succeed.
Sometimes barely following the module or concept without proper understanding and practice is killing. History is full of such examples.
Why was Abhimanyu killed during Mahabharata War, because he did not know the strategy of coming out of the चक्रब्यूह, the experience his father Arjuna knew and was sharing with his wife when Abhimanyu was in her mother’s womb. His mother slept before Arjun could share the strategy of coming out of the चक्रब्यूह and thus Abhimanu could not learn this important and war winning experience and lost his life.
One may have a quarry that, can an unborn child learn anything in the mother’s womb. Yes, very much, it has been proven scientifically also and the factor behind is the sub conscious part of the brain which develops within 4 to 6 weeks of conception and start gathering experiences.
I am not against the course contains of Human Resource Management which B Schools are having what I am stressing is that there should be more sharing of real life experience by senior colleagues in the field.
Life is a continuous chain of experiences. These experiences are both good and bad but both help us live a more educated and productive life. Experience is a key ingredient to success on the job. Experience is the key element to being success at a job or earning a more desired job.
Role of HR professional in the age of digitization Vs real life experience
It will not be appropriate to tell the students and colleagues of HR profession the major activity generally taken up in HR however to corelate the importance of real-life experience in the changing business scenario and technological intervention I would like to just reconcile it
1. Manpower planning : Digitized
2. Managing manpower life cycle : 75 % Digitized
3. Attendance system : Digitized
4. Payroll : Digitized
5. T&D : 50 % Digitized, 50 % coordination job
6. Performance & Potential appraisals : 90 % Digitized
7. Employee Relation (Discipline, Grievance redressal) : 10 % Digitized
8. Compliances : 30 to 40 % Digitized
9. R&R : 90 % Digitized
May be a few things I have missed however even from the above list we see if so much of digitization is done what is left for the future HR professional. Compliance and employee relation are the two major area where I see the major role of HR professional and that of course require real-life experience.
Based on my experience with senior level business leaders and promoters in the present scenario and future business modules if HR has to survive, they will have to take additional responsibilities such as CSR, Community communication, socio – economic and demographic issues, environment management etc. and all this surely require real-life experience. If the HR people do not take these responsibilities others will take it and HR’s existence will be at stake.
The purpose of my article is not to creat fear in the mind of HR students and faculty of the B Schools but to make them aware that four weeks or six weeks summer internship in an organisation or industrial visits are not going to solve this issue.
It has to be made a part of the course curriculum where the experienced HR professional share their real-life experience in handling the human capital effectively without loosing any production on this account and that is the only concern of the management and the promotors (Few acceptations are always there).
Life experience is one of the most valuable sources of learning we have. For as long as humans have been around, we have passed information down from generation to generation.
No one can live life without learning something. What you learn and experience can often determine your success or failure in life. Effortful learning combined with real life on the job experience is a winning formula for success. Your choices and your experiences help create the person that you are.
8 Power Quotes That Makes You Realize The Value Of Experience
1. “The only source of knowledge is experience.
– Albert Einstein
2. “One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.
– James Russell Lowell
3. “Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced- even a proverb is no proverb to you till your life has illustrated it.
– John Keats
4. “No man's knowledge can go beyond his experience.
–John Locke
5. “Experience gives us the tests first and the lessons later.
– Naomi Judd
6. “The trouble with learning from experience is that you never graduate.
–Doug Larson
7. “Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.
–Aldous Huxley
8. “Experience is the only prophesy of wise men.
– Alphonse De Lamartine
Some More
My experiences have taught me a lot and I'm happy with my learnings, if not with what I went through to learn.” - Ally Sheedy
“If we could sell our experiences for what they cost us, we'd all be millionaires.” - Pauline Phillips
Good Judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement. – Rita Mae Brown
Written by
Bhushan A Singh
