Learning @ Communities: Citeman Interviews Abhijit Bhaduri, Chief learning Officer Wipro

“Create a difference with your own ability that’s inside you”, shared Abhijit Bhaduri, Chief Learning Officer, Wipro on TEDx, Delhi early last year. In one of his recent interview to Knowledge@Wharton, he emphasised “Learning is the ability to ask the right questions”. He reflects this from the several initiatives which he had taken over the years to promote learning through different arenas. He had balanced large canvas learning within the organization and sailed beyond the systematic structures. He had been teaching in management colleges extending his efforts to disseminate knowledge through HR associations and other knowledge platforms. He wrote two best sellers and has been an avid blogger, igniting minds, bridging unconventional wisdom to practise. He have been a pioneer in social networking creating new frontiers with taking a poll on twitter and encouraging to ‘friend him’ on Facebook. His contributions towards the industry coupled with credibility to remain social and share knowledge makes him a role model. Here we present his recent interview to Citeman on learning through communities and predicting its the future behaviour.

What is your view to the community based learning in the corporate world? Learning begins with systematic education but moves beyond the system from Degrees to experience. In an organization, it is managed through the training programs and the knowledge sharing initiatives. But in absence of such an infrastructural support how would an individual continue learning? There are several scenarios which can create roadblocks to learning. Recession brought in lower investment in training and long term unemployment. There can be further limitations. In case of an entrepreneur, who would be responsible for his own learning, but may not be able to take a sabbatical from his venture. Under such circumstances, how do you see continuity in the process?Learning begins with a personal choice. It entirely depends on the individual. Organizations can create training institute, arrange programs and employees would attend them. But all these efforts will not convert into the change knowledge level until and unless one is willing to learn.  It can empower an individual but the willingness to put that newly gained power to work will still depend on them. Anyone can be taught to strum guitar. But that will not make them a guitarist.  To make it useful one needs to put an effort and practise. Such as 10,000 hrs of practise and consistency that will make learning ready to be used. The discipline to inculcate learning will remain a personal prerogative. Learning, implementing it and sharing the experience would add value to the individual. The interest to work through this process is ultimately an individual’s choice.

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