Our contribution to Husk Power Systems in India

Since our first visit to Husk Power Systems (HPS) in India earlier this year Optima has had a number of follow-up visits. During the last two visits, in September and November, we started with training of the management team.

Building HPSs training and group facilitation capacity During the September visit the focus was on building training and group facilitation capacity, and the five-day programme was attended by all the senior staff of the Husk Power Systems. It was the first of its kind in Bihar (the province where Husk Power Systems' headquarters are), and the first exposure to skills for training others for most of the delegates. The enthusiasm with which all participated was overwhelming, and the commitment to learn and practice new skills was something that is not often seen.

Building HPSs leadership and management capacity The November session involved the entire top structure of Husk Power Systems (including the Husk Power Systems University) and focused on: Leading self Leading others Leading organisations; as well as Managing performance. It was the first leadership and organisation culture intervention the entire team participated in, and that made for excellent discussions, debates and alignment. It is not often you find that the CEO of an organisation commits to participate throughout the five-day programme, and provides leadership whilst learning and struggling with concepts himself. Similar to the first workshop people indulged in the activities and were not scared to experiment with new ways of thinking. The implementation of the performance management system that started during November will continue until March 2012, with a go-live date of 1 April 2012, in line with the start of the financial year.

Optima gained valuable insight from HPS For Optima these were also extremely useful workshops as we learnt much about cultural differences – and similarities – that will enable us to provide an even better service to all our India clients. From what we learnt we are now able to contextualise some of the thinking and conceptual models; something that is enormously valuable for our plans to establish Optima as a preferred capacity builder for SME's in India.