Prayas Foundation Course

(Integrated Personality Development Program)

(For adult participants, working people including those holding managerial/executive positions in various organizations or individuals desirous of becoming entrepreneurs)

Module Code: PFC/02

[Development of a country and the quality of life of its citizen depend upon the availability of physical resources and quality of its human resource. This particular module of Prayas Foundation Course is an unique program which ensures success in the life of non-working or working adults, who participate in this program, in tune with their own aptitude and interests with peace and happiness by bringing positive paradigm shift in their thinking and behavior and improved emotional, social and ethical intelligence and developing a internally driven personality through guided brainstorming sessions on real life issues and daily non-prescriptive  writing on subjects of self interests. It empowers participants to achieve success in shouldering responsibilities of their families, jobs or occupations or professions on their own without any spoon feeding and that too in most difficult and challenging circumstances. Life is full of difficulties and challenges and one should be able to live it in happy and healthy way. This program prepares participants for the same. It is most flexible, informal and economic course in present day context and is customized for each batch depending upon the special requirements of participants. Most important feature of this program is an assurance to participants of this program that all their queries or doubts regarding the subject or the topic being brainstormed will be replied and they can avail mentoring facility even after completion of the course, if they so desire, on payment of annual charges of Rs. 1000 (one thousand) by general candidates and Rs. 500 (Five Hundreds) by candidates belonging to weaker sections of society on long-term basis. It is fact that ‘Prayas discourages spoon feeding but takes care of the pressing problems of its customers and will not leave them high and dry and tries to help them to the extend feasible.]      

Special Features of Program

This course is dedicated and customized for achieving the fundamental aims of achieving excellent in one’s job/occupation/profession and fast progression in chosen field. This six monthly Integrated Personality Development Program titled “Prayas Foundation Course” ensures success in the family and work life of participants with peace and happiness by developing positive thinking, liking for healthy life style besides developing balanced understanding of family, institutional, social, legal, economic and political environment in participants with special focus on subjects related to their area of work. It encourages participants to deliberate and discuss about basic human values, rights and duties of citizens and desirable personal, family, institutional, social, economic and political behavior through unrestricted brainstorming on interesting questions related to important issues of these common areas as well as areas related to their occupations. It encourages and motivates them to take group decision through consensus building about adopting suitable behavioral changes in their personal and professional life.  This program makes the participant so capable, self driven and motivated that they are able to handle difficult family, work and life situations and problems on their own through objective analysis and rational decision making without any external assistance and dependence. It motivates them to achieve self-empowerment on their own.

General Need of the program

According to ancient Indian Life Tradition, for living a peaceful, successful and happy life from birth to death, an individual has to shoulder the responsibilities of various phases of his/her life i.e. Bramhacharya, Grihastha, Vanprasth and Sanyas Ashrams to best of his/her ability and with full honesty. “Prayas Foundation Course” launched by ‘Prayas’ contains customized modules according to age and life goals of participants of a particular group. This module is dedicated for working professionals and individuals and is holistic in its approach.

The qualities and values required to be developed for a capable, successful, peaceful, satisfied, and happy family and professional life include: faith in dignity of physical labor, recognizing importance of maintaining good health and adopting healthy life style, positive thinking, inter-personal harmony, universal brotherhood, patience to hear other’s view carefully and react in an objective manner, ability and willingness to understand and appreciate other’s emotions and thoughts and respect them, ability to present one’s view point before others in an objective, courteous and effective manner, alertness towards one’s duties & responsibilities and willingness to fulfill them as a responsible citizen, faith in democratic thoughts, principles and processes, general understanding of common features of all religions, respecting them and belief in co-existence of a multi-religious society, belief in individual/human rights  and freedom, understanding the importance of ethical values in life, respect for elders and willingness & eagerness to learn from their vast experience, use of suitable technique to enhance memory, habit of regular reading and learning new things for use in life and good understanding of group dynamics and ability to work in a group in an effective manner. Besides above an individual should be well aware about current family, institutional, social, economic and political problems. Unless above mentioned values and qualities are developed in a person well in time, he/she would not succeed in his family, job, professional and social life. Also he/she would neither be peaceful & happy nor can he/she make others happy.

Lack of adequate ability to face stiff day to day competition for good jobs which are limited in number,  lack of ability to face tough problems and pains of life, escapist mindset, acute worldliness  and consumerism, lack of understanding  of fundamental human values, increased psychological distance between people due to lack of frequent mixing and inability to resolve day to day problems due to underdeveloped emotional, social and ethical or spiritual intelligence in human resource of an organization irrespective of the fact whether it is commercial (for profit) or non-commercial (not for profit), are responsible for its failure in achieving its corporate objectives. Current researches indicate that the mental ability (IQ) of an individual contributes only 20% towards success at his/her job or profession and remaining 80% is contributed by his/her emotional, social and spiritual intelligence. No academic/training institute has time and patience to develop it. Toxic behavior of students of reputed schools, colleges and universities as well as working professionals is indicative of this state of affairs.

No employer would even think of having an individual in its employment who, cannot mix with his co-workers and is not able to obtain their co-operation or extend co-operation to others (indicative of low EQ) and is corrupt and self centered (indicative of low SQ) even if he possesses a very high IQ. Nobody likes such a person.

Considering the current educational scenario and gaps in the current process of personality development, ‘Prayas’ has launched a unique Personality Development Program (PDP) titled “Prayas Foundation Course (PFC)” to develop emotional, social and spiritual intelligence in adults. PFC supplements the inputs being given by various schools, colleges and universities. It adopts a unique process of self analysis, group discussions in brainstorming mode.  This course is part time, flexible and informal and does not interfere with regular work of the participants. Length of its daily sessions is normally 90 minutes but the duration and timings etc. can be customized as per requirement of participants or the organization nominating them.

Just after conclusion of the admissions to a batch of this program and its commencement, a group personality profiling test, consisting of a number of time tested psychological instruments, is conducted through mobile app to ascertain the current level emotional, social and spiritual intelligence of participants and other general personality features and the personality profile (called entry profile) is generated and  concerned  Vyaktitva Vikas Margdarshak (VVM)  (an nominated executive of the organization is trained by us to work as VVM) is appraised about personality features of individual participants. VVM keeps a special watch on them and guides them through the program as per advice received from “Prayas” on line. Again just one month before conclusion of the program, a repeat group personality profiling test is conducted through a mobile app and revised profile (called exit profile) is generated to ascertain actual changes which have occurred in the personality of participants due to participation in this program. A Personality Development Report (PDR) is generated after comparing entry and exit profile. PDR highlights personality features of individual participant and changes which have taken place due to participation in his program and contains recommendations for further improvement to be implemented by said individual or organization in future.   It is ensured that participants completing this course successfully are totally ready to face and resolve day to day challenges of job/profession, family and society on their own with full confidence. 

Objectives of the Program

This program aims at developing following special abilities in the participants which are required for adapting a proactive approach to achieve success in life.

• Curiosity to learn and understand reasons behind new events, situations, techniques and processes.
• Ability to present one’s viewpoints before others in a rational manner after listening their opinions carefully and after due analysis.
• Ability to equip oneself with capability to achieve success in family, social and work/professional life as per ones interests and aptitude.
• Ability to create an enabling environment for success in a work or profession.
• Ability to manage one’s time well for maximum productivity without undue diversions of one’s energy and time.

Once above abilities are developed, the personality of the participants becomes self/internally-driven, self-motivating and proactive rather than one which is externally driven.   Due to such a positive transformation in the personality of participants, the efforts made by organizations get magnified and the participants excel in on-job performance. The family members, relatives, friends and other persons interacting with participants in day to day affairs, are also very happy to witness a positive change in the behavior of participants.

Syllabus of the Program

Participants are encouraged to brainstorm on interesting questions related to following general topics related to their day to day life. This process of brainstorming inculcates the habit of rational thinking on practical problems of life. The syllabus is updated periodically based on continuous feedback from the participants and considering their special requirements.

• Role of work and organizations in personality development: Role of work in development of personality in reference to inter-personal relationships and group working, role of the quality of human resource in economic development of a country and betterment of quality of life, importance of management in achieving organizational objectives, role of employees in achieving organizational objectives, importance of co-ordination between workers and management for success of organization and implications of conflict of interests. Role of intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial traits in organizational success.
• Power of mind over Physical health: Impact of our inner thoughts on our health and happiness. How to think right to remain healthy, peaceful and happy irrespective of situations one faces? Feasibility of changing the configuration of our genes made by our heredity through positive thinking, auto-suggestion and meditation. Role of mental and physical health in organizational success. 
• Benefits of understanding special features of one’s personality: Importance of understanding special features of one’s personality including interests and aptitudes through sciencitific methods in order to understand oneself, importance of different types of intelligence and need for improvements in the same, psychology of success and the process of behavioral change, role of emotional, social and spiritual intelligence in creating a caring and sharing society, creating heavenly environment around us by our own behavior.
• Various dimensions of personality development: Family environment, importance of education & training formal & informal, importance of environment conducive for continuous learning & self-development, benefits and method of focusing one’s energy on job or task on hand, need and benefits of balancing skills and intelligence, achieving emotional stability and importance of understanding the importance of ethical values in life.
• Individual thoughts and behavior : Principle of karma and fate, role of work or constructive engagement in human development, importance of time management, benefits and harms of usage of internet and mobile and its proper utilization, from failure to success, causes of tension in our life and ways to manage tension, sources of negative thinking and method of inculcating positive thoughts, harms from negative thoughts, and benefits of positive thinking, creation of own destiny, negative impact of resistance to change and orthodox behavior, benefits from developing sportsmanship spirit, role of creativity and imagination in achieving success in life, human needs for social acceptance, benefits of simple and natural behavior, importance of entrepreneurship in economic development, importance of developing managerial, financial and legal sense in individuals.
• Religious thoughts and behavior: Fundamental principles of different religions and their role in personal life, role of secularism in governance, thoughts of universal brotherhood, equality of mankind, human rights, ethical behavior, no harm to anybody or living beings and benefits of social harmony & peace.
• Social relations and behavior: Human as a social animal, family relations and social relations, faith in inherent goodness of mankind, importance of friendship, and negative impact of corruption on society in general and on poor in particular, negative effects of social and religious malpractices and benefits of social transformation & change.
• Economic environment & behavior: Role of saving and investment in achieving economic security, impact of acute economic inequality on social cohesion, unemployment-causes and remedies, causes of dissatisfaction in individuals, role of entrepreneurship in generation of employment opportunities, different currencies, international trade, negative impact of acute consumerism, proper usage of saving for a secured future, limit of the utility of money.
• Political system and current environment: types of government systems, current democratic environment, the process of casting vote, constitution of government – state and centre, rights and duties of responsible citizen, role of vigilance of public in ensuring quality of administration, importance of secular thought in governance in a multi-religious
• Legal system: Law and order, crime and its control, psychology of crime, Civil Procedure Code (CPC), Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), current problems in maintenance of law and orders and their remedies.
• Organizational dynamics: Roles of organizations in society, nature of organizations, forms of organizations, role of individual in group working, need of synergy in personal and organizational goals, balancing aptitude and organizational roles, role of emotional, social & spiritual intelligence of employees in performance of organizations and its overall impact on the financial health and reputation of organizations.
• Role of Objectivity in Decision Making: Problems and quality of human life, problem solving process, need of decision making ability, nature of objectivity, role of objectivity in determining quality of decision making, rational decisions and their impact on our life.
• General Knowledge : Government systems, country and states, languages and their usage, role of agriculture in economy, importance of clean environment, types of pollution, health and disease control, benefits of balanced and nutrition rich diet, benefits of yoga and pranayam, benefits of good sleep
• Other topics: Additional topics are included based on the periodic feedback from the participants. Adults may be interested to know how to get promotion in their current jobs or grow in their current profession or change profession or switch from 9 to 5 jobs to some self-employment opportunity or pursue entrepreneurship. As such the course contents are customized according the nature of requirement of participants of a particular batch.

The course is classified in two parts: the first part contains topics or questions of common nature relevant for everybody irrespective his/her profession and the second part contains topics related to special requirement of the participants of group. For example if all participants of a particular batch wish to pursue entrepreneurial dreams then the topics of second part will be related to this profession.  Therefore while making batches of Prayas Foundation Course, the nature and requirements of the participants and motive behind joining this course is kept in view.

Operation and management of program 

This program is organized in willing organizations either by independent well trained Vyaktitva Vikas Margdarshaks or by concerned organizations themselves through their executives under our guidance after imparting necessary training to them digitally. Organizations or enterprises desirous of running this course have to sign a memorandum of understanding with us. It specifies the duties and responsibilities of both the parties i.e. the person/institution/organization running this course and “Prayas’ providing full technical support.

Quality Control

Participants are asked to submit written feedbacks about the methodology, contents and usefulness of this course at specific intervals during the course and at the end of the course. The feedback is carefully considered and necessary modifications are done in the program during the remaining period of a particular batch and also for next batch. The course is continuously updated as per changing requirement of participants and mentors are also retrained if felt necessary.

Duration

The normal duration of the course is six (06) months provided one session of 90 minutes duration is held six days a week. It can be modified (extended or curtailed) in consultation with ‘Prayas’ depending upon the specific requirement of individuals or organizations running this course as well as the participants by adjusting the duration of individual brainstorming sessions as well as the number of days in a week on which sessions are held. Under no circumstances, the duration of typical brainstorming session will be less than 90 minutes.

Conceptualization and Direction

This course has been conceptualized and designed by Dr. Ram Chandra Rai, an officer of Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS), a Central Civil Service. He completed his schooling and college education from rural area of eastern UP and thereafter did BSc. (Hons) in physics, Masters in Business Management and Ph.D in Management from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. He worked as financial consultant with a government industrial consultancy organization for 7 years and subsequently got selected in the Central Civil Services Examination and worked in different positions for 32 years with Indian Railways. He retired from the highest position of the accounts department of North Eastern Railway (Financial Advisor & Chief Accounts Officer (FACAO) and is now engaged in activities related to personality development with ‘Prayas’. While working as financial consultant he played important role in institutional financing of various industrial sectors of New Okhla Industrial Development Area (NOIDA). While working with Indian Railways, he worked as Professor and Sr. Professor at the National Academy of Indian Railways (the then Railway Staff College) for 7 years and has reasonable experience of designing behavioral change enabling courses. Even when coming from a rural area of eastern Uttar Pradesh which is very backward, he rose to a very position in central civil service and as such is a role model for achieving success in life.

 

Philosophy of the Course

The fundamental philosophy behind this course is the basic fact of human behavior that an individual does not change his/her thoughts and resultant behavior, if directed or forced by somebody else to do so due to ego problem. Even if he/she changes his/her behavior out of fear or some other compulsion, he/she would revert back to old pattern of behavior the moment such force or compulsion disappears. However he/she is inclined to change his thinking and resultant behavior on his own on a permanent basis if he/she is able to realize on his/her own the likely benefits of desired change out of freewill through a process of self discovery. Since the Vyaktitva Vikas Margdarshaks (VVMs) conducting brainstorming sessions of PFC encourage participants to brainstorm on various dimensions of a topic related to an issue in a group and the group is encouraged to arrive at consensus on desired roles of individuals in handling that particular issue, it is more likely that members of that group may decide to play desired roles on their own and accordingly may bring desired changes in their behavior in reference to that issue. Positive change in thinking and behavior of adults working in an organization willingly will change the future of that organization for the better. This is not possible through spoon-feeding.

Benefits to participants

Benefits of this course to the participants completing this program successfully include better understanding of oneself, improved self-discipline, better time management, better relations with members of family, relatives, friends, co-workers, juniors & seniors, better on the job performance, better management of future life, success in jobs/occupations, increased happiness, and improved social prestige. This program brings positive changes in the life of participants and also tremendous improvement in productivity of the organization nominating its executive and employees for this course. Life is full of problems, difficulties and challenges and if we can overcome them without losing our composer then we achieve success and remain satisfied, happy and peaceful. This program facilitates it. Most important feature of this program is an assurance to participants of this program that all their queries or doubts regarding the subject or the topic being brainstormed will be replied and they can avail mentoring facility even after completion of the course, if they so desire, on payment of nominal annual charges of Rs. 1000 (One Thousands) for normal category candidates and Rs. 500 (Five Hundreds) for candidates belonging to economically weaker sections of society on long-term basis. It is fact that ‘Prayas discourages spoon feeding but takes care of the pressing problems of its customers and will not leave them high and dry and tries to help them to the extend feasible.   

 

Course Fee

At present the total fee of this course is Rs. 5000 (Rs. Five Thousands only) which is directly payable to ‘Prayas’ digitally through the payment link available on the registration format. However 30% of the seats are reserved for candidates belonging to weaker sections of society and suitable discount is given to such candidates depending upon their ability to pay. If, due to any reason, the duration of course increases then the mentoring fee will also increase prorata. Normally it is to be deposited in two installments. 50% advance at the time of admission and remaining 50% before 10^th of the third month or as agreed in the memorandum of understanding. The course fee can be modified in future but modified fee would be applicable from fresh batch only.  Individual or institution running this course under our guidance is paid 70% of the total fee by ‘Prayas’ after retaining 30% of the fee but after completion of a particular month on pro-rata basis.

How to start the course?

Organizations desirous of running this program for their employees or trainees may download literature of this program along with blank Memorandum of Understanding from our website www.prayasvyaktitva.com and sign the same with modifications, if any, after discussion with us and commence this course digitally through their smart phones having internet connection or at their premises after forming batches and obtaining training for concerned executive after payment of advance fee. They require specific approval of ‘Prayas’ for conducting this course physically. We prefer digital modes.