Prayas Foundation Course

(Integrated Personality Development Program)

(For Government Officers, Employees, Managers of PSUs and Supporting Staff)

Module Code: PFC /03

[Effectiveness of Central and State Governments or Local Bodies or PSUs depends upon the personal effectiveness of their officers, managers/executives and employees/staff. Their personal effectiveness depends upon their thoughts, attitudes and conduct. This particular module of Prayas Foundation Course is an unique program which ensures success with peace and happiness in the life of officials of government departments, local bodies and PSUs by bringing positive paradigm shift in their thinking and behavior and improved emotional, social and ethical intelligence thereby developing an internally driven, self-motivating and proactive personality through guided brainstorming sessions on real life and work related issues with focus on understanding various dimensions of public services in contrast to private services. It also empowers participants to achieve success in shouldering responsibilities of their families on their own without any spoon feeding and that too in most difficult and challenging circumstances along with success in their professional life leading to tremendous improvement in the quality of governance. 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 in present day context. 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 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

Dedicated for achieving the fundamental aims of Grihastha Ashram, this particular module of six monthly Integrated Personality Development Program titled “Prayas Foundation Course” ensures success in the personal and professional life of officers, managers and employees of governments and PSUs (central, state and local bodies) 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 public officials depending upon their special job requirements. It encourages participants to deliberate and discuss about basic human values, rights and duties of citizens  and desirable personal, family, institutional/organizational, social, economic and political behavior through brainstorming on interesting questions related to important issues of these areas. It motivates them to take group decision about adopting suitable behavioral changes.  This program makes the participant so capable, self driven and motivated that they are able to handle difficult life and work situations and problems on their own through objective analysis and rational decision making.

General Need of this 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 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 personal as well as professional life goals of participants of a particular group. This particular module is specially designed for officers, managers and employees of governments (central state and local bodies) and PSUs.

The qualities and values required to be developed for a capable, successful, peaceful, satisfied, and happy personal & professional life include: realizing the importance of public service vis-à-vis private service, faith in dignity of physical labor, recognizing importance of good health and adopting healthy life style, positive thinking, inter-personal harmony, brotherhood, patience to hear other’s view carefully, 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 & effective manner, alertness towards one’s duties & responsibilities and willingness to fulfill them as a responsible public servant, 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 and secularism, 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. 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 early in life of a person, he/she would not succeed in his family, professional and social life later. Also he/she would neither be peaceful and happy himself/herself nor he/she can make others happy.

At present various schools, colleges, universities and other similar institutions teach/train their students/trainees various general and technical subjects as per predetermined syllabus and evaluate their knowledge/skill through semester, half yearly and annual examinations. However they do not have time to check whether holistic development of personality of students is taking place to enable them to meet the real challenges of life or not. In the current era of fast pace and examination outcome oriented education system and tough competition for jobs, children are not getting adequate time to absorb fundamental values of human life. When a child with negative frame of mind develops into an adult, if he faces multiple failures, he/she loses peace & happiness and gets depressed and he starts considering his/her life as worthless. The role of a government or public servant is much more challenging due to availability of lot of opportunities of self-enrichment at the cost of poor public through misuse of power and position. As such ethical components of his/her personality needs to be focused much more than those adults who work for private individuals or organizations and have to work as per the priorities decided by the owner or management. Managers and employees working in private sector can be dismissed from job by owners at drop of the hat for any mistake they commit so they have to be extra careful but this is not so for officers and employees of government and PSUs who have constitutional protection of their job and removing them from job is not so easy.   

In general lack of adequate ability to face stiff day to day competition for good jobs which are limited in number after completing studies,  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 and ethical or spiritual intelligence are responsible for current state of affairs. 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 to develop it. Toxic behavior of students of reputed schools, colleges and universities as well as working adults is indicative of this state of affairs. 

Considering above scenario, ‘Prayas’ has launched a unique personality development program titled “Prayas Foundation Course (PFC)” to develop emotional, social and spiritual intelligence in officers, managers and employees of governments (central state and local bodies) and PSUs. This program 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 public officials.

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 a mobile app to ascertain the current level of mental, emotional and spiritual intelligence of participants and other general personality features and a profile (called entry profile) is auto-generated and the Vyaktitva Vikas Margdarshaks (VVMs)  conducting the course are appraised about personality features of individual participants detected at the beginning of the course. VVMs keep special watch on participants and guide them through the program as per advice received from “Prayas”. Again just one month before conclusion of the program, a repeat group personality profiling test is conducted again through a mobile app to ascertain actual changes which have occurred in the personality of participants due to participation in this program and revised profile (called exit profile) is auto-generated. A Personality Development Report (PDR) is prepared by “Prayas” by comparing these two profiles. PDR highlights personality features of individual participant and changes which have taken place due to participation in his program and the recommendations for further improvement to be implemented in future.   It is ensured that participants completing this course successfully are totally ready to face and resolve day to day challenges of public service, family and society with full confidence. 

Objectives of this Program

This program aims at developing following special abilities in the public officials which are required for success in public service.

• Curiosity to learn and understand reasons behind new events, situations, techniques and processes relevant for effective public service.
• Ability to understand and appreciate the fundamental differences in public and private service and attributes required to be developed for effective public service.
• 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 life.
• Ability to create an enabling environment for success at the work place.
• Ability to manage one’s time well for maximum productivity without undue diversions of one’s energy and time.
• Ability to tackle corrupt officials and ensure a transparent work place.
• Taking pride in the public service being done.

Once above abilities are developed, the personality of the participants becomes self/internally-driven rather than externally driven and their behavior becomes proactive.   Due to such a positive transformation in the personality of the public officials participating in this program, the efforts made by government or PSU get magnified and the participants excel on job. The image of concerned government organization also improves significantly. The parents, other 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 their behavior. Public at large is very happy and satisfied with the services being rendered by concerned public servant and he/she becomes very popular besides deriving a lot of satisfaction from his/her job..

Syllabus of the Program

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

• Fundamental difference in nature of public services and private service: Nature of public service, nature of private service, fundamental difference in public and private service and its implications. Role of integrity in pubic service in face of opportunities of misuse of public office for private gain.
• 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 we face? Feasibility of changing the configuration of our genes made available by our heredity through positive thinking and meditation. Role of mental and physical strength in personal and professional effectiveness.
• 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.
• Various dimensions of personality development: Family environment, education: formal & informal, benefits and method of focusing one’s energy, methods of memory improvement, need and benefits of balancing skills and intelligence, achieving emotional stability and importance of understanding the importance of ethical values in life. Role of self-study in continuous improvement.
• Individual thoughts and behavior : Principle of karma, role of work in human development, time management, benefits and harms of usage of internet and mobile and its proper utilization, from failure to success, cause of tension and ways to manage tension, harms from negative thoughts, and benefits of positive thinking, negative impact of resistance to change and orthodox behavior, benefits from developing sportsmanship spirit, creativity and imagination, needs for social acceptance, benefits of simple and natural behavior, importance of entrepreneurship, importance of developing managerial, financial and legal sense.
• Religious thoughts and behavior: Fundamental principles of different religions, role of secularism, thoughts of universal brotherhood, equality of mankind, human rights, ethical behavior, no harm to anybody, benefits of social harmony & peace.
• Social relations and behavior: Human as a social animal, family relations, social relations, faith in inherent goodness of mankind, friendship, impact of corruption on poor, effects of social and religious malpractices and benefits of social transformation & change.
• Economic environment & behavior: Saving and investment, impact of economic inequality on social cohesion, unemployment-causes and remedies, dissatisfaction, 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: Current democratic environment, the process of casting vote, constitution of government – state and centre, rights and duties of responsible citizen, vigilance of public and 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.

Importance of public service in contrast with private service: Role, nature and importance of public service in society.

• 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

Operation and management of program 

This program is operated by independent Vyaktitva Vikas Margdarshaks (VVMs) under our guidance. Concerned government department can nominate at least 3 of its officers to conduct one batch of this course. We would train them to discharge the duties of VVM for the batch.  Two officers may be used as standby in case the first officer is not able to conduct the course throughout its duration and leaves it in between. It is coordinated by our group leaders through field managers working in his/her group. Concerned government department or organization or PSU or local body has to sign a memorandum of understanding with ‘Prayas’. It specifies the duties and responsibilities of both the parties i.e. the organization running this course and “Prayas” providing 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 digitally. The feedback is carefully considered and necessary modifications are done during the remaining period of the particular course 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 is held six days a week. It can be modified 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 and number of days in a week this course is actually run.

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 position 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 also 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. By virtue of his rich background he is fit resource person to direct this course.

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 Margdarshak  (VVM) conducting brainstorming sessions of concerned batch of PFC encourages participants to brainstorm on interesting questions related to various dimensions of a topic or 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. In other words, the personality becomes self or internally driven, self-motivating and proactive in place a externally driven and a passive personality.

Benefits to participants

Benefits of this course to the participants completing this program successfully include better understanding of oneself, realizing the significance of public service, improved self-discipline, better time management, better relations with members of family, relatives, friends and co-workers or juniors or seniors, better management of future life, success in job, increased happiness, and improved social prestige. This program brings positive changes in the life of participants along with improve quality of governance. 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 of six months duration is Rs. 5000 (Rs. Five Thousands only). The mode of payment etc is negotiable.

How to start the course?

Government departments, local bodies or PSUs desirous of running this program for their officers, managers and employees may download literature of this program along with blank Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) from our website www.prayasvyaktitva.com and sign the same with modifications, if any, after discussion with us and deposit require course fee as negotiated. We would provide training to the officers or managers nominated by government department digitally through their mobile phones having internet connection or at their residence after obtaining specific approval from ‘Prayas’ and further action would be taken as per the terms & conditions of the MOU.