DailyPost 1005
LECTURES – BACKWARD & FORWARD LINKAGES
India is land where public lectures are few and far between, lectures during conferences and seminars, even during workshops and whatever might be the forum are treated as stand alone, one off show so to say, it has no forward or backwards linkages. This psyche has got so ingrained in our thought process that the organisers and even the technical sessions incharges are also more bothered about the logistics part of it. The setting is so festive and so is the attire, the milieu turns out to be that of a social function and consequently that is the mood. The inaugural function takes most of the energies following by the concluding session, awards function and the like. The lectures also happen.
Even with a delegate fee ranging anywhere between Rs. 6000 to Rs.12,000 and tonnes of sponsorship liberally endowed, knowledge is still to get a level playing field. Messages between participants are exchanged thick and fast but it has hardly anything to do with lecture/s. What is the backward linkage to a lecture – as a participant to try and understand the topic, read, see videos, talk to people and chart out the gaps, confusions and questions, if any. With knowledge assimilation the only goal, this can do magic to your understanding of the topic during the lecture and beyond.
With the nature of funding and effort going in, the organisers / colleges owe it the participants to provide well curated reading material and carefully chosen reading list specific to that lecture or topic, latest, cutting edge and of immense utility. What the conference / lecture has been able to achieve in earlier years by way relevant documentation and how it is building a knowledge repository can be explained and made available to the participants. The speaker too should be advised to prepare afresh for every professional lecture outing, notwithstanding some basic contours that need to be there every time.
This backward linkage would make the participants presence relevant, he/she would be active during the lecture session, would be interactive given a chance, ask questions, make a mental imprint of the lecture, pick up the learnings; the forward linkages of that subject. Forward linkages have to be pursued. This is knowledge consolidation. The next time you go to listen a lecture, you can feel the transformation.
WITHOUT BACKWARD & FORWARD LINKAGES, A LECTURE IS AT BEST A PLEASANT SHOWER GONE BY.
Sanjay Sahay