This article captures my journey and experiences in this MindTree Campus Recruit Learning programme, in which I was playing the role of a Mentor/Co-PAL.

1. MINDTREE CMLP OCT 2009, “THE EXPERIENCE”
By Uday Shankar AB

2. Preface
I was, at the time of august 2009, approached to play the role of the Co-PAL for the MindTree campus recruit
batch of October 2009. I accepted it and later on went to realize that what a great experience it was. During this
programme I closely interacted with many MindTree Minds recruited directly from campus and undergoing the
Campus Minds Learning Programme (called as CMLP). I was primarily interacting with the house of achieving, one
of the many houses formed based on the MindTree CLASS values.
This article takes you through the journey of my interactions and experiences in this programme, starting with how
I got involved, what this programme is about, the first interaction, the different activities and learning’s in the
programme, the orchard olympiad and other experiences.
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3. PAL, Parent-Anchor-Leader,
is a role that unifies many roles and which, one as an individual will come across or look out for in his /her life.
…and my 3+ month long duration playing that role, for campus minds, interacting with them daily, came to an
official intermediary end on 12th February 2010. The interactions I have had with each one of them and the
learning’s I have garnered is unique. Helping many fresh campus hires to transform from college to profession, was
an experience of a different kind.
Beginning of The Experience!
I was associated with the MindTree Campus Minds Learning Program in different capacities, starting as a buddy and
later handling roles like Remote Internship Project Manager, Professional Programming Basic Chief Mentor and
Performance Improvement Programme Champion, which exposed to me to this experience early on.
The opportunity to play the role of Co-PAL was indeed an exciting one for me, because, to be able to inspire,
channel and motivate the energy of many campus minds with such great energy levels is indeed challenging, and I
knew that it would definitely be a satisfying experience if I was successful at least to some extent.
It was Shivakumar GV (known as Shivu) who requested me to take up this role. I, being from the campus batch and
my earlier associations with the learning program, I believe, were the factors that worked in favor for me, apart
from being a little successful in my 4+ year tenure in MindTree.
Though initially, I was a little skeptical and unsure about what this role comprised of, I soon realized that it is a
broad role, where I need to see what campus minds see and explain why it is, understand and resolve their concerns
and issues, be available to them for anything anytime and overall help them in this transformation.
So later, getting a call from a campus mind asking for a suggestion to choose a PG at night 9 PM or a campus mind
asking for an outlook of assessment results at night 11PM wasn’t unusual for me. I was then actually happy that
they felt at ease approaching me when something was bothering them (because, we approach people only whom we
trust when we are worried/unsure about something, for seeking guidance)
Campus Batch and The Learning Programme
The batch of October 2009 was a group of 130+ minds in Bangalore, divided in to three houses, named based on
our value system, CLASS. It was House of Caring, Learning and Achieving, with house of Sharing and Social
Responsibility based out of Chennai and Pune respectively. Each of these houses had PAL’s and Co-PAL’s, and a
PF representative, and I was the Co-PAL for House of Achieving (along with Neha Das and Nihar) and Mukesh as
PAL. The programme was housed in Orchard, which is an entire floor dedicated for inducting campus minds to
MindTree. Here each campus mind comes across many technical and behavioral programmes with each of the
groups being housed in a HOUSE of its own and with PAL interactions happening in the living rooms of these
respective houses! Orchard also had a Reading room and an activity room where campus minds could study & play!
Orchard was a unification of one’s house and a school. Here campus minds interacted with PAL’s and Co-PAL’s in
the house and with Mentor’s, Facilitators (External & Internal), Chief Mentor’s and Dean in the school. All in all, I
should say, a well conceptualized programme providing a strong learning platform and not to miss, a blend of joy.
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4. Our First Interaction
Our first interaction was on a Friday evening, the 30th of October 2009 (though we were introduced to them on the
first day of their joining on 26th October 2009). It was a fun filled “Tell & Get to Know” day where we got to know
each and every campus mind, their interests and passion, their aspirations, where they came from, what they earlier
did, their role models and from some of them, their favorite books and many other things. We started of doing this
first activity a little differently, to also make this a first step opportunity for each campus minds to know their one
other campus mind a little better. In this, each of them was grouped with one other and one’s introduction was to
be given by the other mind. It turned out nice! At the same time, we had realized that the challenge to know each of
them was with us too. So we started noting down about each of them! Which, I still have preserved in my
notebook. Happy, we were that the first interaction turned out great!
After the first interaction, the next 3+ months of my daily professional life started with campus minds and ended
with the campus minds. Interactions happened daily morning between 9 to 9:30 AM and evening’s between 5:30
PM to 6:30 PM (though we did give away some days for campus minds to prepare for assessments or doing their
assignments), apart from the few other interactions outside this time.
Playing The Role!
Thinking of this whole programme and our roles, it was clear that to be able to make this transformation smooth
and successful, we had to come up with ways that had learning’s in the way they would be able to understand and
incorporate it easily. So, we planned and chalked down many activities that touched upon various aspects like team
building, communication, collaboration, overcoming difficulties and challenges, approaching assessments and many
others. Leadership sessions were an other unique platform, conceptualized by C2, and conducted across all houses
that helped them interact and learn from the experience of senior minds. It happened every Friday, where campus
minds interacted with many senior MindTree minds like Rostow Ravanan, Kalyan Kumar Banerjee, Subroto Bagchi,
Sripad K, Krishnan KS, Samartha, Bhageerathi D R and also external people like Arundhati Ghosh and Suhas
Gopinath.
Some of the activities that we had in House of Achieving were, video sessions (that included Randy Pausch’s Last
Lecture and few other motivational videos), Basavanna’s Vachana (garnering learning’s from them), Helium Sticks,
Clay Modeling/Build a House (that exposed campus minds to many real life project scenarios), Speaker Sessions
(which we famously called, “Speak Out - The Achiever’s Voice”), .Net (that enabled campus minds to explore and
know the many MindTree intra net portals), Virtual Volleyball (which was a lot of fun, that emphasized
coordination and control of thought over action), Creative Story Telling (that came out as one of the best), Skits
(on many aspects like meeting/mobile phone/personal etiquette, Gandhian values and the CMLP programme by
itself), Imagination day that comprised of Mr and Ms Blue Contest along with the Fashion Show (where campus
minds ensured that we too did the ramp walk) and many others.
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5. The Different Activities and Learning’s!
“Speak Out”, was one of the attempts we came up with to provide a platform for building presentation skills.
Campus minds were asked to form a 2 or 3 member team and choose a topic of their interest. They would later
present it on morning PAL time, to all the other minds in the house. It was good to see topics on different areas like
Recession, Pollution, Generation’s, Search Engine and others. Though not all the campus minds used this
opportunity, it was pleasing to see that many did.
“Clay Modeling” and “Build a House” were the activities that were an attempt to expose campus minds to various
scenarios of projects.
In Clay Modeling, many 4-6 member teams were formed and the teams were asked to come up with a clay model of
Children’s Play Area. In this activity, they were asked to come up with a draft design of all the things they would
create in 5 minutes (which if delayed had a penalty), use resources only that was provided (with some teams getting
better resources then others) and complete the overall model in 30 minutes. Some teams that came back thinking
that they had completed the project were asked to provide those missing things or improve what they had already
built or provide more than what was earlier asked for. At the end all the teams completed and there were many
master pieces around us!
“Build a House” was a little different activity with the emphasis on articulation, communication skills and dealing
with people with varied skills. In this, a group leader was shown a drawing of a 2 floor house with doors and
windows at different places and of different shapes. The group leader was then hand tied and blinded and was asked
to guide their team build the house they just saw, from a card board sheet, only using their speaking skills! Adding
to all this, some of their team members were hand tied too. As the activity started, some teams complained about
the shortage of scissors, card board and about difficultly in this activity and what not, but at the end reaching the
goal. So knowingly or unknowingly they had just completed to work with the resources in hand, collaborating
within each other!
What was more important was the discussion that followed these activities. We went about discussing each team’s
actions and how they had achieved their objective. As I look in to my book now, the learning’s that came out were
many,
…like, Collaboration and Sharing, Learning to work under constraints, Meeting time lines, Negotiation Skills, Innovation, Team
work, Being ready for change, Planning, Communication Skills, Clarity in the goal to be achieved, Seeking feedback, Providing value
adds and many more…
I hope that these activities have served in some way, to help them understand the many aspects of project dynamics.
Going To Nele
It was Nihar and Mukesh who initiated the Nele experience. Nele is an orphanage for rag picking kids in Timber
Yard layout and is housed in an unused space above a factory building, an act of generosity of an industrialist. Nihar
was associated with Nele from quite some time and was content with the experience. So the intention was to let the
campus minds enjoy this experience too. The plan was to spend half a day with the kids, playing with them and
being one among them. So, we had a drawing competition where MindTree campus minds joined different groups
of kids, working along with them as a single team for the competition. Later to which, we were shown an excellent
Tenali Rama play by the kids, which was so well coordinated and acted. Overall, it was a lovely day. On our way
back in the cab, it was nice to see that all of us were glad about the experience. One fact that proves this is that,
though it has been months that we went there, many campus minds still go to Nele and interact with the kids there!
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6. Orchard Olympiad
“Orchard Olympiad” was an attempt to bring in campus minds from all the houses to a single podium, for them to
interact apart from their technical groups and for them to have fun in the spirit of a healthy competition. It was a
house based competition with events, indoor and outdoor, where each house member competed for getting points
to their house, to keep his/her house up in the chart. It started with Picture Perfect, a game that was modeled on
the lines of Amazing Race and continued with events like Word Powers and Tug of War. The strategies and
discussions the teams had during these events were indeed interesting to watch, how they at times backed up a
fellow team member, how they encouraged many to give more, and how those people who never played also looked
so immersed in the game, shouting and cheering for the team.
At the end, the event concluded with the game of Cricket with Learning House winning the game & the Olympiad!
It was an event which everyone enjoyed being part of, where they pulled the rope, ran and jumped taking pictures,
made many others king and queen, played with words, fell on the ground, bowled, batted and What not. And at the
end, it was all about living our DNA!
More to The Role
Meanwhile, as we created these many different avenues, we also had to deal with many other softer issues like
performance, integrity, relocation, ensuring positive energy across and many others. As a PAL, our responsibility
was also to ensure that every campus mind meets the performance levels and is able to show significant progress
and performance in his/her learning programme.
At the onset of the Performance Improvement Programme (after PPB), we decided that we will have a weekly meet
with all the campus minds in this track, separately apart from our PAL interactions. It was to identify any concerns
and special hand holding that one would require, along with motivating them. During these discussions, we asked
each and every campus mind about their confidence level, their progress, any blockers they saw, their learning
schedule’s and any items that concerned them in the programme, along with urging everyone of them to do their
SWOT analysis and work on their weaknesses. It was indeed good to see that many of them realized where they
stood and started working on things that required more efforts. Many a times, we also spent time talking to campus
minds individually and providing them with a little push and motivation.
Joining for lunch with campus minds was one other way that I thought of, to get to know them better and break the
barrier (if there were any). I have had innumerable casual conversations with them, sharing some of my stories and
experiences and listening to theirs. It also helped me to understand some of the things that run in the back of their
mind and that which they usually do not consider to speak out. Overall, I sure believe that it was a nice thing to do,
which helped in achieving the overall objective.
If I have to make a mention of all the activities and experiences that we have had, there are many more, Outing to
Manchinabele dam, Outbound learning in Hill View resort, Learning about the transformer that sits near the
parking lot, Birthday Celebrations and the list goes on…It was all these several interactions and activities along with
the many technical and behavioral programmes from C2 School that helped make this programme a success, and
that enabled campus minds for a greater role as they moved on to projects.
And at the end, the transformation from campus to corporate, a 3+ month journey was a great experience, we all
learnt something more and we sure did have a lot of fun.
All in all, a nice mix of many experiences that I will remember for a long time!
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