Learning has always been high on the list for us at ColoredCow. From start, we have believed that to grow as an organization it is important to both grow individually and as a group. Hence we keep finding new ways to broaden our perspective and outlook.

The aim is to focus on overall growth and not just learn skills that are required to do the job. With the same vision, Prateek visited Hacker Paradise last year, he worked from South Korean for a month, met a diverse group of people, explored the place, and came back with stories to share with the team. He grew with the experience and passed it on to the team to grow collectively.

One from the time Prateek joined Hacker Paradise in South Korea (The view from top of Hallasan, Jeju)

A similar pattern is seen when we go out to conferences and meets. These real-time activities push us towards our goals and help in strengthening the team spirit and cohesion that comes while experiencing it first hand together and later while sharing with the team.

I recently had a chance to experience the same. I went to the Ghost Village Experience Festival along with KD. This was a two day program aimed at showcasing and living the life of a villager and had limited seats. We saw this as an opportunity to grow ourselves further.

KD having fun with people he met a day before

In the course of the program we interacted with a lot of people and told them our story and how we are working from hills and also generating opportunities for other’s to grow their skills. The reaction and feedback from the people around us helped us in strengthening our belief over our values and what we are doing together as an organization.

We were out of our comfort zone of Software Development and got to see a different perspective of how programs are run. It turned out to be something we could relate to programs that we were running and observed some examples of how we can improve them from the experience.

One of the wall we painted during the festival

It also came out to be a great opportunity to strengthen the bond between us. We painted walls, took some workshops together, etc. which were not even remotely connected with Software development. These strengthen our bond and also had an impact on how we interacted with each other and held each other’s back.

There were certain things that I missed out on too, which I think is also a learning in itself. There is always an opportunity for being the early bird in any event. It allows you to interact and form a presence before other’s do. We started early but ended up stopping to click a lot of pictures en route. They were good shots, but nothing compared to what value I could have generated by being among the first ones to show up at the fest.

Overall I think this weekend trip helped me move a step ahead professionally. It was much more than I could have gained over a weekend in a traditional classroom looking at slides and textbook-based examples, and I wish more organizations take up this route of learning.

On our way back

In coming month Adiba will also be sharing her experience of going for Jagriti Yatra 2017.  A 15-day long, national train journey that will take her and 500 other people 8000 kilometers across the length and breadth of India. Living on a train, traveling cities together they will meet role models, change-makers and social leaders who are contributing to building India through enterprise.

A learning experience for Adiba and collectively one for the team.