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mandar thank you so much for joining us
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today my pleasure and it's actually it's
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an honor to be on this
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campus great well let let's start about
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uh talking about the EMP power program
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what inspired you to begin it and what
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was the spark of starting Empower at
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Shell yeah so it's actually a story by
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itself so uh in my uh shell role I have
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been in Shell for 12 years I'm I'm a
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chemical engineer by background so I've
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done uh many technical roles in uh oil
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and gas production technology strategy
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currently I'm doing a role in a team
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called Game Changer so it's a it's a way
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to bring Silicon Valley mindset inside a
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big multinational so my day job in game
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changer involves uh supporting people
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and ideas that have the potential to
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change the energy game so it's about
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managing disruptive ideas and managing
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people who have these disruptive
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ideas um and in my non-shell life I
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teach leadership development workshops
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based on meditation practice that is um
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called the transformational leadership
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for excellence offered by by a nonprofit
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NGO International Association for human
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values so I volunteer my time for this
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nonprofit a few years ago the shell CEO
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um gave the vision very bold Vision that
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he wants to make he wants shell to be
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the most Innovative Energy
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company so uh I really took this call
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for Action to heart and um I approached
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my manager and
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proposed to uh to conceive a program
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that uh brings my uh Innovation
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management role and my leadership
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development background using meditation
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practice together and he encouraged me
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to you know build an educational
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curriculum on uh blending the two
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because uh Innovation begins with having
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an idea in the
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mind and that was the I guess the source
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of this program is uh encouragement from
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uh my peers um to
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to bring something as an innovation by
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itself um and nourish The Innovation
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culture so so when you were about to
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launch the Empower program what were
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some of the objectives you have in mind
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uh had in mind and and how did you
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structure the program in a way that
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those objectives could be
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met so the the objective of the Empower
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program is to nourish The Innovation
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Culture by uh empowering staff
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individuals to play a role in this
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Innovation uh
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equation um the objective is also to uh
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Leverage The Passion of each
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employee and to play any role that the
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employee chooses to play in this
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Innovation uh uh
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setup so for example Innovation starts
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with an idea but once the idea is
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conceived there are many other roles
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that one needs to play one needs to
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learn uh
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how to sell the the idea how to build a
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story one needs to learn on building
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networks and Circles of trust where you
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get good
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feedback uh to build that idea into
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something else and uh finally one needs
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to actually authentically connect with
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people who can help bring that idea to a
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proof of concept so this is a very
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social process uh so not everyone in an
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organization needs to be the person with
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the idea you can play other supporting
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role roles just like in a movie there is
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an actor and there are supporting actor
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roles um so that's what Empower uh
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facilitates is uh what role do you want
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to play and it all begins with a state
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of mind of yes I want to play a role
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which uh which
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necessitates uh looking inward into uh
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who are you and how can you uh support
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not just yourself but people around you
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as as well can you describe the program
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a little bit how how did you go about
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structuring it yeah so uh the the
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uniqueness in Empower that we we have
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built is that it's Grassroots so it's uh
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employees organizing these workshops for
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each other at the workplace that's the
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first step is uh it's uh it's not
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mandated but it's uh peer-to-peer
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inspired and uh the first step is an
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introduction to empower which is held
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over a lunch uh session
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and during the introduction to empower
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we are giving the Innovation Theory and
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the various roles that one can play and
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we are also introducing some breathing
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and meditation tasters so through role
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playing
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exercises uh we are inspiring staff that
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uh you know everybody can play a role
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and uh the staff then choose the second
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step is yes I liked the introduction
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session and I want to invest my time uh
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in in learning more about the Innovation
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Theory as well as mind
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management uh and that's how we
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structure it is in these two steps and
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the third step is after having gone
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through step one and step two if you
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want to be trained on how to facilitate
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the introduction class then employees
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are trained and then they run the
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introduction sessions at their at their
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workplace I see uh what challenges did
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you face in getting Empower up and
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started and how did you deal with those
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challenges
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that's a very interesting question
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actually the the most important uh
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challenge I faced was uh having the
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confidence in
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myself uh that I have something unique
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to offer to the organization to meet the
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organizational goals that are beyond my
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Technical Training so the first thing is
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to realize that we as
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employees uh might have something unique
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to offer from our personal life in my
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case it was uh the fact that I'm I teach
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meditation workshops and leadership
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programs outside of shell and uh so once
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I overcome that challenge uh by uh
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getting some feedback or even some
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mentoring uh it's uh the ability to
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create something that
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uh that you know H has the the business
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value uh so the ability to to create uh
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something unique that the organization
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needs and what you can provide so I
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think it's that was the the biggest
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challenge the Second Challenge was to uh
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to create a set of mentors around me uh
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who recognize the skills that I can
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offer and keep giving me positive
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feedback so that involved developing
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that Network around me and for that uh I
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had to uh you know invoke the
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interpersonal skills and I think that's
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crucial in today's uh working climate is
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uh not just technical skills but also
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interpersonal skills social skills and
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creating that Circle of trust around you
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mentoring around you so uh I think every
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employee has something unique to offer
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and organization to be successful needs
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to leverage on each employee on uh how
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that employee can can bring his unique
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creativity to to the table so how did
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you deal with those challenges and what
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lessons did that teach
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you um so Empower for me is just like an
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innovation Innovation starts with an
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idea a hunch a gut feel uh you don't
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really know whether it's going to be
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successful or it's going to fail unless
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you try it so uh the first step was to
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create the space where somebody is
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allowing me to try that experiment and
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in this case it was my manager who who
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uh who from his Innovation management
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background recognized the value of
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mindfulness or the social uh process of
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innovation so he kept encouraging me to
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develop this educational
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curriculum and uh so that was the first
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step and uh you know it's it's like you
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keep doing small things at a time and
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small wins and even failures tell you
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something so you go back and you analyze
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and it's just a process of innovation
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involves this it's crystallizing
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something giving birth to something that
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you have a hunch but you you don't know
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the proof of concept recently we've run
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a series of Stories on a similar program
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at Google which makes a very explicit
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connection between mindfulness and
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meditation and uh emotional
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intelligence uh have you tried to make
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that connection at within Empower and uh
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if so you know
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uh do do you see a connection between
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those yeah I think there is definitely a
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link and uh from my perspective the link
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is that uh we are all busy and we are
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all busy solving today's
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challenges and uh for Innovation which
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uh you know it's all about thinking new
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things one has to learn how to drop the
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old habits the old ideas the old
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Concepts
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and it's like uh taking a pause from the
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busyness of today a gap in your mind or
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train of thoughts that's what meditation
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practice allows you gives you tools and
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techniques to
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pause and uh silence is the mother of
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creativity I feel so if you can create
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that invoke that space of Silence within
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yourself through any means need not be
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uh meditative practice it could be any
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other means that anybody chooses to
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that's the first step so uh and the
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Second Step involves again as I said
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social processes interpersonal
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skills um person with uh good empathy uh
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who can step into somebody else's shoes
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and think about what does that mean to
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me and what is this person why is this
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person sharing this so if you can invoke
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that quality of uh compassion
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or empathy in yourself where you are not
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judging yourself you're not criticizing
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yourself nor are you judging somebody
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else then I think there is a space for
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uh an insight to be created and it's
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only when you make these uh
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non-traditional
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connections where um I am meeting you
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and when you are sharing something with
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me before I judge I'm saying maybe this
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makes sense
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and that's the source of innovation I
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feel so you can call it emotional
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intelligence but you can even call it by
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you know developing the sense of
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trust uh non-judgmental state of mind so
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I think these are very key these are
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very key for uh grooming your own
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Innovative skills and nourishing The
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Innovation culture in an organization I
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feel right uh how many people have gone
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through the Empower program so far um so
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so far about 2,000 people have attended
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the introduction to empower the step one
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that I mentioned and this is again
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organized
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Grassroots um and about 200 people now
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in the last four months have done the
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Empower training uh in the Shell offices
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in Dubai in Holland in the UK and in the
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US how do you measure the program's
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impact and and what I'm trying to figure
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out is both some anecdotal evidence that
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of how it has affected people's lives
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but also given your background in you
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know uh uh technical areas and
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Engineering uh how have you tried to
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quantify the the impact that this
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program has
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had um so the the the way you measure uh
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any Innovation uh is the I would say put
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metrics in
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place uh before knowing what you are
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measuring so uh in the in the case of
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EMP EMP power what we are measuring is
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stories of empowerment so stories of
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empowered employees using the techniques
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and the skills that they learn in the
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program and the change that they have
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made in their own work habits so for
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example can you share some of those
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stories um so there are many stories
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that I get every day in my
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mailbox uh one of the stories is uh
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around how you are able to make unique
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connection
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ctions where by Nature you are not a
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person who uh would interact with
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somebody else uh but through the
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empowerment techniques you have built
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connections that are beyond your
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traditional skill pool and it's through
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these connections that you have started
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uh you know thinking about ideas that uh
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are
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non-traditional so uh it's the story
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about
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uh you know how you can you can Leverage
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on someone
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else and together co-create something so
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that's again another story of success is
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that it's uh it's not a win I win and
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you lose world it's a world where I need
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to think about how I can win and how I
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can make you win and uh that that's
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another empowered story and the third
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story where we measure it is uh when a
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group of Staff have gone through Empower
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program can they organize a workshop for
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their peers
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so that means that they have benefited
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from it and they want to create a
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workplace of empowered employees around
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them so one way to measure the success
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would be after empowerment how many
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staff get involved in creating the
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culture of empowerment around
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them what I guess what I'm looking for
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is a specific example of somebody who
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did something because of being empowered
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if you know what I mean uh do you can
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you share any examples of that sort
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so it's again it's uh what is it what
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what is it that you mean by doing
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something it's a changing previous
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habits and recognizing that I was using
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that
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habit and uh doing something different
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conducting a meeting in a different way
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looking at an idea in a different way
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looking at a colleague from a different
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lens that itself is a is a powerful
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change and I think we are to soon in
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this journey to evaluate whether
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technical innovation has come out of it
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or not uh so you talked about the the
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game changers program and how it's meant
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to uh Inspire innovation in the energy
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field uh how is what you're doing with
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Empower uh linked to game changers and
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and has it would you say it has made
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employees more Innovative and if so
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how um so Game Changer is a program
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where uh you can bring uh out of the
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boox
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thinking um to this
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team and uh this team is licensed to
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give you not only a budget but also the
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support structure that you need the
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network that you need to build that idea
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into the proof of
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concept and in today's world I think
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Innovation will happen when you make
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non-traditional connections so uh the
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skills that you require for uh this
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Innovation culture are uh mental and
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social skills so it requires you to have
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courage to Think Bold out of the box it
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requires you to forget the failure that
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you have had in the previous attempts it
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requires you to have uh the skills to
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manage anxiety because when you're
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trying something new you are actually
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stepping into the unknown and it
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requires you to build Circles of trust
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around you where you're getting positive
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uh
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criticism um so I think by enabling
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staff to develop these skills mental and
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social skills you are enhancing the
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ability of a person and
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organization to
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innovate what impact would you say
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empowers had on helping uh shell
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employees become better
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leaders um so I I think everybody is a
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leader and uh uh everybody uh strives to
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do the best that they
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can and Empower program because it is
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based on offering uh unique breathing
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and meditation
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techniques it's uh it's a tool set that
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you walk away with uh that you can
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practice every day and it's like running
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a marathon you have to do the practice
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every day and you are building your own
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capacity to number one overcome the
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blockers to your Innovation and
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creativity and number two grooming
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positive habits that will support you
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and the company to be creative and more
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Innovative so Empower I think has
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achieved on both levels and hopefully it
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will it will resonate with uh
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organizations like shell who have a a
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global footprint and how we can leverage
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on the thousands of employees that work
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for us that work with us how do you see
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the future of Empower within
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shell the future of Empower I think uh I
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think it's it's uh because it's run by
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staff uh I I feel empowered staff will
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determine the future so it's it's I was
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just the person instrumental to bring it
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in the workplace but I think it's uh
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it's up to every empowered employee to
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think about the future of the the
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program and uh instead of telling
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somebody what the future would be I
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would just wait and patiently see how it
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emerges great mandar thank you so much
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for speaking with us today welcome thank
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you very
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[Music]
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much
