Learnings For All

How did the two of you come together and decide to author the book?
Priyank Narayan: We have been working together as faculty at Ashoka University. Prof. Sud visits us and that is how we met. Many of our students, alumni and recruiters have shared stories and anecdotes of what has worked for them at the workplace. We have been discussing this in our classrooms last many years and we thought why not put it in a form that many more can consume and benefit from. The idea of writing a book came from there.

Mukesh Sud: We do a lot of research with academics and it gets into journals that are refereed and reviewed. After a four-to-five-year cycle, this gets into journals and probably a dozen people, mostly PhD students, read them. We wanted to take out the research that is tucked away in journals and put it where common people could gain from it. We have used nuggets, stories and frameworks to make things easily understandable. 

Did you test some of what you were writing with your students?
Sud: We did that with the personal journey map, which is how you operationalise these six so-called practices. This map is a six-box framework. It is derived from the business model canvas, which is a standard tool that startups use to craft their journey. We used this to help our students craft their journeys and through many iterations, we have used this in our classes to see how it works.

The design element of the book was very interesting given the focus on visuals and making it very easy to read. What made you go down that road?
Narayan: This is a manual for our students. We dedicated this to them as it is an outcome of the conversations we have with them. But it has to be usable for everyone. It had to come down from technical jargon and the research-oriented mindset that many academicians have to a practical approach. This was why we made it an easy read. Our students love it and we have a great response. But this is a book not only for those beginning their careers but also for those who are navigating through it in different stages of their lives. It has the entire range.