Resources > Guru Speak > Kiruba Shankar
Kiruba Shankar, CEO, Business Blogging Pvt Ltd
Kiruba Shankar
_Kiruba Shankar is the CEO of Business Blogging, a leading social
media consulting firm, based out of Chennai, India. He is one of Asia’s foremost expert in Digital
strategies, bringing in 16 years of work experience in the online space.
He is a serial entrepreneur having started new ventures in diverse
fields. He co-founded F5ive Technologies that does open source
development. He is a passionate agriculturist and farms at Vaksana, his 7
Acre farm. Being passionate about books, he started a publishing
company called Verdure Books.
He has authored 3 books: ‘Copy Right and Left: Understanding Creative Commons’ , ‘Wikipedia : A Beginner’s Guide’ and ‘Crowdsourcing Tweet’. His next book on Couchsurfing will soon be published.He has been a technology columnist at The New Indian Express, Business Standard and Financial Express. Kiruba is passionate about teaching. Kiruba is the Ambassador for TEDx program for India. He has helped organize TEDxChennai. He is the curator of Cerebrate.in, an international event for achievers. He is a professional podcaster and hosts Kiruba.TV where he interviews global achievers. BusinessWorld magazine once ranked his blog Kiruba.com as one of India’s top blogs. "In Unconferences Every Idea is Treated with Respect"
Younomy: How many unconferences have you conducted so far? Kiruba Shankar: I have conducted over 100 unconference in the last 6 years in countries like UK, the US and India. Younomy:And what type of issues or themes formed the basis for some of these major unconferences? Kiruba Shankar: Some of the themes have ranged from Entrepreneurship, Climate Change, Leadership skills and Social Media. Younomy: The format of unconference is more suitable to conduct "open innovation" programs for organizations. What are your experiences in conducting unconferences to bring out new ideas and insights into solving an organizational problem in product development, marketing or management? Kiruba Shankar: There are various types of unconferences and some are just perfectly suited to solve organizational problems. The area that unconferences are very good at is in encouraging the participants to think of possible solutions without the risk of their ideas being criticized. It doesn't mater if the proposed idea is big or small, expensive or cheap, practical or impractical. This greatly reduces the inhibitions and encourages lots of ideas. Since the unconferences are almost always done in a group, one idea triggers a new one.. something that people may not have even thought about. Take, for example, the concept of 'Negative Route'. When a new product is being conceptualized, the product development team is asked to list down reasons why the product *WILL* fail. That's right. We are talking about failure.... something that the team is usually doesn't talk about. Its always about positive thinking. By openly listing out the reasons for failure, the team can now take each point and find out a solution to make that failure not happen. This is not only different way, but a fun way, to get to effective solution. Younomy: There is an element of fun in your unconferences such as throwing of balls on those who exceed the time limits. Do you think such features help participants relax and contribute effectively? Kiruba Shankar: That's right. Unconfererences are best when they are conducted in an open and relaxed atmosphere. We even let the crowd come up with guidelines for the conduction of the event. There is more ownership and people feel more involved. Younomy: What do you think is the role of the person who conducts the unconference programs? What does he or she bring into the table? Kiruba Shankar: The person who conducts the unconference is like the Coxswain in a rowing boat. In an Eights boat, the actual work is done by the rowers but its the Cox who gently steers the boat towards the destination. He is also the one who gets everyone to be in sync. In a smilar way, the unconference organizer must let the crowd have the limelight. His/her interferences must be minimal, yet gently sheperd the discussion in the right direction. Younomy: At the end of an unconference, how does the generated ideas or results of the programs are organised and presented? Kiruba Shankar: An unconference is more about generating ideas and letting people come and share their thoughts.Every idea is treated with respect and ideas are jotted down. There are many types of unconferences...some are focused more ideas rather than strict solutions. Some others are meant to get to a specific solution for a problem. At the end, its always the participants who collate the ideas, debate them, have them sieved through by collective consensus to arrive at the final list. Younomy: Does unconference as a format have become mainstream like "brainstorming" or "group discussion" formats? Do you know of formal business or social sectors adopting this method? Kiruba Shankar: Unconferences, in my opinion, have not got main stream yet. However, in the technology sector, its more common place and might take some time to be adopted in other areas. That said, the concept has existed for long in various formats. Many have been practicising it, though may not be under the term of 'unconferences'. The format of unconference is more suitable to conduct "open innovation" programs for organizations. Unconferences, in my opinion, have not got main stream yet. |