Wipro senior executives at Jaipur Literature Festival to polish narration skills

BANGALORE: Among the literary doyens and thousands of bibliophiles at the Jaipur Literature Festival are a score of senior executives from Wipro BPO who will take their first steps towards story-telling. Assisted by some of India's best-known poets and playwrights, they will trade drab PowerPoints for elegant prose in the Pink City.

The company's motive for sending Chief Executive Manish Dugar and a cohort of vice-presidents and general managers to Jaipur is very clear: better communicators make for healthier bottom lines.

"The jaunt will teach them how to communicate in an interesting manner, spot a story and convey the message after crafting it memorably," says Abhijit Bhaduri, chief learning officer of Wipro, who planned the initiative two months ago.

A week ago, the team of 20 got their preparatory material: an audio clip about story-telling containing a discussion between Bhaduri and his colleagues on the nuances of the art form and how better communication helps the business and ultimately adds to the coffers. The schedule for the workshop is also in the form of a story book, not bullet points.

So, in time, Wipro BPO's client pitches will not be over PowerPoint presentations, but over stories. "Story formats make for better pitches as there is more clarity. (This) PowerPoints will never achieve," he reasons.

The three-day session will have workshops on the basics of a story board, where the team will be asked to narrate a story of their choice and be evaluated on how they fare. They will learn the art of narration from the likes of lyricists Javed Akhtar and Prasoon Joshi, and VK Karthika, the editor and publisher of HarperCollins India. The team will also conduct interviews with authors to understand the nuances of communicating with a larger audience through a story.

Bhaduri says the story-telling initiative is not a one-off; in-house sessions are planned for other teams.