By Bhavesh Naik, President of AMBICA Training (Published July 26, 2004)

In the last issue, we discovered that all enduring civilizations of the world practiced “Art of Self Discovery”, a never-ending process of finding their deepest essence. For this, they indulged in a wide variety of artistic pursuits – painting, architecture, sculpture, music, dance, drama, poetry and more.

What does this have to do with running a business?

A business needs creativity to solve its problems and achieve its goals. It needs talent to innovate its products and services. It needs inspiration and motivation to strive for better and better business.

Where do these creativity, talents and inspiration come from?

A business is made of people. And people are its sources for the creativity, talents and inspiration.

•Without creativity in workplace… there is stagnation - a sort of dead, heavy feeling.

•With underutilized talent of people… there is boredom, lack of energy, enthusiasm and vitality.

•Without inspiration and motivation, there is negativity, backbiting and complaining.

The process of self-discovery unlocks hidden talents, creativity and inspiration of people.

The concept of self-discovery is not new. In fact, we have a term for it. It's called "learning". But we seem to have lost the real meaning of that word.

When you get your new surge protector, mark the date you put it in service on the bottom with a permanent marker. Make a point of checking once or twice per year, during spring-cleaning. Any power strips that are approaching two years old or older, replace immediately.

You see, the learning that we have been referring to lately is pretty narrow. It's used to describe updating our knowledge-base. More facts and information on top of the stuff that we already know. The theory goes that the more we know, the “smarter” we are.

The true learning involves not just the intellect and memory – but also the heart, the senses and the intuition – that little internal guidance system we are all permanently equipped with. True learning also does not require a “teacher” – although the teacher often helps stimulate learning and inject specific areas of expertise.

In fact, the best thing we learn when we are truly learning is how to learn. You see, as we truly learn, we get addicted to the process of learning. The more we learn, the more we learn how to learn. And that, ultimately, is the essence of self-discovery.

A culture of true-learning brings out the best in people – their creativity, their talents and their inspirations.

Such a workplace is a self-learning workplace.

• A self-learning workplace is a self-inspired workplace – people find their motivation within them, rather than in external things such as pay raises and promotions...

• A self-learning workplace is a self-creative workplace – people find creative solutions to their own problems. They do their own thinking.

• A self-learning workplace is a self-supporting workplace. People recognize their own talents and those of others in their company. They are comfortable about their own talents and respectful of those of others. That’s why there is no need to play political games, backbiting or back-stabbing.

How do we create such a workplace? In the next issues, we will look at some strategies and steps to cultivating a self-learning culture in your workplace.

Bhavesh Naik is the President of AMBICA Training. AMBICA Training helps businesses dramatically increase their profits while building a long-lasting business. For more information visit www.ambica.net or send an e-mail to bhavesh@ambica.net.

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