“The Genesis of ME Green India – a journey”

as narrated by the founder

If we are to visualise the individual’s professional identity as a plant, it is fascinating to understand just how inseparable the “WE”, the root, is from the “ME”, the shoot. I have always believed in valuing individuality for building collaborative teams. The new era is calling on humanity to collaborate rather than compete. This is the grounding principle behind Me Green India.

What started as a quest to find a solution for reskilling IT workers with redundant primary skills, turned into a life-changing journey for me. Like most of my other peer leaders in the Learning & Development fraternity, I brought in new ideas to deal with the global talent crisis when the skills canvass changed entirely. The skills that businesses looked for to assist their growth changed. One of the biggest challenges the industry was struggling with was this typical chicken-or-egg dilemma- whether to train people first or to get the business first. Being the L&D leader of my firm, I assumed the responsibility of striking the balance between enabling the business and parallelly protecting relevance for people whose skills were getting outdated. Not that I didn’t taste initial success, but there were more impending issues I struggled with- the biggest of which was the heterogeneous nature of the problem and the mismatch in pace with business. The deeper I went into the subject, the broader areas opened up only for me to discover the ocean of new possibilities to be explored. Like Rhonda Byrne says in The Secret, it seemed now that the universe transpired, and I had discovered my life’s purpose. This was probably the turning point where I directed my energies towards a bigger cause.

In the months that followed, I found myself exploring, gathering info, collaborating with other experts, and experimenting- at the end of which I finally came up with what I now call the “Me Green Career Sustainability Assessment” instrument. Given the ever-changing nature of the work world, my belief stands affirmed that individuals must take complete responsibility to periodically self-assess one’s job skills. One must invest early and develop what I call “Evergreen Skills” to deal with every obstructive situation in one’s career. Human potential is grossly under-leveraged, with most people leaving a lot to be unearthed.

I thank my friends and colleagues in the industry who have volunteered to support this cause and call on each of you to join us in this endeavour of transitioning into a new, improved professional world. Whether you choose to be in one of the research think tanks, share a personal anecdote for others to learn from, or partner with your expertise to further this journey- any means you choose to participate and engage with us is truly valued. The sustenance of the environment, or that of businesses, are areas that have been worked on extensively. Our initiative strives to serve the increasingly essential purpose of individual professional sustainability. What we get to do together will be steppingstones for reaching out to new heights of efficient and positive human resource management that we are bound to reach in the decades to come.

Dr. Deepa V Mukherjee
Founder