Testimonials

I have been engaging with Diyanat for over two years now. My first impression of him was he is a leadership development professional, which he is, surprisingly he is equally good at teaching related themes at macro as well as micro level. I have experienced his Facilitation with groups of Change Facilitators, schools leaders and teachers.


What has been very inspiring in almost every workshop he has conducted with school Teachers and leaders is the way he brings about transformation in their energies from “ what can we do if students are not interested, we are doing our job” to “ there is so much we can do and now we really want to give our best to our students”.


His rich school culture and teaching related repertoire of knowledge, experience, skills and tools, he holds expertise in, right from understanding of learner motivation, classroom management, experiential education to designing lesson plans, principles and different styles of learning, information processing, designing enabling atmosphere for learning, phenomena learning, different kinds of assessment, principles and processes of behavior change and self and school leadership frameworks enables him to allow teachers lead the workshop


Teachers and school leaders immediately connect to his authenticity, commitment and selflessness as a facilitator and develop a credibility in no time. As a facilitator he raises tough question to confront the participants see the reality while holding space strongly when participants are transitioning from one stage of consciousness/behavior to next stage of consciousness/behavior. He ensures learning of workshop reach classroom by teachers and school leaders develop a way forward action plan to take their learning to school and classroom.


Key values I have experienced in his facilitation is respect for learner autonomy and choice in every moment which in turn has created a very self empowering impact for learners. And the change has stayed long after Diyanat has left the workshop.


-Anita Dagar, Project Head - School Leadership Development Initiative
Kotak Education Foundation.

 
The training program by Diyanat Ali turned out to be a complete surprise for me in terms of content and elements included. One can have a first hand experience of experiential learning which is a see-through to your inner abilities. It questions your perceptions which were strongly rooted in you. The best part of the program was the diverse team we had and the founder(Diyanat) himself putting forward his best experiences to work. This added a lot of credibility to this program. I would recommend this program to anyone who believes in making learning a key priority in life."


Regards
Prashanth Akkala

The Outdoor Leadership Program, for me, was a great learning experience. It was an opportunity and a learning for me to look at the content of the programs that I learn from a Outdoor¹ perspective. Moreover, the 3 days also helped me analyze my content and identify what¹s going well, how can I make it better, and what can I do differently. Personally, it helped in bringing in a fair amount of self awareness. It¹s very rare that a facilitator gets an opportunity to get feedback on her behaviour. The absence of feedback is detrimental to the participants as well as the facilitator. This program came at the right time. Thank you for your feedback for me provided directly/ indirectly and in so subtle a manner.
Sincerely appreciate it.

Kind regards
Anuradha Rao
Coach and Facilitator,
Centre for Organisational Development

This was my first time attending a workshop on this theme. I expected the program to teach me barely a
number of outdoor surviving skills. However, what I have got is much more than just some skills. The entire workshop was very neatly devised and conducted by Mr. Ali leading to soulful participation from
each and every member who attended the program.

While Day 1 had mostly ice-breaking sessions with thoroughly enjoyable group activities, Day 2 and Day3 were intense with deeper learning methodologies and experimentation. But what could have been
easily a series of dry lessons, became a string of lively experiential learning sessions due to the able
leadership of Mr Ali. His sound knowledge on what he is teaching, why he is teaching and the learning
outcomes were defined through energizers, group activities, interesting questions and willing
participation from all of us.

I have never expected experiential learning can be this influential! It has opened up a world of
possibilities in terms of individual development to me. I cannot thank Mr. Diyanat Ali sir enough for
being such an inspiration and for gifting such a wonderful workshop! I would love to participate again
and again.


Best Regards,


Rini Biswas.

I have known Diyanat for a few years now, and have seen him grow GHAC from a small adventure club to a dynamic movement, fueled by passionate volunteers. He has been able to build a culture of ownership, accountability and team spirit in GHAC. I am pretty sure GHAC will continue to grow and spread its wings in other parts of country also.

N Prasad

My name is Praveen, and I was one of the 15 attendees in the Outdoor Leadership Camp organized by

Diyanat Ali. To be frank, I signed up after getting to know that the course includes techniques on compass reading, navigation, knots and survival techniques. I had no clue what I was about to experience in the 3-day camp.

In the first day, during the lunch break, Diyanat asked us to pin down our thoughts on what our expectations were, from the program what are the factors that could improve the program, and what are the factors that could doom the program. Again, I had no clue and handed over random thoughts.


Well, you couldn’t blame me. I am the regular IT Joe, with a family and a 9 to 5 job and a bit of an experience trekking the trails around Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I had no clue on what would improve or doom the program.


Then, as Diyanat, through his skillful presentations and activities, walked us through the various facets of outdoor leadership, and the many wonderful things that nature can teach us, it slowly started to dawn on me. When Diyanat exhorted the need to develop our Emotional Quotient (EQ) as well as our Adversity Quotient (AQ), things slowly started in place. I realized that there were numerous things that I could take away from nature. Here I was worrying our the numerous little problems in my life, and when Diyanat stressed upon the collaborative ways of nature, I realized that I too, could lead a collaborative life, by asking for support and giving support to others as and when needed. There was something soothing, something strange with this interaction with nature that made sense to me. I started filling that paper with my thoughts.


The three day program was awesome – not because of those lovely night treks, and that risky rock climbing. You could get that by taking any treks with the GHAC. Where this program makes a difference is this – Diyanat makes you participate in various activities and through those activities, he would make you ponder and think. Why did you choose a particular outcome? Can you relate this situation back to your life? Through these activities, Diyanat drives home the point. This is indeed ‘experiential learning’ – learning through activities.


Attend this program – you will get close to nature and discover a lot about yourself that hitherto, you couldn’t. Of course, the camaraderie amongst the participants, those night treks, Soppo and his button factory boss, and a whole lot of other wonderful activities are a big PLUS.


You want to get close to nature and learn outdoor leadership skills and ultimately improve your life?


Keep a look out on the GHAC Meet-up group and sign up for the next course and trust me – you will


Praveen Kumar