Katapult – Kohler India’s Signature Leadership Program

To Catapult implies moving forward at great speed, covering a large distance in the shortest possible time. Likewise, Katapult - Kohler India's Signature Leadership Journey aims to accelerate growth of participants by helping them unleash their full potential. “With Katapult our intent was to give an experience which matches the Kohler brand & product experience – bold, innovative and delightful. I am really glad for the first time we had participants from all business & verticals in India, ME & SSA and that as a Leadership Team we collectively delivered on our commitment to them,” says Pankaj, Sr. Director HR - South Asia, ME and SSA.

Katapult promised to offer - Choices, Intensity & Eclectic Experience, to its participants and the same were thoughtfully built into the program design to help them Learn, Reflect and get Inspired. Further talking about the program design Nidhi Datta , Manager - L&D India, ME and SSA shares, "We placed the participant at the heart of the design, every decision involved meticulously examining the impact on participant experience.”

Each promise was converted into a design principle to help us stay on course.

Choices – Inbuilt into the design, some aspects of the program were left unstructured ensuring participants make choices based on their interest and passion. Instead of allocating projects to participants, we reversed the equation and asked participants to choose projects from real life business problems shared by our leaders. This was done through a Shark Tank Style format which involved intense pitches for resources and leadership's time. Individual learning budgets further placed ownership of development with participants. Leadership Team & Mentors were on point to guide participants through the entire journey. Natasha Chopra, a participant, while talking about her experience shared, “With KATAPULT leadership development program I was empowered by the course curriculum, learning labs, guest speaker sessions and on demand mentoring. I was inspired by the fellow participants from different functional backgrounds. ”

Intensity – 4 specially curated Workshops, 8 action-learning Projects, Mentoring & Development Centre; all moved in tandem to deliver 100 hours of productive learning experience. This was backed with rigorous assessments, relevant content and a robust listening strategy. Arpitha Shetty, another participant shared “What stood out in this leadership program is how the program was weaved into the Core Kohler business, and organization values and how we are pushed to excel and go way beyond our comfort zones."

Eclectic Learning Techniques – Play heightens a sense of learning and this was leveraged through 8 Play Sessions where Theatre based techniques and Board Games were used to assist participants with Difficult Conversations & Managing Emotions. ‘Pioneer Speak’ provided real life inspiration from entrepreneurs like Nitin Saluja of Chaayos and Arjiyo Bannerjee, who shared their personal journeys with our participants.

“I thought Katapult was one of the best and most comprehensive leadership development programs I have seen close at hand – the individuals that were selected should feel truly fortunate to have been part of this," shared Salil Sadanandan, President - K&B South Asia, ME and SSA.

The D-Day brought the participants and the leadership together as they celebrated the graduation ceremony of the first Katapult batch. It was filled with fun moments which included peers giving titles, sharing bloopers and games that helped build camaraderie amongst the participants. The participants continue to walk the development path with robust re-assessment to understand their growth over this year long journey.