Women entrepreneurs have taken the world by storm. These entrepreneurs have successfully established their own empires and changed the lives of thousands of people around them. Despite all odds and failures, they have worked hard to take their organizations to the next level with sheer determination and an untiring work ethic. Women Entrepreneur’s editorial team engages in a conversation with one such outstanding entrepreneur, RTN. Tina Rattra, director of Tina’s Transthought Institute, who has been helping organizations in their transformational journeys.

While Tina held a number of key positions in the corporate, she played a significant role when it came to designing learning interventions. With 21 years of corporate experience behind her, in 2017 she started Tina’s Transthought Institute (TTI), an institute that helps facilitate developmental journeys for organizations with customized interventions and cultural transformation journeys. Parallelly she has been working as a freelance coach, consultant, and facilitator for various national and international consultancy firms through which she gets the opportunity to demonstrate her excellence in coaching and behavioral training. Let’s hear it from her.

Can you walk us through the idea behind the establishment of TTI?

As a consultant, I realized there was a huge gap in the industry when it came to using experimental methodology. It was being used majorly for team building however when it came to more serious topics like DEI, leadership, conflict resolution, communication, goal setting, or doing a team SWOT most consultants were using the old-age classroom PPT methodology. I saw this as a huge scope for TTI to become that change agent for demonstrating the power and impact of experiential methodology.

Hence our mission at TTI became to co-create a culture of orbit-shifting performances and innovation-focused practices that help in building leaders of tomorrow. We wanted to facilitate ‘People & Business’ process transformations by helping leaders define the conditions for success at their workplace.

What makes TTI unique from the other competitors in the sector?

At TTI, we believe in creating learning through experiences and then infusing conceptual sessions for a fundamental understanding of the concepts behind the behaviors, gaps, or processes. We work with clients in enabling their desired change through a planned and systemic series of interventions in order to meet their organizational goals.

Our customized approach helps us to focus on their problem statement and design unique solutions which address the behavioral or process challenges that teams or individuals face at the workspace.

Our programs have a twofold approach of 'Experiential & Concept' sessions. The Experiential part gives an opportunity for them to display their ways of being, thereby generating data to see and work with. The Concept sessions focus on the fundamentals, 'Why’s, What’s and How’s' which help enable awareness and growth.

Tell us about the major business challenges you encountered while leading Tina’s Transthought Institute. How do you overcome the roadblocks that you encounter?

As a consultant, there will always come a time when you need to choose between quality and quantity. I had to start saying no to projects when I felt the client wasn’t interested in creating valuable experiences for their employees. It didn’t matter to them what value the consultant bought to the table, all they wanted was the cheapest quote.

Ups and downs are a part of being an Entrepreneur. No 2 days or months are the same. Be patient, save when the tide is high, and work hard when it is low. Eventually they all pass, it’s a full circle.

TTI had just started to build its business and overnight everything stopped abruptly with the pandemic. After a few weeks reality hit, switching gears I used this as an opportunity to get exposed to attending and conducting virtual training, something I would have never considered otherwise.

"Learning experiences are like journeys. The journey starts where the learning is now & ends when the learner is successful"

Tell us about some of the key milestones you have achieved throughout your professional journey. 2022 was a great year for TTI. We transitioned from doing only training interventions to managing end-to-end events. The trust and faith organizations put in us have been heart-warming.

Recently we took on the mammoth talk of designing and conducting day-long interventions spread across 2.5 months for 1000+ teaching and non-teaching staff of 28 colleges who were merged into 1 university. This helped the team to unite, and understand the Power of ONE and the university getting its 'great place to work' certification.

Currently, we are designing a new offering for the Industry. Through this, we hope to help clients identify and create change agents within their organizations.

In light of your strong experience, what would be your advice to business leaders who are starting their careers?

Lead with passion and purpose. Whenever you get the opportunity, give back to the community. It helps you to remain humble. Take care of your team, without them you wouldn’t be where you are. Keep learning, that’s the best way to grow. Learn to say No when your heart says No.

RTN. Tina Rattra, Director, Tina’s Transthought Institute

Tina has clients in IT, ITeS, FMCG, Pharma, Manufacturing, and Education Sector to name a few. Apart from being an ICF-accredited coach, she holds multiple International certifications. Her expertise lies in coaching and developing leaders for success, doing TNI/TNA, AC/DC, designing interventions to address behavioral dynamics, team building and supporting culture change initiatives.

In her commitment to being a change agent, Tina has been actively involved in Rotary as a district trainer for the past 5 yrs. Her unique methodology has made her very popular in her Rotary District 3131. She is also holding the post of Assistant Governor (AG) for RY 22-23. As a part of her philanthropic work, Tina is working with her colleagues to build leadership capabilities for an NGO by using a research-based approach along with OD principles.