20 Years - 20 Insights: Part 4

I begin the final part of this series with an honest submission: in writing these articles, my respect for the columnist who can churn out weekly or even monthly articles with unfailing regularity has grown manifold. I had intended to complete this series within a month, and here I am, working on my final piece, five months since I wrote the first. But yes, there is an undeniable sense of accomplishment as well, at having reached thus far!

In this final part, three of my five insights come from some pragmatic lessons learnt in my social sector journey, sometimes the hard way. In hindsight, these realizations will come to you only if you are willing to challenge your set notions and paradigms, and confront them from an alternate perspective. This willingness, followed by the confrontation and the realization should be a part of your survival tool-kit not just in the social sector but in life itself.

For the final two insights, I take an ideological turn, talking about two points that I have held on to dearly. These have shaped the key decisions of my life, and in many ways, the trajectory of my life itself.

Insight #16: Numbers are cold, but so is water

“Why are Numbers called so?”

“Because they can make you numb to reality!”

I’d come up with this quip many years ago, at a time when I was conflicted by the imperative of scale in the social sector (that I have referred to in an earlier insight). Numbers present to us the great convenience of summarization, and make for attractive headlines (“Over 30 million out-of-school children in India”). I used to hear large numbers being bandied to present the socio-economic problems we were grappling with, till I became wary of the tendency to reduce everything to numbers. The realities that I saw on the ground were something the numbers, however staggering, could never reveal - one powerful human story was enough to agitate my conscience far more than any number of numbers presented on a PowerPoint slide. The wariness for numbers grew into a kind of disdain, and I began to look at anything shown through the lens of numbers with suspicion.

However, when I started working in the skill development sector, the value of judiciously using numbers (data) to measure effectiveness and impact became clear to me. In the SMART program that I have anchored at Tech Mahindra Foundation, we have a robust data management process, through which we are routinely able to take data-driven decisions to support the program. This has held us in good stead, and even after 9 years, the program is regularly delivering on the intended outcomes. Over time, I have realized that nearly everything can be measured, and for those indicators that cannot be quantified, a system of proxy-indicators can be developed. Looking at numerical data for an intervention over time (longitudinally) can present several meaningful nuances about the program. Practitioners will do well to integrate a strong data collection and analysis mechanism into a program from its early days, as the real benefit of this will only come with time.

Numbers, like water, may be cold - but they are indispensable.

#17: Money is like Oxygen

I first heard this analogy from my father when I was perhaps in my late teens. The rebelliousness of that age, and the insouciance that comes with it, made me dismiss the idea without giving it much thought. Decades later, when I was running my own enterprise (Edulever), the significance of what he had said became clear to me in no uncertain terms - we had a serious cash flow crisis at Edulever, and I spent many sleepless nights, feeling choked.

When you have enough of it, you do not need to think about it all the time. But when it is in scarce supply, it can be the only thing that drives your thought. Money is indeed like Oxygen.

That money cannot be taken for granted might sound obvious and even cliched, but I am often surprised at the assumptions youngsters in the social sector sometimes tend to make about money. Astute financial planning is critical for any start-up, especially so in the social sector where you may be dependent on the largesse of funders. If you are such a start-up, you are well advised to stick to the basics: keep your expenses to the minimum, save for the rainy day, be realistic in your plans, and when it comes to asking for funds, let not your ego come in the way.

#18: Take your Accounting and Compliances seriously

Another insight that comes from the experience of running a start-up, as well as a large corporate foundation. In our zeal to change the world and make a difference to the lives of others, we tend to overlook - and even belittle - the rather mundane task of keeping our books of accounts. This can prove to be a costly mistake. Ensuring that financial records are in order, and regulatory compliances are met with, are as important for an organization as having a vision and mission statement, perhaps more.?

An important point for passionate entrants into the sector to remember is that not everyone would share your passion and enthusiasm about social reform. A team of auditors would seek to understand and verify your work through documentary records, and would not necessarily go by what you have accomplished on the field. An auditor who questions you about your transactions is doing so because it is their job, and not because they distrust you.

As the founder of an organization, you would do well to understand the basics of accounting and keep a tab on the records being maintained. Similarly, when it comes to regulatory procedures (getting the necessary registrations, filing returns etc.), you as the founder/co-founder have the primary responsibility for compliance. As I shared in one of my earlier insights, process and passion can be at loggerheads - but you have to strike a balance.

#19: Compassion - The Secret Sauce of Social Development

To me, at the heart of any initiative which is meant to improve the lives of others must lie a deep sense of Compassion - the ingredient that has the potential to make us humans truly humane. I’ve written about this at length in an earlier article, expressing my views on how compassion in its true sense is seldom seen, and why it must be interwoven in the lexicon of social development. I would not belabor this point here; except to say that to me, the pursuit of making a difference to the lives of others is meaningless unless an abiding compassion permeates every step of the effort.

#20: Ultimately, it’s all about striking a balance

As a child, I had been introduced to the idea of “The Middle Path” by my parents, who have Buddhist leanings. While Buddha’s Middle Path alludes to a spiritual and philosophical way of being, for me it has meant the search for that elusive equilibrium that exists within the continuum of several contrasting and sometimes conflicting forces in our lives.

Many years ago, I learnt about one such contrast in the context of teaching children from one of my mentors in Education, Prof. Jalaluddin. He spoke of how it is important for facilitators working with children to bring into their session the opposing ideas of Joy and Rigour - how the learning experience needs to be Joyful and Rigorous at the same time. It took some time to realize that these two have to be woven into a single experience for the students, and not given as experiences that alternate between joy and rigor. That single experience, which blends these contrasting forces in the same moment, is the elusive equilibrium.

Such dualities are everywhere within our work in the social sector: whether to grow wide or go deep, whether to take charge or let go, whether to trust your intuition or go with what is presented as evidence. There are the conflicting forces that I have discussed in this series: Passion vs Processes, Scale vs Grain, Data vs Anecdotes. At a personal level, we often have to choose between the ideal and the pragmatic, whether to sacrifice a short-term gain for a larger goal, and the more everyday decision of whether to do a task ourselves or delegate it. Experience has taught me that there exists the golden mean in all these dualities - the middle path which is often not visible at first, but emerges as you learn where to look for it.

With this, I come to the end of my 20 years – 20 insights series. It's the Teachers' Day today, and I cannot think of anyone better than my teachers, and all my mentors and fellow travelers who have guided me through this journey, to dedicate this series to. It's been a fascinating twenty years in the social sector, and I look forward to the next phase of my journey, and picking up and sharing more insights, with avid sanguinity.??