Six months ago, I joined Social Lens as an analyst, in my pursuit of making a difference to change the world. At the time, my ideas of generating social change at scale involved large amounts of aid, taskforce and optimal targeting of the aid – these were largely dictated by what I read about change. While this was somewhat true at a macro level, I largely missed one vital factor – people.
People make organisations, people drive organisations and people can break organisations. In a sector that is directly driven by humans on both ends, investing in the capacities of people to deliver change is key. Imagine an organisation as a fishing boat that is made of strong materials by the best shipbuilders in the industry. Now, imagine a weak person rowing the boat with a flimsy oar. No matter how strong the boat is, a weak rower and oar renders it ineffective. Similarly in organisations, a lack of focus on the internal capacity of the individuals driving change, leads to poor programmatic outcomes.
My first project at Social Lens involved capacity building of nonprofit organisations. Our diagnosis did not delve into the structure of the program. We investigated the support functions around the program, which involved assessing people management and processes in place. Over the course of the project, I learnt that establishing robust processes and standard operating procedures has a strong bearing on the effectiveness of the functioning of the organisation. I thought of processes in organisations, just like the role of oil which leads to the seamless movement of machine parts. We observed that establishing processes, and more importantly, communicating it to all, also led to improved decision making – thereby improving internal efficiency. This brings me to the point that simple internal communication systems across the sub-functions contributes to organisational harmony.
Here at Social Lens, we are a young, growing team. While we are all driven by the same mission, it is our grit and perseverance that aid organisations and ourselves to learn and grow.
