On March 9,2020 Mumbai recorded its first case of Covid-19. The city went into a frenzy fearing the worst. Soon the country went into a prolonged lockdown. We at SNEHA, a Mumbai-based NGO working to improve the health of women and children in the most vulnerable slums, with a population of about one million, realised that it was not going to be business as usual for us. We would no longer be able to visit homes for door-to-door counseling on health and nutrition, gender-based violence, mental health and for palliative care.

With no past experience to draw from or a roadmap prepared for the future, the only certainty we had was that our communities needed our support now, more than ever. The question was, how do we keep our staff safe, while continuing to support our communities?

As Brian Tracy once said, “The true test of leadership is how well you function in a crisis.” Leading my organisation at a difficult time like this, there were two things I felt strongly about:

1. Being true to our mission of serving the slum communities we work with
2. Being true to our team by keeping them safe, equipped to work and motivated.

The goal posts, in a sense, was well defined. The challenge was placing the ball into the net without any formal training in football!

Working with diverse stakeholders

Our stakeholders range from women in slum communities who are not familiar with the use of mobile phones to doctors who were working overtime in the pandemic and donors who were struggling with their own businesses. We had to reach all of them through new online platforms, in a timely manner. Everyone was struggling in their own way to deal with this unprecedented situation.

As we spent the next few weeks connecting with each of our stakeholders, I learnt a few things:

1. Be the calm in the storm: As a leader in an unprecedented crisis, you too are grappling with the situation. But your team looks to you for stability, decisiveness and direction. While non-profits usually have very participatory decision-making, this is a time when you have to make some big decisions quickly — and make them alone. But for this, you must have great clarity in your mind about the criteria and goals for making these decisions. It calms people’s nerves to hear one voice and hear the same priorities. It gives them a sense of security.
2. Ask the right questions:  Don’t second-guess your stakeholder needs. Use your team like your tentacles to bring in the voices of your stakeholders. Then act swiftly. There was initial apprehension from the teams about our ability to undertake food relief due to fear of contracting Covid-19. But given that such relief was the need of the hour, the question to ask ourselves was, “How can we do it in the safest possible manner?”
3. Innovate and calibrate: New needs emerge during a crisis – as a leader, it is important to keep a close watch on these. In the Covid-19 world, a critical and ongoing need is the dissemination of information on to stem the spread of the virus. With new information emerging every day on Covid-19 and misconceptions and stigma spreading fast, we needed to act quickly. We were able to meet the community’s needs for information by making quick decisions on providing data packs to frontline workers and volunteers, building capacity to use online platforms and using locally available communication channels like Cable TV and WhatsApp. Effective feedback loops also helped us calibrate the information.
4. Operate in good faith: Maintaining trust is an important part of navigating a crisis. Working remotely, distributing food in the community or safety gear to public health professionals required us to rely on a host of stakeholders. The belief that everyone will act in the best interests of the communities we serve is integral to working effectively with stakeholders.
5. Have honest conversations: This was a time when we had to keep our top donors on speed dial. Sharing our situation and concerns honestly helped us evoke empathy in our donors and a desire to support our efforts. It was heartwarming to see how supportive people were and how they rallied around us to see us through.

Leading and motivating teams

A crisis brings people closer together like nothing else can. It also reveals human nature — you see what lies below the iceberg. At this time, how can we as leaders let our teams know that they are truly our highest priority?

• Communicate clearly and consistently: As soon as the lockdown was announced, clear communication on our overarching priorities was critical to guide everyone in the same direction. But communication also needs to be consistent, regular, and directed at addressing the team’s challenges. Daily team meetings helped understand the changing situation on the ground, take timely decisions and disseminate the information across the organisation. This also helped teams to switch to online platforms (a challenge given our diverse team) and continue our routine health intervention and Covid-19 work and keep the momentum going.

• Time to let go: During a crisis, leaders play an important role in getting the engine to move smoothly on the track. But we also need to listen to signals when the train is moving smoothly so we can step back and give our teams the space to manage themselves.

• Time for abundance: Despite all the funding constraints, I took two important decisions: not releasing any staff and giving annual increments. It required a huge leap of faith that we would be able to raise adequate funding in a difficult time. But more importantly, that seemed like the correct thing to do for our staff, especially since 70 percent of our team lives in the slums we serve, with other family members out of jobs. We have got to let teams know that we have got their backs!

• Bonding and self-compassion: As our teams went way beyond the call of duty, some even risking their lives, we could feel the fatigue and mental strain set in. We started Friday learning sessions on themes such as ‘happiness’, ‘workload management’ and ‘improvisation’, and discussed practise of our organisation values, thus creating a safe space for staff to share, learn and grow as a team.

• Be realistic about team performance: These are difficult times, professionally and personally. The psychological costs of fear are steep.  Don’t expect your team’s performance to improve significantly because it could be difficult for them to match what they could have done in normal circumstances. Reassess priorities and timelines. They are also trying new ways of doing things; be kind and patient!

Managing the head-heart pendulum

The pandemic led to an outpouring of empathy everywhere. More so in the non-profit world where we witnessed, at close quarters, some of the most challenging times for the most vulnerable. Migrant workers walking for days, overnight income loss by daily wage earners and food insecurity, coupled with intense fear of contracting Covid-19, made our hearts bleed. Every decision was weighed with empathy. As a leader, managing the head-heart balance is always a challenge.

1. Taking calculated risk: As a health NGO in a pandemic, we were called upon to help public health systems to screen for Covid-19. We understood the criticality of this exercise and made sure our teams had protective gear and all the necessary information to keep themselves safe.
2. Balance between ‘doing’ and ‘being’: The pandemic has forced many of us leaders to strike a fine balance between delivering on the mission and also being sensitive to our teams and their needs, more than before. Apart from usual work on strategy, business development etc. in the past few months, there has been the emergent need to work on building morale, helping teams manage uncertainty, being empathetic to challenges of ‘work from home’ and also being more vulnerable by sharing and talking about our own challenges, to bring people together and build trust. In a recent zoom meeting, we could hear a young child going through an online school session while her mother was presenting to the team. On another call, a staff member had to handover her presentation to another colleague mid-sentence as she had to run to attend to the cries of her young child. It’s all become par for the course!
3. Harnessing peer networks: I don’t think leaders have ever connected with so many of their peers at such a level before as they have in the past six months. While discussing important topics at hand, there has also been sharing of challenges, fears and embracing their own vulnerabilities. This sharing has also led to joint efforts at problem-solving which has then helped with more prompt responses and playing to each other’s strengths and the ability to take up larger challenges and help more people.

The pandemic has been a crisis in a million ways, but not in leadership. Crisis moments create opportunities and help us seek clarity and find direction. They ignite our creativity, push us to our limits and force us to think outside the norm. By and large, it has brought out the best in leaders. Pushed to their limits, leaders have emerged wiser, more resilient and more compassionate. Real leadership is leaders recognising that they serve the people they lead. They are centred, grounded, and comfortable with their values, who they are, and how they present themselves. This is the place from which they will always make their best decisions and be of most service to others in troubled times or otherwise.

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Having turned seventy recently, I often reflect on the seven decades of my life and realise how lucky I have been. Being born into an upper-middle class family, there was enough attention given to my education and nurturing my potential – an investment that has paid me dividends all through my life. This realisation has become even more acute in the COVID19 era where the survival of much of humanity seems to be at stake with hundreds of millions of human beings not knowing where their next meal will come from or how their children will survive.

It is hard not to see the disproportionate impact of the crisis on different sections of the population.  It is equally hard not to recognise how lucky several of us are and how kind the universe has been to us.   Acknowledging that we have received more than a fair deal is the first step towards recognising our responsibility and ability to pay it forward.

To give — and to give

The corollary to acknowledging your good fortune or privilege is to identify where and how you can put your abilities or your resources to the best use. I have found that encouraging, mentoring and guiding young people gives me immense pleasure. My idle time has become my biggest asset because over the years, word spread that I have time, the ability to ask questions, suggest solutions and perhaps make connections that would be useful to young people seeking help either with their enterprise, job, profession or ideas.

I spend almost all of my mornings on calls with youngsters or meeting them in person to discuss their ideas in diverse spaces such as education, livelihoods, health, kindness, governance, artificial intelligence, blockchain and so on.

We are all inherently good and want to help others. Some of us may lack discipline and consistency in our giving, or we may simply not be aware of the giving landscape in general. We, therefore need to start off with being more self-reflective and figuring out for ourselves what giving means to us as individuals and how we can give back. How much we give in terms of time or resources really depends on each of us as individuals and will differ from person to person.  

Every individual counts

One of the reasons we often hesitate to give is because we underestimate the difference we can make as individuals. The COVID-19 crisis has however helped surface gaps within our society and has provided a big motivator for people to contribute to various causes.

The power of individual giving has become quite clear over the past few months. People have become increasingly aware of the impact they can create on others, directly or by supporting the efforts of social organisations. There is a need to sustain this momentum. Especially now, with CSR and foreign funding shrinking and becoming unreliable. This can only happen when we stay engaged with issues of social change and continue to acknowledge our role in the process of change. The potential is huge, make no mistake. If 25 percent (roughly about 2 billion people) of the global population is living below the poverty line, the top 2 billion should be working to negate that, to make sure what they received is equalising and harmonising. It is our duty.

Vulnerability as a propeller for giving

We are experiencing unprecedented vulnerability and uncertainty today. Being in this situation has helped us reflect on the life we have had so far and also think about what went wrong. This vulnerability is making people understand the co-dependency that exists in society and the need to stand together, reinforcing the need to give. Having seen and experienced these truths, we have an opportunity now to make sure we never forget either our own vulnerability or our interconnectedness with others.

This Daan Utsav is as good a time as any to begin your giving journey. Start with your community, make a donation, use your skills, express gratitude, look for ways to support vulnerable communities. At the end of the day, there is nothing more satisfying than knowing that you are genuinely able to contribute towards positive change, be it for a family, a community or society at large.  The sense of joy and fulfilment that comes with giving is unlike anything that has ever been experienced.

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The United Nations has described the global scale of education disruption from COVID-19 as “unparalleled”. The 2019–20 Coronavirus pandemic has affected educational systems worldwide, leading to widespread closures of schools, universities and colleges. While students across the board have been impacted by the pandemic, it is important to explore the severe impact on children from marginalized communities in many countries of the global south, including India which, at 260 million children, has the largest school-going population in the world.

As the impact of the pandemic unfolds, it is becoming abundantly clear that traditional learning models and schools have ill-equipped us and our children to understand, make meaning, respond and adapt to the uncertainty and vulnerabilities emerging from the current crisis. The last few years have seen the discourse around education reform moving towards making children work-ready for jobs of the future. An approach that has become outdated due to 3 – main reasons:

• The future is already here:The often-repeated assumption that children would have to face an uncertain job market and a fast-changing world a few years from now is already a reality, and this uncertain future is changing as we speak. This is a time to self-reflect and critically examine — have we done enough to prepare our children for this unprecedented situation?

• Entrenched systemic inequalities have deepened: The current crisis has further thrown up the systemic inequities in our society with the poor and marginalised being affected many times over than the average population. When an eighth-grade student we heard from, who shares a smartphone with her family of four – the family has to make a  tough choice between buying an internet-package and essential groceries – is not allowed into her online class for being five minutes late, are we not perpetuating the same systemic biases we held offline on the online world? What could be the role of education in changing this reality?

The need to shift mindsets

The pandemic and its impact on educational ecosystems require for us to reflect on the existing systemic inequities that have become more visible in the recent months. We see schools rushing for immediate solutions to sustain academics, but there are far-reaching effects on students and teachers when they are forced to adopt online learning. Our policymakers need to take into account the fact that marginalised communities do not have easy access to digital infrastructure. The need of the hour is to ensure education is available to all, rather than to ensure those who can afford education continue to receive it.

The psychological impact on children, whose lives are suddenly changed forever has largely been left unaddressed; they are expected to adapt when even we, the adults who are meant to guide young people have no clarity on what to expect from the future.

Re-imagining the purpose of education

Where do we go when all this is over? If one is ‘lucky enough’ to have not been completely displaced by the pandemic, one hopefully goes to school. But just how prepared are schools to respond to this reality? We have all experienced collective grief and loss at a global and unimaginable level. We need to let this sink in. And then, when we are ready to respond, let us ask ourselves what is the most compassionate offer we can make to our children under these circumstances? Will our best foot forward be dumping our own anxiety of ‘loss of learning’ on them? Or will we recognise that they have learnt perhaps the most difficult lesson of their lives in the last few months as they stayed put in their homes? The role of teachers in the upbringing of young people is often overlooked. 

#Whatif, instead of examinations based on rote-learning, we ask our students; ‘Do you know how to be kind to each other? Do you know how to make decisions that are good for you, your community and for the planet? Do you know how to collaborate and celebrate the success of others? Do you know how to heal?’

The need for a more inclusive policy

Current systems follow a one-size-fits-all approach, whereas the reality is that in a country like India, such an approach is tough to put into practice. We need an education system that is sensitive to the myriad impact of adversity on children from vulnerable backgrounds. When designing solutions, the needs of these sections of society deserve more attention than they presently receive. The New Education Policy, while a positive step in the right direction, once again lacks clarity on implementation. It remains to be seen how such a revolutionary step in education will affect a country as diverse and vast as ours bearing in mind that not everyone will have access to the same kind of facilities and infrastructure. Another challenge that we foresee is the measurement of success upon implementation and the way forward from there.

Kindness as the foundation of a framework for change

The framework for education should start by redefining the purpose of education to mean ‘thriving for all’. We conducted a study to better understand what it means to thrive. Are the indicators the same when children come from adversity? Do tailored approaches need to be followed to achieve desired outcomes across the board? We have found that empathetic adults and safe spaces allow young people to fully discover their potential and thrive despite coming from adversity. At the centre of this approach lies kindness and the willingness to listen, holding spaces for young people to express themselves and be treated as unique individuals. 

Academic outcomes can be affected by several factors that are out of the control of educators. Scoring high marks does not necessarily mean that a child is prepared for whatever the future may throw at them. Adopting an approach that places thriving at the centre of education is much more inclusive and helps young people seek a more meaningful engagement with life.

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