This is a question I often get asked with a puzzled look many times. Here I capture how I work with individuals and organisations.
- Consultation for engaging and impactful gatherings
Is your team planning a conference, training, workshop, dialogue, meeting that is both effective (achieves its goals) and also engaging (offers a great experience to the participants)? I am happy to work with your team to think this through - from the basic foundation of such a gathering to a robust design that brings it's purpose to life.
- Learning reflections for individual journeys
We go through experience after experience and rarely take a pause to stop and ask ourselves what is that we wanted to do, what happened, how is this a meaningful part of our life story, what does this tell about ourselves and our relationship with self and others, and what we want to take from this experience in the future.
We go through experience after experience and rarely take a pause to stop and ask ourselves what is that we wanted to do, what happened, how is this a meaningful part of our life story, what does this tell about ourselves and our relationship with self and others, and what we want to take from this experience in the future.
- Visioning (clarity and alignment of purpose, core values, long term goal) and/or the strategy to get there for organisations or individuals
When I ask people how much time you should be spending on thinking of what you are doing versus actually doing it, the answers I get are between 10-30%. If you convert that to number of days in a year that means out of about 250 working days, we should be spending 25-75 days on THINKING about what we are doing. Yet many struggle to take out time to ask - what are we doing? how is it supporting our purpose and achieving the impact we intended to create? is the work meaningful and fulfilling? how is it a manifestation of our values? what can we do to better live our purpose and values? Periodic conscious collective reflection renergises all and brings to awareness where the focus needs to be. The goal is not to produce a strategy document but to become a purpose driven organisation. The process can take 10-12 days spread over a few months where the organisation then follows it up regularly internally.
When I ask people how much time you should be spending on thinking of what you are doing versus actually doing it, the answers I get are between 10-30%. If you convert that to number of days in a year that means out of about 250 working days, we should be spending 25-75 days on THINKING about what we are doing. Yet many struggle to take out time to ask - what are we doing? how is it supporting our purpose and achieving the impact we intended to create? is the work meaningful and fulfilling? how is it a manifestation of our values? what can we do to better live our purpose and values? Periodic conscious collective reflection renergises all and brings to awareness where the focus needs to be. The goal is not to produce a strategy document but to become a purpose driven organisation. The process can take 10-12 days spread over a few months where the organisation then follows it up regularly internally.
- Capacity development (strategy, facilitation)
I love sharing what has helped in my work with organisations and individuals. A large part of this work is in designing meaningful training programs that build on the experience and knowledge of the participants and take them to higher levels. Trainings are followed up by online mentoring circles within a few weeks to further help retention of learning and share experiences of applications of learning.
I love sharing what has helped in my work with organisations and individuals. A large part of this work is in designing meaningful training programs that build on the experience and knowledge of the participants and take them to higher levels. Trainings are followed up by online mentoring circles within a few weeks to further help retention of learning and share experiences of applications of learning.
- Meeting facilitation for dialogue, learning exchange, planning or review
Organisations (for example consortiums or networks) specifically reach out with a request to design and facilitate meetings that have a clear agenda and expected outcomes, are participatory and engaging and foster genuine contact.
- Team connections
Teams feel the need to pause and reconnect with each other to celebrate, appreciate or talk about issues and challenges that are blocking them from working together joyfully and meaningfully.
Organisations (for example consortiums or networks) specifically reach out with a request to design and facilitate meetings that have a clear agenda and expected outcomes, are participatory and engaging and foster genuine contact.
- Team connections
Teams feel the need to pause and reconnect with each other to celebrate, appreciate or talk about issues and challenges that are blocking them from working together joyfully and meaningfully.
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“You know what before those sessions I could have never thought that a training, a session can be so powerful, I mean it can actually make you think, reflect, look inside, face yourself, question yourself and the way those sessions helped me to connect with my own self.”
Participant of induction training at a fellowship program
“Manali has been associated with Dhriiti for some years now and has taken the organisation through a very critical transformation process. The Strategy Exercise that Manali led with the Dhriiti team in 2013 was an important milestone in the organisational journey. Manali, not only designed the exercise in a participative way but also conducted it in a way that was synergetic with the overall organisational culture and values. Being an excellent facilitator, Manali took the team through challenging discussions and raised questions that were necessary for moving forward. Unlike most other consultants, Manali left us with a concrete follow up plan and built capacities of the team to live the Strategy Plan that got developed under her guidance. We thank Manali for her participatory approach that strengthened the organisation forever.”
Nidhi Arora on longer term impact of the strategy process with Dhriiti (2013)
“Manali Shah brought her immense energy and enthusiasm into our strategic planning exercise in 2014 and the result was a strategic plan and roadmap that is standing us in good stead. With Manali’s help, we developed a three-year strategic plan, extendable to five years and this plan has helped us prioritise our activities, make crucial staffing decisions and record our work in a manner that helps us evaluate our progress more meaningfully. The strategic planning process was comprehensive and the final document that emerged from it has been valuable in inducting new team members as well as in keeping us focused on our goals and activities.”
Prabha Nagaraja on longer term impact of the strategy process with TARSHI (2014)
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