My six Learnings working with ThinkZone
As this year comes to an end, a year unlike any other year, I complete 6 years working with ThinkZone.
It has been an incredible journey full of twists and turns. This journey of mine defined my life, how a 34-year-old man, father of two kids, who lived life like a vagabond was transformed into senior operations manager. As I look back at my journey, I want to share my learnings which I learned through the highs and lows. I believe I have more to learn and more to share but this time ill be sharing the key learnings with everyone who is reading this or anybody who wants to understand how things work or don’t work at the so-called grassroots level.
So here my six learnings
“No one size fits all”
In the year 2017-2018, we were training youth and helped them in setting up their own learning centers. The Learning centers were for kids between 3 years to 10 years. These centers were mostly after school and before centers where kids were taught according to their level through the activity-based methodology.
I thought this is exactly what these kids need but after 2 months of opening the learning centers in my cluster, the parents won’t send their kids to our centers, no matter how hard we try to convince them. After serious brainstorming with our team, we decided to change the fee structure from annual payments to monthly payments. That worked for us as parents were not comfortable paying the amount annually but preferred monthly payments.
When we replicated this solution in other clusters where enrolment was low it didn’t work as expected, because we realized even the problem is common the solution might not be a common one but a unique one. In some places the selection of teachers was not correct, some places teachers needed more training. The solution which might work for one village might not work for another village. Every problem has to be looked at from a fresh perspective.
“Learning is a lifelong process”
Learning never stops, I realized this later in life when I thought I have way past my learning days.
In the year 2019 our learning outcomes, skills for kids, and teacher training content were completely overhauled. The Thinkzone’s app interface and functionality also had undergone drastic changes from the previous versions. Though I was aware of the changes I was reluctant to understand why the changes were made and how it affects the kids. As a result, I was never a part of the discussion in the team meetings, Teacher training sessions, or during any presentation to any government officials.
This affected my confidence and my everyday work. I discussed this with Binayak, CEO of Thinkzone. He told me how imperative it is to understand what is happening inside the classroom, the skills, and learning outcomes. Learning the in and out of the program boosted my confidence and my productivity. Now I realize learning never ends, I have more to learn and practice.
“Adapt or Perish”
This year when the pandemic hit us and the whole world went on lockdown. Our Thinkzone operations were shutdown completely no training, no classes, and no visits. Thinkzone and the rest of the world moved online. I was not able to adjust to this transition, I couldn’t work at all. As a person whose core strength is human interaction not able to meet or talk affected me. After two weeks I decided to talk about this as people knew I was not handling the pandemic situation well. After an intervention by the amazing people of my organization, I decided to face the situation and embrace the change. I decided to ride the digital wave, someone who is lazy and nearing 40 it was tough. I learned how to use google maps, schedule video calls, and update data on google sheets. This took time and made many mistakes like my Twitter getting suspended(which still gets suspended and I don’t know why) and forgetting how to share screen on a zoom call. The lesson I learned was to adapt to any kind of change this applies to everybody, if we don’t adapt to changes we will perish. I am grateful to Shrideep, Program Manager, whose constant support helped me embrace the digital life.
“No work is small work”
It’s been six years working in the social sector one mantra that I follow is no work is small or big. Every work has its importance it’s just we don’t see its value at the moment. I always make sure I do the work which others think is below them, I believe if I can do it being the senior-most person with grey hair then others would do the same. One should respect the work rather than judge the work.
“Hurry slowly”
The objective of the organization or the individual should be to be proactive in their actions, like making the first move, quick in identifying flaws, taking a course correction, and thinking ahead of the market. But in social sectors, the desired results take time as multiple external factors are involved. If we implement our plans, follow the set process then parents’ behavior will change, learning outcomes of kids will improve eventually and teachers’ ability will increase in the course of time. So, one should be proactive but have the patience to see the desired outcomes.
“Never say die”
One thing which I can say is my biggest strength is I don’t accept defeat and I never stop trying. In these six years, I have seen everything shutting of learning centers, Kids dropping out, teachers not turning up for the training, and a pandemic in spite of all the obstacles I have stood firm by the core objective of Thinkzone. If one program fails somewhere another program might work there. Human beings are unpredictable emotional creatures it is essential to have a humane and empathetic connection with all the stakeholders. I make sure this connection is never lost.
These 6 are my learnings which I wanted to share with the world or anybody who is reading this. I know I have miles to go and more to share in the coming years.
