Harris Public Policy Holds Workshop for Indian Nonprofits and NGOs

“Why am I here?” This was the first question that participants attending a May 2017 workshop in New Delhi, India, on “Strategic Management of NGO and Nonprofit Organizations,” had to brainstorm with.

In a way, this question set the narrative of insightful reflections that dotted the three-day workshop aimed help middle-to-senior level executives of NGO and nonprofit organizations improve their performance. Organized by the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, the program was attended by sixty carefully selected participants from across India with backgrounds ranging from grassroots efforts to corporate foundations. It was a first of its kind executive workshop conducted by Harris Public Policy in India.

The first session kicked off with discussions on the changing landscape of nonprofit organizations in India. The tone for the workshop was set with thought-provoking questions from Luis Miranda, advisor and board member of several well-regarded nonprofit organizations in India, and Vidya Shah, CEO of EdelGive Foundation, who talked considerably about the governance and compliance related challenges that NGOs in India currently face. The discussions also highlighted the need for creating robust systems for impact measurements for NGO and nonprofit organizations.

On the second day, the lead facilitator of the workshop, Frank Schell, a lecturer at Harris Public Policy, deep dived into the issues of nonprofit governance and leadership. During the course of his conversation and group exercises, he continuously reiterated how strategy is key to differentiated positioning of an organization and is an enabler of leadership. Responding to questions of leadership, Frank said, "You never do it all by yourself, you do it with a team," a statement that captured the essence of teamwork.

Dr. Gurcharan Das, an Indian author, commentator and public intellectual captivated the participants with his thoughtful insights on ethics in nonprofit leadership. Narrating the theories with real life examples he said, “Future leaders of NGOs and nonprofits should hire people for attitude and then train them for skills, instead of doing it the other way around.”

Kanupriya Sekhri, head of communication and engagement at the Indian School of Development Management designed her session like an accelerated boot-camp and helped participants to experience the power and significance of “appreciative inquiry” in real-time. Through engaging and intensive group activities, she also steered the participants towards the drawing board and helped them return to the fundamentals of their organizational strategy for the coming year.

The third day of the workshop started with participants sharing their interests beyond work and hence set the tone for a reflective day. The discussions that followed focused greatly on different traits of leaders and the importance of stepping back to reflect. The session led by Santosh Babu, ‎founder and chairman at OD Alternatives, saw the participants deeply engaged, often uncomfortable, with some incisive psychological exercises, with the objective of discovering self.

Frank Schell returned to talk about the importance of good governance and the strategic role that the boards of directors play in organizational growth. Highlighting best practices of decision process, Frank stressed on the importance of dealing with non-confirming opinions and how addressing them is critical for mapping out progressive pathways.

While all the previous sessions talked about strategy, good practices and ways to think and design, the last session fittingly talked about dealing with failures and addressing mistakes. Safeena Husain, founder and executive director at Educate Girls, focused on the need for effective listening and how it plays a great role in decision-making and hedging failure. Candidly, she also reflected on some of the dilemmas she frequently faces in hiring and firing and that how sometimes, the job of a founder can be lonely.

Addressing the participants for closing remarks, Peggy Harper, associate dean at Harris Public Policy, reminded participants, “We are deeply committed to our Center in Delhi and would like to be a resource, convener, and participant in your growth and development.”

In what seemed to be an indicator of a successful engagement of participants, everybody excitedly applied concepts, techniques and reflected on speakers’ feedback to their work in real-time, all through the three days. The fact that it gave them a fantastic opportunity to also connect with peers and emerging leaders of the nonprofit ecosystem, in a way, also answered the question with which the workshop had begun: Why am I here?