Reflecting & Reinventing

Based on experiences with partners over the last few years we have come to recognise Strategic Advisory as an independent and core vertical of ABC.

The impact of COVID-19 and the lockdown for many of our partners resulted in disruptions to programme operations, raising questions around the best way forward in uncertain times and unforeseen circumstances. This period also gave some organisations the space to prioritise reflection and internal development. For others, the realities of the unfolding crisis brought with it new priorities, perspectives, and programmatic needs. For us, this organically created an opportunity to collaborate with our partners through their processes of reflection and reinvention.

The Lighthouse Project

One of our longest standing partner organisations - The Lighthouse Project runs a Mumbai-based youth mentoring program. Prior to the pandemic we had already collaboratively begun to revisit organisational and programmatic strategy. Our role was to facilitate their uncovering of successes, challenges and core values. The pandemic allowed both our teams to dedicate the time necessary to move through this process much more quickly.

We started by helping their team review past assessments and evaluations, reexamining goals and objectives, and providing guidance on good practice through the evidence base. We used this as the base of our workshops together.

The workshops of course were all online, which actually provided us with the unique opportunity of sharing screens and creating joint documents, and honestly experimenting together (you can read more about our transition to remote working here). We started at the very beginning with their core values, the needs of their beneficiaries, and of course their vision. Step by step we then worked through the strategy of an evolving programme, constantly keeping in mind the age group, the context and the successes they have had. The end result was a logic model that connects the dots between age groups towards their renewed goal of building socially conscious and contributing citizens.

The strategic plan was then developed into a programme model. We are excited to continue our partnership as we work on the curriculum and content for the pilot.

A slide detailing a Theory of Change, from our project output provided to The Lighthouse Project

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Dharohar

Dharohar is an Udaipur-based organisation which runs multiple verticals including one focused on learning and development. Their education vertical has multiple programme elements that they provide to the local community in a variety of different ways. Our work together was focused on synthesising all of these elements into a strategy that reflects both who they are and how they work. The aim was to document a strategy that can be easily and effectively communicated outwards.

The process for ‘Facilitating Program Design and Development’ as presented in our proposal to Dharohar

The above image details the phases of our work. We started the gruelling process of building a logic model together - articulating short, medium and long-term objectives. We then supported the project team in running co-creation sessions with a variety of different stakeholders. Co-creation brings in end users to design programmes together with the project team, therefore ensuring that programmes truly reflect the needs and wants of the community. They co-created learning programmes with children, college students and working professionals.

We, at ABC, are now in the last stage of this project where we are supporting their team in finding ways to effectively and simply communicate their strategy.

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Apnalaya

Our third partnership in the strategy domain was related directly to the impact of COVID-19 on our partner’s beneficiary communities. Apnalaya, is an NGO which aims to empower the urban poor in the Shivaji Nagar slums, a large cluster in M East Ward of Mumbai. This area has some of the worst Human Development outcomes of all areas in the city.

Apnalaya, in partnership with other Civil Society Organisations working in the area, led relief efforts in the community during the pandemic and lockdown. The marginalised communities were especially vulnerable and distressed during the pandemic due to the inter-sectional nature of the risks they face. However they also realised that their programs and community engagement would need to be revisited in the medium to long term, based on the emergent realities on the ground. To address this need we partnered with Apnalaya to conduct a Community Needs Assessment of Shivaji Nagar with a focus on livelihoods, nutrition, health and sanitation. The study aims at providing evidence-based strategy recommendations for Apnalaya, using which they can most effectively support communities in a post-COVID world.

Findings from Apnalaya’s Rapid Assessment, which led to the more comprehensive Community Needs Assessment (Photo via Apnalaya on Instagram)

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The past year has given us the opportunity to work within the strategy advisory vertical in a multi-faceted way. We strongly believe that strategy design and development is never fully complete due to the emphasis we place on iteration using insights from actual implementation. However, we are glad to contribute well-grounded research and a cause-and-effect understanding of programmes as a solid starting point.

The Great 2020 Remote-Work Transition

In March 2020 when India went into lockdown, the ABC team was forced to go remote, like many other urban organisations. We have now been working from home for 9 months across 5 cities, figuring out how to collaborate with our partner organisations and maintain a healthy team dynamic as we go.

Initially, a lot of our efforts were directed towards understanding what the transition meant for each of us on an individual level, and consequently, for us as a team. Our much-cherished office environment -- the source of daily motivation, collectively-generated ideas and shared non-work experiences -- was now gone, and we had to learn how to replicate it at home and also online. This meant prearranging and scheduling the ‘impromptu moments’ that took place in the physical office environment - in the form of weekly team hangouts, regular, one-on-one check-ins, and frequent project meetings to ensure everyone was on the same page. We had to learn how to be sensitive to each other’s differing contexts - being patient with the messy spaces, routines, and responsibilities that come with being at home - while still ensuring we were setting high expectations and not compromising on the quality of work.

[To hear more about the team’s journey transitioning to work from home, check out Ep. 2: The ABCs of Remote Working at our podcasts page]

A team brainstorm session

Qualitative researchers with a completely remote assignment

Aside from learning how to work with each other online, the way we connect with our partner organisations also had to change. Meeting clients in-person was no longer an option, and day-long workshops were now unfeasible. We had to experiment to build a working relationship on zoom. We restructured day long workshops to shorter chunks over a week or sometimes even a month.

The experimentation process gave us the unique opportunity to evaluate the pros and cons of different training and interaction models. While in-person interactions with our partners are valuable, we also appreciated the positive impact of remote interactions. Meeting virtually enabled us to meet more regularly and informally. We were able to slowly build on concepts and ideas together. The virtual interactions allowed for much more flexibility with scheduling and of course shattered the barrier of geography altogether.

Glimpses from trainings and sessions with our partners

In addition to working remotely with our partners, we went a step further to help them engage online. Taking from our own experience and a whole lot of research, we helped pre-school teachers build a classroom environment for their toddlers online (read an interview with one of the teachers here), supported an organisation with engaging their volunteers in online trainings and meet ups, and also facilitated another partner in conducting co-creation workshops as a part of their strategy design. This meant further developing our own digital literacy, and passing it on to our clients in the most impactful way possible.

Little Wizards Preschool teachers conducting classes online

Of course, this transition was not without its challenges. We had to be mindful of people’s varying level of internet and technology access, as well as learn how to manage big groups and ensure zoom etiquette depending on the context.

However, despite the unfortunate circumstances in which we had to learn how to work remotely, we found several positive components to and outcomes of the process. Moving forward, we will definitely take these forward, and perhaps, like many others, even transition permanently to a hybrid work model! Despite uncertainties regarding what remote work will look like in the future, one thing is certain - working from home this year has made us more patient, empathetic and resilient - both as individuals and as an organization for the years to come.

Meet Pooja Sharma - Our Newest Team Member

Could you tell us a little about yourself?

I was born and brought up in Hamirpur district of Uttar Pradesh. I did my schooling in Hamirpur and Gwalior. I hold Masters in Public Policy from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai and Bachelors in Sociology Honors from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi.

I joined ABC in October, 2020 as a qualitative researcher and am now working as a consulting researcher.

Could you tell us about the work you have done prior to ABC?

Earlier I was working as an Assistant Editor – Research and Content for a digital publication based in Mumbai. My work involved writing research-based opinion pieces on socio-political matters and policy issues.

How did you find out about ABC? Why were you attracted to it?

I heard about ABC during my Masters when it was conducting its Bootcamp called – iGnite. I was attracted to ABC primarily because of the work it has been doing and the projects which they have been undertaking. The very foundation of ABC is to contribute to impact and particularly to real world and grassroots issues. And this is exactly what I have been looking for.

How does the work you are doing at ABC relate to your interests (personal/academic)? What kinds of projects are you involved in?

In terms of interest, I think, one thing that has been of utmost importance for me is to be involved in action-research and I am so glad that this is also something which is central to ABC’s vision. Some of the projects that I have had an opportunity to engage in have been evidence based and impact driven.

What do you hope to learn/achieve during your time at ABC?

I have been interested in qualitative research and ABC has trained me wonderfully in the same. Thanks to the trainings I received, I have learned a lot more about the tools and techniques of qualitative methodology as well as analysis. I hope I keep learning many such skills. All the projects have been really engaging and I hope that I can be a part of several such projects and contribute in making some real impact.

What have you enjoyed about your experience at ABC so far?

This could be a really long answer because I enjoyed a lot of things and if I could say, I really admired certain things. I started my journey with ABC during a pandemic and at a time when like most of us, I was also a bit disillusioned and the kind of support and warmth this team has shown is absolutely heart-warming. I instantly felt a sense of belonging-ness. Apart from this, it is commendable to see the honest investment that ABC makes in its team, the trainings that I have received have been amazing and very insightful. Moreover, the team is incredible and everyone’s opinions are not only heard but are also acknowledged. It is a great space to learn and grow and lastly, I enjoy being a part of the projects which aims for ground impact.

Thinking Critically is Critical

Thinking Critically is Critical

- Vivek Mohan

Vivek is a Consultant with Aparna Bhasin Consulting who specialises in Monitoring, Assessment, and Evaulation.

”Critical Thinking” is an all-encompassing term that refers to any mental reasoning activity that requires you to evaluate information and/or process information from a new perspective, that is therefore clear, rational, independent and logical. It allows you to challenge the assumptions, flaws and biases in our typical reasoning and successfully differentiate between facts and opinions.

Achieving this level of thinking while solving a problem - that allows you to suspend your beliefs in order to explore and question topics from a ‘blank slate’- can be achieved through 4 systematic steps.

 1. Gathering and evaluating information - when presented with a problem, one of the first steps that you take is to…yes! Solve it!

Actually, no. Let’s take a few steps back.

Take a closer look at your problem. Study it from various angles. Look in-depth for background information on what actually constitutes the problem. Synthesize and organise this information about the problem (from relevant, reliable sources of course! Remember the school teachers chiding you about Wikipedia-research?), representing various points of view and diverse approaches.

What you are building up through this exercise is the ability to inquire, to formulate and frame relevant questions regarding the specific problem or challenge at hand. This systematic process of thinking enables you to break down a complex problem into clear and concise segments, so as to be easily understood by anyone else, while collecting and analysing information that results in informed conclusions and judgements.

 2. Defining the problem - having deconstructed the complex problem in front of you, you arrive at the root of all evil…or, to be less dramatic, the core or heart of the problem, and are able to put together what is known as a problem statement.

This approach cultivates an open mind and bias-free thinking, that is integral to critical thinking. With the many cultures, beliefs, and stories that coexist and make our world, there are also several possibilities and answers to the questions we face every day in life.

 3. Identifying strategies and proposing solutions - once the core of the issue is identified, time to hack away at it by trying to identify multiple approaches to solving the issue and proposing one or more solutions after carefully evaluating the relevance of contexts. In doing so, one must take care to systematically and methodically analyse our own and others' assumptions when presenting a position.

In doing so, you also start to let your creative juices flow, going beyond the limitations and being original and fresh in your ideas,  forcing you to adapt to situations of change, to initiate change and to take intellectual risks.

And that is the end of that.

No? Maybe we could stretch this out a bit more…? Ah!

 4. Evaluating potential solutions - This includes deeply and thoroughly considering the history of the problem; reviewing logic or reasoning; examining feasibility of the proposed solution; and weighing the impacts of the solution.

Along with this, you also evaluate outcomes, reviewing the results relative to the problem defined with thorough, specific considerations of need for further work.

These conjoined steps allow you to draw logical conclusions from your work. A good conclusion is based on extracting information, getting feedback from others, and depicting it in a way that others can understand. Drawing conclusions involves analysing and weighing the information at hand as well as the sources used.

And that brings us to the end of that!

Achievement unlocked: Critical thinking

Level: Pro……bably needs more practice than merely reading a blog post.

Get to it! Take a problem! See how you can break it down to the smallest bits. Get to its core. Find a solution. Find holes in that solution. Find enough band-aid-solutions to patch those holes. Then drill more holes. Keep pushing yourself to solve it. You may surprise yourself.

Or you may come back here to tell we sold you a cock-and-bull story and wasted 3 days of your time.

Either way, get critical!

Introducing Venkatesh!

Experiences in Empathy

Experiences in Empathy

- Vikram Singh

Vikram is Head of Operations at Aparna Bhasin Consulting and also consults on projects across all of our service areas.

The concept of Empathy has gained immense popularity in recent times – going far beyond being a personality trait, it is now considered an important 21st Century skill. A simple search online will throw up a number of articles about how empathy makes for not just better friendships and relationships, but also better managers, and more productive work spaces.

Since there is so much out there already on what empathy is, why it’s important, and how you can develop it, I wanted to instead share how – perhaps counter-intuitively - my professional experiences helped me to become more empathetic.

Looking back at my early 20s, I don’t think empathy was a strength area for me – either personally or professionally. A big reason for this was - I very often wanted to be right in a given situation.

I would like to think that has there’s been positive change since then.

The foundations were perhaps unconscious. Soon after college I began working with a large education NGO where I had the opportunity to break out of my urban, Anglophonic bubble. I travelled extensively to various program locations across the country, spent time with people from backgrounds different from my own, and swapped stories and shared experiences with them. I was not actively thinking about developing empathy at the time but, looking back, this was a formative experience. It reminds me of Mark Twain’s famous quote – “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness…”

Another important component was learning to be a better listener, and this is deeply rooted in the qualitative research I have done over the years. Active listening is an important component of conducting interviews and focus groups; you really have to pay attention to words and body language, understand and process what’s being said there and then, determine relevance, and ask follow up questions to learn more. When you’re done, you have to look at it all again and see how it fits into the larger context. Interestingly this process of active listening and purposeful reflection also made its way to team meetings and dinners with friends.

At ABC, we’re fans of Human-Centered Design (HCD) and incorporate it into our work. As the name implies – it’s a problem solving method which aims to keep the perspective of the people you’re designing for at the core. In some ways, the entire HCD process is empathetic. However, for me the big learning in the area of empathy was from Immersion. Immersion is a method to conduct research-for-design which involves experiential learning. You participate in the communities, lives, or relevant processes of the people you’re designing for. In hindsight this seems like a pretty obvious thing one should do – but it’s very often overlooked. It showed me how much of a difference there is between theorising about someone else’s lived experiences and experiencing it for one’s self, and how disconnected the two can be at times.

While everything I’ve mentioned so far was relevant, it was unintentional. An important piece to tie it all together was the more focused consideration of empathy that occurred at ABC. Social and emotional learning (SEL) is a large part of our work. So to be able to, for example, design programs or assessments dealing with empathy, I had to learn more about it. As I learned more about empathy I recognised it as an important and valuable skill – academically, at first. However, as you learn about what constitutes empathy and empathetic behaviour (or any “soft-skill” for that matter), you also start to think about whether you practice it, and notice when you don’t. This in turn triggers a chain of reflection on your own actions and reactions, as well as that of others you interact with.

In general there are two components to empathy. Affective empathy is the ability to understand how a person is feeling in a given situation and provide a suitable emotional response. This component is a part of normal social development for most people. The second is cognitive empathy, which refers to the ability to recognise and understand the mental state of others. For the latter - reflection is vital, and not just of the other person’s words and actions, but also one’s own perspectives, prejudices, and assumptions.

There have undoubtedly been other elements which have fed into the growth of empathy - positive interactions with the people around me, sage words of advice, life experiences. But I’m glad to have had these professional experiences which pushed me to think about empathy. For one, they showed me that empathy is a skill that can be developed, but they also helped to think about the little ways in which that development can happen.

I’m by no measure an expert on the topic, and I definitely don’t get it right all the time. But I would like to think that I now give far more importance to the pursuit of understanding situations and people than to just wanting to be right.

Adapting to a Digital Classroom

Adapting to a Digital Classroom

In conversation with Parinaz Nania - Supervisor and Teacher, Little Wizards School

Little Wizards is a pre-primary school, and is part of the Scholar High School in Colaba, Mumbai. Aparna Bhasin Consulting has been working with Little Wizards to develop a holistic, student-centered curriculum, and support teachers in its implementation. To deal with the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, we adapted our capacity development workshops with the teachers to include pedagogy and classroom management for a remote digital classroom environment.

Kashvi, from ABC, spoke with Parinaz to better understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to remote learning on pre-primary schools.

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Hello Parinaz! How have your teacher training sessions been? Have they had any impact on your program?

They have been lovely - Aparna and Juhi have been with us for most of the time and have really guided us well - they were always there when we wanted to ask them something, which has been very helpful.

There is a huge difference between what we used to do and what we are doing now. Earlier, we used to have a set syllabus - like ‘fruits’ for one month, ‘vegetables’ for the next month. The training really got us thinking; there were some superb ideas.

Now, there is definitely still a syllabus, but you bring the children naturally into it - we ask ‘what do you like to eat?’ and topics like fruits and vegetables just follow. ‘How do you travel to school?’ - it’s not transport as a topic, we just cover it in their daily life.

Parinaz (centre) with her class at Little Wizards

Even though you haven’t been in class yet, do you notice a difference in your teaching style ?

Yes, definitely. Even if we’re telling the children a story, we see to it that there are a lot of props involved, because just telling a story is not that interesting for children that young, especially on screens. If one teacher is telling a story, the other teacher takes over and if the story is about a monkey, showing a monkey makes it more interesting. There is basically more involvement of children.

Could you tell me a little about the transition during the lockdown? When you had to move everything to a remote medium, what was that like?

Initially we were all a bit worried, worried in the sense that we didn’t know if it would work with children this young, we have children from two and a half years old. But it is - they are enjoying it!

“The children are very gadget friendly - they flew to the screen and love to see what we are showing. There is a lot of interest. The parents are also happy that the children are occupied.”

Aparna guided us to have the sessions in small groups, and 4 children in a group, which is working fantastically. They are paying attention - you don’t have to look at many children at once, and you know they are looking at you. It’s not like it should be in a class, but it’s a good thing, we have learnt something. I have never used Zoom before, and now I have become good at it.

The children are very gadget friendly - they flew to the screen and love to see what we are showing. There is a lot of interest. The parents are also happy that the children are occupied. So yes, we’ll have to cover up quite a few things when we get back to school, but I guess we’ll manage - if we can manage this I’m sure we’ll manage then also.

Parinaz conducting an activity on Zoom

Have there been any changes in the program or teachers because of shortened sessions?

We did not think children would sit still for more than 40 minutes, so there was no use doing it longer than that. There are many things we can do in person, like the games and puzzles we have at the school, though we try to do them over here too. For instance, today we had an activity asking them to run around their house, find 5 things that are red in colour - so we make them move around. We are trying to do as many activities as possible.

“There are parents who tell us “You know, he was waiting for you! On Sunday he said, ‘why don’t we have class today?’” So that’s when you feel, you know, all this is worth it. ”

The teachers are also doing a good job, they are all busy making props, making the time table - so we may be working only 3 days with the children, but it is almost every day we’re doing something to prepare for those three days. But it’s working well - children are responding to us. There are parents who tell us, “you know, he was waiting for you! On Sunday he said, ‘why don’t we have class today?’”. So that’s when you feel, you know, all this is worth it.

To what extent are you on track with your original goals for the year?

We’re running a little behind for the Junior KG especially, on the writing bit. We don’t want to begin when they’re at home because there is a certain format that we use. So we don’t want them to learn something wrong. They do some activities, but the writing bit is left behind, which we really need to focus on later.

Are all the students able to attend the video call usually, or are there differences between the students?

Most of them are attending, there are just a couple of children who are in the village, so they don’t get proper network there, so they are struggling with that. Other than that they are all there.

Is there anything you will take away from this period of working digitally with your students? Adopting something that you have not done before?

We always used to tell them stories in class, but now with some more props learning is helpful. We feel that when kids are watching videos on a screen, they are a little more interested - like I said, the children are very gadget friendly - they are more interested in what is shown to them. So maybe we’ll incorporate a little more of it in the classroom also, maybe on a television or something, on whatever the topic is. You can make out that they have absorbed a lot more looking at the screen, sometimes.

Is there anything else you would like to share either about the transition to remote teaching, the teacher trainings or any of the topics we talked about before we wrap up?

The teacher training as I said has been super helpful. It has brought a change in ourselves, in our teaching, the way we teach the kids - it makes a lot more sense, you know. Honestly, I think Aparna has joined us at absolutely the right time, because after the lockdown, there were two trainings where she focused on how to use Zoom to teach, and there were two demo classes where she would suggest if anything needs improvement.

ABC-Little Wizards Teacher Training session conducted on Zoom

“For the transition to digital - it’s difficult, but it’s working. I was surprised and happy that it’s working beautifully. This is something that we never expected and nobody wants it but we are in this situation so we can just be positive about it.”

It would have been difficult for us to start on Zoom, but with her help it has been super easy, and it’s actually fun for all. Even the teacher trainings are always very fun and lively, there’s never a moment when you think ‘Bas, enough.’ That’s when you grasp more.

For the transition to digital - it’s difficult, but it’s working. I was surprised and happy that it’s working beautifully. This is something that we never expected and nobody wants it but we are in this situation so we can just be positive about it.

Thank you so much for your time! it has been really insightful to hear your perspective on early childhood education during this challenging time.

N.B. - Interview above has been slightly edited for coherency and flow, however the contents are largely verbatim

The year that was...

Meet Upasana and Vivek

This week, ABC welcomes two new employees. Here they describe themselves in their own words.

“I am obsessed with elephants and wish to foster one in the future.”

— Upasana Hembram

I was born and brought up in Hyderabad and fell in love with Mumbai when I moved here. I took with me several experiences of working with NGOs and social enterprises, who were involved in the education sector in some capacity or the other, along with an electrical engineering degree from IIT Bombay.

After spending the last 3 years dabbling in professions as diverse as an applied physics researcher to assisting an MLA with his constituency development, I've joined ABC, and the fit couldn’t have been more perfect.

I am both a tea and a coffee person, love cats and dogs, like the indoors as well as the outdoors. You can find me cozied up in a corner with a book in hand on a weekend or just not be able to find me because I’m off camping or trekking somewhere.

I am obsessed with elephants and wish to foster one in the future. I also pride myself on being a budget consumer – deals, coupons you name it. I am a DC girl all the way, but if I had to choose between a pepperoni pizza and Batman, I would pick the pizza.

“I am a recovering gaming addict and an avid anime enthusiast.”

— Vivek Mohan

After floundering for years in the vast ocean of education, getting tangled in every subject from Computer Science to Biology and from Statistics to Population Studies, I decided to take a break from academics to build a career in a field of my own interest.

This led to roles as a teaching assistant-junior research fellow at IIT Bombay and a technical writer in the UNICEF-funded Swabhimaan project at IIPS, Mumbai, and finally, my current engagement as an associate at Aparna Bhasin Consulting.

I am a recovering gaming addict and an avid anime enthusiast.

My other interests, assuming that the aforementioned qualify, include reading, writing appalling stories, and the occasional dabbling in modern art, because that’s what they ultimately turn out to be.

I am not, however much I may bear a resemblance, to be mistaken with any creature that spends its time cooped up in tiny dark places. I do enjoy the sunshine and the great outdoors, and sports like wrestling and rugby fascinate me.

However, knowing fully well that I would mostly be at the receiving end, I prefer to stick to less risky ventures such as badminton, cricket, football and carom as my choice of extra-curricular activities.

You have reached the end of this abomination. Congratulations on successfully wasting a few seconds of your life reading it.

*Thunderous applause*