It has been a privilege and pleasure to mentor leaders as they define their journey. My interest being in scaling up while maintaining quality, the journeys have been about learning how to nurture the small, backyard, organically, intuitively seeded large family to learning how to lead institutions across states.
Very often the business of going to scale is thought to be about the numbers - the targets and the money that backs that objective. The product is a concern as far as it supports the former. Organisations make decisions around which to work with first - the numbers, the money, the product. That the product itself is the result of processes and systems is recognized but is slotted lower down the list of priorities because the money is not dependent on it. The end product is all that needs to be in place - that too, to the extent to which the donor world is interested. And its not very interested at all.
Gen1Can works with the reality of the variables above - the pressures of the scale - sometimes the surprise of it - an opportunity can pass you by very quickly, the money, the donor requirements, the needs of the market, the imperative to deliver at the will of the pressures. But the focus of Gen1Can is to work on the product (when it is education) and the processes of that maintain the quality of the product in place (whatever the product).
Pedagogy is often not understood. Often it is misunderstood as relevant only to curriculum. It is the science of learning. It is the technology behind the transfer of knowledge. Wherever knowledge is transferred, whether it is under the purview of the HR Department, that of the Knowledge Department, the Product Design Department, in the Sales or the Management Department; this technology is needed to ensure that learning occurs in the best conditions, is tailored to the learner and is sustainable.
The leader of the organisation or the head of a Department becomes the best point of entry because he or she controls the variables of quality that need to be tweaked. The decisions around the technology are theirs to make. Also, in the NGO sector, very often, as scale is sometimes unplanned, sudden and the resource base is not ready to absorb the scale, the leader as an individual is required to grow from being a visionary to becoming a marketing and managerial head - functions of leadership not required heretofore.
Sometimes it feels like there is so much to say and get done in the organisations that I support. One cannot get away from the reality that work can happen ONLY at the pace of the people at the organisation. Sometimes, it can only happen at the pace of the people who I am talking to in the organisation. very often I am hired by Heads of Departments, more often than not by the Heads of the Knowledge or Product Departments of Education organisations who do not understand that pedagogy is not essentially related to the education sector - that it is about the technology that determines and then controls the variables of quality - thereby is to do with management, HR, product design systems, quality control systems, marketing and sales. Too often, my frustration comes from not being able to communicate this and therefore, talking only to the specific Department that hired me. Then begins the inefficient process of the HOD being convinced, taking it to the Heads meet where it gets debated to death, the guy comes back battered and confused, 5 steps back from the 8 we had covered together because there is no way I could have downloaded all the pedagogic logic that s/he would have needed to float the meeting and the decisions needed. This is followed either by retrials or capping the amount of advice that I give to the organisation based on the sphere of influence of the HOD. Rarely, the chance presents itself to skip levels and the problem falls away while the solution takes hold with consensus. Thus, leaders of organisations are the entry point for the support that Gen1Can provides.
Very often the business of going to scale is thought to be about the numbers - the targets and the money that backs that objective. The product is a concern as far as it supports the former. Organisations make decisions around which to work with first - the numbers, the money, the product. That the product itself is the result of processes and systems is recognized but is slotted lower down the list of priorities because the money is not dependent on it. The end product is all that needs to be in place - that too, to the extent to which the donor world is interested. And its not very interested at all.
Gen1Can works with the reality of the variables above - the pressures of the scale - sometimes the surprise of it - an opportunity can pass you by very quickly, the money, the donor requirements, the needs of the market, the imperative to deliver at the will of the pressures. But the focus of Gen1Can is to work on the product (when it is education) and the processes of that maintain the quality of the product in place (whatever the product).
Pedagogy is often not understood. Often it is misunderstood as relevant only to curriculum. It is the science of learning. It is the technology behind the transfer of knowledge. Wherever knowledge is transferred, whether it is under the purview of the HR Department, that of the Knowledge Department, the Product Design Department, in the Sales or the Management Department; this technology is needed to ensure that learning occurs in the best conditions, is tailored to the learner and is sustainable.
The leader of the organisation or the head of a Department becomes the best point of entry because he or she controls the variables of quality that need to be tweaked. The decisions around the technology are theirs to make. Also, in the NGO sector, very often, as scale is sometimes unplanned, sudden and the resource base is not ready to absorb the scale, the leader as an individual is required to grow from being a visionary to becoming a marketing and managerial head - functions of leadership not required heretofore.
Sometimes it feels like there is so much to say and get done in the organisations that I support. One cannot get away from the reality that work can happen ONLY at the pace of the people at the organisation. Sometimes, it can only happen at the pace of the people who I am talking to in the organisation. very often I am hired by Heads of Departments, more often than not by the Heads of the Knowledge or Product Departments of Education organisations who do not understand that pedagogy is not essentially related to the education sector - that it is about the technology that determines and then controls the variables of quality - thereby is to do with management, HR, product design systems, quality control systems, marketing and sales. Too often, my frustration comes from not being able to communicate this and therefore, talking only to the specific Department that hired me. Then begins the inefficient process of the HOD being convinced, taking it to the Heads meet where it gets debated to death, the guy comes back battered and confused, 5 steps back from the 8 we had covered together because there is no way I could have downloaded all the pedagogic logic that s/he would have needed to float the meeting and the decisions needed. This is followed either by retrials or capping the amount of advice that I give to the organisation based on the sphere of influence of the HOD. Rarely, the chance presents itself to skip levels and the problem falls away while the solution takes hold with consensus. Thus, leaders of organisations are the entry point for the support that Gen1Can provides.
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