Management Development Program in NGO Sector

Recently I attended the Management Training Workshop for NGO’s and it was difficult to open my eyes as early as 6am, actually torture…..Must they have sessions as early as 8:30 am and make me set my alarm so early in the morning? Me, who is a late riser? Sigh!

Reached the venue at S.P.Jain Institute of Management and Research, Andheri on the dot of 8:30 and after quick registration and a cup of coffee I was ushered into the auditorium for the first session in the morning. There were about one hundred attendees from different parts of India all with the common goal of getting a better insight on management skills in the NGO sector.

After the inauguration lighting of the lamp, Prof. Rukaiya Joshi spoke about how we can work more professionally as an NGO and how to implement what we learn into our daily day to day work activities. That no sector can work in isolation and learning from each other becomes the important factor for progress.

Dr Sesha Iyer spoke about the value based growth of an organization. There should be proper attitude for serving and one must believe in a notion to be able to send in their idea across to other people that they should be able to take a proper decision and that influence plays an important role. While there is need on one side to do the social work there are people willing to help from the other end, all we need to manage is the networking and communication.

During the morning session Prof. Rukaiya discussed the topic on ‘Accelerating socio-economic rural development’.

There are three factors that characterize the Indian Rural development scene:

• Firstly, we need to recognize and address the vast diversity that exists in India due to socio-cultural and religious forces.
• Secondly, the relationship between manager and the beneficiary is both rich and complex and this can be done best on friendly terms.
• Third, there are four diverse types of organizations who are involved in rural development efforts in this country, such as voluntary agencies, co-operatives, corporate sectors and the government and each of these have their own strengths and weaknesses. 

In accelerating the rate of development we have to understand as to how we can contribute more than what we are already doing. During the research it has been observed that 60% of them have grown and 10% have become mega projects while some of them have ceased to exist.

Rural development is a process of facilitating empowerment of the people, leading them to self reliant and self sustaining activities, which is initiated through the interventions of external agencies.

Mainly there are four categories of action plans.

• 1. Networking among agencies: It is important to have partnership with other agencies of similar goals to accelerate the growth. Make a list of other NGO’s in your area and network with them, know their struggles and challenges so that you don’t waste time by trial and error method, when you can easily learn from each other and facilitate growth. Appoint the person who excels in that field to take up that particular task.
• 2. Using administrative tools: It is important to make reports of the project undertaken to know your strength and shortcomings which can help in future projects. It is important to find time to make proper formats and the reports so that task can be made more meaningful. The untapped sources of specialist and committed people are able to contribute to the rural development more effectively
• 3. Energizing the agencies: Motivation is required to create conducive atmosphere for development, five ‘M’ of management add to the organization value, (Machine, men, money, market and material). If the funds are managed well then 20% of the useless expenses can be eliminated. Translating good intentions and high investment into rapid rural progress requires concern at the highest levels with outputs, and also with managerial intervention necessary to achieve them. Effective implementation is important for success. Just making a formula is not enough, implementation is also important. There should be margin for change. Thinking in same way hampers the creativity, sometimes it is necessary to adopt completely different situation, change the system and implement it.
• 4. Involving the Beneficiaries: Efficiency (doing the right things), effectiveness (doing the right way) and accountability) taking the responsibility) is the root core of management. Social development is linked to economic development. If there is no growth that means something is wrong. If it does not work then you should know when to exit and that can happen only when you empower the beneficiaries. If the beneficiaries are always protected then they will never grow. Collective thinking has to happen. As long as you are clear in your ideas, you should be ready to take the blame. There should be no excuses for failure.