January 8, 2018

4 New Year resolutions for the development sector

Here’s a quick guide to help you become a new, more productive version of yourself in 2018.

2 min read

1. Kick the meeting habit

Ever looked at your calendar in the beginning of the day and wondered how life could have gone so wrong? The development sector has more meetings than dishes on a Gujarati thali: donor meetings, staff meetings, board meetings, project meetings, I-really-don’t-know-why-I-was-invited meetings…the list is never ending.

We even have meetings to talk about other meetings. Not to mention all those conference calls. When your calendar looks more overloaded than the next Avengers movie, it’s time for an intervention.

So, this year, say no to indiscriminate calendar invites and try to get more time for some real work. Maybe call a team meeting about it.

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2. Ditch the jargon

Since time immemorial, the sector has made promises to use less jargon and then, just minutes later, talked about the impactful, paradigm-changing interventions that lift millions of people out of poverty. (Seriously, the only time you should be lifting people is after an accident or in the privacy of your home—you know if you’re into that sort of thing.)

This year, take this resolution to the ‘next level’ and the next time you hear someone using jargon, just slip it back in regular conversation. “How’s the new restaurant you ask? Well, it has great potential for scale because it was not very resource heavy; but it was low on impact. Also, they kept insisting I partake in their M&E system after, which was very challenging”.

Related article: Hierarchy of needs for nonprofits

3. Say no to roundtables

Not since King Arthur’s knights has anyone fallen in love with roundtables like the development sector. It’s easy to see why we love them so much. You get to tell people how you’re influencing the ‘ecosystem’ by driving ‘collaboration’ and ‘dialogue’. And the pictures look great in the annual report. Who doesn’t want that?

However, I think it’s about time we all admit that development sector roundtables have become as unending and useless as the Golmaal movie franchises. With each one always announced as the ‘first step in the process/dialogue/conversation’ and with the terrible promise of more to follow.

4. Read IDR more

Totally not saying this out of any self-interest whatsoever. Like none.

We want IDR to be as much yours as it is ours. Tell us what you want to read.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Akhil Paliath-Image
Akhil Paliath

Akhil is a development sector professional who has worked across different functions such as strategy, business development, and partnerships. He has worked with Central Square Foundation (CSF) where he helped set up and implement large scale learning improvement projects with various state governments. Before CSF, he worked with Dasra as a part of the team that managed multi-million dollar initiatives such as the Dasra Girl Alliance and the Dasra Adolescent Collaborative. Akhil has a Masters in International Affairs from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna as well as bachelor degrees in financial markets and international relations from the University of Mumbai and London.

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