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There were questions from a student at ISDM on what should he do to 'increase impact by bringing changes in the organisation's strategy/building upon the capacity of members'. Specifically, 'is this what I should be looking at this time?', 'Am I looking in the right place?', 'What key skills should I garner?', 'Could you advise / suggest further readings?'. The reason for putting up the response on this website is that it may aid, to a small extent, a young man or woman desiring to step up their engagement with the overall sector.
Before I respond to your questions, a few refinements. It never is about 'changing' something (like an organisation's strategy); it always is about improving someone else's understanding of it. This is a subtle but critical distinction: when you desire to 'change' something your chances of making an error are very high (especially as an outsider). When your aim is more humble, such as helping someone understand things better, chances that you will succeed at what you are doing are more or less guaranteed.
There is another side to this observation: there is a tendency, amongst us all, that someone, in this case, let us say, an organisation, needs help or people's capacities need to be built. Many a times, you will be surprised, most people do not need help. They would rather want someone else to do the job then can very well do on their own. Nowadays we call that outsourcing. In earlier times, it was called being cheap and lazy. Likewise, working with any system, when you are not an integral part of that system, comes in two flavours. We must try, hard as it is, to not end up doing someone's job, but rather to improve someone's understanding. What they do with that understanding is their real job. Hopefully, we take care that the persons we work with, by and large, are of good intent and hence they will put the time spent with us to some productive use.
Let us return to your questions. You have asked many questions and made some remarks. If I were to answer each of your questions (each of them does have an answer), it would only complicate your thinking process. I would take another route. Let us start with what is a fact: you have a track record of studying and being associated with the development sector. You have spent some time, not a lot, but neither little, in gaining some experience in the area of your study.
This, in my view, places you at a good point to ask some fundamental questions. One of which I would ask if I were you: do I wish to continue to be in this sector? If so, what are my real motivations? The answer to that question is not 'I wish to help organisations or something like that'. Rather, you need to ask yourself why you wish to do that. Spend some time reflecting on it.
The second fact in your life is that you are a man who is interested in practice, practice of applying what you have learnt. Hence, that makes you, like most of us, a practitioner. Again, this is a very fundamental and important distinction many forget, especially those who gravitate towards consulting. Consulting, by profession, is preachy and there is a risk that it makes you a preacher, rather than someone who stands besides another practitioner (an organisaton, an entrepreneur, a founder, etc.). You may do the same task, but the attitude you bring to the table matters: hence, if and when you do slide into a role like that, you must bear in mind that you are a practitioner and are helping some other practitioner. It is critical, therefore, that you understand what it really really means to think like a practitioner.
For example, if you want to help a businessman, you must know what being a businessman feels like, what is it that is really on the line for the business, what could destroy it overnight, what could make it sustain for the next generation to take over, what it feels like selling to a customer, et cetera. Likewise in the development sector; and hence, it is your years spent working for a small NGO that matter far more than your academic credentials. The academics will give you tools to think. The experience gives you a sense of what is the appropriate way to think. A combination of both can make you a practical and a reliable man (to work with).
This brings me to the second fundamental question you must think about: given where I am today, what is the biggest choice I need to make? The choice is not about doing something like a 'M&E expert', but it is about asking yourself what kind of practice do I wish to establish for myself? Asking yourself this question will release you from the throes of narrower notions like 'M&E expert, development evaluator, OD consultant' and put you in a frame of mind to learn and absorb a variety of things to enrich your experience till date. And this variety of things could include many many things.
One of things you should bear in mind is that the development sector is not about specific tools. Development, at the end of the day, like everything else in life, is about doing things, and hence management is an integral part of being effective at helping organisations. Ideas are plentiful and floating around all the time, realism is scarce. And realism comes from the knowledge of how things work, how to manage them, how to think through them, how to get things done. Hence, my suggestion would be that if you wish to enrich yourself, enrich yourself with a variety of managerial and people skills.
The options you look at should be guided by this consideration above anything else, if you indeed wish to be a more thoughtful practitioner who can make real contributions to real people in real time in real organisations. At this stage, therefore, do not zone in on a particular organisation. Instead, zone-out orgaisations you think are completely off the track, and be open to all the rest of them.
It is a simple observation of common-sense: read about any person who has accomplished much in any discipline. You will always be struck by the breadth of their intellect rather than the specialisation of their knowledge. This breadth is reflected in their ability to speak about their discipline in a very simple manner and in terms relatable to any person. Have you wondered where this really comes from? It comes from having been exposed to many things outside of their own discipline and their ability to relate those things to what they are doing. For example, you could be a professional in a development sector, but maybe the way you help organisations is guided more by computer science than 'social science'.
This is because how people think in different disciplines is not very different. They use different terms and definitions. But at the core, human beings, across the planet, think alike in certain ways. I often use this example: investing in financial markets is not very different from driving a car. If you are an intelligent and observant driver of a car, you will do well in the field of investing. Of course you would need to learn the specifics of the trade, but you already have all the qualities that you need.
Why are some people like this and many not like this? Because those few who have this kind of intellect are basically curious about first principles of what they are doing. They do not get too bothered and trapped by the technicalities beyond a point. Hence, at this stage, you should not be too bothered about the specific technical tools taught to you. They are just one set of inputs in a variety of them you might want to gather over the course of your life. What I am telling you will sound a little difficult to practice because through and through you have been associated with only one kind of discipline (social science) and hence one way of thinking. You will have to take baby steps to broaden you areas of interest and repertoire, starting with taking a real and deep interest in people. At the end of the day, all organisations are nothing but a net result of a variety of interactions between people. If you cannot get a handle on that, you are not going very far.
Finally, as you do think over these things remember: there are some people who enjoy the responsibilities and energy that a front-line role in an organisations demands. There are others for whom understandings things is more enjoyable, i.e., they are of an analytical bent. The direction you are proposing to move forward into demands that you derive sheer joy from exercising your brain more than others on a regular basis. If you do not, you will forever be miserable because the actions that others undertake based on what you propose may or may not turn out to be the way you intended. Further, as someone who helps someone else, you will never share in the fame, riches and ambitions that are an intrinsic part of the role of a real leader, entrepreneur, or manager. You will always be in the shadows and behind the scene. Do not expect, ever, for anyone to tell you that because of you we are where we are. Firstly, because it is impossible that your advice will be the sole reason for anything to happen, and secondly, even if it is, most people will not see it that way. Hence, this comes back to the earlier point: if you are a fellow who derives contentment from exercising his brain then you will propser in a consulting-type profession.
Hope this helps.
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