Reflections: Social Media and NGO/CSR Workshop in India

Workshop Ngo Feb 13

View more presentations from Beth Kanter.

My 8 day visit to India was a whirlwind.  I'm still recovering.

Here's why:  I attended and presented at the Indian Leadership Forum in Mumbai on Feb 9-11.  The Nasscom Foundation in India,  the epicenter of nonprofit technology and social innovation, invited me to present as part of the Global CSR track in a session about reaching the Bottom of the Pyramid with technology and social media.  I also had the opportunity to facilitate a large group session about whether CEOs should use social media or not and attended a tweet up with David Meerman Scott. 

And during breaks from sessions, did a lot of media interviews.  Here is a few more clips (1, 2, 3) Thanks to Pink and White Consulting for organizing all this.

Finally, I taught two social media strategy workshops for NGO and CSR practitioners before having two days to get a taste of India and then a 24 hour journey home. 

No wonder I am still tired!

You can find my materials and slides on the workshop wiki - CSR and NGO workshops, but always like to do a reflective wrap up post.   It always helps me improve practice.

Teaching in an international context

I love designing and delivering trainings on social media and the added challenge of working outside of the US.  I've had the opportunity to present this workshop in Romania, UK,  Cambodia, Australia, (for a mostly Eastern European audience) and all over the US for different types of nonprofits, different levels, and different perspectives (communications staff, program staff, social entrepreneurs, senior leadership,etc). 

When teaching in different contexts, especially outside of the US, you need to make some adjustments to your content.  I don't create from scratch, but rather re-frame it.  Here are three techniques I use:

• Connect with and research audience via social media
• Customize once you get on-site
• Real-time improvisation

First, I try to connect with people in the country or community via social media.   If anything, having social media as part of your trainer's tool box  makes this an easy task.  I used Twitter to get examples of NGOs using social media which resulted in an excellent resource list.   Within ten minutes, I connected with social media/ngo experts in India (@apnaIT  @paritoshsharma @avinashraghava @gauravonomics @amnigos @neha1989 and a few others).  I also did a pre-survey workshop registrants.

Before I get on the plane, I spend a few hours looking over my training materials with a "US Centric Lens."   What does that mean?  I look at my materials and ask whether or not I have used examples, data, or words/phrases/jokes/humor that are so American that they would not be understood outside of the US?  For example, I include information about Forrester's Social TechnoGraphics profiles as part of the social media game which is based on US data.  I was lucky enough to discover @gauravonomics work in translating these profiles to an audience in India.  Using that information, I was able to customize

I try to keep my curriculum and materials a little fluid.   I have a basic structure.  I don't over prepare.  When I get on site, I focus on listening and soaking up the culture and perspective.  I try as much as possible to get into the participants' heads.   I'll do the actual customizations when I arrive in country. Doesn't give me a lot free time to play tourist, but I'm there to work.

The last most important is improvisation.  It requires listening, thinking on your feet, and being in the moment.  I usually prepare a trainer's guide for myself and generally follow it, but also adjust on the spot.  And, for discussions, if the truth be told, I jot down a outline while I'm in the room.  It takes practice to do well, but I think it improves the learning experience for participants. I am also very transparent with the audience about the challenges of "lost in translation" and include discussion questions like 'How does this translate to an Indian context?"

I faced a major challenge during my time in India.   The long plane ride had an effect on my hearing.  My ears were clogged and as a result, I had major problems hearing anything with my right ear.   Rather than hide, I just let people know.  It worked.

Many of my presentations include some visual humor and funny stories. I like those the most, but often have to delete them when working outside the US.  Here's where I rely on my host to tell whether or not  what I think is funny is actually offensive or disrespectful.  Like a stand up comedian, I left on two jokes to see how they played in India, framing it with "this concept might be too American - so if doesn't resonate - that's okay."  I was surprised that a number of jokes actually did translate and I had the room laughing.

It's all about the framing ... "Gee I know this might possibly be inappropriate because I don't know your culture, but I don't mean to be disrespectful .. launch into joke."

Corporate Social Responsibility Practitioners

Nasscom Foundation has an impressive Corporate Social Responsibility Program where they work directly with corporations and small business that want to fund social change initiatives. Nasscom provides technical assistance and also manages a knowledge network where best practices and reports are shared.    Many of these programs are employee volunteering programs or other social investment programs.  Nasscom Foundation also manages an online volunteer matching service and it hosts a Corporate Social Responsibility Track at the Nasscom Conference.

Take a look at Nasscom's Social Innovation Awards and you'll notice these are not all nonprofit programs, but also corporate programs.  Take for example IRIS Business Service voter project or Steria's Education program to get a flavor. I'll be bold - we, Americans, could learn a lot.

A big question in this workshop was how can these programs incorporate social media effectively?  The participants in this workshop had diverse audiences they were targeting, so it was a bit of challenge, although the social media game is flexible to accommodate these differences.  I put together some American examples, including a couple that my Zoetica co-founder, Geoff Livingston, wrote about this week on Mashable. I shared them with the caveat "these examples are very "American" so let's try to translate what may work or not."  

There was a very productive conversation.  The big difference in India - is that CSR is not cause-marketing or geared towards sales.  It is purely focused on social outcomes, although I did hear some business goals. For example,  employee volunteer programs do have a business goal in that participants observed that having a robust program attracts talented employees.

Geoff Livingston wrote about authenticity in CSR programs.  I really wish he had published this two weeks before my visit.  He points that in America, "Ninety percent of companies cannot discern the difference between cause marketing and corporate social responsibility. Altruism often fails or is not thought out. In reality, most companies think, “Yeah, we’ll give some money to charity,” and let their executives figure out which ones. In the social media world, now they just outsource it to their communities (in both good and bad ways)." 

The Nasscom Foundation program is geared towards helping corporations understand how to invest in social outcomes and get a social return on investment.  Geoff talks about three different approaches used in America (Mission, Problem, and Family).  My sense is that most of the CSR practitioners in India use the problem approach.

I was very impressed with the way this group did the small group exercise in the social media game
They were able to adapt it to their own programs.   I was also impressed with the report out, not only were they brief and to the point, but they were able to clearly articulate social outcomes in the social media strategy.

NGOS in India

This workshop was for the NGO audience.  I had the usual range of small, medium, and large organizations.  Some organizations are based in India and some were part of worldwide networks.  For example, Habitat for Humanity India and GuideStar India were participants.  I also had a range of technology comfort and use levels both personal and organizational - this is actually a good thing because it creates an opportunity for peer learning.

Participants were hoping to use social media for a variety of objectives - including online advocacy, recruit volunteers, and fundraising.  Many NGOs in India work in networks, so their social media audience was other NGOS.  Other organizations, primarily those that worked in rural areas and the "Bottom of the Pyramid" talked about challenges of different local languages, access to the Internet (electricity for that matter) and technology.  I encouraged this group to think about their social media use as a bridge and shared the story of Pratham Books and how Breakthrough, a human rights organization, is using the Extraordinaries application in a creative way.

For the report out, Rufina Fernandez, the CEO of Nasscom Foundation, suggested that they do their report as if they're making a pitch to CEO for funding.  I played the part of the CEO and asked the hard questions.  I had so much fun doing that ... All of the groups had terrific answers!

Network Weaving With Books and Twitter

I discovered a new form of network weaving: book giveaways.  I'm closing the triangle between book winner and author via Twitter to facilitate learning after the workshop.  As a blogger, I've been given copies of books to write reviews and have also purchased books myself.   After I read the book, I like to give it away on my blog because I hate accumulating.  Because I do so many face-to-face trainings, I've  been incorporating a book giveaway in every workshop I do.  I packed copies Chris Brogan's Trust Agents, Shel Israel's Twitterville, Janet Fouts Social Media Book, and Darren Barefoot's Friends With Benefits.  I've encouraged each of the winners to Tweet to the authors.

Pallavi Koli, Catalysts for Social action, Friends with Benefits by Daren Barefoot
Diana Peters, Habitat For Humanity India, Twitterville by Shel Israel

Rajeshree Dutta Kumar, Centre for Science, Development & Media Studies
Pranay Swarup, NASSCOM Foundation

Connecting With Local Trainers, Building Capacity

Whenever I teach workshops, I try to identify people in the community who have knowledge.  After all, I'm a visitor and I leave.  Communities need local expertise.  I try to so hard to find and acknowledge those folks.  They're so important.

In the picture above, you will see Pratap Ashutosh who is a talented techie and trainer and has been running hands-on social media clinics for Nasscom Foundation.  I left behind my printed cards for the Social Media game.  And, of course, created a wiki as a resource. There were several very knowledgeable people in each workshop, like @sbharatam and I acknowledged their expertise to the group.  There is no such thing as one expert.  You need a community.

I agree with David Wilcox, who introduced me to the social media game - I hope we see some Indian versions of the game.

Next Tiny Steps

The big challenge with training is putting what you learn into practice.  That can be difficult with a one-day workshop.  One of the technique I use is to ask people to write down on an index card one small step they will take following the workshop.  I organize the list in clusters by similar action steps and include a link to a how-to resource. This creates learning clusters.

Evaluation

While I got great verbal feedback from participants, I always do a follow up survey to ask for constructive feedback.  This is where the bulk of my learning takes place. 

As I was getting ready to go back to the United States, Vicky Davis or CoolCatTeacher on Twitter let me know that she was headed for Mumbai to teach some workshops.  I connected her to my friends at Nasscom Foundation.  I can't wait to read about her experience and her suggestions for teaching in an international context.

Are you going international?  Here's a good list of resources.

I hope the jet lag will lift soon and be back to regular blogging ... reactions?  Comments? Learnings?  Let me know in the comments.

Comments

[Paritosh Sharma]

This is simply amazing stuff Beth. First let me thank you to fly all the way to India. It was amazing seeing your humbleness and a warm and instant connect, is what you created with everyone in India :)

This presentation sure raises some very crucial pointers. I especially like the Listen and then Engage, because many a times, in fact in India, most of the times, people forget this. Also I must applaud the fact that you have spoken about metrics: the demise of the Page View, well, metrics are to be defined in a custom manner for each client and just increasing traffic etc. is not the only aim.

I love the fact that at slide no: 56, you have shared the social media template. This sure is one crucial piece of information corporate should incorporate in their working with the social media.

After seeing the Social Media game, I really think I missed being in the session. This is a unique way of teaching the New Media! This is simply brilliant!

[Account Deleted]

Thanks for the mention Beth. I'd love to say that we followed a very structured approach to our social media efforts but it really did begin as an internal experiment to document the work we do and highlight work that others do in the same space. It's been far more successful than we imagined it would ever be. With the benefit of hindsight, I'd reduce it to an equation of sorts:

Conversation (Content + Context) + Time = Authority.
Authority + Time = Trust
Trust + Time = Engagement = Loyalty

It's much easier when the context is a cause, like ours is - A book in every child's hand and even easier when there is easy access to content, which we have in being a publishing house.

The question really is what do we do with the loyalty we build? We'd like to think that we spread the love, so to speak but realistically, we're going to have to build a platform sometime soon to engage our community to co-create and do so much more to contribute to the cause.

Sometimes, social media is really about catalyzing moments of serendipity.

-Gautam

http://social.prathambooks.org

[Account Deleted]

Beth, it was pleasure meeting you at NASSCOM India Leadership. Must say I had some amazing learning from you on how to use social media for social change not just for personal/professional usage and also enjoyed our conversations at "Social Media" topic table.

The tweetup with you and @dmscott was very enthusiastic and it helped many people to get answers to their basic twitter queries. Also I loved "how you use Twitter network analysis" to manage your huge volume of followers :)

It was wonderful learning from your presentation at "Technology for bottom of the pyramid" on how @RedCross was able to successfully transform themselves into a social organization and add more transparency to their work/efforts.

I appreciate you for sharing your knowledge with Indian NGO's and it will for sure aid in their efforts to leverage social platforms.

Look forward to meet you again in India.:)

[Account Deleted]

Dear Beth - It indeed was a pleasure meeting you! I thank you, also on behalf of NASSCOM Foundation, for not only taking time out and coming to India and sharing your knowledge with all of us but for doing it with so much enthusiasm. Each one us learned a lot from your sessions and we surely will implement as much in our best capacity. We continue to receive great feedback!

Will look forward to your continued advice on best managing the twitter handle @NASSCOM_CSR :)Have got in touch with Janet Fouts (@jfouts)Thanks again for her book!

[Kivi Leroux Miller]

Beth, you never stop amazing me!

With respect to your teaching approach, I really love how you embrace being honest with people about your hearing, your potentially bad jokes, and everything else. I think so many people who do public speaking are so focused on not making mistakes or fear not knowing all the answers that they come off too polished and unapproachable.

Social media makes us all MORE approachable, so when you talk about social media, I think it's even more critical to present a friendly real-human personality, which you do without effort (or so it seems - your post explains that effort DOES in fact go into it looking effortless).

I consistently find that when I go a little more casual and off the cuff, people really appreciate it, because frankly, it's more honest. This is especially true on webinars, where otherwise we speakers might seem like canned voices.

Love the idea of connecting the book winner with the authors on Twitter!

[Rufina Fernandes]

Beth.

I really feel it was worth my while blocking your calendar a year in advance. At that time, although i had the priviledge to attend your workshops in Australia as well as San Francisco, i was unsure if it was the right time for India. Over the last few months, the response to our ConnectIT program, where we train NGOs and government officials on advanced IT skills and Social Media tools, only encouraged me to follow up with you and really pressing you to make it, despite all the personak constraints you had.

I feel proud that many CSR professionals and NGOs who attended, benefited from your workshop!

I am going to make sure that we keep this momentum going and as promised, i am going to see if we can work on the executive training program that you conduct for senior management professionals.

I hope I can make it to the NTC this year. If not, let's stay in touch.

Thanks again from all of us at NASSCOM Foundation.

[Joewaters]

Wow! You must be exhausted, Beth. But what a fantastic trip! You know, I love to hear about how other cultures/countries are grappling with CSR/cause marketing as their corporate and philanthropic cultures grow.

As you know, I'm pretty focused on cause-related marketing and draw most my inspiration from what happens here in the U.S. and the U.K. Although I have followed campaigns in Australia and South Africa.

But not in India. As the consumer culture culture grows there, it will be interesting to see what form CSR/cause marketing takes. But I must say I admire the current Eden-like state of being focused on social outcomes. But with the reward of attracting good employees already benefiting companies, is India poised for its own era of selfish giving?

Welcome home, Beth.

Joe

[Rufina Fernandes]

Dear Beth.

Would there be some way that we can keep track of the participants that attended our CSR and NGO workshops over the next few months and see how they have internalised or implemented the learnings?

It may give us some insights based on Joe's comments above. I agree with him, that India and the Indian Industry is warming up to CSR and cause related marketing. We may have triggered some good initiatives, you never know!

Regards.

Rufina.

[Jeff Jackson]

Hi Beth,

As an American from the US who lives/works in Mexico/Cuba, I very much appreciate the self-reflection you shared on your visit and your training intervention. I especially liked your sensitivity to partnering with local resources. Nice story-telling and incredible slides. Your an artist!

Jeff

[Beth Kanter]

From Nancy White:
I was nodding in agreement and recognition all the way through. It is an adaptive, transparent strategy!! My only variant is I often bring chocolate or other appropriate goodie. Food is an amazing facilitation tool!

From Jeff Gates:
Start off in the language of the country

[Beth Kanter]

Hey Joe,

With all due respect, read this article and let me know whether or not you change your perspective.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126637825205247013.html?mod=wsj_share_facebook

[June Holley]

Just want to point out some of Beth's Network Weaving brilliance!

1. She is a new style ethnographer. She simultaneously keeps herself wide open to a new culture by deeply paying attention both to others AND to herself (and to the reactions she notices in herself). This way, adapting her presentation to be more relevant to that culture comes more naturally; it emerges from her understanding of the culture as it is unfolding.

2. She publicly acknowledges existing leadership, building their credibility and helping them see themselves as a supportive and learning community. She encourages them to be Network Guardians, thinking about the network as a whole and what can move it forward.

3. She is helping people "act their way into a new way of being." She sets up simple platforms, such as the wiki, that enable people to enact the basic concept of self-organizing.

She shows that perhaps the best thing we can do when we "parachute" into another culture is to help people see how wonderful they are right now, while offering new microprocesses that enable them to co-create even more effectively.

[Beth Kanter]

More from Jeff Gates
http://outtacontext.com/life/archive/000502.shtml

[Pranav Bhasin]

Beth,

Meeting and interacting with you was an amazing experience - I wish you would relocate to Bangalore so that we can see you more often :)

I think you have some great points here on cultural differences and excellent pointers to how you overcome them. This is something that a lot of people who present in India miss out thereby making their interactions less effective than they should be.

More so, my interaction with you got me more aware of CSR and the various initiatives going all over the world and I look forward to getting more involved in some of these in future.

Best wishes and I look forward to catching up with you again!

[ASHOK KUMAR JHA]

Hi, Beth,
I would like to express my willingnes to participation in future workshops in Delhi. I Would there be some way that we can keep track of the participants that attended your CSR and NGO workshops over the next few months and see how they have internalised or implemented the learnings? Again I appreciate you for sharing your knowledge with Indian NGO's and it will for sure aid in their efforts to leverage social platforms.

Look forward to meet you in Delhi
Dr. Ashok
Delhi