Third School of Learning

I remember while growing up, that directly and indirectly I was made aware of the society around me, people around me, the differences and the fact that not all are lucky enough to have the same privileges and amenities

If I look back it was via subtle acts such as being considerate and understanding with the domestic help or helping their children’s education. It was through direct acts such as actually going and participating in an activity which would help the underprivileged or a indirect act such as watching a film or documentary with my parents with a underlying message.

This I look as my first school of learning where I got the first opportunity to gain awareness and shape whatever thoughts (right or wrong!) I have on the area of social responsibility.

The second school of learning can be the school you go to via your teachers. A teacher can influence a student in amazing ways if done right. Many a times I think a teacher will have more of a impact on messaging and character development then parents. They can shape a lot of foundations and a school, with its philosophy and teachers with theirs can have a lot of effect in creating awareness a child’s mind about the society around them and their social responsibility

Here I was not so lucky. I cannot vividly remember any specific teacher who really influenced my thoughts in this area. They did not do anything detrimental or take me in the other direction but definitely help me here. I guess it was a good opportunity missed for me.

I use to think that these are the two schools of learning’s which pretty much lay the foundations in these areas. Post this it totally depends on the self learning of the individual or can happen in a unstructured form with one being lucky to come in touch with friends or individuals who influence your thoughts in this area.

Then as I entered professional life and having been it for some time now, I think there is another powerful school of learning if one chooses to look at it that way.

I think in a professional environment you come across many individuals and your seniors from whom you can learn a lot of good things. Many a times this happens on the go and without realizing it. But how about looking at it in two ways….

One is that you do see a new breed of companies where they are trying to make social responsibility part of their DNA. This could be via published policies, slogans, vision statements or via actions such as having structured programs to donate in money and kind or to have sponsored groups within the organization set up for doing social good.

This is a very good trend and if you luckily join such a company, you are already entering a school of learning where at least the base philosophy supports this need in society.

This gives you a readymade forum to learn and participate. But even if you are not in such a organization, I think the same kind of result can be achieved, which brings me to my second point

I think as we grow as professionals, we have the opportunity to not only be students in this third school of learning but be kind of ‘teachers’ to use the school context.

I think there are many individuals in a organization who would look for the opportunity to learn and participate in the area of social responsibility and awareness. So imagine the potential if we look at ourselves as someone who have the responsibility to create a conducive learning environment in any organization you work in for providing such a forum. This could be in the form of small groups who meet, discuss and find common areas of interest whereby they can start doing some social good.

It could be as simple as monetary donations or donating time or something even more involved then that. The main goal is to get as many individuals to listen to, discuss and see if the awareness creation kindles something within them. The big advantage with this third school of learning I see is that you have the students here for most part of the day which means you know them better, all of them are independent decision makers with a settled life and good financial resources, so if you can kindle something within even a small number, the potential of creating a cascading effect which keeps snowballing is huge!

All of these individuals will grow in their careers, join different organizations, meet different people and grow even more settled, with increasing resources. All of us at some point would be students or teachers or students and teachers at the same time as we impart and also learn from others…

When someone comes for interviewing for a position, you often ask them what experience they have, what have they learnt from the last organization which you will find useful…so outside of the usual professional needs, imagine if he or she says that what they bring with them is experience in creating a atmosphere of social responsibility (while doing ones day job of course  )and ideas for tapping or creating this potential within a organization….now that I think would be a snowball effect!

Recently I read a twitter post where Anand Mahindra ( Chairman of Mahindra and Mahindra Group) posted that it would be great if Dalal street and Wall street start rewarding companies in their value and thus their stock price for being socially responsible and doing social good…I do believe that the thought makes a lot of sense and has a lot of weight, but while we wait for that miracle to happen, every professional can start by being a active part of this third school of learning and get the ball rolling…Dalal street and Wall street can catch up at their own pace…