By Naagha Shyamala R 

I entered Kshetra with a pale face and nervous mind on my first day, as I had to accomplish the mammoth task of crossing Bangalore’s Silk Board during peak hours. As a result, I was 20 minutes late. However, when Krishna (she is the CEO) asked me if I had any difficulty in finding or reaching the office instead of commenting on my tardiness, it gave me the idea that, here, people are valued more than their mistakes. The introduction circle was also a space to share a piece of advice. The most surprising element was that all the advice for me was directed towards helping me, as a new team member, to fit into the space and to have a smooth journey in the organisation. The first 30 minutes into the office made me naturally untangle the knots of my armour of inhibitions and apprehensions. As the calendar dates turned, I surfed through the organisation’s frequently used words and foundation stones. 

I Don’t Know 

“Communicate” is a very reassuring piece of advice. But, when I came to know that “I don’t know” is a phrase that is used often and encouraged in the organisation, it showed this is an organisation where the journey of “discovery” is celebrated.  After all, that’s what dialogue does too. Leading to the discovery of thoughts, opinions, perspectives, emotions and a lot more.  

Discovery 

If I could give a nickname to Kshetra, it would be “Discovery Channel”. Because, as a young organisation, everything we do here is a process of discovery of a larger context, irrespective of the designation each of us holds and our seniority in the organisation.  

On the first day, I discovered a little cafe snuck on top of an Organic products store with a narrow staircase. The proprietor was also the chef, waiter etc and he had to order bread on Blinkit only when a sandwich order was placed to him. Apart from that, a major part of my professional discovery was that each module of the dialogic method has more than a hundred pages of reading and research behind it, before it is simplified into the dispersible content that is actually shared with others. The scaffolding of this understanding started with reading stories on this same blog, to case studies where dialogue had worked. These pieces triggered my rabbit-hole research into dialogues and the Dialogic Method. 

Rabbit Hole 

And, so did I (too) started travelling down the rabbit hole during the first 10 days. And I can call the journey “Shyama’s Adventures in Academic Land”. From game iteration probability to Total Value frameworks, systems thinking and designs and whatnot, is possible for dialogue and by dialogue. Rummaging through the reference articles behind every module developed gave me chills of admiration and light shivers at the benchmark set. However, I also realised, when we dialogue, it is imperative to be comfortable with falling into rabbit holes as we try to dig through the soil to understand who are the people in a situation and what emotions, perspectives and information they hold that can impact the dialogic process. A meaningful and impactful dialogue is only possible when we delve deeper.  

Dialogic 

In a colleague’s words, “For a dialogic organisation, we are a bunch of introverts.” But, we prove that dialogue works for introverts too. As in our Theory of Change, an individual attitude is maintained by behaviours and behaviours are maintained by systems and spaces. Our organisation has naturally formed the space for everyone to be dialogic. Realising we can even have a dialogue with books was just a start. Everyday conversations in the office, coffee walks with the team, and random reflections popping up from an event or workshop that happened long ago, all led me to learn about the depths of dialogue, and it was so rich that I started paying attention to every conversation and looking for the Dialogic Method in it.  

The principles of the Dialogic Method are “non-binary”, “value creation” and “self-determination”. When I was oscillating between admiration for the work done so far and the benchmark that has been set, I realised that I was being binary here between just two elements. During the immersion into dialogic spaces in the organisation, I slowly started to look at the value creation here, such as the exponential learning about dialogues and through dialogue, the help and support that enabled a new team member to learn the ropes and come up with fresh ideas and discover possibilities to use the Dialogic Method in different ways.  

The use of the Dialogic Method was also evident in the entire on-boarding process. The on-boarding process and the activities pushed me to make sense of myself and my journey through the dynamics of dialogue in a structured manner. This also allowed me to find and acknowledge the gaps in the dialogues I had so far and prepared me for further dialogic spaces. What stayed with me at the end of the on-boarding process are the attitude of abundance and self-determination, which surprisingly makes it easier to exercise empathy (for self and others).  

Empathy 

An important part of my early days with Kshetra was the 15-minute walk with Stuti (my manager). The purpose of the walk was to check in with me, not only on a professional level but also on a truly personal level, expressing genuine care for my emotions and a ready willingness to offer help and support. Here is another example of how the Dialogic Method is practised within the organisation. The Dialogic Method framework emphasises understanding the person. The purpose of the walk was to understand my emotions and perspectives to be informed of how I can be helped. Holding someone accountable at Kshetra actually comes in the form of helping them. Here, we realise, logic and productivity stem from managing and handling emotions. My nervousness and anxiety were acknowledged and handled with care as any fragile element should be, through the dialogic spaces, alone and together. 

These empathetic spaces enabled the “I”s to transition to “We”s very quickly, both in this article and much earlier, in the organisation. 

Laughter 

Last, but not the least: An inseparable part of Kshetra is laughter. While workplace mental health is becoming a hot topic, showing up at the Kshetra office is, in itself, a therapy. From just a “Good Morning” with a bright, wide smile to loud laughter, our mornings turn joyful in just a few minutes and continue throughout the day in various structured and unstructured ways. When structured, like the team building exercise at an Escape room, a few minutes of playing the kids version of Monopoly, a story building game to refresh our minds, all of these flow with laughter and into building connections and strengthening relationships. Here, our dialogues are diverse from a good morning with a smile, to Escape room strategies, all building relationships. And that is the value we continue to create. 

Reflections 

Dialogues are not just the ones that we have with others, they can also be the ones that we have with ourselves. Or, they can be the communication between us and just the space we are in or the event we are in. This article is a result of my dialogue with myself, the organisation, the space, and the people even when they don’t directly talk to me and the Dialogic Method itself. 

The organisation’s culture emphasises reflection, and after every event, there is a reflection circle. My first big event was the Open Call, where the Dialogic Method framework was delivered to the participants in a one-day session. The discussion, comments and questions from the participants were like a time-lapse video for me, clearly showing the understanding and immersion of the participants into the Dialogic Method, with their level of confidence and trust in the Method growing with every stage of facilitation and every activity. The transformation was also personal, as it was a learning experience for me as well. When we got together to reflect on the event, I could see the tangibly valuable inputs flowing when the space was designed for it. The reflection meeting was a mixture of appreciation for every small accomplishment, acknowledgement of every area of improvement and change, excitement for more discovery and the resilience to continue to work on the smallest detail a thousand times and more.  

Speaking of more discoveries and the events. As much as I have been finding my way through the research that led to the Dialogic Method and the reflections within the organisation and during the open call, understanding the different partner organisations and their context is still a maze. I have been making a funny potpourri of organisations in my mind. The partnerships, as far as I’ve understood, are with organisations working on diverse social issues with diverse communities. Diving deep into each of them is definitely a challenge I am looking forward to as an Associate in the Capacity Building vertical. What would enable my confidence building is directly witnessing the transformation brought about by the Dialogic Method in different organisations and among different audiences. The customisation in facilitation to each community is going to be a challenge for me but I draw my courage from the support available and the time and space allowed to me.  

Now, this is Kshetra for me in a month, and I’ve been able to fit myself to an extent where I realise that all these terms can be heard loud and often in Kshetra, even when they are not said.