HOW MUCH TO SHARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Or rather what NOT to share on social media

Sharing is a prominent part of the internet. And then there is over sharing. With a myriad of options to choose from (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin being the most popular ones), it can get pretty hard to avoid knowing where my neighbor vacationed this summer, or what my colleague had for dinner last night or what a friend’s dog chewed up….and what my painstakingly made but ruined Sunday lunch looked like (yes, I am guilty too).  And for the last time, really, if I see one more pair of feet against a backdrop of the ocean or swaying palms, I swear I shall unfriend that person. (I couldn’t think of anything more dire). Feet, in my opinion are like certain other parts of the body like you-know-what, that must stay covered, or at least hidden away from public view. Unless the said feet are minor works of art, to flaunt them about so flagrantly is in extremely bad taste. Not to mention injurious to one’s health; imagine wolfing down your dinner and you come across a pair of bunion-ed, unkempt feet staring at you from the screen; you may well choke on your sandwich with no one around to administer the Heimlich manoeuvre on you.

To those who say, well then, you don’t have to be on social media if you are going to be so nit-picky, I say, I do want to be on a Facebook or Twitter, but without being bludgeoned senseless with rubbish information. Yes, I can scroll away quickly but not before I have been stopped in my tracks, like a deer caught in the headlights, by, you guessed it right, a pair of feet partially hidden in sand but dangerously peeking out, looking like fat worms trying to sneak away!

The next worst thing that people must absolutely stop sharing on any form of social media is the blow by blow account of a first-born’s (in some cases, even second or third) progress in this world. Yes, we get that you are an excited mother (or father) and yes, this is a completely new world opening up to you, but please remember, your baby, cute as he may be, isn’t the first baby the world has seen and he will pretty much do what all other babies do, ie. eat, drool, poop, take his first steps, gurgle ‘mama’ and whatever else it is that babies do. Enjoy your baby but do not subject us to his endless shenanigans.

And to all those who work out, run, swim or indulge in any form of exercise…desist. Desist from telling us how you ran 15km (it was oh-so-tough but you did it anyway, or worse, effortlessly) or how you absolutely must get your daily dose of pumping iron without which you would be a grumpy bear. These coupled with suitable pictures of a sweaty but beaming you flashing the V sign is all we couch potatoes need to hate your guts.

While I could go on and add to the list, on a serious note, suffice to say that we, instead of living our lives the old fashioned way, are creating virtual lives through social media. So put down that phone and look around you.

Achieving Group Productivity at Work

Teamwork is essential to the success of any organization. A group of people with common objectives and a shared belief in the vision have to work together to ensure that problems are solved with a sense of collective responsibility. Building a good team can be challenging and requires a sensible approach in the selection process. Here are some ways to establish a productive work culture within the organization to make sure that everyone contributes their full potential and the company benefits from different roles that individuals have to offer.

Define Your Objective

It is important to set the objective in the right manner and attach goals for every team to achieve that common objective. Especially in an entrepreneurial set up, it takes some time to define objectives since one is constantly working on establishing a perfect mission and business model. Still, in a couple of years the company needs to reach a definitive objective which can then be accompanied by goals. What is extremely crucial is to stick to that objective and then build on it. Needless to say, celebrate every milestone together.

Work with Realistic Timeframes

In the rush of things, companies – corporate or start-up – often set ambitious deadlines and end up stressing the employees with the need for completion. A team member with good organizational skills should be kept in charge of keeping timelines in check so that there is enough time to work on tasks while helping employees maintain sanity as they scramble to finish them.

Empower the Team Members

Professional development is necessary for the growth of the individual and the company. The employee learns new skills or hones existing skills which leads to professional satisfaction and a sense of learning. The company benefits from improved efficiency and the increased productivity of team members. Additionally, incentivize team efforts so that every team member feels involved and accountable. After all, work is a source of income and everyone can benefit from rewards.

Communicate Effectively

With a lot of people, there is bound to be misunderstandings especially if the communication channels are not correctly put in place. Identify one platform for all group communication across teams and specific groups for each team so that there is transparency within and across teams. When there is a crucial matter to be discussed, set short meeting agendas so that important decisions are made on time and nobody unnecessarily sits in a meeting that ends with no conclusion.

Small Organisations Making Real Impact for Indian Girls

India is home to the largest number of NGOs in the world. A general atmosphere of distrust towards these organizations exists within the community due to increased cases of unaccountability, lack of real impact and inefficient use of resources. Sometimes, less is more. There are a number of small organizations that exist to make lives better for Indian girls and their work continues to have tremendous impact in the realm of education and capacity building.

Milaan, Uttar Pradesh

Milaan promotes “access to quality education in rural spaces.” Since 2007, Milaan has worked directly with more than 10,000 children and young adults, and had ensured that the girls in these communities have had a real chance at improving their lives through education and life-skills training.

Milaan’s Swarachna Learning and Resource Center is located in rural Uttar Pradesh and was created out of collaboration between the local community and Milaan. With the help of the community that donated an acre of land, the first and only Senior Secondary School was built in 2007. So far, the school has provided education to girls living in over 20 villages from Kindergarten until grade 12.

Milaan also initiated the Young Girl Icon Awards in 2015, a scholarship campaign that empower girls through training and skill building to take their community-building exercise to another level of impact.

Sambhali Trust, Rajasthan

Sambhali Trust empowers young Dalit girls by giving them access to formal education and vocational training that leads to earning livelihood and engaging them in self-help groups that serve as a strong support system.

In 2012, the organization established The Sambhali Sheerni Education Programme to allow poorer girls, who lack basic education in their own communities to go to school on a regular basis. These girls live in a housing community provided by the organization and come from the villages of Setrawa, Shergarh, Solankiyatala and Balesar. With educational skills and an enabling living environment, these girls aged between 6-15 years of age are able to attend a private secondary school and live with the now possible hope of a brighter future.

AWAAZ-E-NISWANN, Mumbai

Muslim girls in Indian suffer a complex and an intensely intricate discrimination. Victims of both religious and political ideologies, girls living in poor communities are often victims of forced marriages and lack basic access to education and livelihood opportunities. Awaaz-E-Niswaan works with girls in Muslim communities in the ghettos and low-income families in and around Mumbai. The organization helps these young girls for a formal education, scholarship awards for higher education, life-skills training and community-building exercises to enable self-reliance and confidence.  In this initiative, AEN has opened up a library center in Mumbra currently inhabited by over 800,000 Muslims. The organization has also collaboration with an advocacy group to provide a 12-month photography workshop to 16 women and girls who had experienced domestic violence.

NISHTHA, West Bengal

Nishtha  has helped over 250 villages in rural West Bengal with programmes that provide education, access to health care and livelihood opportunities. Amongst the three schools, one is dedicated to the girls with a past in forced child prostitution in the red light district of Kolkatta. Many of the girls who currently attend these three schools have not had any formal education and now engage in creative learning, basic training in life-skills and participate in community activism to promote gender equality and economic independence.

More than 16,500 women and girls take part in Nishtha’s age-specific community development groups that tackle issues of child marriage, child trafficking, child labor, domestic violence and gender inequality in employment opportunities. These women lead rallies and awareness-building campaigns within their community and encourage more than 5000 people to participate and support.