On Design and Impact Consulting - A Conversation with Kashish Aggarwal

Episode Transcript

Claire  00:00

Hello and welcome to a new episode of Narratives of Purpose. My name is Claire Murigande. I am a scientist by training, a TEDx speaker and your host on this show. This podcast is dedicated to amplifying social impact by bringing you inspiring individual stories of ordinary people making extraordinary impact within their communities and around the world. If you're looking for a programme that showcases unique stories of changemakers, stories of people who are contributing to make a difference in society, and at the same time you want to be inspired to take action, then look no further you are in the right place. So get comfortable and listen to my conversations.

 

Claire  01:03

Today, my guest is Kashish Aggarwal. Kashish is a Global Shapers Community Curator for the Chandigarh hub in India. In case you're not familiar with the Global Shapers community, it is a network of young people driving dialogue, action and change. It was born out of the World Economic Forum and has 500 hubs in cities around the world. Kashish is also a product consultant at Indus Action, an organisation with a vision of solving India's deep rooted problems via public policy. In our discussion, Kashish shares with me her experience working at the grassroots and policy level on questions related to affordability and access to quality education for youth from marginalised backgrounds. Please take a moment to rate and review our show wherever you get your podcasts. And right now, listen to Kashish his journey and her passion to create systemic change.

 

Claire  02:11

So hello Kashish, how are you doing today?

 

Kashish  02:15

I'm very fine. Thank you for having me here.

 

Claire  02:18

So Kashish let me first start with a few words of background for our listeners, for them to understand why I am speaking to you today. Basically, you are a Global Shapers Community Curator. As I said, you're based in India. And I recently partnered with Global Shapers. There are two hubs, which are based here in Switzerland, in Geneva and Zurich for a series of events that we were organising here from the podcast, which are called the Social Impact Virtual Forum Series. And I partnered with them on this event. And since the podcast basically, our mission is to showcase changemakers around the world, and the Global Shapers community is really bringing together young changemakers across the world. But perhaps you can tell us a bit more if you know exactly what the Global Shapers are, so our listeners have a better idea.

 

Kashish  03:11

As you mentioned, I am currently the creator of Chandigarh hub, which is based in Punjab in India. And as you rightly said there, Global Shapers is a community of young changemakers under the age of 30. The entire community is trying to solve and address challenges at a local, regional and global level. It's a community of almost 450+ plus hubs, across 148 countries. And we are right now proudly a community of almost 10,000+ Shapers as of now

 

Claire  03:46

Let me start by asking you the very first question. I'm curious to know where this passion of yours or at least this profound interest of ensuring that young people have affordable quality education? Where does this come from?

 

Kashish  03:59

I think this passion stems from my own personal story. So, while I was very young, hardly at the age of nine, I had lost my father. And that actually made me question a lot of things around the social currency with which people are born. So until a visit to an orphanage, I was always questioning that, just like a child would question "why did something like that happen to me?" and all that, but then a visit to an orphanage completely changed things for me for good. And that is where I realised that the privileges that some people have and some are not born, whether it's completely or a flip of a coin, I would say I like to call it "the lottery of birth". So, that is where I decided that whatever privileges that I have, I would like to, you know, really contribute to society to make it a better place. So that is how I started volunteering and teaching orphan kids. And it's been almost two decades that I have been working in the sector, in professional as well as volunteering capacities. Though, to be very specific, it's been seven years since I entered the sector as a professional development consultant.

 

Claire  05:17

So you mean that for the past seven years, you've been really professional, and before that it was more about volunteering, correct?

 

Kashish  05:24

Yes, yes. I started volunteering in the field, right at the age of 10, or 11.

 

Claire  05:30

Oh, 10 or 11. Wow, that's quite young. Yeah.

 

Kashish  05:33

During the weekends, I would just go and teach other kids in my own school, and you know, just just whatever learnings I would acquire from my schooling, I would just go and share with them, I would teach them basics of English mathematics or science, it just felt so meaningful at that time, and that is how I decided that this is something that gives me really so much of happiness. And I would like to work in the sector.

 

Claire  05:57

And, you know, if I may ask, how was that really happening? At least I would say for the other children, right? How did they welcome that? And how do they see that someone who was basically their peer was teaching them?

 

Kashish  06:10

Okay, all those children that I was teaching, they didn't have really financial resources to go to a proper school and learn. So there were two communities of children that I was working with, one was the orphan kids who were being cleared by the orphanages. And the second community of children were the children from the daily wage workers, so in and around our schools, so I was working with them. And it was more of a friendly setup, where you would just go play with them and just show your learning just play, just use some crayons to colour and, you know, just learn mathematical tables and all that, I think they were just being very kind enough to welcome me and make me feel part of them.

 

Claire  06:55

So you just said that only recently, the past few years, you've been a professional. And from what I've gathered and from what I've seen on your profile, you've worked both at the grassroots and the policy level. So can you explain to me what type of assignments you have been involved in?

 

Kashish  07:13

I started with "Teach for India" in 2015 and since then, I've been working in the sector in different capacities. While I was there, as a fellow, it was more around being a transformational fellow in the school system, where you're working with school kids, where you're working with the school teachers, and trying to restructure and work within the system. So, from there, I went on to work with an international organisation called Bridge International Academies, where we were working on the curriculum for the underprivileged communities, we were designing the curriculum for science, mathematics and English. And also, I would like to mention that I've been fairly experimental with my career, because I just wanted to gain a holistic overview of the sector. So from these two positions, I realised that to bring a change, I probably wanted to work at a scale like in work with the government's work with the policymakers, because then you're working with numbers. One policy change, or one design aspect of the process can benefit multiple students at a fence, for example, like after that, I took up a role with the state government of Punjab where I was working as a skill development consultant, and directly we were impacting almost around five lakh students. So that was the number that we were operating with. And over there, my role was to work as a technical and design consultant with the government and help them around skill development as we were working with the schoolchildren. We were working with teachers and strengthening their basic surrounding understanding and delivery of the programmes to students, it's been quite some journey. Then later on, I also worked with the CSR, the Corporate Social Responsibility, where I was working with the corporates and the implementing partners as in the NGOs. Lately, I've been involved with a project, the name of the organisation is Intersection and we are working with the Government of Haryana on this project, as per the state policy, the students coming from economically weaker section or below poverty line are entitled to free education in private schools. So we are just working within the system with the government in completely reinventing and implementing the policy so that the students could avail these benefits and get admission in schools at free of cost.

 

Claire  09:43

So it seems to me that you've seen basically every aspect of the entire ecosystem. Is that fair to say?

 

Kashish  09:49

I just wanted to get a holistic view of how the entire system operates like as in how, when a policy is drafted, how the policy makers come into Picture how the corporates channelize, their funding and the NGOs come into place where they channelize their human resources and the intellectual resources to really make some work happen. Like, I just like to call it the interconnectedness of the entire community.

 

Claire  10:20

Now, I'm actually curious to understand how you see this interconnectedness functioning together? I mean, are all these stakeholders or at least all these perspectives, from the different ecosystems really communicating together? Or do you see some challenges or things that will need to be addressed, in order for the whole system to function properly. And in the end, as you say, to serve the students?

 

Kashish  10:43

I would say that we are 70% there, the entire stakeholders are coming together, and there's a proper communication channel, the systems are working together to bring that chain, but still, there are certain gaps that need to be understood, for example, the communities as in the ones who need the benefits, a lot of times what I have observed in my work is that their viewpoints are not being well considered like as in you cannot be making policies or you cannot be designing processes for people. By just sitting in the offices, there needs to be a proper layer, where you're going and going and talking to the beneficiaries about their needs, rather than just stating that, you know, this is what if I create this kind of a change, if I give them defend on necessities, this change will happen on ground or the community would adopt it. So that is where I see the gap. And that is where I would say, the different layers come into the picture. For example, many NGOs have started adopting the principles of Human Centred Design, or I would call it behavioural aspect to it like as in many policies, or for that matter, many processes are designed, but then a lot of times we, as in the entire system as an everybody in the process, that we overlook about the needs of the community for whom we are designing. So if that element can be really structured, and brought about in the initial stages of design, the community would strengthen, and the changes would be affected much more quickly.

 

Claire  12:25

Now, I'm curious to know how your role as Global Shapers Community Curator fit into all this work that you've been doing? Tell me about this role, and how it complements what you are already doing within your work in terms of design and impact consultants?

 

Kashish  12:42

Maybe I can just talk about some other projects that we are doing locally. For example, one of the projects that we are doing is called Shaping Vision. We are benefiting almost around 2000 Kids, by providing them with free eye testing and spectacles through corporate funding. So this is one project that we are working on. The other project that I would like to talk about is around the emotional well being this project we started during the COVID times. So at that time we had partnered with some psychologists and emotional well being practitioners to kind of create these sessions and talk and be a helping hand to them. The plan was to start a helpline number, where these people could call us and we would connect them with our emotional well being practitioners, and they can seek counselling from them and heal themselves in the process. But of course, one challenge that happened in that process was around lack of awareness, because here we are talking about the community who really doesn't have enough resources. And then again, at the same time, we are talking about their technical awareness. Your question was about how it really compliments the work that I do in my professional life. So I would say that the work is very integrated as in, it's about benefiting the community, it is, again, about benefiting the people who need the support. So that is how the entire community has come together. We are almost a team of 20 Shapers in our local hub, where we are working on these projects. For example, the other project is around the Meet the Leader series where we invite Shapers across the globe to visit and talk about their journeys, so that they can be an inspiration to our students in the schools. Also with the World Economic Forum, I would say that it's also a global community. So there's also a possibility of doing global projects. We did try out some of the projects as an exchange of projects and got maybe like six or seven different countries participating towards one initiative, for example, around planting trees around a particular day during or celebrating World Environment Day together. So just around cross learning from each other around what their hub is doing better, and how we can incorporate the learnings or what maybe, for example, our hub did better. And we can share those learnings with them. So just a very enriching network where you get inspiration from

 

Claire  15:31

I was also wondering, I mean, now you told me about your role of the Global Shapers, how it kind of also fits in and it's connected to what you were doing also on education. But what actually motivated you or led you to become a Global Shapers Community Curator, or at least to join first of all the Shapers community. And then after a while become the curator, where did that come from?

 

Kashish  15:52

I got to know about Global Shapers community while I was attending some event in Chandigarh itself, and I was really inspired by the people there who were conducting that event, again, it was something on the lines of Meet the Leader, and I really wanted to understand who are these people, how come they have such influence here and with the students in that particular event. So that is how I just walked up to the person there. And I got to know that he was a founding curator, and he just invited me to be part of some of the events and understand more about it. And the more I got to know about the community, I just wanted to be part of it, I just wanted to become part of it, because it completely aligned with what I was doing in my professional life. And at the same time, this community was giving me a platform to exercise some of my learnings from the social and impact sector, in curating events at a local level, creating some small and meaningful experiences for the community around us. Because my professional life was around working at a state level or at a central level working on policies with the Indian government, I was also getting the chance to exercise some of those learnings at a very local, contextual level. So that was very exciting for me to be part of the community. And also the global exposure that this community provided is immense, no other network has this much potential as compared to Global Shapers community. Also, I would like to add, pre-COVID times there was this event around Shape South Asia, which was hosted in Sri Lanka. And I got a chance to be part of the event there. It was really interesting, I met people from almost 25 countries there in that particular event, it was just so interesting to learn from their experiences, for example, it's very cliche to say, but that was the first time that I got to interact with Shapers from the Pakistan hub. And one thing that really struck me was that how similar we are in our lifestyle and in our food choices, I mean, it just felt that we are connected, so those experiences, I think it's very rare and hard to get, if you are not part of any global community.

 

Claire  18:24

As you were saying before, you can grow and you can not only be exposed to others, but you also have a platform also to share your voice and show what you're also doing in your own communities, or at least in your own regions.

 

Kashish  18:36

And also people are well established in their own careers. And you get to kind of learn from different disciplines of the professional aspects, for example, somebody who's into tech, Ed Tech, or somebody's into technology based startups and everything. So, you can just cross learn and maybe collaborate and create something much more meaningful for your own context and for the larger good. For example, I got an opportunity to host a session around emotional wellbeing in that Shape South Asia Summit, which was again attended by people from the 24 countries who are representing the meeting there. I just felt that you know, all of us do share similar stories. And we all have similar hopes and desires and goals moving forward in our lives, irrespective of wherever we are in our own journey.

 

Claire  19:32

So now, next question, before we move to the last part of the show, when you look back at everything you've done and how far you've come, I'm curious to know what is one piece of advice that you had received at some point that you still considered today to have served you throughout your journey?

 

Kashish  19:49

I think one piece of advice that has stayed with me forever is around failing forward. Very early on in my career, I realised that a lot of times when we start to do something, and irrespective of the efforts that we put in, we might not achieve the outcome, we might not achieve the results that we intend to. But then the best part about that, I don't like to call it a failure, but still, just by going with the terminology, I would just call it "failing forward" Like as in a lot of times when we push, we fail. But sometimes we also achieve a breakthrough through those moments. And the key is to just learn from those experiences, and just keep moving forward. Also, I got to read this quote from Ray Dalio, who is the founder of Bridgewater, the largest hedge fund in the world. He said that "Pain plus reflection equals progress." If you look at it in an objective way, or subjective way, this is how it is, you might move on to try to do something, but it doesn't leave there. So, of course, it creates a kind of a painful memory in that person. But then if you try to sit back and understand where something didn't go right. Taking those learnings, then you move forward, it's always a good area of progress, then you don't start from scratch, but you start from an experience.

 

Claire  21:21

So now, at the end of the show, what I like to do is to ask a very short set of three questions, to have a little bit of an insight or preview into what they like to read, or the type of music that they like to listen to. So the first question is, is there something in terms of music that you listen to very often at the moment? Or what is the book that you're reading right now that you could share with us?

 

Kashish  21:46

I really like this album called Empty Hands by Nimo Patel. If I have to talk about my favourite song from the album is Planting Seeds. And also I like this particular song, whenever I am really struggling to make some things meet, then I listen to this song called Unstoppable. It just puts you at a high pace immediately.

 

Claire  22:10

Second question is, is there a specific song, or even a book that was special for you at a particular time in your life?

 

Kashish  22:19

Can I quote three different things here? 

 

Claire  22:22

Sure, sure you can.

 

Kashish  22:25

One is this particular movie that I watched recently, it's called A Beautiful Mind. It's a beautiful movie about this person called John Nash, who's an economist, and he's suffering from delusions and schizophrenia. But then what I really learned from watching this movie was that everything is possible. If you just come out to the world, we'll just accept you the way you are, if you're courageous enough to really stand and tell the world about who you are. So that was one thing. And also, just thinking about that person, John Nash, how he always tries to create something new and solve a problem. On similar lines, I really liked reading this book called Zero to One, which is again, about creating something new. It talks a lot about the first principles of thinking. And the third thing I would say, I really liked this book called The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. And it's, it's a lot about your own spiritual enlightenment. It's a lot about living a joyful life and being in the present by accepting what it is by being in the present moment.

 

Claire  23:45

So the third and last question, but perhaps you've already answered that, partly with the previous one is, do you have any specific recommendation in terms of books or music where you would say, to our listeners, "you have to read this, or you have to listen to this." So you just mentioned this, this book from Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now, is there another recommendation that you would give us?

 

Kashish  24:06

There are a lot of books that I can think of, I really liked reading the book called Shoe Dog, that's about the journey of the Nike founder. Something that I also like to share with the listeners of Narratives of Purpose is around my own personal experiments with my students. And something that I also hold to for myself, is that a lot of times when we deep dive into maybe creating a niche for ourselves, or choosing the career and things like that, it's always good to pause and reflect that, you know, maybe any one particular problem that I want to solve, and I think I have the skill set to solve that. For example, I did this experiment with my career with my students, almost around 180 students, I took them through a kind of a curriculum which I designed around look. Will role models and change makers have their own age which they could reflect on, connect with? So at the end of that curriculum, they had to answer "what problem do they think they want to solve when they grow up?" And the second question was around, like, "what are the skill sets that they would need to learn and acquire to be able to solve that problem?" So this is something that I also did for myself, a lot of times, it happens with me, as well as my own age mates. And you know, my own friends circle that we get lost in this walk of life, where there's so much competition, where there's so much of that race around being the winner, and all that. It's always good to reflect and pause and ask these questions.

 

Claire  25:47

Well, I couldn't agree more, pause and reflect and take the time, as you say, learn from your experience, and keep moving forward. Thank you so much, really, it's been a pleasure speaking to you, thank you for sharing your experience. I'm really impressed about all your achievements, and all the many things you've been doing, and that you're part of this great global community of global shapers. I think it's really amazing. And I really hope that we stay in touch and could learn more about the progress of everything that you're doing from India.

 

Kashish  26:19

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. And it's the pleasure, I would say likewise, the pleasure is equally mine. I really loved talking to you. And I'm sure with what you're doing with Narratives of Purpose, you're really creating an impact and really inspiring people to take up roles where they can inspire further more people and create benefit and impact in their lives.

 

Claire  26:58

Being part of an organisation that seeks to identify gaps existing in policy framing and their grassroots implementation is really fundamental for anyone who aspires to create a long lasting social impact. Kashish has truly recognised the importance of working within the system to create a systemic level of change. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I appreciate you taking the time. That was episode number 35. A Conversation with Kashish. Be sure to leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts. If you like our show, tell your friends about it and share within your network. You can also connect with us through our social handles or our website. Until the next episode, take care of yourselves, stay well and stay inspired.