Handing Down the Torch

How do we ensure that any work that we do does not go to waste? How do we ensure that we do not become so attached to our work, that we cannot let it go and grow? The answer is to have an exit strategy to whatever work we do with a time frame in which we will exit from that work. This will have two benefits:

1) The karyekarta then has a time period in which he must be as productive as he possibly can be!

2) The karyekarta does not have the opportunity to build an ego (and this will naturally happen if the karyekarta is left in one position for long enough).

However, it is not called an exit strategy if it does not allow somebody else to carry on the work – then it is only an annihilation strategy as all the work done previously will be undone without somebody to look after it. I have noticed that recently, our karyekartas look to uplift their shakhas for the time period they are there but then do not plan for what happens next. Our shakhas may have a glorious two years with incredible sankhyas and bauddhiks under one Mukhya Shikshak and then a lousy 4 years because we forgot to train up new karyekartas in those first two years and in that we forget our aim in shakha.

In SIP one thing I have understood is that unless I plan for the “what happens next?” question then all my work from these 7 weeks will be worthless. And so, I have simply allocated the last week and half of SIP to ensure that my project has a sustainable future.

I believe that this is something that should be emphasised to all karyekartas, because unless we plan far enough into the future, that future will be on our doorstep and we will be left caught of guard and unprepared. As soon as we are appointed to any position within Sangh, we should create an exit strategy in which we try to contemplate how that work will carry on working after we have left, so that throughout that time period we are able to focus on two things:

1) Maximising the time that we have to do the most work for the organisation

2) Finding and training people and deriving methods through which the work can become sustainable so that in the long term, we can carry on going from strength to strength.

I truly believe that those of us that are good organisers set goals for the time period that we are there, but the best organisers look to answer the question “What happens after I’ve done by bit?”