{"id":328,"date":"2021-08-29T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-29T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/successandability.org\/?p=197"},"modified":"2024-03-01T18:50:02","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T18:50:02","slug":"when-the-pandemics-will-showed-a-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abilityfoundation.org\/2024-new\/when-the-pandemics-will-showed-a-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Driving Change: Do It Now!"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons alignwide is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify has-black-color has-text-color\">Truth be told, the corporate is well within its rights to say so. Each company has its own priorities, deadlines, and constraints. Within such limitations, a not-for-profit organisation pushes for a \u2018community-driven\u2019 vision that may or may not have a direct impact for the company. \u201cWe will get back to you\u201d becomes a tool for many corporates to respond to this situation. They use it to move the mountain of change by a mere inch or in some cases, not at all. However, if there is one good thing that the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us, it is the simple truth that mountains of change can be moved overnight.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify has-black-color has-text-color\">For years, I have heard the corporate world ramble about how \u201cchange takes its time,\u201d \u201caccommodations need to be made,\u201d and \u201csenior leadership is considering this seriously.\u201d Other favourites are \u201cwe need to consult with our diverse stakeholders\u201d and \u201cwe will evaluate and get back.\u201d All these phrases come flowing in when the company has to accommodate a change or push inclusion.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify has-black-color has-text-color\">Take for instance recruitment of Persons with Disabilities. Apart from a few pioneering firms, too many organisations operate from the comfort zone of these responses. Such a comfort zone unknowingly delays doing the right thing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-199\" src=\"https:\/\/abilityfoundation.org\/2024-new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/skyscraper-2561415_1920.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"503\" height=\"335\"><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify has-black-color has-text-color\">If you ask anyone for their honest opinion on how difficult it is to recruit without bias only on the basis of skill and passion, I often wonder what the answers would be. As of today, the standard answer is that it is not easy. Yet I argue, by that logic, nothing is ever easy. However, when the country went into lockdown for 21 days last year, change came overnight. Zoom, Google Meets, Microsoft teams and many other technology tools were set up for communication. Senior leadership, middle management and project leads in almost every other organisation were ready to adapt from Day 1.&nbsp; No one was trained for it. No mindset was especially developed. No meetings were scheduled in preparation. Everyone did what was needed to survive without any questions asked. No one told the pandemic that they were \u201clooking into it\u201d or \u201cwould get back to you.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify has-black-color has-text-color\">In the face of the pandemic, nothing mattered other than doing the right thing. Processes were invented, people were identified, metrics were established, freedom to thrive was given, and tolerance of failure increased. As a result, corporates evolved into a new, agile, lean and lovable machine. It proved that organisations were capable of overnight change without major disruptions to business. Employees could rally around their leader\u2019s will and vision to sustain and drive change. Passion to meet a challenge can by itself put processes in place for change. So, what are we waiting for?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify has-black-color has-text-color\">The next time a corporate leader says \u2018this will take time,\u2019 I want to point out that the greatest change happened overnight in March 2020. If the leader says processes need to be put in place, I want to remind them that it is only a question of choosing change; now, today. If management says they are not geared to scale at that level, I want them to remember that when there is a will, there is a way.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-coblocks-author\">\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-coblocks-author__avatar\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-block-coblocks-author__avatar-img\" src=\"https:\/\/abilityfoundation.org\/2024-new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/sai-prasad-vishwanath.jpeg\" alt=\"<strong>Sai Prasad Vishwanath<\/strong>&#8221; width=&#8221;327&#8243; height=&#8221;302&#8243;><\/figure>\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-coblocks-author__content\"><span class=\"wp-block-coblocks-author__name\"><strong>Sai Prasad Vishwanath<\/strong><\/span>\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-coblocks-author__biography\"><em>Sai Prasad Vishwanath is the CEO of eDOT Academy, a consultant at Deloitte and was also a recipient of the CavinKare ABILITY Mastery Award in 2006<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\" style=\"height: 44px;\" aria-hidden=\"true\">&nbsp;<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><hr class=\"wp-block-coblocks-dynamic-separator\" style=\"height: 50px;\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\" style=\"height: 42px;\" aria-hidden=\"true\">&nbsp;<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 id=\"listen-to-this-article\" class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\"><strong>Listen to this article<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-soundcloud wp-block-embed-soundcloud\">\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/user-550129521\/driving-change-do-it-now\/s-BHgltJWpcPs<\/div>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div class=\"wp-block-spacer\" style=\"height: 41px;\" aria-hidden=\"true\">&nbsp;<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\">&nbsp;<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWe will get back to you.\u201d These six words are the dreaded response in any interaction between a corporate and a not-for-profit institution. These six words have so many different meanings \u2013 \u201cwe cannot do this,\u201d \u201cnot now,\u201d \u201cwe are sorry for you\u201d or \u201cyou are asking for too much.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[30],"ppma_author":[167],"class_list":["post-328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sai-prasad-vishwanath","tag-featured"],"acf":[],"authors":[{"term_id":167,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"sai-prasad-vishwanath","display_name":"Sai Prasad Vishwanath","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/abilityfoundation.org\/2024-new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-01-31-at-12.52.44-PM-1024x959-1.jpeg","url2x":"https:\/\/abilityfoundation.org\/2024-new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-01-31-at-12.52.44-PM-1024x959-1.jpeg"},"first_name":"Sai Prasad","last_name":"Vishwanath","user_url":"","description":"Founder &amp; CEO of Saraswathy Academy; Management Consultant - Deloitte"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abilityfoundation.org\/2024-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abilityfoundation.org\/2024-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abilityfoundation.org\/2024-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abilityfoundation.org\/2024-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abilityfoundation.org\/2024-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abilityfoundation.org\/2024-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3031,"href":"https:\/\/abilityfoundation.org\/2024-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions\/3031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abilityfoundation.org\/2024-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abilityfoundation.org\/2024-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abilityfoundation.org\/2024-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abilityfoundation.org\/2024-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abilityfoundation.org\/2024-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}