On 27 February 2011 the Sunday Times ran an article featuring
the Common Purpose Dishaa Venture. In the article they interviewed
Parmod Kumar Garg, a banker at Barclays, and Alison Dixey, an
Operations Director at the British Red Cross.
The following is an excerpt from the article:
The experience has also given Garg some insights that he has
taken back to help Barclays. "If we have a process to change in the
bank, we don't involve the people being affected, particularly the
customers, as much as we could," he said.
"When I was doing this workshop I was constantly thinking, 'How
can I use this in my organisation to do something different?'
"In my sector, if you have a problem or you are looking to make
change, you tend to be attracted to solutions that you could use
straight away, but through the Dishaa process I have realised it is
useful to find out more first. Instead of rushing to a solution,
you should try to involve as many stakeholders as possible because
everyone will give you a new thought, a new opinion."
Alison Dixey, an operations director at British Red Cross, is now
determined to spend less time in her office. "You can't innovate or
even understand the questions you need to ask within the four walls
of your office," she said. "If you are trying to do it [solve
problems] in your office, you are responding to the issue that you
think is happening rather than the one that really is. You need to
get out and talk to people - that's something I learnt from the
programme. I need to get out more, talk to the people the British
Red Cross is trying to help, talk more to our staff and volunteers,
and do far more externally to move the organisation on."
She also appreciated the diversity of the group at Pune and was
impressed by how fast its members became a cohesive unit. Being
able to focus on a problem that was foreign to all of them helped
enormously.
Garg said: "It was different to every other leadership training
programme, which comes packed in a box with the same sort of
thinkers."
