As the new year started, Sruthin Lal, co-founder of ARPO was keen to bring his new team at ARPO together. Shemeer & Sruthin reflected that “as ARPO grows as an organisation, it’s crucial to establish a strong value system, foster teamwork, and ensure a shared understanding of a common purpose. Since ARPO's work involves engaging with marginalised communities to help preserve their cultural heritage, developing sensitivity towards the communities is of utmost importance.”
"Often, leaders like Sruthin are so overwhelmed by the day-to-day operations of getting things done, troubleshooting. The team and the leadership focus is always on the world outside. The projects, the stakeholders, the day to day operations. The time & mind-space to turn the gaze inward at themselves as a team, and their needs, often eludes them. We see this as part of our work at aikyam space - creating psychologically safe spaces for teams like ARPO.”
~ Shemeer from aikyam space
Sruthin loved the idea of having professional facilitators for team-building exercises. “Their expertise and neutrality enhances the impact and effectiveness of such sessions,” he says. “Values can’t simply be instilled through instructions or preaching; they need to come from within and be internalised, which requires structured workshops like this one. But structured opportunities to develop nurture these qualities are rare. Also managers/leaders tend to focus on building the capacity of others, often neglecting their own—particularly in managing internal dynamics and ensuring the effectiveness of our programs. Sessions like these help address that gap.”
“I found the workshop to be a series of meaningful interactions which enabled us to get to know our peers as individuals with depth and passion, deepening our respect for each other. It also pushed us to think about the work we do, and the values and impact we would like to sustain in the long run. In Shemeer's own words, we gained important insights from collective wisdom,” said Aiswarya R, Database Manager, LoreKeepers project.
Operations Manager Amrutha chimed in about how the session was quite eye-opening for most team members. “One of the most eye-opening activities was identifying the people who are most affected by our projects but have the least power in shaping them. That hit hard. We decided right then that we have to give more power to those who are most vulnerable, whether it’s the elderly or Adivasi communities. Now that the whole team understands this, we can actually start making real change.”
Sruthin also particularly liked this exercise that involved mapping out their stakeholders, assessing their power, and understanding the impact of our work on them. “It highlighted a critical insight: the communities we serve—such as tribal and dalit cultural practitioners—often have the least power despite being the most affected. This has reinforced in us the need to include them more actively in our decision-making processes, ensuring they have a stronger voice in the programs designed for them,” he says. “The session also underscored the importance of systematically embedding our values into our organisational culture. The team now has greater clarity on why this is necessary and how we can approach it more intentionally.”
