Meaningful steps toward addressing societal challenges can start with small, strategic actions called micro-improvements
This op-ed was written by Neeraj Doddamane, who was an applicant of Salzburg Global’s writing residency program. We are now excited to publish his piece, as it is closely aligns with the Salzburg Global Center for Education Transformation's priority area of education leadership.
Historic colonization and ongoing conflicts, predominantly across the Global South, have made the region an epicenter of diverse societal challenges. The most vulnerable communities in the region are adversely affected by reduced access to healthcare, poor learning outcomes, climate change, and economic inequalities, among other things.
These challenges, while morally weakening the communities, have also always catalyzed a great resilience in them. Throughout the decades and across geographies, people and communities have brought the requisite change themselves, as they know the results will be faster and more effective if they take control. They have designed innovative solutions using the latest technologies and tools. They have come together to share knowledge and resources. They have identified that they are the owners of their destiny and ensured agency for themselves. Everyone is inherently capable and they have emerged as leaders.
Leadership through micro-improvements
Nations, communities, and organizations of all shapes and sizes continue to benefit immensely from investing in leadership development. Today, ample research highlights that it leads to accelerated growth and outcomes in any given setup. But what does leadership mean? How can it be built and sustained in complex uncertain conditions? How can it be catalyzed in regions with a mammoth size and dizzying diversity?
This is where the approach of micro-improvements applies, which can be contextualized and applied to varied needs across systems. Micro-improvements are small steps of progress. They are tiny, incremental changes that shift the status quo. They are small, easy, manageable steps that lead to better results or a significant change over time. Losing weight. Mastering a skill. Cleaning the house. Creating a fund for a dream car. Rolling out a new app feature. Building curriculum for a classroom. Improving health outcomes in a village. Solving the climate crisis.
Let's take a real example from public education in India. Indian government schools often find it challenging and daunting to involve parents. Despite existing structures, committees, and training, the data still shows otherwise, and the overwhelm continues. The micro-improvements approach could help overcome this obstacle. Government bodies and NGOs can break the complex theme of parental participation into simple improvement projects, such as the idea of energized Parent-Teacher Meetings (PTMs).
PTMs, often dysfunctional, can be revitalized in creative ways. By incorporating games, sharing simple feedback, and using personalized invitations, governments and NGOs are designing innovative ways to conduct these meetings. When school leaders have access to these micro-improvement ideas, they feel more confident and exercise their agency to contextualize and add their own wisdom and creativity. This triggers a virtuous cycle of improvements.
Extending this, today we have policies and missions that can often seem alien to leaders on the ground, who may not understand their role in the success of these initiatives. Imagine if these policies and missions were broken down into micro-improvements and shared as inspiration for education leaders. The possibilities and contextual innovations it could catalyze are immense. Additionally, it's imperative to focus on incentives, a sense of community, and data-driven decision-making.
The micro-improvements approach helps break down a big idea into clear, actionable tasks that suit one's individual needs. The frequent wins experienced through micro-level changes eventually feed into a continuous improvement cycle across the system. This helps the system realize its vision and build itself into a relevant, sustainable one with improved outcomes.
Micro-improvements enable leaders to come out of inertia and restore their lost agency. When provided with the necessary resources and support, which gives leaders a sense of “I have”, they develop the knowledge and confidence to execute a set of tasks, which gives leaders a sense of “I can". With each such micro-improvement carried out, they aspire to achieve more, which gives leaders a sense of “I wish". As a result, the system improves continuously and the status quo is shifted to an improved state of equilibrium, catalyzing exponential change. This can result in many outcomes - significant weight loss, skill mastery, a clean space, a dream car, a better app, better learning outcomes, decreased mortality in a village, a healthy planet, and thriving communities.
What is the result of micro-improvements?
Micro-improvements allow changes to be implemented gradually, minimizing disruption to ongoing operations, especially for under-resourced systems. This is especially crucial in environments where continuous availability is critical, including in education, health, civic services, and more. It allows for more effective risk mitigation strategies, enables quicker feedback loops, and makes it easier to pivot and adjust course with smaller, incremental changes.
An example of a system enhancing itself is the Indian public education system. Educators have used the micro-improvement approach to lead thousands of pedagogical innovations across different states, improving the learning environment for the students. These micro-improvements are enabled digitally as projects on DIKSHA - the National Infrastructure for Education by the Ministry of Education of the Government of India; they are available to the education ecosystem on their mobile phone. Each micro-improvement on DIKSHA lends itself to a repository of best practices and innovations that other educators from across the country can discover, learn from, and implement whenever they need.
Given the societal challenges our communities face today, it is essential that a nurturing environment for changemakers and leaders on the ground is enabled by the system. This nurturing looks like leadership development programs, leveraging open source technologies wherever possible, and building collective action between government, civil society, markets, and stakeholders.
If the environment for change in a system exists, every stakeholder on the ground is automatically inspired to take up continuous micro-improvements. Only then can they identify problems, co-create solutions, contribute to policy design and implementation, own the change, and build a sustainable future.
It's also energizing to see how an India-scale movement is brewing in this regard - Shikshāgraha. Several social entrepreneurs, NGOs, and government officials are coming together to kickstart a movement that can help millions of leaders take up these micro-improvements, demonstrate leadership, and eventually transform the public perception of our 1 million public schools.
Investing in leadership is essential. There is a need to enable the agency of system leaders and help them become leaders for today and for tomorrow.
Neeraj Doddamane is the Chief Strategy Officer at ShikshaLokam, an NGO enabling and amplifying leadership development opportunities for individuals and institutions engaged in K-12 education systems in India. Prior to ShikshaLokam, Neeraj was a Teach For India fellow and provided strategic consultation to several early-stage non-profits. Since 2018, he has been an active member of the Global Shapers Community and led the education initiatives of the Bengaluru Hub. Neeraj completed his post-graduate degree in Organisational Leadership from Said Business School, University of Oxford.
