“We just can’t get good staff,” directors of other organizations like ours complain. “Everyone wants to work in the big cities. No one wants to stay in the small towns.” We hear this all the time. And the next thing is usually: “How do you do it? Where do you find these people?”
When we tell them that we find them right here in Dehradun, they don’t believe us. But it’s true. Most of our staff are locals, people from this community who are committed to staying here, people with gifts and talents and skills who were just waiting for the right place to blossom in. At the Latika Roy Foundation, we put a lot of thought and energy into being that “right place”.
It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the experts come from outside, that the real talent has to be imported and that the locals don’t know much. We have learned from experience how wrong that thinking is. And along the way, we have discovered some of the secrets of training. Diamonds are everywhere. They may need to be discovered, they may need to be polished. But they are there. |
