What is SPOORTHI?
SPOORTHI is a blended leadership course to inspire future leaders in the field of public health. The word spoorthi means inspiration and/ or enthusiasm. And the intent of developing this course was to enthuse and inspire budding leaders to take on leadership roles more confidently. What started as an internal capacity building of the next line of leadership at IPH Bengaluru will now be offered to all as there is a dearth of such curated material for individuals from the non-profit sector in public health.
Topics covered
The online phase introduced the participants to what is leadership, the various styles of leadership, the journey of leadership at IPH Bengaluru, skills and qualities essential for leadership in public health.
Whereas the face to face component delved into collectively exploring individual and institutional leadership journeys, hand-on application of communication and moderation skills.
Duration and format
This blended course had online modules on a learning management system, live catch up sessions with internal and external facilitators followed by a 2-day face to face final immersion.
The total duration of the course is 3 months
About the 1st cohort
Spoorthi began the leadership course online by introducing the concepts to the participants and holding group activities. The 2-day in-person immersion utilised a participatory approach to facilitate a safe space as the participants explored their strengths and styles of leadership, internalised the IPH journey and refined their communication and leadership skills. Fun-filled activities that would include identifying a person with their interests rolled into a paper ball. Who would’ve imagined a snowball fight would be so much fun to help us know each other better and get Spoorthi course going on Day-1. Participants embarked on their individual leadership journey by self assessing their leadership qualities, gauging their strengths and priorities. This was followed by an engaging session on how leadership looks like in our day-to-day practice to make the concepts more tangible and relatable. Not just this, the participants also got a sense of the flipside of leadership and how to be mindful and manage such challenges. The intense day ended with lovely fireside pitches/ stories and songs.
On Day – 2 participants took a deep dive into leadership exploring their alignment of individual visions with that of the institutional goals. Lastly a time capsule activity and a time travel of sorts over the last two decades to revisit our past, analyse our present and envision the future. That was a wrap to the phenomenal experiential learning to inspire our future leaders.
Course developers – Dr. Pragati Hebbar, Assistant Director Research and Dr. Tanya Seshadri, Assistant Director Education
What next? – The second cohort will soon be launched… Watch this space for more details
