Failure Files
Failure Files is a show where social entrepreneurs and leaders talk about their failures and lessons learned. In every episode, hear people at the frontlines of social change reflect upon their own experiences with failing, and how those setbacks made them better leaders. New episode every Friday.
Season 2 EPISODE 10
Assume less, prepare more | Sarita Upadhyay
Sarita Upadhyay reflects on her initial years at Medha, when the team got an opportunity to scale the organisation’s programme. However, decisions based on assumptions and an overall lack of preparedness resulted in the team losing out on almost two years of work.
Season 2 EPISODE 9
When ambition exceeds ability | Gaurav Singh
Gaurav Singh of Slam Out Loud talks about the time when he and his co-founder took on more work than they had the capacity to manage, and how this led to them losing the project of their dreams.
Season 2 EPISODE 8
Preparing for a marathon, not a sprint | Thenmozhi Soundararajan
Thenmozhi Soundararajan, founder and executive director of Equality Labs, a Dalit civil rights organisation, talks about why failure is an opportunity to build power, how systems of oppression affect well-being, and what healing looks like for individuals and communities.
Season 2 EPISODE 7
The road to recovery | Suchetha Bhat, Vishal Talreja
In Part II of this conversation, Dream a Dream CEO Suchetha Bhat and co-founder Vishal Talreja talk about what it took to rebuild an organisation in crisis, and how that led to discovering a new kind of leadership—one that the world needs more of.
Season 2 EPISODE 6
Having a dream is not enough | Vishal Talreja, Suchetha Bhat
In Part I of this conversation with IDR, Dream a Dream’s co-founder Vishal Talreja and CEO Suchetha Bhat share the story of the organisation’s implosion, Vishal’s burnout, and how owning up to failure was the first step in figuring out the way to build back up.
Season 2 EPISODE 5
Accepting that you can only do so much | Nisha Subramaniam
Nisha Subramaniam, co-founder of Kanavu, an education nonprofit working in rural Tamil Nadu, shares how the founding team’s failure to think through the feasibility of a project ended up stretching the team too thin and almost jeopardised the future of their organisation.
Season 2 EPISODE 4
Good intentions are not enough | Itishree Behera
In an effort to ‘bring change’ to a school, a well-meaning young professional fails to consider the perspectives of one of the most important stakeholders—its teachers.
Season 2 EPISODE 3
No right time for hard decisions | Dilip Pattubala
Dilip Pattubala, co-founder of Uninhibited, a nonprofit working on ending the stigma around menstruation, talks about how he was unable to step back from an unhealthy power dynamic with a funding partner and how this affected both his and his team’s well-being.
Season 2 EPISODE 2
Let’s talk about burnout | Mary Ellen Matsui
What happens when a leader fails to protect their own well-being? Mary Ellen Matsui shares her story of burnout during her time as the CEO of Atma, an accelerator for education nonprofits and social enterprises, and the lessons she learnt from it.
Season 2 EPISODE 1
Learning to be a better, braver leader | Manjot Kaur
Do leaders need to always have their act together? Manjot Kaur tells us how she learnt about the importance of compassion and listening, after her authoritative leadership style left her team feeling stressed, tired, and unwilling to cooperate with her.
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