About ISDM

ISDM is an institution founded to create, strengthen and establish Development Management, a domain that transcends the exclusive silos of ‘development perspectives’ and ‘management principles’. ISDM recognises the need to ‘professionalise’ the Leading and Managing of Social Purpose Organisations (SPOs). The institution sees the development space as requiring the application of management disciplines that are unique and tailored to the scale of the sector. Management that doesn’t merely retrofit Business Management to development projects, but one that is born specifically from the coming together of the two crucial domains.

By 2025, ISDM aims to become the go-to management institute for top professionals wanting to transform the development sector for a greater impact on people’s lives. In order to achieve this aim, ISDM has identified three broad focus areas

1. Continuously building the one-year-long Post-Graduate Program in Development Management (PGP-DM);

2. Creating a strong research function that will lay the foundations for Development Management and leadership as a unique domain and discipline;

3. Launching Strategic Capacity Building Programs aimed at influencing and up-skilling middle to senior leaders in the social sector through special workshops, short-term courses, and customized convenings.

ISDM has audacious ambitions to build a world-class institution, become a global fountainhead of development management knowledge, and define the domain of development management for the Social Sectors. The belief is that Management for the Social Sectors (or Development Management) will significantly scale up the positive impacts on the lives of people in sustained ways. ISDM is entering a new phase of growth with a revamped program and renewed focus on establishing itself firmly as a preeminent institution in its domain. This requires strategic and energetic institutional leadership.

About Bricolage and Bricoleur

“Bricolage” conducted by “bricoleurs” aims to integrate the learning of students from seemingly separate contexts with an undeviating focus on the learning journey of their subject, the student of PGP-DM, towards achievement of specific program learning outcomes. The process of bricolage contributes to the personalization of a student’s journey of learning in the PGP-DM program while embedding the core values of collaborative and contextual learning that the program espouses.

Why the need for a bricoleur?

The a-contextual application of business management theories into development sector practices is impossible. For management ideas to be impactful in development work, management ideas must become immensely contextual. Development management professionals must be able to understand the complexity of the social development process, understand the ecosystem in which they work and be able to clearly articulate their perspectives on society, its development and have a clear sense of their personal values, goals and beliefs. At ISDM, the process of contextualizing business management ideas into development sector practices happens through a process of collaborative learning, mentored and guided by a bricoleur.

Two things are essential here: First ISDM believes that solving development problems requires collaboration amongst multiple stakeholders and that students must develop a deeper understanding of collaboration and collaborative problem-solving processes. Second, contextualizing management ideas into actions requires students to keep development perspectives and the multi-contextual requirements of development at the forefront of decision making. Students would develop their skills and expertise in doing this through guided processes that ISDM broadly refers to as collaborative context-based learning pedagogy.

At ISDM, visiting faculty both management as well as development, provide the foundation for procedural and declarative knowledge. They help students develop their knowledge and perspectives on development, society and management. The key piece to bring these together is contextual and strategic knowledge that helps students integrate what they learn to the multiple contexts of the development sector.

What does a bricoleur do?

This process of helping students to develop contextual and strategic knowledge is curated by bricoleurs. Bricoleurs are primarily process and facilitation experts who stitch together the contextual strategic learning journey for students by helping students filter management ideas through development lenses. This pedagogical approach is anchored in a care-based, individualized learning pathway for each student of the PGP program. Bricoleurs enable students to make the connection between the emerging body of knowledge around development management and its application to real life development challenges. Bricoleurs anchor this learning journey in a relationship-based personalized pedagogy, building trust with students to establish a firm foundation, embedded in care (individual) and support (collective), for students to conceptualize and work through the complexity of adapting and contextualizing management ideas for the development sector. The bricoleurs, as facilitators, help students to think of the right questions to ask and help them understand how answers to these questions can be obtained; guiding them through the vocabulary of an emerging domain of development management and helping students articulate their own positions on leading and managing SPOs. Their focus lies in keeping the context of development at the forefront of decision making that the students will need to do as they apply concrete management concepts into practical contextual application. In keeping this focus, bricoleurs, as internal faculty, liaise with visiting faculty to make clear the context of the students and the development issues they will handle as development management professionals. As liaisons, bricoleurs will make suggestions with regards to some relevant content that visiting faculty will have to teach and engage with to concretize and contextualize management concepts for the development sector. Bricoleurs also scaffold the individual learning journey of each student by recognizing the unique learning needs of students and embed development conversations with students as a core part of their work.

Key Responsibilities

● Mentoring students successfully to achieve the learning outcomes of the PGP-DM

● Anchoring a Term within the academic year

● Proactively identify, engage and build strategic relationships with social purpose organisations

● Assessment and Grading

● Supporting the Associate Programme Director in delivery of the PGP-DM

● Contribution to the delivery of quality Body Of Knowledge team for the anchored Course (Academic 2.0)

● Investing in own and learning of others to deliver the responsibilities of a Bricoleur

● Cross team engagement within the Institution

Educational Qualifications and Experience Required:

● The candidate should have a Master’s degree in Social Science, Social Work, or Management

● Over 10 – 15 years’ work experience including holding senior leadership position in a SPO and managing and mentoring programme team members

● Outstanding relationship management skills and ability to focus on youth learning journey

● Comfortable working with ambiguity and adapting to latest social sector and market trends

● Excellent written and oral communication and presentation skills

● Ability to collect and assess information rapidly, identifying key points and drawing conclusions

● Strong attention to detail

● Adaptable to changing team needs and the organizational environment

● Experience of working effectively in a team environment

● Brings fresh ideas and innovative thinking to the organization.

To apply for this job please visit isdm.keka.com.