Sylvia's Journal

I never set foot outside the hotel yesterday. This is what happens when I am in the middle of a workshop. It is the downside of such short events – there is no time off. The day starts early and ends late.

Of the 30 people invited about 20 showed up with a lot of coming and going. This seems the trend in such intitial (‘inception’) events. I can understand this. There are many demands on people’s time and why go to this inception workshop when there is much else to do. I consider myself somewhat of a gardener: preparing the soil, planting some seeds. If I am lucky I see some of them sprout right in front of my eyes. I think I did see some green coming out of the soil.

The gamble of working through facilitators whose skills I don’t know paid off, if not in the quality of their sessions than at least in the modeling we do of how people learn skills and how to coach and mentor. It was noted and appreciated I believe. These first team experiences are like awkward dances with a new date. We are polite, careful not to step on toes and the conversation carefully monitored, at least by some of us. I am looking for reactions, openness, sensibilities, etc. I am encouraged by the commitment I have seen so far: they arrived early, were well prepared and stayed late for a debriefing and feedback session after 5 PM. This meeting was punctuated by a very loud but short aerobics class taking places a few floors below us in the hotel.

For this group the notion that management and leadership are important for producing better health services is beyond doubt. What to do about it is less clear. This is why we are demonstrating some of the processes, models and tools our project can make available. I showed once again the video of the Aswan leadership program (Seeds of Success).

I think I have now seen it a hundred times and it remains moving. It is also compelling because it so clearly links leadership development with tangible results that represent lives saved and family tragedies averted. I could tell that the Ethiopians were intrigued and some appeared to be ready to take up the challenge. I hope that what we are doing now is simply planting the ‘Seeds of Success’ in Ethiopia.