Sylvia's Journal

Yesterday we met at the Ethiopian Management Institute where our new lead facilitator had sufficiently intrigued several of her colleagues with stories about the inception workshop of last week that seven of them showed up for our meeting. They did enter the meeting room with large question marks on their forehead.

Without much input, since everyone had been busy, I had proposed an agenda that was about the right things but much longer than anyone expected. It is, once again, part of these awkward steps with a new dance partner, when expectations and aspirations are still not known. It was also not entirely clear who was leading and who was following. But somehow our intuitions and commitment carried the day and we ended up dancing beautifully together, producing the outputs that I had hoped we would.

While waiting for the meeting to start I asked everyone what their name meant. In most of the world people’s names are meaningful. They are in a way the very personal visions of parents (or families) for their newborn child. In our case, the meaning of the names of the people around the table also made a nice backdrop for our future work together and it broke the ice, there was much laughing. Imagine a group with names like Hope, Diamond, Strong-and-Mighty, Forget-the-Past-and-Start-Anew, Pillar-of-Light, Never-Run-Away, Beautiful-Greens and Like-My-Mother! How could we possibly go wrong?

Our brandnew team leader from EMI led us through an exercise that took us from a shared purpose, shared vision, to a measurable short term result and a better understanding of what we are collectively up against. In the middle of her facilitation she was served a macchiato and we were asked if we wanted one too. At first I did not think I heard the word well and assumed I must be mistaken; Macchiato? In Africa ? In a government institution? But I was not mistaken and we were all served the best macchiato I ever had in small glass cups. This is after all Ethiopia and a place where Italians left their footprints all over the place.

At lunchtime everyone was in high spirits and the collective visioning and planning had created a team spirit that no teambuilding exercise could have created. We also had completed, in half of the envisioned time, enough for the MSH team to turn into a plan with a budget; the boss would be satisfied. We were treated to a delicious lunch in the bright and airy restaurant at the institute’s top floor.

I completed the details of the ‘what’s next’ piece in my hotel, mindmapping all the steps that will take us from here to a successful launch of this new program in early August. There is much work to do, but we have done it before and I have a good sense of what it takes.

Tae and I went out for dinner in the Zebra Grill restaurant where no zebra is served. We reflected on the week and on life in general. It has been wonderful to work with her so intensely this week. Whoever offers her a job next is lucky. Her Ethiopian name is Almaz which means diamond. It is an apt name; she is truly a gem.

Today is departure day. After checking out of the hotel, one last visit to the office to transfer the planning tasks to my colleagues here in Addis. Then I will head out to the Hilton to support Karen for her presentation and meet a new cast of characters who are here to study private-public partnership. Karen will enlighten them on how to strengthen managerial and leadership capacities that will make these partnerships work.