Sylvia's Journal

The entire morning, and part of the afternoon, the teams had a chance to shine in front of the DG. First each was given time to explain a poster they had put together and worked on all day yesterday: their challenge model, their action plan, a graph showing how they had progressed towards or beyond the target they had set back in May.

After the morning break each team was asked to tell us about some of the practices (or lack of practices) before they started this program, and then what they are doing different now. Although each filled in an elaborate chart covering many pages, they were asked to give the highlights, the most important new behaviors they have adopted, and, which presumably, made them successful in reaching or overshooting their targets.

The new behaviors concerned leadership practices (mobilizing others, focusing, understanding root causes, working effectively in teams, inspiring, aligning stakeholders not thought of before); management practices (monitoring not just once a year but monthly, looking at and using data for planning purposes, planning around challenges rather than doing the yearly cut-and-paste ritual) and good governance practices (being more inclusive, empowering women, using resources judiciously, and setting direction through a shared vision and a focus on goals, etc.).

After lunch we were treated to 11 stories about direct or indirect effects of this program on others. The facilitator team is keen on documentation, something that we don’t always pay enough attention to. Interestingly, several of the stories where not about our program but about people who work under or with our participants. They learned from our participants, second hand, and then, when given permission, used the new tools and understandings to make changes they had wanted to make all along. I think I am going to re-define leading as removing constraints that keep people from using their talents and do what they had wanted to do all along to make a difference in the lives of others.