Sylvia's Journal

After two very intense days I am humming John Denver’s Leaving on a Jet plane as my bag is (being) packed. It is early morning and the first rains have come. Raindrops stampede onto the corrugated metal roof. It took me a while to realize it was rain. Rain in Africa sounds so very much different than rain in Manchester by the sea. It sounds more violent, like a horde of people pounding on a big metal gate to be let in.

The two-day bi-continental strategic planning meeting is over. It was quite a rollercoaster ride. I have never used the ICA methodology bi-continentally with one team sitting in rooms in Lusaka and one team in Harpswell Maine. On the floor in our Zambia room there was a mess of cables and cords, speakers and computers and black boxes. Harpswell looked a little more organized but of course we couldn’t see the floor. They were sitting snugly, windows frosted, cold drizzle outside, cradling their cups of coffee to wake them up at 6:30AM their time while we were sweating it out in un- or poorly air-conditioned rooms at 1:30 after lunch. I don’t think I can imagine a bigger contrast.

On day one it took us an entire hour to get the connection right. On day two we did better although often either audio or video disappeared for a while.  Add to this that I was using a methodology with a group of people used to deductive planning, and needing a physical wall on which to put pieces of paper with ideas, then engaging with the group to move pieces of paper around as the participants discus the meaning and placement of all these pieces of paper. As we did our final reflection round at the end, with a marker as a talking stick, many people commented that there were times that they felt lost.  This is where my white hair helps – if I had been young I am sure they would have started to tinker with my process, or een take over.

Although I never felt lost, I knew what we were doing and where we would end up, I wasn’t altogether sure I could pull it off in the allotted time and given the bi-continental constraints. There were many times that we got stuck in the mud – I know there are always mudflats when you do strategic planning (usually people are surprised by those). It’s a discovery journey in my book which means there are rivers to cross, raging currents to bridge and oh so many places where you get may get stuck in the mud, or simply stuck. These muddy places are usually where the members of the organization are not aligned on something. In a traditional (deductive) strategic planning process where you start with the very abstract, mud places are camouflaged because of the vague general language people use. Later after the plan is finished and implementation starts they get tripped up when the different understandings of the vague language surface. In my view such a process does little to create energy and confidence among the staff lower on the ladder, especially when you have a dynamic of wise old elders (the older American board members) and young(er) local (Zambian in this case) staff.

I have once again surpassed the number of days that I contracted for, I was contracted for only Monday and Tuesday, even hough the retreat was planned for four days. There were limits to the time I could be engaged for. Since my flight is late on Wednesday (day three), and we didn’t get everything we wanted done, it was no surprise that I was asked to facilitate continued conversations until the time of departure for the airport.

This is the second time I have contracted for less than I am used for – I am resolving this, once again, by donating the surplus, if possible, as a tax-deductible contribution to this organization, health kids/brighter future. I do that happily as it is an extraordinary young organization with a passionate staff and passionate board, and no egos anywhere in sight. So very refreshing! Although my contract was a one off arrangement, I hope I will have more contact in the future. Now getting ready for the very long ride home.