Sylvia's Journal

Today, as I was looking through the pictures on my computer, I ended up deleting hundreds of them. They were pictures of workshops from around the world. In most cases I remembered the places and some of the people and I wonder what difference these events made. The energy of people engaging with each other about their work is visible in many pictures. The intensity of the conversations, the aha’s..but I know such energy can be fleeting. People leave a workshop on a high, and then something about their work environment sucks it all out. Not everywhere of course. I have come to realize that it all comes down to leadership and the behavior of the leaders. If they believe in, what USAID calls CLA (collaborating, learning and adapting), then the energy will stay, because people can talk about what doesn’t work for them, or share their ideas and spark off creative conversations. But if the leaders don’t really believe in this approach to working together, because they have a need to control things (and people) or are attached to a particular way of working that suits them and their personality (but not others), or when there is a fear of what will happen if they let go of control, then I am pretty sure that collaborative spirit will eventually lose its power.

Deleting those pictures was very liberating. It is the end of an era and opens a new chapter. It is the end of my life’s chapter as a trainer, facilitator, and workshop leader. I have good memories of all these events and count myself very lucky I got to travel the world. But that chapter is now closed, I am done with that. It feels great. My next chapter will keep me professionally engaged through individual and team coaching, leaving me lots of time to engage in local political action (to reduce my fear and sense of helplessness about the November elections), my various hobbies and maybe travel a bit more to my home country now that COVID-19 has finally found me. I won that fight thanks to an immune system that will protect me for the next few months.