Leading Effectively Series
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My profession is teaching people about leadership. As a result, I am always on the lookout to see when leadership is truly practiced, yet this practice goes unheeded and unnoticed to the outside world. I had a chance to see true leadership one night, in the most unlikely place – the coffee court of a local big box book store in the Virginia suburbs of Washington DC.
You know those coffee courts – where everyone is crammed in to a community of college students finishing papers, professionals seeking free Wi-Fi, and even one or two people reading books or drinking coffee.
I saw an open table, next to a very physically fit gentleman, who looked like a teacher (he was grading papers anyway).
Right before I sat down, the cleaning lady, one of the sometime faceless people who pick up after us, jumped in front of me, cleaned and wiped down my table, then pulled my chair out for me.
‘Thank you,’ I said as I sat down and she nodded with a big smile.
It was what I would consider late for a school night, past 8.30PM, so I ordered a decaf mocha and then began to see if my computer would link up with the free Wi-Fi. Like everyone else, I was surrounded by humanity, but chose to electronically isolate myself.
It was then that the kind cleaning lady showed up with, who appeared to be, her two daughters - one of them clearly a teenager - and a son of about five years old.
The lady was talking to the oldest girl, who began translating from Spanish into English for the gentleman who was sitting behind me.
Sighing heavily and with a sense of embarrassment that can only come from a teen, she translated, “She says I have to talk with you tonight about my Biology Grade.”
 The Gentleman replied in a heavily accented, deep voice, “Excellent – I was hoping we would do Biology tonight. Please ask your Mother to leave us for about thirty minutes and we will talk about it.” The teen translated and the mother left.
It was clear to me that this gentleman was her mentor and since I teach mentoring, I thought I would pay a little attention to see how this went. Since my seat was about two inches away from the mentor’s table, it was easy to overhear the conversation.
At CCL, we teach people that good mentors build a relationship, then assess where the mentoree is, challenge them, provide support, and focus on results. Rarely do we get to see an approach like this in action like I got to see that evening.
He began by asking how she was doing and if she was still dating a boy she had talked about during an earlier meeting. She said no, it didn’t work out.
Deftly turning this into a transition, he made a comment about the role chemistry plays in relationships.
She didn’t take the bait – she said that it was more about how guys think and girls think that makes the difference.
So, he said, “it is all about the biology then…”
Still, she didn’t take the bait. Instead she informed him of her low biology grade and that if she did not do better next time, she would be kicked out of the honors class.
Having made his assessment of where she was, and building on a relationship that had obviously had many of these conversations, he asked, ‘is that what you want?’
When I teach we call this both an assessment and a challenging question – it demands an answer, yet poses a focus of the conversation as well.
“No,” she answered. She wanted to do better.
“I want you to do better too – you owe it to yourself and your family. We have worked too hard for too many weeks not to get this right. What do you think we need to do to get on the right track?”
Again, I witnessed a great mentoring technique – providing support while allowing her to take the question and provide the answer, owning it in the same space.
“I think I need to spend more time here and focus better on this stupid biology.”
“Yes, I agree – and would use a different term than stupid – how about difficult or misunderstood.”
“OK, she said, I’ll stick with misunderstood.”
Now, I hate to say it, but this conversation absolutely held me spell bound for about the next twenty minutes. They got right into the topic and his active listening, probing questions, support, and light hearted approach to a tough topic; he was able to get her to see some very difficult concepts.
This was truly mentoring at its best – the presence of the mentor fueling the mentoree’s burning desire to learn. He fed her information like feeding wood to a fire. They were so involved in the conversation over cells and how they were made they failed to notice that her mother had been waiting over 15 minutes at another table for them to finish.
The mother finally walked over and apparently told her daughter they had to leave or they would miss their bus. She translated for her mother about how proud she was of her daughter and of how the mentor was helping her daughter become a better student and a better person.
The Mentor just smiled and said in his heavily accented English, it was the least he could do.
Then, like all good mentors, he focused on results – he reminded her of her test the next week and the problems to study. He then asked her to translate what he just said for her mother. I thought that this is a lesson we also teach in class to mentors – make sure the immediate managers know the development goals of the mentoree and what they need to do to be successful.
The Mother, daughter, and her siblings walked off into the bookstore and out to catch their bus.
I could not resist the temptation to talk with this expert mentor. I leaned across the table and introduced myself. Shaking his hand, I told him my name and what I did.
“Ray,” he said. We talked a bit and I found out he was from Central Africa and was an immigrant just like the girl he was mentoring.
I commented on his superb mentoring style – he just smiled and said ‘it is my duty.’
Caught unawares, I stammered, “…your duty?”
“Yes. I was just t like her once – when I first came to this country. Then a mentor took me under his wing and taught me. I owe it to my mentor to be as good as he was. Sometimes it is the only hope an immigrant has to be successful. I really hope it works for her.”
I replied that in my professional opinion, he did a tremendous job and I think she has very good prospects thanks to him.
Very humbly he said that he had been taught well and he appreciate that someone noticed his efforts.
I replied that I think he will have a permanent place in my teaching repertoire as someone who can turn a biology session into a life lesson through his role modeling of a true leader.
We left each other after coffee and I began thinking of how many times we see leadership in action and we don’t stop to say thanks or provide feedback. That simple act may sustain a difficult relationship or even reinforce someone’s desire to take on the rough role of mentor or leader. What a great gift he was providing for her. I can pretty sure bet that in ten years I would not be surprised to see a Latino woman in her mid Twenties mentoring another willing student.
Ray the Mentor – the gentleman who helped me learn the truths about mentorship.
~Clemson Turregano
It's that time of year again. At magazines and newspapers, writers are preparing the annual review sections. The FT special about Women at the Top is already out. It’s always one of the unmistakable signs that the year is coming to a close. And it didn’t leave me with a good feeling.
As a European, I was a bit disappointed to browse through the selection of the “Top 50 Women in World Business”. Not critizising the panel’s choice of 50 excellent leaders, I am sceptical about the geographical dispersion of their choice and what it tells me about the future of women in executive levels in my part of the world. Nineteen of the top 50 women are from the US. Asia-Pacific is home to 16 others, and only 12 women are from Europe (including Turkey). The German in me was pleased to have at least one representative in the list, Ines Kolmsee. Compared to Africa (Gail Kelly, who could be counted both for her native South Africa and her chosen home Australia), Europe doesn’t score too badly.
Now, why am I worried? Mainly because of the demographic changes and challenges that Europe faces and that don’t seem to translate into staffing decisions in corporate Europe. Gender diversity is being pushed on the political agenda, with national quotas as a serious option, EU-directives on provision of early childcare, and the extension of working life for women in heated debate. But the understanding that gender equality is not just morally desirable but strategically necessary in order to attain and retain talent in a shrinking workforce has not transcended into visible changes just yet.
The UK-based FTSE reports (conducted by Cranfield School of Management) show levels of around 12% women representation in the boardroom, without much significant change in the last three years (and the 2010 version, to be released shortly, will likely not reveal any surprises, either). Arguably, British companies have more pressing issues to worry about these days – a valid argument or a welcome excuse, hard to say. However, even where the economy is booming, gender diversity is increasing at a snail’s pace. In Germany, any woman entering the management board is still a celebrated rarity, such as Barbara Kux, who was the onlyfemale C-level officer in a DAX company for almost two years. Now, she’s accompanied by three others (a total of 2.18% DAX board members are women now – more than ever before).
I wonder how much resilience, assertiveness and patience is needed until equality of men and women, one of our fundamental values in Western society and a basic Human Right, is achieved in the places where the fate of thousands is decided upon. I wonder how the world will look like if this comes true, and I hope that I will be able to witness this change. But first, let me survive this holiday season.
~Gina Eckert
(Photo released by Chilean Presidential Press Office)
As were a billion other people across the globe, I was riveted to the live television coverage of the rescue of the 33 miners trapped in the copper mine in Copiapo, Chile after a cave-in Aug. 5th left them trapped a half mile underground. After the last miner was rescued, I experienced a surge of emotion as the Chilean President, the 33rd miner, government officials and rescue workers enthusiastically sang the Chilean national anthem holding their hard hats over their hearts.
As the drama unfolded over a 22-hour period, it became clear that two leaders were instrumental in determining the successful outcome of this ordeal: Luis Urzua, the shift supervisor in the mine, and Chile’s President Sebastian Pinera. At CCL, we define the leadership roles for achieving goals as setting direction, achieving alignment, and gaining and maintaining commitment. With a common goal of ensuring the miners’ survival, both Urzua and Pinera did so with great effect.
Luis Urzua, the much-heralded 33rd miner, was elected by his colleagues to be the last to leave the mine. This position of honor was granted in recognition of his leadership throughout the 69 days of entrapment. Urzua’s actions following the collapse of 700,000 tons of rock ensured the group’s survival. News accounts report that he rationed the use of their headlamps to conserve battery power, established a strict rationing of their food supply, sectioned off the mine for different activities (sleeping, eating, socializing, exercising, bathroom, etc.) and set up a day/night schedule for the miners to maintain a daily routine during their entrapment.
Urzua set a clear direction for the group that they would remain unified and disciplined in order to survive. The unity of the men reported in news accounts, is evidence that they were aligned and working in unison under the austere rationing regimen and the structured existence Urzua established. Throughout the 69-day ordeal the miners maintained their commitment to the direction Urzua set, especially during the critical first 17 days when they had no contact with the outside world. All the men emerged in good health and reportedly agreed to share equally in any financial profits resulting from their sudden fame. Upon Urzua’s exit from the Phoenix rescue capsule, President Pinera told him, “Mr. Shift Supervisor, you are a good boss! You put your workers above yourself!”
President Pinera also exhibited strong leadership during the 69-day ordeal. Less than a year into office, his advisors warned him not to become involved in the mine disaster because of the potential political risk to his presidency if it were to end badly. He ignored those warnings and set a clear direction of committing his government’s full resources to the rescue effort, long before it was known if the men were even alive. He got his government’s agencies aligned in the effort and committed financial, material and personnel resources.
President Pinera led by example, taking a big political risk by getting his government involved and by maintaining a personal vigil at the mine during the rescue until all were safe, greeting and hugging each man as he emerged. The alignment and commitment that his personal involvement inspired was evident in the non-stop work of the team manning the winch, raising and lowering the Phoenix rescue capsule, the rescuers who voluntarily descended into the mine to treat and evacuate the miners, the workers above ground chanting a cheer with each rescue, and the government officials and spouses who kept a long vigil at the site until all were safe.
Leadership, both in the mine and above-ground, brought 33 lost miners back to safety, captivating the entire world in the process. Two leaders, one a working-class miner and the other a wealthy politician, showed the world what effective leadership in action looks like.
~Bill Adams
My husband is a Trekkie. Not one of the sort that dresses up and hitch-hikes around half the globe to attend Star Trek conventions, but he is an avid follower of the series and films. I myself, on the other hand, am an addict to crime fiction, both films and books, and find Star Trek more of a nuisance than a diversion.
 However, my holiday reading this year was indeed about Star Trek, because my husband managed to find the first Star Trek book that gained my interest: an analysis of Captain Picard’s leadership style. To be blunt, I have read better books about leadership before, but it was enjoyable and got me thinking about how it came that Picard, as a Frenchman, could become an American Leadership Idol. Being invented by an American, how "French" is he, after all? Discussing this with my husband, he made me watch all the movies again, as a way of “background research.”
First of all, Picard’s background makes him the ideal American hero. Picard is a pioneer in space. His job is to go where no man has gone before. His encounters with new galaxies, planets, life forms good and bad, are essentially not very different to the experiences (real or in movies) of the Wagon Trains in the Old West.
Picard also embodies the American dream of a truly self-made man: He made his career without the help from family or an old boys’ network - actually, against the will and values of his father. Moreover, Picard has shown resilience when facing personal setbacks in his career. Single-mindedly pursuing a starfleet career from early age onwards, when being refused entrance to Starfleet academy upon application, he re-applied a year later, successfully. Looking at the latest reliable data that compare various culture on people want of a leader, Picard’s overall leadership style is not very “French,” at least not by the standards of the 21stCentury. Many of Picard’s most outstanding characteristics, such as showing high integrity and having a high performance orientation for himself as well as for his staff, are not the characteristics that make an outstanding leader in France – but they are the ones that make an outstanding leader in the US.
So, is Picard an American Hero in the disguise of a Frenchman? I would argue not. Picard is an excellent information gatherer and decision maker – but he makes decisions in a typically French way. He rarely makes real consensus decisions, but he gathers opinions from each team member before reaching an integrated conclusion, thereby giving his team the feeling of being highly involved. He has many characteristics that make him more typical for the Old World, rather than the US (I don’t just refer to his accent and his preference for Earl Grey Tea).
Picard’s appeal partly consists of his refusal to be portrayed as a hero. Picard’s humility and modesty, almost shyness sometimes, make him more a member of a winning team than a solitary champion. After any threat that he and/or the Enterprise have successfully averted, he emphasizes that he is not an independent individual, able to achieve, perform or move mountains (or rather, stars) based on his own volition. He very much defines himself as being integrated into the democratic structure of starfleet that allows every voice to be heard, even junior ranks. Being rational, intellectual and objective, he embodies the traits that French leaders are praised for in the media. He is not so much an inspirational, visionary leader than rather a discreet operator who projects his strengths through silence. A little quirky – but that only makes him more lovable.
 And how is it that Picard is so respected as a leader even now, 20 years after his "invention?" I think mainly because his leadership style fits with the problems we're currently facing. From Picard, we can learn how to lead sustainably – building and maintaining a high-performing team, developing others yet also retaining top talent; acknowledging people (and other species) in their entirety and caring for their emotional and physical well-being as much as, if not more than, their work output. Making moral judgments and defending them against organizational protocol, if necessary.
Admittedly, being such a leader is easier in an ideal organization like Starfleet, and in the reality of our lives we face more difficulties than Picard might – but he would argue that that should not discourage us to try and strive for continuous improvement.
Make it so.
~ Gina Eckert
 You want to help. You want to help with an oil spill or the people in Sudan, or the orphans in Afghanistan or earthquake victims in Haiti. How do you do it? Where do you start?
It is so easy a first-grader can do it. You just follow some easy steps that require some hard thinking. Friends in Action outlined four easy steps that enable children to begin making a difference. Four easy steps and you are basically following the same process used by Greg Mortenson in the Central Asia Institute; the US Army in reconstruction projects; and many humanitarian organizations around the world. Four easy steps to leadership and action in humanitarian actions.
Why such an easy process? This was outlined for primary school students who wanted to help hurricane victims in Louisiana. They believed that anyone can and everyone should try to make a difference. Even kids in primary school. So they outlined a very straightforward and powerful four-step process that even strategic planners and CEOs can benefit from.
- Find someone who needs help. Jerry calls this ‘finding your heart.’ Greg Mortenson in ‘Three Cups of Tea’ found this in a small village in the Himalayas that wanted an education for their children. He sought to provide one -- he found someone who needed help. This is the heart of leadership.
- Ask them what they need. Don’t ask them what they want – ask them what they need. And then listen very carefully. Are they telling you what they need or what they want you to give them? There is a huge difference and people providing aid must be able to discern the difference between what someone wants and what they need. This is where you use your head in leadership, thinking though the challenges.
- Get a friend to help. For children, this can be your sports team, your class in school, your church, or even your parents and family. Then ask for the help. For many of us, this is the hardest part of the entire process. Greg Mortenson finds that fund-raising and asking for assistance is the hardest part of his job as the head of the CAI. Still, when he sees the results of his labor, it motivates him to ask for even more. This is where you use your hands in leadership – shaking hands, pleading for funds, and writing numerous letters and emails to inform others of the opportunity you are creating.
- Take action. After all the hard questions are answered, this is where the passion of the heart, the direction of the head, and the skill of the hands comes together to create opportunity for that ‘someone who needs help.’ This is the fun part. It is even more fun, knowing that it would not have happened if you had not taken on the harder work of the three prior steps.
With these four simple steps, a group of primary school students provided bottles of water for relief workers and victims of Hurricane Rita. The four steps offer a simple, yet not simplistic, process that enables all of us to take action wherever we are.
So start today. Ask yourself ‘who needs help?’
~Clemson Turregano
For my entire adult life I've worked. I've also been lucky enough to have jobs I cared about. I like working. It provides me with challenge and a place to apply my skills. I work during vacations. I work on weekends. But I don’t work ALL the time. There are times I need to focus on myself, my non-work relationships, among other things. I’ve recently become a parent. I was already a step parent. So now I have a 12 year old and an infant at home. And now, after a few months away, I’m back at work. My life is dynamic, and I like my work schedule to be that way as well.
 I remember when I got my first 8-to-5 job someone congratulated me on my first “real” job. I thought it was a weird thing to say. The work I had been doing up until that point seemed pretty “real” to me – in some ways it was more real. I was working 3 (sometimes more) jobs and going to school. The notion of “real” work being an exclusive of the 8-to-5 crowd bothered me then and it bothers me now. Getting work done happens in a lot of ways, in a lot of places, and at different times.
For that reason, I’m pleased to see more and more organizations embrace flex-work options. I grew up working an odd assortment of hours in order to get it all done. I learned at a young age that I work best when I have the flexibility to do my best work. That might mean working a few very long days and then having a half day to recover. I don’t see the sense of arbitrary work hours. Very few of the tasks on my work “to do” list have to be done between 8am and 5pm, nor do they need to be done at an office. I only need a laptop, wi-fi and some coffee. Luckily, my boss trusts me to get the job done. Not all my colleagues "get it" though as you'll see in my post on this topic from last year.
While there are still jobs were productivity is measured in the hours spent at the workplace, there are increasingly jobs that require a different take on work (flextime certainly doesn’t work for all jobs). There’s also research indicating that Flexwork options can benefit the employer as well as the employee (check out this recent headline).
So I wonder, what’s the hold up? Why are we holding so tightly to an 8-to-5 world of work when at the same time we are “going global” and uber connected 24/7? Why is flextime seen as an employee benefit – when there’s evidence that the employer benefits as well?
~Kelly Hannum
photo by Clix
During a recent conversation with a couple of friends, the name of one of their peers came up. This other person worked at a different plant than the one my friends worked in. Apparently, he was a vocal and influential voice in arguing the benefits and outcomes of his location versus the one that employs my friends, and in the process he created divides that sapped the company's creative energy. Hearing this story, the only response I could muster was "how quaint." Here's a leader and an influential voice constrained by the idea of place as a seat of power. But "place" is no longer an idea with much currency.
Remember last year's tumultuous elections in Iran? There was a time when that turmoil would have been locked away behind the borders of a nation-state, released in sanctioned press releases and the dispatches of foreign correspondents. Even the word "correspondent" is reminiscent of someone writing a letter - a one-way communication from one place to another. But digital photos and video and voice recordings poured over Iran's border and around the planet - the place called Iran was usurped by the space of Iran - the space that hosted discussions around water coolers and coffee shops, on 24/7 newscasts, during Facebook sessions, fueled countless Twitter feeds, and made millions of people around the world concerned citizens.
Anthropologist and cultural theorist Arjun Appadurai coined the use of "scapes" to describe the flow of material and ideas across what he has called "the social imaginary." I like to think of the social imaginary as the space of contemporary leadership. It's a space where boundaries and borders become replaced by perceptions and horizons. CCL has examined that space from various angles, most recently in its development of research-based boundary-spanning leadership practices.
Leaders who release themselves from a reliance on place, geography, functions, org charts, and other such border markers potentially can find, to paraphrase Shakespeare's Hamlet, something beyond the dread of the "undiscovered country." That dread can cause some leaders to "lose the name of action."The flow of ideas into action, more so than boundaries, borders, or limits, names the human space from which contemporary leadership struggles to emerge. We are all marking our steps differently now.
~ Pete Scisco
The devastating earthquake in Haiti
arrived unannounced and unexpectedly. Yet, the crisis unfolding is not
unfamiliar and echoes the patterns we saw in the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina. In 2007, CCL brought together a group of formal and informal leaders
who had played a role in Hurricane Katrina to explore the nature and lessons of
crisis leadership. [These findings were published in Stepping in the Void,
a free report available for download on the CCL Web site]. The patterns we observed during the Katrina crisis
reflect the leadership challenges now present in Haiti:
- Systems fail.
Infrastructure, technology, alert mechanisms and communication may fail or
be insufficient. Processes fall apart, leaving leaders in unfamiliar
territory. The failures may be brief or long-lasting, confined or
extensive. Ongoing or systemic problems that are manageable in routine
circumstances may be a serious problem in a crisis.
- The picture is distorted.
No one has a complete picture of what is happening. People looking on from
outside (via the news media, for instance) may have a sense of the big
picture but may lack accurate, detailed and critical information from
within the crisis zone. In contrast, people in the middle of the crisis
see what is in front of them - but may be cut off from what is taking place
elsewhere.
- Time is compressed.
In the heat of a crisis, the time pressure is great. Moving forward or
tackling a part of the problem may be risky in the absence of solid
information, but doing nothing isn't a choice. As the crisis evolves
beyond the immediate urgency, the time pressure eases, only to be replaced
by the complex demands of a protracted crisis or recovery.
- Authority is limited - and
limiting. A crisis can easily trump existing structures of
authority. Whoever is "in charge" is whoever is there. If your
organizational protocols require strict adherence to command structure and
approvals, they may hinder rapid and effective responses.
- New leadership emerges.
A crisis will generate previously unexpected and unknown leadership
capabilities. Individuals will step up to rescue or respond. New
organizations and networks arise to provide aid and assistance.
The new leadership that is needed during times of crisis
transcends the role of a few heroic leaders. In the words of CCL’s Bill Drath,
“No individual alone can provide leadership in the face of a complex
challenge.” The question then becomes, “How do we get more people involved in
leadership, making it more inclusive and collective?”
That’s the challenge for all of us as leaders, as individuals
who are moved by the situation in Haiti, as people who want to make a
difference. The crisis appears far removed, but its remedy requires our
individual and collective efforts.
To begin, there is an immediate need for money to support
the rescue and relief operations. Around the world governments, organizations, and
individuals are rallying together to raise billions of dollars. Yet, as with
Katrina, this active support will fade as we start to turn away our attention.
Meanwhile, it will take Haiti
a decade or more of sustained effort to come back from the earthquake.
The leadership void that will emerge is one we must not
walk away from. We need to stay engaged for the long haul – to help rebuild
schools and people’s sense of confidence and optimism, to help a new economy
take shape, and to build a stronger community from the one torn apart in the
quake. We are all qualified to step into a leadership role. Angela Cole is one
such person who has demonstrated the power “ordinary people” can play in a crisis.
Cole is a nurse and one of the participants in the
crisis leadership forum that was held at CCL after Hurricane Katrina. Angela
watched the Gulf Coast
disaster unfold on her television in New
York and decided she couldn’t just simply watch. Cole
put her life on hold, flew to Atlanta
and drove into the disaster zone with a pickup loaded with supplies. Along the
way, she asked where she could be of help and found her way to a small
community in Mississippi
that had not been reached by relief efforts. She stayed for two years, working
to rebuild the community.
Few of us will have the depth of commitment to do what
Angela Cole did, but all of us have the capability to play a sustained
leadership role of some sort. Haiti’s
revival rests in our hands.
In addition to the resources found on the CCL Web page),
those interested in crisis leadership may also be interested in our crisis
leadership blog). If you are interested in learning more about how you can contribute to leadership development efforts in Haiti and around the world, please leave a comment! Photo Credit: United Nations Development Programme
The word "entitlement" basically means getting something because it's your right to have it - it's not a matter of earning it. On the other hand "empowerment" is about building confidence and capacity in order to gain access – to rights, to resources, to information, to services, etc. – in order to shape one’s life and surroundings.
The crossroad where entitlement and empowerment meet is charged with emotion.
Those of us in a dominant status group may be so used to certain rights and privileges, we feel entitled to them and abashed at the thought we wouldn’t have them and feel those without aren't doing something "right." Those of us in a non-dominant group may struggle towards empowerment in order to get glimpses of a life others take for granted, wondering why it has to be so hard.
There are a plethora of indicators, but none that give a sense of the overall feeling people have about their lot. I suspect, based on gut feeling, that with the recent roller-coaster economy more people are realizing that what they thought they were entitled to – a job, a house, a retirement - is no longer in their grasp. And those who still “have” are probably holding on a lot tighter.
 But what does that mean for us – all of us?
Germany, among other nations, has adopted kurzarbeit - shortened work hours so more people can keep their job. In contrast to lay-offs, with kurzarbeit everyone loses a little so everyone can keep a little.
I wonder if this feeling can extend to other areas – beyond a paycheck? I suspect that spreading opportunity (becoming collectively empowered) would do more to move our entire lot forward than having the dream of being able to move into one of the narrowing slots reserved for those who are entitled.
I find it telling that folks in the middle class tend to give more (percentage-wise) to charities than those in more affluent groups. Chances are they have a better idea of what it's like to need a break and that sometimes it has more to do with circumstance than personal character.
We have been field testing Visual Explorer™ with development work in Africa, as part of our Leadership Beyond Boundaries initiative. We were delighted to get this fascinating report recently from Cheri Baker, a Peace Corp worker serving in the most rural areas of Ghana, West Africa.
What does it take to have a creative conversation about a challenging topic? The language and cultural hurdles to conversation here in this story are striking. It is true that words often fail us. If we don't share the same language how can we talk? We see versions of this story even in organizations with a common language and shared culture. It can be really hard work to understand and be understood in conversation. When we began studying dialogue and conversation as part of the CCL Leading Creatively Program, we discovered the power of images to provide bridges, and insights, and generally to "mediate" the conversation. Our theory about this is that images provide metaphors (metaphor is underneath language) in a visible way (we are visual creatures) in the form of cards which can be handled, examined and shared (the mind is embodied and playful, and revels in art).
Here's the story in Cheri's words and images.
From: Cheri Baker
Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2009 5:44 PM
"Hello yet again! Of course, when I reached Tamale, not only was the Internet down but power all over the city was out for about 12 hours! I'm sorry for the delay, but it's an expected part of life here. Here's some information for your blog about the three women's group meetings I held in Kpendua using the Visual Explorer cards.
 Work began soon after moving to a very rural village in the Northern Region of Ghana. As a Health/Water and Sanitation Peace Corps Volunteer, my work is incredibly varied and always interesting. Through constant interactions with the villagers in Kpendua, I have learned more than I ever imagined about another culture and its people.
Since I first moved to Kpendua, I have marveled at how strong and hard working the women are. Because I was so impressed with their dedication to their families, a group of village friends and I decided we should start a Women's Group. But at the first meeting, more than 65 women showed up to participate! In time, our one women's group became four separate ones, and our work together ever since has been very worthwhile.
"This is the Nyobilbaligu Women's Group having their monthly meeting on my veranda. Using the Visual Explorer cards, this meeting focused on thinking for oneself, creativity, problem-solving, and information sharing."
"[In these photos] three women at our women's group meeting trying to decipher what exactly is in each photo. When they weren't asking their friends for help, they were sitting quietly turning the Visual Explorer cards over and over in their hands.
At the majority of our monthly meetings, my Ghanaian counterpart and I teach interactive lessons on HIV/AIDS, nutrition, proper breastfeeding, hand washing, or a topic of a similar nature. For the two strongest and most active groups, we are also trying to create business plans for alternative livelihood projects like corncob charcoal and beekeeping. But the most interesting work I've done with them has been related to the role of a Dagomba (a tribe in Ghana with whom I live) female, gender equality in a village, and leadership development activities.
When I first moved to Kpendua, I used a well-known Peace Corps technique (specifically a PACA tool) in which you begin by posing a positive question to get the group comfortable and more receptive to information gathering, then following up with a more difficult one that makes the group think about some negative aspects of their life. After a meeting in the capital of Ghana with Lyndon Rego, Steadman Harrison, and Phillip Brady from the Center for Creative Leadership, I was able to bring some of CCL's techniques to a village in the North. In three separate women's group meetings, I repeated the same PACA tool--but this time with a very helpful visual aid: CCL's Visual Explorer Cards. And wow, what a difference they made! When I first posed the question to groups of villagers more than a year a go, I just got blank looks in response. When pried, I could get some answers out of the villagers, but the concept and reasoning behind my questioning was too unclear. They couldn't seem to fathom why I was asking them, "What aspects of your life here do you appreciate?" When pushed, they could only answer about tangible things. They'd say, "We like that we have a clinic in our village that serves nine surrounding communities," or "We like that we have a Primary School." I was disappointed to find that that was all I could get out of them. Frustrated at the time, I eventually moved onto other techniques. But this time around, using the same technique with the Visual Explorer cards made all the difference.
While it was still very difficult, the women were very chatty once they understood the concept of the meeting. I started by asking the women, "What is the best thing about living in Kpendua?" (Most villagers I live with trouble with the concept of the word, "best." They also have trouble with the concept of "goals," "improvements," and "future plans," but that's another frustrating story!) When I rephrased the questioning to, "What is already happening in Kpendua that makes you the happiest? What is successful? What is good about living here?"I was able to get a few very informative and interesting responses. The most impressive answer I repeatedly received was related to the Visual Explorer Card (VEC) that depicts a group of young boys standing with their arms around each other's backs.
Through that photo, the women talked about how it's great that everyone here helps each other, specifically to floor compounds (an amazing communal and very musical experience), plaster the mud walls (with a mixture of cow feces and mud), harvest groundnuts, and gather maize for naming ceremonies. Another group commented that they were happy that when a man asks other villagers for communal labor farming, men gladly ride their bicycles to farm to help weed. In addition, they were happy we have meetings and discussions so everyone's voices can be heard. The photo of the dilapidated house by a riverside drew murmurs of approval.
The women said, "The house is very beautiful; it is big and the landlord would be proud to own the house. We are happy that Kpendua has strong mud rooms for strangers (Ghanaian English for "guests") coming to visit because it's nice to have strangers." It was also interesting to hear a woman exclaim she was "happy because she has strong legs to do all the work that women do daily" and that "It's too hard for the women who can't walk well." All this just from a photo of small baby's feet held in an adult's hand!!
When a woman holding the card of crayons asked the translator if it was a picture of bowls, he explained to her that it doesn't matter what the photo is and that what matters is what she sees.
As she grew more comfortable with her thoughts, she made a long speech about how happy bowls make her. She clarified that female villagers use bowls to eat, and food is important. After pushing her to continue, she answered that bowls make her happy because it's nice to serve and share food at baby naming ceremonies and funerals. Though the inevitable tangible answer did come up repeatedly, it was great to hear what the women thought was going well in their communities. They realized they were lucky to have a competent nurse who could take care of them when they were sick at our clinic, which serves the nine surrounding communities.
Another woman's photo reminded her of mosque, and she explained that Fridays made her very happy because everyone was "praying very seriously." Another woman said she was happy we have a road big enough for lorries to pass through our village. Yet another said it made her happy when there was a full moon because people could walk around freely and see at night. (Kpendua has no electricity.) A woman who said it made her happy to see development in Kpendua discussed the photo of an old woman's eyes. Kpendua has a school, a clinic, a mosque, and light poles waiting for electricity. (Though the district has been claiming that "the electricity will certainly come soon" for more than two years, we do have light poles lying on the ground in the middle of the village!) And in a response that portrayed a major tradition in the tribe, a woman said she was happy that the elders here are respected and make the major decisions for the rest of the village after looking at a VEC of an old lady.
After this question, I asked a new series of questions trying to pry answers out of them about they want to happen in Kpendua. I asked questions like, "What do you see in the photos that makes you sad about living in Kpendua? What is difficult? What can we improve on in Kpendua?"This part of our meetings consistently proved very interesting. I have been here for almost two years, but I can rarely get any concrete answer out of this type of question. No matter how patient I am and how many times I explain that my role as a PCV is not to give money, most people just answer this question by saying that they want me to help them buy a tractor. And get more money. This was the first time I was able to hear what the women really want. The VEC cards really helped them open up. With the VEC, I now know that the women with whom I work want a special grinding mill to make shea butter. And on a related note, they want bulk traders to come directly to the village to buy the unprocessed shea nuts. I also learned that they want more Moringa Oleifera trees, a major nutrition project I have been working on with them for about a year. And they want more water, since there are currently only three working boreholes for 3000 people. (There is supposed to be one for every 300 people.) By looking at a VEC of an overturned shopping cart, a woman said she wanted to learn how to do beekeeping. (Apparently word of one of my potential upcoming projects has spread!)
They don't want any more lorry accidents (we had a very serious one a few months ago killing seven people from Kpendua and injuring literally everyone else.) And they don't want people to "grow lean" and suffer without enough food. After gazing at the VEC photo of a pile of skulls, a women said she didn't want any more warfare within the Dagomba tribe. (An ongoing chieftaincy dispute has split the tribe into two major sides.)
But the most exciting answer for me was when each group mentioned that they want latrines!! In the entire village, I still have the only latrine while everyone continues to go to the African "bush" to use the toilet. The women all agreed that they want latrines so they don't have to go to toilet so far away anymore. This answer made me so excited because my counterpart and I have been talking until we've felt like we were blue in the face trying to desensitize the village to the need for latrines.
Overall, the use of the VEC was a huge success. Though one of the women's groups kept asking my counterpart to direct them more with clearer directions, he kept refusing for the sake of the activity. We also spent a great deal of time stressing that there were no wrong answers. They didn't have to know what the picture was of; instead we wanted to hear about anything that they saw. Admittedly, it was also sometimes difficult to get the women to say how the photo related to Kpendua instead of just explaining what they saw in the photo. Even so, I heard more about what aspects of life they want to leave the same and what they want to improve than I have heard in a long time. It was pleasant to hear the women interact so freely with each other, and I enjoyed watching them work together to try to figure out what was on each card.
Near the end of each meeting, women were answering the questions very clearly without using the cards. It was the first time they were so open and forthcoming with their responses. It was an amazing change. I will certainly be using these cards again soon!"
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