Merry Christmas!

Not much to say here. I only wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! I hope your holidays are going well for you, and that the new year brings you excitement, opportunities, and peace.

Now go on and celebrate!

State of the Year Summary

I thought it might be good to wrap up the year with some information on my plans for next year. IRI has been very busy this year, between our work in Africa and several new opportunities opening up in North America and Asia, it has been very exciting. Our perpetual car malfunctions in Africa combined with the typical non-profit lack of funds, however, have also made it very frustrating. This feast-and-famine year means I have to compromise between following up on what's opened up and long-term financial planning.Which leads me to my current plans for next year:

The Plan

January starts with a seminar in Torrington from the seventh through the eleventh. This seminar is a pilot seminar for our board of directors and various people we've met over the years who have been interested in our seminar work. Once we've wrapped up the seminar, I will head up to Spokane, WA to visit some contacts and to find temporary work until my next major trip. Finances are tight, and temp work will help cover my recurring bills while I'm traveling in March and April.

In March I head off to Hong Kong and the Philippines. We will be working with a Hong Kong organization for the first few weeks of the trip, then head over to the Philippines to conduct a seminar and follow-up training. Our departure and return dates are not set yet, but I expect to be overseas for about two months.

May sees me back in the U.S. At this point, if my accounting skills are even remotely reliable, I will be just short of broke and back in Spokane. This will begin what I am tentatively calling the "Jason goes back to work" season. In addition to looking for temporary employment, I will also be promoting our developmental training and consulting to area businesses and organizations. I have found that the tours I have conducted the last few years, while great for keeping in touch, don't really give me much time to follow up and promote our training to local organizations. Part of IRI's long-term financial strategy has always included using our training and consulting in a professional capacity to fund nonprofit work, so I want to start developing a reputation in the business community.  I expect to be busy for several months during this phase.

Assuming all goes well in the "Jason goes back to work" season, I should be ready to get back to traveling in the fall. August marks the beginning of a new school year in the U.S. as well as the beginning of many academic conferences. My plan is to hit as many conferences as time (and work) allows in order to meet with like-minded people, develop relationships, and promote our training. This will probably consist of weekend travel, so I plan to remain based in Spokane unless I have found better work elsewhere. This period of work and conferencing will continue until late November, with my final conference being ICOM, which takes place just before Thanksgiving. From there, it is time to meet with my associates and friends in the Midwest over the holidays, review the year's successes and failures, and plan for the next year.

Concluding Thoughts

So that's The Plan in a nutshell. Will the plan work out as stated? I seriously doubt it, but just having a plan helps me manage new opportunities and navigate obstacles. The goal of any year-long plan is not so much to actually do everything you plan, but to give you a foundation that allows you to adapt to changes while still being as productive as possible.

Thanks to everyone who has been following my adventures this year. In addition to my other activities, I intend to change the way I handle these blogs soon. I want to increase my updates and provide more information on both the work I am doing and how the theories I have been working with impact how we can understand our world. I hope you'll all join me for what should be a fun and exciting year!

End of the Run

Well, I'm back from the ICOM, and have officially completed my crazy tour of around 5000 miles. Now I will be visiting family over the holidays and meeting with friends in the Illinois area. On the down side, the Midwest has once again managed to make me sick - literally. I'm not sure if it is the allergens, some weird local bug, or the fact that I always visit here at the end of a exhausting trip, but I seem to keep getting sick when I reach the Midwest.

The convention went well - I managed to not offend or horrify anyone with my workshop (I think), raise awareness of our work developing individuals and communities in Mozambique and elsewhere, and make contacts with a few other organizations that either we can help, or may be able to help us. All in all, a satisfying run.

Now if I can just get the sick out of my system, everything will be great heading into the holidays.

Traveling 'Round the West

So...an entire month without posting a blog. Nothing I can do for it now, but apologies on the lack of update last month. As the title suggests, I have been traveling around the western U.S. visiting potential partners and giving explanations/updates about what we are doing in Mozambique and other places. Instead of summing up the trip verbally, which would mostly consist of "went to X, talked to So-And-So" over and over, I have a map of the trip, with some of the locations marked for your viewing pleasure.

The Great Western Tour:

Here's the fast key:
A/I)   Torrington, WY
B)     Winslow, AZ
C)     Globe, AZ
D)     Anaheim, CA
E)     Bakersfield, CA
F)     Ashland, OR
G)    Cottage Grove, OR
H)     Spokane, WA

Final travel distance: 4163 Miles

Things We Have Learned: Terms & Concepts

One of the things we are learning in our work is just how different learning terms is from learning concepts. When learning any language, the former is required to speak or write, but the latter is required to understand. We have also learned how easy it is to learn terms without actually learning concepts. This results in a dangerous situation where a person thinks they know the language, but is actually severely restricted in what they can communicate or comprehend.

To ensure good communication, we need to make sure we know what the terms we are using mean. We usually do this by defining the terms – we use other terms to describe the new term. This allows us to expand our vocabulary and thus the scope of things we can easily discuss. Unfortunately, this method makes the assumption that the terms we are using in our definition are already understood. As we have learned in Africa, this is not always the case.

In our discussion with Mozambican nationals, we discovered several terms that are not well understood. That is, the English-speaking nationals may know the terms, but the concept that the term represents is still largely unknown. For example, in our seminar, one of the areas of development we discuss is relationship-building. After the seminar, however, we discovered that some of the nationals did not grasp the concept of a relationship—which reduced the effectiveness of the session quite a bit. The important thing to understand is they know of the term “relationship,” and could use it in common conversation, but they did not possess a working concept of relationship.

We encounter a similar issue in the west—a prime example would probably be corporate jargon.[i] If you have worked in a corporate environment, you have probably encountered this situation: a boss/manager/employee/etc. will use a particular term such as “leveraging”, “diversification“, “asset management”, etc. but clearly does not understand what the term actually means. That is, they know of the term but do not understand the underlying concept. They use the term for a number of reasons: to keep from sounding ignorant, to fit into the corporate culture, or even to impress others who do not understand the concept. The problem, of course, is that when a person uses a term whose concept they do not understand, they quite literally do not know what they are talking about. This can lead to a very unfortunate situation when they are speaking to someone who does understand the concept, and therefore expects a certain set of actions from the speaker. In this case, use of such jargon results in a negative effect for the person who used it, even though they were trying to use it to help themselves.

Anyone familiar with a corporate environment is probably familiar with the illustration above, yet we often assume that this is not the case when working with other cultures. This is especially true of cultures with whom we share a common language—we forget that it is the culture that determines what terms map onto what concepts. In forgetting this important truth, it is very easy for us to make mistakes in communication; most of the time, these mistakes are relatively benign, but when you are working as an educator[ii] (which many charity and social development programs are beginning to focus on), the consequences of failing to understand the difference between terms and concepts can have dire consequences. This is exacerbated when there is also a language, not just a cultural, barrier.

The final lesson? While knowing the national language of a group you are working with is important, it is much more important to make sure you are communicating concepts, not just terminology. When communicating cross-culturally, you cannot just assume you know what you are saying—always seek confirmation that your message was received correctly. That is, assume you aren’t communicating well until demonstrated otherwise. This way is slower (and usually more frustrating), but generally results in much clearer communication.[iii]

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[i] For the purposes of this article, “jargon” refers to a term used without knowledge of the concept it connects to in the context you are using it. This is a bit different from the dictionary definition of “jargon” so I wanted to clarify.

[ii] I include translators in this category

[iii] Just to give you an idea of how close to home this principle can get, consider that men and women, in most cultures, have vastly different social roles, expectations, and experiences—effectively different subcultures. In the U.S., the same can be said for many racial groups, religious groups, and even political groups. As it turns out, good communication is hard. 

Back From Africa

I'm back in the U.S. after my time in South Africa and Mozambique. I've already posted about
the seminar in Mozambique, but there were a few other things that have happened in the
meantime.

More Breakdowns

Our car broke down again...and yet again! Upon our return to South Africa from Mozambique, our first stop was the repair shop to pick up our newly repaired car. We then went to SARS to extend the permit to keep the car in the country for another two weeks, at which time Al planned to head back to Mozambique with Leonard. Unfortunately, during a trip to Potchefstroom the next week, the car broke down again. Moreover, it turned out to be the same problem as before - no financial worries there, as the transmission (gearbox, in South Africa) was under warranty, but it really put a dent in our plans. As a result of the breakdown, Al had to stay in South Africa longer than planned. Leonard went back by bus, while Al waited for the car to get fixed so he could drive it into Mozambique. Just before our extension deadline was about to expire, the car was repaired - only to have the transmission blow again as it was transported from the shop! It turns out something other than the transmission was broken - and since that isn't under warranty, we will have to pay for those repairs.Al is still in South Africa, and will remain there until his return to the U.S. in mid-August (his return date was moved up once we realized he wouldn't be able to make it back to Mozambique before returning, regardless of his departure date).

Contacts

We have made several contacts in South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe who are interested in our work. Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned car troubles and the accompanying time and budget impact, we don't know when we will be able to follow up. We are hoping we will be able to meet with some of the interested organizations when we...

Return to Africa

Al and Vel are currently planning to head back to Africa in December, while I am currently scheduled to head back in January. I will spend about a month in South Africa, then head up to Mozambique to help with presenter training again. I don't have a scheduled return date yet.

Cancellations

Unfortunately, we have had some disappointments beyond the car. Due to low enrollment, the seminar we had planned for OK this month was canceled. In addition, our seminar in Haiti has been postponed a year, as our hosting organization is undergoing a restructure right now. We do plan to be in Haiti next year, but I don't know when our next seminar for the U.S. will be scheduled.

Disappointed?

All this could seem pretty disappointing, but honestly, these are simply setbacks, not defeats. The time that has opened up as a result of the cancellations gives me a chance to meet with supporters and other interested organizations in the U.S. Currently, we are in the process of setting up my fall schedule, so if anyone would like me to come out and speak at your local organization/church/group of friends/multimillion-dollar IRI charity concert, please feel free to contact me (via my e-mail, through our website, or even by leaving a comment below), and I will be happy to try work out a time to visit.

Since I didn't post last month (sorry about that!), I plan for a few additional posts this month - keep an eye out!

Seminar in Review: June, 2012 – Chimoio, Mozambique

The Insight Seminar here in Chimoio is wrapping up, which gives me an opportunity to reflect on what’s happened, good and bad. This is the third seminar we have held in Mozambique and the second Portuguese seminar. It is the first seminar in which I did not act as presenter—instead, Leonard Chetechsi took on the role of presenter. I acted as assistant and coach during and after the seminars. My main rule this time was to coach Leonard on seminar presentation and debrief with him after each session. Leonard is one of our co-workers in Mozambique and was the interpreter for last year’s Portuguese seminar. When I leave, he will be responsible for organizing and leading seminars for the next year.

So how has Leonard been doing? Overall, he’s doing a fantastic job—he’s a natural presenter, and will be invaluable in helping Mozambicans understand the new concepts we are introducing. But generalities are only worth so much, so let’s get into seminar details, what they mean, and why they’re important. For ease of reading, I will break this down by point of interest (this will probably take several blog entries to completely cover):

Point One: Schedule

 We originally were planning for me to present/oversee four to five seminars while I was here. Unfortunately, due to limited funds delaying my departure and car trouble, we ended up with three and a half weeks in Mozambique instead of our original three month plan. This left us with enough time for one seminar. In keeping with our theme of “new scheduling plans”, we decided to implement an experimental seminar schedule—instead of holding the seminar for five eight-hour days, we thought we would try weeknights and weekends. This would give participants time to work during the day. This meant we had to extend the total time of the seminar to two weeks, but we thought it was a fair trade-off.

The result was mixed. While the participants were certainly able to get more work done during the week, the cultural attitude toward time meant that each session started almost an hour late—over ten days, that drops ten hours. In addition, they participants weren’t really keen on coming over the weekend, which meant we lost additional time. Between the two, our total seminar time was cut in half. On the plus side, the participants did have extra time to think through what they were learning. In addition, the participants indicated they wanted to complete the seminar as soon as Leonard gets back from traveling with Al and I back to South Africa. Overall verdict: while the five-day schedule is inconvenient for people, it seems to provide a more complete learning experience with the fewest difficulties.  Leonard wants to conduct the next seminar using the standard schedule.

 

Next Entry: Attendance and Participation

Seminar in Review: June, 2012 – Chimoio, Mozambique (2)

[note: these seminar posts are being posted in reverse order to facilitate easier viewing on the site - this is part 2 of 3]

Point Two: Attendance

Given the radical schedule changes and the fact that our Mozambican associates really have never scheduled a seminar on their own before, our attendance was pretty much what we expected. Our first night saw around six people; over the next few days, we lost a couple of people and gained about four more. By the end of the first week, we were averaging six people a night. The second week, however, saw a decrease in attendance. Whether this was due to a certain amount of miscommunication about what to expect from the seminar or participant fatigue is hard to determine—I am planning on working with Leonard to follow up with the participants to investigate the details. In any case, by the end of the second week, we were down to three people.

While discouraging, this is not unexpected. The seminars are far more complex than many Mozambicans are used to, and it is not unusual for the stress of the material to cause some to give up. 

On the other hand, the miscommunication regarding expectations has been identified and we will be able to better communicate what the seminars are about next time. In Mozambique, many nonprofit organizations have taken to offering people food or money to attend their seminars. The offer is appreciated, of course, but it creates a situation where participants attend not to learn, but to earn.[i]  While this may sound like a nice way to provide poor nationals with money and allow them to learn, all it really does is set an expectation that “classes” equal “stuff.” Thus, seminars and other training are often valued for the prizes, not the education, provided. Once we clarified that our seminar was there to give people tools in the form of information, a few of them lost interest. Others, however, were excited to learn something they actually considered useful, and saw no need to have any other incentive.

Point Three: Participation

Of utmost importance in the seminar is participation by the attendees (which is why I usually call them participants). The seminars don’t just spit out information at the participants—it is important to us that people understand the principles we’re trying to communicate, and are able to apply them to their lives. As a result, the seminar is geared toward a lot of activities to reinforce our ideas. This is especially important in Africa, where most of the participants have never encountered these concepts before.

This, thankfully, was a great success. The participants were very engaged with what we were discussing (even those who were just there because they thought they would get food were interested and participating). There was a definite level of excitement in the group, and we noted not only a steadily increasing level of engagement from the remaining participants, but also an increasing level of excitement. Some of these activities and discussion are quite difficult and complex, and the participants were definitely rising to the challenge. This was exactly what we wanted, and we are extremely happy with the results.

Next Entry: Conclusions

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[i] These same organizations often later wonder why there isn’t any long-term impact from their training. Here’s a tip for anyone who is interested in teaching people: if you have to pay people to attend your training, THEY ARE NOT THERE FOR YOUR TRAINING. People do not learn by infection—simply going to a training session does not guarantee participation or retention, and paying your students to attend will only get them in the seat. If anyone out there is considering or has been paying people to attend your training/seminar/workshop, please just stop (note: this does not apply to workforce training by businesses – if you want your employees to know something they don’t you should pay them to learn it). OK, footnote rant over.

Seminar in Review: June, 2012 – Chimoio, Mozambique (3)

[note: these seminar posts are being posted in reverse order to facilitate easier viewing on the site - this is part 3 of 3]

Conclusion:

So overall, how did things go? I think I can safely say that while we are happy with the response from the participants in the seminar, the scheduling and attendance shows that we still need to work on our overall seminar structure here. This was expected, given the difference in culture between where we come from (the U.S.), where the seminar originated (South Africa), and the local culture priorities. One of the major advantages of having Leonard with us is that we can ask him why various things are happening, and he can give us a response that comes from inside the culture. In the end, it will be Leonard[i] who makes the final decisions on how to adapt the material to Mozambique .

One key thing we took away from this session is confirmation that our previous seminars were not some kind of exceptional fluke – these seminars really do have a powerful positive effect on the nationals. The concepts they introduce, while common to many westerners, are virtually unknown here. One example is our session on categories. We spend a fair amount of time explaining what categories are and why they are important. After going through the session, Leonard noted that, while the participants were having a lot of difficulty thinking of things in this new way, they were rising to the challenge, and excited about what they could do with what they have learned. For those of you with strong conceptual backgrounds, I want you to try to think of how you would see the world if you did not understand categorization—then understand this is exactly the case in many Mozambican (and, from other discussion we have had, many African) cultures. 

It isn’t that Mozambicans can’t think in terms of categories, just that no one has ever bothered to teach them about it, and it is not native to their culture. This is why we’re here—concepts like these are critical to developing large-scale economic as well as individual personal development. Mozambique is a place full of potential, and once the Mozambicans are able to see how to take advantage of that potential, we expect great things from this culture.

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[i] I should mention that Leonard is acting as a kind of proxy here – we actually have several other Mozambicans we are working with who are working alongside Leonard to refine the seminar in Mozambique, but because of the unfortunate schedule changes, they were not able to be here for this seminar, so I am focusing on Leonard for this account.

Making a Way Through Zimbabwe

As I mentioned in my last post, we have made it to Mozambique. The trip up was generally very nice—I hadn’t thought too much about it until I was discussing it with a friend of mine in the U.S. His response was “that’s the kind of thing you should talk about in your blog!” So if you find this uninteresting, go blame him.[1]

With our car out of commission[2] (see last post), we realized that if we were ever going to get to Mozambique and be able to accomplish anything, we were going to need to find an alternate way to get there. Our associate from Moz. had come down to South Africa by bus, so that seemed the most reasonable way to head up. The bus doesn’t actually go to Chimoio, but instead goes to Mutare—a city in Zimbabwe on the  Moz. border that is about 95 kilometers[3] from Chimoio. The plan was to take a bus to Mutare, then cross the border and take another bus to Chimoio. As we went over the details of the plan, we discovered an interesting financial fact: it costs approximately R300 in toll fees and about R1000 in gas to travel from Johannesburg to the boarder of Zimbabwe, while the entire bus ride to Mutare (just under twice that distance) costs…R300 per person. Not only was the bus a viable alternate plan, but it saved us a lot of money! At that point, the bus trip was our confirmed plan B, and if it went well, we thought it might even become our primary means of traveling between Chimoio and JoBerg.

Once we had formally decided to take the bus, we went to get tickets. It turns out that the bus to Mutare is not run by one of the major bus lines that are found in JoBerg’s large bus station. In order to get tickets, we instead traveled to another bus terminal a few kilometers away. We discovered that this was a “national” terminal—that is, it is used primarily by blacks. Al and I were, therefore, a bit of a curiosity, though the only time we were inconvenienced were when the people there saw Al’s beard for the first time and everyone wanted to get a picture with him. After a brief discussion with the very helpful staff of our chosen bus line, we went back to our flat to prepare for our trip the next day.

When we returned to the bus station, we discovered that we had beaten our bus by an hour or so. This gave us some time to watch other people arrive, and generally see how the bus company handled itself. What we discovered was a great amount of commotion that centered around a well-organized system for handling buses and cargo. From the outside, this system might be difficult to see, but when we took the time to consider how many people and how much cargo was being loaded, we realized that the job got done much more quickly than we expected. Our bus was run by a crew of three drivers, who were very helpful in keeping the ignorant Americans[4] out from underfoot. Once the bus was loaded, we went off to the larger and more well-known bus station a few kilometers away to pick up some more passengers and have a complimentary meal—then we hit the road.

Our drivers worked in shifts so that no one would become too tired during the 18-hour ride. The trip was very nice, by just about anyone’s standards.[5] We had a rest stop break about halfway to the Zimbabwe border, and got to the border crossing just after dark. That’s where we encountered our first real obstacle.

We had been informed that the border crossing would take no longer than two hours. To the credit of the bus crew, we did, indeed, get through in two hours—no thanks to Al, myself, and the Zimbabwe immigration office. The crew actually managed to get everyone through the border in about an hour’s time (quite excellent, considering how many people they were moving through). Unfortunately, Al and I were not South African, Zimbabwean, or from any other nearby country—we were from a country the bus company had apparently never had to deal with before. It took several minutes to figure out which form we needed to fill out, who to give it to, who to go to next, and where to finally get the passport stamped so that we could get through. Add to that difficulty our desire to get a double-entry visa and…well…it took a bit of doing. The attitude of the immigration staff was particularly interesting—complete disinterest. Our visas were repeatedly ignored, transferred, checked, ignored, passed over for three or four other entrants, and so forth for about an hour. We got the distinct impression that they were NOT impressed by the Americans.[6] The bus staff was extremely patient and very helpful dealing with the rather unexpected challenges, and managed to get us straightened out in much less time that it would have taken us alone. With their help, we only caused the bus to lose an extra hour at the border (instead of the three or four we would have spent there on our own). Hopefully, going back will be a bit quicker with our double-entry visas.

Once through the border, we took a straight night trip through Zimbabwe to Mutare. We arrived around 6:00 in the morning in an open square that served as a bus station. Our Mozambican associate called a friend of his who owned a taxi we could take to the border. The Mozambican border proved to be our second major obstacle.

Like Zimbabwe, Mozambique has a completely different set of rules for Americans. Our associate, being Mozambican, didn’t require anything to get in—we required a couple of hours to process, including a visa with a photo id (taken at the immigration center). As in Zimbabwe, the staff was less than enthusiastic about dealing with Americans, though in this case, we were generally treated with no less preference than any other person coming through…we were just more trouble for them than most.

After that, it was (relatively) smooth sailing. We walked down to the local bus station, and loaded ourselves and our luggage on a local bus, called a chopa. The chopa was relatively cheap to ride, though the ride itself was a bit more…exciting…than we expected. Apparently, our driver was in a race with some unknown, possibly invisible monster that was going to kill us all if it caught us. At least, that’s what I inferred from his driving. Race car buses aside, the trip was uneventful, and we arrived in Chimoio around 11:00 in the morning.

Our conclusion: yes, the bus is a viable way to get from Chimoio to JoBerg.[7] We expect to get a bit better at handling immigration and customs over time, and the money we save will probably amount to several thousand dollars a year. A final point worth noting: everyone involved in this operation was black. For Americans readers that may not sound like much of a point, but in Africa, I have repeatedly encountered an attitude toward blacks that amounts to: “if they try it, they will break it.”[8] This trip demonstrated that Africans are perfectly capable of handling a complex operation and doing a good job of it. Not that we’re surprised by this, but it is good to have another example in our arsenal to refute the prejudice against African nationals—prejudice we have encountered even from other nationals. The fact is that Africans can and, we believe, eventually will build the kind of economic, social, and political structure necessary to make Africa a world leader in the 21^st century.

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[1] If, on the other hand, you love this post, feel free to give me all the credit.

[2] Update: our car’s transmission is fixed…but now it won’t shift into 4-wheel drive. Life goes on…

[3] About 62 miles

[4] To anyone from the Americas who is reading this and is not a U.S. citizen: yes, I know you are also an American—unfortunately we poor U.S. citizens don’t have a clever country name (Mexican, Brazilian, etc.) that we can use, so I’m kind of stuck with either U.S. citizen (which is a pain to type) or Americans (which is easier, and much preferred by my lazy typing fingers).

[5] My only note on comfort: the nationals appear to like their in-drive music loud—seeing how I’m the visitor, I consider this less of a problem with service, and more of a problem with my cultural volume preferences

[6] I realize this is difficult to quantify, but our associate from Mozambique seemed to agree about the general attitude of the office staff.

[7] Also, I like footnotes!

[8] Again, difficult to quantify, but definitely a common attitude.