Sustainable Development Project Kenya - Step 4

 Step 4 of the tailor's Sustainable Development Project 

Design and develop an action plan to expand the PD solutions

The aim of this step is to develop a plan of action based on each of the inquiry findings. The plan of action has to be developed by the group.

The steps to create the plan of action are the following:

- Define your goal;

- List down the steps;

- Prioritize tasks and add deadlines;

- Set milestones;

- Identify the resources needed;

- Visualize your action plan;

- Monitor, evaluate and update.

Before starting this step with the tailors I had no idea how hard it would actually be.

I thought it would be done in two meetings and that the steps above were so logical and not difficult to achieve.

We started by reviewing the main goals we wrote down during the first step and tried to divide them into several smaller goals aiming towards the main ones. We formulated the smaller goals in action terms.

With the idea of diversifying the pedagogical way of working we divided the goals and the team in three smaller groups. Each group had about three small goals and their task was first to list down the steps/ideas to reach the goal, then to write down the tasks for each step/idea, and finally to write down the resources they would need for the tasks.

To me this exercise was not difficult and I let them work for a few minutes before passing through each group to see how they were doing.

I quickly realized that they couldn't deliver many ideas because they were not used to organizing steps and tasks in that manner. They told me it felt like a school assignment and some older tailors felt like they were too old for "school exercises". After trying to explain to each group the exercise with concrete examples that they understood well, they still didn't really get the point of it.

At the second meeting I asked them to present their ideas so far on flip charts to the other groups to see if we could do the exercise as one group based on the ideas they had already written down. This was one of the tailor's suggestions. This again wasn't very productive and I couldn't get so many things out of them. I didn't want to give the answers at every step because it goes against the approach and my way of working.

So at some point I stopped and told them this is not working. I asked them what they understand of the exercise and how they think we should proceed to have some sort of a plan of action which is necessary to reach their goal. I felt frustrated that I couldn't find a way to reach that objective in a way that is culturally done there. I asked them how would they organize wedding preparation for a family member or if they have a mary-go-round meeting or a big dinner for a family reunion. I was trying to get them to tell me the steps of their organisation. But nothing would come out of them.

Their answer to my question "how do you want to proceed to reach that planning objective?" was that they are eager to learn how to plan and organize in the way that I am asking them to in the exercise, that they have never done it in a specific way before, that they don't really understand the difference between the idea, the task and the resource, that they don't know how to take notes on their own because they were never thought to do so at school. They said they need me to help them more for the first few goals so they have examples and can do the rest on their own. They said they want to improve their organisation skills.

So in the end I took one of the more pressing goal delay wise and we did it together and focused on that one only for starters. We later implemented it and it was more or less a success.

This step was the most interesting for me as I saw that I didn't know how to proceed at first when I realized they have never learned to organize and plan things the way I have in school and in my whole life. It was a huge cultural difference understanding and I really asked myself if this organizing way that I work with is the best for this context. Should I really teach them how to plan and organise in that fashion or is it just me thinking this is the best way to do it and so it would be good for them to learn how to do it. I really wasn't sure of a lot of things I was doing with them because I didn't know if I should force those ways of working on them.

But they also couldn't give me another way of working. And they as a group had this ambitious project that in my opinion needed some structure however basic.

So I took a step back and reflected on those challenging thoughts for a few days.

I felt a lack of experience on my part, frustration, deep questioning of the method of that step of the approach in that context, I asked myself what am I supposed to do to go forward.

Then it all hit me in the next meeting we had with the tailors. Other issues came out like the fact that they didn't really understand the meaning of a team and of their team. They told me this during the meeting and I was chocked because we had already discussed it before and it is the base of the whole thing. So I put the action planning aside and we talked about it for the rest of the meeting. I also asked them to meet without me to figure out what are the rules of their team and their shop. Other things came up with random questions they asked. That was for me a huge help in realizing what are the priorities of these meetings and trainings. For example, one asked a salary question that led to discussing the financial records, the work organization and the salary, expenses and tailor shop capital percentages for each selling. Another question on who does what order led to talking about an order record book, how to make it, how to keep track, who should keep track, team roles and so on.

THIS was a revelation for me. At a moment of doubt of the approach on my side and struggle on how to go forward with all the things we had to do, the tailors are the ones who helped me untangle this brain knot I was developing. The questions that came out at that time showed that everyone was a bit confused at that moment of the approach, me included.

THIS moment proved to me once again that the answers are in the people and in the practice of the approach. Because this approach seems easy in theory but oh how absolutely hard it is in practice and in this context with on top of it all the cultural challenges and differences.

It was magical for me and everything became clear again. I was living one of my work values up front (the people you work for/with give you the way) and it felt like heaven. The questions the tailors asked in their confusion led to things I hadn't even thought about yet, it challenged my thought on the approach and the meeting, training and work construction I had organized until then.

Because I was no longer the one with the answers - I was a bit lost in the intensity and the mountain that represents this work, realizing I don't know how to proceed, I really cannot know everything in that one brain of mine (of course) - because of that I was in real equality with the group in terms of knowledge and insight in that moment and that is when we found the way forward together. I think this is a great learning moment for me, I am so grateful for this struggle, and what it led to. I will lean on that experience to improve the approach in that context and field for the next one. And I feel empowered.

In that context I think now that the best way to plan things is to do it informally. To let the tailors ask all their questions on the whole project and then go from there, one step at a time without a western organised structure.

Although I still ask myself if that would have worked from the start without all the things we did beforehand? That is an approach I will try with them when I go back.