Mike in Ghana with VSO

Mike's assignment with VSO working in Organisational Development (OD)

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Organisation Assessment report accepted, and Organisational Development Planning begins

I thought I'd add in pictures "from the start"  to show the whole OD Planning workshop process. Mind you it started when I woke at about 4 am and decided to catch up with what hadn't been done yesterday daytime because of disruptions to our meeting.  Here I am with all the materials for the OD Planning workshop.
and  now I've arrived at the District Education Office
 Letty and Seidu help with cutting out 'labels' for each recommendation (not sticky, as we just had plain paper for the printer, but we stuck them to post-its). Getting these prepared and printed had been my early-morning task.

Charlotte has chased round and obtained the promised signatures of the whole OD committee, and so the agreed signed report can now be presented to the District Director. It's this Organisation Assessment Report that we're working with - we're taking recommendations from it, and planning them together.
We have a good idea of the likely categories for prioritisation  - i.e. what is the argument for doing something this year rather than next. But we get these from a group discussion (rather than our prior ideas from yesterday)  so that we're using people's own words / concepts. (So we replace our prepared "Quick wins" with "Immediate Results", and "Mandatory" is replaced by "National Targets").
We agree the priority of the categories.
Now we can decide what category each recommendation is, as a basis for scheduling later.
There is some enthusiasm to try to schedule them all now, which wasn't quite the idea, but we neatly solve this problem by relabelling our chart as an unscheduled temporary parking space for recommendations, and make a blank chart for the schedule we're going to come up with.

We're taking plenty of pictures not just to blog, but because there are 2 reasons for me helping the OD work Planning here in Walewale:
1. To help Walewale!
2 Because some aspects of what is done here may be of help to other VSO partners.
We've prepared Powerpoints that make it very clear that the idea is NOT that everyone should do the same thing, but also that there may be ideas in what's done here that may help other VSO volunteers and partners with ideas and materials.

Now we can start to pick out the highest priority recommendations, and make a first estimate of where these might fit in the schedule, but also assess who is likely to be accountable for the recommendation. The schedule that comes out of the workshop won't be perfect and will need refining by those accountable, but it will for the first time be a draft plan of the most important priorities as assessed from a full organisation assessment.
As a natural part of the process we see recommendations which should be grouped together, and pre-requisite recommendations.
We have been organising our planning by the categories in the Annual District Education Operational Plan (ADEOP), and we're keen that the ADEOP and the OD Planning work hand in hand.
We haven't finished, and will need to continue this at our next meeting, but we now have good momentum.
This is Seidu's first OD committee that he has chaired, and it's gone very well.
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The different paths to our VSO placements

THE PATH TO CHARLOTTES PLACEMENT

Jan 2009 - With 2 younger children still at university, Charlotte & I apply for short-term work with VSO. Both turned down - I think they aren't taking people short-term unless they have development experience.
(For more insights, see MORE INSIGHTS below).

Feb 2009 - Charlotte offers to go long-term and her application is reconsidered. I will be able to be more flexible (e.g. travel back to UK) if I am her Accompanying Partner (i.e. not volunteering).

April 2009 - Assessment Day, and Charlotte is accepted.

May 2009 - I start to wind down client work, because there is much to be done before we can go overseas.

June 2009 - Preparing to Volunteer course, for both of us.

Charlotte accepts placement in Northern Ghana. We have decided that I will go out with Charlotte to begin with before returning to UK after some weeks abroad.

July 2009 - Skills for Working in Development course for Charlotte.

August 2009 - Family holiday for 9 (Mike, Charlotte, Tom, Sarah, Peter, Abi, Anna, Daniel and Kate) in Normandy.

Sept 2009 - Anna's 21st party - we couldn't go abroad until after this.
The most common question in September is "Mike, how long are you going out for?" The answer is "I don't know - will decide that when we're out there". Final preparations and off to Ghana. Very busy getting ready to go, but when I'm out there I expect to have plenty of free time for a few weeks...
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THE PATH TO MY PLACEMENT

Sept 2009 Day 2 of In-Country Training - I volunteer to assist VSO Ghana with Organisation Development. For more details, see blog over Oct-Nov 2009. I can't claim any expenses, but volunteers are very gracious at inviting me to stay overnight.

Dec 2009-Jan 2010 Back home, collect Anna and Daniel from university, back out to Ghana for 2 weeks over Christmas (see Charlotte's blog), take them back to university.

Jan 2010. Skills for Working in Development course for me.
Start official placement as Organisational Development Adviser.

So one irony is that I have ended up with exactly what I applied for - a short-term volunteer placement that doesn't clash with university holidays. (Business and Trustee commitments would also have prevented me coming out for 12 months).

The other irony is that I thought it unlikely that Charlotte & I would find work in the same place - she was likely to be in a remote deprived area like Northern Ghana, and I was likely to have a national role given my skills. But now I have a national role, based in the deprived North where most of the volunteers are, which is much better for supporting them than back in Accra, the capital city down South on the coast.
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MORE INSIGHTS - are available here (from our church website in Jan 2010)

What’s In, What’s Out.

The Shenley Christian Fellowship blog gives the opportunity for people in the fellowship to share what’s on their mind with a wider audience. This blog entry comes from Mike Cashman who is an SCF Trustee as Head of Finance.

I’ve just seen a burnt area of semi-forest in the Mole National Park in Ghana. The park ranger explained that fresh grass grows a few weeks later, strong and nutritious, and attracts the wild animals.

What does this have to do with the New Year, the call of Abraham, and being a husband, father, Christian, church member, and professional roles as well? Well, let’s see….

In September 2008 our Church Leader Chris Doig preached on Genesis 12:1, the call of Abraham which came when Abraham was comfortable and settled in Haran – Abraham heard God’s call and left his comfort zone. Later Abraham made a move to Egypt which appears to have been his own idea, and that didn’t work out too well. So - sometimes God calls us to move, and sometimes he calls us to stay, and it’s good to discern which way he is calling. In September 2009, after reflecting on this message, Charlotte (my wife) and I found ourselves in Ghana with Voluntary Service Overseas. Definitely out of the comfort zone.

We can apply this message about God’s call beyond physical movement. Sometimes we need to keep on doing what we’re doing – using the gifts he gave us in our various roles, e.g. Christian, husband, father, church member, professional roles, and indeed our roles in social, community and leisure activities (e.g. gardener, goal-keeper, unofficial agony aunt, devotee of our favourite TV series or soap opera). It may be a juggling act or a plate-spinning exercise, but we feel we are just about managing to fulfil each role. But sometimes there are things that just need to be removed from our lives – not to say they’re wrong, but they just need to go to make space for new growth. I’m not referring to temporary disciplines like giving up chocolate or TV for a while – I mean cutting something right out of your life. Sometimes a friendship is one that no longer benefits either party. (I hasten to add that I have no-one in mind personally as I write this!) Maybe that solo sporting hobby which dates from your unmarried life needs to make way for hobbies which involve the family more.

Our change was a little radical. We both removed many professional and community roles from our lives, trying to do this in an orderly fashion. For Charlotte this included teacher, parish councillor, magistrate, chair of Loughton Residents’ Association, school governor, school governor trainer. What Charlotte found hardest to give up was home and face-to-face contact with friends and family. What else had to go, at least for a while? TV, sweet things in general, newspapers, car-driving, on-tap hot water, to name a few. (Not as many as we feared – we’re glad that much of the time we have running water, internet, email and phone contact). But in working out how we would follow a call to Ghana, some things were the rocks of certainty – for example I would still be a Christian, still a husband, still a dad, still a Church member, but no longer do I swell the viewing figures for ‘Match of the Day’.

January – the month which for the Romans was the month that looked forwards and backwards – is not the only time we can assess this question, but it’s a good time to do it. What is in your life? What perhaps is worth taking right out, even if that is painful, to make space for fresh growth? What might God be calling you to do which is completely new? What fresh growth could occur when there is space for it? Or – as you look at how you are fulfilling the various roles God called you to, do you feel his pleasure and encouragement to continue on the same path?

Mike Cashman is an independent programme management consultant based in Milton Keynes, currently assisting with organizational development in Ghana on a short-term basis. He is married to Charlotte, who is the VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) Teacher Support Officer in Walewale, Northern Ghana. Mike and Charlotte have four children and two daughters-in-law, aged between 19-26.