OD futures of civil society organisations in East Africa
In May 2008, EASUN facilitated a teambuilding process with a particularly well managed civil society organisation in Uganda.
The intervention report was titled: "Towards Realising the Emerging Future of Organisation X." The major finding from the intervention was that 73% of the staff of this particular organisation were "past oriented". That is, they tend to "question and clarify", they "summarize and evaluate activities", they "document experiences with incidents and facts." While those are good qualities in themselves, the challenge is that this left the organisation with only 20% initiators and an even smaller number (6-7%) of those oriented towards planning, generating perspective and insight.
Apart from what might simply be attributed to individual temperaments, the scenario above is also quite likely the result of fear and anxieties related to a wide range of organisational issues, including structure, or habit, related to how people perceive organisations and what is expected of them in terms of behaviour in organisational settings.
The current bureaucratic "stuck-ness" of organisations in the way power, authority and accountability are managed is a big drawback on their abilities to develop their full potential as mediators of social development. The example of the Ugandan organisation above tells a simple but powerful story of organisational development efforts of civil society organisations in East Africa today. From what emerged in the teambuilding process, the leadership of "Organisation X" will need to work hard to build "forward looking" cultures of participation and shared leadership in its management processes and procedures. Obviously, this will require new systems, structures and approaches to leadership that support team and organisational learning.
The good news is that perceptions, systems and structures of organisations can be transformed. In fact, EASUN's FOD course for leaders and senior programme staff is designed to increase the capacities of leaders to manage change effectively through insights and action plans such as those that are now being developed by Organisation X after the May OD intervention. The field workers' course (FAF), also offered by EASUN, is another means of fast-tracking expanded leadership awareness and potential for greater teamwork in civil society organisations. These courses are extremely useful for leaders who wish to move their organisations to the next levels, as developing organisations, in search of the best futures they can possibly attain.
EASUN provides OD interventions on request. Contact mosi.kisare@easun-tz.org with your questions for a possible OD intervention for your organisation.
________________________________Conscious management of values is key for best practices of leaders, facilitators and change agents - leading to good governance
Participants in Cycle "K" of EASUN's FOD completed the course in June 2008, with a clear sense of purpose. They will continue to work to develop transformational practices as leaders and facilitators of change management for individuals and organisations.
"Facilitator as change agent" is the overall theme of FOD's Module III. However, the quality of "change agent" comes not with any formal designation or job-description, but through cultivation of "self" as the best tool. Moving in that direction, the graduating FOD participants in June focused their attention towards the power of values as the basis for maturing leadership and facilitator practices. Conscious use of facilitator values help in many ways, including: 1) minimizing resistance to change; 2) creating ownership; 3) building confidence; 4) enabling the facilitator or leader to be a role-model.
Participants developed specific action-steps that would ensure that they are consistently working consciously working with values as facilitators of development in others. The spirit of the actions planned was captured in images that characterise the qualities of a facilitator, particularly through the specific value base of "small intervention, big impact":
A drop of water,
Ripple,
Wave and tide.
A flower,
Source of energy for others,
Flowing river,
Source of inspiration.
Interested in FOD?
The FOD course equips leaders and senior programme staff of civil society organisations with skills and knowledge for facilitating the development of organisations. These include the use of tools for diagnosing organisational questions and skills for developing structures, systems, teams and other processes that contribute to effective learning organisations.
Module 1 of the next cycle starts in November (2-8) 2008. For more information and/or to register, contact: lydia.bwenda@easun-tz.org
________________________________Are you planning strategies for institutional development of CBOs?
You may be interested to attend a workshop planned by EASUN to be held in Moshi, Tanzania, from 17-20 August 2008. The workshop will seek to enable intermediary NGOs who build capacities of CBOs to share in developing strategies for strengthening the institutional capacities. The workshop will be both an opportunity to share experiences and to define areas of support needed by CBOs.
The workshop will enable you to catch up with new developments / issues in capacity building for grassroots organisations. EASUN, for instance, is currently finalising a referral system of CBO service providers. This is one of the advocacy instruments recommended in the last consultation on CBOs' institutional development held in 2003. The referral system is designed to close gaps in knowledge, information and influence between CBOs and other actors. It will profile CBOs and their activities and also facilitate their access to networking relationships, funding and other services.
Currently, EASUN implements its institutional development support to CBOs through close collaboration with 10 NGO networks in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. You may find it useful to become part of this ground breaking networking effort.
For expressions of interest to attend the August consultation and/or to share views and experiences in institutional development of CBOs, contact: edna.chilimo@easun-tz.org
________________________________This newsshot is also available at: www.easun-tz.org/enews/newsshot_30june2008.html
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________________________________EASUN Centre for Organisational Learning
P.O. Box 6120 Arusha, Tanzania
Tel: +255-(0)27-2548803
Fax +255-(0)27-2548289
info@easun-tz.org
www.easun-tz.org
________________________________