GUATEMALA: LEARNING FROM THE FIELD

The Learning and Organizational Development (L&OD) team spent a week together in Guatemala, visiting five cities in seven days. We traveled from the urban capital of Guatemala City to smaller cities and remote rural villages, immersing ourselves in the reality of the field. During many hours on the road and in the field, we learned about the challenges staff face as they work to overcome poverty and social injustice. We also observed the positive impact of CARE projects firsthand, interacted with and counseled the CARE Guatemala Senior Management Team and strengthened our own team dynamics through a day of reflection.

FIELD DYNAMICS

What we observed…

• The field has a different reality than we do
• It is not about communicating more…but communicating more strategically
• Field staff are eager to learn, access and use what we can offer
• Field staff are strongly committed to helping marginalized communities
• Field staff aren’t aware of Care Academy
• Staff lack knowledge of the “bigger world of CARE” -- it is all about me (staff) individually more than an organizational view
• Field treated us with a hierarchy – like we are more important than them
• People in the field are tired, because of the challenges in the region
  

What are our snapshots of the week?

Eduardo: A comment from Elio Palacios…”I like your team, not just because of diversity but because you’re giving opportunity from others to coming from below and bringing them to the U.S.” Two American guys – Peace Corp -- were treated as part of the community, and continuously give space to community with humility.
Cesar: “I saw six to seven women on the ground working -- one was carrying a little child. Our trip to the field and to the projects; seeing women working, on the floor, laboring to make a change.”
Yid: “Walking, and seeing the proud farmer in the land, showing us his crops.”
Kathleen: The view…combining all the different places we were in the country, and also using that to think about how I understand the organization at all the different levels.”
Mare: “It was a reminder of my first work at CARE. It made a lot of noise for me to remember the activities and comments – it was a deep moment. Another moment for me was remembering the rough roads, etc. that were part of my every day life. This is not an ‘off-site,’ it is a deep action-learning experience that allows us to reflect.”
Meg: “Seeing the land’s total use, the farmer with his potato, all the time the women in the periphery. Woman with little kids were doing the scrubbing, cooking, cleaning….it showed the gap.”
Lisa: “The trip took my two dimensional view of CARE to three dimensional. I have a better understanding of how important CARE’s work is.”
Mario: “Seeing the three guys urinating on the road while traveling to community sights… I realized it was a shock to some memeber of the team and thought - this is going to be a great experience that will create disonance to all of us! Now I realize that it was worth it to bring the team. My wish is that folks from other units in HQ could have a similar experience. I also love the picture of all of us laughing in the restaurant…we’ve come a long way in working together…I hope we can keep it going!”

How will our visit to the field influence our work?

• We will ensure that these recommendations are addressed / incorporated into our work.
• These recommendations should be utilized as the unit’s principles to guide our action/plans.
• We will address these recommendations as cross-cutting themes, such as field reality
• We need to address the recommendations in relation to the team
• All these recommendations do not have to become activities or address different levels.
• We will use these recommendations to inform our work
  

TEAM DYNAMICS
What did we learn about each other and working together?

• When people speak a different language other may be excluded
• There were different views/perspectives of what we do or some of us were unable to provide their individual view/perspective.
• Not all of us have the same space to talk
• We (L&OD) do not listen to each other
• We ( L&OD) are often unaware of the people in the room
• We were not included in the SMT meeting and we did not challenge that decision
• Field staff do not have much information about what we are doing, and we don’t have much information about what they really need
• We observed our field work in action
• We observed what it felt like to be a minority
• We all want to be a better team
• We tend to see and say more about the gaps than our strengths
• We understand everyone’s culture and background

Exciting Ideas

We brainstormed about how field recommendations can better inform our work. Here are ideas that excite us!

1. Find ways to reach different levels of staff, and create the space for learning. (In Ethiopia, 2 hours a week are allowed; people don’t use it because they’re engaged in project activities.)


2. Coordinate better with Liaisons (create a group/team to reach more people)


3. Launch a contest, driven by people's needs.


4. Create capacity, offering a chance to win a laptop, support idea of reaching all levels – one of us work with them for a concentrated period of time. Or maybe we fund it.


5. Bring people from the field to HQ (not just from the higher levels), so we can learn how best to reach them.


6. Involve people from the field in the strategy of how they reach us better


7. Create a board of people who are identified as global thinkers, people who believe in staff development at any level


8. Find a way to implement technology, by being more aggressive with IT and COs.


9. Rename CARE Academy


10. Hold a video contest by region. Create a video “day in the life” to capture and share their experiences….we could send guidelines….we could hear directly from people impacted.


11. Hold one-on-one phone calls with Liaisons


12. Make a better connection with emails; how can we connect better with field staff?

Advise from the field...

What field staff advises L&OD to do…

1. Improve communication - Improve the communication flow between CO’s and L&OD to ensure more effective, constant communication to all levels.


2. Address field reality - Consider and address the demands and realities of the field staff when developing and providing learning resources.


3. Build a local presence - Expand the care academy network so that all CARE staff can have access to the resources we provide.


4. Share knowledge - Create the system and provide tools for collecting, organizing and sharing knowledge


5. Clarify our role - Clearly explain who we are and what we do and how we are a resource

We brainstormed about how field recommendations can better inform our work. Here are ideas that excite us! Click here for more http://lod2share.blogspot.com/2007/05/exciting-ideas.html

L&OD Team Agreements - based on our learning and interactions with our colleagues in Guate! We are committed to:

1. Respect and value diversity
2. Listen with an intention to learn
3. Practice making noise to challenge the system –ours and CARE’s
4. Practice secondary facilitation – be aware of others in the room, speak up
5. Contribute to the development of others