Anne Litwin, Guest Contributor
I recently had a gratifying and deeply moving experience in bringing the Organization Workshop to a severely depressed and oppressed Southeast Asian country, which, for political reasons, needs to remain unnamed.
An American who has for years been living and working in that country experienced the Organization Workshop at a conference in the U.S. The workshop worked for her, but would it work in-country? The next year she brought along an in-country cohort to experience the workshop. She loved it despite the somewhat bizarre circumstance that in the workshop she was a customer representing a railroad company although, in her country, there are no railroads! Oh well.
The project then came to me because of other experiences I have had in adapting the workshop to non-U.S. contexts. The plan was first to conduct a workshop in country, and then do a training of trainer program. With some adjustments to the English words to make it easier for non-native English speakers to understand the concepts, and reworking the customer projects to fit the local context, the workshop was ready. The immediate impact of the workshop was astounding; as it was unfolding, participants were discovering ways to use the learning to enhance nutrition and health services.
After a few days’ break I conducted the training of trainer program. This was immensely challenging for all of us as the trainers struggled to translate the workshop into the local language so that they could take it out to into the countryside to strengthen the organizational capacity at the local level!
All in all, this was an amazing experience. Here’s what the client who started the process says about the impact:
"Thank you for bringing the Organization Workshop to us in Southeast Asia. You were the absolutely perfect person for this job. You were able to understand the different needs in our context and flex to the group. And your style is so good here. The language you gave us has given us a very strong place to start. The results people are seeing in their organizations are great.
One organization that participated in the Organization Workshop reports significant positive changes in themselves as an organization – the way they work together, the empowerment of teams, middle integration, people meeting well without the director, and people doing things in a Door B way, and being very pleased about the results. That’s an exciting thing. Also, the director is recommending the workshop for other local organizations and, since he is quite connected, that should have a positive impact as well."
Anne Litwin & Associates www.annetitwin.com
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