Working with love and joy even when it is challenging

 The last three years have been enormously challenging and at the same time filled with so many enlightening experiences and lessons. I learnt how to fully transition my work to online spaces. I learnt how to be brave and work during the dark days of the pandemic even when I was tired, demotivated and fearful. I learnt to find the blessing in illness when I was hospitalised with Covid Pneumonia in 2021 during one of my busiest work years when I was probably overworking myself and needed a rest. I learnt to self heal and revitalise myself to begin to work again post the illness but finding new ways to be with myself and be with the work. 

All of this would not have been possible if I were not surrounded with the love of family, friends and colleagues - my phone became my lifeline once I was better enough to be able to communicate once more. Colleagues stepped in to do some of my work when I couldn't. Medical staff, fellow patients, family and friends did so much for me and helped me back to my full strength. My husband and mom were very sick at home as well and my daughter and her husband were the only ones well enough to be up so they had to care for the sick ones as well as their two daughters who thankfully were not affected. My daughter was my rock during that time and she brought me back from many a dark night and depths of despair in hospital. It was difficult and draining physically, emotionally and financially but love made all the difference. Not ready to leave this world yet, I quietly surrendered to the illness but without giving up and rather treating it as a time of rest and going deep within myself since I could not move from the hospital bed having to be on oxygen 24/7. In this time with myself I was able to make sense of my life without the usual distractions and work focus. I had a painful sense of longing to recover and be home in my family's warm embrace. Having a clear sense of resolve that it was not my time, 'my work is not done yet' , 'I have so much more to still complete and offer the world'. Love brought me back to myself and my family. Deep soul searching and self-healing through meditation and listening to uplifting music and messages from friends were exceptionally healing. After 19 days in hospital I was finally given the go ahead to come home after a full day and able to walk unaided without oxygen. I returned home and gave myself a month to heal. Shaky and just about able to walk a short distance from bedroom to bathroom I resolved to build myself up through various self healing therapies like massage, meditation, music and dance therapy. Slowly I was able to move my body back to its usual strength and soon I was doing my favourite beach visit and walk. 

First beach visit and short walk at Sea Point Cape Town 11 days after being discharged from hospital 

I took a good month to recuperate and get my strength back so that I could sit up for long enough to do an online session. My husband was a great support to me and we started with short walks in the garden and eventually moving down to our favourite neighbourhood river walk. 

I remember my first piece of work was a series of 8 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion sessions online. Each session was 3 hours so it was doable and I could rest after. It was wonderful to be back doing what I love most. 

I am passionate about what I do and when I am not doing my work, I feel something is missing for me. I find my sense of purpose and being in the world doing what I do. The bulk of my work is around facilitation of groups and consulting in the areas of Organisational development and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for organisations and institutions involved in education and training, social change, humanitarian work and transforming the world into a better place. This means most of my clients are non-profits, I have one long standing client who is a government institution and occasionally I work with educational institutions like schools and universities. I often have returning clients and this is a good feeling that the work I have done has been of benefit to their organisation. 

I have been blessed to do some really significant pieces of work over the past two years, and when I look back I feel grateful that I was able to do such good work during such a difficult time for humanity. Some of the work I did on my own and others in partnership. I enjoy both as working on my own allows for a creative energy and flow that can only really happen when you are flying solo, working in partnership also offers rich learning experiences as well as support as you are able to offer the client a balanced team who each bring different strengths and energies to the process. I am blessed to work with other colleagues too and am greatly enriched by these relationships. 

Taken at one of the beautiful botanical gardens in South Africa where I was privileged to run a workshop 

Here is a list of the kind of work I did from 2020 until now and the kind of clients I served - their names are not listed because of privacy and confidentiality:

Organisational and team development, renewal and strengthening work 

• Organisation formation process online - new initiative development for a group of fellows working in Brain health across Africa  -  an International nonprofit working globally 
• Organisational strengthening for African organisations working in the mental health sector - conducted online for their donor - an international Non profit working globally 
• Organisational review, renewal and restructuring online process for a global US based non profit country programme.
• Organisational review and planning for a South African institution based at a university working in the HIV Aids sector (in-person)
• Organisational review and strategic thinking for renewal for a Childhealth and Safety NPO (in-person)
• Values workshop for a coalition working in Child health (in-person)
• Organisational accompaniment - review and strengthening including leadership transition for a Land and Housing NPO (in-person)
• Strategic thinking for NPOs - training process with a network of community based organisations - A local NPO 
• Organisation Review and Strategic Planning for a Faith based youth skills centre 
• Team building - Understanding and knowing our temperaments as a team -  conducted for a local ECD NPO and one of their ECD centres. 

Organisational Culture Change and Transformation 

• Organisational accompaniment of a Transformation Journey for a South African Government facility working in the Natural Science sector - 2 year process 
• Culture change sessions online with a global humanitarian team over a long term period of 2 years - for an international UK global nonprofit 
• Organisational Change Process conducted online over 6 months with a Rwandan country programme for a US global Nonprofit 
• Organisational Culture Change Process conducted online over 1 year with a Democratic Republic of Congo country programme for a UK global Nonprofit 
• Organisational review and Strategic planning with a rural youth development NPO - Danish donor

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Transformation  

• Facilitation of Capacity building sessions on Courageous Conversations with a range of staff over  3 sessions  -  International NPO working with the Aged 
• International Women’s Day Event – co-facilitation with an Irish facilitator.  Theme: To see with    new eyes - Women Nurturing Warriors of the Earth - bringing women from the Western Cape of South Africa and Donegal in the northwest of Ireland together in storytelling and writing. An         intercultural storytelling and sharing process. 
• DEI sessions with staff of various divisions and regional programmes of  US NPO 
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Workshops with all staff – Fintech Company 
• Online Accompaniment and Support throughout the Culture Change Journey – through design and facilitation of a 3 phase dialogue process . Race and Diversity sessions May – June 2021; Ongoing Action for Equity process -  Global Humanitarian Team 
• DEI sessions with staff of a high school 
• Transformation accompaniment Process with a private school - to explore key issues that the school needed to address and facilitate processes to courageously speak about the issues. 
• DEI Diversity, Equity and Inclusion process (Change Management) with internal core team and    partner organisations-  framed as Courageous Conversations with a large group (50 participants) of volunteer change catalysts within the broader Palaeosciences community Oct - Nov 2020.  DEI Capacity Enhancement Video Series with worksheets as follow up – December 2022  -                Palaeosciences Centre for Excellence 
• Global Programme Management Team Africa region – Collaborative and Consultative design and facilitation of a Leadership Process -  Diversity and Inclusion Online Process 
• Designed and developed Scenario Based Recruitment Questions for survey on Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (SEAH) and Facilitator Guide for Dialogue Process as part of a consultancy partnership with an international organisation to develop a Staff Perception survey on SEAH -  (U.S NGO) 

Leadership Training and Leadership Development 

• Leadership training programme tailored for the entire organisation - Land and Housing NPO  

• Leadership Training for community members of a Community based nonprofit working in the area of child poverty 

• Leadership accompaniment with a Global Executive Leadership team of a UK International NPO -  Facilitation and Coaching Support  to executive leadership during a transition of leadership and intention to transform culture

• Leadership in uncertain times of crisis -  Online sessions with leadership groups from an Executive board of a National Government facility -  transformation task team and middle management 

During this period, I co-wrote an article with a colleague entitled Leadership in Times of Covid-19: Essential Qualities, Skills and Practices By Doug Reeler and Desiree Paulsen https://www.tamarindtreeassociates.co.za/our-writings.html  Leading in this time is different in so many ways, so we set out to write something readable and practical for you as leaders, with some essential features of this crisis to note, as well as some of the essential qualities, capacities and skills needed.

It is my hope that many of the organisations myself and colleagues have worked with during this time are moving from strength to strength and that they too are finding ways to work with love and joy. We know that organisations faced huge adversity during the pandemic and many had to close or retrench or some simply ran out of funding. Most struggled with online transition because of the nature of the work being face to face. The larger international ones had a buffer and were able to continue their work. The work of social transformation has to be funded and we trust that many more will come on board and fund particularly the smaller ones. Organisational strengthening is a key area of work, DEI is critical to ensure equity and justice in organisations that are often still operating in colonial ways. 

Leading with love, fairness and ethics is another critical area - ensuring that leaders are developed and grown from within organisations and that leaders follow leadership approaches that are humane and caring. 

As I stand ready to launch into a new year, I feel honoured that I am called to this work and one of the areas of priority is transferring the skills and knowledge of this work onto the next generation. I am going to be seeking opportunities for that as I believe that the more people doing this work that better we can address the challenges. 

I believe that with love comes challenges and these we have to either accept or work through. If a client relationship does not work out for various reasons, maybe a lack of readiness, or a lack of willingness to embrace courageous methodologies or look deeper into the individual or systemic problems or the consultant being too open and forthright - I prefer to let go or even decline to work further. These instances have been few and far between and when I have released clients I see it as a learning and lesson and not a failure. Where clients have been willing to push through the challenges with my accompaniment, I have seen such phenomenal growth on the other side of that but this always requires a longer term process, which is a privilege many organisations do not have as they may not have the funding for longer term engagement. I always try to build capacity of the client through the process so that once I leave they are able to continue some of the work on their own with the tools and methodologies we leave behind. 

Online work has been successful but in person will always be my first love and there is nothing better than being together as humans for the full experience of being human together. How grateful I am that finally we are also able to hug again. The healing that comes with a warm embrace should never be underestimated. After a difficult process I have often had many clients lean in for a much needed hug. The last two years of a pandemic nightmare has shown us how uncertain our future is. We cannot certainly know what is coming even though we are already anticipating certain disasters and a downward spiralling if things don't shift, especially in climate change and poverty. I live in hope though that we can continue to be intentional in our thoughts, feelings and actions towards a more humane and sustainable world and we can continue to build and create the future we desire. Hope and love are two ingredients that have to remain present within us if we are to survive the day to day struggles and challenges.  

  The quote on the pot below reads: The most reliable way to predict the future is to create it!

Photo taken of this little plant on the table at a favourite garden restaurant