Diversity?

Culture Clash or Welcomed Diversity?

The biggest challenge we had to face as a team was the culture clash. From the onset, the deck was stacked against us. The team make up was like nothing EWB had encountered before and I don’t think that anyone had anticipated the problems such a diverse group would create.

The program in itself is focused towards what EWB volunteers looked like until now. Most EWB are closer from their academic roots than others who have been in the work force for some time. I remember my college years when the work circle was pretty much your social circle. We went to classes with other students; we ate, lived and partied with more students. Most of us in the work force go home after work and have a social circle outside our profession, or what we do during the day. Most importantly, and here I can only talk about myself and a few other team members, some of us value our privacy. 

I have referred, if not on my blog, certainly in conversation, about the team being an experimental petri dish. We were piled up against each other, spend most of our days in sessions together and most of our nights working on assignments together in a smoldering house. The petri dish certainly got baked; we had temperatures going all the way up to “Feels like 46”. This didn’t help.

I applied and wanted to come on the placement with EWB because I believe in the good work that we are doing in Africa. I joined because I believed I could contribute to this effort. I also assumed that EWB wanted to bring people from diverse backgrounds to enrich EWB’s skill set. This may have been the original intent but nothing was done to ensure that those bringing the diversity would also feel welcome.

Worst of all, we not only didn’t feel welcome but we made the long time EWBers feel threatened; they saw us as the one coming to change the organization they cherish and love.

At one end of the spectrum we had Marielle and I perceived as visitors who are only there for a few months and will return to their posh lives working for the “Man”. The other extreme were a few that have done a tour as Junior fellows and worked as volunteers in the Toronto office-now committing to an intense dedicated 1 or 2 year placement.  Those are extremely dedicated people who bring great youth and energy to EWB; they are what made EWB what it is today.

Dwelling in the middle are different newcomers to the organisation like Ashley who comes from corporate, has previous experience with development work and is ready to leave her career behind to work for 1 year. There is also David who’s fresh out of University who has also worked in development before. David will  be spending the next year in Ghana before moving on to do his masters.

Between all the differences every single person felt pulled apart and no one really felt part of the team.

Interestingly enough you could put any of 2 members together and they all would get along real great. We did OK one on one but we sucked as a team.

Near the end however, we started to look at each other in terms of what we all can contribute as oppose to how different we are. The last few days of sessions has somehow wrapped it up quite nicely but it was certainly not by design, it just happened to happen. The culture gap could have just as easily widened even more.

The concept of Pride and Hospitality:

Marielle and I had the pleasure of having Ashley Good as mentor for our pre training. We had a few sessions talking about how important it is to understand that people in Ghana may be poor but they are also very proud people. Cleanliness and appearances are very important. Some emphasis was also driven home about what hospitality meant to people from Ghana.

On one hand we learned how very important it is for our placement to understand these concepts. On the other hand we are dropped into a house where the pride of cleanliness has left a long time ago; nobody was there to welcome us into the EWB family as individuals or as a team.

One of the arguments we heard from the facilitators and long time EWBers was that the purpose of the house and letting it “free” is to let people figure it out on their own and take them out of their comfort zone. The house is a place where people bond. Having "structure" and "hierarchies" does not fit well with EWB’s culture.

I don’t buy that. It’s the way it is because it has worked in the past and no one has died doing it this way. No one has looked at the cost and consequences of ignoring city bylaws or the fire code. A minor incident paired with the pervasive negligence could take this whole organisation down. I see an organisation that does great work in Africa but that is stretched very thin back at the head office. There’s lots of energy, lots of ideas and many experiments on the go but very little structure and governance.

The way forward from here:

We landed in Ghana last night. We were welcomed by Robin and we cabbed it to the guest house. We were welcomed to Accra, welcomed to EWB. Today the sessions were light and informative. We are all very excited to finally be in Ghana and to have the Pre-Dep training behind us. This evening there is a refreshing breeze blowing from the ocean. Somehow it doesn’t feel so hot, certainly not as hot as Toronto. We will be all right as a team; we will look after each other and support each other. We are all eager to get on the ground and start doing instead of learning.

Tomorrow morning we will be challenged and taken out of our comfort zone. We will be sent in the city on our own trying to figure things out and find our way in this strange land. I was looking at my teammates tonight while Robin was giving us the assignment and I had no doubts in my mind that anyone of us will rock and sock this assignment.

I’ll try to document some of it.

There will be more discussion coming up with the players at the head office of EWB. I am passionate about the work that is being done and I believe the partnership with TransCanada is an incredible opportunity for both TransCanada and for Engineers Without Borders. In the next few months I intend to keep the line of communication open and use some of the framework and "Theories of Change and Influence" that we have learned in the past four weeks. We have a great organization but it has its weaknesses, and we need to work at improving so we can continue to do the great work that is being done in Africa.