Peace Corps has acted a bit of a doctor and I have been a bit of a patient. The medical prescription is a “chill pill.” I actually hate that phrase because it is normally said in an angry tone, “take a chill pill, dude!” But here, it is more like, “I’m just going with the flow, mannnnn.” As someone who is clearly a Type A personality, I have had to adjust my expectations. Demanding a detailed-orientation and punctual events is not a realistic expectation. With that being said, I have reinvented my leadership style since I’ve had to lead a lot of events in Peace Corps thus far.
In our Close of Service Conference last week, the US Ambassador to Georgia came and presented to my cohort. During his presentation, he said, (I’m paraphrasing here), “Returned Peace Corps Volunteers are marketable because you are extremely flexible and adaptable in ever-changing and unfamiliar environments.” I looked around the room when he said that. There were a bunch of nods and agreeable facial expressions. To risk sounding obnoxious, we are more flexible than a regular, standard professional in the United States. We did not all start off that way. Many of us have changed some of our working and leadership styles to become adaptable to our Georgian environment.
On average, in the United States, we micromanage the heck out of a project. Every little obstacle must be foreseen by a magic eight ball during the planning process. Every step must be executed to the minute it was predicted. I say this confidently because I used to be a program/project manager.
For example, one of the programs I used to manage was the division’s quarterly bonus program. There were over 6,000 employees in that system and when combined, their bonuses would naturally be in the millions. Like nearly every system in the world, it also had its glitches. I would literally try to look over every single employee’s entry to inspect if were would be any problems in advance. However, everything was always in flux. Thus, there would be maybe one or two entries in a given quarter that would cause a glitch in the system. When/if there was a glitch, that is less than 1% of the entries in the system.
Instead of simply saying, “let’s go and fix it,” the first question was always, “Rawan, how did you miss this?” Natural question. I would have asked the same thing if I were my boss back in the United States. The perfect employee would have predicted these glitches in advance. Let me tell you, I predicted a LOT. But because in the real world, no one can always have 100% success rate, especially considering the magnitude of that program. Any glitches were typically fixed before the employees would have even noticed.
Georgia is such a different story. When some natural little hiccup happens here, it is almost pointless asking how/why it happened. During the beginning of my service, that question would roll off my tongue before I would even notice it. My counterparts would just look at me and shrug. They also had a look of, “why are you even asking? It is what it is.” Their sense of curiosity was non-existent compared to mine. I was intrigued by what caused the mishap and they just rolled with the punches. Two years later, I am now officially as flexible as my counterparts.
Let paint you an example that happened today. My counterpart and I reserved a hotel and its conference room in November or December. When we went to the hotel, the manager simply said, “sure, that is fine.” She did not check the calendar. She did not even write the dates down. So of course, I had my counterpart call and constantly check up on the hotel every few weeks to ensure that they would not book over our “reservation.”
Two days ago, we went to the hotel in person- again. We wanted to reconfirm the cost, the conference room, the menu, and the room. Everything was confirmed, except the menu. I asked what they plan on serving and she said, “just the regular food.” That was literally as specific as she could get.
Now, get this….the day before the conference, she calls us and said that the conference room is no longer available. They decided to do renovations today. Her plan was that we do the conference in the hallways. In the morning 24 hours before the conference, she sends a text message to my youth counterpart with pictures of the hallway. She did not even apologize but stated the alternative plan as a fact.
So, my counterparts and I are figuring out a plan on how to deliver a 3-day conference in an undisclosed hallway of a hotel. I wish I am making this up, but I am not. The frustrating part is that the hotel manager still wants us to pay for the conference room. My counterpart and I think that is unfair and we will continue to negotiate on that portion. As for the hallway, it seems big enough. I think it will be fine. I do have to laugh at their timing though.
So ask yourself, do you see someone in America do last minute (and not urgent) renovations on a reserved conference room the day before? Oh, and suggest a hallway as an alternative? I’m going to say probably not. This, my friends, is the definition of flexibility.