Theodora/Ghana Trip Round-Up

I'm back in Albuquerque, back in the day-to-day saddle, and reflecting on the trip just completed to Ghana. A LOT was accomplished. 

• We kicked off open book management and got great involvement from the team as I related in my earlier post.
• We met with our Ghana board and advisors and believe we have renewed engagement from them.
• Met with two potential joint venture partners and have agreed to put together a test (more on this below).
• Purchased four badly needed new computers for the team.
• Put 'teeth' into the idea of 'participant management' with a set of definitive projects the team is to work on (more on this below).

JOINT VENTURES

During the last half of 2024, I met and had ongoing conversations with two other social impact organizations in Ghana dealing with the same problems related to disadvantaged & trafficked women. One, Muslim Family Counseling Services (MFCS), has an excellent track record meeting people 'where they are', and gaining trust. The other, Breaking The Chain Through Education (BTCTE), specializes in getting trafficking survivors and giving them education and skills training so they can build a better life. Both these organizations face the same challenge...they've been unable to come up with the means to provide solid employment for those they serve. Thus, when they learned about Theodora, they were both very intrigued.

This led to the local heads of both organizations coming to our office in Accra to see for themselves what has been accomplished. They met with our team, learned about their backgrounds, the challenges of transforming into those that could do our work, details of the actual work being done, and their feelings about their own future and the future of Theodora. Both commented on the magnitude that had been accomplished. And both have indicated they would like to see what we might do collaboratively. 

If we were to develop a collaborative effort, these organizations would fill two big gaps in Theodora's potential growth plan...the recruitment of new candidates (MFCS), and providing the basic training fir new participants (BTCTE). We've agreed that an initial concept test would be the next step. We are hoping to have the design of this test for our respective Boards by this summer.

OWNERSHIP ATTITUDE CHALLENGE

There is a saying, be careful of what you ask for, you might get it. In the case of my Theodora participants, I would rephrase that to, be careful of what you question your CEO's decisions, you might get the task to resolve it. Thus on my last day in Ghana, I handed out the following to the team.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PLAN (Mary F) – This has been mostly built out. Mary needs to move it into implementation and provide a results tracking system.

 

FUNDRAISING (Ann & Mary M.) – You have your system built. I need you to BLAST OUT the new content and talking points I’ve given you.

 

AI STRATEGY & TACTICS (Miriam w/Mary M & Benedicta) – We want something we can be implementing by the second half of the year.

 

OPEN BOOK MANAGEMENT (All) – Start ‘really’ studying the financial information. Ask questions!

 

TIME WORKING IN VS. OUT OF OFFICE POLICY (Open) – I’d like to see something by the end of February.

 

CLIENT’S PAYING VA BONUS POLICY (Open) – We should have something approved and out to our clients by the end of February.

 

PAYROLL, COMPANYWIDE SYSTEM  (Open) – This will be a hard one. I’d like to see some preliminary ideas no later than the end of April.

 

ROTARY FOLLOW-UP (Benedicta) – We need to be going to at least one meeting per month & make sure all are comfortable with and can use the talking points. We need to start collecting names of contacts we make at these meetings.

 

PUBLIC RELATIONS CAMPAIGN (Miriam) – Establish list of PR contacts by the end of February. Begin sending press releases by March.

This should keep everyone engaged for a while!

Jet Lag Management - The Bear Hibernation Technique

There are two primary options for flying between the United States and Ghana - through Washington Dulles on United or NYC JFK on Delta. I have no particular favorite. There are pluses and minuses to both routes. I usually make my decision based on price. 

However, recently, within the last year, Delta made a major time schedule change which makes it much more difficult for people west of the Central time zone to connect without a very long layover somewhere along the way. So my last two trips prior to this were on United. But when I made my reservation for the trip I just concluded, the price differential was so great (Delta being much lower) that even with a couple of hotels for those long layovers, I was saving big bucks. 

One side effect, of the new Delta schedule is it now leaves Ghana in the morning local time and arrives in NYC mid-afternoon local time. This is just like most of the return flights from Europe to the U.S. If you are stopping in NYC that's fine. However, if you are going on, it is on it creates a jet lag management challenge.

When flying these long routes (8 hours and longer), the ideal time as a business class flier is to have them go overnight so you can sleep. That's the way it has been in the past. But if you have an 11 hour flight going through daylight hour, what do you do? Your body won't be ready for sleep. 

I use what I call the 'modified hibernation technique'. I don't want to have my body stimulated and feeling it is awake because then my body clock will be screaming at me to sleep when I arrive in the U.S. with many hours of daylight ahead. So I basically just lie down with eye shades on, listen to music and do nothing. I try to make my brain and body functions as slow as I can. If I was staying on the East Coast, I would only do this for half the flight to get on the local time. In this case, I still had 9 more hours of travel after my arrival until I got to Atlanta, my overnight location. I pushed the hibernation then for as long as I could on Ghana to U.S. flight. 

I was feeling really tired during my layover in NYC but was able to grab a shower which made a world of difference in terms of keeping me awake. I was able to get a pretty good night's sleep in Atlanta as I did not have to get up early for my last flight to Albuquerque. 

I'm feeling reasonable this morning. I did wake up a little earlier than I would have liked but that is normal for this kind of time zone change.