And we are having the honour to host this event. It is great to feel this trust, but also kind of intimidating. “Under promise – over deliver” was difficult in this case since the expectations were already very high but we were so excited of having the chance to make a real impact on the future of GIG that we only saw the opportunities.  Failure is not an option – this is why we had been working very hard and until late in the night to make sure this workshop will become a “future determining event” for GIG. 

Working Gambian style: candles because electricity is down, covered with insect repellent to fight the mosquitoes - and a mango (isn´t it great to work in the agriculture business?)

We were lucky to have two workshop experts in our team who had successfully run workshops in the past. The question at this point was “To what extend are workshops for stock listed international companies that run it on a regular basis (in air conditioned rooms) transferable to a Gambian agriculture project that is doing such an event for the first time (in a surrounding that is not even close to a cooled down meeting room)?”. Although we thought we were well prepared, the last briefing we got from one of the pioneers of the project was very helpful. “Take into account that we are in The Gambia, which means that time will be an issue, so plan generously time wise and try not do too do much. The sun will be burning and people will be very tired after lunch and you have to make sure you keep them involved.” 

This was kind of disturbing for our high ambitions but probably very realistic, especially because the temperature would be a real issue. When we presented our schedule and goals, the management said they would be very happy if we achieved an agreement on a common vision, goal and strategies which was less than we had planned but took a little bit of pressure from us.
Though, this did not reduce the time we spent on the final preparations and we got to bed very late but with a confident feeling that this will be a great event for everyone.

Friday, 11th July - first day of the workshop which took place at the GIG farm.

As predicted, time was an issue, we started almost an hour late but we were prepared for future delays: Anybody who was late had to dance in front of the whole group. Since dancing is in general very popular in the Gambia (if it´s not in front of your team members as a punishment) we opened the workshop with a group dance led by the incoming general manager Amy who had turned out to be an incredible dancer during our trip (We still don´t understand how she does the hip move)

After a short introduction about reasons and goals of the workshop we had prepared another opener that everybody got very passionate about: What´s your favourite fruit or vegetable and why? (note from Jelka: This is an almost philosophical question AND I am still kind of offended that my team members called my choice “apple” boring ;).

People were excited about what would come next but after a good start things got a little bit difficult. The most important reason was probably something we had expected: A business run by an NGO leads to crucial questions of which the underlying simply is: Do we make our decisions like an NGO or like a business and/or is there a middle way? Though everybody said GIG is a business the discussions showed that this is not necessarily (and not surprisingly just due to the nature of the set up) reflected in operational and strategic decisions and was of especially obvious in the visioning session. Another issue was that ALL participants were present, ranging from the highest positions (coming from the UK) to the lowest in hierarchy leading to another problem: Half of the team was silent, even in the small group discussions. And the fact that the sun was indeed burning did not help either.

Though it was not a disaster we were kind of down in the end of the first day. When the workshop participants went home we sat together to figure out if and what goes wrong and how we can fix this. We came to the conclusion that we and GIG had to go through this process and our task is to guide them through it. The only really thing we could do change was the group assignments: Split apart management from the rest of the people.

Though we started late the next morning again, our changes (and probably the natural progress of going through such a workshop) really had an impact. The second day was productive and the passion was back. I especially remember the excitement the team around Mariah and Mike who discussed the current issues of the horticulture business while Zeenith and I spent time with the management to talk about the future directions of GIG. The horticulture team was so enthusiastic that we sometimes had problems understanding our team and Mariah and Mike had a hard time keeping everyone disciplined. But they did a great job and the outcome was fantastic. Zeenith and I did not have this kind of excitement but – besides a very productive discussion - we had the pleasure of seeing something that would never happen during a stock listed company workshop: A varan was walking by.

The last day was again very productive and the only restraint seemed to be the weather. Since it is rainy season in The Gambia, it can suddenly start to pour (for a loooong time). But since you always have to be flexible in The Gambia and a powerpoint presentation cannot be the only source of presenting material anyway (note to the people out there: it is a real privilege to have stable electricity!)  we all gathered around our final flipcharts to sum up what we achieved during the last 3 days: We had a vision, a short-term and a long term goal and 4 detailed strategies how to get there.
I guess I am speaking for the whole team when I say that it was like walking on clouds in the end, to hear and see the excitement of the people showing the belief that they are part of something that can really have an impact on a many lives, a whole country and maybe even on a whole continent.

Now it was important to keep and build on this momentum…

But this SCP has more than just an exotic location, it is really an amazing project.  We are being asked to audit the entire business of Gambia is Good (GiG), analyze what is working and not working, conduct a visioning workshop with all of the stakeholders to set their long term and short term vision, create a strategy, and finally recommend a 1-2 year operational plan and see if they can transform from an NGO to a profitable business.  The current objectives of GiG is to develop local small scale farmers such that they can provide high quality, locally produced vegetables and fruit to hotels and restaurants in The Gambia.  After just one week on the ground with them we can also see a much broader opportunity for this business.

We have had an intensive first week working non-stop to learn as much as possible about the business and to prepare for the visioning session Saturday July 12.  We spent a full day on GiG farm which serves as a research site, conference center, back up production, and tourist location.  Then we spent the next day in the office.  We met first with the head horticulturist, then took part in the monthly production meeting where sales and marketing tells the production managers how much of which varieties of produce they will need and production managers review where and how they can get it from.  It is important to note that while the production managers work for GiG, the producers (farmers) do not.  Thus it is a tough exercise with your supply being dependent on independent, small scale farmers who you do not control, at this point they don’t even have contracts with them.  Clearly this area is one of constant worry for the business and one we hope to address.

The theme of production continues on day 3 which we spent at a regional farmers meeting in the Western Division where we were welcomed by the local women with song and dance.  At this workshop we spent the full day discussing their perspectives on what was going right and what needed to be improved with their relationship with GiG.  After the full session our SCP team split up and each spent some one on one time with a few of the different farmers to ask some more pointed questions away from the GiG staff to help round out our knowledge and keep it more unbiased.

While we wanted to spend Saturday on the glorious Gambian beach, we only got a few hours off in the morning and instead headed to the ferry, across the river Gambia, to the North Bank region and a different view of production and training.  We spent the next day and a half going to the farmer training facility, meeting with the local production manager, visiting a community garden funded by another NGO, going to successful small scale farms started by former students of the training center, visited some truly small gardens which people have started in a spare plot of land to generate some extra income, and even helped harvest tomatoes and grade and select onions from one of the farms.  As we reached the ferry at sunset on Sunday we were drained from two days in the heat and sun, but brimming over with more questions and ideas and excited to get started on the vision planning and recommendations.

Monday we spent time with the Finance team, understanding the current accounts, what donor funding the “business” still relies on, and what areas of inefficiency there are which we can hopefully address to help their operating costs.  Then Tuesday we finally dove into the planning and pre-work for the visioning session so that it will run smoothly Sat – Mon.  We really want to do a good job, so we are putting a lot of thought into it.  To make sure the sessions are successful, we even ran them on ourselves.  Not sure what the team will come up with, but after an hour and a half of brainstorming and prioritizing we came up with two potential vision statements, which sound incredible if you ask me!  To round out our business exposure we spent Wed exploring the customer side of the with hotel, restaurant and market visits all of which were intriguing.  The customers in general were very pleased with the quality of the product and service they were receiving from GiG so we are off to a good start there.  Thursday and Friday are 100% dedicated to putting the rest of the workshop together and despite trying to be efficient, actually working quite well together, and wanting the same things out of the event, we are still up until past midnight every night trying to get this done.  But we all know it will be worth it when we are able to deliver a thought provoking and valuable workshop.

We keep looking longingly at the beautiful beach and dreaming of the weekend we will get off on the 19th so that we can really enjoy this lovely country.  We did manage to squeeze in a concert by a famous artist from Sierra Leone (Emerson), so we have had a bit of fun amidst the hard work.  Stay tuned for next weeks update to hear how the vision session goes.

(Personal Note from Mariah:  It is getting harder and harder to imagine having a desk job.  I knew this was going to be a life changing experience, but I was not sure the impact of that.  This week, number of hours spent in an office = 12, hours spent working > 60!)