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We always have a choice
Kedaren Moodely
23 Jul 2008
Kedaren Moodely looks back on how he has learnt to do things differently and how this has resulted in greater successes.
I had the experience of doing things differently some weeks ago when I was called upon to organise a cleaning campaign in the west of the island. Given my past experience in this organisation, having already organised similar activities in other different regions, I felt secure to chair that meeting.
This zone of comfort was even more enhanced given that I am personally very close to the hoteliers in the west and also the members of the village council, who would be supplying me with resources, voluntarily, to go along with the campaign.
Didn't go as planned
However, to my great surprise, it did not at all go as planned. The representatives of the hotels as well as the village council were not willing to supply me with the required resources to do a good and respectable cleaning campaign. For instance, hotels were only prepared to give me four people and the village council only eight, which was far less than expected.
Choice
I could either: Blame the representatives for their lack of co-operation and end the meeting with the understanding that the campaign was over Or Try to look into the real issue of concern and maintain the campaign. With the powerful tools that I gained at InterAction, and with what I have been subjected to in the PAE, and all the rich experience gathered, I was able to remain calm, analysing the issue more than twice before taking making a decision. After having tried to find the reasons behind the lack of co-operation from the two parties and having faced failure yet again, I decided to tackle the issue differently by using appreciative inquiry and also by stating what went well in other regions and what would have been the benefits of the campaign for the environment, social contribution, partnerships, etc…
Posing questions was a key element of my intervention at that meeting. Deeper problem Again, it did not work. The problem was deeper than I had thought. It then came to my mind to postpone the meeting and to try to tackle the problem individually with both parties. That was when I came to understand that a conflict of interest existed between the two representatives present. However, while talking to them individually, I reached my objective of obtaining at least 40 people for the campaign.
At the next meeting I urged both the hoteliers and the village council to send representatives other than two specific individuals. InterAction was of paramount importance in my reaction to this situation. Had I been in the same situation some months back, I bet that the campaign would not have taken place. It fortunately did and was successful, with the help of the leadership programme.
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