HOW OWNERSHIP LEADS TO TRANSFORMATION

Last week Roge, our Director of Community Development, went to visit with school officials in Rankit as part of our sanitation initiative with UNICEF. As he walked in, he looked around the schoolyard and noticed its poor conditions no school child should. It was notably dirty, trash was strewn everywhere, and the latrines were greatly unsanitary. 

Inside, he started the meeting and asked the school officials what they thought this meeting was about. They said, "We are here because we're getting a new latrine block."

Roge immediately stopped the meeting and took everyone outside to look at the state of the current latrine block out back which had only been built in 2009. They all started to comment on how dirty and gross they were. Roge didn't say anything and while they were heading back into the meeting, the group started making lots of excuses about the state of the latrines and who was to blame. But here is where the magic lies. Roge took this opportunity to introduce one of our core leadership concepts: Reason versus Responsibility. 

"Reasons" are excuses that justify inaction and shift blame to external factors, "Responsibility" means owning outcomes, regardless of challenges, and focusing on solutions. By asking oneself “What can I do to address this?” instead of waiting for someone else to act is a transformational mindset shift. You can be in a Reason mindset or Responsibility mindset at the same time. you are either getting responsible for a solution or making excuses.

Note that he didn't call out anything or any people, he just brought the latrine situation to everyone’s attention, another leadership concept we teach. They soon realized they didn't need a new latrine block, they just needed to take better care of the one they already had. 

A few days later, Roge returned to the school to meet with the committee. The school yard had been transformed! The trash had been cleared and the latrines were disinfected and fully functional. The team said they now have a plan and at recess students are picking up trash.  

Our team simply having a leadership conversation helped these school officials set their school on the right track to health and hygiene!