Um… Did I Just Actually Say “Business Can Do ‘Great’ Things”
Following several working sessions to flesh out business processes and to validate our hypotheses, we seemed to have caught the attention of the director of sales, who seemed uneasy about our mandate. It was important for us to convey that we could be trusted and were on her team, working toward the same goals; and it was important to her that we understood the Gone Rural mission and vision. She decided to sit us down to revisit the history of Gone Rural, emphasizing that the success of the business should not be measured in terms of profits, but on the social and economic impact that it is having on the lives of the women. She described the famine that the women of Luvumisa endure – a life where a banana is a luxury, where a seven-year old herding cattle rather than attending school is expected, where children have never seen a stuffed animal, and where women travel three to four kilometers for a bucket of dirty water. She explained how following the passing of Gone Rural’s founder, Jenny Thorne, the business experienced a difficult transition where there was a risk that the organization could lose focus and momentum, but under the leadership of Phil and others, it was able to revitalize itself.
I understood her concern, and what I really wanted to convey to her was that we had the best of intentions, even if our approach/methods seem foreign. Rather than say this, I blurted out that ‘Business Can Do ‘Great’ Things’.
In the end, we all want to help the organization grow and prosper for the sake of the women. The lesson from the exchange was, in part, that an initial mismatching of communication styles is acceptable as long as everyone is flexible and understanding. While we may have a different approach, our intended outcome is the same: to strengthen the business so to protect and enhance the welfare of the artisan women.