Life Enriching Learning - Tanzania

Life Enriching Learning  - Tanzania

Well just back from a life enriching experience delivering a programme on behalf of the Commonwealth Secretariat on Work Based Action Learning to the Public Service College in Tanzania.  Professionally I have seen more respect for education and desire for learning, in this, one of the poorest countries in the world, than I see in any of my work in the UK.

Working with the public service sector in a country which is crying out for  leadership to guide its government reform agenda, and is wrestling with the challenge of developing a private sector (without perpetuating exploitation of the nation) is not easy.  However the message of work based action learning was intelligently received.

There is a need to confront some of the known absurdities such as the ministry which is asking for things it does not actually need: secretaries who have to be taught on manual typewriters or to learn shorthand which are redundant in the workplace.  Trainers in working with their Ministries, Departments and Agencies will need to become learning facilitators, coaches, mentors and consultants.

Who is looking ahead to work out what should be done with the thousands of records clerks and administrative staff who in the next few years will be replaced by their bosses’ laptops, electrical supplies and infrastructure willing?  Retraining will be the new training I suggest.  Dare I say to support the provision outsourcing services as a knowledge based export?  If neighbouring Rwanda can do it why not Tanzania? 

Competency Based Training is the buzz right now and I hope it will pay off by providing a platform for assessing the transferable competencies of graduates of the syllabus driven programmes provided over many years gone by. 

Tanzanians do love a syllabus - the ‘P’ for programmed knowledge in Professor Reg Revans terms, but my message was to face the future by encouraging public servants, managers and leaders to focus first on the ‘Q’ for questions, based on the problems they face.  And to write their questions in the first person:
How do I eradicate corruption whilst maintaining the motivation of my staff?
How do I develop the leadership capabilities of my clients and myself?

The answers to the nations problems will not come from one new leader or a change of government.  Nor will the answers come from an existing syllabus, a business school or a professor.  They will come from posing the right questions at the ‘grassroots’ and committing to working on these together.  Theory may help inform the actions taken, and the actions may inform new theory.

It is ironic that Tanzania is one of the wealthiest nations with minerals underground, yet the poorest above it.  Its people are now looking back on 50 years since independence as many African nations now are, thinking “What have we achieved?’  Whilst the socialist experiment of the revered late Julius Nuyere may be considered a failure, no citizen I spoke to would blame this on Mwalimu (‘The Teacher’), but they would blame the implementers of his villagisation policies.  However blame is not the name of the game and looking forward I can see the desire to reform public services, which means that education, training and most of learning are key.

So as times have become tougher in providing learning in the UK it seems there is a market for exporting my skills as an educator and proponent of learning which is based on improving people and organizations and, arrogant as it sounds, most rewardingly I may contribute some small thing to national development.

Maybe in the UK we have become jaundiced about training and education and upset by the fact times have become tougher (visit the villages and forgotten people in the countryside of Mtwara if you want to see tough).   British managers distracted by the hi-touch mode of blackberry/iphone addiction and consequent attention deficit will not study for five days.  They want the educational ‘short cut’ to commodities they call ‘learnings’.  I cringe.   

Oh and there is some learning for the British, which I take from my week in Tanzania:

• At the start of each day have a different team member summarise the previous day’s events
• Start each day with a prayer which did work for a mixed faith group
• Socialise – much learning takes place outside of the classroom (I even learnt how to defend myself against a leopard – just the theory mind you!)
• End with celebration and the award of certificates which receipients are truly proud of
• Dedicate five days of your life to learn together, free of distraction.  You certainly don’t get out of Mtwara in a hurry!

In the words of the late Steve Jobs, “It just works”.

Pictures can sometimes say it better …

Dr Richard Hale, 6^th February, 2011

hale1@me.com

@richardhale