George@18 Reflection Series - Part 2

Today I continue with the second part of this fortnightly series. Having shared my two lessons of a) putting in effort to see results b) planning for the slim days during the days of plenty, I will progress us to the next two lessons. Pardon me, this is a little longer than the last one, I prmise to make them short from Part 3 onward:-)

Lesson 3: Reputation and track are everything in this business

 In the year 2001, bubbling with great project ideas, we hit the road to seek funding to bring these ideas to life. Enduring sweaty sunny days we took our ideas to early potential donors with Anne Kamaru (where is she by the way?), Kioko Musau (with his Timberland and sometimes Caterpillar boots and Kangol hat), Nana Musau, our faithful Finance Manager who came after classes and Muteru Njama (though I must say Muteru still managed spanking white shirts and a tie, some tradition he developed both as a Pastor’s son and at Strathmore studying to be CPA in the 90s). A visit to Pathfinder, PATH, AAR and many others turned to nought on most occasions. I still remember the standard regret that came from the Ford Foundation every time we sent an unsolicited proposal:-). Oh those days, we learnt a lot. Then a stroke of luck, or so we thought, came our way in June 2001.

Having started our work with children that year (forcing a justification that we needed to intervene earlier before youth – even though I suspected we were merely angling for funding from UNICEF which never came) and being that it was at the peak of HIV/AIDS, we in our ingenious effort designed an HIV/AIDS OVC proposal.

In our online scouting we had found the Global Fund for Children, who at that time were funding projects around children and HIV/AIDS. We poured our souls into conceptualisation, ultimately making a submission to the funder. We were excited after a period of silence to receive communication asking further questions about the proposal, our vision and our work. Enthusiastically we sat on these and responded convincingly to all, save for one. The Fund had wanted to know if we had received prior funding from anyone. We had received none by then!

We painfully watched that funding escape us, with the feedback that their Board would not approve funding without prior track of having received and managed funds. From this experience we woke up to a new dawn, finding funding and maintaining partnerships like our lives depended on it.

 Our first funding came the following year in 2002 through the National AIDS Control Council via the recognition of Dr Asha Mohamed (currently the incoming Secretary General of the Kenya Red Cross Society) of our work and passion. Our partnerships with Save the Children and GOAL led us to our funding from the Safaricom Foundation in July 2005. The Safaricom Foundation relationship supported our bid to the Finnish NGO Foundation for Human Rights in 2006 who led us to the National Endowment for Democracy in 2008 and to Forum Syd in 2009. The partnership with Forum Syd allowed joint bidding to USAID, the EU and DFID after I had departed the organisation. While it is always easy to talk about successes, as a leader, there were some not very good decisions I made or was involved in. Some of these leadership decisions after my exit coupled with casual management of long standing relationships nearly brought the organisation to its knees. It had to take great effort to steer back the organisation to course.

 Later in my service at the British Council, the importance of track even more pronounced as we assessed our positioning for opportunities. Track meant two things: our record in the particular field and the people that we fronted on the bid (whether they were in good standing with both the sector and the prospective funder). This was a new twist for me as I learnt that opportunities for work and consulting depended on the track one had built. The type of team and more so the team leader would be the difference between you winning a bid or losing to your competition.

 Need I belabor the importance of track in this business?

Lesson 4: The Founder’s Syndrome

Founders are important people. They birth ideas, and in many instances stay to see it come fully to life. But founding comes with a syndrome. A syndrome of indispensability. Having been privileged to be a co-founder, I learnt early the importance of allowing others to enable you realise the dream. Through the journey I learnt two things.

a)     A dream, like a child needs nurturing. This means that the role of the founder requires an unwavering commitment to the dream. In many instances as I mentioned earlier, with the high and lows, people who had joined me on the journey departed as a new season brought in others. As a founder I learnt it could be lonely nurturing your dream. Sometimes you would find those sold to the dream, and those are keepers. At times you would find those searching for a job. Those will serve you for the season, and you should feel free to release them when the season is over.

b)     For a child to grow, you need to allow them to find their way under you watchful eye. You may also need to allow the village to join in, especially if you are African. I soon found out that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely! While as the founder you rightly hold the vision, for the dream to outlive you, you need to cede control. This means building structures.

 My first move at Youth Alive! Kenya was to form a Board of Trustees that would hold me accountable on the leadership of the organisation. Ceding control to the Board was the first step to building an enduring organisation. This helped to check my decision-making as I recruited a multidisciplinary Board of young, knowledgeable experts, bringing critical wisdom in several areas of corporate governance. The second move was to recruit only the best brains. In spite of our lack of resources, we were a proud organisation and only recruited those who were as ambitious as we were.

 Through an Undergraduate Internship Programme we rolled out in 2001, we were fortunate to have selected phenomenal, growth-oriented university students and given them the space to work with us on the dream.  This served two purposes a) It kept us true to the mission that young people could independently organise and contribute meaningfully to the development agenda; b) this team formed the future of the organisation at all levels including the Board. From this programme, we would build two generations of leadership for Youth Alive! Kenya that have served it to date with the last breed currently on their way out of the Board.

Having prepared two generations of leadership, my abrupt departure from Youth Alive! Kenya in July 2009 (after being lured by money that I desperately needed then – having just gotten married in late 2008) allowed the organisation to grow exponentially in the following two or so years under the leadership of a younger team of James Muraguri and Stephen Gichohi.

I am aware that many founders suffer two fears: the disintegration of the organisation upon their departure (and with that their legacy) and; a jolt to their own livelihood, forcing them to found new purpose. These fears are real; fortunately they are both within the founder’s control.

 To address the first fear, if a founder plans well for succession, recruiting the right people and developing your team, they most likely will have better ideas to take the organisation to the next level given a chance. This is freeing for a founder who desires more and who seeks greater significance while also mindful of the importance of his legacy staying alive. The people that I recruited and walked with in their formative years have become the biggest resource in my professional and personal life. They have stayed as lifelong friends and are reverse-mentoring me as I venture out to new territories. They also were able to pass the vision to subsequent generations and this has seen Youth Alive! Kenya going strong, 20 years after its founding.

Addressing the second fear has more to do with how one prepares for the future. While you will need to be 100% committed to your dream, it also provides a great opportunity to learn, unlearn, relearn and upskill. Founding a second outfit (which is usually an easier route for founders) is often less demanding than the first time around. Armed with experiences and networks, one does not have to repeat the mistakes of the first dream. This has come in handy for me as I map my way in the second half of my life. Should you opt not to found a second outfit, your knowledge as a founder is useful in many areas and would allow you to sell your skill to someone willing to pay. This marked my path of transition in 2009.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ In Part 3 I will indulge you on the importance of defining a culture for the organisation and for the team, as I begin to transition from my experiences of Youth Alive! Kenya to my journey at Carolina for Kibera. Stay tuned!