Sharing skills and changing lives - handover workshop
on Michael Cashman (Ghana), 17/Jun/2010 21:11, 34 days ago
Accra, June 16th and 17th. It's the last 2 days of my assignment with VSO Ghana. The idea is that I can pass on some of the skills and capabilities for the organisatiuonal development support role that I've developed, to the new Guided Self-Assessment Process (GSAP) support group....After reviewing the new GSAP process document, it's time for the handover workshop.I ask the group to construct their own agenda after they've thought about what they do and don't want to do - here I'm just working out timings."Set up shop" is where each person identifies the support services they will be providing and what they will need to do it.The whole workshop is a very practical session. As far as possible, we don't just talk about the possible activities, but participate in them during the workshop itself, i.e. use them to make the workshop work. On the first day this includes some practice facilitating self-assessment. Mark and Krista come up with some great questions that, as a group, we assess ourselves on. Very informative - if you're a VSO Ghana volunteer reading this, ask someone who was there!  This is probably my favourite moment in the workshop. We have run "Yes But, No But" for everyone to identify how ready they are to be a GSAP supporter, and then found what needs to happen or each person to get to "Yes I'm ready". As we have committed to each of the necessary actions we have taken the step towards 'yes' that this enables. When we all arrive at the 'yes' end of the room we have asked 'what was important in getting here?', and overwhelmingly the mutual support of the group turns out to be the key factor.I'm glad that we're comfortable enough with each other to have some fairly robust debate!The activity we spend most time on is "Top Tips".  I could have just written down my top tips and sent them out. But instead I've proposed an activity where we all brainstorm our favourite tips for each step of the new process. Mine are included, but this gives everyone the chance to add to them - or brainstorm their own before they look at the tips I've prepared.We take turns leading the review of these tips - each step has a different person taking us through the tips proposed for that step. It's a great sharing of skills and ideas.VSO Ghana permanent staff are fully involved in this as well as VSO volunteers - see the photos of Mary and Emmanuel both leading the session for different steps.We do a quick evaluation. People are very positive about the participatory approach. They liked that we are open to each other, and ready for feedback. (I tried to squeeze in a quick brain-dump on Thursday morning of some stuff we couldn't cover fully, and this gets questioned - probably too rushed). Everyone is very glad that VSO staff participated at this workshop. And I'm particularly pleased at this comment :"Working as a team - really impressed at working so well together at start of team's life".And finally, here is the group photo, as at the end of the workshop.Back row: me. Jemimah, Michael, Dora, Mark, Terry.Front row: Mary. Olke, Krista.(Quite an international group - 2 each from Ghana, Holland and England, and one each from Uganda, Australia and Canada).Emmanuel, Alfred and Francis were also here earlier - three more from Ghana - plus Charlotte, working with Francis.I hand over the workshop output, (followed by photos of the output, in the VSO office the next day), and hand over my remaining post-its and stationery, to the GSAP supporters who will carry on what I've started.  Later that evening we go to Accra airport to meet Anna (my daughter) and Louisa (friend) who are coming to stay - I have just over a week more in Ghana, after the assignment ends today, before I need to head back to UK, but Charlotte has 3 weeks more.