Hierarchy, acceptance, self-motivation and joy! - Cultural learnings # 2:

Joy! Maybe the most important cultural learning for me so far. My life has changed a lot since I came to Uganda, and I believe the most obvious is that it is now filled with more joy. I have tried to think of what is it that has created this change. Life here is full of challenges and sometimes very frustrating. But still, somehow (as they say in Uganda), it is a lot better. Maybe it is because I learn and develop every day. I don’t have the exact answer, but I will try to share some of my thoughts around it. 

Since my last blog post “cultural learnings #1”, the list of learnings has been adjusted. In this post I will cover:

4. Hierarchy
5. Acceptance
6. Self-motivation
7. Joy

Going to Uganda = throwing myself into a lot of challenges!

4. HIERARCHY – Bragging about your expertise
From our home country we are used to company structures that are quite flat. If you are an expert with knowledge, you are heard and your opinions are considered important when making decisions. In Uganda, most company structures are quite hierarchical, means there is a huge distance between owners/managers and the other employees. Whether your opinion is considered or not, is much more depending on your position rather than your expertise. It is a system where it is much more difficult to be heard, even if you are an expert in your field, like I consider myself to be. 

Not being heard nor considered has been an important learning for me. It has made me more aware that in a context like this, you need to be very confident with who you are and what you know. You need to be more outgoing, more bragging and continuously using previous results to “prove” that you are someone to be counted on. I wasn’t good enough in that from the beginning. But, I am getting better. It is most probably a good thing for me, and also for ladies, and Norwegians in general. Neither ladies, Norwegians nor myself are any good at this. But, we need it! And I am sure it will be useful for me in the future. 

I am an expert! and I know what I am doing!

5. ACCEPTANCE - Things are not always available or they don’t always work
Technologically, Uganda is quite developed with several mobile networks, many 3G internet service providers and printers, scanners and projectors are available. But, the one thing all this technological devices are depending on, electricity, is unfortunately not always available. There are power cuts almost daily, lasting up to 36 hours. This creates lots of challenges and delays. Simple things like printing can take 2 working days: first the printer is not working, when the printer starts working, electricity is off, and so it continues. The internet speed is also inconsistent. It can take 8 hours to download a file, and you can struggle 3 hours to send an email with a small attachment.

Knowledge and capable skills is another thing that is not always available. It has been hard work to find the right designers and and other recourses for the project. Education quality and professional skills is just not the same here. Maybe the challenge again is to lower our expectations and accepting. Many things are just not the same here as at home, and I have to accept that that’s just the way it is. 

Sometimes you just have to accept and relax!

6. SELF-MOTIVATION – A solitary extrovert designer
Design is a new topic in Uganda. There is no education for industrial design and there are not many designers here. And generally, it is hard for other people to understand the design process. In the developed world, a designer would normally be surrounded by designers and other people who understands and works with design. In Uganda, this is not the case. And in a small company in Uganda, it is definitely not the case.

The people in the company who are a bit interested and have some knowledge are often too busy to discuss and involve themselves. There have been many moments where I have really been missing discussion partners for design related issues and felt quite lonely working with and promoting the design process.

The lack of network, discussion partners and sometimes also involvement from the company’s side, has demanded a lot of energy and self-motivation. Being an extreme extrovert designer, who normally gets lots of inspiration, motivation and energy from working together with other people, I didn’t know much about self-motivation. But, being the main “driving force” in the project for such a long time (10 months and still remaining 5 more months…) I have had to learn a lot. I am still learning, and still going on! 

No other designers in sight.

7. JOY - Making a difference and joy of seeing results
Despite all the challenges and learnings described above, working with this design project in Uganda is a great experience. The feeling of using design skills to make a small difference in a world development context is just amazing. When I have worked so hard, overcome so many challenges and I finally see results, it gives a satisfaction on a whole different level than at home. REAL JOY! 

I have overcome many challenges!

Working in Uganda has been the most challenging job ever, but it has also been the best job ever. Even with my 10 years of working experience, I have learned more than in any other job. Not only about design and project management in a development context, but also about culture and people. And most of all I have learned about myself: how I react to things and how I need to adjust my thoughts, expectations and behaviour. I keep on learning and improving, learning and improving: that how my days go by, with some frustration and a lot of joy.

REAL JOY!

Patience, self-esteem and politeness ...cultural learnings # 1

9 months! I have been in Uganda for 9 months! Lately I have been summarizing in my head: "what have been my most important learnings so far?" especially in regards to working here and the business culture.

When I came to Uganda I had already been here already 4 times, all on work trips. I thought I knew quite a bit about the place and about the business here. I thought I was prepared... but, obviously not prepared enough. It has been 9 months full of learnings, surprises, positive overwhelming, "shocks", and not surprisingly... quite some frustration.  

When I summarize the personal qualities I have improved and developed the most during my stay here, I get a list looking like this:

1. PATIENCE (not so surprised by that)

2. SELF-ESTEEM

3. POLITENESS

4. PERSISTENCE

5. RESPECT

6. SELF MOTIVATION

I think the list will get even longer, but these are the ones that until now has been coming to my head. Because I have a lot to say about each of them, I will cover only 1, 2 and 3 in this post, and save the others for later.

1. PATIENCE

I knew this was going to be a hard one. We all know the expression "African time". Things just move slower here: people walk slower, the internet is slower, meetings start when the people have arrived and people generally "arrive slower".... To try to prepare for this, I bought myself an ipad. I though it could be good for me: I could work and write some emails while waiting for people coming to meetings. 

I thought an ipad would help my patience.

The good thing is I dont have many meetings, but I must say, I have waited a lot anyway. As some of you might have noticed, I have waited for mangoes since I came here... 9 months for mangoes. That is the length of a pregnancy! I have also waited for meetings. Actually, for days, not for hours. Getting the right people together here in the company I work can take days... even weeks. They are out of the office, travelling, at the factory 400 km away. Difficult to get them together. A lot of waiting. And a lot of delay in the project. And my ipad hasn't really helped for that.

But, patience is a good thing. It makes you more calm. Stress level goes down (long term effect, on short term it can make you really stressed). But all in all, your expectations to how much you can accomplish in so much time goes down. This is a very important learning for us from the "developed world". Are we not beating ourselves up with expectations all the time? We might accomplish a lot in short time, but how healthy is it in the long run? We suffer from stress, burnout, exhaustion, low self-esteem, heart attacks... We don't see so much of that here. Wich brings me right over to the next quality:

2. SELF-ESTEEM

Actually, my self esteem has gotten a lot of training and development here. In the beginning I was so dissatisfied with my self every time I didn't achieve what I had planned to do that day or that week, my to-do list was just getting longer, the project got more delayed or the work I had done didn't have the quality I wanted it to. 

Lowering your expectations to yourself can be seen as a "bad thing" in the "developed world". We are supposed to have very high goals for ourselves, and we are supposed to achieve them, no matter the price. And we really pay the price. We go around being disappointed with ourselves no matter how much we achieve.

I have been forced to lower my expectations here. And it has been good for me. I can only achieve so much, actually. And I have to celebrate every small achievements. Tap myself on the shoulder and say: "well done". Here, you realize that it is often not possible to achieve all you want. It is not possible to do it as fast and efficient as you want. Because thats just the way it is (related to no 1. PATIENCE). 

When I realized that, I could relax more. I could just take a break when things was not moving the way I wanted, instead of getting frustrated, disappointed and sad. I still fall back in the old pattern once in a while, down to that low self-esteem and beating of myself. But, I think I have made great improvements. I celebrate, and give myself treats when I achieve even the smalles things. It feels good. Much better than the whip. Let me say it out loud, again and again: Well done, Marianne!

Celebrating even small achievements: relaxing and giving myself a treat with good friends at Mihingo Lodge in Lake Mburo.

3. POLITENESS

And "Well done" brings me over to the 3rd learning: politeness. "Jevale koo!" - means "well done" in Luganda, the most used local language in Uganda, and it is the most common greeting in luganda. I really love that expression! Can you imagine the positivity and the effect it has for people's self esteem when you are told "well done" several times in a day? If there was a way I could take this expression with me and implement it in the Norwegian language, I would. We really don't recognize and acknowledge others efforts and achievements enough in our country.

Jevale koo, sebo! Well done, mister!

And politeness is everywhere in the Ugandan culture. You are raised up with being polite to people from you are born. Children greet you with "how are you muzungu (white lady)"? Strangers passing you on the street greet you. In the morning when I come to the office, all my colleagues greet me with "How are you?", "how was your weekend?", "how is home?". And I really feel like they listen. They really are interested to know how I am doing. I know some might disagree with me here: that it is a habit, a must, an expectation and just the same as saying "hi" as we do in my culture. But, I really feel that Ugandans are more polite, more interested in how other people are doing, and generally spend more time recognizing the people around them. I appreciate that, and I am learning from it. 

How are you, muzungu? Happy and polite kids greet me everywhere.

This was a long blog post. But, I hope it was worth reading... 

I hope at least the picture of the happy kids made your day just a bit more happy!

Today I am Reco - the employees role in corporate branding

It is Friday. I am wearing the Reco brand. I am wearing the blue Reco branded t-shirt. And the same is my colleague. I feel that we kind of belong together, my colleague and I. We are "family", and we are proud to wear our t-shirt. Today we are Reco. Do the employees feel this way every day? or is it just on Fridays? and is it just since a few weeks ago, when we got our t-shirts?

My colleague Albert and I wearing our new Reco t-shirts.

Employees importance in corporate brand building
Employees who are proud of the company they work for and feel like they belong together like a "family", are very important contributors to the corporate identity brand building.

According to Wikipedia, corporate identity consists of 3 factors:

1. Corporate design (logos, uniforms, corporate colors etc.)
2. Corporate communication (advertising, public relations, information, etc.)
3. Corporate behavior (internal values, norms, etc.)

Number 1 and 2 are quite obvious and most companies have clear policies here, but how about number 3? How is the company's corporate behavior? And how does the employees feel about the company's behavior? Are they familiar and comfortable with the company's values and norms? And do they feel ownership and pride when they represent and talk about the company?


Reco and HIPS - Health Initiative Private Sector
In August Reco organized a health fair, as part of their participation in HIPS, the Health Initiative for Private Sector in Uganda. The health fair was held on a Saturday in Kasese, the town in the west of Uganda where Reco's factory is based. The fair was addressing health issues like HIV and malaria prevention. Reco employees and the surrounding community was invited to take HIV tests for free, was offered mosquito nets at a subsidized price as well as getting counseling in regards to HIV and malaria prevention. The turnup of people was overwhelming. Reco even ran out of HIV testing kits.

Advise in regards to HIV prevention.

Malaria information and prevention. Reco employees could buy mosquito nets at a subsidized price.

Showing and promoting the products, also part of corporate identity work.

Reco's management introducing the HIV/Aids work policy.

Reco's HIV/AIDS work place policy.

No event in Africa without singing and dancing!

And last but not least: the food!

Events like these are so important, both for the corporate identity and the corporate culture. They bring together the company employees to a "family" and make them feel proud about their employer. By also involving the community and giving them free services, they are improving the company image.  With this initiative Reco has moved one step further in creating a strong and positive corporate culture, and this will in the long term also affect the corporate brand!

The brand can also "create" the culture!
The same way corporate culture can build the corporate brand, the brand can also build the culture. Creating a new corporate identity in the form of a strong visual identity (logo, colors, branding), clear communication and good values and norms for the employees, can improve the corporate culture. As a designer, this is very interesting for me. How can the Reco re-branding process influence on the corporate culture? Well, that reamins to see!

High heels and sharp brains! - women in business and setting goals for your success.

On Friday I attended my first "Women in Business Lunch" in Kampala. This was together with approximately 30 other lovely, intelligent, talented and determined women (a well balanced mix of Ugandans and ex-paths). I was grateful to be invited by the founder of this great initiative, Tracy Hathorn.

Tracy Hathorn, an inspiration for women in business in Uganda.

Tracy Hathorn is the CEO of Uganda Meat Producers Cooperative Union Ltd., and has been involved in setting up the Norwegian Business Centre in Kampala. She has for several years, been a recourse person for Norwegian businesses and projects who wants to work or establish themselves in Uganda. I met her in my job as a Project Manager for Design without Borders where she assisted us and gave us access to her wide network of businesses, organizations and recourse people in Uganda.

Moving down here, I realize that Tracy also inspires and brings together women who are in business in Uganda. What a woman! And what an important work she is doing uniting clever talented business women!


A color splash of inspiration - the pink table.
When we arrived we got a colored "stone", almost like a "diamond". I got pink, and was joining the other pink ladies and the pink table. The purple ladies sat on the purple table and so on. A great idea to mix people, so you don't go and sit with your friends or colleagues only. You meet new people, you learn new things and get new inspiration.

Our colored "diamonds". I got pink and sat on the pink table.

The pink table: Yodit Angsom, Brenda Mugwerwa and me.

Goal friends Africa

During the lunch Maddy Rice gave us an introduction to goal setting and encouraged us to join the group she has started, "Goal friends Africa". After leaving my "Goal Friend" Eva back in Norway, I was so happy to find new Goal friends here in Uganda.

Maddy Rice, calling herself a "goal addict", gave an inspirational speech.

I have now joined "Goal friends Africa".

I set goals!  and I believe thats the reason why I am now here in Uganda
In 2007 I made my first "goal board", and one of the first goals I put up was: "I will live and work in a warm country, at least in the winter". Maybe I was suffering from "winter blues" when I wrote it. I have never been a fan of the cold, and that has made it quite challenging for me to live in Norway. I always travel to a hot country in the winter, but I have never stayed for long. Until this year, when it was time for a change... 

Some of my first goals on my goal board. I have accomplished many of them! Africa must be a good place to learn how to play drums?

Get inspired to set goals!

The one who inspired me:
Anthony Robbins

Why set goals:
Why set goals?

Link up with Goal Friends here:
Web: Goal Friends
Facebook: GoalFriends Africa

Books recommended by Maddy Rice:
"Goals" - Brian Tracy
Finding happiness in the blue zones - Dan Buettner

Business women unite!
With my experience from being a woman in business in private industry in Europe for about 10 years, I know that it can often be challenging. And we have different challenges than men have. Having other women around us for support, motivation and discussions is so important. It can really give you that extra push that you need to materialize your ideas and your goals!

So women all over the world, I challenge you to:
1. Get together and start "women in business" networks.
2. Start setting goals for your life! if you are not doing it already.
3. Start "goal friends groups" to motivate you and celebrate the success when you reach your goals!

Stop production! - we are out of sugar...

... or out of mango... (they are not in season) .... or out of packaging material.... (it is too expensive, has to be ordered from China and it takes 4 months)...

It is not easy to run a manufacturing company based on natural raw materials. And it is not easy to run any business in a country that is landlocked and has to import almost everything, except from the natural raw materials. Welcome to Uganda!

The sugar crisis

The hot topic in the news in the last weeks has been the "sugar crisis". There is lack of sugar in the country and prices has doubled! And this despite Uganda being one of the most important sugar producers in Africa. And, I was wondering what's so important about that sugar?

What is all that fuzz about "sugar crisis" ?

That was until I realized that Reco, the company I work for, had to stop production because we had no sugar. All our products contains (a small amount of) sugar, and without it we can not produce anything. Orders are not being delivered, sales are going down, and we have a real crisis!

Fortunately last week, after being put on a waiting list for a few weeks, we were able to get sugar from one of the Ugandan sugar companies. Phu! Production could start again, and we are back in business!

Where things are not available all the time
But this gave me something to think about: I have almost never experienced that something is not available. In my home country, Norway, everything is available, - all the time! So, this is a new experience for me. It affects me in small scale in my daily life here in Uganda: if I see something in the shop that I like, I have to buy it there and then. Tomorrow it might not be there! One day there is cheese, another day there is no cheese. Thats life here. But, it is ok. It is good for me to learn to appreciate when the cheese is available ...

But, it really affects business here. And therefore also affects our project. The main raw materials needed for the products we are working with are fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are in season or out of season and they are depending on weather conditions. If the weather is not right, and the season is bad, there are no fruits and vegetables available until the next season.

We need mangoes NOW-NOW!
Like right now, we need mangoes for the development of the new products we are working on. But, there are no mangos in season until November, maybe December. Shame on you, mangoes! You are not not following the project time schedule!

Sarah Mundusu is a mango farmer, but she has no mango until November/December, only Guava. We need mangoes NOW to develop new products!

Peanut butter labels for the next 32 years
Other materials needed for our products are the packaging materials. Most packaging materials are not locally available in Uganda. They have to be ordered from China in big quantities, its expensive, delivery times are long and the transport cost to get them here are really high (even higher now, since the local currency it doing so badly). So, therefore it is "better to be safe than sorry". Let's make sure we have enough in stock, so we don't get a packaging material crisis.

Going through the stocks the other day shows that we have enough peanut butter labels for the next 32 years of production, if we continue our current production rate. And we want to redesign and launch the new labels this year. Means we have to destroy quite a lot of unused packaging material. Not good for environment. Not good for the company's economy. But, urgently necessary in order to "rescue" our product sales!

So, let the design of new packaging material begin! The design brief is ready. It is so exciting!


.... but the development of the new products has to wait for mango season...

We sit down and have tea!

“Could I please have access to your strategic documents, your vision and goals that you are working according to now and in the next few years?” – I asked the technical director this question the other day. He looked at me, smiled and said: “we don’t have any, we sit down and have tea”.

From working with big companies and organizations in Norway, we are so used to having visions, goals, strategies for the next year, for the next five years etc. “Everything you need to know about the company” is written down and serves as guidelines for what you are supposed to focus on and how to move forward with your work. I found my self asking: “but how do you know what to do then?”. The director's answer was “we just know”.

This gives me, a newcomer in the company and in the country, some challenges in doing my research and trying to understand how this company works and where we want to be in the future. Since I am working with their identity and branding these questions are crucial for me to be able to do a good job.

So, what to do then? Well, I have to look a bit beyond the traditional way of doing research (reading lots of documents), and just make sure I am there when they have their tea. In other words I need to spend time with the people here, observe, talk, ask questions and drink tea!

Being flexible and take advantage of opportunities

“Having tea instead of written formal strategic documents makes us flexible and able to turn around and take the advantage of opportunities that comes”, said the Technical Director. This is true. Looking historically at Reco's business and product development through my “strategic eyes”, it might seem a bit random. But, I am sure every step and turn they have made had a good reason, it was an opportunity that came by and they took it. I just have to find out how and why.

The latest example of Reco taking new opportunities, is their development and production of “Ready to use Therapeutic Food” – RUTAFA. This was a project done together with USAID and NuLife. RUTAFA is made specifically for severely malnourished people, most of them living with HIV/AIDS. There is a big need for this kind of treatment and food supplements in Uganda. 

Since suitable raw materials like peanuts, milk, sugar and vegetable oil are widely available in Uganda, why should these kind of products be imported and not produced locally? Well, Reco asked themselves this question, and they did something about it. The RUTAFA has been a very successful project and the products are now being used by Unicef and World Food Programme.

- I feel proud working with a flexible company that sits down and has tea!

More info on the RUTAFA project:

NuLife - Food and nutrition interventions for Uganda