One of the few uncrowded places left

As anyone with some experience in the industry could have predicted, my first foray into development back in the summer of 1998 got off to a rocky start.

In fact, things started to go south the day that I was introduced to my new "counterparts" in the Privatization Ministry of Bosnia's Serb Republic. I had not prepared myself for the possibility that my counterparts might have absolutely no interest in the knowledge or services that my team had been contracted to provide. 

I vaguely recall my first meeting with the Minister. For the sake of simplicity, let's call him "Mr. O". My first discussion with Mr O went something like this:

"Mr. Schneider, we have serious business here, we are serious people, and we can not waste any time. When will we start cooperation with USAID Project? 

Mr. O, it is nice to meet you. I am very pleased to be here. Now perhaps I am confused, but I understand that my team has been working with you and your staff for several weeks already, drafting the laws and regulations for privatization. And, once that is finished, it is our intention to help build your IT system, conduct the training ... (here Mr. O cuts me off) 

Mr. Schneider, we are serious people, we can not waste any time. I want to know when will we start our cooperation?

As I was saying Mr. O, my team is working with your staff to draft the legal framework for your privatization and once that is completed we are planning to support the implementation of the process in many different ways, from developing the voucher transaction system, training auctioneers, reviewing company balance sheets, furnishing equipment at payment bureau sites ... (here again I am cut off)

Mr. Schneider, we are serious people and we can not waste any time. If we can not cooperate together I will ask USAID to remove you and replace you with someone who will cooperate with us.  That is all for today Mr. Schneider. (Mr. O finished while pointing at the door)"

I left that first meeting scratching my head. And I took my translator to a coffee house on the way back to the office because I wanted to try and understand what had just happened.  My translator explained that Mr. O was using the term "cooperation" as shorthand for letting him manage the project's money.  In a nutshell, he wanted to hire staff of his choosing, manage them in his office, and then have you pay for it.  Well, I didn't need anyone to tell me that this kind of arrangement was not going to fly, but I couldn't find anyone to tell me how I might break through this "cooperation" issue. Figuring it out would essentially become my on the job training.

The next few meetings with Mr. O went pretty much the same as the first. It drove me nuts. I tried everything, but no matter what I proposed, he had the same response. I think that once he realized that I wouldn't - or couldn't - really budge on what he was asking for, he just decided to have some fun with me. He'd say things like:

"Mr. Schneider, I see you are here again to waste more of my time. You know, if you were as serious as we are about this project we would already be finished. In fact, that is what I told the Prime Minister last night. I informed him that everything was fine except that the USAID project will not cooperate with us because you, Mr. Schneider, are not professional. The Prime Minister told me that he will speak to USAID and have you removed, so you should start looking for a new job Mr. Schneider."    

Well, Mr. O may have been having fun with me for a bit, but apparently after some time he did finally grow tired of me not capitulating to his wishes and did consult the Prime Minister. I found out about it when I got a phone call from my boss one morning who told me that our USAID client was coming up at the end of the week to meet with the Prime Minister to discuss urgent issues with our project. He made it sound ominous. My boss flew up the next day to spend a couple days with me ahead of the meeting - to try and preemptively sort things out. At one point he went over to the Ministry to try and meet with Mr. O and de-escalate. He got an earful of poison before getting kicked out, and concluded that a showdown was inevitable. 

Our USAID client's meeting with the Prime Minister took place on that Friday morning. Neither me or my boss were invited to attend. We sat in the office for a couple of hours waiting for news, it felt like forever. Eventually our client got back to our office, sat us down and recounted the discussion. They wanted me gone, and he did not see any other way to resolve it.  My short development career was over .... or so I thought. 

And then something unexpected happened. My boss realized that Mr. O's issue wasn't with me, it was his interest in controlling the project's funding, and replacing me would not solve that problem. By explaining this, he was able to convince our USAID client to follow up by asking the Prime Minister to direct Mr. O to develop a comprehensive and detailed work plan for completing the entire privatization and capital markets development process, and include with it a clear outline of the support he needed from USAID in the context of his plan. The Prime Minister was receptive the request. He called Mr. O into his office the next day, directed him to have a plan completed within two weeks, and offered him two choices:  

1. He could gather his staff and lead the effort himself. If he was able to do it then USAID would agree to remove me and sit down with him to negotiate direct support. If he wasn't able to do it, the Prime Minister would find a new Mr. O.  
2. He could ask me to lead the effort for him, using my staff together with his for two weeks. If I was able to do it, he would let me stay, let me manage my team, and utilize our support through the process. And if I wasn't able to do it, USAID would replace me with someone else. 

Mr. O chose option 2. The next two weeks was one of the most professionally challenging and rewarding times of my life. We nailed it.  I'll skip over the details and cut to the point. Six years later, at my going away party, Mr. O and I stood together in front of our teams and reflected on all the things we were able to accomplish working together.    

It all could have turned out much differently. Even though I was just doing my job, the easiest thing for everyone to do that day would have been to follow the path of least resistance and appease their chains of command.  They all could have just thanked me for trying, sent me packing, and brought the next lamb in to be slaughtered. And that is how tenuous things can be in development. 

But I had three key things working for me that day: 

1. I was working for an individual who could see that I was capable of creating a lot of value for the project if given the chance. 
2. I was working for an organization that had the courage to ask USAID to respond to a Prime Minister's request with a counter-request, 
3. I had a client at USAID who was willing to listen to an implementor's suggestion and push back with it in a politically charged situation. 

I survived that experience because I was surrounded by people and organizations that were not driven by fear.

The Bottom Line

While I've never been a big fan of motivational posters I'll never forget one that used to hang on the wall in my old gym. It was a picture of someone climbing up a wall of ice somewhere that looked really cold with the caption: "Be Courageous - It's One Of The Few Uncrowded Places Left". That sentiment really speaks to what has become increasingly frustrating about the development industry. Sure, the rhetoric speaks of innovation and change, but the day-to-day decisions are deeply rooted in fear of failure and/or upsetting chains of command. And this is all too often done at the expense of achieving real development results. My story above would probably have had a much different ending had it had happened today.

It is tough to work in an industry that has lost its courage when you are still driven by a commitment to delivering real results. It helps to remind yourself that it is not personal whenever fear-driven leaders or fear-based decisions impede your work. Most of our industry is going to struggle to transcend its fear-centric orientation until the incentives in the system are changed at the macro-level. If you expect people within the system to act against their own self interest, you are going to get more and more disappointed. 

When you don't expect it, you will be pleasantly surprised when you find people that do. Even in today's environment there are people in our industry that still care more about what their projects accomplish than they do about how it impact their careers. And if you really want to get serious about achieving development results, you need to learn to recognize courageous people when they are around and make the most of those opportunities. Courage in development may ultimately always be perilous, but it is also what gets extraordinary things done.

- DS