8 Rules of Management - Africa Edition

When I came in January, I figured I'd be networking a lot as "Business Development Engineer" so I printed off some business cards. In what turned out to be the first of many business card sourcing failures in the last 6 months, they came out pronouncing me as SMIDO's "Business Development Manager" instead of "Engineer". Cool! I'm a manager! A little bit on the side of ego, and a bit on usefulness, the title stuck.



So, after 6 months of managing, what have i learned?

1) Understand local context, systems, and existing relationships

When I first arrived I wanted to use my experience in Canadian industry to accelerate the growth of SMIDO's Engineering Program to success. I quickly realized that almost everything I had learned in school and in industry didn't apply here.

One big thing I believe in is performance-based incentives. I noticed some of the people on my team were passionate, while others sat around not doing anything. When Emma and I made it known that we would reward people for hard work by providing bonuses, the entire workshop lit up in fireworks decrying "We are all the same! We all want to be paid the same!" While people complained in private about those who sat around, the group and community mentality took over in public.

Another idea I tried to promote was sub-contracting work to various people around the Magazine so we could have several highly effective teams working in parallel on different projects while also spreading SMIDO's benefits to more people, rather than the team at our central workshop which was poorly equipped and needed major investment. It turned into a bigger political mess than you can imagine. In the end, there was some practical reason to stick to our central workshop, but it was highly fueled by specific interests that took me several months to realize and come to terms with.

In short, there are so many existing relationships, systems, and political reasons for why things happen that it's nearly impossible for any foreigner to come in and expect to drive change without first living, observing, and interacting with people for months.

2) Systems of accountability are key

Almost all of the people I "manage" are actually executives of SMIDO. As such, while on the surface I was managing, in reality I was their employee. Aside from a week when they ironically all went on strike, the biggest challenge is that there is no system of accountability. No carrot. No stick. No motivation to work hard or comply with rules.

If you can't hire and fire, discipline and reward, then good luck on running an organization! Systems of accountability are incredibly important for a well functioning company or NGO.

3) The gray areas of management

When I first arrived my goal was to squash corruption and misappropriation of funds. It's not that people weren't trustworthy, but rather that systems weren't in place to properly account for money.

On our first project of 60 conveyor belt support frames, we asked the team to write a budget. When reviewing it, we noticed that many of the costs were inflated - the budget required a ridiculous 120 hacksaw blades for the project (2 per unit, in case one broke, ya know?). Emma and I quickly took over the estimating and budget writing role.

Six months in, I find myself on the other side of the fence, preparing inflated budgets for the people above me. I've realized that this wasn't about cheating the system, but about hedging against fluctuating markets in the Magazine and unpredictable cuts in funding. There is so much vulnerability and risk working in the Magazine that your contingency margins sometimes need to be as high as 100%.

Six months in, I also start to see the lines more clearly between corruption and culture. On one trip to a client's site, for some reason we stopped to buy several loaves of bread as a "gift" for the engineers there. I was concerned by this and other events, so I started working on a SMIDO Anti-Corruption Policy.

Another example: when $20 was given for a $17 purchase, the $3 balance would often disappear. Today, seeing how much our workers sacrifice with little pay and little incentive, I find myself more often saying "keep the change" and accounting for a $20 purchase.

My host father George once told me over dinner, "Family, brotherhood, and community is the most important thing in Africa. If you are doing well, then you are expected to help your cousins's cousins when they are struggling."

I know this type of management doesn't fly in Canada, or even in formal industry here, but I can see the implications of brotherhood that "buying bread" represents, and can more easily turn a blind eye to the $3 balance.

4) Micro-managing sucks

Yes it sucks, and I do it toooooo much! Typically our clients give us a sample product that they want manufactured, and we make a copy cat. On this latest project, all we had to work with were CAD drawings. Since the artisans had no previous experience reading engineering plans, Emma and I had to provide constant direction and support.

Additionally, we had to encourage our team to work to a higher standard of safety and quality since the Magazine is typically not the place to find right angles and parallel lines. Although it's been a fun challenge to build the skills, as well as an eye for quality over the last six months, it hasn't been easy.

I think they key to not micro-managing is having a team with the right skills to begin with, or having the resources to train them. Here we didn't have much of either. Maybe micro-managing was a necessary evil in this setting, but it's certainly not healthy. It's certainly not something I do well.

Since we are working on the second unit of two right now, I've been able to take a step back and let the team develop on the skills we taught them. I have to say, it's been satisfying to watch the progress this time around.

5) Limited resources suck too

SMIDO's coffers are pretty empty these days, with various projects competing for attention. Often though, the people who's attention you need have little understanding of the reality on the ground. Understanding both the need for incentives and also the hard work of our people at the shop, I've become a strong advocate for paying our workers more and securing more money to improve tools and safety in the shop. It's usually an uphill battle, but well worth it.

This extends pretty well to development as a whole. People on the ground face the challenge of explaining field realities to headquarters, which then has to translate those realities for international donors. I suppose a great deal is lost in translation though.

6) Slooooooow down

Coming from Vancouver and Toronto where buses have a schedule, important meetings start on time, and you show up for an interview 15 minutes before you're told, I had a hard time adjusting to Ghanaian Standard Time (GST) - which, by the way, has nothing to do with what the clock reads.

Today when I find myself waiting for something out of my control, I sit contently without a great deal of stress. I understand that maybe someone had to run to a funeral, or a mother had to stop and feed the baby she carries all day on her back, or that the taxi had a flat tire for the 100th time. In the meantime, find an opportunity to learn something while you wait.

7) Going beyond power and ego

One thing I have yet to get used to is the intense hierarchy in African societies. With huge sense of societal inferiority, a waiter in a restaurant barely whispers "good morning" when he comes to take your order, women usually start a conversation with "please, I beg you", and the idea of criticizing your boss is out of the question, especially if you're a 21 year old kid with too many ideas for what you think is positive change.

Fine, I can respect traditional hierarchy, but Africa also suffers from Big-Man-itis. The long standing socially entrenched power relationships of men - especially big, rich men - and associated ego trips are not something I'm a fan of.

8) That said, I'm not a politician

As per #7, you need to exercise immense tact and political stamina when dealing with complex situations among other leaders. Even with tact, sometimes there is no control over ridiculous outcomes and you face risk of your brain imploding from frustration. I've sat in far too many meetings where the outcome was decided in the minds of Big Men before the meeting and discussion even started.

Coming from an organization like EWB which resembles a pancake in it's hierarchy, where you can openly call up the CEO with a concern, I have yet to adjust to Africa's Big Man culture.

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So after six months, I've had many ups and many more downs. My good friend and colleague Yaw gave me some words of encouragement yesterday over beers: "If you can manage successfully at SMIDO, in the most frustrating environment in the world, then you'll have a breeze anywhere in the formal private sector."

Well... I've almost managed successfully.

Looking back, I've achieved some major outcomes, but I'm not too satisfied with the means. I consider this a learning experience, and as the Ghanaians say, it's a gradual process!

But I bet even Peter Drucker and Jack Welch would be sweating buckets here in the Magazine.