Milk vs. Cassava

July 20, 2012

Some people simply have a way with words. Our wonderful translator
Gilbert, a 20 year-old Nyarubuye native who taught himself English
after finishing secondary school here, is definitely one of them.

Perched on the only chair in the room slightly above the rest of us on
the benches below and wearing a light blue t-shirt with a cowboy boot
from some random 5K in Texas, Gilbert straightened his posture while
preparing to make an important proclamation. Deep into a meeting of
translators and scholars yesterday morning, he asserted, "You see,
babies drink milk first. They cannot eat cassava. The problem here is
that the people, they want to eat cassava, but they are not ready."
Well obviously, why hadn't we already thought of that?

The scholars had convened a special meeting with the translators to go
beyond the tactical preparations for each day. As our work becomes
increasingly complicated and as each scholar's design team develops
its own agenda and personality, we wanted to bring everyone together
to make sure we are on track as a larger Think Impact team. We do not
know what people are saying when we hear our names around town, and we
asked the translators to help us gauge whether people are confused,
excited, nervous, inspired, or frustrated with our work thus far. What
surfaced in this discussion was very interesting and hugely important
for all of us.

Gilbert explained that babies cannot digest cassava; they must drink
milk. In our work this summer, we are guiding and leading our teams
through an immensely complex process, nurturing them with "milk" in
the form of frameworks and tools that will enable them continue to
pursue new business opportunities long after we return to the States.
Yet much like a baby and despite our best intentions, our teams do not
always understand what the steps we are taking or why. Some people are
getting anxious about our progress while others eager to begin
discussing solutions in earnest (aka "I am ready for solid foods.").
Patience for steps in between (aka drinking the "milk" upon which
everything else will grow) is slowly decreasing. Dare I say they might
not "trust the process?"

All week we have been taking important steps to prepare our teams for
cassava. Two days ago we each led a 90 minute workshop on design
thinking with our individual design teams. I remember feeling confused
about how exactly the process would elicit any truly innovative ideas
when I read my first design book, so you can imagine the furrowed
brows of the women gathered at our meeting as we tried to discuss
prototyping, feedback, and iteration using the example of laundry in
their homes. Their eyes told me, "You want us to do what?" Since then
we have focused on the identification of the challenge we want to
solve, with ideas ranging from how to refrigerate milk to sell at the
market in nearby Rwamagana to how to use less water for cooking to how
to be able to save enough money to pay feels for secondary school. In
our meeting later today, we will decide upon the specific issue in the
community that we want to address. Each of these activities is an
important piece of the puzzle.

Perhaps more importantly, however, we scholars are slowly learning
that aside from completing specific deliverables and outputs, managing
the process, explaining the context, and measuring our design team's
morale and expectations are equally essential in preparing to eat
cassava. In addition to including specific tasks in our meeting
agendas, we are also experimenting with different ways to engage our
teams in discussion of the process itself. We've played games like
"The Wheel of Challenges" and drawn story boards of the steps that
lead to our ultimate goals. Their eyes and their smiles are a good
gauge of if these things are working. We are still drinking the milk,
but buhoro, buhoro hamwe (slowly, slowly together), we are making
progress.

Today already marks the end of the Inspiration phase of the Innovation
Institute, and next week we move into the Innovation phase. Equipped
with the challenge that we will have so carefully selected with our
teams over the last two week, we will begin to brainstorm creative
solutions using the assets already in the community. It is a little
frightening that we have only have 2.5 weeks to make it happen! We are
still not quite ready to eat the cassava, but we are getting closer.
Thankfully Gilbert will be with us for the rest of the journey to
guide us all with his wise and patient words!