> Posted by Danielle Piskadlo, Manager, Investing in Inclusive Finance, CFI
Last year, before I was a parent, my colleague Deborah Drake wrote a blog post asking “What do Governance and Parenting Have in Common?” Now that I am a parent, I would like to draw another commonality between governance and parenting: both are easier said than done!
There is plenty of literature out there on the best practices of parenting but in reality, it is really hard work, full of uncertain information and mixed advice. You may know the importance of letting them cry it out, feeding veggies, limiting screen time, or talking to your kids about risky behavior. However, we also know how hard these things can be to do in practice, and how often they get avoided, explained away, or ignored. It is often hard as a parent to take a long-term view or to experience the short-term pain needed for long-term gain. You just have to pick your battles, hope for the best outcome, and know there will be unforeseen challenges and crises along the way.
Same goes for governance. It is tricky to bring up the difficult conversations at board meetings, hard to think strategically about the long-term when you are busy putting out today’s fires. It is challenging to adhere to all the recognized best practices, and often difficult even to decipher which practices are important to adhere to.
In both parenting and governing, it is helpful to have advice and benchmarks to sort through all the noise. Googling teething or breastfeeding may provide some help, as will reading up on risk management or strategic alignment. But too often, these searches will leave you wondering where you actually stand between “nothing to worry about” and “oh boy, do we have a problem.” This is because these topics are harder to learn from literature and easier to learn from people who have been there.
As a parent, it is critical to have a network. We have leaned heavily on new daycare friends and playgroup acquaintances to share information, swap stories, recommend doctors, and get advice. It is incredibly helpful to laugh about the mistakes we make as parents with others who understand how hard it is. The camaraderie I feel with my fellow parents-in-arms is strong, and I rely on them as a support network to help me sort through the noise and find my own style as a parent.
Governance is no different – board members and CEOs need support networks. This is why we are launching the Accion Africa Board Fellowship (ABF) program. This program is designed to engage board members and CEOs throughout sub-Saharan Africa in peer learning and exchange. It is our hope that connecting leaders throughout Africa through this fellowship program will create a platform for peers to share their experiences and lessons learned. The ABF is designed as an opportunity for fellows to frankly and openly discuss the successes they have celebrated and the challenges they have encountered.
The ABF program is a chance for fellows to share “this is how we dealt with a time of change, transformation, growth,” or to provide insights on introducing new technologies. It will give fellows an opportunity to think strategically about the long-term view, to build the resolve needed to address the important governance challenges, and to create a peer support network able to share insights, resources, and experience. It is a fellowship for African leaders to help each other sort through the noise.
Parenting is like governance, both require a peer support network, both are important responsibilities that you have to take seriously, and both are easier said than done.
We look forward to more formally introducing the ABF program soon. Stay tuned for more information.
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October 22, 2014 at 1:07 pm
John Gitau
Danielle, this is an excellent post! I love it. It flows effortlessly and mirrors practical reality as we experience it ( not necessarily as we define it academically).
I find the following conclusions philosophical and loaded with wisdom “You just have to pick your battles, hope for the best outcome, and know there will be unforeseen challenges and crises along the way” and then another beautiful one “It is challenging to adhere to all recognized best practices, and often difficult even to decipher which practices are important to adhere to”.
The sweet flavor in your post comes from one salient element you clearly bring out: Spontaneity! You explain spontaneity in the support mechanisms as stages in the life cycle. You are now a parent and as you take your baby to the hospital for normal immunizations or seek medical attention, you meet fellow parents seeking the same with some more experienced than others who, in the chatting share useful tips and insights with the less experienced parents in that spontaneous classroom. When your baby gets to school age, you will meet parents bringing their kids to school with some more experienced and thus sharing useful tips in children upbringing as they get to school.
In governance, as your board takes a retreat in a hotel, you may encounter another set of people also having their annual retreat or strategic planning seminar and as you meet in the dinning room, you get to share with the strangers some great insight about board dynamics or challenges in strategic planning etc.
Now, Danielle, your misstep comes up when you espouse the formalization of these networks. ABF program as a formal network will become yet another talk shop just like most are. Something happens when we try to formalize what appears to be good in its spontaneity. It innocently appears as a better way of harnessing what is good and useful. What we forget is that, how we handle knowledge formally is totally different from how we handle the same socially in its natural unmeditated setting. We are so genuine in our spontaneous comments but the moment we are called upon formally, we wear artificial psychological makeups and dress up in our best ego garments. We start preparing papers to present and our egos tell us to sound educated and sophisticated. We buy new clothes to impress our peers and we tell ourselves that we want to make an impression so that our peers can know that we are a force to reckon with. We then start spending because we have to fly and accommodate ourselves in the best hotels and book the state of the art conference rooms to give ourselves the ambiance that befits learned people. Unfortunately, the results are just lofty sounding conference papers, show biz, fattening food, expensive wines and outings to see the cities as name badges dangle from our necks.
When we fly back home after three days, we feel great about ourselves as we show our families pictures of our travels and exploits. Soon after, that is forgotten, and papers go unread or acted upon until the next time when a followup workshop is called up by the overzealous newly elected leaders of the new talk shop eager to show off their leadership acumen and pro-activity.
Compare that with seating next to a corporate magnate in your flight from visiting with your relatives and sharing insights that become so helpful in your board meetings. Indeed, spontaneity is more useful than arranged showbiz masquerading as think tank sessions meant to revolutionize what is deceptively getting to the next level.
So, Danielle, your last paragraph about ABF and its upcoming launch is actually the skeleton in your most delicious post feast! It is indeed an anticlimax.
October 23, 2014 at 12:25 pm
Danielle Piskadlo
John, thanks for your comment and I am glad that you liked this blog.I think your comments are spot on. We are being very cognizant to design the fellowship program in a format that would prevent it from becoming “yet another talk shop” that is soon forgotten. As such, the fellowship is structured to take place over an extended period in order to help foster the development of genuine relationship and the trust needed to have honest and open conversations.