{"id":35864,"date":"2024-02-15T10:42:33","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T18:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=35864"},"modified":"2024-02-15T11:04:51","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T19:04:51","slug":"heres-to-many-more-years-in-the-desert-templates-for-flourishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/heres-to-many-more-years-in-the-desert-templates-for-flourishing\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s to Many More Years in the Desert: Templates for Flourishing!"},"content":{"rendered":"

This month marks the three-year anniversary of my arrival in Mauritania. My experiences in this country have pushed me further than I thought possible and made me grow more than I could have imagined. Reflecting on Poole’s list of Critical Incidents<\/em> [1], I couldn’t help but think back to those early days in Mauritania and the situations where I wanted to find the first flight home. Although I still have difficult days, I am more familiar with the different difficult situations that will present themselves to me and I have the tools to handle them well\u2026 or well-ish. I loudly hear the echo of Joseph Campbell, \u201cAnd by a like miracle, so will each whose work is the difficult, dangerous task of self-discovery and self-development be portered across the ocean of life.\u201d [2] Oh, how true this has been!<\/p>\n

The best advice I received upon my arrival in Mauritania from a fellow expatriate is to maintain the desire to learn. Poole writes, \u201c\u2026as a species, if we do not keep learning, we are not adapting, which threatens our future survival.\u201d [3] Learning has been essential in Mauritania. However, I must admit that I thought I was a ready and willing learner until I arrived in Africa. I discovered there were things I didn’t want to learn (i.e. residency card processes, currency conversions, mechanics, electricians, an unwritten dialect, etc.). There have been times when I have begrudgingly gone through difficult situations and not retained anything meaningful for similar future situations. In this regard, I appreciated Poole’s 3Rs of adult learning: receptivity<\/strong>, retention, <\/strong>and retrieval<\/strong>. She writes: \u201cAll three must work to ensure that learning is acquired, retained and usable.\u201d [4] I was able to process the 3Rs in my context:<\/p>\n

Receptiveness. <\/strong>From the first months of my arrival in Nouakchott, I began to take small steps outside the safety of my apartment. I found myself volunteering time in a small clinic to revamp systems to track patient diagnoses. Poole writes, \u201c…learning needs to appeal to our survival instinct. \u2018First, is this new?\u2019 Novelty appeals to the collector instinct in your brain. \u2018Then, how will this knowledge help me this week, next week, when?\u2019\u201d [5] There was so much new that I often felt exhausted. However, each new experience in the clinic transformed my way of understanding, or interpreting, or viewing the community in which the clinic served. [6] Each new step was progress in better understanding the culture. It really was like diving into the deep end.<\/p>\n

Retention. <\/strong>I have learned the importance of creating meaning to my life in Africa. I could easily remain passive and allow the critical incidents <\/em>to fly at me or I can proactively prepare myself for when they come. Poole outlines Vicki Culpin’s mnemonic for retention \u2013 MARC \u2013\u00a0 the four key principles necessary to ensure effective storage in long-term memory: Meaning<\/strong> (the organization of material, building on previous knowledge), Attention<\/strong> (effort and motivation), Repetition<\/strong> (rehearsal) and Creativity<\/strong> (distinctiveness and uniqueness). [7] It took me time to understand the agency I had in each difficult situation. Above all, work in the clinic. A very simple example of harnessing this agency was preparing good questions and agenda topics for staff meetings. This required intentionality and foresight as these meetings were often done in two languages, French and Arabic. This was something the clinic director (Kari) and I worked on together. We found staff meetings became more inspired as colleagues were given the space to contribute to the conversation and take ownership of their work. I learned a lot from the local staff this way and was able to find new ways to engage with the culture.<\/p>\n

Retrieval. <\/strong>Poole writes, \u201cthe quickest way I have found to learn something is to teach it, as soon afterwards as you can.\u201d [8] At the end of December, I stepped away from my position as administrator of a nonprofit clinic in Mauritania. Just yesterday I met with expats and local staff to celebrate the clinic’s 18 years of serving the community. There was a good number of people present and everyone shared their thoughts about the clinic and the things they had learned. I was moved to hear one of the national nurses share the importance of listening to patients and the idea that complete healing comes not only from physical well-being but also from mental well-being. This belief was deeply instilled in the clinic director (Kari) and me, and we sought to pass it on to the staff. Although I am no longer present at the clinic, this belief remains with the staff. Poole describes this as legacy<\/em>. [9] She states, \u201cPartly as a virtuous discipline, and partly to cement your own learning, a vital element of your leadersmithing will be to become an apprentice master to others.\u201d I will continue to teach the idea of wholeness and I trust the clinic staff will continue to pass it on.<\/p>\n

In her TedTalk \u201cLeadersmithing\u201d posted to YouTube on April 12, 2017, Eve Poole describes the formation of pearls from a piece of grit. Literally, grit is a small, loose particle of sand. However, when it comes to leadership, it’s strength of character. I find this strength comes from the building of \u2018muscle memory\u2019 or templating. Poole writes, \u201cThis means that when [leaders] have to perform any of these activities in their real work they feel resourced to do so. This allows leaders to meet situations head on that would normally make them feel stressed and yet still be able to maintain their cognitive functioning, because they have templates for them.\u201d [10] Upon first arrival in Mauritania, I sensed a lack of agency to make sense of an unfamiliar culture. However, with time, help from expat and national colleagues, and a real understanding of grit, I have learned templates for flourishing, and I am ready to pass them onto others. Here\u2019s to many more years in the desert!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1] The meaning of Critical Incidents<\/em> is challenging situations that everyone faces.<\/p>\n

[2] Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces<\/em> (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell) (p. 44). Joseph Campbell Foundation. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n

[3] Eve Poole, Leadersmithing: Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership<\/em> (p. 43). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n

[4] Ibid, 43.<\/p>\n

[5] Ibid, 43.<\/p>\n

[6] Jan Meyer and Ray Land, Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge <\/em>(London: Routledge, 2006)<\/p>\n

[7] Vicki Culpin, In Leadersmithing: Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership<\/em> (p. 44). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n

[8] Eve Poole, Leadersmithing<\/em> (p. 45)<\/p>\n

[9] Eve Poole, Leadersmithing <\/em>(p. 180)<\/p>\n

[10] Eve Poole, Leadersmithing<\/em> (p. 11)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This month marks the three-year anniversary of my arrival in Mauritania. My experiences in this country have pushed me further than I thought possible and made me grow more than I could have imagined. Reflecting on Poole’s list of Critical Incidents [1], I couldn’t help but think back to those early days in Mauritania and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":208,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2967,2090],"class_list":["post-35864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp03","tag-poole","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/208"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35864"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35873,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35864\/revisions\/35873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}