Sylvia is in Kabul to work with Management Sciences for Health (MSH) in the Techserve Project providing leadership and management support for the extensive projects that MSH has there. She continues to post a daily blog as she has since picking it up from the able hands of Sita who started it as a post-crash [...]
The publicly projected strategy in Afghanistan has continued to be one of a military response to the resurgence of the Taliban and re-invigoration of Al-Queda. This, despite a huge increase in development assistance to the country, has contributed to the perception that the increased effort was indeed nothing but another turn of the (military) screw, a continuation of the Bush approach to the war, albeit with higher levels of resources.
Designing a number of linked innovations across an entire organization requires a method of design that permits a business-wide set of design interactions. That method has to be some form of process that brings in more parts of an enterprise, is intensely collaborative, creates movement towards action and breaks down previous patterns of making decisions.
From the conversations we had this weekend, I think everyone I met has lived their life that way. What an affirming moment, after forty years, to understand that all that intense activity was not a flash in the pan, a spark that lit the air once, then vaporized.
