Heat, humidity and humility

2 weeks ago I (Matt) made the arduous 12 hour bus journey to Dar for our annual branch strategy meetings. Although the journey takes you through some beautiful scenery the length of time sitting in one spot with as much space as on a budget airline does leave you a little the worse for wear! However, since this is the only way in and out of Mbeya, it had to be done.

The wall of humidity that hits you when you get off the bus (in the ‘evening cool’) does nothing to aid your arrival. Although we know what to expect now it still doesn’t help too much when you are acclimatised to the altitude and coolness of Mbeya air. It really is something.

Despite the heat and the power cuts which made evenings even stickier(!), the week was generally a very good experience. A variety of people from different locations and job areas gathered in Dar to discuss a number of branch-wide issues for four days. For many of the topics we did not have any real answers. Discussions were had, opinions and ideas aired and ways forward proposed however we were all keenly aware that we hold no answers within ourselves. We all brought unique experience and ideas however we know that the work we are involved in, the challenges we face and the unknown-ness of the future all combine to require us to always be humble when looking forward. We must propose changes and new ways forward, some which are going to be difficult, with a humility that is prepared to be wrong and to take responsibility.

A couple of weeks before these meetings we had a ‘team building’ workshop in Mbeya where much of the time was taken discussing leadership techniques, decision making processes and conflict resolution methods. As I think about this again I see that strong but humble leadership will help build a strong team. A team needs leading, there are very few occasions where consensus leadership is appropriate, but it also needs the members to trust and respect the leader. Humility breeds this respect, disarming conflict before it appears and putting trust in, and credit for any success, firmly at the feet of the only one who is worthy of it all!

It was great to be a part of these meetings, to get to know better some wonderful people and to input from my experience. However when all is said and done I know that our plans and ideas cannot just be our own. We must raise our eyes to the only one who makes any plans succeed in perfect time.