Sports Analysis
Last week, Amplify Governance had a team meeting. We all traveled from our various locations in Ghana to spend a weekend going over what we’re doing, how we’re adapting, and where the organization is going.
Our directors kicked off with a reminder to stay humble. Ghanaians are used to foreigners coming to the country with grand schemes that rarely work. Usually we come with some sort of project, spend a ton of money, and leave without solving anything. Furthermore, we think we’re right. We think that we can enter a new culture and context and somehow solve everything in less than a year. Understandingly, Ghanaians tend to resent foreigners’ arrogant attitudes.
At the risk of sounding pompous and missing the point, I totally see where Ghanaians are coming from. Maybe this is too much of a stretch, but during the discussion I thought a lot about Ultimate Frisbee. Ulti is huge in Vancouver and I’ve been playing for years. It’s a co-ed sport, but not completely fair between men and women.
I’m pretty good at Ultimate, but I’m a girl. As a result, every time I play with a new team, I need to work 110% to prove myself. If I drop the frisbee once during the first game, I won’t be passed to again. It doesn’t matter how many passes I catch, the dropped one will still have consequences.
It isn’t the same for men. I know guys who drop a lot or can’t throw, but they still get the disc more often than a girl of superior skill.
I think it takes 2 seasons of playing with a team regularly before we start to trust each other. It takes about 2 years before I get comfortable enough with a team to take some risks, but actually play better.
In Ghana, Amplify is like the new girl on the team. It’s going to take a long time for us to overcome our reputation of just another foreign organization with a useless project to implement. We feel our mistakes are magnified – like it doesn’t matter how hard we’re running and that a throw to us was so bad it was uncatchable, everyone still sniggers when we drop the frisbee.
Unfortunately there’s no way to expedite team bonding. It just takes time.
Rebuilding Foundations 
Interesting perspective. Definitely fits with some of my experiences in Ghana.