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1,500 feet over the Brooks Range — July 16
Today Gretchen Specht, Foraker’s Controller, and I visited Anaktuvuk Pass.
This remote community was established in the 1960’s when the only Inupiaq community living away from the coast settled in a mountain pass where their primary subsistence food, caribou, migrate. I recommend this as a great place to visit for a bucket list.
We came as a part of a capacity building initiative funded by Shell and USDA. In a few hours we helped two organizations with accounting questions, connected other leaders to resources to enhance their food pantry and establish a clothes closet for those in need, guided a young Native entrepreneur toward a process so he could realize his dream, provided assistance to the museum seeking accreditation, and maybe even recruited a student for our nonprofit certificate.
Most would call this a productive day. But what may shock my western colleagues is that we did this with no prior planning, other than letting one person know what day we would show up.
That is what led to today’s snippet of insight – regardless of what you may have learned, we don’t always need structured time to be productive. Often going with the flow is the only way. Going with the flow may be the best way to work with some cultures, but I’ve seen it work with most.
We understand that capacity is built over time. What today reinforced for me is that when we allow others to define their outcomes, we help build capacity.
So today’s insight is chill. Just try to be more flexible and see what happens. You may learn something.
Dennis