PILOTed:

I just finished a week in Niger teaching African Development Universalis (ADU) students “Sensemaking, Problem Solving, and Achieving Success”

This was one of the most rewarding weeks of my life.

I got to spend 4 days with sixty 21-23 year old young adults (2 2-day classes of 30 students each). Understand that only about 2% of students in Niger get to attend university, so these are all individuals who have demonstrated a capacity of scholarship and leadership.

The newly founded ADU will have its first graduating class next year. ADU has a mission of providing young adults with the tools they need to be successful and transform the country. You may have noticed “Universalis” instead of University in the name. One thinks of Universities providing courses in specific disciplines in order to graduate students who are knowledgeable in those content areas. ADU chose the Latin Universalis because it means universal as ADU’s mission includes whole person learning. While students may take some traditional courses in literature, economics, computer science, etc. ADU will often interrupt classes for days to focus students on life skills. They invite specialists around the world to come and teach 1-2 day classes based on their areas of expertise. Students intern at outside organizations. They have trips to NGO’s, company, and government facilities to assist in projects that are national priorities. It is a unique experience.

I presented the “Sensemaking, Problem Solving, and Achieving Success” course in English. Niger is a French speaking country, and none of the students has ever been to an English speaking one. They all already speak two languages, the language of their ethnic community and French. English is their third or fourth language. Imagine taking a 2-day course in a language where you had never heard a native speaker. That’s what they did.

If you are not familiar with Niger, let me give you a little background. It is part of Francophone (French speaking) Africa, and has been an independent country since 1960. The country has traditionally relied on agriculture, but the desertification of Africa means that about 2/3 of the county is now arid desert, and in the rest, what used to be a 6-month wet/growing season is now only 3 months. The country has very few natural resources, some uranium, which France used to buy, but now with the reduction of nuclear reactors the price of uranium has dropped through the floor. Oil was discovered about 10 years ago, but the oil revenues from China, which locked up all the oil deliveries, do not seem to be making it into the Nigerien economy. Put that together with the fact that Niger has the fastest growing population in the world (the average woman having about 8 children), and also that Niger is landlocked, and you have a recipe for poverty. Niger has an annual per capita average income of $500. Yes, the average family earns $500 per YEAR.

The roads are mostly packed sand, and are congested with cars, motorcycles, camels, donkey carts, hand carts, and a few bicycles. Traffic in the city is sometimes stopped while a herd of cattle or sheep cross.

The daily temperature highs are about 90 degrees in February, but they spike to 110 degrees in March to May.

The Nigerien targeted national development sectors are energy, agriculture, and education. China is looking at Niger as one of their openings for Africa. They are pouring more than $750 million a year into projects. Niger is very strategic for the US as it is close to so many hotbeds of terrorism and the US has multiple military bases in the country. Of course, with China pouring so much money into the economy, one wonders what the future will bring. The US government has approved money for projects in the developing world, but so far, any meaningful distribution of US aid, investment, or lending to Niger is barely in the discussion stage.

With this backdrop, the students who are attending ADU are going to be the people who are going to be charged with moving the Nigerien society and economy forward. These are the young adults who are being prepared to start, lead, and manage the government, NGO, and corporate organizations.

And they seem eager for the task.

Since a portion of the class is about problem solving, an opening exercise was to ask each student to write down two things they wanted to change and what they wanted to learn in order to change them, and then we shared them with the class.

The answers that came back were

making sure everyone earns a livable wage
improving the education system so everyone has the opportunity to attend and learn
becoming self-sufficient with energy and especially sustainable energy
eliminating corruption
eliminating starvation
creating a healthcare system that works for everyone
inspiring people to become engaged in doing a good job instead of passively doing the minimum they could get away with
ensuring the equality of everyone so that no one is discriminated against.

These students are not primarily thinking about, “what’s in it for me”, they are expecting that they will carry the Nigerien society and economy on their backs.

The purpose of “Sensemaking, Problem Solving, and Achieving Success” was to show them how to do that.

Day 1 started off with practical examples where students learned that their own mindset skewed their understanding or sensemaking of specific situations; they practiced changing their way of thinking to see how that changed the way they approached problems, and discussed how to apply that to problems they were facing.

We next covered how the human mind creates patterns and then stories, how those patterns and stories were only one view of any situation, and how the students could ensure they were not trapped into acting based on a single mindset. They learned how to access diverse mindsets and avoid hidden assumptions and avoidable surprises.

The last major topic of the first day dealt with a framework for classifying problems. Since virtually any change they wanted to make involved people, and problems involving people involve solutions that emerge over time, they learned the value of preparation, diversity, and iteration, and we started working on strategies for how to initiate and lead change under those conditions.

Day 2 focused on techniques for managing change in complex adaptive systems, in other words, practically any situation that involves people:

how to prepare to iterate,
how to dominate and coopt those who will inevitable oppose you,
how to create options
how to build an organization with can thrive under change, ambiguity, and uncertainty
how to build consensus and enroll those who previously opposed you

We ended when the students described, based on their initial challenges that they presented at the beginning of day 1, how their approaches to their own challenge were going to change, how they could build a team and organization to support the changes they envision, and how they could succeed in overcoming obstacles.

It was so incredibly exciting to see the enthusiasm and transformation. The future is unpredictable. And these students are eager to embrace it.

If you would like to support ADU in their mission to mold the generation that is going to drive West Africa forward, please go to https://ilimi.org/donate/

Here is the announcement of the course at ADU: