Gotta love jet lag

I'm dealing with the cluelessness of my body as it tries to find it's circadian rhythms well enough, but late afternoon is killer for a few hours. It is hard to compare the impacts of various trips, but my two to Central Asia seem to have been among the most difficult.

Short but sweet today. Just wanted to reflect on a conversation here, that is one I hear in DC, and other places where I've tried to work with S/CRS and also in other organizations.

When an organization, or conglomeration of organizations identifies the need to "do better," why is there such huge resistance to adopting change? I heard a lecture today about how the work I'm contributing to here just wasn't going to be as successful as hoped because it isn't taking into account how things have been done for decades. Being from organizations trying to adopt change, I understand the uncertainty of change, and it seems that there should be a rigorous attempt to understand the methodology that is being introduced. However, after that, why would there be reluctance to move forward? Once I can figure out the answer to this question, I hope to be a much better change agent.

To bring meaningful change, it is important to understand the way things were done in the past, and my organization has sought to do just that. You can't really propose solutions if you don't understand the environment that was causing the problems. Now though, we have to bang our heads into a wall til it crumbles before we can take each step. This may all seem a bit self-righteous, but the tools and approaches we offer are a product of our "clients" since they designed and built them all. All academic and oversight entities that study the US engagement in these areas continually harp on the need for better tools and coordination. So, as they push back, they are pushing back against the years of lessons learned and best practices, and against their leadership that has signed off on our approach and "doctrine". Perhaps one day, agencies will be asking for our help instead of trying to figure out how to hold us back.

Having said that, we do have much more space to operate here than in Georgia, and it seems like a cake-walk compared to some of the work in DC!

Today was spent mostly getting read in a bit more. Several hundred pages of powerpoints and spreadsheets and documents later, I am at the point where I know just enough to be dangerous.

Peace...