Tag Archives: Accompaniment

Education, Innovation, Making An Impact, Organizational Development, Peasant Agriculture, Research, Rural development, Servanthood, Territorial Development, WPF partners

Body of Knowledge

November 30, 2015 Steve Sheppard Leave a comment

I’ve been making entries in this space since the Winds of Peace website came into being; my earliest entry dates back to January of 2007. I don’t often go back in time to read what was on my mind back then, partly because I’m prone to wince at some of the inexperience and naivete reflected in those early days, but mostly because my views are different today than they were eight years ago. In fact, the context of the country has changed. Our partners have changed. It’s a different world than it was. The Foundation has evolved.

One of the most significant changes has been the work we have undertaken with Dr. Rene Mendoza Vidaurre. I have referenced him here many times in recent years, describing the one-on-one work that he has done with our partner cooperatives, Indigenous groups and others. Rene is a tireless pursuer of healthy development for Nicaraguans. He is a co-founder and former director of NITLAPAN, the University of Central America entity which is the leading research organization in the country. He has worked extensively in the rural sectors of Nicaragua, where development efforts are particularly difficult and few resources are available. He has created and conducted scores of workshops to help strengthen organizational effectiveness and sustainability of the coops. This year he created and conducted The Cooperative Certificate Program, a six-day holistic, intensive, residential workshop designed primarily for rural producers. Earlier this month, Rene completed a week-long visit to the U.S. to study organizational strengthening techniques in venues including Springfield, MO, Minneapolis, MN and Boston, MA.

The significance of Rene’s involvement with WPF is that he has brought an intensive research focus to our work. With more than 30 years of experiences in the Foundation’s history, Rene is synthesizing those experiences with current realities to generate perhaps the most extensive, research-based thinking and writing about Nicaraguan rural development. In an age of global economic interdependence and enormous economic uncertainties, access to fact and successful practice are more important than ever to aid organizations operating anywhere in the world. It might be said that, at one time we were primarily placing funds. Today, we are acting with perspectives of knowledge and specific purpose that are true to the Nicaraguan context.

Many of the recent findings and observations about current context in Nicaragua can be found in Rene’s many weblog entries, featured at this website. If you’ve entertained a curiosity about the Nicaraguan realities with which Winds of Peace has operated over the past 30 years, you will find Rene’s writings insightful, candid revelations about the challenges and importance of financial aid. If you work with a foundation or other agency tasked with providing such aid, you will find Rene’s discernments and conclusions to be perceptive resources for consideration in your grantmaking or lending practices, because they reflect the entirety of Nicaraguan realities: financial, historical, political, social, religious.

From time to time I receive feedback on some of my entries here. I’d be equally interested to hear of reactions to the in-depth work that Rene has undertaken in the name of compassionate research….

Announcements, Making An Impact, Visioning, Winds of Peace Future

Making Sense of Synergy

November 17, 2015 Steve Sheppard Leave a comment

I’ve written here in the past about the Winds of Peace vision of a “Synergy Center” in Nicaragua. I’ve described a facility owned and operated by a U.S. college or university but partnered with the Foundation to access its research and experiences with rural development, its connections with grassroots Nicaraguan organizations, its history with the University of Central America (UCA) and its activities as a funder within the country. We continue to refine the vision and search for the right education partner in the U.S.

In the process, we’ve shared the concept with lots of folks, both in the U.S. and Nicaragua, seeking to fully consider all of the cultural, social, national and financial aspects of such an initiative: the undertaking requires us to do a great deal more than simply provide funding for a building. To be done effectively, the Synergy Center demands careful and comprehensive thinking about the needs and the expectations of all parties, with special reflection about Nicaraguan context. Upon hearing the Synergy Center concept, interested parties have been intrigued and energized by the idea, recognizing intuitively the benefits of such a collaboration, whether in Nicaragua or anywhere else in this very complex and conflicted world. The Synergy Center is seen as a bridge among people; there are never too many bridges.

Given the Foundation’s interest in sharing the vision and spurring thought and comment about its intentions, the Foundation’s Nicaragua Director Mark Lester focused on it during a breakout session on November 8 at the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice in Washington, D.C. The topic of Mark’s presentation consisted of the rationale behind the Synergy Center concept and how it fits intricately with the call for all of us to be seekers and creators of justice in the world. The forum is an ambitious one, and Mark’s contribution is a clear statement of the Synergy Center’s keystone ideas and purposes.

Due to our periodic mentions here about the Center and its possibilities, I’ve included a YouTube link to Mark’s presentation. It takes about 45 minutes to watch, but maybe it’ll give you a sense of a new bridge being built just as so many others seem to be crumbling around us….

Making An Impact, Microfinance, Organizational Development, Personal Notes, Perspectives, Reflections, Territorial Development, WPF partners

Ten Years After, Part 1

October 1, 2015 Steve Sheppard Leave a comment

There must have been some kind of special “karma” in the air last weekend. I had an urge to listen to a record album (yes, the kind that are played on a turntable) from the 60’s by a group called Ten Years After, and featuring a song entitled, “I’d Love to Change the World.” After listening to both sides of the 33 1/3 RPM, I realized that both the song and the group hold special meaning this week: today, October 1, I have worked with Winds of Peace Foundation for ten years. And naturally I have honed a deep yearning to change the world!

Ten years ago I left my role as corporate CEO with no plan about what I would do for my “next chapter.” I had two kids in college and two more headed that way, a nice home with its accompanying mortgage, a desire to distance myself from the obligations of corporate demands (both personal and philosophical), and a need to search for meaningful work that was closer to my passions and compassions. Firmly believing in the shelf-life of a CEO, I chose an early retirement on September 30, an option some companies afford to folks who are not old enough for Social Security but who are old enough to recognize when it’s time for a change. I had no plan or prospect in mind.

I became involved actively with Winds of Peace the following day. Having served on its Board of Directors since its inception in 1980, I was familiar with its mission and history. And with one of its founders, Harold Nielsen, in the hospital with pneumonia at age 90, I might have been the most logical and available person to step in on a temporary basis. But within a week, I recognized the work as something I wanted for my “next chapter.” By the time I could visit Harold personally later in that week, he apparently had come to the same conclusion. He offered me the opportunity. I jumped at the chance and have never looked back for even a moment.

There have been many affirmations about that decision. The first was that I continued to work with founder Harold and Louise Nielsen, two of the most genuine and selfless people I have ever known. (Harold was the wise and entrepreneurial founder of Foldcraft Co., my firm of some 31 years. Louise was his wife and co-conspirator, as Harold would say.) The second immediate affirmation was in the person of Mark Lester, the Foundation’s “feet on the ground” in Nicaragua, a most exceptional man, a student of and advocate for development in the country, and one whom I had met years earlier during my first visit there. The third affirmation emerged a bit later, during my ensuing visits to Nicaragua when I was able to meet face-to-face with the potential and actual beneficiaries of the Foundation’s work. This was where the true richness of the work has been experienced, where the longing to serve meets the hunger and thirst of people who are living their very lives on the edge of collapse, continuously. These and other affirmations are endless and continue to this day.

Ten years is a long enough period to measure any organization´s impact and progress. Over the past ten years alone, WPF has issued grants totaling over $2MM, loans totaling $7.6MM and maintained a loan default rate of just over 2%. It has partnered on more than 300 agreements representing thousands of families. It has underwritten scores of organizational and technology workshops as its focus has become focused on a territorial strategy. The Foundation has added primary, secondary and university education as additional focal points for funding and development. We have accompanied. We have researched and written. We’ve been busy.

The past ten years have brought about change in the lives of our partners, as well. Access to capital in some of the most rural settings of Nicaragua has been a critically important element of life for those served by WPF. For some, it may have meant survival. The accompaniment in organizational development by our colleagues has illuminated some dark places where myth, falsehood, forgery and undereducation have festered for generations, rarely permitting the light of opportunity to foster growth. Women’s voices have been heard. Students bloomed. People wept. And smiled.

Well and good; the actions behind these measures what WPF has been called to do. But there have been personal impacts, as well. The past ten years have also rather dramatically changed the way I personally experience the world and its complexities. I have come to understand how incredibly difficult it can be to “give away” resources. Not the physical distribution of them, but the ways in which such work must be done to achieve meaning and impact; the presence of large amounts of funding does not guarantee success in the move away from poverty and marginalization. Sometimes it even contributes to the problems.

I have experienced the importance of accompaniment. I am still surprised and moved by the importance of our accompaniment with partners. There is a feeling of strength on the part of rural peasants knowing that they are not entirely alone, that someone else knows of their existence and plight.

I now know the face of the poor. I have established relationships, friendships, partnerships with individuals, real people with real families and real problems. These are not statistics or photographs, but real human beings for whom my empathy and concern runs as deep as for any member of my community, my neighborhood, or other niches of my life. That has changed me, as it would you. I now personally understand why Harold and Louise Nielsen were so easily moved to tears when talking about this Foundation’s work.

In ten years’ time, Harold and Louise have both passed away. Our focus has both broadened (with the addition of education and research) and narrowed (with the emphasis on a specific territory). Our processes have sharpened, with the involvement of our three Nicaraguan consultants and their personal commitments to WPF work, and our own experiences in nurturing healthy organizations. The presidency of Nicaragua has changed, the country’s relationships within the international community are different and so is the landscape within which development must conduct its efforts.

But the poverty remains. The Nicaraguan poor are as omnipresent as ever, perhaps not in every statistical metric, but certainly according to any reasonable measure of basic human needs. And therein lies our work agenda for the next ten years, which I’ll envision in Part II of this message, next week….

Climate Change, Immigration, Life in the U.S., Poverty, Reconciliation, Reflections, Servanthood

Bridging A Gap

September 25, 2015 Steve Sheppard Leave a comment

It’s an exciting time for many in this country, with the first visit of Pope Francis to the U.S. Some 70 million U.S. Catholics notwithstanding, it’s remarkable to see and to feel the excitement generated by this pope. Catholics and non-Catholics alike have been mesmerized by the rock star quality of this man and, more notably, of his message about taking care of each other and the planet. It’s a moment to savor, this feel-good visit from someone who has the capacity to generate an upbeat and hopeful message; not many could do it. But it also creates a disconnect for us, as we cheer the messenger while simultaneously spurning the message.

Like many, I have watched copious news coverage of the papal visit, out of interest and curiosity. I’m both interested in hearing the topics that Francis has chosen to highlight and curious about our collective and positive reaction to him and “the higher Chief” to whom Francis reports. But I wonder about the gap that exists there, one that Francis has referenced on several occasions in his talks here. That distance between the emotional uplift of this man’s visit and the reality of our daily actions is wide, and I am confounded by that space.

How is it possible that we can be so emotionally and spiritually attuned to the lessons Francis brings, while at the same time living our lives deaf to our own opportunities to respond? Matters of climate and environment, poverty and hunger, stewardship and servanthood have seemingly captivated the pope’s audiences around the world- now including the U.S.- at a time when the debate rhetoric around such issues has never been more polarized and heated. And we are all the same in this spiritual conundrum that afflicts us between our feeling and our doing.

Catholics from Latin America are especially in love with Francis, for he is “of them” and speaks to Latin Americans in their own language, a connection which is treasured. From country to country Francis is welcomed by heads of state who cherish the moments of being in the presence of the pope and his hopeful message, only to return all-too-frequently to their autocratic regimes of favoritism, exclusion and oppression. Even in the rural reaches, professors of the faith who hold a very proprietary view of Francis and his humble servanthood will too often seek to take advantage of opportunities for gain over good character. We are seemingly infected with the virus of selfhood.

In Europe, the pontiff is received upon red carpets and with gifts of expressive love by leaders who, in some cases, have slammed shut the doors of receptive love on the very homeless about whom the pope continually reminds us. Particularly on the European continent, we are afflicted with the disease of short memory about dispossession and relocation.

In the U.S., political leaders have clamored to be among those in audience with the pope; few were absent as Francis addressed Congress. Yet some of these eager faces will reflect a far different countenance in the days to come as the country weighs national interests of short-term corporate health against interests of long-term personal, national and global well-being, of political postures versus strength of character, of support for military revolutions in contrast to Francis’ “revolution of tenderness and love.” Here, we are seemingly diseased through our affluence and power.

The observations and questions posed here are not intended to be accusatory or pejorative to anyone other than perhaps myself. To be sure, we are complex beings with internally competing motives that shape us day by day, even hour-by-hour. We are human, imperfect by definition. We cannot be perfectly consistent because we live in dynamic surroundings, some physical, some emotional, some spiritual. We are subject to awesome and unexpected changes to our lives, alterations which can be both unanticipated and unexplainable. Our world is transforming every day, in ways seen and unseen to most of us.

But almost despite those realities, Pope Francis has been able to reach out to the world with a message that has caught us off-guard but which is full of possibilities. The receptivity to that message does not depend entirely in the voice of the deliverer, but in the hearts and minds of the rest of us. Francis has asked us to be our best selves. Consistency between that ideal and our daily actions is entirely within our command. Deep down, that’s why we’re so glad the pope is here, sharing his universal words of humility and hope, and why we long to embrace both him and his message….

Interdependence, Life in the U.S., Personal Notes, Reflections

Prove Your Humanity

September 19, 2015 Steve Sheppard Leave a comment

The world for many of us has become increasingly complicated with user names, pin numbers and passwords to allow us access to our digitized world. Bank accounts, credit card transactions, Internet sites and a host of other “conveniences” require that we provide identification and authorization to get to where we want to go. There’s nothing dramatically new about this, although the proliferation of such requirements seems to be growing all the time. What may be more important than remembering all the secret codes is recalling where you have written down all such information, because it’s unlikely that we will ever recall all of the individual identifications that we have assigned to our various stores of secrecy.

I encountered one new proof requirement just this week that caught my attention in a different way. In order for me to access the site which allows publication of these weekly essays, I have long been required to “log in” with proof of me. But now the site asks for one more verification. It asks me to add together two numbers and enter the sum into an answer box, to “prove your humanity,” the instruction reads.

I approach such proof-giving by setting aside my concern that I might enter an incorrect answer and be shut out of the publication site. Hopefully, one’s inability with math is not a screen for humanity. It may be a reliable test of numeric skills, but I doubt that it comes even close to measuring the depth of one’s feelings for humankind.

I also wonder about the underlying assumption that an accurate addition of two numbers somehow demonstrates a humanity. We have calculators and computers capable of formulaic computations far beyond the abilities of most people. The addition of two digits hardly qualifies the respondent as a living, breathing creature for whom other human life has meaning.

Proving our humanity, or the quality of being humane, is a great deal more difficult than simply adding numbers. There is a depth and breadth to the claim of being human that transcends an ability to crunch numbers. It’s more than simply being born to human parents.

Humanity implies an emotional connection with the rest of the species, a caring, an empathy for “the other,” acts of mercy, a kindness and a kinship with other humans. In light of such criteria, perhaps we should be very grateful that we are not required to prove our humanity for anything more vital than access to a website. It might be the case that very few of us would have the identification needed.

Proof of one’s humanity is an interesting assignment. It’s more than a Homo Sapiens classification; in fact, we know many names in the human register who demonstrated their inhumanity toward others. It’s more than unconditional love; our dogs give us that. It’s even more complex than choosing to be a voice for the oppressed; politicians do that to deflect more real and substantive actions all the time. Rather, our humanity is measured in the degree to which we are willing to give ourselves away, to assume the mantle of servant and steward on behalf of the other. It’s welcoming when welcoming is awkward. It’s giving when we’re down to our own last assets. Proof of humanity is as demanding as it is compelling. We long for it, and yet sometimes it is so elusive.

Maybe that’s why the simple addition of two numbers is all that’s required in a website. Any more certain proof of our humanity might be hard to come by….

Immigration, Interdependence, Perspectives, Reflections, Wasting Lives

Somebody Ought to Do Something

September 10, 2015 Steve Sheppard Leave a comment

Like many, I’ve been reading and watching the news about the plight of the refugees streaming into Europe. It is heart-wrenching to watch the overloaded boats, the bodies of those who did not survive washed ashore, the streams of humanity marching into central European countries looking for any chance to survive. I sense that even the news reporters are finding this subject difficult to cover, in part due to their own emotions at this enormous catastrophe which is unfolding before us each day.

The scope of this tragedy is such that I have found myself remembering other times, other stories of similar human disasters. Of course, the Holocaust is the first to come to mind. The enormity of it still defies comprehension, even after all the years and books and movies and even personal visits to historic and dreadful sites. We recall with discomfort the genocides of Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sudan and others. I have learned all too clearly the evils perpetrated on the people of Nicaragua by my own government during the decade of the 80’s. Too soon the atrocities have faded from our memories; outrage has cooled to the extent that globally we allow something like the Syrian debacle unfold today.

I suppose that it is the human condition that we will always have unfinished work before us. At the close of World War II, the mantra of “never again” filled the world with hope that maybe this time we had sufficiently absorbed the lessons of hatred, demonization of an entire people, war. But that hope was short-lived at best and the passage of time allowed a dulling of our sensitivities sufficient to permit subsequent abominations.

The sea of refugees seeking survival from war and indiscriminate death is an overwhelming reality threatening to drown Europe in waves of displaced humanity and despair. Gradually, some countries have stepped forward with offers of asylum and assistance. The Vatican itself has said that it would accept two families into their midst in a symbolic act of mercy and a call for all nations to serve. But as some countries continue to build miles of fences and to reject opportunities for providing humanitarian help, the future for hundreds of thousands remains uncertain.

Their plight rekindles thoughts of those other occasions when humanity seemed to be on the brink of simply not caring enough. In each of those eras, the post-crisis analysis almost always included unanswered questions about why the rest of the world waited to act, allowing so many to perish in the process. Of course, in the aftermath of such cataclysms such questions are safe to ask since the drama has come to an end. Retrospective analysis is more comfortable than current actions. The questions are much more difficult to grapple with when the events are happening now, in real time. Such is our discomfort with the refugees’ dilemma in Europe.

As is true for any world conflict which begs for intervention by someone, somewhere, governments speak for us in the absence of opportunities for us to speak for ourselves. As limiting as that arrangement may be, each of us retains a voice, a stance, a position that begs to be heard. Those voices are ours. The actions belong to each of us. Somebody ought to do something before the current humanitarian quandary becomes another history lesson of grief and embarrassment….

Entrepreneurship, Interdependence, Leadership Succession, Lean, Organizational Development, Peasant Agriculture, Reflections, Rural development

Loans, Leadership and Legacies

June 28, 2015 Steve Sheppard Leave a comment

We received a project proposal a few days ago, this one from one of our longer-standing partners. It’s a cooperative that we have admired for its vision, its holistic approach to the well-being of its members and the progressive leadership of its president. They plan and act in ways that strengthen their cooperative as well as the communities in which their members are located. In addition to being a reliable loan partner, the have served as a model, of sorts, to less developed coops who wonder what a strong cooperative really looks like. We hold a great deal of respect for what they have accomplished, against long odds, and for what they aspire to do in the future: yes, they plan strategically.

When I read the project proposal, I once again noted all of the strengths which drew us to them initially. But I also noted the frequency with which the charismatic president of the coop was mentioned: in addition to the entire introductory section of the proposal being essentially about him, he was also referenced five other times as an initiator of something good in the cooperative. Clearly, his humility notwithstanding, he is an important guy within the context of the coop.

His prominence in the proposal gives me pause, however. As essential and visionary as he has been to the success of this group, I wonder about the longer-term effectiveness of his contributions. Without question, he is one of the broadest-thinking leaders I’ve had the pleasure to come across in my travels within Nicaragua. Without doubt, he has carried the progress of the coop on his diminutive shoulders. But without succession, whenever he ceases to lead, all of his organizational ingenuity is likely to become little more than an aftermath, as opposed to a true legacy.

Despite all of the good things going on here, I’m particularly concerned for the future of this coop. Ironically, the very strength of the coop- its leader- also may be its biggest liability. The members’ reliance on their president creates a dependency that will be difficult to manage once their leader is gone. It’s one of the most noticeable challenges encountered in organizational development: balancing the high impacts of a great leader with the need to institutionalize the good things he/she has brought about. As the adage goes, not all of one’s eggs should be in but one basket.

As it’s difficult to argue with success, a leader’s recognition of the need to develop the next generation of capable and caring leadership is often subjugated in importance. The successful leader becomes so engrossed in creating new and successful ideas that there is little time for cultivating the same skills in others. Sometimes the lack of development stems from a “messiah complex,” an ego in the leader which is convinced that there is no one else capable of governing as well. Sometimes it’s purely a perception of too little time. It might be a fear of creating capabilities in others which may eclipse those of the current leader. Or it may be a lack of certainty about how to develop those characteristics in another, a view that prospective successors either “have got it” or they don’t. Whatever the reason, effective succession is the most frequent cause of once-strong entities becoming weak. It’s as true in Nicaragua as it is in the United States. All the greatness of a transformational leader becomes but an historical footnote if he/she has not prioritized succession as the most important piece of his/her legacy. It’s the difference between giving a fish versus teaching to fish.

The good news here is that this leader, among his other strengths, indicates that he sees the critical need for this development in his organization. He has asked for help in addressing how to create future, holistic visionaries from a population limited in education and leadership experience. (This is not hard for him to imagine, as he is limited in his own ability to read or write.) He has begun to avail himself of tools that can develop such succession thinking, in the form of Open Book Management techniques and Lean Process Improvement methodologies. He acknowledges both the organizational importance and potential detriment of his role as a high-impact leader of the organization. These are crucial first steps in a very difficult balance in protecting both the current and future states of the coop, which already exists in a context of significant and sudden changes, whether natural or man-made.

For Winds of Peace, making a loan to an organization which presents reasonable capacity for repayment is relatively simple. A group that is blessed with strong and visionary leadership is more difficult to find. But an organization that recognizes the essential need for excellent next-generation leadership is the difference between a cooperative of the moment and a transformational legacy for the future….

Education, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Interdependence, Making An Impact, Organizational Development, Ownership, Peasant Agriculture, Reflections, Rural development, WPF partners

Dear Jack

May 18, 2015 Steve Sheppard Leave a comment

Jack Stack, Author of The Great Game of Business

Dear Jack:

It’s been a long time now since you authored the book, The Great Game of Business, back in 1992. I remember reading it entirely in one afternoon, I was so excited about what it described! You folks at SRC were actively doing what we at my company had only dreamed about: creating a business of owners. Your impact on our company made a tremendous difference in the worklives and outside lives of lots of people. And I’m writing now to tell you that I’m seeing the possibilities once again. This time, it’s in the rural communities of the second-poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, Nicaragua.

If I was excited to come across your book in ’92, then I felt positively ecstatic a few years ago to discover that it had been translated into Spanish. We immediately acquired copies and began the advocacy for open books as a means to cultivate long-term, sustainable development. We shared the idea with established coops, with development agencies, a national association of cooperatives and anyone else who would listen.

But the reaction tended to be the same as that which you originally experienced when first sharing the notion with companies here in the U.S.: leaders saw it as a threat, managers could not accept the possibility of broad-thinking peasants, and in our case, there may have even been some nationalism at work as Nicaraguans may have doubted the applicability of a North American business invention. So we simply continued to reference the concept with groups as we interacted with them, we continued to tell the story of the transformational potential of open books, and hoped that the seeds which were planted might take root.

Then, last month, I think we may have achieved a breakthrough of sorts. Winds of Peace Foundation provided the major underwriting of a “certificate program” for cooperatives. The participants were mostly rural producers and members of cooperatives, with some development people, as well. Some of them had heard us talk about open books previously, but only in a generic way. This time, they were exposed to more detail and actually performed some exercises to illustrate the process. By going slowly and with care, many of them seemed to warm to the belief that they could and should “know their numbers” and the processes behind them. (Their excursion into open books has even been written up by researcher and certificate program developer Rene Mendoza, in the magazine, “Confidencial.”)

I wonder if you knew back in 1992 that the idea of open books contained as much transformational power as it has proven to hold. You wrote about empowering people and changing their lives at work through open books, you wrote about companies harnessing resources that were previously dormant, you even wrote about the intrinsic impacts that this kind of participation engenders. But could you have foreseen entire cultural shifts that could result? Did you contemplate what it might mean in changing the dynamics between the “gatekeepers” of knowledge and the producers who often naively relied upon them? Having the book translated into other languages constituted a step of faith in that direction, but did you actually anticipate that rural cooperative members- often uneducated and inexperienced- could take control of their organizations that had long been under the influence of other voices?

In Nicaragua, some of our partners are beginning to rethink the cultural norm of autonomous leadership that has existed for generations. They have begun to experience a confidence in both their need and ability to know the critical equations of their businesses. I know that you might identify with the feelings I had when visiting one cooperative, exploring with them the reasons for their success when so many of their neighbors were struggling. The reasons were many, but when they reported having read your book (which we had earlier placed with them) and having implemented some of its lessons, I knew that the magic of the game was as real in Nicaragua as it has been in the U.S. More importantly, they did, too. If you really did anticipate the universality of open books, then you are, indeed, prescient.

As with any methodology that shakes up the status quo of authority, knowledge and position, this process will take time, repetition and success in order for it to take hold as a new way of life. You have preached that reality continually from your own experiences. Winds of Peace will need to stand with the early adopters of open books and provide the necessary resources for continued training and access to experienced voices. But if the commitment is there, we will be, too.

I can only hope that the cooperatives who show interest in embracing open book management can create the kind of network among themselves that you were able to create with open book organizations in the U.S. That opportunity for organizations to come together and share their experiences, their difficulties and their solutions have really helped to expand the open book reality. Those networks have made it easier to deal with problems and false starts before they become too big to handle. Being available to one another is not only a help to those who are struggling, but also to those who are succeeding, still wanting to achieve more.

So thanks again. Your idea worked for my former company over the years and now stands the chance to work transformations once again, this time in a more difficult context. But great ideas have a way of surviving even the most challenging circumstances, and my belief is that one of your many future site visits just might include a stop in Central America, to see the Nicaraguan version of Le Gran Juego de los Negocios….

Best Regards,

Steve