23969: (discuss) (John Engle) (Response to Lenoir, American Know-How article) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: John Engle <john@theexperiment.info>

Friends on the list,

I'm benefiting from the exchanges on the list and off
the list regarding Jean Lenoir's comments about the
article that Steven and I wrote, "What American
Know-How Has To Learn." Lenoir didn't need to invest
the time to express his critique, but I appreciate
that he did. Truly, it has provided me with
perspectives that I need to be aware of.

Jean, I both accept and appreciate your apology
regarding the error in the claim about the budget of
the program I coordinate. Just to make it clear to all
who might be interested, we're referring to the budget
for The Experiment in Alternative Leadership, which is
a program of Beyond Borders, a Norristown, PA-based
nonprofit and in collaboration with Limye Lavi
Foundation, a Port-au-Prince-based foundation. As
program coordinator, I am fully
accountable--programmatically and budgetarily--to the
board of directors of both organizations. Both
organizations are audited every year by independent
accounting firms. I believe strongly in transparency
and make The Experiment's budget and other important
documents available on our website. They can be found
at http://theexperiment.info. If anyone on the list
does not feel like looking for the budget, but would
like to see it, email me off the list and I will send
you an excel file. john@theexperiment.info.

While the boards of directors mentioned above have
been in place since 1993, we felt the need to have a
group more directly involved in shaping The
Experiment's evolution. Toward this end, we formed a
15 member coordinating committee during this past
year. It's made up of 8 Haitians living in Haiti and 7
ex-patriates who speak creole fluently. All members
are skilled in Reflection Circles and Open Space and
all serve voluntarily. The list of Coordinating
Committee members can be found at
http://theexperiment.info.

I shared with Steven a message Jean Lenoir shared with
me off the list. He is not on this list. Steven was
also glad for the opportunity to read this critical
perspective. He took it very seriously and typed his
response to some of the critique and gave me
permission to share them. They are below.

I had assumed incorrectly, that people would
immediately recognize that Steven and I wrote with a
broader audience in mind. If I would share a piece
such as this one again, I'd state, “This is written
for a broader audience and I share it knowing that
some among you might find it useful as you reach out
to people who are interested in Haiti and other
countries where many people in the US feel there is
“American know-how” needed, etc. but who know very
little about how naïve American know-how can be.”

My response to Kathy's inquiry about costs involved
and who financed “our study,” was very accurate to the
extent that I understood her asking about the
beginning phases of our efforts, which we wrote about
in the article and which took place several years ago.

without going into all the history of how the work and
the finances for it have evolved over time (which i
would be happy to do with anyone interested in the
details), i would like to point out that in any new
initiative aiming for long term results, there are
certain start up costs which must necessarily be
invested to lay the ground work and, in this case, to
bring aboard more institutional collaborators such as
foundations and other organizations wishing to enable
via their financing the work of the Haitian
practitioners with Haitian organizations or groups who
seek to incorporate these alternative models into
their practice.  this is one of my roles, and we fully
expect that it will pay off in the next year or so by
leveraging significant resources, which will
consequently shift substantially the ratio between
"admin" and "personnel" expenses, if you will, and
"program."  note also that the budget presented on the
website does not quantify all of the volunteer and
in-kind support which continues to go into this work.

Before I close on this long message, I want to raise a
point that I feel is important. Those of us committed
to democratic processes need to be astutely aware of
the multitude of voices and ideas that never find
their way into the public forum. And, we need to
cultivate a culture--in our groups, communities,
organizations, and society--where as many people as
possible, not just some--feel comfortable expressing
their voices. While Steven is not bothered by sarcasm,
it causes many of us to withdraw and to not even think
about sharing ideas and opinions that could really
enrich the group. Having said this though, I still
want to thank you, jean, for taking the time to share
your perspectives.

I welcome any comments, questions, suggestions. Just
to make doubly sure, the website where you'll find the
budget referred to above is http://theexperiment.info

Kind regards,

John


Steven writes to me in response to a critique jean
Lenoir sent me directly, and which was slightly
different from that which was posted on the list. He
gave me permission to share it on the list.

John,

You'll probably be shocked to learn that I grew up in
a sarcastic household. So the sarcasm in Jean's note
doesn't bother me.

Much of what he says (about our essay) is probably
true. That is why I think that what is most important
in what we have written is the -- perhaps obvious --
things we have learned, not what we are teaching.

His claim that when we say that our lesson might serve
others well we're showing that we didn't learn our own
lesson is unjust, though. We claim that people like us
must learn to be better listeners. That is a truism,
of course, but one that many people simply ignore.
They -- and we --
shouldn't.

The issue as to whether the three programs we name in
the article are anything more than consultant-speak
versions of common sense is an interesting one. I'm
inclined to think he's right, but if that were really
true enough to be snide about, then more people would
be talking and listening to one another and fewer
people -- both here and in Haiti -- would tolerate how
badly power is  used around them.

Thanks for sharing this.

Steve


=====
http://JohnEngle.blogspot.com What American Know-How Has..
http://JohnEngle.info Helping organizations 'do good better'
http://CirclesofChange.com Comments about our documentary
email: John@TheExperiment.info
telephone: 202-236-6532