Mentors for Africa Blog : Mentors for Africa collaborates with Center for Palliative Care, Nigeria and Association for Reproductive and Family Health Nigeria

In spite of the very short planning period, approximately one month, the first pro-bono "Fundamentals of Lean Thinking and Lean Management" training was held at the Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH) offices in Ibadan, Oyo State Nigeria, 9 – 11 April 2013. The training was collaboration between Mentors for Africa, Center for Palliative Care, Nigeria (CPCN) and ARFH.

I arrived in Ibadan on Monday and was able to visit the offices of the CPCN for a “Go See” prior to the training, I met the very lovely and dedicated staff and was extremely moved by the conversation I had with the President, Prof. Olaitan Soyannwo. We discussed their current process and I am happy to report that they do have the beginnings of a Tier process, i.e. they meet daily to discuss the plan for the day, but we were going to have to work on visual metrics.

The next day was training day, I arrived bright and early, not entirely sure of the make-up of the participants, I knew we had participants for the CPCN, ARFH and the local teaching hospital, University College Hospital (UCH), but that was about as much I knew. I was pleasantly surprised to see a packed room, approximately 30 participants from 20 different organizations – NGOs, Hospitals, Nigerian Academy of Sciences... to name a few.
We started with an “Opening ceremony”, different for me but the intent was noble... this was a big deal. We had the CEO of the State’s Broadcasting Corporation give opening remarks and declare the training “Open”.

The next 3 days went in a flash, Participants were great, completely involved and asking all the right questions. One of their biggest concerns was around Good sponsorship, so I included some Change Management at the end of the lean training.

Overall, this was for me an overwhelming success. I truly believe that each participant left with something worthwhile and something they can pass on, and that makes it all worthwhile. I urged the participants to move themselves up the “Change Curve”, from “Contact” to “Institutionalize” by practicing and reaching out to M4A for mentorship.

I will certainly do this again; I know I got much more out of it than they did. It is I who should be grateful for the opportunity to share my knowledge and pay it forward.