Page 129 - The Resilient Organization

116 Part Three: Step 2. Building Resilience into the Organization

Myth
The underprivileged or the unfortunate require aid, not investment.

Our Conviction
Investing in people is a long-term venture, not a momentary act of char-
ity, and its returns often benefit the children of those now in need.

During the yearlong program of Innovative Entrepreneurship at Kabul
University, the students learn practical business skills, including the writing
of a business plan. In addition to market research, the students work as
apprentices in local companies. The participation teaches sisu because the
program is demanding (and is extracurricular and thus invites participation
entirely on a voluntary basis). As opposed to rote learning common in
Afghanistan, the Innovative Entrepreneurship Program teaches imaginative,
critical thinking, group work skills, initiative, and promptness. It also offers
new role models (the teacher is an accomplished Afghan woman, and the
class is visited by many local entrepreneurs). Modernizing education, culti-
vating habits of inquiry, and curing the imagination deficit (by means of a
learning journey to the organic farms in Northern California, for example)
are key to finding solutions to persisting problems locally.
We also believe that the students of the Innovative Entrepreneurship
Program will play a critical role in eventually stabilizing the society in
Afghanistan. They are the “best and brightest” as graduates of
Afghanistan’s premier university. Helping them to build a good life for
themselves and their families will give the graduates an interest in the sta-
bility and prosperity of their society. As the talent of their society, they have
a multiplying factor that far exceeds anyone else’s. Their efforts carry con-
sequences. Such impacts are built bottom up: What other powers cannot
dictate with large development aid budgets, grassroots efforts can build
with resilience, taking a few steps forward even if there is an occasional step
backward. But at least the graduates are taking the steps themselves—they
have ownership of their chosen path of resilience. Resilience cannot be built
but by the efforts of those whom these efforts seek to benefit—and that
requires learning sisu—both from those who provide it and those who
enjoy the benefits.