"To divorce them seems tempting but isn't it better to work at resolving
things?"
I'm nervous. It should be nurturing; meeting one of the donor partner agencies in our global network. But in reality, both parties seem extremely wary of each other now: I know I am and one of their staff recently wrote of his fear that every time he met my staff he was, "walking on egg shells."
The two of us have a strange working relationship: he is notionally seconded to me one day a week to supervise one of my project managers - a project his organisation seized control of last year in a temporary 'coup' because our management was not meeting their expectations. The solution: the project now bypasses our country management structure who's leader, having been slighted, doesn't buy my statement that our newly seconded staff can be easily treated as part of the team. (I'm trying to do so myself as hard as I can but hey - I don't live anywhere near there so it's hard to disagree that I'm just blowing hot air...)
Bizarre? I'm trying to address it positively. But it isn't half confusing and won't solve the sense amongst some staff that the donor is interfering rather than 'adding value'; in some lights it can also look like I've been disloyal to my own staff - betrayed them even. But what else can I do? Standing in the donor's shoes, I too might have been tempted to do what they did: they thought the project was going down the toilet and didn't want the fallout to damage them.
We don't want to break relations with them; we helped set them up and we're part of each other. To divorce them seems tempting but isn't it better to work at resolving things? My leadership thinks so, but I'm still nervous.
The two of us have a strange working relationship: he is notionally seconded to me one day a week to supervise one of my project managers - a project his organisation seized control of last year in a temporary 'coup' because our management was not meeting their expectations. The solution: the project now bypasses our country management structure who's leader, having been slighted, doesn't buy my statement that our newly seconded staff can be easily treated as part of the team. (I'm trying to do so myself as hard as I can but hey - I don't live anywhere near there so it's hard to disagree that I'm just blowing hot air...)
Bizarre? I'm trying to address it positively. But it isn't half confusing and won't solve the sense amongst some staff that the donor is interfering rather than 'adding value'; in some lights it can also look like I've been disloyal to my own staff - betrayed them even. But what else can I do? Standing in the donor's shoes, I too might have been tempted to do what they did: they thought the project was going down the toilet and didn't want the fallout to damage them.
We don't want to break relations with them; we helped set them up and we're part of each other. To divorce them seems tempting but isn't it better to work at resolving things? My leadership thinks so, but I'm still nervous.
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