As campaigns manager for UK charity People & Planet, Meredith Alexander knew that first hand experience of the very issues she was campaigning for would help her to do her job more effectively. She volunteered with VSO in Bangladesh, where she developed the management skills of her colleagues at an organisation supporting disadvantaged communities. The enhanced understanding and greater communication skills Meredith returned to the UK with are proving invaluable in her current role with Save the Children.

Background
‘I knew I needed direct experience of development if I was going to do my job really well,’ recalls Meredith, who returned to the UK in June 2007 after nearly two years in Bangladesh. ‘VSO appealed to me because of its emphasis on living and working in a community. That was really important in my decision to apply.’

Meredith volunteered with Parbatya Bouddha Mission (PBM), a non-governmental organistion (NGO) working with indigenous communities in the southeastern corner of Bangladesh. PBM has a holistic approach to improving the lives of the people in the region. As well as running a school and orphanage, they undertake projects addressing a range of issues, from women’s rights to healthcare and sanitation. ‘My job was to improve the management of PBM,’ Meredith explains. ‘Essentially it was already a very good NGO, but it could have been a fantastic NGO.’

Sharing management skills
Because Meredith’s colleagues had a very clear vision of the problems that existed and what they wanted to achieve, it was easy for Meredith to see where she could help. She advised them on a range of aspects of management including job descriptions, budgeting processes, monitoring and evaluation and long term planning.

‘I encouraged them to become more strategically driven, rather than donor driven,’ says Meredith. ‘Then there were more basic things like staff responsibility and accountability. For example, I helped staff become more aware of timekeeping and respecting staff time off.’

Promoting ownership and sustainable working
Meredith’s colleagues were very enthusiastic about improvement, but in some cases implementation of these improvements was slow. ‘This meant we didn’t make as many changes as we had hoped to,’ she recalls. ‘But mine was an advisory role - I didn’t want to force my colleagues to do things. VSO really emphasises that sustainable working is all about people having a sense of ownership of what they’re doing.’

Strengthening mentoring skills
As well as advising on management techniques, Meredith ran training sessions in personal skills like decision-making and confidence building. One colleague in a particular benefited from these sessions.

‘In Bangladesh, people working in finance have a really low status. But this seems strange because budgeting is so important to good management,’ says Meredith. ‘Shubhashis was a senior finance officer, but he didn’t even talk to me for the first few months. In his eyes I had a much higher status than he did, because I was a foreigner. So I made sure that many of my training sessions were addressing Shubhashis’ needs specifically. This gave me a chance to strengthen my mentoring skills.’

By the time Meredith left, the change in Shubhashis was great. ‘The difference in his confidence and his English was remarkable,’ remembers Meredith. ‘By the end of my placement I was encouraging him to challenge senior management about how things could be improved.’

Effective communicating
Working with colleagues like Shubhashis who weren’t fluent in English gave Meredith the opportunity to focus on her communication skills. ‘I’ve learnt to use language more clearly and to frame things on a simple level. I have a better awareness of emotional communication and connections,’ she says. ‘This has helped me in my current job when I’m interacting with people from other teams.’

Meredith is now a campaigns manager at Save the Children. As she’d predicted, getting first hand experience was invaluable in securing this role. ‘Doing VSO has made a significant difference. I can relate so much of what I’m doing now to the things I experienced in Bangladesh.’

• Meredith worked with colleagues at Parbatya Bouddha Mission to improve their strategic planning, budgeting and staff management.
• By running training sessions in personal skills like decision-making, Meredith built the confidence and communication skills of her colleagues.
• Meredith’s first hand experience of working in development was key to securing her current role at Save The Children.

Find out more about becoming a management adviser with VSO

Visit Parbatya Bouddha Mission’s website