It is a snowy day in Scotland as I write the first paragraphs of this reflection in December 2023. I’m entering my third year in the UK after emigrating from South Africa. I have continued to make steady progress on several fronts amidst a host of challenges.
I believe in the value of writing and sharing after-action reviews. You can read my previous end-of-year reflections from 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 which show how my career has evolved. Writing my reflections (and journaling daily) helps me to orient myself and reflect on how I must do things differently in the future. My reflections might even help others to learn from my experiences and avoid my mistakes.
What was going on around me this year?
The cost-of-living crisis was the major antagonist in the UK. Prices have continued to increase. Millions of people are struggling to afford basics like food, transport, and keeping their homes warm. Small organisations have experienced similar challenges with many downsizing or closing. While I’m familiar with this type of adversity in Africa, I did not expect this much of it in a wealthy first-world country.
While this has been happening, government departments and local authorities have also been trimming their budgets and cutting back on certain services. These cutbacks include funding to charities that serve vulnerable populations. I know of several organisations that have had their government funding reduced or suspended.
The third sector has been striving to mitigate the shortfall of government services by supporting them as best they can. However, these organisations have done this while struggling to cope with insufficient resources and exhausted volunteers. Some community organisations have even taken over underutilised land and buildings from the government using a policy mechanism called a community-asset transfer.
What did I do this year?
My wife and I continued to build a home in the town of Paisley near Glasgow in Scotland. We are very happy that we chose to live here. We have immersed ourselves in the surprising abundance of community events and local societies. We’ve gone on many Saturday drives and taken walks in the countryside. We’ve attended plenty of classical music and jazz performances which are on every week.
I also found an unexpected and welcoming community at my local powerlifting and strongman gym. This gym has many idiosyncrasies such as only playing heavy metal on the sound system.
My work has been split evenly between Scotland and Africa.
My Scottish work was with Community Enterprise. This primarily involved supporting Scottish charities, social enterprises and community groups with their strategies and business plans. I worked with a wide range of organisations – from healthcare organisations to heritage groups looking after medieval churches or castles. This work was fulfilling and taught me a lot about Scotland.
My African work was with Imani Development and focused on large-scale economic development initiatives. I helped manage a continent-wide study on ESG in Africa’s private sector for the African Continental Free Trade Area, led an evaluation of an impact investment fund in Kenya and analysis of the risks relating to the grantees of another investment fund in Zambia. I also led the design of a strategy to establish an online trade and investment marketplace for the business council of a regional economic community with member states.
As expected, my South African work has dropped off considerably now that I’m no longer in the country but I’m continuing to work with a few long-time clients.
I did two pro-bono consulting projects with the Cranfield Trust which works across the UK. The first involved mentoring a talented leader of a young carers programme in Scotland. The second involved providing strategic support to an organisation in Northern Ireland that helps people who are leaving prison to reintegrate into society.
Where did I succeed?
I continued to make progress with getting established in the UK and moving forward in my career. There are no big breakthroughs to report; only incremental improvements across a range of fronts.
I learned to work across different countries and cultures and swap between contexts and etiquette accordingly. I remember there was one busy day when I chatted with people in South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia, Scotland and Northern Ireland which shows the marvels of modern technology.
I also continued to learn about the socio-economic problems in the UK and the good work of organisations in the third sector. There is a big emphasis on community-led development in Scotland and a complex ecosystem of organisations to enable this. This is different from the African context where social and economic development is much more top-down and resources are considerably scarcer.
I’ve been working hard to build relationships with people in my sector and prove myself. I am also grateful to have met and received some wise advice from some potential mentors.
I wrote nine articles, excluding this one. I sunk the most time into “A framework for writing a strategic plan for a charity or social enterprise” and included all the insights I’ve learned about strategic plans. I finally put down my thoughts about Community Wealth Building. This is an approach to local economic development that is taking off in the UK and being formally adopted by the Scottish government.
Seeing how many charities were dependent on a single funder (which tended to be the government), I wrote about the “Opportunities and dangers associated with a large and lucrative source of income.”
With the rapid rise of Chat GPT and Artificial Intelligence software in 2023, I recorded my thoughts about AIs in “AIs can’t produce art; only humans can” and how, despite being a disruptive technology, it is a tool to harness rather than to fear. These two articles helped me to make sense of this new technology.
Where did I struggle?
My biggest challenge in the year has been emotional.
I’ve been running on a mix of enthusiasm, adrenaline and coffee without a break in an attempt to get rapidly established here in the UK. I haven’t taken any leave or holidays this year, excluding the official ones like public/bank holidays. This predictably led to some health issues that have encouraged me to slow down – something which has been surprisingly difficult to do since it’s against my nature. My doctor even dared to ban me from caffeine which has been difficult for me since I love my coffee.
I have also been struggling with a myriad of emotions related to emigration such as grief and anxiety, and the challenges of getting established in a new country. I’m getting some much-needed counselling. I wrote about these challenges in “Three challenges when rebooting your career in a new country at age 50.” This article was well-received and several people wrote back to me expressing their thanks as I’d given words to their experiences.
I struggled to balance all the projects that I was working on – projects in different countries, with different priorities, timeframes, methodologies, stakeholders and contexts. While I managed to keep track of everything with my project management system and habit of taking extensive notes, I struggled to immerse myself in multiple projects each day and concentrate while swapping between them.
I struggled with the amount of computer work that I did this year, despite occasional client visits and field trips. I’m a chatty extrovert and like to be around people every day. Fortunately, I was able to work at cafes where I got to know the staff and other regulars. I was also able to catch up on socialising when I went to the gym in the evenings.
How will I do things differently next year?
I pushed myself relentlessly this year and worked each weekday until I could no longer concentrate. While I made steady progress on all fronts, this unhealthy pace caught up with me. I will strive to adopt a healthier pace in 2024. I certainly need to take some holidays like everyone else hereabouts, especially during the long summer months.
I will continue to learn, network, and build relationships with colleagues and clients.
My workspace needs to improve since I spend so much time at my desk. Several improvements will make life better such as a bigger desk, a storage cabinet, better lighting, faster internet, a more comfortable chair and a better backdrop for video chats.
It would also be good to have fewer but more complex and challenging projects so I can immerse myself thoroughly in my work as opposed to juggling lots of small projects.
I also hope to spend much more time with people instead of my computer.
Conclusion
I’m very happy that I moved to Scotland and settled where I did. I sometimes wish I’d moved sooner, but then I reflect that I would have missed out on many of the African experiences that made me who I am today.
I’m blessed to be able to do meaningful, enjoyable and interesting work so I’ll continue on this path in 2024, though ideally with more balance than this year. Hopefully, some interesting opportunities will emerge for me to move forward.