¡Hola! For this post, I'll be reflecting on the past week, June 28th-August 3rd, the fourth week of my LiA project working with Picacho Con Futuro in Comuna 6 of Medellín, Colombia.
This week also marked the beginning of the famous Flower Festival in Medellín, and the picture in the banner is a photo taken from the "Desfile Chivas y Flores" or Chivas and Flowers Parade (Chivas meaning a type of bus).
What went well?
We finished our first proposal and presented it to Adrián, the director of Picacho Con Futuro, on Wednesday. I was in charge of finalizing the activities list, creating an activities calendar, and figuring out the inner decor of the café. Considering how we had just gotten back from Cartagena, Monday and Tuesday were a bit tough and there was a bit of a lull. But, we pushed ourselves to finish the presentation, and I'm so glad we did because the meeting with Adrián not only helped us understand what he wanted out of this café, but also gave us more confidence that we were going in the right direction.
Several ideas that we proposed were gladly accepted, such as the pamphlets that my teammate Pippa designed, ideas for Instagram and Facebook posts, and the various boardgames we had come up with. One of my personal victories was when Adrián liked my idea of doing an "make ice cream from a bag" activity with the kids. This was something I greatly enjoyed doing when I was younger, but wasn't so sure about proposing since it's not within the Colombian culture. However, Adrián thought it was fun and creative, and I'm glad I kept it in.
What could've been done differently?
First and most importantly, it was quite sad to realize that none/very few of the volunteers that had signed up to work with us responded to our communication. I had sent out multiple texts explaining how they could help/what they could do, but no one responded, and when we asked for traditional Colombian board game recommendations, only one person responded with one recommendation, which was super disappointing. Luckily, most of our work doesn't require more outside input, but it would have been lovely to collaborate with Colombian students our age and learn more about Colombia.
Second, just like how there were parts of our proposal that went well, there were also other parts of our proposal that could've been improved. For example, we didn't go in depth enough with the menu, especially with the drinks, and we didn't include the furniture/silver wear of the kitchen. But, I was hesitant to put this in the "what could've been done differently category", because while yes it was something we could've improved on, figuring out what we needed to improve was the main goal of drafting up a first proposal in the first place. So, I'm glad there are things that we need to fix because it means that the proposal served its purpose.
What did I learn about leadership?
Part of being a leader, and honestly just a good team member, is to have faith in your teammates and trust the work that they do. For me, drafting up the first proposal this week really put that skill to the test. It isn’t that I don’t trust my team members, but rather that I sometimes have a strong vision for how I imagine things should be. For this project, there were parts of the proposal that I wasn't responsible for, such as the pamphlet design and color palette design, which I had ideas for that I really liked. For example, I really liked our pamphlet prototype of a three-fold design and thought it worked better than a four-fold. However, designing the pamphlet was not within my responsibilities for the proposal, and my teammates preferred a four-fold design. Because of this, it was a little difficult for me internally to let go of my vision and accept that the final decision was out of my control.
However, I’m really glad I allowed my teammate to take the lead on the pamphlet. Not only was it unrealistic and unfair for me to have control over every aspect of the project, but giving her that freedom allowed her creativity to shine. She put so much time and effort into making the pamphlet look beautiful and polished, and created something that was even better than what I could have done myself. This experience taught me that being a good leader is about giving other people the space to contribute their own ideas, and recognizing that their ideas may be better than my own.
Adjustments and developments for next week?
Now that we have presented and received feedback on our first café proposal, all that we have left is to revise our draft and formulate our final proposal.
- Continue drafting up logo ideas (as it needs major improvement)
- Add to the activity list and reorder the events on the activity calendar
- Continue to research Colombian café's and design the café
- Create a new presentation and decide on how the language barrier will be accounted for
I can't believe my LiA is going by so fast, and we're already at the stage of creating our final proposal!