Where Were We? –  Last month, we left off talking about the experiences of Darrell Frick, RCE ambassador, distance consultant, and visiting executive to BDC Rwanda. If you missed Part 1, you can catch up and check it out here.

As anyone can imagine, there are often challenges associated with trying to communicate cross-continentally and cross-culturally. In order to push past these barriers and physical limitations, Darrell and entrepreneur, Herve, primarily made use of Skype, Whats App, and email for their correspondence.

Darrell and Herve’s sessions were simple in format, but powerful in production. They walked through open-ended, reflective questions such as:

• What was your greatest challenge this week?
• What was your greatest success?
• What is a hot topic you’d like to walk through?

This format kept the calls focused, while enabling authentic dialogue. By empowering Herve to think, reflect, and make recommendations for himself; the learning continued long past the classroom setting for both parties. Having someone to bounce ideas and situations off of in confidence, can make all the difference between pushing forward into growth and settling in familiarity.

Why Distance is Still Rewarding  

After having the physical experience of interacting in Rwanda, Darrell tells us consulting at a distance remained rewarding because:

• “Thanks to technology, it broke down borders and fulfilled the desire to be impactful in Rwanda, while still being in the US.”
• “Then, when I’ve been able to get back in country (1-2x/year), we don’t have to start where we left off. We’re already in motion. It makes each of my travel experiences that much more rich and worthwhile for the time and resources invested to do so.”
• “By continuing to grow in relationship with the connections I’d made, I’ve been able to plan out my team’s time there. That way I could really be intentional and best utilize their skills, talents, and gifts. By sharing this with our hosts in advance, it would really set us up for a productive visit.”

Lessons and Best Practices, As Shared: 

We’ll also be applying some of Darrell’s wise recommendations and best practices for our program(s) by:

• encouraging organic relationships
• fostering a mutually engaged dynamic as much as possible
• engaging mutual connections
• having a “right fit” mentorship mindset as an organization (for both our executives & graduates)
• allowing both parties to build trust with one another on their own terms

Consulting with a Kingdom Mindset