A woman is a change agent!

A woman with values raise children with values and raise a world with values.

In the middle east, there is a large population of young girls who don’t know a country called
the USA exists in this world, do not have the legal or human right to practice Arts such as painting,
dance, and music. They do not have a right to raise their voice for their own education, freedom or
love. Most of these women grow up with the hate for society and after getting married at the
teenage for a person they have never met in exchange for Camels and money, they are forced
to have kids, while they are actually kids themselves. This leads themselves to hate their own life
and children from these households become feeling fewer humans. This bitter truth I experienced
while I was in Saudi Arabia and I wanted to make them understand the real world and what
people do to make themselves inherit with happiness.

The most difficult experience I had as a change agent was making them understand that the life they
live is not what exactly it should be, and most importantly by accepting their fate, they make the future
generation miserable. Since their culture, tradition, and life linked with their religion I had to be very
careful. Understanding their mindset and talk to their inner soul was an important part I did while
going through this.

As Hord & Roussin discuss their six strategies, from moving adoption to implementation in
Implementing Change through learning (2013) a change can start anywhere in any condition.

• Making everybody aware of the need for the change
• Planning and identifying resources for the change
• Investing in professional development
• Checking or assessing progress
• Providing assistance
• Creating a context conducive to change

Hord & Roussin says the more we interact with people and listen to them, more positive change is
supposed to bring. I believe leaders and change-makers should be good listeners and observers.
Increasing the intellectual quality of the learning experience not only encourages the level of
risk-taking but also promotes the change. The change made by true leaders through the above steps
makes a better world.

My struggle to make them realize the urgent need for the change was real which I was overcoming
through planning and identifying resources and investing in their professional development. 
One of the experiences I had while working in the language center for females that more discounts
I gave them the more they were encouraged to do education and traveling for themselves which
clearly states that they were ready to put their full effort towards any opportunities to arrive in order to
make their life better.  By making plans with the top management for special courses and discounts
was easy after showing them the result of this since it was a marketing plan for them even though
I thought it was my duty as a human being. Assisting them was not difficult since we could build
mutual understanding and once they saw the results they were eager to see more of the world and
make new friends from other countries.

Reference

Hord, Shirley M & Roussin, James L. (2013) Implementing change through learning; USA, Corwin.

A woman is a change agent by Shashi Kariyawasam - Tuesday, 28 August 2018, 8:51 PM