It is astounding how we impact the lives of others. From the work we do, or even just the people we walk past every day.

After we had delivered our final framework to the organisation and breathed a sigh of relief when they accepted our presentation with some tears and applause (tears because it delivered a new clarity of collaboration they had never seen before) we took time to celebrate the success of the last four weeks with the client.

When it was time to say our good byes and leave the office for the last time two things struck me.

1)

Standing in the door way with the entire team, we had just finished taking photos, sharing gifts and memories however something special happened. Every day that we were there, there was a young man who managed the administration of the office, who was very thoughtful, currently studying his masters but wanted to make something of his life (his passion and authenticity was very endearing). As we were walking out of the door, he walked out ahead of us (which was strange) but, when we came to him, he was weeping because to him, four weeks had disappeared like that and he was not prepared for us to leave.

Here is what stuck with me, apart from good mornings and good byes or the light conversation at the occasional lunch time, the two of us had not really spoken. Somehow, we had left something quite strong in him just from our presence, our personalities or the feeling we brought.

2)

This happened with another one of the employees at the organisation. This young lady had just finished her masters, had started at the company a month before we got there and was shy but very polite (similar to man above but we had spoken even less to her). During that celebration she came up to me and told me “thank you for everything you have taught me over the past month”

My first thought was that I had not spoken to her let alone taught her anything, which is when she told me of how surprised she was at how much I wanted to just keep working for the organisation, for the strategy, highlighting the questions I would ask, my care for my appearance and finally my communication style. She then told me that she never wanted to be a burden to us during our work, so she never came up and asked for us to talk with her, to answer all her questions. I will add that we made sure we took some time and answered all the questions that she could think of at the time.

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These were two people who reminded me of me! Once upon a time feeling emotional when people would leave my project or being too afraid to ask others for their time. In hindsight that actually wasn’t that long ago (2015/16) but, we all learn from these experiences and I remember all the opportunities missed so I can hope that these two take the lessons learned from us into their professions.

So, in summary, after four weeks we delivered an 80-page white paper and 50 slide presentations to a renowned organisation and their board of directors which was exciting and thrilling but I felt that we truly won the following:

• We delivered that paper and presentation to a team that have deep desire to empower the Moroccan ecosystem.

• We empowered an already high performing team to have clarity on their future

• I now have a better understanding of my strengths and weaknesses which has strengthened my resolve to become the consultant I can

• I have met people I would have never thought existed who supported and pushed me to become a better person and professional

• Finally, I am experiencing the joys of just going with the flow when things take a 180-degree turn, and just doing things for the experience it will give as opposed to missing such opportunities.