Understanding stakeholders & embracing organic processes with Tarek Lamouchi

In this episode, the dynamic Tarek Lamouchi took me up on the challenge. He's a trainer, an advisor, and a writer. He started his career working in microfinance in Tunisia before extending his expertise to NGOs and the private sector in areas of conflict management, peacebuilding, economic justice, or social responsibility. The diversity of his professional experience gives him this holistic perspective on social change. When he’s not facilitating a social change process, he writes books. Not any books. Horror, Sci-fi, and fantasy books! But that’s not what we talked about… 

The cards drawn to guide our conversation took us into an exploration of a project that aimed to formalize the informal sector in Tunisia. The cards drawn were an invitation to discuss change at Individual level, Donors & Funding processes! The bonus card led us to talk about how to transcend the different stakeholders’ positions in such processes by focusing on their interests and needs to find common ground.

Some key takeaways from our conversation: 

-          Individual change processes, that focus on shifts in attitudes and behaviors, take time. So much longer than 2-3 years! 

-          Take the time to understand the stakeholders and the nuances between and within stakeholder groups. Even when dealing with institutions, you still have to work with and transform individuals.  

-          Keeping the donor abreast of how the project is unfolding, and how you are making progress towards the goal all the while engaging them in a conversation to understand what it takes to bring about change and make it sustainable.

-          Move away from “projectization” of change to a more holistic longer-term vision. 

Hope you’ll enjoy this episode and get useful insights from it! If you’d like to contact Tarek you can reach him on LinkedIn. 

Finally, if you work on social change, in whatever sector, and are up for the challenge of sharing what you do and how you do it guided by only 4 words, message me on LinkedIn or any of the social media platforms, through the unique handle @rethinksocialchange, and we’ll set something up! 

‘Till then, be the change!

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