Learning Launch for Juniors    Challenge:  The challenge we faced is that there most water management officials and experts in the  regional that I work (The Kura River Basin in Georgia and Azerbaijan) are nearing retirement  age with few left to follow. Further, those who may want to follow are often not given a  sense of what their work can contribute to, or opportunities for experience that broadens  their ability to apply their academic learning with real application. Experience working on a  Regional Transboundary UNDP-GEF International Waters Project, in their own countries  gives them exposure to a professional environment, and experts working in their field from  their own country, the region, and internationally.    Selection:  I chose the learning launch approach to this problem by testing a low cost, short term trial,  as outlined by Jose Flores in his video lecture on Learning Launches. As a Regional Project  Coordinator and Chief Technical Advisor, I have authority to make hiring decisions, and I am  encouraged to be creative in my work. The learning launch is a way to test an idea that has  low costs and could have high returns in a relatively short period of time. It also allows me  to assess if the idea is good, or to tweak where there may be unexpected challenges before  investing more resources in it.    Application:  This trial is to give 3-4 low cost contracts to “junior experts” in each country drawn from  local graduate programs working in environmental and water management. These students  needed to have a working knowledge of English, and national languages, experience and  commitment to water or environmental management as a profession, and a completed  Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field. The selection of Junior Experts was based on a  competitive selection process in line with UNDP HR rules.    These junior experts were given an opportunity to work with the UNDP-GEF Kura II Project  in a wide range of functions, from administering surveys, to video-taping and transcribing  international expert lectures given during the first year of the project, to formatting  documents. They worked in each of the country offices of the project, and be supervised by  the national teams, under the guidance of the Chief Technical Advisor/Regional Project  Coordinator – me! I met with them regularly and oversaw the assignments given to them by  the national staff in both countries. The “junior experts” met regularly with the team, and  were asked to develop creative ideas and to use their time on the project to explore the  areas of their own professional interest. They were also able to meet with the more senior  experts and start to develop relationships with them that will be useful in their future  careers.    Insights:  Jose Flores speaks of the danger of confirmation bias, and refers to the importance of  “tweaking” a design in the learning launch phase. I have realized that this is critical to  recognize and very helpful to do, throughout the learning launch. The first challenge that I  encountered is that not all Junior Experts had sufficient language skills needed to work with  the team. This resulted in unequal balance between the two countries. Of four Junior

Experts in Azerbaijan two were not comfortable speaking English and therefore needed  additional support, that was difficult to give them. They were also shy about contributing  and were not able to share with their Georgian counterparts. In comparison the other two  in Azerbaijan and all three in Georgia were much more proficient in English and therefore  were much more energized by the potential opportunities they had, and were able to make  more active contributions.    This issue was exacerbated by the difference in the national staff supervising them. In  Georgia the national staff is an experienced team, and they were able to provide great  guidance and insights to the Juniors in their work, and the Juniors felt very empowered by  this. The Georgian Juniors took on creative roles, and increasing responsibilities, as well as  contributed to the overall work of the project. They were able to increase the image of the  project both with Senior Experts, who were thrilled to have younger people involved, and  with other stakeholders in Georgia. The Georgian team supervising them had spent 4 years  working with me in the past, and I could easily see that they took great pride in leading  these younger professionals.    In comparison, in Azerbaijan, the national team members were new to the Project Team,  and were very slow to include the Juniors in their work. They were reluctant to provide  guidance or to delegate work, and as a result the Juniors often felt lost or unmotivated. The  work that was assigned to the Juniors was not particularly interesting to them, and the team  member charged with overseeing them was not well organized or motivated himself. On the  other hand, the one Junior in Azerbaijan working under the CTA flourished and felt very  connected to her work. I fully recognize and accept my failure to supervise the Junior’s  leader in Azerbaijan – and will not allow this to happen again. I am glad that I realized that  this during the “learning launch” and for the next round of Junior experts I will definitely be  sure that whoever is supervising them has the ability to do so in a positive and productive  way.  The benefit of the learning launch approach has helped determine what makes a  create and positive sum scenario for both the Juniors and the Project and most importantly,  for the countries and the regions.    Approach:  In the next, wider round of Junior Expert selection, the selection will ensure that all Juniors  can communicate in English (the language of the project, and shared language of younger  people in both countries). This will help build regional relationships and strengthen  professional ties among these emerging experts in to the future.     In the next, wider round, the supervision of Junior Experts will be more closely watched,  with the Georgian team providing guidance to the Azerbaijan team. Additional support will  also be brought in to work with and guide the Juniors in Azerbaijan, including the  Azerbaijani Junior who worked directly under the CTA. (She is now being hired as the  assistant to the CTA!)    We have been asked by higher management to share this experience with Junior Experts  with the larger GEF International Waters Community.

With regards to Design Thinking, I will continue to apply the “learning launch” approach  with other aspects of the project, and I am planning on working with the Junior Experts in  the next round to apply story telling as a way to reach a wide range of water users, and  suppliers in the Kura Basin. This will involve supplying the Junior Experts with an iPad and a  set of questions to ask water users how they think about water resources and climate  change in their communities. I want us to create a set of short ethnographic interviews in  national languages (with subtitles into English and the other national language) that can be  shared across the basin. I want these to feature real people and not only the challenges they  face, but solutions they have developed too, to be shared as part of our stakeholder  education, awareness raising, and empowerment campaign. And the Juniors, doing these  interviews with local people can ask the questions in a way Senior Experts or internationals  may not be able to since these people are younger, and not viewed as authorities  themselves. Plus they have great young energy! This will be another example of applied  design thinking, based on the great experiences of “the Good Kitchen” so stay tuned!!

