It's a joy to be here.
Yet my daily work serves as a reminder that "I'm not directly involved in the mission".
It's much simpler and engaging for Jackie, the physical therapist, to tell stories of patients, how hope and healing arrive to patients and their caregivers — the tangible, real change. But when you're the Finance Director... you, uh, pay bills and make sure people have money so the mission can run. Right? You use an abacus, calculator, and lots of spreadsheets and use math. Yes?
It's still important, but if I ever want to feel very close to the front lines and yet struggle to answer, "So, what is it you do here?" then this is the opportunity.
As I've reflected, I've found myself investing in three areas:
- People: Enable their personal growth, maturation, and develop their potential
- Internal Communications: Encourage the crew to feel more engaged, aware, and capable
- Long-term processes and systems: Simplify "how to" tasks, make systems easier to use, and better outcomes for patients and crew
In short, I've embraced being a coach, communicator, and improver.
While my workday includes of meetings, project tracking, finance work, and leadership, here are a few stories that may shed light beyond the assumable "I guess he just reconciles numbers and signs checks?"
People developer
I love investing in people. Many junior and middle managers onboard face various challenges: living on a ship, away from home, working in a multi-cultural environment, gauging how frustrated one of their team members is and how to respond, and simply learning to be a manager. This is a recipe for growth and tears.
Then there are those on the Finance team with the drive, the talent, and the desire to grow in their career. What does it look like to listen, guide, and nurture people to help them flourish — not just here on the ship (or in country!), but at their next role wherever in the world it may be? What if this time at Mercy Ships was not just about their service but also their personal and professional growth? What if they leave not just with being able to reconcile a bank statement quicker but approach interpersonal conflict with clarity, calmness, and curiosity? What if...they became leaders?
Internal communicator
Calling it "internal communications" gives it a sterile and robotic feel, though I want to distinguish it from external communications. Over January, I had the opportunity to cover for our ship's Operations Director and also a bit for our Chief Steward (think: dining room, galley, housekeeping, hospitality, and more). Daunting. It was quite an experience, but serving others in that way was worth it. It helped me see past the happy, smiling faces to discern the stress, difficulties, pains, and struggles. It also helped me see how tweaks in awareness, transparency, and accountability can yield dividends. Examples include:
- Make it clear and actionable: We rotate slides for 20-30 seconds with actionable information ("how to disembark the ship", upcoming events, "how much money do I need to explore Freetown?", weekly menu). We clarified these slides, made the fonts larger and more readable, and focused on actionability. Small, but mighty change.
- Trust but verify: It's easy to say "I'll get that done," but it's quite another to get it done and then report it back. For our management team, we reviewed all our meeting notes since August (the beginning of the field service) and wrote down every action item that should have happened. We then compiled it in a spreadsheet, brought it back to the Management Team, explained the process, apologized for the lack of accountability and transparency, and are making this a regular occurrence. To be effective, people must trust the systems, processes, people, and promises.
- Subtraction is just as powerful: Whenever we want to "make it better," we usually think, "ah, I must do something." However, removing is often better. Selectively eliminating helpful but non-critical information, instructions, and words focuses attention on the few critical items. Advertisers practice less is more: We took that opportunity to remove words, reduce the number of TV slides, and focus on just a few instructions.
- Listening ear: Sit down, shut up, and hear what your fellow volunteers say. Empathy counts.
It is tempting to add more, but there is a breaking point—just like adding too much to a vehicle.
Improver
Imagine being stuck using a 20-year-old software tool: out of date, hard to use, doesn't work well, and takes more time from everyone to use than it should. It's frustrating for any person — now multiply that by 2,000+ volunteers who come to the ships each year.
Optimizing and improving processes is one of the least sexy, trendy, or cool things. But when that is deeply connected to why we are here and how that transforms lives, that changes my perspective. Better systems, workflows, and time saved mean less stress on hospital staff, more patient time, and better surgeries. I'm on board. With great support, the Hospital can share presentations like this of successfully running operating rooms!
Here is an example: We have 280+ day crew who work with us and are paid every two weeks. It was a very manual process and, while it has improved over the years, when I arrived, it took at least 6-8 hours to process and another 2-3 hours to review. With some assistance from a friend back home (you know who y you are!), we automated it. Processing time 3-4 hours and review is 30 minutes — going from ten to four hours is a huge improvement. Oh, and far fewer errors and delays, too.
Now, what if, instead, someone focused on modernizing those applications? There's a group here who are doing that. First, I'm trying to get the existing software to be as usable and straightforward as possible (quick wins!). Next, I'm working with our amazing onshore team to speed up the replacement of these archaic tools (Side note: It's wild to realize some of these systems won't be ready until we're about to or sometime after we leave. But even if they all come after I leave, my focus is on the next generation: bringing a better tomorrow to the crew, day crew, caregivers, and patients). That inspires me — even if I don't get the cute before-and-after hospital photo out of it.
Conclusion
Sometimes, communicating about communicating is hard. The esoteric and nebulous stuff is difficult to explain to others. Yet one thing I appreciate about being here is the focus on the mission: know where you're going. Here's a picture of the ship's bridge at 5am before the sun rose while most everyone were still sleeping. The ship's bridge is a frequent reminder about where we're going, watching our trajectory, and remembering why we're here.
May you be encouraged in whatever role you're in, regardless of whether you feel that you can communicate that well.
