September 27, 2012
Dear Ms. Elkington:
I will like to express my sincere appreciation for the excellent facilitation that you provided the Program Development and Analysis (PDA) team at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Nairobi, Kenya during September 4-6,2012. As a newcomer to the PDA team I welcomed the opportunity to participate in the retreat, which you facilitated. I am extremely grateful to have benefitted from the work which you did previously with other team members, the results of which are palpable. I was very impressed with the time you took to get to know me and to solicit my input prior to the retreat; this approach increased my confidence in the value of the undertaking ahead.
The retreat itself proved to be an invaluable introduction to the PDA staff members. In addition, it afforded an opportunity to rapidly gel up to speed for those staff members who had not attended one or both of the two prior sessions that you facilitated. As a vehicle for handling the significant change occasioned by the departure of the previous director and the introduction of a new one, I believe it succeeded beyond anything that I would have imagined. In particular, I admired your skill in getting everyone to open up and to speak relatively freely and unencumbered. Thus, I was able to learn quite a bit about the new staff. Furthermore, your approach allowed me to expansively express my values and convey my style of working.
In the three weeks that have followed the retreat, I have been pleased with PDA’s working relationships as well as what I perceive lo be a much improved atmosphere compared to when I first arrived. I believe that there is greater trust, more information sharing and a growing sense of unity among staff members. I hope that this can be maintained and nurtured. Your final report will be our roadmap to ensure that we keep our commitments and remain on track to become a high performing team.
Thank you very much for your services.
Sincerely,
Mervyn Farroe
Supervisory Program Officer