M A N A G E M E N T

  If only running a civil society organisation (CSO) was like selling widgets it would all be so much easier. "On one side business is very simple, they have to sell or buy and employees have very clear goals," argues Marie Haisova of Agentura Gaia in the Czech Republic. Employees in CSOs however, are more likely to be idealistic and emotional about their work, which can lead to management problems in the organisation. According to Haisova the key to success is to learn from business management techniques.

  Observing the disorder in her own workplace, then the Czech CSO Green Circle, she took the plunge to complete an MBA course in Prague. At first the prospect was daunting - a room full of Czech businessmen who didn't take her seriously. But she stuck it out and managed to prove that business skills are not just for companies. Back in her own organisation, she saw that the management structure was inhibiting progress, so she hired a Log Frame trainer and implemented a team-building program to try and improve its operation. The trainer, who was used to working with businesses, was bemused about the attitude of Green Circle. "Our organisation didn't want to grow, it didn't want to become successful," Haisova noticed. "The worse sickness and deepest problem of the Czech Green movement is its isolation from society. Czech green people behave like a sect - a closed community having trouble to communicate with 'normal' people - our citizens," she tells Insight.

  Something had to be done. The CSO was asked to answer the questions, Why? What? When? Where? and How? to highlight the main goals of its work. The strategy was accepted and Green Circle made the transition from an old-style CSO to a lobby and information centre with professional accountant in tow.

  But Haisova was impatient to practice her new-found entrepreneurial skills elsewhere, so she set up Agentura GAIA (taken from the Greek name for earth goddess), which offers training for CSOs as well as running its own grassroots environmental projects. GAIA's mission is to implement the plan of Rio's Agenda 21 on a local level. The organisation has been involved in training for leadership and management, as well as helping CSOs create a strategy for their work and to develop valuable organisational skills. Haisova's own brand of leadership is to manage in a way that people don't feel they are being controlled "They say, and feel, 'we did it by ourselves'," she explains. As part of its principles, the organisation is financially independent, receiving no corporate sponsorship.

  Unlike the Czech businessmen she shared a classroom with, Haisova now plans to focus on training women in environmental organisations to participate on an equal footing with their male counterparts. Despite the liberal reputation of the environmental world, gender attitudes differ little from that of business circles in Central and Eastern Europe. Women in an organisation still tend to be the coffee brewers and the cleaners, she says, while men are more likely to be the decisionmakers and the debaters.

  That can be as much a product of women's ideas as men's. "Women are often passive, shy and quiet - too shy to say something about themselves," notes Haisova. One training which she has used to combat such attitudes can be used with a mixed or single sex group of around 10 people. Three or four core questions are formulated, which relate specifically to the organisation concerned. Everyone must then listen to each person's point of view regarding the topics, allowing a strict three minutes for each participant. No one must write anything during that time and each person must listen to the opinions voiced during the discussion. If an individual does not want to talk during the three minutes, the group should remain silent for that period. "It is a very simple, pleasant training, which is all really about time - people respect the silence," says Haisova. She points to one of her former trainees, who is now an active and vocal member of the Czech Green Party, as proof that women can change. "She was once shy but this training taught her to be more disciplined," she remembers. While Haisova's brand of environmental training is only in its early stages in Central and Eastern Europe, it is gaining ground slowly. In the Autumn there will be a training for teachers on "eco-feminism" - the theory that women are better placed to change the environment than their male counterparts - organised by Open Society Fund, and a 30 minute programme for Czech Radio yielded an enthusiastic response from women listeners. In the future she would like to introduce the ideas of the UK-based Schumacher college to the region. There, male and female students of all ages and walks of life are taught to change the role models they have taken on in life. There might be a lesson in that for businesses too.