Scaling Global Change

11Strategic Planning: Wrapping It All Up

It was one of our favorite weeks of the year: country management conference time. The brain trust of Room to Read’s global leadership was meeting in Siem Reap, Cambodia, to align ourselves and set the direction for the organization for the coming year. It was June 2014, and the key agenda item was to debate the organization’s next five-year global strategic plan for 2015–2019. Erin was also kicking off her annual five weeks of work visits in Room to Read countries and personal leave this week with her mother and eight-year-old daughter in tow.

As a way of balancing motherhood and work, ever since her daughter was three years old Erin had taken the three generations of women on the road to Asia and Africa so she could spend quality time with both her families—her own, and the Room to Read family. As they exited the Siem Reap airport after the long cross-Pacific flight, Erin’s daughter made a beeline past the air-conditioned taxis and begged to take the preferred local form of transport, the three-wheeled tuk-tuk, to the hotel. As frequent travelers, they packed light, so Erin agreed to the adventure of the three of them piling into the tuk-tuk. The driver requested the name of their hotel, which Erin couldn’t immediately remember. As she searched in her purse for their travel itinerary, the driver said, “Ma’am, only when I know where the end is, can I take you the most direct and best way.”

In this town full of ancient Buddhist temples, ...