E8 A Story of Self-Disruption & Reinvention
Nearly a decade ago, Catherine Carr had the nagging feeling there was more to life than the way she was living. It’s a feeling many people have after a couple decades of adulthood and work experience. Most people don’t heed it though. Catherine is not most people. She wanted more meaning in her work and Doctors Without Borders was the answer. She applied, was hired, and sent to Kenya on a six-month assignment.
That one-time assignment turned into more than nine years with Catherine being stationed in 13 countries. In this interview, she shares her experience working for Doctors Without Borders and the lessons she learned in the field that can be applied in business. Catherine also talks about overcoming the fear she felt as she embarked on her personal reinvention.
Anyone interested in cultural adaptation, expanding their own comfort zone, and pursuing a greater sense of meaning at work will find this interview with Catherine Carr fascinating.
Catherine is currently on a four-month assignment in South Sudan.
Catherine Carr:
There's very little that we regret doing, but there's so much that we regret not doing. And I didn't want to find myself, 90 years old, sitting in my chair and my beautiful, comfortable home regretting things I didn't do and regretting things I didn't say yes to. The second thing I'll go to is my nieces and nephew. How can I possibly encourage them to be passionate, to pursue their dreams, to take the risks, to go to places that scare them if I won't do it? And then, of course, the third thing is this is a short life. We do not have that much time. And to let fear and doubts and insecurities run us, they have a place, but I want to be the one making the decisions. I want to do what I can in this life.
Don MacPherson:
If you’ve ever wondered what separates top performers from everyone else, you probably discovered it is just a couple differentiators that determine wild success from average results. My name is Don MacPherson, and for two decades, I've been working with executives to help them optimize performance at the individual, team, and organization levels. Now I interview exceptional people from all walks of life so we can all learn from them. Welcome to 12 Geniuses.
To thrive in the future, or even to remain relevant, flexibility and change readiness are required. The agile and capable will flourish. The rigid will wither. The world is simply moving too fast to reward people who are unwilling to get out of their comfort zones. Catherine Carr is today's guest. Catherine is an exceptional example of someone who is willing to get comfortable with the uncomfortable. She took a six-month assignment with Doctors Without Borders in Kenya. Those six months turned into nine years in 12 countries throughout Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and provided a lifetime of lessons in dealing with ambiguity, cultural differences, collaboration, and maybe most importantly, an incredible expansion of what's in her own comfort zone.
Catherine, welcome to 12 Geniuses.
Catherine Carr:
Well, thank you for the invitation.
Don MacPherson:
You spent nine years working with Doctors Without Borders. What was the catalyst behind that career move?
Catherine Carr:
Well, essentially, the catalyst was the nagging voice in my head at the time saying something has to change or there has to be more than this. And there was really no reason for it. I was living a perfectly comfortable life in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with a house, and three dogs, and a job I loved. But one morning, I woke up thinking there really does have to be more than this. And I went through the closet of my life and started looking at the accomplishments I had made and the things I had done, and started taking out some hopes and dreams that I had tucked away in the corners and had forgotten about. And what kept coming to mind was this idea of working internationally.
I always wanted to do that. So, to quiet the nagging voice, and without any expectations at all, I went to the computer and went online and applied for a position with the coolest organization I could think of, Doctors Without Borders, never anticipating that they would actually contact me or actually need someone with my skills and abilities. And then six weeks after I hit the submit button, they called.
Don MacPherson:
That's a nice surprise. And you obviously had a career and a life occurring prior to that. What were you doing?
Catherine Carr:
At that time, I was working as the HR and finance director for a small nonprofit in Albuquerque, New Mexico called PB&J Family Services. PB&J meaning exactly what you think it means. That's what I had been doing. I had found HR. I had found nonprofit after many years of doing all kinds of different things, bartending, temp worker, dance instructor, sales and marketing, a whole host of different jobs and careers. Never quite finding the one that fit what I needed and what I wanted the most. In hindsight, what I realized I was doing was I was pursuing a life rather than pursuing a career. All of those positions had helped me, now looking back at my work with MSF, have helped me with the work with MSF and doing what I love doing now.
Don MacPherson:
Humans are really wired not to change. We're conditioned to stay in our comfort zone. And actually, it's within our brains. We had, as our first guest, Dr. Robert Eichinger, and he talked about this, and this is probably one of the most dramatic changes that an individual could make. Were you scared?
Catherine Carr:
I was scared of making the change, but I think what scared me even more was not making the change, and not growing, and not pushing myself to do something different. And to not saying yes to an opportunity that was presented. Who gets presented this kind of an opportunity? I was thrilled. I was honored to have been invited to join this incredible organization. How could I say no? How could I say no to that?
Don MacPherson:
So, what did you do to overcome those fears?
Catherine Carr:
Well, there's three things that I usually go back to whenever I'm scared about anything. And the first one is the idea that there's very little that we regret doing, but there's so much that we regret not doing. And I didn't want to find myself, 90 years old, sitting in my chair and my beautiful, comfortable home, regretting things I didn't do and regretting things I didn't say yes to. The second thing I'll go to is my nieces and nephew. How can I possibly encourage them to be passionate, to pursue their dreams, to take the risks, to go to places that scare them, if I won't do it? And then, of course, the third thing is this is a short life. We do not have that much time. And to let fear and doubts and our insecurities run us, they have a place, but I want to be the one making the decisions I want to do what I can in this life because it's short.
Don MacPherson:
Now, when you got an offer to work for MSF or Doctors Without Borders, I'm sure you announced it to your friends and family. What was the reaction?
Catherine Carr:
Yeah, the reaction would range from my mother's, “Oh my God, this is perfect for you.” To my father's, “What in the hell are you doing with your life?” And then my brothers, “Wow. That's really kind of cool.” It was interesting because it was at that point, when I heard the variety of the reactions, I realized I can't base this decision on what other people are saying and what other people think, because the range and the reaction was just far too great. This is something that I really have to dig deep and I can listen to them, I can take their advice, I can consider their opinions, absolutely, they're important to me. But in the end, this is a decision that I need to make for myself.
Don MacPherson:
Your first assignment was in Kenya, in Homa Bay, which is on the shores of Lake Victoria. And it looks like it's a pretty amazingly beautiful place.
Catherine Carr:
Stunning. Incredible. Stunning.
Don MacPherson:
What was the situation and the conditions of this first assignment?
Catherine Carr:
The project that I walked into was a project where we were working on HIV/AIDS and providing medication to patients, and also treating the diseases that go hand in hand with HIV/AIDS, like tuberculosis, or there's a cancer called Kaposi sarcoma. And we were working with the ministry of health to provide treatment to people in the area of Homa Bay. We were doing outreach activities to reach people who didn't have access to medicine. That was the focus of that project. The conditions were, by MSF standards, the conditions were very nice because we were living in houses. It was comfortable. We may not have had electricity all the time or running water all the time, but it was a really, a fantastic first mission. The security context was low at the time. There wasn't a whole lot of concern. And so, I could really focus on getting to know this new organization that I was working with.
Don MacPherson:
You were in New Mexico prior to Kenya, and those are, I'm imagining, vastly different cultures. What did you do to navigate those cultures?
Catherine Carr:
Actually, a bigger culture shock for me was the move from San Francisco to Albuquerque, New Mexico. I found that to be the biggest culture shock that I've ever had to go through.
Don MacPherson:
Really?
Catherine Carr:
What I had to do in Kenya and what the conditions allowed me to do was to get used to the lifestyle of working with MSF. That would include getting used to the idea that there were guards in the compounds, getting used to the idea that running water might be… I'm taking showers with bucket baths instead of running water. Getting used to the idea that we're shopping in a market, a little village market, rather than going to a store all the time for the food. So, the culture, those were the kinds of things that I had to get used to in Kenya.
Don MacPherson:
And how did you get used to them? Was it just keeping an open mind and knowing that this is going to be different and this is what I signed up for? Or did you have any other ways in which you navigated those cultural differences?
Catherine Carr:
There is a huge drive to try to conform things into what you think they should be, what you want them to be. And I made those mistakes. I tried to force a few things that I thought it should be this way and then would get the kickback that no, Catherine, it's going to be this way. You're here now. I made the mistake going to Kenya, thinking that I was the one who was going to be teaching, but it wasn't until later that I got there and realized, oh no, I am the student on this one. They are teaching me. And everything I learned on that first assignment prepared me for future assignments. And it's not to say I don't continue to make the mistakes. I absolutely do, but at least not as frequently.
Don MacPherson:
When you said, “They taught me,” who is they? Is that your colleagues or are those members of the community, or both?
Catherine Carr:
Anyone I ran into. Anyone I ran into. I was working with other expatriates who had done missions, who had done assignments with MSF before. So, they were educating me and they were explaining to me that, “Oh, hey Catherine, the conditions here are pretty lax compared to some of the other places you'll go.” You have national staff. And something to remember about MSF is the fact that 90% of our staff are national staff. Okay? So, people who are hired from within the communities we work in. So, I walk into an office thinking that they really need my expertise and advice, they need me to keep things running and to learn from them. And that they were the ones teaching me, this is how the systems work.
Don MacPherson:
You don't have a medical background or that's not why they hired you.
Catherine Carr:
Correct.
Don MacPherson:
Can you talk a little bit about why they did hire you?
Catherine Carr:
It's not just medicine. Before the medicine can start to happen in the field, you need administrators and you need logisticians. You need people who are gonna set up the compounds, people who are going to create the hospitals, build the hospitals, make sure there's access to clean water, make sure we have supplies, and make sure there's security practice in place. You're going to have to hire people. That's a huge part of it. It's just like any other hospital or any other medical organization. You've got people that need to be hired, and recruited, and trained, and developed, and disciplined, and sometimes terminated. And that whole aspect is there. Plus, you have the financial side. You have to keep track of the money. We're a donor-funded organization. So, you have to be transparent about where we're spending the money and how we're spending the money.
Don MacPherson:
One of the things that was interesting about your story is, in Kenya, the concept of morning tea is really important, and you were skeptical at first. What changed your mind?
Catherine Carr:
I would show up to my desk and I would be the good role model that I wanted to be and get to work immediately, turning on my computer and getting focused into my work first thing in the morning. And it drove me crazy, because outside of my office, first thing in the morning, nobody else was doing this. They were chatting, they were visiting, they were drinking tea. They were discussing things. They were talking about what happened last night, and what their plans were, and what's going on with this person's child. And it just made me crazy because I just wanted everybody to get to work. Then one day, I decided to actually go participate in morning tea because I realized I'm not going to beat this. They're not going to stop doing this. I need to figure out what's going on.
When I got to morning tea, what I saw were people connecting with one another, people were developing relationships with one another that went beyond the work. And they were developing relationships with one another at which they came to truly care for one another. And the result of that, that I saw, was that morning tea led to problem solving in the afternoons. So, when difficult conversations did come up or disagreements did come up, now we're not just talking with a colleague, we're talking with someone we actually care about, somebody we know, somebody we're connected to and have developed a connection with. This was the morning tea lesson that they taught me in Kenya.
Don MacPherson:
So, that's in Kenya, and I'm sure it works really well there. What can organizations in the United States or other countries learn from this?
Catherine Carr:
I get it; we have to be focused on metrics, we have to be focused on processes and we have to be focused on systems. Those are important, but we can't forget the human. And we have to go back to those fundamental, incredibly basic relationships and connections that we build with one another so we can have difficult conversations and disagreements respectfully.
Don MacPherson:
Your first assignment in Kenya was for six months. Could you ever have imagined, prior to going, that you were going to spend nine years in 12 countries doing this?
Catherine Carr:
No, never. Not once.
Don MacPherson:
What changed?
Catherine Carr:
After Kenya, I was hooked.
Don MacPherson:
What hooked you?
Catherine Carr:
Every single day, my preconceived notions of the world were shattered. Every single day, something would happen, where I would have to stop and say, “I never even thought about that. It never once occurred to me that it might be done that way, or thought about that way, or looked at in that way.” And it was incredible.
Don MacPherson:
Can you give an example?
Catherine Carr:
Morning tea, as an example, going to the markets and just connecting with the vendors in the markets to get your vegetables for the meals. Working with the housekeepers in the houses and learning new ways about cooking different things. Ideas about politics and geopolitics, and learning more about what this, at that time, that continent, that place, what Kenya meant in the history of the world, and the idea that there's a whole world of people out there that I had specific ideas about and I was wrong perhaps about these ideas. That these are individuals who have hopes and dreams, just like me, who are happy, who have families. It just broadened the view.
Don MacPherson:
You mentioned happiness. And that's an incredibly interesting topic. You've been in 12 of these countries, working from the Central African Republic to Jordan, to the Philippines, Haiti. What did you learn about happiness from some of the people that you met along the way?
Catherine Carr:
Well, I mean, happiness is something we do. It's not something that happens to us. Happiness is a decision we make when we get up in the morning. Happiness is linked to the people we associate with. Happiness is linked to connecting with one another. When I see people who are at their happiest, they are usually with people they care for, if that makes sense. When I think of the people I've seen laughing in some extreme places, it's because they're helping one another. I will never forget; I was in a refugee camp outside of Erbil in Northern Iraq. And we had to put a tent up.
And one of the refugees, we had someone in our team, had contacted them, and he had experience while he was in Mosul with being a handy person and making things happen. And he helped us put up one of our tents in this refugee camp and he never once stopped smiling. He never once stopped laughing and joking and making this incredible. It was putting up a tent. And he had just escaped Mosul. He had just gotten out of one of the worst places in the world. He was in a refugee camp. He had no reason to be as joyful as he was. And yet, there he was putting up this tent, laughing, and joking, and making other people in the camp to come help. And it was just incredible.
Don MacPherson:
You've mentioned that happiness is a choice. I don't think a lot of people will necessarily… They may not disagree with you, but that might not be the first thing that comes to mind when they're thinking about happiness. What do you mean by happiness is a choice?
Catherine Carr:
There's just too much that happens onto us and the context and the situation, and I can't control what many people might do or might not do to me. But how I choose to respond to that, how I choose to act and behave, that is my choice. And there's going to be times when I'm sad, and there's going to be times when I'm mad, and there's going to be all of this, but I can still choose to be happy.
Don MacPherson:
I will say I didn't learn that happiness is a choice until I was about 30, and it changed my life.
Catherine Carr:
Well, one of my favorite quotes in the world is the Viktor Frankl…
Don MacPherson:
Viktor Frankl. Absolutely.
Catherine Carr:
Yeah. Between stimulus and response, there is a space. And finding that space is so key.
Don MacPherson:
Absolutely. No, it's fantastic. And then when you start to think about Viktor Frankl being a Holocaust survivor, and I'm like, the audacity. Then you start to look at your own life, and like, boy, I woke up in a really warm place with safe and all of these advantages. What's my excuse for not making the most of it?
Catherine Carr:
That's right. You have a responsibility to make the most of it.
Don MacPherson:
But more people need to learn that lesson.
Catherine Carr:
Right.
Don MacPherson:
So, Catherine, you have been to these 12 countries over nine years, you must have been put into some dangerous situations. Was your life ever threatened or did you feel like your life was ever in danger?
Catherine Carr:
No. No, no, no. MSF has some pretty solid security rules and regulations. Now, there were times I probably should have felt a little bit of fear or concern for the situation I was in. And that was a lesson in and of itself was going through a moment where I was in the Central African Republic and there was gunfire outside of our compound. And this was a fairly normal thing. Normally, I would respond to the gunfire by going to the security room and waiting it out and following the security rules. But there was one moment where I responded in annoyance, where the gunfire was just… It was preventing me from getting my emails done. I was annoyed. I was frustrated. And I had a colleague in my room and she was new, and she says to me, “Catherine, there's gunfire outside. Should we go to the secure room?”
And my answer to her was, “No, sit down and keep working, wait for more.” When more came, and I slammed down the computer to go to the secure room, frustrated, and told her, “Okay, now we can go to the secure room,” it was during that time where I realized, Catherine, this is not normal. This is not a normal reaction. And you need to understand that it's time for you to go home because you are no longer safe to your team, you're not safe to yourself. And your reaction to gunfire is so far out of the realm of normal that it's time for you to go home and take a break.
Don MacPherson:
Our guest today is a humanitarian and MSF veteran, Catherine Carr. When we return from this short break, Catherine is going to share her wisdom and advice on how individuals and organizations can build agility, change readiness, and cultural competence.
This is the best time in human history to be alive. People are living longer, healthier lives, millions of people are escaping abject poverty every year around the world, and diseases that used to be a death sentence are on the ropes. But the world is changing quickly, too. Artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, 3D printing, the internet of things, and a whole host of other technologies will change the way we live and work. Is your organization ready for it? 12 Geniuses isn't just a podcast. We are an organization that educates leaders about the changing world of work, so you can harness new technologies, demographic changes, and innovative business models. To learn how 12 Geniuses can help prepare your leadership team to take advantage of the changes that will shape the next decade, check us out at 12geniuses.com.
We are back with humanitarian and global citizen, Catherine Carr. We just heard her personal journey with Doctors Without Borders. In part two, we're going to talk about building agility and cultural competence. Catherine, at 12 geniuses, we talk a great deal about how the world is better than ever. At the same time, it's changing very quickly. These changes are new technologies and demographic shifts, societal norms. Individually and organizationally, we are going to have to be highly adaptable. What advice do you have for someone who is scared about the future and, as a result, is resisting the changes necessary to remain relevant.
Catherine Carr:
Yeah. I mean, resistance, I understand resistance to change, completely understand that. There's some elements of it where maybe it does need to be questioned, but at the same time, it is going to change. It's always been changing. That's the direction it's going to go. As far as advice to people who are resisting it and don't want it to change, we're going to have to saddle up and accept that and get to know what's changing. There's no problem with getting involved in it and getting into it to understand it more.
Don MacPherson:
Is there anything that you learned about yourself, having gone to these 12 countries over nine years, that you didn't know what was inside of you?
Catherine Carr:
I was grown up. I grew up thinking that camping was running barefoot through the Sheraton. That's how I was raised. And to get out there and understand that I can live out of one suitcase for a year at a time, that I really don't need nearly as much as I think I do. And I have a 10-by-10-storage unit in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And I'm really okay without all of this stuff that I thought I needed. For me, that was a huge change. It's also the change that I don't really need to be physically comfortable.
Don MacPherson:
Outside of moving to a country where you don't speak the language, are there exercises you can recommend to get people out of their comfort zones?
Catherine Carr:
Absolutely. I think you can start small. I think it's like a muscle. I think you exercise it. I think you build it up. I think it starts with simple things like ordering something different at the restaurant you go to all the time. I think it's driving a different way home from work. I think, maybe it's taking public transportation to work, if you can, instead of taking your car. I think it's going to a country that, well, you said no traveling, so other things, but I do think it's the small things that get us ready
I think it's also, a lot of it is listening, truly listening. I can talk to someone, and I encourage people to talk to people who don't have the same ideas that they have and listen to what they have to say. Don't try to convince them because they're not going to be convinced. That's not the point. The point is for you to hear something different that might lead you to think a different thing later and have your own preconceived notion change.
Don MacPherson:
When you were in the field, you had to regularly synchronize teams of various backgrounds and cultures to get on the same page in typically stressful situations. What lessons did you learn while going through the process that a leader in a company could apply?
Catherine Carr:
Well, I think the biggest lesson for me was about communications. Number one, you cannot communicate enough. It takes time. I kind of came up with, when I was in Kenya, something that I used throughout all of my assignments, was the idea of the times three communication table, where if I thought it was going to take 10 minutes, I better plan 30. I better plan some extra time to make sure that this communication point gets across. I think that that's the ability. And I think there's an ability to allowing teams to struggle. I think that that's important because it helps them with their communications.
Don MacPherson:
Trust is foundational to the success of any organization. And when you're on assignment, you need to build trust, not only within your team, but within the communities. What are some of the ways in which you were able to build trust?
Catherine Carr:
How we recruit, we'll build trust with that community. How we educate the patients that come into our hospitals, how we interact with vendors and suppliers in the communities we work with, those are all different avenues to building trust, as well as contributing to our security in the field.
Don MacPherson:
How were you able to, or how was your team able to convince people that what they believed might be harming them and for them to accept the facts or the data that you have?
Catherine Carr:
Well, again, you're not going to convince everybody in every situation. Again, for me, it's the communication piece and the education piece in this sense. Also, needs to be an appreciation for what you're trying to change and what you're trying to explain. I've never worked on an Ebola campaign with Doctors Without Borders. And as I understand it, for Ebola, one of the factors is the burial practices. That's a lot of how the transmission occurs. Now, imagine somebody who doesn't look like you coming into your home and telling you one of your cultural practices is causing this problem.
To go in with that understanding and that level of understanding of what it might take to change someone's practices, you gotta start there. And then perhaps, maybe, you can open up that conversation to try to explain, really, we need to start doing things a little bit differently to protect everybody.
Don MacPherson:
Your background is in human resources. You know people, you know talent, and you've been an advocate for hiring humanitarians.
Catherine Carr:
Yes.
Don MacPherson:
Why should companies hire humanitarians?
Catherine Carr:
Imagine a group of people from completely different cultures coming together in completely constrained environments, coming together to create hospitals and medical infrastructures in places. Humanitarians make it happen. They are completely adaptable to changes. We get it; changes are happening all the time and humanitarians just kind of roll with it. And the idea that they do come together, and I understand that it's intense moments and the vision is strong, but when it is intense and when the vision is strong and the needs are clear, people who don't know one another can come together and make these instantly high-performing teams, and make these incredible things happen.
And we're just creative because we're dealing with constraints all the time. We're coming up with different ways to use duct tape and create things out of almost nothing.
Don MacPherson:
So, culturally competent, problem solving, innovative, agile.
Catherine Carr:
Perfect.
Don MacPherson:
I don't know if any companies are going to beat that.
Catherine Carr:
I know. Imagine. No, I think it’s… And I do. I really do believe that it's a lost opportunity for organizations to overlook somebody who's got the humanitarian skills on their CVS, just because you don't understand it, just because it doesn't fit into some other box that an applicant tracking system might be looking for.
Don MacPherson:
Is there a platform where companies can go and see humanitarians who are coming back from assignment?
Catherine Carr:
Oh, good question. Not that I'm aware of.
Don MacPherson:
I'm sure there's an entrepreneur listening.
Catherine Carr:
I know, I know.
Don MacPherson:
There's an opportunity.
Catherine Carr:
Great.
Don MacPherson:
There's a potential opportunity.
Catherine Carr:
Call me.
Don MacPherson:
What advice do you have for a CEO or other executive who sees that their organization will soon be disrupted?
Catherine Carr:
Get the connections in place now. Focus on the human connections, especially if disruption is coming your way. You want those connections in place before the crisis hits.
Don MacPherson:
You've worked in high-stress organizations and high stress teams and high stress situations. What advice do you have for individuals or leaders who are going through a highly stressful situation?
Catherine Carr:
Keep an eye on what's normal. Part of the benefits of having that solid connection with your team members in advance also is the fact that you can keep an eye on each other's normals. So, if, I may have once thrown a phone and frustration into the garbage can, if a teammate had realized that that's not a normal behavior for Catherine, they could come up and say, “Hey, are you okay?” Because I've learned that if someone is coming up to you and looking deep into your eyes and saying, “Are you okay?” You're probably not okay.
So, having a sense of those normals, having a sense for who the person you're working with is, and what their normal is and what it isn't will absolutely serve in these high stress environments.
Don MacPherson:
How did you know you were burned out?
Catherine Carr:
Well, when I was frustrated with the gunfire outside of the compound, then I knew, I'm not just stressed. This is not stress. This is burnout. This is not being safe. This is not taking care of myself. And as I sat in that security room, while we waited for the gunfire to stop, I had reviewed what had happened over the past couple of weeks. And I had thrown a phone in the garbage can in front of national staff, and I broke trust with them. I scared them. People were coming up to me and saying, “Are you okay?”
Don MacPherson:
In hindsight, is there anything that you could have done to manage through that or done some things differently, including, maybe give yourself some R&R or?
Catherine Carr:
I absolutely could have done different things to manage through it. I could have taken the pressure off me, not had been so exacting. Again, we're talking about your high-stress environments that we do run into. I had put some expectations on myself that nobody would've met, and to understand that. I could've opened up to more of my colleagues. I could have been a little bit more vulnerable and told my colleagues, “Whoa, hey, I'm not doing well.”
Don MacPherson:
Today is January 31st, 2019. We're sitting here in Lone Pine, California, right outside Sequoia National Park. On February 10th, not too far away, you're going to South Sudan on another assignment.
Catherine Carr:
Yeah.
Don MacPherson:
How long will you be gone?
Catherine Carr:
Four months.
Don MacPherson:
What are you going to be doing?
Catherine Carr:
So, the best title for that would be HR Country Director while we're out there. There's four projects in the Northern part of South Sudan that I'll be supporting and helping the teams with, so anything and everything human resources related.
Don MacPherson:
As the assignment approaches, what fears do you have?
Catherine Carr:
Other than snakes, which is a huge fear, I don't know how I'm going to do that. Fear, it's back to that, letting fear drive the decisions I make and where I'm at. It's so easy to get caught up in the drama of it all. I just want to focus on going there, doing what I love, connecting with a culture that I haven't been a part of yet. Connecting with people within other expatriates, within MSF that I haven't yet met, going to learn, going to experience. I just want to keep that at the forefront and keep this whole fear itself off to the wayside.
Don MacPherson:
A lot of people listening to the podcast may not know Doctors Without Borders or MSF. Can you give us a little background on how long it's been in service in the countries where it's working?
Catherine Carr:
Sure. Doctors Without Borders is more well known around the world as Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF. Started in 1971 and has been working with providing medical humanitarian aid to populations in severe distress. Currently working in over 60 different countries around the world and with 40,000 employees around the world. So, it's a huge organization
Don MacPherson:
When you're not in the field, what are you doing? How are you making a living?
Catherine Carr:
Well, I decided that I'm gonna pursue writing and keynote presentations that I have found, surprisingly, to me, not to anyone else, but to me, the stories that are coming out of the field are incredibly relevant to corporate and organizational audiences. The stories are about universal lessons. The stories are about different perspectives. And it's about really, how do we open up to some of the fundamental things that we may have lost along the way? Like, continuing to develop the connections, the human spirit, and being human at work again. So, that's where my additional focus will be when I'm not in the field is pursuing that part of the business.
Don MacPherson:
Yeah. I think these stories are incredibly relevant to the workplace and to our everyday lives. I think a lot of people can learn from you.
Catherine Carr:
Agreed.
Don MacPherson:
And with that in mind, I'm sure there are many listeners who are hearing this and want to learn more about you and wanna learn more about your speaking practice. Where can people find you?
Catherine Carr:
So, best place to go is just go to the website, www.catherinecarr.global. So, dot global instead of dotcom.
Don MacPherson:
Well, Catherine, thank you so much for welcoming me to Lone Pine, California. I probably never would've gotten here had you not extended the invitation, and thank you for being a genius.
Catherine Carr:
Oh, well, thank you very much. And thanks to you.
Don MacPherson:
Thank you for listening to 12 Geniuses. Your time is precious and we truly value it. To help continually improve the show, send us your feedback or guest ideas to future@12geniuses.com. This show couldn't have come to you if it weren't for a group of exceptional people. Special thanks to Tony Gordon, Jay Ludgrove, and the rest of the team at GL Productions in London. Finally, if you want more information about how we can prepare your leaders for a rapidly changing business world, influenced by shifting demographics, new technologies, and innovative business models, go to 12geniuses.com.