#CSCIBMUSA2 .. settling into the activities of Week 2.. I took time to reflect back and oh what a week it had been. So much goes through the mind with such a productive week on so many levels, so much happened, that it can be a challenge to pick out what would be interesting to read about.
Firstly, for those new to my blog .. what is CSC .. Corporate Service Corps (CSC) has provided pro bono consulting teams to communities worldwide since 2008. Inspired by the Peace Corps, CSC offers IBMers an immersive experience designed to benefit communities, enrich its participants culturally and professionally, and support IBM’s global leadership development.
The program deploys teams of 12–15 to work with governmental, not-for-profit and social organizations, healthcare providers and other civic leaders to help address high-priority issues in education, health, economic development and community resiliency no matter where in the world!
So a lot of preparation goes into it for people whom have been selected like me. There is 3 months of activities, the first 2 is understanding yourself and others, prep for travel, skills building, etc, the 3rd month you receive your assignment and you begin preparing.
So here goes what happened for this past week …
- I met with an additional 7 team mates on an individual basis whom are on this journey with me, which now takes me up to 11 wonderful individuals over the past couple of weeks. I will elaborate on what I have learned about these fine people a little later.
- I completed a skills assessment which was done in my weekly CSC catchups with my Manager whom very kindly worked with me as we went through the details.
- I learnt about the importance of Emotional Intelligence and Mindfulness in the Age of Complexity. And that there is some interesting reading. I discovered a few things about myself on what I am doing naturally, and areas I need to work on.
- I completed a cultural profile another interesting exercise which highlighted to me my strengths and weaknesses and how I measure up with other people from different countries. This started me on the path of researching into the different countries my fellow team mates live in and their cultural differences. One thing out of many that stood out for me is that if i learn the following phrase “jeitinho” that people in Brazil will understand that I am flexible, and that I occasionally “wing it”.
Relationship Building and Teaming … an important factor to success
- IBM is not just a company and work to me … it is friendship, it’s opportunity, it is trust, it is respect, it is knowing whom you are working with on both a professional and personal level which has provided amazing results in projects over the years.
- being a part of a team, it is so important to form more than just a working relationship, finding out what makes people tick, what are their passions, what do they like or don’t like
- Relationship building breaks down the barriers
- understanding personalities, getting to know a person, helps to build a strong team working to the strengths of everyone, understanding the weaknesses and using opportunities to build them up.
So what did I learn from those I have met with so far …with the diversity of locations that we are all from, I been to Brazil, UK, India, Japan, China, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Adelaide, Denmark as I got a snap shot of each person’s profile
- Romano supports IBM communities and would love to race F1 Formula Race Car for a day
- Suzannah does design thinking and working with clients to solve problems. She also is a very active woman, enjoying the outdoors, and loves food. One of her desires would be to go the Virgin Islands and lie on a beach with her bestie.
- Tanujha works with technical professionals helping them to come up with new ideas that can help to grow the IBM business. She introduced me to her gorgeous dog Jazz, and I found her to be a very smiling and colourful person, speaking of her love for her plants, love of her family and spoke about her love for ghazals which sounded fascinating.
- Noemi is a gentle soul, whom works with external clients. She has volunteered for kids with disabilities, and loves to travel and told me stories about losing her luggage which was often (hopefully not in San Francisco)
- Hong has a passion for helping potential leaders to grow their skills and would love to watch a play in National Theatre in London
- Alona loves being the cool Mum, figures if she gets it right at home with her own children, she has a better chance with the young talent coming through IBM that she helps to grow their skills
- Suwidhi interacts with external clients, helps to design and build, disaster recoveries for many companies in his country. He has a passion for helping the local communities in things like building houses for the under privileged. He loves soccer, keen on the World Cup, and would love to play alongside Renaldo in the World Cup
- Claudio works with some pretty diverse teams from hard core scientists to Designers to Domain Experts whom all have different values in research for AI and Conversations. He also spoke of his interactive art with one of his projects in one of the country’s museums on 19th Century characters, which sounded absolutely fascinating.
- Abhay is living between 2 cities Adelaide and Canberra. Originally from India, been in Australia for 11-12 years. He works closely with the Government, and was excited about one of his projects he is on now. His dream is to drive a high performance car such as Lamborghini on the Autobahn.
- Lung was the quiet one of the team, and admitted that he was not so social. So one of the things I encouraged him on was that maybe this was an area that he could work on as part of his learning experience and leadership skills that he was keen to learn that he spoke of. Lung has a love of exploring archaeological sites.
- Benedicte was an interesting woman to speak with listening to her stories of the countries she had visited from Nairobi and Kenya to other equally as interesting countries. She spoke about the 6 months of helping the local people to present innovative ideas, and discovered how similar humor was between her country and these countries. She is very experienced in communications for her country and enjoys her role. If she could do one thing for a day, it was to take out her new paddle board out onto the water for a few hours to learn how to use it effectively.
This coming week, I have 3 more to get to know. These sessions have been great, and do look forward to the coming weeks as we get to learn more and more about each other as we interact over the different exercises coming up as part of this journey.
Yesterday I was talking to a young man from the US and was explaining about CSC and how I was going to San Francisco. Two things that struck me that he said .. “would you call US a developed country as it is not being perceived as that from people he knows whom have visited the country with the amount of social challenges with San Francisco being one of the top cities with many issues around homelessness.” Wow, certainly thought provoking. He went on to mention about a program that was going on in Texas that was providing jobs for the homeless to help them to get ahead that was also cleaning up the rubbish around the city. It was proving a success being a double edge sword, but still they required assistance. The other thing he said was “thank you for helping my country” which I was taken back by but also felt proud to be a part of something that potentially could make a difference somewhere for something in San Fran.
What a week! Stay tuned for Week 3 … and feel free to leave a comment, ask questions, or any feedback.
Sharon Tunley 