Author: Sharon Tunley

The one time of the year that there is a fire drill in the building, and guess who were the lucky ones to find out UWBA’s evacuation plan. Luckily it was at the end of a meeting, the alarms are going off, quickly grabbing my important IBM gear, we were ushered out the door and down 10 flights of stairs. Interesting listening to some on how hearing the sirens made them nervous, others not so much. I think sometimes we might get a little complacent, sometimes frustrated, but these drills are an important necessity. And you know what, it was time for a tic tac break anyways to enjoy a little sunlight before we headed back indoors.

This afternoon I got to spend a little one on one time with one of the team members, Meghan (in picture below). After listening to her talking about what she did within UWBA the other day, I wanted to re-connect to listen, and listen again. Her passion for what she does clearly came out, which seemed common across everyone that we have spoken with so far. What I found beautiful about Meghan was her eyes welling up knowing that there was help, and was very appreciative of the opportunity that UWBA had been given by Atlas Corps and IBM. The consistent message we have seen is how all UWBA employees are wanting to make a difference in the world!

So this afternoon it was about taking some additional time to dig a little deeper and begin to think about a couple of recommendations moving forward that would benefit all … just one small piece of a bigger puzzle to help this fantastic organisation to continue the great work that they provide to so many.

Tonight was an amazing opportunity not to be missed … yoga at the Grace Cathedral. What an awesome place to be to do my favorite exercise – yoga. My yoga instructor, Jude, would be very proud and impressed.

My UWBA sub team colleagues Benedicte, Susannah and I met up with Emma from Atlas Corps to experience something out of the ordinary. The evening included live music, chanting by Nathan Kendall which both music and chanting was absolutely beautiful, and I stayed on for a meditation session to finish the evening out.

A great ending to a Monday!

Yesterday was a day of testing out the public transport system and getting around the City where I ended up at Golden Gate Park by pure chance. That’s what happens when you embrace letting go of having plans and just going with wherever you end up.

After hiring an electric bike, it was off to explore.

The Dutch Windmill

Bison Park

Watching Irish Dancing and a Big Band at Speckels Temple of Music

Ocean Beach which was simply stunning with the weather just beautiful.

So after a trip on a caltrain and bus back, it was then to the famous Lombard Street which was next on the list for the day. Certainly very pretty as the street was in bloom, and sometimes noisy as the cars and motorcycles would come down the street, twisting and turning with the best of whatever tunes they were playing.

Today was the start of a new week. Getting stuck into meeting key people and working away on the tasks at hand at UWBA.

One highlight that stood out for me for the day was where we were invited to a “Diversity and Inclusion Round Table – Brown Bag Lunch” session which was rather an interesting team bonding exercise. It turns out that these sessions are an open invitation where it provides anyone who chooses to go along with their lunch, an opportunity to have a healthy debate about different topics that are hot in the news.

Today’s hot topic was on Serena Williams loss against Naomi Osaka. Everything from fairness to womens rights to racism to the caricature cartoon that was drawn none other than by an Aussie was discussed and debated. Of course being the only Aussie in the room, it was an interesting experience to be a part of to say the least. So when it was asked of each of my colleagues and I what our thoughts were compared to the Bay Area team, they wondered if our opinions would be the same or quite different. I had to think fast when I was not even aware of what had happened, let alone know about the cartoon.

Whilst I was listening, I researched other “vocal” tennis stars such as Nick Kyrgios, one of our younger Aussie tennis players whom was notorious for his behaviour on the court. I was quick to show that there are other players whom get a similar type of treatment from the press, and my comments were if people, and that means anyone, that reacts with emotion in a difficult competitive high profile event, it is not always going to end as well as it could.  And with the discussion on whether the Umpire was fair or not, the other end of the scale is here where an Umpire has been reprimanded for his behavior towards Nick.

Serena is a great tennis player, and is a great change agent for many things! My philosophy is if you use your words wisely, pick your battles with grace, live with passion, and be humble, then change will come.

And to finish off this thought provoking experience of the day, I wanted to say congrats to Noemi whom won against Serena, for keeping her head in the game. She is a winner, and I do feel for her not being able to fully celebrate with all the controversy!

A buzz in the air as 13 of us made our way to Stanford, to find out about Tailgating and University Football. I can hear you non Americans asking “What is tailgating?” … we were soon to discover it is
host or attend a social gathering at which an informal meal is served from the back of a parked vehicle, typically in the parking lot of a sports stadium.

The sights showed some extravaganza, fun, and lots of family and communities coming together.

And let the game begin … John, one of our IBM Hosts did a wonderful job in making sure that we all knew what was going on with the game. Simply blew me away how many players were in fact on the ground, and how long 27 seconds can truly take! But in the end the Stanford Carinals crushed their opponent … definitely being the stronger team on the day.

Group selfies

Next, we got to check out the Stanford University campus. As far as a campus goes, it truly was beautiful and VERY BIG! One fact I learned was this is where Design Thinkingwas born.

Next on the sightseeing list was to check out Googleplex and Apple Park … both impressive sights. Both looking to expand such as Google looking to build a “Google Village“.

The drive home was my opportunity to drive the roads of California. This meant getting my head into left left left. We did some more sightseeing via Half Moon Bay and back up the Coast for some beautiful sights. We saw yards full of pumpkins of all varieties in wonderful displays, fog, trees, cliffs and an array of houses and buildings.

The day finishing with a very wholesome meal at Grubstake!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our host John for organising all of us, keeping us well informed and safe. To John’s wife, family and friends, thank you for making us feel very welcome at your Tailgating party. We all had a blast!

The last two days have whizzed by with meetings which is helping to provide my colleagues and I a glimpse into the Organization, the different teams, the challenges, all which is insight to netting out where we can direct our focus on to provide the most value. I must say my Salesforce training I received before I got here, is helping immensely!

This afternoon, sitting in our pod working away, someone popped their head around the corner and asked if we would like to join in on an Ice Cream party. You did not have to ask any of us twice, we were in, be part of the culture right! I must say, the entire UWBA Team have made us feel so welcome since our arrival. We were soon to discover that the Ice Cream party was between the 2 locations (San Francisco and San Jose (virtually with their own ice cream tubs)) celebrating, encouraging and rewarding the use of Salesforce Philanthropy amongst the employees. Mmmm! Eating the very nice ice cream was certainly a perfect opportunity to do some more networking with the staff in a relaxed atmosphere.

Moving on to Lunchtime, I wanted to share another opportunity of San Francisco culture. Walking, the four of us stumbled along a band playing so we took a few minutes to immerse ourselves into listening to these musicians playing outside the Microsoft building. I captured one of their songs for your listening pleasure.

Tonight, to keep with the music theme of the day, a small group of us ventured out to see Tom Odell at CAFE DU NORD.

It was certainly a beautiful atmosphere, Cafe du Nord was built in 1907 and was officially designated a San Francisco Historic Landmark in 2015.Tom was very easy listening as he played the piano, spoke about his writing career in between singing the songs. Tom is a popular artist in the UK, however, here in San Francisco amongst 300+ it was an intimate event, sound was great, and everyone respectful and listening as he bellowed out the tunes. Great night!