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Today was just one of those days that reminded me why I continue to be proud to be an IBMer, even after 20+ years!

This morning at 5am local time, I was up early with a little bounce.  Today my sub-team colleagues Benedicte, Ricardo, Susannah and I were having an introduction meeting with the Organisation we have been aligned to – United Way Bay Area (UWBA).  With Notepad on screen for notes, poised with anticipation, taking a deep breath, here we were, on video conference finally getting to meet to talk with the Client.

With introductions done, it was time to switch on those skills and remembering the first rule of thumb and a couple of IBM’s 9 practices – put the client first, and listen for need, envision the future!

We listened, we learned, with only an hour, and knowing it was only to be an introduction with more to come in the near future.  But oh my, how the mind was going through all the possibilities on how we can assist to help the organization.  They have a few programs, but they are wanting to focus on the one which is supporting the Youth in the Bay Area, which in turn helps those volunteers and business partners that help to make this happen.

Our mission to help UWBA is to provide solutions for:

• Analysing and reporting on UWBA employer engagement specifically for Business Partnerships
• Labor Market Research for Youth Employment in the East Bay and beyond to expand youth employment work to new areas/sectors
• Exploring data collection and an analysis protocol to conduct a longitudinal study on impact of business partnerships and the connection to youth jobs

Then came question time.  Questions were asked, notes taken, the mind whizzing through all the fleeting thoughts ensuring that we made the most of this opportunity.  Before long, the hour was up, and we were all looking forward to meeting each other face to face in less than 3 weeks time.  So with a little more knowledge of what was ahead, I was feeling a little more grateful for all the skills I have learned over the years and knowing that they will come in very useful moving forward.

Later in my morning, it was time to put my focus on IBM, my employer.  To listen, to learn, to contribute to our future as IBM A/NZ and what that looks like, and how this could evolve and potentially contribute to the wider IBM as a corporation.

IBM has had such a transformation over the recent years, it has certainly been a ride that a lot of us still here have been watching play out.  Our A/NZ Managing Director, David La Rose being new to this role in October 2017, went on a journey across his Markets to introduce himself, where he is from, but most importantly, to listen, to learn, to understand his teams.

From this, David has taken the information he learned and with the help of his leadership team is doing something that has everyone curious about.  We are about to embark on an exciting journey of culture growth and change where all A/NZ employees are encouraged to get behind and support, and to be a part of.

David and the IBM Leadership Team introduced a new program “Vision Sprint”.  So today I attended the 22nd sprint session of Create. Lead. Become.  Being a part of Sprint Session 22, a master number in numerology (the ability to manifest your dreams into reality), it was sure to be a lively session, full of great ideas.  The Vision Sprints are focused on creating a workplace culture and new ways of working that will bring out the best in each of us. By participating in a Vision Sprint, we got to have the opportunity to work with IBMers from across all of our teams and businesses to create the IBM culture that will ensure IBM’s continued success.

The 2 hour session gave us an opportunity to ask what is our state now, what do we want to stop, and what do we want to keep.  There was also a series of questions for what we would like to see in our future in IBM that we got to rate in sub-teams, and well, you can see from the pictures below, that most of our teams were focused on satisfaction with a constructive style (in the blue) over aggressive/defensive or passive/defensive styles.

If nothing else in my time so far with IBM over the last 20+ years, transformation is something we have the privilege to do regularly in many different areas.  If something is not right, then we step forward to make a change, to course re-correct, to make a difference!

Firstly, the CSC journey became very real in this past week:

• I received my e-tickets to San Francisco, so it is all go for a 7 September departure
• we received our Statement of Works (SoWs) for the organisations that we have been aligned to. When I read each of them, part of me was very excited about what each of these organisations provide in the San Francisco Bay Area Communities, the other was wow, the learnings, the possibilities, all the goodness that each of these organisations will do by up-scaling, and how we can help and contribute for them to achieve this. To find out more on these organisations, reference a previous blog.

Thought I would mix it up and share an experience, and how I was able to think about the relevance of life experiences, what crosses your path in the way of knowledge, and to what we are about to do as part of CSC.

This past weekend has been an eye opener as I spent time with friends whom have retired, but still eager to learn. Funny timing really … nothing is ever by chance. Through my CSC work and reading for this week and partly over the weekend, one of the links I was reading through was on social responsibility where one paragraph caught my eye that I thought was quite relevant to the past couple of days.

One company (which I won’t name here) has been developing new products and services geared to customers over the age of 60. To help overcome what the company calls a “knowledge barrier,” it has collaborated with sociations for older people in an effort to introduce retired men and women to the benefits of new technologies—for example, teaching them to communicate with grandchildren living abroad. The company meets a social need by helping this population use modern technologies and services while building a customer base in an underpenetrated market.

This past weekend was an opportunity of 4 days away, being time out with some friends, a reunion of sorts. Through my own passions of photography and adventurous outlook on life, being the youngest of the group, I soon became the popular one when they were watching the sort of things I was doing on social media such as collages and sharing the adventure to friends and family. So out came all the phones and ipads, and soon every few minutes was “Sharon, can you please show me that, how do you do that, how do i set up my device”. It was like a new lease on life for them, seeing the possibilities, an opportunity had opened up to be creative, something that they could see themselves doing. Being in Lake Cathie, NSW, there were plenty of spots to explore, so with phones in hand, the group started following me around asking questions on how to improve and use their phone cameras. Getting back to the accommodation, they were eager to begin making their own collages on the new app that they had dowloaded.

It was lovely to see and watch the twinkle in their eyes as they had found someone that is patient, willing to show them how to do something new, they were off with their new found skills, notes in hand. And it did not stop there, throughout the weekend, their world opened up as we had different discussions, they found out about the different apps that are out there that can help them in their daily lives.

So when I think about age, and no matter how old one is, I started to think about United Way Bay Area being nearly 100 years old young. This organisation is still out there wanting to make a difference, has a willingness to learn, reaching out to make that happen. Their passion and commitment strong, they are wanting to understand how to upscale their projects in ways that will help many more people, with particular focus on the youth. UWBA has a core mission of uniting individuals, nonprofits, businesses, and government partners to fight for the education, basic needs, and financial stability of each and every person in the Bay Area.

So next time you think you are to old to learn new skills, think again! No matter the age, if you have a willingness to learn, there is so much you can do for yourself, and for others .. young or old! In fact, when I think about it, even IBM, with one of the 9 practices we have is Restlessly reinvent our company and ourselves. IBMs first century is a tale of continuous transformation written by men and women willing to challenge their own thinking and reimagine themselves as professionals. We are always pushed to keep finding ways to make IBM and ourselves as IBMers better.

So how will you or what are you doing to continuously grow, learn, re-invent? Love to hear your thoughts!