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Here is the extract from my blog that I did internally within IBM. A week after I am back to France, here is my reflections on this experience.
IBMCSC experience made me a better person, a world citizen, an IBMer and an MDI leader. Really? Yes, really! I mean it. You probably heard it before from the other IBMCSC alumni how wonderful and great experience their month away has been on IBMCSC assignment. Every assignment and every story is unique. Every individual is unique. Yet, one thing remains absolute and undebatable - This is the best leadership development program in IBM (at least among those I participated) that not only give you the opportunity to make a difference to the communities in the developing world but also gives the individual the opportunity to grow both personally and professionally at so many levels. I was part of the China 27, in Wuxi, subteam #3, with @WEINBERG, CHARLES E.and @ahsan, yaqub. Our assigment was to work with Wuxi Xinqu Jiu Se Public Welfare Service Center which provides social assistance in the community to the target groups of disabled, elderly, students, new citizens and financially weak. In addition to managing community centers in the districts of Wuxi and running short-term charity projects, this NGO runs a charity supermarket for community support and carries out satisfaction surveys as a third party on state provided infrastructure. The project scope was to enhance the organizational strategy and operations for Jiu Se and improve the operational processes for Xinqu Center so that the center improves its service provision and planning to disadvantaged communities in the Wuxi area. We have deployed issue based consulting methodology and aimed to provide skill transfer via enablement workshops and structured our month as follows (images removed) We also had to organize a community service day which was on Leadership to all our clients and also CEOs and HR leaders from SMBs in Wuxi city as well as a half a day workshop on the value of data management in community service. During the course of 4 weeks, I not only had the opportunity to demonstrate my leadership skills in a high performing team environment; but also, apply my consulting, and client relationship management skills and share my experience as a people manager. Some of the skills that I apply in MDI day in day out are perfect match to IBMCSC projects such as problem solving, creative and analytical thinking, developing insights and actionable recommendations, communication skills and public speaking and many more. There are many challenges to work around. This gives a first hand experience to all participants about how business is done in developing markets. For instance, you have to work with IBM colleagues that you have not never met before and you have to ''unite to get it done'' in such a short time frame. We had to do all of this working conditions that we don't face in our daily lives. There were a few times that water was cut so we could not have showers. We have been working with minimal internet connection, no access to Google or other key social media and even IBM intranet. Language is a barrier - as none of our clients spoke English and every communication we had and everything we developed had to be translated into Chinese. Culture is a challenge too. We had to quickly get up to speed about cultural differences, the role of the state/government in China and its influence/control over NGOs. We had to gain the trust of our clients and so we can access to information and intelligence that can help us create more actionable insights and recommendations. We were not just consultants but ambassadors of our countries and IBM. Once we went through all this, and at the end of delivery of our final report, our client slightly bowed forward with his two hands merged in the middle in praying mode and said, '' Thank you. We have learned so much from you during this month than we ever did since the inception of our NGO three years ago. You leave us with a lot of homework to do We are ever so grateful." That moment is priceless. That moment, one feels proud of what we manage to accomplish and one feels proud to be the IBMers we are. Applying my skills to make a difference to the lives of the disadvantaged people and being able to contribute to the development of Jiu Se’s future as well as working with a wonderful team was very rewarding both professionally and personally. I also had to opportunity to experience Chinese culture and China all the way from traditional tea ceremony to eating cicadas, climbing Yellow Mountain, and strolling Suzhou’s old streets. I made 11 other great friends within IBM that I lived, ate, and worked with 24/7 during this month in the same hotel. We literally worked day and night in the hotel lobby until 3-4am in the morning most nights. There is no fastest way to get to know people and make friends. But, if you don't play ball, you will not be excused. There are no bands, no managers. You are one team and you have a mission. You have to deliver with excellence to represent yourself, your division, your company, and your country. This was one of the most rewarding experience I had so far in my life. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank once again @Dombroski, Ronald C.and @Edward, S (Simon)who have both supported my candidacy and helped me out immensely during the application process. I strongly encourage everyone who meet the application criteria and has genuine interest to make an impact to the society using their skills and has a desire to increase their cultural awareness and knowledge of effective business and service delivery practices in developing countries. If you want to learn more about my experience, you can read my blog - www.sedatokcan.weebly.com/blog and I am happy to share our workshop materials and final report if you are interested. Final comment, currently guidelines are that IBMCSC alumni can not apply again to the program; as soon as that rule changes, I am re-applying :-) I am writing this blog almost 8 days later than I should as the internet connection has failed me and once I left Wuxi I did not have the option. Final Ceremony went beyond how I imagined all due to Joana. She started it off with giving such an emotional speech and we all ended up teary eyed... Complete tear jerker event for all. We have been told later on that this never happened; that, none of the CSC teams in China had cried liked this in the final ceremony. There is always a first, hey? Our clients cried too.
Our client have said, please let them stay for another week, perhaps 10 times, in his speech. I could have stayed another week with the friends I made. However, I am not sure my manager back in Europe would have liked that very much. Anyhow, final dinner, good byes, final drinks.... The next morning we all left Wuxi in the bus... Slowly, people parted ways, one after the other... Eventually, in the following days, I said goodbyes to Sree, Anna, Joana and Chrissy. Finally Charlie and Nico... As we would have said on our walkie talkies; ''10-99. 10-24. Operation complete, all operatives have gone to base, Dragon Beautiful Grass 10-10. Over and Out. Radio silence until next round.'' ps: Will post some of the fun moments in another entry... So ''Final Report'' day started with a last minute rush at 7:00 am this morning. Our client was so into our recommendations that the meeting that was scheduled for 2hrs actually ended up last almost 6hrs. It was great. We received very deep questions and led to very important discussions. So we are all very relieved. I know my blog looks like we are having fun; but, please truest me when I say this, we spent days and nights, working and working. We just worked hard and played hard and tried to make the best of it while we can and slept very very little. But it was all worthed when our client said, they have learned so much in the last one month compared to the last three years since the inception of their NGO. They also said that we leave them with a lot of homework to do and they will do their best to undertake all our recommendations. It was so fulfilling to make such an impact to the society. Anyhow the big news is in addition we received lovely gifts. I have received a Chinese calligraphic print (hand made) done by one of our clients which spells out my Chinese name, ''Beautiful Grass, Dragon'' on right hand side, and the words Beautiful and Smart in the middle, signed by her name on the right hand side. I almost cried. The second beautiful gift we received came from our translator, who is also an inspiring artist among her many talents. She has drawn Japanese style cartoon pictures of us as a gift. Again, I almost cried. The rest of the evening was a lovely celebration with all the IBM CSC team and our clients. As usual, songs and laughter was echoing in the lobby. It is the closing ceremony day tomorrow. All good things come to an end. Another wonderful adventure down in the memory lane soon. So if you are tired from working day and night to finish final reports, what would you do as IBMCSC team in Wuxi to relax and get energized again? You go to hot springs SPA of course.
After little investigation we found out that Wuxi’s number 1 outdoor hot spring, the Japanese-style, or “Sakura” hot spring is at the Ramada Plaza Hotel which is only 30 min away by taxi. It is built in the style of a garden and uses natural spring water from Nanjing’s Tang Mountain. It is 12,000 square meters and it offers a spa, a sauna, a salt bath and various hot pools among others. You can even experience the strange feeling of having their feet “kissed”, or rather bitten, by tiny fish in one particular pool. What a way to end your hectic day with your friends, in a lit garden, in smaller hot pools, sipping your drink while fishes tickling your feet :-) We decided to go Suzhou with a train on Sunday. It is a major city in China. It is famous for its 2500 years of history and a major touristic attraction. The classical gardens in Suzhou were added to the list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1997 and 2000. The city's canals, stone bridges, pagodas, and its gardens are very impressive and romantic. Suzhou is often dubbed the "Venice of the East" or "Venice of China. I could not wait to be there.
The train station both in Wuxi and Suzhou was beyond this world comparison to any other major city's airport or central train station. It speaks volumes when it comes to size and population of China. We enjoyed a lovely visit to Humble Administrator's Garden and a stroll along the famous touristic street along the canal. The street was full of boutique shops, restaurants and cafes. We ended up spending some hours on the roof top of a very cute cafe, overlooking the canal. The particular point of Suzhou's canal is you can actually observe daily life of people living by the canal and little streets around. It is so serene, romantic and beautiful at the same time. As I write this blog entry, it is Tuesday 1:40 am in the morning. We spent all day on Monday extensively working on our final report and presentation. It took me ages to upload these pictures due to slow VPN connection. Also the water is cut off in the hotel for the next 3 hours. So perhaps good time to take time to do blog entries. More final report work ahead of me, starting early morning again. Once more I appreciate having such a good team as things run so smoothly when we put our heads into it. Anyhow, it is late hours, I shall hit the bed, and leave the dark lobby behind. One song before I go...Nelly Furtado, "I am like a bird''... I have been longing to ride a bike in Wuxi and we finally found a place to hire bikes nearby. So we decided to head off to the canal with our bikes. Meanwhile, I perhaps forgot to mention earlier that I met a very nice lady who is half Chinese and half South Korean at the nail salon. It turned out that she is distributors of wines in Wuxi to all the restaurants. She invited me to visit her ''wineloft'' which has a beautiful patio by the canal. So we headed off there with our bikes. It turned out to be located in quiet a bohemian part of Wuxi. It was a part of an art center which happened to be an old building converted into very chic, very bohemian place by the canal. We could not have been luckier.
The bike ride was fantastic as well. The thrill of biking along the hustle and bustle of Chinese rush traffic was a exhilarating feeling. Later on today, we ended up doing the boat tour on the grand canal of Wuxi and had wonderful dinner. Afterwards, we strolled the famous bar street and watched the people go by on this beautiful warm Spring night. It could not have been any better. The data and analytics workshop team did a great job today. We were initially scared about not having many participants but slowly but surely the crowd turned up on time. After a wonderful Thai dinner, we headed off to the KTV, a long awaited moment for Charlie. Once we avoided a small tension with some locals, we managed to have a good time at the KTV until 1:00am!!! Everyone deserved a bit of letting hair down now. It was also birthday celebrations for our translators both Joy and Spencer, which turned out to be perfect timing.
Finally, the three workshops for our client from this week are over with great success. The moment when our client said to us that we have brought so much value to them and that we enabled him to achieve his objectives for the next three years was just priceless. A little celebration was of course in order with a Chinese beer once we heard that. Of course, there is still some work to be done - our final report which is due next week. Also today we have written a recommendation letter to our translator, Spancer, who has been extremely competent and we could not have done what we did without her help. So the weekend is approaching and some fun plans are in progress. Stay tuned for more updates on our adventures! A little hint: KTV. I am not sure I could be brave enough to share our Karaoke videos though... So with karaoke in mind, one song before I fall asleep... A very hectic week for CSC China 27 in Wuxi. This is the week for all the workshops - 3rd week in our project here. We have given one on Integrated Information Platform on Monday. Tomorrow on Strategy, Mission/Vision, Financial Mgmt, Project Mgmt... I am leading the one on Thursday which will be on HR and Marketing. There will be one on Data Mgmt on Friday. We are pulling all nighters like college students. The translation of things take time as well as customizing everything for a quasi non- governmental organization at a very small scale. Here is the agenda I have pulling together for my session with help for Chrissy. Human Resources Management - Human Resource Management Overview - Recruitment/Job Descriptions/Roles and Responsibilities - Interviewing/Candidate Selection - Onboarding/Employee Handbook - Compensation Structure and Salary Setting - Career Progression/Individual Development Plan - Employee Evaluation and Feedback/Rewards Marketing -Branding -Marketing -Marketing Plan It is almost 4:00 am here. We have a 8:30 start tomorrow morning. Good night you all ! And one song before I log off for the night/morning. We had a fantastic Sunday. It started off with lunch at the hotel organized by ABV. Then we went off to the city center. Some of decided to go and do something off the beaten track and we went to play an Escape Game as a team. Effectively, 7 of us were locked in a room(s) and we can only get out of the room if we solve the various puzzles and find the clues in the room. It lasts about 1 hour and we actually did quite well as a team but unfortunately our limited Chinese language skills have failed us towards the end of the mission. Nevertheless, we had so much fun together trying to solve the mystery. Afterwards, we walked around the old town where old architecture meets the new, strolling around the streets, looking at Chinese shops, enjoying the nice weather.... The most important event of the day; however, is I ATE A CICADA! So did my team mates Nico and Charlie. Nothing beats having a sense of adventure and trying new things in life. For the evening, we ended up at a fancy Indian restaurant but I cant get over the fact that I ate a bug today... This Saturday, we went for a boat ride on Taihu Lake and visited the Turtle Head Island and Three Mount Island. Turtle Head Island a small peninsula on Taihu Lake in Wuxi, the third largest freshwater lake in China. We visited the Jiangnan Orchid Garden @ Turtle Head Island. Three Mount Island has great examples of architecture of the ancient culture of Taoism. What makes the palace unique is an 18 meter-tall (59 foot) statue of the emperor of God.
Lovely sunny and touristy out! This Friday, we had a quite a busy schedule. The day started with attending a reading festival for one of the communities. The motto was ''drop your mobile and pick a book''. We were asked to present a book which we liked a lot which had to be available in Chinese. So Charlie presented The Count of Monte Cristo, by French author Alexandre Dumas. I opted for The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart and Yaqub picked The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. The participants really loved our suggestions and the plots of each book offered.
Afterwards, we visited School of Design/Jiangnan University which our translators are studying at. It is one of the largest and respected universities in China. We had a nice walk in the campus and visited School of Design and the Design Museum. We spent rest of the morning interviewing student/volunteer for the charity organization about university and charity organization relations, volunteer management, marketing/branding towards volunteers and donors. After lunch, we have started discussing about the upcoming workshops on Organization Strategy/Mission, HR practices, Marketing and Branding, and Integrated Information Platform. We have a full week ahead of us. Sweat and sleepless nights are ahead of us but first we will enjoy the weekend :-)
Having great team members means everything. It can make or break everything. It sounds so simple and straightforward but hear me out. If the joy of life is about being understood, finding opportunities for your strengths to see the light, and feeling that people around you complement your strengths, then great teaming is just this. I am so lucky that my subteam is great. Thanks to Yaqub and Charlie. We have great fun doing what we do best. I love what we do, how we do it, and I love how much joy and laughter we get out of it.
More food that I can possibly photograph
Enough drinks to last for few weeks Excellent Indian cooking Games Singing Dancing While we celebrate 20th year of Martin's service at IBM. We have spent Day 5 morning brainstorming. IBM CSC is thinking for Wuxi. We will run a series of workshops and I will lead the one on HR management: org charts, roles and responsibilities, salary levels, training, career profiling, hiring, interviewing, succession planning, collaboration.
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Seda Tokcan works at IBM Market Development and Insights in Europe based in Paris, France. Archives
April 2015
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