How a hotel key card in Durban, South Africa changed my approach to life
It all started with a simple key card — the electronic one many hotels now use to allow you to enter your room. You slide the card into the slot and wait for the click to open the door. Looking back at my experience over the month of April I am still amazed at how much this one little card impacted me.
So, what happened… you ask? It was the first night after I arrived in Durban, South Africa to spend a month participating in an SAP Social Sabbatical. We were staying at a boutique hotel that had a collection of adorable Victorian homes. I had just met the 11 other SAP colleagues from Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Germany, India, Poland, the Philippines and Russia (little did I know then that my “family” would be extended at the end by 11 and then some!).
… a quick aside before I continue — what is the SAP social sabbatical you might be asking? This is a pro bono volunteering program where 12 SAP colleagues from around the world came together to work closely with 4 NGOs for a shared purpose:
1. Solve concrete business challenges of nonprofit organizations and social enterprises focused on bridging the digital divide in different markets across the globe, help them run at their best, and support them to maximize their social impact.
2. Challenge and develop SAP employees to understand the global consequences of our rapidly digitized world, embrace the idea of life-long learning, and be role models for living SAP’s vision and purpose.
See here the “Durban Dozen” including our wonderful supporters from PYXERA Global and SAP Africa.
Now back to the story….
I was rushing back to my room to change for dinner as we were all going out to get to know each other. I pulled the card out of my purse and quickly jammed it in and out of the slot. Nothing. I tried again with a typical exasperated sound. Nothing. Suddenly it dawned on me that perhaps I needed to slow down. Yes — SLOW DOWN — be patient, wait a second, breath, pause. I tried again with the key card much slower and deliberate and — amazingly — the door opened.
This might sound simple, but this basic concept was a constant thread throughout the next fabulous 30 days. Let me give you three concrete examples for how the KEY CARD concept found its way into my life:
1. Finding Elephants…. And lions and Rhinos….
One of our weekend adventures was visiting the Hluhluwe Game Reserve, the oldest proclaimed reserve in Africa. I personally spent 2 days with a huge smile on my face despite sitting in a safari jeep for 12 hours. (you can be sure 12 hours of driving around my home in Boston does NOT put a smile on my face). So how did the KEY CARD come into play here? Well, game drives are not like visiting a zoo — you don’t just drive over to the Elephant Exhibit or the Lion Display. Sometimes we drove around the (fabulous!) terrain for 45 minutes without seeing an animal. Again, we needed to have a deliberate plan full of patience, lots of breathing and lots of looking — oh and the experience of one of the superior guides! And using this technique — see an example of what we came across (or really — what crossed our path!):
1. How to find an answer? Slow down — Sometimes it takes time
Three out of the 12 of us (Julia, Tomasz and I) spent our working time with a wonderful organization called TREE (Training and Resources in Early Education), whose mission is promote quality holistic Early Childhood Development and care for children ages 0–4 years in South Africa through women training and empowerment. Our goal was to assist the highly capable and passionate TREE employees to improve their operational excellence in many areas including fund raising, proposal development and management, marketing and toy manufacturing. So how did the KEY CARD concept help here? Well, it took us several days and multiple discussions with various TREE employees and stakeholders to jointly come up with ideas. And in the end, the best activity we did was taking the time for the employees to come together in a design thinking workshop to help THEM brainstorm (see photo below).
Also important to the process was taking the time to meet with others that influence and are impacted by TREE. We met with several members of TREE’s board of Directors. We connected with SAPPI, a leading global provider of sustainable Woodfibre products and solutions and the largest land owner in South Africa. SAPPI is a long-time sponsor of TREE’s and one of their biggest cheer leaders. This was of particular interest to me as SAPPI is one of my customers at SAP (I work with the SAP Mill Products and Mining IBU) and it was amazing to be able to connect with them on the topic of early childhood development and giving back to society. We were also lucky enough to see TREE practitioners in action teaching children at a creche outside Durban — check out the photo below. TREE gave each child a new uThando doll (donated by the uThankdo project) to play with. The children we saw were full of enthusiasm, life — and because of the efforts of lots of people — hope for a bright future.
Back to the point of this story — throughout our work with TREE — Julia, Thomasz and I took our (KEY CARD) time to listen, ask questions, ask more questions and tried to help the team rethink the old way of working and be open to new ideas.
1. How to help your son choose a college when you are in Africa for a month
My last example for how the KEY CARD changed my approach to life during the social sabbatical had to do with my high school senior, who had to decide which college he wanted to attend before I returned home from Durban. So initially — being a type A mom — I had planned to have that all wrapped up by BEFORE I left for a month in Durban. But as we now know rushing does not work….. I should have known about KEY CARD before that time. Despite not knowing which college he was going to commit to I jumped on the plane with a bit more anxiety added to the mix. But a funny thing happened while I was away in Durban — and not in his face pushing and rushing. My son took his time, thought it out, went on a college visit with my husband — and made the decision. I again realized the benefits of being patient, breathing and sometimes just letting life happen.
My last comment is to anyone who has the opportunity to do a social sabbatical with SAP — or actually any opportunity to spend time doing social good — should do it! It is actually hard to do justice in explaining the overall experience as it is multifaceted and deep. But I can only say that you will not regret it! And you will come back with your own KEY CARD concept. I would love to hear more KEY CARD stories — send them!
