Blog #13 — Post-CSC Goals Update
Before I left for Argentina, I set both professional and personal goals for myself. I figured that a good blog topic now that I’m back would be a reflection on my progress towards these goals.
#1) Learn about the world of IBM beyond Global Business Services (GBS) North America.
While I expected to learn a great deal about our company from my colleagues outside of our consulting business, I was the most surprised and humbled by the insight I gained from my fellow GBS-ers from other parts of the world. The team included Indian and Japanese colleagues who lead GBS delivery teams on major telecommunications and health insurance accounts, respectively. We bonded over the challenges we all share in our day jobs, such as finding skilled technical resources, communicating IBM’s value proposition in a highly competitive environment, and swapping war stories about meeting crazy client expectations.
What I found even more valuable than the similarities, however, were the differences. It was truly eye opening to see the way that decisions made in North America can impact teams halfway around the world. While I have certainly dealt with unintended consequences on a smaller scale, I learned the importance of taking a global perspective when making decisions that impact our teams and our clients in other parts of the world. This is certainly a lesson I hope to take back with me after CSC.
#2) Exercise patience with my team, my client, and myself.
As much as I would like to say that I fully accomplished this goal, I still consider myself an impatient person. That being said, living and working in a different country forced me to disregard all expectations for how things should work. When I tried to keep an open mind and approach problems from perspectives other than my own, I found myself demonstrating more patience than usual.
For example, when my team’s work cadence didn’t match the fast pace that I am accustomed to, I tried to understand their “normal” instead of imposing my own. Rather than pushing my team members to pick up the pace, I focused instead on identifying their key challenges so that I could help to unblock or accelerate their work. We ultimately delivered an exceptional amount of content, culminating in a five hour interactive workshop / draft deliverable review session that I was extremely proud of.
A second example occurred when we ran into scheduling difficulties with a key client stakeholder. When I sought to understand his perspective, I learned that he was in the middle of renegotiating a large contract due to hyperinflation. The typical process in Argentina is to develop a project budget in dollars, then sign the contract in pesos per government regulation. Due to extreme currently devaluation, however, the contract price now only covers 50% of the costs. Setting aside my own expectations around client priorities, and keeping an open mind to the unique challenges in emerging markets, allowed me to engage with the client more patiently than I would have otherwise.
#3) Add value for my client.
I was extremely skeptical going into CSC about how much value we could really provide in four weeks. While we certainly could have delivered more with additional time, I am incredibly proud of the work we produced during our assignment.
First, our presence brought visibility to a project our client has been trying to get off the ground for years. At least six local news articles were published about CSC in Santa Fe, disseminating information about our client’s goals to the broader community. CSC also created new opportunities for our clients to connect with other critical stakeholders. Our project interviews, a CSC networking breakfast organized for the local business community, and the closing ceremony paved the way for direct discussion between disparate groups, both at the events and after.
Second, we provided several tools that our client can continue leveraging beyond the project, on the topics of Project Management, Stakeholder Management, IBM Design Thinking, and KPI Definition. We not only utilized these tools in creating our deliverables, but taught our clients how to do so as well. They look forward to applying what they learned not only on the InterPuertos Multimodal Park, but also on other projects.
Third, we provided a deliverable that our client can use in continuing to “pitch” the InterPuertos project to various stakeholders. It tells the story about why the city needs this park and the benefits it will generate for all impacted groups. While the specific call to action will require customization for different audiences, our client can take advantage of these materials right away.
Finally, our team provided an outside perspective that the client would not have otherwise had access to. Early on, we identified the need for an overarching project manager to drive forward the execution of the InterPuertos Multimodal Park. It was a gap that all of the impacted stakeholders inherently knew existed, but either could not articulate or did not have the courage to bring up, as it was a highly political topic. Our ability to objectively call attention to a sensitive issue and address it head on will hopefully enable our client to overcome this particular hurdle that they were unable to tackle alone.
Fortunately, there were ample opportunities to accomplish both my personal and professional goals on CSC. (On a personal note, if any of my readers have suggestions for how to continue practicing my Spanish now that I’m back in New York, I would welcome any advice!) I feel incredibly grateful for being given the opportunity to push myself in these areas and more, and I am looking forward to seeing how I will apply the lessons I’ve learned now that I am back.
