Preparing for IBM CSC South Africa 18 Departure
In exactly 2 weeks, on October 13, I will be on QF63 from Sydney to Johannesburg to embark on a consulting engagement with 14 other IBMers on the IBM CSC South Africa 18 team. I have never met any of them in person (apart from one who I actually work with, but that normally doesn’t happen!). We have met virtually once a week via preparation video conference calls on Wednesday night at 10pm AEST for the last three months. I am just realising that this whole thing is happening quickly!
The IBM Corporate Service Corp (CSC) program that started in 2008 provides around 500 IBMers the opportunity to work in a foreign country in a developing economy each year. IBM CSC is part of IBM’s corporate responsibility program where IBM provides experienced staff to local organisations in emerging markets to help solve real community problems. This provides a unique benefit for the IBMer to work in a global setting in a completely different culture to what they are normally exposed to. The three months of preparation puts everyone on a level playing field and covers many aspects of leadership, problem solving, Design Thinking and probably most importantly learning about our destination country including culture and business etiquette.
I will be pausing my day job for a month and focussed exclusively on my project which I will work on with three other team members. Our original group of 15 gets split into 4 sub-teams who work on separate projects. The entire team will stay in a hotel in the centre of Johannesburg which I am sure will be interesting considering what I have heard about the crime there! Security is mostly common sense and IBM has put our security and wellbeing as a priority. In the next two weeks, I have a call with an IBM exec in South Africa, and I need to prepare with my sub-team on our specific project.
As part of my preparation, I read Dinosaurs, Diamonds and Democracy which is a condensed history of South Africa which was incredibly eye opening and gave me some good background for what is to come. We will be immersed in the culture and have already planned some weekend activities to learn more about the country and its rich history.
IBM opens applications to the program around mid-year every year (I applied and was accepted in 2015). The reason I applied in the first place was to use my skills to give myself an opportunity to help and make a difference to a community that needs it, learn about another culture that I would probably not normally visit, and also drop myself outside of my comfort zone and learn something along the way. I know I will get all that and probably more and I am very excited to meet my team and all that the next few weeks will hold. I love eating and I love wine. I know South Africa and I will get along just fine.
