Dakar: Final Reflections
After a one year waiting period and 29 amazing days onsite, my social sabbatical has come to an end. I am back home now and reflecting on the time I spent in Dakar and all the preparation that went into partaking in this experience. Initially, in a lot of ways the sabbatical was out of sight and out of mind, with one year from the time I was accepted to actual departure. When I was initially accepted, a part of me doubted whether this would really happen. A lot can happen in one year and I had a battle with my fears. I only researched very little about Senegal before the trip in fear that I would see or read something that would discourage me from going. Within the year I also had three manager changes and not every one of them was supportive of me going on the sabbatical. One of them spoke to my fears, making me doubt whether this was a good idea for me to go or if my time there would even be worth it. Because of this, there was always a thought in the back of my mind that maybe this wouldn’t happen. Maybe I would chicken out. Maybe I would change roles or leave the company. I was fortunate that in March of last year I moved under a manager that was not only incredibly supportive of me partaking in the social sabbatical but also encouraged me to “tune out” of my regular responsibilities while I went to Dakar, so I’d be really immersed into the experience. So it was happening. I was going to Dakar.
As the departure day was approaching, and we received our sub teams, our clients and several vaccinations, other doubts started to creep in. I was worried that I would not be able to have an impact on the client. Four weeks was a very short period to be able to make a change and I didn’t know if it was possible. We had one call with our client before we landed onsite and we received an initial scope of work on what they were looking to achieve. I felt really blessed to be with Ateliers Des Genies (ADG) whose mission was to reinvent education in Sub Saharan Africa by introducing coding, robotics and programing, and strengthening hard skills while fostering soft skills, like problem solving and critical thinking. The organization was looking for a way to scale their business and move from a soft launch of their curriculum offerings in schools to a full launch with a standard approach.
My team and I spent the first week onsite reworking the proposed scope of work and trying to understand what the real needs were for our client. We agreed upon creating audience profiles for ADG’s target market, competitive analysis for direct and indirect competitors, and preparing an external offering deck so they had a way to position effectively and clearly communicate their vision and offerings. Even as we finalized the scope, I was uncertain what we would actually be able to accomplish during the time.
Before the close of the first week we had interviews scheduled with our target audiences and conducted our first interview with a Senegalese Private School. The second week we conducted the rest of the interviews, which included a French Private School, parents of children who partake in ADGs programs, and we met with the technology advisor to the Ministry of Education in Senegal.
We also started researching the core competitors and uncovered potential rising threats for ADG. As we entered into the third week we did a workshop to understand ADG’s packaging and pricing and were on track to deliver our offering deck. By the time we entered into the fourth week, we were ahead of schedule, had time to do several reviews of our deliverables with our host client and we also added some extra documents that were not in the original scope of work, to help them better organize their calendar year and share their mission. What we were able to accomplish exceeded all of my expectations.
On our last day of the sabbatical, each sub team had a formal final presentation in front of all the clients we worked with. My team was able to speak confidently about what we accomplished during our time with ADG. We showed how the scope adapted and transformed and what we accomplished week by week. The greatest complement and validation was after our presentation our client expressed the impact of our work and how they feel that our time with them would resonate after we left.
All of my fears and doubts were alleviated onsite even when not everything went smoothly. When you are meeting a team in person for the first time, meeting your clients for the first time and have a tight timeline for execution, there are times where patience can run thin and tension can run high. I learned a lot about being flexible and adapting to different working styles while still learning to focus and execute on a job.
Not every moment was work. Outside of my sub team, I enjoyed the evenings and weekends I had with the greater team, experiencing the environment in Senegal. We were privileged to be here when Senegal competed in the championships of the Africa Cup of Nations. I have never been a soccer fan before but this experience was really a bonding moment for the team. We also spent a weekend camping in a desert which was never on my list to do but ended up being a lot of fun. Another weekend we visited a reserve and did a mini Safari.
Certain things were an adjustment here. We were told to negotiate for everything we wanted, which I was not accustomed to doing. I failed most of the time trying to communicate in French and relied on hand gestures a little too much. I was also amazed at how kind and respectful the people were here. In most countries in the world, women need to be careful where they walk in a new environment but I found the people incredibly respectful and anytime I was ever honked at or approached it was from cab drivers or vendors trying to get business.
Before I entered into Africa, we were shared a ted talk about not believing in the single story of a country. For Senegal and Africa as a whole, there are a lot of negative stereotypes. For me, many of those stereotypes were shattered through this experience as I was welcomed by a very hospitable and warm country and continent. I hope to have the opportunity to come to Africa again, as I know each country within has their own story.
I believe I am leaving this experience as a more confident person as my skills were tested in a new environment with new teammates and clients. I learned a lot from my teammates and the experience that I can bring back to my job. I realized that I am an execution person, always wanting to go straight to the finish line but not always being careful with all the details. My teammates were very detailed oriented, so they helped me to slow down and improve the quality of our work, while I feel that I helped us to keep pace and stay on track.
I think as I am further removed from this experience I will start to see the greater impact it had on my life. I applied for the experience to be thrown out of my comfort zone and I hope that I become a bolder person moving forward who is confident in my abilities and ready to grow and be tested in new environments.
