Debriefing and… the projects are over
Coming back from a long weekend in San Pedro we realize that there is not much time left to spend with our organization. Wednesday morning Emanuela and I go to AmazoOn Du Web to discuss communication and show the new templates we created for them and Sourajit stays in the hotel to work on our final presentation. Knowing that the air condition in the office will likely still be broken I put on shorts and a T-Shirt but it is still pretty hot and we all keep sweating during the day.
We start with talking about the importance of methodology for efficient communication and templates for harmonized communication. Basically all we teached in the last three weeks was hands on training in these two areas. We want to enable the volunteers of AmazoOn Du Web to do great things and knowing the tools is absolutely important for this. We recap what tools and templates we have used (Design Thinking, Project Planning, Communication Plan, and a lot more) and I show on the google drive that we have set up together where all the related documentation can be found. As we are about to leave soon, I prefer not to introduce any new content this week but to just recap and steady and the knowledge that we have transferred so far.
The templates we have created (Word, PowerPoint, E-Mail, Messaging, Teasers) are a great asset and save a lot of work for recurring tasks. I show Marie Huguette and Marie Estelle how to create a new slide deck with the slide master that I have created for them. The slide deck is now in the new design of AmazoOn Du Web and very visual. In 5 minutes, we could create a new presentation by uploading photos for the placeholders and filling the blank texts in the title and agenda slide. Then, we take a look at the slide master and how to modify it for their needs. Similarly for the word template, i explain that they should use it for all written communication and adapt it to their needs. We talk about additional templates and I recommend to create own templates for additional tasks like inviting for a MeetUp, applying for a new project, or requesting help from a partner. Also, having a repository of photos that may be reused in communication is helpful. Similarly, the communication for an event can also be standardized and seen as a template. The thoughts are well received and we have a good discussion on the tools that we have taught in the previous weeks.
Another surprise for us is that the founder of the organization is here in Abidjan this week and wants to meet us today. He comes by the office later when Emanuela works in the MeetUp details into the new AmazoOn Du Web presentation that we have created last week. He is a very bright person and knows about the importance of educated women to bring the country forward. Thus he decided to form an organisation that supports women in IT but he decided to establish a women as the lead for the organization. With Eleonore as president, the organization is managed by a strong women and supported by our volunteers.
We finish the day in the office by talking about the homepage and the path from discovery to action again. The homepage was unavailable in the last two weeks and seemed to be gone completely, so I was not able to work on the content. The president contacted us during the weekend and let us know that they now have a new homepage. I want to at least take a look together with the girls and give some recommendations how to improve it further. Turns out it is the old homepage from 2015 with lots of christmas pictures and old events on it. I abstract from this and show them the path from Facebook or Twitter where they should catch attention to the homepage. There are some bits and pieces missing, for example a consistent usage of the new slogo and logo or a catchy description on the channels to make the user interested and wanting to click the link to the homepage. Also, the link is broken as the domain was changed a couple of times meanwhile. In the current setup, people are not even able to find the page, but this can be changed quite easily so I give some advice.
Then, we take a look at homepages from other organization. I emphasize that the three main actions (donnate, join, support) must be on the first screen of the homepage in order to be executed by the user, otherwise he will loose interest quite fast and move on to another page. Of course, this is currently not the case with our page that features a lot of content about former events and the purpose of the organization. I make an example with the paperclip dispenser on the table. If the aim for the user is to grab a paperclip, then you cannot hide the dispenser behind a bouquet of flowers or make it really hard to reach. You have to provide some initial context, then make it VERY easy to perform the actions, otherwise the interest is lost. I also make the reference to online shopping and that it has to be really easy to “buy” the mission and take action on the AmazoOn Du Web homepage. With this, we go back to the hotel and meet up with Sourajit who worked on the slides for tomorrow’s debriefing session and Fridays closing event.
I also have a last meeting with Jaysshira and Astrid to hand over the communication at 5 PM. Knowing that nobody will appear before 5:30 PM anyway I quickly jump into the pool and refresh myself from a hot day without air condition. It takes another 30 minutes until the meeting starts so I take a look at Sourajit’s presentation and love it from the start. He did great work today and we have now a nice deck for the debriefing meting tomorrow. Teamwork with Sourajit and Emanuela is just great. I go trough the communication strategy slide deck and show the communication plan once more and show them all the tasks that we did and the actions that need to be performed next. Jaysshira is now the communication lead, so she has to plan the communication, establish communication templates, and align with social media to have good coverage on all the channels. I also recommend to do some printed assets and cheap merchandise in the future so that women have something to take with them to remember the organization. Astrid is a little late, she arrives about two hours after the original meeting was planned so I only show her the social media related stuff and wrap up the meeting together with them. They are now a mini team on communication and have to work together to make efficient and planned communication for AmazoOn Du Web. Of course, I will take a look every now and then from home and see how they are doing.
In the evening, its time for the last team meeting. This time we do not talk much about the project status but wrap up the Social Sabbatical and talk about our experiences and learning from the last four weeks. It’s scary that its almost over but we all knew it would eventually come to an end after four intensive weeks. I am still amazed how fast we grew together as a team, basically we were already very close after the orientation day. We supported each other and learned from each others individual skills and talents. We formed new friendships and immersed completely into this country by now. Seatbelt? What is it? For me, it also feels also a little like a four week long school excursion as we all spend so much time together and are far away from our normal lives back at home. The weeks flew by as we had been busy during the week and did travelling at the weekends, but there were so many precious moments and things to happen every day. It is a life changing experience and its hard to describe the details — so I won’t :-)
In the evening we are having a quiz at the pool. We all bring some snacks: local things like banana chips or snacks from our origin countries. Of course, we also have the typical peanuts and cashews in old wine and liquor bottles that are sold next to the street everywhere here. I don’t even know how they did it with this little time to prepare but Blanka and Sourajit prepared twelve rounds of questions. It is very Social Sabbatical style that the teams cannot be picked but get randomly assigned and it’s part of the fun to see us all grouped together in a new constellation again. They have prepared questions for each home country, local traditions and events, sports, movies, dumb charade, or topics that we have talked about during the weekend. It’s really cool to do an interational quiz and it is very well prepared, thanks so much guys for organizing all this for us. Also, it is a very nice distraction from the fact that the whole program is coming to an end soon.
Thursday is debriefing day and we start our last day in the AmazoOn Du Web office with the volunteers. We have prepared a presentation containing our most important achievements, an overview of the deliverables, and an outlook for the organization. As usual, Charles translates for us in French while we show the details and we have a mixed language discussion in between. In the end, we show our learning from this roller coaster ride of emotions — We lived the change and made it fun to learn, we embraced uncertainty in all situations of the project, and we values with empathy for the great mission of the organization. The summary from the two ladies is touching us very deeply: They say that with the tools and the practice that we have given them, they know now that they can overcome all challenges and achieve all that they want. They also know that it does not come for free and that they have to plan and work together, but they can achieve their goals if they try hard. We really are touched by this and are really happy that we made this happen together with Marie Estelle and Marie Huguette and all the other volunteers that we worked with during the last weeks.
To wrap it up and hand over all the documentation to the oganization, I show all the small deliverables on the google drive and give a quick advise here and there. I am surprised that I can do this in halfway fluent french now— but if I am talking strange things, Charles jumps in and translates my bad french in proper sentences :-). Four weeks of immersion really help to pick up a new or long forgotten language. We have seen most of the content in the documents in one or the other meeting or session during the past days, so I keep it very short and explain that when they need any help or translation, they can just get in touch with us or Charles. Emanuela summarizes where we started and where we are right now in the journey of AmazoOn Du Web. There is great passion but also lots of things to do to make the organization grow and sustainable. Volunteers must to be recruited, the next MeetUp needs has to be organized, and the “Each one get One” program finally has to prove itself. We will keep in touch and hope that they will use all the tools to make it work. We believe in you and your brave mission:
Donne une touche IT à ta vie!
Add a touch of IT to your life!
Car former une femme c’est former une toute
Because training one woman is training the whole nation
Finally, the moment to leave the office of AmazoOn Du Web has come, we take nice group pictures and selfies again and say thank you for all the hard work that they did together with us. We leave with mixed feelings, its been a great time and a wild journey for team AmazoOn Du Web. We have one last Croque Monsieur at the fancy bakery next to the office and there are no words needed. We are just proud of what we achieved and a little disturbed that its suddenly over.
Things change when we come back to the hotel and have a nice afternoon at the pool. Tomorrow will be our final presentation and the closing event but that seems still very far away. With having no agenda at all for the first time in four weeks, team Social Sabbatical is now on a relaxation mission!
