Everyone deserves a second chance…..
The above phrase sounds altruistic, and makes you go warm and fuzzy. But it isn’t just that, a feeling. It is what I have lived and witnessed over the past month during my social sabbatical at Port Louis Mauritius. Read on…..
For the uninitiated, the SAP Social Sabbatical is a month-long volunteering time sponsored by SAP for a few of us (catalysts who go through a selection process) to work with the social sector, be it with social entrepreneurs or with NGOS that work with communities. It is also one of the ways we drive the ‘Social responsibility’ pillar of our sustainability strategy. When our group of 12 (from 8 countries), not the fabled “dirty dozen” or “Ocean’s 12”, landed in Mauritius, we were divided across 4 such organizations who ran a range of initiatives. From those working with victims of substance abuse (Association pour personnes en Larmes, APPEL) to recycling of plastic (We Recycle), turning wastepaper into pencils (Morivert), and those bringing in circularity in reuse of construction material (La Dechateque), the spread was wide, but all tied by the motto to make a difference to the local Mauritius community.
Our small team of 3, representing Spain, Mexico and Denmark was assigned to APPEL.
APPEL helps victims of substance overcome their addiction and integrate back into society. It also doubles up as a halfway house for those seeking temporary shelter. The organization also runs a training center providing education in vocational skills (hairdressing, maintenance, carpentry etc.) and a social entrepreneurship project called the ARCH café. Our task was to create an organizational handbook that outlines the expected behaviour from employees, values at APPEL and HR procedures in line with the Mauritian labour law. In all honesty, the first question that came to mind after reading the SOW was…. “I am no HR expert; Why me ? and How can I help?” And do they really need people from around the world to come and write handbooks in an island nation? But we set aside these questions and the skepticism that they brought, and practiced what we learnt in our pre-work — ‘Trust the process’, and how right we were to do that?
Now, let me delve deeper into how did we go about the process and what it yielded? The rehabilitation journey is a good starting point.
The Rehab Journey (a second chance at life!) and the real heroes:
APPEL accepts patients through medical referrals and walk ins. After a mandatory medical detox period, the residents are offered an 8-month program to go through a journey of adaptation, rebuilding of self-confidence and preparation to go back into mainstream society. It implies that the residents must develop good habits, practice values such as integrity, fairness, responsibility, respect and most importantly become self-aware and motivated. It also takes a heroic effort to traverse the roller coaster of emotions, be clean and continue stay in control. One probably needs to summon a herculean amount of mental strength and grit to stay committed to the process. And while the residents go through the healing process, the staff who support them need to summon their superhuman skills to help them through this process time and again. Not once, not twice, but many times over, while being at odds continuously between the rational and emotional self. On the outside it seems like just a job, observe with a close eye and you realize it’s much more than a job. It comes with the weight of responsibility of rebuilding another individual’s life selflessly. It necessitates the need to be empathetic and understanding, yet be firm, objective and poised in the toughest of situations that human emotions manifest in. In short, it takes superheroes to rebuild heroes from their shadows. And the staff at APPEL are just that. The results speak for themselves with 55% of the residents managing to get back to the mainstream sometimes with jobs either externally or internally at the centre itself. Now that’s an incredible success rate in rehabilitation.
Now to the part of our assignment which was to create an organizational handbook that outlines the expected behavior from employees, communicates the values at APPEL and HR procedures in line with the Mauritian labour laws in less than 4 weeks. The main driver behind this task was to help the center run like a professional organization and be process oriented when it came to HR issues like attendance, leave, misconduct etc. In addition, the handbook on organizational culture is expected to establish a baseline on expected behaviour from the staff towards each other and the residents.
For us it was an incredible learning experience as we planned and executed on the ask with the Mauritian Workers Rights Act of 2019 as the cornerstone. A meeting with the ministry of labour, interviews with the staff and understanding the use cases presented by the Center manager on a day-to-day basis further reinforced the complex nature of human resources related issues. Akin to the many shades of grey, the answers to these issues are not in black and white, it almost always ‘depends’. Nevertheless, we managed to craft the handbooks translating the law to colloquial terms, drawing up additional forms as needed and putting together supplemental documentation to support some of the difficult translations. And while we had rigorous and productive days, we also had our share of fun and were rather spoilt with the good lunches and Mauritian warmth exuded by the staff. We even got the chance to attend a felicitation ceremony to celebrate some of their resident / victims going clean, having stable jobs and being independent after going through their 8-month program. We got to see what light at the end of the tunnel looked like.
Some of the stories of love, loss, courage and sheer grit we heard and witnessed over the month were heartbreaking yet awe inspiring. In summary, a month of working on this project at APPEL gave us learning and perspective beyond imagination, key highlights of which I have tried to outline below:
- ‘Every one deserves a second chance’ — We, as human beings are hostage to a certain set of circumstances, some of which are obvious to the external world and some invisible. To help people help themselves and appreciate the shades of grey, its essential to start with the premise that everyone irrespective of situation, location, position etc. deserves a second chance. As much as this applies for victims of substance abuse, it also applies in cases of candidate interviews, disagreements in the workplace, presentations gone wrong and a host of personal situations. For a person like me that tends to keep mix of binary and non-binary views depending on the situation, this line will stay etched as I traverse as a leader, coach, mother, mentor, friend. Decoding the circumstances, reading between the lines and adjusting the bar is my personal takeaway both personally and professionally.
- Learning to unlearn — 15 years plus of working in enterprise software has bestowed in me, ways of working that have become part of my DNA over time. I went to Mauritius with the idea of using all my business process and IT knowledge to solve organizational challenges, but I came back with a huge appreciation of common sense. Dealing with complex businesses and processes and solutions often makes us blind to the power of simplicity. Over the month, we reworked our way to simplicity in thought and action, often using it as a guiding principle through the project. Common sense, simplicity and learning to unlearn as needed will continue to be a key tenet of my approach as I continue to address complex business challenge in my day job.
- Appreciating that everyone speaks a different language — We poured over the law and translated the key requirements it in a language we thought would be understandable to the users. A quick test with the centermanager in a couple of use cases proved that our perception of ‘understandable’ was far different from reality. This pushed us to think less like experts and more like user. Users come from various backgrounds and communicate in different languages. So our documents had to be reworked to the lowest common denominator and incorporate visual and graphic illustrations for ease of use. Guess it’s a good reminder from from now on to keep SAPanese limited 😊 ( SAP lingo for those who are not aware of it)
- One does not need to be an expert to help — This will remain with me forever. From the staff at APPEL, we learnt that one does not need to be an expert to do amazing things, just the willingness to become the best version of ourselves every day is good enough to make a difference. They keep going at their jobs and responsibilities with a sense of duty and intent, which is what matters ultimately. To take a parallel in our project, none of us were HR experts, far from it, if anything. Nevertheless, with the right intent and effort we managed to create something that is tangible and useful to the center. Next time I find myself in an unknown universe, I am sure the superheroes from APPEL will inspire me to find a way.
- The power of being able to focus on a single task — Focus is a highly underrated, and this month of undistracted attention on a task has taught me that. Like most of us who are slave to our calendars, my calendar is a criss-cross network of calls and meetings with little or no time to focus and create something from scratch. As a result, days end up being exhausting rather than rewarding. And even if its not creating something new just the need to focus on a particular task cannot be stressed enough. It is downright liberating.
Summing up my experience wouldn’t be complete without a tribute to the beautiful country and people of Mauritius. This tiny island nation in the Indian ocean is a heady cocktail of India, France and Africa. The Indian influence is seen across the country in architecture, cuisine, cultural activities etc. As an Indian in Mauritius, it was a little confusing as Mauritians looked like me, ate the same food as me but spoke a totally different language (some spoke actual Indian languages). So, the locals assumed I speak French and I assumed they speak Hindi. We spent a minute or two in just getting that right.. 😊 and moved on to business once we were over our disbelief. The local food is a gastronome’s delight with a heavy reliance on fresh ingredients and there something for every palette. The country is also great destination for nature enthusiasts with activity junkies alike, with brilliant hikes, pristine coral reefs to snorkel in etc. and oh, did I miss mentioning the sunsets? They are to die for. The Mauritian hospitality and warmth are unparalleled, something that’s experienced only in idyllic islands and in high mountain villages. The key I reckon is the sense of time, and like every island nation, Mauritius runs at a pace of its own and cannot be hurried up. You just learn to make peace with it!
And that’s a wrap! My SoSa in Mauritius is over! And I can say that this is by far the best experience I have had at SAP, and will go out on a limb and say is perhaps the best experience one can have. I have come back more inspired than I ever thought I will be. I went to make a difference.. came back feeling the difference. The simplicity, humility and sheer will to overcome adversities, leave a lasting impact in more ways than one. And if I were to sum up my Sosa experience in one word… it would be ‘humbling’.
It is also important to underscore the fact that it takes a universe to make this a successful experience. I am deeply grateful to my colleagues, family, my brilliant SoSa teammates and the staff at APPEL who made this possible.
We have returned to our day jobs, our assignment may be completed but the bond and love will remain.
To all others who might be considering this opportunity to make a difference, don’t think twice. Our communities need more help than they can get. And you can offer more than you think and receive more n than you can imagine in return.
