Make an impact and gain new experiences at the same time!
No, this is not an advertisement for another self-help program. Yes, it is a summary of what happened during my SAP social sabbatical (from herein SoSa).
SAP Social Sabbatical is a portfolio of global pro-bono consulting programs that enable SAP employees to share their knowledge, skills and expertise with non-profits and social enterprises all around the world.
My journey started middle of last year with the application process. Both, the essays that I submitted as a part of my application and the personal interview helped me to determine what I wanted to get out of my Sosa. I got a strong impression during the selection process that the SoSa organizing team was also determined to help me get what I wanted.
My selection was confirmed in October 2022 to the Port Louis, Mauritius/April 2023 cohort. It immediately had me excited and I started researching Mauritius. The days rolled by quickly and I soon had the first interactions with the organizing team regarding the logistics. I became acquainted with my entire cohort and subteam soon after. I realized that the cohort had great diversity and brilliance but I did not anticipate the learning and fun I would have with them. Prework assignments followed which were of the highest quality. I strongly believe that those assignments helped us get into the right frame of mind before the sabbatical. It was April and it was time to leave for Mauritius. Time to start the adventure...
Impact
My sub-team was assigned to assist We-Recycle, an NGO working to solve the main challenges associated with plastic recycling in Mauritius. From their website
a non-profit registered NGO since 2016, has an overall objective to collect recyclable waste throughout Mauritius to help clean the environment and to advocate and engage with the government, local authorities, business, schools and NGOs/Forces Vives to help shape recycling activities, policy and legislation in Mauritius.
Our challenge was to improve the data management at We-Recycle, specifically by leveraging technology to reduce manual overhead and improve overall data quality. To give more context, one of the core activities of the NGO is operating collection bins around Mauritius where establishments/individuals can deposit recyclable waste. The NGO employs collection teams that drive around the island and regularly clean up these bins by transporting the waste from those bins to recycling plants. After each clean-up, the collection team reports on the details (like the total weight of collected recyclable waste, pictures of the clean-up, etc..). The reporting is done via WhatsApp messages and the back office team then manually curates those messages into structured and exploitable data. It is essential to collect and maintain this data for two main reasons
- To provide reports on the NGO’s activities to sponsors and other stakeholders
- To plan future clean-ups in a data-driven manner
We had four weeks to improve this process. There were other constraints like the absence of any in-house IT staff at the NGO and the operational and maintenance costs of any potential solution. Solving this challenge also needed a crack team of experts, however, this was not a constraint.
I was going to work closely with Carole and Tamara on this project. We had incredible team chemistry. All three of us are outcome-oriented but at the same time, we made sure we enjoyed the process as much as possible. We also complemented each other well with each of us bringing different things to the table like execution excellence, detail orientation, and big-picture focus.
I would like to give a special mention to Chris Sam, our project mentor at SAP who worked on a project with similar constraints a few years ago as part of his SoSa and shared many valuable tips with us. And of course, Stephanie Jacquin from We-Recycle, whose knowledge of the domain and whose inputs were essential for us to make any impact.
We took our first steps by understanding the problem space in more depth. We asked a lot of questions to Stephanie and built visual representations of the current process. We also took an opportunity to shadow the collection teams to understand the usability and desirability of a new solution. All of this was crucial because it helped us to find the right scope for a solution that will make the most impact. With the constraints mentioned above, we could not afford to build anything but the leanest possible solution.
Equipped with the knowledge of the status quo, we began our research into possible solutions. I am aware of the growing LCNC (low code/no code) ecosystem but during this research, it hit upon me the progress made in this space in the recent few years. We agreed that we will leverage such an LCNC approach to realize the end-end solution for We-Recycle. During this step, we also finalized the tech stack based on the LCNC options.
The next part was to implement the solution. There were a few challenges in tailoring the selected LCNC tools to match our requirements. All three of us have significant experience engineering IT solutions for customers and coupled with our problem-solving skills, the challenges did not prove to be anything beyond road bumps and we managed to develop a working solution. In addition, our planning and execution were perfect in the sense that we also had the time to conduct usability studies of our solution with both the collection team and Stephanie. Our initial skepticism about introducing new technology and a learning curve into the jobs of collection teams was happily invalidated. The collection team members were very excited about adopting the new solution and the new overall experience.
We then agreed upon the release version together with Stephanie and We-Recycle. Besides the initially agreed data management features, we also managed to deliver a few analytical features. These features enable the back office staff to generate reports and visualizations for some standard and repeating use cases. I felt this injected a certain wow factor into our solution that brought home the entire value of the new improved data management setup.
After returning from Mauritius, we have since followed up with Stephanie about the solution. The solution is currently running in trial mode and is providing more than satisfactory results according to Stephanie. She is very happy about the efficiency provided by the solution and plans to roll it out in production mode very soon. And we are happy with the outcome. I attribute our success to the following factors
- Listening and asking the right questions
- Respecting and reusing standard processes in software development (requirements analysis...)
- Aligning with the customer (We-Recycle) on the scope of the delivery and being transparent about the reasons.
- Planning and structuring our work for regular outcomes
- The team spirit (surely it was something more than just all of us being Virgos)
The experiences
Delivering value for We-Recycle was a major part of SoSa but I would not do justice to the program by not mentioning the other experiences surrounding the project.
Rising soley
The Mauritius SoSa cohort had twelve members divided into four subteams. Rising Soley was what we decided to call our team of 12 before we even left for Mauritius. Like my subteam, there were three other subteams all assisting different NGOs/Social enterprises in Mauritius.
Every team had their own challenges and it was a great learning for me to understand their approaches towards tackling their challenges. The problem space was different in all four projects but ultimately all our host organizations needed assistance with scaling different aspects of their operations (HR, Sales, Marketing, IT). So by closely following the developments in all the projects, I could get an effective crash course in scaling an organization within a few weeks. All the subteams had successful outcomes by the end of the four weeks.
The personal connections
One of the observations we had during our time in Mauritius was that only a few of our conversations were what one would refer to as the standard SAP water cooler stuff. This was mainly because we all bonded on a personal level in a short span of time and could discuss. People revealed their personal projects and professional aspirations to one another. We talked about what makes us happy in life and shared things with the group without any fear of being judged. Everyone in the group had a unique perspective on things and this made connecting with everyone very engaging. I strongly believe that the interpersonal bonds we created with each other will last a long time.
The expeditions
Of course, I cannot not mention all the trips that we made around the island on our free days. We did a lot of water activities (snorkeling, many catamaran rides), and hikes, petted a big cat, and visited all the major attractions of the island. Some of the activities, especially the water-related ones required me to get out of my comfort zone. As a camel in water, taking a plunge into deep ocean waters (with a life vest) will remain a highlight. Special mention to Sandy from our team for pushing me to do this. All these trips served another important purpose, they refreshed us for our intense project assignments. Planning all these trips, however, was an exercise in itself and I was happy that a few members took the initiative and made sure our downtime was optimally utilized.
The country
Mauritius is a true melting pot of different cultures. One can notice Indian, Chinese, and French influences in most aspects of everyday life. English, French, and Mauritian Creole are the main languages though many people of Indian origin can understand Hindi and a few other Indian languages. Funnily, I can speak some French but found it a bit difficult to follow spoken French in Mauritius as their enunciation technique is different from that of mainland France.
All the people I met there were very friendly and cheerful. I don’t remember coming across an angry person in those four weeks. Maybe the pleasant weather had something to do with it? In the work setting everyone was highly professional and it was truly a joy to work with the local people.
The food scene is dominated by Indian and Chinese influences. As a vegetarian with a preference for different flavors, I did not mind this at all. Initially, I was apprehensive about eating out all the time for four weeks but in the end, it turned out to be fine. I (&no one else in our group as well afaik) did not develop any issues and was able to enjoy all the treats that the country offered to us.
What Next...
I am writing this blog already a couple of weeks after completing my SoSa. In the short term, my subteam has agreed to be engaged with We-Recycle and ensure a successful roll-out of the solution. We will monitor our solution for any bugs in the initial weeks and fix them within a reasonable time frame. In the mid-term, we plan to offer our help in an advisory capacity for any IT/Technology challenges that We-Recycle might have going forward. We-Recycle also showed enthusiasm in engaging with us going forward and we will refine the details together going forward.
On a personal level, I had many learnings and experiences that will be close to my heart. I will try my best to leverage them in my personal and professional life whenever possible. In the end, I am thankful to be part of the SoSa experience and I hope this program continues to make the same impact on other SAP employees and organizations in the future
