SAP Social Sabbatical — Wing of Change (2024 Albania Cohort)

Reflecting on the fast-moving pace of life in Albania, I realize that it’s been three weeks since I returned from Albania.

My teammates had been sharing their experiences through blog posts, and I found myself frequently responding to my Dalian colleagues’ inquiries about my time in Albania. Recounting those small yet significant stories from my trip, I realized this journey was a remarkable, perhaps “once-in-a-lifetime” event for me. I see myself incredibly fortunate to apply for this invaluable opportunity and be selected, for which I am so grateful.

What is SAP Social Sabbatical –

SAP Social Sabbatical is a portfolio of short-term volunteering assignments where SAP employees work in diverse teams to tackle strategic challenges for NGOs in different emerging markets. This global initiative pairs SAP employees with different social sector organizations that focus on digital literacy, workforce development, entrepreneurship.

The employees contribute their skills and passion in a pro-bono consulting capacity to support local NGOs and social enterprises, aiming to make long-lasting impacts on society and communities.

Why I applied this SAP Social Sabbatical –

I am the strong advocate of SAP Mission of “Help the world run better and improve people’s life”, and I am particularly inspired by the vision of the Social Sabbatical program: “Bring our best to the world”. Like the old Chinese saying, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime (授人以鱼，不如授人以渔)”, I value SAP’s work with NGOs to empower people with vital skills.

While I knew it’s challenging, since the work is disconnected from our daily routine, which means, you need to step out of comfort zone, quickly adapt to new environment, such as countries you have never been, new teammates who maybe have totally varied life style, habits, different mindset and working pace… and even you need to equipe yourselves with the new technologies/tools quickly to achieve results. No matter how much and what you are prepared, sometimes you might still be encountered some unexpected or unpredictable situations.

But I do see SAP Social sabbatical as an exceptional opportunity to learn, share, contribute, also practice the mission of SAP and its Social Sabbatical. In my application, I expressed the sentiment as such: “I view myself as a passionate giver, in both my professional career and personal life. … I am deeply committed to helping SAP customers overcome challenges during the implementation or operation of SAP systems, also aiming to help my engineers reach new heights in their careers — this gives me the sense of achievement more than others…. I have been actively involved in volunteer activities. For instance…”

So just keep enthusiastic and curious.

What SAP Social Sabbatical experience look like -

Before our arrival in Albania, we familiarized with the teammates through the preparation calls, Our CSR partner Pyxera Global provided us with vital logistics information, culture awareness sessions, tools and tips as well as assessments from “CultureWizard’’ and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to enhance our mutual understanding and cohesiveness, etc..

In the spirit of this collaboration, we decided on our inspiring team name, “Wings of Change,” reflecting the Albanian national symbol, the land of eagle. We also committed to our team’s motto: “Educate, Equip, Empower, Enable’’, embodying our core values of “Adaptability, Collaboration and Engagement”.

During this running-in progress, we felt ready that with cultural, informational, and psychological understanding, the highly diverse teams geared ourselves up to work with host clients in new country.

While upon arrival in Tirana Albania, we discovered the esteemed reputation of our client Junior Achievement Albania received the JA Europe Model Organization award for the third consecutive year, and its parent organization Junior achievement Worldwide was nominated for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, which brought both pressure and pride.

I began to question the value we could provide as a team in a short span of four weeks, yet I felt honored to work alongside with such an organization, also my talented colleagues, Sarah from Germany and Saad from Morocco.

As we navigated our way through the fast-paced four weeks, we adhered to the classic 4W1H principle while leveraging our problem-solving and project management skills with strategy thinking.

Week 1: Familiarized ourselves with the client and its stakeholders, read the existing strategical documents, listened to the success stories, challenges, and reviewed the scope of work provided by JAA.

Week 2: Interacted with JAA employees including Project Managers, Social Media Managers, etc. and Alumni board members to gain their insights, started developing our working documents.

Week 3: Filled with field trips to one Junior School (located in Berat), and a High School (in Tirana), participated in the JAA alumni social gathering, tuned into JAA’s Alumni Masterclass in Elbasan which featured a vibrant start-up that derived from the JAA Junior Up program.

Week 4: Focused on delivering the scope of work and concluding with a closing event where each team presents an executive presentation summarizing their accomplishments with the host clients.

Gladly in these 4 weeks, we could help shape the strategic pillars and dimensions, also identified and highlighted the points that could add value to our host client JAA, by living with SAP Leadership credos - which are advocated in SAP everywhere, every moments — Be agile, ethical, inclusive and accountable. We adapted the new environment quickly, actively listened to our client, openly discussed with stakeholders, embracing diverse perspectives and ongoing efforts to drive any small change needed. Additionally, we have worked collaboratively to inspire high performance and accelerate the strategic plan development.

Throughout these activities, we observed the people of Albania society actively engaging and making impactful contributions. These activities have helped shape a society that is vibrant and sustainable.

We also had the opportunity to interact with other NGOs, such as Joanathan Center in Albania for Down Syndrome families, and Roma Versitas Albania for the Roma Students, also Partners Albania for Change and Development. The impactful contributions to the Education in Albania, and to specific groups of people, left a powerful impression on us.

During our final executive presentation, on behalf of the JAA subgroup, I expressed my genuine appreciation for our experiences in Albania. What we take away from it is far richer than what we invested. Beyond business achievements, the friendships developed, the homely feelings nurtured;

and the exceptional experience of participating in Night to Shine 2024 represent the most valuable rewards of this four-week assignment.

All good things must come to an end, I am still digesting and transforming what we have learned, thought and seen in Albania, we are still interacting and connecting, and hopefully soon we will hear positive news and feedback, the touching moments and cherished memories made during this period will remain unforgettable.