Teach them to Fish but don’t forget the Fishing rod — Tale of my Social Sabbatical in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Prologue
When I got the news in mid-2017 that I was selected for SAP’s Social Sabbatical program (pro bono volunteering program where highly diverse teams of SAP employees solve strategic challenges of nonprofits and social enterprises focused on bridging the digital divide — https://www.sap.com/dmc/exp/2017_03_46558/enUS/index.html ) in Cambodia, frankly I did not know what to expect. The yearning desire to contribute actively and give back to community had made me to apply for the program but that was only the beginning. After I accepted the offer, I was actively looking for more information to start the preparation but the wait was long. The first preparation call occurred in Dec 2017 starting with pro bono consulting definition and then the pieces of riddle started coming together giving me better picture of what to expect and how to prepare. The virtual team calls that occurred every week with a mix of explanations and exercises enabled us to get to know the team and prepare for the assignment. With the announcement of sub team (Team of 3 — Melissa, Katja and me)
and Customer EYC (http://eycambodia.org/), we had our first virtual call in January second week with Customer which gave us a good overview and we were ready to start the assignment from Feb 3rd. Our assignment was to improve the job placement program for EYC students which sounded like an easy problem to understand but the “Devil was in details” which we had not understood yet.
Kingdom of Cambodia — The Land of Smiles
Cambodia had one of the worst genocide in the modern history not so long ago but having put this experience quickly behind, the people of Cambodia are very warm and friendly.
As soon as I arrived in Phnom Penh airport, true to their reputation I was greeted by the friendly hotel driver and in 30 minutes I was there in Hotel. Our Hotel in Phnom Penh was in a posh locality by the lakeside overlooking fancy LCD billboards and premium Casino with many Lexus and other luxury SUVs zipping by. I slept wondering during the night whether this city needed any social challenge to be solved?
Reality — The Social Inequality in Cambodia
The first and second day was spent in introduction of Customer and the detailed discussion of Scope of work with our Customer EYC. On third day, we were ready for live action and what better way than to visit one of the School run by our Customer EYC?
The journey started early morning in a Tuk Tuk and 2 KMs into the journey, the social divide was evident. The road started becoming bumpy with frugal living conditions. Our Tuk tuk stopped at the entrance of a very narrow unpaved road and we started to walk to the school. This road was once a railway track which is now closed and wider roads are planned here. The narrow road is lined with slums consisting of sheds the size of a typical bathroom but houses 6–8 people inside. At the end of the road was the EYC school. A quick discussion with the School Coordinator revealed that with the road expansion plan, the whole slum was subject to eviction so the fear of displacement was a prominent issue to the students.
EYC School imparts English, Computer skills and many leadership When we visited, EYC was running computer and English classes. We had an opportunity to interact with the Students. I could see the dream in Students eyes and how EYC is helping them to achieve their dream.
In the evening, we visited an Adult EYC school (Students studying in University and looking for jobs) and administered a questionnaire to them covering various aspects such as Students perspective about where EYC is helping, what can be improved, Challenges and solution to get a job. This gave us a very good perspective of the challenges faced by EYC students. As I slept that night exhausted from all the interactions and information, I was no longer wondering if I was in the right city but was thinking about the next steps!
Design Thinking Process & 360-degree assessment
Design Thinking was used to address the challenge and arrive at the right solution. Primarily, Design thinking is used for software development. Here we were using it for finding solution for Job Placement issue. This needed some adjustment — some times for example process like 5 Why’s got the reasons in circles (2nd reason again came up as 5th reason). At other times, participants did not understand usage of formal framework like 5 Why’s for what they thought was an obvious reason.
By the end of second week, our Customer understood Design thinking as a problem-solving framework and as a tool where which they could use to solve any Business challenge they might face in future.
Once we completed the student assessment, we did the assessment of Alumni, EYC Teachers, Education Coordinator, Previous Job Placement coordinator, Program Manager and the Potential Employers. From this 360 degree assessment and iteration, we understood the challenges and the possible solution well and were ready to work on detailed implementation plans.
Deliverables — Don’t forget the fishing rod
The scope of the solution for Job Placement was very broad covering various aspects. So, we started working in a systematic approach addressing various topics. To optimize the time, we went for “Divide and conquer” approach where after the 360-degree assessment as a group, each of us owned a topic, worked on the details, got the feedback from the team and created the final implementation plans.
We created 6 detailed implementation plans covering following aspects:
· Career planning & Counseling — Helping students to understand themselves, their career goals and how to achieve them, and building a career plan/roadmap to get there
· Job Placement Preparation — Increased focus on CV writing & interviewing skills, as well as on essential skills needed for success in the workforce (problem solving, leadership, adaptability, creativity, ability to continuously learn)
· Mentor Program — Leveraging alumni, who want to give back, to mentor job seeking EYC students, sharing experiences, lessons learned, tips for success, coaching on CV writing & interviewing
· Private Facebook — Connecting EYC university students to learning, career sites, recruiters, employers, to fellow EYC students, EYC alumni & staff
· Employer Partnership — Developing partnership with potential Employers and job Agencies
· Software for Job placement — Consolidate many excel into single database and build software to enable querying of information and measurement of impact
To arrive at implementation plan, we did a prioritization of the several proposals that we had based on feasibility, desirability and viability with EYC and arrived at Minimum Viable Product which would be high impact high feasibility solution. We created 5 prototypes covering each area for testing with various stakeholders such as Students, Employers and Mentors. For example — For software application for student database, we created an actual working application to enter and display student information. We did a demo of the application to around 23 students in a classroom and received feedback from the student. We used these learning’s from prototype and improvised the implementation plans.
We spent the last week in incorporating the feedback from EYC and handing over the final implementation plans to EYC.
They say “Teach a man to fish” so that they are self-sufficient. But there is one common mistake many make. They forget to give him the Fishing rod. These detailed step by step implementation plans (with working prototypes) was the Fishing rod and the design thinking was teaching EYC staff how to fish.
Conclusion
The Social Sabbatical program creates a WIN-WIN situation. It enabled our Customer to address their most important issues which creates a positive impact in the lives of many students and at the same time enhances SAP Employees leadership skills like driving simplicity and ensuring customer success. Social Sabbatical program truly enables SAP Employees to live the SAP mission of helping the world run better and improve people’s lives.
