And that's a wrap

This past week has really flown by and now I find myself in Rio de Janeiro for a few days with the IBM CSC assignment now over. Its been a month full of experiences that's for sure, and its hard to believe that its been that long since I was back in Ireland.

To quickly recap on the final week; we'd our final client presentation on Monday, then on Tuesday and Wednesday we focused on finishing up all our deliverables and handing them over to the client. We also spent considerable time just trying to advance them through the process we've developed and answering any remaining questions they had. Its tough working so closely with a group of people and then having to walk away, but we got some great feedback on all the work we had done together, and I know the team is well able to take what we've worked on and run with it from here. I look forward to keeping in contact with the people we've worked with and seeing how things work out for them.

On Wednesday afternoon we took the opportunity to travel out to one of the other team's clients (Casa do Jardim) for their community day. We'd gotten to meet the driving force behind this organization (Joanne) a number of times in our month in Belo Horizonte and it was great to get a chance to see what they do for the children and community of Jardim Canada. Humbling stuff and it was a really nice experience to finish up our last formal day of work with.

Thursday was a big day as it was our final overall presentation to all of the client groups and their invitees. It took place at a museum auditorium and was a very cool venue. It took about half the day and the team's and presenters all did such a great job, couldn't help but feel proud of everyone and what they had achieved with their projects in 4 short weeks. Its been a real pleasure working with everyone and we've developed great friendships as a group, its been one of the big pluses from this whole experience.

We also had a group night out to celebrate the finish of the assignment, and where was the venue .... an Irish bar! and there was a U2 cover band playing to boot! I personally think the group was worried about my repatriation experience and decided they use this as a way to try and ween me off Brazilian culture a little :o)

On Friday, our last day in BH, we held a kind of debriefing session with Bruno (IBM) and Juliana (CDS), mainly about how the whole month went and what worked well with the program and what could be improved. It was a really open session, and given how close the group has become there was plenty of honest comments about what they'd learned about themselves in this past month and also heartfelt comments from people how difficult it may be to say goodbye, return to their home countries and go back to their day jobs with IBM. Its all part of the process though, and at least with modern technology keeping in touch and maintaining the friendships and networks we've developed should be much easier.

On the CSC program itself:

The program is designed to be win-win for IBM and the client organizations that get involved. After passing through the process, for me its clear to see that the client organizations truly benefit from having external professionals come in and help accelerate change and implement improvements. Its a universal fact that NGO's are always so thinly stretched when it comes to money and resources and any change agent that can get enhance how they work as a unit is a big plus for them in the long run.

Certainly in the case of the organization our team worked with, it was never a fact that they didn't have the capability to do what they needed, but rather that they didn't have the breathing space to get their heads around how to tackle improving the present situation - all we did was shape peoples ideas and suggestions into a framework for a better way to work, and we threw in some tips and tools along the way which we all brought from our backgrounds and past experiences.

On IBM's side, the big pluses are probably in a couple of areas, but it certainly enhances IBM's reputation as a socially responsible organization, and indeed as a leader in this area - having an employer like that is a big factor for me personally. But principally I think it really improves their employees as professionals, and sends them back to their day jobs with such much broader skills and experience. The whole being thrown in the deep end as a consultant and finding out how to get out the other end of it all has been a lot of work but also a lot of fun to experience (in hindsight, I can't say that it was fun at the time!), and I know I've learned a huge amount from it.

Overall this whole 'corporate volunteering' idea really isn't that dissimilar in many ways to your regular types of volunteering - people can invest their time and themselves just as deeply in what they get involved in and that it can certainly change peoples perspectives on many things. Its not as surprising then that its had an affect on all of us and how we see the future and on what's important not just our careers, but also in life in general.

We've had the privilege of working with organizations with amazing passion for what they do and I think we all uncovered that finding passion, in whatever you do, is a key ingredient to enjoying life.


Hope everyone has enjoyed following my blog these past weeks, its been a new and interesting experience to be keeping tabs of how things have progressed from week to week! :o)

Go n-eiri an t-adh leat (good luck)

Paddy

#ibmcsc Brazil