Down to single digits - 9 hours to my first flight. As I sit here looking at my stack of luggage I'm not sure the reality that tomorrow I'll be going to Chile for a month has sunk in yet. How could it? I've been too busy getting ready to go to think about it.
Earlier this week I felt like Nero playing the fiddle. Everywhere I looked there was a fire burning. Completing tasks was not going as I had hoped - both at home and at work. Packing was going even worse. The battery in my SUV died. Even my plans to pre-ship a package to Chile had to be abandoned because nobody knew a magic 4 digit code. The good news is that tomorrow I'll have plenty of time for the reality to sink in as I travel for 26 hours to get to Puerto Montt.
Before departing I want to post one more blog entry to get caught up to real time. As I said in my last post, the pre-work period for the Chile 5 team started December 4th. The pre-work period was supposed to be 12 weeks long. In our case it lasted 14 weeks due to the end of year holidays. During this period the team met once a week for an hour to go over a pre-defined set of learning activities. There were "homework" assignments each week. The expected time commitment for the pre-work stage was a total of 50-60 hours; however, I think that might have been understated some.
One of the main goals of the pre-work period was to get 12 people from 9 different countries to function as a team. The pre-work achieved that goal by incorporating many subtle team building exercises into the team calls. Every team member had to moderate a team call. Every team member had to be a note taker. Every team member had to research and report on a cultural aspect of Chile. In the first 6 weeks two different team members had interview each other. Each month there was a group assignment which often involved breaking into smaller groups.
I was impressed with how quickly the team seemed to click. The pre-work was largely responsible for this, but I do not think it deserves all the credit. From the start the team shared a common goal/interest of being part of the Corporate Service Corps program. Teams with a common goal/interest often come together quickly.
Another main goal of the pre-work period was to enhance our cultural awareness. Every week one or two cultural awareness topics were covered. Likewise we had assigned cultural awareness readings. However, the best tool for enhancing our cultural awareness was the team itself.
The ultimate goal of the pre-work period was to prepare us for our assignment. This was done by discussing the logistic of the assignment, reading articles on corporate citizenship, reading articles on consulting, and ultimately being introduced to our clients and their scope of work expectations.
In retrospect it is interesting to look back on the pre-work period and follow the transition from a light and fun team building perspective to a serious business perspective.
#ibmcsc chile
Earlier this week I felt like Nero playing the fiddle. Everywhere I looked there was a fire burning. Completing tasks was not going as I had hoped - both at home and at work. Packing was going even worse. The battery in my SUV died. Even my plans to pre-ship a package to Chile had to be abandoned because nobody knew a magic 4 digit code. The good news is that tomorrow I'll have plenty of time for the reality to sink in as I travel for 26 hours to get to Puerto Montt.
Before departing I want to post one more blog entry to get caught up to real time. As I said in my last post, the pre-work period for the Chile 5 team started December 4th. The pre-work period was supposed to be 12 weeks long. In our case it lasted 14 weeks due to the end of year holidays. During this period the team met once a week for an hour to go over a pre-defined set of learning activities. There were "homework" assignments each week. The expected time commitment for the pre-work stage was a total of 50-60 hours; however, I think that might have been understated some.
One of the main goals of the pre-work period was to get 12 people from 9 different countries to function as a team. The pre-work achieved that goal by incorporating many subtle team building exercises into the team calls. Every team member had to moderate a team call. Every team member had to be a note taker. Every team member had to research and report on a cultural aspect of Chile. In the first 6 weeks two different team members had interview each other. Each month there was a group assignment which often involved breaking into smaller groups.
I was impressed with how quickly the team seemed to click. The pre-work was largely responsible for this, but I do not think it deserves all the credit. From the start the team shared a common goal/interest of being part of the Corporate Service Corps program. Teams with a common goal/interest often come together quickly.
Another main goal of the pre-work period was to enhance our cultural awareness. Every week one or two cultural awareness topics were covered. Likewise we had assigned cultural awareness readings. However, the best tool for enhancing our cultural awareness was the team itself.
The ultimate goal of the pre-work period was to prepare us for our assignment. This was done by discussing the logistic of the assignment, reading articles on corporate citizenship, reading articles on consulting, and ultimately being introduced to our clients and their scope of work expectations.
In retrospect it is interesting to look back on the pre-work period and follow the transition from a light and fun team building perspective to a serious business perspective.
#ibmcsc chile