Transformation & Time

It's amazing 2 & 1/2 weeks ago we arrived in Slovenia from all over the world with bright-eyes, open-minds and unsure about what the next 30-days was to bring.

Wide-eyed & Open-minded.

By 7pm the first day we were exploring the city with a child's mind, open to experiences, a prejudice to what might hurt us, get us in trouble or at the very least yelled at by a local.  We moved about the town cautiously that weekend wanting to take in ALL of the sights of the city as if we wouldn't have a chance to see it again (phones snapping pictures of people and scenery non-stop).

1st Night Open Kitchen

1st weekend, Tour of the City

Imagine the 1st week, we were still so new and just meeting our client. Still bright-eyed and full of wonderment.  Who are these new people?  Who are these people really, whom I just met and now have to work with?  "Is this city safe?"  "How are we going to get to work?"  Quickly these concerns were eased as we met our client and got to know them and our individual sub-teams began to gel together as we now had a common cause and some real objectives.  Yet still we weren't quite sure what to make of our new surroundings and there was still so much to be seen.

Walks with new friends

Skeptical Clients & new methods

The 2nd week, the instant connections we initially felt, the bonds we developed over common experiences in a foreign land began to take shape and solidify into true friendships and care for each other.  Each morning or evening sharing the events of the day or the previous evening, even sharing a taste of a new food and ensuring no one missed out on what something tastes like or the "best of" in the area.  Whether it cake, wine, a new dish, there is never a shortage of offers, bites and sips of a new experience.  All along, we grow closer and our time here grows shorter.

Sharing an evening out

First adventure outside Ljubljana

Bled Castle

Here we are in the 3rd week also known as crunch week.  We've spent plenty of time listening, learning and discussing the client's pain points, how they perform their day-to-day functions and proposing solutions that will hopefully ease the burden and push them along the path of success.  This week it's been the execution of those proposed solutions that will culminate in implementation/deliverables as well as final presentations to the client as well as a much larger group next Friday.  While the work has picked up it has not softened our resolve to be together and experience new things. The people that arrived 3 weeks ago have become more of a family we continue to share this adventure of CSCSlovenia 2 and to a person believe we've all learned, taught and grown individually and together.  The wide-eyed wonderment hasn't changed, but our comfort level in our surrounding and with each other has grown substantially.  We no longer wonder how to get somewhere or communicate in this city, but pursue interactions and experiences with the community.  In 3 short weeks we've become a thriving part, while not quite locals we're a functioning part and will hopefully leave our mark on the 4 organizations we traveled to serve, each other and perhaps make a small difference.  After all, that's why 15 people traveled from 8 different countries to a small town in Europe.

Always time for a selfie

Quick pic with our Client

Community Service Project

Like life in our "regular" days jobs and lives, there are moments of hard work balanced with fun.  We share most of our good times within our blogs and there's a reason;  "there is always more good in the world than bad."  We just need to share more of it and I'm happy to share it with this family of 15 and here within my blog.

Ljubljana Castle & full moon (after celebrating the Full Moon Festival)

Bike riding with Rahul

National Gallery of Art- Slovenia

Parin

Postojna Caves

Celebrating Luana's (& Bill's) Birthday

Predjama Castle

~ Chris


PS. I've posted group pics from each week....note the distance between the members and the genuine growth in smiles.  We've grown closer daily and don't think the distances of our countries will change that.

Wooahh ooaah 1/2 way there......

I can't believe we're halfway through the assignment.  Our IBM CEED team (aka. CSC Sub-team) were just talking today about how we looked at the 30-day assignment as such a LOONG time to be away from our family, friends and home country and now here we are speeding through the month.  MAKE IT STOP!  There is still so much to do, so much to see and so much to experience.  Don't get me wrong, I miss my family, friends and co-workers but, this continues to be more than I could have ever expected.

A little Design Thinking empathy map (it's not all fun here)..

This week was a busy week.  The honeymoon is really over and it's down to work.  On top of our work with the CEED organization which was busy planning their fall kick-off event with a speaker from Australia we were busy preparing and presenting our PM Basics class to 16 energetic High Schoolers at Gimnazija Poljane.  Slovenia is in good hands with these students.

Gimnazija Poljane

PM presentation team.

In addition, we were invited to attend the CEED Fall Kick-Off event to observe how they ran their events, how their members, mentors and general attendees interacted.  We took this opportunity to converse with a few and see how they felt about CEED, how CEED helped the community and how entrepreneurship was progressing in Slovenia.  We discovered that CEED in fact does provide a tremendous service to their members and the entrepreneur community in general.  Their passion is infectious and it bleeds into the support and services they provide. 

CEED team+1 (all were invited, but there was another NGO event at the same time)

CEED-Slovenia

Andrej (CEED Sales Leader)

 The rest of the week we continued to host workshops and have discussions with our client.  We're so pleased with their willingness to believe in the process and embrace some ideas they've never experienced.  Our team continues to work as a single unit.  Often when we're in the larger group or waiting on others from the larger group to meet up and go for dinner....there's the "CEED Team" ready for the next step, on-time and ready.  The magic that's worked on putting the teams together and assign us to our NGO's really is "magic."

CEED-Team @ work & advertising

IBM CEED team & CEED-Slovenia

Finally we wrapped the week up with what they do in Ljubljana....OPEN KITCHEN.  Similar to the Friday when we arrived, we had an opportunity to taste some local cuisine and it was delicious.  After dinner we finished with movie night in the hotel workroom.  Imagine, 13 adults watching an animated movie (COCO) with popcorn (bought at the grocery) and sitting around conference tables in stiff chairs.  I wouldn't have changed a second of it.

Previews....bring on the movie!!

I wish I was a better writer and nearly as good as some of my fellow CSCers so, I could better describe this rich experience and country in the depths it's being experienced.  For the IBMers reading this...sign-up for CSC ASAP and best of luck.  For friends and family, book your trip and bring me back to this city and country.

It really is WOW!

Tomorrow we're off for more adventures and another wonderful tour.  Sights to be seen

• Predjama Cave
• Postojna Cave
• Piran (Slovenian Coast)

Stay tuned for pics and my next Blog post.

Bonus Pic.....  Milk is delivered to this machine daily for local townspeople to fill their jugs.  How cool!!

1st week...What a rush.

I know I've said it before, but will continue to say it now, this experience is AMAZING.  I'll also continue to say, Blogging isn't easy and I'm so jealous of some of my teammates that make it look soooo easy.

As I mentioned before we had a wonderful kick-off and initial meeting with CEED and then it was down to work on Tuesday.  Here is a translated version of their site: CEED-Slovenia  We're focusing on some key "pain-points" for this organization, but they make it so much fun with their enthusiasm for their mission of serving, supporting and educating Entrepreneurs.  In addition to an enthusiastic CEED client, I have a really tight knit and smart CSC Sub-Team with whom I really really enjoy working and spending time with.   That part makes this easy.

We wrapped up the week with a review of the upcoming schedule, updated SOW and deliverables.  Overall I think they'll be happy.  Now it's just a matter of buckling down and doing the work.  We're accomplishing a lot of this work through document reviews, IBM Design Thinking methodologies and interviews.  It's been a great start.

In addition to our mission of supporting our CEED client we will be hosting workshops with a local High School here in Ljubljana High School, Gimnazija Poljane.  We will be presenting to some of the Seniors on 3 topics: 

• How to Create a Compelling Resume
• Project Management Basics Workshop
• IBM Watson Chatbots for Good

To cover these topics we volunteered to support each one which meant a different mix of the much larger team.  It really allows us to get to know each other and learn from a new set of the much larger group.  I will of course be helping with the Project Management Basics Workshop, one of my passions.

PM Workshop team: Brazil, US, Argentina, India, China {sooo cool}

As you know the trip hasn't been ALL work, there has been time in the evenings to enjoy a good meal with new friends.

Dinner at a Chinese restaurant.  Thumbs up from all.

Or a morning walk

Walk with friends to Tivoli Park

or the best yet.... a visit to a Skofja Loka (Medieval town), a bee museum, Vintgar Gorge and Lake Bled.

Skofja Loka (a preserved and active Medieval town)

Bee Hive box used to transport bees (several hundred years ago)

 Slovenia is one of the few countries with it's own type of bee. 

Vintgar Gorge. 

 This gorge and short hike was breathtaking.  As you can see the water is crystal clear (look for the trout) and the water in this pic is deeper than it appears. 

Bled Island is the Pilgrimage Church of the Assumption of Mary

 

 

Castle @ Lake Bled

 You'll notice in the picture above it was taken from the water...... there are several ways of getting out to Bled Island, one of which is to row your own boat.   Two members of the team and I decided to set out on the trek of several hundred yards to the island.  In short it was an ADVENTURE as none of us had rowed a boat of this size before.  We made it and watched our skills grow as on our way out it took us over an hour and in the return less than 30 minutes.

My adventurous boat mate; Rahul Gupta

We remain balanced between work, play and learning new things about the area and culture.  It continues to be an invaluable once in a lifetime opportunity.

~ Chris

PS....This evening we're attending one of CEEDs major events, Leadership Talk.  It's exciting for us to watch them plan, develop and prepare for the event.   Stay tuned.

And here we go......

Where to begin, I'm not even sure.  It's been a whirlwind of activities since arriving and even more so after our Kick-Off Event on Monday.  I just can't even begin to capture all the sights, sounds, people and work here in my blog posts.  

Monday, September 10th we were scheduled to meet at City Hall (Opened in 1484) for the Official CSC Kick-Off with the Mayor of Ljubljana (the most beautiful and greenest city in all of Europe), IBM Slovenia staff, the CSC Team and our Host organizations.  As I mentioned before, our team of 15 is broke into 3 teams of 4 and a team of 3 each to support one of the following Non-Government Organizations:

   

  A non-profit that facilitates economic growth through entrepreneurial growth in Slovenia.

  
 SOS Help-line is a non-profit with the basic goals of providing personal counseling, intercession and advocacy to women – victims of violence.

  
Zavod 404/Science Institute 404 is a Ljubljana-based privately owned youth technology center 

promoting hands-on STEM projects for schools of the Slovenian national education network.  

 
Particular focus on e-literacy for youth and seniors, social inclusion and inter-generational

objectives.Pioneer in senior’s integration into digital society

As 4 Sub-Teams we will spend the next 30 days supporting a specific SOW and helping solve their real-world problems.  My NGO is, CEED who are doing great things by connecting and supporting entrepreneurship within Slovenia!!  This organization is lead by a passionate group of people dedicated to educating, connecting and developing entrepreneurs. 

 

** Corporate Service Corp & IBM-Slovenia Team**

 *

Once our meeting in City Hall was over we head over to our hosts office for a working lunch with delicious pizza and good conversation.  We finished the afternoon off in true Ljubljana fashion....at a Cafe for refreshments and conversation.

After re-grouping with our CSC team on Monday evening we compare experiences and enjoy eachother's excitement and newly discovered challenges.  To wrap up the evening a few of us decide to head down along the river for a "quick" bite.  After conferring with the front desk on the best and quickest (we needed to prepare an agenda for the next day) place to eat, we're given 4 hamburger joints, but one stuck out to us.... TOKYO PICNIK  http://tokyopiknik.com/

 Yes, look closely as they serve not only delicious Ramen, but also delicious burgers!!!   It was tasty and filling while providing us just enough energy to complete the tasks left for the rest of the evening.

It's been a journey already, full of sites, friendships being solidified and memories being made.  In short, this experience already has been the best and ALL that was promised.

#CSCSLOVENIA2  #IBMCSC #CSCSL2

Next up:  Getting to know our client, late nights and meeting a local high school for a future community event.

 **Preview of our planning meeting at the high-school.  Our group is planning an Introduction to Project Management