The Official Kickoff
Orientation and kickoff was 48 hours packed with learning, networking, and presenting.
On Sunday we had the official orientation that was orchestrated by the Pyxera team. We talked logistics and some things to expect, the main lesson I walked out with… ‘go with the flow’ (which is great, as this is something I need to work on.) One my favorite ice breakers we did with the team was the “Life Map” exercise. We each took some time to draw / write some highs and lows from our lives and then shared them with a partner. I partnered up with Michael, the first team member I met in the Detroit airport on the way to China! It was so great learning more about his life and how he came to meet his wife and join IBM. This made me even more excited about all the personal connections to come.
We closed the day with an overview from Winnie, one of the IBM Corporate Citizen team managers in China. She explained to us the “theme” of all of our projects would be about increasing the quality of life for the elderly here in China. Two interesting facts:
- In 2025 the population of 60+ year olds in China is expected to be 300 Million
- The direct translation of “Dementia” in Chinese has a very negative connotation, meaning something like “of lesser IQ”. The translation has evolved since, and those in the medical field translate Dementia to Cognitive Impairment.
All of our host clients and projects will be addressing different impact areas as they relate to the Elderly and Dementia care in China. We all went to bed Sunday night with some serious excitement for the weeks to come!
Walking to breakfast the next day, the entire team looked sharp! We all dressed up for the Official Corporate Service Corps (CSC) kickoff, which is where we would all meet our clients in person for the first time at the IBM China HQ in Beijing.
During the kickoff we heard from all of the host organizations about their work, mission and some of their expectations in the four weeks to come. All of the IBMers and Project Assistants (PAs) got to introduce themselves as well. I have some serious respect for our PAs, as translating on the spot doesn’t seem or look easy at ALL.
My team is working with a Beijing hospital that creates personalized treatment plans for patients, fusing western and Chinese medicine together. As someone who LOVES acupuncture, I was super pumped about this!! While I was excited, I was also very nervous — I have never worked directly with a health care provider and wasn’t sure what to expect. I will spend more time talking about the specific work we are doing in the coming weeks!
We then went to lunch with our client and had some traditional Beijing cuisine. In an effort to not make your mouth water, I will just share something unique we started with — a “pear” soup / tea that is great for digestion, plus delicious! Then off to the client site to meet the hospital leadership. My teammate Krishnan said it best — it was a day of firsts. We had a formal meeting with the President, Vice President and additional senior leadership of the hospital — none of whom speak English. Meanwhile on the other side of the table was my team and our amazing PAs. The PAs translated the clients words and then ours back to them, I can only imagine how hard that must have been! We took pictures and then we were off to get a tour of the hospital and it was an experience I will never forget.
We started in the “recovery” hall, where Chinese medicine is the predominant method used to help patients heal. We saw things from acupuncture to herbal treatment. We then went through three additional floors of some things you would expect to see like pediatrics and neurology but also some unexpected things like the dentist unit and a VIP acupuncture room. As we were finishing up the tour we walked through the pharmacy where patients can get herbal Chinese prescriptions on one side and then Western medicine on the other. The Vice President that walked us around was so proud of the hospital and the doctors / students working there, it was so inspiring to see.
I am looking forward to working with the team to deliver some strategies to increase patient satisfaction, reimagine their marketing and branding strategy and train their staff on some leadership and soft-skills.
