People in Global Delivery

Was checking some updates and found a cute page. N Was nice to see some colleagues from IBM talking about a career in a Global Delivery Center (GDC) and even nicer to see what they have in common. Even someone from my country, Romania :-)

• Ramakrishna, India Global Delivery Center: Project Manager - Business Intelligence and Performance Management
• Paul, Eastern Europe Global Delivery Center, Romania: Java Developer
• Zhang, China Global Delivery Center: BOT Delivery and Operation Manager
• Claire, Global Delivery Center, Philippines: Sector Leader, IBM Global Business Services

Sawubona

I just returned from a very inspiring trip in South Africa, Johannesburg, the gorgeous country as big as all Western Europe and inhabited by almost 40mil people. Must admit I never stayed for a week at any of my delivery centers so I also got more time to spend with the people and enjoy the city.

First I got impressed by the IBM location. You can see it's so green, with a lake, colorful fishes, rare birds and lovely flowers (guess I would work from outside the building all day long :-)). Absolutely the nicest IBM campus I've seen so far.

Second I learned that there is no sense of emergency - JUST NOW actually means SOMETIMES SOON :-) which is pretty cool you must admit.

3: fruits and fruity juices everywhere, for such a fan like me was paradise :-)

4:everything is green in this city, even just a city, you can hear birds singing and see the stars in the night, seemed I was in vacation every evening! Gorgeous place!

5. Went to Rhino& Lion park and saw lots of animals in their natural habitat. Pretty impressive and I enjoyed it very much!

6. Warm people: must admit I was pretty afraid after coming from Amsterdam and thinking Dutch people left their fingertips on Africa :-) but 10.000 miles distance did their job very well. Would like to think that I did make a few new friends!Also loved the fact that everyone has a predecessor somewhere outside South Africa, felt very very multicultural!

7. Ate here a couple of times, pretty nice Italian restaurant www.luigis.co.za. In case you go there DO take the lasagna and the panna cotta :-) Delicious!

8. Last but not least (although I could go on forever), a vibrant city expecting the Football World Cup. What else can I say: GOOOO BRAZIIIIIILLLL !

A Decade of Smarter

Great involvement from IBM's CEO, Sam Palmisano, addressing business and civic leaders at Chatham House in London this week. He described how forward-thinking leaders in business, government and civil society around the world are capturing the potential of smarter systems to achieve economic growth, near-term efficiency, sustainable development and societal progress. Read more here

Back from Cairo

Went to Egypt last week to help around cooms IBM's delivery centers. Won't talk too much about it as there are other ways to update you ;-) First the business part:


Second the fun side of work:


Surely will go back!

Blue Brno

This week I was in Brno, Czech Republic to work around comms, meet the people and of course run some cool activities :-) If you don't know yet, in the old and beautiful city of Brno, IBM has a huuuuuge Integrated Delivery Center (IDC) with about 3000 people coming from all over the world and speaking all kinds of foreign languages. Absolutely amazing!

So meeting people from Portugal, India, Poland, Germany and even my own Romania was super fun! Recording them for a video even more fun! And as a small proof that we could rebrand the city in IBM Brno, I took this picture :-)
Even the tram has IBM on it! Love it there, will definitely come back ;-)
Til later,
@SilviaEmilia

Super Halloween Festival in Second Life

And the great news :-)

Starting with the 29th of October (THIS THURSDAY) and ending on the 31st we'll host the greatest, biggest, most funny & spooky Halloween Party in Second Life. Colleagues from all over the world can pick their most suitable time zone and join us. Friends of IBMers, students, partners and families are more than welcomed :-) We'll have live music and costumes contests, give candy bars and take you for a trick or treat. Graveyard, huge pumpkins, ghosts and candles are already in place, so feel free to check them!

Are you new to Second Life?
Don't worry.Just download SL, install it and create an avatar www.secondlife.com. Then we can all meet at one of IBM's islands ALMADEN (copy and paste this link in your browser) :http://slurl.com/secondlife/Almaden/70/129/26

Of course if you have problems teleporting you can always ping me - ANTHI ARIDA (<<< that's me in Morticia's dress :-)).
Looking forward to seeing you there and give you some cool masks :-)

On Escalation

Recently I discovered this great blog written by Nigel Dessau -Chief Marketing Officer at AMD. The blog is called 3minutementor and has very very good tips on preparing for an interview, assignments and all the possible things you could ask a mentor. And of course all the answers come through 3minutes videos. Pretty cool!

What I really found useful for all the professionals out there was the video on escalations, how we escalate, who/ what, when and why. A brilliant video I must admit! I think it shows that all the people who see escalation as something mandatory, person related and as a great weapon are absolutely wrong (maybe we do that cause we have a Latin origin? :-)).

Escalations can be avoided and we must try avoiding it by discussing about it, trying to convince the person to do a job in a different way and most important if we proceed with it, then we be sure the person will be informed in advance. After all the purpose is not to make someone feel miserable but to get a job done. Then we don't escalate PEOPLE but PROCESSES, TASKS, etc. So before you write a bad email or make the call, think about what upset you and if there is really a need for escalating this. Ask for advice: escalations are not about punishing someone but about finding a solution. Check the video below for more tips. Really hope to see less silly&personal escalations and people focusing on facts and goals.