@PKNRaleigh presentation from 10/15/2011

Oh my – i hate watching myself on video, but I think we all feel that way so i will share this! This was a rapid 20×20 presentation (20 slides each for 20 seconds) i did at the PKNRaleigh evening in Raleigh a few weeks ago.

Glyn
Chapel Hill, NC

#IBMCSC Nigeria

The @PKNRaleigh line-up for the next event was just announced and I made it :-) #IBMCSC Nigeria

IBM asks its CSC Alumni to make two presentations after completing their assignment – one internally and one externally. I love the Pecha Kucha format and was very fortunate to be selected for the PKNRaleigh event in September.

I believe that it will be videoed and I will share that when it is available but it would be great to see many of you there in person if you are nearby. You’ll only have to listen to me for 6 minutes and 40 seconds talking about my experiences in Nigeria!

Check out the PKNRaleigh website  for details – it is free to attend but you do need to register in advance!

Glyn
Chapel Hill, NC

#IBMCSC

Africa at the Tate Modern

The BBC have just published a photo gallery of  an exhibition of four contemporary artists from Africa which is co-produced by a gallery in Lagos, Nigeria.  It’s currently on show at the Tate Modern Gallery in London.

 

Glyn

Chapel Hill, NC

#IBMCSC

 

An essay on IBM’s expansion ambitions in Africa

An interesting essay on IBM’s plans for Africa.   Very interesting.

https://www.ibmconnection.com/network/news/1788/

 

Glyn

Chapel Hill, NC

#IBMCSC Nigeria

Just because I am back in the US, doesn’t mean my thoughts are not in Nigeria

There seems to be a continuous flow of things to remind me of my time in Nigeria.

1. I converted this blog into a book – primarily for mu mum to read, and I mailed her a copy today.  If you are interested, I have a couple of extra copies going spare!
2. I visited the dentist this morning due to what is now pretty acute toothache.   I was thinking how relieved i am that this didn’t occur when I was in Nigeria.   Root canal on #3 scheduled for tomorrow.
3. Betsy told me about a feature on NPR’s The World about a Nigerian Jazz performer and I also am listening to an album by Asa who is a Nigerian singer/songwriter.
4. I am planning a Corporate Social Responsibility event at IBM RTP for the SWG Opportunities for Growth team that I used to lead.  This should be fun – I am planning on making at Pecha Kucha style delivery – 20 slides for 20 second each – along with four other contributors including Jennifer who lives in Chapel Hill but who was in Kazakhstan with the #IBMCSC whilst I was in nigeria.  and a Q&A.  i also submitted an abstract for #PKNRALEIGH so may get to deliver a fast pitch there in front of a public audience  in a downtown bar in Raleigh!  i also will be doing a presentation to my Boy Scout Troop.
5. I also subscribed to a blog from a VSO volunteer, Kim Kennett, who is working in a part of remote Nigeria, not that far from Abuja.  She has some wonderful insights on Nigerian life and I thoroughly recommend reading her blog.

Glyn

Chapel Hill, United States

Press Release

Here is IBM’s press release regarding the work of the IBM CSC Nigeria 5 team.

 

IBM Volunteer Team Supports Poverty Relief Goals As Part Of Nigeria’s Millennium Development Project

Abuja, Nigeria July, 11 201: An international team of 13 consultant-volunteers from IBM’s Corporate Service Corps programme have completed a month-long term in which they helped Nigeria to move a step closer to reaching the country’s Millennium Development Goals of reducing poverty, improving education and harnessing sustainable energy.

The team, comprising IBM employees from five countries, provided assistance to several Nigerian government agencies by training government employees to manage projects more efficiently and installing technology to share information more effectively. They also introduced systems to track assets more thoroughly, explained strategies for measuring progress, introduced tools for generating more thorough reports, and educated stakeholders about technology that harnesses cleaner, cheaper and renewable energy sources.

“The IBM consultants have left an indelible mark on the delivery of public services in Nigeria, by enhancing the quality of basic services using information technology,”said Taiwo Otiti, Country General Manager for West Africa. “As we mark IBM’s Centennial, this is yet another example of how IBM staff worldwide are giving back to communities globally”

Working with the National Poverty Eradication Program (NAPEP), the team of IBM consultants trained key staff on project management methodologies and computer usage. They also installed a localised knowledge management system within NAPEP’s legal department which will be scaled up nationally. This system allows the legal team to more easily record institutional knowledge and assign the most appropriate staff to the projects that best suit their skills.

At the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), IBM consultants introduced an Education Management Information System for tracking school assets and the effectiveness of education to quantify the return on investment in basic education.

The IBM Corporate Service Corps team also worked with the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), where they introduced information technology and communication solutions to enable timely reporting and management of data on children’s and women’s health.

The team worked with the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on key performance-indicators and provided training in project management and at the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), users were trained to better manage software development projects. One group worked with the Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) to improve existing e-learning programs in secondary schools by introducing solar energy to provide power for computers.

The engagement in Nigeria exemplifies the volunteerism that has characterised IBM during its 100 years in business.  The company’s centennial is being celebrated this year, most notably with an emphasis on public service. The engagements builds on a number of previous IBM Corporate Service Corps projects in Africa — a focus continent for the program me. Since July 2008, IBM’s Corporate Service Corps has deployed more than 350 IBM employees to South Africa, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, and Egypt.  Through these projects, IBM has worked with local organisations and businesses across Africa to support community-driven economic development.

The Corporate Service Corps (CSC) is a global IBM initiative designed to provide small businesses, educational institutions and non-profit organizations in growth markets with sophisticated business consulting and skills development to help improve local conditions and foster job creation. IBM deploys teams of top employees from around the world representing IT, research, marketing, finance and business development to growth markets for a period of one month. The employees work pro-bono with local organisations and businesses on projects that intersect business, technology and society.

As a global programme, over the past three years the IBM Corporate Service Corps has deployed more than 1200 IBM employees in over 100 teams to 23 countries around the world. Projects vary from assisting networks of entrepreneurs and small businesses trying to grow and reach export markets to the adoption of new and smart technological ideas by the private and public sectors.

 

Glyn #IBMCSC Nigeria

It might take me a while to re-adjust to the US way of life

A few photos of life having got back home a couple of hours ago.

Reading the final edition of the News of the World which I picked up at Heathrow this morning. Note that this is the first and only time I bought this rag.

 

Cleaning the pool. Lynn and the family have done a good job keeping it under control.

Abby still loves her tennis balls!

Nigeria is full of gifted tailors. Our clients, UBEC brought a chap into the office. We didn’t even know that he was there – he eyed us up and made our Kaftans and trousers to perfect measurements. Thank you to UBEC for such a kind gift which I will treasure for a long time. I bought the hat on Friday afternoon at the market at the central Mosque in Abuja! Planning to wear it out to a formal dinner next week! It will certainly be a talking point, if nothing else!!

Glyn #IBMCSC Nigeria

Farewell Nigeria

Of course, it is with mixed emotions that I post my last blog entry from here in Nigeria.   I am very much looking forward to getting back into the arms of my wife and being with my family.   Ke Xing showed me the photos of his wedding – he has the most beautiful young wife and he was very proud to show us his photos.   I very much hope that I get the opportunity to go the Shanghai one day to meet with them.    I showed KeXing photos of my family too and seeing them  made me feel very home sick, even though it was only a matter of a few days before I would be with them again.

In one of my earliest postings, I mentioned that this was the longest trip away from home that I have ever had and at times it has been a little hard being absent from those that you love.

Leaving Nigeria will be hard too.   I will not miss the hotel and its manager.  Nor will I miss the bathrooms here.  I have to say also, I will not miss the shenanigans that you have to go through to get anything scheduled and the frustrations that you face in getting things done on an internet connection which is not slow, but is so unreliable.   Slow I can handle – up and down is far worse.   The thing I will miss the least is the expectations that get set and then not delivered upon.   This has proven to the biggest frustration for me during my experience in Nigeria.

I will miss all of the CSC Nigeria 5 team and the friendships that we have formed.
I will miss the Guinness – Malta that is – and I hope that I can find a source in the US so I may be able to treat myself from time to time.
I will miss Chris, who has been a wonderful companion, guide and driver.  But mostly,
I will miss the Nigerian people.  Their welcome and their courtesy.  Their smiles and their laughter.  Their hope and their happiness.

We came here to coach, mentor and lead our Nigerian clients to new heights however, there is something that the developed world can clearly learn from the Nigerian people:

You can always have hope and you can always find  happiness, no matter what hand  life deals you.  The Nigerian people have shown me this time and again each and every day.

Farewell Nigeria.

Glyn #IBMCSC Nigeria

Our final report

the assembled audience. The Deputy Executive Secretary - Technical was not present at this time.

Yesterday, Pradip and I delivered our final recommendations to 47 staff from UBEC. We were joined by Ann Oden, Nigeria Country Director for CDC Development Solutions (our NGO host), Lawrence Ikpi, also of CDC and Ahmad Usman of IBM Nigeria Abuja office. So after 30 minutes delay the Deputy Executive Secretary – Technical (DES-T) arrived and Dr Alabi introduced us and why we were there. He then introduced Ann and she made a few comments. Each round was welcomed with applause. Then it was my turn.

Pradip presenting

I did a brief kick off and introduced myself and then handed over to Pradip who introduced himself and then continued to talk about the CSC and the Statement of Work. He and I had already thanked Ann personally for the excellent work that she had put in to the Statement of Work (SOW)- it was a very good document and we had no need to make any changes to it. It was well structured and also just the right amount of content to keep us fully occupied and also left some room for us to focus on a few additional things for UBEC. So Pradip also thanked Ann for the great job she had done on the SOW and she got a resounding round of applause. So “Hats Off to Ann” for a great job.

Pradip continued on to describe the architectures of potential “Educational Management Information Systems” and did a great job describing the current environment and articulating a near term and long term “to be” environment.  He then handed over to me for the home stretch.

Kicking off

I covered the key observations that we have made, our conclusions, our recommendations and a set of 37 recommended actions that they should take. During my observations, I made two statements about UBEC in terms of their team work and their visibility to the Universal Basic Education teams in state, local agencies and schools. By this time, I was used to the applause protocol and afer each dollop of praise I led the room in applause.

They really do deserve a lot of credit. Life and business is hard in this country and sometimes the simplest of tasks can seem to be very difficult to pull off. That said, I know that if you want something badly enough, and you are willing to focus on it, you can make it happen and am optimistic that UBEC can do great things.

So having gone through the steps of observations, conclusion, recommendations and actions, Dr Alabi got to his feet, leading the applause – this time for Pradip and me. :-). He followed the protocol of a few short words of thanks and then asked the Deputy Executive Secretary – Technical to respond.

The Deputy Executive Secretary – Technical was astute enough to comment on his experience of IBM – using an IBM Typewriter – and also IBM’s Centenary that we recently celebrated.  The floor was then opened up for Q&A and we got some excellent questions which showed that the UBEC team were attentive and engaged. Dr Alabi signalled to the Director of Personnel who got on her feet to thank us on behalf of UBEC.  She summed it up very well and realy appreciated us and said that had they had to pay for this consultancy, it would have been in the  millions of Naira!

The PM Workshop

The meeting closed out in time for prayers.  Pradip and I took lunch in the board room and at about 2:30 I was on my feet again – this time delivering a PM Fundamentals Workshop.  I think this was the most fun presentation that I have ever delivered.  I had based it on an IBM On Demand Community presentation but heavily tailored to my style and also to include a sample project that they would relate to. It was fun, but what made it all the more fun was how interactive we made it and how the UBEC team responded. They were engaged and participated and we all really enjoyed it.

Some of the audience

Unfortunately, the Deputy Executive Secretary – Technical had a meeting at 5pm and I had to rush the last hour and compress it into 30 minutes. All the same it was very worthwhile. So after that, which I think was the most productive and fun working day of the entire trip, I feel quite exhausted, but I am writing this in my hotel room, with no internet connection whilst waiting for Chris to pick us up. UBEC are taking us out to dinner with the management team. I did ask that Chris also be invited to dinner too – we shall see. One more day in the office and it should be light – I still have two presentations that they asked me to create but which they did not schedule. Oh well! tomorrow will likely be spent blogging, facebooking, taking photos of the IT team and also printing out some certificates for those who attended the PM training today. Then I hope home fairly early to get packed up so we can go out for one last dinner.

Glyn #IBMCSC Nigeria

Some of the slip charts used in the exercises

Dr Tony Alabi

Dr Alabi is the Director of Planning, Research and Statistics at UBEC.   He is our host and sponsor for the #IBMCSC programme within UBEC.  He is a delightful man full of humour – well, he laughs at my jokes anyway!

Dr Tony Alabi

Pradip and Dr Alabi

Dr Alabi recently returned from a trip to the UK where he became a certified PRINCE2 practitioner. PRINCE2 is the British Government’s Projects IN a Controlled Environment PM standard. It is a very broadly adopted PM standard on a par globally with PMI. PRINCE2 comes from the same stable as ITIL, which is THE standard framework for IT service management across the world.

In conversations with Dr Alabi, he has told us that he will be celebrating his 60 years next year by retiring.  He does not yet know what he will do – options from retiring completely to consulting at universities and even going back to University to study were all discussed!

Well, whatever road he chooses to take, I wish him well.  It was a pleasure getting to know him and the others at UBEC.

Glyn #IBMCSC Nigeria

Dr Alabi and me