I’m counting down the weeks prior to departure for the IBMCSC project in China (see previous blog), along working through the CSC learning program with the other team members. Our first team call aimed to have the team members introduced to each other. The call was scheduled by one of our alumni mentors, who is going to be the coach for the team during the preparation sessions. However, I learned quickly that the ownership of this journey is with the team. It was the first time we were all hanging together on the phone, and with a bit lack of preparation work or a predefined agenda turned the call into a messy call. Luckily we agreed quickly during the first call on a schedule for the next calls and defined an owner for each of the next four calls.

During the week it turned out that the owner of the second call was unable to join, consequently we headed towards the same scenario of having an unprepared call. Two days prior to the call I chatted with our alumni mentor and decided to take the initiative to give the call a structure. I drafted an agenda based on tens of mails received from our alumni mentor, from the CSC program manager, from our NGO partner, but also based on the CSC learning program we are working through. I kindly asked the team colleagues to be prepared for a discussion based on one of the frameworks from a module out of the CSC learning program.

During the second call we were first of all introduced to our NGO partner DOT, in particular the objective of DOT, the people with whom we are going to work and their responsibilities. After the introduction we did a recap about what was talked about during the first call. Thereafter we discussed which implicit rules of behavior would be required to have a good understanding and trust among the team members. The outcome was a kind ‘code of conduct’, capturing what is important for each of use when working in a team. From my point of view it was a good and open discussion, with a valuable outcome. Approaching the end of the call we discussed the remaining of the module out of the CSC learning program and agreed on the schedule and ownership of the next call.

During the week I visited my general practitioner to discuss with him the required vaccinations, based on a received long list of required / recommended vaccinations specifically for China. The list was so long that I felt already sick whilst reading. Luckily are several of my vaccinations up to date, and are some of the vaccinations not recommended by my general practitioner. So, my general practitioner advised me to have three vaccinations: (1) take immediately a polio booster vaccination, (2) a sequence of three combined hepatitis A & B vaccinations, and (3) a month before departure an influenza vaccination. I followed his advice, so got immediately the polio booster and will get next week the first combined hepatitis A & B vaccination.

Now preparation work continues: need to confirm my travel plans, start to build a communications plan, and define who can take over some of the responsibilities whilst away from the office. Let’s take it one step at a time … !