We arrived, we battled jet lag, we even overcame the fear of crossing the road, and the humidity…cannot be ignored. We socialize, we get to know each other a little more, we laugh, we have bonded over delicious food, we have been impressed by its presentation. We are taking it all in, trying to settle ourselves down to what is going to be our reality for the next couple of weeks.

Its three days into our four weeks Social Sabbatical experience and it’s a melting pot of factors to contend with. It’s exhausting, mentally, physically, emotionally, something has got to change… I think to myself. The nights need to be a bit longer, so we have more time to coerce the sleep goddess to fed off jet lag. The host clients need to articulate their needs without any ambiguity. The humidity needs to ease up on us. The personality types within the our team need to perfectly match. Our different communications styles need to just gel together. The continuous buzz, hooting, traffic, needs to stop, I need some silence. The day needs to be longer, I need more time to reflect.

I closed my eyes, snapped my magic fingers, three times to be precise, and when I opened my eyes nothing had changed! where is my charm? I need to try something else, for one thing is for sure something needs to change, its only day three!!

Well…here is my revelation, If I cannot change what is happening to me, I need to change the way I look at what is happening to me… Is that even a thing? Only time will tell.

                        Photo courtesy of team mate Laura Zimmermann

Maybe language is the barrier… but no it’s not. We need to delete our own problem solving ‘thought operating system’ and adopt their own, throw in some deep cultural default systems, then heaps of patience and understanding. Only then will the the language barrier no longer be our stumbling block. Only then will the frustrations of ambiguity fade away.

And to each other, we will give grace. We offer each other support and awareness that all these dynamics will affect each one of us in a different way. It’s okay… we will give each other space to process, we will give each other permission to be frustrated, we will give each other time out to recalibrate our minds. And when that time is up, we will RISE, for we will not stay down, we will pull each other up. We are in this together! We are SAP, together we RISE! Together we GROW, together we MOVE the world. Together we make the world run better!