As a member of the SAN Software Organization, I am one of many engineers that are part of a world class and world wide Solaris Software organization. A key part of this organization is a group of individuals in ERI, the Beijing Engineering Research Institute. For the most part, I have only known of these individuals in ERI through email, conference calls, digital pictures, merely an electronic representation of who they actually are, well that is until this past week.
Last Friday I arrived in Beijing, People's Republic of China, with high expectations as to what I wanted to accomplished while being here in Beijing and what I wanted to get in return for my effort. Very fortunately for me, I discovered on the very first day of this trip that my time here in Beijing had nothing to do with what I wanted at all. Instead this trip was all about the team in Beijing, talking, listening, and listening again, engaged in the rewarding process of building peer and personal relationships. In a very unique way, this experience is something that one could have only experienced first hand, immersed in Chinese culture, establishing relationships that instantly become valuable keepsakes.
Upon entering the ERI office for the very first time, I was welcomed as though I had been a long-time friend, returning after being gone for quite some time. Unlike Bruce Tuckman's four stages of team development, as I met and had a chance to talk with each ERI team member, we would instantly leap past those early stages of team development, straight to performing. Even when going out to lunch, the conversation was rich and full of flavor, not unlike every single dish of Chinese cuisine I had over the week, but each conversation being far more valuable then the $4.00 (U.S.) one would often pay for lunch.
In retrospect, over the course of my week in Beijing, each additional conversation would paint a new section of a mural, which although far from complete, grows in grandeur every single day. My personal mural for Beijing, not unlike the mural of the Great Wall of China one sees upon entering the Beijing Airport, or actually visiting Simatai, is much larger then one can see, but as with each section of the Great Wall, each section is unique, much like those I have come to know better during my time in Beijing this week.
Although I had the highest expectations about my trip to Beijing and ERI, without a doubt they were exceeded 100 fold.
Posted by Dan Maslowski on April 15, 2007 at 05:00 AM EST #