The major project that consumed my time in the month of November was my Bento Box. The idea was that we needed a 'big' update on my Japan team for the global team (rest of the world, US/UK and beyond) and I was told I was allowed to do anything I wanted, and write about whatever I choose. Instructions like these, I have to say.. I absolutely love. They make work so much more worthwhile. And as I am the communications person for the Japan IT team, my team here has put their trust in me to produce something interesting on their behalf.
I'm not sure if pulling things out from the depths of my imagination was quite what they expected, but when you give me a bit of freedom.. I'm going to run with it. That's what we American do. Give me liberty or give me death! Don't. Tread. On. My country is the world, and my religion is to do good. Hm well, that last one doesn't fit into the entire American liberty theme I was going for, but the words still resonate with me and my intentions.
Anyways, it occurred to me when people in the United States or United Kingdom think of Japan what they often think of are a few things, samurai, sushi, kimonos and when they dine out at a Japanese establishment-- bento boxes. These little boxes have a variety of food conveniently divided up into sections of the box. My goal with this was to take Japan IT, a team that normally people establish relationships by e-mail and not through face-to-face interaction and to make them real. With this project I decided as I was given the green light to do anything, I was going to give the global team everything.
I made multiple videos of my team, interviewing them on things I thought would be interesting. I went to lunch with people and would ask they what they like to eat while capturing their meal on camera. I figured, what do people enjoy more during the day than your mid-day meal, where you can take a break from work, and this would be a commonality that everyone in my company the world-over can relate to. I took pictures of events we did outside the office, a team BBQ, fireworks party, and wrote updates to some of our projects. Finally I created a few tables and resources where you can find basic Japanese phrases and click on the link to hear it pronounced. I find my U.S. and U.K. colleagues are always great about trying new things, and will make the effort to try out a little Japanese if they feel confident enough. I hoped these resources would increase understanding to how things generally operate in Japan.
When it came time to review the concept I had spoken with my department manager in early November as I was still gathering the content for the bento box. When I explained what I wanted to do, at first he was hesitant. The past updates for other teams and regions had always been straightforward write-ups, nothing quite so visual, so it caught him off-guard as I began to explain. As I continued, my enthusiasm clear, he nodded and finally said, 'I'm not sure exactly how this will come out, but this is what you do, so I trust you.' Those were the most reassuring words, and after hearing that, it furthered my momentum on this project.
It was further exciting because as I continued interviewing my team and speaking with my boss at length about what I was doing, the office began to really get into it. Though they also weren't quite sure how everything was going to fit together, they also began to catch my enthusiasm. Especially my manager, he was great. Initially when I began with this project he was surprised anyone would care what we eat for lunch here, or would care to see the pictures of our team events. Yet as time went on, he would begin to stop by my desk to ask, 'what about this, would people be interested if we shared an update about this?' It's a nice feeling to get everyone involved, that's how I like to work best, on projects that allow me to work with a variety of enthusiastic people.
When the project was done, it was wonderful to watch the videos and other various things I had created for the bento box in a meeting together with my team. Though it was cringe-inducing to watch their own interviews (it was funny to see people sinking into their chairs when they came up on the screen) people came up to me to tell me afterwards they had never seen anything like this for Japan, and thank you for taking the efforts to create it. It was an incredible feeling to hear that.
Following the posting of this bento box to my work blog, the global response has been better than I had expected. It seems like people are really interested in getting to know my fabulous Japan IT team, and I'm so happy to be the conduit for it. That was the reason I came here, and to deliver on what I intended to bring. Words don't compare to the actual feeling of this happening.
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