Experience the Sun

One of 2021's highlights would definitely be being a part of a regional training program at work called Experience the Sun (ETS). This is funny because I was totally reluctant to be a part of it in the beginning. But I'm getting ahead of the story lol.

Every year, our leaders pick about five employees to represent the country in ETS, not just to participate but also to compete with teams from six other Asian countries where Sun Life operates. Participants are given a business goal and they have to design, implement, and present a project that would fulfill that goal.

The challenge is that this training is on top of our usual deliverables. I've had the opportunity to assist past teams in their projects, so I knew how demanding it can be of one's time. I was always like, "Whoa, I  wouldn't wanna be you!" 

Joke's on me cause I got picked this year lololol.

I really wanted to back out. It was tough enough being a part of it, but we were also coming after a back-to-back win for the Philippines, so the pressure was high! I was thinking, "Masaya naman ako sa buhay - okay na siguro ito." Hahahaha! 

At the same time though, I was conscious about how that would reflect on me - to back out after being specifically chosen out of thousands of others. Moreover, I was actually quite curious as to how I would perform when thrown into a a whole new environment than the one I've been in all these years. Maybe it would be good to shake things up a bit, find out what more I can offer? 

Well, ETS definitely delivered on those. I was exposed to aspects of the business I didn't really know much about before. Good thing I had the most awesome teammates - Mike, a Cluster Head in our Sales Department, and Marlo, a Portfolio Analytics Manager in our Investments Department. There were supposed to be four of us, but unfortunately, Tin, who is from our Products team, had to withdraw a few weeks in due to an urgent matter. 

Mike, Marlo, and I exchanged knowledge and ideas, and always came through for one another as we all struggled to balance ETS with our actual jobs. We were ably assisted by our HR talent partner Chiqui, who kept us in line and was basically the fourth member of our team. For six months, we attended workshops together, met practically every day and sometimes even on weekends over Zoom to refine our idea, consulted with so many colleagues for guidance, implemented our project, and refined it along the way.

Our project revolved around proactive contact. I came up with the handle "Power of Proactive," which I'm pretty proud of because of the alliteration plus the cute acronym (POP!) hihi. It was an ambitious undertaking because we were engaging practically every type of stakeholder, and naturally the stress levels were high. We often felt like we were taking one step forward and two steps back. Thankfully though, the pilot test went well! 

Now we just needed to present this project and its results in a way that would wow the panel. 

The final presentation had two parts: one was with the Philippine Leadership Team (PLT) and the other was with the Asia Executive Team (AET). Here, I was able to maximize my creativity and knowledge of copywriting, video editing, streaming and more. Shoutout ko lang yung Canva na gamit na gamit ko for all the design and layout needs! Sobrang sulit ang Canva Pro ko lol. 

After so many content tweaks, mock presentations, and Q&A practice, we felt like we were finally ready.

...and we aced our PLT presentation! 

As we prepared for the AET presentation, we also finally got to meet in person. Mike flew in from Iloilo where he's based and we all reported to the office for the first time in months. We set-up our war room in one of large meeting rooms, rehearsed over and over again, and practiced for the Q&A as well.

When we were starting out, I wasn't too focused on winning. I just wanted us to come up with a good project, present it, and then bahala na. But at this point, when we've all worked so hard and have given so much of ourselves already,  gigil na kong manalo. Hahahaha! It wasn't going to be easy though because our colleagues had amazing projects as well.

But guess what? We won! WOOHOO! And also, whew! It's finally over!

Last photo shows us having dinner courtesy of our Strategy Head Al Cruz, with our CEO, Mr. Benedict Sison, making a cameo. This was at Mamou after our final presentation. The food was so good! 

That sure was quite the thrill. I'm glad that I took it on despite my earlier hesitation. I'm super proud of our project and our team, and grateful for the opportunity and all the help we received along the way. It was also fun getting to know colleagues from different markets, whom I don't have the chance to work with in my usual role. Absolutely one for the books.

So, with that, here's to saying yes and giving new things a try every now and then this 2022! It might just lead us to unexpected milestones :)