Great adventure in Istanbul

Istanbul is a huge and diverse city that surprised me every day. 

Warsaw (the capital of Poland, where I live every day) has always seemed to me a big city (2 million inhabitants). Meanwhile, 15 million live in Istanbul (unofficially almost 20 million). This is almost half of the entire population of Poland. 

The commute to work in Istanbul normally takes at least an hour, sometimes even two. Everything is far away. The city is always jammed and never sleeps. I liked Istanbul the most at 4 or 5 in the morning. It was probably the quietest time of the day. 

My greatest discovery was the metrobus - a bus that moves on a designated lane as often as the subway. A very convenient means of communication in Istanbul. If someone lives in the Asian part and works in Europe, he or she could could to work by ship.

Metrobus stop 

For a long time I tried to get used to the big dogs walking around the city. Not because I was afraid of them. In Poland, if a dog walks around the city alone, it is taken to a shelter. In Istanbul, dogs are raised on the street. I have a 12-year-old Labrador at home and I was sad to look at these dogs. I had the impression that someone left them - which was not true because people take care of them. I always had food for dogs in my backpack and water for a dog that I met on my way to work. She was always in the same place (every dog ​​has its own area).

The dog I fed on the way to work

Istanbul is on the one hand a city of glass high buildings and on the other hand very conservative and old districts like Faith. One of my biggest surprises was the Polish town in Istanbul - Adampol. The place looked like a quiet Polish village and is only 40 minutes by car from the center.

Polish restaurant in Adampol

It was impossible to be bored in Istanbul. There are many places to visit and you will find restaurants serving all the cuisines of the world. My favorite Lebanese had a view of the Bosporus.

Lebanese breakfast

Although after a whole day of work (I worked from 10 am to 6 pm plus commuting 1.5 one way) I didn't have enough strength to explore the city. I usually did it on weekends, often with friends.

With Orla, EU Aid Volunteer from Ireland in Harem (Dolmabahce Palace) 

These few months in Istanbul were a great adventure, during which I met many interesting people, I became friends with some of them and we keep in touch even when I left Istanbul.

What are you actually doing there?

 What are you actually doing there?

When I tell my friends and family that I am a volunteer in an organization that helps Syrian refugees, the same question always comes up. What on earth are an HR expert from a Warsaw corporation that employs 10, 000 people doing in 10-person NGO in Istanbul? The answer is simple - a lot of interesting and developing work.

It's been three months since I've been at Small Project Istanbul. This is half of my internship and a good time for a brief summary of my work so far. Can the work of an HR Expert in a small organization be interesting, necessary and developing? 

Trust the expert

I came here with an action plan agreed with the director of my hosting organization before my arrival. But as it often happens, plans change. After almost two weeks of work at SPI I proposed minor improvements to my tasks. I was very pleased when I heard that I am an expert in the field and they trust my experience. 

Quo vadis? 

We started with a workshop with employees on the mission, vision and values ​​of the organization. When a lot of changes happen in an organization, it is worth going back to the roots. Check which direction we are going as an organization, what is important to us and what I do in my daily work to support the foundation I work for. 

It's easier to talk about the values of your vision and mission
 when you imagine that the organizations is a person

To understand the organization it is good to see where
I am in this organization

The workshop participants could use their drawing skills

...work in teams

...and shared their ideas with colleagues 

What month were my teammates born?
When we recall our values, mission and vision, it is worth going down one level - to the team and asking yourself some important questions. How well do I know my team? For example, do you know who was born in what month What does team working mean for my and my team? What do I like about my team (behaviors, traditions, ceremonies)? Why do we like being and working together? What would you like to start, stop or continue doing as a team? And build a contract together, thanks to which we will cooperate een better.

They talked about what they like about their team 

and shared their they view with the rest  

They pointed out what they want to stop, start
and continue doing  

and they decided about priorities 

How am I feeling? 

During our worksop on mission vision and values we focused more on the organization. The next workshop was focused more on people. If the organization changes it also affects people. What does change do to us? What emotions can it cause? What can we do to deal with the change individually and as a team? How we could be the source of inspiration, motivation, peace and stability for us. It was definitely one of the more difficult workshops - about emotions, feelings about the atmosphere in the team.

What am I doing here? 

When we already know in which direction the organization is going, what it does on a daily basis, what values ​​are important, how I support the organization, and how we are working as a team, it is worth describing your position and tasks in detail. Each employee has prepared a job description for his or her role. It was not an easy task. It's a bit like writing a job advertisement for your own position. But the team did an excellent job describing… their job :)

Retro, weekly, monthly report 

We also had the first retro meeting (short for retrospective) - a monthly team meeting designed to:

check what happened in the last month and to identify elements that have worked well and those that qualify for improvement. This meeting is a form of feedback session. An ideal moment to celebrate our achievements and the opportunity to express appreciation for your colleagues and the entire team. We came back to the weekly meetings in a slightly new version and prepared a monthly report with our actions for the management board.

And lots of other stuff. And we did it all as a team in three months! What was the feedback from the team? 

“I think we need to do like this workshop every time”

“It helps to understand team feelings about the change”

”activities was good and amusing, in my opinion it achieved the aims and make a friendly atmosphere between the members of team”

”It was fun”

”It’s amazing I like the way it is presented , but if the meeting time could be shorter”

”I think every time we need to remember the vision, values...

Pivots in Istanbul

Due to the covid epidemic, I waited 2 years to come to Istanbul. I was glad when I finally got here. I agreed with my hosting organization about my action plan before I came. My partner was supposed to join me for a few months. In my free time I wanted to travel and relax. That was the plan - more or less. But the first month has already shown that everything is quite different than I expected. The key words in my first month were: flexibility, peace, adaptation and networking.

Already on the first day it turned out that there were problems with the flat in which I was supposed to live. I used my friends network. It turned out that some of my friends have their friends in Istanbul. I made a lot of new contacts and didn't feel lonely. Within two days, I moved to the apartment of one of my new friends. I thought that it would be a temporary solution. But it took me and my hosting organization more than a month to find a suitable flat.The housing market in Istanbul is going through a deep crisis. Rental costs are very high and are increasing every day. In addition, we wanted to rent a fully furnished apartment for only a few months - which is not popular in Istanbul. The city is overcrowded. And in some districts there are so many foreigners that there is no permission to register new ones. Thanks to this situation, at least I got to know Istanbul well and made many new friends.

Pivot at work

If there are constant changes in one field, you hope that at least in other areas it will be more stable. Not necessarily. In the first week of my work, I found out that the manager of the hosting organization who recruited me and with whom I set my tasks, is leaving the organization. The team has been going through various changes for a long time and now another one has appeared. As an HR expert, I came here to help develop HR policies and processes, help the team develop themself,prepare job descriptions, etc. Supporting the team in the process of change was not in my plan. But my plans had to change. In the corporate language (agile methodology) in such situations we say that you need to pivot. You have to change your approach because the current one is not working. So I prepared a new plan that assumed that I was doing some of the things I planned but I have to change my priorities and add a few minor changes.

Back to the basics 

Whenever you have an impression that everything around does not go according to plan. Our ideas do not work and your life is a  chaos. Then you can stop for a moment and take a step back to the basics. Ask yourself - why am I here, what I wanted to achieve. Look for support and go back to what gives us strength and peace. With my hosting organization, we started with a workshop on mission, vision and value of the organization. We went back to what is most important for the organization. Which way it is going, what it is focusing on. It gives a sense of security and builds engagement. There is chaos around me, but at least I know where and why I'm going. For me my safe place were my friends, family. Before I came to Istanbul I bought a ticket home - I knew that after a month I would be homesick and returning home for the weekend will definitely help me. Warsaw is only a 2 hour flight from Istanbul. And if you buy tickets well in advance, they are not expensive. After a month in Istanbul, I flew home for the weekend - see my partner, dog, friends and family. It also helped that I had many new friends in Istanbul. I went back to Istanbul with new energy. 

We know that it's not worth getting too attached to plans (which doesn't mean it's not worth having them). But when nothing goes as planned, it can be difficult. When our expectations are not met, it is easy to give up. Or to pivot our plans and focus on what gives us the sense of safety and peace. 

PS My partner did not get permission from the company to work abroad. So he will not be able to come to me with our dog for a few months - as we planned. Another pivot in my Istanbul life.