Tomorrow is a day I have been waiting for a long time. In September of 2007 I asked my mentor at EMC to fund a book project. The process has been called “request and a yes” for it was seconds from the asking to the book project being underway. The process of creating the book, The Working Mother Experience, was a large project. The process of collecting the stories, translations from our international participants, legal, creative, and overall making the book the amazing glossy 250 page jewel that it is took time and patience. Patience is not something I am known for, by the way.
I am a product manager, and a very detail oriented person (just read my story on page 226 to find out just how far my penchant for organization goes)! I am familiar with product development life-cycles of 18 months or greater when working on my day job. I walked into this project scoping it more like a service pack than a revolutionary, paradigm shifting product launch. We at EMC know a lot about revolutionary products. I had no idea how far the effects of this book would be felt.
The official launch is tomorrow as I said, but with any book project comes advanced copies and reviews. I am touched, moved, and inspired to have been the catalyst for this project. As with anything worth doing well, it took a team of incredible people with varied skillsets to bring this project together. Each step in the process I learned something new. I learned about areas of the business I knew nothing about – like what the communications department does. I met the fabulous creative minds behind our ad campaigns and found out we have many published authors in the ranks of EMC. (Note to self – look into that for a future blog post!!)
What impacted me the most, was hearing how the “page turned round the world” has connected not only the EMC women which was an expected outcome, but how it is impacting areas of EMC I never expected. Men I don’t know are stopping me in the hallways to talk about how much their wives, mothers, daughters have loved the book. Moreover, how much THEY loved it. Managers have thanked me for helping them understand the lives of their employees and women who are not yet mothers at EMC have thanked me for paving the way for them.
I am certain that there will be more to write about after the launch and you will hear about my journey from the “request to yes” to the 6 degrees of separation that will form for all of the employees who participated in this book. Hats off to every one of them – you are heros.
