BLOG – Yvonne Lo traveled to Leeds to learn about a different style of working
Quest is an international transfer program which connects Arcadians from all over the world. Quest is sponsored by the Lovinklaan Foundation. Every week we are highlighting one of the stories our employees who went on an exchange. In this blogpost we cover the Quest story of one of Arcadis’ Senior Project Managers, Yvonne Lo, who traveled from Hong Kong to Leeds in the U.K..
“It is a great opportunity to build relationships with each other, which is a helpful support network available to my Project Team!”
– Yvonne Lo
Why did I apply for a Quest
My name is Yvonne Lo and I work at the Arcadis office in Hong Kong. As a Senior Project Manager, I decided to apply for a Lovinklaan Quest because I had always been fascinated by how Project Managers in the U.K. deliver projects compared to Hong Kong. In particular, I wanted to understand how the initial stages of a project life cycle are managed and how ideas are generated within the different project teams to work out the right brief and solution. Moreover, I was keen to see how the UK team leverages technology, and how they are implementing the digital agenda. My aim was to use this knowledge to reflect upon our own working experience in Hong Kong and the creative processes we go through in our home office to get some local insights.
Highlight of my quest experience
One of the highlights of my Quest experience was attending various meetings and discussions with UK Project Team. This made me understand the specific challenges they are facing in the U.K. and painted a clearer picture of the implications of a country’s culture on domestic business development. As a result, the Quest experience enhanced my understanding of global issues.
Learnings and experiences
Meeting the UK Project Team served as a great opportunity to built a valuable relationships with a similarly focused team from another Arcadis office. It gave us in the Hong Kong office the opportunity to incorporate the integral part of knowledge sharing processes into our own workflow. This resulted in the creation of a helpful support network available at all times to my Project Team.
All in all, I would like to thank the Lovinklaan Foundation and my Line Manager Tom Aston for supporting this exchange. Because of the experience I had, I strongly encourage every Arcadian to take this opportunity to go out into the world!
The international transfer program Quest, which connects Arcadians from all over the world, is sponsored by the Lovinklaan Foundation.