Workation: Blending traveling and work from the Jungle

How did I end up living in the jungle and working still in the corporate world?

I recently heard the term “workation” from my colleague Rainer, and it stuck with me. Workation means, work and vacations at the same time – work / live blending

He says I live in a workation most of the time, and if think about it, I happily have to say yes! Let me go a little further back; before the pandemic, I got married to a local guy who lives near the beach. Without knowing what the future holds, I decided to move from the big city of San Jose to a remote town called Puerto Jimenez, which is very close to the Corcovado National Park, the most remote place in Costa Rica with a 3% biodiversity in one place, the highest amount of flora and fauna you can have in the world in a small place. THIS IS THE REAL JUNGLE! 🐍

I knew that working remotely from the jungle would be challenging. To make it work and not have any issues with my former employer NTTData, I needed a good quality internet connection, my computer, and the willpower to stay focused despite the distractions around me. Luckily, during this time, I started working on a project for SAP S/4 Hana’s transformation called eNJOY at Joyson Safety Systems, and they didn’t need me on site.

This changed my perception of project management, and I realized that the need to live near the office building to perform, be productive, and create results was not required at all.

I had the pleasure of working with many smart and talented people, such as Verena Hanske , Clement Gries , Michelle Schimmel , Shijie Xue , Heike Eulner , Rainer Borg , and Dirk Heuschen . Working with them was a great experience, and we collaborated efficiently as a team, despite working from China, Germany, the USA, France, Romania, Italy, or the jungle.

Kyona led the transformation from the processes and structures side. They created a meeting cadence to meet remotely with stakeholders, the IT supplier team, and the different teams independently to collaborate. They enabled data organization for each region and a collaboration platform that functioned like a CRM system but for all the project processes. This platform allowed us to see all topics from logistics, finance, HR, data migration, risks, and issues happening LIVE – THAT WAS THE GAME CHANGER!🤯

This type of collaboration created transparency and speed. We all worked like a system, having synergy and efficiency⚙️. People knew where data was, where to find it and reports were built in real time. People started learning how to use Jira more easily, and change management started happening organically🌱. Each of the workshops to educate people on how to work and where to work enabled them to understand the huge transformation the company was going through, and being able to have a system to reflect our work made us feel we were an important part of the whole transformation.

This is where I understood that kyona’s mission to enable remote work through the right digital setup, organizational structures, and processes was the future for work. Being able to work from anywhere, at any time, is not just being a Nomad. This means every company will be able to work and collaborate with people from around the globe, increasing their talent strengths with a diverse workforce.

This way of working got in my head, and I wanted to be part of that vision and work with clever people, like the ones I met during the project. Luckily, In 2021, we opened the kyona Group Costa Rica office, and since then, we have had the chance to work with different companies.

My findings in changing my life like this?

Humans have undergone significant changes throughout history. Moving from a hunter lifestyle in the jungle to building cities and factories. This shift has made us feel disconnected from nature and our emotions. However, there is now a growing desire to return to our roots and reconnect with nature and our authentic selves. This leads to a new era where we will increasingly work from natural spaces, or at least seek a simpler and more connected way of living.

This shift will enable companies to prioritize values such as employee well-being and move away from old practices like micromanagement that were thought to be necessary to achieve results. With the right setup, people will simply do what is required of them, and you can see it happen in real time.

This will enable us to enjoy a day-to-day WORKATION! 🌿