My leadership learning journey within Rio Tinto

One of the main objectives of my presence here in Iron Ore WA is to build on my leadership capabilities. I will tell you later in this post, how I managed to do so later in this post.

In 2009, few months after having been appointed as training superintendent, I enjoyed the opportunity of being the first national to be embedded in the group’s Front Line Leadership Program.

Actually, it was the pilot session of the Europe Middle East and Africa’s region. Facilitated by Karine Savigny, to whom I pay tribute for having extraordinarily taken me through the discovery of the mainstream frontline management world of our company.

What made this experience enjoyable the most was the fact that we had to gather 3 times in Richards Bay in South Africa, in one of our important operations there (RBM.) We were all young leaders from Rio Tinto’s African operations. We were all grateful to our leaders and more broadly, to our company, for having been selected and provided with resources to attend to such a program.

From Simandou, in addition to me, Tim Crokett and Andreas Stierand were part of the adventure. There is no doubt that this experience changed my way of working. It actually occurred at a time where I needed it the most as the organisation was having its training team structured. I enjoyed the opportunity of being an actor of this team structuration (recruited up to 6 team members, designed development plans for them, and coached as much as possible most of them to deliver on business goals) and also, as part of a broader corporate project, participated actively to the organization of large scale Health and Safety compliance trainings, as part of the HSEC standards implementation project, chaired by Andrew Taplin, at that time, General Manager Operations.

 I must admit that participating to such a project, under Andrew’s leadership, is the starting point of what I call my informal leadership learning journey. Andrew is actually one of these leaders across the group that really embodies what the company values the most. I have been able to learn from him rigor, simplicity, openness, integrity, team spirit, respect, and also accountability.

Obviously, reporting to Catherine Taplin (I was reporting to her before Rob) and Rob Davies (my current manager in Simandou) has counted a lot to me in understanding the Rio Tinto leadership spirit.

 If there is an advice to give to anyone like me whose objective is to continually improve, please pay attention to those leaders surrounding you in your workplace. There is a lot to learn from their style. Just be open-minded and pay attention to the way they do….

I believe that leadership learning by observation (and obviously analyzing what you observe and retrieve the most important features that will enable you to improve) is one of the most cost effective and efficient ways of improving leadership/management capabilities in organizations. This should be an area of focus from a talent management perspective…

When I arrived, in Perth by the end of January, early this year, I told to myself that will have to get as much as you can from the opportunity given the limited time you have been entitled to (4 months. )

So what I did on the leadership front was to meet as much leaders as possible to find out from them, their understanding of leadership and obviously, the way they practice it on their day to day professional journey. I can tell you that I have been able to see different way of doing things and it brought me to the conclusion that leadership more than ever, is a matter of style.

I have observed leaders in action here and, while all of them use mainstream management tools provided by the organisation, what I found the most important is the human factor. The more a leader is a people person, the most effective he/she will be in its role of enabling team members deliver as much of their abilities.

So the lesson I retained is that while you have to make sure that your team members deliver on their duties timely and effectively, it cannot be done at the expense of the duty of care from a leadership perspective. This is the only way to ensure that your workplace remain a good place to be for your team members.

Caversham Park in Swan Valley.. Easter weekend!

 Among Kangaroos! The first time for me to see albino ones!

 A 19 hours a day sleeping Koala! What a lazy annimal :)

My Aussie Easter celebration was great!

In my previous post, I said that I would miss the traditionnal Easter lunch with my mum and family in Conakry. However, having missed Guinea's Easter experience enabled me to really enjoy Australia's Easter celebration, with the Davies family ( My boss, his wife, daughter, mother and father.)

It was an honour for me to be invited twice (saturday and sunday) to enjoy chocolate, and high class food, cooked by the exceptionnal mother of my boss.

I must admit that the valuable time spent with Lynn allowed me to notice as she said herself that "mothers speak the same language...." and i woul add the word "great" to that because I feel that she is one. I was able to notice many qualities she share with my mum....

Given the quality of the food we enjoyed, I even said to her that I would easily grant her 3 stars of "Michelin." in recognition of her cooking performance. :)

i learned a lot during these two evenings.

On saturday, we arrived at around six. I was taken by my boss's dad to a garden tour. After that, the barbecue started. I knew that Barbecue is enjoyed in Australia. However, what I did not know is that it is a matter of men. Men do surround the BBQ set, place the steaks and saussages on the grill and manage the whole process until it is ready to be eaten. Women would thet sit aside or make sure a salad is ready to accompany steaks and saussages. You always learn something in life. I promissed myself that I will buy a BBQ set and take it back with me in Guinea in order to continue enjoying this strong socializing enabler.

In my country, we have tea gatherings that look like BBQ: it is called "attaya" It is a tradition that comes from the arabic culture. People can spend 3 to six hours enjoying a strong chinese tea while having any sort of discussions.

On sunday, I found out through my boss, why we actually have starts on the Australian flag. It is the southern cross. A constellation that is found in the souther hemisphere during the night that helps to now where the south is. When you know where the south is, you are able to determine the three others and then find your way.

The way I continuously build knowledge over leadership related topics

one of my favirorite newspaper in Australia is the weekend australian, particularily, the weekend professional section. 

In the feb 16-17 edition, there is one article that captured my attention. As I believe it may also be of interest to many leaders/workers, i have decided to share with you what I have retained...

The article talks about the burnout at work that "catches the best." Burnout occurs when we work too much. In today's world, there is many high performing people that are work addicted and finally get to be burnout.

According to Karen Barker, the symptoms are the following:

- people complaining of not javing enough time to spend with family even during weekends

-taking work at home, sending emails all the time while they are supposed to be in relax mode

-taking work everywhere and everyday

The author defines burnout as "... A work-induced exhaustion that is particularily common among professionals working on time sensitive projects or in sectors where stress is part of the job. Nurses and doctors experience it ; so do lawyers, traders, social workers and police officers...... Excecutives in charge of projects or teams experience it, often without knowing it."

We also learn in this article that burnout is different from stress. Burnout is said to be a "physical or mental exhaustion or both."

The consequence of this is that your enthousiam, energy at work is low which affect your efficiency.

When victim of burnout, there is a "downward spiral" that starts. An example that is pointed out is those who are not used to be emotional, become emotional. They continue to believe that their presence is required even if they are out of energy. 

If you have accumulated a lot of annual leave, you might be....

If you do not eat well and stopped your routine daily exercices you might be........

If you work long hours a day you might be......

The author advise that if the case is strong enough, se better go and see a doctor, specialist of the case, rather that relying only on a coach.

There is a pledge that organisations should really pay attention to this phenomenon and take actions that preserve the mental wellbeing of those who work in their premises.

Actions can be the following according to the article:

- encouraging people to openly and overtly speak about their work. This call leaders to put in practice their emotional intelligence capabilities

-do not overburden people with work (considered to be a good retention strategy by the way)

-ensure the "basics" of good working environment is met "good job, good pay, good desk, time off for lunch" this will get employees to deliver at their best.

- showing that you care about your employees by respecting them, thanking them quite regularily about their useful contribution to the organisation, allowing them to take time off for important privatr life events for instance...

I hope that this would have added value to you. Happy easter !

Happy Easter..I will miss mum's food..and enjoy the Davies's one :)

While everyone is exited here in Perth ( I guess it is the same elsewhere in the country and worldwide), may I take this opportunity to wish you a happy easter!

Actually, as you guys, easter means a lot to me. Thanks to my dear catholic mum, since I know myself, we have been celebrating this event in my parents house in Conakry. For the past 6 years since I came back to Guinea after a long stay abroad for my studies, I have never missed the easter lunch at home. This year, I am going to miss it!

However, celebrating it in Australia is another great experience as well. As of today, we will have 4 days leave for the purpose. In Guinea, we do not have such a privilege, although we have some public holidays for religious celebrations (both muslim and christian).

I have the privilege of celebrating both events all the time as a muslim being the son of a christian exceptionnal lady from Haiti,  married for 50 years now to my exceptionnal dad.

For this week end, I am certainly going to enjoy a dinner with the Davies ( my Boss and His wife) who are both great Chefs and are in Perth from Guinea only to spend this great event with family.

Enjoy choclates but not that much :)

Having breakfast beside the swan river......

One of the greatest experiences I would have gone through while in Perth, is definetely having my breakfast with the swan river on the background. 1 week end alone and the other with Moctar, a colleague from Simandou, who is on secondement as me but fifo (he goes on site for one week and come back to Perth the oder...) Moctar and I enjoy going to cafes beside the Atlantic Ocean in Guinea. So we share our pleasure together here in Perth, few miles away from the Indian Ocean,  and it is a time for us to discuss over challenges our country face at the moment, our respective secondement experiences and also, share some vision over were we want to be in the coming years. Both of us left family behind, with pregnant wifes....

At times, we meet other people, get introduced to each other, exchange few words... Most of them are amazed to know that we are coming from far away to enjoy such a wonderful experience (personnal and prefessional) thanks to Rio Tinto.

I take this opportunity to humbly pay a tribute to this company that has sutainably and comstructively shaped my life since I joined it in Mid-april 2008. Rio Tinto is a company worth to work for... A company that gives you back what you offers it in terms of efforts.... A company that rewards its committed employees not only through good pay, but through good corporate culture, policies etc. We know as employees of Rio Tinto, that the company pledges Duty of Care and it first applies it towards us.

I cannot tell the extent to which working for Rio has provided me with the opportunity to develop both on the personnal and professional side.

In 2009, i discovered the journey of being a young leader and enjoyed 2 months later, a Frontline Leadership Program semminar in South Africa, precisely In our sand mining operation of Richards Bay Minerals. After the three sessions which enabled me to fly to South Africa three times, I discovered what really make this company a great one, through values its promote. This type of training is crucial to give insight to leaders over what leading in a modern corporate( whose first objective is ensuring people go back home safe)?is all about.

I am an economist in training. I am always forcing myself to look at things one or two steps behind. My trip to Richards Bay enabled me to see how the sustainable development Policy of Rio Tinto is more than nice words that you read on corporate websites. Actually, I have been able to notice that our know how in mined area rehabilitation is a reality as I was shown areas that looks like if nothing happened there! The vegetal cover has been amazingly restored. Trees are back to normal.....

I felt secured to know that Rio Tinto environmental standards are higest enough to really ensure that mining and environment protection can be two convergent goals if companies are responsible enough....  This is part of the Duty of Care spirit.

Respect, Integrity, teamwork, Accountabilty are the 4 core values of Rio Tinto and I can assure you, having spent 5 years working in there, that they are living as 4 pillars that supports the latter in its every sense of the term sector leadership standing.

In these times of challenges in the broader mining sector, I believe that these values, more that ever, will continue to be the strong pillars above which our company will be stronger, cost-competitive and high value producer for its key stakeholders.

Merci a Rio Tinto!

Friday.... An important day in Australia...

You would tell me that friday is important everywhere in the world!.... However, the way it is valued and celebrated in Australia merits consideration! In Perth, I have the privilege of staying on Murray Street located in the Central Business District. There is a lot of restaurants and most importantly, pubs... This is where people gather on friday afternoons around many glasses of beer!

I am just amazed when I see many people sitting around a table, talking, smiling, laughing... being just friendly and happy!

Beer in Australia, more than anywhere else in the world, is a strong socialization incentive. It has a strong gathering power.

However, this should not skip the fact alcohol should be consumed moderately especially for health and safety purposes. In the mining sector for instance, being fit for work is binding for our own safety as well as others.

On the work side, I am learning a lot. While moving my project forward, I am also going through some online safety modules to understand deeper the Health and Safety auditing framework of Rio Tinto.

I have gone through many Health and Safety audits  in Simandou as far as training is concerned. Providing evidence of competencies held by staff, showing compliance against element 6 of the HSEQ Management System etc.

This time, while discussing with a specialist of HSE auditing in Iron Ore, he offered me the possibility to go through these online modules that will kind of give me the big picture view I am seeking to have when it comes to auditing.

I must admit that it is very interesting and I now figure out much better the logic behind what I used to experience in Simandou. This is what taking one or two steps back to have a look at the bigger picture is all about...

I am also going through my self paced "managers essentials" programme learning. I am on the first module named "feedback skills for leaders"

Interesting! On the introduction page of the first module, I have enjoyed learning that in providing feedback the leader is like the steersman, sitting behind the boat, with a hand on the rudder and corrects the direction of the ship. He actually constantly compares the actual direction with the intended direction and applies a negative correction.

To sum up, leaders use feedback as a communication tool much as they would if steering a boat. Leaders set the direction or goal and then use feedback to correct (critical feedback) or praise (positive feedback) progress towards the goal.
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Two dolphins on the swan and pilbara first visit!

Given the fact that Australia is well known for having lots sharks on its coasts, I thought that what I saw was the bloody big fish that kills so many surfers. Someone walking near byvand obviously well aware of the swan river's history, told me the two were dolphins! Nice! This the second time of my life that I actually see dolphins!

Famous Australia!

On the week of 11/2 I made my first trip to the pilbara region. I landed in Karratha! I visited the two ports that Rio Tinto operate on the coast. While landing, the view of Rio Tinto salt operations was amazing.

The ports are very important to what our CEO Sam Walsh consider to be actually a logistic business. I read an excellent "reportage" of the BOSS magazine belonging to the Australian Financial Review, in which Mr Walsh describes how he replicated the automotive industry continuous improvement model to Rio Tinto Iron Ore WA's operations!

He got the vision of transforming mining operations into integrated systems and processes supplying useful data to the famous operations centre located in Perth 1500 km away from the Pilbara Operations! From the mine to the port, everything is remotely controlled from the Operations Center, which look like the NASA control room!

I have been able to see ship loaders loading Iron Ore into ships automatically, with commands impulsed from Perth! Amazing!

I now understood where our competitive advantage lies in!

This visit to the port operations and rail division, showed me the extent to which we are a business in which safety, operational excellence as well as continuous improvement is at the core of everybody's endeavour!

I attended on leadership lunch in Cape Lambert. This forum was initiated to enable managers and superintendents to gather on a monthly basis to ensure that everyone has the right information to move respective teams as one towards corporate production goals as well as the most important zero harm objective! This is certainly s take away for someone like me!

While in Cape Lambert, a training coordinator took me through the reality side of the streamlining training dynamic in vigor in the operations here.

I also attended to a workshop organised by the training team, gathering leaders, to provide them with information that will enable a constructive as well as productive cooperation between training and other parts of functions within Cape Lambert operations. This is certainly a valuable take away!

I also visited the Mesa A Robe Valley mine. Two hours of drive from Dampier. Excellent opportunity to ride into the massive Komatsu 830 Haul truck!while in this truck, I have been able to notice during an hour, how it is important as a life saving commitment to focus on the journey not the destination, while driving any sort of vehicle on a mine site. ,

Teamwork....

The presentation through which I took the RTIO WA 2013 graduates for a virtual trip to Simandou is the result of teamwork. And there is a story behind this that I would like to share here as there is always a lesson to pick from life experiences.

I humbly acknowledged the good feedbacks from the auditorium and I cannot tell you how people were enthusiastic over the project scale, the partnership on which it lies and the engineering/environmental challenge it represent and also how beneficial it will be for the guinean people and therefore country's sustainable development.

Teamwork is one of the 4th values that make Rio Tinto a good place to work (others are accountability, respect, integrity). This is just not my opinion but also for many of my colleagues. The story is the following...

In the first quarter last year, there was a high level west african business and high ranking officials that were supposed to have a a series of economic meeting in Canada. The necessity to present something about Simandou came in and my GM HR designated me for this task.

The GM operations and I were the two to represent Simandou. I then had to do two things; get my canadian visa sorted out as well as work with one of our consultant and communications dept to prepare a presentation. however, I had to draft the first version and submit it for review. So did I and it went through the regular process of review/comments/amendements/suggestions....

And I remember that GM ops asked us to have a lot of pictures in it and I could see the value of it as last friday, graduated reallly enjoyed them.... So in your ppt presentations make sure you add some meaningful pics. It always helps to get people's buy in.

unfortunately, my visa came through two days after the meeting in our montreal offices during which I would have presented live in front of the Guinean minister of Employment Technical Training. I had to do it via teleconference. i remember our MD, GM ops (he could not make the trip either due to an unexpected emergency that occured) feeling sorry for me. It would have been the first time for me to get to Canada.

I could not imagine at that time, life would have offered me the opportunity to present these slides (on which so many people contributed within simandou), in front of a public of more that 150 persons.Last friday (feb 8) I just then realised that what you miss today may comeback to you later in another form. This also shows that wathever you do as a result of teamwork, try as much as you can to do it right. One way or another, as long as it takes, it will be recognised.

What have I been up to so far?

It's been a  while since my last post isn't it? The main reason for this is that I am getting very busy now down here! After my induction week, I joined the training team in the Central Park building on St George terrace.

As per corporate culture and customs, I got a warm welcome from the team around a morning tea ceremony.

Several meetings occured with various colleagues superitendents in the training dept. They took me through their respective sections, what they do and what are their plans moving forward.

By the end of last week, I met the person who is kind of my project sponsor. Yes because I am going to project mange an interesting leadership related project as part of other activities.
On monday this week (feb 4 2013), I was invited to participate to the first day of Graduates induction. A great day for the next RTIO leaders!

Our guest speaker, a senior leader here was himself a graduate 23 years ago. He took us through what is Rio Tinto today and also as a guest speaker, he showed us the extent to which it is good to work for such a good company, given the various experiences he benefited from and individual team member to a senior leaderhip role. It was a good motivational speech.

On this pic, I am having a chat with some grads that were keen to hear me sharing some on my experience. And also listening to them as well on their respective paths and where they are going to work.

On the last day, tomorrow Friday feb 8, I am invited to present over my 5 years of experience within RT as well as provide some insight over the Simandou Project. It is going to be a great moment for me.

Next week, I am flying up on site. My first visit to the Pilbara region. I will be accompanied by Anthony, a colleague that will take me through our port operations (Dampier and Cape Lambert) and also to some Iron Ore mines near Pannawonica. I will take this opportunity to be exposed to the way training centres operate their processes, their challenges etc and certainly be able to contribut to something positive.

I will certainly update you further over this site experience.

The view of Perth from the Zigzags

Last saturday afternoon, codi, my boss's daughter took me up for a tour of Perth. What we actually did is that we went to a residential area on a hill. On that hill we do find houses called the #million dollar view# and it is very fantastic.
I was also able to visit my look around my boss house. Awesome!
Still on that hill we went to an area called #zigzag# like in french. The road is very small and dangerous. This part of the city reminded me of what we all see on american movies: the moountain on which it is written #hollywood#.
What is amazing with american movies is that when you keep watching them, you end up knowing all their cities without even having been there.
From the Zigzags you have an excellent view of Perth and its CBD towers. It also reminded me of that view we have of LA where towers are surounded by a big city....
It was a good moment....

Australia Day! Amazing fireworks on the swan river

I am just back from the swan river side. 30 min of an amazing spectacle of fireworks. I have been kind of lucky to participate to this event just a week after my arrival in Australia.

No pictures to show right now because my old 2008 iphone has kind of passed away yesterday evening. RIP my old iphone. Snif!

I felt a lot of emotion when sharing this event with an exited croud. I heard a lot of waouuuh! oooh!
This is the type of events that certainly make you feel proud of being part of a great community. And I could read this on the face of people that were surrounding me.

I spent only a week but I can tell you that I have noticed somehow that aussies are proud to be aussies and this country has a strong value out of its diversity. It does not mean that some challenges are not there but what I can say is that they have reached a point of no return in their way of building a strong nation.

Keep it up guys!

A good walk next to the swan river this afternoon!

I have enjoyed my first live sunset today while having a walk beside the swan river. See below how it looked like.

When looking at this, I was thinking of the people behind us, telling to my self that we here in Perth were offering the sun to oder people in the world.

I also enjoyed the St Mary's Cathedral in Perth next to the Royal Perth Hospital. It is a nice church. And it reminded me of the cathedral in Conakry which holds the same name but certainly not the same quality of architecture.

On this picture, on top left side, you will see the moon. What I find amazing with the moon here is that it appears in a position different from what I can see while in Guinea at the same period of the day... May be it is because of the fact that Guinea is not far from the ecuator.....

This evening, I had dinner with mouctar, a colleague from the Geology Resources Dept a secondee from Simandou as well. He cooked us sweet basmati rice with tomato soup including meat! :)

From my balcon

Dienabou, thanks for being one of my blog's fans there in the Conakry office. You told me in an email that you are eager to see some pics.

Here are some that I took from my balcon yesterday night.

Enjoy!

Safety Share.... Beware of fire!

There is a tradition in the mining industry that is called #satfety share#. I am going to share with you today the fact that during my week on induction here in Perth, I went through a fire awareness session.
Is it worth pointing out how dangerous fire is? I think yes!

This session has generated a lot of emotion to me because I have experienced fire in 2008 and I couldn't have been here today to write this post, if Zaza, my neighbour, did not come out of his home that day of August 2008 and noticed that something was burning in my living room.

Oh yes! The candle I left on the tv in my living room burnt out and caught the plastic of the tv. This started generating a suffocating black smoke. It was nearly midnight that day. Zaza came out to switch off their generator and actually my window was located on his way to the generator area. This is what actually saved my life.

Once he noticed the fire, he immediately came to the window of my bedroom (that was not closed because of the heat I was suffering from although it was the rainy season) and managed to wake me. Without panick, he instructed me to immediately take the blanket, wet it with water and place it over the burning TV. This is what I did and we managed to control the fire. I then opened the door and got out of my studio because i was finally suffocating.

What an experience! Please, make sure you safely use candle because they are very dangerous if not properly used. This experience did not make me a person who avoids candles but I have now purchased a special device that enables me to use them safely.

Also, I would like to notice how good this awareness session was due to the quality of the trainer. And from the perspective of the training superintendent, I noticed today how important it is to appointed the right person given the topic to be trained.

The trainer we had today is a former australian police officer with 20 years of experience. He dealt with several fire cases from burning houses to forest fires. And the way he was sharing his experience added a strong value to the awareness session. He was just credible.

One thing I have learned in Rio Tinto especially in Iron Ore, it is that credibility on the work place, especially when it comes to safety related positions is very crucial. This trainer was just credible because of his experience in fire emergency management. Any advice he gives makes sense and have a strong impact in the mind of delegates in sessions he delivers.

So I learned a lot today on fire extinguishers, on how to behave in case of fire emergency and also, as a training service leader, I figured out once again, how important it is for me to hire/appoint trainers with the crediility required to fulfill their duty effectively. This credibility can be built also by ensuring they benefit from a sound development program on their job by sending them on certification trainings, also on exposure in other operations etc...

Jet lag Jet lag Jet lag!!!!!

Akh! Does anyone know a gran mother receip to deal with jet lag?

During my induction today, my sufferness was so intense (by the end of the day) that my hand writing (bad in normal times) turned out to be something else that I cannot read myself (please do not laugh)

The last time I had to deal with jet lag was a trip to south africa (two hours) two years ago. It was not a big deal. Also, I remember having dealt with it during a trip to the US (new york) ten years ago.

However, the australian experience is definetely having a strong impact on me. When people are sleeping here, guess what do I do?
 I spend my time reading a book, browsing on the web or watching tv....

It is only during today's night that I managed to sleep two hours. Crazy!

I do not drink coffee so it is even harder for me to adapt.

My plan this week end (saturday) is to visit Perth with, my boss's daughter Codie. Thanks to her in advance. I am sure I will be able to show you some pics!

We have the Australian day celebration on the same day. Exciting!

Finally in Perth

First and foremost, my warm thanks to my bosses (RD&YB) for having "strongly" supported the decision to send me on international assignment in Perth WA where Rio Tinto Iron Ore offices are located.
I am here in the framework of what we call internally at simandou the "national development program"

This initiative has been thought to enhance the development of young guineans by sending them to existing Rio Tinto operations around the globe particularily Iron Ore operations, in order to have a real vision of how Rio Tinto operates a mine with high standards of Health Safety Environment and Communities processes.

Although Guinea has rich mineral resources, the country does not have the real mining culture as it is the case for example in Australia. As Simandou is a "country changing" project, this initiative aims at generating the mining culture that will enable young guineans to efficiently lead the future operations of what will be a world class mine. Before that, we need also to ensure that the construction phase is a succesfull one given the importance of challenges (safety,technical skills, infrastructure, community etc.)

My intention with this blog is to share with you my experience in this "adventure" in every sense of the term and show practically how this is being beneficial to me.

The smooth landing of the Emirates B777 300ER on saturday 19 Jan 13, sounded to me as a signal of the cool side of this wonderful western australian city of Perth.

At 1700 hrs, the temp was 31 deg celcius. When the immigration lady handed over my passport after usual visa check, she added with a smile that I would not need the coat I was carrying.. Lol

KS, the training manager for Iron Ore, was at the airport to welcome me and take me to 101, Murray St Perth CBD. Thanks to him for this honour... :)

Two days after my arrival, I am still suffering from jet lag... It is not easy to deal with given that Aus is 8 hours ahead of Guinea. The guinean collegues that I found here told me that this sufferness may last up until a week... My challenge is to get my brain accointed in max 4 days. Will update you about this in another post.

Sunday 20/01. After a big sleep, my colleague Zeze from the Simandou Geology operations dept (he is here since early dec) took me to woolworths to get some stuffs to cook. Oh yes, this is a reconnection to my life in France when I was a student from 2000 to 2006. :)

Monday 21/01. Induction day. I have the whole week to spend at the Rio Tinto training facility in Belmont. We go through  sessions in which new comers (I am not that much a new one in Rio Tinto but in Perth indeed I am) are provided with info on Rio Tinto as a group, HR info, Health and Safety standards (isolation, lock holder...). I know, this may sound unfamiliar to those who are not in a mining environment. If you want further details on this please ask and I will provide you with appropriate internet links.

I also opened my bank account to the Australian National Bank (NAB).

while writing this post, my eyes are asking for some sleep again.......

This evening, I will take the opportunity to have a walk in Perth CBD just to identify my way to the Rio Tinto office located on St Georges Terrace as I will start work formally next monday.