Author: Zara

08/12/2014

Parliaments in all countries of the world are concerned with discussing crucial national issues and have a special prestige and respect. As its habit of adopting all that is good and beneficial, the wise leadership of the UAE is carrying on its approach to host the Third Organizational Learning Conference – though under the dome of the Federal National Council this time – on November 30 and December 1 concurrently with the 43^rd National Day and under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hazza Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, National Security Advisor and Chairman of the Emirates identity Authority.

The conference was attended by around 400 participants and saw 26 speakers from 13 countries talking about the best practices in organizational and government learning. The major speaker Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, former Prime Minister of Malaysia, played a major role in enriching the conference by presenting the journey of government learning in Malaysia and its growth-related experience of switching from an agricultural country with half the population living below the poverty line to a strong competitor worldwide in industry, tourism and high-quality services and exports.

The direct and practical recommendations of the conference included among others urging organizations to speed up their transition into educated ones by developing such organizational structures that would support and promote continuous organizational learning and creativity; preparing specialist trainers in the field of organizational and action learning; expanding the translation into Arabic so that the successful experiences and studies in this vital field would be conveyed; and developing initiatives and projects that would encourage reading and exploration.

They also included training the staff in formal and informal learning methods; keeping away from the traditional methods of training; encouraging the second-line and third-line leaders to develop their leadership and management aptitudes through granting them the powers that would enable them to apply their creative ideas at the organizational level; promoting applied research in the field of organizational learning and allocating the required budgets for this purpose; optimizing the organizational learning experiences of such Asian countries as Japan, Malaysia and South Korea; taking advantage of technology for applying learning methods; and following change management methods.

Thanks to all those who contributed to the success of this conference and let’s always remember that the strongest competitive advantage of individuals and organizations is their ability to learn effectively.

28/10/2014

“In the race for excellence there is no finish line” 

A saying by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum

Excellence in the Emirates Identity Authority has a special flavor; it is a combination of creative and innovative mental properties that deeply believe that excellence is a prerequisite that would make a difference in the local and global competitiveness and is the wing that an organization uses to fly high in endless blue oceans.

The leadership of the Emirates Identity Authority plays a key role not only in instilling the foundations of excellence but also causing its intellectual capital to be imbued with them and adapting its methodology of thinking to keep pace with a worldwide leading future vision that joins a race with the winds and keeps away from the traditional approach in practices and methods of thinking.

The intellectual capital in the Emirates Identity Authority constitutes the feasible integrative link that directly contributes to achieving future visions. This has led to the idea of investing in people and adopting exceptional universal concepts for upgrading human resources, not to mention the organizational and systematic knowledge management, which comes under organizational learning, where the Emirates Identity Authority has been a pioneer in adopting and activating the concept of organizational learning at the internal and community  levels.

Hence begins the journey of excellence.. and sails the Emirates Identity Authority’s fully loaded ship far away under a strategic leadership of clear vision, mission and destination, looking for all that is innovative and iconic. During its voyage, the ship berths in fertile green ports to invest some of its cargo and load all that fits it and offers feasible and supportive added values to it.

The Emirates Identity Authority’s ship is characterized by its positive energy, which brings contentment, happiness and enjoyment and creates an atmosphere that motivates free and creative thinking.

The Emirates Identity Authority has proved over the years that it is ready to be the first locally and globally and occupy top ranks in excellence and leadership races so as to create a new concept for non-traditional competition in blue oceans where modern, innovative and creative added values ​exist.

Finally, in the race for excellence, it is a matter of to be or not to be but in the Emirates Identity Authority it is a matter of to be and to be.

14/10/2014

I had a very beautiful feeling when I received a rose; I adore roses for their meanings of beauty and serenity and the fragrant nectar that oozes from them. What if you have received roses as a gift without a name to show the sender? Will this not make you curious to know the person who has remembered you, wished to surprise you and wanted to put a smile on your face? Yes, I had all these feelings when I received a rose, but who from?

It was from the Director General of the Emirates Identity Authority, where I work. What a great effect that initiative had on me. “Oh God, how embarrassed I am” were the first words I uttered in response.

It is true! I felt pretty embarrassed by his generosity when he sent to me and all my colleagues a fragrant rose and a card with the most tender words on it: “A heartfelt thank-you for your sincere efforts” marking the 10^th anniversary of the Emirates Identity Authority. How beautiful and tender this phrase was! But this was not all; he also sent an online message to all the Emirates ID’s staff in which he addressed them as the “Emirates ID’s loyal soldiers”. What a beautiful opening sentence!

I am not going to read his full message but the last sentence where I was most impressed when he said: “all the best for you, your colleagues and your customers.” Then he concluded his beautiful message by humbly signing as “Your brother Ali Al Khouri”. His words were resonant and his feeling was close to us.

How great is to be humble! How beautiful is to reward loyalty with benevolence! How wonderful is a “thank you” when it helps one to be energetic, positive and determined to pay back not only what one owes to the Emirates ID but to the homeland as well because he who does not thank people does not thank the Lord Who Has created people.

A heartfelt thank-you to you my manager; How honored I am to be a brick of this wonderful organization, which is led by you and which I always feel I am indebted to, no matter how hard I work to accomplish my tasks.

Frankly, this approach and these morals are not uncommon to a person who follows the example of our valued sheikhs led by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, may Allah protect him, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, may Allah protect him, and His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, who have always been generous with their people and have harnessed all potentials to implant the seeds of good values and morals for the benefit of their people.

I wish to Allah to make our country a source of pride for us, to bless our leaders and those in charge and help us serve this generous country. How proud I should be that I am an Emirati woman.

24/09/2014

A pessimist sees only black sides and dark corridors where there is no glimmer of light because he always assumes the worst. In contrast, an optimist sees the light amidst the darkness; it is he who always assumes the best and believes that there is a solution to every problem. An optimist smiles whenever he comes across a difficult situation and has faith in Allah that hard times will be over.

Get moving, raise your ambitions and be positive because positivity strengthens your will, motivates you to work, keeps you busy and fills your life with clarity and vitality. So, try always to be optimistic by giving up the idea that the world is against you. Use a different perspective for thinking and do not let your mind wander negatively. Do not give the opportunity to anybody to play with your thoughts negatively and remember that no matter how much the sky is filled with black clouds, there must be a shaft of light that dispels the black clouds and makes the sky clear again.

Change yourself because everything in the universe changes. But change yourself for the better and delete such words as “I cannot” from your dictionary. Do not say “I will do it tomorrow” but do it now and keep away from those who would discourage you and are unable to achieve any progress and mix with hard-working people held in high esteem.

Do not be satisfied with a little success but try to achieve as much success as possible. Make success stories for you and have the will to achieve more successes, noting that every success will bring more successes with it as long as you have a firm will.

Trust yourself and your job; trust is derived neither from prestige nor from wealth but springs from somewhere inside you and is your passport to what you seek. Your self-confidence will give you strength to remain steadfast and will push you to further ambitions.

It is nice to discover your strengths and reinforce them constantly but it is nicer to know your weaknesses and try to overcome them. Do not be ashamed of doing so because we are humans who have shortcomings but this will not deter us from correcting our weaknesses and rectifying our shortcomings. Be proud of yourself and try to think but positively.

Remember that if you have a hollow mind, you will not be aware of any achievement in your life. Read, learn, communicate and refresh your ideas and you will find that you have sailed in another world and delved into knowledge with confidence. This will reflect in the way you work.

Remember also that all achievements have begun with an idea that was put into practice and proved successful. Similarly, your mind can generate an idea that will attract other ideas. Let your mind work and be sure that a small spark can cause a great fire. Never underestimate any of your ideas; you might look at it as a small idea but it could be a great one for others.

Last but not least, decide which direction you want to go because if you do not have goals, you will remain in place and achieve no progress. Put down your future goals, activate your potential powers, draw plans and a correct path and be eager to reach the peaks. Do not look at minor goals and be armed with hope and confidence in all your journeys to your goal. Do not rely on luck because luck may and may not come to you.

18/07/2014

The holy month of Ramadan is here upon us, the month of goodness, blessing, kindness and good deeds. We have all been waiting for it impatiently and passionately. We feel blessed to be part of it now, and may Allah bless the deceased who missed it and wished they were part of it too.

Ramadan is here to renew faith, give us ample opportunities for good deeds, close the doors to hell and open the doors to heaven. Let’s work together and exert utmost efforts to excel in this month of goodness. We can be creative in acts of kindness and compete to harvest the rewards; we can diversify in mobilizing efforts and bringing out our hidden talents.

We can excel with Allah in worshipping and obedience, in reading the Holy Quran and understanding its verses and in praying to Allah and seeking His forgiveness so that we are among those mentioned in the verse: “… and the men who remember Allah often and the women who do so – for them Allah has prepared forgiveness and a great reward”. Let’s seek to be among the residents of Heaven and let’s seek forgiveness in this Holy Month.

We can excel with ourselves by developing ourselves and our way of thinking and always encouraging ourselves to think good of others and think positively and look with confidence and determination to what we want to be and what we aspire to. This can be done intellectually by reading and researching and meeting with intellectuals and listening to lectures that are commonly held after Taraweeh prayer throughout the UAE mosques. It can also be done from a health and physical aspect by changing our dietary habits and following the example of Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) in delaying the Suhoor meal and hurrying the Iftar meal. He also said a third for food, a third for drink and a third for you. We can also increase our portions of drinking water, eating salads and fruits and exercising. After this blessed month, we should seek self-assessment.

We can excel with others by being devoted, obedient and kind to our parents asking for their contentment and visiting relatives and asking about them. We should visit the sick people and be kind to people in general and do charity acts even if little. We should smile often; smiling is a charity for those who cannot afford otherwise. We should respect the elderly and be compassionate towards the youngsters; we should give the poor and the orphans. We should excel in training our children to do all that and respect others regardless of their class or group.

We can excel in work by complying with the arrival and departure times and not be late on the pretext of fasting and sleeping. We should be cheerful when dealing with customers, assisting them in solving problems, facilitating matters for them and guiding them towards the proper procedures.

We can excel by removing any harm from the road and be kind to cleaning workers and use our time in useful matters and not talk about others behind their back. We can cooperate to assist colleagues in what they need, while seeking reward from Allah.

In this manner, we can achieve excellence in this Holy Month, leaving it with a great reward and significant change and positivity in our lives in all its intellectual, professional, social and health aspects.

07/07/2014

The term ‘Benchmarking’ could be new for some people, though it is well known to those who work in the government sector, especially at entities that are qualified for excellence awards. It is a method for learning and quality improvement by means of learning from others’ successes and failures.

Benchmarking can be formal or informal depending on the preliminary arrangements taken and the processes associated with it. The informal benchmarking doesn’t require any pre-arrangements, and we all do this kind of benchmarking whenever we admire a practice or a behavior of an individual or an organization where we may fully or partially adopt it or develop it so as to suit us. On the other hand, formal benchmarking needs preliminary coordination with the benchmark partner.

Benchmarking can be divided into ‘process benchmarking’ and ‘performance benchmarking’. In the first type, the benchmarking initiator compares a specific process to the same process of another “best practice” firm. One of the most successful examples on this type is the comparisons which were done by a London-based children’s hospital with the Ferrari Factory. The process of moving the children from the operations theatre to their care units was compared to the process of changing the tyres during a race. This benchmarking process helped the hospital to reduce death cases and improve outcomes by 70 percent!

I personally had conducted comparisons between a national bank and a group of hotels which resulted in a great impact on performance improvement. Meanwhile, performance indicators benchmarking allows the initiator firm to assess their competitive position according to the international and local indexes within the same industry.

For a successful benchmarking, there are nine main tips: Obtain Commitment and support from the key stakeholders, be prepared and humble enough to listen and learn, put an action plan once the benchmarking has been completed and start execution, pick the right benchmark partner, select and train the right team, study and understand the firm’s processes before embarking on comparison so as to get overall meaningful results, don’t focus only on documentation and information aspects, always monitor the action plan implementation, and finally continue to do benchmarking on a periodic basis.

09/06/2014

If you are given a photo of a group of people including you; who is the first person you will look for in the photo? Definitely, you will look for yourself first and then those who you care for. Let’s recall the days of study: what was your feeling towards the teacher who remembered your name from the first lesson, called you always by name and praised you when you gave the right answer? How do you feel about your manager when he sends an e-mail to the employees or the department where he commends you for your efforts and success? It is undoubtedly a wonderful feeling that gives us a positive energy and encourages us to exert an extra effort.

Global specifications and standards, such as the “Investors in People” specification, as well as quality and excellence awards have dealt with an issue of utmost importance; namely, honoring and appreciation of efforts. Although it is important and easy to use, this issue has always been present yet absent in our organizations and personal life.  The fact that the various forms of “thank you” were mentioned 75 times in the Holy Quran demonstrates how important this issue is. I have worked with people who never missed an occasion to thank others and appreciate their efforts in word or deed. In contrast, I have dealt with people who know nothing about the thanking culture. One of these people is a colleague of mine whom I owe all respect but never heard him say “thank you” to anybody inside or outside the office. So, I told him: “Please, say thank you”.. But it seems that there are things that must come from the heart and cannot be learned at all.

Thanking and appreciating others’ efforts reflects a superior culture, self-respect and the environment in which man has grown up before it reflects appreciation of and respect for others. We all need to be stimulated and “recharged” from time to time because we are human beings. Many studies have proved that a bonus comes in the 6^th place while appreciation comes in the first place as the most important motivating factor for employees. So always say thank you and express your hearty appreciation and gratitude one way or another, but before that you should thank Allah for His countless boons and remember the verse “If you give thanks, I will give you more”. We pray to Allah to help us be grateful.

18/05/2014

‘Read’ is the first word that descended on the prophet of Islam Mohamed, Peace be upon Him. This is a clear indication of the importance of reading in human life so the nation of Islam gives it the attention it deserves. This is route that leads to knowledge and science.

No doubt that reading is the food for the mind and the soul. Through reading, we learn about the experience of others, the news of the past and the present and equip ourselves with the knowledge which is useful in our scientific, professional and personal lives.

It is regretful that many among the youth moved away from serious and intellectually enriching reading towards the trivial. They abandoned useful reading in favor of reading that only entertains and kills time.

Reading has always been the most significant fruit of the human mind. It is the largest source of knowledge and the widest means of intellectual nourishment and rejuvenation. It leads to human development and opens before the reader the path towards progress. If you ignore it, it leads to the decline of the mind and the darkness of ignorance. Moreover, it pushes human being backward at both the individual and social levels.

An important duty of any family is to encourage children to read and allocate time for it. In this munificent country, there are hundreds of libraries spread all over, offering an anchor for those who are greedy for knowledge.

To sum up, reading is the window through which you view the beauty of life. This is an invitation to you all to return to useful books, which are more often than not more beneficial than even friends as Mutanabbi rightly said: “The best companion in these times is the book.”

Let us read so we progress in knowledge.

07/05/2014

Deliberately or inadvertently, many people conflate between vanity and self-confidence, especially when they are unable to differentiate between the two.

Vanity is a pest, and a blameworthy conduct. It makes one feel superior and disdainful towards others, and to disparage them. It makes her feel she is better than all others and that one can resemble her or be like her. Self-confidence is a commendable and lovable trait that raises a person’s esteem, winning her the love of the people and giving her the ability to interact nicely with them, regardless of their material or social status. In the end, these qualities help her win love and respect from all.

I recently met a friend and asked her: “Do you have self-confidence?” She answered without any hesitation: “Of course! My self-confidence is limitless.” I told her: “How is that? It goes without saying that everything has limits.” She said: “I meant that my self-confidence is very strong.” I told her: “What is your evidence for that? And how could you determine the extent of your self-confidence is that high?” She replied: “I do not bow to the opinion of others. I trust my opinions, my capacities and my intelligence. I trust my ability to think and take decisions.”

I said: “What is the connection between your self-confidence and all that you said about your refusal of others and your lack of concern for others’ opinions?” She quipped: “Because my opinion is better than theirs.” I told her: “That is vanity and not confidence. There is a sea of difference between confidence and vanity.”

She asked: “How is that?” I said: “Self-confidence does not prevent one from seeking the opinion of others, especially if yours is less correct that that of the others. This does not mean you need to shake your self-confidence. It merely reflects your belief that my opinion, which I think is correct, may possibly be wrong. And what I consider to be the wrong opinion of others may probably be correct.”

Self-confidence does boost a person’s morale and pushes her towards positive deeds always. It helps her eschew lethargy in achieving her goals and attaining her hopes. It also helps her avoid chaos and marginalization. Vanity destroys a person and pushes her towards focussing on herself, thinking of herself as the best. It blocks her from success and progress. Many people fall prey to illusory vanity. Let us all make sure that we distinguish between self-confidence and vanity so we become successful in our life and keep failure away.

06/05/2014

No doubt we all – fathers and mothers – dream of the day our children graduate from the university and find their own way in life through a prestigious job worth their and our efforts. The role of universities is vital in supplementing the national economy with educated human resources that add value. In order for the universities to play this role, they have to keep pace with the new trends that we see in every sphere. There is an astounding boom in technology and communication in the media. From my experience in four universities earlier, I feel that the universities are far removed from keeping pace with the tremendous developments that we pass through. And what is the impact of this detachment on the ground?

The graduates that come out of the universities are not equipped for the job market. Companies do not want to employ them, not merely on account of lack of experience, but because they lack the basic skills, such as solving problems or even writing their own CVs. I have seen the CVs of many post graduates and Ph.D. holders, reflecting poorly on their capacities. As the saying goes, one who lost something cannot give the same. The universities cannot provide effective educational experience benefitting the graduates and the job market, since these universities themselves lack the basics of learning!

I see that there are many opportunities for improving the way the universities are run. They need to transform themselves to learning organizations, benefitting from the experiences of their employees and other. There is also a pressing need to develop the role of the authorities that grant licenses and academic accreditations, especially those dealing with private universities that focus only on profits without allocating real resources for scientific research. Concerned entities can benefit from the experiences of collaboration between universities and business houses. Similarly, more flexible legislations can be passed, allowing universities to be held by businesses. There are success stories in Finland and Scotland, both of which achieved universally acclaimed success. A country like Scotland with 19 universities is home to 28% of all start-up companies in Great Britain. Likewise, the quality of varsity graduates from Scottish universities has begun to attract foreign investment to Scotland, with the result that the contribution of universities toward the economy has reached more than 6%.

We need to learn from this kind of experiences so there is a mechanism to follow the work progress and measure advantages, instead of confining to mere visits and protocol-dictated memoranda of understanding. Not necessarily a ‘cut and paste’ job, but we can tailor these experiences to our culture and context in our environment. Let us follow our prophet, may Allah bless him and greet him, who said: “Whoever hits a road and seeks knowledge therein, Allah will make his road to heaven smooth.”