Lessons from the Egyptian revolution

We have just witnessed a great event when we saw the Egyptian people topple the corrupt and oppressive regime of Hosni Mubarak. This short essay is to withdraw from that revolution a few lessons along with their underlying facts.

I will not talk about lessons such as: dictators are doomed sooner or later, people always aspire to freedom, young generations want a future free from oppression and corruption ..etc all these are obvious ones and have been true since the dawn of times.

Egyptian revolution has deeper and more insightful lessons that all politicians and ordinary citizens, especially in the west, shall be aware of. These lessons will facilitate the mutual understanding between the Arab world and the West and bridge the mis-understanding gap that we have been seeing in the past decades.

1. The choice in the Arab world is no more a binary one between oppression and stability on one side, and democracy and chaos on the other side. Heroic Egyptians have shown that democracy and chaos are not and should not be considered synonymous in the middle east. As they aspire for freedom, democracy and transparency, people want to keep stability and economic development in their countries.
2. In 18 days of demonstrations, the only flag that was floating was the Egyptian flag and nothing else. Also, no other flags were burnt or torn apart. The revolution is a patriotic one and the people who demonstrated did it for the love of their country and were not driven by religious ideology or by animosity towards another country.
3. Dictatorial and oppressive regimes provide, on purpose, a fertile environment for corruption, extremism and sectarism. By fostering corruption, they distract the ordinary people from looking into politics by forcing them into the maze of a dis-functional social and economic system. By encouraging extremism and sectarism, they substantiate their claim that without them the country will somber into a chaotic situation with fanatic and extremist leaders. However, what we saw in Egypt destroys the foundations of this logic as young people without a political or religious affiliation led the revolution to rid their country from corruption, theft and to seek a better future for themselves and future generations. This is what we saw when Egyptian Christians guarded their Muslim compatriots during the Friday prayer and later when Muslims guarded their Christian compatriots during the Sunday mass.
   
4. During the revolution, I heard many experts say that West (EU, USA) is facing a difficult dilemma as they have to make a choice between supporting democracy and guarding their interests. That binary is as invalid as the one between stability with oppression and freedom with chaos. In my opinion, supporting democracy and people's aspiration to freedom are strategically important for the West. Free countries, democratic governments, transparency & governance, active civil societies, independent judiciary and peaceful transitions will ride Arab countries from fanaticism and extreme ideas and defeat terrorist ideology. 9/11 terrorist attacks are a reminder of how important this could be.
   

The Arab world is happy for what happened in Egypt and is looking forward to see this revolution succeeding in bringing a positive change in Egypt on all fronts and make this country that we all love "the crown and the pearl" of the Arab world as it once was.

Chilean miners and potential team building & cohesion lessons

After being trapped for almost 70 days, the 33 Chilean miners are finally rescued in one of the most amazing dramas and breath-taking rescue operations we might have witnessed as the whole world watched enthusiastically this capsule going down and up rescuing these extraordinary ordinary people one by one to the surface of the earth.
In the coming days we will hear and find out lots of details about the miner's ordeal since they went missing on Aug. 5th 2010. Their fears, their doubts, their hopes and their anxieties in the first two weeks when no-one knew if they were alive and enter into contact with them. We'll also find out more about "how did they make it?", "where did they get the strengths to survive such an ordeal?". Of course, there is no single answer to such a simple question! Courage, hope, faith, optimism, self-discipline, mental & physical strength and spirituality just to name a few have certainly played a critical role in keeping the miners alive. But I think that something else has contributed to the happy ending we have all witnessed on our TV screens. An exceptional person or a group of people was among the miners. People with exceptional leadership, personal and team building skills must have emerged from the group and helped keeping the miners together and upbeat during the tough moments they have had to endure. The "leaders" team had few critical tasks to accomplish in order to succeed in their role:
1. Counseling & Influencing skills: Especially in the first two weeks, the group had to deal with lots of anxiety and fear that a few miners could exposed. They must have managed to ease their fears and give them enough assurances to avoid a general panic that would have had disastrous consequences.
2. Logistics skills: With a limited amount of food and water supplies available, the group leaders must have devised a solid and realistic plan to ensure the longest survival time using scarce available resources.
3. Organizational skills: No one person could have knowledgeable in all aspects of survival skills. The leaders must have tapped for resources in the group to assign specific roles to those who were the most qualified and/or willing to assume these roles.
4. Charisma and Inspiration: The "leaders group" had an innate charisma that enabled them to emerge as leaders with the consent and approval of the other group members. They have inspired the miners and kept their moral up using both their charisma ability to inspire the group. I'm sure we'll find out more about what tactics and tips they to inspire the trapped miners but one can already think about faith, family, hope and love as "mines" for inspiration. The miners ordeal and their quasi-miraculous rescue is a great story of hope, love, courage, compassion and humanity. The spread of joy through out the world as each miner came out of the capsule was such a uniting moment for all of us. To the 33 Chilean heroes We say: welcome to freedom. As for the hundreds of unknown heroes who made that rescue a reality, we say: Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

"A Flash of Genius": Innovation, Novelty and Blinking Wipers

The movie "A flash on genius" was on my must-see list for a while. I finally watched it this week-end and have really enjoyed it.
The movie traces the true story of Dr. Robert (Bob) Kearns professor of electrical engineering and the inventor of what is known Today as the "intermittent wipers".
Intermittent wipers enables car drivers to adjust the speed of windshield wipers based on the intensity of the rain.
In the movie, Dr. Kearns goes to court against Ford Motor Company for patent infringement and chooses to represent himself in court.
A defining moment of the case, in my opinion, happens when Ford lawyers bring to the witness stand a professor of electrical engineering to assess and comment on the "novelty" of the electronic circuit board that Bob Kearns designed to control the intermittent wipers.
The expert witness states then thal all components used in that circuit: transistor, capacitor and variable resistor were well known and available in electronic catalogs. All what Bob Kearns did was to arrange them in a different way (layout) on his control board. He concludes his testimony by stating that he would not call such a different arrangement of elements "invention".
To counter that statement, Bob Kearns brings in the famous novel written by Charles Dickens "The Tale of Two Cities" and reads couples sentences from the first page of the story before asking the expert witness:
Did Mr. Dickens invent any of the words he used in his novel?
The answer naturally comes as: No. Bob Kearns continues as he asks:
Do you think Mr. Dickens invented any of the words he used in his novel?
Is not it likely thal all the words used in that novel would be found in any English languauge dictionary?
Bob Kearns concludes: All what Charles Dickens did was to arrange the words available in English languauge in a specific sequence to write his novel. Can we then say that Charles Dickens did not come with any thing new??
Point made Dr. Kearns, in a very eloquent and convincing way.
When inventors innovate and come with new ideas, they rarely create their inventions from nothing! Guided by their vision, they use their expertise, domaine knowledge and many pre-existing tools to create innovation and novelty.

Some thoughts on the crisis in Greece.

The recent financial crisis in Greece could be an illustration of the "fragility" of the EU as an economic, political, and social entity.
Long before the effective circulation of the Euro in Europe(late 1999)
the treaty of Maastricht (1992) has established strict financial criteria for countries who wanted to be part of the European currency.
These criteria related to the percentage of the public deficit to the national GDP and the ratio of the national debt to the GDP. Countries who met these criteria were welcome to join and those who did not, were asked to work their finances and come back at a later date.
As of Today, the Euro is the currency in 16 European countries.

The current debt crisis in Greece might have been rooted in the history of the
European Union and the Euro itself. The treaty of Maastricht has put too much focus on the financial criteria to qualify for the Euro and not enough attention to social criteria that are equally important. As a matter of fact, no one would argue that the economic, financial and social structures in a country are independent from one another. The lack of definition of the "social" pillar of the European Union has also led many convinced Europeans to call for voting against Maastricht. The late Philippe Seguin (Speaker of the French Parliament) was an ardent opponent to that treaty and he had a memorable debate with the late French president Francois Mitterrand in the days preceding the French referendum on the ratification of the treaty of Maastricht.

The lack of "social homogeneity" across Europe could have led to the economic troubles that Europe is presently going through. Disparities in areas like retirement age, unemployment benefits, social services and labor laws have a direct impact on the economic and financial situation of any country.
For instance, one could easily understand why the Germans are reluctant to jump in and help Greece when we know that people in Greece can retire as early as age 57 while the minimum retirement age in Germany is 63.

As they debate the most adequate way to help Greece, European leaders should look more broadly on the underlying causes and put forward a plan towards a better harmonization of European policies. Such harmonization would strengthen the EU and make crisis such as the current one less likely to occur in the future.

A "vital card" to reduce healthcare cost in the US

In the ongoing debate surrounding the reform of healthcare in the US, the words "waste", "administrative costs" come very often as many experts and commentators see them as one reason why the US healthcare system is the most expensive (18% of GDP) among industrialised nations, leaves about 45 million people un-insured or under-insured and has an overall ranking of 18 (some say 37) in quality of care.
A proven way to eliminate some of the waste and administrative costs would be to replicate what France has done when it started the "CARTE VITALE" (Vital Card) in 1997.
The vital card, shown above, looks exactly like a credit card. It has an electronic chip, a picture of the owner, his name and issue date.

Having tried this card for couple years in France before moving to the US, let me tell you one thing. It works GREAT and I trully think the US will gain a lot from adopting a similar approach.
The gains are not limited to cost savings because quality of care will significantly improve and let me tell you why.
1. Cost Savings: The electronic chip on the vital card has all relevant insurance information for the card holder. Once, a person walks into a Dr. office, the person working at reception will insert the card in a reader that will provide her with up-to-date information on the patient and his insurance. No more forms to fill every time you walk into a doctor's office. During the visit, the doctor enters, via a computer, the information relevant to that visit. That information is then automatically and electronically transmitted to the insurance company based on the information coming from the vital card. The insurance company then pays the doctor upon receipt of that information.
The whole process is automated: information capture / processing / payment which means less paper work and less cost paid for non-value-added steps in the process.
2. Quality Improvement: In addition to personal and insurance information on its holder, the vital card has critical medical information that are important to know to ensure quality of care. An example would be as simple as "allergies" or "medical history". The vital card would contain such information which means that rather than relying on the patient remembering what he is allergic to, the doctor would never prescribe a medication that would cause an allergic reaction in the patient because the patient forgot to mention it or may be because the doctor forgot to ask about it.
Another instance would be for a patient rushed into the ER after an accident. With his vital card, the medical staff has immediate access to important information such as: his age, his blood type, his medical history ..etc which makes them more capapble to make timely decision while having all or most relevant decision elements at hand.
France healthcare system is one of the best in the world and is considered by many an expensive one. However, it costs around 9% of France GDP (1/2 of what the US federal government pays) and provides universal coverage to all French citizens and residents.
The "vital card" provides a proven way of reducing costs while improving healthcare quality. The US healthcare reform should consider implementing a similar solution for the people in the US.

Invictus: Mandela, Rugby and lessons in leadership

I have just come back from watching the movie "Invictus" which tells the story of Nelson Mandela and the South African rugby team (springbok) during the 1995 world rugby cup that took place in South Africa.
The movie shows the great character of Nelson Mandela, the man, who after 27 years in prison by an apartheid regime, was capable of leading and reconciling divided nation through a peaceful and highly successful transition. There is no point in relating Nelson Mandela's great personality in a blog and that is definitely not my intent here.
However,I found that we can draw many parallels between what Mandela did for the Springbok and what managers and leaders can do to drive and achieve success for their people and their companies. Some of these parallels that we can all learn from are:
1. Vision: In the movie, Mandela proves that to be a visionary is to see and believe in what other don't see or believe. Mandela's vision was that a victory of the South African team will bring the country closer. Despite the dire political, social and economic context, Mandela was capable of seeing what his aides and advisers could not see.
2. Through vision, true leaders create opportunities during crisis: Mandela did not only have the vision; He was also able to turn a difficult situation into a great success as he implemented his vision. He got personally and politically involved to support a low-performing Springbok as he brought them closer to the black majority of the South African people and brought the South African people to support their rugby team.
3. Get personally involved: Mandela did channel his support through the minister of sport or the director of the team, he went to the players and showed them his personal support and commitment to their success. He memorized their names before going to their encounters during a training session.
If we transpose this to a business situation this would mean that CEO's, executives and senior managers should not only know their direct reports. This should, as much as they can, go to the encounter of the players on the ground: engineers, technicians, researchers, line workers, field engineers, sales associates, customer service staff ..etc etc
4. Inspire: Once again, Mandela's interest in the well being of his country's economy and social environment did not make him forget that his people needed inspiration as much they needed jobs, money and healthcare.
He invested precious time and lots of energy to inspire the whole nation and bring them together defying the prevailing racial, political and economical divisions in a country that recently emerged from apartheid.
Once again, in a business/corporate context, this means that while meeting deadlines, delivering quality and profits are important, inspiring the employees of the company is also very important. Through inspiration, leaders can create an environment that unites their employees towards a common good while fulfilling their personal and emotional aspirations.

The movie really great and I encourage you all to go watch it and learn from it.
Ali
20 Dec. 2009

Lunch Break in US and France

Having spent 9 years now working in the US after about 10 years spent studying then working in France I want to talk about the striking differences I have seen between these two countries (cultures) when it comes to "Lunch Time".

In France, la "pause dejeuner" (read lunch break) is sacred time in French culture and way of work. As a result, rarely you would see anyone setting up a work meeting between 11:45 AM and 1:15 pm. It is culturally unacceptable to do so and if someone does schedule such a meeting he can be sure that very few people will attend.

The other trait of lunch time in France is that it is a team building activity. Very often, people working in the same team will leave together for lunch and spend a little more than 1 hour chatting as they enjoy their meal. They'll talk about politics, economy, society, sport and work. In an informal and convivial atmosphere they'll debate many issues and share thoughts and lots of laughing. They'll then go and share an Expresso as they end their discussions and head back to work. I do think that such excercise is good for team building as employees get closer and know each other more and more. Also, very often employees will have lunch with colleagues form other teams and departments thus making lunch room (la cantine) a place to exchange important communication messages between teams, such communication is essnetial in keeping
different teams aware of what is going on within the company. These "mini town-hall" meetings occur more frequently and less formally in France and are quite helpful in strengthening the work relationship between individuals in different teams.

In the US, lunch break is less formal, more irregular in time and is definitely shorter. Many employees choose to grab a sandwich and a soda at their desk while finishing some work or browing the internet. Few people take time to have a meal at the company's cafeteria and a smaller number go to lunch together.

Between the two ways, my preference goes for the French approach. Not only it is a healthier and more pleasant from a personal perspective, It is also more beneficial for the company as it strengthens the relationship between teams and facilitates the communication process across the oragization.