New year resolution will definitely fail unless

Have you ever decided on a new year’s resolution? Of course you did…. And did those resolutions fail over and over again? Of course they did….

Lets us have a look at the top 5 most common resolution over the past 10 years

5- I want to be nice to people around me (family/friends/colleagues)

4- I want to make more money

3-I want to hit the gym

2- I want to quit smoking

1- I want to start a diet

Now if we examine why did we fail over and over again in applying those resolutions, we will notice that once we start applying any of them, the daily habits will kick in and takes us back at square one. We would start justifying our actions by sentences like: I need this cigarette; I have too much pressure, or a bar of chocolate won’t hurt me now; it is just one.

Al of this is natural for two reasons:

1 - We don’t commit to ourselves: as long as no one is scrutinizing what we do, we don’t have a clear discipline and will tend at breaking our promise to ourselves

2- The goal is not worthy enough; we will end up saying that by smoking a cigarette or grabbing a piece of cake it’s not the end of the world.

But what is the end of the word?

This year, resolutions are pointing to a very different, yet focused point; saving the world and more specifically saving the world from Global Warming. Everyone is taking that resolution seriously and that is mostly due to 2 events that have happened in the last quarter of 2009: Copenhagen summit and the movie 2012. In the later, the difference that we have witnessed compared to other similar movies is that, the end is very near and that is, not even in 2 years. We need to take action and action starts at home. By turning off that light we don’t need by turning of the TV and DVD plugs when not in use and by closing the water tap when we brush our teeth or shave, we would be contributing in saving that world. It also goes to using our cars; do we ever car pool? Do we walk to the shop that is 200 meters away? Being environmentally friendly follows us at the office, we don’t need to print every single document that we use, we shouldn’t use plastic and paper cups but replace them with our glass cup or mug, and we should be recycling everything we use.

If we commit this year to a green resolution we will for once be doing a good deed not only for ourselves but for people around us and generations to come.

So let’s turn our green resolution into a habit and do something different this year.

The author Camil El Khoury is the Chief Vision Officer of ideas group; the Middle East leading experiential learning consultancy. www.ideasgrp.com

What are you giving this Christmas?

It’s here again…that magical time of the year is here again…oh yes it’s Christmas.

Usually every holiday, especially that time of the year, people start becoming forgiving, forgetting and all about giving, and making others happy.

This Christmas, have you thought about what you want to give? And by this I don’t mean gifts or any materials items, I meant what do you want to give people around you?

This might seem selfish; however, to end up the year with a great achievement, what about giving people at the office something that will help them end their year on a better tone.

In order to do that, you have to practice, in a simple yet a very powerful way, the art of coaching, and more specifically how to make people feel understood.

By coaching people, you will strengthen your relationships, people will feel that you are a source of trust and you will feel like you have made a difference in your workplace.

If you are ready, then you are 5 steps away of becoming a workplace catalyst of change :

1- What’s in it for them: Often in our conversations we end up talking about ourselves and fail to understand or learn what people are truly saying.

In order to do that we have to Actively Listen; doing that requires that you give the full attention to people when you ask them a question, yes it means leaving your computer keyboard or your phone to concentrate on what they are saying.

2- Ask open questions: And that relates to point one, the question will have to be about them, and you will have to resist introducing your personal stories in the conversation unless you are asked to. A sample open question is: “What motivates you?” and if they answer growth or achievement resist the temptation to say “me too” or “yes I also like….. because it makes me….” Remember you want to be helping others so try to learn about them.

3- Encourage them to come up with their own ideas: If you asked them what motivates them or what makes them happy, ask them how would they like to take things forward, and by this I mean what are possible ways for them to reach their goals. Again here, resist the temptation of giving personal advice; instead encourage them to come up with ideas and solutions.

4- Listening to their ideas. Listening is a big part of helping others. When someone is telling you about a certain idea, try to learn what this idea truly represents. Summarize what they have said to make sure you got it correctly, this will also show the speaker that you are truly listening to them,

5- Help them turn their ideas into actions Ideas are useless unless they are executed. In order to make an idea happen, one has to turn it into a plan of action. A good way that will make their ideas happen is to make them fill a table like the one below:

What is the action point that you will execute	By when will that point be achieved	What Support do you need and from whom	How will you track your progress measure your success

Make sure they are specific when they fill the table, and ask them to choose a mentor ( it could be you) to follow up on those action points.

Christmas is a time of giving, and the self satisfaction from giving others new ways to think is priceless. So Merry Christmas, and good luck.

Camil El Khoury is The Author of "Do What you Love, Love What you do" and the Chief Vision Officer of ideas group; the leading experiential learning firm in the AME region (Africa and the Middle East)

Do you really need discipline?

by Hussein Hallak EVP and Facilitator ideas group

Not a day goes by without somebody saying or shouting those three words in our eardrums... You Need DISCIPLINE!

It is usually followed by;

You need to be more organized, on time, lose weight, wake up early, pay the bills, finish you meal, and clean your room…!!

Discipline, don’t you just hate that word....?

It gives way, to the idea of being confined, limited to act in a certain way, and follow specific rules. That is enough to scare the heck out of anyone...

It also means to punish, and to penalize Not particularly something you want!

Still, true discipline is vital in our lives, it is the essence of true success, a must for a purposeful life. So, what do we do?

Let us first clarify a few things:

When you think about being “disciplined”, you probably relate it to being “organized”, “punctual”, “rigid”, “orderly”, “playing by the rules” and “limited”... That’s not necessarily bad; however, try to think, “Knowledgeable”, “active”, “action oriented”, and “prepared”. All are uncommon, but very relevant meanings of the word “Disciplined”.

Let us say you came to your office one day and it was a total mess, it happens to the best of us. The first thing on your mind is to get “organized”. So, you spend many hours, sometimes days, organizing that mess. The reward is an organized office, which is great. However, once you start searching among the “organized” piles for a particular paper you need, well... Pretty soon the office is back to being a mess again! Maybe even worse than before?! Especially when you are in a hurry to get that paper...You’re back to square one... Why? Because you organized the mess...

So, what can you do?

1- Know what are the things you want, and most importantly what are the things you don’t want.

2- take action, throw away what you don’t want, and keep what you want.

3- You know there will be more papers coming through your front door, so be prepared; create a simple process, and allocate certain places for certain things...

In fact if you commit only to the first two steps, you eliminate 80 percent of the mess...

Being organized is reactive. Being disciplined is proactive.

Commitment is tuff. Discipline makes it natural!

We are talking about common sense, universal wisdom, true purpose and unwavering commitment.

We are talking about “true discipline”; the art of living in alignment with your truth;

Be aware of what’s important; your values, your purpose, your truth... Essentially

“You”.

Follow your intuition. It is the inner compass guiding you through your life’s journey. It will align you with who you really are.

Finally; keep it simple... 90% of plans and strategies never get executed because they are too complex. Take your plans and strategies, and cut them down to a maximum of three steps. Choose a life of harmony, joy and peace; A life of discipline.

Ideas group participates in the Leadership Best Practise conference in Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi

Ideas group , The Middle East and Africa’s most successful experiential learning consultancy, was again the proud sponsor of Etisalat Academy’s “ Leadership Best Practices conference” in Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi. This event was organized in partnership with the Ministry of Interior and under the auspices of His Highness Lt. Gen. Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Interior.

The Event welcomed more than 200 delegates, all eager to learn from the best practices on Leadership from four very talented speakers. This panel included Rowan Gibson, a bestselling author and international speaker, Alan Stevens the communication expert, author & managing director of Mediacoach, Prof. Christo Neil who is the head of centre for leadership studies for the University of Stellenbosch and Dr. Ahmed Shalabi a regional consultant on management. The event was chaired by Camil El Khoury, an international speaker, author and the Chief Vision Officer of ideas group.

Ideas group took the chance to introduce once again 4 new experiential learning programs:

· The Psychology of Success a talent development program that includes communications, time management, focus and building extraordinary beliefs.

· Getting down to business Write and present like professionals.

· Social mania getting results out of social networking while keeping your employees focused.

· No excuses only Results A sales and customer service winning approach to get more done.

Moamar Safi, Senior Client Partner at ideas group, said, “Our commitment to develop experiential learning as a substitute for training and development in the region has never been greater, and we are really proud of our partnership with Etisalat Academy”

Media Contact:

For Further information please contact ideas group media team on info@ideasgrp.com www.ideasgrp.com

Dubai's debt is not a big problem….unless we want it to be

The past couple of months have witnessed optimism in Dubai’s businesses; People realized that there is no use of being over protective and that corporate spending is the only way to build back confidence.

Just until… Dubai has asked to delay payment on billions of dollars of debt issued by conglomerate Dubai World and its main property subsidiary Nakheel.

As this might come at a shock, analysts around the region were not that surprised by the news, as for the past year real estate in Dubai was disastrous and the restructuring of Nakheel did not make the most of sense.

The funny part is how the international media disagrees on what could be the possible results of that standstill. The “TIMESONLINE” entitles its article “Dubai debt fears threaten credit crunch 2 — and RBS is exposed” and talks about how serious this second version of the crisis could be for the whole world. While CNN.com entitles its article “Dubai debt woes 'a drama, but no crisis” and says the debt revelations from Dubai this week will not lead the global economy back into recession, but have seriously damaged the Emirate's standing as a leading financial hub.

The pessimism in the British media stems from the amount of money that British banks have been exposed to in the troubled Dubai World case , notably RBS, Barclays and HSBC.

The solution:

Abu Dhabi has promised to look at the Dubai World setback, and to offer a case by case solution, in efforts to assist its little brother Dubai in solving its problems. People tend to forget that Abu Dhabi and Dubai are both part of the same country, and if the reputation of Dubai is ruined, Abu Dhabi will also be affected.

Now is the time for the UAE private companies to step in and help the general Dubai atmosphere gaining confidence. A lot of opportunities still exist in the country, access to liquidity is still available and as “Banque Saudi Fransi - Credit Agricole Group” puts it “quality deterioration simply is not an issue in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar”

What companies in the private and public sectors should do is to continue on hiring, spending and investing, without shying off, and the Emirates will be back on track as if nothing happened.

Camil El Khoury

The Author is the Chief Vision Officer of ideas group www.ideasgrp.com

ideas Group is a global learning and human capital development firm specialized in leadership and team development. We help our clients become high performance organizations and foster a sustainable growth.
We strive to continue on partnering with our clients, finding solutions for their sustainable performance through services that include management consulting, generic courses for immediate impact, tailor-made workshops and transformational experiential learning experiences. Ideas group provide consultancy services and learning & development training to a number of Clients in the UK, UAE (Abu Dhabi, Dubai), Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Syria, Egypt, Iran, Morocco and Lebanon.

How can you win the $75 Million Lottery

I woke up this morning on unusual news: “The winning ticket holders of the UK's largest-ever lottery prize are a married couple from Newport, in south Wales, and a syndicate from Liverpool. The two tickets will take a £45,570,835.50 share approx $75Million.

And when the couple was asked about what will they do with the money: they have both answered, “That’s a lot of money, we don’t know”

And the entrepreneur in me started thinking: “what If I won that lottery, what would I do with it?” and since I know how to always get rid of that responsibility called money, I have quickly divided it into several functions the first being injecting cash in my company to hire more people and create new experiential learning programs, and the second was to take some time off, focusing on writing my next book about business strategy….and with all those waves of thoughts I woke up from my daydream and realized that I didn’t win the lottery, however I was covered with hope and motivation, a motivation to make things happen.

And then I started researching lotteries and their past winners, only to discover that all what lottery companies do is sell hope, a hope so dim that can be outperformed by our minds. Coming to think about it your chance of winning that lottery is one in 50 million that is 0.00000002 %

And right at that moment, a thought came to my mind, “How can I start doing those things with the means that I have” i.e. without the $75 Million, and a million ideas came to my head of which I have captured on a mindmap, and decided to start acting upon those.

My question for you is: “What would you do if you won the $75 Million Lottery?” ………………………………………………………………………………………. Once you come up with that list, start acting on what you can do now with your current means, and what would you need to influence to be able to achieve that full list and bang… here is your big lottery win.

The author Camil El Khoury is the Chief Vision Officer of ideas group an experiential learning consultancy that facilitates and sustains organizational performance. Ideas group serves its clients from its 2 offices Dubai – United Arab Emirates and Beirut –Lebanon and conducts workshops with organizations from the Middle East and Africa. www.ideasgrp.com

I want to quit my job but...

A lot of people come to me saying: “I want to quit my job and start doing what I love, but we live in the real world and that world is not perfect, besides my family depends on me and who would hire me in a time of financial downturn” and the list of excuses is seasonal; it could include political situations, bankrupting industries, age, gender and whatever comes to your mind.
My usual response is a question: “Besides thinking of quitting your job, what are the steps that you are taking in order to be closer to what you love?” and the answer is often a disappointing look on my questioner’s face.
When you want to implement a change in your life, it doesn’t come suddenly and luck has nothing to do with it; it is about being prepared to move into the next step; Preparation meeting opportunity… that is luck, opportunity without preparation is called missing out and not bad luck.
Being proactive is about choosing what you want to achieve instead of letting the society, your family, or your boss choose on your behalf, it is about taking control of your life and start acting on it. The below 4 steps will help you keep on track in your self-discovery journey.

1- Discover your values:
Before deciding on what you want to do, you have to understand who you are, what do you believe in, and what are the important things for you. Once you come up with your values, put them to the test and make sure that they are not only there because they sound good but because those are your genuine values.

2- Differentiate between a hobby and a career:
When you find your driving force and decide on what you want to be doing, make sure that you differentiate hobbies from careers. Anything that you love and doesn’t make you any money is a hobby and any other thing that you love and provides enough money to cover up your needs is a career.


3- Take it one step at a time:
If you want to jump in the new venture without preparation, there is a big chance that you will be quitting at the beginning. Think about your long term goals, divide the goals into yearly chunks and then schedule them weekly. Doing that, will ensure a smooth transition from your current state to your desired state.

4- Be persistent
The common observed behavior between Sir Richard Branson, Nicolas Hayek, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Oprah is that they didn’t quit at the first difficult challenge, and as a matter of fact the ride was not easy for them. With the recurring persistence, they have managed to keep on track and achieved what they were meant to be achieving.

So next time you think of a change, look for what you can do and what you can influence and not what concerns you.

Camil Khoury is the Chief Vision Officer of ideas group and author of “Do what you Love, Love what you do”