Ethnic Kaleidoscope

The lights of the football field reflect on the smooth surface of the Arabian Gulf, resembling a sheet of light broken only by occasional small waves. The flickering lights of ocean-going oil tankers come and go in the distance as they travel up and down the Gulf.

In the background, loud voices ring out from a group of friends shouting as they play football. The players are from all over the world, a kaleidoscope of nationalities and ethnicities. It is nine in the evening, hot and humid, but it is a terrific time to play soccer on this September evening in Saudi Arabia. During the day, it is simply too hot.

"Abdullah, I'm open—pass the ball!"

"Mark, watch out! Ali's coming your way and he's hard to stop."

"Time out! Hamad is hurt!" A minute later Hamad stands up. "I'm all right. Come on, let's play!"

"Good shot, Paulo, but you can't score with me at the goal!" Salim shouts.

"Great goal, Mahmoud! You were able to sneak by Khan and score—nice! Malcolm couldn't stop you—the poor guy ended up face down on the ground!"

"How about the twins? They are terrific! By the way, how can you tell them apart? When I try to call one of them using the name I think is right, the other one answers. It's confusing and embarrassing."

"Don't be confused, Chandra. Here is how you tell them apart George is taller and a few kilos lighter than Ahmad. Ahmad is more serious, whereas George is always joking.

The friends are enjoying the evening. They come from around the globe to work for various companies in engineering, telecommunications, and many other fields; mostly providing services, in one way or another, to the oil industry in the area. Expatriates working in Saudi Arabia on single status typically work six days a week and travel home once every few months. However, some go home only every year or two.

An Unplanned Trip

"Hi Ahmad, it's Mark. We finally have a long weekend. Are you and George coming over for the barbeque tonight?"

"We wouldn't miss it!"

"Time to go home, George!" Ahmad shouts to his brother, who is in the next office.

"In a minute. I'll meet you at the car," George responds from the other room.

Ahmad waits at the car. More than fifteen minutes later George arrives, a big smile on his face.

"What took you so long? And what's with the smile?" Ahmad demands.

"Relax bro; hold your horses! Did you know that we can get a visa to the United Arab Emirates at the border?"

"No, but so what?"

Ahmad is impatient. He is highly particular about time and insists on punctuality. For him, it is six in the evening. That means work is over, and it is time to go home, so why the delay? On the other hand, George is more spontaneous. He has a relaxed view of time, along with other things in life.

"So what? It is a long weekend, brother, and I certainly do not want to spend it like every other weekend: football, food, and the same old stuff. So we're going to Dubai," George says with authority.

"How can we go to Dubai with no passports and no planning? Where are we going to sleep? And you know it's probably more than a ten-hour drive." Ahmad is anxious and a bit annoyed at this spontaneous outburst. It is just the kind of thing his twin brother is known for, and Ahmad cannot get used to it.

"Come on, A, relax! I just stopped by the office, to get the passports and print a map off the Internet. That is why I am late. Dubai, here we come!"

"George, be realistic. It is evening already, so we cannot leave now. And we need a plan."

"What's there to plan, Ahmad? Why do you always complicate things? All we need is water for the road, clothes for the weekend, and cash for fuel and food. Come on, we'll have fun."

The brothers start to debate, but George is quite persuasive and Ahmad is finally convinced, on the condition they leave in the morning because driving at night would be too dangerous. Some sections of the road are in poor shape, and there is always the possibility of encountering a camel that has broken through one of the barrier fences along the way. A collision with one of those massive beasts could be deadly. Further, not to mention the large transport trucks that move goods among countries in the region. They are frightening when they pass cars on single-lane roads.

As the brothers drive home from work, Ahmad calls Mark to let him know that they will not be able to join the group for dinner. They get home quickly, throw some clothes in a suitcase, and go to sleep early. Ahmad and George will leave before sunrise, and if the trip goes well, they will be in Dubai for a late lunch.

It is four in the morning, and the twins, known collectively as AG to their friends and family, are up and ready to hit the road. As they dash out of their apartment, Ahmad grabs the box of CDs and off they go—suitcase in the car, fuel tank full, coffee mugs in hands, and map on the dashboard.

Once Ahmad and George are out of the Dammam-Khobar area where they work, the road is fairly straight. There are not many cities to go through; the route is mostly desert and sand dunes. They pass through part of one of the largest deserts in the world, the Rub' al Khali. Its name means the empty quarter. For long stretches on the Saudi Arabian side of the border, the road is one lane in each direction for miles on end.

Three hours later the brothers swap seats, and George takes over the driving. "Isn't it nice?" George asks. "The desert is beautiful, and the road is fine."

"Welcome to the Empty Quarter," Ahmad reads from a sign they zip by. "Yes," he says, "The desert is beautiful!"

"I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it ..." George sings along to the Pointer Sisters music as they roar across the desert. It is a lovely day.

And then ... a pop!

Awakening the Giant

"Well done, Furat! You certainly did a fabulous job presenting our proposal to the client. I'm confident we'll get this project," says his boss, Faisal Al-Suwaidi.

Furat is the marketing and sales manager at a Dubai-based project management consultancy, and he and his CEO, Faisal Al-Suwaidi have been making a presentation. They are trying to win what could be a unusually large contract for their firm. A great deal of hard work has led up to this point, from developing the simplified project management methodology to holding meetings with the clients' representatives to learn their needs and expectations. Furat and his CEO strongly believe that the methodology their firm has developed is an excellent fit for their client in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Now their firm is shortlisted and has a strong chance of getting the job. What they offer is unique and practical, and it is of considerable value, especially compared to what is currently available in the marketplace.

Although their offices are in Dubai, an hour's flight from Dammam, Furat had decided to drive for this business trip because he wanted to visit friends and relatives who live and work close to the Dammam-Dubai route. Furat is an engineer by education, but a few years back he became fed up with the profession. He was unhappy with his job. He felt discouraged and unmotivated, which led to a decline in his performance, and the cycle of doom began: poor performance, unhappy management, more misery for Furat, over and over. Then one day he read the words "Awaken your Giant!" in a newspaper advertisement. It showed a beautiful woman in a classroom with a picture of a sleeping polar bear projected behind her. The woman's arms are spread wide, reaching toward the polar bear, and she says, "Awaken your giant!"

Furat was not sure what grabbed his attention: the beautiful woman, the bear, or the words awaken your giant. Initially he thought the ad was for a product or a zoo, so he ignored it and turned the page. Then he flipped back and looked at it again, this time reading the full description.

"In this workshop, we will help you sense the presence of a giant inside of you, recognize it, and understand its power ... Then our challenge is to support you to awaken the giant within, help you tame it, and make it serve you ... This giant is project management." (Ajam, 2006)

Furat could not help but be impressed, but he was not convinced. "This isn't a cheap course. Is it genuinely worth the money?" He asked himself. "Or is it a gimmick? Especially nowadays, everyone thinks he or she is an expert in project management. Oh, well—it won't hurt to check it out."

Furat telephoned the company offering the class and was impressed with the customer service he received during the call. Then he asked around about the company, contacting people he knew and who works in project management. He did not learn much about the company's reputation because it was a small firm and not well-known, but the comments he did hear were quite positive. The company was registered with the Project Management Institute (PMI[R]) and has established collaborations with excellent global organizations, all of which are strong signs.

Before making a final decision and agreeing to spend his hard-earned money on the course, Furat decided to make a visit to the company.

The welcome he received was similar to the phone call—courteous and professional. He asked if he could meet the course facilitator, and without hesitation, he was escorted to a desk in a corner, in the company's large open offices, and there she was! "Hello, how can I help you?" El-Qudss, the course facilitator, greeted him with a big smile.

"Umm, umm, umm, my name is Fu ... Fu ... Furat. I was reading about this giant, and I wanted to meet her. Sorry—I mean meet the facilitator for this course, which sounds terrific. In other words, the ad sounds too good to be true, and I wanted to check it out."

"My name is Qudss, and I'm the developer and lead facilitator for the workshop. Nice to meet you, Mr. Furat."

"Nice to meet you, too. Wait a minute ... you are the one in the ad!"

"Yes, I am," said Qudss, with a modest smile.

"I thought they just put some beauty in the ad to attract people. Either way, I'm sold!"

"But you haven't even asked me any questions yet."

"It doesn't matter. Save me a seat. Actually, I have read and researched your company and everything I heard was darned good. I was told that you are "a company with a heart," and I thought that was an intriguing comment. I found the service and reception to be excellent, and I like the open office you have here, and I love you."

Qudss's face turned pink, and she looked down.

"Oops. Did I say that? I mean I like the way you presented yourself and your smile have opened my heart and mind! So I'm in. When's the next class?" Furat said, trying to recover.

"The next session starts in two weeks." Qudss wanted to say more, but his words had surprised her, and she felt a bit awkward.

"That long? Can't we start now? How about at dinner?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Furat, but you'll have to wait."

"Oh well, okay. Bye for now."

"Take care!"

Abu & Um Ahmad

"Um Ahmad, are you all right?" The twins' father is kneeling beside his wife, who has fallen to the floor. "Call emergency services!" He says to his daughter Cham. "Your mother has passed out, and she doesn't look good."

Cham and her father are frightened as they await the emergency medical team. Then the two drive behind the ambulance as the older woman is rushed to the hospital for care.

Ahmad and George's parents came to this small village in Al-Koura district of North Lebanon in the late 1950s from the neighboring city, Tripoli. They arrived with nothing more than the clothes on their back, their five small children, and some books from the bookstore they owned. They had lost everything else they once owned in Tripoli during the 1958 uprising that rocked parts of Lebanon. To feed his family, Abu Ahmad left them behind and went to Kuwait, where he worked for a couple of years saving enough money to return to Lebanon, start a new business, and establish a home in this small village.

His new business mostly revolved around farming and other ventures. On the side, Abu and Um Ahmad were buying and selling properties, purchasing land primarily to create a reserve for their children's future.

When the family moved here, many of the villagers were educated, but money was a constraint for many of them because their only source of income came from teaching, farming, or self-employment that earned them little money. With the decent income from Kuwait, Abu and Um Ahmad were better off than some of their neighbors. They were far from rich, but Um Ahmad always found ways to support the neighbors as discreetly as possible.

At the time, Um Ahmad passed out it had been forty years since the family arrived in this village. Abu Ahmad was at the hospital reflecting on those decades when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

"Abu Ahmad!" Says the hakeem—the doctor—from a neighboring village. He is friend of the family.

"Hello, hakeem. Please, what has happened to Um Ahmad?"

"I'm sorry. She has had a serious stroke; she is in the recovery room. I am afraid damage has been done, but it is too soon to tell. We're going to keep her a few days for observation and care."

The Encounter

As Furat drives home on the day of the presentation his thoughts took him a couple of years, back, to the day he saw the ad in the paper. It turned out that the notice about Awakening the Giant did even more than it promised—at least for him.

Love at first sight was the spark that changed Furat's life and career. He was starting to discover and act on his hidden talents.

Awakening the Giant delivered what it had promised for Furat professionally. Furat left his old company with the cycle of doom and started to do something he genuinely enjoyed: marketing for a project management company. He has awakened his giant.

He now works for the company that offers the Awaken the Giant course, where Qudss is the lead consultant.

"Ahhh, Qudss, my love and the best gift of my life," Furat thinks and smiles.

It is not clear who has had more influence on Furat and his career, Qudss or the Giant. But are they actually different? Furat reflects. Although it has been more than two years since he took the course, he recalls hearing Qudss explain.

"This giant is the hunger for development, advancement and excellence. All of a sudden we seem to awaken this giant, we seem to discover the power of knowledge and the need to utilize this giant to help us build a knowledge society. We have finally discovered the giant of knowledge, the giant of project management knowledge, yet it has always been within—we just have to trigger its awakening from a deep sleep. We have to learn how to recognize it in its "rough" condition. The awakening of a giant is like the awakening of nations—it is quite powerful!

So aspects of project management have been within, but we just forgot them and now we must learn how to discover them again. Don't you wish that you could anticipate the "problems" with your projects before they are triggered? If yes, then why don't we use more of Risk Management, looking for the threats and opportunities?" (Ajam, 2006)

Furat is daydreaming about his life from that first encounter with Qudss, until their wedding day, only a few weeks ago. Then he sees a car on the side of the road and two men jumping up and down in the heat of the desert, waving mobile phones. He stops and asks them what is wrong.

Ahmad quickly explains to the stranger.

"Hello, sir! We are grateful that you stopped. We had hoped to be in Dubai by now, but one of the tires blew from heat, leaving us stranded. The mobile phones are not working because there is no signal in this area, and we were starting to run out of drinking water. Even a police car passed by, heading the other way, and didn't stop to help!"

"Don't you have a spare?" Furat asks.

"The spare is flat, too. We left Dammam without proper planning and didn't check the spare," Ahmad says, giving his brother an accusatory look.

"Don't worry. Grab the defective tires and climb in. We will get them fixed in no time. There's a small city about twenty miles ahead," Furat says.