TransformingOrganisations.com

Dear loyal readers,

I am gradually shifting to my new wordpress site called TransformingOrganisations.com. It is the sister site for my company Scholar Consultants.

Here is what the purpose of this website is:

We are dedicated to the positive transformation of businesses, organisations, entities, individuals and communities. Our purpose is to create engaging dialogues and introduce new thinking to leaders who believe in the power of effecting change deeply, quickly, and more efficiently.

We are a group of thinkers who have studied Psychology, Philosophy and other subjects in the Humanities. It is our immense honour to use these disciplines in the transformation of businesses that creates new cultures, increases stakeholder engagement levels, and impacts customer behaviour and profitability among other operational benefits.

We believe that the role of Transformation and Change Consultant needs to change. Consultants are no more the expert. We seem to have forgotten that you as a leader know your market, your customers, your competitors, your industry, and most importantly your organisation’s assets and the behaviour of your human capital. Many leaders today hire consultants and get no Return on Investment because the so-called expert Consultant simply looks at the leader’s watch and tells them the time.

I hope you will join me there and keep the conversation going!

Yours sincerely, Mubeena Mohammed.

Employee Retention Ideas

Found this concept paper I wrote for a client a couple of years ago. Indeed it is a huge issue here in the UAE. Have a look at some thoughts I penned down.

EMPLOYEE RETENTION: CAUSES

What are the most common causes of low employee retention rates in the UAE? Here are some common comments from employees who plan to leave their organization from interviews in employee engagement studies and exit interview data:

“I am not leaving the organization. I am leaving my boss.”
“Nobody ever says thank you around here.”
“I was told to do X but I was expected to do Y.”
“My supervisor persistently looks over my shoulder. I do not feel trusted.”
“The only way to move up is to move out.”
“When I wanted to be challenged, he told me P.A.s are not supposed to think.”
“I was hired for my talents but I never had the opportunity to utilize them.”

EMPLOYEE RETENTION: STRATEGIES

You might want to try the following strategies:

Employee Loyalty Schemes. Many organizations in the U.S. offer profit-sharing schemes to employees for them to feel ownership of the company. Quarterly vouchers for outlets and other places of interest such as stress-busting activities go a long way to make employees feel rewarded.

Appreciation Programs. This is more than your regular ‘employee of the month’. Appreciation schemes must include rewards that are customized to employees’ personal tastes, uses, personal interests. They also must come as a surprise, so employees are not expecting it at a particular time, and must happen immediately after excellence is demonstrated in the job or an incident that reflects company values.

Health Schemes. Go beyond your normal offerings of gym memberships for senior level management and medical insurance. A bright mind is connected to a fit body so an investment in getting employees fitness levels up will make them feel valued not just for their skills, but for them as individuals.

Work-Life Balance Schemes. There is an untapped resource of potential employees in the UAE and this group is part-time women employees. The UAE still lags behind in providing facilities that would allow employees to maintain a work-life balance, especially for women who want to contribute to organizations but are not available full-time. This is surprising in the UAE where family values are so high but corporate environment is still rigid about work hours. If more flex-time and work-from-home options are available, more employees would want to make that organization their employer of choice.

Employee Retreats. This is where it all comes together for employees. This is a 3-day offsite event that engages employees to provide feedback to results of employee engagement surveys and creating collaborative action plans on their suggestions on priority areas of workplace issues. There is no substitute for listening to people’s feedback on what would make them perform with more intensity and dedication.

EMPLOYEE RETENTION: CAUSE ANALYSIS QUESTIONS

Analyze your current employee retention trends by investigating the following.
What is the average time an employee at your company chooses to stay employed for?
Are there particular departments that witness a migration of employees?
Are there particular job levels that witness a migration of employees?
Were most of your employee resignations expected or surprising?
Do most resignations occur at certain times of the year?

Analyze internal/external factors surrounding the underlying causes.
“People do not leave organizations. They leave their boss.” Does this sound true in your organization?
What is the current strategy in your organization to retain employees?
Are you a market leader, follower, or lagger in terms of compensation/benefits?
How do you show appreciation to employees?
How do you reward employees for excellence?

Analyze employee feedback.
What have ex-employees said on their exit interviews?
When interviewing prospective candidates what do they say about their ideal work environment?
What are main results in your employee engagement studies? Have actions come out of the studies? Do results vary every year?
What do the most loyal employees say about reasons for working in your organization?

Analyze organizational culture.
Does the workplace accept people of different work styles?
Does politics and favoritism affect employee morale?
Are ideas openly heard and encouraged?
Does the organization let employees express their personal style be it workspace design, flex time, dress code?
Does the organization emphasize effort (long hours) or results?

What are you doing to retain your best talent?

FAQ on My Consulting Business Model

Here are a bunch of frequently asked questions (FAQ) about me and my work as an independent Consultant contracted by consulting firms. Hope this saves interview time for potential consulting associates who are considering hiring me for their next client. Some of the commonly asked questions will be clear when my business website is up and running. If there are any additional questions please add them in the comment box! Here goes..

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

1. What is your way-of-doing-business model?

Currently based in Dubai (UAE), I am an independent a.k.a freelance Consultant in the field of Organisation Change and HR Development. I work with local and global consulting firms that outsource project assignments for me to lead and execute for their clients. My consulting services are geared toward business organisations but my "client" or "associate" is the consulting company that contracts me for project work. In addition to on-site corporate consulting, I independently manage web-based virtual consulting services geared toward overseas-based clients and consulting agents.

Many consulting companies hire independents such as myself for reasons of cost-effectiveness, specialist expertise, client location, and the need for an extra pair of eyes and hands! This unique business model is based on my career growth strategy, which is predominantly about the quality of management consulting experience I am looking for. It has been hugely successful for both my clients and myself ever since I started my consulting practice in 2003.

2. Why have you chosen to stay independent rather than work full-time for one consulting firm?

Based on my career growth strategy, my goal is to do high-quality work where I can make a significant difference to organisations and enhance the reputation of firms I work with. I receive full-time job offers from companies on almost a daily basis but I do not accept this style of traditional work for many reasons. My core beliefs as a person make me have quite a unique set of motivations. For me, it is not as much about securing a steady income as much as it is about:

Deliberately choosing the kind of work that excites me as a professional; Utilizing all of my skills and competencies as a change agent to full effect. Working with a few exclusive consulting firms has allowed me to do those projects that I freely choose to be involved with. The option to be able to choose my projects is invaluable to me because I need to offer my total attention, dedication, and commitment to work and for that to happen I must love what I am doing. And so by associating with a range of consultancies I get to broaden my assignment pool and select how and where I can offer my special skills. Also, many consulting requests by clients sadly set you up for failure. Therefore I make sure that the client is 100% into the change process with me and the consulting team. If they are not, I do not take up the project. Due to this work ethic, the range and significance of my consulting practice has grown exponentially in a very short time.

Bringing variety in terms of people, environment, and situational challenges. I thrive on experiencing variety and diversity with many types of work styles, cultures, and team members. Working with different clients and consulting teams gives me a new perspective every single time I am engaged in a project. New learning always enhances my consulting methodology and practice, and will continue to do so for years to come. Operating independently has directly contributed to my ability to flow with clients / associates of highly variable structures, policies, decision-making processes, and work arrangements. I want to be available for the best work that comes my way, creating the biggest impact I can for organisations that are ready to receive transformation. I choose 100% quality and enjoyment in my work experience as a direct result of this belief.

Managing my calendar to pursue my personal interests. Developing my sense of self is one of my highest values, and as a freelancer I take the liberty to invest my own training and development. I strive to be a well-rounded person and choose not to let work consume the other parts of my living. Devoting time to pursuits such as painting, karate, spiritual practice, and reading impacts my work to bring change to organisations. My status as independent creates options for me to invest in myself more so than if I was committed to a Company full-time. Many of my colleagues ask me how I manage to sustain myself financially and emotionally being an independent. It's a fairly simple formula. I have goals for the year and manage my work around those goals. When I first started out it was tough, but fortunately over the years as I've built up my credibility I rarely find myself out of project work. And if I am on a natural sabbatical, I embrace that time and maybe take a vacation, catch up on reading, paint away on lazy days, connect with friends and family, spend more time at the gym, update my websites and blogs, and anything that brings me to a state of time-flying bliss. There is never a dull moment with or without work.

3. Do you market the products/services of your associate consulting firms?

No. I am not a sales or marketing professional. At most, my associates might bring me to prospective client meetings or presentations if they feel I have an edge for securing a consulting gig. I have however advised my associates on networking strategies, market pricing, website content, proposal/presentation design, and brand logos as benefits of my artistic skills. I do not make revenue out of this advising but if any of it proves to be beneficial to the associate's bottom-line results, they are free to add to my performance bonus if they so choose.

4. What is your working arrangement with the firms you represent?

My contracts with consulting associates are usually for a specific time-period to complete deliverables based on process steps in a consulting proposal. Contracts usually include the following items between myself and the consulting firm:
a. Consulting role and scope
b. Timeline of assignment
c. Process steps
d. Workspace allotment
e. Payment amount, method, time
f. Confidentiality clause
g. Contingency clause

Some associates require me to be at their office full-time, others allow me to work from my own office (except when there are client interactions), many require me to be stationed full-time at the client's project office, some are very happy for me to work virtually through Skype. Any of these conditions suit me fine as long as the work mode does not interfere with the success of the assignment. I do not ever intend to go direct to clients due to the nature and size of consulting assignments I receive. I always need a team for back-end support as well as assistants and throught partners to execute the work. When I associate myself with a company offering services to a client, rest assured that I become part of its culture and adapt my workstyle so that I am responsible to maintain the company's reputation, values, and client confidentiality.

Financial terms with my associates include the following options: 1) per day rates for assignments lasting less than 30 days, or 2) per month retainer for multiple clients/assignments, or 3) lump sum for long-term assignments lasting more than 3 months. The only terms I have is that I would be directly involved in proposal writing, get back-end support, would be allowed to add the projects to my CV and website in exchange for a link to the associate's website, expect to be heard if working with a team, and do not want to be offered a full-time position with the consulting company or client.

5. How do you ensure that there is no conflict of interest between various firms that outsource work to you?

In addition to signing a confidentiality agreement, there are several conditions under which consulting firms may sign me up for contract work. Common conditions include:
a. I do not go direct to clients seeking consulting projects
b. I do not work with clients that come through 3rd party associates for at least one year after an assignment has been formally signed off
c. I do not represent more than one consulting associate at any point
d. I work on multiple assignments with more than one client only if it comes through from the same consulting agency
e. I forward and copy all project communication between me and a client to the consulting company's owner
f. I agree to provide a copy of my mobile phone records if required pertaining to contacts in the client organisation for verification and billing purposes
g. I reserve the right to accept the best offer in case where I am approached by more than one associate bidding for the same client and assignment, if I am not under a per-month retainer contract with any associate
h. I withhold and do not transmit confidential data regarding client contacts, findings, deliverables, and consulting associate details to other associates and clients

6. What is your consulting process and approach?

I have developed a unique process working with established mentors in the OD field and through research and experience, having tested what works in the region with its cultural dynamics. In the Middle East, there is a propensity to consider the external consultant to be an "expert". The definition of Consultant for me does not fit that mould as I consider myself to be a guide and facilitator first and foremost rather than someone who is hired to come in and dictate do's and don'ts. If you have downloaded my Services pdf document from the homepage, I list out a set of guiding principles I abide by during any engagement. Every consulting engagement must support the organisation's major bottom-line goals of profit, customer satisfaction, and sustainability. That is why my consulting approach starts and ends with top management but dives deep in the middle to involve key employees.

Specifically, the approach I am known for involves in-depth facilitation to elicit the feedback of key organisational members representing all layers, and jointly creating solutions in a safe way. In this regard I see myself as a messenger between top management and employees to bring them onto common ground and eventually toward a unified vision and strategic direction. Many consultants prefer to work only for top management benefit in the form of improving business process or creating employer-oriented policies rather than involving those who have to be hands-on no matter how improved these processes and policies become. The world of psychometric testing, surveys many of which are poorly designed, and all sorts of tools that create boxes to label employees with are very popular. In my opinion these off-the-shelf tools would work better with qualitative data collection through an independent source that gets into the hearts and minds of your people who have life goals of their own.

Working on your organisation's quality and efficiency through business process, market research, new technology is wonderful and essential. But the cycle is not complete if your people, customers, and vendors are not valued during the execution of processes and policies. My approach in a nutshell is to complete this cycle for organisations in their quest for business excellence by helping them create fair, valid, effective, and profit-building people management strategies and systems.

7. What industries do you specialize in?

I specialize in people and their interactions at the workplace. This could be any workplace, any industry, any corporation. Any entity that employs human beings to support or conduct business transactions with target customers can approach me. As an external consultant I get asked the "what industries?" question a lot. Continuing on from my definition of what a Change Management / HR / Organisation Development Consultant is, I am not an expert in the trends of every industry. Industry experts are out there, so feel free to listen to the top gurus at your next industry-specific convention. The client is the expert and specialist in their industry. Why have most clients forgotten that they already possess industry-related knowledge? I believe people basically operate from the same plain of emotional and reward-seeking behavior in any workplace, so the industry a client belongs to is pretty irrelevant for the value I create with my service.

If you must know, I have worked with clients in the following industry sectors: agriculture, financial auditing, foods, electronics, property, avionics, education, civil engineering, information technology.

8. How do you manage web-based consulting without personal contact with the client?

My online web-based service is not devoid of personal contact. If the client is present in the UAE a face-to-face kick-off meeting takes place to discuss scope and results required. With overseas clients I have run meetings via Skype and web conferencing so there is always personal contact where clients have instant access to me for project issues. Many of my online services involve deliverables created on MS Office and "shipped" via email. Other online services include individual consultation or group interaction and moderation either through phone or web conferencing. As with my on-site services, I make it a point to schedule regular status meetings with all clients every week to inform them of progress and challenges with project goals.

9. Can I use the free tools and templates with my own clients and/or in my organisation?

Yes. I only ask that you credit me on the tools with: ©2010 Mubeena Mohammed www.mubeena.biz.

10. What psychometric and established survey tools do you use in your consulting practice?

None. I am not a fan of psychometric assessments because they do not capture unique intelligences that every person possesses. I do not believe people need this kind of testing to assess their worth. My focus is on bringing people together to generate their own solutions that are fit for their work environment. Working on the basis of individual only is a slippery slope because at the end of the day people are social beings that need to operate in the context of groups and teams. Assessing individual skills is fine as long as the results are used to compliment the skills and work styles of those they interact with.

Many psychometrics focus on individual "gaps", an orientation I do not encourage as it concentrates on limits and expects an individual to come "in line" with a test's ideal profile. To understand my concept of human intelligence and why psychometrics do not cut it for me, I suggest reading "The Element" by Ken Robinson which talks about the unlimited creative capacity of human beings. The book relates stories of real people who were put into a certain "will not amount to much" type courtesy of popular intelligence/personality/ability tests and how did they actually end up? Take a guess. The point is not about overcoming the barriers of a test but rather how the people in these stories made it in their chosen line of work with a unique self-discovered intelligence undetected in most psychometric and standardized testing today.

With regards to survey tools, I custom-design survey and data collection tools for the client using their cultural lingo and the questions that need to be asked after identifying areas of priority impacting the organisation. I may use established tools as a reference point. And I also do not use surveys as a stand-alone solution for data collection. In my practice, it is a must to include a qualitative methodology in order to generate a story behind the numbers and bar graphs that surveys deliver. I do not recommend creating action plans based solely on survey number data.

11. What HR-related certifications do you have?

None. Surprised? I get this question a lot as you can imagine. What knowledge or experience would HR trainings and certifications provide me with that I do not already have from my Masters' degree in Organisational Psychology and the past 10 years of intense consulting practice? My motto has always been "the knowledge is out there" and I highly recommend reading and researching professional journals on the latest findings rather than investing in certification programs that are somehow supposed to boost the credibility of a Consultant. If you would like to assess my credibility and quality, please feel free to ask me for references who would be happy to speak to you about specific work deliverables, results, and processes I've used to achieve client objectives.

12. What is your personal background?

Born in Mumbai, grew up in Dubai, college in New York. After 6 years of college in the U.S. I returned to Dubai and started looking for jobs in the Human Resource and OD arena but was offered personnel and payroll administration, and Personal Assistant roles. Refusing to get stuck in the administrative world, I fearlessly plunged head-on into the consulting river and thus have never had a permanent job. Personally I am a self-proclaimed philosophy junkie, painter, writer, 1st Dan Black Belt in Karate, total foodie, a die-hard Bollywood and cricket lover, an all-round happy woman who detests daytime TV, avoids news channels, follows everything Google and Apple, and has a hard time resisting apple deserts. Thinker. Dreamer. Spiritualist. Meditation addict. Believer in the idea that we are spiritual beings having a human experience.

Time, Place and Productivity Myths

So an interesting statement came to me from a prospective client at an introductory meeting: "Employees would never be able to show commitment or maintain productivity levels in their work if they are not present in our company offices from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m." Does being physically present in an office environment create the necessary motivation to ensure high productivity? I am still surprised at hearing such statements from some Managers today in our age of digital media and online capabilities.

I do understand that there are many corporate issues that lead Management teams to create policies around employee work hours and location. These issues range from intellectual property risks to increased customer service demands for a more personalized buying experience. However, can't we look at what we might be doing to employees by overstaying their physical presence and having them work awfully crazy hours on site? Let me take this opportunity to remind the world that employee engagement is directly proportional to trust, flexibility, a focus on results rather than effort, and most of all being individually valued. Let's look at the top 3 myths I come across in my consulting work here in the UAE and how this has actually affected bottom-line productivity.

Myth 1. More time spent means more output. C'mon folks, this is simply not true. The harder you work does not mean you get better results. Your employees need to be doing the right things in the right doses directed at the right recipients. 80% of productivity is achieved by focusing on 20% of the right effort through the right people. In fact, studies have shown that employees who stay beyond 5:30 p.m. at their offices do not have best use of their minds, which means making mistakes is a high probability. I also know of plenty of companies here in the UAE that still require their employees to attend work 6 days a week. This has shown to create significant retention challenges as well as being undervalued as a person especially for those who value family time.

Myth 2. Being physically present in the office increases organisational commitment. Coming to a dedicated workspace might be necessary for certain industries where workspaces are specifically designed. But in order to attract the best talent, corporations must offer flexible options of a work life. For example the UAE still struggles with the concept of part-time jobs, (flextime and daycare centers are a long way to go). There are many special interest groups such as women, students, employees with physical disabilities that would love to have a career part time and make significant contributions to the organisation. With at least 2 of my past clients, employees have indicated that the only reason they are made to stay in the office even after working hours is that there is a lack of willingness on the part of higher-ups to trust that enough has been done in the day. This is a clear symptom of the organisation not having laid out performance and results objectives and criteria. Judge your people on performance and results folks, not if they are still in the office at 9 p.m. They might in fact be managing their time badly!

Myth 3. Women with family responsibilities are prone to be less effective. In the UAE, it is perfectly legal to ask a woman on an interview whether she is married with children and if she would be dedicated enough to concentrate on her job as a result. Elsewhere, this question about marital status is downright illegal because the science proves that being married does not take away from job performance. In fact, the latest studies show that women are better managers than men due to the various responsibilities they are gifted to handle. They are adept at multi-tasking, and are generally more sensitive to people issues which makes them an excellent choice for managerial posts. So please, the next time you come across a woman applicant know that she holds a vast reservoir of skill and temperament. I would instead advise recruiters to ask men and women alike, "What is your magical formula for maintaining a healthy work-life balance?"

There you have it. I hope I have planted the seed of thought a little bit and managed to dispell some very prominent myths so entrenched in our part of the world.

School vs. Life

I have just started reading a book called "The Element" by Ken Robinson. I haven't even gotten through the first chapter yet and I need to blog about it. He talks about how traditional school education will actually stifle your potential genius if it isn't recognized and channelized individually. I resonate with this message a whole lot due to my own school experiences.

I was considered "dumb" in school, I didn't make the 90% that would've classified me as "the future doctor, engineer, or lawyer". Instead I loved to read sci-fi stories, study English and the arts, and had a flair for language and poetic expression. Many of my school teachers expressed to my parents that I would be a problem child growing up and that my future isn't so bright because I could not count and wouldn't memorize mathematical formulas very well. I even heard stories going around that I was only kept in school because I would win them swimming championships. I often wondered in my later life why the physical sciences meant so much in my society and the humanities was of lower value in our school system at the time. It came down to a simple belief that said, "Well you won't get a real job studying poetry and there's no money in drawing sketches." I and many of you might have consistently received this message growing up, and in the meanwhile our talents went unnoticed.

What positive correlations do school grades have with life achievements? I've truly come to believe that school is great for one thing only: reading. If you know how to read, the whole world can be in your hands. But 10 years of traditional schooling did not tell me where my talents are. On the contrary, my natural abilities were more subdued and repressed with significant guilt and shame attached to not conforming to institutionalized intelligence. My love for art and writing were looked at as cop out ways to escape studying for challenging exams in Physics and Chemistry (although I absolutely loved Physics as it intuitively introduced me to Philosophy and questions about reality that I now apply to people in my consulting practice).

Isn't it ironic that the world's foremost leaders are either high school or college dropouts? What separated them from the rest of the school-going sheep? These words come to my mind when thinking about a Bill Gates, a Steve Jobs, a Paul McCartney and countless others who defy the prevailing social system - non-conforming, creative, risk-takers, pure self-belief, trusting their gut, creators of their own destiny against any and all odds. I also believe what shaped their futures would have to be special teachers in their life who saw a spark in them for an ability that was out of the ordinary and individually unique. I also had 2 teachers that brought the best out of me and shaped my career to what it is today and what it will be tomorrow. So watch out for who your true teachers are!

When the student is ready, the teacher appears. I am so lucky and glad that I didn't internalize the negative messages of my school instructors, because they weren't really teachers. They were just being paid to write on a blackboard and make us repeat things like we were parrots. I am grateful that my true teachers found me when I was ready to give up old thinking, and saved me from doing something I wouldn't have loved at all.

I always talk about bottom-line impact, and I wanted to let the world know that doing what you love will surely make you money. It may take a while, or it may be overnight. But there is no option for us to work in an area that we hate to wake up to, no matter how good the world thinks we are at it. Talent is when you do what you absolutely love with all your natural instincts. A talent cannot be forced into coming alive by others who might be living their dreams through you, or others who think you ought to follow the bell curve to stay safe in the world. I personally am proud of calling myself an outlier, a skewed statistic, someone who laughed at the predictions of people who saw me as a one-dimensional entity back in school.

Don't let school tell you what you should be doing later on in life. Only you can answer that for yourself. Work should be play! That is when you are in your element.

Personality Test

My Personality

Neuroticism	5
Extraversion	31
Openness to Experience	88
Agreeableness	1
Conscientiousness	59

You very rarely feel depressed and are usually in a good frame of mind, however high levels of stress can lead to you feeling panic or confusion, but usually you cope with day to day pressures. You get overwhelmed by too much noise and commotion and do not like thrill-seeking activities. You like the security of tradition, but sometimes have a desire to bend the rules and challenge conventional thinking. You do not enjoy confrontation, but you will stand up for yourself or push your point if you feel it is important, however you do not particularly like helping other people. Requests for help feel like an imposition on your time. You take your time when making decisions and will deliberate on all the possible consequences and alternatives.

Free Poll promise rings

Consulting for the Current Economy

I am so pleasantly surprised that I have been flooded with consulting work all throughout this global recession. With the talk on the news about the Dubai debt crisis, I was bracing myself for a lull in my professional life. But lo and behold I am getting more phone calls now than I have in a long time. To what do I owe this honor? It has to do with the most obvious request related to the current economy: organizational restructuring.

My latest project, just completed this week, involved organization-wide restructuring and optimal manpower needs. It was an interesting assignment and raised quite a few questions in my mind, particularly ethical questions. As an "expert" I was asked to assess current employee numbers in terms of how they contributed to core business. Then I had to come up with an organization structure to reduce current inefficiencies, leading to increased transparency and effectiveness. The client as a deliverable wanted an ideal organization chart with ideal employee numbers. Of course I understood this as a genuine request as a result of the current economy. But by 'ideal' they really meant 'reduction' in employees. On what basis would I cut people? What sort of an expert does one have to be for that?

So I set about studying the organization's core business and observed key processes and watched key people executing them. It wasn't rocket science. But somebody had to do the dirty job of deciding who had to go. I felt a little unsettled personally because I'd been hearing that HR Departments were the last people being cut because they had to do all the cutting first. How ironic. Anyway, I managed to salvage my personal feelings by finally recommending the following:

1. Bring Technology into the Picture. Lucky for me, there were enough people in the organization that just didn't use basic technology to communicate. Bring in basic technology training and you don't have to get rid of everybody. Find technology that saves time, energy, and manual headaches.

2. Redesign Jobs. If the structure of an organization goes through a revamping process, jobs must be redesigned. What people do will change exponentially under a new workflow. You can't be doing the same things when the organization's layout becomes flatter and the communication lines are altered forever.

3. Assess People Competencies. Newly designed jobs means identifying the competencies required to fulfill the new job needs. Anyone not exhibiting those competencies in terms of behaviors, skills, knowledge, and mindset will most probably see the axe coming down on them. It is imperative that an organization have a competency model that supports any structural changes. They need to ask themselves, "What competencies are needed at our current economic climate for us to stay above water?" and "Who has them and who does not?"

4. Rethink Strategic Business. I suggested before restructuring that the organization would have to rethink their business lines and services to start offering customers what they are desperate for at this time only (Ever wonder why the movie business always does well no matter what the economy? They provide escape from the real world). This also means that if you find that your current crop does not have the competencies required for new job roles as a result of restructure, then look at current strengths they DO possess and leverage them by introducing services that can be offered based on applying those strengths. This one idea actually saved a lot of people from being cut because skills that were underutilized before, are now at the forefront.

Sometimes you have to work backward in order to keep up with a backward economic trend. And that is why organizations are reaching out to independent professionals like myself in the current climate, especially in the Government Sector, as they face unexpected trends.

I am proud to be an unexpected source of help even though it may feel conflicting at certain junctures. And the client was so extremely happy with the solutions I suggested that I am now booked up with work till July of next year purely with word-of-mouth referrals. People are asking where they can find me so I got on the Twitter bandwagon MubeenaMohd. Credibility is a charm that never fails to work.. even under our current economic woes. Remember that always!