Salaam alaykum!!
During the month of April, I travelled to Riyadh in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to undertake a knowledge sharing activity with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) Organisational Development and Learning (OD & L) Team. This involved leveraging the highly regarded and successful BAE Systems Australia Executive Leadership program, and tailoring it for delivery to a combined audience of Saudi Nationals and Expat executives. I am happy to say that the programs were a resounding success, and will result in KSA continuing to run these programs internally using their in-country training partner in the future.
From a work and cultural perspective, this was an amazing opportunity to have exposure to another BAE Systems global market, and to gain some different perspectives on the opportunities and challenges of working in KSA. As a female facilitating a leadership program for male executives in a country where local female employees are generally segregated from male employees, it was a risky venture. I feel both privileged and proud to have been given such an opportunity, and certainly felt that I was pushing traditional boundaries on several levels. At all times, I was treated with dignity and respect, and felt that I was accepted by the Saudi National executives in this role, and also achieved high impact from the programs delivered.
A couple of memorable moments for me:
• The calibre of conversations and the level of engagement from participants throughout the leadership programs.
• Being told that I had to go to a different building to eat my lunch in the ‘female office’ – away from where the men were eating!
• Attending the KSA Leadership Conference and hearing Dr Houda speak (one of the first female members appointed to the Shura council by King Abdullah in 2015). Her enduring message “we need to empower our men to empower our women”.
• Attending a drinks (non-alcoholic!) & dinner at the CEO, Andy Carr’s residence in the Expat compound.
• Facilitating in an abaya! Actually, going EVERYWHERE in an abaya!
• Understanding why KSA has the highest number of car accidents in the world – spotted one car reversing at full speed down the freeway towards us (he had missed his exit!)
• High tea at The Globe restaurant in Riyadh
• Visiting the gold souk in Riyadh
• Meeting some wonderful people, and creating some excellent networks for future knowledge sharing opportunities.