My Wow, Oops & Wallah Moments
Did you come across a situation where a swift response saved you from an embarrassing moment? Did you ever come across a situation where a seemingly miraculous moment of coincidence turned out to be something that was pre-planned?
Every place you visit, you are likely to experience unique moments. Today, on the long Easter weekend, I would like to share with you 3 such moments I experienced during my Social Sabbatical in Tunis in February.
My Wow Moment
One of the interviews I conducted was of Sana, the HR Director of the Tunisian branch of a French based IT consulting company. The context for the interview was to learn about her experience from interviewing students trained by my client nonprofit.
During the interview, Sana started by sharing what she was looking for in the candidates she hired. She believed in setting a high standard for hiring, which in the case of her company translated to smart communication skills. She believed that the people she hires go on to define the company’s brand and even one wrong hire can damage the reputation.
She then went on to share how she succeeded in transforming the leadership of her company after years of relentless effort. She said that the former leadership in her company was old-school, and this leadership needed a drastic mindset shift, if the company had to produce quality results. At first it was difficult, but over time she gained more influence, and now with the right kind of top management, she now plays a key role in selecting the managers and the leaders of the company.
Wow, I thought! Isn’t this how HR in companies should really be? Unfortunately, today, in most companies, including large multinationals, the role of HR is relegated to defining some company policies, employee benefits, publicity activities or a passive supporting role to management. For a change, I met someone who wanted to redefine it.
In his autobiography Winning, former CEO of GE Jack Welch lays out the important role HR plays in a winning organization. According to him, the head of HR must be the second most important role in the organization, at least as important as the CFO, reporting directly to the CEO. If the CFO is responsible for the company’s monetary assets, the HR is responsible for something even bigger — its human assets. For HR to be effective, they need be part of the company’s strategy — After-all, one of the key pillars of a company’s strategy is its people. HR should have a key role in not just defining the company’s hiring policies, but more importantly its hiring practices, to ensure that the right leaders and right people are hired — right here implies having the abilities to implement the company’s strategy. This includes proactively training managers on effective hiring practices, and not just leaving it to their individual styles, preferences and gut feelings.
My Oops Moment
On the last working day of our Social Sabbatical, each team had to present their work to everyone else i.e. own clients, other teams, their clients, local coordinators, and guests. It a bright sunny day and the event was held on the roof top of one of the nonprofits. After the presentation, I walked out to the balcony and engaged myself in a casual conversation with the Managing Director of one of the other nonprofits. In the middle of the conversation, he suddenly took out his mobile to click a picture of a couple of his colleagues standing a few feet in front of us — one male, one female. He commented that it’s rare to find them dressed so well.
I asked him “You mean chic?” He replied “Actually, both of them.”
Oops! I realized the goof-up — he took the word chic(k) as the slang for a pretty woman, whereas I actually referred to the one meaning ‘stylish and elegant’.
I immediately clarified and apologized for not pronouncing it clearly enough, because the last thing I wanted was to be associated with someone referring to women as chic(k)s. My counterpart quickly brushed it off by saying “No issues”. Such moments are not ones to discuss who was right or wrong, but ones to clarify and stand by what is right.
My Wallah Moment
My favorite moment of all. It was the last day of my stay in Tunis and a few hours before my flight. I had a bit more than 22 Tunisian Dinars (1 TND = 1000 Millimes) on me, and I wanted to spend them all. Tunisian Dinar is a closed currency and is very difficult to exchange outside Tunisia. 1 had 2 currency notes of 10 TND each and a couple of dozens of coins.
So, I set out to buy a packet of dates and Tahini paste. I had already taken a snapshot of those items during my last visit to the supermarket. So I knew exactly how much they costed — 21 Dinars 680 Millimes. Since I had so many coins with me, I realized that counting them at the supermarket would be a pain, mainly because I was not used to the 1:1000 system. So I sorted out the exact amount that I needed, put them in my wallet and stashed all the remaining coins in my coat pocket.
Fast forward. After buying the stuff at the supermarket, I arrived at the cash counter. As anticipated, the bill came exactly to the amount which I had calculated before. I took out all the money from my wallet and started to count them out to the cashier, who spoke only Tounsi, the local Arabic dialect. Seeing me struggle, the cashier asked me to hand him all the coins, let him do the counting and inform me of the balance.
To the surprise of the cashier, the amount which I handed over to him turned out to be exactly the same as on the bill 21 TND 680 Millimes. He started exclaiming Wallah, an expression which means ‘I swear by God’. I didn’t understand what he said after that, but I could make out from his expression that, oblivious to my pre-planning, he perceived this coincidence as a moment of miracle. I responded by showing awe on my face and following it up with a broad grin. With meticulous planning and execution, miracles can be made to happen 😉.
