This article was written by Hind Al Mualla, Chief of Creativity, Happiness & Innovation at the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, Dubai. For more like this, see our government innovation newsfeed.

Thereʼs an old adage about trust that goes: “When a bird lands on a branch, it doesnʼt feel scared that the branch might break, because its trust is not in the branch, but in its own wings”.

In our personal and professional lives, we often put a lot of time and effort in ensuring that the branch we choose to land on is safe; that itʼs fit for purpose; that it compares well to other branches.

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As individuals we might call these branches study, or marriage, or career. Organisations seemingly have no end to branches, usually referred to by such terms as “policies”, “processes”, “KPIs”, “regulations” – the list goes on and on. Yet as important as these may be, we must remember that our real source of strength lies in our wings; in our people.

When our people are able to fly, they will lift our organisation to great heights.

Asking the difficult questions

As a government regulator that oversees Dubaiʼs private education sector, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) is responsible for the growth and quality of private schools, but not what schools teach, how they teach or who is teaching. Many of the branches that we would typically land on as a regulator donʼt exist.

Trust can be difficult to define, particularly from an organisational perspective, but we all feel it when itʼs not there

And so, we look to our wings instead.

From the time KHDA was established in 2007, we started asking questions of ourselves and our community: what is the purpose of education? What is the purpose of life? How well are those two aligned?

As we explored these questions, we came across the same words again and again — words like happiness, wellbeing, love, meaning, contentment, purpose, innovation, fulfilment, relationships, compassion, and giving. Then we started asking another question: how do we bring these qualities out in ourselves, in our organisation, in our community?

Again, the answer was waiting in the wings. And, it was a simple one: trust. Trust in each other, trust in ourselves, and trust in that trust will work.

Building trust

Trust can be difficult to define, particularly from an organisational perspective, but we all feel it when itʼs not there.

When we trust others and feel trusted, we give freely of ourselves; we contribute, we share, we take joy. When we donʼt feel trusted, we become disengaged, resentful; we focus on the obligation rather than the opportunities of our work.

In 2014, we began to integrate the concepts of wellbeing, of innovation, of compassion and purpose – among others – into our policies and processes, in the hope that our people would develop more trust in their own wings. We got rid of old-style performance management and replaced it with a peer-review approach.

We got rid of traditional job descriptions and made it easy for people to change jobs within the organisation, or to split their time between two or three internal roles. We began offering in-house fitness classes during working hours, community volunteering opportunities and flexible working hours, just to name a few.

After a while, we found that our people were taking initiative and starting projects they felt were important; they were working in roles outside of their job description and established skill set; they were forming teams based not on shared functions but on shared passions; they were relying not on their line managers for support, but on each other. It was clear that we were ready for a greater show of trust: getting rid of management hierarchy.

Letting all talents flourish

In 2017, we started implementing a self-management system of governance centred on serving the purpose of the organisation, the purpose of our roles, and the purpose of our lives.

This system is based on making progress, not building consensus; on autonomy, not approvals; on self-development, not promotions; and ultimately, on wings, not branches.

At around the same time, we became involved with 10x – a Dubai Future Foundation initiative to take Dubai ten years into the future – in just two years. Our contribution to 10x is “Rahhal”. Meaning traveller in Arabic, and based on building trust within our community, the message of Rahhal is simple: the world is a classroom, and all learning counts.

For some parents and students, the traditional mode of full-time school study is not the one which will most help them to thrive. Some students, for example, want to become professional athletes, and need to spend large chunks of time outside of school to train.

Others wish to explore their interests – such as astronomy, or artificial intelligence, in deeper ways than the curriculum allows. Others still wish to contribute most of their time to helping their community. Whatever the situation, Rahhal places implicit trust in parents, students and schools to come to a beneficial agreement about how learning will take place.

Our role, then, becomes simply to say “yes, itʼs possible”.

Aiming for harmony

As a government regulator, our purpose is to build trust in our organisation and community so that people build trust in their wings.

We see our goals ahead of us, we feel the momentum of our city behind us, and we take inspiration from the people working beside us. We trust that our wings will continue to lift us up and create greater harmony in ourselves, our community, and our world. — Hind Al Mualla

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(Photo credit: Unsplash).