Fwd: Wisdom in Arabia

From: Bill Barowy (wbarowy@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Oct 14 2001 - 11:09:23 PDT


With Jack's permission, a sharing of his observations:

X-Sender: jacklochhead@pop.mindspring.com
Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2001 14:02:03 -0400
From: Jack Lochhead <jacklochhead@mindspring.com>
Subject: Wisdom in Arabia

I have just returned from 5 days attending a conference in Bahrain.
This letter contains some information about the conference, some data on
travel and notes on what I think I learned about Saudi views re Sept. 11
and the future of the world.

First the travel. No problems. There were a few long lines due to
security checks but nothing more than a few extra minutes. Planes were
nearly full and the airports fairly busy. Despite that, in Detroit on my
return, I managed to clear customs and catch a flight home that left 30
minutes after our flight from Amsterdam touched down.

The conference was the 6th International Meeting of the Arabian Society for
Human Resource Management. My talk was on Wisdom: a Management Resource
for the Information Age. Basically I showed how think aloud strategies can
be used to promote a wider sharing of business know-how within any working
group. (The paper is attached.)

I am not used to viewing the US as an under-developed country so I was not
prepared for a situation where PowerPoint is the minimum standard. There
were no overhead projectors so my slides were useless. My NTSC video, on
the other hand, was projected with substantial computer enhancement - best
I have ever seen it. Despite the lack of props the audience was very
receptive. Participants asked excellent questions which convinced me that
they understood the system well and were eager to use it. After my session
there was a constant demand for copies of the paper and other information.
I have rarely seen such enthusiasm before and certainly never such a lack
of Luddites. Part of my goal in speaking at this conference was to see
whether there is a good fit between Thinkback and the needs of business.
It seems there may be.

Many of the other sessions were excellent; I learned a great deal at this
conference . Even the worst sessions made useful points. Overall the
quality was well beyond what I am used to.

Most of the participants were from ARAMCO and most were also Saudi
nationals. The bombing of Afghanistan began in mid-conference so it was a
topic of conversation and also attracted some considerable attention in
the local media. Here is my oversimplified version of what I think I
heard. (Obviously the people I was talking to are relatively well off and
do not represent the full range of opinions). First, go after Bin Laden,
but donít destroy Afghanistan in the process. Second, there will be no
effective solution as long as there is extreme poverty in Palestine,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran. Clearly there is anger about
current Israeli policy and the weak American resistance to it. But what I
heard most were appeals for a more even-handed approach. It is OK for us
to help Israel economically but only if we are helping the Palestinians to
a similar extent. There was resentment that the US appeared not to care
about the poor if they were Moslem (and little recognition that we actually
are quite even-handed in our disregard for the poor). Basically I heard a
call for more compassion and wisdom along with a plea to shoot straight and
very accurately. There is strong sense that events are on the edge of an
abyss.

The newspapers carried lots of news about American positions and
activities. I think even W would consider this reporting accurate and
fair. But they also carried lots of news about the poor in Moslem
countries and about the activities and demands of the extremist groups. I
felt much better informed there than I do here. Incidentally newspaper
coverage of tennis also seemed to be at a higher standard.

So I return seeing strong grounds for hope and even stronger grounds for
caution. We will need a great deal of wisdom and I am not sure if that is
what W stands for.

Jack Lochhead
DeLiberate Thinking
Making Math Mean
www.whimbey.com

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