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The Shaybah Café
Creating the future, one conversation at a time” was the
theme of the Shaybah Café, held March 28-30, 2004 at the
Saudi Aramco Shaybah facility. Organized through a cross-company
team effort, the Shaybah Café brought together leaders
from across Saudi Arabia and Saudi Aramco for conversations centered
on creating a prosperous economic future in Saudi Arabia. Salim
S. Al-Aydh, Senior Vice President of Saudi Aramco Engineering
& Operations Services (E&OS), kicked off café discussions
with a moving presentation titled Smiling Faces or Empty
Pockets? “The future is about
the choices we make today,” stated Al-Aydh.
“What are the stories our grandchildren
will tell their children? I fear those stories will be empty pockets
stories, full of despair. I dream those stories will be filled
with smiling faces that reflect a flourishing economy and prosperity.
The difference between those two possible futures depends on the
choices we make today. Every day, we make hundreds of choices
that could lead to either of these stories. With every decision,
I challenge you to ask yourself, ‘which future am I creating—empty
pockets or smiling faces?’ The choice is ours.”
The Café Process
The Shaybah Café used a dialogue process to probe
deeply into complex questions. Four participants were seated at
each café table. Throughout the day, participants were
given a series of provocative questions to discuss at their table.
Every 20 minutes, three participants from each table rotated to
different tables to share their ideas with another group. One
person remained at the same table throughout the event to capture
main discussion points on paper. At the beginning of each round,
participants shared the ideas that had been generated at their
previous table discussions. By the end of the session, a huge
number of ideas and suggestions had been discussed by all, and
participants had formed critical communication networks around
the core concept of creating a prosperous economic future.
Café dialogues were facilitated by Dr. Peter Senge, best-selling
author and internationally recognized authority on organizational
learning. According to Senge, passion is a critical ingredient
of substantive change. “Even when
people know what needs to be done, they don’t act on facts
alone. There must be an associated passion motivating enough for
people to put in the effort that creates change. So the primary
task of change is tapping into a passion that generates the energy
sufficient to fuel action.” |
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