Abu Dhabi "Many people waste a lot of time on "bla…bla…bla…"[long briefing and bulk documents] during work, instead of a three-minute briefing or a two-page document which can do the job most of the time," an Emirati government official told Gulf News on Monday.
She has started requesting her prospective clients to brief their proposals in three minutes which she believes is sufficient to prove their capability.
"Earlier, I used to be amazed by the bulk pages of proposals with colourful pictures, but not any more….. I am looking for specific information only about their potential, thanks to a recent training as part of a successful diploma course," Shamsa Ganem Al Suwaidi said.
Shamsa who is dealing with the training of employees at the Department of Municipal Affairs (DMA) in Abu Dhabi spoke to Gulf News on Monday on the sidelines of a media interaction with the DMA employees who received the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) diploma of "EFQM Excellence Assessors."
The diploma conducted by the EFQM Institute, headquartered in Brussels, includes different phases and courses that enable participants to obtain a Masters degree in quality management at a later stage.
"From a briefing of three minutes [in a meeting] , you can easily assess an organisation's potential to undertake a particular project; it doesn't need hours of talk," Shamsa said about the tips she has been practising (learnt from the course) in daily work during the past three weeks.
"I have also started asking the testimonials of each and every claim made by the clients because sometimes they exaggerate about themselves," said the official who assesses the proposals from private agencies to train DMA employees.
"The course has changed our way of thinking … now we look at the issues as an ‘assessor'", said Jihad Al Mughairbi, Acting Director, Municipal Training Division at DMA who is also one among the 15 employees who qualified for the diploma. The DMA honoured them recently.
Ahmad Shareef, undersecretary of the DMA in Abu Dhabi, said, "The EFQM diploma is one of many initiatives the DMA is implementing to enhance the organisational municipal system and help us achieve our 2030 vision."
Shareef also highlighted the importance of this programme in developing employees' professional skills and setting them up as role models for their colleagues at the DMA and in other government entities.
