Lessons learned in Bahrain

The British Kubayan back in Bahrain , in the COV 19 Pandemic

When I look back on my 12 years in Bahrain there were many things that I learnt, and I thought in this blog I would share them with you to save all the pain I went through!

“Lessons Learned” is a concept I learnt at Bapco and Tatweer Petroleum. When they got to the end of a project they get all those who participated together to discuss and record what went well and what could be improved. Jamie from MTa reinforced this concept on the two MTa Experiential learning Masterclasses I attended in Bahrain to be a better facilitator. At the end of each Experiential learning exercise he would ask:

“What skills, attitudes, behaviours, approaches could you use to be more successful ( or as successful as possible) in this task next time?”

So now as I look back on 12 years in Bahrain- what went well, what could I use again in my new life in the Philippines.

Traffic Lights

Traffic Lights - By Indolences - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1894005

I learnt in Bahrain to stop at Red Traffic lights , after receiving 4 fines totaling 200 bd or 27,000 peso! At each set of lights in Bahrain where there were multiple accidents they fitted cameras to record who went through the red light and what speed they were going. I got fined twice for going too fast ( one offense) through a red light( second offense!) . It was an expensive mistake and it could have cost my life as many others in Bahrain do the same thing.

But I also heard someone talk about red lights in relation to conversations with people. I became much more culturally sensitive in Bahrain and learnt to be very careful what I said. Unfortunately other colleagues were not the same. A few used to consistently try and get me on one side, out of earshot , and say something like “ I know I probably shouldn’t say this but do you think JCB is a Pedophile?” “ Why ?” I replied. “ Because he looks like one” I then turned on my red light and walked away but my colleague kept crossing the line. Another guy, who will remain nameless , would say “ Hey dude, come and look at this clip” . As soon as I saw it I turned on my red light.

If you are happy to have a conversation with someone turn on your green light and encourage them- for example:

“Hey Neil, I hear you are an expert on composting. Can I pick your brain?”

“ Sure, email me at home and arrange to come around at the weekend “

This is an amber light- caution, I do not want to talk about this at work, but outside work is okay.

“ Can you show me how to access the Blackboard system?”

“Yes, sure, is now okay?”

Green light

So what I learned is to give clear signals as to what is acceptable at work and what is not . I also learnt to respect other peoples Red and Green lights. If a lady held out her hand in Bahrain shake it. If she doesn’t don’t try and touch her. Likewise in conversation, If they give you yes/ no answers and keep working away then best to move on!

Blogs

500, 000 readers for 500 Blogs in 5 years! All destroyed because of one idiot!

While we are on the subject of unacceptable behaviours at work I will explain, finally, why I stopped writing a blog in Bahrain. I was told to! You should always keep work and private life separate. There are those out there who want to bring you down. So, I had people copy what I wrote on my Blog and send it to my Manager and was asked not to write any more about our company and to delete all references to it. Then I posted a naked picture of me in a shower in Thailand as part of a story about how I had put on so much weight I got trapped in a shower and had to get a friend to let me out. When I returned to work several friends pulled me to one side to tell me that a very unpleasant individual had captured the naked photo and circulated it around my company on WhatsApp. Then I was summoned by my Manager and told to remove the blogs entirely (500 blogs, 500,000 readers, and some 5000 hours of my personal time) . Hence no more blogs until my Manager left!

You don’t need certificates on the wall

Neil's 9th office in 9 years , with no certificates on the walls

This one predates Bapco as I was told this back in 1996 by my then Boss, Mark Johns, when we shared an office building. I wanted to hang all my professional certificates on the wall, and he told me I did not need to. I just needed to show how good I was in my daily work. After that I had no certificates on my wall at work but was reminded of this lesson when some new colleagues started laminating and posting “phony” certificates on their wall, talking in a multitude of foreign languages and using big words and acronyms to “impress “us as to how clever they are.

I just continued delivering the goods by running 34 groups of ILM programmes, many of whom had a 100% pass rate, and many of the delegates got 100% in their assignments and the programmes were always oversubscribed. No certificate needed! Lesson learnt.

To LISTEN you need to be SILENT

Copyright Evan Glasset

Yes, I learnt something from my American ex colleague. He asked the delegates which words you could make with the letters LISTEN, and one of them is SILENT. So, to listen all you must do is be silent. Or as I always used to say to another former colleague (we will just call him JJ) “God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason- to listen twice as much as we talk”. 

If you listen more than you talk you will learn what motivates other people, what is important to them and you will be able to create an environment in which they can be motivated. The problem is some people (like the two mentioned above) do not practice what they preach and spend all their time talking about themselves and what they did. In one case in multiple languages to impress everyone with how clever he is, and in the other case spending 5 hours to tell a 10-minute story.

Get all your ingredients ready first 

Chef Neil learnt from Chef Coco to get all your ingredients ready before you start cooking

This one I learnt at home from my wonderful Kuya ( brother) for the last 12 years- Chef Coco. Whenever he cooked for me he would always get everything ready before he started to ensure he did not have anything missing and to check there were no delays in the recipe- like "Marinade overnight"!

I always miss those lines and find I do not have a vital ingredient half way through- lesson learned, at last. Salamat po Kuya xx 

Remember rule one
 

"You have the wrong slides, Neil" , "opps!"

I left the most important one until last. Zainab, my wonderful administrator for my 11 years at Bapco (and I got through many others like Zahra, Fatima, Zaid and of course all our interns ( Ali, Rawan, Sara, Latifah etc.) told me just to remember one thing in life- Zainab is always right. That certainly is one lesson I learnt and will never forget. Shukran Habibte!