A Leadership Shift: Culture Transformation Towards Organisational Oneness

By Dr. Nahla Khaddage Bou-Diab

Rooted in over 40 years of seasoned experience and rigorous scholarly research, A Leadership Shift beckons leaders towards a courageous transformation in organizational ethos. This pioneering narrative seamlessly translates intricate scholarly theories into a practical, proven implementation methodology, illuminated through a real-world case study. It’s the first of its kind, melding profound subjects like organizational oneness, quantum field linkage to leadership, the human biofield’s potency, and the ripple effects of thoughts and spiritual emotions in the workplace, into a comprehensible step-by-step methodology for leaders.

The discourse extends into gender diversity and the ramifications of women empowerment programs, converging multiple facets into a singular vista. While various scholars have shed light on the subjects broached in this book, its distinctiveness emanates from melding science with practical experience and morphing it into a tangible methodology to tackle genuine organizational challenges.

A Leadership Shift not only unveils the science of evolving a culture to attain organizational oneness but invites readers to perceive the human dynamo from a fresh lens and foster a leadership metamorphosis to unlock workplace potential. It demystifies the science and the method, making it accessible for leaders to adopt and apply sans complexity.

Offering a structured methodology to aid leaders in overhauling organizational culture and ingraining change capabilities within the system, this book elucidates the methodology, provides a meticulous depiction of its implementation, and the ensuing outcomes. Bolstered by over 160 scholarly citations, four decades of global know-how, and academic action research, A Leadership Shift demonstrates the profound impact of this methodology on organizational performance, fuelled by an enhanced sense of belonging within the organization.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Mar 28, 2024
• ISBN: 9781035847679

Dr. Nahla Khaddage Bou-Diab

As an expert in managing change, transforming culture, and driving effective strategy formation, Dr. Nahla Bou Diab has been recognized as a credible leader, earning 12 awards for leadership excellence since 2015. Dr. Nahla is considered an expert in building organisational resilience. She has earned her Doctoral Degree from University of Liverpool, for her research on ‘Spirituality in the Organisation’, which was recognized as an important contribution to both scholarly and practitioner knowledge. She is the Head of Women Empowerment for the World Union of Arab Bankers, and in that capacity, Nahla broke new grounds by launching the first charter for Gender Diversity in the Arab World. The charter was approved and formalized by WUAB’s board of directors, and has been featured by OECD in their June 2020 publication. Dr. Bou Diab has been featured in the media on multiple occasions to share her expertise on organisations, gender diversity, and managing change. With over 40 years of experience in senior management in North America and Middle East, Nahla led the restructuring of several organisations and Central Banks. Nahla moved to Lebanon in 1997 where she launched the Management Consulting Services for one of the Big 4 consulting firms. She taught ‘Change Management’ in the Executive MBA program at American University of Beirut for 10 years, until 2017. Dr. Bou Diab joined the C-suite of a local bank in the year 2000 with the aim of proving that culture has a tremendous impact on an organisation’s resilience despite the complexity of the environment it operates in. She is an active mentor at Endeavor, and volunteers her time to support SMEs by helping young entrepreneurs to effectively drive their business. Dr. Bou-Diab is the chairman General Manager of her own company “Oneness Offshore”, a company aimed at assisting individuals and professionals to learn how to shift from survival mode and remain in creation mode, in order to unleash their personal power and achieve personal and professional resilience. Dr. Bou Diab was honored by many entities and publications. Most recently, she was featured in an international magazine ‘The 10 Most Empowering Women in Business 2022’.

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About the Author

As an expert in managing change, transforming culture, and driving effective strategy formation, Dr. Nahla Bou Diab has been recognized as a credible leader, earning 12 awards for leadership excellence since 2015. Dr. Nahla is considered an expert in building organisational resilience. She has earned her Doctoral Degree from University of Liverpool, for her research on ‘Spirituality in the Organisation’, which was recognized as an important contribution to both scholarly and practitioner knowledge. She is the Head of Women Empowerment for the World Union of Arab Bankers, and in that capacity, Nahla broke new grounds by launching the first charter for Gender Diversity in the Arab World. The charter was approved and formalized by WUAB’s board of directors, and has been featured by OECD in their June 2020 publication. Dr. Bou Diab has been featured in the media on multiple occasions to share her expertise on organisations, gender diversity, and managing change.

With over 40 years of experience in senior management in North America and Middle East, Nahla led the restructuring of several organisations and Central Banks. Nahla moved to Lebanon in 1997 where she launched the Management Consulting Services for one of the Big 4 consulting firms. She taught ‘Change Management’ in the Executive MBA program at American University of Beirut for 10 years, until 2017.

Dr. Bou Diab joined the C-suite of a local bank in the year 2000 with the aim of proving that culture has a tremendous impact on an organisation’s resilience despite the complexity of the environment it operates in. She is an active mentor at Endeavor, and volunteers her time to support SMEs by helping young entrepreneurs to effectively drive their business. Dr. Bou-Diab is the chairman General Manager of her own company Oneness Offshore, a company aimed at assisting individuals and professionals to learn how to shift from survival mode and remain in creation mode, in order to unleash their personal power and achieve personal and professional resilience.

Dr. Bou Diab was honored by many entities and publications. Most recently, she was featured in an international magazine ‘The 10 Most Empowering Women in Business 2022’.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to: My parents, who triggered my perseverance,

My husband, who soothes my heart,

My two sons, who push my evolution.

Copyright Information ©

Dr. Nahla Khaddage Bou-Diab 2024

The right of Dr. Nahla Khaddage Bou-Diab to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781035847648 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781035847655 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781035847679 (ePub e-book)

ISBN 9781035847662 (Audiobook)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2024

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Acknowledgement

I would like to thank each and every chairman around the globe who trusted me with their organisation. I am grateful to every individual who fought the organisational changes I initiated. Because of them, I supported the methodology with credible science that resulted in a rigorous but practical framework. And I am grateful to every individual who simply trusted the process and walked with me as we transformed organisations’ cultures. All of us, together and through all the experiences whether they were challenging or easy, we created a new organisational framework that leaders around the world will need to navigate the future. A very exciting future where human potential will be unleashed while robotic tasks will be outsourced to technologies.

List of Figures

Figure 1: Interpretation Process and Resulting Behaviour

Figure 2: Depiction of Literature Findings: Correlation between Needs and Socio-political and Organisational Systems

Figure 3: Conceptual Model

Figure 4: Depiction of Literature Findings: Correlation between Needs and Social/Political/Organisational Systems

Figure 5: Changed Behaviour After-Action Research Implementation: Correlation between Needs and Social/Political/Organisational Systems

Figure 6: Comparing Company/Employee Relationships with Internal and External Influences Before and After-Action Research

Figure 7: Making Sense of the Data in Light of the Conceptual Model for Enabling Feelings of Spirituality within an Organisation

Figure 8: Before and After Measurements of Employee Performance By PKI

Figure 9: Instigating Spirituality inside the Organisation

List of Tables

Table 1: Employee Survey Questions and the Logic in Selecting Each Question

Table 2: Responses from Workshop Participants about Their Feelings

Table 3: KPI Ratios Before and After Implementation

Introduction

This is a time of constant change. Yes, this presents enormous challenges. But with any challenge comes opportunity. Now is a better time than ever to take another look at leadership: resilience has become fundamental to the sustainability and existence of organisations. Organisations need to do what is necessary to unite their people and create a sense of belonging and a sense of oneness where both employee and organisation become connected and share a strong bond. Organisations cannot succeed if they continue to apply today the same leadership principles they used in the past. Leadership must transform to become a driver of human potential, rather than an obstacle to it. We must shift our focus from treating people inside organisations as pieces of machinery to, igniting their potential by recognising not only their physiological needs but also their emotions, connection to one another and to their workplace. People need to feel a sense of belonging inside organisations, members of the organisation need to share a bond that triggers them to collaborate and support each other. They need to feel whole and organisations need to stop breaking them up into pieces because they need to control them better.

To add to the internal organisational challenges, the current global economic changes exert constant pressure on organisations, which in turn affect the drive and motivation of individual workers creating a disconnect between people and their organisation; and this harms the organisation’s ability to cope with pressure.

A Leadership Shift aims to help leaders achieve a new destination, referred to in this book as ‘organisational oneness.’ ‘Organisational oneness’ is characterised by a bond that brings people together on all levels. It is depicted by the ‘love’ that dominates the organisational environment. A ‘love’ founded on the sense of belonging, collaboration and harmony among all members of the organisation. Organisational oneness makes the organisation look like an orchestra playing a beautiful symphony that everyone contributes to and enjoys. The impact of organisational oneness is optimum performance on all levels.

The science is available, scholarly research in multiple disciplines can be tied together to produce workable solutions to achieve organisational oneness. But scholars and practitioners live in two separate worlds each focusing on different priorities. Researchers aim to produce scientific research and theories, and practitioners aim to safeguard and grow their organisations. Finding a way to apply the research to solve this important organisational problem would add value to scholars as their work gains relevance and to practitioners as they solve their organisational problems and enhance performance. A Leadership Shift aims to deliver on this great opportunity, the opportunity of facilitating the process of transformation by integrating science, experience, and academic action research in a simple step-by-step methodology that leaders can implement.

This book is an invitation to CEOs, senior executives and anyone who interacts with people inside organisations and influences them. It is an invitation to explore, reflect and be open to the possibilities human potential can bring to the workplace. However, to comprehend the vastness of the magic that organisational oneness can produce, we must explore notions beyond what we are accustomed to, and we need to reflect on possibilities that would not only keep people’s energy positive but also consolidate all energies towards one direction, a direction that benefits both the organisation and its members. We must be open to looking at people from a different perspective. Instead of only seeing a human body with a set of technical skills, we need to reflect on the non-physical aspects of people: the elements that ignite their intuition, fuel their hearts and unleash their passion. Only then will we see the power of human potential. Asking CEOs and senior executives to look beyond what they see, breaks all boundaries and can certainly be challenging to them. This book aims to entice them to make the shift and achieve both personal and organisational development. We all have a lot to gain from evolving leadership to embrace a new human potential that has not been witnessed in organisations before. Touching the hearts of people can create organisational oneness and make an organisation robust and resilient, which is the state needed in today’s changing global environment. Let’s visualise a time when human potential is a core topic of discussion in conferences and meetings. Let’s visualise a time when organisations start producing magic that energises not only the organisational bottom line but also the lives of everyone who participated in this magic. Let’s imagine a time when organisations stop worrying about managing change because it has become part of their lifecycle.

This book translates scientific concepts into a proven methodology to assist leaders to shift their leadership to a whole new level and achieve organisational oneness. This book is about creating a sense of belonging in the organisational environment, it is about giving birth to emotional bonds that unite organisational members, and it is about bringing ‘love’ to the organisation. This book is about embedding change abilities within the organisational context. This book is about igniting human potential. This book brings it all together to create a culture that supports people’s aspirations, a culture that is characterised by a strong sense of belonging, and organisational oneness, because it is where people learn, achieve and evolve, together!

A Leadership Shift presents its readers with a new perspective as they look at their organisations and their people. The book takes the reader on a journey of reflection to explore historic milestones that may remove the boundaries of a pure physical view of organisations and employees. This wider view may impact strategic decisions and a new understanding of human behaviour. Leaders will be presented with scientific literature that is melted into a simple methodology that they can adopt. Complex scientific concepts will no longer be theories disconnected from real-life problems, because the science is translated into a step-by-step methodology, simple to follow and simple to implement.

In light of the shared science and the new perspective, readers are invited to relook the role of the CEO, a role that is substantially more powerful and more magical than the stereotype associated with CEOs today. The book is a combination of science and real-life experience, both components will come together and provide a proven tool to solve real problems successfully.

A Leadership Shift aims to engage and trigger the curiosity of the reader. Its simplicity will encourage implementation and the combined science with real-life solutions supports its credibility. Leaders can start thinking about not only their own evolution but also about unleashing human potential in any environment they influence. The book shares new multidisciplinary insights that come together to show wider viewpoints of life. The book will create an understanding of how to produce resilience and a culture that nourishes a sense of belonging and embeds abilities to embrace constant change.

The introduction of this book aims to excite the readers and trigger their curiosity in the hopes of unleashing their will to evolve and make the leadership shift. Making scholarly research accessible and simple is key in encouraging leaders to explore this transition seriously. The readers are presented with background information on some of our current global organisational issues, as they relate to organisational culture and people. Readers are also introduced to the importance of benefiting from the science available to solve their organisational problems and are offered a methodology that integrates both scholarly evidence and over 40 years of real-life Johnny bold organisational experience. A methodology, that is founded on a credible doctorate action research and is successfully implemented.

There follows an articulation of a global common problem, a problem related to organisations’ inabilities to unleash human potential. With the intention of translating science into actions to solve real problems, an action research methodology is discussed, and the need to use scholarly evidence to solve organisational problems is accentuated. A thorough scholarly literature review is referred to and is shared in the appendices. Other chapters in the book highlight the methodology and examine scientific research that validates its key pillars.

The methodology is outlined and a logical flow of information led to the development of a solid conceptual model that became its foundation. It is a credible tool that is the core of a doctorate action research with a proven success record internationally. To further support leaders in their shift, a real-life case study is shared to illustrate the details of implementation. The case study illustration shows how the methodology was applied and defines the logic behind each action. The case was selected in a challenging country with an aggressive and diverse culture to convey the rigour of the proposed methodology and to provide evidence that it can be successful anywhere and regardless of culture challenges. The final chapter brings the pillars of the methodology closer to personal life, as a parallel ‘life’ conceptual model is introduced to help the reader relate to the process. At this stage, the audience can connect the dots and integrate the methodology into their lifestyle. This is where personal evolution happens.

The aim of this book is to get the attention of executives through the evidence presented which should highlight the urgency to act now. Once urgency is established, the proposed methodology removes the complexity from science and translates rigorous scientific concepts into an implementation business tool. The rigour of the science supports the methodology with credibility, and the simplicity of the presentation triggers the audience’s enthusiasm to act. By the end of the book, leaders are encouraged to act and make the leadership shift. The illustrated case provides evidence that the proposed methodology can enable leaders to strengthen their culture’s resilience, which will build stronger connections to the organisation and manifest in its ability to affect transformation as it embraces a changing global environment. The objective is to help executives apply scientific concepts, through a simple methodology to introduce and maintain a culture that supports people, organisational performance, embeds change management abilities and a sense of belonging to achieve organisational oneness.

Chapter 1

The Problem

It’s no secret that organisations report issues in producing motivated, engaged, and involved employees. Though this has always been the case, changes in employee and organisation expectations have intensified the problem in recent years; Look no further than the human resources challenges that have plagued many countries in the aftermath of the COVID-19 epidemic.

From how to address lack of engagement (Gee 2014), to looking at ways to produce stress-free environments inside organisations (Bond, Cooper and Sutherland 2010), scholars continue to ponder how to tackle the fact that the global economy is increasingly pressuring both organisations and resources. This intense pressure causes organisations to demand more from their employees, at a time when people are already struggling to fulfil personal and existing work requirements. This is evident in the intense scholarly attempts to investigate the topic of ‘employee burnout’ and dissect its causes in the hopes of finding possible solutions. Maslach & Jackson (1984) shed light on this topic years ago before the recent pandemic. If this was a problem then, imagine how deepened it has become now as both organisations and employees try to manage the organisational setting during the pandemic.

In their research about employee burnout Jackson SE & Schuler (1983) posed eye-opening questions about the depletion of employees’ enthusiasm and ambitions, leading to a deterioration of their health. The authors exposed the suffering that can result from burnout; they defined the notion of burnout as a psychological state in which people find themselves reacting emotionally to exhaustion and fatigue. An employee can walk into a new job feeling excitement, ready to conquer the world then end up depleted of energy, exhausted. This, in some cases, can trigger attitude issues within the organisational setting, which unfortunately can trigger a reaction from the organisation, labelling such an employee as lazy or uncommitted. Studying the effect of employee burnout and potential ways to mitigate its implication covered several organisational areas that could be explored as possible solutions.

For example, Gabris & Ihrike (2001) investigated the notion of performance appraisal systems and its possible contribution to employee burnout. Despite all the research and all the findings, organisations continue to throw money at the problem, by improving financial benefits and financial compensation, yet the problem doesn’t seem to be solved. The mere fact that employee health, employee satisfaction and employee performance have remained a pain point for both organisations and employees alike, should lead us to take a step back and revisit how we are managing organisations. This is no longer a problem that can be ignored or dealt with by throwing money at it. Organisations today need to manage constant change and this can be an exciting opportunity as well as, a source of learning for the organisation’s members, but not if people are exhausted and see change as a high-pressure project. It is critical that we immediately rethink leadership in order to create resilient cultures that embed change management capabilities in their organisational core. A culture that is not only capable of coping with changing global dynamics, but can also go above and beyond to catalyse change rather than just respond to it, and encourage innovation. Doing so requires generating environments where people can feel a strong sense of belonging to the organisation. This leads to a sense of satisfaction and self-actualisation, which will ultimately trigger organisational oneness. This cannot happen before understanding employee needs and before human potential is given value, and a commitment is made to reconsider both our organisational environment and how