By Dr Flevy Lasrado, Asst. Professor of Organizational Excellence, University of Wollongong in Dubai

I was pleased and delighted to accept the Dubai Government Excellence Program (DGEP’s) invitation to learn more about the amazing projects associated with the Dubai We Learn initiative on Wednesday, 16 October, 2019 at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel in Dubai. Needless to say, the ‘Dubai We Learn – Excellence Makers Program 3rd Knowledge Sharing Summit’ is one of the most intellectually sophisticated events in the field of business excellence, best practices and benchmarking.

The event was held in the Godolphin Ballroom and the atmosphere was exuberant and lively, with very many erudite professionals and astute officials representing the various authorities of the Government of Dubai. It was a wonderful knowledge sharing summit that included project presentations from 10 government entities. From my own perspective with a background in continuous improvement, I could not have spent 16 October, 2019 in any better way, especially because that evening I was to speak about process improvements to my Master’s class from the University of Wollongong and would be able to share real-life examples with them. The 10 cases of extremely well-presented cases were exemplary and gave the audience much to learn and think about. Each entity presented a themed project and provided evidence of the multitude of benefits that they have achieved, while also giving feedback to co-participants and pointing out future opportunities for improvements. The breakout sessions were also planned so well that even a coffee moment turned out to be brilliant knowledge sharing moment!

The Centre for Organisational Excellence Research (COER), New Zealand, has been orchestrating the learning, knowledge gathering and execution of the Dubai We Learn initiatives (now in their 3rd cycle) in tandem with DGEP. COER assists the teams in using the TRADE Best Practice Benchmarking Methodology so they can identify and implement best practices, and empowers the teams to reach a 7-Star level of excellence that assures long-term sustainability and future relevance

The program included an introductory welcome from Dr Zeyad El-Kahlout, Senior Quality and Excellence Advisor, of DGEP, followed by Dr Robin Mann, who presented the participating teams to the audience.

Without further delay, let me summarise the 11 projects.

1	DEWA	EV GREEN CHARGER INITIATIVE Aim: To develop a new user friendly EV Charger which supports a seamless customer experience as an interim solution till standardization of single EV charging solution occurs Benefit: Encourages adoption of electric vehicles in the city for a sustainable city.
2	Dubai Police	AIRPORT SECURE LUGGAGE (SAFE BAGS) Aim: Find and implement best practices enhancing the efficiency and operational capacity of Hold Bag-gage Screening System (HBS) as well as the productivity of employees engaged within the different processes and levels of the HBS at Dubai Airports by EXPO 2020 Benefit: Increased satisfaction of travellers by speeding up the process, and reduced costs as less delays in flight times due to security issues.
3	Community Development Authority	ENABELING HAPPINESS Aim: Identify and implement best practices in: Loyalty, Motivation, Communication, Empowerment, Innovation and Productivity. Benefit: Increased employed happiness and productivity, reduced absenteeism and greater employee retention.
4	Roads & Transport Authority	RETURN ON INNOVATION – AN AGILE INNOVATION JOURNEY Aim: To develop a simple and reliable approach for measuring and communicating Return on Innovation (ROI) that is aligned to RTA’s strategic needs to culminate in an Agile Innovation Journey Benefit: Estimate and understand ROI for key investments such as the Enterprise Command & Control Centre and Dubai Metro.
5	Dubai Health Authority	DUBAI HEART SAFE CITY INITIATIVE Aim: Improving the out-of-hospital post cardiac arrest (OHCA) survival rate Benefit: Save 1000’s of additional lives.
6	Federal Authority for Identity & Citizenship	INSTITUTIONAL CO-OPERATIVE SYSTEM Aim: To identity best practices that will lead to an effective integrated system between GDRFA’s strategy, Innovation, PMO, Operations and Excellence departments Benefit: Efficiently through adopting international, regional, and local best practices and excellence models, that meets Dubai’s Government directions and GDRFA’s vision, therefore, acts as a best practice in its field.
7	Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services	MOONSHOT PROJECT Aim: Develop a vibrant Moonshot innovation ecosystem to accelerate the effectiveness and outcomes of all innovation ecosystem components in line with international best practices. Benefit: Accelerate all innovation ecosystems to achieve multiple moon shots every year.
8	Dubai SME	IMPROVE ENTREPRENEURS’ START-UP GUIDANCE AND SUPPORT SERVICES Aim: To improve the process of qualifying and supporting entrepreneurs to start viable businesses. Benefit: Increase efficiency of guidance service and the level of entrepreneurs’ happiness with service information by Dec 2020 to ultimately have more successful businesses.
9	Land Department	SMART PROPERTY VALUATION Aim: To provide an instant, reliable and robust unit valuation service. Benefit: Increase the speed of valuation process from 3 days to instant thus increasing customer happiness.
10	Dubai Municipality	DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF CONTRACTS Aim: Accelerate the processes of service contracts, re-engineer the process through technical opportunities. Benefit: Faster service contract cycle time from 210 days to 45 days or less, saving money and increasing supplier satisfaction.

A number of the projects were aimed at improving project agility and cycle times, and implementing new approaches and measures for innovation. Other projects involved incorporating the latest technology applicable to the problem area, including machine learning and AI. A common thread across all projects was to raise happiness for the citizens of Dubai, so that Dubai becomes the happiest and smartest city in the world.
 

Watch highlights of the day video

Overall, it was a fascinating experience to witness the massive improvement of each of the entities and their dedicated commitment to their innovative projects. Dubai We Learn has proven to be a very promising journey for all participating organisations and is paving the way for ‘dreams to come true’! I wish all the teams’ further achievements and success when the projects conclude on 22 December with the final Knowledge Sharing Summit.

For more information on Dubai We Learn contact:

Dr. Zeyad Mohammad El Kahlout, Senior Quality and Excellence Advisor,
Dubai Government Excellence Program (DGEP).
Email: Zeyad.ElKahlout@tec.gov.ae