Members from across Awtada's ranks complete Harvard training course

At Awtada, continuous learning is an integral part of the firm’s HR policy and culture. To help team members advance their interpersonal skills, partners and staff recently successfully completed a course on power dynamics.

Over the past few weeks, Awtada’s partner team followed a course from Harvard – one of the world’s most prestigious universities – aimed at boosting collaboration within the leadership rank and their own set of individuals skills.

Notably, leaders were accompanied by members from across the firm’s ranks: Hussam Althagafi, Mohammed Alhamli and Marwa Esmail from Awtada – a move which according to the partner team embodies the firm’s culture to provide learning & development opportunities to all staff beyond just the partner team, while fostering an inclusive culture around growth and personal development.

The program helped Awtada’s consultants understand how they can leverage power dynamics, effective communication, and leadership strategies to make more of an impact in their role.

The course delved into the intricacies of power dynamics within organizations and teams, and how people can develop their own power to gain influence and make more impact within their professional relationships, organizations, and society.

Hussam, an Analyst who is nearing his two-year mark at the boutique management consultancy, said that the course provided him with a number of key lessons to apply in his daily work. “One of the key takeaways for me is that power dynamics is more effective when it is aligned with ethics and positive impact. That insight helps me aim to drive better outcomes across different stakeholder groups.”

Agreeing on that, Office Manager Marwa stated: “The course taught me how to leverage power and influence in order to create positive change. By understanding different forms of power, ethical considerations, and effective strategies for building influence, I learned how to navigate complex organizational dynamics in order to drive meaningful impact.”

Also for Mohammed, a PMO Consultant, that aspect of the training was the key lesson learned – which he has now engrained in his way of working: “The course exceeded my expectations and equipped me with valuable skills and insights that I can apply in my personal and professional life to effect positive change.”

Putting knowledge into practice is however easier said than done. Part of the course focused on providing the skills to translate theoretical knowhow into real-life situations – and immediately bring those in practice.

“The course provided me with the insight that power dynamics is a highly integrated and connected domain, one that requires a comprehensive understanding of the full context and how it can be applied in various situations. The course then also shed light on what tools and interventions one can apply to make a positive influence, while considering organizational complexities,” Hussam said.

“The course really helps individuals understand how power works and more importantly, how it can be used as a positive force,” added Mohammed. “And it also provided the very practical lesson that working towards collective goals is what makes positive influence even more powerful,” concluded Marwa.