Imagine what's next. Together

The Winners in the presentation competition

Integrity by: Rainer Meurer (Executive Chef), Karam Beshara (D. Of Engineering) & Walid Mohey (D. Director of Human Resources)

Code of Business Conduct
•Nothing should ever compromise our commitment to acting with integrity – not “making the numbers,” competitive pressures or even direct orders from a superior.
•You must conduct all aspects of our business in an ethical manner that reflects our dedication to integrity, honesty and fairness.
•Integrity and Compliance with Law.
•Act Ethically In the Handling, Reporting and Use of Data.
•Protect Our Funds and Property.
•Protect Confidential Information.
•Avoid Conflicts of Interest.
•Fair Dealing.
•Treat Fellow Associates With Respect and Dignity and Help Provide a Safe Work Place.
•Provide Full, Fair and Accurate Disclosure in All Public Communications and in Compliance with All Applicable Law.

Definition of Integrity
•integrity
•Main Entry: in·teg·ri·ty Pronunciation: in-'te-gr&-tEFunction: nounEtymology: Middle English integrite, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French integrité, from Latin integritat-, integritas, from integr-, integer entire
1 : firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values : INCORRUPTIBILITY
2 : an unimpaired condition : SOUNDNESS
3 : the quality or state of being complete or undivided : COMPLETENESS
synonym see HONESTY

Integrity as a Person Ethics
Philosophical discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation, a set of moral principles. Principles of conduct governing an individual or a group.

Ethics Discussions
* Cannibalism.
* Political System.
* Costumes
choices vs. consequences
The choice of acting in a way, will affect ourselves and our surroundings directly

Integrity At Work
Ethical behavior means doing what is right, what brings the greatest benefit or the least harm to all involved. We may argue about the fact that doing what is right but not about the fact that doing what is right is at the core of ethical behavior. Students may learn such lessons in class, but leaders must live them. Business is a heavy dose of applied ethics. Every day, executives face so many choices, so many moments of truth. Wise choices result in works of creativity, innovation, and real significance.

Promises at Work
Great business leaders understand companies are more than financial machines. Companies are also micro-societies in which employees continue to develop and learn about themselves, their families, their business and their communities.

Business, at its best, consists of people freely cooperating to produce great products at a great price. We don't get voluntary cooperation without mutual respect. Businesses that understand that can make money.

Promises at Work. Trust
* Trust, like respect, is earned. Think of it as an investment. You observe a person's behavior over time, and gradually decide whether or not to invest your trust in them. Though everyone initially deserves a base "line of credit," it would be unwise to rely on "just anybody" in high-risk situations
* Make fewer and better agreements and promises. It will help you to honor them and be known as someone that keeps them.
* Learn to learn. Act as if there's no such thing as failure, there's only feedback.
* Re-negotiate as early as possible. When a promise must be re-negotiated, do so early, anticipate and the focus will be on the agreement and what can be done, not on your reliability, limitations, or whose fault it is.
* Renegotiate any dysfunctional agreements. If you continually rely on someone that does not produce the goods, you suffer. Do you know anybody in your life who is, in a sense, wearing a hole in your pocket? You stretch to give them another chance, time and time again. Some relationships, by contrast, pay dividends, while with others, you could say that your "trust fund" is overdrawn. Over-reliance can be balanced with a good dose of appropriate skepticism and a tighter, renegotiated agreement. A negotiated agreement will help shift the burden of responsibility so that there's two of you trusting.
* Say what you mean (and mean what you say) Being direct and tactful in equal measures helps others feel safe. If you've got some difficult feedback to deliver, balance your message with positive reinforcement, say how you feel about it, and encourage them to do the same. Your courageous and considerate communication will send a signal that you can be trusted, even if your message isn't good news. As others see you being open and forthcoming, they'll quickly clear up any misunderstandings, be straight and direct, and expect the same. When trust is based on being able to predict the other person's behavior, you'll have a reason to be curious about how people operate so you can discover and play to their strengths.

Success and Failures at Work Sharing and Absorbing
* No relationship in our personal lives or at our work can last unless partners treat each other with loyalty, generosity, respect, honor, and trust.
* Let’s see to it that we continue to foster those attributes and keep ethics where it should be: at the foundation of everything we do.
* Successful products, services and relationships are all connected by a common thread-integrity. It goes beyond quality, customer service, and empowerment to build trust and commitment among customers, employees, suppliers, and the community.



Path to more Integrity
* Keep track of both implicit and explicit promises you make and ensure that they are all met; if they cannot be met make sure you explain why.
* When receiving praise, be sure to give credit to others who assisted you along the way.
* Take a stand on an issue that is important to you and the team.
* Review with your staff the Starwood Code of conduct and make sure they understand what it means.
* Ensure that you are not expecting more from people than you provide yourself.
* Behave in a manner that you expect from others.
* Participate in a volunteer effort and encourage others to do the same.
* Meet regularly with your manager, peers, and direct reports, to ensure that you are satisfying all of your commitments to them.
*Serve as a role model for others.
* Challenge others to take ethical considerations into account before they make decisions

Inclusion by: Melik Kizilcan (DGM) & Abeer Sobhi (Revenue Manager)

Objectives
* Understand why inclusion is so important for our hotel.
* Know the causes & consequences of exclusion.
* Build a climate that supports productivity based on quality treatment.
* Create an environment that supports the growth & development of everyone.
* Effectively & consistently work with all members of our team to meet department & company objectives
* Develop strategies to ensure that inclusion becomes a "Way of Life" in our hotel.

How ?
Through
Learning opportunities
Theoretical discussions
Group activities
Put a definition for inclusion together


Why is inclusion important for our hotel?
Researches indicate that associates involvement is a central factor in high performing organizations.

The main motivators for associates who are looking for a successful Career and not just paycheck are:
* Opportunities to express ideas and
concerns
* Feeling valued for contributing to
organizational success

“Everyone must always be happy and satisfied”
What is your opinion?
* We might think that we could not be an inclusive group if a member of the group is not happy, or feel that he is a week performer or having personal problems
* We might feel then that we are failing to live up to our values. Then we are trapped!
* We do not have the magic to cure personal unhappiness
* Successful group members get over the wish for a cure-all and look for ways to focus on developing talents & promoting on other capacities
* They support, and often must endure, on other weaknesses by learning ways to forgive, to reconcile, and to rediscover shared purpose


Causes of Exclusion
*Denying or neglecting the others differences and abilities .
*Continued persistent attacks and criticism.
*Not giving the space for voicing innovative ideas and opinions that is different from ours.
*Groups members who have power and with privilege who tends to influence the actions and thoughts of others against members they dislike.
*Making no effort to understand one another’s differences and take the easy way by excluding the other form group activities.
*Unwelcoming behavior from Group members toward new ones.
*When group members know each other well, new members may feel excluded.
*Not feeling recognized or valued for ones contribution to the success of the company
























Inclusion. Is it Easy?
* Change is hard and often emotionally draining work for all of us, It's unpredictable & scary.
Our bodies are designed to seek "homeostasis“ But since the issue is one of survival in a community, we must do it.
* People need support to get through the period of change.
* The key ingredient in effective support of change is supportive relationships.


What Should we do?
* Begin with a commitment to respectability, not to behave in ways that demean others or makes them feel uncomfortable or depressed.
* Confront; GIVE and TAKE HONEST, FEEDBACK
* Have the Openness to notice and change when our behavior is demeaning even when this is unintentional.
* Acknowledge & understand the differences between Group members & find creative ways to deal with these differences .
* Make new members a group priority
* BELIEVE IN WE - not Me! As the key to Success

We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors... but they all exist very nicely in the same box.

Remember!
A Hotel or a department could not grow unless People honor a commitment to:
* Laugh, shout, cry, argue, sing, and scream with, and at, one another without destroying one another in the process.
* We can't ever celebrate inclusion if we pretend to bring in the harvest before we have paved the ground together.

Inclusion definition
“Working together in an environment that supports quality treatment ensuring the growth & development of everyone, and enduring on others weaknesses by learning ways to forgive, to reconcile, and to rediscover shared purpose”

Consequences of Exclusion
*We will lose vividness and energy because we will have to swallow the feelings of dislike and conflict we experience.
*Increase the feeling of insecurity which affect the person loyalty & stability at work in the company.
*Strengths the feeling of Exclusion that will affect productivity, quality of Work & achievements. In other words… quit and stay !

Accountability by: Abdel-Aziz Ahmed (Director of Housekeeping)

What is Accountability?
Consistently ensuring personal and/or shared responsibility for agreed upon results










Why we need Accountability?
* Teamwork is often seen as an effective way to accomplish work goals. And there is no doubt that when teams work well together the results can be impressive.
* Unfortunately, the opposite is true and all too common: Teams that fail to work well can also fail to deliver the desired results.

Team Roles
With complex, time-sensitive or mission-critical projects, or in situations where people are ducking responsibility, it's often worth taking the time to think through the roles that you and your team members must play in every task that your team undertakes. Without this clarity, you will most-likely find gaps, duplication and confusion. Teamwork will be frustrating, inefficient and you are less likely to deliver good results. In these situations, the delegation of tasks and other responsibilities can be too important to leave to chance











Clear Accountability = 0 Risk
Many factors can contribute to the under performance of a team, but unless responsibilities and accountability are clear, there can be a significant risk that problems will arise.

Successful Accountability
*Ensure your team understand the Expectations.
* Provide effective feedback and recognition.
* Make Results matter.

Setting Clear Expectations
* In absence of CLEAR performance expectations people become confused and will “make things up”.
TIPS:
1-Identify Hotel& Department priorities and then create Alignment.
2- Check for understanding of expected performance.
3- Using SMART planning tools.
4- Build a strong trust relationship.

RACI for Excellent Results
* The RACI Matrix is a system that brings structure and clarity to assigning the roles people play within a team.
*R= Responsible.
*A= Accountable.
*C= Consulted.
*I= Informed.

Open Dialogue by: Klaus Christandl (GM) & Hanan Moustafa (Director of traininig)

Discover the Power of Conversation

Definition of Communication
The word dialogue expresses a reciprocal conversation between two persons

Effective Communication
Effective Speaking
Clear contents
Clear speech
Confirm understanding

Active listening
Paying attention
Asking questions
Confirm understanding

Barriers to Effective Communication
Vagueness
Language barrier
Cultural differences
Distractions (i.e. Noise)
Mixed messages
Sarcasm
Negative body language
Tiredness
Logic - sequence
Lack of time

Characteristics of Effective Communication
Direct
Precise information
Clear information
All audience can hear all information
Positive body language is used
Jargon used is explained well
Information is relevant for all members of audience
Information is genuine and honest
Communication is supportive

Did You Know

* Professionals and managers spend up to 40% of their day listening.
Average listening effectiveness is only 25% .
* The average speaker talks at a rate of 125-150 words a minute, while most people can listen at a rate of 500 words per minute. That leaves us with a lot of free time!
* People misinterpret 40 - 60% of what they hear.
Managers must send their message three times .o be understood

How to facilitate Open Dialogue ?
•Open Door Policy
•Daily Briefings
•Monthly Communication Meetings
•Monthly Associate Parties
•Monthly HOD meeting
•Monthly GM luncheon with the Associates Of The Month
•Annual Associate Party
•Back to the Floor Exercise
•PMP review
•Counseling Meetings
•Six Sigma Team activities
•Manager’s Week (Turning Managers into Leaders)
•StarVoice survey
•Daily Newsletter
•Notice Boards
•Suggestion Box

Continuous Learning. Managing Creativity and Innovation by: Islam Mahrous (Director of Six sigma) & Mohamed Ghanem (IT Manager)

Every Child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. Pablo Picasso

* Creativity is not only a talent exercised by individuals alone- it is also a process any group can learn to apply
* This topic shows you how to manage an intellectually diverse work group and the environment in which they work to produce more , and better, ideas that support innovation in product development and other work processes

•Is your group having trouble generating new business ideas?
•Is the group thinking too much along traditional lines, or having difficulty thinking very far down the road?
•Is your group reluctant to take risks?
•What can you do as a manager? Are there steps you can take to change such patterns of behavior?

Definitions of Creativity and Innovation
•Creativity is a process of developing and expressing novel ideas that are likely to be useful.
•Innovation is the embodiment, combination, and/or synthesis of knowledge in original, relevant, valued new products, processes, or services

Embedded in these definitions are three key insights
•Creativity is not so much a talent as it is a goal-oriented process.
•Creativity involves convergent as well as divergent thinking.
•An innovation is the end result of the creative process

Creativity is not so much a talent as it is a goal-oriented process.
Making your group more innovative is not a matter of importing a few people who have creative character traits, and then relying on these folks for all your breakthrough ideas. Rather, it’s a matter of designing a collaborative approach that maximizes everyone’s distinctive gifts, experience, and expertise. Moreover, the purpose or goal of the creative process is the solving of a particular problem or the satisfying of a specific need
Creativity involves convergent as well as divergent thinking
The creative process begins with divergent thinking—a breaking away from familiar or established ways of seeing and doing that produces novel ideas. Convergent thinking occurs in the later stages of the process. As the original ideas generated by the divergent thinking are communicated to others, they are evaluated to determine which ideas are genuinely novel and worth pursuing. The outcome of this convergent thinking is the choice of an option that has the potential for solving the problem that initiated the creative process
An innovation is the end result of the creative process
Again, creativity is a process you employ to improve your problem solving. So you’re not done until your creative efforts have produced a product, service, or process that answers the original need or solves the problem you identified at the outset

Key Misconceptions
•The smarter you are, the more creative you are
•The young are more creative than the old
•Creativity is reserved for the few—the flamboyant, high rollers
•The creative act is essentially solitary
•You can’t manage creativity

When all men think alike, no one thinks very much. Walter Lippmann

Different Thinking Styles
Extroverted people look to other people as the primary means of processing information.
Introverted people tend to process information internally first before presenting the results to others.
Sensing people tend to prefer hard data, concrete facts—information that is closely tied to the five senses.Intuitive people are more comfortable with ideas and concepts, with the "big picture."
Thinking people prefer logical processes and orderly ways of approaching problems.Feeling people are more attuned to emotional cues; they are more likely to make decisions based on the values or relationships involved.
Judging people tend to prefer closure—they like having all the loose ends tied up.

By contrast, perceiving people like things more open; they tend to be more comfortable with ambiguity and often want to collect still more data before reaching a decision.

Don’t get hung up on the actual word used to describe a particular tendency. Everyone exhibits all eight of these tendencies, but they do it in varying degrees. For example, it’s not that a feeling person is incapable of logical thought—rather, it’s that his thinking about a decision tends to be guided by the emotional impact of that decision on key relationships.

Enriching the Physical Environment
•Truly creative environments are notable for the variety of art, toys, and reading material they contain
•How might you encourage casual conversations that lead to creative ideas?
•What tools might you supply to encourage better communication?
•What types of media do team members respond to?

Steps for Fostering Creative Conflict: Depersonalizing Issues
1.Grant legitimacy to others and assume the best about them.
2.Allow all parties to the conflict a chance to speak.
3.Seek to understand the differences between individuals.
4.Reconcile the various actions/decisions desired by taking into account all the data and interpretations uncovered.

Steps for Promoting Creative Conflict: Surfacing Unspoken Issues
•Create a climate that makes people willing to discuss difficult issues
•Facilitate the discussion
•Move toward closure by discussing what can be done.



Steps for Enhancing Your Own Creative Potential
•Strive for alignment.
•Pursue some self-initiated activity
•Take advantage of unofficial activity
•Be open to serendipity
•Diversify your stimuli.
•Create opportunities for informal communication




Tips for Brainstorming Sessions
•You may want to include some customers, non customers, or competitor’s customers in the brainstorming session.
•Be sure to provide any supporting infrastructure needed—flip charts, a table covered in paper used for doodling and note taking, or even an electronic whiteboard
•In coming up with possible solutions or ideas, be as concrete as possible. You may want to draw or represent some of the ideas visually.
•Don’t assume that it’s business as usual, that this problem or challenge is similar to ones that have come before.
•Set high aspirations—stretch goals for what you’d like your group to achieve
•Don’t fall in love with the first possible solution you create—generate as many ideas as you can before evaluating and prioritizing them.
•Remember: productive brainstorming sessions are the result of skillful facilitation.



The list of outlawed killer phrases.
•We’ve never done it that way before….
•It won’t work…
•We haven’t the time…
•We are not ready for it…
•What will the customer think?….
•Too old fashion…
•You don’t understand our problem…
•Yes but………We’ve never used that appropriate before…etc



What you do after the brainstorm?
Turning ideas into action must be integral part of the brainstorming session