The General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs (SCFA) in Sharjah recently organized a webinar on risk management and job creativity. The event comes as part of the SCFA’s efforts to enhance the level of professional awareness about the mechanism of risk and crisis management, ways to stimulate job creativity and its role in achieving institutional excellence, in light of the challenges posed by the spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19).

Held in the presence of Her Excellency Dr. Khawla Al Mulla, Secretary-General, SCFA, the webinar was attended by 45 participants and SCFA employees, as well as a number of government agonies and institutions in Sharjah.

Presented by Abdullah Abdul Samad Muhammad Abu Hindi from the General Administration of the Amiri Guards at the General Command of Sharjah Police, the webinar touched on the importance of advance planning for success in overcoming crises and the need to implement innovative methodologies and modern methods of work to achieve excellence.

It also highlighted the importance of job creativity and its role in facing challenges and ways to enhance the creative capabilities of employees by developing their skills and their capabilities to achieve excellence in their work.

Innovative solutions to face challenges

Her Excellency Dr. Khawla Al Mulla said that the webinar comes as part of the SCFA’s keenness to support and encourage the employees in Sharjah to develop ideas and initiatives that enable them to innovate practical solutions to face potential challenges and crises and to raise their awareness about the importance of developing their creativity skills due to its key role in improving their job performance, pursuant to the visions and directives of Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher Bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, Wife of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah and Chairperson of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs in Sharjah in terms of preparing the supportive environment of all employees in government sector.

She explained that COVID-19 crisis changed many concepts on the level of institutional work, which posed a challenge to all countries in its ability to keep pace with these accelerating changes, something that compels the cadres working in various sectors to develop their skills and enhance their professional capabilities and align them with various changes to achieve excellence in the institutional performance.

Al Mulla highlighted the successful example of the UAE in the early response and the speed and mechanism of dealing with the repercussions of COVID-19 crisis by providing many innovative initiatives and solutions in the implementation of the remote work system, which secured the continuity of work efficiently in all governmental and even private sectors, thanks to the digital environment developed over the past years while ensuring the application of the highest levels of safety and health to all members of society.

Potential risk assessment

The workshop, which saw a great interaction by the participants, showed that facing risks and challenges need to assess potential risks, develop innovative solutions by holding brainstorming sessions and implementing these solutions and measuring their effectiveness.

The webinar presenter discussed the ways of suggesting creative ideas, pointing out that the proposal should be linked to the vision, values, or strategic goals. It should be also consistent with governmental and institutional trends. The proposal has to be simple, understandable, and realistic, with a priority given to the party submitted to it.

He added: “Any submitted proposal should contribute to reducing financial expenditures and time to provide the service. Also, small stuff should not be ignored or disregarded when the proposal is submitted, in addition to the importance of the discussion with specialized professionals and the need to document the proposal upon approval.”

Abu Hindi also highlighted ways to stimulate creative thinking by discussing positive people, taking advantage of complaints, errors, and observations, holding brainstorming sessions, attending courses, workshops, and lectures, in addition to expanding knowledge and perceptions through continuous learning, reading, and searching for the inspiring success stories and benefiting from their experiences, and reading the important topics triggered on social media.