Instilling Change: A Key Component of Leadership

Leading change is by no means a trivial job. Only the experienced leaders with astute vision can lead their teams to change. The Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) is a role model for not only change, but transformation.

Our Creator informs us that no group of people will change unless they take initiative to embrace change themselves. Indeed the only things that is constant is change itself, or as Muslims know it as the sunnah of Allah (ways of Allah).

Scholars of management [1] define a few steps which are key for successfully leading change. I summarize these points [2] and provide references from the Quran and teachings of the Prophet (PBUH).

1. Intention:
Quran: Indeed Allah does not change the condition of a group unless they change themselves.
Hadith: Indeed deeds are based on their intentions

2. Urgency:
Quran: So flee to Allah quickly indeed I am to you from him a clear warning
Quran: And hasten to a forgiveness from your Lord and a paradise the width of the skies and earth

3. Clear Vision:
Quran: And Indeed Allah is my Lord and your Lord, so worship him, this is the straight path (Mary 36)

4. Stick to a Good Team:
Quran: And seek patience in your soul with the ones who remember their Lord in the early morning, and the evening late at night, seeking his pleasure and acceptance (Cave 28)
Quran: Wow to me, I wish I have not taken him/her a close companion (friend) (Al-Furqan 28)

5. Self Critique Self:
Quran: Oh you who believe fear Allah, and shall a soul see what it has prepared for its tomorrow (hereafter), and fear Allah, indeed Allah is with what you have performed all knowing
Hadith: Seek forgiveness, for indeed I seek forgiveness 70 times in a day

6. Take Action and Perfect it:
Hadith: Indeed Allah loves if one of you do an action, that you perfect it

7. Be Consistent:
Hadith: The best of deeds are the continuous, even if they are little

8. Take Small Steps:
Hadith: This way of life (Islam) is deep so get in it slowly and gently

9. Don't Give Up:
Quran: Tell my servants who have transgressed upon themselves to not despair from the mercy of Allah, indeed Allah forgives all the sins.

10. Offer Value and Increase Benefit:
Good deeds wipe out bad deeds

11. Ensure You are Working on a Sound Foundation:
Fix your beliefs and values
Quran: And Satin said when the matter was over (life on earth, and the day of judgment), indeed Allah promised you the promise of truth, and I promised you and broke my promise, and I had no power over you, except that I invited you and you accepted, so do not blame me, and blam yourselves. (Ibrahim 22)

12. Set and Realize Realistic Goals
Quran: Indeed Allah does not burden a soul with more than what it can handle

13. Stay Away from Distractions
Quran: Do not even come near fornication
Quran: So flee to Allah

14. Remember Your Mission in Life:
Quran: I have only created jinn and mankind to worship me
Quran: Is it not that with the rememberance of Allah that hearts have tranquility and content

15. Remember Life-cycles End:
Hadith: Remember the destroyer of all pleasures (death)

16. Never Execute Trivial Work:
Hadith: A human's accountability on the day of judgement will not be over until he is asked about four things, from among them is his time and how he utilized it

17. Forecast Risks:
Quran: Indeed the plotting of Satin is weak
Be vigilant and forecast problems and risks




[1] Dan Cohen and John Kotter, "The Heart of Change Field Guide", Harvard Business Press, 2005.
[2] Ayman Nassar, "Implementing Change", Friday Khutbah, Hanover, PA, July 10th, 2009

Using the Theory of Constraints & Six Sigma to Fix Critical Components of the Economy

Constraints are all around us. The theory of constraints is a lean problem-solving concept based on a simple concept, that a process can not move faster than the slowest part of the process.

Our economy as a complex enclosed system has constraints and it will respond to stimulus as quick as the slowest link in the economy. The chart on the left illustrates some major components of the economy. They all need to be improved for the stimulus to realize benefits, otherwise it will be a temporary patch.


The root of the problem lies in three areas:

1. The concept of printing money and the process followed to release cash into the market. The Federal Reserve Bank - which is not a government entity - is provided the authority to distribute the nation's currency and supervise banks which are members in the system. When the US releases currency into the market it requests the Federal Reserve Bank to print dollar bills in return for an interest payment on the amount. No real assets are provided as collateral to backup the value of the printed currency. The value of the currency is only backed up by the reputation and promise of the US government to accept the currency as a form of payment. As users of the currency lose faith in the governments ability to keep the promise the value can drop significantly. One reason for the poor confidence in the currency, is the automatic depreciation of the currency the day it was printed. For every US dollar printed a small percentage is due to the Federal Reserve Bank as interest on that printed dollar, in a sense every dollar released into the market is really worth 0.98 of a dollar, if we assume an interest rate of 2%. Add onto this, the fact that the US government is running into a non-stop deficit in social security, and other areas leading to increase in bond issuing to countries such as China and India, further diminishing the value of the US currency.

2. Interest rate or usury is another problem in the overall system. The fact that currency value depreciates today based on some future value determined by an interest rate automatically leads to inflation, and future depreciation of natural resources. Charging interest is like pumping steroids into a body builder, eventually at some point the body will collapse.

3. Selling what we don't own. The idea that goods and services can be sold without actually owning them creates a virtual commodity system, not backed up by real commodities or assets.

Unless these areas are fixed no stimulus package can work on the long term. Some simple steps to address this issue are:

a. Identify the constraints of the financial and monetary systems
b. Exploit the constraint or re-engineer
c. Subordinate other steps in the overall process to the improved constraint
d. Revise the constraint if it has not been eliminated by steps b and c
e. Repeat the steps above for other constraints

Applying this into practice can be as follows:

a. Identify the constraints of the financial and monetary systems
- Currency not backed by a true tangible asset (some natural resource like gold or silver)
- Currency being depreciated the day it is printed, solely due to interest
- Distribution and sale of products that do not exist (example lending money to a business when the bank does not have the exact cash reserved, selling a commodity that one does not own and has not yet paid for)
- Using interest rates to discount projects, assets and commodities to a future value, leading to valueless future assets, commodities, natural resources

b. Exploit the constraint or re-engineer
- Re-engineer the monetary system that issues a currency based on a true asset and not just a promise
- Re-engineer the concept of future valuation
- Re-engineer the concept of wealth circulation

c. Subordinate other steps in the overall process to the improved constraint
- Use a sustainable natural resource to backup the value of an issued currency
- Use joint partnerships, gifting (0% loans) and entrepreneurship, moving away from interest bearing loans of money that is not owned by lenders.
- Base future valuation on true-value (value proposition) provided to global society rather than a discounted interest rate.

d. Revise the constraint if it has not been eliminated by steps b and c
e. Repeat the steps above for other constraints

A Financing System for Prosperity, Growth and Social Justice

My dear friend Mohamed El Habashy sent me a link to an interview that he was part of on PBS. He was one of several experts interviewed on hot topic of Islamic financing. It seems that the World suddenly woke up to realize that a system that was revealed to mankind some 1430 years ago is now all the sudden a good choice.

The Islamic financing system is based on one of three main models:

- Mosharaka (joint ownership through stocks, capital partnerships)
- Qard Hasan (good lending, a loan with no interest (0%) regardless of amount and maturity date)
- Mudaraba (entrepreneurship or partnership with effort and experience)

Several key concepts in Islamic financing are

1. Joint sharing in risk and reward (property/asset price increase and decrease) - is part of the definition of ownership in Islam, and it provides responsibility and fairness to all parties.

2. The concept of selling money (lending with interest) is prohibited. In Islam lending money as a form of investment is prohibited and not in compliance with the Islamic Shariyah.

3. Sales are only acceptable on items owned. This means someone can not sell an item (product, service, shares, commodity, etc..) unless he has paid for it in full and has full control on it. In Islam a person selling stocks that he never paid for is prohibited and not in compliance with the Shariyah.

As of today there are no 100% Islamic compliant financing vehicles in the US, the efforts mentioned above in the PBS article are good and trying to strive to get close to the fair and just Islamic financing. However due to regulations and other factors there are some gaps, such as the joint risk sharing in a partnership model. Islamic financing has been around for 1430 years from the days of Prophet Mohamed and it is implemented in many parts of the World (UK Links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) we in the US are just behind. There is a US institution that has started offering some Islamic vehicles.

There is no question that Islamic financing is fair, just and solid, providing fair social rewards to all parties involved, unlike other means of financing. Islamic financing can be used by non-Muslims as well whether they decide to fund or use the system.

Usury/interest was prohibited not only in the Quran, but Jesus and Moses were ordered to tell the people to not engage in usury. (proverbs 28:8, Ezekiel 18:8, Exodus 22:25)

A System for Mankind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn_XvMstTiQ

A Teenagers Steady State - A Systems Analogy

I came across this Yahoo link, asking why teens do stupid stuff . Ok, so teens do stupid stuff. Not all of course, many are smart and very mature. But lets discuss the group of teens that decide "heck, let me try this", so they end up smoking, drinking, dating, sniffing drugs, or worse stealing, lying, having babies out of wedlock and eventually with a broken, torn apart life to say the least.

We know that a system comprises of elements, and among those elements are people. So if we consider the society a system of system or even a system just to make things easier to relate to, and teens to be one of the many elements in this system, we should expect that at some point all the system elements will reach a stable state. Why is one teen's stable state in a run-down street smoking pot while another teen's stable state is with a friend researching the latest and greatest technology and how to put it into good use for the benefit of the society. Why is one teen's stable state with a girlfriend, while another's teen stable state is with a friend at the Masjid worshipping and reading the Quran. Dramatic contrasts right? Then we find a teen who is in between, neither with a girlfriend, nor in the Masjid, but in the movie theater watching an R rated movie, and the next day reading some Quran.

These are three different states. We know that a system structure defines the way it responds and reacts to external stimuli and how it behaves, and not so much the environment surrounding the system. We also know that depending on how the structure looks like, it will react or respond differently to the environment. I was first introduced to this systems engineering concept in a seminar in 2005 by Dr. Harold Kurstedt, Professor Emeritus, Virginia Tech. When I heard him explain this, I said "subhan Allah".. This is in the Quran. Allah taught us this more than 1400 years ago, and we are just discovering it today, similar to the stages of an embryo in the womb.

Allah says in the Quran in the chapter of Al-Isra, 17:36 "And pursue not that of which thou hast no knowledge; for every act of hearing, or of seeing or of (feeling in) the heart will be enquired into (on the Day of Reckoning)".

وَلاَ تَقْفُ مَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ إِنَّ السَّمْعَ وَالْبَصَرَ وَالْفُؤَادَ كُلُّ أُولـئِكَ كَانَ عَنْهُ مَسْؤُولاً

So all these senses are responsible for what they do, they do not have excuses because of the environment in which they are in. Interesting fact, right we go on and blame the evil that is out there. Sure evil should not be blamed but fixed, or removed.

Refer to Allah's revelation in the Quran in the chapter of Abraham (Ibrahim) 14:22 "And Satan will say when the matter is decided: "It was Allah Who gave you a promise of Truth: I too promised, but I failed in my promise to you. I had no authority over you except to call you but ye listened to me: then reproach not me, but reproach your own souls. I cannot listen to your cries, nor can ye listen to mine. I reject your former act in associating me with Allah. For wrong-doers there must be a grievous penalty."

وَقَالَ الشَّيْطَانُ لَمَّا قُضِيَ الأَمْرُ إِنَّ اللّهَ وَعَدَكُمْ وَعْدَ الْحَقِّ وَوَعَدتُّكُمْ فَأَخْلَفْتُكُمْ وَمَا كَانَ لِيَ عَلَيْكُم مِّن سُلْطَانٍ إِلاَّ أَن دَعَوْتُكُمْ فَاسْتَجَبْتُمْ لِي فَلاَ تَلُومُونِي وَلُومُواْ أَنفُسَكُم مَّا أَنَاْ بِمُصْرِخِكُمْ وَمَا أَنتُمْ بِمُصْرِخِيَّ إِنِّي كَفَرْتُ بِمَآ أَشْرَكْتُمُونِ مِن قَبْلُ إِنَّ الظَّالِمِينَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ

A system developed with a certain structure will behave in the same way it was intended to, based on its structure. Dr. Harold gave the example of a slinky or spring, you hold it from one side, it oscillates down and up, why? Because of gravity? Wrong, because of the material of the slinky and its elasticity characteristics, to prove this, use a steel rod instead and hold it in the same vertical position as the slinky, will it oscillate up and down? No, hence gravity has nothing to do with its behavior.

similarly, those teens who sleep with their girlfriends, and those teens who spend hours in the Masjid learning the word of God, do so because of their structure. Indeed, their hearts are different, one has a heart full of darkness and disease, while the other has a heart full of light and belief. They have different structures and as a result will behave differently.

So does this mean the environment has no role at all, no it does have a role, its role is not a controlling role, but is a stimulator role. The gravity in the example of the slinky and the steel rod stimulated both, but they reacted differently based on their characteristics. Similarly, teens who are placed in the same environment that have different structures (hearts and belief) will react differently.

The Prophet (PBUH) ordered us to be in the company of good people in one of his Ahadeeth he mentioned that a person is on the same manners and style of life as that he accompanies, and ordered us to observe who we accompany. For we become affected by those around us, this effect is manifested especially if the structure is not sound. In other words even though the structure defines the behavior, placing the structure in contact with a bad environment could affect the structure itself and hence cause it to react differently.

Allah tells us in the Quran in chapter As-Saffat 37:24 "But stop them, for they must be asked"

وَقِفُوهُمْ إِنَّهُم مَّسْئُولُونَ

So we will be indeed accountable.

Allah also mentions in the Quran in chapter Al-Furqan in 25:28 "Ah! woe is me! Would that I had never taken such a one for a friend! "

يَا وَيْلَتَى لَيْتَنِي لَمْ أَتَّخِذْ فُلَانًا خَلِيلًا

Here we see the dweller of the hell-fire regretting that he was accompanying the bad friends of this life. These friends were a bad stimulus that eventually changed the structure of this person and as a result is own behavior changed.

Another reference is in the chapter of the Cave (Al-Kahf), in 18:28 "And keep thy soul content with those who call on their Lord morning and evening, seeking His Face; and let not thine eyes pass beyond them, seeking the pomp and glitter of this Life; no obey any whose heart We have permitted to neglect the remembrance of Us, one who follows his own desires, whose case has gone beyond all bounds".

وَاصْبِرْ نَفْسَكَ مَعَ الَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ رَبَّهُم بِالْغَدَاةِ وَالْعَشِيِّ يُرِيدُونَ وَجْهَهُ وَلَا تَعْدُ عَيْنَاكَ عَنْهُمْ تُرِيدُ زِينَةَ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَلَا تُطِعْ مَنْ أَغْفَلْنَا قَلْبَهُ عَن ذِكْرِنَا وَاتَّبَعَ هَوَاهُ وَكَانَ أَمْرُهُ فُرُطًا

To sum up this discussion, take the example of a car. It was designed to move on paved roads at a certain speed limit, at certain temperature ranges. If there is a foot of snow on the road, the car will skid, not because of the snow, but because of the structure of the car (the wheels are not designed to operate on snow), but a snow plower will operate fine. Now lets take that same car and drive it over sulphuric acid, the wheels will get destroyed and now the car will not even operate over a paved road at the temperature it was designed to. So the acid affected the structure and hence a new behavior pattern emerged.

Teens are the same, their structures are affected by what is around them, and their behavior is defined by their structure. Do not ever think that their behavior is directly defined by their environment, it is not, but rather it is defined by their structure.

A conclusion I reached after 2 years of studying systems engineering. A system's structure is affected by its environment, and its behavior is affected by its structure.

Social service counselor, politicians and psychologists might find this useful in addressing complex problems, the solution lies in fixing the structure making sure it can withstand the environment.

Ah, we did not discuss that teen who is in oscillatory mode, one day near Allah, the next away and so one. This teen is going through the process of Mujadaha and has not reached a stable state, definitely better than the teen whose steady state has given way to Shaytan. This oscillatory state is where the structure is being patched, improved and then affected and so on... We should never expect that as believers once we are on the right path, we will stay there. That is why we need constant refreshing of our Iman and faith...

Is Islam a Complex System?

Jamshid Gharajedeaghi in his book "Systems Thinking: Managing Chaos and Complexity, A Platform for Designing Business Architecture" explains complexity and chaos as phenomena that appears when we use inadequate concepts to explain them. When we understand something, we no longer see it as chaotic or complex.

I would agree with his explanation, as humans we can not comprehend many natural phenomenas around us, one example is the movement of the planets, stars, sun, moon and earth, ocean tides and many other signs around us. So if we are left to our own decision making capabilities we will definitely not only not understand these complex systems, but we will also either not appreciate them, or just take them for granted and label them as mother Nature "did this and did that". However as believing humans, who believe in the unseen revealed by the Creator, we can start to get an appreciation for these phenomena and complex systems as well as understand them and understand how simple they really are, yet accurate and precise that they must be controlled by a divine power and controller.

Allah (Glory be to him) tells mankind in the Quran that he created the heavens and earth, and the planets and that all orbit in a precise movement. Just providing that fact makes believing in it simple and comprehensible. We then no longer see it as a chaotic system, but rather a precise, controlled system.

So in a nutshell we can say that Islam is complex only to those who do not understand it, and do not try to learn about. To the Muslim and Muslimah Islam is simple and clear. It is simply the submission to the one and only one Lord in everything the Muslim and Muslimah do.

Allah says in the Quran in the chapter of the Moon (Al Qamar) 54:17, 54:22, 54:32 and 54:40 "And We have indeed made the Qur'an easy to understand and remember: then is there any that will receive admonition?"

وَلَقَدْ يَسَّرْنَا الْقُرْآنَ لِلذِّكْرِ فَهَلْ مِن مُّدَّكِرٍ

Again in the chapter of Mary (Maryum) 19:97 "So have We made the (Qur'an) easy in thine own tongue, that with it thou mayest give Glad Tidings to the righteous, and warnings to people given to contention".

فَإِنَّمَا يَسَّرْنَاهُ بِلِسَانِكَ لِتُبَشِّرَ بِهِ الْمُتَّقِينَ وَتُنذِرَ بِهِ قَوْمًا لُّدًّا

In the chapter of the Smoke (Al-Dukhan) in 44:58 Allah says (the mean of), "Verily, We have made this (Qur'an) easy, in thy tongue, in order that they may give heed".

فَإِنَّمَا يَسَّرْنَاهُ بِلِسَانِكَ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَذَكَّرُونَ

A clear proof that Quran, the word of Allah, and the miracle that is with us till the end of time, is simple, yet it contains every thing an human needs to live a successful life and be a winner in the hereafter, and to appreciate and differentiate between complexity and simplicity.